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

Numina

raah! wrote: »

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

Yeah, this is pretty much how I got started off also, my interest lay dormant until around 2007. I can't remember why my interest piqued at that time, I think I came across a thread of anime recommendations. Anyway, I ended up checking out Elfen Lied, downloading the series and watching it across 2 days. After watching the first episode I was initially going to do something else after it, but was just so drawn in by it I ended up watching 6 episodes in a row, and I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of gore and cuteness. So I went looking for more series of the same kind and I've pretty much held the same amount of interest in anime since then.

Burkie.EXE

I watched pokemon as a kid but I don't really count that. I only really got into it last summer cause I had hang all to do while my friends were in the gaeltacht. Watched Death Note and FMA and loved them. Then I heard about Umineko no Naku Koro ni and wanted to read it but I couldn't find anywhere to download it, watched Higurashi no Naku Koro ni instead. Still can't get over how good that was, seriously.
I found Umineko eventually and finished reading up to arc 5. Best thing ever written without a doubt.

VampiricPadraig

I was trolling wikipedia and I was reading about Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's starting in Japan. It started the same day as I found out about it. 97 episodes later and I am loving it.

I have also watched K-ON and Kannizuki no Miko!

scrappy_ac

Well tarted with dubbed version of dragonball Z then moving on to Gundam Wing

Solitaire

Saw Laputa not long after release as a kid. Even then I realised and despised how almost every western cartoon cleaved to either this hackneyed mass-produced 80s moralistic Cold War For Kids BS or, as the 90s loomed, violently non-conformist "contemporary" abstract stuff that tried to disguise the fact it was cheap, badly written plop that was agonising on the eyes to boot. Laputa was just... different. It was so superior to all western animation of the time it was unfair to even make a comparison. Vision, art, FX and likeable not-cliched (back then they were shockingly original!) characters...

...oh, and a giant ****ing robot with a high-intensity beam cannon in its head. That might have swung it. The kickass airships just sealed the deal

After that there was some Robotech that somehow got onto TV or cable at some point, then other very early Studio Ghibli stuff in the local video shop, then later Akira's infamous BBC2 screening in the 90s. The whole country must have stayed up for that.

After that it was a whold load of nothing, and I wept inside. Being too old for children's cartoons (okay, I tried Pokemon, but ironically found Digimon more interesting. And I am so not watching Gurren Lagann right now! :P) there was little I could get my hands on without Sky. But eventually Spirited Away hit release and was immediately bought, soon reminding the family of the utter win that is Studio Ghibli. Then my sister became a huge Japan-o-phile and Evangelion and FullMetal Alchemist DVDs started to pop up in the house, along with some awful ***** I will never mention again and am still sanding my eyeballs to erase all these years later

More recently I had to abuse YT to even see SRW OGs Divine Wars (subbed by the many SRWophiles out there - never saw it for sale closer to home and I can't read Jap anyway! ) and the sub of Gun X Sword (the dub is **** in comparison) and my lust for big robots was sated.

For a while...

molloyjazz

Urotisukkidoji -(spelling is probably wrong) and Akira was the 1st Manga/Anime's i ever seen.. was about 12-13 at the time and went through a huge phase of collecting/watching these, havent grown out of it really.

think "urot" came as a trillogy, anyone remeber this one? was pretty sureal and sensual! ;p

garvielloken

molloyjazz wrote: »

Urotisukkidoji -(spelling is probably wrong) and Akira was the 1st Manga/Anime's i ever seen.. was about 12-13 at the time and went through a huge phase of collecting/watching these, havent grown out of it really.

think "urot" came as a trillogy, anyone remeber this one? was pretty sureal and sensual! ;p

I remember Urotsukidoji, the first two parts are still some of my favourite animes.Urotsukidoji came out in the west in 4 parts: Legend of the overfiend, Legend of the demon womb, Return of the overfiend and Inferno road. There was alot of controversy in the UK when Inferno Road came out and I think it's still banned there to this day but it's not even worth watchin anyway. The series took a quick nosedive after Demon Womb.

ChocolateSauce

Blue Sonnet is the first one I ever saw. Being a 12 year-old boy at the time, the violence, fan service, and sexy female cyborgs (also the most mature plot I'd ever seen in a cartoon at the time) got me hooked. From there it was the midnight sci-fi channel animes which exposed me to more, followed by DBZ and Tenchi Muyo. I watched loads and loads from about 14-17, and less since then, but I still come across ones here and there which keep my attention.

Most recently were Mnemosyne, Death Note, Elfin Lied and Trigun (seen them all for the first time within the last three years).

tman

Xinkai wrote: »

pokemon... nuff said

Embarrassingly, it was pretty much my introduction as well:o

I remember reading a review of GitS when it first came out and really wanting to see it, but when I went to buy it in HMV back in '96, they refused me due to only being about 14 at the time and having no ID... So for the next few years, my only exposure to anime in any form was through pokemon.

In college I eneded up watching the usuals (Ninja Scroll, GitS, Street Fighter II, lots of Dragonball Z)

After college was when I really got hooked on it though, over the past 6 years I've always had at least 2 shows on the go at the same time...
Favourites over the years would be Elfen Lied, Blood+, Cowboy Bebop and Claymore and Princess Mononoke being my favourite feature length

regmcd

anything studio ghibli, its amazing for escapism and storytelling.

also the artwork is crazy good. always been interested in anything japanese so thats prob a reason as well!

bell22

Dragon Ball as well (actually I read the manga first) and after that Sailor Moon. I watched them in one of the TV station here in my country. It usually aired DB first and then Sailor Moon

rgt320q

My first introduction was New Gigantor/Tetsujin-28 on some kids channel when I was still a wee nipper. I think there were also a few cheap, random VHS ones I picked up in the bargain basket in Woodies DIY or something around that time aswell. As far as proper introductions go, Pokemon aside (ah, I remember the days when Red/Blue were all the rage in the schoolyard), the most significant one was when I rented Akira about age 12. I then picked up Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll on a whim a couple weeks later.

After that, there was no turning back

As for why I like anime? It's simple really, to me, anime is just another medium through which great stories can be told and it's the medium through which some of my all-time favourite stories have been told.

JohnTaverner

Thanks for sharing valuable information about anime

Numina

rgt320q wrote: »

As for why I like anime? It's simple really, to me, anime is just another medium through which great stories can be told.

That's exactly how I see it. It's also a medium that's probably one of the freeist also, the fact that it's a drawn medium opens up endless possibilities when it comes to visuals and storytelling.

GuardianDemon

The first anime i watched outside of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh was Outlaw Star.

The show was on Cartoon Network if i remember correctly. It grabbed me immediately.

I moved onto others such as Ghost In The Shell, Akira and Ninja Scroll.

Then i went to Neon Genesis Evangelion and never looked back. Anime had completely grabbed me.

I LOVE the mythology behind some of the Anime's and the concepts of what could happen if such and such a thing happened, and thats why i love it. The theories.

me-skywalker

My amte gave me Elfen Lied and he made me watch Rosario + Vampire in his house so just started picking up bits and pieces from there now ive a nice little collection of anime that i try to convince my other mates to watch!!

anyone else ever watch Rosario + Vampire?

Mr Trade In

Battle of the Planets, Speed Racer, Megaman video games, Ranma 1/2 on Super Nintendo led me to videos of the same.I used to stay up until 3am to watch Fist of the North Star on Channel 4, years ago.

Generic_name01

Mr Trade In wrote: »

I used to stay up until 3am to watch Fist of the North Star on Channel 4, years ago.

Awh man those were the days! Like most people here it was pokemon and DBZ that did it for me. With lack of money and a lousy connection that was it for me aside from cheap dvds MANGA published like vampire wars and vampire hunter D. At the age of 13I had seen stuff like Akira and Ghost in the shell though at that age the writing and quality totally went over my head. I just wanted to see blood in a cartoon.

After that I got into manga and at 1st all I would read is battle manga like bleach and naruto but these days I look for story and character development which is hard to find in this realm of sweaty shirtless men saying badass lines while beating their nefarious elders! Naoki Urasawa reinvigorated my interest in manga and anime as a whole. Monster is just about 72 episodes of people chatting and sometimes even shouting but its an amazingly engrossing anime.

Zwillinge

The first types of Anime I seen were stills, just drawn pictures on the internet from online friends in the states. (nerd be me )

From then, I first seen Yu-Gi-Oh and Cardcaptors on RTE2 from 3pm every weekday during the Summer months My friend would come over and we'd watch them together. Then we seen Beyblade and Dragonball Z.

My friend's boyfriend then lent her a VHS copy of Akira which we watched together. For awhile we were both lost and confused but still appreciated the depth that was put into this film.

A few days later, a friend of my friend's boyfriend, gave me a loan of Blood: The Last Vampire, which we both watched. Both blown away by this one.

Since then, me and her have always exchanged Anime DVDs, VHS, comics and whatever we can get our grubby mits on Sure only last week we went to see The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in the IFI. It's nice that me and her still have that connection

chopperbyrne

If Transformers counts then Transformers.

If not then it'd be Akira on VHS and stuff like Battle of the Planets and Voltron from the video man (remember those!).

After that it'd be when Channel 4 used to show anime really late on a Friday or Saturday night.

Used to set the video to record on long play. Got all three Cyber City: Oedo 808 episodes, Fist of the North Star, Ghost in the Shell and some other stuff I can't remember.

When I finally got cable, the Sci-Fi channel was another great place for anime on a Saturday night I think. They showed all of Bubblegum Crisis, Detonator Orgun, Patlabor, Bood: The Last Vampire, Vampire Hunter D, Golgo 13: The Professional and lots more.

I like anime because a lot of it is things I like (sci-fi, fantasy), but with animation there're no restrictions on what you can do and the studios don't treat it as a childish artform. A lot of it is aimed at adults.

Don't think I'll ever stop loving anime, but might stop trying to convince my girlfriend of its worth.

jakeskorpio

I watched Dragonball Z on Cartoon Network, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade and Shinzo on RTÈ when I was younger, then stopped showing it so it was only recently I started looking for anime and manga, I'm looking for the original Dragonball manga series. Some place in Wexford or Kilkenny has them.

T83

Mr Trade In wrote: »

Battle of the Planets, Speed Racer, Megaman video games, Ranma 1/2 on Super Nintendo led me to videos of the same.I used to stay up until 3am to watch Fist of the North Star on Channel 4, years ago.

FOTNS, Street Fighter 2, Devilman... stayed up to watch all those on Channel 4. Sometimes I miss being a teenager. Picked up SF2, Ninja Scroll, Sword for truth *shudder*, and Urotsukidoji on VHS after that, then just kept buying and buying... the usual suspects back then, GITS, Akira, Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D etc...

Danger_dave1

A friend of my old brother had a load of manga's on VHS and he'd bring Akira, devilman, fist of the north star, madbull 34 , project Aiko , vampire Hunter D. After akira though i was hooked. Now i just try and watch the most random stuff I can find , always find gems after about 10 really weird ones.

p.s Id recomend Jo Jo's bizarre adventure if you can find it , only found it 3 weeks ago and its class !

danielgentle

I preferred Naruto and Bosou Rekin... it was cool anime!!

dazza_480

when i was younger i was watched dragon ball z and pokemon but i didn't start watching it seriously until a few years ago a really good anime called naruto was on tv and the shows were always repeating themselves and moving forward too slowly (a new episode once a week )so i went online and discovered the world of anime

Dante1979

When I was 13 I can remember seeing Devilman dubbed on Channel4 and loving the Violence of it, it was about demons and a geeky kid who is thrown into this horrific world of demons, with the most powerful of all inside himself!

Then came Akira but I was too young then to grasp the movie, I saw the PSI powers.
About 2 years ago, I got a broadband connection and came a cross animé sites.
I got to watch those same movies and OVA's and a whole range of every description again with an adults eye. I love animé. First I started looking for dubbed movies Sci/fi mostly then found Guyver. Then found Studio Ghibli a whole new beautiful side to animé. I am not a purist. I do like to watch dubbed animé. But I will also watch with subtitles if its really bad. But finally They are beginning to understand there is a market in the Western World Too

I see animé as a very legitimate source of commentary of social issues in Japan, which is lost on me but its accepted as a sitcom would over here. Where animation is for children, with some in jokes for the adults in the Big movies.
Animé can be used a social commentary IMO.

In fact a Graphic Novel of the Easter Rising has been published just this year, I have no details but Im sure All Mighty Google will be able to help

I love it in all it shapes and sizes. It inspired me to go and learn more about the country, its History and People. I hope to visit next year.

Try to tell somebody that yeah I'm 30 and I watch cartoons which is what people initially think.
There is an English Animation called When the Wind Blows. It is one of the most sad, moving and thought provoking animation I have every seen. Channel 4 had a hand in its production. Its not just for kids. I have a nearly 18 month old son and I wouldn't allow animé such as Dragon Ball or Naruto Shippuden until his teens but God only knows what we will be watching then. Animé can be violent, pornographic, thought provoking, and beautiful. Watch Nausica Valley of the Winds, or Spirited Away, and watch Akira or Karas The Prophecy.
Animé is a passion of mine, I Love It. and I am glad that there are going to be conventions here in Ireland this year. Taking place in Dublin. Pm me for details.
Great Thread
Thank you for letting me read and be read
Dante
Peace
Ps. Personally I would recommend an animé called Hellsing. There are two Versions. A 13 part Series and a still continuing updated OVA's. Redrawn, and changed slighty. It has one of the most dark anti-hero character in it that you can't help but like. Also people put up their own AMV's. Animé Music Video's on YouTube. They can be very good

Yukina

I began as most Irish kids did with pokémon, then digimon, then yu-gi-oh.

Then came the adolescent years, where liking animated cartoons wasn't cool and I got out of the habit.

I was reintroduced to anime and manga via a great little shop in Galway. I began with fruits basket, then vampire knight. After that I sought out anime online. I fell in love with death note and high school host club. And from there I've watched a number of beautiful and obscure anime alike.

My favourite though would have to be Howl's Moving Castle... Or spirited away... I really can't decide.

death the kidd

well apart from the ones on TV (like pokémon, cardcaptor sakura, yu-gi-oh etc) I first started watching naruto because my frient said I should check it out and from there I began watching D.gray-man and Host club and it kinda grew from there!

Guilty_Sky

First encounter was Dragonball Z when it was aired on cartoon Network in 1999.
What caught me was probably the action. I was young and easily impressed by the over the top fight scenes; which were something I hadn't seen before.
Got hooked to the point of watching the marathons of entire sagas that were shown during the summer of the following years; even watched some Dragonball GT although that didn't catch me like Z did.

Next was Gundam Wing which aired on Toonami in 2000.
Again the action got me hooked. Was the first time I'd seen giant robots with laser cannons blast each other to bits in space, what's not to like.
Found myself staying up late to watch the uncut version that was shown after midnight even though I'd already seen the episodes.

Then during August of 2000 Fox Kids aired Escaflowne. This was the series that pushed me from thinking of anime as simply "cool cartoons" to something else altogether.
To this day it is one of my favourite series. I adore the entire setiing of the show; the strange medieval fantasy mixed with steampunk take on the mecha genre. Combining the giant robots of what I'd seen in Gundam with sword fighting was, for a kid who spent all his time playing video games that were set in various takes on the Lord of the Rings style fantasy universe, the greatest thing ever.
And because the series wasn't all shown in full it compelled me to go seek out the rest of the series myself.

As a result of now watching Toonami I, out of sheer dumb luck, saw the only airing of Blue Submarine No.6 in November of 2000. I'm not sure if I actually enjoyed this at the time. I think I was probably too young to grasp the concept behind it but I still sat through the whole thing; it was enough for me to remember it and go back and watch it years later; I now love it.

Once Adult Swim started I remember seeing Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Again I was maybe a bit young at the time to grasp the brilliance of both of these but it was enough for me to go back and watch them again later.
Ghost in the Shell in particular has become one of my favourites; mostly because I'm a sucker for anything remotely cyberpunk and this fits the bill pretty well.

Somewhere along the way I saw Akira aswell but I can hardly remember when. Watched it again later on and, like GitS, being somewhat cyberpunk I adored it.

Rigardo

The first Manga I saw was Oedo 808. I was up late watching tv when it came on. I think it was on Channel 4. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It opened up a whole new world for me. In a time when films had budgets I was seeing things that no movie producer could come close afford.