Back then, anime fans would’ve had to navigate the grey area of fansubs (anime episodes with subtitles provided by other viewers, rather than professional translators) to keep up to speed with a given season’s shows. When I began this blog ten-and-a-half years ago, anime streaming was unreliable, choppy and limited.

However, I remember a time when things were not quite as straightforward. Nowadays, the process is as simple as opening a streaming service, sitting down and taking it easy. Eight hours later, I unwind with a good book, exchange thoughts with an online community about the things I find in anime, chat with my friends or otherwise, put on the season’s latest anime series. Attesting to these profound changes in the world, my own days resembles that of Zero’s: after starting my day at the gym or read through the latest news, I get to work tracing through iOS and Android source code to expand an app’s function, or identify existing bugs so I may fix them. The internet has evolved from being a curious form of communication to a ubiquitous resource responsible for handling everything from transportation to banking, cumbersome dial-up modems have been displaced by sleek fibre optic networks, and smartphones are now more powerful than room-filling mainframe computers.

Unbeknownst to Zero, some three decades later, his prediction would come to pass. Characterised as Japan’s socially inept but often brilliant technological shut-ins, it seemed inconceivable that such individuals would ever become commonplace at the time. It’s 1993, and Wired Magazine has concluded with an interview with the sullen software trouble-shooter, a member of the otaku subculture. “One day, everyone will be an otaku“, Zero proclaims from his home in Kawagoe. “The Internet has democratised content, and the gatekeepers are no longer in control.” –Andrew Zimmern

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