Does Your First Anime Still Hold Up?

[gigastar]

I dont even remember what anime i actually saw first. Its a toss up between Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Pokemon and Digimon.

Sailor Moon and Dragonball never enthralled me like it seems to have most people.

Pokemon, kn its earlier seasons at least, would go into worldbiulding when it wasnt advancing the main plot which made it interesting to watch even at the bitter old age of 19.

I also rewatched the original Digimon a couple of years back, didnt think as much of it as i did back in the day. Tamers still kicks arse though.

And i have the feeling there was a couple of other things, but thier names are lost to me.

 

[Itsuki93]

My first anime was Cardcaptor Sakura. I don't know whether I'd say it holds up but I still enjoy it for some reason. However that didn't really get me enjoying anime, it just held my attention until I saw Shaman King. That not only got me interested in anime but Japan as a whole.

 

[Hoplon]

Laputa Castle in the sky on TV when i was about 8. and then the Ulysses 31/Cities of gold series on CBBC. they where pretty good. still are.

 

[Kyrian007]

Well, my first really doesn't count as it actually turned me away from anime and I didn't watch any more for at least 5 or 6 years. Can't even really remember the title, it was a movie. The main character had a gun that could kill demons and the recoil would fling him across rooms. And the main female character got tentacle raped by every villain with tentacles. It was lame, and basically tentacle porn... and I just wrote anime off as "you guys are into shit too messed up for me."

But later I was working at a little video store, and the owner had enough requests he was going to start an anime section. I told him it was all weird tentacle porn, and he said the distributor sold him a series and had said it was ok for teens. So he wanted me to preview it. It was Blue Seed. And it holds up so-so. The voice acting is ok, with the exception of the MAIN characters which is quite a problem. Some might call the animation style dated, I would refer to it as "classic." It's kind of a really well done version of anime done animation-cell style (like old hanna-barbara cartoons.) And the story (when they get away from all the fanservice) actually uses elements from Japanese mythology and is pretty cool.

I changed my opinion, told the boss it was pretty good and apparently not ALL tentacle porn. And then went to a friend who like anime to suggest series and movies we could buy for the shop. And since I was really new, he introduced me to anime with Cowboy Bebop and Akira. Which set my standards a little high, but I do like GOOD anime.

 

[Super Cyborg]

There is a number of anime I think of but not sure which was "first". They would be Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, and Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball Z I watched Kai when it came out, and it doesn't hold up even with the cuts. At the time mindless action was fun for me. Now I actually want plot and characterization with my action, so DBZ is no longer "good" enough for me. That's why I enjoy stuff like One Piece and JoJo Bizzare's Adventure, since they have fights with story and characterization.

Never rewatched the other two, but I don't care to watch Gundam since Seed, so my assumption is that it wouldn't hold up for me now. Sailor Moon would probably not hold up too well, but it was unique enough for me at the time that I would still be accepting of faults.

This... filth almost made me lose faith in anime, and it is the primary thing that drives my harem-genre hate, which will never, ever, EVER go away! Then the savior followed up, Clannad (which is a tagged harem anime, but my mind twists the definition of "harem"), and that is all I need to say.

How would it be considered a Harem? I can somewhat see it but...

Spoiler

I know it has the part where multiple girls are interested in the main character, so you have that there. The problem I have is almost all other harems I know of take things in a different direction. They are mostly over the top comedies where the main character is too oblivious to understand advances. In Clannad I don't remember the girls ever being super obvious, and if anything never did a whole lot to show any advances.

You then have the fact that the main character waits till the last second to choose someone, or flip flops at times, or you just don't know. In this case, it was obvious from the first minute who it was, and there was never any time where one thought "maybe he will go with one of the others". Especially then the second season has no part where other girls might want him and focuses on Tomoya's and Nagisa's relationship with a few other character stories, I don't see the Harem part.

Then again, it might be because of the source material, which then I can see the Harem tag somewhat.

 

[otakon17]

Now, like the first show I remember watching that was anime but I didn't realize it at the time OR the first one I knew specifically was anime? Because there are two, Voltron(as a kid) and Project A-Ko(as a teenager). And well... Voltron doesn't hold up that well...
Project A-Ko on the other hand is STILL funny and frantic and even well dubbed with some great action scenes and memorable moments.

 

[J.McMillen]

Wow, no old timers like me whose first anime was Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato. Now I'm kinda curious how I would view it today.

 

[McElroy]

My first "real" anime was, as with many others, Pokémon, and it doesn't hold up at all. I'm inclined to say it never did. I can remember only liking it for about the first 30-odd episodes, and can remember nothing after that.

But depending on your definition of the term, my first experience with Japan-produced animation was actually the Moomins TV show, and it holds up phenomenally to the point where it's practically a staple of kids' TV and on almost constant rotation. It's family friendly, imaginative, benign, creative, colourful, exciting, well animated, well acted, and has some really creepy and even sad parts. I love it, and it's a national icon here for a reason.

This is exactly what I would've written. Which is why I browsed for your reply before writing my own. Win-win. Yes, about Pokémon too.

My DVD-hoarding friend even got the bigass Moomin box last November and I watched a couple of dozen episodes over his place, and the episodes from the original run still hold up damn well. Not just from a kid perspective as there's a lot of subtle humour that kids don't (at least I didn't) get. Anyway, the rights holders are - or at least have been - darn tryhards when it comes to YouTube parodies or the like (only Finnish/Swedish stuff though), taking down basically everything. Anything short of full episodes wouldn't harm their money-printing machine one bit.

 

[w00tage]

Wow, no old timers like me whose first anime was Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato. Now I'm kinda curious how I would view it today.

With fond nostalgia. It holds up as exactly what it was made to be - an epic space adventure for children. I'm not sure whether I can count Voltron or Grandizer as anime, but if not, then Star Blazers was my first one too.

Now the next one - Robotech - holds up well in the underlying story and animation departments, but it fails on all the rest because I've never managed to find and watch the original Macross to see what the hell was REALLY going on. Damn you Harmony Gold, I'm sure there's a mirror version of WWII story going on there, and that's a very creditable concept that I'd like to see explored.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm...first would have been Voltron, Samurai Pizza Cats, or Mysterious Cities of Gold.

The latter holds up, but goes on forevvver. Still sorta like the first.

Also, after Mysterious Cities of Gold there was "Twins of Destiny", which had 52 episodes. One a week for the entire year, and each other them seeming started with them escaping from the same bad guy, and ended with him about to capture them again.

 

[Trivun]

Back when I was a kid, it was either Dragonball Z or Pokemon, can't remember which. When I got into anime properly as an adult, it was Elfen Lied.

I'd say they've all held up pretty well regardless, I still enjoy watching them even now...

 

[CrystalShadow]

Honestly? I have no idea since I never saw it again.

Then again, the first anime I ever watched (that I knew was anime. I think technically mysterious cities of gold is anime), was neon genesis evangelion.
(the original one)

You can draw your own conclusions. I can't say because I never rewatched it.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Dragonball Z and always will be the shit, it also helps that the stuff coming out currently for it, is some of the best Dragonball content ever

 

[Politrukk]

Started with Dragonball and Digimon.


First "actual" anime was Naruto
First "good" anime was Death Note
First "Good long running anime" was One Piece

One Piece and Death Note hold up, the others are tripe

 

[000Ronald]

My first anime was Akira actually. I would say that it holds up pretty well. The production quality still holds up and I still find some of the philosophical concepts in the story interesting.

OH MY GOD! ME TOO! DID YOU WATCH IT ON THE SCI-FI CHANNEL BACK IN THE EARLY 90's, TOO?

 

[Denamic]

My first Anime was probably Space Pirate Captain Harlock, which incidentally also had my first animu waifu, Miime. Back then, I didn't know 'anime' was a thing, or even that the word existed. My cousin had some VHS tapes of the show. The first anime I watched on purpose, knowing what 'anime' is, is probably Mahoromatic.

Spoiler: Ecchi na no wa ikenai to omoimasu

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Well the first anime I watched that I even consider a proper anime is Code Geass and it wasn't exactly that long ago. So yeah, it holds up perfectly.

If we're getting pedantic you might call my first anime Yu-Gi-Oh! and that still holds up just fine too.

 

[ninja666]

I also was one of those people that had two "first" anime series, simply because they were aired on TV so I watched them. The first one was the original Dragon Ball (never cared for either Z or GT) and the second one was Slayers. After many years, being much older I rewatched them - DVD versions, though, and not TV-rips because TV versions were heavily censored and badly translated. I'd say they both hold up extremely well and are even funnier now that I get to see and to "get" all the jokes.

 

[laggyteabag]

The first anime that I went out of my way to watch start to finish was a show called Shaman King. All things considered, it was alright. I started watching it when, I imagine, it was still airing, but I never actually managed to watch all of it because I kept on missing episodes, and I had no way of recording it, so I fell out with the story.

It was okay. I wouldn't rush out to people and tell them to watch it now, but y'know, it was pretty decent. At least it got me into anime, so it is special for that reason, at least.

 

[happyninja42]

My first was Naussica of the Valley of the Winds, and yes it does still hold up in my opinion.

Well written, well voice acted for the dub (the original version, not the updated one with Patrick Stewart and Uma Thurman, that just sounds wrong to me). Good animation, good story, good music. Just, overall good.