Like many fans of anime, I was drawn to the medium during my teen years after being exposed to its distinctive animation style and mature themes (relative to most western animation). I would occasionally catch an episode or two of DBZ while over at a friend's house in those early days of Toonami bringing anime into the mainstream for an entire generation of American viewers, but it wasn't until I saw one film in particular that my eyes were opened up to potential of the medium. In speaking with the few friends I have that also like anime in varying degrees, it seems to me that most people can remember that pivotal show or movie that piqued their interest in anime and sent them on a quest to find and watch all of the quality stuff out there.
So I thought I'd pose the question to GAF, since I know there are more than a few anime-philes around these parts. What anime broke the seal for you?
I'll start us off with the one that birthed my interest in anime:
Samurai X - Trust & Betrayal (Kenshin OVA)
I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was in en Electronics Boutique in my local mall somewhere in the neighborhood of my sophomore year in high school, and I overheard an employee and a customer talking about anime. I'm not sure what compelled me to listen in on their conversation, but I tuned in just in time to hear the employee say, "Samurai X is the best anime I've ever seen." I didn't think much of it and went on with my day, doing whatever the hell I tended to do at that age.
A few days later, once the weekend rolled around, my recollection of "Samurai X" popped into my head. Seeing as how I thought the notions of samurai and swordplay were pretty cool in general, I found myself searching for information about it online. The screenshots of the film that I came across looked compelling. They hinted at an animation style unlike any I'd grown accustomed to viewing in American theaters or on television. As a fan of animation in all its forms, I decided to take a chance on it and would go on to pick up a copy of the DVD at a nearby store that very weekend.
I popped it into my PS2 later that night, and the rest is history.
Anyone who has seen the Kenshin OVA knows that it ranks among the best of all time. I really started off my pursuit of quality anime on a high note, haha. Even without having been exposed to the Rurouni Kenshin TV show first (it would later become one of my favorite series), the story of this conflicted assassin and the tragedy that follows him hooked me in a way that no other animated film had up to that point. The story and characters were fantastic, the animation was top-notch, the fight choreography was beautifully fluid yet minimalist and realistic, and I found it to be genuinely moving by the time the credits rolled. The whole thing really impressed me, and almost immediately afterward I started searching online for more anime recommendations.
In high school I would go on to binge on all-time greats like Kenshin, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Grave of the Fireflies, Jin-Roh, Princess Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Ninja Scroll... etc. The list goes on and on. I was basically insatiable when it came to good anime. Sometime during college I found that I had completely mined the anime-verse of everything that was up my alley, so I took a pretty long break from it. It would be nearly a decade before Attack on Titan would pull me back in. I still consider myself to be a pretty casual fan of the medium, since the vast majority of what's out there doesn't appeal to me. But regardless, I have Samurai X to thank for opening my eyes to a whole new avenue of art and animation.
</end rant>
I look forward to reading about all of your first forays into the wild world of anime.
So I thought I'd pose the question to GAF, since I know there are more than a few anime-philes around these parts. What anime broke the seal for you?
I'll start us off with the one that birthed my interest in anime:
Samurai X - Trust & Betrayal (Kenshin OVA)
I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was in en Electronics Boutique in my local mall somewhere in the neighborhood of my sophomore year in high school, and I overheard an employee and a customer talking about anime. I'm not sure what compelled me to listen in on their conversation, but I tuned in just in time to hear the employee say, "Samurai X is the best anime I've ever seen." I didn't think much of it and went on with my day, doing whatever the hell I tended to do at that age.
A few days later, once the weekend rolled around, my recollection of "Samurai X" popped into my head. Seeing as how I thought the notions of samurai and swordplay were pretty cool in general, I found myself searching for information about it online. The screenshots of the film that I came across looked compelling. They hinted at an animation style unlike any I'd grown accustomed to viewing in American theaters or on television. As a fan of animation in all its forms, I decided to take a chance on it and would go on to pick up a copy of the DVD at a nearby store that very weekend.
I popped it into my PS2 later that night, and the rest is history.
Anyone who has seen the Kenshin OVA knows that it ranks among the best of all time. I really started off my pursuit of quality anime on a high note, haha. Even without having been exposed to the Rurouni Kenshin TV show first (it would later become one of my favorite series), the story of this conflicted assassin and the tragedy that follows him hooked me in a way that no other animated film had up to that point. The story and characters were fantastic, the animation was top-notch, the fight choreography was beautifully fluid yet minimalist and realistic, and I found it to be genuinely moving by the time the credits rolled. The whole thing really impressed me, and almost immediately afterward I started searching online for more anime recommendations.
In high school I would go on to binge on all-time greats like Kenshin, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Grave of the Fireflies, Jin-Roh, Princess Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Ninja Scroll... etc. The list goes on and on. I was basically insatiable when it came to good anime. Sometime during college I found that I had completely mined the anime-verse of everything that was up my alley, so I took a pretty long break from it. It would be nearly a decade before Attack on Titan would pull me back in. I still consider myself to be a pretty casual fan of the medium, since the vast majority of what's out there doesn't appeal to me. But regardless, I have Samurai X to thank for opening my eyes to a whole new avenue of art and animation.
</end rant>
I look forward to reading about all of your first forays into the wild world of anime.
