What was your ‘first’ anime for each genre?

Hi guys, DarkdaemonPK2 here. I hope all of your are in good health. Pondering and  wondering about my past, I began to question myself the integrity of memory if I can still recall all the anime that I have watched for that particular genre. Well, I guess it’s time to squeeze my brain’s hippocampus like a lemon and make lemonade in order to get those information if I’ll be able to write this blog. Here we go!

First mecha anime: Voltes V
It’s no secret that this may probably be the first anime that I ever watched during my formative years since this was first aired in the Philippines outside of it’s home country of Japan. Like the plot of any 70’s mecha anime, aliens are invading the Earth and it’s up to our young heroes to protect it using the titular super electromagnetic robot. A healthy mix of action, drama, tragedy, romance, and other themes will make anyone watching Voltes V ask and beg for more with every episode watched.

First supernatural anime: Hell Teacher Nube
Hell Teacher Nube chronicles elementary school teacher and exorcist named Meisuke “Nuubee” Nueno as he battles supernatural beings with the use of his left hand fused with a monster in order to protect the welfare of his students, as well as teaching them life lessons. This is not the reason I took a teaching position, but I do look after my students (although most of them are giving me the worst migraine unimaginable) in order for them to do well in their school work for them to have a brighter future.

First shoujo anime: Candy Candy
Remembering Candy Candy is a tough one since my recollection of this anime is really spotty since I watched this when I was extremely young. The story follows a young orphan girl named Candy during the beginning of the 20th century. Though she is cheerful, kind, and good, life is sometimes unkind as she learns it first-hand as she experienced it while growing up. I know this should also be my first drama anime, but I never got to finish watching this due to how extremely young I was, not to mention I never got to finish watching it since little old me was busy doing what little kids were doing: playing with toys.

First seinen anime: Joker Game
Set during the year before Japan entered the war in the Pacific, Joker Game is the tale of a group of young men who works for an organization called ‘D Agency’ as spies. It’s been a long time since I last watched this but pretty much they did a lot of espionage and spy work. I guess this will also count as the first political thriller I’ve ever watched. Let’s just hope it won’t be the last.

First iyashikei anime: Flying Witch
Yup, this is the first iyashikei anime I ever watched, and I never liked it. You can read my review here. The story is about a witch in training named Makoto who moved to the country in which things happened as exciting as watching a dentist perform a root canal. I guess I was expecting too much from this anime not knowing what was ‘iyashikei’ all about.

First shonen anime: Dragon Ball Z
Since I’m the Philippines, my anime selection is very limited, but I’m glad we got to watch Dragon Ball Z, albeit it was not the series, but the movies dubbed in English by my countrymen (we did out best with the dubbing). It was not a bit later when we got to watch Dragon Ball Z, and then they started airing Dragon Ball (still in English). Yeah, I know it was a weird way to release this anime considering it was not done chronologically, but who am I to complain? The fights were awesome, the story was easy to understand, the themes were very relatable. Although it may not be perfect (I hate the Buu saga), it was still a fun anime to watch and GMA 7 (one of the biggest TV station in the Philippines) is still airing reruns of this show up to this day. Neat!

First isekai anime (adapted from a novel) : The Adventures of Peter Pan
The World Masterpiece Theatre will always be part of my childhood in which I was introduced to classic stories like Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and of course, Peter Pan: the boy who refuses to grow up. I guess my memory is getting really jaded since I should have included this on my list of ‘5 old isekais that I liked before isekai became overly used‘ but opted to exclude it since this was adapted from a novel. I have not personally read the original source material, but based on what I watched, Peter brought Wendy, Michael, and John to the magical and mysterious world of Neverland where they engaged on different adventures all the while outwitting his mortal nemesis Captain Hook and his band of pirates. I liked it as a kid though I haven’t watched it after it was aired in ABS-CBN Channel 2. The one they aired first was the English version of the anime titled Peter Pan and Wendy which was dubbed in Tagalog. It was later in the later part of the 2000s where they released it again with a new Tagalog dub but this time it was based on the original Japanese anime.

First isekai anime (not adapted from a novel) The Vision of Escaflowne
Ah, Escaflowne… I fell in love with this anime at first sight with it’s awesome visuals, animation, plot, characters, and retro mech designs which resemble Knights in iron-clad armor. The plot revolves around Hitomi, a girl who has a penchant for fortune telling. She got transported to another world called Gaea after saving Van from the dragon he was trying to slay. I watched this every Friday night way back 1999 in GMA 7 and to this day, regard it as one of the best anime I’ve watched to this day. Also fun fact: isekai’s of old are great since it never relied on OP characters, cheats, exp points, or rampant deaths which resulted on too many unnecessary reincarnations. No one can beat that.

First drama anime (based on a novel): A Little Princess Sarah
Ah, my afternoons as child will not be complete if I wouldn’t be able to watch this tear-jerker anime called A Little Princess Sarah. Funny enough, I never cried when I was watching this since I was more fixated on getting angry at the titular character since she never became angry with all the abuses she got from her tormentors, not did she exact revenge which made me think if she is a glutton for suffering. Like the book plot in the book, she was placed inside Miss Minchin’s Seminary For Girls in London where the most of the setting took place. Sarah’s father died and she was left without any funds nor any living relatives in which her misery began.

First sports anime: Go-Q-Chōji Ikkiman
Okay, Go-Q-Chōji Ikkiman is very long and obscure name for us Filipinos to remember that’s why I’m glad it was changed to Battle Ball where we can all agree it was the best decision since the invention of the light bulb. Thomas Edison will be proud. Battle was kind of unique since it mixed both baseball and martial arts making it more action-packed than a normal game of the U.S.’s national pastime. And because of this anime, I came to like baseball and played it with my friends when I was younger although we don’t know how to play it properly. We just used a tennis ball as a baseball since we can’t find one resulting to an unhealthy dose of homeruns whenever we played this sport.

First ecchi and harem: Ranma 1/2
Ah, another classic staple of my childhood days. Ranma 1/2 is the story of a boy who accidentally took a dip in one of China’s cursed springs during a training session which changed him to a girl when doused with cold water. For a kid watching this anime, I barely remember seeing some naughty scenes on this anime, or is it I just forgot since I was more focused on the action and comedy? Not sure but it is present on the show but my mom never complained- since she was not watching it anyways. Also, the barrage of girls all lining up to our main man and he always tries to dodge them? Pathetic! Give this guy an uppercut!

First psychological anime: Happy Sugar Life
Oh boy. I sure am sorry I got to watch this hell hole. The story revolves around Satō Matsuzaka who found an abandoned Shio and decided to keep her (aka kidnapping). I just stumbled upon this last 2018 and I decided to watch it since I never watched any psychological anime before, and this one made me very upset, but I still watched it until the final episode. And because of that, I’m now writing this post, inside a mental institution due to my unstable constitution. Okay, maybe I just made up the last part, but really, I regret watching this. Review coming soon (UGH…)!

First magical girl anime: Sailor Moon series
To say that Sailor Moon is one of the most recognizable anime character is a huge understatement. I don’t know what I just wrote, but I just did that since it felt cool. The uniqueness of Sailor Moon which differs from her peers is that there are five magical girls as opposed to just one (now this feels more like a sentai to me now that I think about it). This may shock people reading my post, but I never liked Sailor Moon in the series since I favored Jupiter and Mercury. Anyways, I first watched this way back 1994 or 1995 in ABC 5 in the Philippines which is now called TV 5. It was aired every Sunday night but was switched to Saturday nights and to this day in Philippine history, is the longest aired anime in the evening spanning from 1994-2004 although it is not continuous. Yup, I watched the entire series amidst the constant power failures that plagued the 90’s in the Philippines every night. Can you imagine that? Watching an anime that has no potential for reruns and then all of a sudden, poof! The power went out! Aaaaaaaargh!

First slice of life and romance anime: Clannad
I’ll fuse two categories in this one since my post is getting too long and my readers may need to do more important things in life (like watching anime). I watched this way back 2007 when I landed my first job in the BPO industry and was curious on what this is all about. I never knew Clannad was adapted from a visual novel, I never knew the main female lead was a sickly one, I never knew that the main male lead was a delinquent with a heart of gold, and I never knew that I would stick around watching this anime until the end of the second season where I dropped this because the plot is getting stupider for my sanity. Props to Kyoto Animation for it’s superb animation, but when you fuse five character stories into one anime, the focus will be all over the place, but I guess they managed to pull it off. Like in the case of Sailor Moon, I never liked Nagisa for a ton of reasons. I just watched this anime for three things: the comedy, Kotomi, and Tomoyo. Did you guys know that I got involved (sort off) in a fanfic about Kotomi? This is not a shameful advertisement for my next post, but I do plan to tell this tale some other time.

First comedy and sci-fi anime: Mojacko
As a 90’s kid, everyone liked this anime. It centers around Sorao as he met an alien named Mojacko who crashed landed on Earth. The plot then escalates to a fetch quest to gather the things needed to repair their ship found on different planets to get the stranded alien home. I enjoyed watching this when I was kid since the jokes and gags were funny and sometimes hilarious, and the whole space adventure was something I looked forward to whenever I tune in on this anime.

And that’s all the ‘firsts’ that I can remember for that genre in anime. Care to tell, dear readers, your ‘firsts’ as well? I’d love to hear your tale! Until next time!

-DarkdaemonPK2