My first anime

As a kid growing up in a regional area of Australia during the 80s the options for TV viewing were limited. There were two stations to switch between; the local commercial channel, and the public broadcasting channel – the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 

Getting home after school our commercial channel played a varied mix of cartoons (old and new), from Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros, DIC Entertainment, and Sunbow Productions (just to name a few). It was wonderful to watch the animated adventures of Scooby Doo, Speed Buggy, Super Friends, He-man, The Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. All these shows entertained me and provided a fun way to forget about the school day.

But changing channels for the late afternoon / early evening programming offered on the ABC is where I encountered my first anime; Astro Boy, Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets, and Voltron. Instantly, from the first frames, these shows stood out to me, grabbed my attention and ignited my imagination. It wasn’t only because their aesthetic style was different or that the animation seemed smoother and more detailed but the storyline of each episode made an impact. There was an emotional depth to the stories. The issues weren’t always conveniently resolved and there was an overarching story arch that each episode contributed to. 

These were different to the other cartoons that whisked you away for a quick 30 minute escape and took you through a neat little self contained adventure that was often forgotten by the time the next episode aired. Although the anime titles I first encountered were certainly for kids, they didn’t treat you like a kid and nor were they thinly veiled toy ads aimed at selling a specific new toy line… well except Voltron, that might fall into that category. For me they were engaging and thought provoking, even occasionally scary. I distinctly recall the Battle of the Planets episode ‘The Space Mummy’ causing me to take shelter behind the couch.

I probably should point out that it wasn’t only through the ABC that I watched my first anime. Our commercial channel did run the Robotech series which was definitely a big contributor to sparking my love of anime. 

In the early 90s I moved to my state’s capital city which brought with it the opportunity to visit comic stores and see movies at the cinema outside of mainstream releases. It was thanks to one of the local art house cinemas that I managed to see Mamoru Oshii’s version of Shirow Masamune’s ‘Ghost in the Shell’ which would blow open the anime rabbit hole I had been circling and lead me to discovering Katsuhiro Otomo’s ‘Akira’, Hiroshi Fukutomi’s OVA of ‘Battle Angel Alita’, Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s ‘Ninja Scroll’, ‘Demon City Shinjuku’ and ‘Wicked City’. In turn I would also discover new anime series such as ‘Bubblegum Crisis’, ‘Gunsmith Cats’, ‘Gundam’, ‘Trigun’ and of course ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’. It’s largely due to the success of Neon Genesis Evangelion’s run on Australia’s SBS (Special Broadcasting Service), that more anime titles began being broadcast. It was also around this time that Madman Entertainment came into existence and through their efforts to licence anime titles my collection rapidly expanded. 

Since then my love of anime has continued to grow (as has my collection) and I am now a regular Crunchyroll subscriber cursed with an ever growing watchlist and ever dwindling free-time to watch any of my selected titles.

Although I am now well outside of the target age group for current anime titles I still love the aesthetic style of anime, the imaginative quality of the worlds created and the clever storytelling embodied in so many of these series. I really can’t see my love of anime going anywhere, not when it has provided so much joy to me.

I’d love to know, what was your first anime?