How did you get into anime?

Although my first anime was back during early childhood (back when anime programme block was a regular thing in Indonesian television). Vulcan just really started following anime seriously during junior high school back in 2012 (classmates are into Attack on Titan and Sword Art Online during that time, and we often chatted about latest anime airing during class break. A friend was also into osu! and we played together).

So, kbin anime, how did you get into anime? Share your story here.

NekoKiana,
NekoKiana avatar

During the summers, I used to go to my Grandpa's house and this was a treat cause the room I stayed in had it's own TV (this was exciting in the 90s). One day I was watching Cartoon Network and playing with my dolls and Sailor Moon came on, and I was hooked ever since. It took a few more years before I found any anime other than Sailor Moon, but that is where it started.

kyli0x,
kyli0x avatar

i only ever got into initial D because i love JDM and motorsports. i suggest that if anyone is into cars.

RatsAmassing,
RatsAmassing avatar

Initial D is amazing. I want to get back to watching. Although I have personal reasons as to why I haven't been able to get back to it. First Stage was AMAZING. Every race was so thrilling.

staticburst,
staticburst avatar

I grabbed One Piece volume 1 on a whim from Borders when I was in 6th grade, which was my gateway to anime and manga as a whole. Technically I had seen Pokemon and Sailor Moon and stuff earlier but they were just "cartoons" to me then.

edit: forgot to mention I was also around for Toonami in its golden age

I don't like anime as much these days as I did in the late 00's and the 2010s, but I still check stuff out occasionally.

tojikomori,
tojikomori avatar

A couple of school friends were obsessed with Bubblegum Crisis. It took a long time for them to get me to watch any anime – the Patlabor movie was the first thing I saw – but I'd been hearing them talk about it (and post on forums, and maintain Geocities fan pages, and draw and draw and draw) for so long that I was practically brainwashed by their enthusiasm.

And yet: it was years before I saw Bubblegum Crisis itself. 🤣 I think the first fansubbed series I got around to watching was a terrible DivX copy of Angelic Layer, which still has a place in my heart. (The first e-sports anime! CLAMP! A toy tie-in you'll wish could be real!)

OverfedRaccoon,
OverfedRaccoon avatar

I used to watch the original Dragon Ball on TV in the early mornings when I was younger than I can honestly say. Then, at 9, my friend asked if I wanted to watch a violent movie. Expecting live action, he put on Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. We followed that with Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. And that was really it for me. I was hooked - Miyazaki, Ranma, Sailor Moon, DBZ, Saturday Anime on Sci-Fi before it was Syfy, all up through the more modern stuff. Admittedly, I'm more into one-off movies than series these days.

sebs_the_unspeakable,

Back in the 90s, I used to dog sit for my aunt on Saturday mornings. She had a full cable package, including SciFi which was airing anime on Saturday mornings back then. I think Venus Wars was the first one I remember, but the one that hit me the most was Iria: Zeiram The Animation.
I started looking forward to my weekend dog sitting work, because Jake (the dog) and I would hang out and watch anime once a week.
90s OVAs are still my jam.

iax,

There were several early Saturday mornings that I spent alone in the den with the volume low tuned into SciFi channel. I think I was still in elementary school, middle at latest, and didn't want to get caught watching something inappropriate. I distinctly remember Akira and Vampire Hunter D.

CocoMonono,

Patlabor 2 on STARZ when I was a kid. Then later on it was Princess Mononoke and Cowboy Bebop.

Velveteen,
Velveteen avatar

My friend bought me the live action death note film on dvd one day, and the rest is history.

Nadya,
Nadya avatar

When I was a bit younger I didn't really recognize that many Toonami/4Kids!/Adult Swim shows were anime. I didn't know Dragonball was a Japanese anime it was just another cartoon for me that was on TV around the same time as other cartoons.

Then my mom, for whatever reason, decided we should watch Spirited Away around when it came out. She's not really into cartoons, she doesn't care for anime. I'm pretty sure my mom chose Spirited Away because she knew I was watching other anime so figured I'd like it - I should ask her about it one day. I thought all the spirits and monsters were cool. Loved every minute of it and knew I wanted more shows like that. That's when I discovered Spirited Away was this thing called "anime" and everything started to click when I researched more about anime on the computer. Dragonball? Wait it is an anime! Inuyasha? Anime! Full Metal Alchemist? !!!

In all honesty - Adult Swim and Toonami probably deserve more to credit than Spirited Away but I never really put it together that all my favorite TV shows were anime until after having watched Spirited Away. So I blame Spirited Away for turning me into a weaboo in my younger years and I've watched practically anything worth watching between the years of 2001-2013. Ironically I mostly stopped watching anime altogether around the time that my Japanese had become good enough to watch it dubbed rather than rely on fansubs. It became too much of a chore because my vocab was only good enough to understand 70%~ of what was being said.

CoffeeNerd,
CoffeeNerd avatar

Besides the popular ones that were already on cable like Naruto, Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon which were just cartoons to me back then, I think it's Sword Art Online. That's the first anime that I actually knew I was watching anime and went out of my way to watch.

felonybeard,

I learned that Yugioh was better in Japanese than in English and a lot more clicked. I watched FMA when I was too young to do that and realized that I liked it and learned it was an anime. The rest is history.

dogzilla,

Starblazers came on as soon as I got home from school, so I think I started watching it because of spaceships and the wave motion gun. Ended up becoming obsessed over it and I watched it faithfully up until they ripped my heart out by replacing it with Superfriends. I continued to tune in every day for probably weeks hoping Starblazers returned. It never did.

Talked about that show for years even into my adulthood. Never really made the connection until much later that it was an anime. Hadn't watched another up until Hunter x Hunter that was shown to me about 7 years ago. Yea, quite the big gap in years! Got me hooked. I feel like I've come full circle.

tojikomori,
tojikomori avatar

That's pretty amazing, and also makes me a little jealous because it's been out of print ever since I got into Leiji Matsumoto. I'm of the generation that was introduced to the Leijiverse through Rintaro's Galaxy Express 999 movie. I think appreciation's been gathering the last few years (we've had multiple manga releases, and Discotek brought out the entire GE999 series) so there's hope yet!

Saturdaycat,
Saturdaycat avatar

I'm 35 years old and so I was introduced to anime thanks to Sailor Moon and TV Guide. Funny story - I was probably 9 years old and my best friend's mom got me slippers with "sailor moon" written on it. Of course to past the time in the 90s I read the TV Guide and I saw that Sailor Moon was airing so I haaad to see the show about my slippers.

I loved their expressions and the realistic look they had compared to other cartoons and was hooked pretty quickly. Then my parents had me Akira. Well then I never looked back

SFaulken,
SFaulken avatar

Saw Akira, circa 1990. I hadn't realized yet that animation extended beyond Disney, and thinly veiled toy advertisements.

It was a bit of an awakening.

lixus98,
lixus98 avatar

Started watching Naruto many years after it came out, then I went to watching Bleach, so 2 small animes starting out.

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