Asklemmy

I first saw Saint Seiya in Mexico in the early 90s. Being a young kid I didn't know it was anime at the time but remembered it being special compared to cartoons of the day.

I'm surprised only a handful of people have mentioned Ghibli movies. For me it was Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, it's probably one of the first movies I remember watching in general. Still my favorite Ghibli movie and I must have watched it dozens of times as a kid.
The source material for it is a manga by Miyazaki himself and it's much longer and deeper (the movie only covers about 1.5 out of 7 volumes, and changes a lot of details). Highly recommended.

Probably “Alfred J Kwak”. A Dutch cartoon produced in Japan. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLITzooyl5h5GKwvnwe3zSVXjnrDOiO_5P

Or “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils“ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Adventures_of_Nils_(TV_series)

Back in the 70’s and 80’s it was common to outsource the production of animation to Japan. So many European cartoons were basically anime. It had the typical Japanese animation style of that time. For example the same company that produced "Alfred J Kwak" made the 1990 version of the Moomin TV-series.

Wagamama Fairy Mirmo De Pon!, an obscure anime that is basically The Fairly Oddparents if it was a shoujo. When I was in elementary school, it was on regional TV right after classes ended, and I loved it. It was the first ever media I could get my hands on that had an intriguing plot that I wanted to follow. I missed the series finale, tho :(

Some time ago I went back and rewatched it, complete with the finale and all. It was nostalgic but also kinda hard to rewatch because it's so clearly made exclusively for children. It was so obscure that the only full download I could come across online even had the logo of the regional TV channel where I originally watched it as a child.

Yu Yu Hakushou. I didn't even realize the name is Yu Yu Hakushou until years later. I only remember thinking the delinquent guy with a laser sword and a guy shooting energy balls from the finger tip's pretty cool.

If we're talking about just what you watched before you recognized it was anime, it's between pokemon, Naruto, and One Piece. Couldn't tell you which I watched first.

If we're talking "Oh! I recognize this is anime!" then probably either Deathnote or Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) thanks to mid-2010s Netflix (back when it was still good).

One Punch Man

Project A-Ko in 1996

Ninja Scroll

It's kind of fuzzy, but I think my first anime was Excel Saga. It was as bizzarre as it was hilarious.

Silver Fang, and from that you can identify my age and country.

Neon Genesis Evangelion. I had such high hopes...

Edit: autocorrect put evangelism...of course.

I think it was an episode of Cowboy Bebop that came on Toonami one night when I was staying at a friend's house.

It was the first episode, Asteroid Blues.

I didn't really watch anime until years later when a friend suggested I watch Yu Yu Hakusho so I did.

Heidi and Maya the Bee when I was about 4

Death Note, sometime in 2009 or 2010.

I remember when it came out, people on forums kept talking about it nonstop. I had no idea what it was, so I just blindly torrented something called Death Note... it was the live action Japanese adaptation lol. I didn't even know it was an anime until years later. Just for years I thought everyone on the internet was obsessed with that live action movie.

Cowboy Bebop

Netflix dub of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Tom and Jerry probably

We call them cartoons though

Princess Mononoke. I randomly picked it up at Blockbuster and it was so different than anything else I'd ever watched. I instantly fell in love with it.

Mermaid melody Pitchi Pitchi Pitch! It played early in the morning every day in one of my country's public networks

Has to be Pokemon for me, I used to like it for a year or two then got bored. Then I got hooked on Dragon Ball Z, which I still love.

I think I saw the Pokemon movie before Spirited Away though

My parents bought me My Neighbor Totoro when I was a kid. I absolutely loved every second of it. Then I came across Ranma 1/2. Next came Kiki's Delivery Service. It kind of snowballed after that.

TV: Battle of the Planets, way back in the late 70’s

Film I’m really unsure. Would’ve been late 80’s or early 90’s. Could’ve been any of: Warriors of the Wind (localized title of Nausicaä), Castle of Cagliostro, Akira, Project A-Ko, or Vampire Hunter D

Sailor Moon. It was on early in the morning and I’d get ready for school really fast so I could sit and watch it before running to catch the bus.

Kiki's Delivery Service. I got it on VHS, probably for Christmas the year the Disney dub came out. I didn't have cable for a decent chunk of my childhood, so I saw that even before Pokemon.

YuYu Hakusho.

Pokemon or Sailor Moon. Movie, probably the first Pokemon one.

Akira, as was common at the time. Not counting stuff like Robotech or Speed Racer that I wouldn't have known was anime.

Akira. I saw it playing on a TV behind a table at a pop culture market and got my own copy (on VHS. Yes, I'm so old that bits are starting to drop off) to find out how it ended.

Edit: Now I come to think about it, I used to watch Science Ninja Team Gatchaman on TV as a preteen. Can't remember the english title.

It was either Cowboy Bebop or Princess Mononoke - I was first introduced in an after-school anime club.

Not sure if everyone would consider it "anime" as it's more a hybrid of US and Japanese, but "Flight of Dragons." It felt very stylistic and deep to a young me, and showed me animation could be serious.

As to specifically watching anime as a known thing, Toonami shows pulled me in. I caught DBZ flipping through the channels and I started watching that and Outlaw Star.

Met a friend that was into it and he lent me Iria: The Zeiram, Armitage 3, Ghost in the Shell, Vampire Hunter D, and eventually a few others.

I also watched Pokemon and DBZ when I was young, not even knowing about anime.

In highschool I thought "What is anime? Let's give it a shot". I opened up Hulu and somehow picked out Non Non Biyori. Looking back, it was a banger choice.

I think it was RoboCop, the 1987 one and Child's Play 2 maybe?

Animation is hard to remember either Candy Candy or Kimba the White Lion. Maybe Saint Seiya?

Édit, oh you mean animatimed movies, nvm

Yu Gi Oh!

CBN licensed the 1966 Kimba sequel in the mid 80s. My family was super religious around that time and I remember watching it then.

Pat Fucking Robertson was responsible for my introduction to anime.

dbz and pokemon as well but only when id catch it between other activities. Didn’t actually sit through an entire anime until high school where my friend borrowed me Cromartie High.

First film was probably the first Pokémon film in theaters.

Show would have been Starblazers or Robotech (Americanized Space Battleship Yamato and Macross/Southern Cross/Mospaeda, respectively.) For movies probably Akira.

Show: Ronin Warriors

Film: Akira

Very first was probably Inuyasha, Dragonball Z, or some Gundam way back on adult swim as a kid. My first real one that I engaged with as a semi-adult was probably Death Note.

I think it was Bleach on adult swim at night as a kid after all the other stuff like robot chicken and aqua teen hunger force ended. Could also be DBZ though

First show: Pokemon

First movie: Pokemon (the Mewtwo one)

Probably this one, not that I associated it with anime at the time.

Akira

It was the late 80’s, I saw Robotech which used to play after school on a local UHF channel, and also Speed Racer. Probably the first more typical Anime was renting the Super Space Force Macross movie on VHS