My personal favorite story of "how I got hooked on something in a weird way" is Final Fantasy VII--- I read synecdochic's "Lullabye for the New World Order" and got interested, and thought I was (hahahahah) going to be able to get away with just reading fic... then "just" watching Advent Children... then "just" playing Crisis Core... long story short, not only was I not, but I've played pretty much all the "main series" games up through XIII at this point. (Also the fact that I came out of that fic with the ship in my icon as my OTP in that fandom, when it's pretty much a clear NOTP in the fic itself never mind in canon, says... something, lol.)

Speaking of recs, I've been meaning to thank you for reccing Vespertine, because I got it and love it! In particular the whole "make friends with the scary summoned entity instead of treating it like a thing or a slave and everything works better" is... well, I've got drawerfic on that premise for both Devil Survivor 1 and 2, if that tells you how much I like the concept, lol.