…space battleship yamato, circa 1979, on broadcast television no less: i tried to take pictures of the screen because we didn’t get our first VCR until a few months later…

• Spirited Away and various other studio Ghibli Movies - first anime movies i watched and first type of anime content I ever saw, as a young child.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion. First anime series i watched, and first I chose to watch independently. ~ 16 years old.

I am not 100% sure but it most likely was “The Promised Neverland”

Beyond the usual Dragon Ball and Pokemon things, along with catching random episodes of Sailor Moon, Hamtaro, Cardcaptor Sakura etc on morning TV before school, It was Evangelion, Bebop and couple of years later FLCL on late night TV. I also remember seeing a few random episodes of Escaflowne as well in the 90’s.

I later completely watched and got very into Eva and Cowboy Bepop, but i still didn’t really think of it as Anime for some reason.

so beyond those the first “modern” anime that I watched and actually got into the media properly with was Haruhi, then the first thing I watched in Japanese instead of English was Hibike! Euphonium.

so that’s where I stopped watching dubs for shows other than the classic dub series where most people also listen dubbed.

I watched a lot growing up, probably my first one ever was Sailor Moon or My Neighbour Totoro when I was around 5, then as I aged my anime choices slowly evolved (and I was also limited to what was on the TV until around 2003/2004 and started watching streams on whatever site I could find. My first ones that I guess I thought of differently than as an after school cartoon would’ve been Escaflowne in 2002 and Inuyasha in 2003.

My first anime (i.e. “cartoon”) in childhood times is probably Pokemon or Digimon.

Excluding those, it should be The Familiar of Zero or Infinite Stratos. I simply watched whatever my friends were watching / recommended back in my school days.

But the first anime in recent times / the one that kickstarted my 700+ anime journey? It’s Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.

First anime that I downloaded and watched on computer was Mirai Nikki circa 2014. I YOLO watched the full series from 21h to 7h next morning.
Totally wasted at the end, like being drunk without alcohol.

Somehow I found doing this funny and redid it (less harcore) a few times with other animes.

I’m semi convinced that I saw some part on TV before, not really sure.

The first anime I ever saw was Samurai Pizza Cats since my mum LOVED that show and had a DVD of one of the seasons. I can’t figure out the first anime I conciously watched though, it was either Initial D or Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.

Initial D Stage 1-3 is awesome but I do kinda regret watching Dragon Maid in full due to the Kanna scenes

YuYu Hakusho, Dragonball Z, and Gundam Wing were airing around the same time when I watched them.

Can’t remember if it was Urusei Yatsura or Ranma 1/2 but loved both series as a kid (had a friend who had a mail order catalog where he could get the VHS).

As for the first I personally choose (rather than getting second hand from a friend), it was either 3x3 eyes or flame of recca (no longer remember which came first).

Pokemon and Dragon Ball were just cartoons to me at entry, but after those I realized I like anime.

First ones after that I got into were Cowboy Bebop and Trigun.

I did not expect to be alone on this, but I scrolled through and didn’t see it:

Record of Lodoss War from 1990. I had an older cousin who had fansubs of the series on VHS in '92 or '93. We watched through the whole thing probably a dozen times.

Furthest back that I can remember are Doraemon both films and series from around 80s 90s and some other tokusatsu. All on VHS. Can not remember which one exactly is “the first”. I start early ;)

Then some series that I never watched from start to finish on cable network. Like Ranma, Sailor Moon, Oh! My Goddess, You’re Under Arrest!, Houshin Engi, El Hazard, CC Sakura, Galaxy Angels. I always try to be in time for Sakura and Galaxy Angels airing, because cute girls. Never did, because school.

edit to include Utena… it became a source of running joke between me and a girl next door.

Some certainty with title that marks the moment I start actively seeking out and watching more anime. Probably Sister Princess, fan-subbed, burned on CD-R. Good times.

Dragon ball, because they streamed it on the open channels on the tv. After that it was Naruto, Pokemon, Hunter vs Hunter and One piece

Stayed up late to watch blue gender as a kid. I think it’s the reason I love mecha anime the most.