First exposure to Japanese animation

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

It goes without saying that a lot of Escapists watch anime or read manga. There are dozens of anime threads put up each month. My question for you today is what was your very first encounter with Japanese media?

For me, it was playing Ranma 1/2 on the SNES. I still have nostalgia for the game even though I have always been terrible at it and it isn't even the greatest game. The thing about it was that it got my sister talking to me about the source material at age 8. I didn't immediately jump into the anime or the manga then obviously but the game stuck around in the game bin for years. Eventually when I was 14 I looked into it further (by which time I had been quite caught up inside of the Dragonball series). I've had a love for manga since then. Not the best story but that's my first brush with Japanese media.

What's your story? Was it a sibling or just stumbling into it accidentally one day?

EDIT: Hot damn, Pokemon in the same year as when I first played Ranma... I honestly don't know what came first. :/

 

[shrekfan246]

Most likely Pokemon.

I got Red and Blue when they were launched in the US (well, I had Blue on release, and my brother had Red; I got my own copy of Red a while after and it's currently the only Gameboy game I own that I actually know the location of--Still works, too).

Shortly after that I occasionally saw the Pokemon anime and Dragonball Z with my best friend.

Ah, the 90's.

 

[Neuromancer]

My first anime was Rurouni Kenshin. It was introduced to me by a friend(who would later turn into a complete Japanophile). When I first saw it I was utterly hooked. I loved everything about it, and even after having watched a good deal of anime since then, I still consider it the best shonen anime out there. Even the filler was of good quality.

Spoiler: It also has one of the best anime openings ever

Edit: Actually, come to think of it, my first anime was either Maya the Honey Bee or Heidi. I'd watch those fanatically when I was 5.

 

[Korolev]

Doraemon. My Asian relatives had to babysit us for a while, but they didn't speak much english. So, what they did was to get Mr. TV to babysit us. Doraemon with english subtitles was the first exposure I had to Japanese Animation. I'm pretty sure they were pirated tapes, too, since we got it from that store in Market Square that sold tapes without any labels on them.

My second exposure to anime happened 6 years later with the appearance of DBZ on the Australian Cartoon-Network. I didn't like it too much, but my brother did so I watched it with him.

I don't hate Anime - I've enjoyed some series like Full Metal Alchemist and Trigun. But I honestly have to say that most of it is really bad. That's not a knock against it - most of every medium is bad. Most TV shows are bad, most Western animation is bad, most films and books are not great either.

 

[wintercoat]

The original Dragon Ball series. It used to come on at, like, 7 or 8 in the morning when I was a kid, and it was part of the early morning cartoon lineup. It was either that or Pokemon that was my first.

 

[Nouw]

My first was probably My Neighbour Totoro. I had it on VHS and watched it who knows how many times when I was young.

 

[trollnystan]

Hmm, I don't know if it was The Mysterious Cities of Gold (technically French I suppose), G-Force (called Gatchaman in Japanese), or Robotech. My memories are a bit fuzzy. Probably was either TMCoG or G-Force though.

I do remember being a snobby purist even at age nine when I first watched Akira in Japanese and then totally snubbed the English dub a week later for being awful. (The 1988 dub, not the 2001 dub. Have no idea of the quality of that.) And also finding Fist of the North Star dreadfully boring and ugly.

And boy do I feel old reading through the first few posts here.

EDIT: Fixed mistake.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I do remember being a snobby purist even at age nine when I first watched Akira in Japanese and then totally snubbed the English dub a week later for being awful. (The 1988 dub, not the 2001 dub. Have no idea of the quality of that.)

But then that dub really was pretty fucking awful, making Masaru sound like a midget and all.

OT: Probably also The Mysterious Cities of Gold, along with....

Maple Town
Ulysses 31
Dommel (Bowser)
Boes (Ox Tales)
Spoon Obasan
Alfred J. Kwak
The Wizard of Oz
The Swiss Family Robinson

And the rest of the World Masterpiece Theater cataloge. Back then ofcourse I was hardly aware of the nationality of these cartoons, they were simply... cartoons.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I actually have no idea.
Probably Pokemon/Digimon, I was obsessed from a young age.
After that, I went through a long period of watching Card Captors, Dragonball Z, Tenchi Mutyo (sp?) and Gundam Wing one after the other on Cartoon Network.

As far as I was concerned, they were just normal cartoons though.

 

[piinyouri]

Dragonball Z when it came on Fox Kids.
I had no idea what I was seeing but I always remembered Gohans eyes after being smacked by Raditz.

 

[trollnystan]

I do remember being a snobby purist even at age nine when I first watched Akira in Japanese and then totally snubbed the English dub a week later for being awful. (The 1988 dub, not the 2001 dub. Have no idea of the quality of that.)

But then that dub really was pretty fucking awful, making Masaru sound like a midget and all.

I think Kai (think it was him) was my breaking point and the way he'd shout "Kaneeeeda! Kaneeeeeeeeeeeeeeda!" in that whiny way. Ugh.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I do remember being a snobby purist even at age nine when I first watched Akira in Japanese and then totally snubbed the English dub a week later for being awful. (The 1988 dub, not the 2001 dub. Have no idea of the quality of that.)

But then that dub really was pretty fucking awful, making Masaru sound like a midget and all.

I think Kai (think it was him) was my breaking point and the way he'd shout "Kaneeeeda! Kaneeeeeeeeeeeeeeda!" in that whiny way. Ugh.

The thing is, Akira was the first Japanese animation that I actually saw in Japanese. My older sister taped it off the BBC. For an 11-year old me this was kinda confusing and disconnecting, so I was looking forward to seeing the english dub. Then I heard the first few lines from Yamagata (the dude with the rising sun shirt), and I was like, "...Oh...no..." I stuck it out till I heard Masaru sound like a cartoon rat before I had to wash my ears out.

OT: Oh, I forgot Nobody's Boy.

That was one sad show. Japan has a knack for the "super tragedy".

 

[trollnystan]

I do remember being a snobby purist even at age nine when I first watched Akira in Japanese and then totally snubbed the English dub a week later for being awful. (The 1988 dub, not the 2001 dub. Have no idea of the quality of that.)

But then that dub really was pretty fucking awful, making Masaru sound like a midget and all.

I think Kai (think it was him) was my breaking point and the way he'd shout "Kaneeeeda! Kaneeeeeeeeeeeeeeda!" in that whiny way. Ugh.

The thing is, Akira was the first Japanese animation that I actually saw in Japanese. My older sister taped it off the BBC. For an 11-year old me this was kinda confusing and disconnecting, so I was looking forward to seeing the english dub. Then I heard the first few lines from Yamagata (the dude with the rising sun shirt), and I was like, "...Oh...no..." I stuck it out till I heard Masaru sound like a cartoon rat before I had to wash my ears out.

OT: Oh, I forgot Nobody's Boy.

That was one sad show. Japan has a knack for the "super tragedy".

It was my first one too, but being Swedish I had an advantage of being used to watching shows in their original language with subtitles. However, being nine, I probably didn't understand half the things going on anyway, lol.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It was my first one too, but being Swedish I had an advantage of being used to watching shows in their original language with subtitles. However, being nine, I probably didn't understand half the things going on anyway, lol.

Being Dutch I was basically raised on subtitles, too. English subtitles however were a whole other matter back then. Especially with a movie like Akira.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I guess pokemon was my first, but at the time I didn't even realize that it was a japanese cartoon since I was really young, I just kind of assumed it was American.

Gundam Wing on Toonami was really the thing that got me interested in anime, and then watching Hellsing on cable is what cemented my love of japanese animation. Been hooked ever since.

 

[Jinxzy]

My very first was Escaflowne, Card Capture Sakura, and Sailor Moon. They were always on in the morning, I think the station was like WBKids or something. I enjoyed them so much but at the time I didn't really know what it was I just thought they were normal cartoons until I found manga. I was hooked on it, my parents loved the fact that I was reading so I would end up flying threw series because I would read a 3 books a day. So they kept on getting me what they thought were novels, while I got to enjoy manga after manga.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I'm pretty sure it was Vampire Hunter D way back. It was one of the ones they used to show on Saturday Anime on Sci Fi channel. Back when that channel actually had more than movies like Sharktapus or generic knock offs of whatever major film is currently in theatres.

 

[Frezzato]

Technically I guess it would be Speed Racer. But the one that I tried to watch on a regular basis was Robotech. Ultimately, the first anime that finally got my attention and respect was Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise - 1987. I fell in love with the little plane used in the flight training scene. Dual bubble canopy similar to that of a Hind-D helicopter with a contra-rotating, dual pusher propeller. The pilot gains altitude and performs a Hammerhead Stall. I will recommend this movie to only a select group of people, those I believe can actually appreciate its sheer beauty. That's why I will always push this on you guys:

Spoiler: Royal Space Force

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Hmm, I don't know if it was The Mysterious Cities of Gold (technically French I suppose), G-Force (called Gatchaman in Japanese), or Robotech. My memories are a bit fuzzy. Probably was either TMCoG or G-Force though.

I do remember being a snobby purist even at age nine when I first watched Akira in Japanese and then totally snubbed the English dub a week later for being awful. (The 1988 dub, not the 2001 dub. Have no idea of the quality of that.) And also finding Fist of the North Star dreadfully boring and ugly.

And boy do I feel old reading through the first few posts here.

EDIT: Fixed mistake.

Well, there was me about to write Akira, and then I read your post. I had forgotten about Battle of the Planets, Ulysses etc, etc, to me they were just early morning cartoons and didn't really register as being Japanese animation.

I'm guessing it would be Battle of the Planets as my memories of that are the most hazy, I can actually remember watching a shred of Ulysses but BotP I can only remember that I knew what it was and know I recognised the characters and their funky bird helmets.