How long....

[Noir_]

in my country anime wasn't a big deal so I didn't get the previlage to start watching it earlier

[Risaa]

It really depends what you count - I remember watching Pokémon and Cardcaptors, and Sailormoon before those. I had also owned and watched a bunch of dubbed Japanese movies from the 80's and 90's, though this was all just casual "I wanna watch TV" viewing. After that I casually read manga online, but when the Chobits manga became available is when I really started getting into it. I loved everything about it, especially how different the plot was from your typical sci-fi/romance novel and that there was beautiful artwork to view along with it - not your old comic book. After that I branched out and began reading other manga, and finally began watching anime.

So I guess the best answer is I began to really get into anime around 2001~2002, when Chobits first appeared.

[~ Lawliet ~]

I have been watching since the year that is 2004.

[Darkmasterxx]

10-14 years, which includes things that were shown on American channels, like
Pokemon since the very beginning;
Sailor moon but never finished, just watched on and off;
Yu-Gi-Oh from the beginning through the end, but not GX or whatever
Dragonball Z I watched on and off since the 90's, but going back to watch them all since I downloaded the entire series.

Some I watch now are Naruto, Full metal alchemist, Ghost in the Shell, Miyuki which is a manga and anime from the 80's that found out about recently, and I loved it very much. There are many more anime's I watch, including whatever comes on late at night on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

[DragoonKain3]

Ever since I can remember, I've been watching VHS tapes of Robotech and loved it. So if you count that, then almost as long as I've been alive I think.

[Banditopants]

I started I guess about 6-9 years ago, I went through stages

Stage 1: Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Cardaptors on tv
Stage 2: Anime on adult swim and Shonen Jump
Stage 3: Internet (now)

[Ichihara Asako]

Over three decades now, as weird as it is to look back at. The first thing was Uchuu Senkan Yamoto which was later turned in to Starblazers; a series kids of the 70s and early 80s may remember that version, much like Voltron and Robotech and such.

[escimo]

A bit difficult to say. It's been probably about 20 years since I saw my very first anime.
However for about 3 or 4 years I'd call watching anime a hobby. Before that I didn't do any research about the subject and wasn't actively searching for anything to watch.

[Shinbou]

Hmm i started when i was 13/14 years old so that is 3-4 years now...
Yea altought i did watch pokemon, yu gi oh and DBZ when i was young, but i didn't know it was anime so that doesn't count.

I started discover anime when i was looking what pokemon was, cause i heard some people talk about anime, then i started watching "karin" and the anime addcition began.

I have now more then 150 anime, it could have been better :P

[tenkenX6]

I've been watching anime for 18 or more years now. This is just a rough estimate, though.

[silencer.001]

I started to watch in about 2001, with Gundam Wing

Since then, i can't stop

[nixie]

11 years ago I guess, with Sailormoon and Dragonball, followed by Kenshin, CCS, Pokemon, those mainstream stuff on TV. It was only like six years ago I started watching anime religiously.

[Eva_127]

14 years now

[OMchan]

I started watching dubbed anime 14-15 years ago without knowing that it was anime. Started watching subbed anime around 6 or 7 years ago.

[Eczema]

I only just recently (1-2 years ago) started to seriously watch anime and follow series. Before that, I would watch shows like Sailor Moon, Pokemon, DBZ, etc. when they showed them on morning television. I would also occasional rent some anime from the local video store (stuff like Evangelion and Patlabor). My friends would sometimes recommend me some series to watch, and it was one of these series that a friend lent me on DVD that got me into the "Anime - Serious Business" mode that I mentioned earlier. That anime was Ouran High School Host Club.

[Eishu]

Not counting the anime I saw on TV, I started watching fansubs back in 2002. Goddamnit, time flies.

[othera]

About 6 years really, but that was just like DBZ and yugioh and crap on TV that i only watched because it sucked slightly less more then everything else on.

Not until 2 years ago did i go out of my way to watch anime, and then that was for like 2 25 ep series, and a month ago i started again.

Though really its been 6 years, i would say 1 month.

[Arceon]

About 10 years ago, when I saw my first episode of DBZ. Started drawing it shortly afterward .

Then discovering all the small things associated with it. Manga, Figures, Cons, Japan, Etc. Fun times.

[GuidoHunter_Toki]

Probably ever since Toonami first started like around 97 or 98. Of course I didn't know it was anime back then.

[LeviathanDarkly]

I think my first were Maya the Bee and 3000‎ Leagues in Search of Mother in the early 90s when I was really small.