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How many years has it been since you started anime?

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Jul 25, 9:13 PM
#1

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Jul 2023
2298
Since 2017 actively watching anime, so almost 7 years.


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Jul 25, 9:16 PM
#2

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Dec 2021
2709
Early 2021 is when I said "Fuck it", and watched Urusei Yatsura from start to end, movies and OVAs included. Prior to that, I had no real interest in anime. So... I guess only three? I will continue to cite this one Justin Whang video for being the singular thing that brought me here.



His brief description at the beginning of the video (Before he gets too into the Italian dub OP, what the video is actually about) was all it took for me to think "Huh, that seems fun.". It was fun, and I now watch a lot of anime. Also helps that there are basically no complete english dubs of that anime that aren't also lost media, so it also got me into watching stuff sub only.
Daviljoe193Jul 25, 9:22 PM
Jul 25, 9:28 PM
#3
๐Ÿ… Tomato ๐Ÿ…

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Feb 2020
101461
A long time ago, but I truly started to binge anime in 2019, so that's my answer.

SerafosJul 25, 9:42 PM
Jul 25, 9:38 PM
#4

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Sep 2008
4270
started in 2006 I believe. on the internet anyway.
้ฆฌ้นฟใ’ใŸๅ€ซ็†ใ€€ๅ…จ้ƒจใ‚ฌใƒฉใ‚ฏใ‚ฟใง
Jul 25, 9:53 PM
#5

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Nov 2013
1629
Internet binging would've started in like 2005 or 2006 for me.
Jul 25, 9:57 PM
#6

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Jun 2017
5420
I saw my first anime in 2002

But i didn't really become a full time viewer until about 2016
My waifu is the most wonderful waifu. Mai Valentine.
Jul 25, 9:59 PM
#7

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Aug 2010
2413
Since Fall 2009, so almost 15 years now
Jul 25, 9:59 PM
#8

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Jan 2014
3766
2013 for me, it all started because I saw a girl from my programming class back in highschool have a FMA bag. Asked her what it was and she said it was anime. Went home to watch it on Neftlix, and watched like 5 episodes and thought it was meh ( this was the original FMA ) Then I remembered that both Naruto and One Piece that both aired a lot when I was a kid were also anime. I always figured they were american cartoons growing up.

I remember being upset that both shows at the time were not on netflix and I was under the assumption I had to buy the dvds for it lol. Then genius 16 year old me thought of the idea. "What if I just type Naruto episode 1 into google" and behold, I was now able to watch it lul. I then binge watched both Naruto and One Piece as my summer break literally just started.

Fast forward 11 years later, and having completed 1,000 anime and I still adore anime, and is 80% of my entertainment media, the other 20% being videogames.

I would have eventually gotten into anime if I didn't see that FMA bag all those years ago, but I'm glad I got into it when I did, and I'm so happy it was One Piece that truly sparked my interest for this near perfect medium of entertainment
DoctorWasabiJul 25, 10:03 PM
Jul 25, 10:03 PM
#9

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Sep 2022
380
I became a regular anime watcher during 2020.
Jul 25, 10:09 PM

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May 2019
7899
i've been casually watching anime since 2003 and actively watching anime since 2016.
Jul 25, 10:12 PM
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Jul 2018
564069
Since 2003 when I was five years old,yep I grew up on anime. And now I'm 27 so 22 years, First anime are VHS Soar High Isami and Zenki given me as a gift.
removed-userJul 26, 1:54 AM
Jul 25, 10:18 PM

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Nov 2021
2101
October 2020 when I first watched one punch man on Youtube.
plin plin plon
Jul 25, 10:21 PM

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Nov 2018
221
Watched for the first time, in the year 2006.

Started watching weekly episodes/ eagerly chomping on baby carrots for them few weekly episodes, from the year 2008.

Started the customary tradition of binging from the year 2010.

I've come a long way, but it feels like in exchange for Za Binge, I may have lost something more important as a human being? Emotions would swirl within me as a kid when i beheld shows. Anticipation, Impatience, Anger, Sorrow, Joy.........Peace. But now.... Day after day, after a single episode, I go back to my chores, heartsore and sit on my Blue Lightning Rocking Chair......

Jul 25, 10:33 PM

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Feb 2021
85
I started watching anime for real in like 2017
Jul 25, 10:37 PM
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Oct 2019
2061
10 years I started regularly in 2014 aside what I watched younger during the 99-2000's.
Jul 25, 10:41 PM

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May 2018
951
"actively" is kinda hard to judge because I take long breaks. but I've been intentionally watching anime for 13 years or so. before that, it was my dad sitting me in front of the tv.
can't yuck my yum




Jul 25, 10:42 PM

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Sep 2023
119
about 3 years, i started watching anime at 2020. after seeing my friends talking about it i got curious then i asked them about it, they told me to watch naruto. after watching and finishing naruto, i started watching anime actively.
Jul 25, 10:50 PM

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Jun 2016
13399
I don't know we had anime on tv when I was like 1.
MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST
Jul 25, 10:55 PM

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Feb 2014
1565
I think it's interesting that most people here answer they started watching anime on the internet without a second thoughy. If this thread was made when I joined MAL (A decade ago), most people would have an answer on the likes of "As early as I can remember" due to their first contact being on TV.

If you don't count

  • Anime anime I watched on TV (And my earliest memories are of stuff like InuYasha, Hamtaro and Pokemon)
  • 360p, three 8-minute parts on YouTube (Digimon Frontier around 2009/2010, and Digimon Savers around 2010/2011 because I couldn't bear waiting for new episodes on TV. In Savers case, at some point there were no more dubbed episodes available, so I started watching it subbed)
  • Random Naruto Shippuden episodes on the internet on a specific occasion

Then I started watching anime (Knowing what anime is) on dedicated websites in 2012 with Strawberry Panic and Fairy Tail (Which would also be my first manga).
As for seasonals (Apart from SAO in 2012 and Magi in 2012/2013), I began regularly watching them in 2014 with Sakura Trick, followed by Akuma no Riddle and Hitsugi no Chaika, where I first made my MAL account (Though I would only really start using MAL around 2016).

Strawberry Panic might seem like a weird pick, but around the time some images from it gave me "weird new feelings" and attracted me to it (Around a similar, time I had something similar happen to me when I watched the trailer of Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan", though to this day I haven't watched it). I also had strange, interesting feelings when I watched those random Naruto Shippuden episodes (IIRC it was the Sasuke vs Itachi fight, it felt like something "heavy", something that "I shouldn't be watching"), as well as Digimon Frontier and Savers. And no, I don't mean "weird new feelings" as in a sexual sense, but actually sensations and thoughts I never had before.
thewiruJul 25, 11:13 PM
Jul 25, 11:01 PM

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Jul 2017
715
Seriously watching since 2011 so 13 years
Jul 25, 11:09 PM
Jolly Fat Man

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Oct 2018
1851
First exposure was Star Blazers on tv around 1979 & was obsessed with it. Also really enjoyed Robotech when it was on tv in the 80s.

Started watching anime on VHS around 1993 & later on DVD (scary how much money I spent at Suncoast stores at the mall ๐Ÿ˜…). Then Netflix & Rent-Anime’s disc by mail services.

Streaming since 2018 (didn’t have reliable high speed internet prior)
OhayotakuJul 26, 5:33 AM
Jul 25, 11:12 PM

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Jan 2023
2393
I think it's been 6 or 7 years since I've started watching anime consistently :)
Jul 25, 11:55 PM

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May 2018
11305
"How many years has it been since you started anime?"

I watched my first anime 46 year ago...tho I didn't have access to massive amounts of anime till the 00s. So depending on the definition it could be also only 20 years. (And yes, I am a slow watcher.)
alshuJul 26, 12:00 AM
Jul 26, 12:01 AM

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May 2024
1281
I've been watching anime since I was a kid, 3-4 years old. There was never really a period when I stopped watching them, however I actually started watching it regularly around 2016.
Jul 26, 12:02 AM

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Jul 2021
5978
started watching actively in 2020.

The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama.
Feeling half happy, half sad.
  

Kawaii waifus
and precious
  best girls <3333
                                             


Jul 26, 1:31 AM
Demon of Desire
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May 2023
376
First anime : 2004-05 ; Seriously Watching : 2008~ [16 years] ; Actively Watching : 2014~ [10 years]..
Jul 26, 2:13 AM

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Oct 2019
6816
Technically since I was like 5, but I REALLY started watching anime when In 2019
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Why You Should Watch Akudama Drive: https://youtu.be/Yw0r52wRjgA
A Love Letter To Animeใ€ŒAMVใ€: https://youtu.be/YQyqxFM2m9Q

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Jul 26, 2:15 AM

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Oct 2019
6816
Reply to Serafos
A long time ago, but I truly started to binge anime in 2019, so that's my answer.

@Serafos How the mildly bent rock did you watch 2,700 anime in 5 years?

thats like more than 500 a year!

Which is more than 1 anime per day.
Also available at:
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK8spdL1M_J-z0vO2C7jPLw
Second Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AshPolygonsDo/videos
Why You Should Watch Akudama Drive: https://youtu.be/Yw0r52wRjgA
A Love Letter To Animeใ€ŒAMVใ€: https://youtu.be/YQyqxFM2m9Q

My referral code to a website/app that gives you free money (a few cents a day) by using a few megabytes of your internet for file sharing. We both get a bonus if you use my link: https://r.honeygain.me/ARSHIA7942
Jul 26, 2:19 AM
๐Ÿ… Tomato ๐Ÿ…

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Feb 2020
101461
Reply to APolygons2
@Serafos How the mildly bent rock did you watch 2,700 anime in 5 years?

thats like more than 500 a year!

Which is more than 1 anime per day.
@APolygons2 Over half of those are music videos.
Jul 26, 2:28 AM

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Apr 2011
1676
I've been watching anime since I was very young so 40+ years.
Jul 26, 2:29 AM

Online
Jan 2009
101448
since around 1990s so maybe 30+ years im a 90s kid
Jul 26, 2:31 AM

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Jun 2017
1237
Started watching around 2006 or 2007, my first grandchild will be born soon
Jul 26, 3:09 AM

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Apr 2020
652
Without counting watching anime as a kid (because I didn't knew what anime was during that time)I started watching anime during mid 2015 so thats 9 years....damn.
Jul 26, 3:25 AM

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Feb 2018
675
Hard to say. When was I younger watching DBZ and Sailor Moon, I never considered the fact I was watching anime. They were just another show on Cartoon Network.

I don't think I started "Watching" anime until I got my Crunchyroll subscription to catch up on Dragonball Super. Even then, I was mainly watching old shonen anime that I never got into while I was younger.
Jul 26, 3:36 AM

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May 2021
1580
May 2021. Life was good back then. Just actively exploring the world of anime and curiousity was at my peak.
Jul 26, 5:15 AM

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Apr 2019
4555


As a kindergarten kid in January 1974, when Chiisana Viking Vickie (1974) launched on German public TV. It premiered here a few months before Japan even, as it was a co-production under Eurovision umbrella. So it's been 50 years.

Jul 26, 5:20 AM
Propmaker/Etsy

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Jun 2014
1493
Since probably 2011
I use to watch a lot of anime but now it's slowing a bit down, due to life events.
Jul 26, 5:28 AM
Formal Girl

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Jan 2008
86
16-17 years.
Got into dinosaur king and yu gi oh when i was a kid, discovered yu-gi-oh abridged, discovered season zero of yu gi oh and learnt what anime was as season zero was only in japanese. 2008 I got an older relative to make me a MAL account after i stumbled across the site at the local library looking through old fan sites and forums. Around 2009 I started watching shows of the time like Lucky Star and Haruhi, and since then I haven't stopped.
Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes...just be an illusion...
Jul 26, 5:36 AM

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Sep 2008
1226
Becoming a full blown fan, been 22 years now.
Jul 26, 5:40 AM
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Oct 2023
117
Started on 28th April 2023 with Suzume movie, so more than 1 year
Jul 26, 5:56 AM

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Feb 2018
2509

Since sometime in 1996, though it was a gradual ramp-up into discovery of Anime in general through much of the early/mid 1990's,
building my first Mecha Model Kits through about 1993~1995, which had inspired me to seek more on Mecha Anime out however i possibly could.

My First Three Mecha Models... starting me down the Dark Path as an early/middle Teenager, so long ago;















MasterTasukeJul 26, 4:01 PM
Jul 26, 6:22 AM

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Jan 2021
1662
It was roughly 2020, I'd see some before that but I could count all those on one hand they were the usual ones either as I mostly watched anime as an extension of my sci-fi fandom before 2020.

But after that date I watched my first Fate and then I got super invested.
Sometimes it takes a real man to be best girl. Gilgamesh is also chad.

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Jul 26, 6:23 AM
Alucard

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Jan 2018
56
Not so sure, but I think it was in 2015 that I discovered what anime is and started watching it, since I used to watch Pokemon on TV, so it's been about 9 years. But I actually started keeping track of which anime were releasing in each season in 2017 or 2018 iirc, that would be around 6 years.
Jul 26, 6:31 AM

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Jul 2023
2298
Reply to inim


As a kindergarten kid in January 1974, when Chiisana Viking Vickie (1974) launched on German public TV. It premiered here a few months before Japan even, as it was a co-production under Eurovision umbrella. So it's been 50 years.
@inim It's been a long journey hats off, man


Jul 26, 6:32 AM

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May 2015
1657
In a continuous manner. treating it as a hobby, since 2010 but I had seen anime even before that date I just didn't care much about them until that time.
IshitatesoJul 27, 1:03 AM
ๅค่‰ใ‚„ใ€€ๅ…ตใฉใ‚‚ใŒใ€€ๅคขใฎ่ทก
Jul 26, 6:33 AM

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Jul 2023
2298
Reply to Katou81
Started watching around 2006 or 2007, my first grandchild will be born soon
Katou81 said:
my first grandchild will be born soon
lol, advance congratulations ๐ŸŽŠ


Jul 26, 6:41 AM

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Jul 2023
2298
Reply to IKKIsama
I've been watching anime since I was very young so 40+ years.
@IKKIsama Great respect for you!!!


Jul 26, 6:46 AM

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May 2020
79
Used to watch anime like DBZ, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon in the early 2000s before I knew what anime was

I started watching anime seriously in 2019
Jul 26, 6:54 AM
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Jun 2022
10
So happy to see I'm not the only old-timer. It's been 20 years since I first started watching anime. I saw Bleach on TV late at night since it was the only thing on. I was hooked with the catchy intros and intense action scenes. After that I began watching DUBS on Youtube of whatever I could find, first catching up on Bleach and quickly transitioning into other anime popular in the early 2000s.

It all had to be very hush-hush back then. It was definitely something I did around midnight when my parents and friends were all asleep. It wasn't cool like it is today. I think I was the only person at my school who watched because whenever the topic casually came up nobody knew what it was. Most people actually thought it was a children's cartoon so I would essentially be admitting I watched Peppa Pig (that didn't exist then but just trying to think of an appropriate reference for today's time).

It didn't help that shows like Pokemon and Digimon typically aired in the early mornings before or after children's shows like Winx Club. I couldn't explain that the late night anime I was watching was any different than the Saturday morning cartoons.
Jul 26, 8:00 AM
SuperEdgeLordGo

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Feb 2014
1073
I've been watching anime my entire life so 44+ years
“When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good, other things become bad.”
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