Gateway Anime; What Was Yours?

At least I'm not doing drugs.

I had seen anime before but I didn't realise the difference between everyday cartoons and the world of anime until I was going through my sister's hard drive. She had the first season of the original Sailor Moon anime series. I watched it, not in order, but I watched it all. At the local library you were given 200mb of data for each internet slip. And almost everyday after I watched the first season, I would go down and watch an episode on YouTube after school. And after I watched all of the episodes I started to be introduced to other anime through playlist suggestions etc. And here I am now.

I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started watching more anime and reading manga. I am an addict now. But I'm happy haha.

Most of the time people ask about gateway anime it's usually one of the 'Big Ones'; Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Hellsing etc. The ones that showed up on TV before school everywhere in the world. I feel like the most common 'gateway anime' from people I've met are Bleach, Naruto or One Piece. I think the most common is Naruto amongst the other anime watchers I know.

I'm curious, is your gateway anime your all-time favourite? I don't know if Sailor Moon is my current favourite but I know that it's my all time favourite.