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What was your "Gateway" Anime?

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BlackGoku03

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I see there's a lot of anime and manga fans here on GAF. It got me wondering, what got you all into anime? What was your gateway series or movie?

Mine was (shocker) Dragonball. I'm a military brat and when I was in Germany, my Japanese neighbor let me watch the whole series, although I didn't understand a word of it since it was all in Japanese. Then he showed me the film, Akira. Although it was in English at the time, I still didn't understand it but I was hooked. It was so much different than the animation I was used to watching on Satuerday mornings. This was in the early 90s and now, I'm really an avid fan of shounen and seinen series.

List your series and say why you got into Japanese animation (or why you didn't).
 
Albator ( captain harlock in usa ? )
Goldorak ( Ufo Robot Grendizer )
Dragon Ball

And Hokuto no ken of course.

Ah the memories...

And why i got into it, was because it was so different from the western stuff... Anime was like from another planet :lol
 
Speed Racer reruns when I was but a wee lad.

Then Robotech when I was about 7 or 8, every weekday.

[edit - I guess I should clarify that the SR reruns were in the late 70s, and Robotech was during its initial run here. Not the early 90s MTV reruns of SR and Robotech on toonami, heh]
 
It was a long-term thing for me.

I saw Galaxy Express in a theater around '83
Got hooked on Starblazers then Robotech
Bought my first non-subbed anime tape, a bootleg of The Appleseed OVA in '88
Saw Akira at the South Florida film festival around the same time.
 
DBZ, it can only get better from there.

Most major ones were Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop, they were expensive as shit, but I'm glad I have them although both are the original DVDs, not the remastered.
 
Berserk (Dreamcast) led to Berserk (anime and other anime shows) led to Berserk (manga and other monga series)

I've watched the assorted set of localized anime as a kid (Voltron, etc) but Berserk got me actively into it.
 
Flynn said:
It was a long-term thing for me.

I saw Galaxy Express in a theater around '83
Got hooked on Starblazers then Robotech
Bought my first non-subbed anime tape, a bootleg of The Appleseed OVA in '88
Saw Akira at the South Florida film festival around the same time.
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Wow, that's an interesting era to get into it.

Compared to how it is now, do you still watch anime? Do you miss the violence and art of the 80s and early 90s? From my experience, things have changed dramaticaly.
 
Back when I was a kid my GAMEGEAR TV TUNER
BEST HANDHELD EVER
got a channel none of the TVs in my house did for some reason and Saturday morning that channel played DBZ. It stopped in the middle of the Freeza saga and it wasn't until Cartoon Network in high school that I got to finish it. Cross Country and Track got out at 4:30 and my Dad didn't come till 6, lucky me that our cafeteria got cable
 
bjork said:
This NEEDS to finally come out on DVD in the states. Seeing in on TBS made me want it, and I never even found it on VHS. :(
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It's on DVD. I don't know if I can post the site though (It's imported >_>). I'll PM it.
 
Ninja Scroll because it was the most awesome thing I had ever seen up until that point. I had seen other anime stuff before that, but I either didn't realize it was anime or it wasn't good enough to convert into someone who actively gave a shit about where it came from. Then I saw Ninja Scroll and that's when I started actively seeking out stuff that was at least 1/1000 the amount of awesome that it was which meant trudging through the endless sea of shit that is the genre of anime.
 
BlackGoku03 said:
It's on DVD. I don't know if I can post the site though (It's imported >_>). I'll PM it.
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I've seen that shit quality bootleg. I want an official good-quality release kthx. :p
 
DragonBall Z

Then when I got older i found FMA --> Naruto --> Bleach --> Trigun --> TTGL -->Gintama

I actually kinda stopped watching Naruto after Shuppiden (sp?) started and stopped watching Bleach at like episode 130ish.
FMA remains my favorite anime, watched the whole seris through 3 times, and Trigun was good.
I only watched like 10 episodes of TTGL, and I'll prolly watch more, but I discovered Gintama a couple days ago and I'm really liking it.

Kinda REALLY went off topic, but whatever... >_<
 
A combination of Battle Of The Planets, Star Blazers, and spanish versions of Doremon and Great Mazinga (sp?) from my army brat days.
 
I'd like to add that the "lucky gun" episode of Doraemon is the greatest short ever. Kids playing russian roulette on a kid's show. That's hot. :lol
 
Initial D.

I had seen anime on TV before that though (like Sailor Moon and DB/DBZ) but Initial D was the first one that got me into the whole scene if you know what I'm saying.
 
I suppose my first anime was Pokemon :lol But it didn't lure me into watching anymore animes

I did see Cowboy Bebop and FLCL on Adult swim but I never really watched anything outside of it besides Spirited Away. I never watched DBZ, didn't like it at all. Nor did I watch much of the other popular animes like naruto at first. I just went and read the manga instead.

So I guess I never had a gateway anime. I just picked up my knowledge from whatever I saw on tv. Even now I'm not much of an anime person
 
Dali said:
Ninja Scroll because it was the most awesome thing I had ever seen up until that point. I had seen other anime stuff before that, but I either didn't realize it was anime or it wasn't good enough to convert into someone who actively gave a shit about where it came from. Then I saw Ninja Scroll and that's when I started actively seeking out stuff that was at least 1/1000 the amount of awesome that it was which meant trudging through the endless sea of shit that is the genre of anime.
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That's the thing about anime; there's a lot of shit out there. I mean, pure shit.

But when you find that particular series that has the right story, animation, and production values, it's just pure gold. It's like nothing American Television can produce.
 
miyuru said:
Initial D.

I had seen anime on TV before that though (like Sailor Moon and DB/DBZ) but Initial D was the first one that got me into the whole scene if you know what I'm saying.
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The drifting scene? I'm picturing you drifting by some guy in a curve and making that avatar face at him. :lol
 
I do remember Trigun being the one that really got me major into this stuff and I remember in 1997 watching DBZ on UPN (or was it WB? whatever) and earlier than that other shows and movies.

but yeah, after watching Trigun I thought to myself "I want to watch more things like this" and so I did.

wait, how the fuck did that come out that way :lol "I want more to watch more things"...its almost 4 am, I should sleep.
 
Linkzg said:
but yeah, after watching Trigun I thought to myself "I want more to watch more things like this" and so I did.
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That's how I felt after watching Magical Twilight on VHS in 1995. Little did I know where my future would lead me...

... gonna watch "The Erotic Adventures of Tom Thumb" tomorrow, probably. :lol
 
bjork said:
This NEEDS to finally come out on DVD in the states. Seeing in on TBS made me want it, and I never even found it on VHS. :(
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Super Techno Arts announced it for the US, but it's been put on hiatus. Since they're the US division of the original production studio (A.P.P.P.), they likely continue to hold the rights to the DVD. Their FAQ says a sequel is in the planning stages, but it's not in production yet.
 
Lhadatt said:
Super Techno Arts announced it for the US, but it's been put on hiatus. Since they're the US division of the original production studio (A.P.P.P.), they likely continue to hold the rights to the DVD. Their FAQ says a sequel is in the planning stages, but it's not in production yet.
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There's a very small list of things I'd like to see on DVD, and this is one of them. Also a domestic release for the old Fist of the North Star movie, but afaik there never was one.

But a sequel to Robot Carnival would be spiffy too.

Ferrio said:
.....Grenadier?

How the fuck do you go from DBZ to Grenadier? Also how does Grenadier a gateway anime? It's more like an exit.
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:lol :reloadingfromcleavage.gif:
 
Can't remember exactly what it was when I spent my kindergarten years in Hong Kong and China. I recalled watching Doraemon, Dragon Ball (Z), Sailor Moon, and Ranma, though. Oh, and a mecha anime that I couldn't name. I remember it involving a school that can transform into a giant robot, though.

When I moved back to America, I kind of fell out of it, until I became a teenager and became interested again via the Ranma series.
 
Back when Sci-Fi channel did "Saturday Anime" every Saturday morning, I watched Akira after hearing Roger Ebert raved about it. I liked it enough to watch Saturday Anime every week for about 3 months or so. Then I took a break and they pulled the plug on it. A couple years later I would watch Dragon Ball Z on "Toonami" late at night. Since that ended, I haven't really watched any. I'd like to get back into some good anime though.
 
I remember watching Mazinger Z while very young. Could never ever remember the name of it until maybe 10 years ago. Robotech as well. Oh yeah, and my dad rented a movie called Warriors of the Wind (along with the NES game Mach Rider) once, found out two years ago that it was an edited Nausicaa. Ronin Warrioirs (poop), Samurai Pizza Cats (sweet but does it even count?), throw in some Voltron and I think that is it.

I think Akira was probably the first feature that I saw.

Totally skipped out on anime during most of my highschool period. Mostly because of girlfriends that made fun of me for that sort of thing, but I would have totally been into Evangelion if I would have just been my own person. Whatev though, they are all fat now so...

Now I am pretty much only in to Ghost in the Shell. Seems to handle all sorts of interesting subjects in a nice manner. And actually, I watched all of Full Metal Alchemist recently and it surprised me how fun/good it was. I totally didn't want to like it. FLCL as well, except that I had never heard of it and just picked it up on the first airing by accident.
 
stephendedalus said:
Totally skipped out on anime during most of my highschool period. Mostly because of girlfriends that made fun of me for that sort of thing, but I would have totally been into Evangelion if I would have just been my own person. Whatev though, they are all fat now so...
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I once had a girlfriend that said she wouldn't date me if I watched anime. Funny thing is, I never told her I watched anime. She saw my DVD collection and made me choose her or anime. I told her to fuck herself though. Not for the anime but for the fact that she made me choose some stupid shit.

My GF now, that I've been with for 10 months, likes anime too. I never thought it could ever happen, a good looking woman who likes anime...
 
My first anime series were Ginga: Nagareboshi gin, Galaxy Express 999, Kimagure Orange Road and Muumit (Moomin). I saw all these when i was something like 5 year old and they planted the anime seed in my subconscious and now i'm hooked on anime.

I really loved the drawing style in anime when i was kid and they were so different than any other series at the time. And i also hated singing in cartoons and in Disney movies the characters were singing all the time >:(. And no singing in anime, so yeah i could only love it.

... Well now I haven't watched anime in a long time, don't really know why but i'm just somehow bored with anime. Maybe i will find something like GTO and the anime fire will spark again.

Ginga alias Hopeanuoli alias Silver Fang is still one of my favorite anime. It's one of those series what you can watch again and again.
 
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