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How Did You Get Into Anime?


Vivi Hyuuga

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On TV as a child I saw many cartoons like smurfs and dungeons and dragons but it was hard to find quality content with plots and acceptable frame rates.  My father took me to a comic book convention in the late 80's and someone was playing a bootleg VHS copy of KiKi's delivery service on a small TV.  I had never seen such a quality production with so much care to detail and with the VHS format it was now possible to consume it rather than only catching it by luck on TV or going to the movies.  I started collecting bootleg copies until it became possible to get them on DVD or stream them.  I found almost all of Miyazki's movies and also titles like Akira, Ghost in the shell, Royal Space force and later Satoshi Kon's work like perfect blue and paprika.  All were mind blowingly amazing

That was pretty much how I found anime.  Historically I think the comic conventions really helped kick off the Anime revolution in the United States

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  • 1 month later...

I actually have a friend from HS who was/is a voice actor. I kind of knew anime existed before that, and I'd even watched a bit, but I got more interested and started actively seeking it out after hearing her talk about the work she was doing.  Back then it was a bit difficult to find a lot of anime over here in the US - occasional Westernized versions of stuff like Nausicaä or Voltron on network TV was about it - but following some of the work she's done over the years was motivation to dig a bit deeper or pay more attention than I might otherwise.  I'd usually look to see what came out every season, and look in the credits to see if she'd had a part in a new title.  That sort of thing.  Kind of kept me motivated and interested back before the 'Net or streaming services when I might have otherwise gone astray due to lack of material.

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Well, when I was a kid I was watching Pokémon on TV, but I didn't know what anime and manga were back then. Heck, I didn't know Japan existed, I was that young. I got into the show because I already liked the game.  

I didn't know what anime was until my older cousin showed me Naruto. That led me to watching various others, most importantly Pita Ten and Saru Getchu (Ape Escape)'s anime. The story in various anime I watched caught my eye because they were less episodic than some of the stuff I had available in TV and interested me more. Basically I felt like a "big kid" or something watching them because they had a different tone than the cartoons I watched before. During that time I was your average weeaboo kid who wanted to make an anime when I grew up, and move to Japan and marry a Japanese man. I was one of those weebs who thought I should've been born Japanese just because I liked some of their cartoons, Vocaloid, and Touhou. I tried to draw things with the screen paused, it was a major inspiration in getting me to take drawing more seriously because I wanted to make it look good. Heck, during the younger part of that phase I thought anime people were actually real in Japan (keep in mind, I was like 7, I was dumb back then), but that could've a side effect of my imagination being very strong all of my life. I was the type of kid to make various fictional characters my imaginary friends. And yes, I did try to learn Japanese by watching anime and looking up random words despite not understanding things like their grammer, sentence order, or really anything vital, and in the end I was too lazy to commit to it. :D I was just a kid, after all.

Nowadays, while I have a ton of a respect for Japanese culture, I'm not a weeaboo. I'm now a cringey NoticemeDoitsuphile Germanophile. :3 My interest in anime and manga lies in multiple things. Firstly, while obviously not every artist looks the same, the art styles and expression are something that draws me in. Secondly, the stories and writing. There are multiple western comics and animated series, movies, and shows that have good stories I enjoy as wepl, but when it comes from a different part of the world, a different culture, I'm more likely to see concepts I never thought of brought up, or different ways of looking at them. I like seeing how good writing and clever visuals can collaborate to tell a compelling story. Also, yanderes are a thing.

 

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I love reading everyone's replies, but @A Warp Cloneyour reply made me especially happy because I didn't know there was an anime for Ape Escape! That game series was my childhood. My sisters and I played the games over and over again, never getting tired of them. I'm going to have to check that out now! 

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On 1/17/2018 at 12:55 AM, Vivi Hyuuga said:

I love reading everyone's replies, but @A Warp Cloneyour reply made me especially happy because I didn't know there was an anime for Ape Escape! That game series was my childhood. My sisters and I played the games over and over again, never getting tired of them. I'm going to have to check that out now! 

I've played the third game's story mode so many times I could finish in two days. I also had the first one on PSP, but then I was too young to really finish it since I barely knew what I was doing. I wish my PS2 still worked so I could play it one more time, even if I already know what's going to happen it still takes me back to happy memories.

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@Vivi Hyuuga  I seriously respect your openness about... well, everything. And I believe honesty deserves honesty. So I first got into anime when I was 5-6 I lived with my mom, but she had to work a lot just to get the bills payed so she wasn't around much (and when she was around she was sleeping). But since she couldn't legally leave me at home alone, she had my grandma stay and watch me during the day + at night. But my grandma was abusive so I hardly spent any time at home.   Because of the abuse I had serious anxiety around people so I really didn't fit in with others. Until I met someone else around my age when I had gone to my favorite spot to watch alligators (I lived in southern Florida at the time). He was from Mexico and hardly spoke any English, but regardless we hung out both of us not wanting to go home(As we became better friends and he taught me Spanish, I in turn taught him English, he told me that his uncle was a drunk and being at home on the weekends + certain times during the week was dangerous). One night, after his uncle had been incarcerated for the umpteenth time, I snuck out of my house and went to Josue's because he told me about this show that I "NEEDED TO WATCH!". 

 

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We watched into the wee hours of the morning, until his auntie realized I was in the house and kicked me out, but something was different. First with Josue, now the knuckle-headed ninja himself I didn't feel so alone, Someone understood my pain. I really sympathized with Naruto and Sasuke (More so Naruto), and seeing their successes made me feel like I could succeed too. Eventually, me and Josue graduated to Inuyasha + Bleach but Naruto will forever hold a special place in my heart. He helped me to be who I am today and I'm grateful.

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I dont even know when i started watching anime. i mean, i started watching pokemon and dbz on western cartoon channels and didnt knw it was anime. but i'm not counting that cuz if i do that then i dont even remember when i first started. 

when i was 6 years old, my cousin introduced me to animax and animax is what took me by the hand and made me step into the world of anime. damn, that was one hell of a feeling.

my first anime(as i remember) was Inuyasha. i was immediately mesmerized by the subtle yet beautiful concept, art and story line. i was always the weird kid but i was totally astounded when i found out that my bestie was an anime fan too and thus began the wonderful days of my life until in 8th grade my cable operator decided to cut animax from the list of channels. my bestie(ex bestie) left the world of anime and ofc my world long before that and i ended up being the only kid at my school who watched anime. oh boy i was damn frustrated. no matter what, that feeling i get from animax cant be obtained from watching anime online. but anyway anime is life, so i love anime either way.

 

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I first got into anime when I was in elementary school if I am being honest since it first started out by a friend buying me a manga. It was Rurouni Kenshin and then I moved on to Inuyasha. From there I just kept expanding my anime likes and dislikes. Even used to stay up late and watch anime on Toonami when it used to be on late at night. 

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I first got into anime around 2001-ish. I had watched Pokemon before that, but it was Yu Yu Hakusho that really hooked me. Granted I wouldn't find anime outside of TV (or other fans) until around 2009, but watching what was on Toonami was still fun.

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Well, In 2010, I was bored and I decided to watch netflix! I couldn't find anything to watch so I just picked random shows. Then I found "Rosario + Vampire" it was a really good show! I watched "SGT Frog" also!  Then I started watching more and more anime until I forgot how many animes I watched lol. 1,000 maybe. 

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  • 2 months later...

Not fully sure on how I gotton into the whole Anime scene but I think my father introduced me more to it when I was a teen.  I was thinking it was just some cartoons and nothing special  but he explained more of it to me about it, so thus I got into it. After that during school I heard some people talk about it as well so I did more research on it and was hooked from there. 

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