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This thread is for discussing which anime series or movie got you
hooked on the art form. Please mention why you checked it out,
whether or not you had seen any anime before, and of course
what about it impressed you.

As for me, the show that truly got me hooked on anime was Spiral;
The Melody of Logic. Before that I had seen and been interested
in the .Hack and Fullmetal Alchemist series. A trailer on the FMA
movie was what led me to check out Spiral as it seemed somehow
inspired. I watched the first part of the series in semi-interest and
actually stopped watching for awhile. However, pretty soon episode
7 came along, and spoiler[with it the true battle between Ayumu
and Rio]. This episode grabbed me and, along with the
rest of the series, taught me how anime could truly be an emotional
experience. It was the first time I ever cried at the end of a movie.

My anime love was a two step process. The first step happened about 8 years ago when a friend of mine who was into anime showed me Legend of the Overfiend, NGE and Princess Nine, as well as a few movies like Princess Mononoke, Paprika and Akira. I really enjoyed NGE and Princess Nine, but obviously the interest didn't take because - after the friend and I had a huge falling out (which had nothing to do with anime, by the way) - I didn't pursue anime other than buying Mezzo Danger Agency because I thought it might have hardcore scenes the way Mezzo Forte did (boy, what a disappointment that turned out to be).

Flashforward to January 2009. I'm innocently watching the DVD of "30 Days of Night." I notice that one of the extras is the first episode of something called "Blood+." I watch the episode. I'm entranced. I know I have to see the entire thing. That was back in the days when I didn't realize you could find virtually any episode you want online. I go to my local HMV because I know they sell anime. I choke on the price they are asking for Blood+, Part One. However, I notice all kinds of other interesting titles in the anime section. Stuff Like "Gunslinger Girls" and "Death Note" and "Bleach."

About a month after that I discover ANN online. A few weeks after that I discover Right Stuf. And the rest, they say, is history.

You know, I can't even remember now why that first episode of Blood+ grabbed me so hard (I have a terrible memory). I still haven't seen Blood+, Part 2, but I'm getting to it, I'm getting to it...

For me, it was Voltron back in '85. The whole "FORM BLAZING SWORD" made my kiddie self lose his mind in fonboy glee. And then it went over to Dirty Pair and Golgo 13, after watching a bunch of reversioned Nickelodeon TV shows. Once Gundam Wing hit airwaves, I was on the internet, learning about other mecha shows. Then I started buying stuff....and the rest is history as they say.

for me i'd always had some fascination with Japan ever since i was a little kid but it wasn't until my parents went on holiday for a few weeks about 18 months ago when i started to take an active interest in all things japanese, including anime.

although i didn't really know where to watch it or any good series so i tried a few sites for a good selection and came across one, which had a list of most popular series, so i took a look and a few from the top was Fullmetal Alchemist, looked interesting and seemed like a short series (at the time i didn't know it wasn't, but the top anime on the list where Naruto, Bleach and One Piece) so i decided to start watching. Ended up watching it in 2 days and enjoyed every minute of it, still one of my fav series and got totally hooked after that, ended up watching FMA, Naruto, Naruto: Shippuden, Karin, Fruits Basket and Dragonaut: The Resonance in the 3 weeks they were gone (about 500 total episodes at the time)

I'd have to say it was the Battle of the Planets version of Gatchaman followed by Star Blazers that started me on my road to anime addiction. However, it didn't officially start until after seeing a bootleg of Macross: Do You Remember Love? being shown at a dealer's table at a science-fiction convention back in 1986.

There was also an article on anime in Starlog magazine back around the time that Robotech was airing where I learned of other shows like Mobile Suit Gundam and Urusei Yatsura.

Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers were not the first anime I saw but they made a big impression on me. I guess you could say they laid the groundwork. There were a few other shows and movies that I saw in that time period too, but the one that got me hooked and made me actively search out anime was without a doubt Akira. Unlike other stuff from the 70s and 80s I still enjoy watching it every couple of years. Cool

I've been watching anime since I was a kid, I just didn't know it. As a toddler, I watched Yu Yu Hakusho, Dragonball and Sailor Moon. When I reached gradeschool, I was watching Cedie, Charlotte, Remi, Heidi, those stuff.

I think the first anime I thoroughly enjoyed which I knew was an anime was Magic Knight Rayearth. I was in third grade, and I simply loved the anime. It was shown at the same time Fushigi Yuugi was. It could have been the 'magic', it could have been the action, it could have been the characters. I don't remember the reason why, I just know that when I was at school I'd talk about it with my friend who loved Fushigi Yuugi then. From that point on, I never stopped watching.

That friend of mine and I remained hooked to anime until now. I know I was hooked that young because I clearly remember myself breaking into our home once (when I got back from school, no one was home, the door was locked) because it was almost time for Detective Conan. I constantly fought with my mom because the first thing I did when I arrive from school was turn on the TV. I may not remember the exact reason why I got hooked, I just know I thoroughly enjoy it, until now.

DBZ and Magic Knight Rayearth around ten years ago, I think. Those are the ones that I watched on TV, along with Evangelion a bit later.

DBZ or Sailor Moon or Pocket Monsters

One of those

I've told the story before, so I'll try to be short.

I became really interested after seeing Project A-ko on The Sci-Fi Channel while home sick from school one day. I believe that I saw some documentary about anime later that day that made me interested, but I was limited by what was available at Blockbuster and on television, so it faded with time.

What 'hooked' me was undoubtedly Cowboy Bebop. I came home from having spent the day with some friends of the family and wanted for no special reason to see some anime, but didn't expect that I would. By coincidence, this was shortly after midnight on September 2nd, 2001, which meant that I saw the first airing of Cowboy Bebop. The part of "Asteroid Blues" that I saw was cool... then I saw the OP for the first time and that was it. I would love to relieve that particular moment, because it was then that I really became a fan of anime and of jazz. It also helped that it was the early years of the boom, so it was all becoming easier to get and even more that, as it happened, most of my friends were interested too.

Of course, that faded eventually too, but I'm a cyclical obsessive, so I tend to come back around to things in time.

Most recently, I came back around with even greater fervor because I watched, for no reason that I can remember, Claymore on Hulu and enjoyed it far better than I expected to. (From a superficial examination of the premise, I had written it off as Ikki Tousen with swords) This time it has helped that so much is available easily, legally and freely available online, that I have a real job (TM) and that so much of what I missed in the past six or seven years is available very cheaply.

It was about 4 years ago that my then best friend decided to convert me to an otaku. He was really into anime, and I didn't really have an opinion so I agreed to watch DNA2. It was pretty good, fun and entertaining but didn't wow me. He convinced me to give anime one more chance and said next we were going to watch a little show called School Days. He got an evil grin on his face and told me it was famous for its "interesting" ending. Well that blew me away. Definitely didn't see it coming.

For whatever reason though I got busy and didn't pursue anime until a year later when I got curious again and googled "best anime of all time". The main results I got were Serial Experiments Lain, Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Kyo Kara Maoh. Watched all of them and now Im an otaku =3

First 5 shows I watched were the most influential to me getting into anime.
The first show that I watched was sailor moon; dont know what it was that hooked me but it did hook me into watching all 200 episodes in the space of a month. Still think this is a great series but I hate the dub.
The next show I watched was Sky girls. I still love this show as it represents my first foray into an animation and style I had never seen before. It was my first kind of introduction to modern Otaku culture/iconography. I loved the theme tune and got totally hooked Smile

The next show that I watched, I picked out simply because the title was in english. When I sat down and watched Air I wasnt exspecting the emotional trip that it took me on and I really enjoyed it. My first fling with Moe remains one of my most valued exsperiences with anime.

A friend of mine recommended I watch Grave of the fireflies from studio ghibl after an interesting discussion with him during a Film seminar at uni. I watched this and enjoyed it and borrowed Nausica of the Valley of the wind. I really really enjoyed the tone and themes explored in this film and loved the characters and music. When i first watched this after a few drinks at uni I made all my mates watch it and had it playing on loop in the background alot as I liked the music so much. Nausica had a big effect on me and basically made me decide to start taking anime alot more seriously.

Last but certainly not least is Neon Genesis Evangelion. Different people get different things out of watching Eva but I just remember feeling like I was in a slightly different world whilst watching it for the very first time. I was studying Film at the time so I was especially fond of all of the wierd and brilliant cinematography that went on in it. The story itself struck various chords with me personally at the time and it was one of very few pieces of story telling that has made me sit there for hours and days afterwards thinking '' WTF just happened and where have I been for the last 3 days'' Smile

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When I think of anime, the first thing that comes to mind is eva now and it was the show which trully hooked me on anime.

I've probably talked about this before, but although I did see some anime shows as a child (I definitely watched Tobor the Eight Man and may have watched Gigantor) but what really got me into anime was actually a Canadian film, Heavy Metal. I wanted more adult-themed animation and when I bought the VHS from the old Columbia House Video Club they were kind enough to include a stuffer about something called "Japanimation" (this was in 1992). The only title listed that I could find any info about was Akira so I got that on VHS. Even though I did not fully understand it the first time I saw it I loved it and was hooked. Shortly thereafter I rented Ghost in the Shell from Blockbuster and was totally hooked.

Like a lot of the older anime fans who did not have the advantages of the Internet or cable TV. Grew up watching stuff in the mid '80s on UHF.

I think it was a combination of several shows, all of which were of course not known as anime back then. Robotech, Voltron, Star Blazers, and even a bit of Thundersub (AKA Blue Noah, I lived in the NW and I think one of the UHF channels was from Vancouver, BC).

That combined with early TBS (when we did get cable) showing old Godzilla movies helped garner my interest in anything Japan.
Also really got into those old Ninja movies with Sho Kosugi.

Anyhow, did not really start buying until the mid 90s.

But I was hooked from way back then.

NGE single handedly turned a long life of arbitrarily dismissing Japanese animation as crap to total worshiping of the medium. I was converted, and it was glorious.

And it became my #1 favorite anime of all time. Not bad.

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Which show got you hooked on anime?