Looking Back To 2011: The First Anime I Watched

Alright, so because I’ve been a little lacking in post content this week, I’ve decided that it’s time to scrape the bottom of the barrel with this post and talk about the first ever anime I watched.

Most people, at least from the people I’ve asked, say that their first anime was absolutely terrible. I am no exception to that, in fact, the story of my first anime for some people has probably been a sign. A sign that I’m complete trash nowadays.

So – let’s go back to 2011. I was fourteen years old, in the middle of my high school days and just generally, your average confused teenager. Algebra wasn’t the only thing that confused me, though. This was the time when this strange word that I hadn’t heard before kept circulating around school. What was this strange word, you ask? Anime.

I had one particular friend who was, arguably, obsessed with anime. Even now, looking at her Facebook, she’s previously liked Vampire Knight, Ouran High School Host Club, Elfen Lied and Chobits. Anyway, whilst in high school, she kept making references to some shows and even the Japanese culture itself. My curiosity piqued slightly and I went to look into this ‘anime thing’. I probably went about it the long way, though.

What do you do when you want to look something up? You Google it. So, after a quick Google and finding out that it was “Japanese hand-drawn or computer animation”, I decided I wanted to actually watch some. So, over to YouTube we go. I didn’t know any titles of anime series, so I literally just typed in “anime” into the search bar. Do that now and you’ll receive results such as WHEN ANIME YOUTUBERS GO OUTSIDE or Top 10 Most Inappropriate Anime for Kids – but these were all published 5-7 months ago. When I searched “anime” back in 2011, the first result was a certain series about goddesses and, well, I can’t remember what else. Found on the FUNimation YouTube channel, this series was no other than the 2010 series, Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy – the sequel, though unknown to me at the time, to Ah! My Goddess. 

I can’t exactly remember my opinion on Ah! My Goddess, but it can’t have been that good. I remember then searching around and stumbling across Gunslinger Girl. Admittedly, it’s a completely different genre to Ah! My Goddess, but it ended up in the same boat as it’s predecessor. As did Highschool of the Dead. Although I ended up watching more than one episode of that, I dropped it soon after.  I honestly didn’t understand the hype surrounding these Japanese animated TV shows.

Fast forward to summer 2012, a year later. Finding myself bored, I was watching random YouTube videos – probably of cats – when, in my recommendations, a familiar sight appeared. It wasn’t Gunslinger Girl or Ah! My Goddess, but the art style, in the thumbnail at least was familiar. I could tell it was anime. I hesitated clicking on it, for I knew I didn’t exactly enjoy my previous experience of it, but something was telling me to just see what it was all about. The OP began, sakura blowing around the screen, beautifully drawn characters transitioning in, and a catchy first lyric of “kiss, kiss, fall in love” and I was immediately hooked. Four episodes later, I was searching Google for the full series and, despite enjoying the dub, I began watching, and experiencing, anime in sub for the first time.

Yes, Ouran High School Host Club, although certainly not my first anime experience, was definitely the series that got me into anime. From there, I went on to watch shows such as Vampire Knight and Black Butler. I still think that it’s too bad that by the time I got into it (anime), no-one at school really watched it anymore. Typical.

I still think about going back and actually watching my first anime all over again. For one, I don’t think I gave them enough chances. But with the 83 series that I plan to watch written down, do I really need to add another 2 series onto there?

Now, it’s your turn – what was your first anime? Let me know in the comments below!