Childhood anime

[Neo Blaze]

Some people discover their interest in anime at a later age but for those who grew up watching anime I'm curious what some of the anime you watched during your childhood/anime you grew up on are. Here is my list in alphabetical order:

Spoiler

• Battle B-Daman
• Beyblade (original series)
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (....uhmmm..... yeah )
• Digimon (Adventure and Adventure 02)
• Dragon Ball Z and GT
• Flint the Time Detective
• Hamtaro
• Let's Go Quintuplets
• Medabots
• MegaMan NT Warrior
• Oban Star-Racers (I remember this being quite good, I should probably watch it again sometime)
• Pokémon (Kanto, Orange Islands and Johto)
• Sailor Moon (original series)
• Shin Chan
• Shinzo/Mushrambo
• Sonic X
• Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters

Then there's also stuff like Alfred J. Kwak and Calimero, which I only recently found out are considered anime apparently. On that note I also watched a good amount of anime-inspired shows that aren't considered anime for one reason or another, the most prominent one being Avatar the Last Airbender.

 

[Emmy]

I remember being told that the anime you watch as a child doesn't count as being an "anime fan" because "everyone's seen those lol".

Anyways, my list is mostly identical to Neo Blaze's, to the point where I will lazily copy and paste the same entries while adding a few more of my own.

Spoiler: Listicle

• Battle B-Daman
• Beyblade
• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
• Cowboy Bebop
• Digimon
• Dinosaur King
• Dragon Ball (O.G, Z and GT)
• Duel Masters
• Ghost in the Shell
• Hamtaro
• Lupin III
• Medabots
• MegaMan NT Warrior
• Naruto
• One Piece (yes, the 4KIDS dub)
• Pokémon
• Sailor Moon
• Shaman King
• Shin Chan
• Sonic X
• Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters

 

[Neo Blaze]

I remember being told that the anime you watch as a child doesn't count as being an "anime fan" because "everyone's seen those lol".

I never understood that argument or when people say things like "my first anime was Pokémon but my first real anime was...". There's a certain kind of elitism or probably even insecurity attached to that that I'm not a fan of. If anything, childhood anime count for a lot since they're often what got us interested in the medium in the first place.

Funny that we share a lot of childhood anime

 

[Tactician Karina]

I'm gonna count the ones I've discovered and watched either through TV, internet, or some through my father (who is one of the biggest OG anime fan). These are series that are 2010 and before, as afterwards I was kinda in and out of the fandom for a bit.

Spoiler

Pokemon
Digimon
Sailor Moon
Hamtaro
Beyblade
Prince of Tennis
Monster (halfway through; will finish completely at some point)
Black Cat (halfway through; similar to above)
Yu-Gi-Oh
Zoids
One Piece
Death Note
Kyo Kara Maoh! (halfway through before; currently almost completed)
Kimba
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (only watched a few episodes, didn't like it)
Elfen Lied (same as above)
Speed Racer
Neo Human Casshern
Lupin III
Cowboy Bebop
Bleach
Naruto
Loveless
Slam Dunk (remember watching reruns of it but didn't really like it much)
Inuyasha
Chrono Crusade
Devilman (1972)
Dragon Ball series
FLCL
Fruits Basket
Ouran High School Host Club
Mushishi (only the first series)
Evangelion
Shaman King
Tokyo Mew Mew
Urusei Yatsura
Cardcaptor Sakura
Vampire Knight
Vandread
Wolf's Rain
The Betrayal Knows My Name
Soul Eater
Pandora Hearts
Tsubasa Chronicle
xxxHolic
Tenchi Muyo (I don't even remember which one it was, I only caught some of it on older Toonami)

 

[Insanish Danish]

The Pokemon anime is THE childhood anime for me. It's the only anime I really watched as a kid; I didn't branch out and start watching others until I was a teenager.

 

[Welkamo]

I remember watching Sanrio cartoons as a child, but other than that (and maybe some others that I can't remember), I didn't really get into anime until I got into Pokémon.

 

[DawningWinds]

As I kid, I watched, listed roughly in the order I discovered them, Beyblade, Pokémon, a bit of Digimon, some PreCure, and Yu-Gi-Oh!... I think that's it.

Edit: Forgot Dinosaur King.

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

Here's my list. Some of these shows I never really finished, as many of them had only a few episodes aired on my country's local TV channels before being yanked off the air and my family didn't have cable or satellite TV growing up.

Spoiler

• Moomin/Tanoshii Moomin Ikka (I remember when the BBC used to show this constantly back in the 90's and early 2000's, it helps that Moomin has a strong UK fanbase)
• Pokemon
• Digimon
• Cardcaptor Sakura (okay, okay, it was actually the infamous Nelvana version, but I remember being desperate to rush home from school every day to watch it, even though one episode was sadly never aired due to news coverage of the events of 9/11)
• Monster Rancher
• Sailor Moon (I only saw up to this episode where Usagi goes undercover in a bridal pageant or something and the channel showing it axed it after that)
• Samurai Pizza Cats
• Beyblade
• Astro Boy (2003 remake, this one aired on the BBC's kids' block and they nearly axed it due to some of the darker episodes)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! (I cringe when I look back on this one, even though it was my gateway to properly discovering anime)

 

[Hydrogenium]

Pokémon and Maya the Honey Bee

 

[Juliko]

The Pokemon anime is THE childhood anime for me. It's the only anime I really watched as a kid; I didn't branch out and start watching others until I was a teenager.

Same here, though I also watched Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and most of Hamtaro as a kid as well. The first anime I ever watched in Japanese was Tokyo Mew Mew, though I didn't really start delving into more grown up anime until I was a teenager, around 2006-2009.

 

[Aulos]

What counts as childhood? Before 13 or to 18? I didn't watch many anime before age 13. I watched Pokemon when I was 11, but it's the only one I know of.

 

[Puddle]

I loved watching Pokemon, Digimon and Cardcaptors. I found Digimon too scary when it first came out, but I got into it when I was a bit older. I used to play make-believe games about being a cardcaptor at school.

I also used to watch a film called Little Nemo. It's a Japanese and American co-production based on a comic strip, about a boy who goes on an adventure in a dream world with his pet flying squirrel. There's some very vivid imagery in it that made a big impression on me.

 

[Archaic]

If I count childhood as only before I finished primary school.... I guess I would've only seen about 4 anime at that point? I didn't even realise any of this was somehow different from regular cartoons until my final year of primary school. But then, this was the early 90s, I don't think we even had dial-up internet in my house until I was in high school. We didn't use the word "anime" to describe them either, they were simply "japanese cartoons".

Robotech: I only ever saw part of the very first episode of this, when I was about 3 years old, with my mother turning the TV off because she thought it was too violent. The memory of what I saw stuck with me for a long time, though it wasn't until my teenage years that I finally saw the first episode and realised what it was that I'd seen.
Samurai Pizza Cats: I think this played on Channel 7 during Agro's Cartoon Connection? I certainly didn't know it was anime at the time, I don't think I figured that out until I was a teen. I've always meant to go back and see what the original was like. Apparently the dubbers didn't have scripts, so they literally made it all up on their own.
Sailor Moon: Played on Channel 7 during Agro's Cartoon Connection. Probably the first show I actually realised was anime, by sheer virtue of the Asian gift shop at the local shopping center having a bunch of (probably bootleg, in retrospect) merch for it in the corner.
Teknoman: The localised version of Tekkaman Blade. The Australian version of the dub was much better than the American, by all accounts. This show was the real gateway to anime for a whole generation of Australian kids, playing years before Pokémon, Dragonball Z, or anything else would reach our shores. This series was played and replayed by Channel 10's Cheez TV several times, thanks to huge popular demand. Was always surprised that Madman never tried to license the show for proper subbed release here.

 

[FelipePR]

Certainly I watch several animes in my childhood, Brazilian TV was full of children's animes in the 90s and early 2000s, like Hamtaro and Cardcaptor Sakura. But I believe the only ones who had a lasting age-long influence on me were Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon and Digimon.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Pokemon and Digimon influenced my youth the most hands down.

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

I just thought of another anime I forgot to add to my list:

Oban Star Racers - Okay, I don't know if this counts as an anime, since it was created by a French guy and was originally meant to be all CGI before they collaborated with a Japanese studio.

But I remember watching this in my early teens and while it wasn't the best show, I liked the designs of the vehicles and the characters, even though they had no noses (the creator said he found them distracting).

Again, it was another show I watched on a public channel's kids block that sadly got axed due to the story getting pretty dark in some episodes (the same happened to Digimon Tamers on the same network, along with shows like Reboot). Luckily, I managed to find the remaining episodes on YouTube a few years ago.

 

[Neo Blaze]

I just thought of another anime I forgot to add to my list:

Oban Star Racers - Okay, I don't know if this counts as an anime, since it was created by a French guy and was originally meant to be all CGI before they collaborated with a Japanese studio.

But I remember watching this in my early teens and while it wasn't the best show, I liked the designs of the vehicles and the characters, even though they had no noses (the creator said he found them distracting).

Again, it was another show I watched on a public channel's kids block that sadly got axed due to the story getting pretty dark in some episodes (the same happened to Digimon Tamers on the same network, along with shows like Reboot). Luckily, I managed to find the remaining episodes on YouTube a few years ago.

Most anime databases do list it as anime from what I've seen.

This one I also watched in my childhood and I only had vague memories of it, but I remembered really liking it. I rewatched it 2 months ago and while it was not as good as I remembered, it was still an entertaining watch. It definitely has some endearing characters and an interesting story and you're right; the vehicles were really cool. The races and vehicles reminded me a lot of Star Wars' podracing.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Dragon Ball Z is the first anime I ever watched as a kid and to this day still my favorite,I used to have the action figures,Budokai 1 for the Nintendo Gamecube is the first Dragon Ball game I ever played and I just continued playing most of the games that were released after that.I've watched all of DB/DBZ/DBGT/KAI/DBS.I was also on the Naruto train when it first hit North America back in 2005.

 

[Norzan]

Cardcaptor Sakura and Go-saurer. There are probably a few more, but i vividly remember following those like crazy, specially the latter. The latter is about a school that transforms into a giant robot, and i loved giant robots back then (kind of still do).

Ironically and given how much of a fan i was of Pokemon (still am, but not as much) in the late 90s and early 2000s, i didn't actually watched the anime all that much (not having cabo didn't helped things). I was way more into the games.

I got into Dragon Ball Z (which is the anime of many people's childhoods) in my late teens and early adult days and that was after the big popularity boom that show got in the early 2000s (so it's not a childhood anime to me). Getting my own cabo is the reason why i got into Dragon Ball Z since one of the channels used to air episodes every day.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Pokémon and Dragonball Z were my childhood anime - I don't think I watched any other anime till ... I think it was My Neighbour Totoro, which in a roundabout fashion got me interested more generally in anime