Anime What was your introduction to anime?

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Watched this when I was 5 because I had cool parents
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They’re really cool for making their child experience an anime classic.

 

[Francis14]

Hunter x Hunter from 1999. That was the first anime I watched in its entirety.

Since then, it's been a long journey. The first animes I watched after that were Dragon Ball, Digimon, and Hellsing from 2001.

I was like 5 years old when i first watched HxH, years later i took it seriously and finished it.

 

[TacoMeister]

if you're looking for something a bit more contemplative, I'd recommend any of Yoshitoshi Abe's works they're beautiful. Serial Experiments Lain has been getting more traction lately but if you liked Ghost in The Shell I think you'd like Texhnolyze

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Same could be said for people growing up watching Dragon Ball

Is it weird if I still want to grow a saiyan tail?

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I admit I tried to do kamehameha but I tried "impossible ball physics" more and more seriously lolol.

However I was never a soccer guy but Tsubasa gave me idea for my beloved basketball. I was like hitting the ball on the floor so hard I got used to scoring thus, eventually my school had to ban that move because they believed it won't count if score happens after it bounce from floor so their idea for score was shooting it in air without ball touches the floor lol. I even checked public library for basketball rules that none said how a score should happen or if my move is illegal. I even wrote a formal letter to ministry of education but they didn't care so I was like "fuck this" and ignored being pro. Imagine you are so good at something but stupid rules are in your way after so much training SMH lol.

I did the same with Dragon Ball, but I don't think I've ever touched a soccer ball
Closest I've come to playing soccer has been the Inazuma Eleven games, and one Captain Tsubasa game

Post automatically merged: Aug 16, 2025

Thanks, I'll check it out.


Is it weird if I still want to grow a saiyan tail?

As long as you understand the weaknesses a Saiyan tail would bring, go for it!

 

[StavyHassy]

DNA²

 

[AlfajordeFrula]

THIS!

 

[Envy_VV]

i wasn't into anime until i was 16, then a friend of mine give me a hatsune miku pin... and so, well i ended up watching evangelion and FMA, didn't understand a thing back then, but it was enough to make want to watch more stuff. Technically i watched saint seiya and DBZ before that, but i didn't knew it was anime

 

[thelazyperson]

One Punch Man back in 2019

 

[Turbo Kid]

Technically, it was this.

Though I didn't know at the time that what I was watching was an anime. We called it Voltron.

I don't exactly remember what show got me into anime as in actually knowing what anime is and seeking out more of it, but I think it was probably Dragon Ball Z during the Frieza Saga

I mean, a good number of modern cartoons are influenced by and reference anime. The meme isn't far off

A lot of people forget (or don't want to admit) that early anime was influenced by Disney or was a response to Disney's success, so it goes both ways.

 

[Potapota]

I've watched some random things here and there all my life but it must've been evangelion that finally made me go "cartoons can do this??" and turned me over to the dark side.

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

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lolol

This made a white tear fall down my dih

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

While I heard of titles like Naruto and Bleach in passing they didn't really sell me the idea of a cartoon I'd watch, but one day on youtube I find a few FMVs and one that really caught my eye with the heavy roar of the guitar that matched violent thrill it sent through me was Wolf's Rain.

Honestly the music wasn't the greatest fit as it misleads you to think it's all action and wolves in battle but you're better off watching Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin or Ginga Densetsu Weed for dog fighting action. Wolf's Rain was a well paced quiet self reflective journey that honestly I was probably ill equipped to fully comprehend and appreciate at my age to understand it's character's, their motives, actions and ending but I understood one thing well and that I was entranced and amazed and I had to have more of this feeling.

 

[Rox00]

Witchblade is quite the anime for someone to watch as a kid hehe I watched it in my teens, and didn't know for ages it was based on an American comic book.

Yeah I can get that lol, they definitely did their own unique take on the idea of Witchblade. To be frank it was the late 00s so a lot of the time I watched what I could get, especially with anime DVDs. Speaking of DVDs, the biggest surprise for me years later was the fact that we owned one of the Infinite Ryvius volumes actually. Only random 00s purchases can do that!

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Yeah I can get that lol, they definitely did their own unique take on the idea of Witchblade. To be frank it was the late 00s so a lot of the time I watched what I could get, especially with anime DVDs. Speaking of DVDs, the biggest surprise for me years later was the fact that we owned one of the Infinite Ryvius volumes actually. Only random 00s purchases can do that!

Yeah, if I didn't catch something on TV then DVDs were the only other option for me. I didn't have the internet back in the 2000s.

 

[Pokenami's icon Pokenami Pokenami]

DBZ, Pokemon, and Toonami itself.

 

[Dyne]

Like Turbo Kid said, it was technically Voltron.

But Dragonball Z is the real answer. The fights in DBZ made me take a longer look and say "wait, what?"

Toonami's lineup in the late 90s and early 00's really cemented it. I used to love DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Wing, etc etc.
A lot of Americans my age owe their love of anime to Toonami.

 

[bjork]

I've been told that I watched Speed Racer from a playpen, but I don't remember it. So probably the combo of Voltron and Robotech when those aired, along with Tranzor-Z and then later on, the Dragon Warrior anime. I kinda wish they had just put the shows on without changing them, but at the time I had no idea. I just liked how they looked and that in the case of Robotech, it was an ongoing story and not villain of the day kind of thing.

 

[sparkychechard]

This Anime was not only my first anime but also what my friends used to convince me to play dungeons and dragons

 

[Burzuru]

i can't remember how it started but i've been obsessed with dragon ball since i was a boy.

 

[Dew Prism]

I was about 6 years old and I was watching TV back in 1995, and all the sudden, what I thought to be a cartoon came on, and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was Akira. I couldn't take my eyes off of it, and watched it all the way through. Couldn't really understand what the hell I was watching at the time, but man was it bad ass. Then later on, I was more thoroughly introduced to anime when Toonami on Cartoon Network began airing Dragon Ball Z. And then came Pokemon on Kids WB channel.

Those were the days...

 

[LXXXROMonteVIdEOII]

Something from the "World masterpiece theater"(a lot of ghibli people started here) loved most of the catalogue, Dog of Flanders, Anne of the green gables and 3000 leagues in search of mother, to name a few.

Yeah. Those were pure feels. We still need them to remind us how important it is to put the other cheek and help to walk those who can't do so by themselves, probably now more than ever.

 

[Deleted member 560402]

Pokemon on VHS tapes. Then G Gundam and Rurouni Kenshin which were back to back on Toonami. Watched both of those from the beginning when they premiered. Toonami was such a vibe.

 

[Rox00]

Yeah, if I didn't catch something on TV then DVDs were the only other option for me. I didn't have the internet back in the 2000s.

Ah the TV times, fun times to have lived. I've grown up with internet but it was a Windows XP computer so it was naturally shared with the family and was very slow, so it really depends on whatever what was on TV or DVD if it was ever in the stores in general (cartoons and anime). Honest a blessing for it to be discoverable easily these days.

 

[LXXXROMonteVIdEOII]

I think I mentioned this already but It was Toei's King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1979).

To me it was THE one Anime I thought it felt way different than American cartoons of the era.

It respects the audience and honors the source material, it has a diverse and well rounded cast, the personal growth is cared for and most of the core cast has an arc throughout the series, the designs are awesome, there's beautiful scenary and more than respectable animation, the story is complete and compact, it has action, drama and moral lessons, it deals with outworldly topics such as magic and mysticism, but also some earthly dilemas still present today such as as abuse of power, poverty, and injustice, and of course it has a wonderful music score in order to glue all of this together.

 

[yourdemise]

A few come to mind like FLCL and Sailor Moon but the real answer is GS Mikami, I fell in love with the Super Famicom game and decided to check out the show and it changed my mind on anime, Been watching it ever since.

GS Mikami was one of the first manga I ever started reading so it's sort of like that for me but for manga. I never even knew there was a SNES game until maybe a year ago.

Post automatically merged: Aug 16, 2025

Full Metal Alchemist and Naruto. Not much of a story about it. I just found out about them around the same time.