How long have you been in this hobby?

[Madologist]

Just now realized that I for example have been into animanga longer than fansubs have had timed karaokes (I think). Who even came up with those in the first place anyhow? Even then, I realize that the scene has long existed before me, what with the VHS scene having existed since 1980s in my country alone. Nonetheless it has been interesting to observe the change of the tides and guard so far and I will no doubt continue to do it for another 20+ years no doubt.
I've been watching animanga and lurking in the source sites since 2001 at the very least.

 

[NotGary]

probs the earliest I've been considering myself a "weeb" has been since I was like 14-15 ish. so bout 6-5 years.

 

[Manko-sensei]

I think I started watching anime around 1997 and only stopped for five years during the late 2000s - early 2010, as for manga it wasn't until 2016 probably, though I tried before VNs. I went from dub to fan/official subs. I don't think anime will survive for many years (I rarely find worthwhile series, much less films), as for manga the only issue would be entering in a slump of no originality, feasible but at least not in the short-term (or so I want to believe). However, I must admit that I reduced the variety of the genres since others than yuri have greatly reduced their appeal.

 

[Nyanyan444]

I don't really sure, but most of the kids on my gen watch anime because the sunday morning cartoon, its in early 2000. Than in my case, I'm more into books, manga and got into anime when has access of the internet.

 

[Madologist]

I think I started watching anime around 1997 and only stopped for five years during the late 2000s - early 2010, as for manga it wasn't until 2016 probably, though I tried before VNs. I went from dub to fan/official subs. I don't think anime will survive for many years (I rarely find worthwhile series, much less films), as for manga the only issue would be entering in a slump of no originality, feasible but at least not in the short-term (or so I want to believe). However, I must admit that I reduced the variety of the genres since others than yuri have greatly reduced their appeal.

-97
Now that is something.

As for animes viability, I have to disagree. As an example, it already outlived you as one, no doubt it will outlive us all, even with AI knocking on the heaven's door.

 

[coast_guard]

Meanwhile, more and more Western media, Chinese media, etc. are investing and producing either Japanese-style or Japanese-produced anime.
Terminator, LOTR, Solo Leveling, to name a few
"don't think anime will survive for many years"
yeah sure, old man

 

[Manko-sensei]

As for animes viability, I have to disagree. As an example, it already outlived you as one, no doubt it will outlive us all, even with AI knocking on the heaven's door.

Well, the end of animation (at least traditional Japanese animation) is something on debate since last decade due bankruptcy of studios, worsening of working conditions (nowadays really bad) and also an impoverishment of Japanese economy. The rate of closing studios is still high (and not only minor ones) and national owned ones are in red, last year only Yostar (as you know from Korea) had benefits. Unless next elections the governing party changes, in terms of working conditions studios are doomed (and not only this industry), yen keeps devaluating even after recovering international tourism and finding investors for funding studios is more unlikely than ever too. Of course, turning it into CGI would mean the survival of some studios, but the essence of Japanese animation will be gone. At most I can consider a few doing anime as a part of their production, but at price of quality.
Oh right, if you check the credits of the series you watch you'll probably identify a lot of Korean staff.

 

[kohelemon]

Let's see... I broke free of my Anime-Anti days when My Hero Academia first came out on Adult Swim/Toonami... 2016ish, afterwards I was obsessed, discovered Akira, tried HXH and then abandoned all of them in the same year for one glorious anime/manga. One Piece.
I've read one piece ever since, and it was upon the release of chapter 1010 when I caught up with the manga, and upon the 977th episode (2021) when I felt a sudden boredom in waiting. That year the Jojo: Stone Ocean Trailer released, I fell in love with Ermes and Jolyne on first sight and read Jojo from Part 1 to 8 in 3 months and watched the anime all the way through up to the new season. It was those two for some time until in 2022 I found Fist of the North Star, 2023 I found Baki, and now in 2024 I've been trying to get into several more, but it's going slow.

SO TL;DR 8 years

 

[Tony_Mushah]

Pretty recent actually, started with this manga in 2019
so for the last 5 years I guess.
I don't watch anime (by personal principle) so I am more into books.
I only read scans manga during those years.
Since my country doesn't import any kind of official manga material,
most of people here watch pirated anime/and stuff.
Still, my dream for this hobby is to at least get an official Japanese Manga Volume,
But there is still a long way ahead.

 

[5hijima]

i mean, i think i was at least in the single digits when i first watched my first ever proper anime [which was either dragon maid or the helpful fox senko san, i think it was the latter] but i watched the pokemon xyz anime [my mom forced me to] when i was 6 , [but i dont really feel like it counts as anime anime yk ? ] its technically my moms fault i turned out like this igig

 

[Sahkuh]

I remember watching Serial Experiments Lain in 2012, then downloading every anime that was in the /a recommended anime and manga chart. Of course, before I watched DBZ, Yugioh and the like but I didn't really recognize it as 'anime'.

 

[Angry_Panda]

I had a couple of friends at college who introduced me to the usual turn-of-the-millennium shows (DBZ, Bebop, Eva, GITS movie, Akira, a few other movies) in '00-'02, and got into manga after graduation ('02-'03 - at one point I had the complete US print run of Shonen Jump Monthly magazine). However, there are little bits and pieces I remember being exposed to in the '90's, and even back into the '80's - Inspector Gadget isn't an anime, but the animation style is heavily based on it (which isn't surprising based on the prior history of the production studio that made it), for instance.

I think @Manko-sensei has a good point about the industry being at a crossroads - with many of the characteristics of anime and manga being adopted by a much broader part of the animation and comic industries (both in terms of artistic style and storytelling), it has lost some of what made it stand out. The increasing availability of translations (both official and otherwise) has shined a light on just how much (subjectively) sub-par work there is in the domestic Japanese market, and while I can't think this is a new phenomenon, I question just how many isekai the market can sustain at once. I also have a question about what the influx of secondary money for overseas rights (or, in increasing numbers of cases, primary production money from overseas production/streaming companies) is having on the editorial selection process within the Japanese publishers.

 

[NotGary]

probs the earliest I've been considering myself a "weeb" has been since I was like 14-15 ish. so bout 6-5 years.

I do think that me being being born and raised in France meant I was introduced extremely early to anime, I think my earliest memory was a few episodes of early dbz (radditz's arrival, and part of the buu arc) specifically the kai version, I must have probs been 12 or maybe 7. I also grew up with pokemon, particularly the anime (althought I always preferred the games), I also remember both watching the original Digimon anime (on YouTube) and a version of it that must have been a reboot (which I swear sounds like a fever dream when I try to describe it because it reused almost every characters from the original series but instead eitheir made some main characters/reocurring villains into regular grunts).

 

[OldVice]

I honestly can't remember when I started watching any anime. I just remember watching Dragon Ball and Gundam when I was a kid and getting bitched at for trying to watch Ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell. It just kind of carried on like that for my entire life and I eventually found out manga existed too.

Dragon Warrior (Quest) was one of the first video games I ever played, so I've been a fan of Akira Toriyama pretty much my entire life.

 

[Basic_human]

probs the earliest I've been considering myself a "weeb" has been since I was like 14-15 ish. so bout 6-5 years.

Same, middle school is when anime start kicking.

I'm still pretty young if I say myself,i just started at 2018.

 

[Basic_human]

others than yuri have greatly reduced their appeal.

That mean you haven't explore much

 

[NotGary]

That mean you haven't explore much

isn't he like brainrotted with that ? like that's almost the only thing he talks about.

 

[tobias5678]

Off topic but Arisu cum stats stopped displaying ... stats.

Is he ok??

 

[popo53414]

17 years. Started from DBZ then watched whatever was there on animax. Haven't been watching anime lately. Mostly reading manga

 

[NotGary]

Off topic but Arisu cum stats stopped displaying ... stats.

inCUMMIN!!!!