Hi, I’m Remilia on SDF, a geeky middle-aged goth lady. I think my earliest memories of watching anime (and actually realizing it was anime) were when I saw Project A-Ko in the late 90s during either middle or high school. It’s something I had seen at Blockbuster, but had never rented until then. I distinctly remember my mom renting it for me one evening while she was going to be out, and me laying on her bed (she had the VCR, I didn’t) watching it. I was instantly hooked.

Around the same time I was introduced to the original Bubblegum Crisis series. I think the way it went was that I had seen the VHS tape at Blockbuster, but it was one I had also passed up time after time (I think it was in the “Adult Animation” section at mine, so it was off limits to me). But Sci-Fi Channel had an episode one night that I managed to watch. I soon went to Suncoast video afterward and found me a boxed set after that ^_

Once I was old enough (or found some other way of watching) went and watched some of the other anime that Blockbuster had, all of which I had seen on the shelf, but had never been able to rent because it was for “adults”. Things like The Guyver: Bio-Booster Armor, Genocyber, and I forget what else.

So yeah, Project A-Ko and Bubblegum Crisis were my first real introductions into the world of anime. Technically I had already watched some earlier series (the US-ified Robotech and Voltron series, Gaiking), but I had never realized they were Japanese anime until I was much older. So, I don’t really count any of those as my “first anime”. Even now, when I think “anime”, I imagine a cyberpunk world with a BGC art style first and foremost. Well, that and Otaku no Video, which a friend of mine showed me a few years later in college :-P

I don’t watch as much anime as I used to. Part of it is that I’m not that interested in most of the modern shonen stuff. But I do rewatch my favorites from time to time.