1997 was a good year to start out as an otaku. I mean, honestly. The hot new series were Evangelion and Escaflowne (um, well, also Fushigi Yuugi, but let's just ignore that for now.) Right now it's... I dunno, but last I heard those two were acknowledged as classics, and I think one could do worse than to number those in the first dozen anime you saw.

First page - The doujinshi Van series, plus movie Hitomi and Hitomi and Van from the movie tarot cards.

Second page - Gades, and another movie Van/Hitomi skin.