Early anime memories

[Eternal chibi]

Many of us would have watched an English dub without knowing it was anime. Tell us! But also, what was the first time you knew what it was? At what point did you see yourself become an "anime fan" and started watching regularly? Did you discover manga first? What was your first purchase? Anything you think, I am interested to read!

 

[Dai]

Yep, in the 80s I was watching anime without a clue that's what it was because the US companies licensing it kindly scrubbed all Japanese names from the credits. My first exposure was the likes of Gatchaman (in its Battle of the Planets incarnation) and Ulysses 31 in the early 80s, and Thunderbirds 2086 a few years later. The first time I watched something I knew was anime was Akira. I got the VHS for free with a year's subscription to a Megadrive magazine in 1992. I watched that so often, I'm surprised the tape didn't wear out. A few months later the first issue of Manga Mania was published, and I was a lost cause after that.

The first anime I actually bought was Vampire Hunter D in 1993, and every penny to my name went on anime and manga for years after. This was pre-internet, so when I wanted merchandise the best option was mail order from the Sheffield Space Centre, using their old photocopied catalogues. Deciding if I wanted to buy an expensive imported item based on nothing but a text description or a tiny photcopied picture was a nerve-wracking experience.

 

[unknownfate]

One of the first I ever saw was Violence Jack recorded by a friend along with Blue Sonnet back when SyFy was Sci-fi and they'd put Anime on at midnight. Not the best introduction to Anime as you can imagine.

 

[RonJB]

Astroboy, Kimba the white lion and Gigantor when I was young and absorbing the TV. First conscious decision was buying Bubblegum Crisis 2040 on DVD (one of the first to appear on DVD in Australia back in the late 90s), mostly out of curiosity. After than, I was hooked.

 

[D1tchd1gger]

I was watching anime without a clue. My first exposure was the likes Ulysses 31 in the early 80s

Snap. More in the post below from a similar thread:

How do new anime fans get into the medium?

Wasn't me [he says looking at his copy of Plastic Little] :oops: :D Seriously though Plastic Little is a nice little gem. Hardly the best anime you'll see but still a well done romp with great animation, characters and a decent story. As for Neo It was D'Gray Man. If you still have a copy of...

forums.animeuknews.net

 

[BlazinWolf]

First Anime I watched was Pokemon in 1999 when I was 7 on Sky One.Second and third being Digimon (Fox Kids )and Dragon Ball Z (Cartoon Network UK/ Toonami). I did not know the term “Anime” and “Manga” til around November 2005(?) just about when our family upgraded from dial up to broadband. Most of my Anime watching was pretty much anything on Toonami/CNX after school til the second half of 2006 .
Was only watching Toonami for only Pokemon Advanced Battle at this point as Toonami went right downhill and started putting live action stuff in March 2006.

I was hooked mostly on DBZ when it aired on CN then CNX and also remember fondly when promos for Dragon Ball GT(Blue Water dub) appeared on CNX and again for Dragon Ball(Blue Water dub) when it started on Toonami after GT was finished both started airing in 2003. Also remember feeling weirded out by seeing bits of the “Big Green” dubs of the DBZ movies when they aired in 2005. In fact I turned the channel over because the voices were so bad,plus all the wrong terminology.The Only Big Green dub I sat through completely was the DBGT TV Special.

Learned what I was watching was Anime after seeing a bit of the 4kids One Piece dub on Toonami and looking it up on Google and this was how I learned of “Anime”.Quickly came to learn the other stuff I watched was Anime too after that.YouTube was also a big help in discovering other Anime.
Remember discovering the Ghibli films around this time too through rentals,the first being Spirited Away.

First Anime knowing it was Anime from the start would of been Naruto when looking upon it online. First Anime I owned technically was Pokemon The first Movie on VHS. First I actually bought knowing it was an Anime,again Naruto the first Unleashed (Part 1) set on dvd.

Manga wise the first Manga I owned was one of the original Viz Pokemon Adventures monthly issue release issue 5 and at the time I did not know what Manga was, I thought it was fake and chucked it.This was just after I got some fake Pokemon cards( Mewtwo apparently evolved from a Bellsprout ) in Menorca so I went to the strange conclusion ahhh this must be fake. First Manga volume I got would be One Piece volume 1 in the spring of 2006.

 

[DragoStark]

I think my first was probably Pokemon Indigo League. Certainly didn't know it was anime then. Then I watched all the Digimons and Yu-Gi-Ohs etc. Still didn't know it was called anime until much later.

I actually got into manga before I got into anime too. I think my first dive into a manga series was Yu-Gi-Oh GX of all things (probably because I was watching it at the time and researching further and came across it. Honestly I can't remember it's been so long haha)
Then I looked into it more and found a plethora to choose from. The next manga I read was Ai-Kora (which holds a very, very special place in my heart. Always) and from then on decended into hell.
I used to prefer reading the manga over watching anime at the beginning but that's switched now. I'm more likely to watch an anime series than pick up a manga series. But honestly my manga/anime binging days are very much over. I rarely follow anything current. Just slowly working through the enormous backlog

 

[CommanderZx2]

If I watched any anime in the 80s I don't remember or perhaps I didn't actually realise it was anime at the time. In any case the first anime that I distinctly remember as anime was the movies Ghost in the Shell and Red Hawk. Then for the first tv series I remember as anime was Pokemon and Love Hina.

 

[Eternal chibi]

One of the first I ever saw was Violence Jack recorded by a friend along with Blue Sonnet back when SyFy was Sci-fi and they'd put Anime on at midnight. Not the best introduction to Anime as you can imagine.

It is funny looking back at some of the anime that made it to the west compared to others that didn't. They must have thought the appeal was shock factor only.

Manga wise the first Manga I owned was one of the original Viz Pokemon Adventures monthly issue release issue 5 and at the time I did not know what Manga was,

My mum bought me Pokemon Adventures when I was little and I thought it was a colouring book so I coloured it with crayons xD

 

[Dai]

It is funny looking back at some of the anime that made it to the west compared to others that didn't. They must have thought the appeal was shock factor only.

Manga Video's approach in the 90s was certainly interesting, marketing anime more as a genre than a medium. It made sense at the time, since anime was generally unknown in the UK and it helped build a cohesive brand image. They sure did licence some janky stuff to fit in with that image though.

Admittedly I loved all the ultraviolent stuff at the time, but what teenage edgelord wouldn't?

 

[Professor Irony]

If we’re counting co-productions, I think the first one I saw was probably a cable tv rerun of Mysterious Cities of Gold, although one of my favourite tapes when I was a kid was a bunch of Saban dubbed episodes of Ox Tales, the anime origins of which I don’t think seem to be so widely known now.

Admittedly I loved all the ultraviolent stuff at the time, but what teenage edgelord wouldn't?

Only one who wouldn’t know a goddamn vampire if one came up and bit them on the end of their something-something...

 

[Dai]

Speaking of the awkward process of western companies figuring out how to market anime, it was perhaps even more awkward for manga. For years, US publishers tried to treat manga like American comics, releasing single issues for £2-3 each, and then compiling them into trade paperbacks. It was a poor fit, since most manga chapters are written to be chewed through in a couple of minutes on the train, not pored over like a dialogue-heavy, full-colour American comic. The plus side of this approach was that it presented manga on higher quality paper, and in a larger format than the mass-market paperbacks that became more common later on.

I still have boxes full of those old single issues from the 90s, though there's one missing that I've regretted for decades. Back when I was doing school coursework (can't remember if this was GCSE or A-level), I used the first issue of Oh My Goddess! for a text analysis. Since I was used to coursework from earlier years being returned once marked, I submitted the original issue with it instead of photocopying it. It ended up going to an external examiner, and I never got it back. It probably ended up in the bin.

 

[awadama]

I got a volume of the Ironfist Chinmi manga (which was apparently never even released in America and only came out here via Bloomsbury UK) at one of those school book fairs.

It read right-to-left and it was one of the absolute coolest things in the world to me at the time.

After that, it was Pokemon and Digimon on ITV - then DBZ, Gundam Wing and Tenchi every night on Cartoon Network.

Then I got into the monthly DB/DBZ comics (they printed a few of my emails), which then became Shonen Jump (which was really hard to get hold of at the start) - then I moved onto buying the volumes starting with Rurouni Kenshin.

 

[Neil.T]

one of my favourite tapes when I was a kid was a bunch of Saban dubbed episodes of Ox Tales, the anime origins of which I don’t think seem to be so widely known now.

Wow, I remember watching that on TV. I liked the sarcastic toucan who popped up in cutaways to comment on proceedings.

I wasn't aware of the show's anime origin either until only a couple of years ago.

Geragera Boes Monogatari

Farm life has never been this wacky. Where else could you find a turtle with a built in TV under his shell, a bald lion, an elephant whose trunk doubles as a garden hose and an inflatable octopus. All run by a good-natured ox named Olly. (Source: ANN)

myanimelist.net

 

[Professor Irony]

Yeah, same here. I just randomly hit on the show's Japanese opening on youtube one time - it's pretty wild.

I think when people talk about Japanese-European co-productions, it tends to be things like Mysterious Cities of Gold, Ulysees 31 and The Adventures of Willy Fog that come up, no-one really seems to mention Ox Tales.

There's also another interesting looking Italian-Japanese production called Reporter Blues that I'd be keen to see, but sadly it never seems to have had a release in English

/derail