What first introduced you to Anime, and why do you like it?

Karl Hungus

Lets take a moment and discuss what were our first impressions of Anime, and what it is we like about it. It might make an interesting thread, and tbh, this forum isn't half as active as it should be, so share your first experiences.

For me, my introduction was Akira. It was some time during the mid-90's and it was shown very late at night on BBC4, introduced by Jonathan Ross. I was fairly young at the time, a big fan of action and sci-fi/action films in particular, and while I hadn't heard anything about it before, I remember being quite eager to see it based upon Ross's introduction. By the time the biker gang fight came along, I was amazed, truly blown away and it was just something I had never seen before. The visuals, music, that all took me by surprise, but what had me really shocked was just how dark and violent it was. I remember some of the hospital scenes with the children freaked me out quite a bit too, it was just a complete shock to the senses that something like this was animated.

Now, I had seen Anime from an early age, kids shows like Speed Racer, Gigantor and Voltron, the ones that had been translated for English speaking audiences. I had also seen Castle In The Sky at one stage. But at the time, I didn't really know these were Japanese shows, so Akira was the first Anime that I had actually recognized as Anime, it was extremely distinct, this was something for mature audiences and had mature themes and a very intelligent story.

Me and a couple of friends of mine started getting more into Anime after that point, and we'd rent out a few films now and again, some we liked, but as this was the 90's, quite a lot of them were the rather hyper-violent, monsters, guns & tits type of Anime. Apart from the exceptional Ghost in the Shell or Vampire Hunter D, there wasn't really many films being released that we really liked, we just kind of lost interest pretty quick. One of my friends had bought Ghost in the Shell on video, but he didn't really like it, and sold it to me. I was well happy with that, and had watched it many times since. I'd keep an eye out for any good anime films since then, but they were few and far between.

I suppose my interest didn't really pick up again until I started watching a few series's based on some recommendations, namely Cowboy Bebop and others. This would've been around the 00's now, the internet was all shiny and new and it was around that time I suppose a lot more Anime became available, so I had picked up films like Princess Mononoke and Blood: The Last Vampire on DVD. I think attitudes towards anime have changed since Spirited Away won an Oscar, and that's opened doors for a lot of other films in English speaking countries. These days there's a lot of terrific Anime (both film and series) available, and I'm often extremely pleased discovering something new. Paprika for example introduced me to the incredible director Satoshi Kon.

As for what I like about it? Well, I think there's a lot of imagination and inventiveness in Anime. Some of the best Sci-Fi films I've seen in recent years have been Anime, the excellent short Voices of a Distant Star was particularly unique. The idea of two young lovers communicating by text message, as one of them is flying deeper into space, the message are taking longer and longer to deliver, it's just inspired. The aforementioned Paprika is another example of such tremendous imagination, and of course, just about any of Miyazaki's films are major examples. There can be many, many exemplary children's films in Anime, but unlike a lot of American films, they can be a film for children without being childish. Spirited Away for instance.

I would say that I'm not a fan of Anime just because it's Anime, if you follow my meaning. I'm a fan of Anime because there's a great many exceptional films within Japanese animation. Grave of the Fireflies is one of my favorite war films of all time, it's an utterly harrowing tale that truly hit me right in the heart, and provides a perspective that we don't usually see in war films. Likewise, another film that I absolute loved was Jin-Roh. The alternate-history Japan setting was something that grabbed me, the visual style was brilliant, the striking image of the Panzer cops is just downright iconic, and the storyline is one of the most intriguing, detailed, and utterly brilliant, steeped in brilliant metaphor and never dumbs things down either.

Then there's the art.



So much Anime can just be downright stunning to look at when it's beautifully drawn and animated. Some films look so good you can completely disregard the story and just appreciate it for the animation. Here's a little short from Satoshi Kon for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLQmfAak4VM

So, how about you?

cherryghost

eh... i only started watching 2 years ago after a trip to Tokyo :pac:

L31mr0d

Well my first exposure to anime was Dragonball Z on the cartoon network, which I watched religiously until it got moved to toonami, a channel we didn't have at the time.

But my exposure to it after that was fairly limited, until the matrix, which sparked my interest again in dystopian anime.

Really though, only since the inception of DSL internet have a I really started to watch anime regularly again. It's far more accessible now, with fan dubs becoming prolific, to watch anime pretty soon after its released in Japan.

Tar.Aldarion

DragonballZ on Cartoon Network, ooooh ya!


Dragon, dragon, rock the dragon, dragonball Z

Cy_Revenant

The first ones I would have seen would have been Dragonball-Z or Pokémon, way back in the day. Though at the time, they were just cartoons for me. I didn't think them particularly different to anything of the other cartoons on television. I had grown up watching Battletech, The New Adventures of Gigantor and various other actiony shows with continuity and story arcs.

The first hint I got that there might be a bit more to some shows than my usual fare, was when I saw Digimon. Everything about Digimon was distinctly Japanese, and the writing was far beyond that of anything else screened at the same time for the same age group.

I believe it was after this time that Cartoon Network started screening Gundam Wing and Tenchi Muyo. I loved Gundam instantly. The mecha design was completely different to what I'd seen in Battletech and Gigantor. The characters appeared to me to have a lot more depth. The series antagonist was never made explicitly clear, and the characters initially painted as antagonists you ended up respecting more than the moody protagonists.

I wasn't as fond of Tenchi Muyo, but I found it interesting in how different it was from other shows. The plot didn't seem to really go anywhere. The writing would keep hinting at what was happening without revealing too much. The thing that struck me most about it at the time, was that I felt it had been heavily edited to fit it into that 16:30 slot before Dragonball and Gundam Wing. The way they kept referring to all alcohol as tea being the most obvious part.

And that was it, for a long time. Cartoon network took these and all of their high profile cartoons away to some digital channel, and saw no more. They still had Cardcaptors and other shows like Shinzo on terrestrial TV, but I never really watched them. I kind of forgot about the whole thing for a couple of years. Marked it as a period when the art writing improved in the standard of my cartoons. I still was able to watch Yu-Gi-Oh! and Zoids, but these were kind of rubbish. Only Zoids' interesting timeline and giant robots made it interesting.

Of course when my friends in secondary school started talking about all these amazing animated shows and movies he was catching on digital that I didn't have access too, I began to get interested again. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, The Big O, Outlaw Star, Martian Successor Nadesico; all these shows were airing on some other channel I didn't have, and were apparently all amazing.

So, I got hold of a DVD. Cowboy Bebop the Movie. I was blown away. This was the kind of content I had been missing out on. Fast paced, brilliantly animated, fantastically scored and most importantly well written animation. At this stage I think I've watched that movie at least once a year since my first time.

That was were my interest really started. I had gained the impression that the standard of Japanese animation was far higher, and the standard of writing on average far greater than most American, Canadian or European shows. This impression was later corrected.

Of course, I still couldn't access any televised anime. Though I had been told by my friend that all these shows had been cancelled. I started collecting manga, most of which were kinda rubbish, but some were great. I also started collecting more DVDs; Akira, Ghost in the Shell, GITS:SAC. My sister collected far more than me, but mostly shoujo stuff that didn't really interest me.

It wasn't until I started university back in 2005, joined the local anime society and discovered the internet that I started watching modern shows, and discerning the difference between good anime and rubbish.

Konata

Cy_Revenant wrote: »

The first ones I would have seen would have been Dragonball-Z or Pokémon, way back in the day. Though at the time, they were just cartoons for me. I didn't think them particularly different to anything of the other cartoons on television. I had grown up watching Battletech, The New Adventures of Gigantor and various other actiony shows with continuity and story arcs.

Same. I remember watching Pokemon on and off when I was younger but never really understood that it was different to most other cartoons on TV at the time. My brother was the one who started watching Dragonball Z and soon enough the two of us were obsessed . Remember saga Sundays? They were a social event in our house! We had the Toonami channel so I was still able to watch it after it moved.

It was only when I went to Germany on a family holiday that I discovered anime. I found a magazine about DBZ and it mentioned other anime aswell which sparked my interest in seeing what other shows were out there. Fox Kids were showing Sailor Moon at the time and I began to watch that (although I only ever managed to see the 1st 2 series before it disappeared off the schedule). I wasn't interested in robots so skipped Gundam, and I hated Yu-Gi-Oh! (pile of balls). I remember watching Tenchi in Tokyo aswell.

However, my interest soon began to wan. I pretty much stopped watching TV in secondary school as I had alot of other activities and work to do all the time. I'm ashamed to admit it but I also think I passed off anime as "kid's stuff". Whatever the reason, I barely seen any for a good 6 or 7 years.

There was one exception: during 6th year my friend loaned me Neon Genesis Evangelion. I watched it all (took me about 3 months to do so though) and liked it alot but didn't understand most of it. I made a vow to watch it again after the Leaving Cert when I had more time but never really got round to it.

Luckily, a few months ago, I took some notion and decided to watch the 3 seasons of Sailor Moon that I'd never seen before. I watched all 200 episodes and was immediately hooked on anime again. I realised just how bad the dub of SM is - it makes it virtually a kids only show. The original has so much more going on. From there, I bought NGE for myself and watched it along with End of Evangelion and what else can I say? I researched it and came to understand it alot better. This time round I found I could really identify with alot of the human psychology explored in the series.

I'm now steadily making my way through as much anime and manga as I can get on my hands on!

amacachi

Dragonball Z and then years later the joys of Broadband opened it all up again. Been of the horse for a few years now, just trying to catch up and get going again in any free time I get.

Xinkai

pokemon... nuff said

Funky

First introduction must have been when i was 12 or 13 and one of my brother's friends had Akira on video, which I thought was the best thing ever. I didn't really get into anime(well I watched the likes of Pokemon and Gigantor on TV but without really thinking about them as anime) for years after that despite seeing the odd Miyazaki film here and there.

I knew a few people who watched Naruto and when I eventually succumbed to their pressing for me to watch it 3 or 4 years back I was instantly hooked. That opened my eyes a little more and I started finding more and more stuff that I liked, moving from the shounen stuff to random comedies and slice of life stuff, which is probably my favourite at this stage.

Why I like it? Probably because there's literally an anime about pretty much anything you can imagine and the quality of everything from the visuals, to story, to characters, everything, can be of far better quality than most series produced in the west(obviously there's crap anime too, but the best vs the best), animated or not.

Ginja Ninja

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

DragonballZ on Cartoon Network, ooooh ya!
Dragon, dragon, rock the dragon, dragonball Z

same as and also a very short,possibly not even anime show called "muscle league" or "muscle planet" I can't fully remember,

then I found the anime show they used to do on sky at about 10 at night: animecentral or something? really broadened my horizons

Sephiroth_dude

Giagantor and pokemon started me on my way,then I watched Akira and then ghost in the shell and I've loved it ever since.

Art_Wolf

I think, since I can't really recall any more, that I got introduced via manga.. down in Forbidden Planet picking through the manga got me interested. Initially it was for artistic reasons, moving away from the marvel comic designs to these highly colourful and stylistic characters and incorporating that into JC and LC art. First anime was Akira - FP had the special edition, I had read good things about it.. that was about 4th year in school.

I cant really say what hooked me to anime, maybe the fact that I am a fan of sci fi and fantasy novels and the stories appealed.. *shrugs* I like to think that even though my tastes have changed significantly since I read my first comic, that there is such a diverse range which has always been able to satisfy the change.

johnny_ultimate

The first time I was really blown away by anime was seeing the still above from Spirited Away in Empire (urgh, Empire). I really just had to see it - had to wait for the DVD to come out, but was just blown away (for a second time) when I actually got to watch it. I'd seen some anime before (mostly stuff like Pokemon) and have always been into Japanese games, but I'd credit Ghibli and specifically Spirited Away with truly getting me interested in Japanese animation. From there I just explored the Ghibli back catalogue, discovered stuff like Akira and Paprika etc...

Just this month, I've watched through the entire Neon Genesis Evangelion series (and absolutely wonderful End of Evangelion, which is quite simply a masterpiece of mature, thought-provoking cinema) after my interest was piqued when visiting Japan this summer (they are - rightfully - obsessed with Evangelion over there). I think that has gotten me interested in watching more of the full series that are out there - NGE was much more intelligent, thoughtful, entertaining and surprising that any other animation I've seen recently, and possibly even any other TV series (I'd almost put it up there with the likes of the Wire). Now I'm tempted to work through the likes of Cowboy Bebop and other programmes that I've always heard about but never got around to watching.

Lilith306

First saw Akira back in the early 90's on MTV and it really liked it, after that the next would have been the Street Fighter 2 anime when it came out to rent as me and my brother loved street fighter. Did not watch much of the ones on telly expect Pokemon so missed out on Dragon Ball Z as we did not have them channels then. Around 2001 I got into some of the Asian movies and then ordered some anime cause of how much I liked Akira, but there not much but the likes of Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll and stuff, which while some where ok to good they where not that special it wasn't till I came across Perfect Blue and Princess Mononoke later that year that I really started to get into it.

freshcream

Akira was first a long time ago, then 4x4 eyes and dominion tank police and most recently full metal panic. where on the internet can you guys watch these, I've been getting mine from amazon and anime castle it gets expensive when you get into a long running series like bleach.

Oh one to look out for, which I really like, but don't hear mentioned, beck Mongolian chop squad, only on episide 7 I think, but really like it.

garvielloken

I used to read 2000AD in the early 90s and they used to run ads for Manga UK. That sparked my interest mainly because I couldn't believe that animated films would be rated 15 or 18 (I was only 9 at the time). I managed to see Akira first and was blown away by everything: the story, music, quality of the animation etc. I quickly became obsessed with Anime and pretty soon I saw all the early Manga UK releases like Fist of the North Star, Urotsukidoji, Angel Cop and Doomed Megalopolis.

In the mid to late 90s Manga started to slow down and not much was released. I suppose they put out all the big name stuff too early and had very little after that. I lost interest myself pretty soon after and to be honest I don't watch a lot of new Anime these days. I do like soom newer stuff like Studio Ghibli, Full Metal Alchemist and Bible Black. Most of my favourites all come from Manga UK's glory days (Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, Guyver etc)

What do I love most about anime? I guess if you are a fan of fantasy/sci-fi/horror and animation/art, anime has a huge archive of fantastic work. I also love that in Japan animation and comics are not just considered kids stuff, but are seen as legitimate art forms that can be enjoyed by men and women of all ages.

mcgeezer

I'm not the biggest fan of Anime, but when I was young I couldn't really tell the difference :]

All I'm saying is that when I was a kid, Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptors and Sailor Moon were the shiz!

What am I saying, back then! Digimon and Sailor Moon for the win! <333

mylittlepony

Bravo Channel when its was the fire/devil logo cant remember year maybe 1994 and it used to show late night Manga horror and adult manga.
Doomed Metro (sorry forgot hoe spell the rest of the word) was the very first horror manga I saw and i was hooked at it creepy and excellent art and the rest of the movies I cant quite remember.
The Channel 4 copied and showed the same really v late at night.
Why so late?? :rolleyes:

Update just read everyone comment and oh yes i remember AD2000!

kfkelly

Ok,

anime, jebus, its been a long time, 12, 13 years of this stuff. The first piece of anime I ever saw, was Akira, yes, fantastic introduction. For those of you who remember cablelink providing Tv in dublin, and towards then end of their tenure they started broadcasting NBC Superchannel - Europe. I used to work in a pub, late nights etc etc. I came home, about 3am and turned on the TV. I was like holy s!!t, cartoons that aint aimed a kids, and a long love affair began.

My favorite full lenght movie has to be "Perfect Blue". Its fantastic. As far as series go, bleach, naruto and Full metal alchamist are great but Eva is by far the king of the hill.

Ninja Scrolls, Akira and the first Ghost in the shell are all fantastic.

Sorry for the rant

TheIrishGrover

My route is similar to KH's. Started off watching G-force (The westernisation of Gatchaman at the time) when I was pretty young. Thought it was pretty cool. I suppose anyone old enough to remember it and young enough to be watching it (G-force was aimed at kids and heavily edited) loved Princess and her panties. Ahhh Princess Also was a fan of Speedracer. But, to me, a cartoon was a cartoon. Sure, these ones looked a bit cooler and had more action than other ones I but never differentiated really between western cartoons and anime.

Then came Akira. Remember seeing the dubbed VHS version that came out on the Manga label and being blown away. The action, the cityscape, the wayyyy cool light trails on the bikes (still love that) the fact that it was pretty adult, what with the swearing and violence and all.
Unfortunately, as we all know, the Manga label seemed to go down the avenue of "there's no such thing as bad publicity" and started importing all the hyperviolent and tits n' tentacles anime they could find. These bored me. I thought they were juvenile and repetitive with nothing of interest. The "storylines" seemed to consist of finding new ways of ripping a girl's blouse off or making someone's head explode. (Obviously this is just my opinion of what was generally available at the time).

I lost interest for a few years. I caught a glimpse on tele of a nice anime about two girls and a furry monster but the dubbing was so bad it put me off. (I later found out it was a Warner Bros dubbing of Totoro) Then GITS came on the scene and I was hooked again: Intelligent writing, decent voice acting (I saw a subtitled version first.), interesting story, amazing animation and fantastic music. I then started watching anime on a more regular basis. Buying new fangled DVDs from the US for my PC. I saw an article in a Sunday magazine about Mononoke. Going on about the big names involved in westernising it and that got me onto Ghibli. I bought the Ghibli DVD collection on Ebay and was away. Since then I've been to the Ghibli museum outside Tokyo twice (fantastic). I'm also a big fan of Production I.G, Studio 4C etc.

What KEEPS me interested in anime is the fact that it encompasses a huge range of genres.Some of my favourites have been Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Shamploo, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Totoro, Whisper Of The Heart. These films ranging from traditional Sci-Fi, historical(ish) (VERY ish. Hah), mild Sci-Fi, fantasy(?) to straight up modern day romance without any fantasy/sci-fi element at all (Apart from the girl's story)

kfkelly

Ghibli Museam is full of win. Though, I wasnt alot get inside the Giant Catbus, all though I tried. But the Laputa Robot on the roof is epic. Also, I can reccomend the funny sounding drinks in the Straw Hat Cafe, I think I had the "Looking up at the blue clouds while dreaming of nothing" smothie. Obviously, the Japanese name was about 8 characters long, and above was the english translation:p

johnny_ultimate

kfkelly wrote: »

Ghibli Museam is full of win. Though, I wasnt alot get inside the Giant Catbus, all though I tried. But the Laputa Robot on the roof is epic. Also, I can reccomend the funny sounding drinks in the Straw Hat Cafe, I think I had the "Looking up at the blue clouds while dreaming of nothing" smothie. Obviously, the Japanese name was about 8 characters long, and above was the english translation:p

Yup they're quite fussy with their children only rules You do get beside a giant Laputa robot though, which I suppose is a welcome alternative :pac: Worth going for the short films alone, although subtitles would help (I got the general gist of the one I saw - basically an early take on some of the ideas presented by Ponyo, which was the main exhibition when I was there in the summer).

cherryghost

I was raging about the Ghibli museum... they were sold out well in advance for the period I was over there

Alls good though, as we stumbled across an Anime musuem in Shibuya :pac:

ondafly

for me my first introduction to Anime was at a birthday party many moons ago ! the anime we watched was pretty shocking at the time, as it started with a grandad getting killed and telling his grandson all about a giant robot. Pretty sure it was Mazinger Z

I clearly remember Robotech and G-force being watched and trying to build the G-Force ship out of Lego from then it was Voltron and the other mecha shows on Super Channel. Pretty much after that went the same way as Karl, buying VHS tapes of "Manga Video" of pretty much anything I was able to afford, Macross, 3x3 eyes, Akira, Crying Freeman. I then discovered Chartbusters was renting out Anime, and I was able to see Dominion Tank Police etc

Cravez

cherryghost wrote: »

I was raging about the Ghibli museum... they were sold out well in advance for the period I was over there

Did you try pre-booking it before arriving? If you show up on the day you pretty much won't get in through the door . You need to have pre-ordered with your Passport numbers etc also. (just for inforamtion if anyone was thinking of wanting to go ). I but i agree with Johnny that going to the museum to see the Short films alone is worth the vist (you can't see the short films outside the museum at all)

OT: My first experience of Anime was back when i was a wee lad (about 5 years old), my brother & his friends had rented Akira on VHS. Having sat down and watched it with them (imagine that, a 5 year old watching Akira. I still don't really GET Akira even to this day ). It was the first time seeing such a unique type of animation style, the overall tone of the film was dark and was blown away by the great scenes within the film (my particular favourite was the bike fight near the start with the Clown gang, the music was epically awesome as well).

After that, my experiences of watching more Anime were watching the likes of AD Police, Cyber City Oedo 808, Devilman, Battle Angel Alita, Vampire Hunter D and other feature length or OVA Anime titles (still as a wee lad!). Some of them were featured on Channel 6 in the early-mid 90's I watched little throughout my teenage years, only watching some Dragonball Z and a few Feature Length titles.

Then truely comming into the experience of watching a Studio Ghibli movie, my first one was Spirited away. I was blown away by the imaginative yet surreal imagery used in alot of Hayao Miyazaki's films. I then watched more Studio Ghibli movies like Nausica Valley of the Winds, Kiki's Delivery service, Princess Mononoke etc and enjoyed them even more. If i were to have a top 10 list at least half would be a Studio Ghibli movie.

cherryghost

Michael Cravez wrote: »

Did you try pre-booking it before arriving? If you show up on the day you pretty much won't get in through the door . You need to have pre-ordered with your Passport numbers etc also. (just for inforamtion if anyone was thinking of wanting to go ). I but i agree with Johnny that going to the museum to see the Short films alone is worth the vist (you can't see the short films outside the museum at all)

I know, we tried already, but seriously, the whole period was completely booked out.

Aezur

I dont really remember how i got into anime. I picked up a couple of DVDs (Akira and Ichi the killer, if memory serves) but I have no idea why? I was already very much into comic books and i bought them in a comic book shop, so i'd say that was it. I've never really wondered why i watch anime before now.

Arcade Panda

kfkelly wrote: »

Ghibli Museam is full of win. Though, I wasnt alot get inside the Giant Catbus, all though I tried. But the Laputa Robot on the roof is epic. Also, I can reccomend the funny sounding drinks in the Straw Hat Cafe, I think I had the "Looking up at the blue clouds while dreaming of nothing" smothie. Obviously, the Japanese name was about 8 characters long, and above was the english translation:p

I'm so jealous! I want to go there so much!!:)

Arcade Panda

When I was younger I used to love anime shows like pokemon and sailor moon. I used to love how they were drawn, especially the eyes and spiky noses!:D

It's only recently that my interest has resurfaced. I watched Spirited Away with the kids I babysit one saterday morning and I think I enjoyed it more then them! I looked up Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli and now I've seen almost all of their movies. Whisper of the Heart is probably my favourite movie, you know a movies good when you re-watch it and the opening credits make you cry(or maybe I'm just incredibly sad...possibly the latter:P).

I love how no-one is totally evil in Miyazaki's movies, it's more realistic then the good/bad simplicity of disney films. I think they challenge their characters more and as a result they challenge the audience aswell to really think about what they are watching.

raah!

DragonballZ on cartoon network for me as well, didn't even know what anime were back then, just thought it was a really good cartoon with loadsa good battles and power ups. Dun think I need to explain why that sort of thing is appealing to a 13 year old boy

Tar.Aldarion

His power.....*scanner smash*