Wow this place is empty.
Well, since I'm sure a lot of you are into anime...
My question to all of you is...
How did you guys get introduced into this world of animated Japanese goodness?
I ask, cuz I discovered old Pokémon stuff on an old hard drive of mine. haha
My story? I was a little kid, and I had watched eps on TV of DBZ, Sailor Moon, Mega Man, and... oh what was that... ah, Samurai Pizza Cats. lol good stuff.
Pokemon really started it tho. I was in 5th grade when I discovered that...
I won't go into an entire story of my unheatlhy obsession, but after a year or two, I discovered anime, then I discovered fansubs... and it explodes from there.
I feel old. XD
Actually.. I had always watched Sailor Moon at 6AM on TV. (this shows my age right there, haha) After that ended though, I really didn't do much..
until I saw an episode of Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network. I was intrigued! So I kept watching, joined a mailing list community, said community found this one show to completely oggle (Weiss Kreuz (Knight Hunters here)), and big old snowball from there.
I found out about fansub distros at that time of Weiss Kreuz, and actually my collection of VHS fansubs far exceeds most of my other media. o.o
It's always a snowball/explosion reaction, it's never something quiet, is it? XD
I first bumped into anime during a trip abroad with my parents somewhere in the latter half of the 1990s. There was an episode of Magic Knight Rayearth running in Spanish in telly, and even though I didn't understand a word, Fuu made a deep impact on me. ^_^
(Super Ego: That was the official story, and now, let me tell another one.
This person supposedly posting even these lines was looking for old computer games in the internet somewhere in the latter half of 2001, and bumped into a masterpiece called Princess Maker 2. He was too embarrassed to download it rightaway, though, because of its 'girly' theme, like he put it back then. Instead, he learnt the term 'anime' and after doing some more searching, he found Three Sisters' Story instead. An outrageous, perverted game with so much nudity one's eyes begin achin--)
Oi! That's totally wrong! Princess Maker 2 WAS the first anime game I played!
(Super Ego: Rubbish. It can't have been. It's not perverted enough.)
Three Sisters' Story wasn't _that_ 'outrageous' anyway, and I didn't play the games for sex scenes. -_-
(Super Ego: So we proceed. After completing Three Sisters' Story he finally got the guts to download and play Princess Maker 2 and--)
I can tell this myself, thank you. It caused the most serious addiction a game has done to me... I spent practically my whole winter holidays that year in front of the computer, not sleeping, not eating, not doing anything but planning 'my daughter's' schedule for the next month over and over again. I loved the game so much that AFTER being completely hooked on PM2 I began searching for other anime games, during which I then encountered the genre Dating Simulation. After a few more or less pervy samples (Season of Sakura is a lovely game, by the way; so many familiar characters) of those, I finally decided it was time for me to see what the actual phenomenom 'anime' was.
The first anime series I downloaded was Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, which I consider one of the funniest series ever made. I loved it very much, but the next few series weren't as enjoyable. Love Hina, Martian Successor Nadesico and Hanaukyo Maid Tai (during my first rewatch) managed to permanently convince me of the joys of anime, and after first seeing Love Hina I've not been downloading any licensed anime shows anymore, but instead bought them for myself. The biggest event was naturally finally seeing Magic Knight Rayearth as a whole, many years after my first contact with the series. Goodness, I loved it.
edit: Lupin III!! Deserves a mention for being one of the coolest series / movie series ever. *nods*
rdhdtwns: sailor moon at 6AM? So that's why I remember it being so dark. XD
Pitkin: Introduction by eroge? Interesting. ^^
....why do I have the feeling I'm younger than the both of youse?
lol, anyhoo, I never had cable, and had to rely on the antennae on my TV for anything, so it took me a while to get any clue that other anime thingers were being aired by CN. (I still don't have cable, btw. Of course, the internetz has taken over anywayz.)
Wonder if I shall go more in depth about my beginnings.... ah, ok. I will.
First anime: DBZ or Sailor Moon. Jeff can't remember that far back!
First anime I realized was anime: Pokémon
First anime I watched on CN: Outlaw Star
First anime that intrigued me with its music: .hack//SIGN (Yuki Kajiura is a great composer!)
First fansub watched: Full Moon wo Sagashite (my sister dl'd it! FMwS scares me.)
First fansub that I dl'd: Gunslinger Girl
...aaand I'll stop there. ^^
First anime I watched was Sailor moon (yes sailor moon, i enjoyed how it was different from other cartoons when i was young but it started more out with pokemon and then the internet came and I became the anime fan I am today
I remember being introduced to Pokemon at a summer camp before the turn of the century. I would be hooked for several years, until I became bored with it. About a year later I was hooked on Zoids, then it became boring. One day some years later, I was surfing around Wikipedia, during which I became aware of the OS-Tan phenomenon. Soon after I joined this forum, and here I am.
Oh dear Gawd... I think Pokemon was my first anime, then there was good old DragonBall, and... Well i've been watching anime ever since. My favorites are FLCL and Evangelion. As for the OS-Tans thing, well... I like 'em for three resons.
1- I thing they look swiggidy sweet
2- It freaks out meh parents
3- I'm a hentai Addict... *cries a little*
I watched Captain Tsubasa when I was too young to read in morning television.
Probably DragonBall Z and Sailor Moon. But from there I went to Love Hina and beyond. Now im here...
Zoids at 6AM on Cartoon Network....so many memories.
Believe it or not, My mother got me interested into anime. When I was a wee toddler, she would take me to anime conventions (She was an anime fan). So I pretty much grew up with it until around 1-2nd grade when I had a withdrawl of seening any (Since I had no anime movies and didn't go to conventions). And I was re-introduced by the Slayers series (Well I think it was Slayers...) and some other one.
So everyone but my dad are anime fans...he says that all the people look like girls...
QuoteSo everyone but my dad are anime fans...he says that all the people look like girls...
So funny, but so true. They do kinda look like girls...
...the upside is the girls look like girls. Ah well, back to what I was doing. Ping commands me!
Well in many they guys look like girls, at least the pretty boys do. It occures to me reading this that most of you got your start on anime through the poor excuses for anime they tend to put on cartoon network. damn you cartoon network, damn you! *shakes fist* at least with adult swim they have started putting better series on, like FMA
Was going to Megatokyo a good idea? It seems to be a good series. I'm beginning to think that being an otaku/planespotter/academic nerd/science geek/trainspotter/computer geek isn't so bad.
Hey, Im a geek and proud of it. Cus I may be a geek, but Im a geek and a US Marine. Fit, showered, and a productive member of society. Just cus I like to watch and draw cartoons in my free time is nothing to be ashamed of
You know, I think you're right! Maybe I should get so involved in otaku culture, I could write a bible about it! The Otaku Manifesto! Hehe...feels like someone probably did it before though...
I think it's that time again! Time to dust off an old peanut!
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Cowbell2.gif)
I got a fever, and the only cure is more cowbell!
Quote from: "NewYinzer"Was going to Megatokyo a good idea? It seems to be a good series. I'm beginning to think that being an otaku/planespotter/academic nerd/science geek/trainspotter/computer geek isn't so bad.
...I like megatokyo. Introduced me to the world of webcomics. ^^
Quote from: "CaptBrenden"Hey, Im a geek and proud of it. Cus I may be a geek, but Im a geek and a US Marine. Fit, showered, and a productive member of society. Just cus I like to watch and draw cartoons in my free time is nothing to be ashamed of
Go marines!
<- Parents in navy!!
Was actually surprised that alot of people in the navy actually know about anime...to bad it's all the lame ones on cartoon network...
and what happened to you G4? You used to show Betterman and GateKeepers...
But atleast Cartoon Network DID play Read Or Die the movie...
Speaking of cowbell, I saw the funniest silent hill 2 flash the other day, and one of the caution tapes in the background said "caution: this flash needs more cowbell"
I'll never forget the clip that introduced me to Mahoromatic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2qGs0ppLqA&search=expansion
ROFL!
lol i read the mahoromatic manga but the anime is hilarious!
Favorite anime(s):
Evangelion
FMA
Salior Moon (my first anime!!)
Bleach
Naruto (it's like crack...i'm hooked on it ;013 )
Mai-Hime (or My-hime in english)
and tons more
Mai-HiME rocks.
You rock for liking Mai-HiME.
That is all I have to say. haha
but to stay on topic, I ask you, how DID you first get into anime?
(ok, that wasn't ALL i had to say. quiet you)
By watching salior moon everyday from the age of 6 to about 9. then came dragonball z and the obsession grew from there
Sailor Moon, eh?
*thinks*
I wonder how many fansubs it would take for me to learn Japanese by osmosis?
1000?
10000?
100000?
More fansubs than exist in all the internet?
*runs off to investigate*
try youtube. i don't think anyone has salior moon up on there but there are lots of other shows to watch.
you would have to have a really big hard drive for a brain.
And even still, you'd only learn conversational japanese. You'd need more time to figure out the kanji from the random signs and karaoke. So that restricts you to conversational japanese and poetic japanese (...Japanese IS poetic, I'm being redundant).
...Well, I guess in theory you could... you'd have to watch a large variety. We don't want your vocabulary to be filled with non-words like kyaa~ aiee~ and stuff. lol
*pops in thread*
I know I don't hang out in the Anime section much, but this thread brings back memories. ^__^
Probably watched a lot of Anime as a kid, but never really recognized it as such. Like Kami-Tux, Captain Tsubasa (Spanish dub) was probably the only thing I vaguely recognized as being Japanese, and I loved it for the humor. ^__^
So the OFFICIAL title of the first true Anime I watched should go to Macross Plus.
And since I've always been an admirer of exquisite artwork, watching those OVAs was like signing a two decade contract for Anime fandom. ^.^
Other titles followed, but won't bore you with the details.... -v-
*trots off*
macross plus the ova was really good. Macross in general was pretty much the first popular mech anime.
Quote from: "C-Chan"
Other titles followed, but won't bore you with the details.... -v-
*trots off*
Hey, don't go away!
I demand that you bore us with details!
yes we want to be bored! BORE US DAMN YOU! ;013 ;025
*trots back in*
Noooooooope! Ã,¯.Ã,¯
I've got Hexagon 2.1 to learn how to use, or else how would I BEAR to presume that I'm worthy enough to draw Unix-sama. To draw without making the shading and lighting even marginally accurate is simply blasphemous! Ã,¯0Ã,¯
In fact, I must self-flagellate just to even think of the notion...! >0<
....
Okay, I now that just sounds creepy, so I'll do it later. Ã,¯__Ã,¯'
But suffice to say, I was lucky enough to get exposed to some very high quality anime off the bat, so that helped cement my newfound ferver....
- Escaflowne
- Slayers (original, NEXT, TRY, etc.)
- Saber Marionette
- Card Captor Sakura
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Naussica
- Mononoke HIme
- Lupin III (several titles)
- Galaxy Express 999
- Porco Rosso (pig power! ^v')
Just to name a few of the more memorable ones, although I got exposed to other less dramatic titles that were equally fun (or funny) to watch (e.g., Marmalade Boy, Ranma 1/2, Nuku Nuku, etc.). Also saw a lot of junk titles, mind you,... ^^'
Aside from the exquisite artwork and amazing storytelling, I also found it particularly refreshing to see such a prevalance of strong lead female characters. ^__^
Okay, ended up boring you with details anyway.... -__-'
Time for Hexagon....! ^0^
*trots off*
I first found anime thanks to a search engine on the web, though I can't recall which engine nor what I was originally searching for.
Anyway, I came across an image of Ifurita from El-Hazard; and I was inspired to find out more about who she was. So my first exposure to anime was the original video animation El-Hazard.
(This is when I developed my anime/games/manga likes and dislikes: I liked the fact that nearly all female characters had depth; yet it was the one-dimensional male characters, especially the seemingly-requisite boy-hero lead characters, who were given a plurality of the exposure. My hero of the series was Ifurita, though I was also quite impressed with Priestess of Fire Shayla-Shayla and Princess Rune Venus.
(Sadly, when El-Hazard was made into a television series for U.S. release, Ifurita was changed from a complex and thoughtful [albeit manufactured] woman into a ditzy little girl. One can only gape in amazement at the stultifying stupidity which caused otherwise-intelligent artists and producers to make such an idiotic character change.)
After El-Hazard I watched the Shin Seiki Evangelion original video animation series; and my most recent watch-a-thon involved the entirety of Betterman with its excellent female character Sai Hinoki. To listen to the on-line cliché-masters, you'd think only six people worldwide enjoyed that series; but I liked it very much, apart from the ever-present annoying-boy lead and the too-lenghty mecha malarkey.
:smoke:
=^..^=
Quoteand my most recent watch-a-thon involved the entirety of Betterman with its excellent female character Sai Hinoki. To listen to the on-line cliché-masters, you'd think only six people worldwide enjoyed that series; but I liked it very much, apart from the ever-present annoying-boy lead and the too-lenghty mecha malarkey.
Betterman rocks!!
^o^
And c-chan, you're lucky to have seen such quality anime to start you on ur way. I've seen roughly 100 anime's since the age of 6 (i'm 17 now ;011 ) some have been good and some have been total crap. hopefully you'll find at least one anime that stands above the rest.
One hundred Anime's?
*thinks*
What Am I Up To?
*thinks*
THE MASTER LIST:
- OS-Tans (Ongoing)
- Megatokyo (Ongoing)
- Rozen Maiden (Finished Series)
- Mahoromatic (Finished Series)
- Love Hina (Ongoing)
- Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (Ongoing)
*thinks*
Crap! I'm still in Dilspace!
My anime likes and dislikes developed slowly.
I loved how anime had more story than the rest of the things I watched as a child. Since Gunslinger Girl was one of the first things I watched and fell in love with, a good story is what I usually look for.
.hack//SIGN and Bebop led me to listen to the background music. When it's well done, the music is the key factor that pulls you in. Akatsuki no Kuruma made me cry. (As for the actual scene, I won't say, since I don't know if people have watched or will watch Gundam SEED) Mezame in Mai-HiME is great battle music. heh
Music and story. yep. Quality animation is a plus, but not a requirement for me. ^^
Well-developed characters are nice, but so is a plot. Sometimes one or the other seems to get ignored.... If you can do both, then great job!
Bless you, child, for having Gunslinger Girl be one of the first titles you watched.... ;^__^;
That way, Claes-sama can get burned into your subconscious from the get-go! ^.^
Ive got a few on the go at the moment:
FMP Fumoffu
Stratos4
Elfen Lied (Very bloody)
Zero no Tsukaima
They are all good series's in their own genres.
*slips in, unannounced*
Ah, that's good. I now have a core group of shows to watch. Now to download fansubs off of Animesuki and KickAssAnime. Everything is looking good. The Mysterious E has returned to her place of origin...
*cough*Wuhan*cough*
...and peace has returned to our forums!
i have the whole elfen lied series. it's quite horrific and bloody but still has cool characters ;013 , but seeing as bloody violence is what america was built on then there's no reason to not watch it. Also you gotta love the classics like Gundam Wing and Trigun.
When I was a kid, I lived in Spain. One of the few european countries that started putting anime on TV early. So I watched a series called Candy Candy and one called Dr.Slump. But what really got me into anime was a movie called Windaria. This was around 20 years ago. Later on we moved back to Norway, where there was no anime on TV. So from there it was mostly anime on VHS (plus a coupla movies that actually made it onto TV). Then I discovered fansubs, which really made my anime watching habits take off. I get stuff on DVD, but mostly only the series I really like.
My top animes are RahXephon, Haibane Renmei, Last Exile, Rose of Versailles and 12 Kingdoms.
Wai! Amiga-chan is here..... ^___^
*glomps*
[oh, and thank goodness for fansubs... ^.^]
Quote[oh, and thank goodness for fansubs... ^.^]
Praise Jesus!
(http://uncyclopedia.org/images/2/29/TheJeeMan.jpg)
BTW, does it seem girly if I say "Kawaii to the MAX!"
Not really "girly" so much as "nerdy", but all is forgiven, child, if it's to compliment Amiga-chan. ^.^
QuoteNot really "girly" so much as "nerdy", but all is forgiven, child, if it's to compliment Amiga-chan. ^.^
Yeah...I was!
*dodges bullets*
Jebus! What was that?
*dodges bullets*
Oh, it's just Dick Cheney!
(http://flyvapnet.com/myPictures/Miscellany/DangerousDickCheney01.jpg)
;026
=^..^=
I instantly LOLed after seeing that! Man, that's just too funny! :D
BWAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! ^V^
I know, it was funny! But let us keep this topic on track!
Was there ever one event in your life that made you realize:
I AM AN OTAKU!
yep. when i feel in love with Rei frim Sailor Moon :-P
Yeah...
Let's see it was...(oh so long ago...)
............Lina from Slayers...
haha, me too!
Lina and
also Mil from a dating sim/RPG called Thousand Arms. ^^
I saw my first anime on scifi channel when they use to show anime at night and then I learned about Bittorent and i've been hocked sinced.
ahh, I got my intro the same way, sci fi channels saturday morning anime back in the day. i think the first one i saw was Iria. They did a few "anime week" things i remember too. Least thats how it started
Then i started to go to cartoon network to get my fix... when that wasnt good enough, then came there internet.
I was actually consciously 'introduced' to anime by a good friend of mine.
She declared it her mission to educate me when I told her I'd seen half an episode of Sailor Moon years back and given up all hope in Japanese animation.
Fullmetal Alchemist and a few films/other little introductions later and my non-Otaku friends are already calling me an 'anime fan', so it's obviously worked.
;012
My path to anime was convoluted. I've always been a big fan of Ceska Zbrojovka firearms. Their CZ75 series is the only handgun I have not had jam on me yet. Yes, even the famous Glock has failed me. On three occasions ;127 . So, anyways, I love CZ but never see them in movies and that made me sad. Then, though a series of forgotten internet searches, I came across some references to kitties and CZ's. I like cats a lot, too, so I combined the searches and ended up with references to "Gunsmith Cats." An image search revealed cute characters sporting many of my favorite firearms; FN FAL, CZ75B, M24 Stilehandgranate, and more. I rented the DVD and got hooked from there.
good sir, have you seen Gunslinger Girl?
Here is a review site with a lot of nice screenshots. Took a while to load for me: http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/reviewpost/showproduct.php/product/352/cat/66
And here, is Rico with her CZ 75B
(http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/3879/cz75v22zc.gif)
Sleepy D, Are you into airsoft, too? My team staffs the Lion Claws series of games.
The gunslinger girl box set is, in fact, sitting not ten feet away from me right now. Triela is my favorite character despite my love of CZ firearms.
Yay! Ms. Borealis made it to 400 posts! Oh yeah...the topic. Well, it was back in the late 90's, and I was introduced to Pokemon by a friend I met at a camp. From then I was an off and on anime fan. A little Zoids, a little Gundam, a little this and that. Until I found out about OS-Tans, at which time I also found out about Rozen Maiden, and since that time it's been:
- Megatokyo
- Rozen Maiden
- Mahoromatic
- Love Hina
- Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu
- Voices of A Distant Star
- Mahou Sensei Negima
- Azumanga Daioh
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
BTW, since this is an anime thread, what's the deal with "Ouran High School Host Club"? You know what I'm talking about.
It's been a long time...
The first animes that I saw in my life were Zillion, Don Dracula and Macross (Robotech).
But the culprit for my turn in a anime addicted was Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac).
My favorite saint/knight is Dragon Shiryu!
(http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/5869/sainsaintseiyahadesdrag3iv.th.jpg) (http://img104.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sainsaintseiyahadesdrag3iv.jpg)
Ah a fellow gunslinger fan and airsofter! Im fairly new too it, all my guns are still plastic.. but my combat gear was cheap.. i just use my issued gear. We used to train our new marines with them on the weekend. Fun and training!
anyhow.. I think I was officialy an otaku when I bought a 60 dollar model of eva unit 2 and placed it on my TV for feild day inspections. I can still remember it...
"BRENDEN! What the hell is that?"
"Its an evangelion first sergeant!"
"...and what the fuck is that?"
"Its a giant biomechanical huminoid weapon designed to defeat the angels and prevent third impact."
"....."
then he left my room without inspecting anything. it was great.
Haha, sorry, not an airsofter, but I know a few who are. And Triela does rock. I like Claes personally, but Triela's up there. ^^
Ok, about Ouran High School Host Club: Even though it seems like it caters to only fangirls and bishounen... it's still funny. They make fun of the bishie cliches. ^^
And CaptBrenden, that made me laugh out loud. Really it did. And the I had to tell my sisters why I was laughing and they laughed. haha
poor sleepyd.. so miss guided.. its obvious that Henrietta is the best. Claes takes up second.
But im glad my dtory about my decent into geekdom made you laugh :P
rofl @ at the sergeants reaction Brenden
Guys!! i'm kinda disappointed that nobody mentioned the Samurai Pizzacats, it was one of the first anime to be released here in the west I think ;) and i watched that a lot!
even though the dub made no sence at all I was able to find me some episodes not too long ago, it's more like the dubs were done according to what happens in the episode...they didn't translate or anything rofl
Anyway after that the next anime I watched were Dragonball Z and Gundam Wing (really liked gundam wing because of the depth)
After that Dragonball GT and then it took a long time before cable broadband internet was available for me, I only have it for like 1,5 year now
Anyway ever since I had it I've been watching anime, I think I watched about...55 anime series in that timespan lol
So yeah...i'm pretty hooked on anime :P
and yeah I agree henrietta is definetly the most kawaii and kickass of the gunslinger girls :P
Well as for starting anime... how I got into it... lets see...
Pretty much Sailor Moon when I was little till I couldn't figure out what time it was on anymore (I was little then). When I was older and was getting Nintendo Power, got the promo video of Pokemon like six months before it hit US. That seemed interesting (you know it was when you first saw it.) and of course when it came out watched a bit of it... found out how repetitive it got and left again.
Saw like A episode of CardCaptor Sakura when it was on the WB, saw a good deal of Digimon on Fox.... but even then I still wasn't that into it.
Then Gundam SEED, I thought the concept was pretty nice so I guess this is when I started to take an active interest. I didn't get to see much at all cause changing times (my lack of cable TV). Till I moved down South and my parents finally did get cable (along with cable internet.)
The BIGGEST change was when I got to me a friend from the UK for the first time (we met via in-directly from another friend and became friends ourself). He visited... bring along his 160 GB hard drive... full of anime. I got to see SEED completely through and then began to learn about downloading them... and things went to hell from then.
I went back and got Sailor Moon *I WANTED to see it completely*, got CardCaptor Sakura. My anime addiction then spread from that point on. I got into the manga when I read about the difference between CardCaptor Sakura from the manga to the anime... and thats been steady.
SO ya thats how I got introduced.
you gotta love a little girl that favors the FN P-90.. i loge that gun :D
well you got me there, the FN P90 pwns. I fell in love with the thing before I even knew what it was called when I watched that first ep.
But I still like how they use some of the older weapons. (Like Triela's Model 1897 Trench Shotgun) ....Did she ever fire that? o_O
well im a big fan of shotguns too.. i carried one in araq with a bandolier of shells.. but the P-90 is hands down the coolest sub machine gun out there.. even if it does us a weird round size. I got a full metal airsoft one on order!
What the hell? A full metal P90? The real one has an almost entirely polymer receiver.
The ammo it uses isn't wierd at all. The 7.62x25 Tokarev cartridge is a similar design and it's well over 60 years old. I personally think the 5.7 is based on the 7.62 Tok but don't care enough to confirm it. The P90 is a great design but it has some funky ergonomics. Some people just never get the hang of it. The magazines are also not good for field use; if bumped too hard they eject all the bullets.
Does the L22A2 count as an SMG? If so, that's my favorite.
we shoudl creat a guns thread cus this is going off topic... XD
haha go for it Cap'n XD
In that case I'll go back on topic.
Someone here mentioned Samurai Pizza Cats, and that person needs to be praised for reminding me of that. ^^
i seen some of that.. but i wasnt aware that it was the first.. i thought one of those voltron shows were or something
I don't believe it is the first either, but hey, it's pretty old.
I'm pretty sure Speed Racer (Mach Go Go Go) is older. haha
ive never seen speed racer -_-
I have seen Speed Racer and recommend it!
I also recommend Gintama, Witchblade and Afro Samurai.
First japanime I saw in TV was Vickie the Viking in september 1977 (Chiisana Viking Vikke). I was unaware that it was japanese production.
Vikke or Vickie, or Viki is a character born by swedish author of books Runer Jonsson.
(http://www.azzo.it/cartoon/img/vicky.gif)
I believe it was a German or even far north TV cartoon production (Danish, or Swedish, or maybe even Finnish)
Then it was followed by Heidi (Alps no Shojo Heidi) in Jan 1978. The great Hayao Miyazaki was the character design director, and then I knew Heidi was japanese due to the main titles in the openings and endings.
Heidi was created by swiss book writer Johanna Spyri.
(http://www.cartonionline.com/gif/CARTOON/heidi/miniature/Heidi_07.jpg)
(http://www.cartonionline.com/GIF/CARTOON/HEIDI/Heidi.gif)
And third one in Italy was a great surprise for me... Goldrake (Grendizer) serialized in april 1978.
(http://www.goldrake.info/img/main.jpg)
The name of the tv serial was "Atlas Ufo Robot", and when I spotted the name on the TV magazine, I became curious, because I was really addicted by UFOs in '70s as any kid, and more addicted into the phenomenon of UFO due to english TV serial "Invasion: UFO Spacecommand S.H.A.D.O." a live TV serial by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the two people who created puppets of Thunderbirds and Stingray, and then they were dealing with real human actors and magnificent PVC and metal models stop-motion special effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_(TV_series)
(Image too Big? Just follow the links)
http://ufoseries.com/videos/jVhsDistruggete.jpg
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5d/UFOTVDVDnew.jpg/185px-UFOTVDVDnew.jpg)
Both Goldrake and UFO were a real revolution.
I never regret my curiosity that made me follow first episode of Goldrake.
Until the arrive of Goldrake on italian TVs were running only american (Hanna & Barbera cartoons were the best) and east-european cartoons. There were also some french one, and little italian cartoons like Calimero the little black cockrobin. Other countries were poorly represented.
Goldrake was a real event here. All kids all joung people stopped their activities, run home to see Goldrake in that half an hour.
A true revolution! Giant robots, Mecha, Real characters, stunning evil aliens well depicted, and more... the hero killed for real his enemies.
We kids were AMAZED!
Then it came a rampage of anime in Italy.
Due to the phenomenon of free-private local TVs (over a thousand private TVs transmitting in locations not great than city limits or "county" limits), and the raising of private networks we italian kids consumed from 1977 to 1989 all japanese anime productions starting from 1959 upto 1989.
(Then we got in pair with japan productions because there were nothing left of ancient cartoons).
I remember that even 2 or three cartoons still in "Black and White" were recycled from japanese to be sold on italian market.
It was a real bonanza for us kids, because TV copyrights were sold "once and for all" in those times, so any broadcast nation-wide private TV could run a cartoon for literally dozens of times, and then they sold it to little local TV broadcast who runned it again and again, and again for years and years.
But true it was also a MASSIVE ATTACK BOMBING of japanese culture.
Since then I was really addicted by japan anime. ;010
The top clue of all my career of Otaku was with Gundam 0079, when I saw this historical scene:
(http://www.encirobot.com/gund/chars/amuro01.jpg)
Damn! I finish all bullets!
(http://www.faccinebuffe.it/smile/omini/omini12.gif) (http://www.faccinebuffe.it/smile/omini/omini12.gif) (http://www.faccinebuffe.it/smile/omini/omini12.gif)
No more infinite weapons, rockets and bullets in anime! o_o
In that precise moment I realized that the anime world was at a turning point. Not anymore just only fantasy, but also realism!
Gundam was not only a cartoon. It was a possible true war story represented in anime!
;019 ;019 ;019
Since then I saw almost anything coming from japan in both form of anime and manga.
Wow, you really do remember your roots XD
Actually, a similar phenomenon also involving Gundam was my intro to anime: Since I can remember I've watched anime alongside American toons. For every GI Joe and Transformers there was Grendizer and Mazinger, and a smattering of Miyazaki (not to mention most of the World Masterpiece Theater). As American animation fell to the wayside, I was getting my anime fix through such generous channels as AXN and various local dubs.
The first turning point though was my introduction via model kits to Gundam Wing in 1999. Now here was an anime that despite having Super Robot like mechs, had them in a realistic war setting, no longer Earth vs Aliens, but man against man, not to mention the various political twists kept us (and the rest of the country) on their seats. I've been hooked to Gundam ever since XD And leading from there, in my quest for more Gundam did I run into the incredibly large world of otakudom XD
My first anime is Saint Seiya I watched it when I was 5 on free TV
That excited me, and in 2002 it came back and gave me some great memories once again
Thankfully, my first anime was Dragonball Z. And to me and I quote tononami, "Until the sun rises on a world without anime, [to me] dragonball Z will remain the first, and still the best"
Pokemon, digimon, dragonball z and such.
Ara, i haven't seen this thread before i think...^-^;
Anyways, aside from the Pokemon frenzy of my early childhood, and my comparison of the DB manga with the DBZ anime (the manga clearly much better than the dubs I found on Kazaa), I got my real start by downloading fansubs of One Piece episodes at the age of 13 when i got impatient for waiting for the books to translate. From there on, it's been escalating rather rapidly.
I guess the first "anime" I saw was Pokemon...I became a big collector of the cards and a fan of the show, although I never was too big on the game itself. But it was my older brother who taught me about real anime. When he lived with us, we'd watch Adult Swim...Cowboy Bebop, InuYasha, Trigun...my dad liked watching, too. Now when go to visit him, we usually watch whatever anime he just bought (saw a few episodes of Samurai Champloo a while back). Besides the action and innovative storylines themselves, I consider anime a real art form.
I found out about OS-tans while researching OS advocacy. I instantly knew I had to do drawings of these characters, because I love computers and different OS's, and I love "humanizing" intimate objects (Just ask Cherry Red, my phone, K8, my computer, or Silver, my car ^_^), and OS-tans bring these together.
As with many other here the first animé I saw was Pokémon. But that did indeed not get me into animé. Something about three years or so ago BÃórásin (A local TV channel) viewed Princess Mononoke, that was probably the start for my older brother who watched in total amazement, shortly after that he bought almost all of the Hayo Miyazaki films. But I didn't really start watching animé 'till I saw Neon Genesis Evangelion, that was about a year ago. Since that fateful day I have downloaded gigabytes off animé and bought alot.
I would say that my favourites are:
Neon Genesis Evangelion (of course)
Gunslinger Girl
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
When I was young, my aunt showed me the Miyazaki films when I was staying with her. Granted, at that time I didn't realize it was considered anime. I stayed in Taiwan for a while on vacation, and they've some Japanese influences, so I'd occasionally notice these "really pretty cartoons".
Back at home, there was sailormoon of course. It used to play waaaay early in the mornings. And then around here, all the girls had a sailormoon card phase, where we'd all collect the cards and trade with each other. That lasted a good few years. At this time, my brother started reading Slam Dunk Mangas, so I saw those. He also previously had some Ranma 1/2 videos. Then, we finally got cable, so I managed to watch DBZ too. Eventually, they started airing Tenchi Muyo. Gundam Seed, and some other stuff.
Then, of course, there was Pokemon, including the card craze and whatnot. Following, there was Digimon. And luckily, they started airing CCS too.
But at this time, my brother started getting anime from his friends, so I had access to that. He also started downloading it for me. Though, now, I'm the one DLing most of it for the both of us.
The first time I started DLing by myself was probably... 4 years ago. Beforehand, I would ask my brother to dl stuff for me.
dragonball Z was the first anime i watched. it was my favorite back then.