Got my dad hooked on Gundam, since he's a bona fide Star Trek fiend and war buff, and
Evangelion since he's all for religious controversy and a Dead Sea Scrolls nut. And my mom liked
Perfect Blue a lot. She's a murder-mystery freak.
The two I'm trying to work on are my brother and sister, who have been teasing about my anime obsession for the last 6 years. I got my brother interested in
Cowboy Bebop and Gundam (showed him
Char's Counterattack. We have yet another member of the Quess Paraya Assassination League
), and got him to sit through a good amount of Eva. He despises Shinji, but who doesn't? I also showed him
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust since he's a Buffy freak and wanted to see a good vampire movie for a change, and he liked it (he got sick of Anne Rice and Blade real fast). And I recently started pushing
One Piece, which he's starting to like ever since we saw the new Sinbad flick (which rocks, BTW).
My sister's also mildly into Eva, but I've tried to get her into more romance-oriented stuff since she's into that. But it's difficult to find romance anime that isn't pervertedly funny or leaning too much into shounen-ai. So far I've tracked down
Inuyasha for her, which she likes a little, and I'm trying to get her into
Ranma 1/2.
What started it all was making a deal with her when I went home for winter break two semesters ago. If I watched Buffy with her every night (which I'm not big on Buffy), then she would have to watch Cartoon Network's airing of
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz with me. Though I was smart and gave her a recap of the entire series beforehand. And my dad was bored that Friday, so he sat in on it, too. I got both their feet in the door
The best advice is to find anime that has qualities your parents like already. It'll be easier for them to appreciate it. And if all else fails, play "Let's Make a Deal." Say you'll do all your laundry for a week if they watch the first 5 episodes of
Trigun. Most parents won't say no to that. Especially moms.
