Just who is the Mangadude...

   First and foremost my name is not Mangadude. This is just an alias name that I go by. I have several alias names such as Chow Yun Chan, which I used to make my Hong Kong Action site. I am currently being prosecuted by the FBI for my involvement in several homicides and one charge of stealing a packet of sugar. For these reasons I can't tell you my real name.

   I reside in Adelaide, Australia where I have lived for a number of years. I am participating in my senior years at high school. After I graduate I wish to complete some sort of computing degree, most likely a degree in Information Technology. From this degree I will become an active member of the work force and more specifically I will have a computer related job.
   My hobbies include drawing, web building and collecting movies. My third hobby is my biggest and most expensive. Not a week goes by that I don't add an extra video or DVD to my collection. I am constantly buying movies, ordering them from sites or just recording stuff off TV. Having several cable channels in my house really helps my collection.
   Primarily my main genre of film is Japanese Animation. This is more commonly known as anime and I have over seventy videos and DVDs in my collection.
   I first got into the anime craze in the year of '97. I rented Street Fighter 2: the Animated Movie. This was an animated film based on characters from the game. After seeing it I was really impressed and I thought it was ten times better than that Van Damme piece of crap. I then rented all the anime videos my local video library supplied. There weren't many videos at that store so I was still hungry for more anime. I eventually found a video library that specialised in the rental of anime videos. Ever since then I have seen over 100 titles and have bought over 50 anime.
   As a youngster I watched quite a bit of anime but I didn't know that I was watching Japanese Animation. I knew there was something different about these shows but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Some of the shows I watched include Robotech, Astro Boy and Teknoman. Out of all of these I think Teknoman was the best. It was serious enough for adults and teenagers to enjoy but the violence wasn't extreme so kids could watch it too. I think Teknoman is one of best childrens anime ever made. It definitely kicks ass against shows like Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z.
   A few months after my anime discovery I saw my very first Hong Kong film. It was the Jet Li classic Once Upon a Time in China. Normally the only foreign films I would watch would be anime films. Before watching the movie I said to myself: "How the hell am I going to watch a film with subtitles?" I had never ever watched a subtitled film. I just watched films in the English language. When I eventually did watch it I fast forwarded through all the boring bits and just watched the action. The action was really good so seeing the film wasn't so bad.
   After Once Upon a Time in China I saw several other Hong Kong films. Some of the earliest films I ever saw included Dr. Wai in the Scripture with no Words and Police Story. I was soon hooked on Hong Kong Action cinema and I made it my second favourite genre next to Japanese Animation. I now have over fifty Hong Kong films in my collection.    Considering how much anime is actually out there I could never really hope to watch every series or every film. A small amount of anime is released in Australia compared to the United States and the United Kingdom. Slowly though, through imported DVDs and videos, I am getting a glimpse at some of the more hard to get titles. It is my hope that I can one day see every anime that takes my fancy.