brayzie

What got you interested in anime? Or the first anime you watched?

pelenor

Star Blazers! Battle of the Planets and Then Robotech. Of course once I was old enough to realize that these were dubbed and reworked from the original version, I tracked the originals down and watched them and haven't looked back since.

Why So Blu?

The first two animes I watched were Fist of the North Star (1986) and Vampire Hunter D (1985) - back when it was called "Japanimation." I saw the films on VHS for the first time in 1992 and I was hooked to art form. It's been kind of weird the last few years with the wave of bullshit anime geared towards younger audiences. I'm not into kiddie anime. I like violent anime.

brayzie

Interesting responses.

I grew up with Voltron, Transformers, and later some cartoon shows about robots that form bigger robots, one of them with a western theme. So I already had an affinity for the style and the type of animation.

I always thought Japan had better everything, toys, cartoons, monsters, etc.

But it wasn't until junior high/highschool that I rented my first anime, Bio-Booster Guyver. It was pretty awesome and violent. Then Sailor Moon came out, and since I had nothing better to do I watched it and eventually got hooked on it. Ronin Warriors came on a little bit later and it was probably my ideal cartoon. Action oriented, in a city setting vering on the post apolalyptic, with demons, and samurai.

flansered

Like a lot of people my age, it was Voltron and Robotech, and then later finding more "Japanimation" like Akira, Vampire Hunter D, Fist of the North Star, the the Clash of the Bionoids VHS dub of the Macross: DYRL movie randomly scattered in different sections of the video stores. Gall Force: Eternal Story was the first anime that I watched subtitled. And like someone else posted, the Guyver OAV series was a favorite when I first got into anime.

Anime seemed more special when it was harder to find.

Maxflier

Watching Voltron and Thunderbirds 2086 as a kid.

Ash Ketchum

I'm old enough to have watched "Astro Boy," "Tobor the Eighth Man," "Gigantor," and "Speed Racer" on TV as a child back in the '60s. We knew those series were Japanese and we respected the fact that they were way more serious than American cartoons. My exposure to anime in the decades after that was less from television and more in theaters at Japanese film festivals where I saw things like PHOENIX 2772, GALAXY EXPRESS 999 (the movie) and, later on, AKIRA, VAMPIRE HUNTER D, WICKED CITY and, the one that really set off my interest, LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY. When I visited a comics convention in 1992 and came across a dealer's table selling anime from Japan on VHS, including LAPUTA, I immediately started buying tapes and looking for info on other titles to inform future purchases. I began to regularly visit comics shows to find dealers selling anime and my collection began to grow. Eventually, of course, U.S. distributors got into the act and the rest, as they say, is history. I raised my daughter on anime, and exposed my nephews and nieces to it as well.

milo bloom

Transformers, Robotech.

fujishig

I grew up in Hawaii, which had a department store at the mall that played the original untranslated Mobile Suit Gundam (and a live-action kids show called Robocon). The dept. store sold all kinds of Japanese goods, and I regularly picked up stuff like Terebi magazine and animation books in Japanese (though I couldn't understand any of it). Kamen Rider V3, Kikaider and Battle Fever J, Japanese live action superhero/sentai shows, were also showing on tv subtitled at the time, and I actually collected the vinyl albums and listened to the theme songs. I also loved Captain Harlock and Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets as a kid. I remember getting this Reideen toy passed down to me from my cousin; it was missing both arms but could still turn into God bird mode, and I loved it. I also remember having to choose as a kid between the Argo from Star Blazers and an Ultraman ship, and chose the Ultraman ship because I thought it looked cooler... years later, when Star Blazers started airing here, I really regretted that. I think it was really toys, specifically robot toys (Shogun Warriors! Jumbo Machinders!), that really got me into anime.

I would collect manga in Japanese, and it was simple enough to follow the action scenes in stuff like Dragonball and Kinnikuman without knowing what the dialogue was. We'd also rent tapes of anime airing on tv in Japan from the local Japanese book store. And my little brother loved the dubbed tapes that were available at the local non-Japanese video store: Time Fighters, Unico, that terrible translation of Nausicaa (Warriors of the Wind), Gold Wing, etc. We didn't get cable so I would have to watch Voltron at a friend's house, but I was very happy when Star Blazers and later Tranzor Z and Robotech aired. There was one tv station that actually subbed Dragonball and Dr. Slump way before Funimation got the rights (later they also had Crayon Shin Chan). Years and years later, I remember going to a small hobby shop looking for backissues of Animag and I saw the announcement that US Renditions was doing subbed Gunbuster and Dangaioh in these nice clamshell cases, and thinking that finally we were getting somewhere.

Why So Blu?

I remember the days of shopping for anime VHS tapes at my local Suncoast.

PuraguCryostato

I watched Battle of the Planetes (G-Force) back in 1982 in Eastern Europe. It was a show the Communist authorities allowed, probably because ties with Japan were warmer than with the US. Afterwards I enjoyed Robotech. Finally Sci-Fi channel ran Moldiver (a classic!!!), Tenchi Muyo and Armitage III TV series which got me hooked on the genre. When the Tenchi Muyo Ryo-ohki DVD set first came out I bought it, and of course I imported the Japanese Pioneer LDC versions of Moldiver, Armitage III and Magical Girl Pretty Sammy from Japan (they were dubbed in English). I then branched out into Grave of the Fireflies and Sakura Taisen before going after Serial Experiments Lain and Martian Successor Nadesico. The rest is history, a very expensive history I might add.

WTK

First anime would be watching Doreamon on TV. Over here in the U.S., it would probably be one of the series on AdultSwim. It would probably be InuYasha or Cowboy Bebop.

Breaksome Eggs

I'm old enough to have gotten into it in the 80s, but I'm a late bloomer. I liked Speed Racer as a kid but it didn't start a trend for me. I saw Akira in the 90s and that didn't do it either. Then I had a friend move in with me about 7 years ago, and he got me hooked on Adult Swim when they were still running new episodes of FMA, GITS and Champloo. BAM, hooked.

The Bus

First one I saw was Future Boy Conan dubbed into Spanish. Mind you, I didn't know it was Future Boy Conan until a few years ago, I just remember it being an awesome show. I had good taste for a four-year old.

I got back into it in high school (someone lent me a copy of Ninja Scroll), and have dipped into it occasionally since.

fujishig

I got a Doraemon toy (the Robot Damashii one which is great) recently, and my little daughter loves it, but has no idea who he is. Unfortunately, I don't think Doraemon will ever get translated, either.

davidh777

Ikkyu-San, not that anyone's heard of that. I also played with Go Rangers before they hit the U.S. as Power Rangers.



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Giles

Star Blazers and Kimba the White Lion when I was a kid - but it was 'Warriors of the Wind' (i.e, Nausicaa) on VHS that kickstarted my reinterest in it when I was a teenager.

Ash Ketchum

I just bought a DVD containing six episodes of "Ikkyu-san," in Japanese with no subs. I spot-checked it and the images are beautiful.

WTK

Yeah. Doraemon is a series that won't be released here. The series is just way to long. Dubbing the series of this length is just unimaginable in N. America.

PhantomStranger

Probably the original Hellsing series. I was aware of anime but had never given it a chance until seeing Hellsing on cable somewhere. From there I moved on to Ninja Scroll.

Ash Ketchum

There are tons of Doraemon movies, too. They come out once a year. I have quite a few of them that I've bought--on tape and disc--from Japanese video stores. They're in Japanese with no subs., but they're usually quite visual and can be enjoyed anyway. I especially liked DORAEMON: NOBITA'S LITTLE STAR WARS, which is about what happens when Nobita's friends are making an ambitious sci-fi home video based on a "Star Wars" theme, when a tiny alien in a toy-sized space ship lands and tells them all that he's fleeing pursuing space ships, which are due to arrive on Earth soon. So Doraemon shrinks them all to the aliens' size and they use their toy space craft to fight back. It's completely insane, but very imaginative.

wishbone

Battle of the Planets



Tōshō Daimos



Robotech



Warriors of the Wind (Nausicaä)

stingermck

A girl I liked in HS She was into Anime, so one night I watched Project A-Ko on Sci-Fi so I would have something to talk about.

In college some friends showed me stuff like Bebop, Vampire Hunter D, Lain, Goldenboy, etc.

davidh777

Cool. Unfortunately, I would need the subs. I did find some VHS tapes years ago in a specialty shop, but those didn't have subs either.

Ash Ketchum

I've acquired a huge number of 1970s anime series episodes on VHS or DVD without subs., and I have to say that they're so beautiful to watch that I'd rather have them without subs than not at all. With things like HEIDI and DOG OF FLANDERS, I'm familiar enough with the original stories to be able to follow the basic outline. With ASHITA NO JOE (Tomorrow's Joe), a boxing drama, it's very hard to follow the story without subs., but once it gets into the boxing and training scenes, it gets very exciting. Plus, I love the gritty urban details.

I have an IKKYU-SAN short film, about 45 min., without subs., about Ikkyu's relationship with a young princess sent to the monastery, and I remember enjoying it.

I took about 10 months of Japanese language classes about 18 years ago, but had to stop when I resumed Graduate School. I've been meaning to take it up again ever since.