How did you 'discover' anime/manga?

[Lagomorph]

How did you get into anime/manga? Did you just always love it or was your story more like mine?

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For 16 years (since seeing Ninja Scroll at 10 years old lolrapescene) I had tried watching anime a bunch of times in the past and never really liked any of it. Studio Gibli stuff was OK, but was basically just Disney - popular shonen stuff like naruto, trigun, fullmetal alchemist, etc. seemed too childish - too similar to regular old american boy's TV shows already out there. I watched other animes like Ninja Scroll, Akira, and Cowboy Beebop, but I found them distastefully gory and ugly. I thought that anime just wasn't for me - and I didn't 'get' other's fascination with it.

Then one day I turned on a random anime on Netflix by chance, just out of curiosity...and discovered the ecchi fantasy anime Rosario + Vampire. It was the lightehearted fun and kawaii of Studio Gibli, the excitement and imagination of shonen pulp, and the fanservice/adult themes of explicit animes I had seen (without being explicit itself). I had no idea such stuff existed!! So now I am totally hooked and love anime and manga!
I have always loved Japanese culture, listened to J-pop, tried learning some Japanese, but up until 2012, never got into anime.

[gin]

Dunno, was it watching Robotech as a (very young) kid, Maya the Bee a bit later, maybe The Secret of Blue Water...it definitly caught on with Evangelion.

[Etue]

As I wandered fast libraries of information nothing seemed to catch my eye. It seemed so long since I had moved yet I looked for that which was not a videogame yet entertaining non the less. Then there was memory of better times, times in which television aired more adult orientated cartoons. I pondered and found that which turned atrocity over the years, yet bleach still seemed like something watchable. I picked up many better animes along the way. But kept myself to bleach / Naruto and One piece for quite some years.

Found this site and some watched better animes. :)
( and some way worse. )

[BrainBlow]

Detective Conan volumes and Shonen Jump magazines(norwegian versions) many years ago.

[iLuvAn1me]

I discovered anime by mistake..I was searching for a WarcraftIII map on Google,named BleachVsOnePiece,and i accidentally visited an anime site.So i thought what it was ,as i clicked "Play"..And so on,i began watching my first anime ever,Bleach.

I discovered manga again thanks to Bleach,as i was searching desperately for a hint about Ulquiorra's Ressurection...and i happened to find a Google pic,with Ulquiorra's Ressurection in a comic-style.I thought it was some fan-art or whatever,but then as i explored the site,i noticed that,that kind of comic was actually progressing the story accordingly with the anime,and even further..

So in conclusion,Bleach somehow introduced me to "this world"...

[DeathlyForce]

Well, since I was a kid I always already liked pokémon, digimon and such...
But that wasn't really the trigger though.

When I discovered and started playing some JRPG games ~three years ago,
I read a little bit later on the net that some had a show.
I decided to give it a try and discovered more about 'these cartoons'.
That's pretty much how I ended up starting to watch anime.

[Nocturnal]

I got a DVD of Kaibutsu no Ojou for my birthday a couple of years ago. And then I saw Naruto on Jetix. It was enough to get me hooked. After that came Elfen Lied and Death Note and my addiction reached a whole 'nother level.

I did watch YuGiOh, Pokemons, Digimons and the rest back in childhood, but I never knew they were indeed Japanese animations, so I don't count those.

[Raven]

It all started with My Neighbor Totoro, it captivated my imagination. Then it was Sailor Moon and Pokemon. Pokemon was important to me. I'd watch every episode and play the games for hours, mastering them to super high levels. I even dreamed of once going into the Pokeverse. It was essentially a part of my very being and the elements of friendship, honesty, and the courage to face the unknown are a few that I embodied within my ghost. It also taught me that life is not about winning or losing, but understanding (which inevitably leads to winning in one way or another).

[Dreador]

When I was younger it was also Yu Gi Oh, Pokemon, Digimon and Cardcaptor Sakura on kids TV :P Then only thing I really watched after that would be Final Fantasy Advent Children in Japanese with subs cause I couldn't wait. Then while I was bored at uni decided to fully watch Cardcaptor Sakura as I never finished it as a kid then moved onto other CLAMP anime -> Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles, Chobits, xxxHolic etc and the rest is history.

[Uriel]

I think there are at least two threads like that one somewhere in the forum abyss. I remember posting my story twice :-)