First exposure to Japanese animation

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I suspect the very first one was something I remember called 'Bob in a Bottle'; it was about a kid and genie. After that was one of Gatchaman's many re-dubs 'Eagle Riders' and of course 'Voltron'.

My first exposure to anime and knowing it at the same time was 'The Castle of Cagliostro' (which has a special dub done for SBS in Australia, and it was better than the one released later) and after that 'Teknoman'.

 

[EmilShmiengura]

Voltron for me in the 80's man those were the days. poor quality but still the best

This, but in the early 90s (in Eastern Europe we only got the 80s in the early 90s ) and Saber Rider. Yes, the quality sucked but they're still the best for me.

 

[smokeyninjas]

The 12 part first Guyver tv show kicked it off for me & then following up with Akira & Ninja Scroll sealed the deal

 

[Zetatrain]

As far back as I can remember it was Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" when I was just 5 yrs old so that would be in 1993. I saw it when I was visiting relatives in Taiwan and it was the Japanese dub with Chinese subtitles.

I had no knowledge of Japanese and very little of Chinese, so I and to rely on my mom to explain what was going on. Regardless, the movie was absolutely stunning. Since I was a huge airplane enthusiasts at the time (and still am) what really captivated me were all the airships which were unlike anything I had ever seen at the time. To this day it remains as one of my favorite Anime movies.

After that it would be a few more years until anime grabbed my attention again with Robotech and Voltron when they were shown on CN's Toonami

 

[octafish]

I would say Astroboy all the way back in the early 1980s along with Battleship Yamoto, Robotech and Speed Racer.

...but my user name is not Dwarfman? Stop stealing my life experiences.

I don't know for sure which came first, I'm pretty sure it was Astroboy, but Yamoto (AKA Star Blazers) was the first I really got into, mostly because I found Macross baffling. What was the deal with Minmei's singing being used as a weapon? I didn't get it as a child. 7Zark7 really threw the flow of G-Force off, but I loved Star Blazers and particularly the Wave Motion Gun, so cool. Cool theme too.

I still preferred Monkey Magic though.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Clash at demon head for the NES probably. Or maybe some old episodes of speed racer.

 

[somonels]

First one I remember is the Ultraman II (1983) series on tv.
Do I win? I'll just say I win.

 

[Kyrian007]

Well, realistically it was Donkey Kong (or some other coin-operated video game.) I'd played several Nintendo titles even before they released the NES in America. But those weren't really considered "Japanese" in any specific sense (other than "actual country of origin." As far as first "Japanese entertainment..." the copy of "Dragon Warrior" I got with my Nintendo Power subscription. All I knew about it going in was "Japanese gamers love it." Sure enough... so did I.

My first anime... fairly bad start. It was a movie called "Wicked City." Not bad mind you... but a little too much "tentacle porn" to make a particularly good first impression. On the plus side the hero carried a kickass huge gun.

A much better starting place was my first anime series, Blue Seed. Old style animation cell look (a little Hanna/Barbara-ish.) Tight story utilizing story points from Japanese folklore. Accompanied by a really funny short Omake theater version. Really picks up after the first half-dozen "character introduction" episodes.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

It was probably watching Dragon ball Z every morning as a kid, I always used to get up before school to watch it, and saw almost every episode. Then again the Pokemon TV show was also on around then so maybe I saw Pokemon first? Funnily enough, despite watching the TV show from the start my first Pokemon game was Ruby.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

My aunt bought Studio Ghibli releases, including Kiki's delivery service, Princess Mononoke, and one other. The rest was really 'dude this stuff is awesome'.

Then, the awesome that is the pokemon games and the explosions in DBZ. (Including that song.) Kinda resealed the deal.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

Sailor Moon was probably the first one I saw something from, then later Pokemon and Digimon. I thought of them as regular cartoons though. I didn't start watching good anime until I discovered Black Lagoon when I was like 18, then Ergo Proxy and Claymore. Lately I've mostly been crossing off shows on the worthwhile anime list someone made a few years ago.

 

[cikame]

I watched Pokemon as a kid, but that was before i knew what anime was so i don't consider it to be the same thing... if that makes sense.

I live in a country where you can't really just check out an anime to see if it's any good without downloading an episode illegally, you have to get box sets with tons of episodes in them, i don't like owning things i don't want so i never tried any. Until Afro Samurai, 1 season with only 5 episodes so i got that.
As a fan of Persona 4 i absolutely had to get the anime, unfortunately still waiting for the final box set for that because of where i live.
Lucky Star looks weird and quirky and i love the theme song, i've wanted to see what that's all about but haven't yet.

And that's it, my friends watch all the animes which leads to lots of boring conversations so that puts me off them aswell.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

I was working in a video store when the Pokemon craze hit Norway. All I knew was, I showed up for work one morning and suddenly, the store was full of kids raving about this weird series of trading cards. I decided to check out the anime out of curiosity, and was hooked - not on the actual show itself, but the general art style. And, of course, the humor. Team Rocket are some of the greatest comedic villains I've seen.

I couldn't stop thinking that any culture that could produce this, must also be able to produce something similar but more worthwhile for me (you have to understand, I've never had any actual interest in the Pokemon games or trading cards), so I decided to try and check out some other Japanese animation.

One day I bought a British video game magazine. Here, I saw an ad from an anime publisher which showed the cover images of their three latest releases. Only pictures - not a word on what any of them were about. I picked the most likely-looking one, and pestered the clerks of every decent video store I could find (the one I was actually working for, was shit) until someone agreed to import a copy for me.

And that's how I came to possess my treasured copy of The Castle of Cagliostro. It would be years before I fully realized just how lucky my first - and remember, pretty much completely random - pick of anime had been!

 

[GloatingSwine]

Mysterious Cities of Gold, Dogtanian, and Belle and Sebastian, I think.

My first memorable exposure to all-Japanese sensibility was Star Fleet, but that was a puppet show not anime.

The first anime I watched and knew what it was was Akira back when it was first broadcast on BBC2.

 

[4RM3D]

Castle of Cagliostro... but back then I didn't know it was anime.

*looks at release date* December 15, 1979

Damn, I feel old.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

Pokemon was my first, I was 4 or 5 at the time. I was in an afterschool program when someone brought a video with the first couple of episodes, and it was instant magic. I remember buying the games as well. It wasn't until around the third film when I finally lost interest, although I still act like I'm a big pokemon fan. I still play a bit of the games, but I don't watch the show anymore because from what I saw of the newer shows it looks like shit.

Ranma 1/2 was my first manga when I was 10. I found volume 15 in a local library and got hooked, and started buying almost every other volume at Borders, and I've only seen a couple of episodes of the anime (The "For The Love of Akane" volume was the first anime DVD I bought). I finally stopped when I was buying more volumes at a different Borders and got ratted out by the cashier because it was intended for an older audience, and my parents scolded me, even though at the time I was already watching some even more objective stuff like Wolf's Rain and Cowboy Bebop. When I got older they stopped caring, but I never got around to buying anymore. Now and then I'd re-read some of my volumes, though, and I'd still enjoy them.

Since then, I started watching stuff like Digimon, Yugioh, and later the Toonami and Adult Swim stuff like DBZ, FLCL, Inuyasha, and Fullmetal Alchemist. I'd even finding anime outside TV, like Fushigi Yuugi. Then when I got internet connection I started watching stuff like Death Note, Haruhi, Higurashi, Elfen Lied, etc.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

My first exposure to Japanese media? Well let me think back...

~~~flash-back~~~

My very first exposure to Japanese Media was probably when Dad let me 'play' Super Mario Bros on the NES when I was a toddler (2 according to him). I do have memories of playing Duck Hunt and, Mario when I was around 4 or 5. Around the same time, if not when I was slightly younger, I remember Gathcaman (or was it Battle of the Planets?) airing on...some channel or other and I would watch that as a toddler or, 4 - 5 year old. I didn't realize any of that was Japanese though...I was kind of a dumb kid...still mostly am...

Captcha - Cheese Burger...Silly Captcha! Cheese burgers aren't Japanese!

 

[Euskalduna]

Though as a child in the single digits I was exposed to many anime's, many of which I read if the manga is available (I just prefer it, deal with it), my first true, consistent exposure would have to be the anime Code Geass, which I love to this day.

 

[Mr Dizazta]

I believe it was a combination of Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon, and Pokémon that got me interested in anime. Never really got into manga outside reading Yu-Gi-Oh! scans pre-Duelist Kingdom.

 

[Dwarfman]

I still preferred Monkey Magic though.

That is because the nature of Monkey was irrepressible