Like most kids from the 90s Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball we're major factors but I don't think I really got into anime till I stayed up one night and watched Inuyasha on Adult Swim As for Manga it was probably something sweet like Fruits Basket or something randomly suggested by a friend in middle school. In the past year I got into novels because a manga I was reading was taking forever to update so while searching for raws I found out there were a lot of chapters for the novel. However if we're talking about series that makes your brain go then for anuma it's Tenjo Tenge, manga is definitely Skip Beat, and as for novels.... Well there are way too many for me to choose from ♀️
My fascination with JP culture started in primary school with games, mostly english translated, then comes the manga. i remember reading a localised version of something like jump back in the days, but it got almost all popular series and not just shueisha, even FT was in it..., then i ent to dorm school and the manga becomes more prominent as an escape tool, enter uni... i got lost in the freedom... lol
i still remember for anime, i started to notice when Inuyasha aired, but the one that make me jumped into otaku abyss was Yu Yu Hakusho, this was 1-2 years after Inuyasha for manga, it was Detective Conan, i never have any other manga besides Det. Conan at that time Novel, well... i was interested in novel with No Game No Life, but never have the will to read one...then Mo Dao Zu Shi came and now i have hundreds of chinese BL novels to read
Started to take a Japanese class because it was easier than taking fourth year French. And my friend borrowed me a couple of ripped Sailor Moon DVDs since it would help me with pronunciation.
As an adult- Skip Beat! First anime then I wanted to find out what’s next and found out about manga. Oh and I even have it in paperback (translated version, not original). Same for akatsuki no yona and One Outs. After that I think I’ve watched the majority of “modern” sports tag anime. Manga like Kingdom, Haikyuu, giants killing, and some sweet ones like Last Game. That was before novels. Coiling Dragon was the first CN I’ve read (no clue why that one), but my first favorite novel was actually No Hero by Yu Wo. Before Skip Beat! Oh, right, so I had a phase of binge watching TV shows (eg Smallville, Bones, Dexter, etc) and suddenly I felt like re-watching “cartoon” - Sailor Moon (was on when I was like six?). Only then did I realize it was called anime. Also before Skip Beat! I’ve seen two other “cartoons”: Gundam something (probably wing and something before it) and Vampire Knight (in 2008 I was into Twilight movie and wanted more vampires- Vampire cartoon: why not?). But Skip Beat! Is still the first anime for me and manga.
AH .. Animax the good old days , Ranma Half , Inuyasha , Yu You Hakusho , it wasn't until years later I learned my favourite Dragon Ball Z was also an anime , Edit : Crap! Digimon ( The Original ) How could I forget THAT Also for novels , it was Tales of Demons and Gods , but I wasn't really serious until I read Warlock of the Magus World , which is why despite any faults anyone believe it may have it will always have a special place in my heart As for manga , I honestly can't remember it may have been fairy tail or naruto , it definitely wasn't one piece that's for sure
I was bitten by an otaku on my way walking home from high school one cold darkening winter evening. Now by the light of the full moon I binge watch my old DVDs of Urusei Yatsura, Ranma1/2, and Studio Ghibli.. Seriously, when did otaku become a word with positive connotations? Used to be otaku were this obscure niche nerd, not even as main stream as a Trekkie. (To quote someone I can't remember Trekkies were like the Crips of the nerd world, like a hardcore benchmark) I remember buying bootleg VHSs in Little Tokyo like it was crack on the street in the 90's and the average person thought manga was a type of tropical fruit. Now a days Barnes and Noble has a whole aisle of the stuff (manga) and you can stream anime 24/7 instead of getting up at 5 AM to watch the one anime show on all of television, Sailor Moon. So I'm not an otaku. I get nerd culture has become main stream but I not going to call myself names just because it's become socially acceptable to watch Japanese cartoons now.
I was 3 or 4 and I watched Choudenshi Bioman and Space Sheriff Gavan....My dad would tape them for me and I would watch them over and over...these are technically not anime but I would say Otaku making material...One halloween my sister (my follower) and I even went as BioMan Obviously I was Red and she was Yellow.... Then Fist of the North Star, saint saiya, DBZ, Naruto, Mai Hime...I've watched an obscene amount of anime....[Sigh]
As a kid im kinda one of digimon fanatic. Always told my friend digimon better than pokemon (which at that time i didnt know it was an anime).It was then naruto show up in my television, we kids love playing to be ninjas and act rasengan/smthing chuuni like that. At later time, naruto stop show on television. And then, thats when internet come introduce me to anime world. My first stuff are something like SAO, Index and kissxsis (yeah im not joking). I came into manga, novel even the visual novel when i got impatient watching anime weekly. Those spoiler lord on anime forum (aka MAL) make me feel agitated. Next act ofc find the source of those good show, join one of spoiler lord of good show. Instead, i got deeper into rabbit hole.. find a lot good stuff. Actually i think im still one of spoiler guy until now.
Ultraman manga. The first manga my dad bought me for getting my first A in a test when i was in 2nd grade i think.
I wouldn't say I am an Otaku per se but more like an anime, cartoon, movie, novel, comics, Tokusatsu(mostly Garo, kamen rider series, ultramen), online gaming, manga and some sports and music, lover As to what brought me to such culture well, it is a long story that I will summarize like this: When I was much younger(before I was 8 years old), my parents used to leave me alone at home because of their work, and because I get bored I would keep looking at the different channels and as a child, anime and cartoon got that much visual effects (especially the action based ones, and if I remember correctly the first animes I watched were tokyo mew mew and Sailor moon and saint seya, as for cartoon, it was Power stone, I think, that was more than twelve years now ) so I got intersted and later when I knew how to use the computer, my field of interest grew bigger, and that's it
For manga it was +Anima For anime it was Fairy Tail and Natsume Yuujinchou For novel it was Legend of the Sun Knight
I was just reading a good novel in a book form (kinda been my jam from childhood . Then I got my 1st smartphone and boom so much stuff to read and comics well you can guess from there.