As those of you who know me doubtlessly know, I am not into anime. There’s no real reason for it, and I don’t dislike the stuff…I’ve just never had a chance to get into it. I don’t know anyone personaly who is. shrug
Anywho…I was pondering this earlier and it got me wondering. How did YOU all get into it?
I got into it because there was a period of time when american television shows were not bringing me the intertainment I desired. Long passed, were the days of the Street Fighter, Megaman, and other Game related shows and so I went into sadness…
Perhaps it was the fact that they were hot, or that my best friend (whom was a girl) really loved it, I began watching Sailor Moon. After that, I regretfully became a DBZ fan. I cannot understand what it was about that show that I liked to this day, but when I was in middle school I couldnt get enough of the crap. It passed and, untill this point, I’d not really seen any non-tvshow animes like the two listed above. I was watching the Sci-fi channel one morning when an ad poped on for some anime listing that they had begun. I realized that it was more “mature” than the crap that I’d watched untill now and so I tried it out.
My first anime “movie” (which was really a miniseries shown over a two day span) was “Iria: Zeiram the Animation”
I fell in love with Iria and her awesome design, as well as her “tough girl” attitude that far surpassed any of the sailor scouts… Anyway, it was after Iria that I became more intrigued with “anime” in itself and watched more movies.
I don’t watch anime because its anime like alot of people seem to do. I don’t claim to be an elitist who claims that only real fans watch it subbed with Japanese voices. And most of all, I don’t care enough to argue what animes are good vs which ones are bad. I just watched them as they came coupled along with live action shows no matter what nationality they were.
Anyway, theres my beans on the table.
Well, I have been using On Demand, but to actually BYE stuff sometimes I’ll go to a Book Store but usually I’ll go to a place called “The Comic Shop” It’s like a store in Japan but it has some American stuff too…and $3 rentals!
Well, I started with Pokemon years ago, but I’m not really counting that, since I didn’t really watch any other anime during that period, except a small amount of Digimon. Actually, I think it was reading Megatokyo that got me really interested in anime, although I can’t remember what led me to Megatokyo…
What got ME interested is “Sailor Moon” and “My Neighbor Totoro”.
A local Nintendo Power mag had some anime reviews… “Wow. I gotta see some of this stuff.”
…fell in love with Sailor Moon as a satellite channel started running ‘em… all 200 eps (In German, tho’)
I friend of mine on MSN was heavily into Noir, so I downloaded a few eps from Kazaa. Then the rest of the series. Then NGEvangelion, then I went on from there.
EDIT: And, of course, Fullmetal Alchemist made it all worth it. 
Frankly, I had a fast connection at work and not nearly enough work to do, so I was bored. I asked TD to recommend me an anime (it was Read or Die which got me started). I still don’t really consider myself “into it” (I’m not an otaku) but I do enjoy it. At least the good stuff. 
I think it was when I first saw Dragon ball. I didn’t even know what anime was back then (I think I was nine). I started seeing the few shows that started to appear (One show a year at best) like Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Captain Tsubasa and Bt’X. The Pokémon appeared a few years back, became a huge success and all the networks jumped to get anything that had “Made on Japan” on it, thus beginning the golden age of anime in here.
It’s not that something in particular caught my eye, it’s just that I grew up with the stuff.
I remembered odd anime like Swiss Family Robinson and G Force coming on tv
Skeleton Warriors, Super Mario Bros. Two great shows.
The first Anime I ever saw was Sailor Moon. (My Parents never understood why I liked that show) But the anime that got me started on anime was Voltage fighters. I liked the battles, the girls, the cool armor, the girls, the super powers, and most importantly the girls! So I begain likeing anime until a little over three years ago, when I started to like WWII. I went from Otaku to WWII buff.
Out of curiosity KP… what in blazes does Rena have to do with the commie flag?
I first watched Yu-gi-oh!, then my friend started buying Record of Lodoss War videos. I liked them and bought them too. After that my friend became an anime fanatic and bought (now dowloads) everything in sight. I’m not totally into it but I enjoy it. I’m a member of the anime club at my college. We’re trying to get the school to have an anime library.
Oh, and I really like the anime movie Akira.
My interest was piqued with an late night MTV spot depicting the “THE GRAPHICALLY VIOLENT INTENSE WORLD OF JAPANESE ANIME!!!111” Until then I didnt think of anime beyond big eyed cutesy stuff with the mouths that flap up and down with out of sync voices.
Not long after I was skimming through an Animerica issue. There was a letter posted something about how violence and sex in anime is alright as long as it’s story driven. I bought that point up to my mom and she thought it was a good point. I want to get into anime for the art and the stories, I told her. If it was extremely violent, or if there was sex or nudity in it, that shouldnt matter. She bought it. So, the first one I checked out was Key the Metal Idol vol… 4 or 5 I think. It had episodes 7 and 8. It’s a serialized series, so those two eps didnt make sense at all. At that point I was just taking anything I could get. Before that, I was watching sailormoon and pokemon, but It Key was my first attempt to try and get into the style.
However, until very recently, I hadnt had much luck really getting into it, due to prices, lack of funds and resourses, the odd magazine, or show on cartoon network was really all I had to work with. Then, thanks to Winamp, I watched the streaming Love Hina channel, and found a site that had Scrapped Princess up for download. Thanks to those, and Bit Torrent, and an increase in funds, and best buy and online stores selling titles at a more managable price, I’ve been into it now more than ever before.
Not a damn thing. I just made it because I thought it would be different.
It all started with Pokemon. Then DBZ. Then Gundam. Then it just went from there 
I used to watch Pokemon when I was really swept up in the whole craze (it was years ago, don’t judge me :P) but most people tell me that Pokemon doesn’t really count. :hahaha;
pokemon is animation from japan. So it is anime, so it counts. No matter how pathetically americanized it’s become.
I’ve been INTO anime since I was a kid. Can’t really explain why I like animes… I guess I just do.