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Like the majority, I started to watch anime when I was in high school, as technology like Youtube and streaming sites started to get more prominent, started to watch more anime that way.

Around the age of 4-5 when I watched all the seasons of Saint Seya. Followed by DragonBall and Yuyu Hakusho a few years after. Also watched a series about soccer when I was in the 2nd grade whose name I don't recall but which I loved.

I also remember watching a ton of adult anime when I was in the 1st through 4th grades which I did not understand well but these Latin American channels brought and showed even in primetime like Friday at 7 PM, because they were cheaper than other stuff like American TV (including a ton of stuff that probably was never released in the US).

While anime itself wasn't a word Brazilian people used to describe it, they called it "Japanese cartoons" as American cartoons are called American cartoons (more fitting isn't it?, I personally dislike the word anime because it sound a bit "racist" to me in a sense). Anime among children was extremely popular in Latin America. Much more popular than stuff like Disney and I guess that among nerds it still is more popular than stuff like South Park though it's popularity has been fading among mainstream audiences since the late 1990's.

When I was a kid I liked both but the cartoons that I really loved were the Japanese ones because they had stuff such as character development and long running plots (something that is completely lacking in American cartoons and TV in general which are standard issue in Manga and the anime they were adapted into, as anime can be essentially understood as "animated literature") while not having those heavy handed stupid messages prevalent in American cartoons (the cheap ideology of the stuff Disney made began ti nauseate me since I was around 8).

I was completely addicted to DragonBall from the ages of 7 to 13 (specially in the 4th grade my addiction peaked when I watched the duel between Goku and Freeza), after watching all the 450 episodes. I started reading anime magazines published in Portuguese (since I am Brazilian) around the age of 11, when I noticed that there were many adults who were into that sort of thing as well (they even had to respond to some hate mail about their extensive coverage of "thrash" like Dragon Ball while they failed to have some detailed analysis of stuff like Lain and Ghost in the Shell). I even watched stuff that girls were into such as Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon. I began watching adult anime when I was about 11 and I watched Evangelion, followed by stuff like Lain, Blue Seed, Akira, Inuyasha and Cowboy Bebop over the next couple of years. By the age of 15 I was well versed in a large quantity of anime, having watched it for about a decade.

Though at the same age I began watching more Brazilian TV shows and American TV shows such as Battlestar Galactica, House, Band of Brothers, Lost and Rome and abandoned anime for a period of about 7 years, I returned to anime after I became bored of Brazilian and American TV and movies. Now anime appears to be the only sort of screen entertainment that really manages to grab my attention.

I was 18 years old and found anime on the internet. It was beginning of my hentai and anime experience.

When I was around 15-16, I watched Chihayafuru and Sakamichi no Apollon because I read their respective manga adaptions. Best decision ever.

Technically, I liked the battle shounen when I was 7 but I wasn't really into it that much compared to now.

I was first exposed to anime before the age of 10, but I really started getting into it my first year of college. Though I would have to say that the age brackets specified in the poll are way too wide and provide little in the variety category.

If it includes the period when I perceived it as just cartoon, definitely below 10. Like most of the people I was a fan of Pokemon and Beyblade, though the latter meant more to me as I had lots of beyblades and a good chunk of my childhood was spent on street Beyblade tournaments. Towards puberty I enjoyed a series called Hungry Heart: Wild Striker which was broadcasted on a local sports channel, as well as Tokyo Mew Mew on a children's channel. (I associated it with W.I.T.C.H.)

As I became aware of what it actually is, I remember I firstly decided to watch Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

When I was a little kid, I, like everyone, loved Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, alongside my older sister's VHS tape of some Sailor Moon and Castle in the Sky. (Speaking of my sister, she served as my first contact of sorts through her love of Inuyasha and her Fruits Basket poster, along with a memory that stuck with me for a while; I was in her room with her while she was watching something that I now recognize as FLCL, and the scene where Naota swings his bat came on the screen. I thought I had entirely imagined this for a while, up until I was 12 or 13 and discovered the show for myself.) I didn't recognize this stuff as anime, but, when I was about 9 or 10, I started getting into JRPGs with Final Fantasy, directly followed by my biggest obsession ever, Persona 3, somewhat introducing me to Japanese culture and anime at the age of 10. I then looked into a bunch of Miyazaki movies, loving all of them, along with Akira and some of the more well-known Shounen Jump anime-- Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Bleach, etc. when I was 11 or 12, thinking I was some sort of expert. It just grew from there.

While I first saw Anime when I was around 4 or 5 I didn't know it as Anime. I didn't actively seek it out until I was in my teens. So, I voted 10-25 because that is when I got "into" it by actively seeking it out.

Kimba the White Lion was my favourite TV show as a child in the 60s. I also watched Astro Boy and Gigantor.

Akakamereon wrote:

I am seventy and I am just started watching anime
just kidding, are there really any people who started watching anime in those age?

I started watching anime about a decade ago when my daughter brought home a borrowed copy of Mononoke Hime. I was 55.

For the poll I cannot remember if I was one of the six people who selected 41-55 or if I was the only person who picked 56+.
I am really not sure which is correct because I really do not remember exactly when I started but I was right around 55 or 56 at the time.

The first time that I can remember talking to somebody about watching anime was in 2003, so I think that I must have gotten interested in it around then, or slightly before.

I am sure that I must have seen some localized anime on TV before that, but to me they were just cartoons.

@Touma
I was the one who clicked 56+, I realized my error almost immediately but couldn't correct it. I was, in fact 52 when I started watching anime. Of course that was in 1997.

Thanks, Alan45.

Now I know that I must have picked 41-55, which is probably correct.
That seems like a rather large age range, but I guess that there are not many of us who are old enough to qualify.

@Touma
In my case, I can track my first anime to a specific event. I did a blind buy of two VHS tapes in August 1997. I watched them and decided I liked this stuff and have been buying anime ever since.

Unlike most people here I have never watched anime on either broadcast TV or Cable. It has all been either physical media or streaming.

I was sixteen and tired of recording Inyuyasha on the tele.

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How old were you when you first started getting into anime?

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How old were you when you first started getting into anime?