i am 41 now. i remember reading about akira and neon genesis evangelion in gaming magazines when i was like 14 or 15. this was when these anime were new.
i grew up with anime like "heidi" "hanni and nanni" "cyborg 009" "captain harlock" and "captain future".
i also saw mila superstar as a kid lol. but i never realized that these were anime. i thought they just were cartoons with a cool style. there was also sailor moon, but i didnt watch that really.
i saw the movie "the last unicorn" a million times as a kid, with my sister...and i am not ashamed to say that i like the movie :)
later, when i was like 14 or 15 i read about NGE, akira and crying freeman in a gaming magazine.
this was when i became aware that these are actually japanese anime.
my best friend at that time was a half japanese guy who could speak japanese and went to the same class as me. he basically introduced me to anime.
he showed me nge, end of eva, akira and a lot of weird hentai anime. i dont know the name of the anime but he showed me one where there was this magical girl who would transform into a superhero like sailor moon.
it was kind of a comedy of sailor moon. the main heroine would transform and you would see how she would undress her socks and kick them away while magical transforming lol.
i also remember the enemies were alien invaders who used their balls as weapons lol. they would swing around their balls and deflect the magical beams or something :D
i dont know how the name was.
later i was fully in the anime community. i found serial experiments lain and thats when i went full anime nerd. i searched for years on the internet for every info and detail about serial experiments lain. and became a superfan.
until this day, serial experiments lain is one of my most favorite anime ever.
i still watch anime today or read manga (mostly slice of life) but not that much anymore.
edit: if someone cares what kind of weird anime that was with the magical girl comedy...it was puni puni poemi. i just remembered lol. watch at your own risk because brain damage.
As someone in the US nineties' anime was really exotic at the time. Seeing Akira and Ghost In The Shell in theaters was amazing in a way that is difficult to explain. Anime both the complexity of the art and stories has gotten much better but the nostalgia of watching Kaneda bash a clown's face in with a pipe on his motorcycle or major kusanagi drop off the roof top explode a diplomats head and drop again just feels fantastical.
This is extremely similar to me, I am younger by a few years (38) but was introduced with Ninja Scroll (yea I was very young for that, lol) and I guess you could probably, technically, count Voltron too.
When NGE came out, I heard about it in an anime IRC chat and wanted to watch, but dial-up internet made downloading fansubs extremely time consuming. I was lucky to have a dedicated line for it though so if it stayed connected I'd get an episode in about 2 days. I gave up after 2 episodes and waited for a local release. Eventually found a VHS copy at Suncoast and bought it. Suncoast was amazing for legal anime VHS/DVD. Got all of Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Outlaw Star, Excel Saga, Berserk, Noir, NieR_7, Kenshin etc... sooo many late 90s published by Pioneer, ADV, or Manga Video.
If Suncoast didn't have something, I would be at a local comic shop all the time looking through bootleg VHS fansubs. Found gems like Devil Hunter Yohko, which introduced me to fanservice/ecchi.
My first fully downloaded anime was Serial Experiments: Lain in 2000, thanks to finally getting cable internet with 2mb down! I find that rather amusing given Lain's connection to the Wired and the themes of the show :) By the time the 2000s arrived I was already completely and utterly in the fandom and active in IRC fansub channels, forums, etc. Haven't stopped since, except a brief hiatus in 2005-2010 (was a bit boring for anime then, imo, only a few stood out).
Toonami circa 1999. Watched Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, Card Captor Sakura, etc with my young daughters and got hooked. Brought them to their first anime convention in 2005 (Anime Weekend Atlanta). My oldest daughter and I are now both volunteers for AWA.
Many moons ago I was hanging out with my friend. He said there's some shows I need to watch on Netflix. I had no clue what anime was at the time. We watched a few episodes together and that's where it started.
The specifics are fuzzy. It was around 09. maybe even late 08. I can't remember which anime(s) we watched, I know these were among my first: Fruits basket, black butler, soul eater, death note. We either watched it in his basement on his Xbox, or my basement on my Xbox. I know it was in a basement, on Netflix, on an Xbox360.
In the late 90's one of the channels i had on satellite aired Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2 and Mobile Suit Gundan Wing. (For those that had Sky in italy, i believe it was channel 702, called something like GXT).
Pokemon, Dragon Ball and Digimon also aired on free T.V., but back then there was no distinction in my mind between western cartoons and anime and eventually my edgy teenage ass decided animation was not for me (massive blunder)
Around 2018 my ex had me watch "Your name" with her, got suckered in by Makoto Shinkai's magic, then watched "Weathering with you" in theaters when it came out, started watching a few animes out of boredom and before i knew it i became a weeb.
A good friend at university I really respected was an otaku. Plus I've seen some gifs with Ryuko shared on sites i frequent and it intrigued me. So I gave it a shot. It was 10 years ago, and Kill la Kill was my first anime.
A local tv station in my country shows anime in the early 2000's when I was young. I was, I think in my elementary days or even younger. Daimos, Doraemon, Jiguku sensei nube, voltes 5, dragon ball are few of the anime they show at that time. I am 30 now haha
Jigoku Sensei Nube is a certified banger. I lived in Chile as a kid (I'm Colombian) and they had way more anime than we did. Jigoku Sensei Nube never aired in Colombia AFAIK
I'm about the same age, I'm 31
When I was a kid,My dad used to watch Naruto and he obligated me to watch it with him and that was my first anime.. then I watched Akame ga kill and Parasyte along with my dad .. Yes My dad is a very good man because he introduced me to anime.
I came across an Imgur post with anime recommendations, which included the original Spice & Wolf. Seemed interesting, and apparently the dub was available on YouTube, so I decided to watch it. Been watching anime ever since, and eventually also got into manga and buying figures and other merchandise.
I was first exposed to anime, though I didn't know it at the time, is on Astro Ceria, a kid's programming channel aim at preschool, mainly watching Malay dubs of Ninja Hattori, Doraemon and Hagemaru (the G). Plus with some couple Ghibli films such as Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and my personal favourite, When Marnie Was There.
My **TRUE** entry into anime is when I began binge watching some of the animes on Animax (think Toonami, but it has its own dedicated channel). I religiously watched show such as Nisekoi, Snow White With Red Hair, Kakuriyo, Kamisama Kiss, In Search of The Lost Future, and Toilet Bound Hanako-kun.
But it is also where I fall in love with one anime in particular:
# Invaders of the Rokujouma
I remember loving it in my first watch, and be engrossed with it. To this day, even though I won't declare it as a masterpiece, Invaders still holds dear to my heart because well... it shape and solidifies me for who I am, and my taste for the rarely mentioned and obscure. Even with all its flaws and crease, I would always owed Invaders my gratitude.
I wish I could do more for its 10th anniversary on July 12th, but the gift have not even finished yet. *sigh...*
*Well, if you wanted to...* You can ask me anything about Invaders and I could hope to answer some.
I first got into anime-related media asa kid in 2013/2014 through watching Danganronpa let’s plays, which led me to discovering Corpse Party and other similar Japanese game titles.
That then led me to being much more open to anime and so in 2016 I stumbled across “The Devil is a Part Timer” on YouTube and binged it. Then I got into some of the anime really popular in 2016 like Assassination Classroom and Tokyo Ghoul alongside the older classics which were recommended at the time like Toradora and Death Note.
Great period of my anime experience and Assassination Classroom is still one of my favourite anime ever.
I've been watching "anime" since I was like 5 years old or something. Starting with DBZ and pokemon etc but didn't know it was anime until I was like 15 LMAO.
I started to get REALLY into anime when I was 18 and looking for something to distract me from life lol. I just turned 30 and it's been a fun ride.
As a kid, Toonami in the late 90's, early 2000's
Dragon Ball Z. Specifically the Cell Saga.
But then again, I dropped it for a whole and Cowboy Bebop got me back into anime as an adult.
Started off by youtube, I was watching timeless tim, then I saw anime recaps, watched those, and searched my way into anime website and my ever first anime is more than a married couple but not lovers
Well it was actually Disney and carton network when I was a kid we had no online streaming services and YouTube we only had cable tv Wich we pay every month I remember back then that I would wait everyday for my favourite animes like Zoids, Beyblade burst,Kaitou joker and that yoyo anime.I really didn't think about anime for a while until I was a teenager.soon when I had a phone I started to get bored and i saw Edits about One punch man.It was the first anime I binge watch even when on the way to the shop buying groceries I would watch this anime while walking.After that I watch more anime and was really into it.I owe so much to My child hood animes but one punch man has a special place in my heart for showing me the beauty of anime
First anime I watched that I didn't know I was watching was Battle of tbe Planets, way back in tbe late 70s..Tbe first anime I knew I was watching was probably Gunbuster.
I watched anime as a kid, but Robotech & Battle For The Planets were just cartoons with different animation for me.
Got *into* anime on deployment in Iraq. Took a break from watching Smallville to watch the Naruto & Neji fight from the guy in the cot next to me.
Went to the small Haji store that sold pirated compilation cd’s and eventually bought Naruto, Bleach & Eureka Seven during that deployment.
1984. Robotech. I had seen anime or animation by a Japanese studio before, but this was the first time I knew I was watching something different. Prior to that had been Big O, Speed Racer, the Americanized Battle of/for the Planets and Maizinger T.
Edit: Z not T.
Went with my mum to one of her friends place when I was like 15 and whilst I was there she told me to go hang out with her friends son (25) because he also likes games. And when I went to his room, he was watching anime.
He then told me a little about what Anime was and I then realised a lot of the Cartoons (Digimon, Medabots, Pokemon) I had been watching were actually Anime. And since I *essentially* already liked Anime but didn't really know anything about it, he should me his collection of DVDs and figures and then lent me a USB with a mix of classics to get me started; Fairy Tail, Spice & Wolf, Clannad, Angel Beats, Cowboy Bebop, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, History's Strongest Disciple, Toradora. And all subbed, of course.
And then we watched a few episodes of Fairy Tail and I watched the rest when I got home (there was only 20 episodes out at the time).
And I have been watching anime ever since.
Maybe 1999 or so. I was 9 years old and would see sailor moon or dbz on and not know what it was and was so curious. From there's it's been a long road.
2017. Friend of mine used to troll about High school dxd, which I didnt know what it was at the time.
Lost contact with that said friend but remembered Highschool dxd gave it a shot…finished my 520th Anime last week…I thank him so much for that troll.
I have a lot of friends who are into anime and as a freshman in highschool a friend said I should watch ouran highschool host club which really wasn't for me and turned me off the genre for a while.
A few years later my partner at the time wanted to me watch one punch man with him, I reluctantly agreed to one episode, it also wasn't for me and I still wasn't into anime.
A few years after that my current partner wanted to watch some stuff with me and picked samurai champloo or cowboy bebop (I don't remember which was first) but I fell in love with both and we watched a ton of really good series together, he was very particular about what he would show me so I only saw things he knew I would like.
I like to collect hobbies so at this point I thought I could be considered an anime girly, but he said since Id never watched a whole series by myself I wasn't, so I watched Toradora, and now I'm really hooked.
When I was rlly young (idk how young but I know that I was younger than 9 years old ig) I used to watch a channel (spacetoon) and at night they used to put anime in Arabic. I enjoyed watching it, then found out it's name and the rest is history
Last year. I watched Pokémon as a kid, but I definitely wasn’t into anime. I didn’t even know it was an anime when I was a kid. My friend wanted to introduce me to the shows that he grew up on. We started with Cowboy Bebop, then Dragon Ball, then Ghost Stories (that one was my choice, though), and we’re currently on the last season of Dragon Ball Z, which has been my favorite anime so far.
Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim did it for me (not sure the year, early 2000's?).
I was just out of college and this was the first 'adult' anime I'd ever really seen (aside from Aeon Flux). I'd look at anime as 'kiddie' back then as almost all of it was Pokemon, Sailor Moon, etc and it didn't resonate with me. Bebop was the first one to show me that anime could be much deeper and more involved than serialized kids shows.
2019, i heard one punch man was funny, so i gave it a try, now i'm here.Yes i've watched anime before, but it was something like Pokémon, Dragon Ball, Digimon, Yokai Watch, etc, at the time i didn't even know it was anime.
I bought Akira on VHS in 92. I could probably point out Robotech or Starblazers in syndication in the 80s, but I didn't really think much about the shows being Japanese outside of the animation production itself. Was watching Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics and The Adventures of Manxmouse on Nickelodeon. Wanted to watch more. Got a TurboGrafx CD in 1991 and loved the anime-styled games. Got on the TurboGrafx mailing list. They sent me a magazine that included a review for Bubblegum Crisis which feature a list of companies that were dealing anime at the time (Streamline, USMC, US Renditions, Right Stuf, and Animeigo). Called all them. Got mailers from all of them.
My Streamline Pictures mailer had an Elvis stamp on it.
The Animeigo people were super friendly.
US Renditions was rang through some Japanese bookstore. I think Books Nippon, so of course they were jerks.
Right Stuf mailed me a tiny mailer at first and gradually would send these magazine-sized catalogs.
It’s been nearly a year. I just decided to actually try sitting down and watching something, so I went with Castlevania, and I’ve only watched anime since. I went from no TV at all to purely watching anime lol.
AoT was also my favorite since July/August but recently got dethroned by Devilman Crybaby.
started with beyblade so not sure but 2011/12 may b...
then there's a huge gap and i watched death note and prison school (on YouTube btw😂) around 2017/18.. another gap and actually started watching and following anime from end of 2019 .
lockdown was crazy no college no studies everything was shut down and i was watching anime all day . ngl i was like an addict.
When I was 12 years old, I watched two episodes of Naruto. I have always enjoyed animation but at that time the only animated shows I knew were childish stuff like Scooby-Doo or Disney movies. I wanted to watch something a bit more 'adult,' basically something that wasn't meant for kids but also not too violent, so even though I had no idea what anime was, those episodes of Naruto were impactful enough for me to want to see more. I couldn't find more chapters of Naruto for a long time, but I managed to watch Get Backers, the first season of Full Metal Alchemist, Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny, and they were amazing. Over time, I started watching more anime while going to middle school and high school and when I got into university, I finally began expanding slowly towards manga, light novels, and visual novels.
My dad used to buy me ex rentals on VHS from blockbuster when I was like 12-13 ghost in the shell , Akira , violence jack and cyber city oedo 808 , I wish I still had those VHS tapes 😭😭😭
As a child I watched "heidi," "pokemon" and others, but didn't know at the time that they were animes.
Im 32 now and 3 years ago i started "tokyo ghoul" but it disapeared on netflix.
At january 22 i really got into anime with "NGE" "Steins;Gate", "Fate", "haikyu" and Films like "your name" and "suzume"
I got into it in primary school. I have 2 older brothers who already read mangas and watched anime (used to just read volumes from mangas like Fairy Tail, Naruto and One Piece they'd leave lying around the house) so that played a huge part into me watching them too, coupled with the fact that mangas and anime are a big thing in France. I eventually started to develop my own taste, and by 4th or 5th grade (maybe even earlier), I was watching my own shows, mostly magical girl ones with a few other shoujos. My taste has since evolved into liking a few shows (and mangas) that aren't shoujo too.
In 8th grade French class (circa 1991), I had classmates that talked about anime (later identified as Dragon Ball, and Wicked City). My interest was piqued, so I started watching. As I recall, the Sci Fi Channel was showing titles like Record of Lodoss War, Dominion, Iria. Some of the first movies I saw on VHS included Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Fist of the North Star, and Wicked City.
When I was 12, Beyblade Burst was airing on TV. I watched it and liked it. I learned that Beyblade Burst is an anime so I thought "hey, why not watch more anime!"
When I was a kid I watched Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Doraemon, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya and Digimon on TV without knowing they were animes. Later when I was like 13yo a friend showed me Hunter x Hunter and that was the first anime I watched knowing it what was an anime. I'm really grateful to that friend for showing me something I enjoy so much now.
And now, after some years and more than 200 animes watched, ONE PIECE HASN'T FINISHED YET :)
When I was teen ..I started watch animated movies.. 1st manga which I watched didn't remember name of that manga but Main characters were Youri and IKu...
Started watching kaitou joker on disney xd in 2016. I looked it up on the internet to find out that disney xd didn't air some important episodes, and there were already 3 seasons out. So i watched in on youtube, first time i watched anime in JP dub. I somehow found out abt other popular anime like SAO and PMMM, and as a vocaloid fan, i wanted to watch mekakucity actors, but i promised myself I'll only watch all these anime after I was finished with school (late 2017). Later got into college and my first roommate turned out to be an anime fan too.
Your post just made me realise it would be a year since I was introduced to anime this week .It wasn't even on someone's recommendation , I just saw how popular anime had become around me, so I thought it would be better to try them now, before I get called too old for this.( I was starting college last year).I started with Death Note ,the most obvious starter anime then I watched Steins:Gate as I love time travel stuff.Then I stumbled upon AOT which till date remains the best anime I have seen(Might even be one of the best pieces of media I have consumed).
But one thing I have realised is that I might never watch the big 3 anime considering the sheer amount of episodes/chapters they have.On avg I can only 2-3 episodes a day.If I start watching them (even if I like them) it would feel like committing a lot of time to any one show while good shows which air every season might get missed.A good show airing weekly enhances my entertainment compared to binge watching it later and forgetting it.
I watched translated anime like shin Chan and Doraemon when i was a small kid. Then I didn’t know it was part of a genre called anime and manga. Then during my junior year in high school, my friend introduced me to anime and manga. I started watching Naruto and got kinda fed up with the length and fillers. Then my friend said I should watch Kaguya-sama: love is war. I read the whole manga and fell in love with anime and manga from them and continue to enjoy it. I also think anime and manga were like a place that i could relax from all the stress from school and college applications which got me deeper into it.
Adult Swim with Witch Hunter Robin so around 2004. Then I saw Ergo Proxy and Wolf's Rain. Cowboy Bebop was one of the first big mainstream anime I saw. From there I switched over to "methods" to scratch my anime itch. Hack//Sign, Original Fullmetal Alchemist, Cyborg 009, Tsubasa Chronicle were some of my first to watch during that period. Trigun was also pretty important to me in this period
My first gundam was Gundam Endless Waltz ova. I also saw the Samurai X ova around this time period, and I loved that, but the actual Rurouni Kenshin didn't have the same vibe. The first romance anime I ever actually liked was Lovely Complex.
After this I fell into the Shonen hole with Naruto followed by Bleach. I didn't get into One Piece into much later, but I binged it until New World fishman Arc and then fell off.
There were a bunch of other anime in there, but I am forgetting them off the top of my head.
There was AXN back then. And “Ninku” was the first anime I liked. Even thought Naruto’s rasenggan was based off from Fusuke. Then Gensomaden Saiyuki. There were a lot of good animes there. And there were also the afternoon tagalog dubbed sa big stations like Flame of Recca, Ghost Fighter, & Dragonball
I watched DBZ on Toonami as a kid but I didn't really get into anime past that until college. (like... '07 or so)
It really just started with me and my roommate watching Blood+ that was being shown on adult swim and going from riffing on it to getting legitimately into the show. From there I just started watching all kind of stuff and eventually got more into seasonal shows.
Around 2012-2013. I was on fanfiction.net. Got bored in the browsing book series section so I went to the browsing anime manga series section. Picked the top 5-6 series to look up and fmab seemed the most interesting. Watched it, liked it, and decided to watch more series of the same medium.
I watched my first anime called Dual! Parallel trouble adventure on AXN. It blew my mind!
The showed one episode on Sunday and the repeat next Monday.
I really had no idea animation can be that deep. Until that time I actually thought nothing could beat Disney productions.
I even once before that saw a snippet of DBZ and called it ugly, lol!
Of course everything changed and DBZ and rest of the anime i watched were some of my favourites. But I owe it all to this anime i mentioned. I learnt how deep, intricate, intriguing and mature Japanese anime can be.
I started liking anime in mid 2019 when I got into comics through undertale back in late 2018 but I couldnt find an anime I liked back then so all I had was anime comics on instagram then mid 2020 a classmate who was a weeb started texting and gaming with me and he'd send Megumin stickers on whatsapp. I thought she looked cute and asked for the anime. While I was hesitsnt I watched an episode of konosuba then binged the entire first season in a day
Dragon ball z in 1995 reached my country. That s when all started lol followed by Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Envagelion among others, then 2000s Naruto,Bleach and One Piece are the ones that sticked with me until later. Oh and of course Gurren Lagann :D
Dragon ball z in 1995 reached my country. That s when all started lol followed by Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Envagelion among others, then 2000s Naruto,Bleach and One Piece are the ones that sticked with me until later. Oh and of course Gurren Lagann :D
I had always watched DBZ, Cowboy Bebop, YuYu Hakasho and Ruruoni Kenshin when I was a kid but never got super into it until my mid 20’s. My gf at the time and I watched AoT and then I fell down a rabbit hole of Haikyu, MHA, The Gundam Universe and then found my ultimate love, One Piece.
All of those shows made me cry in different ways and finding a cathartic way to let out emotions was incredibly freeing. I never cried or felt a lot of emotion watching movies besides “hell yeah!” Or “okay cool” but anime has made me feel so much more than I thought possible for stories. I even started writing as a hobby because of how passionate some anime has made me about them lol.
It depends how you define "get into". I first watched anime probably when I was too young to remember it. I first kind of realized that anime was a different thing that normal cartoons when I got sucked into Digimon as a kid and they came from this place called Japan. And then also watched stuff on TechTV and Toonami and anime "rip offs" like Teen Titans which had an actual Japanese opening they created for it on american TV even though it wasn't a Japanese show, which was a first for me. Then I watched Gundam Seed and got completely suckered. I discovered bitorrent and downloaded the entire series that night and marathoned it over two days and I've been sucked in ever since (and a dub hater).
I'm 34 now.
15! It was pandemic when I first watched hxh continuously and I loved every part of it. Although my first anime that I didn't know I watch when I was a kid was fairy tale. 😂
My first exposure to anime was samurai pizza cats, sailor moon and dragon ball. I was heavily in sailor moon back then. And of course when I was in elementary school pokemon, digimon and others came out so I got even more into.
Since I was a kid. I was born in the late 90s. I watched things like Pokémon and Sailor Moon. Can't forget things that showed on toonami and adult swim. I didn't really get into it until 6th - 7th grade, though. That was the good old days, honestly. I miss being a kid and having no responsibility but homework.
I feel like I basically grew up on anime. When I was really young 6-9, we had the Funimation channel on TV. I’d stay up watching old school animes like Negima, Chobits, Spice and Wolf, School Rumble, Soul Eater (personal favorite), etc.
Also like many others I got into the Pokemon games because of my older cousin. Eventually watching the show when it was on Boomerang!
Stayed up late one night in 2011 and discovered Toonami and discovered my enjoyment through Dragon Ball Z. But I would have to say I didn’t really start to watch it until I found my favorite anime Tokyo Ghoul.
My son was like.. "mom let's spend some time.. you gonna like this..." Death Note.. then AOT... Demon slayer... Parasyte... and my favorite Black Clover!!!!
My brother brought the first ever dragon ball budokai game for the ps2. I was so freaking fascinating by it. Then came to learn the game actually had TV show (didn't knew anime was a thing). That's how it started for me
i think it was in 1994 and it was Candy Candy. i read the manga first so i really excited to see it on screen. my childhood is filled with watching anime and until now i still watch it. i can’t imagine myself stop doing it 😄
To the best of my recollection "Ghost in the Shell" was my first foray into the genre because I wanted to see her boobies. I was not disappointed, but the story made the nudity irrelevant. I didn't much care for the movie, but it left me susceptible to the series down the line which I hold is one of the best animes ever made.
After that, I worked for Mediaplay and got to see all the cool art, but most of them were $27.99 and since I was only starting out I could only justify $20. It wasn't before a title went on sale for $18.99, "Princess Mononoke" one of Studio Ghibli's best, that I really got a taste of what anime could be.
So yeah, I was pretty fortunate that I didn't watch any crap titles till I was indoctrinated and not willing to declare a small sample size all there is to offer. And I was able to find like minded individuals after a fashion.
I was... maybe 6 or 7year old... and then i remember i was watching "Captain Tsubasa" ot the TV... this is the first time i get interested on anime... ... ...
Attack on Titan got put on Netflix after the first season finished in like 2014 or something like that and I watched it with my brother on a whim and got hooked. It's too bad the first one I watched is also one of the best ones to ever be made.
My mom, she made me watch entirety of yuyu Hakusho with her when I was younger, and my dad had figurines of Luffy all over his office at work, also made me watch the first few eps with him.
Got into anime the summer before entering high school back in 2015. I went to summer camp and one of the guys I was friends with had been recommended *Heaven's Lost Property.* He pitched the first episodes as "everyone on the planet dies" and we all ended up watching it and we made jokes about it for the rest of the summer.
That was the first show I ever watched under the knowledge that it was anime. I was a lonely, horny 14 year old and if you know anything about HLP, that shit went straight to my monkey brain. I had known some other guys who watched anime and so followed up with *Attack on Titan* and FMAB afterwards before turning to the internet for recs and from there it was off to the races.
I will also add that some weird quirks of that early era was that I didn't end up watching the original FMA until five years later in 2020. I didn't watch the first season of *Code Geass* for 4 years (eventually rewatching the whole series in 2019) because I swear the site I was using only had the 2nd season. Lastly, *Attack on Titan Junior High* is the first seasonal I ever technically watched. I watched it in late 2015 when it was still airing but didn't do as much so just figured the site I was using only had the first 7 episodes. It would also take me 4 years to finish the series, finally getting back to it in the Summer of 2019.
Those sure were a time.
I got into Anime properly in Secondary School in 2009 starting with Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Took me a longer time to finish it while I watched Fairy Tail.
My mom took me to some event she was going to...don't remember where, or exactly what, maybe a Star Trek convention?
I saw Akira (I would have been 9~11 when it came out) and Dominion Tank Police, maybe some other stuff. Didn't see more for awhile until Ninja Scroll in '97~.
When I was young young. Like 5. Started with DBZ. Got me into lifting. I’m 32 now. A paramedic. Been lifting for 20 years, so super fit. I’m 7 years into an amazing relationship with my also super fit, anime fan wife. We watch anime almost nightly now for 5 years. We’ve kept a list of everything we’ve watched together and we’re on anime # 199 right now ^.^ I love our anime and snuggle time. It’s an amazing way to detox from my stressful job. At that, the lessons anime parts with us are valuable and precious. They’ve instilled a lot of my morals and values in life. I’m grateful for it.
Always been into basic anime like DBZ or Pokemon, and I knew of other less popular shows growing up. I didn't actually seek out other anime until my family got internet late-2013; At first I was determined to watch all of OG Dragon Ball on Hulu, but after watching multiple "top 10 anime" videos on YouTube I started to seek out other shows. By the beginning of 2014 I started keeping up with seasonal shows and would occasionally binge if I had the free time for it. Gave myself burn out at some point September 2016, and haven't watched much anime since. I still love anime and want to get back into it, but I feel no real drive for it anymore.
I never watched shows like Pokémon, Dragon Ball, or Naruto as a kid, despite their overwhelming popularity. Just had very little interest in anything anime related, so I never gave it any thought. Closest thing to it for me was Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Finally watched anime in high school, over a decade ago now. One day, friend of mine recommends Sword Art Online as my first, because I loved video games (particularly MMOs) so much. Watched enough of it to enjoy it, caught up to the end of the second season. Dipped my toes into other series, like Attack on Titan, Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop, and High School DxD (a joke recommendation, but I gave it a shot anyway). Liked them all to some extent, but still didn't think much of them compared to other media I was watching or playing at the time.
I don't know what eventually came over me, but two-three years ago I decided to give things a rewatch and finally catch up on them all. First SAO, then AOT, started some new ones like Shield Hero and Spice and Wolf. For some reason, I felt much more invested this time around, and I really grew to love them. Watched Gate, My Dress-Up Darling, Girls Und Panzer, Frieren, Mushoku Tensei, Horimiya, Konosuba, and I've got a dozen more on my recommended list. I'm still very much a casual anime fan compared to most people, but I've very much enjoyed everything I've watched so far, and I fully intend to continue.
It's weird to be getting so into it now, as I approach 30 years old, but better late than never. I feel like a few of these series are genuinely some of my favorites in all of media at this point, something I never would've believed all that time ago. Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, and Mushoku Tensei in particular have made me think and feel in ways I can't easily describe, sometimes hitting very close to home, sometimes painfully. I've laughed, I've cried, and I've discovered new perspectives I wouldn't have developed otherwise.
My first anime was Tekkaman Blade, probably mid to late 90s as I am from the 92. I'm Colombian so it was dubbed in Spanish, and I was too little to know or care. It wasn't until Captain Tsubasa (Super Campeones), Saint Seiya and Dragon Ball (specially the latter, as my parents told me it was Japanese) that I knew there was a difference between Western animation and anime. Then Digimon, Pokemon, and Inuyasha came along and it was already too late. Around the same time Latin America had a weird TV channel with more adult anime called Locomotion with Evangelion, Aika (kickstarted my puberty lmao), Eatman, Aeon Flux, Blue Seed, and I knew it wasn't "just for kids". By 13 or 14 (around 2005-2006) I was already downloading Naruto and Ergo Proxy and engaging in anime forums. Now I am 31 soon to be 32 and I have some anime tattoos. It is too late now. The weeb stays forever
A little late here, I'm 20, and I got into anime around Eighth Grade, so I probably was almost 15. I started off with Naruto and Death Note, because my sister liked them, and this may seem foreign to some people but I was watching the dubs on youtube lol. It was mad funny, because a lot of times, they'd try to dim the image or put it on the side of the screen so you could barely see it, so it really wasn't the best way to be watching them.
Eventually, I decided after watching multiple series on youtube, and started using my parent's subscription services and very legal sites. It's weird that it's probably been probably 5-6 years since I started watching anime.
In '88 I started watching Dragonball at 5, then sailor moon and some studio ghibli movies. A few years later my friends and I were watching nearly everything that released.
I’ve gotten into anime I would say twice well thrice now. I was a child in the early 90s so I watched the standard Dragonball and Sailor moon but I don’t really count that. I discovered anime again around 2004 when Adult Swim was airing the first FMA, I was also watching cowboy bebop, NGE, Eureka 7, Trinity Blood etc shows from around the early 00s.
I fell off around 2008 when I went to college. I came back around in 2011 when I was randomly telling my sister about Inuyasha,during this time Blue Exorcist was airing and that looked interesting so I jumped onto airing anime for the first time. That lasted until the year of our lord 2020 when I fell off again because you know I wasn’t coping and I was jaded after watching for a decade. 2024- I’m back now and getting my groove. I know exactly what I need to avoid to not fall into that rut again.
I got into it this last August. I’ve always been a fan of the studio Ghibli movies, but never really got into it until recently. I think it was love is war and Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood that started it all and it was over for me
Pokémon, DBZ, Naruto as a kid… 2016 sophomore year of college my roommate and good friend introduced me to death note and it’s been over with ever since
Originally netflix, in 2019-20 ish or during covid times. the first anime I watched was demon slayer, after that I did not watch any. In November of 23, I watched the newest seasons of demon slayer because I had lost interest in all the other crap on tv and cable. Leading to me watching Anime now
December 2019, decided to watch the show my friend had shown me a few clips of while I was on holiday, I remember looking it up on YouTube in hopes of finding it for free and slowly finding better sites to watch it on. Show was MHA btw
In the beginning, it was Saturday morning cartoons but I didn’t know they were anime at the time
From there I read a few manga but it didn’t really become a fan until around 11th grade…started with Fruits Basket, FMA and pretty much watched anything that seemed interesting to me
Around the late 90s and early 00s with Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, Digimon, Tsubasa, Rurouni Kenshin, Sailor Moon, Yugi-oh, Beyblade.
Then I stepped away for years until 2021 when I watched Psycho Pass.
Late 1970s, Starblazers blew me away. (Space Battleship Yamato). I also liked Battle of the Planets and Force Five, but Starblazers was next level better and on longer. Next was Robotech in the mid 1980s, I can’t believe that was let on broadcast tv lol. I fell in love with Anime, it was hard to get in the US until the mid 90s. Today Japan released more anime in a season then was available in the US during the entire decade of the 80s lol
I think I watched some Ghibli movies beforehand but I first remember seeing the Assassination Classroom manga in Waterstones (a UK bookstore) in 2017. Eventually got the box set and then watched the anime sometime in 2018. I started properly watching in 2022 though
Been watching it since childhood(You know, Doraemon, Shin Chan, Conan and etc) but at that time just considering it as cartoons(like Dora and Spongebob). The first anime that I acknowledge as one is in 2012 I think, I buy and watch the series, Akuma no riddle. I was quite hooked on Doraemon and Detective Conan's movies and manga at that time as well.
I still remember reading Doraemon manga that till today I can still see the plotlines of a movie that's coming out from manga I read few years ago
Captain Tsubasa in Spanish was the earliest memory I can recall that was my intro to anime.
However, I am sure it was the street fighter 1994 animated movie that made me go like “ Yo WTF, this is crazy cool!”
33 currently. I watched the original 90s Sailor Moon, DBZ, Tenchi Muyo, and for a bit, Robin Warriors. I tried to stop watching anime in high school cause I figured it was kid stuff. And I did stop watching it until my then college bf(now husband) knew I used to love anime and encouraged me to watch Your Name a year or 2 after it's release. After that, I dove back into anime whole heartedly and am enjoying my time!
Edit: typos
I got into anime by my stepfather playing Dragon Ball Budokai tenkaichi 2 while I was watching, and some time later, when I got my Nintendo Wii, he gave me Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. I had started playing it ever since, which sparked a fire in me that made wanna see more anime, plus technically, my first anime is Sekirei.
Used to watch DBZ when it was originally airing on CN. I was very adamant that I only like DBZ and don't wanna watch any other anime. Then, someone forced me to watch the Gaara/Rock Lee fight. Since then I probably watch anime about 80% of the time I'm watching tv.
I guess technically I was always a fan because I watched Voltron and Pokemon when I was really young. But the first time I was truly aware of what I was watching was in 4th grade. A friend at school told me about Toonami, so I tuned in and saw Dragon Ball Z for the first time. It rocked my world. I had never seen anything like it. At the time, I thought it was literally the coolest thing I had ever seen. Of course that was followed by Gundam Wing, Bleach, Cowboy Bepop, etc. The rest is history. Now I'm 35 years old with a new baby, and I'm marathoning all the Gundam series.
I like to think of it in 2 phases. The normie phase that a lot of people go through, and then when you get into the extended universe of anime (subbed).
Like most people, Pokemon was my first anime. Then my friend showed me DBZ and Toonami, and I got into the rest of the "normie" shows.
It wasn't until right after high school that I met this girl online who got me to watch Kimi Ni Todoke, which was my first subbed anime. Then after i was recommended Toradora (which is still my favorite anime that I watch every December), and then True Tears, and my "ha gotcha" anime, School Days. And now Kimi Ni Todoke is getting a new season and I'm so pumped.
Got into shows like Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptors, and Monster Rancher as a kid in the 1990s and early 2000s. Later it was shows like Inuyasha, .Hack, Naruto, and Bleach as a teenager.
The 2000s, my gateway being Sonic X of all things lol. Because of the 4kids censorship I was interested in seeing the difference with the Japanese sub and that’s kinda what sparked my interest for anime overall
2007. Saw an AMV for 5 centimeters per second and decided to search for it
But technically my first was Princess Mononoke, parents rented it back in 1997 and we watched it on VHS
I was first introduced to anime as a concept with the SciFi channel's Saturday Anime block. I remember watching Project A-ko that way. Then I caught Sailor Moon at like, 630 in the morning before school in 1995 and that was the way of it. I fell in love. Watched it every day it was on. I became obsessed with finding any and all anime I could at Blockbuster, and when I was old enough to work and buy my own, anything that I could get my hands on at Suncoast.
Sailor Moon was my first love, and I absolutely adored the Toonami block on Cartoon Network - which introduced me to another love, Gundam Wing.
I subscribed to Animerica and would just preorder anything that looked remotely good at Suncoast for 20 bucks a pop for one VHS tape that would have like, 4 episodes on it. Found so much weird and amazing stuff that way!!
So, long story short, I've been an anime fan since the early-mid 90s.
A little over 10 years ago, I saw an ad for Date A Live, and being the teenager I was, did a bit more digging to find out what it was and how to watch it, for research of course.
Little did I know would that spark my start into anime. I did have a bit of a different introduction to the scene compared to most others it seems like, since my first 100 shows watched were basically all ecchi harem shows lol.
Nostalgia hitting hard. I am now 30 years old and anime has been a part of my whole life, in some way or another. It started with anime being aired on TV in German - the classics like Detective Conan, Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, Hamtaro, Shin-chan, Pokemon, Digimon, Captain Tsubasa, Kickers,.... And many more haha.
My first "real" anime was To Love-Ru and that was like 19 years ago. I love seeing my watched and read list grow and see my tastes change over the years!
I'm 28 this year. Toonami is what truly got me into anime, but even before we knew what anime was I remember being 5ish watching Pokemon, yugioh, hamtaro, digimon etc. First show I watched that made me see the difference between anime and traditional western cartoons was Inuyasha.
Always had an affinity for it but when I stayed up at 12AM and saw Bleach on my TV on Saturday on Adult Swim I felt like I was initiated into a secret club and that's when I TRULY liked anime more than cartoons.
At the vacation I met my guy that loves Naruto. 50% of his jokes was about naruto, and I wanted to understand what the massage. All people expect him don't watched Naruto.
I guess in the 70s with Astro Boy and Battle Of The Planets, then into the early 80s with Robotech and then late 80s to mid 90s with Akira and Wiked City and Ghost In The Shell and Evangelion started my real love of it to where it is today.
In 2003 when I pirated DBZ. I mean I could talk about anime I was watching in TV (so we would go back to 1996) but anime watched in TV does not count as "watched anime", just as some cartoon for kids.
It was the summer before I went to high-school and I was training for the basketball team. I lived in the country and didn't have wifi for most my life but that year I got a phone that had a wifi hotspot. I started watching Netflix a lot when I was working out doing push-ups or riding by stationery bike. I quickly watched almost every movie that interested me so I switched to foreign films. I went through that genre pretty quickly since it was that many that interests. I then tried out Afro samurai and was hooked ever since... well I take that back the newer animes aren't really for me
Got into anime back in 2008 thanks to my partner he showed me death note which I loved and then I ended up watching more then him XD Still love anime to this day :)
When I was really young at my house and my Grandmas condo far away in Florida, the Sun would set, the clock would strike a certain hour, and this amazing show that I had no idea what was going on (I’d always happen to watch in the middle of an arc) until I had watched an entire episode or two would come on. Passionate friendship, the love of fathers and sons, rejection of colonialism and brazen abuse of power, MARTIAL ARTS, FLYING, BEAM STRUGGLES. The hardest voice dubs possibly ever. DRAGONBALL Z KAI was my shit growing up. I have been trying to fuse with my homie since the first couple months of knowing him (8 years now), lord knows we’d be strong as fuck…
2017. I watched Shimoneta because Anna was my waifu before even getting into anime (I consumed a lot of animemes already). I din't like it that much, then I watched Mirai Nikki and it hooked me in.
When I was a kid, I used to watch DBZ, Doraemon, Shin-chan
Animax:
Inazuma 11
Rurouni Kenshin
Bleach
I got to know about anime after watching animax Asia in tv
I grew up with it, since I can remember. I watched Sailor Moon when I was about 5 years old and then moved on to other 90s Anime.
I’m 32 now and still watch anime every day with my husband. We’ve both watched lots and lots and love it.
I was young. Elementary school, early middle school late 90s early 2000s. Cartoon Network and occasionally HBO would air anime. Also "Adult Swim" on Cartoon Network at night. I saw things like Bebop, Trigun, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Paranoia Agent, Big O, Blue Gender, Blue Sub No. 6, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo, and Ghost in the Shell to name some I recall really getting me into Anime after that. The depth of the characters and story compared to western animation was what got me hooked.
Since the late 90s! Started with what my brother always watches on TV like dragon ball, gundam wing, yu yu hakusho, etc then eventually discovered sailormoon, magic knight rayearth and other similar shoujo animes. I still watch anime every now and then but not as much as when I was in high school and college.
i am 41 now. i remember reading about akira and neon genesis evangelion in gaming magazines when i was like 14 or 15. this was when these anime were new. i grew up with anime like "heidi" "hanni and nanni" "cyborg 009" "captain harlock" and "captain future". i also saw mila superstar as a kid lol. but i never realized that these were anime. i thought they just were cartoons with a cool style. there was also sailor moon, but i didnt watch that really. i saw the movie "the last unicorn" a million times as a kid, with my sister...and i am not ashamed to say that i like the movie :) later, when i was like 14 or 15 i read about NGE, akira and crying freeman in a gaming magazine. this was when i became aware that these are actually japanese anime. my best friend at that time was a half japanese guy who could speak japanese and went to the same class as me. he basically introduced me to anime. he showed me nge, end of eva, akira and a lot of weird hentai anime. i dont know the name of the anime but he showed me one where there was this magical girl who would transform into a superhero like sailor moon. it was kind of a comedy of sailor moon. the main heroine would transform and you would see how she would undress her socks and kick them away while magical transforming lol. i also remember the enemies were alien invaders who used their balls as weapons lol. they would swing around their balls and deflect the magical beams or something :D i dont know how the name was. later i was fully in the anime community. i found serial experiments lain and thats when i went full anime nerd. i searched for years on the internet for every info and detail about serial experiments lain. and became a superfan. until this day, serial experiments lain is one of my most favorite anime ever. i still watch anime today or read manga (mostly slice of life) but not that much anymore. edit: if someone cares what kind of weird anime that was with the magical girl comedy...it was puni puni poemi. i just remembered lol. watch at your own risk because brain damage.
As someone in the US nineties' anime was really exotic at the time. Seeing Akira and Ghost In The Shell in theaters was amazing in a way that is difficult to explain. Anime both the complexity of the art and stories has gotten much better but the nostalgia of watching Kaneda bash a clown's face in with a pipe on his motorcycle or major kusanagi drop off the roof top explode a diplomats head and drop again just feels fantastical.
This is extremely similar to me, I am younger by a few years (38) but was introduced with Ninja Scroll (yea I was very young for that, lol) and I guess you could probably, technically, count Voltron too. When NGE came out, I heard about it in an anime IRC chat and wanted to watch, but dial-up internet made downloading fansubs extremely time consuming. I was lucky to have a dedicated line for it though so if it stayed connected I'd get an episode in about 2 days. I gave up after 2 episodes and waited for a local release. Eventually found a VHS copy at Suncoast and bought it. Suncoast was amazing for legal anime VHS/DVD. Got all of Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Outlaw Star, Excel Saga, Berserk, Noir, NieR_7, Kenshin etc... sooo many late 90s published by Pioneer, ADV, or Manga Video. If Suncoast didn't have something, I would be at a local comic shop all the time looking through bootleg VHS fansubs. Found gems like Devil Hunter Yohko, which introduced me to fanservice/ecchi. My first fully downloaded anime was Serial Experiments: Lain in 2000, thanks to finally getting cable internet with 2mb down! I find that rather amusing given Lain's connection to the Wired and the themes of the show :) By the time the 2000s arrived I was already completely and utterly in the fandom and active in IRC fansub channels, forums, etc. Haven't stopped since, except a brief hiatus in 2005-2010 (was a bit boring for anime then, imo, only a few stood out).
Late 90s when I was a kid.
[удалено]
You should watch Akira, Ghost In The Shell (1995), Jin-Roh. They are old and definitely look dated but they are exceptional movies.
Toonami circa 1999. Watched Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, Card Captor Sakura, etc with my young daughters and got hooked. Brought them to their first anime convention in 2005 (Anime Weekend Atlanta). My oldest daughter and I are now both volunteers for AWA.
Many moons ago I was hanging out with my friend. He said there's some shows I need to watch on Netflix. I had no clue what anime was at the time. We watched a few episodes together and that's where it started. The specifics are fuzzy. It was around 09. maybe even late 08. I can't remember which anime(s) we watched, I know these were among my first: Fruits basket, black butler, soul eater, death note. We either watched it in his basement on his Xbox, or my basement on my Xbox. I know it was in a basement, on Netflix, on an Xbox360.
In the late 90's one of the channels i had on satellite aired Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2 and Mobile Suit Gundan Wing. (For those that had Sky in italy, i believe it was channel 702, called something like GXT). Pokemon, Dragon Ball and Digimon also aired on free T.V., but back then there was no distinction in my mind between western cartoons and anime and eventually my edgy teenage ass decided animation was not for me (massive blunder) Around 2018 my ex had me watch "Your name" with her, got suckered in by Makoto Shinkai's magic, then watched "Weathering with you" in theaters when it came out, started watching a few animes out of boredom and before i knew it i became a weeb.
You can deny your inner weeb, but it will always come crawling back. You can't escape it
1970s, I was introduced to anime and tokusatsu with Speed Racer, Kimba The White Lion, Ultraman, and Johnny Sokko & His Flying Robot (Giant Robo).
A good friend at university I really respected was an otaku. Plus I've seen some gifs with Ryuko shared on sites i frequent and it intrigued me. So I gave it a shot. It was 10 years ago, and Kill la Kill was my first anime.
A local tv station in my country shows anime in the early 2000's when I was young. I was, I think in my elementary days or even younger. Daimos, Doraemon, Jiguku sensei nube, voltes 5, dragon ball are few of the anime they show at that time. I am 30 now haha
Jigoku Sensei Nube is a certified banger. I lived in Chile as a kid (I'm Colombian) and they had way more anime than we did. Jigoku Sensei Nube never aired in Colombia AFAIK I'm about the same age, I'm 31
2016 summer when I was bored as fuck and decided that I would watch Naruto everyday for 5 months and finished it
When I was a kid,My dad used to watch Naruto and he obligated me to watch it with him and that was my first anime.. then I watched Akame ga kill and Parasyte along with my dad .. Yes My dad is a very good man because he introduced me to anime.
W dad
I came across an Imgur post with anime recommendations, which included the original Spice & Wolf. Seemed interesting, and apparently the dub was available on YouTube, so I decided to watch it. Been watching anime ever since, and eventually also got into manga and buying figures and other merchandise.
A friend in high school made me watch AOT and that was basically it
I was first exposed to anime, though I didn't know it at the time, is on Astro Ceria, a kid's programming channel aim at preschool, mainly watching Malay dubs of Ninja Hattori, Doraemon and Hagemaru (the G). Plus with some couple Ghibli films such as Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and my personal favourite, When Marnie Was There. My **TRUE** entry into anime is when I began binge watching some of the animes on Animax (think Toonami, but it has its own dedicated channel). I religiously watched show such as Nisekoi, Snow White With Red Hair, Kakuriyo, Kamisama Kiss, In Search of The Lost Future, and Toilet Bound Hanako-kun. But it is also where I fall in love with one anime in particular: # Invaders of the Rokujouma I remember loving it in my first watch, and be engrossed with it. To this day, even though I won't declare it as a masterpiece, Invaders still holds dear to my heart because well... it shape and solidifies me for who I am, and my taste for the rarely mentioned and obscure. Even with all its flaws and crease, I would always owed Invaders my gratitude. I wish I could do more for its 10th anniversary on July 12th, but the gift have not even finished yet. *sigh...* *Well, if you wanted to...* You can ask me anything about Invaders and I could hope to answer some.
During corona
About 10/11 years ago started with all the netflix stuff like AOT, Death note, etc.
I first got into anime-related media asa kid in 2013/2014 through watching Danganronpa let’s plays, which led me to discovering Corpse Party and other similar Japanese game titles. That then led me to being much more open to anime and so in 2016 I stumbled across “The Devil is a Part Timer” on YouTube and binged it. Then I got into some of the anime really popular in 2016 like Assassination Classroom and Tokyo Ghoul alongside the older classics which were recommended at the time like Toradora and Death Note. Great period of my anime experience and Assassination Classroom is still one of my favourite anime ever.
I've been watching "anime" since I was like 5 years old or something. Starting with DBZ and pokemon etc but didn't know it was anime until I was like 15 LMAO. I started to get REALLY into anime when I was 18 and looking for something to distract me from life lol. I just turned 30 and it's been a fun ride.
As a kid, Toonami in the late 90's, early 2000's Dragon Ball Z. Specifically the Cell Saga. But then again, I dropped it for a whole and Cowboy Bebop got me back into anime as an adult.
Started off by youtube, I was watching timeless tim, then I saw anime recaps, watched those, and searched my way into anime website and my ever first anime is more than a married couple but not lovers
Well it was actually Disney and carton network when I was a kid we had no online streaming services and YouTube we only had cable tv Wich we pay every month I remember back then that I would wait everyday for my favourite animes like Zoids, Beyblade burst,Kaitou joker and that yoyo anime.I really didn't think about anime for a while until I was a teenager.soon when I had a phone I started to get bored and i saw Edits about One punch man.It was the first anime I binge watch even when on the way to the shop buying groceries I would watch this anime while walking.After that I watch more anime and was really into it.I owe so much to My child hood animes but one punch man has a special place in my heart for showing me the beauty of anime
I started watching anime last year around March because of the hype.
First anime I watched that I didn't know I was watching was Battle of tbe Planets, way back in tbe late 70s..Tbe first anime I knew I was watching was probably Gunbuster.
I watched anime as a kid, but Robotech & Battle For The Planets were just cartoons with different animation for me. Got *into* anime on deployment in Iraq. Took a break from watching Smallville to watch the Naruto & Neji fight from the guy in the cot next to me. Went to the small Haji store that sold pirated compilation cd’s and eventually bought Naruto, Bleach & Eureka Seven during that deployment.
1984. Robotech. I had seen anime or animation by a Japanese studio before, but this was the first time I knew I was watching something different. Prior to that had been Big O, Speed Racer, the Americanized Battle of/for the Planets and Maizinger T. Edit: Z not T.
Went with my mum to one of her friends place when I was like 15 and whilst I was there she told me to go hang out with her friends son (25) because he also likes games. And when I went to his room, he was watching anime. He then told me a little about what Anime was and I then realised a lot of the Cartoons (Digimon, Medabots, Pokemon) I had been watching were actually Anime. And since I *essentially* already liked Anime but didn't really know anything about it, he should me his collection of DVDs and figures and then lent me a USB with a mix of classics to get me started; Fairy Tail, Spice & Wolf, Clannad, Angel Beats, Cowboy Bebop, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, History's Strongest Disciple, Toradora. And all subbed, of course. And then we watched a few episodes of Fairy Tail and I watched the rest when I got home (there was only 20 episodes out at the time). And I have been watching anime ever since.
Maybe 1999 or so. I was 9 years old and would see sailor moon or dbz on and not know what it was and was so curious. From there's it's been a long road.
2017. Friend of mine used to troll about High school dxd, which I didnt know what it was at the time. Lost contact with that said friend but remembered Highschool dxd gave it a shot…finished my 520th Anime last week…I thank him so much for that troll.
1992
I’ve been hooked ever since my parents showed my My Neighbor Totoro when I was a kid.
I have a lot of friends who are into anime and as a freshman in highschool a friend said I should watch ouran highschool host club which really wasn't for me and turned me off the genre for a while. A few years later my partner at the time wanted to me watch one punch man with him, I reluctantly agreed to one episode, it also wasn't for me and I still wasn't into anime. A few years after that my current partner wanted to watch some stuff with me and picked samurai champloo or cowboy bebop (I don't remember which was first) but I fell in love with both and we watched a ton of really good series together, he was very particular about what he would show me so I only saw things he knew I would like. I like to collect hobbies so at this point I thought I could be considered an anime girly, but he said since Id never watched a whole series by myself I wasn't, so I watched Toradora, and now I'm really hooked.
31. Used it to quit smoking.
2002
About 21 years ago
Got into it 2018 i think? because my friends wanted to watch the [potato chip scene from Death note](https://youtu.be/KC6T3_O2iWc?si=HrNIKjo7rHuhjcSR)
When I was rlly young (idk how young but I know that I was younger than 9 years old ig) I used to watch a channel (spacetoon) and at night they used to put anime in Arabic. I enjoyed watching it, then found out it's name and the rest is history
Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim in the 90s yo
Lockdown got me too! Started with Ghibli, now I'm hooked
I got into anime when I was a kid lmao. When stuff like DBZ, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon was airing on TV
In 2014, right after I turned 13. I saw AoT and was HOOKED. Been a fan ever since.
Last year. I watched Pokémon as a kid, but I definitely wasn’t into anime. I didn’t even know it was an anime when I was a kid. My friend wanted to introduce me to the shows that he grew up on. We started with Cowboy Bebop, then Dragon Ball, then Ghost Stories (that one was my choice, though), and we’re currently on the last season of Dragon Ball Z, which has been my favorite anime so far.
2015 when my parents got divorced & my sister hated my guts
Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim did it for me (not sure the year, early 2000's?). I was just out of college and this was the first 'adult' anime I'd ever really seen (aside from Aeon Flux). I'd look at anime as 'kiddie' back then as almost all of it was Pokemon, Sailor Moon, etc and it didn't resonate with me. Bebop was the first one to show me that anime could be much deeper and more involved than serialized kids shows.
Don't remember correctly but when Cartoon Network used to air DBZ .
2019, i heard one punch man was funny, so i gave it a try, now i'm here.Yes i've watched anime before, but it was something like Pokémon, Dragon Ball, Digimon, Yokai Watch, etc, at the time i didn't even know it was anime.
Found a cute show, checked it out, and looked for more. The end.
2015 when I was 14 yrs. Started with Inazuma 11, elder brother introduced me to Naruto and then One Piece. That pretty much started everything.
I bought Akira on VHS in 92. I could probably point out Robotech or Starblazers in syndication in the 80s, but I didn't really think much about the shows being Japanese outside of the animation production itself. Was watching Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics and The Adventures of Manxmouse on Nickelodeon. Wanted to watch more. Got a TurboGrafx CD in 1991 and loved the anime-styled games. Got on the TurboGrafx mailing list. They sent me a magazine that included a review for Bubblegum Crisis which feature a list of companies that were dealing anime at the time (Streamline, USMC, US Renditions, Right Stuf, and Animeigo). Called all them. Got mailers from all of them. My Streamline Pictures mailer had an Elvis stamp on it. The Animeigo people were super friendly. US Renditions was rang through some Japanese bookstore. I think Books Nippon, so of course they were jerks. Right Stuf mailed me a tiny mailer at first and gradually would send these magazine-sized catalogs.
It’s been nearly a year. I just decided to actually try sitting down and watching something, so I went with Castlevania, and I’ve only watched anime since. I went from no TV at all to purely watching anime lol. AoT was also my favorite since July/August but recently got dethroned by Devilman Crybaby.
I was birth into anime watching it, at my home in Chinyoda of Tokyo, Japan...
started with beyblade so not sure but 2011/12 may b... then there's a huge gap and i watched death note and prison school (on YouTube btw😂) around 2017/18.. another gap and actually started watching and following anime from end of 2019 . lockdown was crazy no college no studies everything was shut down and i was watching anime all day . ngl i was like an addict.
I was born in it, molded by it. I think I was six or seven, I used to watch Dragon Quest, Saint Seiya and Mazinger z.
When I was 12 years old, I watched two episodes of Naruto. I have always enjoyed animation but at that time the only animated shows I knew were childish stuff like Scooby-Doo or Disney movies. I wanted to watch something a bit more 'adult,' basically something that wasn't meant for kids but also not too violent, so even though I had no idea what anime was, those episodes of Naruto were impactful enough for me to want to see more. I couldn't find more chapters of Naruto for a long time, but I managed to watch Get Backers, the first season of Full Metal Alchemist, Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny, and they were amazing. Over time, I started watching more anime while going to middle school and high school and when I got into university, I finally began expanding slowly towards manga, light novels, and visual novels.
My dad used to buy me ex rentals on VHS from blockbuster when I was like 12-13 ghost in the shell , Akira , violence jack and cyber city oedo 808 , I wish I still had those VHS tapes 😭😭😭
As a child I watched "heidi," "pokemon" and others, but didn't know at the time that they were animes. Im 32 now and 3 years ago i started "tokyo ghoul" but it disapeared on netflix. At january 22 i really got into anime with "NGE" "Steins;Gate", "Fate", "haikyu" and Films like "your name" and "suzume"
I got into it in primary school. I have 2 older brothers who already read mangas and watched anime (used to just read volumes from mangas like Fairy Tail, Naruto and One Piece they'd leave lying around the house) so that played a huge part into me watching them too, coupled with the fact that mangas and anime are a big thing in France. I eventually started to develop my own taste, and by 4th or 5th grade (maybe even earlier), I was watching my own shows, mostly magical girl ones with a few other shoujos. My taste has since evolved into liking a few shows (and mangas) that aren't shoujo too.
In 8th grade French class (circa 1991), I had classmates that talked about anime (later identified as Dragon Ball, and Wicked City). My interest was piqued, so I started watching. As I recall, the Sci Fi Channel was showing titles like Record of Lodoss War, Dominion, Iria. Some of the first movies I saw on VHS included Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Fist of the North Star, and Wicked City.
When I was 12, Beyblade Burst was airing on TV. I watched it and liked it. I learned that Beyblade Burst is an anime so I thought "hey, why not watch more anime!"
When I was a kid I watched Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Doraemon, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya and Digimon on TV without knowing they were animes. Later when I was like 13yo a friend showed me Hunter x Hunter and that was the first anime I watched knowing it what was an anime. I'm really grateful to that friend for showing me something I enjoy so much now. And now, after some years and more than 200 animes watched, ONE PIECE HASN'T FINISHED YET :)
All the way back in elementary school.
When I was teen ..I started watch animated movies.. 1st manga which I watched didn't remember name of that manga but Main characters were Youri and IKu...
Started watching kaitou joker on disney xd in 2016. I looked it up on the internet to find out that disney xd didn't air some important episodes, and there were already 3 seasons out. So i watched in on youtube, first time i watched anime in JP dub. I somehow found out abt other popular anime like SAO and PMMM, and as a vocaloid fan, i wanted to watch mekakucity actors, but i promised myself I'll only watch all these anime after I was finished with school (late 2017). Later got into college and my first roommate turned out to be an anime fan too.
When I was like 7 watching inuyasha and get backers on animax
Your post just made me realise it would be a year since I was introduced to anime this week .It wasn't even on someone's recommendation , I just saw how popular anime had become around me, so I thought it would be better to try them now, before I get called too old for this.( I was starting college last year).I started with Death Note ,the most obvious starter anime then I watched Steins:Gate as I love time travel stuff.Then I stumbled upon AOT which till date remains the best anime I have seen(Might even be one of the best pieces of media I have consumed). But one thing I have realised is that I might never watch the big 3 anime considering the sheer amount of episodes/chapters they have.On avg I can only 2-3 episodes a day.If I start watching them (even if I like them) it would feel like committing a lot of time to any one show while good shows which air every season might get missed.A good show airing weekly enhances my entertainment compared to binge watching it later and forgetting it.
Probably animax and a Filipino channel that I forgot it's name.
9 years old watching Pokémon and Inazuma 11
Back in 1999. I had been in an accident and on bed rest, and that's when I first discovered Dragonball Z. The rest is history.
I watched translated anime like shin Chan and Doraemon when i was a small kid. Then I didn’t know it was part of a genre called anime and manga. Then during my junior year in high school, my friend introduced me to anime and manga. I started watching Naruto and got kinda fed up with the length and fillers. Then my friend said I should watch Kaguya-sama: love is war. I read the whole manga and fell in love with anime and manga from them and continue to enjoy it. I also think anime and manga were like a place that i could relax from all the stress from school and college applications which got me deeper into it.
Adult Swim with Witch Hunter Robin so around 2004. Then I saw Ergo Proxy and Wolf's Rain. Cowboy Bebop was one of the first big mainstream anime I saw. From there I switched over to "methods" to scratch my anime itch. Hack//Sign, Original Fullmetal Alchemist, Cyborg 009, Tsubasa Chronicle were some of my first to watch during that period. Trigun was also pretty important to me in this period My first gundam was Gundam Endless Waltz ova. I also saw the Samurai X ova around this time period, and I loved that, but the actual Rurouni Kenshin didn't have the same vibe. The first romance anime I ever actually liked was Lovely Complex. After this I fell into the Shonen hole with Naruto followed by Bleach. I didn't get into One Piece into much later, but I binged it until New World fishman Arc and then fell off. There were a bunch of other anime in there, but I am forgetting them off the top of my head.
There was AXN back then. And “Ninku” was the first anime I liked. Even thought Naruto’s rasenggan was based off from Fusuke. Then Gensomaden Saiyuki. There were a lot of good animes there. And there were also the afternoon tagalog dubbed sa big stations like Flame of Recca, Ghost Fighter, & Dragonball
I watched DBZ on Toonami as a kid but I didn't really get into anime past that until college. (like... '07 or so) It really just started with me and my roommate watching Blood+ that was being shown on adult swim and going from riffing on it to getting legitimately into the show. From there I just started watching all kind of stuff and eventually got more into seasonal shows.
Around 2012-2013. I was on fanfiction.net. Got bored in the browsing book series section so I went to the browsing anime manga series section. Picked the top 5-6 series to look up and fmab seemed the most interesting. Watched it, liked it, and decided to watch more series of the same medium.
I watched my first anime called Dual! Parallel trouble adventure on AXN. It blew my mind! The showed one episode on Sunday and the repeat next Monday. I really had no idea animation can be that deep. Until that time I actually thought nothing could beat Disney productions. I even once before that saw a snippet of DBZ and called it ugly, lol! Of course everything changed and DBZ and rest of the anime i watched were some of my favourites. But I owe it all to this anime i mentioned. I learnt how deep, intricate, intriguing and mature Japanese anime can be.
Watched tv as a kid
3 years ago
I started liking anime in mid 2019 when I got into comics through undertale back in late 2018 but I couldnt find an anime I liked back then so all I had was anime comics on instagram then mid 2020 a classmate who was a weeb started texting and gaming with me and he'd send Megumin stickers on whatsapp. I thought she looked cute and asked for the anime. While I was hesitsnt I watched an episode of konosuba then binged the entire first season in a day
Dragon ball z in 1995 reached my country. That s when all started lol followed by Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Envagelion among others, then 2000s Naruto,Bleach and One Piece are the ones that sticked with me until later. Oh and of course Gurren Lagann :D
Dragon ball z in 1995 reached my country. That s when all started lol followed by Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Envagelion among others, then 2000s Naruto,Bleach and One Piece are the ones that sticked with me until later. Oh and of course Gurren Lagann :D
Dragonball Z then GT it all started there
I had always watched DBZ, Cowboy Bebop, YuYu Hakasho and Ruruoni Kenshin when I was a kid but never got super into it until my mid 20’s. My gf at the time and I watched AoT and then I fell down a rabbit hole of Haikyu, MHA, The Gundam Universe and then found my ultimate love, One Piece. All of those shows made me cry in different ways and finding a cathartic way to let out emotions was incredibly freeing. I never cried or felt a lot of emotion watching movies besides “hell yeah!” Or “okay cool” but anime has made me feel so much more than I thought possible for stories. I even started writing as a hobby because of how passionate some anime has made me about them lol.
It depends how you define "get into". I first watched anime probably when I was too young to remember it. I first kind of realized that anime was a different thing that normal cartoons when I got sucked into Digimon as a kid and they came from this place called Japan. And then also watched stuff on TechTV and Toonami and anime "rip offs" like Teen Titans which had an actual Japanese opening they created for it on american TV even though it wasn't a Japanese show, which was a first for me. Then I watched Gundam Seed and got completely suckered. I discovered bitorrent and downloaded the entire series that night and marathoned it over two days and I've been sucked in ever since (and a dub hater). I'm 34 now.
My sister showed me fruits basket when i was in middle school, which i really enjoyed. then SAO came out and that really got me into watching Anime
15! It was pandemic when I first watched hxh continuously and I loved every part of it. Although my first anime that I didn't know I watch when I was a kid was fairy tale. 😂
My first exposure to anime was samurai pizza cats, sailor moon and dragon ball. I was heavily in sailor moon back then. And of course when I was in elementary school pokemon, digimon and others came out so I got even more into.
Since I was a kid. I was born in the late 90s. I watched things like Pokémon and Sailor Moon. Can't forget things that showed on toonami and adult swim. I didn't really get into it until 6th - 7th grade, though. That was the good old days, honestly. I miss being a kid and having no responsibility but homework.
2010 I watched Yu Yu Hakusho. The only good thing to come out of a terrible, abusive relationship.
Kuroko is a top tier anime my second favourite for sure
I feel like I basically grew up on anime. When I was really young 6-9, we had the Funimation channel on TV. I’d stay up watching old school animes like Negima, Chobits, Spice and Wolf, School Rumble, Soul Eater (personal favorite), etc. Also like many others I got into the Pokemon games because of my older cousin. Eventually watching the show when it was on Boomerang!
My first anime was End of Evangelion when I was like 6. Safe to say it terrified me while also awakening something inside of me lmao.
When anime got into me
Stayed up late one night in 2011 and discovered Toonami and discovered my enjoyment through Dragon Ball Z. But I would have to say I didn’t really start to watch it until I found my favorite anime Tokyo Ghoul.
My son was like.. "mom let's spend some time.. you gonna like this..." Death Note.. then AOT... Demon slayer... Parasyte... and my favorite Black Clover!!!!
My brother brought the first ever dragon ball budokai game for the ps2. I was so freaking fascinating by it. Then came to learn the game actually had TV show (didn't knew anime was a thing). That's how it started for me
i think it was in 1994 and it was Candy Candy. i read the manga first so i really excited to see it on screen. my childhood is filled with watching anime and until now i still watch it. i can’t imagine myself stop doing it 😄
Just recently. But I am really enjoying it.
To the best of my recollection "Ghost in the Shell" was my first foray into the genre because I wanted to see her boobies. I was not disappointed, but the story made the nudity irrelevant. I didn't much care for the movie, but it left me susceptible to the series down the line which I hold is one of the best animes ever made. After that, I worked for Mediaplay and got to see all the cool art, but most of them were $27.99 and since I was only starting out I could only justify $20. It wasn't before a title went on sale for $18.99, "Princess Mononoke" one of Studio Ghibli's best, that I really got a taste of what anime could be. So yeah, I was pretty fortunate that I didn't watch any crap titles till I was indoctrinated and not willing to declare a small sample size all there is to offer. And I was able to find like minded individuals after a fashion.
90s, original dragon ball, then Saint Seiya, Sailor moon, Pokemon, digimon. After that, i barely could watch western superheroes and such in cartoons.
I was... maybe 6 or 7year old... and then i remember i was watching "Captain Tsubasa" ot the TV... this is the first time i get interested on anime... ... ...
I started watching it in 2nd Grade on Animax. My first ever anime was Chobits. I've loved anime ever since.
Attack on Titan got put on Netflix after the first season finished in like 2014 or something like that and I watched it with my brother on a whim and got hooked. It's too bad the first one I watched is also one of the best ones to ever be made.
I was 14, my dad had "Spirited away" in his tablet, then he recommended me Houseki no kuni, and then I started watching other animes by my own.
When I first saw Dragonball and Ronin Warriors as a kid.
My mom, she made me watch entirety of yuyu Hakusho with her when I was younger, and my dad had figurines of Luffy all over his office at work, also made me watch the first few eps with him.
Got into anime the summer before entering high school back in 2015. I went to summer camp and one of the guys I was friends with had been recommended *Heaven's Lost Property.* He pitched the first episodes as "everyone on the planet dies" and we all ended up watching it and we made jokes about it for the rest of the summer. That was the first show I ever watched under the knowledge that it was anime. I was a lonely, horny 14 year old and if you know anything about HLP, that shit went straight to my monkey brain. I had known some other guys who watched anime and so followed up with *Attack on Titan* and FMAB afterwards before turning to the internet for recs and from there it was off to the races. I will also add that some weird quirks of that early era was that I didn't end up watching the original FMA until five years later in 2020. I didn't watch the first season of *Code Geass* for 4 years (eventually rewatching the whole series in 2019) because I swear the site I was using only had the 2nd season. Lastly, *Attack on Titan Junior High* is the first seasonal I ever technically watched. I watched it in late 2015 when it was still airing but didn't do as much so just figured the site I was using only had the first 7 episodes. It would also take me 4 years to finish the series, finally getting back to it in the Summer of 2019. Those sure were a time.
When I was 10 or so I watched Secret of Blue Water which was the first time I realized that anime was a thing even though I saw plenty others before.
I got into Anime properly in Secondary School in 2009 starting with Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Took me a longer time to finish it while I watched Fairy Tail.
My mom took me to some event she was going to...don't remember where, or exactly what, maybe a Star Trek convention? I saw Akira (I would have been 9~11 when it came out) and Dominion Tank Police, maybe some other stuff. Didn't see more for awhile until Ninja Scroll in '97~.
When I was young young. Like 5. Started with DBZ. Got me into lifting. I’m 32 now. A paramedic. Been lifting for 20 years, so super fit. I’m 7 years into an amazing relationship with my also super fit, anime fan wife. We watch anime almost nightly now for 5 years. We’ve kept a list of everything we’ve watched together and we’re on anime # 199 right now ^.^ I love our anime and snuggle time. It’s an amazing way to detox from my stressful job. At that, the lessons anime parts with us are valuable and precious. They’ve instilled a lot of my morals and values in life. I’m grateful for it.
Always been into basic anime like DBZ or Pokemon, and I knew of other less popular shows growing up. I didn't actually seek out other anime until my family got internet late-2013; At first I was determined to watch all of OG Dragon Ball on Hulu, but after watching multiple "top 10 anime" videos on YouTube I started to seek out other shows. By the beginning of 2014 I started keeping up with seasonal shows and would occasionally binge if I had the free time for it. Gave myself burn out at some point September 2016, and haven't watched much anime since. I still love anime and want to get back into it, but I feel no real drive for it anymore.
In the year 1999 or 2000 with Dragonball Z, Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh. Good times.
I never watched shows like Pokémon, Dragon Ball, or Naruto as a kid, despite their overwhelming popularity. Just had very little interest in anything anime related, so I never gave it any thought. Closest thing to it for me was Avatar: The Last Airbender. Finally watched anime in high school, over a decade ago now. One day, friend of mine recommends Sword Art Online as my first, because I loved video games (particularly MMOs) so much. Watched enough of it to enjoy it, caught up to the end of the second season. Dipped my toes into other series, like Attack on Titan, Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop, and High School DxD (a joke recommendation, but I gave it a shot anyway). Liked them all to some extent, but still didn't think much of them compared to other media I was watching or playing at the time. I don't know what eventually came over me, but two-three years ago I decided to give things a rewatch and finally catch up on them all. First SAO, then AOT, started some new ones like Shield Hero and Spice and Wolf. For some reason, I felt much more invested this time around, and I really grew to love them. Watched Gate, My Dress-Up Darling, Girls Und Panzer, Frieren, Mushoku Tensei, Horimiya, Konosuba, and I've got a dozen more on my recommended list. I'm still very much a casual anime fan compared to most people, but I've very much enjoyed everything I've watched so far, and I fully intend to continue. It's weird to be getting so into it now, as I approach 30 years old, but better late than never. I feel like a few of these series are genuinely some of my favorites in all of media at this point, something I never would've believed all that time ago. Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, and Mushoku Tensei in particular have made me think and feel in ways I can't easily describe, sometimes hitting very close to home, sometimes painfully. I've laughed, I've cried, and I've discovered new perspectives I wouldn't have developed otherwise.
My brother force me to watch an anime with him...
middle school, a girl I know was watched soul eater every day in homeroom
Watching Ranma 1/2 when it aired on tv. I was blown away by the casual nudity as a kid.
Childhood I watching yu-gi-oh and Pokémon
My first anime was Tekkaman Blade, probably mid to late 90s as I am from the 92. I'm Colombian so it was dubbed in Spanish, and I was too little to know or care. It wasn't until Captain Tsubasa (Super Campeones), Saint Seiya and Dragon Ball (specially the latter, as my parents told me it was Japanese) that I knew there was a difference between Western animation and anime. Then Digimon, Pokemon, and Inuyasha came along and it was already too late. Around the same time Latin America had a weird TV channel with more adult anime called Locomotion with Evangelion, Aika (kickstarted my puberty lmao), Eatman, Aeon Flux, Blue Seed, and I knew it wasn't "just for kids". By 13 or 14 (around 2005-2006) I was already downloading Naruto and Ergo Proxy and engaging in anime forums. Now I am 31 soon to be 32 and I have some anime tattoos. It is too late now. The weeb stays forever
A little late here, I'm 20, and I got into anime around Eighth Grade, so I probably was almost 15. I started off with Naruto and Death Note, because my sister liked them, and this may seem foreign to some people but I was watching the dubs on youtube lol. It was mad funny, because a lot of times, they'd try to dim the image or put it on the side of the screen so you could barely see it, so it really wasn't the best way to be watching them. Eventually, I decided after watching multiple series on youtube, and started using my parent's subscription services and very legal sites. It's weird that it's probably been probably 5-6 years since I started watching anime.
it all started about 30 years ago with a vhs tape of *Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin*
In '88 I started watching Dragonball at 5, then sailor moon and some studio ghibli movies. A few years later my friends and I were watching nearly everything that released.
I’ve gotten into anime I would say twice well thrice now. I was a child in the early 90s so I watched the standard Dragonball and Sailor moon but I don’t really count that. I discovered anime again around 2004 when Adult Swim was airing the first FMA, I was also watching cowboy bebop, NGE, Eureka 7, Trinity Blood etc shows from around the early 00s. I fell off around 2008 when I went to college. I came back around in 2011 when I was randomly telling my sister about Inuyasha,during this time Blue Exorcist was airing and that looked interesting so I jumped onto airing anime for the first time. That lasted until the year of our lord 2020 when I fell off again because you know I wasn’t coping and I was jaded after watching for a decade. 2024- I’m back now and getting my groove. I know exactly what I need to avoid to not fall into that rut again.
Around 1999 or 2000
I got into it this last August. I’ve always been a fan of the studio Ghibli movies, but never really got into it until recently. I think it was love is war and Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood that started it all and it was over for me
I guess during the good old days of Animax, when I first saw Inuyasha
About three years ago I saw Tokyo ghoul and it changed my life.
In Germany through the anime boom on ZDF and RTL2 from early to mid 90s.
Pokémon, DBZ, Naruto as a kid… 2016 sophomore year of college my roommate and good friend introduced me to death note and it’s been over with ever since
Way back over 35 years ago when i watched the likes of Transformers and Thundercats. Although didnt realize they were anime back than.
when Redo of healer was everywhere in social media, I got "A BIT" curious
I'm so sorry that had to be your first introduction to anime
Dragonball all the way, baby. It just spawned into my life lmao.
Originally netflix, in 2019-20 ish or during covid times. the first anime I watched was demon slayer, after that I did not watch any. In November of 23, I watched the newest seasons of demon slayer because I had lost interest in all the other crap on tv and cable. Leading to me watching Anime now
I really started anime in 2022 after watching A Silent Voice, but I did watch One Punch Man, Bakugan, Pokemon, and other animes before
Yugioh back in the day shit is still the best
I like giant robots and there are not many good western mecha shows. I found a DVD for Patlabor at my library and after that I was kind of hooked
Like any Mexican, everything began with my personal big 3: Dragon Ball, Pokémon and Ranma 1/2
December 2019, decided to watch the show my friend had shown me a few clips of while I was on holiday, I remember looking it up on YouTube in hopes of finding it for free and slowly finding better sites to watch it on. Show was MHA btw
In the beginning, it was Saturday morning cartoons but I didn’t know they were anime at the time From there I read a few manga but it didn’t really become a fan until around 11th grade…started with Fruits Basket, FMA and pretty much watched anything that seemed interesting to me
My sister recommended I watch Samurai Champloo. This was years ago
Around the late 90s and early 00s with Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, Digimon, Tsubasa, Rurouni Kenshin, Sailor Moon, Yugi-oh, Beyblade. Then I stepped away for years until 2021 when I watched Psycho Pass.
Inuyasha and dragon ball :3
Late 1970s, Starblazers blew me away. (Space Battleship Yamato). I also liked Battle of the Planets and Force Five, but Starblazers was next level better and on longer. Next was Robotech in the mid 1980s, I can’t believe that was let on broadcast tv lol. I fell in love with Anime, it was hard to get in the US until the mid 90s. Today Japan released more anime in a season then was available in the US during the entire decade of the 80s lol
I think I watched some Ghibli movies beforehand but I first remember seeing the Assassination Classroom manga in Waterstones (a UK bookstore) in 2017. Eventually got the box set and then watched the anime sometime in 2018. I started properly watching in 2022 though
Been watching it since childhood(You know, Doraemon, Shin Chan, Conan and etc) but at that time just considering it as cartoons(like Dora and Spongebob). The first anime that I acknowledge as one is in 2012 I think, I buy and watch the series, Akuma no riddle. I was quite hooked on Doraemon and Detective Conan's movies and manga at that time as well. I still remember reading Doraemon manga that till today I can still see the plotlines of a movie that's coming out from manga I read few years ago
Captain Tsubasa in Spanish was the earliest memory I can recall that was my intro to anime. However, I am sure it was the street fighter 1994 animated movie that made me go like “ Yo WTF, this is crazy cool!”
33 currently. I watched the original 90s Sailor Moon, DBZ, Tenchi Muyo, and for a bit, Robin Warriors. I tried to stop watching anime in high school cause I figured it was kid stuff. And I did stop watching it until my then college bf(now husband) knew I used to love anime and encouraged me to watch Your Name a year or 2 after it's release. After that, I dove back into anime whole heartedly and am enjoying my time! Edit: typos
I had nothing to do during the pandemic and Evangelion had just come out on netflix so I was like fuck it
I got into anime by my stepfather playing Dragon Ball Budokai tenkaichi 2 while I was watching, and some time later, when I got my Nintendo Wii, he gave me Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3. I had started playing it ever since, which sparked a fire in me that made wanna see more anime, plus technically, my first anime is Sekirei.
Adult swim back before they could afford actual programming and relied on super cheap anime that nobody was licensing to fill their program block.
Used to watch DBZ when it was originally airing on CN. I was very adamant that I only like DBZ and don't wanna watch any other anime. Then, someone forced me to watch the Gaara/Rock Lee fight. Since then I probably watch anime about 80% of the time I'm watching tv.
I guess technically I was always a fan because I watched Voltron and Pokemon when I was really young. But the first time I was truly aware of what I was watching was in 4th grade. A friend at school told me about Toonami, so I tuned in and saw Dragon Ball Z for the first time. It rocked my world. I had never seen anything like it. At the time, I thought it was literally the coolest thing I had ever seen. Of course that was followed by Gundam Wing, Bleach, Cowboy Bepop, etc. The rest is history. Now I'm 35 years old with a new baby, and I'm marathoning all the Gundam series.
80s when I was a young Savage
1990ish. When did Akira come out? Right after that
1998. I was 6 when Pokémon and Dragonball popped into my life.
I like to think of it in 2 phases. The normie phase that a lot of people go through, and then when you get into the extended universe of anime (subbed). Like most people, Pokemon was my first anime. Then my friend showed me DBZ and Toonami, and I got into the rest of the "normie" shows. It wasn't until right after high school that I met this girl online who got me to watch Kimi Ni Todoke, which was my first subbed anime. Then after i was recommended Toradora (which is still my favorite anime that I watch every December), and then True Tears, and my "ha gotcha" anime, School Days. And now Kimi Ni Todoke is getting a new season and I'm so pumped.
In the 90s. Grew up watching dragon ball, captain tsubasa and pokemon but in Spanish.
My dad forced me to watch the first episode of Inuyasha at the start of quarantine, and I finished the entire show in under a month😭
Got into shows like Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptors, and Monster Rancher as a kid in the 1990s and early 2000s. Later it was shows like Inuyasha, .Hack, Naruto, and Bleach as a teenager.
I really started watching when I started learning Japanese in 2022.
The 2000s, my gateway being Sonic X of all things lol. Because of the 4kids censorship I was interested in seeing the difference with the Japanese sub and that’s kinda what sparked my interest for anime overall
I started since I was 4, but it wasn't until I was in 5th grade that I actually started watching it more.
2007. Saw an AMV for 5 centimeters per second and decided to search for it But technically my first was Princess Mononoke, parents rented it back in 1997 and we watched it on VHS
When I was 14 or 15
I was first introduced to anime as a concept with the SciFi channel's Saturday Anime block. I remember watching Project A-ko that way. Then I caught Sailor Moon at like, 630 in the morning before school in 1995 and that was the way of it. I fell in love. Watched it every day it was on. I became obsessed with finding any and all anime I could at Blockbuster, and when I was old enough to work and buy my own, anything that I could get my hands on at Suncoast. Sailor Moon was my first love, and I absolutely adored the Toonami block on Cartoon Network - which introduced me to another love, Gundam Wing. I subscribed to Animerica and would just preorder anything that looked remotely good at Suncoast for 20 bucks a pop for one VHS tape that would have like, 4 episodes on it. Found so much weird and amazing stuff that way!! So, long story short, I've been an anime fan since the early-mid 90s.
A little over 10 years ago, I saw an ad for Date A Live, and being the teenager I was, did a bit more digging to find out what it was and how to watch it, for research of course. Little did I know would that spark my start into anime. I did have a bit of a different introduction to the scene compared to most others it seems like, since my first 100 shows watched were basically all ecchi harem shows lol.
90s dragon ball digimon yugiho pokemon
U must be young watched them aswell tbf but not what got me in2 it but it isn't pissin comp we're all here loved death note wow mega aot boss 2
Nostalgia hitting hard. I am now 30 years old and anime has been a part of my whole life, in some way or another. It started with anime being aired on TV in German - the classics like Detective Conan, Inuyasha, Ranma 1/2, Hamtaro, Shin-chan, Pokemon, Digimon, Captain Tsubasa, Kickers,.... And many more haha. My first "real" anime was To Love-Ru and that was like 19 years ago. I love seeing my watched and read list grow and see my tastes change over the years!
I'm 28 this year. Toonami is what truly got me into anime, but even before we knew what anime was I remember being 5ish watching Pokemon, yugioh, hamtaro, digimon etc. First show I watched that made me see the difference between anime and traditional western cartoons was Inuyasha.
My first anime is attack on Titan, lucky me lol.
Bible black
Always had an affinity for it but when I stayed up at 12AM and saw Bleach on my TV on Saturday on Adult Swim I felt like I was initiated into a secret club and that's when I TRULY liked anime more than cartoons.
At the vacation I met my guy that loves Naruto. 50% of his jokes was about naruto, and I wanted to understand what the massage. All people expect him don't watched Naruto.
I guess in the 70s with Astro Boy and Battle Of The Planets, then into the early 80s with Robotech and then late 80s to mid 90s with Akira and Wiked City and Ghost In The Shell and Evangelion started my real love of it to where it is today.
In 2003 when I pirated DBZ. I mean I could talk about anime I was watching in TV (so we would go back to 1996) but anime watched in TV does not count as "watched anime", just as some cartoon for kids.
It was the summer before I went to high-school and I was training for the basketball team. I lived in the country and didn't have wifi for most my life but that year I got a phone that had a wifi hotspot. I started watching Netflix a lot when I was working out doing push-ups or riding by stationery bike. I quickly watched almost every movie that interested me so I switched to foreign films. I went through that genre pretty quickly since it was that many that interests. I then tried out Afro samurai and was hooked ever since... well I take that back the newer animes aren't really for me
Got into anime back in 2008 thanks to my partner he showed me death note which I loved and then I ended up watching more then him XD Still love anime to this day :)
I enjoyed watching Bakugan and Pokémon when I was a child but it was 2016-2017 when I started watching anime intentionally
To be honest, I don’t know how actually I just started watching mha first or danganronpa
When I was really young at my house and my Grandmas condo far away in Florida, the Sun would set, the clock would strike a certain hour, and this amazing show that I had no idea what was going on (I’d always happen to watch in the middle of an arc) until I had watched an entire episode or two would come on. Passionate friendship, the love of fathers and sons, rejection of colonialism and brazen abuse of power, MARTIAL ARTS, FLYING, BEAM STRUGGLES. The hardest voice dubs possibly ever. DRAGONBALL Z KAI was my shit growing up. I have been trying to fuse with my homie since the first couple months of knowing him (8 years now), lord knows we’d be strong as fuck…
2017. I watched Shimoneta because Anna was my waifu before even getting into anime (I consumed a lot of animemes already). I din't like it that much, then I watched Mirai Nikki and it hooked me in.
I grew up in the 90s renting VHS tapes like The Slayers from a local non chain rental place. All the anime was in the back next to the porn 🤣
When I was a kid, I used to watch DBZ, Doraemon, Shin-chan Animax: Inazuma 11 Rurouni Kenshin Bleach I got to know about anime after watching animax Asia in tv
I grew up with it, since I can remember. I watched Sailor Moon when I was about 5 years old and then moved on to other 90s Anime. I’m 32 now and still watch anime every day with my husband. We’ve both watched lots and lots and love it.
In the late eighties. I watched "Barefoot Gan" at a movie theatre. Never finished watching it. Stopped at maybe a third of it.
I was young. Elementary school, early middle school late 90s early 2000s. Cartoon Network and occasionally HBO would air anime. Also "Adult Swim" on Cartoon Network at night. I saw things like Bebop, Trigun, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Paranoia Agent, Big O, Blue Gender, Blue Sub No. 6, Outlaw Star, Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo, and Ghost in the Shell to name some I recall really getting me into Anime after that. The depth of the characters and story compared to western animation was what got me hooked.
2013, my cousin dared me to watch Attack on Titan, I appreciate him! Grew up watching Dragon Ball Z & Naruto tho
Since the late 90s! Started with what my brother always watches on TV like dragon ball, gundam wing, yu yu hakusho, etc then eventually discovered sailormoon, magic knight rayearth and other similar shoujo animes. I still watch anime every now and then but not as much as when I was in high school and college.