[IAmTheMurderer]

Oh gosh, well...
I consider my first experience with anime back when the Sci Fi channel used to show it in... 1996? I pretty much watched Vampire Hunter D and Project Ako every time it came on until they finally did away with it all.
But back then I wasn't smart enough to hunt up anime myself and I didn't watch another series again until 2000 with Dragonball Z. I didn't get into fansubs until at least 2002, when a guy friend of mine gave me a crash course in IRC hunting - this being the days before torrents.
I did have a few series on VHS - Perfect Blue, Vampire Princess Miyu, a few others. I upgraded to DVDs in most of that a few years back, though I still keep my copy of Fire Tripper, haha.

That said, apparently a series I watched and loved as a kid - Maple Town - was originally an anime. And it had a sequel! I'm dying to watch it in the original.

[KusanagiRobin]

I remember when G4 used to show anime (I don't know if they still do...). That was how I was introduced to Serial Experiments Lain (third most fave anime) and Abenobashi.

[Soy Sauce]

Well, before I came into ACen in 2005, I didn't know what anime was. Digimon, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, DBZ, and .Hack//Sign were the first animes I've seen without realizing they are anime. After my first convention, as well as my first exposure of anime & cosplay, I've began watching titles that are not seen on TV at the time like Onegai Teacher & Naruto. I came late, but at least I'm enjoying from where I started. Now I'm looking at current animes that are being released from Japan.

[josHisLegenD]

I saw akira and later ghost in the shell bakc in the early 90's, but i started watching anime series when DBZ came out (not that i was a huge DBZ fanatic, but my friend was into it) and from there i got into much other things (pokemon and such lol). my first LOVE of anime came with Inuyasha. make fun if you will but i loved that series, and it helped me pass a LOT of time when i was going through a tough time in my life.

[shinigamiJACULA]

my first animes were probably cardcaptors/digimon (season 1)/pokemon (when there were only 150 of them...) haha, back then i didn't even know they were called "animes"--i just thought they were regular cartoons...

[Yamanba-dono]

Lezzy-cat, on Aug 26 2008, 10:17 PM, said:

I'm pretty sure Sailor Moon was my first anime. ^^

So was mine ^o^ And after that, Tenchi, (but it was on Cartoon Network when I watched it... my brother and I would come home after school and watch Toonami back when it had Tom I >.<), Gundam Wing (the American Girl doll I got that year for Christmas? Her last name is Marquis. >_<), and Big O! OMG BIG O. I loved Dorothy, she was so cool.

And Cardcaptors. Although I don't remember the details that well.

For a while after that I didn't watch any anime until about 6th grade when Hamtaro got really big. xD But that was the last thing until about 8th grade, since between 6th and 8th grade I had a spastic-friend-induced obsession with Invader Zim. >.< But in 8th grade I discovered manga, which led me to a few OT-rated things that my parents freaked out about when they found out x_x Didn't watch a lot in 9th grade, started Bleach in 10th grade, Bleach and Death Note last year, and now Code Geass and D.Gray-Man. Still watch Bleach and try to keep up on the fanfic I started a couple Januaries ago, but other than that... that's it ^o^

[KingVexx]

Oh gosh the first anime i started to watch was dragon ball, i was like 8 or 9. i watch he-man and ninja turtles and transformers and gi. joe ....man the list could go on and on and on...gosh reliving childhood memories is sooo great

[FlyingElf]

I didn't really get into anime until my first year of college (2000). In high school I was one of those who thought that anime was nothing more than superviolent porn cartoons. Still I asked a buddy of mine who was into anime to let me borrow some stuff and basically he just lent me stuff that reinforced my stereotype.

But yeah, my first year of college, a buddy of mine lent me Slayers after I told him about my previous experience and assured me it was nothing like that. So I went home and was instantly hooked and to this day Slayers still remains one of my favorite series with its great mix of story, comedy, and fun characters.

[EzERawk]

XenoBlade, on Aug 26 2008, 01:40 PM, said:

Voltron! I almost forgot about Voltron. I liked that show as a kid.

But what got me into anime was *cough Dragon Ball Z *cough.

Crap, I forgot about Voltron as well. Man, I miss voted then, but then again if I keep forgetting it how can I count it.

I think the first one I really remembered really well was "Warriors of the Wind." Yes, my dad has this terrible dub and hackjob cut of Nausicaa and I watched it constantly as a kid. For some reason he was into 80's cartoons. One of the other ones I remember was called "Fire and Ice" which wasn't too bad and "Light years" which was actually pretty awesome.

He also kept telling me and my brother about going to see "Heavy Metal" in theaters and that is was never release on video. This was, of course, before it was released on video in the mid 90s. Craziness.

[jsieczkar]

I have to say my timing of this thread is very interesting with regard to the end of Toonami. Based on the results I'm going to saw that half or so of the people that responded got their start with Toonami. I asked the question earlier if Naruto will be a bigger draw then Dragon Ball and the other early-mid Toonami shows. Now I have to say that it would be a very step hill to climb to accomplish that.

[Yamanba-dono]

My dad is a major fan of Speed Racer and Astro Boy. :]

[Ashley loves cupcakes]

Hmm.

It was probably around 1995, when they were playing Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon on YTV.
I remember watching Speed Racer too. I have a Speed Racer video game for SNES I think!
Then I remember watching Gundam Wing and Escaflowne on YTV, and those were probably the first 2 series I ever finished watching. And then Card Captors on Teletoon. On YTV, I think they started playing Monster Rancher too, which I loooooved. Of course, then came Digimon and Pokemon. Digimon > Pokemon!

In grade 7, which I think was around 2002, I remember starting to read manga(in french!.. I was in french immersion).. I think it was Magic Knight Rayearth(sp?) that I first read..

And then I rewatched Escaflowne, Digimon and Card Captors, and slowly got into more anime, and by Grade 10, I was totally into anime. :3

I've been into anime my whole life kinda, just not knowing what it was. =3

[Deadly_Massacre]

i started watching anime in 2006/2007
when i was in eigth grade (now im a sophmore)
my friend (well at that time we wernt so great of friends) she sat next to me in school
and one day i see her read a manga (which at that time i didnt know what it was at that time)
and i borrowed it from her with out asking since it looked intresting
i gave it back to her the next morning
and was mad/suprised/excited
mad - i took it with out asking
suprised - i liked it
excited - since she now dosent feel wierd for being the only one that likes it

lmao
were best friends now :]
my first anime was fullmetal alchemist
since the manga i took from her was full metal alchemist
XD

[mordion]

I don't know if I would count Voltron or Robotech I watched as a kid, because I didn't watch any more anime until I started watching Full Metal Alchemist, then I started seeking out other anime.

[Audri]

If were going to count American TV I started with Robotech, Voltron and the original run of Sailor Moon in America. As far as actually going out and being an Otaku I started in 1999 after seeing Dirty Pair Flash and Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. To answer the other question about VHSs I had over 100 VHS animes before switching over to DVD in '01

[Ayeka Sohma-Hitsugaya]

mine was Sailor Moon and Tenchi

[Ishoku Osero]

I admit, I'm in my adult years, but didn't start watching anime until around 05 sometime. Really, I started manga then. I didn't truly watch a lot of anime until I met my boyfriend about two and a half years ago, since I'm the one that buys the manga, and he has a Godly anime collection (though, his friend's is a LOT bigger... basically every series that came over here and was dubbed, and he's still buying more D: ).

My first manga AND anime was Love Hina. I bought the entire Love Hina manga in three days, thanks to holiday money, and then when I was finished, I torrented the anime. I couldn't stop myself and ended up soon buying that along with the Gravitation boxset. Happiness. =P I haven't looked back since. ~

[AshBird]

I believe it was sometime just before 2000. I was still in junior high back than. 7th grade to be specific.

[magishine]

I remember it. It was Fall 1995. It was a Saturday and Fox Kids was showing Sailor Moon (still my favorite anime to this day)

[mendokuse]

All started with DBZ on tv, but it wasn't on during convenient times. Also it was in Spanish so I could only make out a few words and sentences. Hell, didn't even know it was anime. It was just so different from the American cartoons back in the day.

Then Escaflowne was on tv. The dubbed version was terrible, but it got me hooked. Started buying the VHS tapes.

Now, I don't follow as closely as I used to. Kinda sad, but I'll look into it every few weeks or so.

[Ceddybear]

ha ha started with Sailor Moon back when it aired on USA. Dunno how long ago that was, but I remember waking up every saturday (I think it was saturday) and watching it, followed by whatever else was on. Makes me feel a tiny bit old lol

[Fate Averruncus]

The first anime I saw was Speed Racer, back when I was 6 years old(1993). I didn't care for it, though. The one that got me into anime was Samurai Pizza Cats. . I saw that back when I was 8, and loved it. Then I saw a 'cartoon' 2 years later that, to me at the time 'looked somewhat similar to Samurai Pizza Cats', and watched it. And loved it. This led me to seeking out others like it, which let me to discover other anime titles, which led to my current love of anime. .
And which 'cartoon' was it that caused me to look for even MORE like it? Sailor Moon. XD.

This post has been edited by Fate Averruncus: 24 February 2009 - 02:10 AM

[Ravel]

The first anime that I had watched was Samurai Pizza Cats back when I was six unfortunally I don't remember the show very well as I only saw a few episodes here and their but from the episodes that I had watched I liked it.Then a year later I watched pokemon and began watching it every morning when I could and soon afterwards this lead me to watch other shows like it such as Digimon and other anime.

[Soul]

My first anime was Voltron I think but I also was a HUGE fan of Ronin Warriors when it originally aired on network tv right after school when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. Then they moved it to the 530am slot and I actually got up to watch it then went back to bed so my mom didn't know.

[Mizu_Haku]

Probably, around 2 or 3 grade... well, whenever Pokemon came out... I watched a lot of Pokemon. And then Digimon. And then my first non-Mon (lol) anime was the Miyazaki film My Neighbor Totoro; which had a very big impact on me. Although I knew these cartoons were definitely different than any old cartoon, I really didn't know that they were "anime", though when I was older I knew they were Japanese.

Then Toonami became my best friend, and I watched a lot of Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Dragonball. I also watched Zoids... in 6th grade my Jr High school library got a few manga books, and that introduced me to the world of anime and manga, first manga I ever read was CLAMP School Detectives, then I read Kodocha, then Naruto came out, and I got hooked; and Naruto really was what got me totally into the whole "anime otaku" world, then my friend who knew I liked anime, he gave me this card for ACen (in 2005) and I wanted to go; but I couldn't that year, so then come ACen 07, I got to go to my first con... and oh, how I loved it...

Yup...

I started with really main-stream anime, Yu Yu, Kenshin, Dragonball, Pokemon, Miyazaki, InuYasha, FMA... but now I really like smaller animes, like Gankutsuou, Ergo Proxy, Samurai 7, and Darker Than Black. I still like bigger animes, like Naruto, and FMA, Loveless, and d.gray-man... but yeah... I love anime now... I have no idea why, but from the beginning it had a large appeal to me.

This post has been edited by Mizu_Haku: 27 February 2009 - 08:59 AM

[Hynoxolus]

My first anime was Totoro by Myazaki. My mom rented it from the Library for me as a kid. I loved it. Then I watched Dragonball and Sailor Moon on Cartoon network, then Rurouni Kenshin and Pokemon, which really got me into it (I was a PokeFREAK!).

I had no idea it was called "anime" till forever later.

This post has been edited by Hynoxolus: 01 March 2009 - 11:53 PM

[nouseforaname]

I remember back in jr high people were all calling it pokemans lol

[tatterpillar]

My first anime was Vampire Hunter D, which was introduced to me by my father. When I began watching anime, I had VHS tapes of Macross, Devil Hunter Yohko, Zenki, Ninja Scroll, oh and Crying Freeman!!! My dad liked that series... lots of hentai scenes though. He'd just tell me to close my eyes and ears %/

First all-out obsession was Sailor Moon

[Lina]

Whenever Pokemon came out and then it was Digimon, but I did not know it was anime til later. Then I watched Gundam Wing and DBZ on midnight run and watched some Tenchi and Kenshin. I never watched Sailor Moon as a little kid. I watched like one episode and then I never watched it again for some reason.

[okaonos]

My first anime was Sailor Moon, then shortly followed by Pokemon. However I watched these in elementary school/early jr. high when I wasn't even aware what anime was. It wasn't until 8th grade that I discovered that what I was watching was originally from Japan and that there were hundreds of shows like it. The first anime that broke my "anime virginity" and exposed me to the full extent of the anime world was Fruits Basket, which I saw in my high school's anime club. Freshman year was also the same year of my first ACen.