The Old School Otaku Lounge

Credited by Fred Patten as being the founder of American organized anime fandom, mostly because he bought a Sanyo V-Cord machine in 1975, making it possible to show recorded giant robot shows off of the local Japanese TV station to those who had not seen them live. (^_^)

Not sure if he's still into anime, but he does have a Twitter account: https://twitter.com/sysable

Mark Merlino got into anthropomorphic/furry fandom in a big way. He left the C/FO right as I joined, in the mid 1980s, but he's still active in the furry fandom, as far as I know.

You can see the furry influence in the C/FO's mascot "Fanta" - a furry character, plain and simple. Kimba The White Lion was a popular show among the early membership, that's an anthropomorphic kinda thing, and other early members included Reed "Omaha The Cat Dancer" Waller and Joshua "Cutey Bunny" Quagmire.

BTW Don Yee (of C/FO LA) tells me that Fred Patten and Mark Merlino were at the recent Anime Los Angeles convention, where they chaired a panel discussion of the history of the C/FO. Wish I could have been there for that one.

I think it's instructive to remember that it was the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization. It wasn't originally only about the Japanese cartoons. So the furry connection is not a surprise whatsoever.

Just sayin'.