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When you first got into anime, what was the most easy way to watch it?

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How was the most common way to watch anime and find it in yoru early days?
May 8, 3:30 PM
#1

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Jun 2017
6148
for those old enough, were you around during the fansub/tape trading days?

Torrenting?

Did you grow up in the era where you had to just hope a place like ADV or Manga ent. would license it?

Or are you privileged enough to grow up in streaming convenience?

(Easily accessable 4kids and toonami dubs don't count. You have to actively seek it out)
My waifu is the most wonderful waifu. Mai Valentine.

We're freaking out that we're running out of time, but to do what? Should i stop and think of that? Is there something i could do to slow it down? Live in a day for once, instead of watch it sprinting by
May 8, 3:32 PM
#2

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Dec 2021
3599
Literally went from watching 4kids dubs to nothing for a good decade and then some, then 2020 I started torrenting anime. There was no in-between.
May 8, 3:36 PM
#3

Online
Dec 2022
5640
I thought the "easy" option would be streaming initially — but the horrible resolutions, low bitrate, constant buffering, takedowns, obtrusive website UIs, etc. were ultimately too much hassle for my tastes. Switched to torrenting when I started watching anime more regularly in 2022.


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Shaded Horizon


May 8, 3:46 PM
#4

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May 2019
549
I started in the 2010s on Youtube lol. You know, those badly edited, small-screen versions of shows that were divided into parts to avoid copyright. Watched all of Naruto and Bleach (and more) that way. Then I heard of the One Piece, and started sailing the seven seas. Never looked back since.
Gintoki and Sugita's birthdays are 1 day apart.
May 8, 3:46 PM
#5

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May 2019
9611
I started watching anime in 2001 airing on free TV obviously, i don't think these was an easier way to watch anime at the time, compared to it all the other options represent some hurdles, imagine you're a young kid in the early 2000s and wanna watch anime, so what were your options ?

1. Requires a VCR and VHS tapes, feasible for those who had the tech and know how.

2. Physical Media releases were super expensive, if you had the money you could buy.

3. Torrenting requires the internet and a computer, know how to use the peer to peer sharing protocol and know how to avoid viruses.

4. Streaming you can forget about it, internet speeds were super slow, best thing you could get is an episode at 144p low bitrate cut down to 22 parts 1 minute each.

I watched anime on tv from 2001 to 2009, then there was a gap from 2010 to 2017 where i watched very few anime (it's funny because in this era that i discovered my most important anime), then 2017 onwards i started watching anime again online and in stream, i had never bought many anime DVDs, i preferred (still do) to save my money for video games instead.
tchitchouanMay 8, 3:56 PM
May 8, 3:46 PM
#6

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Sep 2018
13271
The main method I used to use was SoulAnime. Later I used kissanime.
May 8, 3:48 PM
#7

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Nov 2024
1165
Buying a pirate DVD in market place that had a fansub and it only cheap but one store who had a knowledge to enhance resolution at that time that why it looks decent (even the today standard)
May 8, 3:49 PM
#8
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Apr 2023
213
In my region, there were these big forums that uploaded every anime show through a direct download format, often through Megaupload/MEGA links, or through file-sharing services like that. The biggest of these forums was called McAnime.
May 8, 3:54 PM
#9
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Feb 2025
348
lol broadcast TV not being an option is pretty funny. a significant demographic of anime fans would have initially gotten into anime because it played on live, scheduled broadcast television.
May 8, 3:55 PM

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Jan 2020
765
Torrenting from PC and transferring the files onto an iPhone because that potato couldn't play back 10 bit HEVC video. And yeah, the re-encoding to AVC would take, like, 2-3 hours for a 24-minute episode, so... It was fucking terrible.
May 8, 3:59 PM

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Aug 2011
1167
It was a mix of methods for me, and I wouldn’t say any of them were particularly easy. Torrenting and streaming didn't exist yet, so at first, I watched whatever I could on TV, and bought/rented what I could afford on VHS. My younger sister got into anime at the same time, so I was also able to watch what she was buying. Fortunately, we had a huge paper route together, so we had a little more spending money than average kids that age, so we were able to buy anime tapes, manga, and merch. When my family got a DVD player (2001 or 2002?), I was able to get some anime DVDs from Netflix (back when they used to send physical discs through the mail in those red envelopes). I even resorted to buying VCDs and cheap bootleg anime DVDs on eBay, which were usually surprisingly good quality, though I did end up with a few terrible ones.

My first fansubs were on VHS, but by that time, you could get them through online distributors, so you didn't have to rely on knowing someone in person. You sent payment (I think I used money orders, but I honestly can't remember), and they would send you the tapes. They only charged enough to cover the blank tapes and shipping cost, and the quality was pretty good. The nicest ones I ever got was all of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars. The tapes came in hard cases with beautiful color art that matched the Japanese VHS release, and it cost me very little. I watched my first handful of subtitled anime this way.

By the early 00s, digital fansubs were becoming the norm, and in 2002 or 2003, my internet connection was finally fast and reliable enough to download on IRC, so I did that for a while. Around that time, many fansub groups started doing torrent releases, so I switched to that, since IRC was kind of a pain.

This covers roughly my first 5 years of watching anime. Once torrents became an option, I just stuck with that, even until today.
palm-treeMay 8, 4:26 PM
May 8, 4:12 PM
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Jul 2018
562029
When I started watching in 2021 I just did Streaming, but now I mostly just Torrent.
May 8, 4:24 PM

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Feb 2014
4124
Back in 2012, I watched anime like this:

May 8, 4:38 PM
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Jul 2024
3545
Man, you are still young. You forget plain old watching the TV. That is me and my best friend discovered Anime', back in the 1980s.
May 8, 4:41 PM
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Jul 2024
3545
Reply to valico
lol broadcast TV not being an option is pretty funny. a significant demographic of anime fans would have initially gotten into anime because it played on live, scheduled broadcast television.
@valico Which I just commented on, these guys forget a great many of us were exposed to it on Cable/Sat. TV. Please expand your options, they are incomplete. I also did the VHS tape thing later.
May 8, 4:51 PM
♡( •ॢ◡-ॢ)✧˖° ♡

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Dec 2014
20944
TV channel was my first media to watch anime, but of course that wasn't the easiest way due to commercial break and schedule.

Easiest way back then was just buying DVD whose anime is already completed so I could just binge it whenever I wanted :)



(っ◔◡◔)っ 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 ♥
May 8, 5:05 PM

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Feb 2011
4006
Our town had a local network and we were sharing stuff, including anime, through a program called ApexDC (iirc). It was two decades ago back when I didn't yet know about other methods of acquiring digital goods. Streaming sites weren't a thing then and purchasing physical editions was almost impossible, you'd probably need to spend an entire monthly salary just to ship one disc and you'd likely need to ask someone to personally get it for you too.
May 8, 5:14 PM

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Apr 2025
186
don't tell gen alpha about torrenting, they got rom sites that have been around for decades shut down because they put step by step guides on youtube shorts due to being retarded
May 8, 5:18 PM

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Sep 2023
436
torrents. it's still torrents obviously but i like having a collection of discs nowadays
May 8, 5:32 PM
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Jan 2025
612
HokutoMumyoZanMay 8, 5:37 PM
May 8, 6:05 PM
♡520♡

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Oct 2019
199
My introduction to Anime was on TV and manga. As I grew a little older and moved to America, I started watching anime on the Chinese app iQiyi (I don't know how I got through the firewall), and when something wasn't available, I watched it on DVDs I had as a kid.

It wasn't until 2013 that I started watching more anime and learned about pirating in the West that my horizons expanded. 2016 - 2018 I had a friend's acquaintance Crunchyroll account that I would use, and sometime in 2018 I started paying for my own Crunchyroll account (Yes, I'm part of the problem until I stop getting p**n ads and viruses). Now I am subscribed to Crunchyroll and Netflix, and occasionally sail the sea.
You can always make money back, but you can't make back time

May 8, 6:46 PM

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Oct 2024
481
I'm a zoomer all I know is streaming

I've torrented a few times but streaming's just more convenient, I've only ran into something I had to torrent since it wasn't available to stream anywhere once and its not like I'm overly picky about subs
May 8, 8:53 PM
🍅 Tomato 🍅

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Feb 2020
116071
"When you first got into anime, what was the most easy way to watch it?"

Torrenting.
May 8, 11:47 PM
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Jan 2020
510
Back in 2008, a combo of torrenting and the random website that might stream some old shows at the time.
May 9, 12:03 AM
John Titor

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Jul 2017
1589
My option is the least voted, so I think I'm old T_T .

When I started watching anime, whatever was broadcasted on open TV or cable/satellite was the most common way to watch anime. I especially remember Locomotion, which broadcasted both dubbed and subbed anime, including Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Blue Seed or Saber Marionette.

However, if you wanted a specific anime you had to resort to tape trading (my vote) or downloading overcompressed RealMedia files at 320p if you were lucky (I started watching Kodomo no Omocha this way). We had what we called fandistros, who distributed fansubbed tapes charging only for shipping and the tape itself. I was even part of an anime club of fansubbers during high school. I watched Lain via fandistros, for example.
TitanOfPlasmaMay 9, 12:09 AM
Mi música chiptune (auténtica, no fakebit) / My chiptune music (real, no fakebit)
YouTube
Battle of the Bits
SoundCloud
May 9, 12:07 AM

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Oct 2021
740
When I've started watching anime on a regular basis, I was watching them on Clipfish. May this site rest in peace. It will always have a special place in my heart.
May 9, 1:38 AM

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Jul 2017
1082
My friend told me to watch Fairy Tail in 2016 - I just typed in the browser "Fairy Tail odcinek pierwszy" ["Fairy Tail episode one"] and I got it. That's it XD.
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May 9, 4:48 AM

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Sep 2016
17546
Watching it on TV was the easiest way.
May 9, 5:17 AM

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May 2015
2599
Lol I'm really gonna date myself. When I first started watching anime the ONLY way was to rent VHS tapes
May 9, 6:19 AM
Onimai? Read it!

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Sep 2024
76
I just had this impulse to watch an anime online so I typed in Hunter x Hunter German and ended up on a site that doesn't exist anymore I watched 29 episodes of HxH there until episode 30 just wouldn't load anymore (for a whole week..) After that I bought Crunchyroll Only to realize that Hunter x Hunter wasn't even available on Crunchyroll Germany... F


‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎Onimai: I'm Now Your Sister!
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Not watched yet = peak/cntn missing ❗❗

May 9, 6:26 AM

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Mar 2023
3193
Pirating was the easiest way to watch it.

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It’s time to ditch the text file.
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