What first got you sucked into anime and mangas?

[Vonnie]

Exactly what the title says!

what i can remember was, i had this younger cousin who really loved to come over my house, like 4-5 times a week, but he was so cute so i didn't really mind. But every time he came over, he would bring this nicely decorated shoebox, that was filled with all these anime series and he would beg me to watch it with him. And to be honest i was really bored at first, but he kept making me watch it all the time and soon enough i got really into it (like i was being drugged) and he even showed me the mangas online.

so there's my little life story, now what's yours?

[Nero D. Ace]

hmmm, i watched DBZ a lot when i was a little kid, about 7 or 8 and i loved how the show was full of these awesome fights and techniques, unlike the cartoons that used to come at the time like GI Joe or the superhero ones cuz they didn't have a linear story.

although, it was only recently (about a year ago) that i got back into anime. my friend showed me this anime called "Death Note" and that's what made me realize the difference between ANIME and CARTOONS.

[Koby]

A good friend who I've now lost contact with kept drawing this awesome images and I asked him what they were from and from there he got me hooked on Dragon Ball Z. That was in 1998 when I was in 3rd or 4th grade I think.

[† Talena Mae]

How I got sucked in... well... my first experience with anime was the original ninja scroll movie...

The drawing... The action... The storyline! It all blew my mind... and I have not turned back since ^.^

[† poetictragedy]

When I was in elementary school, my mom worked first shift and my dad worked third. They couldn't take my brother and me to school, so my mom would wake us at like 5:00AM and take us to my aunt's house. From there we'd get ready and she would take us to school. Well, in getting there so early, we had about an hour to kill. So my mom would turn Cartoon Network on. That's when we started watching Zoids: Chaotic Century (and Transformers, but that's beside the point). We saw every episode probably 3 or 4 times, until it was taken off the air. Then I bought the DVDs, and the manga, and some model kits.

[Krogothwolf]

Robotech and Star Blazers when I was a kid. I loved robotech because the VF-1's looked like Tomcats, were controlled by humans and could transform into Battloid and Gerwalk. It was awesome to me as a kid! Plus they fired a crapton if missiles

[idl12]

Dbz was what got me into anime, although it used to air in spanish here but I still watched every single episode that aired despite this, then eventually as my cable company moved out of the stone age and we got the english broadcast and I rewatched every episode and there was also Pokemon and Yu gi oh ( which I still shamelessly watch)

[MsTamablee]

I actually used to watch quite a bit of anime when I was little, like pokemon, DBZ, cardcaptors, sailor moon, zoids etc.(back then I used to think of the as just cartoons, now I know better). I started watching mew mew power (on TV so I had no choice but to watch it dubbed) two years ago and when that finished, I got obsessed with it and in turn learnt lots about anime. I then decided to try reading manga so I got a couple out, one of those manga was school rumble which is insanely funny. I got every volume the library had then finished it online. I watched the anime and by doing that learnt of other interesting anime to watch and the rest is history.

[† RazorDan]

Well for me growing up it was DBZ on Toonami and Gundam Wing and Ultimate Muscle lol

but the first anime i remember fully watching was shaman king on fox kids/jetix when i was about 8

[nanashi]

The thing that got me into anime would be my cousin. He loved DBZ and Naruto so whenever I had to stay at my aunties, we would always watch these shows. I loved the fights, storyline, characters and the fictional world it all took part in...and that's kinda how my love for anime started.

[lilbrianyo]

Ive always been a cartoon fan. I found out about anime wiith dragon ball

I had to answer this one again. It all started back in 88 with zelda. I remained an rpg fa since, so I was always built for anime...

[Tyberias2193]

Well, I suppose I could give the obvious, generic response to the question; DBZ, Pokemon, Yugioh, Digimon, etc. (Just a note; Zoids: Chaotic Century was somewhere between real and childrens anime for me.) But I can't say I ever really counted those as anime.. Well actually they were anime, but they lacked all the themes that 'real' anime had, the stuff that made it something only a teenager (or someone older) would watch. For example; would any of you let your kid (let's say hypothetically between the ages of 5-13) watch "Elfen Lied"? Logically, no. And why? Because it would probably scar them for life.

DBZ, Pokemon, Digimon etc were anime designed for children (which makes them no less awesome, they were and still are amazing to watch), but the first "real" anime I ever watched was Wolf's Rain. The plot made no sense at times (but it eventually all got figured out in the end), and there was much more blood than I was used to. But the story went deeper than anything else I'd ever watched. There were no supernatural abilities like the all powerful "Kaaaa-meeee-haaaa-meeee-haaaa!", nor the creation of creatures that resembled all different types of flora and fauna from centuries past and present. But it had something that all the childrens anime had, but on a totally new and incredibly deep level; emotional depth.

After watching all 30 Wolf's Rain episodes (which I watched in a matter of days on the school holidays) and becoming distraught at the ending (for a number of reasons), I decided that I loved this new idea of anime. My girlfriend was overjoyed to hear this, giving me the entire first series of Fullmetal Alchemist - which was pretty good. But then I found out about "some new FMA series that actually followed the Manga" and eventually uncovered Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. To this day, there hasn't been an anime to top it (in my mind) and not once have I looked back at the first series (Brotherhood made me realise how crappy it was because it hadn't followed the plot of the awesome Manga!)

I've now watched both the FMA series, Wolf's Rain, Death Note, and currently looking for eps of Bleach, Zoids: Chaotic Century (I never got to watch all of it). I've watched the first two or three episodes of Elfen Lied and I've been shocked to the core by it (it was by no means bad, but.. well remember how I said Wolf's Rain had a lot of blood? It paled in comparison to the sheer amount of blood and gore in EL.)

Sorry for rambling.. haha

[Clare]

When I was little... I used to watch Sailor Moon ALL the time... Then after that, my interests slowly evolved into animes like Inuyasha, Vampire Princess Miyu, etc...

[Vonnie]

Sorry for rambling.. haha

Rambling? no i wouldn't call it that

in fact im delighted that you all are sharing your stories here! and looking at the replies, seems like DBZ was the real pull and thats actually wonderful! though im not a big fan of DBZ BUT! we still share a common interest of LOVING ANIME AND MANGA!

[ari_88]

in fact im delighted that you all are sharing your stories here! and looking at the replies, seems like DBZ was the real pull and thats actually wonderful! though im not a big fan of DBZ BUT! we still share a common interest of LOVING ANIME AND MANGA!

Yeah, it's incredible. Anime owes much thanks to DBZ for creating fans. It certainly pulled me in, and it was my first anime. I didn't understand what anime was though, so I thought it was just a regular cartoon. I clearly remember this day in junior high when I saw this girl I didn't know drawing pictures of DBZ characters. So I went and introduced myself, and it was so exciting to meet another fan. She taught me the difference between cartoons and anime and we spent most weekends watching new animes at her house. That's how I came to know anime. As for my friend - we've been best friends for 10 years and counting. Another reason why I owe thanks to DBZ

[Vael]

well the first anime I've ever actually watched was pokemon, but thats not the question is it, sure I enjoyed anime as a kid but back then to me, it wasn't anime it was just a "cartoon", thats what I thought back then in the good old days, anyway back on topic, a friend of my brothers was really into anime, new how to draw and everything, I really couldn't care less about anime, but then one day at school we were waiting to be picked up and saw her drawing this really awesome picture, I thought it was awesome, then I asked if she could draw me a picture, and it was by far the best picture I have EVER seen to date. Thats when I got curious about anime, I just had no access to it that's all, a few years of simmering later, I was at my cousins watching foxtel and I saw card captors thought it was cool, thats when I met my freind STUY!!!, then he showed me some stuff, then I got hooked

and thats the lengthy story as to how I got hooked

[lynne2007]

Wow everyone's answer is almost the same. Like most i got into anime and manga in the summer of '08 when my cousin was visiting from Texas was watching it online and i was watching it with him all that summer, we hardly went anywhere those two months we actually would watch a whole season in one day. LOL Now i cant bring myself to watch regular cartoons.

[† The Joker]

I think, for me, it was the better quality over cartoons (hell, I rate them a lot higher than half the junk we produce here in the UK!). Originally started with DBZ, then Pokemon, Digimon... a few epsidoes of Card Captors with my sisters, and Yu-gi-oh! Before I knew it, I was hooked!

[NorthWolfeCND]

Pure accident in my case. Me and two friends where starting an Illustration center at University, and where given various books and videos from publishers of all sort...

Cataloging everything I started reading and the rest is history...I was hooked!!!

At the time I was only into European stuff (Corto Maltese/Bilal et al).

[oso378]

What Sucked me in was the level of detail in the Drawings. Also it was the Mature content and story. The level of imagination that the creators have is awesome.