If manga is considered nerdy/geeky, well then the entire country of Japan is one big geek-producing machine, and I’m a child of that machine. Before my love of Star Trek: The Next Generation, my parents and grandparents provided me with an endless budget to consume manga because it helped with my Japanese language skills.

Every summer as a child, I’d inevitably come back from Japan with at least 30 to 50 manga books being shipped over to add to my growing collection. A collection that started with the racy Makoto-chan but really flourished with Urusei Yatsura in addition to the “standard” collection of Dragon Ball.

Nowadays, I’ve become a very picky manga connoisseur, where the artist and storytelling must be of very high quality, or it’s just not worth it for me. My perspective about life has to be changed.

Which brings me to my love of sci-fi TV/film that solidly started with Star Trek: The Next Generation. My father loved (and still loves) the original Star Trek, and it rubbed off on me. First, it was TNG… then Deep Space Nine… and then Babylon 5… I was so obsessed that I even read all the Psi Corps book series. I had some fellow Babylon 5 fans amongst my college buddies, and we’d often hog a student lounge to watch the latest B5 episode.

Since dedicating myself to the creative journey for the last eight years (I was a research biochemist up until I decided to be an actor), I’ve become much more appreciative (and critical) about sci-fi, storytelling, and what it offers to society. Of course, there are a bunch of other genres I like (including fantasy), but sci-fi and manga are my nerd emblems of choice.