What got you into anime? What was the first anime you saw? Share your anime-related memories. Oh, and I'd like to mention that I will judge you.
So. Personally, I grew up with anime. Atom (Astroboy), Ultraman, Gatchaman, Dragon Ball, Ranma, Doraemon, and a whooole bunch of others that I don't know the English titles for. However, my biggest obsession was Mado King Grandzort. I was so bummed when I immigrated that it wasn't very big in the US. Culture shock's a bitch when you're a little kid.
Card Captor Sakura
Don't blame me for first being exposed to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z through Cartoon Network. I was a dedicated fan, and actually seeing such (what were at the time) crisp animation styles (as opposed to American cartoons) inspired me to draw more.
Back in the Philippines, where I grew up
Japanese media is very popular and they go waaaay back.
Before i was even born, that was when Astroboy, Voltes V and Daimos were popular..also the help of Super Sentai series like Maskman, which most consider the best show in their childhood days.
Before I get offtopic,
The earliest memory I experienced anime was either Dragon Ball
or Doraemon.
Though I've watched various anime shows since TV stations will air it 5 days a week..so i'm not really sure.
Crayon Shin-chan, YuYuHakusho[Ghost Fighter as we call it there], and Hunter x Hunter.
Judge me if you want, OP. Call me a loser, its okay :]
All I can say it, i like anime and I'm glad it came to my world and to local TV.
My first significant exposure to anime proper (as opposed to stuff like Robotech), came in the mid-90s, when I was a teenager. I got a TV in my bedroom when I was 15, and had a tendency to stay up watching it very late at night, at least in part to see if anything which might have the least bit of nudity would come on. Since all we had in our house was over-the-air channels, there wasn't much, aside from the occasional bit on PBS, which meant I did a lot of channel surfing.
In the course of this, I stumbled across a late-night (IIRC, it came on after ECW Hardcore, which I think came on at either midnight or 1:00) block of what they were calling "Japanimation" on the local WB affiliate. I was immediately enthralled, and only partly because they frequently aired hentai (I recall tentacle rape being a frequent theme), and with only minimal censoring (e.g., they might show nipples, but lightly pixelate genitalia - just as in Japan), at that. Sadly, I can now only recall a couple of titles by name (neither of which is hentai). I can only clearly remember watching Dirty Pair: Project Eden (one of the very first shows I saw, IIRC) and Akira.
It probably ran for a year or so before ending, after which I mostly forgot about it. I had few friends, and none of them were interested in (or even aware of) anime, so I had no real opportunity for continued exposure to it. It was only as an upperclassman in college (where I had access to cable in the dorms from sophomore year on) that I regained my interest, when I started watching shows like Tenchi Muyo and DBZ on Toonami. Big O and Outlaw Star premiered when I was a senior, and so I kept watching after graduation (by which time my parents had a dish); and once [adult swim] came along with Cowboy Bebop, the rest was history.
My first anime was Digimon on the WB of Fox, can't remember which. I only watched the first two series, and got tired of it cause after a season, it'd start all the way from the beginning again. That was back in 2000-2001. Never got around to finding the scene until 2003 when I started playing Ragnarok Online, and found out that there was a anime for it, which was when I first downloaded bit-torrent and entered the p2p scene and started downloading anime. I still haven't watched too much, full time college and a part time job take a lot of time. After Ragnarok the Animation, I watched FMA, than Chrno Crusade, Boogie Pop Phantom, ROD, Spiral, DMC and finally just finished Evangelion (well the tv portion, haven't watched the movies yet). I'd have to say my favorite anime so far is Chrno Crusade. Currently watching Mouse, which is kind of stupid and filled with fanservice.
As for subs/dubs, I can go either way. It really depends on the anime and how the english voices are. For the most part I'd rather watch subs.
I also have to say, I liked hentai way before I really started watching anime. Hentai just means more now that I know what the characters are from.
I first watched anime before I knew what anime was, even before I knew it was japanese XD
I stuff like Pokemon, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z... basically any anime on Cartoon Network..... but I did like them more than the american ones.
Once I found out about "anime" I watched more of it...... pretty much all i watch now :D
When I was in fourth and fifth grade, I ran into a lot of fanart on the internet. I liked the style and realized that they sold comics drawn in similar styles in bookstores, then realized that there were actually cartoons animated in that style. c: I think the first anime I watched 'seriously' was FLCL when it was on adult swim.
last 2 or 3 months, iused to despise anime and think the userbase/fanbase was a bunch of faggots.
then i watched gurren lagann.
SDF Macross!
Even though it wasn't an Anime, my first exposure to anything Japanese was Power Rangers, which got most of it's footage from Super Sentai series. I was two or three at the time it came on, and I became obsessed with it, to the point that I recorded every single episode(I still have them too) and bought all the action figures that were available in America. About 80% of my early childhood memories are somehow related to Power Rangers, and my mother would actually sing "Go Go Power Rangers" to me as a lullaby.
When I was about five or so Fox started airing Digimon, Zoids, and Shaman King, which I really liked, but kept forgetting what time they came on and so only saw a handful of episodes.
After that my memory gets kind of hazy. I know at some point the Pokemon craze hit my school which led to me discovering Toonami, but I can't shake the feeling that I was already watching Dragon Ball Z and by that time. Which ever came first, Toonami soon began airing Gundam Wing and G Gundam and a couple other shows, which kept me watching.
It wasn't until 2003, though, that I found out that all these shows I had enjoyed up until then were connected, that they were called "anime" and that they all came from Japan. That was the year Toonami aired Rurouni Kenshin. I still remember that night. Earlier in the week I had seen the advertisement for it and it had intrigued me, though I didn't catch the date of when it was going to air. The show before it had just ended and I was about to turn off the T.V. and get in the shower when what I thought was the commercial came on again. I stuck around to catch the date, only this time, at the end, that awesome deep-voiced announcer came on and said "Toonami is proud to present Rurouni Kenshin". So I decided I'd watch a few minutes and see what it was like. And then a few minutes turned into 15. And 15 turned into 30. And when it was done I sat there in shocked silence until I realized that show had so engrossed and entertained me that I was still in the same position I was in when it first started, holding remote in the air, leaned against the chair arm, ready to get up. And then I thought "This is the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life". And the next morning I yahooed it and spent 8 hours reading all about the show and from it learning about anime, manga, Japan, and what have you.
A few months later during summer break I was up at night channel surfing using the menu guide of my dish when I noticed a show called "Inuyasha" was playing on Cartoon Network. I turned to it and with a rush of exhilaration I saw it was one of those anime thingys, like Kenshin, and that another one called Trigun was on after it, and that yet another one called Cowboy Bebop was on after it. The rest is history, although even after all these years Kenshin is still my favorite.
>11
>And when it was done I sat there in shocked silence until I realized that show had so engrossed and entertained me that I was still in the same position I was in when it first started, holding remote in the air, leaned against the chair arm, ready to get up
Good times.
>I turned to it and with a rush of exhilaration I saw it was one of those anime thingys, like Kenshin, and that another one called Trigun was on after it, and that yet another one called Cowboy Bebop was on after it.
aghghhghghgh..... I loved it when Adult Swim was pretty much anime time! Eventually it got into more american crap......... Then because of that I stopped getting cable :D
Besides the obvious digimon/pokemon, the first anime I watched was Interstella 5555.
Serial Experiments Lain made me realize not all anime was bubbly.
I'd say it was Vampire Hunter D. It was circa 1994. It was broadcasted in cartoon network, i believe. And in english, no lees (i'm a spanish speaker). By that time my english was really poor, i could only get about 30% of the dialogs, But i was so absorbedin it that i wouldn0t care. It was so different from all the other shows i used to watch back then.
My, i want to watch it again.
My first foray into anime began with Cowboy Bebop. And honestly, I don't think I could've had a better start. It was the English dub and to this day, CB is the only English dub I can stand to listen to. It was immediatelly followed by Lain and my love for anime was pretty much cemented.
The preconception that animation was only satruday morning cartoons was gone and I was able to enjoy a new medium of storytelling.
As a kid I saw Astroboy, Galaxy Express 999, Saber Rider and the Star Sherrifs (Sei Jyushi Bismarck), and if you count it, Transformers.
When I actually knew what anime was, I saw Ranma 1/2 in the mid-90s as I was starting high school, and because the local Blockbuster had way more of it, Urusei Yatsura. I pretty much spent my high school years as a hardcore otaku, though no one knew what it was back then - partway through Sailor Moon started airing, so people assumed any anime image was Sailor Moon. :p
(These days... I'm more of a casual fan who checks out one or two of the best shows I can find. I don't usually come here anymore.)
Ranma 1/2 manga bit me on the hand in a comics store.
Um, Toonami is what got me into anime, but I got into Romance Comedy through Love Hina, I read Vol. 12 when I was at the library, and I just loved the kissing scene towards the end, but that's just me
Neon Genesis Evangelion then Hellsing. The first made me realize how deep and intelligent anime could be and the second made me realize that when it comes to massive amounts of carnage and violence, accept no substitute!
I really had my mind blown though with Evangelion and from there, I really fell in love with the whole scene.
The very first anime i watched the whole way through was Ronen(sp?) warriors.
God i loved it. Sailor Moon for boys.
it was inuyasha and 12kingdom for me. me and my bro was getting ready to sleep(theres a tv in our room) and our mum was in our room. so our mum was like randomly changing channel when she suddenly stop at a anime that was 12 kingdom. it was the 1st episode and me and my bro was totally fascinated from it. that was how we found out about the new geration of "Cartoon", ANIME
Sailor Moon and I am ever happy I had that.
I can't even imagine being myself of today without Sailor Moon.
It was Pokemon and Salor Moon, but at first i didnt know they where anime. The First one that I knew was anime was Gundam Wing.
like alot of people; Sailor Moon
Damnit, that Tuxedo Mask, he stole my childhood heart ^^;
speed racer and robotech
Gigantor (Tetsujin 28)
I would have to say Dragon ball Z or Sailor moon were the first that I ever SAW.
The first anime that I really loved and really kicked off my animegenes was Mobile Fighter G Gundam.
dual parallel trouble adventure
I'm adding to the long list of people who started off with Sailor Moon. I wonder where I would be if I have never discovered it... then there is Pokemon and Digimon which got localised - those made me like it even more
Digimon > Pokemon though
Sailor Moon DUB was my first anime - I had no idea it was anime at the time, but the anime that sparked the interest was Digimon Adventure DUB. I can't say I seriously watched till 2006 (Foxtel) though, and it was late 2007 before I got to see anime in a decent volume. (finally got rid of a awful 400MB/month quota @ 512k connection - my father thought it was heaps, and still seems too)
Dragon Ball, every morning at 5 on FOX ch23 back in 1992. :)
I believe mine was Captain Future
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Future#Anime
god I'm old, BTW not that old since they only release the series in mid 80's in my country.
When I was five my brother was watching akira and told me i couldnt see it cuz it was for big kids only, so i snuck by at night and saw that scene where tetsuo hallucinates his guts comming out and toys attacking him, I had nightmares that night, but i love that movie.
I can't remember as much but I didn't even know what the hell was Anime back then. Back then, around when Toonami was in its early days of awesome-ness, they aired Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon. I hate to admit but I was more fond of Sailor Moon than DBZ. DBZ was a good anime but I find those episodes where they talk too much and they still haven't started the fight is....yea...rather ridiculous. As for Sailor Moon, I really like it for some reason. The fact that I'm a guy and that I watched Sailor Moon can be weird to everyone. Even for me. The plot was something I have never seen before in my entire life, the first time I watched. Here is this teenager girl who has no idea that she can transform into a magical girl with magical powers to fight evil. When Tuxedo Mask came, I wanted to be that guy. Mysterious and kool.
There was a couple years hiatus of me not watching any anime anymore after watching DBZ and Sailor Moon until....Pokemon and Digimon came. Afterwards all these other animes came: Speed Racer, Street Fighter II, Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Wing, Blue Gender, and other anime that Toonami aired. I guess you can say that Toonami got me into Anime including myself. Then there came underground anime.
Maybe because of Sailor Moon, I was more interested in Romance/drama/slice of life/school type of Animes.
serial experiments Lain
Unlike most of you, I was introduced to anime through lurking on 4chan's /a/. I enjoyed reading the pointless arguments, and after getting sick of people raving on endlessly about a particular anime, decided to watch it. That was my gateway drug.
I don't really remember, but the first anime I watched fansubbed was Love Hina. It influenced me so much that I'm still obsessed with moeshit.
Probably Dragon Ball classic (the one before Dragon Ball Z) with annoying Cantonese voice sub
My first anime that I watched was Naruto English dub.
>>43
Aren't you a little youg to be around here?
>>45
because the naruto dub started after 2000
probably Dragon Ball growing up, which lead to DBZ and other random anime on Canadian tv.
cowboy bebop on cartoon network back when adult swim rocked... now they basically suck, like can anybody but a eight grader really watch Tim and Eric?
I think it was pokèmon, a great hit here a few years back, and then after a while I got the taste for Naruto, wich I streamed of the net. (and still does..) for sode I am still a n00b, but now I'm at my 83 series of Anime ^^
Ninja Robots. It used to be on Cartoon Network back in 1999. I didn't realize what I was watching was anime back then.
i got hook on anime when i first watch ranma 1/2. ever since then i became i a big fan of rumiko takahashi work. and now i love anime since.
I think I got into anime as a passing hobby because of .hack//SIGN and Gundam Wing.
Once Fullmetal Alchemist came out on adult swim, and I happened to pick up the 4th volume of the Azumanga Daioh manga, I think that's what really got me into it.
Of course I saw Pokemon as a kid and all, but the anime that got me hooked into that realm would have to be Hellsing.
I started watching anime probably when i was 6, didnt know it at the time tho :>. dragon ball and DBZ were the shit, not to mention all the other animes on CN and midnight run (before adult swim)the anime that hooked me was kenshin, i loved that series ^-^. now im and addict :3. And... what do u mean, "you'll be judging us" :?
probably Pokemon, truth be told.
Though I had some odd "grimm's fairy tales" or something anime on VHS, but it was often violent so my mom forbade us from watching often.
Gundam Wing here.
first anime I ever watched was ghost in the shell couldn't understand it at first but eventually it grew onto me and I just got into other things from there on.
Well I grew up with Pokémon, Sailor Moon and that shit but the anime I watched knowing it was anime was probably Neon Genesis Evangelion and Macross Zero. Then it it became Naruto and shitty stuff like that.
I didn't get into anime until I was like 15.
First anime series, I have to admit was Dragon Ball Z.
Lifesize GUNDAM Special Effects in Odaiba Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlvP7EXv15k
I suppose most of us grew up with pokemon haha
Dragon ball Z aswell
They never really got me hooked onto watching them though, they just blended in to the Saturday morning cartoons if you know what I mean...
MY first series was Love Hina, and I still love watching it even to this day, then there was Tsukuyomi: Moon phase, still lots of memories for me there, And the Evangelion series
Now I just watch alsorts, I'm following most of the new releases but I'll never stoop as low as Naruto and Bleach,
They really need to die already...
The majority of the Ep's are of battles which are made up of mostly talking...
My first one was Voltron and Tekkaman Blade. I remember watching those back when I was a kid in the Philippines. When I came to the states, I was hungry for more, and sadly saw my Tekkaman, localized to the poor "Teknoman." I mean that in retrospect. When I was a kid, I didn't care, because it was still the same cool ass robot whoopin' some ass.
I think the first anime that I saw knowing what it was (Voltron was on US TV on Saturday mornings when I was a kid, and I also caught a few episodes of Speed Racer here and there, but had no idea that these were even from Japan) was either Akira or Vampire Hunter D, both of which I watched on VHS when I was in high school. I was impressed with and enjoyed both. But the first series that really got me hooked was the original OVA series of Ranma 1/2, which got me to watch every episode of every series eventually (as terrible as the quality eventually got), and then to watch the entirety of Maison Ikkoku and Urusei Yatsura. My Takahashi-mania was thoroughly quashed by Inuyasha, though. Boooooring. I watch a huge variety of stuff now, mostly comedies and the occasional feature film. I think I've seen about 350 series in their entirety, and perhaps 100 movies.
>>66
Junior high school, not high school, sorry. I'm super-old, incidentally.
First anime I saw was Dragon Ball Z. First time I heard of the word anime was when I was 12. First anime I willingly watched was Naruto. First anime I willingly watched and liked is... Full Metal Alchemist. Now I don't watch anime, and instead read manga, because manga is 100x better.
At some point a channel in my country started playing DBZ, Sailor Boon and Magic Knights Rayearth.
DBZ and Sailor Boon sucked, but after watching MKR I started getting into animu.