I'm curious as to what it is about anime that pulled you into watching it. Was it your first anime that made you come back for more? Was it a specific show some time after that made you go "Ooh! Ah! I want to watch more"?

And what is it that keeps you watching now?

I'm particularly interested to hear the answers of those of you who have watched for several years, but anyone is welcome to post an answer no matter how long you have watched anime.

Giant Robots, Robot Boys and all the techie toys that appealed so much to a wide-eyed young boy in the 1960's & 70's.

I saw Gigantor and Astro Boy in Black & White and was hooked. Speed Racer in Color, oh and a lot of radioactive giant monster movies, just drove it home even deeper.

I've been a fan for a long long time and I now have my choice of techie marvels, but I still enjoy Anime.

Mark Gosdin

The first couple anime series I watched as a kid, I never realized were anime at the time. They were stuff like Voltron, Sailor Moon, Samurai Pizza Cats, and TeknoMan. But I was a big cartoon fan (and still am) so I probably would have watched those, whether they were Japanese, American, or whatever.

The first things that I watched that I knew were anime, we're the movies that aired on SciFi back in the 90's. The two that stuck out the most were Vampire Hunter D and EYES of Mars. They are both part of my collection today, though EYES is only on VHS. I've always enjoyed animation with more grown up themes, and that's part of the reason why I enjoyed D so much.

The first anime that actually got me collecting DVDs was Descendants of Darkness. CPM actually marketed it in gay magazines and catalogs and that was where I initially read about it. I stumbled across it at On Cue (before they all became Sam Goody) and picked up the first volume. I loved the art and animation and by the end of the volume, I was hooked. I immediately went online and ordered the other DVDs of the series. DoD was also the first show that intoroduced me to the notorious "open" anime endings.

One of the biggest draws to anime now for me, is the fact that it's stuck primarily to more traditional looking animation, while most animation in the US and other places has largely moved to CGI. I don't particularly mind CGI, but I think it's bit much now that every Hollywood studio is putting films animated that way and that traditional animation has basically died on the big screen. There is a type of warmth and depth that traditional animation is able to portray that is just missing from CGI. The images in the Pixar and Dreamworks movies always seem colder than those is the older Disney, Rankin Bass, Don Bluth, Ralph Bakshi, Hanna Barbera, etc films.

Also, I love the fact that anime combines animation with more adult themes. It's why I'm such a big fan of Ralph Bakshi films, and things like Heavy Metal. They are willing to touch topics that you don't see in American animation very often, other than tags in American Dad and Family Guy. Anime series also aren't afraid to kill of major characters. I don't care how good a show is, if you go into each episode knowing that none of the cast is going to die, it takes a lot of the suspense out of whatever is happening on screen. In anime, no one is safe.

I guess it's pretty simple for me. ^-^; I quite literally had nothing else to do as my life back then was quite devoid of.. well... everything. At first I just thought "oh cool, this cartoon looks good. Oh wait, it's called anime." I sort of jumpped around on shows (never really watching them all the way through) from Gurren Lagann to Lucky Star until I came to Magical Pokaan (A.K.A. Renkin 3-kyū Magical? Pokān). Once I saw that one all the way through I decided to pick anime up in general as a hobby.

About half of a year passed until I came to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and to keep a VERY long story short I'll just say it made me a huge fan of anime. Ever since, I have never really lost my drive to watch anime. I guess this all happened around 2 years ago; I'm still fuzzy on the actual time, so the numbers may be a bit off (small if anything).

I have just kept watching because I like anime; not much else to say... except I've taken a good liking to Japanese culture and folklore. That, and what else will give me so much of the cute I love so much? ^ω^

Sailor Moon when I was a kid. I even had a fanclub. fml

the impossible becoming possible...the ridiculous being accepted and even anticipated. I wasn't a big anime fan until I watched inuyasha, then there was 'black butler', kaze no stigma' and chrome regios. so what keeps me watching? Lots of magic, action and a little bit of romance to keep things interesting

I loved Japanese animation and sci-fi movies/series since I was probably 3 years old. Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Thunderbirds 2086, Voltron, Dragonball and Dragonball Z were series I truly enjoyed, but InuYasha is the series that hooked me for good. Now, I still love to watch long series like Naruto Shippuden and Bleach, but most of my anime are shorter running series that I don't have to invest decades of my life to.
Slick

What drew me to anime: I like the fact that it covers every imaginable genre, and goes into so much more depth than I'm used to with other animation. I also find that anime is less predictable than most other shows. A lot of times, I can predict the plot of a show from the first 10 minutes, but not so much with anime. I also love the animation, and the art style, which is a lot more interesting than anything else I've seen.

What keeps me watching: The hopes that anime will continue to captivate me, and keep me entertained, and I haven't been disappointed yet. Like I said, every genre imaginable, and some I never thought of, and that keeps things interesting. The thing is, I can find something interesting about any anime I watch, so I tend to enjoy everything.

I wrote this really long post and then realized it was only marginally on topic, so I put it in a spoiler tag instead of deleting it...

Hornet65 wrote:

PretearHimeno wrote:

-_- Hentai isn't a real genre

I can't believe I just read a comment referring to Dragon Ball Z as a "classic." I'm not gonna lie. I got a little nauseated right then.

Well, I wasn't being serious, if that makes you feel any better. If not, eat some TUMS and you'll feel better in an hour.

Possibly, but I may still need to have you eliminated. Decisions. Decisions.

But if you eliminate me then.... I actually don't know what would happen. Best case scenario, nothing happens. Worst case, the world blows up.

Do you really want to risk that Cody? Do you want to be the one responsible for blowing up the world?

Um, Cody... If you eliminate my Agent 65, then I'll have to do the CYB/B lists again...

My first exposure to anime was also back in the '60s. I also watched Gigantor, Astro Boy, Marine Boy and Speed Racer, but the series that stuck with me was 8th Man-a very film noir series that was "sanitized" for American audiences. However, I was not a fan of the intervening '70s and '80s anime series, due mainly to the atrocious localizing and just plain butchering of so many series. Also, I was a father of young children then and detested series that seemed to exist only to advertise overpriced toys.

Fast forward to 2005. I'm playing with Winamp TV and stumble across Please Teacher! I have to confess I was expecting something other than what I found , but I found something much better-animation that didn't insult my intelligence, that looked like it was crafted with care and that told a story. That's why I've stuck with anime since then.

Newshawk wrote:

I remember Speed Racer more than anything in the 70's. I also remember Astro Boy, but I believe Speed Racer was on a lot in the 70's and 80's, so that would probably be the first anime I was hooked on. I should have mentioned that Gantz got me hooked on TAN!
Slick

What drew my to anime? My parents did not like me watching.

What keeps me watching? My parents are still alive and can't stand that the 40 something son still watches anime.

This is pretty much why I will watch anything that is Anime.

This does bring up a funny story, My parents were visiting and my asked if was still watching Anime. Yes, just watched an interesting one called "True Tears". My asked what it was about, spend the next hour or so explaining the plot and sub-plots of "True Tears" included a discussion on if there are chickens in Japan. At the end of it, my Mom said, I think that most you have ever talked about anything in your entire life.

Hornet65 wrote:


Jokes are jokes are jokes are joke.

Longtime wrote:


Longtime,

You made my day. That's as good a reason to do anything as ever was.

Stay with it my friend, irritate those folks for as long as you can.

Mark Gosdin