I am thankful to anime for giving me some of the best years of my life . There has never really been a time in my life that didn ' t involve anime in some way . Whether it be watching childrens shows as a little kid , romcoms as a middle schooler , or slice of life and more adult oriented shows as a college student . Whenever my life has or is clouded with anxiety and uncertainty , anime is always there top comfort me . I can recall fond memories from any time in my life from watching anime . I remember being a small child and watching shows like Anpanma , Doraemon , Crayon Shinchan , Detective Conan , and Chibi Marukochan with my siblings on our VCR and gigantic CRT tv Japanese household . It has created some unforgettable memories with my siblings and I look back fondly to them . Every couple of years , I actually marathon those old shows with my sister and we have an absolute blast . I remember watching School Rumble and Full Metal Panic burnt onto discs that I got from my friend who was a couple of years older than me , and had an external hard drive full of anime . To me , that hard drive was like a magical box of endless fun and , upon retrospect , a fuckton of ecchi shows . I would make a blanket fortress and just keep rewatching the shows over and over again on my piece of shit computer that was filled with viruses from watching porn ah to be a kid again . Because of this , those 2 shows will always hold a special place in my heart . I remember watching Bleach and Naruto on youtube when streaming was becoming more and more of a viable option and fan subbing culture was becoming a thing . And then I started watching One Piece , which is still to this day my favorite anime . Regardless of some of the elitism that surrounds people that bag on the big 3 , I don ' t care because I literally grew up with these characters and they will always hold a special place in my heart . They instilled a sense of adventure and friendship into me that I still hold onto to this day . I remember in middle school when my friend came over and showed me the first episode of this show called Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann from his flash drive . After watching the first episode , I never looked back . That is also around the time when I started watching Code Geass . When I first finished watching Code Geass , I remember I almost had an anxiety attack because of how good the show was and I didn ' t know what to do with my life after that . I remember the summer after my senior year of high school when I reconnected with one of my middle school friends by introducing him to anime , it was One Piece if I recall . We then started having weekly anime viewings where we would buy a ton of junk food , order some pizza hut , and marathon an entire series in a single day . Then he would sleep over at my house and we would talk all night about the series that we just finished . He is now my best friend and I can ' t imagine life without him . I remember during college when I was feeling really uninspired and stressed out about my direction in life , shows like Barakamon and Silver Spoon came out which I could relate so much to . On top of providing me with tons of fun , they reassured me that my struggle was not mine alone and that it ' s ok to be lost . Then there were shows like Aria which helped to reduce my stress by having something to watch every night before going to bed . It might sound exaggerated to some , but all of these precious experiences and moments have contributed to shaping me as a human being . I am proud to say that I love anime . And who knows , maybe ten years from now I won ' t be watching any anime at all and I ' ll be doing other things . But anime has forever changed my life for the better , and for that I am eternally thankful .