Here's my intro.

The first anime I remember seeing on TV was Star Blazers in the late 70s, but the first one I would fight to watch (because it was up against Days of our Lives, which my sister was addicted to) was Robotech.

I knew it was Japanese in origin but I didn't realize the extent to which it was bowdlerized at the time (to be fair, I was 9 or so).

My first subtitled anime experience was a friend in high school giving me copies of Macross DYRL and Castle of Cagliostro on VHS and it was, frankly, mindblowing.

My first commercial anime purchase as tape 1 of Bubblegum Crisis for like $40 for 45 minutes. Since $40 was 10 hours of pay at the time, I never bought the rest of the show until DVD sets.

My first Con was anime expo 93 in Oakland (I think, I did go to a con in San Jose but I can't remember if it was AX92, Anime America 93 or 94).

I worked as a film projectionist at AX for a couple of years (we got to do the world premiere of Memories, that was fun) and then I worked security for another 2 years after AX moved and didn't have a film theater anymore.

About 15 years ago my personal and professional collided and I was hired by one of the original anime/manga distributors in the US and am currently their director of IT.

It's been a long, strange, trip watching anime go from the thing you got teased for to having star athletes do poses from their favorite shonen on the field.

It may be a little "get off my lawn"-y but I still love the older stuff compared to most of the new. Give me hand painted cells over painted backgrounds, shot on film, over 3dcg any day of the week.