Anyone obsessed with Anime BEFORE it became popular?

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Has besides me anyone been fascinated with Japanese animation before it became so popular and "mainstream", as they call it, in non-Asian countries? When I was a little kid I was very drawn to anime back before I even KNEW it was Japanese, although I could tell it was different from "American" cartoons. I remember watching shows like Battle of the Planets and Astroboy and being very drawn to the characters huge, expressive eyes and angular faces, along with the more dimensional plots and characters you rarely saw in other Saturday morning cartoons. I started drawing my own cartoon characters more anime-style but when other people started noticing I became very embarrassed and uncomfortable for some very strange reason. But nowadays I actually don't watch anime much, except for the occasional vid on YouTube, but I've become more fascinated and less "secretive" about my knowledge of Japanese culture. So as I asked before, anyone else feel the same way?

P.S. I also have an aunt from Japan, she's married to my mom's younger brother. They now have a little boy named Kai. I don't get to see them very often, however. They now live up in the Northwest Territories. My mother said they are planning to come home for a while this summer.

Yes, I remember back when it was Japanimation and Apollo Smile hosted the anime marathon on Scifi. First "real" anime I saw was Vampire Princess Miyu and then later Biohunter. I watched the early Nick Jr cartoons that were originally from Japan (The Nozzles, The Little Panda, The Little Bits etc) as well but so did most young children around that time.

I feel the opposite as you do now, when I was a kid I WANTED to get meet people who were into anime and Japanese stuff and drew the characters and tried emulating the style. People just thought I was weird and eccentric as hell. Nowadays the only anime I watch at all are old Gundam movies and shows (not Wing but Zeta, 079 etc) and I read some manga like Berserk and Akira. I like aspects of Japanese mythology, but I really don't like Japanese culture itself much.

My friend at school used to bring in some crazy B&W Manga in the late 80's and I saw Akira when it was first released. Do I win anything?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRR027lJ1-s[/youtube]

I came to anime quite late I guess, only really followed Dragonball and it's incarnations. From about 12 years ago I started watching. Not really a fan, though I like the particular style of animation andthe odd exaggerated expressions etc bit took young or too late took it to claim any.. Well, whatever it is people claim for being first.

Was introduced to Japanese martial arts a lot earlier so that was my way in, so to speak.

I used to watch whatever was on Cartoon Network. Ronin Warriors, Dragon Ball Z, ect. I don't know if I liked it when it was just emerging in popularity, or if I found Anime before it's prime.

I'm not very interested it in anymore. They are all too much alike and a lot of the fans kind of weird me out a little. I still like Cowboy Bebop and the Miyazaki films, though.

I am 21 so I am quite young, could not even really get into watching much anime until I go the internet, which was when I was 17. But when I was a kid, I was a fan of Zoids, Pokemon, Card Captors, Digimon, and Dragonball Z. Actually most of my anime watching when young was from pay tv, but got a big hole when I lost having the pay tv, with only morning cartoons left, and only found out they were "anime" in High School

I guess I am just the young lot, Don't really watch anything that older, eldest ones being Cowboy Bebop and Excel Saga , like to think I am not ignorant in things.

Anime first got my attention back in the early 80's with Starblazers. I loved that show!
Then came Robotech, which is a classic.

Now there is too much to even keep track of.
I tend to enjoy anime films more than TV series.
Though there a few series I like. Cowboy Bebop, Inuyasha, FLCL, Ghost in the shell: Stand alone complex.

Yeah I was a really big Starblazers fan when I was a kid.
And also Robotech.

But other then that I didn't really get into the anime thing. I don't think I've ever watch Akira or a full episode of Dragon Ball Z.

However in my late teens I used to skip class and head down to Uwajimaya and buy Manga. It was then I became a huge fan of Masamune Shirow. Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Dominion and Orion. Orion was my favorite but, I also like GitS. I have an extensive collection of Masamune Shirow art books and manga. I also enjoy the movies based on his work. some of the art from Stand alone complex is dissapointing but, the story is great so I give it a pass.

I also collected a bit of Rumiko Takahashi Manga/Anime. Mainly Ranma 1/2 but, also Maison Ikkoku.

I got into anime after watching naruto on tv back in 2008 before I lived on the internet, so I didn't know how popular it was until a year later when I started going on the net.

I've seen countless animes since then but Naruto has always remained my favourite. I don't know what I'll do with my life when it finishes.

This thread reeks of hipster so much that I almost don't want to post in it lol... But sadly I guess not as I was introduced to anime in the big anime boom of the 90's where the entry level series like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Sailor Moon got really popular.

I remember watching "Madox-01" back in 1992, and that was enough to get me hooked.

I watched the original "Bubblegum Crisis" OVA series just a couple of months after that, and then I found myself spending my weekly allowance check at the local Tower Records, which had the largest anime VHS rental selection in town at the time.

My favorites in middle school were "Battle Angel," "Guy - Awakening of the Devil," "Devil Hunter Yohko," "Cyber City OEDO," "Wicked City," "Dirty Pair - Project Eden," "Crying Freeman," "The Professional - Golgo 13," "Rei Rei," "Riding Bean," and "The Venus Wars". Then I got into fansub VHS trading a couple of years later, and that opened up many whole new worlds for me.

I was the only kid in my middle and high school who knew what anime was at the time. Granted, I did earn a lot of respect from some kids for bootlegging hentai anime for them, but really, that was a pretty lousy thing to be doing.

i think i was interested in anime since the 80s. Old stuff its very hard to find today.

I mean seriously, this is the best that the Internet gave me. The torrents i found where dead. Its really a shame, the bellow stuff, are really good. I would recommend them, if you can find them. I'm especially recommending windaria.

Locke the Superman (Greek subtitles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWqoOvD9eOg

future war 198X (incomplete, miss the best part, Greek dub, fan made English subtitles, the Japanese version has no subtitles )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKxxBVNBDxU

andromeda stories (in Greek)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SarYMUk8DFw

Windaria
trailer (Japanese)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEn1rN2r ... ure=relmfu
in Greek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzw971S2v-I

I win