What anime got you into anime?

[Michel Henzel]

I believe it was Macross, (as in actual Macross, not that Robotech Abomination) which was lend to me by a guy working in a video rental store. He was kind of the person who introduced me to Anime, though back then the term "Anime" wasn't really used but instead it was called "japanimation". Coincidently it was my first experience with piracy and fansubs too I guess as the copy he lend me wasn't exactly "official" if you catch my drift. And yes Fansubbing existed way back then in the 80's already. Though I was already somewhat fascinated by those types of cartoons, it was then that I learned what it was and I guess that sealed my love for Anime. I would watch everything that I could get my hands on which unfortunately wasn't a lot as it was pretty rare before the advent of broadband. But then broadband came along eventually and well....it only got worse XD.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It was the first anime series I properly sat down and watched, and I was hooked. Kill La Kill, Gurren Lagann and Cowboy Bebop cemented my interest.

 

[Lilikins]

Ill also vouche for Dragonball and Dragonball Z..I watched the hell out of them as a child hehe, but I do believe the anime that got me 'into' anime, and wanting to watch more/different types was defo Hellsing. Through Hellsing I found gems such as Elfen Leid and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

Allthough I guess if I go way back....before Hellsing, I did see Record of the Lodoss War as a kid, it was on the telly really late in the evening and that really peaked my interest seeing as I really liked fantasy settings with knights and monsters etc. Not exactly saying it was for kids but...parents were asleep, and I managed to sneak into the living room haha.


Offtopic now but nevertheless what is that anime in your pic Elfgore? I could swear I know it from somewhere but I really cant put my finger on it.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

While I watched Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh etc. as a kid, I didn't really think of them as anime at the time, so I wouldn't count those.

The first anime I watched that got me "into" anime when I actually knew what anime was was likely Death Note. Which makes sense since it is not only absurdly popular, but also doesn't use many of the harder-to-get-into anime tropes. It's kind of like a more expressive crime drama, only supernatural and animated. It works well as a "gateway drug". I'm not surprised it's coming up so much in this thread.

 

[Something Amyss]

When my brother and I were kids, my dad rented "Warriors of the Wind," a heavily edited version of Nausicaä: Valley of the Wind. I don't know if this was before or after Voltron started airing. I'm really not sure if the hardcore would count these as anime as they're Western recuts (there seem to be so many rules), but the thing I liked most was the art style--a trend that continues today in anime.

Most of the stuff I grew up on was similar, because I'm old and the anime market wasn't really a thing over here. By the time we got shows remotely faithful to the originals, I'd already formed my opinion of anime and was buying it from specialty stores.

Aussies of a certain age will remember Cheez TV! Well, one of their original line up offerings was Teknoman, the dubbed version of Tekkaman Blade. And it was awesome.

Dubbed and heavily edited. And weirdly, slightly different from the US version. I have the complete collection on DVD, and it uses the same one that was broadcast for AU, in part because there was only one season in the US. But some of the voices are different, and it's....Funny.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I have really early memories of watching Gatchaman or, G-Force or whatever when I was about 3 or 4. Since then though I think I've always been somewhat into anime whenever it aired on TV. I remember toonami happening, Sailor Moon and, Dragon Ball Z happening and I enjoyed the Hell out of those. I don't think I've gone full-on Otaku but shows like Cowboy Bebop, Devilman, Fist of the North Star...these are the shows that got me really into anime.

 

[SirDerpy]

Well, I had spent several summers just drowning myself in Full Metal Alchemist, Soul Eater...those things that were on Netflix. I really enjoyed all of them, and they happened to be animes, (I think at that point I was solely just browsing the anime section), but I don't think that those count as forays into real anime territory. Since they were dubbed and all, and I swore that subs were absolutely stupid, so I don't count those as intro to anime.

The first subbed one I watched and loved the hell out of was Black Butler. That led into me getting off of Netflix and going onto the internet for actual anime. So I would say that Black Butler was the one that really got me into it.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

Pokemon.

I never gave a flying crap about the games or the cards, and barely the anime for that matter (though Jessie and James were hilarious), but I loved the cheesy comedy and the distinct animation style - and knew right away that any culture that could make THAT, would almost certainly be making something else that was incredibly awesome!

So I sought out FLCL. No regrets!

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Doraemon and Anpanman, I practically grew up with them when I was still learning to enunciate vowels. Gotta love a show about superheroes made of pastries, especially when one of them eats himself because he's so damn delicious. I mean look at that smug smile of his, he can't even help himself.

And then there's that suave delivery truck driving Shokupanman and the ever so spicy Currypanman Terry Bogard'ing [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lFQ6wPjnZo] wherever he goes.

Spoiler

Let's not forget Mr. Baikinman himself, that motherfucking balla OG who just gives no fucks.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Ergo Proxy, but we'll see.

I've never found anime really enjoyable, but upon realizing that there's a massive wealth of cyberpunk, something that is woefully underrepresented by western media, I became interested.

Add on a damn funny guy on Youtube recommending it and some gripping first few episodes and you can color me intrigued by this whole Chinese Cartoons thing.

I also want to check out Ghost In The Shell since it's so highly praised.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I hardly remember the first anime I ever watched, most likely Ghost In The Shell, Card Captor Sakura or Sailor Moon. GiTS and CCS are nostalgia for me though, so I think it's one of these 2 anime's.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Yeah, I'm kinda going against the "rules" coz this was prolly one of my firsts, but it's super memorable, and totally impacted my childhood even though the concept of "anime" was unknown to me coz I was a toddler, and there wasn't a huge fuss over anime.
<youtube=0H5xz8alVfo>
... Also, REBEL! It's not in my handle just coz it looks cool.

Also, Mazinkaizer to a lesser extent. I remember some rolling pin like robot with spikes, and a pink robot, and mazinkaizer fighting.

When anime first entered my lexicon, I was watching Ronin Warriors, Sailor Moon, and Samurai Pizza cats, and DBZ.
Shortly after, I was watching anime movies, Like Project A-ko (I highly recommend it. I rarely go out and buy anime, but I bought the Project A-ko Boxed set), Dagger of Kamui (I recommend this one, too!), ... La Blue Girl (amazing what you could find in a blockbuster! <.<) some eps of Mamono Hunter Yohko. Dominion Tank Police, Ghost in the shell, MD Geist. this largely from Blockbuster.

 

[ThreeName]

I liked Dragonball Z as a kid, but I liked many cartoons as a kid. I remember seeing the Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex dubs on TV before I knew any better and watched the entire series on DVD, and the first show I ever watched fansubbed and watched episode-by-episode as it came out was Death Note.

What started my fascination with "older" anime when I was but a wee child was Bubblegum Crisis on Australia's SBS a million years ago. No idea what was going on, but that shoe was the shit.

 

[Therumancer]

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.

It's hard to say in my case because when growing up I really liked things like "Robotech" even if I didn't recognize them as Anime or know the whole story at the time. My first real "knowing" exposure to Anime was things like the original "Bubblegum Crisis" which while trite and simplistic today, was revolutionary at the time, and it was doing things like using a corporate villain before that was stereotypical, indeed it can be heavily argued that even if rarely recognized "Genom" was the direct inspiration for a lot of evil corporations in science fiction and dark future stories.

Of course I'm older than a lot of people here, and can genuinely say "I was into anime, before anime became cool" simply due to being a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan for so long, and in a day before geeks pretty much started to take over popular culture. When I really "started" there were only a scant few Anime productions that showed up in the west, and a few things I saw were actually brought over by people I knew from the Navy and badly subbed.

There are a few people that of course discovered this earlier than me, and remember things like "8-man" which stood out for a lot of people because the hero was killed at the end which pretty much didn't happen, however they are fairly rare.

 

[Isra]

I'd seen many animes before I'd seen Akira, but that was the film which gave me a deep respect for animated films and the pinpoint where stopped thinking of them as just the Japanese version of cartoons. For me personally, Ghost in the Shell surpassed Akira in 1995 and I think it's probably still my favorite animated film.

I generally only like films though. I love Studio Ghibli films, but then who doesn't. There are only two exceptions for series that I can think of off the top of my head - Cowboy Bebop and Now & Then, Here & There.

I can't really say I'm a huge anime fan because I don't really watch a lot of it. I never got into Dragon Ball or Naruto or Bleach. Actually though anime is very close to my heart, there is no live action film to date that can move me or inspire me like some of my favorite anime films have. I just know what I'll like and what I won't and I'm very picky.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Aussies of a certain age will remember Cheez TV! Well, one of their original line up offerings was Teknoman, the dubbed version of Tekkaman Blade. And it was awesome.

Dubbed and heavily edited. And weirdly, slightly different from the US version. I have the complete collection on DVD, and it uses the same one that was broadcast for AU, in part because there was only one season in the US. But some of the voices are different, and it's....Funny.

Which voices were different? And did yours have a track from the Transformers movie over it's end credits, cos my versions do

 

[Julius Terrell]

THe classic voltron .

im showing my age there

This is my answer right here!

Back in 84' or 85' this show aired on TV. I instinctively knew it was different. I didn't officially learn about Japanese anime until I was a teen when I got the pleasure of watch Vampire Hunter D. That movie is still one of my favs till this day.

Most of you guys are making me feel old. Hell, most of the popular shows didn't start airing till I was about 19 or 20.

 

[The Wonder of the net]

If we are talking full series I would have to say Dragon ball Z and Voltron bringing me to the party (the anime fandom). The Gundam Wing coming up and giving me their car keys and telling me to bring them home(setting up a long time love for giant robot anime living on today). Though if I had to wish it was one anime mainly because I am getting into it again I would have to say Lupin the third is the show I would ask my parents to watch mainly because it has the slapstick comedy my dad loved from the old three stooges movies and showings.

I would tell anyone to think of your favorite cartoon like US, Canada, French (code leoko? not sure if i spelled that right and too invested in this), or even movie and we can work it out from there. For some they like the out of no where animes translated in a new way (see: Samurai Pizza Cats or Shinchan), to Alien or close to it movies (See: Blue gender), Or just a thriller movie made into a long show.(See: Ghost in the shell.) Ultimately I found the best way to bring someone in is to show people something they already like. Though for me I ended up liking the dot hack series even though it was only on at like one in the morning more then I liked Gundam Seeds that early. A good story can keep people coming back for more.

 

[Something Amyss]

Which voices were different? And did yours have a track from the Transformers movie over it's end credits, cos my versions do

I don't remember. I think Blade's voice may have been one that's different. Another fun fact is that Blade is Slade in the US dub.

To be fair, I've got used to the "international" dub. As it's the version of the series that was completed, I haven't seen the US version since it aired in 1995 (?), and I've seen the dub on the DVDs more recently. Though I've seen the Tekkaman Blade DVDs even more recently, because I prefer the version.

As for the closing credits, the intro and ending are, oddly enough, the Japanese version. Which I don't completely mind, because I love the intro song Reason:

Spoiler: Reason" Intro version][MEDIA=youtube]pmX564UTabE[/MEDIA][/spoiler] I think, though I don't remember, they use the first ending theme from Japan through the whole thing, too: [spoiler="Energy Of Love

Which is weird, because the original theme (Credited to Haim Saban or Shuki Levy) appears in the show. Guess they couldn't cut it out of the show proper? Maybe it was a rights issue.

Spoiler: Intro/ending from the US dub, both with the music in question and the narrator calling the main character "Slade."

Out of curiosity, which track from the Transformers movie was it? Because now I'm picturing Stan Bush playing over the Teknoman ending, and it's AWESOME.

(edited to fix broken code and to put the videos in spoiler tags because this post looked really big)

 

[Trude]

2004. Elfen Lied, in all its bloody, dismembering glory.