I've known what anime is for quite a while--I was a huge Pokemon fan when I was little. (I quit the series after they tried to replace Misty.) I watched a little bit of Sailor Moon and Digimon too. But I was a bit too young to understand the concept of anime, so after I stopped watching Pokemon, my anime-loving tendencies went into a period of dormancy.
From first until fifth grade, I just watched normal American cartoons like Spongebob and such. But in fifth grade, something big happened--my brother turned eight.
Ordinarily, that wouldn't be such a big deal...if it weren't for one of the presents he got. For his birthday, my mom gave him the book Manga Madness by David Okum. Yep, you guessed it--it was a book that taught you how to draw the characters of Japanese cartoons.
So I picked it up and began reading it, and then I thought, Wow! This is pretty cool stuff!
I began practicing drawing manga and got progressively better and better. Then, one day in the summer before seventh grade, my brother saw me drawing manga and plunked me down to watch Naruto with him. Needless to say, I became hooked.
Since then, I have began watching several different series, like Death Note, D. Gray-Man, Full Metal Alchemist, Ouran High School Host Club, Fruits Basket, Junjou Romantica, Bleach, Excel Saga, School Rumble, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
To think--if it hadn't been for Firefox and his eighth birthday, I wouldn't be on this site...thanks, Fire-kun!!