I had 1, 2, and 4 for years before I ever found a copy of 3. In fact, for a while all I had was a Japanese-release copy of 3 that had been through Hong Kong at some point!

Maybe breathe some life back into this topic. I feel like most of the cartoons I watched when I was younger were animated in Japan; Voltron, Thundercats, etc. Does anyone remember the movies Sci-Fi channel would play late Saturday night/early Sunday morning? Those are my first accounts of watching anime movies aimed at an older audience, Armitage III and Project A-Ko are the two I remember best.


Side question, is Thundercats considered anime?

Sci-fi is where I first saw actual anime (apart from the commercials for the Columbia House type company for anime, which I think just offered anime from Streamline). Aside from Fatal Fury (discussed earlier), the only other show I caught on Sci-fi was Iria: Zeiram the Animation. That was set in such an awesome universe which is still one of my favorites.

My side question: Anyone subscribe to that anime service?

Don't think I would consider it anime. I always lumped it into general cartoons kinda like HeMan and Shera.

My first anime was Mahoutsukai Sally, pretty much the first magical girl anime EVER. I was 8 years old then. Later on there was a lot of World Masterpiece Theater series, Saint Seiya, Dr. Slump (the first one, not the remake), all DragonBalls, magic Knight RayEarth, etc. It was almost 21 years ago, and now I think that I've watched over a 1000 anime titles.

I had also watched the TV series. About 40 years ago
This TV anime is produced in 1966-1968, it is not then I watched at the time of re-broadcasting.

How time flies, huh?

Re: Thundercats. This was one of those US/Japan co-productions. The Japan side did all the actual animation, specially the studio Topcraft, which did all the cel animated Rankin Bass stuff. There simply was no American TV animation house that could come close to something like the intro for Thundercats...or Orbots, or Galaxy Rangers or a bunch of other U.S./JP team ups. This studio's last major work was Nausicaa after which it became Studio Ghibli.

Oh yeah, my Mom would hit the flea markets for toys for me and my brother and grab the Japanese toys of the Americanized anime shows on the air at the time (because it was cheaper there than for the US versions at the toy stores.) We were the envy of many kids since I had the Japanese version of Dinobot Grimlock where his gun would actually shoot (at least 10 feet!) and his sword wasn't made of rubber.

Also got the Japanese Macross and Mospeada toys that actually transformed rather than the cheap a** American Robotech toys that couldn't!!

Very cool. I didn't know about the Studio Ghibli tie in, though thinking back now, most the Rankin Bass animation does seem anime-esque. Last Unicorn comes to mind.

My first anime was Sailor Moon. First throught the English dub by DiC, then the original Japanese version through VKLL's fansubs and the later ADV and Pioneer DVDs. I'm excited for the new dub Viz is currently producing (it's like the dub we should have gotten in the first place!) but the old dub still holds a place in my heart!

I watched Robotech and Voltron around the same time, then Cardcaptor Sakura and Digimon. As for Pokemon, I liked the games more than the anime, but the movies were pretty good. I also started following Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki's work after watching Kiki and Totoro. Watching Robotech and the original Macross got me interested in more robot shows, which led me to watch Gundam Wing and nearly all of the UC Gundam shows...

So... robots, magical girls, cute monsters, and epic adventures with female leads. That's what I like!

Woah! You got the VKLL fansubs too? I was super stoked when I got my Sailor STARS tapes in the mail; I played sick and stayed home from school the day after I'm with you on the old dubs. If I've had a s**t day, I'll watch an episode or 2 of the DiC dubs (usually from Sailor Moon R) and I feel better.

Speaking of Robotech . . .

Sony Takes Over ‘Robotech,’ Plans Film Franchise

I'd known about the VKLL fansubs since at least 1999 but was too young at the time to get copies of them. It wasn't until I downloaded VHS rips of them that I finally got to see them... back when bittorrent was still new (about 2005 or so - ten years already?! ) I didn't get the ADV and Pioneer DVDs until much later. Unfortunately, I missed out on the DiC dub DVDs, and I cringe every time I check Amazon and see them for $100 each. Hoping Viz will be able to release that dub after they're done with everything else Sailor Moon related.

The very first I ever saw was Moomin on children's TV when I were a small child. It is a story from Finland, but the TV series I grew up with is in fact made in Japan. When I got slightly older, Pokémon were really popular. Of course, at that time I didn't know about the concept "anime", it were just a cartoon show.

What got me hooked were Ranma 1/2 over a year ago. I knew about the concept anime at this stage, of course, but hadn't really looked into it. A friend of mine highly recommended Ranma 1/2. I saw everything in no time. Really wish it existed more, and a proper ending to it. So I started reading the comics now to get a full closure to it...

I've watched a lot of different anime shows now the past year, and for some reason I feel like a lot of the more contemporary anime is repetitive. Same concept over and over. Most shows don't even have a proper ending, as if they're missing a season or two. Cut off very sudden. So I moved over to the 80s and 90s, feel like there is a bit more quality over it. Probably exists just as much junk then as now, but only forgotten by time I guess.