And through the torii we go

My first experience of anime through the peephole of Kasagi

I have been a proud anime virgin for the last 27 years - prideful of the fact that my chiseled character was untouched by the lessons that anime teaches an individual (yeah, I love the use of irony).

Anyway, recently I watched my first anime series, Serial Experiments Lain, solely because it is the intellectual property of a project I have fallen in love with, Anime Metaverse (soon to be called Kasagi). This will be a short summarisation of the events which led me to losing my anime virginity.

It was a cold gloomy night in Britain, and I was on twitter. During this scroll session on my phone, I decided to follow a few folks from the sister project of Pixelmon (a project I am heavily invested in, and close to — Anime Metaverse, which for those who do not know, is owned 70% by LiquidX who own the same stake in Pixelmon). After looking at their timelines, what struck me was how wholesome the AM members were, and that there was a real life event that had just taken place, with pictures of the event being shared.

A few days later, after feeling the masculine urge to disappear and find new adventure, I joined the AM discord. And my introduction went something like this:

As you can see from the quotes above, I was swooning pretty quickly, and it went on for a while, eventually I made the promise that I was going to talk and take part in events. After that, I remained active, and over the coming days I met the regulars and founders, whom I found just as charming and continued buying soulmates. At this point it would be amiss to leave out a big part of the equation from the initial impression that I got from the project, Soulmaker. I had spoken to her a fair amount, I liked her style and thought she was a great community manager. It took me by surprise when I found out that she was actually the founder of the project.

The 5 stages of a relationship

I was in love — the wholesome community had overcome me. It was just what I needed in my life and everything about it was perfect. From the founders to the moderating team, to the folks working their committee jobs, to the small holders looking for fun. It was perfect. I was euphoric.

At this point the infatuation began to fade a little, and reality was beginning to hit. I started to do my due diligence on anyone I could. I did not find any dirt on anyone, and it only brought me closer to those I looked into. I was constantly curious and questioned if this was the right project for me to invest my time into.

If I had to talk about a crisis in my relationship with AM, and I would be splitting hairs, perhaps it would be that some of the communication leading up to the supernova burn was not always as clear as it could have been, and that possibly not allowing supernova burns of one soulmate at launch was bad for optics, although I understand the reasons behind a trailing launch.

Having only joined in December, I have no personal complaints about the supernova event, if anything, having joined so close and moving away from a weebooba type waifu to a sci-fi waifu, was actually something I could vibe with. So personally speaking, I enjoyed the supernova event.

But I know that others at this point were a little underwhelmed at first, unsure whether they would burn their soulmates, unsure of which way to proceed. However, around this time, Soulmaker went into detail outlining the shift in direction that AM has taken since she gave birth to the project a little over a year ago. I believe this went some way to reassure many within the community, as it was enlightening communication by Soulmaker, which touched on some of the fundamental reasons behind the change to 2d art. Below is some of the excerpts:

It was now 2023, and I decided to commit to the long haul with AM, cemented by the fact that I began to watch Experimental Serial Lain with Soulwielder, my first anime. After such a long period of virginity, I was obviously hesitant, but also, I knew I had found the right project and reason to pop my cherry. From this moment, there was no turning back, a week later, I applied to join the visionary committee, and then started to write this article.

In AM, I have found a home which I am extremely fond of, from the founders, to the members without soulmates. A small, but meaningful example of how AM has already changed me is that until I spoke on the town hall, which happened to be on the day I joined, I had not spoken in voice chats for years, although I use discord daily. It is a small thing. But I am grateful to AM for being such a social community, and for not having the toxic traits that I am used to in the cryptocurrency world. It has given me renewed optimism to what the online world can still be when the individuals which inhabit it are optimistic and fun loving.

I am glad I finally joined AM, and my only regret is that I didn’t join sooner. But things happen for a reason and I have that strong sense of being somewhere at the right time.

Alas, I hope that some of my admiration for what I have found at AM has left the screen and touched you. I have only been here for a little over a month and a half, but AM is already touching me. Truth is, it has been difficult to put that into words after such a short period of time without sounding like a soppy sod. But I hope the fact I wrote this article goes some way to show my devotion.

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