Well the first anime that got my attention was Star Blazers in 1982,then Voltron came along and I began to search out these "foreign" cartoons,got into Tranzor Z,Captain Centella and the like but Robotech went and made me a fan of Japanese anime.
That was 1986 and I spent a good few years being frustrated trying to find more until 1992 and things like the original Dirty Pair movies came out and others like Vampire Hunter D,Project A-Ko,Lupin,Robot Carnival and all that flooded the US.
Been a hopeless mess since (IMG:[
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style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) I watch/read more anime and manga then live action films,and the majority of live action is sci-fi or super hero movies.
Of course my FIRST taste of Japanese entertainment was Godzilla and Gamera,I first saw Godzilla in 1979 and that got me going on liking Asian stuff...of course being part Asian myself probably helped that along.