Anime What introduced you to anime?

vermillion

vermillion

Black Reaper
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
111
Age
38
Location
Massachusetts, USA
Gil
0
So, we’re all here and we all enjoy watching our different animes… But what brought you into the genre?
For me, it was Princess Mononoke. Yeah, I started watching Sailor Moon & Pokémon on weekday mornings before I went to school back in fourth grade, but it wasn’t until Princess Mononoke came out on VHS that I really got into anime.

My stepdad had seen it on the New Releases wall at BlockBuster (in 1997?) and thought that it’d be something I enjoyed. Haha, and I think he regrets it every day for showing it to me. I watched it… Seven times during the time that we had it.

I had them rent it for me three more times before they actually got it for me, and from there I was hooked. Soon after I was watching Escaflowne with a friend of mine, and I believe that Gundam Wing was beginning to air on Toonami.

It’s funny to look back on it now and see that I’ve pretty much grown up on this stuff. And it’s all thanks to my parents. I do like to let them know that when they complain that I’m twenty-five and watching Sailor Moon. :P
 
My first anime was either Pokemon or Dragonball Z. I started watching them both around the same time, so I don't know which was first. That led to Toonami which aired Gundam Wing, Outlaw Star, and other such awesomeness. Also, on the Starz channel, they used to show anime movies every Friday at midnight. I saw a lot of stuff there along with the Sci-Fi channel. Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Dominian Tank Police, X, Tokyo Babylon, and a lot of other stuff I can't remember.
 
My first memories of watching Anime was- like a lot of people- the likes of Pokemon:pikamon:, Yugioh, Dragonball (Z). I was completely ingrossed by them, they wowed the childhood me. I was never one who loved cartoons like, say, "Spongebob" which weren't filled with huge, large scale fighting and battles. (As you could guess, I was also a "Power Rangers" kid.:monster:

But, these "Anime" were just considered cartoons to me. I watched because i enjoyed them, not because they were apparently "foreign". I didn't even think about where they came from. "One Piece", "RAVE/Rave Master", "Shaman King", I just watched because I generally enjoyed them. I hadn't a clue about this "Anime" genre of Animation.

It really wasn't until I watched "NARUTO" in 2006 that I actually realised Anime was a distinct form, away from animation like "Fairly Odd Parents". And, to be honest, this realisation wasn't some huge catharsis of sorts. I still only watched if I actually enjoyed it.

I now watch anime because I generally like it: not to be a member of some sort of "clique", or to be any type of "Hipster". I don't cosplay(or bash those who do), nor do I scream to the heavens about "How F***ing Kawaii SASUXSAKU is". I just love animation.
 
Last edited:
My first anime was Sailor Moon. After that I watched the first season of Pokemon, but it was Dragonball Z that got me really interested in anime. So after DBZ I started watching Adult Swim and Toonami and discovered great anime like Fooly Cooly, Ghost in the Shell, Rurouni Kenshin, Big O, Inuyasha, and Fullmetal Alchemist. After watching these shows I became a total die hard anime fan. I really thought for the longest time during my childhood that Pokemon and Sailor Moon were just american cartoons. DBZ was the series that got me interested in anime. Gohan was always my favorite. xD
 
I guess my first anime was pokemon since I was a 10 year old in 98/99 and was apart of the craze. After that I got into Death Note after going to two anime conventions (I went coslayed as Lenne) and got interested in the show that way. Death Note led the way to other psychological animes.
 
growing up i used to watch voltron all the time, then my dad, who is a model builder, brought home a robotech model one day and that was in the mid to late 80's when robotech was being introduced to the u.s. and ever since then i was hooked. it went form robotech, to transformers, to gundam for a long time, then i started checking stuff outside the giant robot anime..lol
 
Officially, it was Ghost in the Shell. I watched the movie in art class at school, and I was very taken with it. Things escalated from there as I watched Stand Alone Complex, and moved on and up from there.

Although my first anime was Sailor Moon, when I was about seven or eight years old...I used to get up at something like 5am just so I could watch it. Cartoon Power Rangers with girls. Can't go wrong with that. Then the Pokemon, Digimon and Cardcaptors wave bombarded TV, and I was pretty much sold after that, although I didn't find out I was watching anime and not just regular cartoons until I saw Ghost in the Shell and realized there was a different name for it. xD
 
My first anime were Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball Z, at the same time.
 
I started with Pokemon, Digimon and Yu-gi-oh, but I never watched them constantly sorta thing; I caught episodes now and again when I was little.
I like to call Azumanga Daioh my first real anime though. I loved it so much...even though I've only seen it once. The humour, the school-life, the interesting characters...the evil cat lol. There's just something about it that makes it so memorable (and so much better than Lucky Star :trollface:)

My first anime of the genre I love most though, which is murder/mystery/horror, would be Higurashi no naku koro ni. It's dark, it's definitely mysterious, it's just...perfect. The animation can go a bit iffy sometimes, but ignore that and you'll find my personal favourite series. I recommend it to everyone who doesn't mind a bit of blood (a bit more than a bit) and who is willing to sit through the first episode which is a little bit boring (it's just introducing the characters really).

Oh dear god, I went completely off topic from the very get go :/ . If you would consider Pokemon etc to be considered my first anime, then just sitting and watching Saturday morning TV would be what introduced me to anime. If it would be Azumanga Daioh, then it was a mate of mine who was fed up of me bugging him all the time so he gave me the DVD for a bit. Needless to say, it shut me up until I was done watching ; ) .
 
I was introduced to anime in 2005 when I joined my first Final Fantasy forum. FFHybrid was not only a forum, but a website which shared fan-made FF videos, created by members of the site. I was one of those members! However, I was quite new to video editing, so I promptly downloaded pretty much every single video others had made. I wanted to learn from them, perceiving what made a good video.

One of those videos had been edited to No More Words by Ayumi Hamasaki! I fell in love with the song instantly. It was utterly perfect!

I soon discovered that this was from InuYasha.... I promptly researched the anime and asked a few online friends, who told me about manga. Although I had seen one book of Fruits Basket prior to this, I remember asking so many questions when an online aquaintence told me. 'What is InuYasha?' 'What is manga?' 'Where can I get it?' :lew:

From that week, I spent my afternoons after school in Borders, browsing the manga shelves (god, I miss Borders!).

I wasn't really aware that anime was too popular in the UK; I have a feeling manga was more easy available at that point. :hmmm: So I spent quite a bit of time reading manga first: Fushigi Yugi, Chobits, Immortal Rain, D.N. Angel etc etc.

A few months passed, I think, before I finally purchased my first anime movies, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. I enjoyed both very much. :ryan: The first anime series I remember picking up from amazon was Saikano/She: The Ultimate Weapon, which is one of the more neutral/normal series. I was only interested in the shorter series at first, believing these were a 'test' of the genre as a whole, so I moved on to watch series like Gunslinger Girl, Haibane Renmei and Elfen Lied, which were all charming in their own way; Elfen Lied was more daring, but ended up being my favourite of the bunch!

A while later (I'm thinking 3 or so years!) I delved into longer series like Ah! My Goddess (which sounded like the manga I had loved, Chobits), Death Note (which my friend recommended), Clannad (which helped me through a tough time in Uni!), Ouran (also recommended after I watched Clannad) and others.


Edit: Ah Pokemon! Although I watched this as a kid, I had no idea it was anime. It was just another cartoon to me. The same goes for the Moomin series, which is an anime too. :hmm: I think of this as separate experience to anime. :wacky:
 
Let's see here, it would actually take me back quite a few years back to when I was around 7 or 8. Some mornings depending how fast I got ready for school and before I walked to my bus stop or it might have been after school I don't remember. I do however remember it was Ronin Warriors and Dragon Ball, that's right not DBZ but Dragon Ball when Goku was still a kid. Those were my gateway into anime. It wouldn't be until years later that when Toonami started and showing shows like Gundam Wing, Reboot, DBZ, Sailor Moon, and Ronin Warriors again that I got really into anime.
 
I can't remember how old I was, probably about 6 or 7. SBS used to show anime feature films on the weekends: Akira, Battle Angel Alita, Goku Midnight Eye among others that I have forgotten; probably not the most appropriate stuff for a six year old to watch, but I loved it.

Later on when I was around 8 or 9 I would watch the 'breakfast animes' (i.e. Pokemon, Dragonball Z etc) before school.
 
Sailor Moon back in the 90s. Yeah the dub was horrible but I loved it. I used to visit all the old 90s Sailor Moon websites and then I discovered the Japanese version. I started to look up other anime and I got hooked. I haven't watched much anime in the past few years, but I do look fondly back on the titles I once enjoyed. The only one I really keep up with now is One Piece.
 
I saw the movie Spirited Away when I was really young (like 7 or 8) and it scarred me. I didn't expect something so plot-heavy and emotionally twisting, and I had nightmares about it. When I was about 10 I was flicking through channels on TV late at night, when I saw Full Metal Alchemist being aired. I watched an early episode that it was currently playing, and really enjoyed it. I eventually got to see the whole series in order, thankfully, and it was just unbelievably good. I'd always watch one episode when I got home from school, and then do my homework.
 
First anime I ever saw was on the Sci-Fi channel a LOOOONG time ago. Tenchi Muyo in Love - From then, along with my cousin liking anime, I was hooked. Say Iria: Zeiram the animation, Akira, and others.

From there is was Ronin Warriors, Sailor Moon, Dragonball, Dragonball Z, and Pokemon. Those were all when I was still in elementary school though.

Then Toonami came and I watched essentially everything on there, along with buying my first anime DVD of Neon Genesis Evangelion (which at the time was pretty deep).

After Toonami went off though I didnt really watch as much anime, though I still really liked it. It wasnt about until 4 years ago maybe when I really started to beef up my collection. 7 years ago though when I started getting back into it again due to meeting alot more friends in college who loved anime. Now I have a good bit. Ill probably post my collection sometime.
 
fell into it accidentally, cant even remember what the first one was i watched, they just happened to be on at something like, 2am on a saturday night....er, 2 am Sunday morning even. it doesnt count as the following day to me til Ive slept haha

I think it would have been something called the legend of the 4 kings though...or 3x3 eyes. there were a couple of others too, battle angle alita and some other legend of something or other about some prince with white hair haha

this is going back donkies years ago now though, i didnt buy anything, mostly due to lack of funds, and i had no idea i could of bought any at that time. Akira would have been my first actual purchase though

I actually found legend of the 4 kings on vhs, and bought them, ive never even watched them since as i dont even have a video player ):
 
My nephew introduced me to anime. First anime I fell in love with (on VHS) was GUYVER. The most epic thing ever. He let me borrow the videos as well.
First purchase on VHS was Tekken I think. Oh no it was GUYVER hehe.

First DVD purchase was AKira. Epic classic anime.
 
To be honest, Video games got me into Anime, I was into JRPGs for my whole life and when I became... 9 or 10..maybe 11, My friends showed me pokemon anime, I was playing the games before that, but never thought there was a real Anime on it, then Toonami came on the air, which played DBZ, Zoids... I forget what else, but that really started getting me hooked on Anime, and after that... Well.. Anime's are my favorite shows now to this day.
 
I was always a casual anime fan when I was a kid and a hardcore JRPG gamer back then. I use to watch, Yuyu Hakusho, Saber Marionette, Dragon Ball Z, Tenchi Muyo, Ranma 1/2, etc. Games like Suikoden, King of Fighters and Breath of Fire brought me to hardcore anime fandom.
 
Oh man. I remember it like yesterday. Getting up at ridiculously early times in order to watch Sailor Moon on TV. Of course they cancelled it, but then they'd started airing DragonBall and that turned to DragonBall Z, which really inspired me to check out more stuff like it. Ah the good times :ryan:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top