When did you first start watching anime and why?
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Along with that what was the first anime you watched?
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Even though it wasn't too long ago it seems like forever since I started watching Anime. The first time I watched Anime was in December (2015), I was on Netflix looking through the different sections and I saw Fairy Tail. It seemed interesting so I started watching it and I was instantly hooked. Since Netflix only has the first 48 episodes I decided to buy the rest (excpext the first 48 episodes) on ITunes. At the time I didn't know what Funimation was, I saw their logo on over 200 episodes but it never really came to me to search them up. After I finished watching Fairy Tail I searched up Funimation. I was really interested so I decided to give the free trial a go, (this was around January 2016). 3 months later I'm here enjoying tons of anime, and I never really liked subs, but now I'm starting to get into them.
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I'm kinda of the same way. I first started watching anime back in May of 2015. It's funny because before that anyone who ever mentioned anime and watching it, I immediately branded them as a loser. Now here I am watching a lot of different anime. I think I've watched 35 or 36 anime so far. The show that really got me into liking anime, believe it or not, was Heaven's Lost Property which I watched on Netflix. It's a very good show and I recommend it. I too, started watching fairy tail on Netflix and originally thought that there was only 48 episodes in the show; boy was I wrong. That's when I stumbled upon funimation because I saw that they had all the dubbed episodes of fairy tail up to 175 and now I'm all caught up with fairy tail. I've been watching anime ever since and it's great.
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I first saw anime in either 1997 or 1998, when I saw the First Dub of Sailor Moon on UPN. I never saw past the first season except for a couple parts of what was R. I wasn't aware of what anime was until Late 2000 when Fox Kids or Fox Family had a block called 'Anime Invasion'. I kinda stalled on anime until I entered college and started watching Bleach. That was when I found out Johnny Yong Bosch did Voice Work. I was, and still am, a Big Power Rangers Fan, So hearing JYB got me into anime. It wasn't until I saw Baka & Test on Netflix that I joined Funimation, because that was the funniest anime I EVER saw at the time!
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Yeah I mean I watched a lot of dragon ball z and some naruto when I was younger, but at the time I had no idea that they were anime.
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Pokémon was obviously my childhood's introduction to anime - and as I kept watching shows on Cartoon Network's old Toonami block I was introduced to Dragon Ball Z and Rurouni Kenshin (the former never really stuck with me into adulthood, but Kenshin remains a personal favorite).
In my high school years I would occasionally find other shows like Samurai Champloo and Trigun airing on Adult Swim; and the old on-demand functions granted me access to all sorts popular (CLANNAD) to more obscure (To Heart) series.
It wasn't until I saw the Funimation channel that I started becoming more serious about it (Fall 2010) Soul Eater would have to be my gateway anime; it led me to FMA and Brotherhood, to more SJ titles like Death Note…and after researching what was popular I just binged-watched whatever was available to me. I didn't even start streaming until just a few years ago.
The reality is I'm still getting my feet wet after just 5 and a half years of anime. Manga is harder for me to get into as I own a very humble collection; there are VERY few light novels I may ever read - and I haven't even touched visual novels. I'm pushing 30, have attended just 2 cons, and have a long ways to go yet before considering myself truly knowledgeable about my own hobby.
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Yep I also watched whatever was on cartoon network's toonami block, from dragon ball z and naruto, to bobobo and sometimes one piece.
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When did I first start watching anime?
Hm…my best guess would be around the early 2000s, when Toonami showed stuff like Outlaw Star, Gundam Sing, Dragon Ball Z, and a few others. Which one was my first? Can't remember...
I might have also started with My Neighbor Totoro on the old Fox/Streamline VHS. I really ought to save up for the older DVD, seeing as how the modern releases only have the newer dub.
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I grew up with Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh and the like on TV. I'm not a big fan of it anymore, but Naruto was the first non-Pokemon anime that I became really invested in. I think I watched every episode that was shown on TV except towards the end in the big filler mess where I missed a week every now and then. In 2008 I joined an anime club because of my interest in Naruto, and at the same time got into FMA and bought the DVDs, PS2 games, and manga. Shortly thereafter I began streaming shows and watched Brotherhood as my first simulcast.
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I watched Pokemon and Digimon on TV as a kid, and even got to catch a few Sakura Cardcaptor and Dragonball Z episodes too. But I didn't get much impressed by them at the time. Somewhere around 2005 my friend told me about anime and I was like "this is shit" without even trying to watch a single episode. So 10 years later (2015), I remembered my friend telling me about Elfen Lied, started watching it to "open my mind" a little more and I cried like a baby at the end. It hit me pretty hard and I was in no way expecting anything like that. I haven't been able to feel anything similar in other kinds of visual entertainment and this is why I love anime.
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Robotech is the first one I can remember, back when it was airing originally (could technically say the same for Transformers, GI Joe, My Little Pony, etc, that were all animated in Japan, I guess…). Of course I did not know at the time that it was originally from Japan.
When I really started getting into it (and understood Robotech and how Transformers came to be) was around 94-95, when all sorts of goodies were airing: Ronin Warriors, Teknoman, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon (still chuckle when I hear that line from Barenaked Ladies' "One Week"), Samurai Pizza Cats, among a few others.
I then started collecting various Robotech VHS volumes (often way out of order), and renting from Blockbuster (Macross II, Project A-Ko, and others I can't remember anymore), but the first real series I collected and watched from start to finish was Tenchi Universe. All went downhill from there.
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In high school, Gundam Wing and Cowboy Bebop, and because there was nothing else on.
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I watched Sailor Moon as a kid, but I didn't really "get into" it until I was in the middle of my Teen Titans/ Batman obsession and I saw a picture of Ed Elric at a comic book store. I thought he was really hot, because I'd never really seen long-haired anime boys before. So I watched that when it started on Adult Swim (2005-ish?), and I was obsessed with him… until I discovered Lelouch. <3 (which was at the dub cast announcement panel at "New York Anime Fest" 2007, a con that was spun off of NY comiccon and then got folded back in a few years later).
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My first was Ghost in Shell that I rented from my local video store back in like 2003'ish. A girl in my FFXI guild recommended it. I liked it, but I would say that I never truly got hooked until I saw Steins;Gate. For me, it's the one that sealed the deal.
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Honestly, I think the first anime I saw may have been Hamtaro when I was a kid lol what a ridiculous show. The first show that really got me into anime later on though was Death Note.
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My wife has always been super into anime and manga even before we met. When we first started dating back in 2005, she came with a lot of manga and anime. I always thought it was super weird, but hey it was her thing. Live and let live.
A bit in I started catching a few episodes of shows like Inuyasha, Bleach, and Witchblade on Toonami with her. That eventually lead into me watching Death Note from start to finish with her. I still wasn't really into it then, though I did enjoy Death Note. Fast forward a bit and we move to Austin in 2013 and get U-verse and had the Funimation Channel.
She would watch random things, but begged me to watch Fairy Tail with her. I thought it was gonna be lame, but humored her. I got hooked and we started watching regularly. I got deeper and deeper eventually getting a sub to Funi, Anime Network and Crunchyroll. She then drug me into manga with AoT and some others.
Now we watch anime A LOT, although I think I watch it more than her now, and have a giant manga collection. The one thing I wouldn't cave on was Cons, but finally caved for A-kon 26 and loved it so much we went to San Japan the same year. Now here we are, in our 30s, expecting our first child, and total otakus at this point.
