I watched tons of anime when I was a kid… Just didn't know they were, in fact, Japanese back then. I absolutely adored series such as Alfred J. Quack and Vicke the Little Viking when I was a kid, though. There were tons of other series I used to watch (Dutch TV supplied!) such as Calimero, Tom Sawyer and Pinocchio, but those two series probably impressed me the most.
In fact, looking back, almost everything I watched back then was anime. Man, I must've been ahead of my time, eh.
The first series I encountered and actually fully knew eventually it was Japanese animation was Pokemon, though I never really got into it. Unlike Dragon Ball Z, which I both loved and which officially formed my introduction to anime as a whole.
I didn't actually know about Vicke the Little Viking being anime until Oda ran a page about it in a volume of One Piece.... ... ...
My God, it's all coming together!