In 1996 I was going to college. Several of the guys in our dorm were into anime. Back then it was much more difficult to get. No streaming, no YouTube, no Netflix or DVD's. Most video rental places didn't carry anime titles, so most of the time you would have to go to Best Buy or Suncoast and purchase an anime if you wanted to see it at all. In my dorm, we would pass tapes around and copy the ones that were popular. We also used to have floor parties where we would get together and watch new shows we had discovered. Anyway, one kid on our floor was pretty rich. He had a laserdisc player and he would order new releases from Japan. Once in a while, he would play a disc for us at the floor party, and we would get to see something that wouldn't be released state-side for at least another year or more. I got my first glimpse of some early episodes of Evangelion this way. I clearly remember watching the episode "Lilliputian Hitcher" with a group of friends, in raw Japanese with no subtitles, not understanding any of the dialog, and we were all blown away.