Always remember the first

So since the Sailor moon thread made me go on a bit of a memory trip, at the expense of potentially dating ourselves (especially for the older anime fans), what was your first experiences with anime? For me it was Sailor Moon, Dragonball and old Ghibli films subbed in chinese when I was really little, then stuff like Ranma 1/2, Ronin Warriors, and Tenchi Muyo. When I got a bit older it was like the old bubblegum crisis, the iczer series and whatnot.

Chirin no Suzu (Ringing Bell) and Panda and the Magic Serpent were the first two anime productions I saw when I was young. I didn't actually understand that I was watching anime until the internet came along and DBZ was on Toonami.

I remember being so surprised to see sailor moon on TV and on school supplies in the US. It was so weird, though at the time I thought it was weird to see asian cartoons on media and products outside asia

To most people at the time, it was all just something else that came on TV. I don't really know when people started to make connections between anime and Japan. For a long time the internet was a whirlpool of useless information. I used to spend time looking up DBZ power levels. The Asian continent in general was still (and often still is) viewed as mysterious. Beyond Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan in martial arts films, it wasn't a place that many people related to.

It was all just cartoons to me but when I moved to the US, none of it was on TV and then suddenly you saw like two shows become three shows. Way back when the internet wasn't wide spread. Hell. I don't think I knew anyone with internet back then. I remember magic cards in 3rd grade though! Hahaha, the pros of having an older sister who was really really into anime, sci-fi and fantasy. I had a super early start.

I can't quite remember if I had internet first or started watching DBZ first. I think the order on CN was Superfriends, Reboot, Sailor Moon, then DBZ. Somewhere around that time AOL exploded, but it was at least a year after I had moved to the U.S. from Germany because my dad was in the military. I watched some strange things on Satellite TV while in Germany. That's where those first two anime movies I mentioned came on. I also watched some French and British cartoons.