Yesterday while hanging out with friends in a game shop, I overheard someone who was probably 17 or 18 at the oldest say, “I know all the anime!” Then he mentioned Code Geass, and I didn’t really hear the rest.

I don’t know if he was putting on airs or actually believed he knew “all the anime,” but it made me remember an earlier time in my anime fandom, back when I was already familiar with internet forums but they still felt pretty new to me. There was a thread, I don’t remember what it was about, where I decided to list as many of the shows that I watched that I could remember. Eventually the list was large enough that I felt satisfied to post it, thinking it was a job well done. “I’ll show these guys just how much anime I’ve seen,” was probably my intention at the time. I distinctly remember listing Gundam Wing as “Gundam W,” and this was before W began airing on Cartoon Network. Just the idea that I could start listing shows and act like I had done more than scratch the surface of anime makes me realize how naive I was at the time.

Years later I signed up for a myanimelist.net account (check the second post on this blog), and tasking myself with jotting down all of the shows I’ve watched, I felt overwhelmed. Even with this very convenient website which remembers things for me, I lost the will to just record every show I watched.

So I don’t know who that kid is, but I hope he knows that if he truly wants to know “all the anime” that he has a long journey ahead of him.