Awesomesauce blogger Nopy started an interesting project on sharing what started us on anime, leading up to present day, and now I’ve decided to participate as well.
Mine requires cranking the way-back-machine to full. All the way back to when I was but a wee lad. My dad somehow found a Japanese video rental store somewhere, and thought that I might like watching some cartoons that were not North American. This became my first exposure to anime.
I’m sure the vast majority of my readers will never have heard of Captain Harlock (if you have, you’re either too old for this stuff anymore, or you watched a reboot series). This series pre-dates even Gundam, starting two years before the first Mobile Suit Gundam TV series aired.
Captain Harlock, one of the coolest space pirates ever known in anime history.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL8Ufsi50gY[/pro-player]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL8Ufsi50gY
Talk about going back in time…
I can barely remember this series outside of the incredibly cool and phallic space ship, and the super cool demeanor of Captain Harlock. I’d say this was my first true calling to becoming an anime artist, and also when I started drawing anime fan art. ^^
But of course, there were other space operas that came out at the time that had me thinking as well, such as my brief glimpse of Galaxy Express 999
One of the first anime TV series with a main female lead.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq-b_iNrQaQ[/pro-player]
I didn’t watch this series too much, because I was hooked on Captain Harlock at the time, but it was a rather interesting concept. Of course the absurdness of a flying steam engine was only matched by the also awesome Starblazers (Yamato) with the flying battleship.
ALL HANDS ON DECK!
These space-operas were totally awesome to me at the time. But there was one problem – there wasn’t such a thing as subtitles back then. But what got me was the beautiful art. I didn’t care that I couldn’t understand anything. I just wanted to see the beautiful art, and see the beautiful characters interacting with each other. The animation back then was already leagues above any North American cartoon that I had seen, so these really stuck and is probably the basis on why I’m such an anime fan even today.
It goes without saying that Gundam came shortly after. This was the game-changer in the industry. The space operas were still there, but the wholly creative imaginations of “gigantic battling robots” was a completely new concept the world over, and it took Japan by storm. Strangely, I didn’t enjoy it as much as Captain Harlock because it distanced itself from the human aspects that I so enjoyed.
And who could forget macross? I had an interesting “crush” on Minmei, which was weird considering how young I was and was already experiencing forms of affection towards someone of the opposite sex, irregardless of her physical representation as a 2d character, or an actual living being. Perhaps it was just the way she was portrayed, or I was just mimicking the emotional psychology of Hikaru. Whatever it was, I was clearly confused. Though now that I look at Minmei, I can see where my taste in women comes from. For reals! Just look at my wife!
I went to Hong Kong for the first time, and during that time I caught fever of one of the greatest anime series I had ever seen – an anime about soccer (or Football, if you’re not American).
Captain Tsubasa
What I liked about the series, besides the flashy cool super special moves, were the deep emotional and sociological concepts this series expressed. Everything was about teamwork, friendship, determination, and hot-blooded kickass soccer. I admired Tsubasa’s inspirational beginnings, and the exceptional heroism and leadership he radiated as the central main character. Tsubasa became my driving force to want to excel, and was one of my reasons for getting into soccer.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuX9u-Ic_Ko[/pro-player]
While I couldn’t find much good quality videos, this reboot still encompasses what Captain Tsubasa was all about, with all the same visual elements too. This anime was way ahead of its time.
While in Hong Kong, I was also exposed to the darker side of anime, Fist of the North Star.
This was the most violent anime I had ever seen at the time. It was both horrifying and exhilarating at the same time. It was interesting to see the same sort of heroic dependability of Captain Harlock being expressed in this series, but on such a greater level. Seeing the conflicts between hero and villain played out in gory detail really influenced me to this day on how super powers can change everything and make you an unstoppable hero.
There were also sprinklings of Astro Boy during this period as well, but the parallels of the unstoppable hero were so similar to many other series, that I quickly lost interest in Astro Boy in favor of Kinnikuman.
KINNIKUMAN!!!!
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egL8i_1QtYM[/pro-player]
The comedy of this series was gold, and I also loved the whole idea of wrestling. The violence was a lot less than Fist of the North Star but shared the same heroism central character, and the cliff-hanger series being far more interesting. The cool thing about this series was that the main character was not unstoppable, and provided an incredible experience with cliffhangers and excitement.
Who could ever forget Doraemon? Not much needs to be said about this series. It was just fun to watch! There were various other anime series that I watched from time to time, with many being vague memories that pop up and make me say “oh yeah! I remember that!” but which I can’t recall on my own.
From this point on, my interest in anime exploded. I was no longer watching just one anime at a time. I was watching several series. This was also the time when the anime industry itself began broadening its audience with different genres.
My romantic soft side demanded more humanistic interaction. My love of Minmei quickly traveled to the beautiful blue-haired Kyoko from the series Maison Ikkoku drawn by the ever talented Rumiko Takahashi.
This was my first taste of romantic comedy, and boy was it comedy gold. I saw many of my own traits of the main character within myself, and at my early age, had already experienced crushes on a few other girls at school. These images of happiness shown through this series only fueled my naive yearning. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I truly wished that Yusaku and Kyoko would get together.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ3CbRs7br4[/pro-player]
Kyoko… you’re so beautiful…
Another series that I was watching in parallel was none other than the original Dragon Ball.
The same heroic dependability was shown within Goku, and I still indulged in my fantasy of unstoppable super powers make you the hero. Not much else needed to be said about this series as it was just plain fun to watch. It had its tense moments with the tournaments and such, but it wasn’t until Dragon Ball Z where things started getting really interesting.
When I started watching Saint Seiya, it had already begun on the Gold Cloth series, I missed out on the first series, and still haven’t watched it. But it was again, another creative and interesting setting, and story. It called on the same elements that made Captain Tsubasa great. It eventually became too much to watch when 80% of the episode was flash backs and inner monologues. When each opponent was defeated, it was no longer a “yes! victory!” but more of a “yes! it’s finally over!”
Anime merchandise had already begun taking the industry by storm. One such series that embraced the hot-blooded nature of Captain Tsubasa was Dash! Yonkuro!
Pulling the same elements of friendship, determination, and hot-blooded exaggeration, this series spread like wildfire, especially among hobbyists since this was based off of Tamaya’s breed of racing toys. You still see this today with series like Yu Gi Oh and Beyblade.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBvN7gC8bFU[/pro-player]
Hot Blooded Product Endorsement!!
Also worth mentioning was Mr. Ajikko
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktHjFfWYMWs[/pro-player]
More like Mr. Epic.
This was a hot-blooded anime series about cooking. The amount of exaggerated “special moves” was completely mind blowing, and incredibly fun to watch. A lot of parodies of this ‘hot-bloodedness’ originates from series of this era. I’ve yet to try any of the recipes outlined in these series though. I might pull an Akane.
Speaking of Akane,
Later in my anime life, I began watching Ranma, again by the talented Rumiko Takahashi. At this point in time, I was already in senior high. My taste in anime had also changed. No longer was I so keenly interested in the fantastical of series such as Dragon Ball Z, or the overtly romantic shows like Maison Ikkoku. Ranma was the perfect blend.
My fever for anime was temporarily stalled, as my interest began shifting to manga. I was heavily tied to Ranma at the time, as well as Video Girl and DBZ. Though my romantic taste for anime had stalled, I began showing more interest in romance manga. It was interesting to see that again, my tastes in females were the driving force behind what attracted me to singer Noriko Sakai, and in turn Video Girl Ai.
Once I graduated from high school, my fever for anime returned when I met some otaku-friends who are still considered my best friends.
Their knowledge and interest in anime far exceeded mine. Prior to meeting them, I wasn’t even aware that there was a local anime store, or an anime club. They introduced me to incredible anime such as Macross Plus, Ghost in the Shell, and Evangelion. I’m sure that this was the start of many weeaboo’s anime life.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWUb04t6_ws[/pro-player]
The predecessor to Miku Hatsune stands before you. Now KNEEL!
I shall now stop here. There is still too much ground to cover, and many series were not mentioned, including a Golf anime which I can’t remember the name of, all the Miyazaki films, Creamy Mami, Voltron, Cowboy Bebop, several Henshin shows, Kenshin, Macross 7, Armitage, Akira, and countless countless more. My brain is now much.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6zDfxZ4NcE[/pro-player]
Probably the best anime ever created.
Reading back on this, it’s interesting to see how much of a history lesson this is as well as how much anime has influenced my life, and affected my psychological and sociological make-up.
If you haven’t already, why not also read my wife’s experience with anime here?
https://radiantdreamer.net/2009/05/29/my-wife-watches-anime-based-on-eroge-yuri-and-otaku-ism/
Read more!
Hmm I don’t recall what the first anime I watched was. It may have been starblazers or g-force.
Sounds about right. 🙂 Does anything about my life sound familiar to you specifically?
You watched way more than I did, and ??????????Well at least in the anime/manga context. My exposure to Gundam was to the model kits first. Saint Seiya I watched was I was bed ridden for a week in highschool. I watched more stuff in collage during ’94, after I stopped watching F1 after Senna (my all time Idol) died.
You were addicted to Saint Seiya when I met you. And Gundam. That’s all you ever talked to me about back then! But it was totally cool because I saw a whole different perspective of anime, and the local anime groups around. I think that we sort of fueled each other’s interest at that point.
Mine was Yu yu hakusho 😀
since then i started wacthing anime in T.V.
then started buying DVD’s
*sigh*
i wish i was back to being a child -__-“
I remember Yu Yu Hakusho! That’s pretty much the predecessor to Bleach if you think about it. I never really watched the series myself, but I did play the Super Famicom game. I loved that game! (specifically the cinematic fighting one, not the straight up 2d side-scrolling fighter)
What other series appealed to you?
If i can remember clearly the anime’s name was
“ghost in the shell” or something
i liked the blue robot with four legs there in that series.
others are:
Dragon balls
Flame of Recca(was it?)
It’s called a Tachikoma. I believe you were watching Stand Alone Complex, which is loosely based on the premise of the movie/manga Ghost in the Shell. You should watch that too. It’s quite good, and a lot deeper than the TV series.
Whoa…one more “victim” who infected the Nopy’s virus ><
I’m starting to think that your usage of > and < are what's causing your comments to be eaten up.
I think you’re the only blogger I know of that actually grew up watching all of those classics. It must’ve been a lot easier to get anime in Hong Kong than North America back then. I remember Edmonton had a total of 1 anime store in the early 90s and it went out of business because of a lack of customers.
I’ve always wanted to watch Galaxy Express 999 and Yamato, but it’s impossible to find them. It makes me wish I were older so that I could’ve caught the anime craze earlier on.
I’m surprised you actually watched shows older than ones I’ve seen. Well, that said, you’re also probably twice my age.
I’ve actually written a response on Nopy’s blog about my history with anime, but since I don’t really blog there wasn’t a place to put it. (setting up a blog with all these cool designs seems really hard when I don’t know any CSS)
oh, forgot to mention. my first ever anime was… uh… wow, i have no clue whatsoever. probably before i ever had any memories. not castle in the sky, not lupin the third (forgot the storyline by now)… wow… i honestly can’t remember.
I have to say the anime that comes strong in my memory is Crayon Shin-Chan or City Hunter or Doraemon… they’re all my stuff I watched when I was really little, probably didn’t get half the sexual jokes and just laughed it all off…
oh, and yes, I was a little kid same age as Shin-chan, so i did try to do the penis-elephant move on myself.
If you were about Shin-Chan’s age, then yeah it can be hard to remember anime series prior to that age.
I had neglected to mention City Hunter in my blog post, I believe. It’s interesting how you could consider it the predecessor to the incredible Cowboy Bebop.
I was a little concerned about how old people would think I am after posting this, but figured it was a good opportunity for me to be nostalgic, as well as provide a small glimpse of the history of anime (from my perspective at least).
Setting up a blog is super easy, but yeah if you want all these cool designs and things, you have to know at least a little bit of CSS. It’s not that hard though. CSS is fairly straightforward and is nothing more than defining things using logical keywords.
Hey, you’re Canadian just like me. My access to anime in Canada was just as restricted as yours. It wasn’t until I finally visited Hong Kong that I realized there was a huge world of anime out there. It wasn’t easy to get a hold of those anime either! ^^
But I have to admit, Edmonton is probably a lot more lacking than Vancouver, since Vancouver is a much larger hub for the asian community to settle down.
I don’t know if you’re really missing all that much. It’s certainly something to be nostalgic about, but for me, I’d rather be younger so that I can see what the future has in store.
a bit similar my local TV love to repeat 80s show during my childhood but mostly I end watch girlish magical Girl, and captain tsubasa was really popular promoting 2002’s world Cup
You know, I haven’t seen any of the new Captain Tsubasa anime. The one I watched was the classic first generation stuff. I really doubt I’d want to watch it again though. The older anime seriously looks dated in comparison to all the new stuff. But the premise, ideas, and “intensity” of anime back then was A LOT better than series nowadays.
Looks like you had it easy compared to me! My first animes were Daikyu Maryu Gaiking, Getter robo G and Starzinger back in the late 80s and early 90s. There were only some random episodes on video from various rental stores around where I was a kid so I missed out on a lot of the classics until much later.
Still, Gaiking is one of my top mechas of all time and I managed to catch up relatively quickly. But after around 92, there was pretty much no anime to watch in the UK. I didn’t pick stuff up again till about97 when evangelion was released on VHS and didn’t make it big yet. Then I noticed that one TV channel showed late night anime and got to see stuff like bubblegum crisis and tank police. I also managed to find the original Guyver OVA. Man, that show was awesome!! The rest, as they say, is history
Wow, I was sort of falling out of anime here and there when you picked up Bubble Gum Crisis and Tank Police. Those were definitely good classics that I missed out on, so nothing to worry about there. 🙂
It’s great to see how much the anime industry has grown globally. Thanks to the internet, series are now much more easier to access, so there’s a lot more to share and talk about.
That much is true. Though I don’t miss the early anime forums which were flooded with evangelion posts!!
I do feel somewhat spoiled when I see how much anime I have stacked up, esp when I go home and check out the large-ish box of anime VHS I built up. Got most of them on DVD now at least!
Ah, ah, no fair. You just made me want to rewrite my own post. How could I have forgotten to include Captain Tsubasa or the original Dragon Ball. Ranma 1/2 too my first and definitely not last harem show. Hmm… Macross Plus too, that was the first time I watched Macross as Macross and not Robotech.
You just reminded me of Video Girl Ai, I forced myself to finish that manga. I didn’t even go on to read Video Girl Len, that type of seinen manga is not my thing apparently.
Still, your history is oddly similar to mine. Heck you even watched the shows in the same order as me.
lol I actually found that your history and mine are VERY similar when I read your blog post (and I believe I mentioned it in my comment), so I kinda figured that these were series that simply slipped your mind. No biggie of course, but it does puzzle me now that you mentioned it, since these seemed to be pretty pivotal series in your anime life.
Video Girl Ai definitely attracted a special breed of manga readers – it was weird because it was a romance story that would work well among female audiences, but it didn’t have to same style of bishojo artwork like Sailor Moon or something. Len was more of a short story arc, that had a much lighter, more innocent feel to it than the original series. It was a bit refreshing, but I still liked the depth and emotion of the original.
Hm, I think my first anime was actually Evagelion, then Ranma, Ghost in the Shell, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Card Captor Sakura. Even now, evagelion is still one of my favorite animes. I really liked reading Maison Ikkoku…hm… I still need to finish it though, some day.
Seems that you started fairly “late” in the anime lifestream. I mean, obviously there are a lot of series that draw their inspirations from series like these classics of course, but it’s most certainly not the more “grandfather” series. (I’d consider Speed Racer and Kimba to be the great-grandfathers)
Maison Ikkoku was good, but it eventually became frustrating to watch as you constantly see the main character stumble on himself, and the other residents getting in the way (I do remember an episode where they even deliberately do it, probably as a sort of joke). I never really finished watching the series either, but I knew how it ended (in a very soap-opera kind of way).
My very first anime i watched while i lived in puerto rico was The Legend of Kage, yeah WAY back, then i think it was Space Adventure Cobra, yeah most were action based anime never really got in to the cutsie funny stuff until i got older, then discovered Ramna 1/2 and my Hime, fist of the north star, vampire hunter d, ghost in the shell and so on 😀
Now a day im watching High School of the Dead and just recently finished Blassrieter, I want one of their bikes >.<
I’ve never seen Legend of Kage, unfortunately. But I have played the old NES game (both the first and second one… the second one was truly epic and awesome).
I do recall Space Adventure Cobra as well. But I don’t think I was old enough to watch such a series.
I’ll probably one day sit down and watch all the Ranma series, as daunting as that is. It’s such a good show…
Wow that’s quite a history on how you got there. Mine pales so much in comparison… I also wrote about my own experience a long while back but I wasn’t able to remember each and every series I got to watch because I rarely got to watch the entire series. I remember that Tamiya car series too! It was aired under a different name though, and it was quite a hit here… but that has died down a lot now. ~_~;
Wow, 2009! Nice! I wasn’t able to remember absolutely everything either. But definitely the memorable ones. 🙂
I remember when those Tamaya racers were the hippest things in town. I hadn’t seen something so hot in a long time. I really wanted the main character’s racer. I thought it was cool looking. And the upgraded ones were cool too. It’s amazing how they give the viewer a perceived sense of power and speed. “This vehicle is SO much better!” even though it’s just a plastic shell. “This racer saved my life…” lol.
oh my gosh, looking at all these titles makes me feel like ive missed out on some of the famous series of those times.
I do recall captain tsubasa once or twice popping up on tv in singapore.
Most of these anime are older than me so maybe thats why ^^”
forgot that im still a boy lol
Indeed those good old days were pretty good. Those anime were more “basic” so to speak, dealing with issues on a much more prominent and intense level than the anime nowadays. The anime back then were very deliberate in the messages they tried to deliver, completely biased and unfiltered. Nowadays, anime is so much more… general. Everything is candy-coated with generic moeblobs. They still exhibit some of the basic concepts of friendship and whatnot, but not with the same intensity and ferocity, which is rather unfortunate…
Captain Tsubasa was so good… I probably wouldn’t watch it again because it didn’t age well aesthetically. But definitely true to concept.
My old days have most of them too… in addition of Sailor Moon & Dragonball, then followed up by Nanoha, One Piece & Gintama.
Fist of the North star was just so cool on those names of their fighting style!
Kinda have a crush on that Tamiya girl during my childhood heh o_o, everything based on this still as good as YuGiOh and the original Beyblade.
Ah, Shin-chan, almost left him out xD
You’ve had quite a range of different anime genres too! Pretty cool!
It’s interesting how one can have a “crush” on a 2d girl. I’d probably want to blog something related to that here at some point. ^^
I’m doing an Anime Beginnings post too, but my memory of my series isn’t as good as yours. After a certain point in the beginning I just remember that I was watching a lot at once.
So many old school anime! I think our age difference results in not a lot of overlaps in our anime beginnings. I did grow up with Doraemon though.
My favorite japanese actress was Noriko Sakai for the longest time ^^; was super impressed by her performance in Heaven’s Coins, cried every episode 😛 LOL And oh! I e-mailed U again ^^; gomene
I loved Noriko Sakai. She was excellent. I still have many of her CDs, shrink-wrapped even! Honestly, I would have married her if the option was available. ^^;
This post brings back lots of memories. Not that I watched all that anime back then, but it just shows how much things have changed in the last few decades or so. It’s interesting how a lot of people list Dragon Ball Z as one of their first anime.
I think people list Dragon Ball Z as being their first anime because the blogs you read and people you meet may most likely be North American? Most of the younger generation have never seen Akira, and one of the first mainstream anime to show in North America was Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball, so it comes as no surprise.
When I look back, I realized I’ve been watching anime all my life but didn’t even realize a lot of shows were anime until I got older. For example, one of my favorite shows as a very young girl was Maya the Bee. I only found out about a year or two ago that the version I saw was a dubbed anime.
Then came Sailor Moon, Samurai Pizza Cats, Ronin Warriors and the like. At first I just thought they were really awesome shows, but then I learned they were “those weird Japanese cartoons”. When I lived in Hawaii for a few years I actually got a Japanese channel that played unsubbed anime. While Cartoon Network was still showing the Vegeta arc of Dragonball Z, this Japanese channel was showing early Majin Buu stuff!
The only downside (or upside?) is that the unsubbed DBZ usually aired after a healthy showing of…Japanese porn. Talk about mood whiplash!
During my middle school years is when the big Toonami boom happened (Tenchi Muyo, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, G Gundam, etc). Now THAT’S when I finally started seriously getting into anime. Ah, I miss those days.
Well that’s kind of interesting! Weird japanese cartoons lol!
Ah, the good ol days. I miss them too…
I can’t remember what the first anime I watched but it was either Fist of the north Star or akira. I kind of went down the same path as you but got into more of the movies at first. now that I have netflix i have been able to fullfill my Anime craving a ton. It is interesting to how we progress in what we watch. One you might want to check out if you like Cowboy Bebop like i did is Baccano. Just watched the first season and it was great.
Ah Baccano. I’ve been wanting to watch that but haven’t had the time. It’s definitely on my list.
Damn, nice article
My oldest is Macross Plus. I cannot go any older, because anime all stink pre-1994.
hey now, that’s not true! Anime of the older generation actually had a lot more shading definition than anime of today.
my first animes i watche whre full metal alchemist ,full metal panic and inuyasha i cant remember the order but i think fma was first then inuyasha and my fav animes were clannad, kanon, angel beats ranma and inuyasha im suprised you didnt have any kay animes there or i just missed them when i was scrooling down XD i would watch some of the animes if you put the name of the anim next to them or something
i watched my first anime when i was four( kiki’s delivery service) , though at the time i hadn’t even known what anime was, and 8 years later i dived head first into watching shows like Lovely Complex, ai yori aoshi, and to love ru. I was 13 when started to watch Urusei yatsura(rumiko takahashi’s first work to gain an anime adaptation, and the first show of its kind), which is the show that took me from being an anime fanboy, to being a full blown otaku(or at least, that’s when i realized that i was one)