How mainstream was anime when you first started watching?
| It was insanely popular when i first got started. The early 2k boom. It was all over TV, the pop culture at the time referenced it, merchandise was widely available. At the time, the most popular series was Pokemon. |
| My waifu is the most wonderful waifu. Mai Valentine. We're freaking out that we're running out of time, but to do what? Should i stop and think of that? Is there something i could do to slow it down? Live in a day for once, instead of watch it sprinting by |
| Somewhat mainstream but not as mainstream as now, and the most popular anime then is probably Sao, Aot, or One punch man. |
 |
| Very popular, I guess. I'm not sure what was the most popular anime at the time. |
 |
| It's already a common thing when i was into anime and the most popular series at that time was Kuroko no Basket and HxH |
| It certainly wasn't as popular then as it is now. |
| I think you would need to go back to the 80s or earlier to pick option 5. Even option 4 probably can't be applied much past the early to mid 90s. |
| Most popular anime were Elfenlied and Gantz. I knew one person in real life who watched anime and other than that the only anime community I knew was 4chan. MeltingSky said: I think you would need to go back to the 80s or earlier to pick option 5. Even option 4 probably can't be applied much past the early to mid 90s. Depends where you live. |
| When I got into it back in 2008 it was pretty niche. It wasn’t until Attack on Titan in 2013 that anime completely blew up and then that was when people started becoming weebs and people started to hate on the medium. |
| I had been watching Pokémon since I was a kid and the DP series was airing on Cartoon Network. At the time, anime wasn't as mainstream and I just sort of passively watched it when I could. Later in middle and high school I got into the Pokémon XY series and started actually watching new episodes as they released online, but I wasn't really an anime-fan per se as nothing else really interested me (My Hero seemed to one of the more popular ones at this time). I was generally put off by the anime I had seen circulating online like Masamune-kun and Musaigen no Phantom and figured most anime series were laden with fanservice. A bit later I found Ghibli dvds at Target and started watching those and that was when my interest in anime as a medium grew. Eventually, I looked up some anime reviews on YouTube and saw a lot of people recommending Mob Psycho so I gave that a try and ended up really liking it. It was fun and action-packed but also palatable to the casual viewer so it made for a great gateway anime |
tiaamyomApr 19, 2023 2:03 AM
ateks said: Most popular anime were Elfenlied and Gantz. I knew one person in real life who watched anime and other than that the only anime community I knew was 4chan. MeltingSky said: I think you would need to go back to the 80s or earlier to pick option 5. Even option 4 probably can't be applied much past the early to mid 90s. Depends where you live. Very true, to be clear I was only referring to the USA. I imagine things were radically different in other places such as Japan for instance. |
| When I first start watching anime. It was already very popular and the most popular anime at the time was Demon Slayer (Season 1). |
  ░ ❷ Anime List ░ |
| When I first became interested in anime as a medium, and not just Japanese robot cartoons that I liked in kindergarten and elementary school, anime was perceived as something very specific. The launch of Pokemon was literally accompanied by a huge wave of press, with local journalists describing the show as if you were a samurai before the arrival of Commander Perry's fleet. You literally had 3 or 4 shows like this and watched them without any sense of taste, because that was all you could get. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Japanese Transformers, mecha altered by the Americans or something else, you watched everything because it was an anime. At first, Pokemon was the most popular. Oh boy, it was kind of like the MCU for those times. At first I watched Digimon because I didn't have the right TV channels, but once I was able to get it...I remember literally throwing a tantrum for missing one episode, even though I had already watched it earlier. It was a real mania. Perhaps the fact that we were all small children played a role, but we really were all into it. I still remember my childhood friend and I imagining a fight between Squirtle and Bulbosabr, our most beloved Pokémon, lmao. Subsequently, our TV finally realized that anime is a thing and began to buy full-fledged trendy series, and not just children's hype. Naruto, Bleach, Shaman King, Death Note. All of these quickly became huge hits back then. But even at that time, for some reason, I passed by all this, clinging only to Shaman King, Death Note and Zero no Tsukaima. I wasn't on hypetrain at the time because I couldn't watch 20+ episode battles or watch too dramatic-edgy stuff. |
 |
| Not sure, it wasn't really popular but there were still some people in school I could talk to about anime and manga. And there was some animanga events every now and then as well, it was a niche but everybody knew about it, maybe it was just weirder than it is today. Most popular stuff was probably Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Beyblade, Shaman King, Inuyasha, Hamtarou, Yu gi oh, Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, One Piece, and then a little bit later Naruto and Bleach iirc. Those were quite popular back then and all of them were dubbed in TV. |
  Grant me one hour on love's most sacred shores To clasp the bosom that my soul adores, Lie heart to heart and merge my soul with yours |
| Pretty reasonably popular to very popular in my opinion. I became a fan as a kid in the mid 2000s. Pretty much everyone in my class was into anime mainly Dragon Ball Z, Inuyasha, Naruto, Yugioh, Pokemon etc. I actually mainly got into anime/manga because I felt kinda left out of my friend groups because it seemed like I was the only one who didn't read manga or watch anime. Anime is definitely way more popular than when I was a kid but it's always been slowly increasing in popularity. It's just now it's actually starting to become profitable internationally and social media has done a lot to spread it around. |
| Back than - Anime was on TV but all of them were Polish dubbed so alot of people [including me] thought that it was Polish cartoons or American cartoons dubbed and there were very little sites which was hard to find to get into it, I got into only because my buddy who was my classmate in primary school had told me where I can watch Bleach subbed which I count as my first anime, by using those sites I later went into other stuff. [Those on TV were the only legal anime available] Right now - Actually I don't know if there is anything airing on TV, but from what I am aware not very much compared to the past, I wouldn't be surprised if there are no anime airing on TV at all. From time to time Anime is being started to broadcast at cinema with recent stuff like Belle, JJK0, Sao Progresive, Demon Slayer and soon Suzume so that's a good sign. Aswell as there is little amount of legally available anime with Polish subs and ocasionally with Polish dubs on Netflix, in the end the majority of anime is still not legally available so you need to pirate them if you want to watch them with Polish translations casue why would people pay for Crunchyroll if that's only in English. In nutshell - Back than - obscure, not very popular. [1] Right now - More popular than it used to be, but still not that much so I guess - Mediocre [3] What was popular back than? I was capable to find quite a very old snapshots on wayback machine and the result of what was available at that site back than: 2007 - When I started watching Bleach: There was available Bleach, One Piece, Naruto, Elfen Lied, Fate/Stay Night, Green Green, Onegai Teacher and Onegai Twins 2012/2013 - When I stopped rewatching Bleach episodes like crazy as it reached finale and went to other stuff: Binbougami Ga, Fate/Zero, Fate/Stay Night, Sword art Online, K, Campione, Chuunibyou, Code:Breaker, Btooom, Kokoro Connect, Muv-Luv Alernative Total Eclipse, Nana, Oda Nobuna, Psycho-Pass, Robotics;Notes, Shinsekai Yori, Tari Tari, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, Yuru Yuri, Fairy Tail, HxH, Suirsei no Gargantia, Air, Angel Beats, Clannad, Hyouka, K-on, Kanon, Lucky Star, Nichijou, Suzumiya, Tamako Market, Magi. And you can even verify that more than half of it I haven't watched till today cause there were no trailers there or synopsis, the only thing which could sell the anime to me back than was a visual key so alot of them back than seemed to me like a shit shows. Here what is available right now on that site [oh yeah it still exist and works]: |
| OK when I was a kid and used to watch anime on TV (without knowing that it was anime), it was actually insanely popular. Every kid knew about Pokemon, DBZ, Beyblade, Doraemon etc. Their toys used to sell like crazy. But those were old times and we just used to watch them as any other cartoon. No one was even aware of it being an anime. If we talk about the time I really got into mainstream and different variety of anime, then I would say that anime was reasonably popular and it was at this time that the anime community was rising. I actually got introduced to anime because so many of my friends were talking about it around me and so many new friends started anime in the same year. Also Demon slayer had not aired at that time so that effect still did not happen. I would say that Aot, death note and Toky ghoul were the 3 most popular anime other then naruto and dbz. These 3 were almost always recommended to newbies because they had short season and were easy to be hooked to. |
If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then its not a waste of time.  |
| I began watching anime regularly in 2014, well after the rise of streaming. I had watched only a few anime as a kid, as I did not like watching them on TV. A lot of my favorites never even aired on American TV. I think in 2014, fans were not as obsessed with seasonals as they are now. I heard more people talking about Kill la Kill than Akame ga Kill. |
| その目だれの目？ |
| I got seriously into anime as a hobby during the late 00s, it was midly obscure in my country and I could only rely on fansubbers and scanlations sites to watch anime and read manga, finding any merch or watching anime (excepting mainstream stuff like Pokémon or Digimon) legally was basically impossible. I remember some popular anime from back then being Elfen Lied, Code Geass, Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist. Vocaloid was also very popular on Youtube. Now, with the introduction of Crunchyroll and other streaming services like Netflix and HBO Max, plenty of series are legally available in my region, we've even gotten theatrical screenings of select anime movies and Latin American dubs of anime are thriving again and being shown on cable TV (still very popular in Latam) |
"Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!" - Bill & Ted´s Excellent Adventure Check my introduction to Char´s Counterattack interest stack if you´re interested in watching UC Gundam. Also check my Legend of the Galactic Heroes OVA Chronological Watch Order for LoGH info! |
Sachyan said: Not sure, it wasn't really popular but there were still some people in school I could talk to about anime and manga. And there was some animanga events every now and then as well, it was a niche but everybody knew about it, maybe it was just weirder than it is today. Most popular stuff was probably Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Beyblade, Shaman King, Inuyasha, Hamtarou, Yu gi oh, Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, One Piece, and then a little bit later Naruto and Bleach iirc. Those were quite popular back then and all of them were dubbed in TV. I'm a grizzled old fart by MAL standards so all these titles bring with them a wave of nostalgia, but what is Shaman King? I keep seeing it pop up in the OG posts here, but I can't for the life of me remember it. Where abouts was this show a mainstream thing? Is this just another hole in my brain? I even remember stuff like freakin' Hamtaro. (The people talking about how in the early days we were stuck watching pretty much whatever came on TV aren't joking, at least if you were a kid at the time and didn't have an unlimited VHS budget.) |
| I voted 2 but it was somewhere just below it 2 I mean this was before the internet and you had to get your anime from rare television showings and pirate VHS |
 |
MeltingSky said: Sachyan said: Not sure, it wasn't really popular but there were still some people in school I could talk to about anime and manga. And there was some animanga events every now and then as well, it was a niche but everybody knew about it, maybe it was just weirder than it is today. Most popular stuff was probably Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Beyblade, Shaman King, Inuyasha, Hamtarou, Yu gi oh, Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, One Piece, and then a little bit later Naruto and Bleach iirc. Those were quite popular back then and all of them were dubbed in TV. I'm a grizzled old fart by MAL standards so all these titles bring with them a wave of nostalgia, but what is Shaman King? I keep seeing it pop up in the OG posts here, but I can't for the life of me remember it. Where abouts was this show a mainstream thing? Is this just another hole in my brain? I even remember stuff like freakin' Hamtaro. (The people talking about how in the early days we were stuck watching pretty much whatever came on TV aren't joking, at least if you were a kid at the time and didn't have an unlimited VHS budget.) I think it might have been one of those shows 4Kids licensed shows. I remember seeing advertisements for it on their Yugioh DVD's. |
| My waifu is the most wonderful waifu. Mai Valentine. We're freaking out that we're running out of time, but to do what? Should i stop and think of that? Is there something i could do to slow it down? Live in a day for once, instead of watch it sprinting by |
| I started seriously watching anime in late 2021, but I was into manga starting in 2019, so I was pretty aware of the popular stuff. The most popular anime at that point would have been...I guess AOT, maybe? State of anime was basically the same as today-popular, but not really popular enough to be mainstream, at least in my area. |
The siren of a flightless bird Quietly destroying its cage Dance, until tonight, with a raised voice- For I don't want to lose hope! -Utsuro wo Aogu, Vivid BAS SQUAD |
| Not at all, like zero. But then again I started watching anime in the early 90's. I actually remember renting Ninja Scroll and Urotsukidoji on VHS |
TheBlockernator said: It was insanely popular when i first got started. The early 2k boom. It was all over TV, the pop culture at the time referenced it, merchandise was widely available. At the time, the most popular series was Pokemon. Very good topic, thanks! I started to actively watch anime around 15 years ago. Can't say that it was popular at that time. The most popular was One Piece and Naruto, s they are now also. |
 |
| Got into anime around 2017/18. It's definitely way more popular and mainstream here now than it was back then. Most popular shows were AoT, One Punch Man, Death Note, etc. |
| I started in the summer of 2020 but didn't really get into it until late 2020, so probably JJK. To be honest, I didn't even know anime was popular when I started watching. I was just bored after watching ATLA for like the 5th time in a row and I had just finished the Legend of Korra, so I was looking for something to watch on Netflix. I could never get into Naruto before, but I wanted to give it another try since I wanted some more cartoonish stuff to watch. Here we are almost 3 years later and I'm in too deep now. |
 |
| Not very popular. Only a few people in school would be really into anime. Started watching it really in early 2000s. Outside of stuff like Dragon Ball Z, I think the most mainstream anime would've been something like Death Note or Evangelion. |
| Not that popular, people would question me on my liking for anime xd, yeah that sucked. I even knew some that watched but in secret, although they didn't wanna talk about it in public. Well personally I didn't give a shit either way. |
   |
| Somewhere between 1 and 2. It was very niche, but there were some people getting into it. It was bigger in the States already, but not so much here. EDIT: I'm talking people who were calling themselves anime fans, not the people who watched Pokemon and Dragonball Z on tv, but didn't really think much about anime beyond that. If those count it's higher. Very soon after that you got the Naruto boom and it went up. Plenty of people who watched Bleach and Naruto, and they made more of an effort beyond turning on the tv. I'd count those, even if they weren't probably as much into it as people like us, who join an anime forum. MeltingSky said: I think you would need to go back to the 80s or earlier to pick option 5. Even option 4 probably can't be applied much past the early to mid 90s. Depends on the country. |
| This is your reminder to drink water 💦 or eat some fruit 🍒 🥝 |
| SAO and AoT were the most popular at the time, but very dedicated people were already watching To Love ru, Kiss x Sis (which I was a part of) but I got laughed at and basically mocked for watching anime by my peers. I didn't care most of the time but there were moments I wished I hadn't been so open about it. |
"Nobody could laugh at someone who's trying their hardest" -Machio- |
| When I got into anime back in 2015, it was considered somewhat mainstream. If I remember correctly, SAO, AOT and maybe Fairy Tail were considered really popular back then. (Still with AOT) |
 |
| Anime was just beginning gather some steam within the U.S. as an up-and-coming Underground Culture, around the time i fell into it all around the mid-1990's. the up-and-coming Alt-Cool-Thing, waiting to be discovered en masse, at specialist Home Video and Comic Book Shops, at least... |
MasterTasukeApr 20, 2023 6:19 AM
 |
More topics from this board
» What Do You Think of 1964 Astro Boy Movie Being Fully Colorized Using AI ?tchitchouan - 28 minutes ago |
4 |
by Kisaragi_Toka
»»
22 seconds ago |
|
Poll: » will you quit myanimelist when it becomes a crypto nft and gen ai site?deg - 58 minutes ago |
9 |
by Dauphine
»»
22 seconds ago |
|
» In between animation vs key animation....which is better?DesuMaiden - Yesterday |
12 |
by Dienen
»»
1 minute ago |
|
» ⛄ Winter 2025: Anime of the Season & discussion ( 1 2 3 )nirererin - Mar 30 |
104 |
by UberBat
»»
11 minutes ago |
|
» Anime you think look ahead of their time and anime you think look outdatedTheBlockernator - Yesterday |
18 |
by Dienen
»»
11 minutes ago |