How did your anime addiction develop?

[SpankyDaM]

Thought I'd post this to see if anyone has had similar experiences, or gone through similar phases as their addiction to anime has grown.

I started with 'Battle of the Planets' - which was the butchering of Gatchaman to turn it in to something that was considered acceptable for a western market. Used to love that show - then again I didn't know a whole lot better.

Then I can remember many years ago Channel 4 (in the UK) running a series of anime movies late night one Christmas - I watched these and my eyes were opened. I used to travel 100 miles to London to visit a specialist comic store that imported some anime - and built a collection of videos.

Then came Pokemon and DragonBall Z - I can remember that I used to enjoy them - at least until I realised that pokemon had the same plotline in almost every episode, and that you only get 10 minutes of actual story in DragonBall Z - the rest of it is the credits, last episode recap, trailer for the next episode and flashbacks.

Finally I got my broadband collection, and discovered the anime newsgroups - what a revelation. I started downloading everything that my bandwidth could handle - even ended up getting an extra 3 120GB drives to handle it all as I tried to watch it and find what I liked. Thank god that I discovered shows like Great Teacher Onizuka, Shaman King, Dragon Drive, Initial D, Getbackers and many others.

Then I started hunting on the web, and discovered eMule (this was from having a nose round Sourceforge rather than anything else - yes I am a geek). From there I soon discovered AnimeReactor and the AniDB - and it was then that I think I finally accepted that I was hooked.

Now I've got to the stage where I don't just want every episode of an anime as soon as they're out - which is how I came to BitTorrent and Azureus (open source again, and with the plugin to block IP ranges and keep the list up to date). What I want is very episode of an anime the moment it's released, but I only want the best translations, the best encodes, the subs where they don't just translate the speech, but the do the signs, put up explanations, take care over the karaoke etc.

That's why I'm prepared to wait for the AonE subs for Naruto - I love the series too much to settle for anything but the best available work on it, so I can enjoy it to it's fullest.

Anyhow, that's how I started through to where I am now - a happy otaku. The fact that my other half has exactly the same addiction does have a lot to do with that mind you.

How about you - do you share some of these experiences?

[Swallow Your Soul]

I had seen a programme on TV (that cool Japanorama with Jonathan Ross) and it had clips from Ghost in the Shell and Akira, and me and a mate of mine (who was already kinda into anime) just decided to buy a dvd each and lend each other what we bought, he got Akira and I got GitS. After that I bought a few DVD movies like Perfect Blue, Street Fighter (the first one) etc while I borrowed other stuff like Blood: The Last Vampire.

I got into anime series through Street Fighter 2v...then once I found GitS:SAC (on gotwoot.net back when it was on this site) I was getting into anime more. I don't really get anything else off gotwoot anymore since they stopped putting the AonE (or whoever it was) subs up...I tried Naruto once but I really didn't like it that much (it surprised me when I found out just how popular it was)...then I downloaded an ep of Paranoia Agent and never even bothered to watch it (I ran the first minute of it and hated the artwork of it...then probably got distracted by something shiny). I started reading manga probably about a year ago (roughly...I can't remember when I started) after I found an ebay auction which offered Akira (plus other stuff like the first book of Appleseed, Dominion and Bubblegum Crisis etc) for less than a tenner...I wasn't really into 'comics' at all so I had never thought about reading manga, I just wanted to see more to the story of Akira...now I buy a fair bit of it...

[SpankyDaM]

If you hate Man Utd clap your hands, if you hate Man Utd clap your hands, if you hate Man Utd, hate Man Utd, hate Man Utd clap your hands.

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

One-Nil to the Arsenal..... One-Nil to the Arsenal.....

[JTD121]

I'm not sure how it started, but I do know that I used to watch Transformers all the time when I was about 3 to 4.

Then it moved on to the old SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog, although I'm not sure that qualifies as anime. Anyway, I watched that for a long time, until it just miraculously disappeared off the airwaves.

After that, I kinda fell into a slump of not watching too much anime. Pokemon and DBZ came along after a while, and I loved them. Looking back now, though, I don't see how I loved Pokemon at all...DBZ is decent when they are fighting, other than that, it's kind of annoying how they spend a lot of time powering up and talking to one another...You'd think they were friends instead of mortal enemies...

After a few years of that (it was about 1999 in the Pokemon/DBZ phase, although I still watch DBZ/GT now and then), I got into the whole anime thing. I tried IRC once, but didn't totally understand it, and tried to get some info on a few of the channels, and they kicked me out....After about a week or so of that, I stopped trying and uninstalled it.

However, now I use IRC all the time, although I haven't been on in a while. But I don't use it for downloading any anime. I used to use it for that when I didn't want to wait for the entire second season of Naruto to finish downloading. I also use it for the Naruto manga.

I use BT for most anime nowadays, obviously.

And manga, I used to read it all the time, although it was a 4 or 5 mile (maybe more) trip to the nearest bookstore that had any. On a bike....We (my otaku-ish friend and I) never got around to finding out which bus went up there, since we knew there was one...

But, I have a bunch of anime DVDs, mostly boxsets of series I've seen. A few of them were purchased because I saw them as fansubs. RahXephon was one, Please Teacher! was another, and Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade it another, although I only have the first two discs.

Manga, I have 8 of the 14 volumes in my room, although I have read all of the series. I have also read the first couple volumes of Akira, and found it odd that Otomo made a movie of all things. He should have made an OVA in the least! Not a two hour movie! There was so much more than the movie there but...Whatever, his manga to do as he pleased. Read the first 4 volumes of GTO...But I'd rather complete my Love Hina collection than start another one.....Speaking of which, I need to make some space for my manga....If I get a job...

Eh, anyway, it's been a long time coming, but my gaming addiction has started wearing off and has been shunted into anime recently. I only play old-skool games like Sonic 3 & Knuckles (S3 locked-on to S&K) nowadays. Maybe a few newer games, but not as often...It seems anime and to a lesser degree at the moment, manga, has taken over my life. Although the Harry Potter franchise is a close second to both of them.

mainva | aptigo | JTD out

[Knives122]

My addiction started when i first started to watch the shows like voltron, thundercats, ronin warriors, and transformer(this was when i was like 7), then DBZ came to america and I was like wow this is amazing, this is the thing I've been waiting for all my life, Then the internet and Cartonn Network came out and i watched shows like sailormoon, DBZ(still), and what ever shows they threw at me and it kept going on like that

[SK]

i remember when i was a kid i used to wake up early (i used to be able to wake up early when i was a kid for some reason) and watch sailor moon. i loved the art and the action etc. i used to have this friend who told me about it, this was before the whole huge explosion, and i watched it, and loved it. and i noticed it had a similar style to sailor moon, and i could tell they were different from other cartoons. so i started looking up pokemon and found out it was an anime, and i started finding more and more stuff about anime and was really interested in it. then i got cartoon nextwork and i started watching DBZ, which i had seen pics of, and everything went on from there. more animes started popping up on tv that i watched, then eventually shonen jump came out etc etc.

[AnbuAone]

make this quick. Boyfriend and I always love animation. so there you have it. But my first time was in washington state ,when I was living there 5 years ago. when I was 12 I always like weird and odd cartoons. so I started to get my mom to order japanese animation for me. Since i am japanese/chinese but was speaking good english I still understood the animes. weird right. I am not trying to get into it right now. tried

[Lego]

My anime addiction started when i rented Macross Plus 4 on VHS from a local video store.

I saw the cover, and me being age 13-14, went wow, she naked, etc, pre puberty of OMFG boobs.

But i watched it, i found out wow, this kicks ass.

I had never seen anything like this before, i liked it, and went to find other stuff

As i grew up, saw stuff like cowboy bebop,trigun, and etc

Now i hang out in a anime fansub channel, do other stuff anime wise, and im addicted

[JTD121]

Ah! Sailor Moon! Voltron! Thundercats!!

I didn't get to see Ronin Warriors as a kid somehow, but I saw it a few times on Toonami a while ago, and loved it!

I used to get up early to watch Sailor Moon as well! All the time before I went to school. But after a while, I just stopped waking up early, but it then moved to Toonami as well!

mainva | aptigo | JTD out

[Stoopider]

Ahhh... Tis I fell for, when I was a young lad of the age of 17.
My sister gave me her boyfriends whole collection of anime (I wonder why?). And from then on, it was a downward spiral into a vicious anime addiction.

Oh yeah. And mostly from then on, it was the help of Broadband. God bless Fast internet connection. I cannot imagine downloading anime with a dailup.

But before that I've read countless manga's and watch really old Doreamon and DBZ anime's dubbed in 'Bahasa Melayu' (Malaysian official language). But never really was very interested in it.

[XwingRob]

I would have to say Dragonball, Transformers and Samurai Pizza Cats started my interest in anime.
DBZ and Gundam Wing made me really get into anime, though.


*cough*by the way, if anyone can tell me where to download the Samurai Pizza Cats theme song, I'd appreciate it*end cough*

[ryan92084]

thundercats HO! ... good stuff
that adn DB/DBZ and...sailor moon *hides*
ronin warriors was awesome ...i've never seen the complete series though

[Uzumaki Naruto]

by watching Vampire hunter D then ronin warriors and so on

[FrostDaemon]

Grew up on Hong Kong anime. 80% of the cartoons there are from Japan dubbed quite nicely into Cantonese. When I moved to the Middle East, I sorely missed the anime and my relatives would send me tapes of cartoons every few months. Those were the best times as a kid...

**Opens box**

"ANIMEEEEEEEE!!!"

Of course, back then I didn't call it anime, I just called it Japanese Cartoons and most of the North American cartoons were cheesy to some degree, minus Transformers and Sky Commanders (remember that?).

Yep, I'm ain't no spring chicken.

Frost

[NM]

I had first started with Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, and yes, Pokemon. But then Cartoon Network started to get even more anime so I watched the animes they had there like Outlaw Star, Gundam: the 8th MS Team and so on. But now that I know about Bit Torrent, Im getting loads of anime like the Tenchi Muyo movies, Cowboy Bebop, etc etc.

[Terracosmo]

I saw DBZ & Ranma ½ in spanish when I was there on vacation once. I did not think very much more about it. Then I accidently came across a few lame quality versions of Ranma ½ online and saw them, this sparked a nostalgia nerve for me and I watched the entire series straight basically while crying in joy all the time over my reclaimed childhood memories. And then it went on to Slayers, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin & God knows what...

Then I didn't watch anime for a while... until I found Gundam Seed. But that's another loooong story involving tears over how great the show was and Gundam fanboyism to the max.

I've seen a lot now and well... it's great... though the only series I'm currently following is Naruto.

[bitwar]

Hmm. . . Lets see. Back when Family Home Entertainment released the condensed Robotech VHS volumes (butchered Robotech, which was butchered Macross as I found out later), I noticed how it looked better than what was on TV at the time, and it actually had a storyline. Then when US Renditions released The Guyver anime, my mother picked up vol. 1 because she saw that the US live-action Guyver movie was going to premier on HBO. I much prefered the anime and as US Renditions released the videos, my mother kept buying them (I was in like 4th grade, 1992 or there abouts). Then later when Manga Video was getting on its feet, I bought Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (which was released by Renegade video, but Manga's logo was in there too), and then Ninja Scroll and Patlabor movie 1 (they wouldn't let me without a parent's consent). Then I started getting Macross Plus (trying to go to Suncoast when the less strict about age people were working). Then it was Ranma 1/2 and Vampire Hunter D and the Tenchi Muyo! movie and more and more. I lived in Hawaii at the time, so it was a lot easier to get stuff there back then. Back then all I got was dubs, but then in high school (in Indiana) I decided to get the Macross Plus movie version even though it was only available subbed. And mom got Black Jack subbed. And after that, everything was subbed. And then we got a DVD player and life's been good (anime sub wise anyway). And then anime got big and jerkoffs like 4Kids came in and decided to butcher a bunch of things and refuse to release uncut subs (It's TOKYO Mew Mew you jerks). But that's going off-topic so I'll stop now. And now I have Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, and happy fun anime like that and the internet, BT, and GotWoot have become my friends. Hee hee.

[LaZie]

Well...........


Pokemon, GOTTA CATCH'EM ALL! and Pikachu is soo cute =)

DBZ

Gundam Wing

Thundercats..........I didnt really like this anime much and I didnt even kno it was an anime =P

[Mut]

i was always into anime/cartoons since i was exposed to it a lot because i lived in korea til i was about 9. gundam wing is probably the first actual anime i watched. but cowboy bebop is the one that got me hooked.

[njdevs95]

Probably started with voltron and robotech on tv, then found a video store near my cousins house that had anime for rent and we started renting movies on the weekends, things like akira which is probably the thing that got me hooked.

[bwabes]

For me it started with DBZ. I mean, I had watched Voltron, Transformers, and Thunder Cats as a little kid, but I basically stopped until DBZ started being shown on Cartoon Network. It's wierd, my sophomore year of high school everyone in my grade was watching it. I went to a medium size high school, with about 300 kids in each of the four classes, but that's still kinda cool.

I began to get more interested and started watching the newer DBZ's in anime that weren't aired on Cartoon Network, and soon I discovered Cowboy Bebop. That really sucked me into anime. It wasn't long after that before I became engrossed in anime, and I'm even minoring (maybe getting a double major in addition to my Computer Science master's) in Japanese now.

Ah, now that I'm going to Japan for fall semester, I've gotta save up money to buy tons of DVD's!

[Kak Worm]

It took one word. Macross.

After that, I was hooked. =p

I was 4 back then, and I have really no idea why I liked Macross so much. I guess its the thing abt little boys and robots.