How did you discover the term "anime?"

[Velvet_Nightmare]

I'm pretty sure everyone can recall their first anime and how they found it, but how did you first find out about the actual word "anime," and what all was covered under that term?

I remember when we got internet back in our household for a short while in about...2002ish, I did a Google search for Cardcaptor Sakura, Dragonball Z, and other pictures of cartoons that I used to watch after school and on weekends. In one of the search results was something along the lines of, "This is one of my favorite animes." I Googled "anime" and was shocked to learn that a good portion of the cartoons I had been watching on Fox, WB and CN were in fact, Japanese animations. I always had an affinity for Asian history and culture since I was a little kid, and it was interesting to find out that a lot of the shows I had been watching were from a country I had previously studied.

How bout you folks? How did the actual term "anime" become a part of your vocabulary?

[sasukelover124]

well the first time i ever watched anime i didnt know it was anime at first i thought it was just a norml tv show then about a year later my eldest sister told me it was anime after that i have been lookin u every thin about anime

[Toshiro Tazukura]

I discover anime in my childhood when I saw on Toonami the animation was different from the other I have seen

[Anime Forum]

My brother told me the term in 1998 when I was watching an episode of Dragon Ball Z. Damn, back then I was the biggest anime noob around.

[ParaParaJMo]

I remember when it was just simply Japanese Animation and/or Japanimation (keep in mind this was before 2000). I believe I learned of the term when I found a magazine called Animerica which is no longer in publication.

[Sonske]

i was on youtube and in the suggestions was an episode of Sonic X ((im pretty sure that counts as an anime)) and i watched it and loved it..after researching a bit about sonic x and stuff i noticed it was called an anime...so i googled it and fell in love with it...

[Qoco]

I discover anime in my childhood when I saw on Toonami the animation was different from the other I have seen

This. I always stayed up late as a kid to watch anime on Toonami. I didn't know it was called anime until in my later years. To me it was just normal cartoons like Freakazoid, Ozzy and Drix or Courage the Cowardly Dog, other cartoons that I also saw more or less during the same time in life. I didn't really know they had their own 'category', to put it in a way.

[Moltara]

Actually I ran into it completely by accident! I had been watching Dragon Ball Z and my friend told me it was a Japanese animation. Being my lazy self I suggested we shorten it to anime. Little did I know it was the actual name!

[AmandaNerdBot]

I think I discovered the term anime back in 1999 or 2000 which was when I was in grade 4 or 5.

[gogeta806]

I think most most people discovered it while watching DBZ because it was just basically our childhoods , I think without the Dragonball series there wouldn't be anime's like naruto or bleach ect.

[LOR Online]

I watched a lot of anime as a kid but it was just "cartoons" to me at that time. I think the first time I ever became aware of the term was when a bunch of friends in highschool were getting hyped about Gurren Lagan ^^;

[Meteorkeeper]

I cant for the life of me remember it's been such a big part of my life for so long that I just cant recall...that and the fact that I have a absolutely terrible memory.

[reyoki]

toonami

[Idiotchan]

Well, while searching stuff about DBZ on Google, I read the word 'anime' many times and I had no idea what is it supposed to mean.
I searched on Wikipedia and I got it.
That's the time I started watching lots of anime.

[~*Red*~]

I found out about the term during in my childhood, especially watching DBZ and Gundam SEED.