[Discussion] What is the first anime you've watched (because it's anime)?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨mo_lave@reddthat.com⁩ to ⁨anime@ani.social⁩

Mine’s Violet Evergarden in 2021. I’ve seen others before that, but I thought of them as “cartoons” or movies in the generic sense.

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Arachnidbrilliant@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
If Pokémon doesn’t count, then grave of the fireflies

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sleet01@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This is a tough one… the first anime I saw was Space Battleship Yamato, imported into the US as Star Blazers, but outside of thinking that it was completely different from other cartoons I didn’t know anything else about it.

Eventually I caught some episodes of Harlock and saw that there was more than one show with this style, but didn’t realize they both came from an entirely different industry.

Through the next 5~6 years I came to recognize the “anime look” in various other media - many American cartoons farmed their intros out to TMS or Toei and it was obvious that there was something different going on - and Japan was constantly in the news as their economy (actually The Bubble) took off and big American businesses reacted to that “threat”.

Around this time I saw the Galaxy Express 999 movie on VHS, partly because it looked cool but mostly because I knew by then that Lieji Matsumoto was the artist behind Yamato and Harlock and wanted more of that.

So that might be the first anime I watched because I knew what it was. But “anime” wasn’t really in the vernacular then; it was still “Japanese cartoons”, or maybe “Japanimation”.

The first anime that I watched because I knew it was “anime” was probably Bubblegum Crisis: a friend’s brother got fansub tapes at the big local university and brought them back to share around over summer break.

He also brought Urotsukidoji, but that’s a story for another time…

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hitori_gotoh@ani.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I remember watching Captain Tsubasa, Dragon Ball and Pokemon on the TV when I was a child, but the first I watched because it was anime was A Place Further Than the Universe. I was looking how to get into anime and found a guide on reddit with this in the genre Cute Girls Doing Cute Things. I got curious about what CGDCT could be so decided to check it.

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Doomsider@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Probably Speed Racer as a kid. The first I really got into was Robotech TV series and the Macross movie. I really loved the world crafting and I was beside myself when Palladium dropped the Robotech RPG.

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noim@feddit.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Until around 2021 I ignored anime because of the typical cliches. But one friend always tried to push me into it. One day he talked me into watching Evangelion. Probably one of the worst “first” anime you can watch xD It took me multiple months after that to try some more. But I need to admit Evangelion still turned into one of my favorite anime’s.

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tmyakal@infosec.pub ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I did not expect to be alone on this, but I scrolled through and didn’t see it:

Record of Lodoss War from 1990. I had an older cousin who had fansubs of the series on VHS in '92 or '93. We watched through the whole thing probably a dozen times.

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- Unboxious@ani.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That’s a great one to start on though; it had such an aesthetic!
  
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ludrol@bookwyr.me ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Excluding cartoons like Maya the bee and Moomins then probably flip flappers in 2016. There were probably other anime series or ghibli films. But Flip Flappers were the first one that I remember waiting for next episode every week.

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w_tree@ani.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Digimon. Got disc from my cousin and since it was English dub, I thought it was just cartoon. Also I didn’t know what anime is back then.

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corruptmagician@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Stayed up late to watch blue gender as a kid. I think it’s the reason I love mecha anime the most.

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NineSwords@ani.social ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s one of those 3:

Heidi, Girl of the Alps

Maya the Bee

Captain Future

I don’t remember which one of those was actually the first (most likely Heidi or Maya, just going by the kid-friendliness), but all three are in my earliest core childhood memories.
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myrrh@ttrpg.network ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
…space battleship yamamoto, circa 1979, on broadcast television no less: i tried to take pictures of the screen because i didn’t know how to record with our VCR…

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e0qdk@reddthat.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Bleach, probably? My friends in school dragged me into an anime club they were running back when the first season was airing.

I definitely saw other shows before that – Pokemon, of course, and bits and pieces of Ranma, Speed Racer, and other shows that occasionally made it to broadcast TV – but I didn’t distinguish them from other cartoons.

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scytale@piefed.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
YuYu Hakusho, Dragonball Z, and Gundam Wing were airing around the same time when I watched them.

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FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Spirited Away and various other studio Ghibli Movies - first animated movies i watched and first type of anime content I ever saw, as a young child.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. First anime series i watched, and first I chose to watch independently. ~ 16 years old.
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Endmaker@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The first anime / cartoon I have watched is probably Pokemon or Digimon.

But excluding those, it’s The Familiar of Zero (a.k.a. Zero no Tsukaima) or Infinite Stratos. These are the ones that my friends were watching / recommended back then.

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Polkira@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I watched a lot growing up, probably my first one ever was Sailor Moon or My Neighbour Totoro when I was around 5, then as I aged my anime choices slowly evolved (and I was also limited to what was on the TV until around 2003/2004 and started watching streams on whatever site I could find. My first ones that I guess I thought of differently than as an after school cartoon would’ve been Escaflowne in 2002 and Inuyasha in 2003.

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Admetus@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Evangelion. One might imagine that it was a bit of a wake up call that anime ain’t kids cartoons, and I then became a self-respecting anime watcher until the Age of No Time arrived and I just rewatch Toradora! Or Clannad so I can sweat manly tears.

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Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Beyond the usual Dragon Ball and Pokemon things, along with catching random episodes of Sailor Moon, Hamtaro, Cardcaptor Sakura etc on morning TV before school, It was Evangelion, Bebop and couple of years later FLCL on late night TV. I also remember seeing a few random episodes of Escaflowne as well in the 90’s.

I later watched and got very into Eva and Cowboy Bepop, but i still dint really think of it as Anime for some reason.

so beyond those the first “modern” anime that I watched and actually got into the media properly with was Haruhi, then the first thing I watched in Japanese instead of English was Hibike! Euphonium.

so that’s where I stopped watching dubs for shows other than the classic dub series where most people also listen dubbed.

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muhyb@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Gonna feel old here but:

“Voltron: Defender of the Universe”

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Unboxious@ani.social ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The first anime that I watched that I thought of as an anime was Cromartie High School. My college roommate called me over to his desk and in the end we watched the whole show on his monitor with me looking over his shoulder. I really enjoyed it, but I didn’t think too much about it and didn’t watch another anime until I saw Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood about 4 years later. It was all downhill from there.

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Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Sailor Moon.

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emb@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Pokemon and Dragon Ball were just cartoons to me at entry, but after those I realized I like anime.

First ones after that I got into were Cowboy Bebop and Trigun.

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devaly@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Dragon ball, because they streamed it on the open channels on the tv. After that it was Naruto, Pokemon, Hunter vs Hunter and One piece

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victorz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
First “anime” was Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Second one I think was Death Note, then Attack on Titan. Haven’t watched much outside of those, ngl. Not a big anime guy.

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softyakka@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
The first anime I ever saw was Samurai Pizza Cats since my mum LOVED that show and had a DVD of one of the seasons. I can’t figure out the first anime I conciously watched though, it was either Initial D or Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.

Initial D Stage 1-3 is awesome but I do kinda regret watching Dragon Maid in full due to the Kanna scenes

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asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I am not 100% sure but it most likely was “The Promised Neverland”

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TacticalToothbrush@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Furthest back that I can remember are Doraemon both films and series from around 80s 90s and some other tokusatsu. All on VHS. Can not remember which one exactly is “the first”. I start early ;)

Then some series that I never watched from start to finish on cable network. Like Ranma, Sailor Moon, Oh! My Goddess, You’re Under Arrest!, Houshin Engi, El Hazard, CC Sakura, Galaxy Angels. I always try to be in time for Sakura and Galaxy Angels airing, because cute girls. Never did, because school.

Some certainty with title that marks the moment I start actively seeking out and watching more anime. Probably Sister Princess, fan-subbed, burned on CD-R. Good times.

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Dyf_Tfh@piefed.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
First anime that I downloaded and watched on computer was Mirai Nikki circa 2014. I YOLO watched the full series from 21h to 7h next morning. Totally wasted at the end, like being drunk without alcohol.

Somehow I found doing this funny and redid it (less harcore) a few times with other animes.

I’m semi convinced that I saw some part on TV before, not really sure.

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Gainaxe@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Can’t remember if it was Urusei Yatsura or Ranma 1/2 dbut loved both series as a kid (had a friend who had a mail order catalog where he could get the VHS).

As for the first I personally choose (rather than getting second hand from a friend), it was either 3x3 eyes or flame of recca (no longer remember which came first).

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Big_Boss_77@fedinsfw.app ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Probably Neon Genesis Evangelion… I watched several others before this because they looked good…I watched NGE because it’s an institution, apparently. Not my favorite, but I could understand the memes after watching it.

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