How did you start on anime/manga?

Basically what the topic says~

How did you guys start with anime/manga? Was it through the internet? Or through an anime that aired on your local channel? Newspapers? Magazines? Bookstores~?

I started because I watched Chinese-dubbed Doraemon since I was young, but I was so young then SHOTA-YOUNG or well LOLI-YOUNG maybe 4 years old or so... I had no idea that was 'anime', no idea it was Japanese animation.

So then much later, more shows aired because in the 90s it was all about the Japanese drama and culture then, and of course anime came along with it.

Then, there was CARDCAPTOR SAKURA. That's how I started off really knowing anime, and subsequently reading manga.

So how was it for you? ;D

Nice topic~
Well, I started quite late (right after I turned 20). Of course, I watched some eps of Pokemon and Sailor Moon when I was in middle school, but back then pretty much all kids my age watched this stuff (these and several other series aired on TV, dubbed), and no-one actually knew what "anime" is, let alone "manga" xD I never thought I'd end up being so mad about Japanese animation one day xD Frankly speaking, Japan wasn't of any interest to me =_=

When I started watching anime, I knew what I was getting into. In a way, I wanted to become obsessed with something. I'm the type of person who needs strong emotions in order to survive, but when there's no chance to get any from real life events, I guess it's only natural to start looking elsewhere. Back then, I was going through a difficult phase, and I felt that the "love of my life"--music--could no longer satisfy my emotional needs. I felt pretty...dejected, I guess, so I started looking for something that could keep me entertained and, well, for something that would be different from everything I'd already known. By that time, anime and manga had already gained considerable popularity among the young people here, so that seemed the obvious answer.

I started with Death Note, simply because it's probably the most well-known anime here XD After that, I watched a lot of popular stuff and started watching ongoings. I got into BL right away as well: I admit the idea of something like that having its own genre dedicated to it seemed outlandish, but I tried watching/reading it, and I liked it, so I thought there's no reason to deprive myself of such a guilty pleasure xD

I didn't have a senpai or any anime-watching friends to guide me, so everything I wanted to know about anime I learnt myself. Now I only watch it subbed, and get all of it from the net. (I watch ongoings after all, and for p. much all legal streaming services my country is as good as Narnia, i.e. IT DOESN'T EXIST.)

how did I start.. 4yrs old I just accidently watch Shin Chan xD and I like it and after that I saw in tv too, Cyborg Kuro-chan, yu yu hakusho ahaha that's why I like anime.. but I never thought that they called anime.. I just called them cartoons lolz xD..

And in the manga..when old man gift me my first laptop (its a graduation gift ^^) well I started to read Slam dunk xD hehe its just I like that comedy xD

Like Splodey, I started off with Canto-dubbed anime. I actually... really liked watching mecha shows back then O.O I loved the robots and the transforming and the combining. But anyway, since I was rather young and they're all Canto-translated, I don't recall much of what I saw. Of course, there was Doraemon (or 'ding dong' as we called him back then haha) and Sailor Moon. I recall watching some of Mahoujin GuruGuru too.

Anyway, time skip to when I was around 13, I met a friend who was into manga and anime and she re-introduced me to the world again. She gave me English scanlated manga so I started off with Yami no Matsuei and DN Angel, heee heeeee. Then eventually I looked up manga for myself.

I think around that time, bro was also getting back into anime as well? So we started off with the typical popular stuff like Bleach, Naruto and One Piece. Though with Bleach, I think I started reading the manga first and then I watched anime? Out of the three series, One Piece is the only one I'm still reading (gave up watching though, heh. But I'll randomly watch eps from time to time since hearing voices is a completely different experience!)

And then things progressed from there. Yessss...

As for me, it's similar to Splodey and Fishy, but I watched Indonesian-dubbed anime ^^; If asked when I watching anime, I can't really remember when hahaha~ All I know is I grew up watching anime and reading manga because of my older brother and my uncle!

Some titles I watched when I was young: Card Captor Sakura, Doraemon, Digimon 1 & 2, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Minky Momo, Wedding Peach, Detective Conan, Inuyasha, Crayon Shin-chan, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, HunterxHunter, wow now that I think about it, quite a lot eh XD But I'm telling you, I HAVE NEVER FINISHED WATCHING ANY TITLE OF THE ABOVE (with the exception of CCS coz I just watched the whole series around last year and Digimon 1 & 2)

My uncle was the one who introduce lots of manga to my house :) My brother and I read our very first mangas from him, like Detective Conan and Crayon Shin-chan XD

And about BL.... I blame my brother for it XD He once brought home a manga (it's BL and apparently his friend lent him the book, I'm surprised Indonesia ever let the book be translated and sold considering how 'strict' they are with 'things that are not right/straight' LOL) and I read it. Bishounen and BL hints everywhere but as a child I liked the humour and the drawing of the book (it's called GHOST! btw, it's pretty hilarious X'D) but then for some reason I really like the relationships between the characters so much, unconsciously I started liking malexmale X'D I was like.... 10 yrs old probably? That was really the beginning of how I became a closet fujoshi X'D

OH MY GOD WEDDING PEACH, LOL. But by the time it was on TV in HK, I was... pretty old for it. I still watched it out of boredom 'cos nothing else to watch during afternoons in the holidays ='D I remember being all "lolwtf WHY WEDDING DRESSES?"

LOL blaming your brother for BL. XD I don't really recall how I got into BL but probably from ... Yami no Matsuei? I don't think that series is meant to be BL but I think it has BL hints everywhere. I think. Hm......

I watched my first anime as a teenager when a morning kids cartoon show started airing Robotec. I was late for school all the time, because I got so hooked on it, as we'd only gotten cartoons for really young kids up until then. I had no idea that there were these drawn series with such great story lines. By todays standards, Robotec is pretty lame now, but it introduced me to anime, so I'll always have a soft spot for it, and I totally fell in love with the cross dressing character in it, although I'm pretty sure the translation we got here always called him a girl. I didn't find out until years later that she was actually a he. lol. I didn't watch another anime for a long time after though, as back then there was no internet and my country just didn't air any others on the television.

My next step was computer games, which none of my friends knew I played because back then, it was very un cool to be a gamer. I'm so happy that changed. I played many games, then finally got on the internet when I was in my 20's and went looking for anything I could find on my favourite games, which happened to be Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8. That's how I stumbled over yaoi and wow, was that an eye opener. lol Was an instant fan of all the yaoi fanfiction and artwork, and it was after that I got into doujins and started watching anime again. Then, lastly, I started reading manga but only after watching anime and wanting more of the characters and storylines.

So, apart from Robotec as a teenager, I went from computer games, to yaoi fanfiction and doujins, then to anime and lastly to manga.

Fishy wrote:Like Splodey, I started off with Canto-dubbed anime.

[...]

I think around that time, bro was also getting back into anime as well?  So we started off with the typical popular stuff like Bleach, Naruto and One Piece.  Though with Bleach, I think I started reading the manga first and then I watched anime?  Out of the three series, One Piece is the only one I'm still reading (gave up watching though, heh.  But I'll randomly watch eps from time to time since hearing voices is a completely different experience!)

TareTenipuri wrote:As for me, it's similar to Splodey and Fishy, but I watched Indonesian-dubbed anime ^^; If asked when I watching anime, I can't really remember when hahaha~ All I know is I grew up watching anime and reading manga because of my older brother and my uncle! [...]

I think there's definitely something different about the way Japanese animation and manga (and some of culture) has been perceived in the East Asia region. Everyone else outside of the East Asia region seem to have come into contact with anime and manga just a tad bit differently than we did. xD

Oh and fishy HOW DID WE HAVE THE SAME EXPERIENCE. When I was around 12 or so, that's when I really started to go down with anime. Before then maybe 11 it was the world of torrenting and stuff, and my bro torrents loads of stuff all the time and we used to watch Inuyasha and all that shit. But then Naruto came, we got to episode 3 THE INFAMOUS KISS BETWEEN SASUKE AND NARUTO WHICH SPAWNED THE WHOLE SASUNARU FANDOM and then from then on we actually took out time every week to sit together to catch up with Naruto, which at that time was only about 100+ episodes. (After that the ridiculous fillers came back that's another story) That episode is also the episode that got me thinking "I wonder if people write fanfics about them" and yeah, you know the drill from here.

Madi wrote:I watched my first anime as a teenager when a morning kids cartoon show started airing Robotec.  I was late for school all the time, because I got so hooked on it, as we'd only gotten cartoons for really young kids up until then.  I had no idea that there were these drawn series with such great story lines.  By todays standards, Robotec is pretty lame now, but it introduced me to anime, so I'll always have a soft spot for it, and I totally fell in love with the cross dressing character in it, although I'm pretty sure the translation we got here always called him a girl. I didn't find out until years later that she was actually a he. lol.  I didn't watch another anime for a long time after though, as back then there was no internet and my country just didn't air any others on the television.

My next step was computer games, which none of my friends knew I played because back then, it was very un cool to be a gamer.  I'm so happy that changed.  I played many games, then finally got on the internet when I was in my 20's and went looking for anything I could find on my favourite games, which happened to be Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8.  That's how I stumbled over yaoi and wow, was that an eye opener. lol  Was an instant fan of all the yaoi fanfiction and artwork, and it was after that I got into doujins and started watching anime again.  Then, lastly, I started reading manga but only after watching anime and wanting more of the characters and storylines.

So, apart from Robotec as a teenager, I went from computer games, to yaoi fanfiction and doujins, then to anime and lastly to manga.

Oh man I remember FF7... I never managed to complete the game, I think it crashed and died. Because it was a pirated copy that my tuition teacher lent to me. :'D I doubt I was even halfway thru...? But I was like, 10 years old then, so...

Robotec... never even heard of it! O:

I wouldn't be surprised if people got into anime/manga thanks to Bleach/Naruto/One Piece since they're so popular. BUT WHEN WILL THEY END? D: I don't know about Bleach/Naruto since I dropped them ages ago but for One Piece, the end is not in sight. @.@;;

Fishy wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if people got into anime/manga thanks to Bleach/Naruto/One Piece since they're so popular.  BUT WHEN WILL THEY END? D:  I don't know about Bleach/Naruto since I dropped them ages ago but for One Piece, the end is not in sight. @.@;;

Bleach is on the final arc now, but there's no word on how long the arc will be. Most fans are guessing no more than a year, but Kubo isn't saying.

 Oh man I remember FF7... I never managed to complete the game, I think it crashed and died. Because it was a pirated copy that my tuition teacher lent to me. :'D I doubt I was even halfway thru...? But I was like, 10 years old then, so...

Robotec... never even heard of it! O:

Robotec was an old mecha anime from the 1980's.  And wow, you played FF7!  Have you ever watched CGI movie, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete?  So many pretty men in it.

LOL Kubo is such a troll. His one year could mean the manga one year which may take another 2 years HAHA.

Kishimoto also said Naruto is going to end in like 1 year ++ so I'm presuming 2 years? At least I think that's what people are saying!

DRAG OUT EVERYTHING. Then Bleach ends. Then a new Bleach appears like how Genshiken went Genshiken Nidaime.

Bleach is kind of boring for me now. BUT it seems like things are somewhat coming to an end. Hopefully Kubo is being less of a troll now and will seriously consider a proper wrap-up!

Speaking of wrap-ups, Naruto is in quite the pinch now. XD