How and why did you get into anime?

[Sheba]

1983-1984 when I could think for myself and turned self-aware:

Me: "Daddy! Daddy! Wanna see Chewie and Solo!!!"
Daddy: "Be quiet and watch that! It is cartoon! *geez I hope it'll shut him up*"
*on TV: Space Adventure Cobra*


I got hooked since that day, I had my days, weeks, months when I considered dropping it because of the oversaturation of some genres or some anime, but I always come back.

[cyth]

I got into anime accidentally. I mean, I watched Dragonball and Koukaku Kidoutai on TV before, and I knew what anime meant. I thought those titles were cool, but I didn't really pursue any extra knowledge about them. However, I did search for Dragonball Z porn when I was 17 (). One day I just downloaded a misnamed video file for which I thought it was DBZ porno, and that's how I started with anime. It was in fact the sixth episode of an old Love Hina fansub. The love story appealed to me, and yeah, the whole harem concept was a whole new experience, so I started digging around for more. When I finished collecting those fansubs, and finished watching the TV series, I was hooked. I had even got used to the Japanese humor during Love Hina. I surfed over to some random anime site I knew with a Top 10 list and decided to go for .hack//Sign. And so, the story began...

[timmybadshoes]

I got into anime thanks to the Sci Fi channel about 10 years ago. Movies like Green Legend Ran, Casshan Robot Hunter and The Record of Lodoss War series hooked me as a kid. The not so kiddie plots are what really got me.

Then in middle school one of my friends had just moved to America from Taiwan and with him he brought tons of anime, after that my obsession was concrete.

[Alexandrite]

My first experiences with anime were with Toonami (back when Moltar was host) with Robotech and Sailor Moon. To the dismay of one of my friends, my later anime interests would follow the path of Sailor Moon rather than more mecha anime like Robotech/Macross. Once I learned WHY it looked different (I was...10 at the time?) and where it was from, I decided to look further into it. A couple years later, I discovered manga with an assortment of Clamp works, and it kind of snowballed from there.

And as for why... well, aside from the fact that I don't see the need for an actual reason other than I love it, I suppose it would be because the humor, stories, and characters are more enjoyable to me than that found in most American television shows. That, and I've become spoiled and find a lot of stateside cartoons to be horribly drawn with ugly character designs.

And there you have it!

[ibreatheanime]

I remeber watching sailor moon and dragon ball Z and my family referring to it as "Those weird big haired japanese show"

I've gotten my sister to enjoy it a little (she watches MAR and prince of tennis) but everyone else in my family still calls anime "weird big haired japanese cartoons"

[DarkBlood]

I think it was sometime when I was six or seven when I first watched Ginga Nagareboshi Gin dubbed and cut so it fit Swedish audience. I loved it and it made me love dogs to.
And also Sailor Moon, it aired dubbed and surely cut every saturdaymorning before Spiderman so I had to watch Sailor Moon too because I alwase woke up early.

[Noyemi K]

@furuno: You mean Durak? (Durak= russian for idiot/ Baka=stupid..... methinks)

On here: Accident. Total accident.

[Xinil]

I can completely blame my ex-gf for getting me into Anime. She forced me to watch Trigun one day. Everyone knows Trigun is amazing too. So, needless to say, after that, I just had to continue watching Anime.

[aONErox]

i got into anime by watching Gundam on tv (when i was younger) and my cousin showed me how to download anime and stuff

[KholdStare]

Blah blah blah my story is so unoriginal and uninteresting it's not funny. I got into anime via Naruto, like many people. Although I've seen Pokemon/Digimon and the like, I didn't know the difference so Naruto was the anime that made me "research for other anime" out there and got me addicted like none other.

On a similar subject, although Naruto was good plot and all, Elfen Lied was the first anime that made me think differently about cartoons in general. I didn't think an anime could be that deep and that was when I have complete respect for anime.

[Meiaminkbell]

Similar to KholdStare, I found anime in the form of DBZ and Gundam Wing long ago on Cartoon Network (I miss Moltar).

But the real surprise came after seeing a mere trailer for Tenchi Muyo (not the one where he's walking up the steps to the shrine, the one explaining his...predicament). Since then I have been an otaku since.

Note: I refused to watch anything but comedies for a long time, until I caught the last half of Princess Monoke and Akira on a free preview of Showtime. It was those two movies that made me realize cartoons could be 'not funny' and still be 'fantastic.'

My anime selection was limited for the longest time, but thankfully to coming of age, and the boom of anime over here in the States, everything is slowly falling into place.

[Asakura_Y0h]

Boy, its like you get absorbed unknowingly into it... One minute I found myself watching Ayashi no Ceres, then Fruits Basket, then Hunter X Hunter, then Ichigo 100%, then GTO..... and from then on it just has never stopped.....

I've recently watched Genshiken, which is about a few uni students who are all otakus.... it describes how I fell into anime really well... as in, you don't suddenly begin liking anime overnight....

you grow into being an anime lover gradually....

[Last_Hope]

My little sister started watching anime and thought I should pick up Evangelion, so I did. It was a lot of years ago, I think I was 15-16 years old at the time. Anyway I didn´t fully understand the ending the first time I watched Evangelion so I didn´t watch anymore anime for a few weeks. After a while, I don´t remember how, I came across the Scrapped Princess and Gundam SEED episode 25ish and after that it was too late to save me.

[arcadeplayer987]

When I was little, I watch anime (Sailor moon)alot

[lubuko]

I like Japanese animation since i study in primary school.

[HurricaneHige]

i was borned with anime in my blood >_>

well i was borned in hong kong, so ya anime was everywhere

nowhere to escape (not that i want to)

lol, still, i've now been in canada for more than 10years and i'm still watching anime

[LhikariL]

It's funny, to me, actually.

Well, my best friend was into the Japanese culture and stuff, and I was new to Florida from Boston. I didn't understand her obssession. I always thought Asians were hot, but I was like, "WTF?"

She sat me down at her house and forced me to watch Inuyasha...EWWW.

I looked for an excuse to go home. Then, the next day, I went to her house again. It just some happens that she, me, and her other best friend all lived on the same street...so we walked to her house. They just sat in front of her computer and I was like, "Aren't we here to have fun?", and they were like, "Since when ISN'T Naruto fun?"

I didn't know what it was, but they were watching the Naruto movie.....I got hooked. It wasn't until recently that I remembered about it, when I started wanting to learn Japanese. So, I watched Naruto and Death Note...obssessively.



Hence, anime is now a part of my life.

[Pendevous]

Well, I was surfing the channels in the TV when I was very young, then I saw Voltez V. Like a lot of people, I liked it. Then, came Yu Yu Hakusho, Zenki, Recca, and all of those. At 19, I'm still watching a lot of them.

Pretty mundane reason, aye? Hehe...

[Fazeshot]

Started in the mid 90's I was about 10/11 and saw a news report on TV in las vegas about a comic store that was selling japanese animation to minors (the title up for debate was Ninja Scroll) So I looked into the title and thought... Violence? BOOBS?!! in a cartoon!? No wai! needless to say within a few days my dad bought me the Ninja Scroll VHS.. and I was then turned from innocent child to devilish anime fiend.. Been watching anime ever since. had quite an extensive VHS collection but when VHS died out I sold all the anime for a buck (I really regret that)

Then DVDs came around.. and I have to say I havnt really been too interested in buying anime on dvd. I have bought a few older titles on DVD (Bubblegum Crisis, Burn up W, Neon Genesis Evangelion , IRIA Zeiriam the animation) but my anime collect is currently depleted as I sold the bulk of them to a second hand store in exchange for an HD DVD player (ya I like to sell things and get ripped off royally as you can tell).. Now All I'm stuck with in terms of anime is once A week I go to the comic book store and pick up old anime comic books from the mid 80s- early 90s (ORIGINAL AKIRA COMIC ANYONE?) and I got the battle royale manga... and my fansubs..

My interest in Anime has always been on and off I love it but I go through phases where I would rather watch japanese live action and japanese horror films then anime and then I get rid of what little anime I have and then I regret it later on.

Recently My interest only lies in oldschool anime.. I'm not too keen on newer series although I do love newer live action shows from japan and the like... there's just something nostalgic about the old classics.. I remember all the times where I went to Hollywood Video and rented these obscure anime VHS tapes I knew nothing about (biohunter, genocyber, project a-ko,md geist, city hunter.) I just really really miss those days when me and my best friend would have sleepovers and rent a bunch of anime VHS and corrupt our innocent little minds.

[Itachi-evil]

MY whole life is just about anime and mangas

I think it started when i was 5 or 6 years old.

Life without anime/manga = death