Watching anime seems to be a popular activity for people within this community. The first time I was exposed to anime was in the 90's with shows like DragonBall Z, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, CardCaptor Sakura, Escaflowne, etc were popularized by Cartoon Network. I only watched the first of those titles, and not the entire way through. The show that I enjoyed following was Death Note, so I guess I'm a late bloomer as an anime nerd. I read it on a forum somewhere and started downloading it while it was airing. The ending of that left a little void, so it was filled by watching other things and then it just spread from there.

So, what was your inducting anime and how did you discover it?  

I watched a few studio ghiblis growing up and i started watchig. Series of animes when a freind from graal re introduced me.  

I saw parts of Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon, but didn't really follow anime until I started watching Yu Yu Hakusho. It drew me in with its unique action that created dramatic moments like no other that I've seen. Plus the characters developed really well in my opinion, and I was able to really connect with a few. I dropped off somewhere a while back, and picked it back up with Death Note, Fruits Basket and Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, which is still probably my favorite.

I do miss Toonami in the evenings on weekdays, though. Always bringing the latest couple episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho and a DBZ after supper.  

Like most kids, I was aware anime existed through shows like Pokemon, DBZ, Yugioh etc. but only really got back into it after a friend kept nagging me to watch Death Note also. After that I never really stuck with shows until I saw your thread about SAO and then I became interested.  

Oh, I forgot about Pokemon.  

Like most kids, I grew up watching Dragon Balls, Inyuasha, Pokemon, Digimon and all those kinds of animes. Up until second grade I stopped watching those animes, because I moved and lost all my box sets. Then around 4th grade my frients at school was big on Naruto so I started watching and only Naruto. Finally, a friend who lived by me and played Era told me about Fate/Zero and I marathoned through that and loved it, she started telling me about more anime series and eventually I got hooked and watch ongoing series and just marathoning through several series. Met some more friends at my middle school who loved anime and even went to a small anime convention with them.  

I caught a youtube video about baccano by the youtuber gigguk (highest subscribed anime youtuber) and from their i started to enjoy it. Another reason was my best mate watched all the narutos  

I watched Pokemon and Sonic X a lot when I was younger, but if you want to count the first time I started getting into anime, it was Naruto. I've seen so many animes now that put Naruto to shame, but it did get me into anime so I'll give it that. That was probably around middle school.  

I always thought anime was 90% - what we would call - "hentai" and/or romance.
Then a year and a half ago, a few graal friends convinced me to watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann -- my first anime. IMO that's a great one to start off with. The artwork is a little above CartoonNetwork-quality (so you'll be able to fully appreciate the higher quality artwork when you get to it; without being disappointed when you stumble to a lesser quality anime); and the action is so intense and the themes so compelling, its perfect to make you wanna watch more anime.

After that, I watched all of Naruto/NarutoShippuden (almost 500ep total at the time) in about one month...

Up to this point, I had only seen cartoon-style art anime. Katanagatari, Blood+, D. Gray-man all had medium quality artwork. But after watching Death Note, Darker than Black, Claymore, I really started to get into the higher-quality artwork. I also decided Action isnt the only genre I like. I also started to really get into Sci-Fi and Horror anime. Anything that a) has insane action, b) can blow my mind, or c) has a obscene amounts of blood.  

My very first anime was definately Yu-Gi-Oh, my dad bought me about 15 videos tapes of it.
Then i saw DBZ and then Pokemon. Ever since then i haven't watched anime till last year. I tried Full Metal Alchemist but i just couldn't get on to finish it. Then SAO came, that was the first anime that i've finished all episodes.
Now i'm currently watching Hunter x hunter, Strike the Blood, DBZ and Log Horizon.  

Posted by twilit

Katanagatari [...] had medium quality artwork.

No lol.  

Posted by twilit

I also started to really get into Sci-Fi and Horror anime. Anything that a) has insane action, b) can blow my mind, or c) has a obscene amounts of blood.

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni and second season, Koro Kai. Watch at least 4 episodes before you judge it.  

I moved to a quiet docile area, I made new friends and one of them ended up telling me about anime. Believe it or not he's an Dbz head and hates sailor moon ( he thinks its a rip off of dbz ) and I was the oddball to stray from anime until I saw the art style of certain anime. I ended up watching pokemon but my interest in it died when team rocket stopped being stupid and I ended up watching chainsaw princess, jellyfish princess ( one of my favorites ) and Infinite stratos. I never stopped yet because not only did the art work intrigue me but the very action and scenes and drama intrigued me.  

I think Dubbed anime is good for entry level anime.

Steins;Gate is the show that sucked me into Anime. Still my favorite one, and likely will stay my favorite due to nostalgia for me.

Some good shows to start with:
-Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
-Code Geass
-Cowboy Bepop (I haven't seen this yet, but I hear it is good for newbies to anime)
-Last Exile
-Death Note (up to episode 27)
-Infinite Stratos (ahahaha, jk, just felt like throwing in a harem for lulz)  

Posted by Rufus

Oh, I forgot about Pokemon.

At this point, Pokemon is just a cartoon.