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What Was Your First Anime Obsession?


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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:23 am Reply with quote
Oh you kids!

I watch all those shows with my sons and it rekindled the fire for Anime in my soul. That fire was started by a giant robot in Black & White and a robot boy in B&W then Color. It mostly died as I got older and started a family, then ... Tenchi, Digimon, Dragon Ball and my own sons enthusiasm opened my eyes back up.

Mark Gosdin
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Akamaru_Inu
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Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 96
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:26 am Reply with quote
I got lucky with mine, because at the end of 4th grade my friends and I discovered Inuyasha (which I still consider my first 'real' series because it was the first thing with a plot that I watched, Digimon Tamers is a close second). At the same time we were starting to use the internet, too, so I remember spending hours on sites like InuyashaWorld and Ear-Tweak. Inuyasha was also my gateway to fanfiction.

Man, do fansites even exist anymore?
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Ryoko24



Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:27 am Reply with quote
Like most kids in the 90's I first started with pokemon. But soon Tenchi Muyo series was the first one i got really obsessed with, i never missed an episode. Then Rurouni Kenshin and so on. I didn't realize i was watching Japanese Animation, all i knew was that these cartoons were so much better then the others on TV. I didn't discover i was watching anime till I was well into Inuyasha. Anime smile Thank you internet. And i am so thankful i did discover anime. I really can't imagine what life would be like without it. Oh wait yes i can... It would be Boring. lol Wink
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Xagor



Joined: 29 Apr 2008
Posts: 192
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:34 am Reply with quote
Given that I ended up playing the TCG for over a decade (before real life got in the way, and I moved to an even more anime TCG...) it'd probably be Yu-Gi-Oh! for me. That was really more about the game than the anime though.


If we move beyond stuff that just so happened to be on TV in the UK (Samurai Pizza Cats, Pokemon, Digimon, Technoman, Medabots etc), then it would be Haruhi. This was one of the first anime I saw at my Uni's anime society (alongside some Shinkai stuff, NHK and Gunslinger Girl), and it was unlike any other show I'd seen before. Like a lot of the anime scene I got swept up by the craze over the show, although Yuki was always my favourite.
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Gyt Kaliba



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 712
Location: Arkansas
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:36 am Reply with quote
I absolutely love when discussions like this pop up, be it on forums, or in chats, or even in real life. The when, where, and how a person became an anime fan is always a really interesting journey for me to hear about from friends both new and old.

In my own case, it's a pretty similar story to some already told in the article and to many others in my age group. I was in the fifth grade when Pokemon really started to hit big in the US, so I was in the prime age group for it, and naturally I really got into it - but for a long time, it was kind of by proxy. We didn't have satellite at the time, and I only had like one tape of episodes and the first movie at some point, so most of my obsession came from playing the heck out of my copy of Blue, and talking and trading cards with friends at school. The cards got to such a point that at one point in time they were even banned at my school because we had practically turned the boy's bathroom into a black market of sorts. Seeing a Japanese trading card was probably the first time I ever saw kanji in my life.

I also dabbled in Digimon a little bit at the time too, but as with Pokemon, they were both just kind of cool things I liked. I think I vaguely knew they were from Japan, and that they were called 'anime' as a result, but that was just obscure little factoids in my head at that time. Japan was just some other place out there, completely far and removed from my little Arkansas hometown, that I'd already heard about in stuff like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I put no more thought into it than that, not even thinking that maybe, there was more stuff out there in that same "genre" that I'd like.

And then, Dragon Ball Z happened - or, to be more accurate, it happened to me. The show had already been around in the states for a good while before I happened across it, and funnily enough I only even watched it the first time because of a bet with a friend at the time. He didn't care for Pokemon, and I was still obsessed with it at the time, so we both agreed to watch a bit of the other's preferred show and report back. Unfortunately, the very first episode I ever saw of DBZ was the one where Bulma's fighting giant crabs on Namek - not exactly the 'hit action show' I had been lead to believe I was going to see at the time.

Fast forward into the summer between my 5th and 6th grade years, I believe, however, and my family finally had satellite TV, and internet (dial up) to boot! I was living the good life at last, clearly, save for one problem - we still didn't get WB, so no Kid's WB Pokemon marathons for me. Instead, I spent my time binging on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and stumbled across Toonami as a result. I instantly recognized that much of the block was more of that 'anime' stuff, so I gave it another look, primarily with DBZ even though I hadn't liked it the first time. This time however, what greeted my eyes was Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation, and the ensuing many, many, many episode battle between himself and Frieza. I had never seen anything quite like it - I'd always had a fascination with 'battle' stories, even as a kid, I think, what with my interests in TMNT and dinosaur related stories, but the fighting I was seeing in DBZ was on a whole different level. And like with TMNT, it had a comedic edge to it at times too. It hit my two favorite story telling styles in one massive fell swoop!

And it was from there that it all started to happen all at once for me. I bought any and all kinds of DBZ related material that I could find, as well as searching up every bit of it I could find online - I knew vaguely how GT ended while the dub episodes were just rolling out the Androids material of Z. Getting into that show kickstarted anime in general in three different ways.

1) Through watching it on Toonami, I naturally started to watch a lot of other anime on there. Not all of it became major favorites, but I watched it all anyway.

2) Looking up more stuff online, especially via actually talking to people in chat rooms or on Yahoo messenger (man does THAT take me back), I would hear about other shows. I still remember seeing someone use an animated gif avatar of Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi with cat ears and a tail wagging, and not realizing what it was from until well over a decade later when I'd finally get to see the show.

3) Meeting a fellow DBZ fan, a young girl, on my school bus and talking about it with her, I'd come to find out she was into a lot of other anime, and she'd tell me about those shows as well, resulting in my eventual borrowing of them.

The second and third ones are easily the most profound way anime has affected my life as a result. That young girl became my best friend throughout middle and high schools, and remains my best friend today, but even more than that, we've been dating for over five years now as well, with plans to marry as soon as other real life things are dealt with (don't ya just love being an adult? Looking back on my childhood like this, there are definitely some parts I'm missing right about now). In addition to that, most of friends that I converse with regularly were met online through a shared love of anime, and a lot of them I've known for nearly a decade now as well.

So yeah, it's pretty hard to imagine my life without anime in some form or another nowadays, because I honestly don't think I'd even be who I am now if I hadn't discovered it. Sad, in a way, I suppose, but that's life. As for the other part of the question, how does my first real anime strike me now compared to back then...it's pretty hard to answer that as well, since DBZ has never left me. I've remained a fan ever since first getting into it, and it's still one of my favorite titles, anime or otherwise, today. Sure, I might no longer try to proclaim it the best written series around, and I've certainly matured enough to see it's flaws for what they are - but that's okay. I'm perfectly fine still enjoying something that's not 'perfect', because really, what show 100% is? The important part is simply the enjoyment, if you ask me. That's what matters.

So long story short, I guess I'm just your typical DBZ nut from the 90's that actually stuck around and ended up falling into the anime fandom as a whole as time went on. Nothing special, I suppose, but that's my story.
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machetecat



Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 396
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:38 am Reply with quote
OH MY GOD, Luna Rock!! I still have that CD, as well as the other Sailor Moon sountrack CD on my ipod! Power of Love is AWESOME!!

For me, it was Sailor Moon as well. As both a superhero & a princess geek, finding that show was my holy grail of awesomeness. While most of my merch is stored away, I still keep out a few posters, my plushies, & the figuarts out on display. LOVE this series.

I really do hope we get a "Rock the Dragon" version of the SM dub, because it really is a nostalgia bomb for me. To this day, I still struggle to remember calling Usagi's daughter Chibi-Usa, instead of Rini. Anime hyper
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kazenoyume



Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Posts: 425
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:39 am Reply with quote
Was excited to see Lauren list Slayers, but disappointed to see her harsh on it in retrospect. I rewatched the show as recently as last year, and I still find it fantastic and hilarious. It's one of the few shows that I've been able to rewatch several times and still find it just as enjoyable as before. There are a few jokes I'd consider in bad taste, and yeah the animation is... not great, but it's a blast of a series and the characters are still among my favorites of all time. They're colorful and memorable. It seems weird to harsh on it for cliche, when it is quite literally a parody of said cliches. And honestly, there really are very few heroines like Lina.

So yeah, sad. Was hoping to see some genuine Slayers love based on the image featured for the article. And as a fan, it was almost a little misleading to see it as the header image but then click the article and find it the only series among the pack that the reviewer seems to not even be a fan of.


Last edited by kazenoyume on Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:57 am; edited 4 times in total
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rizuchan
Collector Extraordinaire



Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 974
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:39 am Reply with quote
Zac really describes perfectly the appeal of Tenchi Universe. It wasn't my "gateway anime" but it was a friend of mine's, and we would spend countless hours talking about who was best girl (I think she wanted to debate, but we both agreed it was Ryoko). Oh and this is when we were 10. And we're girls. But Tenchi was like "woah, it's an action show with like, real romance!" At the time it felt really different that any other anime on TV. How ironic.

I have a hard time nailing down exactly which series converted me. I was a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog as a young kid, and because of it's Japanese origin, I think I became aware of anime as a thing before I had that "I like this thing and holy crap there's tons more of it" moment. I guess I would have to go with Digimon Adventure 02. It was the first show that made me realize Anime could have really human characters with complex emotions. Which sounds hilarious now, but compared to, say, Pokemon, there was serious character development! And of course Ken was my first fictional love that would spark many more "waifu"s to come.
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Yogshi



Joined: 05 Jul 2015
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:40 am Reply with quote
mgosdin wrote:
Oh you kids!

Mark Gosdin


I must be right in their age bracket thing, because i was nodding my head along to all of these. Laughing

But more specifically, Sailor Moon was the first anime I ever watched period, have heady memories of vhs tapes my baby sitter would put on when I was four. Whereas I designate Tenchi! as my "first anime" having caught a weird mishmash of the OVA, Universe, and Tokyo during a marathon I think Toonami did once.

Then DBZ, Gundam Wing, and Outlaw Star aired after and I was lost.

Yet none of those struck me enough at the time for me to venture afar past from what came on TV... and then came Rurouni Kenshin. Which i immeadiately cottoned on to as "different" and hounded the library/book store for the manga as soon as I could.
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Black_Kendoka



Joined: 24 Nov 2013
Posts: 18
Location: Cincinnati, OH
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:41 am Reply with quote
I think I'm going to have to cheat a little bit on this. The specific gateway Anime could have been Iria: Zeiram the Animation or Akira, but the point is that I watched those on the Saturday Anime block on the Sci-Fi channel in the mid 90s. A friend of mine at the time kept raving about Sci-Fi channel airing cartoons from Japan that were really cool and urged me to check it out. After weeks of forgetting about it (there was One Saturday Morning to check out, after all), I finally took the plunge, and everything changed from there.

My 12-year old mind was impressed at the improved animation quality and types of stories that were shown on the movies that Sci-Fi had, compared to the usual fair gracing the American airwaves up to that point. I tuned in every week for several years after that to get a glimpse of these shows from a different country that I only knew of in passing, even watching the repeats that would happen since they only had a handful of shows that were rotated from time to time.

I feel like that was my gateway Anime obsession because that colored my judgement for the Toonami block that aired a few years later with Dragonball Z and Gundam Wing being at the forefront of that obsession. The most ridiculous thing about my DBZ obsession was that I would record the show since it took a few minutes to get home from the bus stop, watch the show and then rewatch the show on tape to see the stuff I missed (100% episode reviews BTW). Telemundo also had some Anime on Saturday mornings, like DBZ, Lost Universe and Tenchi Universe. Since I was learning Spanish at the time, it was also a holy grail of Anime for me. Then there was the Anime club I joined in high school and my first convention during my senior year.

Since then, I have gone back to these shows I watched when I was a teenager and, with my higher critical thinking, realize that most of these were pretty bad, boring, or just okay. But that doesn't matter since I still remember those days fondly as I'm still immersed in the Anime community, and even more so with being single, in my 30s and a decent disposable income.
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soulfringe



Joined: 08 Jul 2010
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:44 am Reply with quote
I got into some anime in my early teens. It started off innocent, renting some VHS from blockbuster and hollywood video. Slayers, Ranma, Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D. Later teens the toonami block thing happened. Got into Dragonball Z and Gundam Wing pretty heavily and took more interest in anime. Still not quite obsessive yet, this wasn't even close to my final form.

It was 2002, when I took to the p2p sharing stuff in search of animes I had seen on toonami/adult swim (Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Inuyasha). In my search for these, I came across Love Hina. I heard about this anime a couple years ago when it was about to start airing in Japan, so I thought I would give it a shot. That was the moment that anime became an obsession. That was the moment I doomed myself. That was when I would start spending more money on anime than a crackhead does for crack. I went from being a self respecting human being into becoming an ultimate weeb. I bought DVDs from ADV for christ sakes... just for the artbox.
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Mataichi



Joined: 23 Mar 2016
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:46 am Reply with quote
There was a block of anime from back in the day that was must see tv after school. Marine Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Speed Racer. Awesome!
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2530
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:56 am Reply with quote
First anime obsession, huh? That's kind of tricky for me to answer, simply because I rarely "obsess" over something & feel the need to buy tons of stuff related to it. Let me see... The first anime I ever bought on DVD was the complete boxset for the Arc the Lad anime, but that was mainly to go with Working Designs' Arc the Lad Collection release which came out around the same time. The first anime I was decided to watch "raw", which I think shows some sense of obsession, was Season 2 of Ring ni Kakero 1 in 2006, but I was already a committed anime fan at that point. I was also a big fan of Pokémon & Digimon when they debuted in the late-90s, but when they started I still had not really comprehended what "anime" was, so I'll (regrettably) exclude those titles, too; by the time Digimon Tamers debuted I did know of "anime", though.

If anything, I'd have to go with the first anime I ever watched, knowing from the very start that it was "anime", which was G Gundam (or maybe it was Rurouni Kenshin), since it (they) were part of the era of Toonami I first knew of, i.e. 2002-ish. There was just such a sense of awe & fun to G Gundam that continually made me want to make sure I saw every new episode that I could, & it's still one of my favorite anime of all time. To be fair, I haven't seen more than just the first few episodes ever since that first time 14 years ago (yeah, I'm "old"), but it's not like I found those early episodes lacking in those rewatches.

I'd also argue that G Gundam helped establish what I look for most when it comes to media like anime in general: Entertainment. I certainly appreciate & love it when a title aims to be in-depth, soul searching, or social commentary, but at the same time I won't ever knock or denigrate something for trying to be not too much more than sheer entertainment & spectacle. If anything, it's kind of funny that another anime I have a strong fondness for, Ring ni Kakero 1, is the anime that I still wish would see some sort of legal English release, even if only streaming, because the original RnK manga was a major influence in the creation & storytelling of G Gundam. It's kind of a weird little circle where the inspired series started really getting me into anime, and then I eventually became a big fan of the inspiration itself through its own anime, which itself came later.

I could also make a good argument for Rurouni Kenshin, as well, but if I have to choose just one "first anime obsession", then I'll go with G Gundam.


Last edited by Lord Geo on Wed Mar 23, 2016 12:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:57 am Reply with quote
In the bootleg-VHS birth-of-US-anime days, if you were an underground college-club fan of anime, you might have watched Robotech, DBZ or undubbed Sailor Moon...
But if you were an anime fan in 1988-1992, there's a good chance that the first bit of Japanese you ever learned to translate was "Darling no baka!" Very Happy In the words of Geico, if you were an early-90's US anime fan, watching Urusei Yatsura was....what you do.

And as bad as Pioneer's dub was--back when they didn't know how to dub, and hired actors who had to learn what comic anime characters sounded like--I'll defend Tenchi Universe for being what good harem comedies should be, but so often aren't: A house full of nuts, in the good way, who still know how to be surrogate-family.
Ayeka is supposed to sound cartoonish when she's being spoiled (it rather clashes with her self-delusional image of being elegant and respected) and it works too when she's trying to be romantic and not quite experienced at it.


Last edited by EricJ2 on Wed Mar 23, 2016 2:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Ryoko24



Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Wed Mar 23, 2016 11:59 am Reply with quote
kazenoyume wrote:
Was excited to see Lauren list Slayers, but disappointed to see her harsh on it in retrospect. I rewatched the show as recently as last year, and I still find it fantastic and hilarious. It's one of the few shows that I've been able to rewatch several times and still find it just as enjoyable as before. There are a few jokes I'd consider in bad taste, and yeah the animation is... not great, but it's a blast of a series and the characters are still among my favorites of all time. They're colorful and memorable. It seems weird to harsh on it for cliche, when it is quite literally a parody of said cliches. And honestly, there really are very few heroines like Lina.


I so agree with you, I love Slayers. And Lina inverse is by far one of my top favorite Characters. So much so I cosplay her.
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