What got you into anime, and kept you there?

[zephy669 6]

Asked this on another forum, and thought I'd ask here too

 

What got everyone into anime? My sense is that most everyone got into it at a much younger age. For me, that was the case. But then I took a huge break from it, and finally went back to it when I was older, probably around 16-18 and stuck to it.

 

I went back because I got fed up with live action TV and thought the plots were kind of boring and I wanted something more fantastical and speculative, but cartoons were too childish. Anime can be childish too, but it also has that ability to appeal to a whole slew of demographics and audiences. So I finally went back and stuck to it. The stories, plots, characters, were also hugely inspirational in my own writing.

 

So what's everyone's genesis for anime-watching and why did you stick with it throughout the years?

[DarkGanta 51]

Kinda what you said, started with Pokemon when I was in elementary school. Then I watched other 4Kids series like Shaman King, Kirby, Sonic X, and One Piece as well as a bit of shows like DBZ and Sailor Moon when I was somewhere with cable. After 4Kids practically stopped showing anime when I was in middle school, I didn't really watch anime again until mid High School. Some friends were into it and showed me Death Note and Bleach. With the internet providing free access to more various anime I became hooked ever since.

[Reverie 10]

I remember watching Sailor Moon a lot when I was a kid, but that really didn't get me INTO it. I think DBZ and Inuyasha are my shows that got me into anime. Inuyasha was actually my first manga too.  

[CardGames 62]

First season of Pokemon and Toonami back when it aired Dragon Ball Z.

 

The rest was history.

 

[zwiebl 1]

hmmm. i think for me it was dragonball that i saw as i kid. and then dragonball z. after that i had kind of a anime break (~17-25).

got back on the anime train when i heard about dragonball kai ^. a friend told me to watch full metal alchemist brotherhood and death note. and so i did. both impressed me so much (way more than dragonball^);

and now i'm here. always trying to find a new good anime to watch.

[GreggDupp 0]

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Edited April 6, 2016 by GreggDupp

[Vamp Queen Lynn 5]

I didn't really get into it myself as much but more thanks to a good friend, he knows a shitload about it and seems to know what kind of stuff i would like, so is good! Thanks to him i've seen some awesome shit like Black Lagoon for instance!

[CaptainStarwind 7]

Nothing in particular really got me into it.  The first anime I can remember watching is Kiki's Delivery Service, back when I was 3 or 4 years old (I think it was right around the time Disney did their dub of it.)  I watched Toonami when I was growing up, and I remember watching Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z every day after school, though I always enjoyed watching Adult Swim more, maybe because it was forbidden (my parents never let me watch Adult Swim).  It wasn't really my attraction just to anime itself, but more to animation in general.  I always was a big fan of animation, especially the old Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry cartoons.  Like I mentioned elsewhere, I kinda grew out of anime and animation somewhere around 2007, mostly I think just because of a backlash of wanting to act more "adult" and have less to do with kiddie stuff like animation.  It wasn't until high school that I got back into it, thanks in no small part to a lot of Adult Swim nostalgia and the Funimation Channel, and I've been into it ever since.

[lyc 1]

Similar to some people here, I started watching anime on Toonami. I'd get home every day and turn on Dragon Ball Z first thing. As time went on I'd watch all of them, even the late night on adult swim. Staying up until midnight to watch Evangelion, Trigun and GitS. I got really into the movies and would go to borders/suncoast to get new DvD's of anime that I had never heard of, or manga that I wanted to read. Anime has been a constant part of my life ever since.

[AmaterasuYou 1]

I was 14 years old when I got into anime and the first I watched was death note.

[MbongzGT 0]

Pokemon was the first for me, at a young age of course. Then DBZ cemented me into Anime for life!!! As the years go by and more entertaining stuff comes through I realize that my intrigue for it will never end...

[ElementalCards 1,205]

I saw all of Dragon Ball and most of GT (except for the lost episodes) when it was broadcast on Toonami

I saw a little bit of DBZ (mainly the Majin Buu arc) and I can clearly remember seeing reruns during Super Saturday reruns

I saw Yu Yu Hakusho in its uncut glory on Adult Swim before sitting through the edited episodes later on Toonami, and I was only what, 11 years old? lol

Other animes I saw were Rurouni Kenshin, Hamtaro (eh?) and Pokemon Chronicles.

 

As for Cardcaptors, I give credit to Michael's Cardcaptors. I thought it was better than Pokemon and I studied the dub so well during that time and I have very fond memories of grabbing and preserving the episodes. First episode I saw was ep20: The New Rival

 

Sailor Moon, however, remains my all time favorite. And I'm referring to DiC's adaptation. The music, scene transitions, and the catchy intro made this adaptation so magical. Too bad I can't say the same for Cloverway's dub. First episode I saw was ep74: Child's Play

 

(and I clearly remember posting a comment somewhere here about how girly Sailor Moon was. That was my initial opinion prior to watching the beginning)

[RazoR 0]

When I was 9 years old, one day my dad bought me a FMA Trading Card Game deck (you see, these kind of things are SO rare in Turkey). I didn't know how to play with them, because at that time my English wasn't fluent and I didn't know what was anime. So I made a quick research on internet about Full Metal Alchemist, then I found out that it was an anime/manga series. After completing the series, I was like "Damn! Anime are cool!". After that day, I started to watch other anime such as Naruto, One Piece, Katekyou Hitman Reborn, Bleach etc.

[BCEKemazootsoot 1]

Can't remember exact, but good ol' Toonami + Pokemon & Yu-Gi-Oh on Kids WB got me there.

[lunarjasmine 0]

I tend to analyze and break down things I see and anime has a lot of scenes that I can do that with and I also learn what I see.

[The Question 23]

While I watched many anime as a child, thinking of them as just 'cartoons', it was Naruto that properly brought me into the anime world.

[MephilesTheDark 36]

I know the exact date, Match 6th 2000, it's when Dragon Ball Z first aired in the UK. I was 10, nearly 11, and from that day i loved anime. Me and my younger brother who was 7 at the time never missed new episodes of Dragon Ball Z. We then had Tenchi Muyo and Gundam wing which was also brilliant.

[takoyakidesu 0]

Usagi from sailor moon was my childhood waifu, think it was airing on Cartoon Network. Later on when I was around 16 I got into Naruto and here I am now counting more than 550 completed series

[Beave 2,466]

I was watching Speed Racer in the 70's, then came Robotech.  That was when I was young.

 

Recently, in 2003 it Was Eureka, Naruto and Bleach.  I've been an Anime Nut since then.

 

 

[rockhoundhigh 15]

Back in the 3rd and 4th grade I couldn't really get into the DBZ fad. I used to watch some random snippets of shows like Zatch Bell and Yu Yu Hakusho on Toonami but none of them ever really clicked. Growing up in a Mexican household completely oblivious to Japanese culture, it all seemed to foreign to me. It wasn't till by sheer chance I caught an episode of FMA: Brotherhood in high school that absolutely I got  hooked for the first time. Even so my selection at this point was definitely limited to more western tastes. It wasn't really till I started college that I really started to double down on anime thanks to my cousin and a friend of mine who started introducing me to more series. You can find all kinds of shows for any kind of audience. Now, finishing off my third year of college it's a big part of my life. Welcome to the NHK for example had a big impact on me; I really had to re-evaluate where I was at in my life and I how I felt about myself after watching that one.