Reading this thread reminds of how old I am, not cool.
The very first anime I believe I saw as a child was Astro Boy, a friend of mine had a few on VHS.The anime that made me want to learn more was Space Pirate Captain Harlock. I loved the series. I mean, motherfucking scar on the face space pirate?! How can I not love it?
I asked my father "where was this made, was there more of it?" etc... That's when I learned that there was a country called "Japan".
You should of seen my face a few years later when I discovered most anime were originally comics, flip my shit like no other.
Not that I acquired much in the beginning, as there very few publishers distributing mangas in the west. On the other hand I was a bit more fortunate than most as I am from Québec and had the French market, which bloomed, a little bit earlier than the NA / US market.