I’m curious to see what people’s first introduction to anime was depending on the era. I remember my sister and I renting out a copy of Madlax at the video store in 2005 and being captivated by the music and action.
oh that was one of the first ones i watched but i was 9 or 10 and the opening scene was so jarring i turned it off and came back to it at a later date
BisquickNinja2026-01-26 02:46
Star Blazer / Space Battleship Yamato!
John_D_Badger2026-01-26 02:46
I remember running home from grade school to get home in time to watch Speed Racer... Good lord, I'm old.
Nearby_Pie2662026-01-26 02:46
Dragon Ball Z as a kid but what really got me started was I watching sword art on Netflix
MikuShisou2026-01-26 02:47
Sailor moon and dragonball around the same time
fubes20002026-01-26 06:54
Most 90s men cop out and say Dragon Ball, but we all know it was actually Sailor Moon.
MikuShisou2026-01-26 07:48
More than likely Sailor moon at least on toonami, but I do also have memories of sneaking into my father's vhs collection and watching Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll that same year
scratchfury2026-01-26 08:11
I remember watching Ninja Scroll at someone's house and wondering "am I allowed to watch this?" That snake scene had me real conflicted as a kid.
MikuShisou2026-01-26 08:25
True same for me, then my mom found out and I never saw those tapes again...
yourrealdad282026-01-30 05:09
Samsies
Xenowrath2026-01-27 04:09
In the 90s it was 100% Sailor Moon for this man lol sure I like DBZ too and all that, but the power of love and friendship is what really sold me.
Popular-Catch-99272026-01-26 02:47
pokemon, naruto, and dbz
in_her_drawer2026-01-26 02:49
Voltron.
No_Individual_31332026-01-26 02:49
Pretty sure either the original yugioh or naruto
otaku85642026-01-26 02:50
Baka and test
bofoshow512026-01-26 02:50
Pokemon and Yugioh into Toonami. Watching Naruto’s Chunin Exams as it was airing was an unforgettable experience!
sagevallant2026-01-26 02:51
I didn't know it at the time, but Voltron. Never liked Speed Racer but knew it existed. Then YuGiOh, DBZ, that kind of stuff. Still didn't really understand anime. Saturday morning cartoons.
It wasn't until Toonami and Adult Swim that I really learned about anime and started looking for it specifically.
SleepyDragon782026-01-26 03:23
Didn't realize voltron and speed racer were considered anime rather than cartoons.
sagevallant2026-01-26 03:30
I guess I don't know exactly how much was changed in the English dubbing so I guess it could be up for debate.
porpoiseoflife2026-01-26 04:48
Voltron: GoLion
Speed Racer: Mach GoGoGo
HoldMyTannerite2026-01-26 02:53
Redline
guydoestuff2026-01-26 02:54
Robotech in the early 80s then a few rando mech ones i forget the name of till Vampire Hunter D in the mid 90s really hooked me.
Ninja_Cat_Production2026-01-26 03:09
Robotech was the best when i was 7-8.
Jaycee_015x2026-01-26 02:55
To Aru Kagaku No Railgun. Misaka Mikoto was my first ever tsundere character.
Tickwit2026-01-26 06:40
Railgun is one of my favs! I’m so keen for the next season once they finally announce a release date. The fandoms a bit.. much sometimes though 😂
BiggieCheeseLapDog2026-01-26 02:55
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
sheetofice2026-01-26 02:58
Captain Harlock. Back in the early 80s.
waxyourhair2026-01-26 02:59
I wouldn't call it the first but it was the start of me watching different genres of anime instead of typical shounen, Rezero.. also it's the first anime i watch online and manage to binge whole season without interruptions from my whole family who are always against me when I'm trying to watch Gurren Lagan & Law of Ueki on our television 😂
DarwinRuthord2026-01-26 03:01
Mine was Karasu Tengu Kabuto and 8 Man After. Didn't even know they were anime until much later honestly. And not the most age appropriate when I saw them.
AlsoTheFiredrake2026-01-26 03:01
Howl's Moving Castle
heroicvex_2026-01-26 03:02
first anime i ever watched was baka and test
Both-Variation21222026-01-26 03:03
DB+DBZ. Pokemania started year or two later.
lollipop_w_tears2026-01-26 03:03
either Pokemon or Beyblade
flatpetey2026-01-26 03:04
Nausicaa on a shitty vhs copy back in the day. (Excluding Robotech which of course was not quite anime)
And then when I returned I kicked off with Horimiya which was a great way to get back into it.
WildDT2026-01-26 03:05
YuYu Hakusho, Cowboy Bebop, and Dragon Ball Z
Captincorpse2026-01-26 03:06
Toonami/late night Adult Swim and their amazing line-up. Yu Yu Hakusho was the first one I went out of the way to fully watch but everything from Toonami/Adult Swim is what got me into it
BeanyIsDaBean2026-01-26 03:08
Around 2010, Deltora quest, ouran highschool host club, fruits basket, vampire knight
Australians can relate
SleepyDragon782026-01-26 03:18
Vampire Hunter D.
I am "watched things on vhs" old.
onzichtbaard2026-01-26 13:03
When i was a kid it was right before cds became common
So i grew up watching vhs tapes as well for a bit
A_Lupin562026-01-26 03:19
Voltron
Projha2026-01-26 03:23
My Neighbor Totoro…
Libriomancer2026-01-26 03:24
Friends used to watch DBZ when I was over but I’d roll my eyes and not really watch as we did other stuff. Then I met a girl a few weeks before my sophomore year at college as she was watching Inuyasha in the dorm common area (I stayed over for the summer and she came early for a program) and ended up watching with her.
Within a few weeks a friend had started an Anime Club and I was made VP as I had experience with running clubs on campus… he showed up for the founding meeting and never again so me and my new girlfriend (Inuyasha girl) ended up running the club where we basically burned through the classics.
She’s now my wife with two kids. Currently converting them (6 year old girl and 4 year old boy) as they constantly watch Miyazaki and she is now introducing them to some modern series.
Mr_Rock-haley2026-01-26 03:24
Same old thing: Naruto, DBZ, and Pokémon.
But what really caught my attention (like, really classifying anime as something different from cartoons and requesting them) was Himouto! Umaru-chan and Nisekoi
MyAccountWasBanned72026-01-26 03:24
The first I saw was DBZ as a preteen. I thought it was stupid and decided that I didn't like anime. Then, much later, I saw Cowboy Bebop in college and loved it. So I assumed most anime was trash and that CB was just exceptionally good.
Then another decade later I saw Utawarerumono and the war/strategy aspect was really interesting and started thinking maybe there was more to anime than I thought. That was the one that led me to give the medium an earnest shot and now I've found tons of anime that I like (though I still think shounen anime is dumb.)
Shimmering-Sky2026-01-26 03:29
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds for me, and not because it just happened to be on TV. No, I had a clip from the final battle (that didn't even have subtitles, mind you) pop up on YouTube for me back in like March 2011 or so when the show was wrapping up in Japan, and I thought it looked *so fucking cool* I immediately had to go see if there was more of it and/or an English version. Ended up finding out what anime was in the process of doing that.
wubbbalubbadubdub2026-01-26 03:34
Dragonball and Pokemon dubs on morning tv when I was a kid.
Intro to subbed anime was Evangelion, also on TV.
Maximum-Couple40772026-01-26 03:37
I started watching anime on tv by accident as a little kid.
First series were, dragon ball, arare, evangelion, trigun and cowboy bebop. Some anime series were strange and intriguing, so I got curious about it.
Bikerider422026-01-26 03:38
It’s kind of random, but I went to a friend’s birthday party and they put on OHHC. Specifically the episode where Honey isn’t allowed to eat any sweets.
TorchThisAccount2026-01-26 03:43
Ninja Scroll and Macross Plus. I really liked the HBO animated Spawn series, and it got me to look for 'cartoons' that weren't targeted to children. It didn't really feel like anime was a thing in the late 90s in the west. Then Cowboy Bebop came out and I've been into anime ever since.
renegadesci2026-01-26 04:06
Playing Super NES Super Star Wars Empire Strikes Back at some organized youth weekend gathering. Someone put on a subtitled Akira VHS from a speciality store.
It was a very cool movie and then I would always have an interest. Adult Swim Inuyasha and then Cowboy bebop.
hanr102026-01-26 04:06
According to my dad, the first Pokémon movie. It was also the first movie I ever saw in a theater
Then I grew up watching plenty of anime on TV in the early 2000s and onward: Hamtaro, Crayon Shin-chan, Medabots, Magical Doremi, Sonic X, Cardcaptor Sakura, Shaman King, FMA, Dragon Ball, Flint the Time Detective etc… I thought a bit about this show while typing and just remembered/realized that the villainess in this kids show actually had a dominatrix character design lol
The first one that made me seek out for more on the internet was One Piece though, when I was around 10 years old. That’s when I discovered fansubs and got deeper into it
Fearless-Light6632026-01-26 04:20
Urusei Yatsura
B_r_y_z_e2026-01-26 04:22
Definitely Pokemon!
runevault2026-01-26 04:22
I don't remember which I watched first but either Voltron or Ronin Warriors (now called Samurai Troopers).
Kitasan372026-01-26 04:26
Girls Bravo
Life_Attorney91712026-01-26 04:34
Pokemon
The_Abyss_Of_Thought2026-01-26 04:45
i want to say dbz but it might actually be speed racer
porpoiseoflife2026-01-26 04:45
Technically, Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatchaman. Or at least the Americanized version called Battle Of The Planets. It was airing when I was 5 years old on ABC's Saturday morning cartoon block.
The first one that I learned was anime was Macross, although I was first exposed from (fuck you) Harmony Gold's Robotech Saga.
TerribleShiksaBride2026-01-26 04:55
My first *exposure* to anime was getting traumatized by the 70s anime version of "The Little Mermaid" when I was probably about four or five in the mid-80s.
What actually flipped the switch was going to college, where my roommate set up her little TV/VCR combo and started playing some Ranma 1/2 tapes she'd copied for herself off videos she'd rented, and I started watching them too.
kaydenwolf_lynx2026-01-26 05:13
tokyo ghoul when i was like 9 or 10, because of that i have a preference for gorey/bloody animes
zilchgoose2026-01-26 05:21
Soul Eater
Informal_Bus49452026-01-26 05:26
Ninja Scroll and Akira.
This was like the brown bag swapmeet, ghetto VHS fan dub days
AlexTrench22026-01-26 05:28
Akira
WorldArcher12452026-01-26 05:36
Nisekoi on Facebook.
SGTKoolioGames2026-01-26 05:54
Bebop almost 30 years ago
WelcomeToWitsEnd2026-01-26 05:58
Galaxy Express 999, the movie. It was on TV when I was a kid, and I stopped to watch it.
It is, hands down, the biggest influence on the life I live today.
ghostpickleonastick2026-01-26 06:01
Anime movies being broadcast on channel 13 at like 2am. Channel 13 isn't even real, but the next day at school I wasn't the only one who had watched the main character riding in some guy's car and then the MC's friend rides up on a motorcycle and the driver reaches out with a razorblade to slice the friend's eye causing him to crash all so he could continue their conversation uninterrupted.
Indica_HeXeN2026-01-26 06:06
Like most people my age, Pokémon, Digimon Adventures, whatever was on broadcast tv during the after school or Saturday morning program blocks
anhedonicape2026-01-26 06:11
First anime I remember seeing, k- on when animax was a thing and the first time I sat through one to watch on my own was either parasyte or AOT.
EviiiilDeathBee2026-01-26 06:15
15. In weeb friends basement playing mtg, insists anime is good, resist, gets us to watch the first few episodes of FMAB. Hooked instantly. Now I'm 31 and basically only watch anime
miniskirtmenace2026-01-26 06:35
Hetalia and Fruits Basket
_AshleighJ_2026-01-26 06:36
Howl's Moving Castle - what a start.
hlloyge2026-01-26 06:43
First anime I saw without knowing it was anime was original "Maya the bee" and "Yuki".
First one which I knew was anime was "Urotsukidoji: legend of the overfiend" LOL
Takingtheehobbits2026-01-26 06:47
Haibane Renmei when I was in elementary school
slawth62026-01-26 06:48
dragonball z was probably the first thing i watched but the thing the pulled me in was Demon City Shinjuku i didn't know anime could be gory, dark, and more adult till seeing that
HalalosHintalow2026-01-26 07:32
Nadia and the secret of blue water around 93-94. The first anime wich I saw in a German channel, and watched like hell despite I didn't knew a word from the language 😄
hydroxideeee2026-01-26 07:41
outside of pokémon, yugioh, and beyblade, i knew anime existed but didn’t watch any until a long time later.
one of my friends changed his discord pfp to mai sakurajima and kept going on about how good bunny girl senpai is. i knew enough about where to watch said shows, and hopped onto crunchyroll (before premium was a thing), and binged the entire thing in one night. and… here i am 8 years later…
tahleeza2026-01-26 08:16
Ranma 1/2
Narrow-Grape57882026-01-26 08:29
I think my first animes marked my favorite genres
So i started off with death note anime. I reaally like it around 13 yeara old. So this paved the way for pshychological and mystery anime such as psycho pass, kakegurui,, steins gate etc that i watched aeveral years aftee ( also am excited for the announced liar games anime )
After death note was naruto. So of course this paved way for "power of friendship" action style anime like fairy tail and uma musume
Then my 3rd earliest anime was fate stay night. This paved the way for me falling down the fate hellhole and learning so much and being sad at the same time that so many fate content have no adaptatiosn yet and some of the existing fate adaptations are great but not peak as compared if they followed the manga or game with budget
DS7RYAN2026-01-26 08:55
Genuinely thought avatar the last Airbender was sick and decided to watch it after that I decided to watch anime
Donnie-G2026-01-26 08:58
I was exposed to various anime in my youth, but I just treated them as any other 'cartoons'. I didn't differentiate them.
I think the absolute earliest anime I watched was Kimba the White Lion. I was really young though and don't remember much of it. Definitely watched Voltron as well.
Next would be Dragon Ball, Samurai X, Sailor Moon, Slam Dunk, Pokemon and Akazukin Cha Cha. They were on TV or Cartoon Network and I kinda just watched them when they were on. I was pretty into Samurai X, but I wouldn't really consider myself an 'anime fan' just yet.
When we got the AXN channel here, they had 2-hour or so anime block every day. That's when I really started to watch and chase episodes, not wanting to miss one. Among the earliest of these shows would be El Hazard and DUAL!. And I pretty much watched most of the stuff that were on, from things like You're Under Arrest to Gatekeepers...
I tried buying physical releases, but there wasn't anything official here despite being labeled as original. The 'original' stuff came from Hong Kong, and I only realized something was dodgy when I discussed it online. People were saying there's no way an official DVD release would pack 9 episodes per DVD. My first box set, Chobits - had decent subtitles. Unfortunately my Nadesico box set made little to no sense....
Then eventually I got DSL internet which allowed me to feasibly download anime in a reasonable timeframe and the rest is history.
Expensive-Lobster7822026-01-26 09:00
Akame ga kill
GamingMunster2026-01-26 09:20
School Days… I have obviously not rewatched it since
ThanksReal4452026-01-26 09:22
One Piece 😭
Classic-Box-39192026-01-26 09:57
Pokemon probably technically an episode or 2
But fr anime i finished was sao when i was 12.
CassieFromPhil2026-01-26 12:07
Bleach, full metal alchemist brotherhood and maid sama!!!
SankaraMarx2026-01-26 12:36
Robotech
onzichtbaard2026-01-26 12:59
One piece was my first anime, my friends were watching it at the time back in 2012 and got me into it
I think it was a great anime to start with because i had a lot of time and patience at the time
There was a site called watchop back then which the people i knew used and i didnt yet know of any other anime outside the big 4
OrangeStar2222026-01-26 13:39
Pokémon, Dragonball Z, Cardcaptor Sakura - Alfred Judocus Quack, Peter Pan no Bouken, Dommel (Wowser), Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Wicky the Viking, Nils Holgerson if we go even further back. All those 80s/90s anime based on European literature kicked so much ass back in the day.
First started to get into watching subbed anime with One Piece back in the summer of 2005 on YouTube.
FrutPonchSamurai2026-01-26 14:24
Detective Conan was my first and favorite growing up.
MathematicianSea46742026-01-26 15:01
Pokémon, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball Z were my initial introductions as a kid.
Attack on Titan is what actually made me an anime fan, 25 years later
miku_dominos2026-01-26 15:04
Nico Nico Nii memes.
Hey-ThatsNotBad2026-01-26 15:33
Tranzor Z (Mazinger Z) was my gateway in the 80s. It aired on one of the UHF channels, I think. I talked about it so enthusiastically and tried to get my friends to watch it but I was the only farm kid who was into giant robots 😢
lordfreaky2026-01-26 18:14
being stuck on base watching dbz live
Icchan_2026-01-26 22:01
Maya the Honey Bee when I was like 4 years old or something...
This_Event_24332026-01-27 01:03
Fullmetal Alchemist 2003
I watched it in an ipod with a friend and couldn’t hear anything because their car was too loud and the sound wasn’t working well.
Somehow I ended up liking it.
zerosmith862026-01-27 03:45
Tree of Might. DBZ. Woke up for church. Watched about 20 minutes and called grandpa to let him know I wasn't going. This was on a channel called USA before Cartoon Network was available on cable TV. Missed a lot more church after that.
CaliFigureLabs2026-01-27 04:17
Love Hina. As a kid, I walked into a random mall anime shop, idk why I chose that DVD, but got hooked on it and started watching animes from there. I tend to prefer harem comedies because of it.
IfeelChilly2026-01-27 07:26
I first discovered anime after seeing an episode of Fairy Tail way back in animax on TV. I didn't really expect much about it at first, but eventually after a few funny interactions of the characters it got me interested in the show.
Wonderful-Peak-45722026-01-27 08:04
Having childhood insomnia due to trauma and seeing shadows and hearing the outro song to inuyasha . I can still see that moment so clearly. Seeing Sesshomaru lovely coat in the wind , what a sad moment to become away of the luscious world of anime.
Commentaires
It wasn't until Toonami and Adult Swim that I really learned about anime and started looking for it specifically.
Speed Racer: Mach GoGoGo
And then when I returned I kicked off with Horimiya which was a great way to get back into it.
Australians can relate
I am "watched things on vhs" old.
So i grew up watching vhs tapes as well for a bit
Within a few weeks a friend had started an Anime Club and I was made VP as I had experience with running clubs on campus… he showed up for the founding meeting and never again so me and my new girlfriend (Inuyasha girl) ended up running the club where we basically burned through the classics.
She’s now my wife with two kids. Currently converting them (6 year old girl and 4 year old boy) as they constantly watch Miyazaki and she is now introducing them to some modern series.
But what really caught my attention (like, really classifying anime as something different from cartoons and requesting them) was Himouto! Umaru-chan and Nisekoi
Then another decade later I saw Utawarerumono and the war/strategy aspect was really interesting and started thinking maybe there was more to anime than I thought. That was the one that led me to give the medium an earnest shot and now I've found tons of anime that I like (though I still think shounen anime is dumb.)
Intro to subbed anime was Evangelion, also on TV.
First series were, dragon ball, arare, evangelion, trigun and cowboy bebop. Some anime series were strange and intriguing, so I got curious about it.
It was a very cool movie and then I would always have an interest. Adult Swim Inuyasha and then Cowboy bebop.
Then I grew up watching plenty of anime on TV in the early 2000s and onward: Hamtaro, Crayon Shin-chan, Medabots, Magical Doremi, Sonic X, Cardcaptor Sakura, Shaman King, FMA, Dragon Ball, Flint the Time Detective etc… I thought a bit about this show while typing and just remembered/realized that the villainess in this kids show actually had a dominatrix character design lol
The first one that made me seek out for more on the internet was One Piece though, when I was around 10 years old. That’s when I discovered fansubs and got deeper into it
The first one that I learned was anime was Macross, although I was first exposed from (fuck you) Harmony Gold's Robotech Saga.
What actually flipped the switch was going to college, where my roommate set up her little TV/VCR combo and started playing some Ranma 1/2 tapes she'd copied for herself off videos she'd rented, and I started watching them too.
This was like the brown bag swapmeet, ghetto VHS fan dub days
It is, hands down, the biggest influence on the life I live today.
First one which I knew was anime was "Urotsukidoji: legend of the overfiend" LOL
one of my friends changed his discord pfp to mai sakurajima and kept going on about how good bunny girl senpai is. i knew enough about where to watch said shows, and hopped onto crunchyroll (before premium was a thing), and binged the entire thing in one night. and… here i am 8 years later…
So i started off with death note anime. I reaally like it around 13 yeara old. So this paved the way for pshychological and mystery anime such as psycho pass, kakegurui,, steins gate etc that i watched aeveral years aftee ( also am excited for the announced liar games anime )
After death note was naruto. So of course this paved way for "power of friendship" action style anime like fairy tail and uma musume
Then my 3rd earliest anime was fate stay night. This paved the way for me falling down the fate hellhole and learning so much and being sad at the same time that so many fate content have no adaptatiosn yet and some of the existing fate adaptations are great but not peak as compared if they followed the manga or game with budget
I think the absolute earliest anime I watched was Kimba the White Lion. I was really young though and don't remember much of it. Definitely watched Voltron as well.
Next would be Dragon Ball, Samurai X, Sailor Moon, Slam Dunk, Pokemon and Akazukin Cha Cha. They were on TV or Cartoon Network and I kinda just watched them when they were on. I was pretty into Samurai X, but I wouldn't really consider myself an 'anime fan' just yet.
When we got the AXN channel here, they had 2-hour or so anime block every day. That's when I really started to watch and chase episodes, not wanting to miss one. Among the earliest of these shows would be El Hazard and DUAL!. And I pretty much watched most of the stuff that were on, from things like You're Under Arrest to Gatekeepers...
I tried buying physical releases, but there wasn't anything official here despite being labeled as original. The 'original' stuff came from Hong Kong, and I only realized something was dodgy when I discussed it online. People were saying there's no way an official DVD release would pack 9 episodes per DVD. My first box set, Chobits - had decent subtitles. Unfortunately my Nadesico box set made little to no sense....
Then eventually I got DSL internet which allowed me to feasibly download anime in a reasonable timeframe and the rest is history.
But fr anime i finished was sao when i was 12.
I think it was a great anime to start with because i had a lot of time and patience at the time
There was a site called watchop back then which the people i knew used and i didnt yet know of any other anime outside the big 4
First started to get into watching subbed anime with One Piece back in the summer of 2005 on YouTube.
Attack on Titan is what actually made me an anime fan, 25 years later
I watched it in an ipod with a friend and couldn’t hear anything because their car was too loud and the sound wasn’t working well.
Somehow I ended up liking it.