in the shell

So when were you first exposed to anime, what did you watch, what are your fond memories/guilty pleasures?

It will be interesting to see the differences with age gaps, I've listened to a few podcasts where they about voltron and robotech nostalgically which was lost on me.

Being born in mid-70's...my first anime I can recall is Battle of the Planets (Ninja Science Team Gatchaman). But yes, my true mainstays were Voltron (Beast King GoLion) and Robotech (Super Dimensional Fortress Macross/Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross/ Genesis Climber Mospeada). Back in those days, English-speaking distributors didn't feel it was necessary to honor source material and changed things up...as opposed to today.

The first anime that rocked my world was Warriors of the Wind which was, yet again, another poor Western hack job of Miyazaki's Nausicaa and the Valley of Wind. The animation and nuance in a "cartoon" blew my flippin' mind...so when VIZ brought over the original manga...there was no going back.

Anime was much more niche back then (late 80's early 90's), so I used to go to my local comics store and buy all of the import magazines like NewType that teased me of all of these animes that I would have to wait years to see. I was still a huge fan of Robotech in spite of the reality of its origins...but actually seeing the good stuff on VHS is hard to come by. I was overjoyed when films like Vampire Hunter D and AKIRA were broadcast...and was thankful for the video stores that actually started developing an anime section. Finding something was like finding gold back then.

It has taken a while for things to get where they are where Westerners can actually be largely up to date with the latest through the internet and services like crunchyroll.

Might as well answer this myself before the topic goes dead. If I remember correctly my first encounter was my uncle hiring the Fist of the North star movie on VHS. At that age I was immediately hooked by the most ultra violent cartoon I had ever seen. From that point on it was more video hiring plus an amazing weekly late night anime showing on channel 4.

Everything back then seemed to be gritty violent and incredibly imaginative.

Cybercity Oedo 808
Genocyber
Devilman
Angel cop
3x3 eyes
Golgo 13
Wicked City

Mine was Marine Boy.




Although the original Space Ghost is a close second.