For me, {{Evanescence}} was a gateway rock band. I'm not a huge fan any more, but I have to give the band credit for first getting me away from Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne.

This troper was introduced to anime by the English-dubbed episodes of ''SailorMoon'' when he was a kid - nowadays, edging on 30, the series is still one of his favorite GuiltyPleasures.

Wow, me too. We should start a band!

Same here

This troper was introduced to anime by the original Japanese episodes (with English subtitles). The difference in quality is large enough that I can't consider it a guilty pleasure.

This troper, oddly enough, got into anime from this very wiki. First, it was ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', which I loved. Then came ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', which I really, really loved. Then came ''ElfenLied'', along with me pretty much going down the list on the {{Gorn}} page - ''MDGeist'' got me into ''{{Genocyber}}'', ''{{Baccano}}'' got me to watch ''CowboyBebop'', ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' begat ''{{FLCL}}'', and here I am with my current favorites being ''MacrossFrontier'', ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'', ''{{Saikano}}'', ''CyberCityOedo808'', and ''{{Texhnolyze}}''.

This troper was gatewayed back into anime by, of all things, ''Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~''. He blames that badass chick (the bird kind).

{{This Troper}}'s GatewaySeries was ''{{Naruto}}'' stumbled on it on tv, then found the series at {{Youtube}}, before you knew it Utorrent was on the Desktop.

This troper's gateway anime was ''{{Slayers}}''. He even went to Baltimore's ''Otakon'' cosplaying as Gourry Gabriev. Not one, but two years in a row.

This troper remembers ''NinjaScroll'' being the big gateway series into anime when he was in junior high, probably because the big thing back then was still ''Pokemon'' and the concept of an animated "cartoon" playing out like an R-rated movie was still very much a novelty, not to mention other things (OMG BOOBIES!}

ThisTroper became interested in anime almost entirely due to ''FullmetalAlchemist''. Ironically, she now prefers the manga.

{{This Troper}} had the same situation. He finished all the episodes and movie in 2 to 3 school nights, was unsatisfied, read the manga, and preferred the manga. Then explored other anime.

This troper, despite having seen an occasional anime or two over the years and even being part of his school's anime ''club'' for a while (it was mostly because I was friends with so many of the members), never had a whole lot of interest in the medium. Then came ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann''... and before I knew it, Lelouch and Haruhi were battling for space on my hard drive.

This troper bought a few comics when he was younger, but never really got into them, until he came across Grant Morrison's ''DoomPatrol'' vol. 1 "Crawling from the Wreckage." It spurred this troper into becoming a full-fledged comic addict.

For this troper, John Ringo and David Weber's ''Prince Roger/Empire of Man'' series was a gateway to the writings of his favorite author, aswell as a 're-gateway' into sci-fi in general.

For this troper it was HonorHarrington for SciFi in general and David Weber in particular. Then somebody suggested that he read the ''PosleenWarSeries'' by Ringo, which caused John Ringo to become his favorite author.

This troper at least got into adventure games thanks to ''IndianaJones And the Fate of Atlantis''.

In fact, most [=LucasArts=] adventure games qualify. They're very user-friendly (especially for adventure game standards), and many people pick them up for the humor before getting into the puzzle-solving aspect.

You could say the same thing about Telltale's games.

This troper has heard stories of a lot of people who learned to play guitar because of ''GuitarHero''. This troper is also one of these people.

Recent word states that both ''GuitarHero: World Tour'' and ''Rock and 2'' will have training modes, designed to teach actual musical skills to players.

''{{Gradius}}'' introduced this troper to 'shmups, after the game's ship appeared as a transforming robot in ''ZoneOfTheEnders'' and caught his interest. The game was fun despite the crushing realization that there's no button to turn into a robot.

This Troper got into 'shmups from the ''RaidenFighters'' series at a local bowling alley. Not a humongous fan, but still likes them, and to this day it's the only genre he can play even remotey casually as opposed to multi-hour marathons, which can be extremely refreshing.

This troper got into anime thanks to ''{{Higurashi}}''. Ironically, she hates the series now.

''StarTrek'' is pretty much solely responsible for this troper's enjoyment of sci-fi, and TV for that matter.

Speaking of ''StarTrek'', this troper loved the recent film so much she started watching the TV series in order. She's just started DS9.

''{{Tetris}}'' introduced this troper to videogames.

The first ''MegaMan'' game this troper played was ''MegaMan 3''. ''OutlawStar'' (the TV version, unfortunately) was probably the first "serious" anime. ''AhMyGoddess'' was my intro to romantic-type anime, though ''AiYoriAoshi'' was the first I actually ''bought''. Helps that it's short and can be had on the cheap on Amazon. Netflix, given its selection, has a gateway series for ''everyone''.

''{{Beyblade}}'' (sadly enough) was the Gateway Anime Series for this troper. Her Gateway Manga Series is technically ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'', but she only happened to see it, not read it; the first she bought and read was ''ShamanKing''. On the other hand, ''InuYasha'' was the GatewaySeries for her ''father'', and he's been providing her with torrents upon torrents of anime since then. Ironically enough, he was the one saying she would be bored of it by the time she finished high school; she's on her 5th year (by choice, she has graduated) and still going strong.

My sister's ''RODTheTV'' [=DVDs=] got me into adult anime. Now I want me some of that Haruhi...

''Main/{{Mai-HiME}}'' was my gateway series to anime (there was ''Main/SailorMoon'' before that, but I consider it more a nostalgic cartoon from my teenage-hood), and ''Main/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' to single-player [=RPGs=], the d20 system, ''and'' the Main/StarWarsExpandedUniverse. And ''Main/DarthsAndDroids'' sparked my interest in Main/TabletopGames -- thanks, DMM!

This troper has loved ''TheLegendOfZelda'' since she was twelve and the original game debuted. When she was given a Wii earlier this year, her love for the characters of Link and Zelda induced her to buy ''SuperSmashBros Brawl''. As a result of her love of SSBB, she is now immersed in the worlds of ''MetalGearSolid and {{Metroid}}.''

''{{X-men Evolution}}'' is entirely to blame for this troper's obsession with Superheroes.

Seconded

This troper blames a viewing of ''PowerRangers'' to getting him back into many of his childhood obsessions (''PowerRangers'', ''{{Digimon}}'', ''{{X-Men}}'' and ''SpiderMan'' 90s animated series, among others).

If not for ''MazingerZ'', ''CaptainTsubasa'', ''SailorMoon'' and ''SaintSeiya'', This troperette would never ever be into anime. =)

After looking through this page, this troper would mention they were introduced to anime via ''BubblegumCrisis'' and ''DominionTankPolice''. When they first came out. I feel old now.

This troper, thanks to ''ElfenLied'' and having a bunch of friends interested in anime, went from "Anime is an obnoxious hobby and it has obnoxious fans" to "Anime is an okay hobby with some good fans and a hell of obnoxious ones". That, and it'll take him a lot of time to actually get him to talk about anime, but he'll usually do it in a more or less positive way instead of always antagonizing it. In other words, he went from CardCarryingVillain to NobleDemon.

Believe it or not, this troper's Gateway Series was the English dub of ''CardCaptorSakura''] and she loved it (hey, she was ten and up 'til then, had minimum knowledge of anime).

Not only did this very site get this troper hooked on ''{{Discworld}}'', I didn't even know Webcomics ''existed'' before I found this site! Am now an avid follower of ''PennyArcade'', ''EightBitTheater'', ''GirlGenius'', and The Ten Doctors.Productivity has decreased accordingly. Thanks, TVTropes! *thumbs up*

This troper blames ''{{Pokemon}}''. It was the first video game he played, which snowballed quickly. But wait, there's more! There's a Pokemon anime, right? So he watched that, and then ''{{Digimon}}''... and, years later, a subscription to ''ShonenJump'' and fansubs of ''DGrayMan''... Wait! There's a ''{{Pokemon}}'' card game! Sounds cool, let me buy a deck... and here it is, ten or fifteen years later, and the ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' card game... occupies much of this troper's non-video game free time. ''{{Pokemon}}'''s kind of a cosmic catalyst.

You sound like me. Pokemon was the first game I played on my GameBoy at age 4 (though the Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Sega Genesis was my first gateway series, since that came first), my first beloved anime, my first TCG, a big part of my childhood, a big part of my life now...

This troper was known among her associates in high school as their "Anime Drug Dealer"; she'd start them slow on ''{{Trigun}}'', ''MillenniumActress'' and the ''PetShopOfHorrors'' manga, then escalate to ''GundamWing'' and ''{{Hellsing}}'' territory, before finally going all-out with ''TheSlayers'', ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', ''{{Saiyuki}}'','' SamuraiDeeperKyo'', ''{{FAKE}}'' and ''PerfectBlue''. In return, a few of her die-hard converts got her into the excellent ''GirlGotGame'' and, regrettably, ''HotGimmick'' (aka, ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'''s even more Gainaxed-up Japanese cousin).

This troper hadn't seen a single comic book movie or read a comic book or seen a comic-related cartoon until the start of sophomore year, when a friend said "Watch ''SpiderMan'', it's amazing!" A year later, weekly trips to the comics store for me, and I've probably read more graphic novels than most people read in an entire ''lifetime''. ArchiveBinge FTW.

This troper used to enjoy playing ''{{Tetris}} Attack'' on her father's GameBoy when she was little, but decided that she would never play other video games. They were, in her seven-year-old-self's own words, "too violent." Then, in order to stop her from hogging her dad's, her parents bought her a GameBoy of her own... which came with ''Donkey Kong Land 2''. She fell in love with it, and has been a GamerChick ever since. Now she laments her lack of XBox 360 and/or gaming PC -- because she ''really'' wants to play {{Bioshock}}. Her inner child is recoiling in horror.

''GIJoe'' comics made me a furry. See, I was watching the show and buying the comics and my parents probably would have had a fit, for in the comics, Joes slaughtered Cobras like MAD. Anyway, a three pack with Joe in the front had a New Mutants in the middle. New Mutants with Rahne Sinclaire, a hot and sexy werewolf. Rrrow.

Da_Nuke (the article creator, natch!) has a long history of watching the series that was aired before his favorite show. This has created the following pathway to anime otakuness: ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' -> ''CaptainTsubasa'' aired before ''MMPR'' -> ''DragonballZ'' aired before ''Captain Tsubasa'' -> ''{{Pokemon}}'' -> ''{{Digimon}}'' -> ''SouthPark'' on Locomotion -> ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' aired before ''South Park'' -> ''SerialExperimentsLain'' on Locomotion -> ''ElfenLied'' while fumbling around a Bittorrent tracker -> Away we go!

This troper's Gateway Anime Series was ''SailorMoon''. She still adores it. Her Gateway fantasy book (and reading in general) was ''HarryPotter''. Her Gateway series for British television and sci-fi was ''Series/DoctorWho''.

This troper used to whatever her brother was watching on {{Toonami}}, including ''YuYuHakusho'', ''{{Zoids}} Chaotic Century'', and ''{{Cyborg 009}}''. He stopped watching, she didn't. And then she found shojo...

Strangely, this troper was introduced to video games through the EdutainmentGame genre, which he played like mainstream games not knowing the latter existed. Upon touching SuperMarioBros for the first time, his life changed forever, and he's never been the same since, much to the chagrin of his parents.

The first anime this troper ever witnessed was the tail end of ''Project A Ko 2'' on the SciFiChannel. Next week, it was ''Tenchi Muyo In Love''. I haven't looked back since.

For me, it was all about ''SailorMoon'', ''DragonballZ'' and ''{{Pokemon}}''. Those were my three gateways. This was back in the mid 90s, when Toonami was on in the afternoon.

This troper considers his gateway "series" the American gameboy release of SaGa, or "The FinalFantasy Legend," as well as the first ''{{Megatokyo}}'' book. Thanks to FFLegend, he played FFX on a borrowed PS2 and became obsessed with ''FinalFantasy'', started playing the earlier games and then, when Chain of Memories was released, Kingdom Hearts, joined a ''FinalFantasy'' forum which then introduced the joys of forums, which in turn introduced TVTropes, which introduced even ''more'' webcomics, as well as at least four different series of books... And thanks to ''{{Megatokyo}]'', he was introduced to webcomics, more fora, and became far more interested in reading and collecting manga.

This troper was introduced to ''{{Metroid}}'' and ''{{F-Zero}}'' through the original ''SuperSmashBros''. ''{{Brawl}}'' also sparked an interest in ''MetalGear'' and inspired him to rediscover ''SonicTheHedgehog''.

Back when ''{{Pokemon}}'' was the most popular thing on earth I watched the anime on TV - ''{{Digimon}}'' was on after it so I watched that as well. Skip forward 5 years and an ad for "''{{Digimon}}'' wiki" appeared on the {{Wikipedia}} side bar, after reading through some of its articles I decided to watch the first few episodes again on YouTube. A few months later the entire first 2 seasons of digimon as well as most of ''{{Bleach}}'', ''LuckyStar'' and ''DeathNote'' had been downloaded.

This troper got recommended to ''StargateSG1'' due to her love of mythology, and has since crossed from watching purely anime to western dramas.

This Troper probably wouldn't have gotten into anime without ''DeathNote''. Seen a few shows and movies before that, but only then caught on the idea of getting whole series and watching them, instead of just waiting to see something on TV.

This troper, whose first serious exposure to anime was ''Robotech'', wonders how many other people thought the Veritechs were much, much cooler as sleek swing-wing fighter jets than HumongousMecha and that Roy Fokker was an infinitely better character than the whiny teenage lead Rick Hunter.

This troper is pretty sure that ''BigWolfOnCampus'' got her into paranormal/fantasy/horror/sci-fi shows, which led her to series such as ''{{Smallville}}'', ''{{Supernatural}}'', ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''{{Torchwood}}'', ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', and ''{{Angel}}''.

Apart from watching Pokemon, Digimon and DragonballZ as a kid, this troper's first taste of Anime was NeonGenesisEvangelion, of all things. My second taste was {{Trigun}}, so I guess I got a good combination of MindScrew series on one side and a more frivelous series on the other.

This troper first experienced an actual story-based RPG with ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' (on a borrowed Xbox, no less). He has since played through the sequel two or three times, played ''BaldursGate'', ''NeverwinterNights'', purchased ''{{Spellforce}}'' under the misapprehension it was an RPG (and the misapprehension it was fun), and oh yeah, he's the DM and founder of his DungeonsAndDragons group. This is all over a period of about one year.

I owe my love of the ''{{Metroid}}'' series to ''SuperSmashBros. Melee.'' Also, I have ''{{Quest64}}'' and ''{{Pokemon}} Red'' to thank for introducing me to [=RPGs=] when I was younger; they continue to be my favourite video game genre.

This troper blames JohnWoo's ''TheKiller'' for getting him into HeroicBloodshed. ''DragonBallZ'' and ''GundamWing'' got him into anime (though his first truly violent show was ''{{Cyber City Oedo 808}}''), and the very first SuperMarioBros. would get him into video games proper. ''StreetFighter'' and ''MortalKombat'' were his first forays into {{Fighting Game}}s, and the very first console RPG this troper has played is ''DragonWarrior'', with ''{{MegaMan 5}}'' being his first MegaMan game. As for TabletopGames, ''VampireTheMasquerade'' and the second edition of DungeonsAndDragons were my firsts.

Loved ''CyberCityOedo808'' - the dub was quite something.

This troper entered anime through ''{{Fullmetal Alchemist}}'', in October of 2008, and has since seen large parts of at least 12 anime series. I also, years before, entered true geekdom through ''{{Lord of the Rings}}''.

This troper got into {{Rhythm Game}}s in late 2001, through pirated copies of early ''DanceDanceRevolution'' titles. A few months later, he introduced himself to other Bemani series such as ''{{beatmania}} IIDX'' and ''Para Para Paradise'', and for the longest time longed to play ''Pop'n Music'', which he started regularly playing in October of 2008 (with the help of some PerverseSexualLust for one particular character).

This troper got into:

Anime via ''MoreStarlightToYourHeart'' (I don't count ''SailorMoon'' or Tenchi because I didn't know they were anime back then and they only served as Saturday Night cartoons for me...)

Science Fiction via ''VirtualWar''

Dystopian Sci-Fi via ''TheGoodnessGene''

Supernatural Fiction via ''ThePowerOfFive''

Horror via ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi''

HayaoMiyazaki's films gave me the open-mindedness to accept anime, while ''TheMelancholyofHaruhiSuzumiya'', ''LuckyStar'', and ''AzumangaDaioh'' really got me into it.

This Troper slowly introduced her brother to anime, first with HayaoMiyazaki, then ''{{TheMelancholyOfHaruhiSuzumiya}}'', then ''{{Bleach}}'', then, finally, when she was sure he could take it, ''ErgoProxy''.

The following were GatewaySeries for this troper:

''SuperMarioBros'' into video games

''SatAM'' into western animation

''TheBelgariad'' into fantasy

''SailorMoon'' into anime

''DragonBall'' into manga

This troper blames:

His affinity for [=JRPGs=] in general on Super Mario RPG... Clever, Squaresoft/Square Enix. CLEVER. Consider that his brother and father are both rather staunchly anti-[=RPG=]s aside from SMRPG, so... either way...

And his passion for Anime and escaping the AnimationAgeGhetto on ''{{Digimon}}'', and he STILL watches the dub of the first four seasons thanks to the nostalgia, despite using Japanese terminology

I have a good list of examples:

The book that showed me reading could be cool: ''{{Redwall}}''

The show that made me start watching TV: ''{{Firefly}}'' (Seriously, I didn't watch ''anything'' before I bought the DVD's and realized that TV could be awesome.)

Gateway video game: the original ''SuperSmashBros.'' I discovered ''TheLegendOfZelda'' and ''{{Metroid}}'' because of that game.

TVTropes itself, of course, got me into anime. The first one I actually started watching was ''CodeGeass'' (there was an awesome page quote of which I cannot, for the life of me, remember the origin), but I'd consider my true gateway anime to be ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. It's like an introduction to the MagicalGirl and HumongousMecha genres all at once.

In the realm of "what has TVTropes introduced you to," well...(deep breath) ''GurrenLagann'', ''ElfenLied'', ''{{Higurashi}}'', the works of Motoro Kitoh, Garo, ''PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'', ''FrankenFran'', ''{{Ben 10}}'', ''OrderOfTheStick'', ''GirlGenius'', ''DominicDeegan'', ''{{The Adventures of Dr. McNinja}}'', ''SailorNothing'' , ''{{Runaways}}'', ''{{Drakengard}}'', ''CaveStory'', ''LaMulana'', ''{{Iji}}'', ''TheWhiteChamber'', 1213, The Bright in the Screen, ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}}'', ''Yume Nikki'', ''PansLabyrinth'', the "Play with Me" video, ''TheDescent'', {{Retsupurae}} and indirectly,the indie horror films of Fewdio. And I'll give ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' and ''LyricalNanoha'' a try one of these days. Out of all these, the ones I'm most grateful for are ''GurrenLagann'', ''PansLabyrinth'' (which I just picked up because of all the NightmareFuel gushing but has turned into one of my favorite movies) and all the freeware games, especially ''{{Iji}}''. (I regulary check the "Video Games of Note" section now, on the lookout for new stuff)

TV Tropes '''is''' how I get introduced to new stuff nowadays - it results in somewhat eclectic tastes. Just see my contributor page,which reminds me... must update it with TomLehrer, ''TheActsOfCaine'', ''{{Ben 10}}'', ''{{Order of the Stick}}'', ''DrMcNinja'', LooneyTunes, ''LuckyStar''...

''TriGun'' was not only the gateway to this troper's love of anime, but also "Badass Dudes in Badass Longcoats with Double-Fisted Big Freaking Pistols" schtick.

starshine didn't watch television PERIOD before she saw an ad for ''{{Lost}}''. Now... well, just look at her page.

Excel-2009. ''BurnNotice'' has given me a legitimate reason to check out everything else on USA Network that doesn't involve cynical doctors or lawmen.

One day my brother borrows a huge cache of PS2 games from one of his friends. I wasn't much into games, but one title caught my eye: ''Gradius V''. I decided to check it out for whatever reason (probably because I heard good things about it in a magazine and I had nothing better to do). Five hours later, the word shmup is permanently burned into my vocabulary.

This troper's gate way series was ''BigO'', she had never realised that ''MonsterRancher'' and ''{{Medabots}}'' were anything other than awesome cartoons. ''TheAuthority'' was her gateway to comics (after years of ''TheBeano'') and embarassingly enough ''DNAngel'' was her gateway to manga.

My gateway series:

''SailorMoon'' into anime and the rest of {{Toonami}}.

''{{Pokemon}}'' into manga.

''InuYasha'' & ''CowboyBebop'' into AdultSwim.

Batman, Superman and Spider-man into superheroes.

{{Batgirl}} into reading comics, ''UltimateSpiderMan'' into collecting them.

''{{Beast Wars}}'' into ''{{Transformers}}''.

WWF Smackdown! into pro wrestling.

''LeftBehind'' into novels.

''ThunderCats'', ''CareBears'', ''AlvinAndTheChipmunks'', and the ''SuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' into WesternAnimation.

''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' and ''TheDisneyAfternoon'' into {{Disney}}.

''PowerRangers'' into FoxKids.

''StarTrekVoyager'' and ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' into ''StarTrek''.

This troper grew up listening to vocal jazz, but had little knowledge of, and little use for, instrumental jazz. Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli changed all that.

Tropers/AckSed had no one series, but patchy exposure to dubs of ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' late at night on Channel 4 introduced him to cheesy action, his sister's insistence on taping ''SailorMoon'' and the {{Macekre}} ''{{Cardcaptors}}'' at least planted the idea of magical girls & shojo, and all the 'exotic' dubbed MangaEntertainment VHS we found in our town's yearly fair (he still hasn't had the courage to watch ''{{Urotsukidoji}}'') made me interested enough to read the manga that he bought for his sister off this new-fangled "Amazon" site. He was already a SF/gamer geek, so he kind of transferred. He then followed it up with ''{{Chobits}}'', ''NinjaScroll'', ''SerialExperimentsLain'', ''HaibaneRenmei'' [=DVDs=] and ''LoveHina ''manga. Going to university, he discovered Naruto on Youtube, torrents and TVTropes on the {{Megatokyo}} forums,in that order. AckSed graduated with a third in Internet Computing and a first in tropes,webcomics and anime. ^_^;

Oh and Batman's "Broken Bat" anthology that was,for some reason,in the public library made me interested enough,years later,to pick up ''TheDarkKnightReturns'', then ''{{Empowered}}''.

This troper watched ''TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'' and a scattering of episodes of ''Robotech'' as a kid, but it was ''GundamWing'' that truly introduced him to anime, and the first volumes of ''Ranma 1/2'' and ''{{Chobits}}'' to manga. He hasn't looked back.

Recently, This Troper watched his first non-horribly mangeled anime,''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' along with ''FLCL''. Now, he's watching episodes of ''FullmetalAlchemist:Brotherhood'' on ''YouTube'' along with ''CodeGeass'', ''AzumangaDaioh'', and ''SuperMilkChan''. He's also planning on watching ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', ''GaoGaiGar'', ''CowboyBebop'', and ''JungleWaItsumoHaleNochiGuu''. Along with these, his first VideoGame was ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' along with several racing games, and has been reading webcomics since this very Wiki introduced him to ''XKCD''

This Troper got into anime via ''AzumangaDaioh''. Maybe not the best gateway series, but it's the funniest.

This troper got into anime by watching ''SailorMoon'' and ''CardCaptors'' on TV when she was a little girl. When she got a computer, she started looking at the originals and branched out to other series.

Also, when she was six, she read the first ''HarryPotter'' book. Before, she hadn't had very much interest in reading, but after? She read any book she could get her hands on. She's the same way today.

''TheAmazingSpider-Man'' was my gateway to comics in general. {{Aquaman}} was my gateway to DC in particular. Yes, ''{{Aquaman}}''. What can I say, the cover to # 0 looked badass.

''{{Zoids}]'' got this Troper hooked on not just anime, but mecha anime.

''MutantRancor'' grew up watching ''{{Robotech}}'' reruns, ''{{Voltron}}'', ''SpeedRacer'', ''GGundam'', ''GundamWing'', ''DragonBallZ'' (back when CartoonNetwork only had the first two seasons), ''RurouniKenshin'', and finally ''YuYuHakusho'' (in that order, if I remember correctly, but I don't really remember any details of any before ''RurouniKenshin''), but it wasn't until ''YuYuHakusho'' that I was finally hooked on anime. (I now have a list six pages long of series I'm going to get around to watching eventually, plus another page and a half of series I've finished.) It's also the only anime series I'm ''most definitely'' going to buy on DVD when I get a job and have an income. Thank you, FUNimation!

While this troper was already hooked on anime beforehand, ''CodeGeass'' is what got him hooked on HumongousMecha Anime.

''UruseiYatsura'' was this troper's main gateway anime. He watched ''{{Robotech}}'' and others before it, but its the first he remembers identifing as 'anime' and not just an oddly animated cartoon.

''VampireHunterD'' the first movie was a gateway for this troper's cousin to Anime in general, and for this troper -- a gateway to the light novels.

''YokohamaKaidashiKikou'' (at least it was for this troper).

And for still others, there's ''Yotsuba&!''

''{{Digimon}}'' was the first anime series I liked. Eventually liking Digimon caused me to like some anime.

''{{Digimon}}'', as well as ''{{Pokemon}}'', are gateways to the {{Mons}} genre (but God help you if your next anime is ''{{Narutaru}}'').

Lame as it may be, this troper's gateway series to anime was Robotech. Even if it was Macekred.

The best part of it wasn't, actually.

I can claim the 4Kids {{Macekre}} of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' as my gateway to anime, embarrassingly enough. (I was thirteen at the time, so I have an excuse. My ''dad,'' who actually got me into it by asking me to watch an episode for him while he was at work, on the other hand...)

I might not have gotten into ''FinalFantasy'' if not for ''KingdomHearts.''

This very wiki's been the gateway to a couple new series for me, particularly CodexAlera.

A fairly obscure game known as ''{{Graal}}'' caused me to like video games in general, eventually.

Many people this troper knows, who were even not very big on the first-person shooter genre got into {{FPS}}es or PC games in general from ''{{Team Fortress 2}}'' and The Orange Box.

Check. Bought it on a recommendation from friends. One year later, receives game invites for sniping ability.

''EightBitTheater'', of all things, got this troper hooked on webcomics.

This Tropers gateway series are:

''VGCats'' and ''CtrlAltDel'' (sadly) are his gateway into {{Webcomics}}: Now has the range of about 60-70 webcomics in his bookmarks

This wiki introduced ''{{Firefly}}'' to this tropers brother, and coincidentally himself, into JossWhedon.

''{{Watchmen}}'' introduced this troper to American Comics, which caused him to abandon {{Manga}}...

Which was introduced by his older brother who got ''{{Inuyasha}}'' when he was into the {{Anime}}...

Which was also introduced by the 4Kids {{Yu-Gi-Oh}} series, and got the dub off a Peer to Peer service.

{{Halo}} was this tropers introduction to FPS's and love of gaming.

And The Orange Box was bought for portal, and introduced him into {{Valve}} and PC gaming.

Literature/{{Twilight}}, actually, was my gateway series into vampire novels in general, including ''{{The Vampire Chronicles}}'' and ''Salem's Lot'' (!). ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' was my re-gateway into the {{Disney Animated Canon}} a few years ago. And Sarah Brightman was my gateway into classical music; a Youtube-style {{WikiWalk}} from a video of hers led me to a video of Maria Callas, and my life was changed.

''{{FLCL}}'' introduced this troper to... ''{{FLCL}}''. After that, ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', and ''{{BludgeoningAngelDokuro-chan}}'' were not that bad either, but ''{{FLCL}}'' is still a billion times better than anything I managed to find.

''Backyard Soccer'' was this troper's gateway to sports gaming.

TV Tropes introduced this troper to ''DrMcNinja'', ''DeathNote'', and ''DungeonsAndDragons''.

This troper actually met his high-school sweetheart through Digimon (We met in Elementary school!) and became fond of how there was animation that ''wasn't'' bloody Sitcoms and actually had some coherence of a story and was actually on television where I could see it!

This troper got into strategy games with ''CommandAndConquer''. From there it was a short hop to ''AgeOfEmpires'' in one direction, and ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' in the other. The aptly-named ''SMAC'' led to ''{{Civilization}}''s III and IV, and probably ''SinsOfASolarEmpire'' as soon as I can get a machine that will run it....

It's hard to admit the mistakes of one's youth, but this troper, too, once believed that all {{anime}} consisted of ''{{Pokemon}}'' and {{hentai}}. Then come summer of 2003, if memory serves, when he saw a couple of (horrendously dubbed) episodes of ''VisionOfEscaflowne'' on the local TV and was positively blown away by pretty much everything in it (even the dub sounded good back then). It wasn't until he got a stable private internet access about a year later, however, that his anime obsession truly began...

This troper has had a couple.

First, I knew nothing about anime. A friend sat me down for ''HowlsMovingCastle.'' Whoa. This is great, I love the story and the art and it's so beautiful to look at and Howl...uh...uh... In a lesser way, ''DescendantsOfDarkness'' got me interested in BoysLove.

I used to play mostly Licensed Games and Edutatainment Games. Not surprisingly, I didn't game much. Then I picked up ''TwilightPrincess'' (for Wii). ''Whoa.'' Video games can have plots? Of their own? That aren't Excuse Plots? That are hard? ...Am I seriously crushing on a video game character? Am I seriously rushing home on the weekends so I can play, and staying on as long as possible? Did I seriously finish a video game - before anyone else, no less? Am I seriously sitting down to play it again so I can get OneHundredPercentCompletion? (Sadly, misfortune befell the disc before I did that.)

Lastly, Tokio Hotel was my introduction to music beyond country and New Age, which were most of what I'd encountered before.

Whippersnappers. This troper was introduced to anime with ''SpeedRacer.'' In the snow, uphill, both ways! (And, much later, with a bootleg of ''{{Akira}}'' in Japanese with ''no subtitles'' because it wasn't available in America yet!)

This troper was introduced to Anime when she was 4 with ''{{Pokemon}}''. She became interested in detective stuff with DetectiveConan.

For this troper, some of his gateway series are:

Anime via ''SailorMoon'' (My older sister was obsessed with it, which led to me catching a few episodes and actually enjoying it)

{{RPG}}s via ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' (I had played {{Pokemon}} and Quest 64 before then, but Paper Mario was my true introduction to {{RPG}}s; getting me hooked)

Sci-Fi via ''Galador: Defenders of the Outer Dimension'' (A short-lived sci-fi series that aired Saturday mornings on Fox circa 2002. Reading about this series online several years later eventually led me to watching ''Series/DoctorWho'').

''20th Century Boys'' was the first manga that this troper got absolutely obsessed with, and it's the first that made him realise that manga's could be ''awesome''. Unfortunately, he's failed to find anything ''quite'' as good it yet, be it anime or manga.

This Troper was introduced into SF via ''StarWars: Episode I'' and fantasy via ''HarryPotter''. To his defense... well, he was 11 at the time, and he followed it up almost immediately with the original ''StarWars'' trilogy and Lord of the Rings.

Nearly every single one of this troper's girlfriends tried to introduce him to shonen anime, and he hated them all (the animes, not the girlfriends). Then he got married and his wife introduced him to ''DeathNote''. He still dislikes standard shonen fare, but he's now more open to anime series so long as they avoid his personal {{Berserk Button}}s: NewPowersAsThePlotDemands, ViewersAreGoldfish, and TalkingIsAFreeAction {{Inaction Sequence}}s.

''ASongOfIceAndFire'' was this troper's gateway to real history. He's read fantasy since he was a child, but in that series the warfare and political maneuvering is a lot more interesting than the magical stuff. It didn't take him ''too'' long to realize there was a massive, easy-to-find amount of what he found so interesting at every bookstore and library in the country.

{{Discworld}}, specifically ''A Hat Full of Sky'', got me into fantasy. Neopets introduced me to the term "MarySue", and research of that term led to me learning a lot of other new words. TvTropes introduced me to {{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}}, I got my sister into it, she got into the fandom, and found {{Music/Voltaire}}'s "When You're Evil" in an AMV. I looked for more by him, eventually found "If I Only Were A {{Goth}}" and then (on this very wiki!) discovered that that song is not actually by him. ''Then'' I had to look up the band that actually wrote it. ''Then'' I got addicted to them too.

''DungeonsAndDragons'' was my first roleplaying game, 'way back when it still came in Basic and Advanced flavors. Now I write roleplaying games.

This Troper started her anime obsession with ''SailorMoon'' and ''{{Pokemon}}''. Then, she moved onto manga with Pixie Pop: Gokkun Pucho.

Although he hates them now, This Troper's gateway band for metal was DragonForce. If it weren't for them, he probably wouldn't be such a big music geek now.

This Troper had tried several anime series and never really gotten on board... until ''BlackLagoon''. Not surprising considering how "American" it is compared to most other animes, but all the bad ass Action Girls with guns certainly helped as well.

Not quite, but I became an {{Anime}} fan after watching the flm ''MyNeighborTotoro''.

This Troper has two categories -

Sadly, at age ten, my gateway animes were ''{{Sailor Moon}}'' unedited and ''{{Ranma 1/2}}''. I was nine.

As a comedy nerd, I have to say, I used to find all comedy to be lesser than drama or plain old stupid, until I saw ''{{Wayne's World}}''. That got me into ''{{Saturday Night Live}},'' which led to a whole array of obscure - and hysterical - shows. If I hadn't seen that movie, I certainly wouldn't have seen my favorite comedy show ever, ''{{The Dana Carvey Show}}''.

This Troper hated anime, but he kept coming back to the ''{{Code Geass}}'' article on TVTropes, soon he was downloading every episode and "forgiving" anime for "Anime Physics" and other such things. So he's now considering watching more anime.

Also, ''Fantasy XII}} FFXII'' was a gateway into the rest of the Final Fantasy series, but he lost interest.

Why did I write this in third person?

Unusually for a guy, this troper's gateway series into anime was ''CardcaptorSakura''. This led to searching for a sequel. Enter ''TsubasaChronicle''. Chaos ensues.

Strangely, the first anime that This Troper watched were completely different from his genre of choice. It started out with ''AxisPowersHetalia'' of all things, which I referenced in passing around IRC OP and blatant otaku c7dba. He gave me a long list, with comments. Hours and hours later, here I am as a pretty solid Otaku. The list is presented in the order that I watched them.

''TheMelancholyOfHaruhiSuzumiya'': "A bit of an exception here but funny as HELL. Oh, and Haruhi's a bit of a psychobitch so you might want to prepare yourself."

''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'': "This isn't the same genre as SailorMoon etc. before you say anything about my masculinity; this is basically a show about giant robots with an ingenious disguise as a magical girl show."

''MobileSuitGundam'': "It's fucking GUNDAM."

''NeonGenesisEvangelion'': "Because everyone needs to have their head fucked with."

''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': "Yeah, watch this one after Eva. Like, before you go to sleep after finishing Eva, get this in so you think something besides 'Can't sleep... EVA-01 will eat me. Can't sleep... EVA-01 will eat me.'." (Right around here I jumped straight into the HumongousMecha fandom)

''{{Gundam 00}}'': "It's fucking GUNDAM."

''GundamSEED'': "It's fucking GUNDAM. But don't watch ''Destiny'' until you are convinced that one painfully bad example won't put you off... seriously, that would be like trying to get someone into cyberpunk and showing them ''Revolutions''."

''GundamWing'': "It's fucking...you get the idea by now."

For the first 17 years of my life, I ''hated'' music. Oh sure, I'd sing in church and play in the school band and all that stuff, but that was mandatory. I hated music. Except video game music, but if you tell people that, they laugh at you because it's not "real" music. And then I bought my SegaDreamcast. I popped in SonicAdventure, and on the title screen, "Open Your Heart" started playing, and I was a little unnerved by the guitar and the drums, but I was amazed at how - I suppose "stirred" is the best term - I felt. And then I began playing as Sonic, and "It Doesn't Matter" started playing... I literally fell in love. I had ''never'' known that music could sound this good. I now own almost 20 [=CDs=] of different artists and listen to music daily. And I literally owe it all to the guitar of Jun Senoue, the singing of Johnny Gioelli, and ''especially'' Tony Harnell. The man is my hero.

This Troper looked to be like every other normal kid at 5. But then one day I asked to play the game my dad was playing:''{{Stronghold}}''. Soon I was playing ''{{Diablo}}'' and ''Rome Total War''. Overall however, I was still normal, a bit of a history buff though. Then came 5th grade. I met some other people who played ''Rome Total War''. ''{{Warhammer}}'', ''{{Discworld}}'', ''{{D&D}}'', ''LordOfTheRings'', etc. soon followed.

This Troper had ''{{Pokemon}}'' for his introduction to anime. ''SailorMoon'' was too girly and ''DragonBallZ'' seemed mindless and slow. I was struck by the continuing story, the art style that made it stand apart from WesternAnimation and visual gags like face faults and sweat drops. I watched the first two episodes of the series with my univerity's anime club. Even though everyone (including me) was mocking the plot holes and Americanization, we were still singing the theme song. In fact, the reason the club was watching it was because it came in third on animes the club members wanted to watch! (''{{Trigun}}'' and ''RurouniKenshin'' were the first two) I guess this means that ''{{Pokemon}}'' is my generation's ''{{Akira}}'' when it comes to a GatewaySeries for anime.

That being said, my introduction to anime at an artistic level was SpiritedAway.

Tropers/SunnyV's introduction to anime occurred with ''{{Naruto}}'' when she was twelve. Then came ''FruitsBasket'' when she was browsing popular {{shoujo}} manga/anime. Then came ''VampireKnight'' from...somewhere, and then after a yearlong anime hiatus, ''TrinityBlood''. Then she learned of ''AzumangaDaioh'' and ''{{Yotsubato}}'' on this very wiki, at which point she learned of {{seinen}}. From there, she fell in love with ''GunslingerGirl'' and ''SerialExperimentsLain''. Now she's watching ''CowboyBebop''. Tropers/SunnyV still likes some of the intro themes of ''{{Naruto}}'', though.

Is it weird that an AbridgedSeries was my gateway series to anime? One of my sister's friends told her to watch Lanipator's ''YuYuHakushoAbridged'' when it had only just come out with its third episode, she told me I had to see it, so I did. And I loved it. After that, we decided to watch the actual series, and it was awesome. After that, we started to watch what anime there was on TV, and the rest is history. It's really amazing, considering that before that point I had just thought of anime as odd (I'd only seen bits and pieces of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh before that, and I had a couple of friends who liked it, butnever really gave it a second thought). Now I've been opened up to the wide world of thousands of titles in tons of different genres. So thank you, Lanipator.

Through playing the Capcom's versus series, This Troper has now started to read Marvel's comic book series (as well as other various series), and is now into retro animes, including animes from Tatsunoko Productions.

This troper's gateway series to anime and video games was Pokemon. She kept quiet and polite to her parents until six years later at age twelve. Her mother's gateway series was Yu-Gi-Oh, which she sat down and watched from the start. Flash forward another six years, and this troper is preparing her thesis on the benefits of video games and comic books as legitimate entertainment and expressions of the HerosJourney.

Pretty much everythying I'm on I got via TVTropes (except for ''{{Redwall}}'', ''{{Animorphs}}'', ''SpongebobSquarepants'', ''MegasXLR'', ''SamuraiJack'', ''TheFarSide'' and ''{{Foxtrot}}''). However, I did get into ''AzumangaDaioh'' because I was determined to find out what the deal was with this girl who threatened people with a knife in ''AMVHell''. And ''AMVHell'' I learned about on this site.

''LawAndOrder'' was what got me into other {{Crime Drama}}s like ''{{NCIS}}'', ''{{CSINY}}'', ''{{Bones}}'', and ''{{Monk}}''.

The first manga this troper read was a doujinsha, ''Densha de D''. Chalk that up to being a model railroader. Didn't get me regularly reading manga, though. Next came the manga adaptation of ''TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', but again, I saw that as an isolated event (my mother got the book, and not because it was manga). The series that started me regularly reading? ''ZeroNoTsukaima''. My next was ''KashimashiGirlMeetsGirl''. And yes, TV Tropes was where I learned of those series.

''RuneScape'' was largely the reason This Troper is so into the fantasy genre. Also, what got this troper into the rock/metal genre was his father playing {{Rush}} and {{Metallica}} [=CDs=] in the car on his way to school.

Because of ''{{Robotech}}'', ''{{Voltron}}'', ''SpeedRacer'', ''Tranzor Z'', and ''SaberRiderAndTheStarSheriffs'', This Troper was a fan of anime long before he even knew what anime ''was''.

The ''StarTrek'' movies to ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. Dad warned me the episodes weren't as good as the movies. I still love them! (from there, incidentally, to ''TNG'', which has the best opening theme of them all.)

My friend introduced me to anime and manga in the fourth grade. My GatewaySeries was ''InuYasha'', then ''FruitsBasket''. I was hooked and almost six years later, I'm still collecting manga and anime.

I wasn't a fan of horror until I saw HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi. Unfortunately, it was the anime version, but despite being a worsened adaptation, it was still epic. I had no idea that suspenseful horror could be as awesome as this. After that, I decided to watch some movies. Then I watched Ringu (not ''that'' scary, but really cool) and ATaleOfTwoSisters (''oh my GOD that one was scary and awesome'') and now I'm reading the original visual novels for HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi and they are awesome. Thank you, Ryukishi07.

Say what you like about the heavily modified English dub, if it wasn't for Mew Mew Power / {{Tokyo Mew Mew}} this troper wouldn't be interested in animation at all, let alone anime.

Even stranger example from same troper: it looks like the gateway point to both the {{Fighting Game}} genre and the {{PS3}} console is going to be ... {{Okami}}. Trust me, {{It Makes Sense In Context}}.

For this troper, deciding to watch Naruto on a whim during one long, boring summer two years ago has changed her into a complete narutard.

This Troper's gateway series are:

I got into science fiction through ''TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'' (specifically, the Disney movie) though admittedly my parents watching ''StarTrek'' (all four of the pre-''Enterprise'' series) probably played a part as well.

I got into gaming through ''WarCraft II'' (which I didn't own), later cemented with ''AgeOfEmpires'' (which I did).

I got into RoleplayingGames through ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'', which in particular cemented my loyalty to the BioWare / ObsidanEntertainment format.

To a lesser extent, CRPGs got me into TabletopGames like ''Dungeons&Dragons''.

Although I'd played a few casually, I really didn't start to appreciate shooters until I played ''GearsOfWar''. I still prefer it's style of cover-based gameplay to running and gunning.

Although I used to watch ''Pokemon'' I only really got into anime through ''{{DragonBall}}'' ''DragonBallZ'', though I really have only watched a handful of episodes. This was later cemented by ''{{Escaflowne}}''.

Although I'm not a big fantasy buff, I can definitely say that ''LordOfTheRings'' rose my interest level.

This troper's biggest gateway for a while now has been the movie {{Immortal}}. It single-handedly got me into FrenchBelgianComicBooks, the BD and film works of EnkiBilal, the Thomas Kretschmann fandom and introduced me to the Belgian group Venus.

{{Portal}} was this troper's gateway to the world of video gaming, pretty much. This troper had played various video games with her brother when she was younger, stopped when she discovered that whoops, girls aren't supposed to play video games. This troper had only started thinking about games again when she found out that the cake is a lie meme is from a video game, and an apparently really good one at that, so she decided to give it a try. The fact that it was a puzzle game and is very, very feminine in a way probably helped too, but once this troper finished it she had finally rediscovered games and a new, interesting medium of storytelling. The fact that it was also a first-person "shooter" in a way probably made it a gateway for FPSes for this troper too. And now this troper is ''this'' close to an exam and can't focus on studying because she's on a cliffhanger in the latest RPG she'splaying. Sigh.

This troper has been playing shmups all his life, but didn't really get into it until he played ''{{Gradius}} III'' on SNES (which he ironically has HypeBacklash for now) in 2003. His intro to BulletHell was through ''{{DoDonPachi}}'' in 2004, about 2 years before videos of ''{{Mushihime-sama}}''[='=]s infamous TrueFinalBoss started making the rounds on [=YouTube=], and five years before he got into ''{{Touhou}}''. It is now almost 2011, and shmups still remain as the backbone of my gaming career.

One of this troper's main video game genre preferences started in 1999 in a place you wouldn't expect. His much more normal little brother was practicing baseball at a batting cage, but since this troper didn't play baseball, his dad gave him some money for the mini-arcade there instead. This troper up to that point pretty much solely played ticket games at arcades, but obviously one like that didn't have any. There were a few games, but the one that intrigued me most of all ended up being RaidenFighters, which not only got him into shmups, but non-ticket arcade games in general. RhythmGame addiction would start with DanceDanceRevolution shortly after.

His first foray into BulletHell was GigaWing in the summer of 2000, though this wasn't his gateway. Like the above troper, he also played {{DoDonPachi}} for the first time in 2004. It wasn't until 2006 when he played the {{Touhou}} series for the first time that he really liked BulletHell.

For me, MetroidPrime was a gateway into the metroid series, which in turn became a gateway into the castlevania games, and metroidvania as a whole. It sort of got me playing a couple of the pre-metroidvania, more linear castlevania entries as well. Averted with Assassin's Creed - it could have been a gateway into that series, but I just couldn't get into it whatsoever. I still need a good gateway into more modern gaming and less into retro gaming...

I didn't even know what manga or anime was, even though I watched a little Sailor Moon. Then my friend let me read the first Dragonball volume.

This troper inverted TVTropesAsAGatewayDrug by being introduced to this wiki from {{xkcd}}. The rest is history.

This troper blames {{Naruto}} for their gateway. Then it was both {{Bleach}} and {{Pokemon}}. Then {{Fullmetal Alchemist}}... Get it? But it was by complete accident that he found {{Elfen Lied}}. Don't ask. Current series? {{Black Rock Shooter}}.

Alright, This troper has three tales to tell, so here we go.

For my interest in Anime. it was more like a series of Gateways over the course of the last 12 years of my life, which picked up speed about five years ago. And its picked up speed again in the last year or so. The series were, in order: Pokemon, Digimon, DragonballZ, Naruto, Bleach, FullmetalAlchemist, OnePieceCodeGeass, GhostintheShellStandAloneConplex. So bascially a combination of Toonami, AdultSwim, and notice those "backwards comics" they sold at Barnes and Noble. And only now am i ''really'' getting into it, where i've expanded to FLCL, Trigun, CowboyBebop, TengenToppaGurrenLagann, Beelzebub, FairyTail... You get the picture, i've got a long list of Anime i want to watch now. And i own a ton of Manga.

For Comic Books, it was Skaar: Son of Hulk, believe it or not. I got into it around issue 3, and then followed it regularly. since i was only able to find it in a store that sold a ton of comics, i naturally noticed a ton of other comics all around me. Nowadays i spend between 20 and 50 bucks on comics every month. Mostly on DeadPool, UltimateMarvel, and TopCow (the guys who do TheDarkness and WitchBlade).

Video Games, it was watching my brother play TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime, then playing StarCraft (with cheats) and finally Super Smash Bros. Oh, and Halo. But mostly the first three. Here's a gateway link: Main/GatewaySeries.