How long have you been into anime?

Here comes one of those articles that makes me feel old.  Anything that looks back on my life always gets me a bit depressed, just because I realize how quickly time flies!  At least I have spent a good portion of my life enjoying friends, family and all sorts of entertainment.  In more recent years, I've definitely gotten more into anime than ever before.  I slowly searched out more information on anime until I realized that I was fully immersed in the culture!

I definitely haven't been into anime all that long when you look at how old I am.  In August I'll be turning 29, and while I've been playing video games since I was about 5 years old, anime came way later than that.  I definitely caught some anime-related features when I was younger, but it wasn't until much later in life that I actually started to hunt out anime to watch.

If I had to put a timestamp on when I actually really got into anime, I'd have to look at about 8 years ago.  It was at that time that I was talking to a handful of people that were way more knowledgeable about anime than myself.  I'm sure that's still the case today, but back then I knew next to nothing.  I just knew that I ilked what I saw in some anime films, and that's what pushed me to learn more about this form of entertainment.

As the years went on I tried to pull in all the information on anime that I could.  I subscribed to magazines, hunted around the internet for info and talked about anime with anyone that would listen.  As the years went on, I became more familiar with the bigger anime TV series' as well as films, and the more I watched the more I could feel myself getting sucked into the universe.  Now, all these years later, I couldn't be happier to be labeled as an anime nerd!

How long have you bee watching anime for?  I'm sure some of you have been into anime fandom a lot longer than I.  I'd love to know how old you are, and just how much of your life you've spent as an anime lover!