What anime got you into anime?

[Elfgore]

With my one year anniversary of becoming an anime fan being around now, I decided to ask this question. To make sure you get the question, this has to be the anime that got you into anime. Not your first. I watched Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh when I was younger and that was it. No Dragonball, Naruto, or Bleach. Until last year I thought anime was weird and nothing but naked women. Doesn't help that my first anime encounter as a teenager was the island episode of Code Geass. Also if you can, feel free to say if your first anime may have sculpted your anime taste.

The anime that got me into anime was a crappy harem series called Rosario+Vampire. When I first watched it, I fell in love. I don't know why, but I just enjoyed the hell out of it. It was my first anime binge and sculpted my future anime taste. Huge fan of harems and romcoms, with a massive tolerance to fan-service. Even now I still love it and think the English dub is fantastic. Too bad the series broke away from the manga in the second season.

 

[Weaver]

Honestly? Probably the original North American airing of Sailor Moon. Or maybe the original airing of Dragon Ball Z.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Well, my first anime was Pokemon when I was 5, and I've been watching anime ever since, watching whatever aired on Toonami or Adult Swim with my sister.

There was a period during middle school where I was in that "anime sucks" phase, but Death Note got me back into it in high school.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I sort of have had two phases with anime. The first was when I was in my early-to-mid teens with shows like Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, and One Piece making me interested. However, I was more interested in cartoons in general, so I really didn't think of them as anime, just another interesting cartoon that had a pleasing art style. However, I mostly lost interest in these shows, and TV in general, around the time I was sixteen.

My more recent enjoyment of anime started about 1-2 years ago. However, I'm not sure which one really got me into it. Wolf's Rain definitely made me interested in anime, but a lot of what I found shortly after was rather disappointing and made me think Wolf's Rain was just an odd show I liked. Eventually, though, I watched Darker Than Black, and I've pretty much enjoyed anime since. For that reason, Darker Than Black might be the more appropriate starting point for my interest, considering it largely set me on the path to find a lot of the anime I now enjoy. Granted, Wolf's Rain is what ultimately set me down the path to finding Darker Than Black, so I'd say both series were very influential in getting me re-interested in anime after losing interest.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, it would be a most severe stretch to say I'm "into" anime, but it was Ghost in the Shell (the show, not the movies) that alerted me to the fact that anime is a thing and has the potential to almost be to my liking.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Mine was the original Dangaioh. The space-based one, not the much later re-make that was based on Earth.
(This was back in 1986.)
It's also one of the reasons I've stayed an anime fan because it's surprise ending

Spoiler: huge spoiler for original Dangaioh

When the heroes have their climactic final battle against the villain---and lose.

along with a couple of other examples form anime at the time have kept me from being too jaded about early plots that are presented.

 

[TakerFoxx]

Death Note, way back in the day. Still have a lot of fondness for that one.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Not the most original answer, but Akira.

I'd seen plenty of Japanese animated kids shows by then, but at that age I was hardly aware of the nationality of any of the cartoons I watched. With Akira though it was different, since the movie was obviously not aimed at children. It was also the very first anime I saw with the original Japanese dialoge, so for a 12-year old me this, along with the twisted imagery, made for an extremely confusing and shocking experience. I remember that very night I could hardly sleep, because my brain was overloaded.

After that I avoided it like the plague for the better part of a year, untill I figured maybe I should check it out again. And so a big anime fan was born.

Not much into anime now anymore though.

 

[TheWiseScarecrow]

Shaman King. I lived just to see the next episode as a kid.

 

[Rellik San]

7 years old, came home from staying at a friends house: 3x3 eyes, episode 1, a disembowelling sequence...

To a 7 year old me, that was the most awesome thing I'd seen ever, I begged my Mum to let me watch it all and she finally relented and the rest is history.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

That's a good question.

As the OP mentioned, there were several animes that I watched as a child and I didn't really make the distinction of anime and cartoons until much later. Animes that I became very comfortable watching included Sailor Moon, Samurai Pizza Cats, Card Captor Sakura, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, and Dragon Ball Z.

It was around high school that I was introduced to the Bleach manga, which I enjoyed immensely, and came to discover that there was an anime adaptation. I was immediately hooked and started watching anime more frequently since then, eventually discovering Eureka seveN, my favorite anime of all time.

I wouldn't say that being enamored with an action anime has really curved my tastes towards purely action driven animes, but I do enjoy them nonetheless. I tend to watch animes that are interesting to me and sometimes adaptations of manga that I enjoy.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Honestly? Probably the original North American airing of Sailor Moon. Or maybe the original airing of Dragon Ball Z.

Same here. I believe Pokemon was the first anime I ever watched, but I didn't realize it was anime at the time--too young, or too wrapped up in the game to realize it was called a different thing than just a cartoon in the United States.

Then I saw DBZ and Sailor Moon and realized that Japan did cartoons very differently than the U.S. and I was hooked. Once I found out that my other friends watched DBZ, it was all we would talk about at school. Sailor Moon I kept to myself though because it was a 'girl's show' and my uncle teased me about it (it wasn't bad teasing, just light-hearted) so I was afraid that other people would too. It wasn't until years later that I found out that a good deal of people grew up watching both shows and, like me, kept the Sailor Moon secret because it was a 'girl's show.'

 

[TheIronRuler]

DBZ was my first anime, and I still get a massive nostalgia factor when viewing it again. I watched the abridged show a couple of years ago and got a kick out of it. I really liked it, even though it was full of filler and low on content.

Does anyone remember the episode where Piccolo was learning how to drive?

 

[Drummodino]

Sword Art Online for me, at the end of last year. I had watched a few before that (Death Note, Full Metal Alchemist and Attack on Titan) and while I really enjoyed those, they didn't motivate me to look more into the medium. At the end of last year though I'd just finished my university semester and had a massive amount of free time. It coincided with me hanging around this site more and more and the large amount of anime talk caught my interest.

I found Crunchyroll and SAO was the first show that grabbed my attention (it was near the top of the page). I devoured it within a few days, I loved the hell out of it. I then proceeded to explore what else Crunchyroll had to offer, as well as looking up various anime discussions from around here and tracking down "must watch" series. Now I've watched quite a number of shows and I continue to do so. It's great.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Grew up watching DBZ and Sailor Moon with the father, preeeeety original but hey that's the 90s. I even recall age 8 watching 2 episodes of Bebop which got me interested, only for me to never actually truly care about Bebop until mid-high school (but it still helped in becoming a small yet great gateway into the non-shonen style of anime). So yeah, after high school (where no one could judge me for liking animations from the east...) I just got back into it.

I really liked it, even though it was full of filler and low on content.

Though you gotta admit, as much as Kai is simply superior in pacing and skipping all the BS, the original airing of DBZ built up patience in kids. I remember not minding having to wait a whole week for 1 episode that moved literally nothing of the plot, only because I was young and easily forgave the show for the stuff that was worth the wait.

Which is a shame now cause, as cynical-go-lucky adult, vanilla DBZ is virtually unwatchable. Even if Piccolo driving is in the "so bad it's good" territory.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I was home sick from school one day, randomly flipping channels, and chanced upon a pretty significant episode of Sailor Moon, and was hooked almost immediately.

It wasn't the first anime I'd ever seen (that was probably Speed Racer), but it was the first I associated with the concept, and convinced me to start watching the rest of the show, check out what else was showing on Toonami (Tenchi Muyo was my next big thing), and see what was available at my local video store (not a whole lot, but I watched most things that were there; Sorcerer Hunters, Ranma, Record of Lodoss War...Ninja Scroll >_>...).

 

[Kekkonen1]

Sailor Moon was airing dubbed on tv when I was little, but I rarely watched it and had no consciousness of it being anime. Instead it was a friend in high-school that made me watch Evangelion (yeah I'm old) and I loved it. I've always been a fan of depressing movies so Evangelion was right up my alley. It took until I watched Rurouni Kenshin with some friends for me to realise there were other good animes besides Evangelion. After that I was a fan and even though I rarely watch anime these days there are a few, like 10-15 shows, that has a special place in my heart.

 

[FPLOON]

POKEMAN!

OT: I would have said Tenchi Muyo!, Sailor Moon, DragonBall Z, and/or Mobile Suit Gundam... But, I didn't know they were anime at first... I would have also said Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Card Capture Sakura (aka "Cardcaptors"), and/or One Piece... But, again, I did not know they were anime at first... That and 4Kids, but I digress...

*thinks*

I guess the anime that got me into anime were shows like Case Closed and Lupin the Third because, at the time, I knew they were anime as I was watching them... which lead me to figure out that the other shows I mentioned before were also anime... which then lead me to see the dubbed showings of FullMetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex when they first appeared on Adult Swim, I guess...

So yeah... Thanks Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and Toonami pre-Naruto! Kinda wished Sci-fi ("Seefee") kept their anime block going, though... (Didn't find out about it until a little before Gurren Lagann first premiered on that channel...)

 

[Colour Scientist]

I wouldn't really say that I'm into anime.

When I was a kid, say 10 or 11, I was really into Dragon Ball Z, Cardcaptors, Pokemon, Tenchi Muyo!, Gundam Wing and a few others. It was mostly because they were on television after I got home from school and I would watch them pretty much every day, I didn't really have an awareness of "anime" being a thing.


I haven't followed any anime in my adult life.

I watched most of Cowboy Bebop and three or four Kill la Kill episodes because they were recommended to me but it just doesn't draw me in at all. Maybe I find it difficult to take it seriously because I can't help but associate it with the fan service and the ridiculous stuff you see on the internet, I don't know.

I do love the Studio Ghibli films though, I don't know if that counts.

 

[Roggen Bread]

I am not THAT into anime.

Probably pokemon. As a concept of anime, I mean.

But into the strange humour, the tropes and so on, probably Slayers (Next). It's just awesome. And very clichee.