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[Mr_Moogle]

Obviously Pokemon and DBZ we're pretty popular in the mid-late 90's and we're probably the first anime shows I watched regularly. I wouldn't say I was a fan of the medium until I saw Cowboy Bebop, NGE and the Ghibli collection. (Mononoke, Rosso my faves)

Cowboy Bebop is perfection to me. The only flaw in the series is that they didn't make more of it. Outstanding English dub as well.

NGE is a flawed masterpiece. Some of it is truly excruciating but some of it is pure genius.

Ghibli are the Disney of the anime world but without the annoying songs ruining their films.

 

[HolyBaikal]

Oh, and on Pokemon. I forgot to mention this. Since I already admitted to piracy then I guess I might as well admit this, too.

Aside from snes, I emulated game boy games a lot. Though I definitely spent most of my time on snes9x when I was computer gaming. When I was that age back then, and I had dial up, I couldn't wait to play the new Pokemon games. It seemed like they were taking so long to translate and officially release Pokemon Gold and Silver. So... I downloaded and played lots of Pokemon games on emulators.

I downloaded an unofficial translation of them and tried playing. It wasn't very good, but it was good enough that it let me play. I remember thinking it didn't feel very much like Pokemon at all. It was so very different looking and everything. I thought it was another bootleg game like Pokemon Diamond and other bootleg games I played at first. All the acorns and things didn't seem like Pokemon.

I bought then when they came out, though. I wasn't trying to avoid buying them. I was just getting impatient for them to localize the games. I still have those feelings when I look at Pokemon Gold and Silver. They seem nostalgic and mysterious and not like Pokemon at the same time. Pokemon Gold and Silver just looked so different than Pokemon Red and Blue that they didn't feel like Pokemon. They felt like a bootleg game.

Also, video sharing was so different. I would have watched Pokemon episodes online if I could.... but it took me hours just to download small Pokemon clips. I remember it took me hours to download the Mesaze Pokemon Master intro video. Like maybe 4 or 6 hours. And it was probably much below 240p.

Most people seem to be nostalgic for the Western opening song for Pokemon. But I was really into anime and how pretty Japanese language looked and sounded to me back then, and subbed things. So I'm nostalgic for this song. I worked so hard to download it. Being disconnected for dial-up so many times trying to download it. And watching it for hours a day for several days. I thought it was so pretty and much nicer than the American version. It's still my favourite Pokemon theme and I'm so nostalgic for it. It's such a pretty song.

I feel so happy and nostalgic just listening to it in a way. It was so pretty and mysterious and the feminine vocals were so pretty. And I worked so hard to download it.

 

[rothgar]

I liked a lot of the early 90's stuff like Golgo 13 and Video Girl Ai, but the one that made me a fanboy in those days was Ranma 1/2. And I still like the dub, even though I would turn into a sub only guy laters.

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

Long post.... sorry.... ^^;;



Well... that's my anime story... I guess... at least a good part of it. ^^;; Sorry for such a long post. My nostalgia really got ahead of me. I started thinking of memories and words just seemed to start flowing out of my hands. Like I just had to keep writing and expressing myself. I don't know what that happened.. a lot of this doesn't even have to do with anime.... I hope I haven't done anything wrong by saying all this. It felt good to just keep writing. It felt comforting, even though it was scary. I'm going try to be brave and post this post right now, and hope that things don't end horrible. I'm so scared to press the "Submit Reply" button.

I think that's the longest post I've ever seen on GAF lol.

But hey, passion is passion. Can't knock passion

Alright tell the truth people. How old were you the first time you saw Ninja Scroll.

25

But hey I was late on NGE too so there's that.

 

[Crash Station]

Sailor Moon was the first one I ever watched, but I didn't have a channel that actually ran it until much later, so I only got to see it once a year when I visited my grandparents in Florida.

Pokemon is the first one I really watched and DBZ is what really got me into the medium.

 

[Ribbon]

Watched Evangelion and Lain the same week during my first year of college. Still two of my favorite shows.

 

[Rydeen]

Saturday Anime on Sci-Fi Channel from the mid-to-late-90's is what did me in: I had the chicken pox and was up at midnight and Casshan: Robot Hunter came on and nothing was ever the same again. Demon City Shinjuku and 8-Man After were also guilty of this. I think I had seen the last few minutes of Demon City Shinjuku at my grandparent's house a few months before and that piqued my interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he7QbBF7eP0

Sci-Fi Channel Saturday Anime promo for anybody to young to have experienced the awesomeness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEGzjlPk7sM

 

[Chibot]

Ghost in the Shell (movie) served as my entry into anime.

 

[D-Man]

I was always a very 'casual' anime fan for a good chunk of my life. I would watch adaptations of games I played but never really cared to watch any specific series. This all changed this previous Summer thanks to the fact that I stumbled upon Cromartie High School and accidentally binge watched it. After that, I just jumped from series to series and ended up liking most, if not all, of the animes I took the time to watch.

So yeah. Cromartie High School out of all shows is what got me into anime. What a hilarious series.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I got into anime without even knowing. Pokemon, Dragonball Z, YugiOh, Digimon, Inu Yasha, Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed and more that I'm forgetting were many shows I used to watch on TV when I was younger.

At first I didn't even know what Japan was and just assumed that all these shows were made in Canada. But I noticed that there was something different about them compared to local stuff once I learned of their origin, notably the animation, story and thematic concepts were on a different level than the standard quirky shows that were coming out of NA at the time. I assumed that we would be seeing stuff at that level on a regular basis in NA after some time but that never came to be outside of some extreme rarities like Avatar/Korra (not saying Avatar/Korra are peerless paragons of storytelling, simply that a major effort was invested here and it shows especially in terms of things like the animation).

I think anime helped to form the foundation for my love for animation and what it's capable of in terms of what subjects it can tackle and how there's so much diversity in style and content. (Disney movies were good too but they don't make 2D ones anymore).

 

[Shadoken]

Ninja Robots on CN. Never Forget.

 

[Bjoern the Smexy]

Dragonball (not Z) and Pokémon started the trend for me. I became a real fan of Manga and Anime with Cowboy Bebop, Lupin III. and Visions of Escaflowne.
MTV had a pretty good anime program in Germany back then.

 

[Cloudy]

Escaflowne (TV Series). Not the first one I saw but the first great one. Great characters, art and music and I choked up at the end.

 

[EGOMON]

DragonBall the GOAT

 

[smurfx]

spirited away got me into anime. i watched dragon ball z but it never made me want to watch other animes.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Dragonball Z. It led me into Toonami and many other shows. Despite my I interest in the niche (a lot of what I watch and own is pretty obscure) I have no shame in saying Dragonball is still top ten for me. As is One Piece and Evangelion. Sometimes popular things are popular for a reason.

 

[HolyBaikal]

I think that's the longest post I've ever seen on GAF lol.

But hey, passion is passion. Can't knock passion

Teehee. Thank you. Passion is a nice word. I am a pretty passionate person, I think. I don't know why, but I've become a person who burns with passion very easily.

For some reason, I really like writing.. too. Once I start, it can be really hard to stop. Maybe I should be a writer.

Did you really read my post? If so... that's embarrassing... ^^;;
I'm kind of afraid of what someone might say or think if they read it...

Thank you for the response, by the way.

 

[sir_kevith]

I dunno the exact show. I used to stay up late and watch the stuff on cable as a kid at like 2 am and it was so cool to me. I remember one about racing that was super actiony and bloody.

I just seen Akira, Mononoke, and Ghost in the Shell on a 75 foot IMAX screen it was amazing. Of those 3 I gotta say Akira is my favorite. Its a visual spectacle and has great music and sound. I'll just say Akira got me into it.

 

[Zengar]

Doraemon when i was 7

EDIT: It was Gundam series that made me really interest in anime though

 

[Anth0ny]

Those 3:

Yup. That mid/late 90s YTV line up got me good.

 

[FRV]

Cowboy Bebop, Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist(not brotherhood).

 

[bobawesome]

Don't laugh but...it was totally Rosario Vampire.

It felt like someone ripped a part of my heart out once it was over.

Many 2D women have come and gone since then but I'll always have a special place in my heart for Kurumu. Nobody forgets their first waifu.

I'm one of those crazy people who liked the anime way more than the manga, too.

 

[Oxirane]

I never followed anime series on TV closely, so often the stories made no sense. However, I did watch some movies and they seemed more memorable.

-Akira
-The Castle of Cagliostro
-Tranzor Z (the mangled english movie version)
-(Some magical girl show where the young girl transformed into an older version of herself and had to rescue her parents and other adults who had been turned into kids)

 

[stryke]

I don't remember this animation shot. Is it a new one in Kai?

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Akira
Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin

 

[sleverfunk]

Yu yu hakusho
Dbz
Voltes v
Daimos
Flame of recca
Slam dunk

This were the reason why I wanted to go home fast after school.

 

[Chuckie]

To be honest I don't even remember what it was about. Just saw the tape in some rental place and decided to rent it.

After that came Akira, Wicked City and Urotsukidōji

 

[Android18a]

Gunsmith Cats. My first anime on VHS back in the day, loved it. Got addicted

 

[GifGafIsTheBestGaf]

Don't laugh but...it was totally Rosario Vampire.

It felt like someone ripped a part of my heart out once it was over.

Many 2D women have come and gone since then but I'll always have a special place in my heart for Kurumu. Nobody forgets their first waifu.

I'm one of those crazy people who liked the anime way more than the manga, too.

heh, it is great but i got hooked first with the manga so when i was done with the first part (second part was barely translated back then) i decided to check out the anime and what a travesty. thats why i try to watch first the anime version of a series because it will always get better and heal your soul when you read the manga.

 

[Mexen]

Ghost In The Shell.

 

[ferr]

Iria came at a right time for my age. Saw it on SciFi channel some Saturday morning and looked it up on stone-age internets and found there was a whole genre to enjoy.

Spoiler

also Sailor Moon, but that was pre-internet so it didn't lead anywhere beyond Sailor Moon.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Project A-Ko.

I didn't get all the references, I doubt I still do, it was dubbed in English - and I still like the English dub of the first movie because of nostalgia. But something about the humour, the music, the artstyle, the irreverence of it clicked with me as a kid.

The Manga video label in the UK was basically the only outlet to get anime at the time, although I did buy expensive NTSC imports of stuff like Urusei Yatsura from a comic book store. None of the other movies on the Manga label had that same impact on me. I liked some of them, but they generally stuck to releasing action/horror/sci-fi videos that would appeal to the audience, nothing else they put out was really like Project A-Ko.

 

[Ray Wonder]

Well, whenever I was younger I didn't know the difference. They were just cartoons to me. The first ones were Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Digimon, Yugioh, Gundam.. That's about it I think. I sorta watched Sailor Moon too. They weren't what really got me into Anime though since I had no idea what that was really. What really got me into subtitled anime was Naruto. Couldn't get enough of it, and I still love it to death.

 

[Dirtyshubb]

For me, there were a few different films that really got me into Anime as a genre when I was younger.

Nausica – I remember owning this on VHS when I was quite young, I didn’t even realise it was anime at the time since I just viewed it as an animated film as I wasn’t aware of such distinctions. Amazing film though, some beautiful imagery and as an animal lover the story always connected with me.

Ghost in the Shell – I remember renting this when I was young from the local shop and falling in love with it. I absolutely loved the whole cyberpunk aspect of it, plus the idea of trans-humanism and the self-reflection that went along with it was fascinating to me.

Akira – Another movie I rented and loved, crazy story with some amazing visuals.

I remember Channel 4 used to play anime on certain days but you would have to wait until 1am to watch. As a young child this was always a challenge to stay awake but I would power through and watch some of their showings:

Cyber City Oedo: 808 – I remember liking the idea of the criminals being forced into doing good, plus the robot fight on the construction site with the Mohawk character was something that always stuck with me.

Legend of the 4 kings – Don’t know if I ever finished this show but it was one I was also following as I enjoyed the story of the 4 brothers who could turn into dragons when needed.

 

[Inkvoterad]

fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Clannad
Kanon

I had to have my heart broken several times, until i realized how fucking great anime could be.

 

[Ourobolus]

Saw Iria for the first time on Saturday Morning Anime and was immediately hooked. Armitage III came on the following week, I think.

Man, I wonder if there are VHSs in my parents attic with all of the ones I taped.

Demon City Shinjuku
L.I.L.Y Cat
8 Man After
Venus Wars
Gall Force: Eternal Story
Project A-Ko
El Hazard
Green Legend Ran

Holy crap there's a few on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrFxl3ZrJ-8&index=9&list=PLIlBgRBgUq7xUfoinSTamDwDuiPpQSwdb

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Probably Cowboy Bebop. I'd seen stuff like DBZ, Sailor Moon, Bumpety Boo but when CNX dropped in the UK back in 2002 that's when I saw Bebop and Outlaw Star. It was just some next level shit I couldn't properly comprehend at like age 12 or so. Anime was pretty hard to come by in the UK though and I never really bought any DVDs until I was like 15 or so when I got curious and internet searched it.

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

I was drawn to anime in the early 90's because I was a hormonal teenager and the idea of seeing nudity, gore, and swearing in cartoons was alluring. Some of the first ones I watched were the obvious ones. Akira, Vampire Hunter D, and Project-Ako.

I still appreciate certain works, but I can't say I'm a fan of anime as a whole any longer. I still really dig the general vibe of 80's anime, and the experimental nature of many of the OVAs produced during that period.

 

[True Savior]

My bro rented this in late 80's

Everything changed.

Tv shows , obviously Dragon Ball and Captain Tsubasa and Miracle Giants Dome-kun

I always watched shows frequently. There was a huge boom here when Manga Entertainment started to release movies. In TV , Rurouni Kenshin , Evangelion , then after a while Bebop , Trigun aired. I always loved it but really didn't seek to watch more (having no internet was obviously a huge reason).

And then i watched Berserk in 2001 (i bought a bootleg of it) and once again everything changed

.

Not only it blew my mind , made my interest in the genre peek and seekingly look for new stuff.

 

[leakey]

Watched Ninja Scroll with my older brother when I was young (maybe younger than 10?). I remember that being the first anime I'd ever seen, which I found to be awesome. I remember the VHS had a preview for Ghost In The Shell, so of course I saw that sometime after.

My love for anime was really solidified watching Cowboy Bebop on Adult Swim some years later, though.

 

[Herne]

Princess Mononoke got me into Ghibli films, and some tv shows. Still not massively into it, though. Bits and pieces here and there.

 

[Htown]

I think it was Gundam Wing

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Saturday morning on the scifi channel had an anime movie. I remember Akira, Record of Lodoss War ( I believe, even though I don't think that was a movie), and vampire hunter d.

 

[Parfait]

Those 3:

The holy trinity of my childhood.

I still want a pink BAD MAN shirt.

 

[UncleO]

Robotech was mt first.

Then Ninja Scroll

and

Vampire Hunter D

just blew me away.

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

Teehee. Thank you. Passion is a nice word. I am a pretty passionate person, I think. I don't know why, but I've become a person who burns with passion very easily.

For some reason, I really like writing.. too. Once I start, it can be really hard to stop. Maybe I should be a writer.

Did you really read my post? If so... that's embarrassing... ^^;;
I'm kind of afraid of what someone might say or think if they read it...

Thank you for the response, by the way.

Well it was late night so I more skimmed parts but I'm reading posts off and on in this thread throughout the day now to see where everyone's at. And yeah, if you can write this much in response to a simple question, you should definitely consider writing. I write too (not in a novel-like way, more a film script kind of way) so that feeling of not being able to stop after you stop-especially when you've got a really good idea in your head and are in that zen like moment-is 100% relatable.

No need to be embarrassed about what you have a passion for; some people understand and some don't, but running into the latter isn't the end of the world x3. I just like seeing passion, especially creative passion and enthusiasm. There isn't enough of that in this world these days.

Cheers!

 

[BGBW]

I was expecting this title to pop up here, what I did not expect was it coming from you. :lol.

But you know I like to post a cheeky lewd joke now and then.

 

[Kyougar]

I grew up in the nineties with Sailor Moon, Saber Rider, Treasure Island, and many more.

but the only Anime at that time that really had a lasting impression on me was
Nadia, Secret of Blue Water.

 

[Neoxon]

Dragon Ball Z & Cowboy Bebop got me into anime initially, Space Dandy & Black Lagoon brought me back.

 

[HyperCubed4]

Those 3:

Yup. That mid/late 90s YTV line up got me good.

Same here. Never missed an episode of Dragonball Z on YTV. I distinctly remember watching Inuyasha with my friends a lot.

The one anime that I remember watching that left the biggest impression on me as a teen was Death Note. Everything else was tame in comparison. Pokemon, DBZ and even Sailor Moon will always hold a place in my heart, but Death Note was the one anime that made me realize that anime could be

Spoiler

somewhat

mature.

And of course, Akira and Spirited Away made me realize how great Japanese animation can be.