What got you started?

[FearTheMoose]

My question to everyone here in the Anime/Manga forum is how did you all get started in anime and manga. For Me it all started with Tenchi Muyo on Cartoon Network, and my best friend started me on manga with Dragonball. I'd like to hear from the rest of you on what started you on this obsession. :D

[Sanagi]

Ranma 1/2 was the one that hooked me.

[Robotech Master]

Saw Robotech, which got me into researching what the original three Japanese Animations were, which of course led to me learning about anime in general. Watched some DBZ on TV, but primarily my fandom started when the Comic Book Universe Battles hosted a fight between Ryoko, A-Ko, and Supergirl. While researching Ryoko's character, I became interested in Tenchi Muyo and ended up buying the OVA series. After that I got Record of Lodoss War and Evangelion, and was hooked.

[Steve]

For years back in the 80's I would watch Voltron and Robotech over and over and never new what anime was or took it seriously. Then a friend of mine back in college lent me a copy of the import version of Street Fighter II the Animated movie. I was curious and rented Ninja Scroll and Macross Plus. I was hooked and the rest was history.

[Trystenn]

Well i saw Akira and that blew me the f*ck away, and then i saw Princess Mononoke, and man i was hooked after that.

[MissKale]

Belle and Sebastian followed later on by Zenki.

[AndyAnime]

I used to watch real old anime like Voltron, Samurai Pizza Cats, and that show on Nickelodeon that featured anime versions of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Though my first "real" (as in uncut) anime was the Gunsmith Cats anime mini-series. After that, I started going through the other tapes in my brother's anime collection, and eventually I was hooked.

[Chou Blaster]

The anime verisons of Grim's Fairy Tale son Old School Nick, Valley of the Wind, and Vamprie Hunter D. (Saw that one on Cartoon Network. Midnight on Halloween on a Saturday.)

[heavysoul]

i bought the akira vhs back in like '94... i think gits came out the following year. inbetween those movies i picked up whatever anime i could. i believe the fatal fury movies came out and tenchi. i was hooked and have been into anime since.

with manga, i picked up the gits trade and shirou blew me away.

[SuperSaiyaMan12]

sadly, Pokemon got me started back in sixth grade

[Pinball]

I was hunting through the bargain bins in the 80s and noticed Mai the Psychic Girl ... it was like nothing i had ever seen

[Infinity Chameleon]

I don't even remember what the first anime I saw was. The first manga I ever picked up though was Ranma 1/2, I think. I like it a great deal but it's not my favorite series.

[adamthered]

G-Force/Battle of the Planets or whatever incarnation it was in in the late 70s/early 80s. Gods, I'm old. Moved onto Robotech and Voltron and then all those awesome, awesome OAVs that were released in the late 80s/early 90s. Gods, I'm still old. I remember thinking long ago when Cartoon Network came about and all they showed was old Hannah Barbera cartoons, "geez, it would be cool if they showed a little anime from time to time." Then they threw us all a bone by showing Robot Carnivale, Vampire Hunter D, and Twilight of the Cockroaches all in one VERY late night. It seemed like heaven back then. I miss those days. It seems like my favourite era of anime consists of a time from about 82-95, I call it: "Macross to Evangelion." While I really enjoy many newer titles, that time frame just gets me all misty-eyed. Before the boom as it were.

[Spastic Minnow]

I've been interested since I first saw Akira I guess, about ten years ago. I had friends who were much more into it than I was, saw some Bubblegum Crisis, Battle Angel Alita, Record of the Lodoss Wars, Vampire Hunter D and Legend of the Overfiend during those first couple years. But it wasn't til I saw some with more humor that I really got into it. Tenchi Muyo and Outlaw Star on Cartoon Network and then moving to a city with a Anime store where I could rent Ranma. And now I search it out whereever I can.

[G. Wayne]

watched voltron nigh-religiously back in the day. never got in to robotech though. didn't really start going out of my way to look for it till i saw vampire hunter d on the sci-fi channel saturday night specials they used to have.

[DrewTheXenocide]

The first anime I really liked was Samurai Pizza cats. I was like, five or something, so I didn't know it was an anime. BUt when I was old, and coherent enough to understand anime it was Pokemon. (Whaddya want from me, I was like eight or something) But the one that truly made go into anime, i.e searching for dvds and whatnot was Escaflowne.

[muimi]

Watched Voltron and Superbook back in the 1980s. Got re-introduced to anime around 1994 with Ranma ½. That was the "gateway" and the rest is history...

[Steve]

I'd also like to add that between Robotech and Voltron there was also Starblazers (Battleship Yamato). Followed that a lot back then.

[Wonder Bebs]

I was merely a wee 2 year old when I first watched an anime. It was one beyond all others, never surpassed by any other anime I have yet to see in my long 18 years of life.

It was a story of tragedy and of a tiny little ray of hope lost in such a dark dark world. It was the story of a little Unicorn, who's sole purpose in life was to bring happiness where there was none and to make all bad things go away.

That anime, that amazed my little 2 year old mind and stayed in my heart for many years to come... that anime my heart longs to see just once more... was called: Unico (http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/unico/Unico.html)

[The Real Nemo]

Sailor Moon was the first anime series I really got into, but Tenchi Muyo was the series that got me interested in anime in general...

[akaurdaddy]

well, i can't remember what really got me into manga, but my first was one piece.
and manga>anime
=]

[MissKale]

I was merely a wee 2 year old when I first watched an anime. It was one beyond all others, never surpassed by any other anime I have yet to see in my long 18 years of life.

It was a story of tragedy and of a tiny little ray of hope lost in such a dark dark world. It was the story of a little Unicorn, who's sole purpose in life was to bring happiness where there was none and to make all bad things go away.

That anime, that amazed my little 2 year old mind and stayed in my heart for many years to come... that anime my heart longs to see just once more... was called: Unico (http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/unico/Unico.html)


I remember Unico... It scared me as a child. Or at least the people getting turned into Puppets really really frightened me.

Though apparently they were three movies, yet I remember it being shown as a series...

[onizuka]

i used to play heaps of video games and was a big StreetFighter fan. then a friend i had when i was in seventh grade told me about this SF movie. i saw it and from that moment on there was no other form of animation that could compare.

[Cephus]

You're not old, adamthered, I am. ;)

I seriously started back in '77-78 when Battle of the Planets came on TV. I had been watching things like Astro Boy and Speed Racer before that, but BOTP was the first thing I really recognized was well animated, but the dubbing sucked, so I watched it with the sound off.

I had a Japanese friend who brought over some tapes of the original Gatchaman one day and I was facinated. Wonderful stuff and not as screwed up as Sandy Frank had made them in BOTP. So the next month, he took me to a meeting of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization (C/FO, the original anime fan group in the US) and I was hooked.

I did a lot of anime-related stuff back then. I got to be good friends with Carl Macek, who ran a local comic shop at the time, and introduced him to anime (including Macross, if I remember right). He went on to create Robotech. I created and ran one of the largest anime fan-groups in the US in the late 80s, and amassed a huge anime collection. My group ran some of the earliest anime rooms at conventions on the West Coast.

It was fun at the time but I pretty much stopped when I got married. Today, I watch a limited amount of anime, read some manga, but really, I don't particularly like the "dumbing down" of anime in America today, or the lackluster fandom. Today, everything is handed to the fans on a silver platter and they swallow the crap, hook, line and sinker.

[adamthered]

You're not old, adamthered, I am. ;)

I seriously started back in '77-78 when Battle of the Planets came on TV. I had been watching things like Astro Boy and Speed Racer before that, but BOTP was the first thing I really recognized was well animated, but the dubbing sucked, so I watched it with the sound off.

I had a Japanese friend who brought over some tapes of the original Gatchaman one day and I was facinated. Wonderful stuff and not as screwed up as Sandy Frank had made them in BOTP. So the next month, he took me to a meeting of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization (C/FO, the original anime fan group in the US) and I was hooked.

I did a lot of anime-related stuff back then. I got to be good friends with Carl Macek, who ran a local comic shop at the time, and introduced him to anime (including Macross, if I remember right). He went on to create Robotech. I created and ran one of the largest anime fan-groups in the US in the late 80s, and amassed a huge anime collection. My group ran some of the earliest anime rooms at conventions on the West Coast.

It was fun at the time but I pretty much stopped when I got married. Today, I watch a limited amount of anime, read some manga, but really, I don't particularly like the "dumbing down" of anime in America today, or the lackluster fandom. Today, everything is handed to the fans on a silver platter and they swallow the crap, hook, line and sinker.

Okay, I'll admit I was only 3-4 when I first watched BotP. But I remember it! And I remembered thinking it was vastly different than Bugs and Tom & Jerry. I rememberd it well enough that a few years later when Robotech and Voltron started up I knew they were from the same place.

I tend to agree with your very last statement. I go to the store and the selection is just schizophrenic. Something for everybody it seems but there's so much product I can't keep heads or tails of it. I pick up a few new things but find myself more interested in older shows than new. I hate that the medium has become so watered down. Sure it's great to be able to pick it up almost anywhere you shop but it doesn't feel nearly as special as it once did. It's become commonplace. I miss the days where the release of a new series was a big deal. Now there are so many new series out there I don't even know where to begin most of the time and am getting too old to research things like I once did.

I also don't like how guys like you, Cephus, don't seem to get the recognition they deserve by todays fans. If it wasn't for diehards with connections back in the 80s, spreading the word to whoever would listen, we wouldn't have the market we have today. Pirated eps, over-priced tapes, long drives, fellow fans few and far between... While I would never want to go back to those days, I do miss them a bit. Back in the days where you had to pick from CPM, US Renditions, Pioneer, VIZ, Manga, and Streamline to get your stuff. When Legend of the Overfiend was right on the shelf next to Macross Plus in a two foot section corner of Sam Goody, when the only way for a kid in the middle of nowhere Iowa (me) could get new stuff was ordering it out of the back of Comic Scene magazine.I remember staring for hours at the picture of Dangioh's (sp) original release, wondering how I would ever get the money for it. My grandma ordered all 6 Macross Saga tapes from FHE for me from the back of that magazine. Great times back then, sniff sniff ;)

[OverMaster]

I got started with Mazinger Z (aka Tranzor Z), and then Sailor Moon.

[heavysoul]

i guess i could say i got into anime back in the late '70s as well, but, i didn't know what anime was back then. it wasn't until much later that i learned it was japanese. when i was a kid i didn't care who made cartoons or where they were from. Speed Racer, G-Force... those were the days. it wasn't until Akira that i became a true-blue anime fan.

[MKTerra]

I don't remember the sequence of events exactly, but some events stand out in my mind:

-A friend dropped the term "japanimation," which I'd never heard of at the time. He was surprised I didn't know about it. I had no idea what it looked like.

-I saw a kind of character-guide Sailor Moon book in Borders and flipped through it. Was kinda interested. Somewhere along the line I figured out it was "japanimation." Maybe my friend mentioned the series's name before I encountered it, but anyway.

-I watched Sailor Moon on Cartoon Network, and was inspired to steer my drawing style in that direction. People in my drawings went from having stumpy legs to having ridiculously long legs :p I also watched Voltron and a bit of Robotech, but I don't remember whether Voltron came before or after Sailor Moon.

-I became acquainted with the Internet and went searching for names I randomly remembered from flipping through Animerica. As it turned out, "Magic Knight Rayearth" was a good starting choice :) Then I tried Rurouni Kenshin but steered clear when I saw the swords and assumed it'd be more violent (eventually I'd revisit the series and like it). Then I tried Neon Genesis Evangelion, and liked that. Eventually I realized the more common name for the genre was "anime," which helped the searching a lot :o Then I found Anime Web Turnpike and started randomly sampling series, and the rest is history :)

I reckon this must've been around 1995 or thereabouts, since that's what my then-new laptop was running... Actually, it gave a choice of installing Windows 95 or Windows for Workgroups O.o

[Wonder Bebs]

I remember Unico... It scared me as a child. Or at least the people getting turned into Puppets really really frightened me.

Though apparently they were three movies, yet I remember it being shown as a series...
There was a TV show, if what I've read is true. Sad to say, it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't remember.

I just remember seeing the movie with the little blonde girl and her brother with the funny cloak. It also had this really goofy/scared the crap outta me dragon that always made this really funny sounding roar.


Nice to know someone else remembers Unico.^^ I was beginning to think only my older brother and I saw it.

[atoningunifex]

I watched Battle of the Planets when I was a kiddie. That was one of the little steps. Another was Tenchi Muyo. Another was the Oh My Goddess series that Dark Horse put out. I watched Ghost in the Shell and Akira, but they didn't do much for me.

What really got me interested in manga (and I'm still not a super huge anime fan- I'm more of a manga guy) was reading all of Akira. it blew me away. And I was surprised at how amazingly interesting it was. After that I started reading more and more. And as the libraries in my area are purchasing manga at a very cool rate, I am getting a chance to read more and more.

I'm still waiting for the anime that hooks me.

[KameTen]

With me, it was Robotech, Ronin Warriors, DragonBall and Z before they were famous, Sailor Moon, and G-Force. But the ones that pulled me through the door were Ranma 1/2 and DragonBall Z when it started to rise in popularity.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

I grew up watching anime, so I never really gave much thought about it.

I only started activelly collecting anime once I was already a grownup, after watching Ghost in the Shell, Wings of Honeamise, Ninja Scroll and Akira in one go.

[HynerianChef]

I grew up watching anime, so I never really gave much thought about it.
Yeah, anime was always pretty much shown here like any other cartoon, hasn't it? From that Four Musketeers show in the with the female cross-dresser Aramis in the 80s to Saint Seiya on Sunday morning cartoons around 91-92... Sailor Moon, Evangelion, Dragonball (in all its various incarnations), Rurouni Kenshin... and that's just the more famous ones that I remember from the 90s. There were literally dozens more whose names I can't even remember right now.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

Yeah, anime was always pretty much shown here like any other cartoon, hasn't it? From that Four Musketeers show in the with the female cross-dresser Aramis in the 80s to Saint Seiya on Sunday morning cartoons around 91-92... Sailor Moon, Evangelion, Dragonball (in all its various incarnations), Rurouni Kenshin... and that's just the more famous ones that I remember from the 90s. There were literally dozens more whose names I can't even remember right now.


I never saw Evangelion, but all the other shows´names strike a chord.
Growing up, my shows of reference were Tom Sawyer, Mysterious Cities of Gold (japanese-french co-production) and Miyazaki´s Future Boy Conan.

There was a period when anime hit rock bottom, to a point where I had to watch the likes of Candy, Candy and Little Nell (don´t ask :( ) to get my weekly anime fix, but other than that, I can´t really complaint.

[HynerianChef]

I never saw Evangelion, but all the other shows´names strike a chord.
Growing up, my shows of reference were Tom Sawyer, Mysterious Cities of Gold (japanese-french co-production) and Miyazaki´s Future Boy Conan.
Neon Genesis Evangelion played on Saturday mornings on SIC. I don't remember exactly in what year, though. Saint Seiya was Sunday mornings on RTP-1 around 91 or 92, in its full bloody glory. The Dragonball mania was SIC around 8 years ago, Rurouni Kenshin was afternoons on TVI around, hmm, 98-99, if I'm not mistaken. I have never really watched or cared much for Sailor Moon, so I can't say when it first started showing or what channel. Probably in the early 90s, though it's been brought back and switched channels a couple of times judging from my younger cousins' TV habits.

Then there were many more, but again I never paid that much attention past one point, except when I had friends recommend series to me (the reason why I fortunately checked out Kenshin, overall one of my favourite anime series of all time). The above are the more famous "anime big names", which is why I recall them.

I'm probably too young to remember Future Boy Conan, though I can't believe I forgot Tom Sawyer and Mysterious Cities of Gold, though at least the latter I always saw more as french, not that it's any excuse. I absolutely loved those two shows. It also brings up a point that since those were so much common place that there are likely a lot more cartoons I loved and have never thought about as anime. I mean, it was easy to say that the Four Musketeers show was anime when there were recycled character designs in Saint Seiya or even the show with the baseball kid a few years later, but the rest... for a kid, maybe not so evident.

[Cephus]

I tend to agree with your very last statement. I go to the store and the selection is just schizophrenic. Something for everybody it seems but there's so much product I can't keep heads or tails of it. I pick up a few new things but find myself more interested in older shows than new. I hate that the medium has become so watered down. Sure it's great to be able to pick it up almost anywhere you shop but it doesn't feel nearly as special as it once did. It's become commonplace. I miss the days where the release of a new series was a big deal. Now there are so many new series out there I don't even know where to begin most of the time and am getting too old to research things like I once did.

My biggest problem isn't so much with the manga, but with the dubs that are being done. Most of them are absolute crap and are dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. I think it's a good thing that there is a wide range of material available, I do not think it's a good thing that most of it is done badly.

I mean... how often do you catch dubbed anime and can identify *ALL* of the voice actors? Oh look... Inu Yasha! Again! And most of the time, the actors come off as completely bored or miscast. Tony Oliver as Lupin? Give me a break? It's to the point where the only things I watch are fan-subs or original Japanese language because most of the US companies slaughter the stories, cut and hack and destroy the voice acting.

Now for manga, I think that's generally well done, and it's not that easy to completely mutilate the story so long as your translator has a clue.

I also don't like how guys like you, Cephus, don't seem to get the recognition they deserve by todays fans. If it wasn't for diehards with connections back in the 80s, spreading the word to whoever would listen, we wouldn't have the market we have today. Pirated eps, over-priced tapes, long drives, fellow fans few and far between... While I would never want to go back to those days, I do miss them a bit. Back in the days where you had to pick from CPM, US Renditions, Pioneer, VIZ, Manga, and Streamline to get your stuff. When Legend of the Overfiend was right on the shelf next to Macross Plus in a two foot section corner of Sam Goody, when the only way for a kid in the middle of nowhere Iowa (me) could get new stuff was ordering it out of the back of Comic Scene magazine.I remember staring for hours at the picture of Dangioh's (sp) original release, wondering how I would ever get the money for it. My grandma ordered all 6 Macross Saga tapes from FHE for me from the back of that magazine. Great times back then, sniff sniff ;)

Nah, back then we didn't know we were doing anything special, and really we weren't. We were in the right place at the right time. To us, we were just sitting in a comic shop talking about anime. We didn't know where it would lead. Granted, a lot of the things we take for granted today came out of the stuff we started, but we were just doing it because it was fun.

I think that's one of the weaknesses of the modern fandom though. Nobody has to do anything today. Everything is handed to the fan on a silver platter and they don't have to think or produce anything, they just consume. Anime fandom has become an solitary pursuit. Back in the day, when everything was in Japanese and nobody really knew what was going on, you had to rely on small groups putting out translations and scripts and synopsis of the shows in order to really get what was happening. Sure, you could get a general sense by watching the action and the voice inflection, but if you didn't speak Japanese or know someone who did, you were pretty much out of luck.

Today, what reason does anyone have to do any research or get together with other fans? You can go to Blockbuster and rent anything you want, take it home and sit on the couch alone. Where is the fandom? This is couch-potatodom.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

Neon Genesis Evangelion played on Saturday mornings on SIC. I don't remember exactly in what year, though. Saint Seiya was Sunday mornings on RTP-1 around 91 or 92, in its full bloody glory. The Dragonball mania was SIC around 8 years ago, Rurouni Kenshin was afternoons on TVI around, hmm, 98-99, if I'm not mistaken. I have never really watched or cared much for Sailor Moon, so I can't say when it first started showing or what channel. Probably in the early 90s, though it's been brought back and switched channels a couple of times judging from my younger cousins' TV habits.

Then there were many more, but again I never paid that much attention past one point, except when I had friends recommend series to me (the reason why I fortunately checked out Kenshin, overall one of my favourite anime series of all time). The above are the more famous "anime big names", which is why I recall them.

I'm probably too young to remember Future Boy Conan, though I can't believe I forgot Tom Sawyer and Mysterious Cities of Gold, though at least the latter I always saw more as french, not that it's any excuse. I absolutely loved those two shows. It also brings up a point that since those were so much common place that there are likely a lot more cartoons I loved and have never thought about as anime. I mean, it was easy to say that the Four Musketeers show was anime when there were recycled character designs in Saint Seiya or even the show with the baseball kid a few years later, but the rest... for a kid, maybe not so evident.

I can´t believe I let NGE escape right between my fingers, I didn´t even know it aired in here.
I was never a great fan of Saint Seya due to the animation; I mean I liked the concept of the Zodiac Knights, but animation was Oh-SO bad! (not to mention the overuse of stock footage) that it completelly turned me off.
I´ve never really cared for Sailor Moon either (in fact Bunny had the ability to make my skin crawl) .
However, much like you didn´t register Mysterious Cities of Gold as anime, I never even thought of considering the 4 Musketters anime; for some strange reason, I´ve always labeled the show as european in origin.

The consolation prize goes to a show that RTP1 once made a all-afternoon marathon with, called Lensman.
I really liked that show at the time and really regretted not having a VCR at the time to tape it. :(

[sehthan]

Like many other kids of the 80's, Robotech was the one that first made me aware of anime. I then followed a familiar path through a lot of the late 80's-early 90's imports - Akira, the Fist of the North Star movie, Ranma, Devil Hunter Yoko, Gunbuster, Bubblegum crisis and AD Police, Tenchi, and etc. When I went to college I discovered the local fangroup and for the first time started getting exposed to fansubs and series that weren't domestically available (and I want to say a big thank you to everyone involved in TASS for turning me on to Miyazaki!). Plus a few friends of mine had by then made their own connections, acquiring DBZ bootlegs from friends or renting tapes recorded of Japanese TV from a Japanese market they discovered. Those were exciting times and it was fun to feel like an insider.

[pirulaso]

akira at the sci fi channel back in middle school around 9 in the morning saturday. after that i would pretty much wacth anything......................besides pokemon

[yeoman]

Well, like many I saw a lot of stuff back in the day that was dubbed anime without knowing what it was.

Then in high school I check out a few series. Tenchi and El-Hazard I liked, but Ranma was what hooked me. Something about the early dub and Ranma's attitude.

Oddly, El-Hazard would go on to be one of my favorite series and I harly wath Ranma anymore.

[Bruceleehulk]

1 Akira

2 Record of Lodoss war OVA

3 Street fighter 2: the Animated Movie

4 Green Legend Ran

[Buzz Dixon]

Astro Boy.

The original series.