We all have ways of decompressing from the current dystopian reality, and one of ours is rewatching favorite anime. I know, I know — it’s easy to assume that ‘anime’ means interminable sagas about gotta-catch-em-all marketing tie-ins, space opera ultraviolence, or softcore porn for extremely niche targets. But that’s like judging ‘American books’ by what’s available at an airport book stall!
Here’s a handful of my personal favorites, variously available through Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and probably many other streaming services I don’t know (not to mention your local library). All of them are (mostly) non-violent, non-erotic (although frequently romantic!), and perhaps most importantly short. A 13-arc series of 23-minute episodes is approximately five hours of viewing, less than many mini-series… and you can usually tell by the end of the first episode whether a particular series is worth your time watching it. Also note the original broadcast dates in parentheses next to each title; in the older ones, some of the details are inevitably outdated, but the fact they’re still popular enough to be circulating is a testament to their worth.
Princess Tutu (2002)
Okay, this one is actually 26 episodes… but it breaks neatly into two parts, if that’s as much as you can stand. One of a kind is always special, Terry Pratchett would say — and I believe Sir Terry would’ve appreciated this completely individual saga based (very loosely) on Middle European folk tales as filtered through classical ballet. Gold Crown Town has been trapped in its bubble of magical realism ever since the inhabitants turned against an uncannily gifted author whose stories came true, but never happily ever after. There is a Sailor-Moon-style magical girl, with the inevitable power duels are settled with classical pas de deuxes. There is broad Harry-Potteresque classic-English-boarding-school-but-with-magic humor, and adolescent love triangles that turn into quadrangles and back again. And there is the overarching warning that all writers are bastards, and some of them are monsters. (Warning: Despite the ‘cute’ animation style, the second season in particular is rather too disturbing for young children.)
Princess Nine (1998)
Missing the boys of summer? High-school baseball is to Japan what high-school football is to Texas… if the annual football playoffs were on national television. Japan’s most powerful (and imperious) female CEO has decreed that female students should have the chance to compete against their male counterparts, and Ryo Hayakawa — inheritor of her late father’s renowned Miracle Pitch — is the keystone of that extremely ambitious plan. There’s plenty of teen drama, but also (I am informed by someone better equipped to judge) a decent introduction to besobaru. (Or you could hate-watch, to find out how badly I have been misled!)
Twin Spica (2003)
If you have fond memories of Robert Heinlein’s early young-adult novels, this one’s for you. Japan’s first space launch goes horribly awry, but little Asumi’s personal tragedy that day eventually leads her to a mysterious ‘guardian’ who will help her train for her dreams of becoming a ‘rocket pilot’. When an academy for (adolescent) potential astronauts is finally rebooted, Asumi and her new classmates win highly coveted slots… but can a girl (and a tiny little 4’9″ girl, at that) really aspire to astronaut status? Yet Asumi is so certain, so focused on her goal (like a good Heinlein hero) that even her ‘enemies’ can’t help but root for her…
Tsukikage Ran / Carried By the Wind (2000)
A dusty, sepia-tinted little hamlet miles outside the boundaries of civilization. A lone swords(wo)man walks into the bar… If you like spaghetti westerns and/or samurai movies — and don’t mind a certain amount of parody — this 13-episode series is for you. Ran is a wandering sword-slinger with an upper-class accent and a fatal taste for sake. Lady Meow (of the Iron Cat Fist) is her faithful, if hapless, Sancho Panza. The individual episodes are effectively stand-alones, and entirely predictable, but the dialog and inevitable multiplayer battles are beautifully choreographed.
KamiChu! (2005)
Young Yurie wakes up one morning and discovers she’s become a (Shinto) goddess. (Ah, puberty. ) She’s not yet sure what her powers might be, but suddenly she can see all the various tiny animist godlings and deities that crowd her boring little not-quite-1960s town. When she complains to her schoolmates, she’s taken in hand by Matsuri, daughter of the local shrine, which could really use the boost; the god of the shrine is a young waster who spends his time dreaming of being a rock star, like his cute (goddess) pop-star crush. Yurie’s also visited by a trio of magical spirits assigned by the God Association, a very Japanese union, complete with an annual business convention. (Get your card stamped at every lecture, for an entry in the door-prize lottery!) Yurie, of course, is more interested in mooning after one of her male classmates, playing with her (not entirely mundane) cat, and wasting time with her girlfriends, but a god’s gotta do what a god’s assigned to do!
Shingu: Secrets of the Stellar Wars (2001)
This one’s for R.A. Lafferty fans. It’s 2070, and the government has just admitted it’s in contact with aliens… something everyone has pretty much suspected all along, really. Hajime’s a relative newcomer to the small town of Tenmo, and on his first day of junior high, he discovers some of his classmates are mysteriously connected to the various giant monsters that have started appearing in the skies — and to the giant Shingu figure that protects Earth from those aliens. Then he find out that seemingly half the town’s adults are actually diplomats for various galactic empires, which is when things really get weird… Don’t worry about the ‘monster battles’; they are the least important part of the story, and take up very little time in any given episode. Always tongue-in-cheek, always respectful of the minor joys of daily life, complete with a final Wagnerian battle, and a Nine Hundred Grandmothers ending.
Figure 17 (2001)
The episodes in this series are 46 minutes (with commercials, an hour) instead of the usual 23-minute ‘half hour’. Shy ten-year-old Tsubasa is trying to find her place in the extremely rural Hokkaido community where her widowed father has chosen to pursue his dream of becoming a professional baker instead of a big-city salaryman. In the nearby woods, she literally stumbles across a crashed spaceship, its unconscious humanoid pilot, and a giant monster. When she attempts to hide, she accidentally triggers a biogenetic ‘liquid metal’ suit of armor, Number 17 in its series, which temporarily transforms her into an adolescent battle warrior… and, once the monster is beaten, becomes a virtual copy of herself. So, every episode is approximately half an hour of a gentle, soft-textured slice of life, where Tsubasa and her popular, outgoing ‘twin’ participate in class plays and camping trips… followed by 15 minutes of Buffy the Alien Slayer. It shouldn’t work, but despite the rich veins of handwavium involved in holding the plot together, it does. Just be prepared for the ending to break your heart (while staying honest to the spirit of the series).
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (2011)
YA fans should love this one. Adolescent angst at its most elegiac, with a soupcon of the supernatural. None of the surviving ‘Super Peace Busters’ have fully recovered since the day five years earlier when one of their members died in an accident, but former group leader Jintan is the most damaged of the survivors (possibly because his mother died around the same time). He’s become a hikkikomori, a recluse, refusing to go to school or even leave the house — until the day Menma’s ghost shows up, and demands that he reassemble the old gang, so she can finally get her last wish and pass on to the afterlife. This would be easier to achieve if only she could remember what that last wish was… or if any of the other former friends could see her… (Be sure you watch the credits after the final episode, which beautifully round out the story.)
Fellow otaku: Please let me know in the comments where you agree/disagree with me, or if you have your own recommendations. I’d particularly love to hear about newer series in this general vein — the Spousal Unit is still working (from home) full time, I spend my days on this blog, and the way our schedules mesh means we don’t have much time when we’re both awake and ready to watch stuff together!
WaterGirl
Anne Laurie, I am not an anime person, so I have no suggestions. But I did just add this thread in the sidebar under the No Cabin Fever For Us section.
I don’t know if anyone is still going to that section for interesting things to do, but if they are, they will find your post and all the wonderful suggestions that I feel certain will be added.
Curt
I just rewatched YOUR NAME last night. Really looking forward to digging into all the Ghibli on HBOMax. Rewatched MADOKA recently and it was as great as I remembered. I think I’m gonna bail on YOUR LIE IN APRIL.
eclare
Leto
Elfen Lied: Lucy – a beautiful, young mutant – is bred by the government to be the ultimate weapon. Armed with unfathomable powers, she escapes her handlers; however, she loses her memory in the process.
Fruits Basket: Fruits Basket tells the story of Tohru Honda, an orphan girl who, after meeting Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Soma, learns that twelve members of the Soma family are possessed by the animals of the Chinese zodiac (十二支, Jūnishi) and are cursed to turn into their animal forms when they are weak, stressed, or when they are embraced by anyone of the opposite sex that is not possessed by a zodiacal spirit. As the series progresses, Tohru learns of the hardships and pain faced by the afflicted Somas, and through her own generous and loving nature, helps heal their emotional wounds. As she learns more about Yuki, Kyo, and the rest of the mysterious Soma family, Tohru also learns more about herself and how much others care for her.
Gunslinger Girls: Set in modern Italy, the series focuses on young cybernetic girls and their adult male handlers who use them as assassins under the directions of a government organization
Amazon Prime has a pretty decent selection of anime to choose from, which I just discovered.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I’d recommend Neon Genesis Evangelion. Very psychological and a clever deconstruction of the Mecha genre as well as shonen in general. And giant robots.
Aside from that, I would also recommend the original Dragon Ball. Honestly, you can’t beat it. Before power levels and the manga turning into the Goku and Vegeta Show, DB came from mysticism, adventure, an emphasis on martial arts, as well as occasionally problematic gag-based humor. Gag humor is of course Akira Toriyama’s strength and it really shines in DB and the early manga
Greenergood
Have seen a few Miyazaki films and really liked them, but my otherwise few encounters with anime, either film or static, leave me meh. It’s the big doe eyes – they creep me out. But I am an old, and remember cartoons in the early 60s in NY ‘Here he comes Speed Racer’ and ‘Tobor (sp?) the Space Man’ which were early Japanese imports (I think). Anyone else here on BJ who can fill in the memory gap??
Leto
@Greenergood: Speedracer is a hall of fame classic, even if it’s hilariously bad. Here’s your other: Tobor the 8th Man Original TV Series Anime Vol. 1 [Remastered & Restored]
Nostalgia hit for ya: Tobor The 8th Man Opening Theme Song
ThresherK
I am very new on anime. My list of things I want to watch grows exponentially to the rate of finishing things.
My wife doesn’t know how much of the series she wants to watch, but after we saw Metropolis and Princess Mononoke in the theater, library DVDs of Ghibli are an easy sell.
Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a hoot and a half, yet sweet at the same time.
sdhays
@Curt: I was looking forward to Weathering with You coming to the US, but there don’t seem to be any streaming options yet. It had a limited showing in February and I was given to believe it would be coming in a bigger way later, but with COVID-19, all bets are off.
Llelldorin
Kaguya-sama: Love is War is a fun recent anime.
A Place Further than the Universe is amazing.
Hyouka is wonderful.
There are many, many others.
Anne Laurie
@Curt: YOUR LIE IN APRIL was a hair overwrought for my tastes, but the Spousal Unit (classical fanatic) loved it! High school music geeks working towards the national competition, complete with tons of piano / violin duets…
I felt it did redeem itself by the last couple of episodes, but it would’ve been better if the scheduling format had allowed the series to be just a few eps shorter, with less padding to fill the time slot.
It does require a tolerance for adolescent angst, when every emotion is very very intense!!!!!
Greenergood
@Leto: thank you!! I’ve not listened yet but I think I can pretty much remember every lyric of Todor’s theme song, so this will be fun. To see if I’m right. And look forward to Speedracer, my baby brother’s favourite cartoon then!!
sdhays
@Leto: This isn’t anime, but it is Japanese: Massage Detective Joe. It’s really stupid and absurd, and hilarious. Definitely not for all tastes, but we enjoyed watching it in the evenings when our newborn was nursing. It’s on Amazon Prime.
Llelldorin
Patema Inverted is a fun old-school sci-fi film.
Anything at all that started as a Tomihiko Morimi novel (Eccentric Family, Tatami Galaxy, Night is Short; Walk on Girl) is going to number among my favorites, but that might be my personal tastes more than anything else.
Silver Spoon is outstanding.
piratedan
oh cripes…. give me a moment, I have to go find my soapbox….
(step, step, step, step… clunk) stepping on the soapbox, damn my knees hurt, probably because they need to be replaced.
#1 – fully support the Anohana recommendation, bleepingly chock full of the feels
#2 – can pile on to the Miyazaki call out as well, stunningly lush visual vehicles that are dazzling to behold with sweet and bittersweet storytelling.
Now, I’ll relate some of my favorite movies and series because I can and its a somewhat lazy Saturday afternoon… remember, this is all ymmv stuff and one person’s wheelhouse is another person’s wtf were you thinking, so read up some to ensure that these would work for you…
It’s been around a while now, but STILL, one of the best series for character development, storytelling and the integrating of visuals and soundtracks is Cowboy Bebop (series 26 ep or the Movie as a full length side story) one of those rare series where its good with either the subtitles or the dub. Solar System wide bounty hunters (an eclectic mix of characters) bringing to justice both big fish and small fry. Hard to go wrong with any series that employ a super-smart Corgi as a character.
For additional teen angst with a message… Silver Spoon, as it wrestles with the fallout of an academic crack-up and what takes place when a guy who shoots for the top and fails, decides to go to school at an agricultural school because he thinks it’ll be easy… Then he starts to find out just how much science and math is involved and starts to really understand, where his food comes from.
From the “I can’t believe that they used this as a premise to a story bin”, is Mysterious Girlfriend X. Where you’re unsure if the girlfriend in question is an alien, a destined to be encounter or just one of those happy coincidences (if you believe in those). Our hero is fascinated by the tired young lady in his classroom and is weirdly drawn to taste the drool puddle on her desk. Once having dipped a fated finger and tasting it, he’s somehow connected to her and they have to explore the repercussions of said act. It’s drawn in an old style format, yet manages to incorporate some luridly striking dreamlike sequences. The story telling is good, characters have agency, so while the premise is a tad out there, it’s like a Steven King story, once you dip your toes into the plausibility, it takes you to unexpected places.
as for films, I’ll drop two suggestions…
if you sample these and find them entertaining, feel free to ping me again.
ThresherK
@Leto: I don’t remember Tobor from my childhood like I do Speed Racer.
But I do want to tangent into an appreciation for the effort and craft which goes into many of the anime OPs and EDs, which often are created anew each season.
Here’s Mother’s Basement reviewing two OPs from Kaguya-Sama (Love is War).
sdhays
@WaterGirl: I just want to thank you for doing this kind of thing! Just yesterday I went looking up the thread awhile back on mysteries and I remembered you had put all the suggestions in a nice list. Really useful!
Anne Laurie
@Leto: Fruits Basket is great, too! (The title refers to the teenage heroine’s feeling that she is ‘an onigiri rice ball in a gift basket of fruit — useful, but forever out of place.)
I think it’s a little too ‘Japanese’ to be a great introduction to anime for Americans, though; if you’re not used to the conventions of the genre, a lot of the details are going to pull you out of the story…
jonas
I’m not a huge anime guy, though I was a big Robotech fan in my middle school years. My teenage kids luuuuuv this one series that follows the corny dramas of this high school volleyball team or something, but I’ve never been able to get into it. One exception for me has been the Godzilla trilogy directed by Kobun Shizuno. This Netflix series is set in a future where the Godzilla monsters — modeled on the recent film series, but way more menacing and badass — have taken over Earth and forced the planet’s last human inhabitants to abandon it for space, a la “Wall-E”. Fast forward tens of thousands of years — an advance team tries to return and recolonize earth, only to find the monsters are still alive. Anyway, there’s this kind of cool subplot involving these kind of religious prophet-like aliens who have their own reasons for wanting to recolonize Earth, and they have to contend with a group of indigenous humans that have remained behind, etc.
Apparently, hardcore anime fans are have not been that impressed by it, but I thought it was pretty darn cool.
Curt
@sdhays: That does look good! I hope it comes to a streaming service soon.
Curt
@Anne Laurie: I don’t mind intense, something about it just isn’t connecting for me. Another series I preferred was WOTAKOI: LOVE IS HARD FOR OTAKU.
eclare
@sdhays: I think M^4 saw Weathering With You and recommended it.
Anne Laurie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Oh, lordie — those are both classics of the genre, BUT… Neon Genesis Evangelion was one of the first series I watched, and it almost turned me off anime entirely! Sooo much emotional (and physical) violence, and a deeply unsatisfactory ending, IMO.
Which is, unfortunately, a trademark of the Gainax studio; I really enjoyed both His & Her Circumstances (high school romance) and Wolf’s Rain (shapeshifters in a dystopian future), but they collapsed completely in the final arcs.
As for Dragon Ball… I think you have to be exposed to that at a young age to really appreciate it. Because it is a classic in its fashion, it’s one of the ‘bad stereotype’ series I mentioned — people run across one or another random episodes, and there’s just too much backstory to catch a casual watcher’s attention. But that’s just me, of course!
Also, let’s be honest: Neither of those series are exactly ‘relief from the current unpleasant reality’, are they?
Curt
@piratedan: Yes to PAPRIKA! Really outstanding.
Emma
I know I mentioned this in the Netflix thread that WaterGirl put up a while back, but Carole and Tuesday is amazing, especially for music lovers. Anything else by Watanabe Shinichiro is also excellent; Kids on the Slope is about high schoolers playing jazz in the ’60s, if I remember correctly.
Edit: I still haven’t watched it, but I’ve heard great things about Violet Evergarden. It’s on the serious side, though
Edit 2: for all the Cowboy Bebop fans, Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts and a bunch of other musicians got together (remotely) to do Tank! back in April: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VsgkIE-RHg&ab_channel=SEATBELTS
Gravenstone
@Leto:
As does Hulu, if you subscribe there. And of course Netflix. I actually subscribe to the major anime streamers as well (Crunchyroll, Funimation and HiDive) just for completeness.
Suggestions:
Violet Evergarden Netflix exclusive. Violet is a teen war orphan who starts as a nearly emotionless automaton. Over the course of the series (and an OVA and two movies – one releasing soon) she learns how to experience and express emotions as she strives to understand the last words from her commanding officer, “I love you”. Absolutely visually stunning work from Kyoto Animation. There will be tears.
Re:Creators Amazon exclusive. A somewhat meta reverse isekai concept where various “creations” from popular in world games, manga and anime are brought into our world.
A Certain Magical Index and its companion series A Certain Magical Railgun Hulu among others. Takes place in Academy City, a city with technology several decades in advance of contemporary Japan. The world has actual magic (based on various organized religions) facing off against “Espers” created by the advanced technology. Index follows a protagonist from the religious side, and Railgun the scientific. There are three seasons (24-25 episodes each, although Railgun 3 is on hiatus until 7/31 due to covid). And many of the episodes cover the same stories but from differing focuses. Since there are so many episodes, a recommended approach would be Index season 1, Railgun seasons 1 and 2, then Index 2 and 3. A lot of Railgun 3 falls between Index 2 and 3, so it could probably be viewed prior to returning to Index as well.
Wotokoi, Love is Hard for Otaku, Amazon exclusive. A very cute yet surprisingly realistic take on the challenges of dating as young adults who are anime or gaming enthusiasts, and as such shunned by more “normal” Japanese.
O Maidens in Your Savage Seasons, HiDive exclusive, but easily worth getting a freebie trial subscription. A smart coming of age tale of five female high school students coming to terms with their growing interest in sex against the backdrop of the more conservative Japanese culture. Written by Mari Okada (Anohana and Maquia among oh so many other notable credits).
A Place Farther than the Universe, Crunchyroll exclusive. Another tale of four high school age girls coming together to help one of their number to make the “impossible” journey to Antarctica, where her mother was lost on a previous expedition a few years prior. Visually arresting and obviously emotional. Another “worth the freebie sub” title.
Bofuri title is a portmanteau. Actually title is painfully long; various platforms. A very cute story of a novice gamer joining (and breaking) and new MMO fantasy game by setting all her stats to avoid taking damage.
Girls Last Tour, Amazon and HiDive. A surprisingly charming tale of two girls on a journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
I’ll stop here, because otherwise I am likely to go forever.
Yutsano
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Do NOT watch the Netflix dub! It’s horrible. Even if you have to go on a fan site, watch the original ADV dub*. There is much more heart and care put in by the voice actors and the director.
*This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that the original dub voice for Asuka is an acquaintance of mine.
Hazumu Osaragi
Since no one mentioned it: Haibane Renmei. A meditation on trust and redemption. A tear-jerker of subtle and profound power.
For those who want to know more about the series and the plot, Wikipedia has a spoiler-filled article on Haibane Renmei, while more information can be gleaned from the entry at TV Tropes.
Best watched pre-spoiler, though. You’ll know you’re hooked (or not) after watching the first episode.
Gravenstone
@sdhays: Waiting for Weathering with You and I Want to Eat Your Pancreas to finally come to streaming, somewhere.
Your Name is available through Funimation (subbed and dubbed) and is absolutely beautiful. I also greatly enjoyed a shorter, even more visually striking Shinkai effort, Garden of Words (available on Netflix now).
Curt
@Leto: Elfen Lied is definitely on my to-watch list. I’ve started it more than once, and can’t for the life of me understand why I haven’t watched it through yet. It’s right up my alley.
Uninvited Guest
Just finished Death Parade. A pretty little hidden gem that does a real good job of showcasing characters with multiple sides of them in a remarkably short amount of time. I would overall categorize it as hopeful, but some nasty subject matter does pop up here and there, so be warned. Made by Mad House, if that name means anything to you.
FLCL got me back into anime years ago. It’s very weird, but it’s short, and I adore this sort of aimless, adolescent melancholy that it manages to portray perfectly between big stretches of silliness. Plus the music kicks ass.
Anything directed by the late, great Satoshi Kon is high quality, though his stories tend to have overly simplistic sort of scolding morals that can be a bit much to take. And of course anything Ghibli.
piratedan
@Anne Laurie: the first 12-13 episodes of His and Her Circumstances/Kare Kano are absolutely awesome, then the studio apparently lost interest and the rest of the episodes were somewhat less than, but those first 12 episodes are incredible. Another awesome soundtrack.
Glidwrith
@WaterGirl: I also want to thank you for that listing. I passed it along to Mr. Glidwrith who then passed it to his whole organization of folks who work extensively with kids and were going nuts worrying about the children in their care. It helped. A lot. Thank you.
Curt
@Anne Laurie: I already loved anime when I first watched EVANGELION, and it was still a real watershed for me. US TV still didn’t have serious serial storytelling like that, so just watching a story that big was amazing. The mood suited me at the time. The weird use of religious elements intrigued me. Cruel Angel’s Thesis/Fly Me To the Moon!!! After I binged it myself, I got my brother to binge it with me. He’s not as into anime as I am, but it still blew him away and was one of our big adult bonding experiences.
RepubAnon
Another movie: Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind
Uninvited Guest
@Hazumu Osaragi:
Yes, Haibane Renmei. Do yourself a favor and check out this amv with that show and Voltaire’s Feathery Wings. It’s why I checked out that series in the first place.
Anne Laurie
Actually, those early black-and-white series on a public NYC channel were my original introduction to the genre, too!
‘Tobor the Space Man’ was 8 Man in the original Japanese. Do you remember Astro Boy, which was very similar in style?
Or The Amazing Three? Kimba, the White Lion (which Disney ripped off for Lion King)? Marine Boy?
To tell the truth, apart from their nostalgia value, from what I’ve seen on YouTube et al… none of those series hold up very well today. Which may be why the couple of modern movie remakes (Speed Racer, Astro Boy) didn’t do very well at the box office, even with top-quality actors and directors behind them…
Yutsano
@Leto: One note: Fruits Basket is being remade almost shot for shot through the first season. That was all that got made but the anime studio has committed to animating the whole manga which went on for YEARS. So that’s going to be a series that will be enjoyed for a long time.
My personal recommendation: Ascendance of a Bookworm. It’s almost a deconstruction of the isekai genre. A total book nerd dies in an earthquake. She asks whatever spirit that controls reincarnation to make her next life surrounded by books. No spoilers but she doesn’t exactly get what she asks for. Might be slow for some but if you like a slice of life with a twist you’ll definitely enjoy this series.
piratedan
@Emma: Kids on the slope was a pretty decent series imho, mixed in some themes about faith and religion in Japan and how the faith that you carried had an impact on how you fit into Japanese society (at that time). They adored Jazz obviously and there is more than one really awesome musically themed series out there… I thought Beck and even K-ON, were really representative of how music could impact your life and change you. I know that there are others and secondly, TANK! is still (imho) one of the most awesome anime openings ever, but maybe because it is just that iconic.
Steeplejack
I don’t know if it has hit a streaming service yet, but I saw Weathering with You in the theater in January and highly recommend it. (Feature film, not series.) Slightly “doesn’t quite convey it” trailer here. The movie is not saturated with the J-pop soundtrack.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
What, three dozen comments in, and no-ones mentioned the mother of all mechanical anime’s, Mobile Suit Gundam?!?
not sure where this is now available on the internets but 1) it’s insane to believe this was animated before computers, and 2) while it’s anti-war, it’s also WWII from the Japanese perspective. Yes, Zeon is wrong. But even though violence is not the answer, Zeon represents the rebellion of the oppressed against the establishment’s insistence on maintaining the power imbalance between Earth and the colonized worlds….also the Gundams are really really cool.
Anne Laurie
@sdhays: Amazon claims Weathering with You will be released in September, if that’s an option for you.
Similar movies: Wolf Children and Summer Wars. And if that’s your taste, give Kamichu! or Anohana a try — same gentle, yet strongly felt, aesthetic.
bmoak
I don’t watch nearly as much anime as I used to, and haven’t invested in Crunchyroll or any of the anime-specialized streaming services. I’m also at a point where I prefer shorter series. I’ll just list my faves that are CURRENTLY on Netflix. These are all relatively newer shows.
Kakegurui: Means gambling-crazy in English, and this show is completely over the top in premise and execution. It’s set at an elite private high school filled with scions of the richest and most powerful families in Japan and it’s one of those school shows with an All-Powerful Student Council the protagonist must work their way through. The twist is that this school is based on high-stakes gambling and students either end up on top or end up as lowly “pets”. Netflix also has the live-action version of this show and it’s only slightly less over the top.
The Devil is a Part-Timer!: In a magical world where angelic and demonic forces are in a titanic struggle, the bad guys lose. The infernal leader, face with the downfall of his forces, escaped to Earth. On non-magical Earth, he has no powers and looks like an ordinary teenaged boy. He comes to the realization that corporations have the true power on earth and decides to work his way to the top from the bottom, just like he did in the demon realm. He starts by taking a part-time job at fast food restaurant chain. Yes, it’s a comedy.
Children of The Whale: I saw this a while ago and was surprised it’s still there. It doesn’t show up on the menu unless you really dig for it. I’t s a relatively short fantasy series about the inhabitants of a magically powered stone ship-city (the “whale of the title) on an endless cruise along a vast desert “sea”. They’ve been in isolation for generations, but that changes in the series.
Carole & Tuesday: Possibly the best anime series on Netflix. It was created by the director of Cowboy Be-Bop. It’s nominally science fiction about two teenagers from different backgrounds becoming musical sensations on Mars while defying both hateful anti-immigration prejudice and the chew ’em up, spit ’em out nature of the music industry. The music is surprisingly not J-Pop.
Hi-Score Girl: An oddball friendship/budding romance story set over several years in the mid-90s at the height of Japan’s video arcade boom. A video game obsessed boy and a girl from a wealthy accomplished family who runs off to the arcade to escape the pressure.
Emma
Oh yeah, I just remembered a short series that made me laugh my ass off, as someone who studied Latin and classical history in high school and college: Thermae Romae. Roman architect time-travels to modern Japanese bathhouses and draws inspiration from them. It apparently also got turned into 2 live-action movies???
sdhays
@Anne Laurie: Oh, that’s exciting! Thanks!
miserybob
I think our taste in Anime aren’t similar, but here are some that folks might like:
Netflix: Megalobox – cool, gritty, hip boxing anime about a kid who eschews cyborg boxing enhancements and tries to make it to the top.
Attack on Titan – Epic, ultraviolent, an apocalyptic battle against giant cannibals
Amazon Prime: Girls Last Tour – two girls tooling around a dead world in a little tank, just trying to make it to the next day. Way more cute and heart-warming than it sounds.
Made in Abyss – A girl finds a robot boy and they go dungeon spelunking.
Crunchyroll: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime – fun, clever take on the ‘office worker transported into fantasy realm’ theme.
My Hero Academia – one of the most fun anime currently running. In a world where most people have super powers, a boy who has none acquires the strongest power of all and joins a super-hero academy.
Kino’s Journey – A boy and his sentient motorcycle travel through a dangerous world. I think there are three of these… I watched them a long time ago, but they’ve stuck with me as really enjoyable.
Anyway, it’s such a fun genre with so many different styles and stories!
Thanks for this thread!
Anne Laurie
@Llelldorin: Those look intriguing!
As you say, there are sooo many good options… trying just to keep up sometimes feels like trying to read all the books in a public library…
Isua
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood! It has about four hundred characters and each of them actually has their own motivation and goals, they’re not accessories to the main characters’ quest. I adore it. And it’s about who counts as a person (everyone. Even empty suits of armor with a soul attached? Yup. Everyone.)
Made In Abyss, about a girl and robot boy descending into a Wonderland that wants to kill them, in search of her explorer mother. Fun and heartbreaking and great music.
My husband is yelling from the next room about how Konosuba is the funniest thing ever. He has like three plastic figurines of the explosive main character so I’ll assume he knows whereof he speaks
Yuru Camp! Cute girls go camping at lakes around Mount Fuji and enjoy hot springs, excellent camp cooking, beautiful views, and trying out sleeping bags. Very relaxing.
piratedan
@Uninvited Guest: agreed that The Pillows music selected for the series is plainly awesome, Ride on Shooting Star is a magnificent hooky tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he0IUiWKxaU
Unsure if you’ve seen them, but Excel Saga, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, and School Rumble have a similar wacky aesthetic to FLCL
I would also suggest Azumanga Diaoh as being great fun
NotMax
Haven’t yet read thread (power just came back on, was out for 90+ minutes) so apologies if already mentioned.
Not an anime person, however have heard positive comments about the streaming services Crunchyroll and VRV when it comes to the genre from those who are into it.
Emma
@piratedan: I have to admit, apart from Carole and Tuesday (because Watanabe Shinichiro is a “stop everything and watch” director for me), I stopped watching anime years ago. I recognize Beck and K-On, but never watched them or read the manga. I guess I have the time now to dive into anime and manga again lol.
@bmoak: fun fact about Carole and Tuesday: it takes place in the same universe and around the same time as Cowboy Bebop :) Watanabe is definitely not a J-pop kind of guy. Pretty easy to tell from his work, but he’s always been a jazz (Cowboy Bebop, Kids on the Slope), hip hop (Samurai Champloo), and I guess ’70s and ’80s western rock fan, judging by the episode titles of C&T.
Gravenstone
@bmoak: Devil is a Part Timer so needs a second season.
piratedan
@Emma: K-On has more of a J-Pop feel to it, Beck is straight ahead rock and roll. Both I think do a decent job of telling stories, both big and small. Beck is certainly the more mature of the two.
NotMax
Will mention one now older title only due to the unusual nature of the story coupled with a haunting score (although as they ran out of money, the closure is kind of a rushed affair) – Please Save My Earth .
Leto
@Yutsano: had to step away for a bit but came back to this! Oh man, Avalune and I will be eternal happy campers if they do a ton more Fruits Basket.
@Anne Laurie: for an anime intro, I think I’d recommend Robotech, though with a bit of reservation. The animation is noticeably dated. An annoying character or two? Yes. The story though, it’s still solid. Strong female lead characters that in no way depend on the men to get things done. Giant robots. Doesn’t shy away from killing it’s characters (I saw this as it first aired in 1985, so I was 9. Killing off main characters? HOOOOLY SHIT was that a mind blower considering the other cartoons that were on Saturday morning). Gender play. Very strong anti-war message. I mean, tons of things packed into a “kids” show.
It’s on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Penty
If you like the above you should try Dennou Coil. “In 2026, eleven years after the introduction of internet-connected augmented reality eyeglasses and visors, Yūko Okonogi moves with her family to the city of Daikoku, the technological center of the emerging half-virtual world. Yūko joins her grandmother’s “investigation agency” made up of children equipped with virtual tools and metatags. As their research turns up mounting evidence of children who have been whisked away to the mysterious “other side” of reality, they find themselves entangled in a conspiracy to cover up the dangerous true nature and history of the new technology. ” from wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD1WMzMlBQo
Brachiator
Same here. My stepson loved Robotech when he was a kid, but otherwise I do not know the genre well.
I will take some notes and maybe dip into some of this later on, when work assignments slow.
ETA: I enjoyed Robotech also. My younger brothers and sister were really into Speed Racer, Tobor, and similar fare.
Anne Laurie
@Llelldorin: Wow, I love the Silver Spoon manga (Spousal Unit is the manga reader here), and not just because I have fond memories of an agricultural college. Hadn’t realized it had been released as an anime, too!
Gravenstone
@Leto: The current iteration of Fruits Basket is supposed to encompass the entire run of the manga. I believe it runs through this season (September).
Anne Laurie
@piratedan: Knew I could count on you for good suggestions!
piratedan
@Anne Laurie: the first two seasons of Silver Spoon have been. The manga just finished (maybe one episode/epilogue left. Unsure if they plan to make the end of the series into another season.
Llelldorin
@Anne Laurie: It’s one of my all-time favorites, in either form.
My wife had already read the manga when the anime came out (she’s a huge Hiromu Arakawa fan). I’d seen previews and was also looking forward to it. The funny thing is we only found out that we’d both been waiting for the same series as we watched the first episode!
Llelldorin
@bmoak: The Devil is a Part-Timer is another favorite of mine—fantastic recommendation.
eddie blake
@Anne Laurie:
the speed racer adaptation was actually a really good movie with a lot to say about capitalism, though it was just soaked in neon, high-speed chases and races.
good stuff though. wachowski sisters.
eddie blake
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
i was gonna get there.
huge fan of tomino’s work. so glad he got the help he needed. first gundam doesn’t really hold up today due to the art, but they did a miniseries about the rise of zeon and char’s life. it was magnificently drawn. if only they coulda remade the entire original show.
Xentik
I want to second some recommendations first:
A Place further than the Universe – This is a really sweet story that avoids all the pointless teen drama that a lot of the shows have.
Violet Evergarden: If you are into animation at all, the guys at Kyoto Animation pulled out all the stops for this show. Their original trailer actually included a hand-animated typewriter, which is insanely complex to achieve. It’s truly a loss that many of the staff that worked on this died in the attack on KyoAni’s studio by an arsonist.
FLCL: Another show with fantastic animation by the guys at Gainax. The show was done as a way to blow off steam after the depressing mind-f*** that was working on Neon Genesis Evangelion. The plot is crazy and very surreal, breaks the fourth wall continuously, and borrows from various animation styles (including South Park at one point) throughout the series. Despite the fact that there are only 6 episodes, I’ve found new things every time I’ve rewatched the series (a half-dozen times now). Additionally, I would rate the soundtrack, done by the Pillows, as one of the best I’ve heard in an Anime.
Everything ever done by Shinichiro Watanabe (e.g. Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo): He has a taste for tying music and animation together in ways that elevate both. Pretty much mints classics.
Which brings me to other recommendations:
Space Dandy: The first episode of this is directed Shinichiro Watanabe, and lives up to his other works. Each episode thereafter is directed by another famous animator, and as such each episode is a unique work of art. The show is, as the theme song clearly states, about a Dandy in Space. It is surreal, irreverent and hilarious.
Run with the Wind: Watching this I had the feeling of watching a really good documentary. It’s a story about a running club in a university that decides to try to qualify for and compete in a famous Japanese marathon. It’s slow at the beginning, but by the end of the series I found myself cheering them on as they compete in the race.
Keep your hands off Eizouken!: A short series about three young girls that form an animation club at their high school and attempt to put together an anime. It’s very meta, very cute, and an interesting view at what goes into producing anime.
Stars Align: This is ostensibly a story about a tennis club, but is really a story about interpersonal relationships and familial relationships in Japan. This show does *NOT* pull any punches about the forms of abuse that occur in families, and explores a wide range of dysfunctions as part of the show. It also explores a lot about gender identity and sexuality and teenagers coming to terms with that, which is something not usually discussed in Japan. But seriously, TRIGGER WARNING on this show for physical abuse of children by parents in a couple episodes.
Made in Abyss: Someone came up with the coolest setting ever for a fantasy story, a giant pit called the “Abyss” which adventurers head down into to find relics and treasure. The story follows orphan kids who want to head down into the Abyss, and is super cutesy in the beginning and a lot of fun. It gets pretty dark about mid way through the season, but the story is truly fantastic.
bmoak
@Anne Laurie:
Silver Spoon was on Netflix, which is where I saw it, but isn’t there now. (I checked.). One of my fave fish-out-of-water comedies.
Gravenstone
@Xentik: Stars Align unfortunately fell victim to the studio pulling funding. So they ended up cutting the planned number of episodes in half.
Anne Laurie
@jonas: Volleyball: Haikyu!!! ? I know the Spousal Unit reads the manga — although he prefers Crimson Hero — but we’ll have to check out the anime, too.
Here is a link for the Godzilla series you mention, if anyone’s interested.
Gravenstone
@bmoak:
Loooks like it’s available on Crunchyroll and Funimation. Because.moe is a good site to find where assorted anime are streaming.
Paul T
I was dragged to Cowboy Bebop through a teenage son of a friend who had the DVD’s and the movie, etc…….He has to put up with his movie fan elders lecturing him on “things you have to watch,” so when he pressed this towards me with the same vigor I’d push some film toward him, I was a bit surprised. And, holy cow, he was right. The animation was spectacular fun to watch, the stories (once I got over myself) were excellent. The movie was enjoyable……I was very sad when the series ended. Highly recommended. I’m an old, and I love my Swordfish II t-shirt.
pinacacci
Agree with all recommendations; would like to add Grave of the Fireflies if you don’t mind your heart being ripped out of your chest.
For lighter fare, I scrolled quickly so possibly missed it but I loooooved Baccano!, and slightly less than loved Durarara! and Steins:Gate. All three twisty, intricate plotting, large cast, time travel oh my so much going on and then satisfying endings.
I also liked KK, which is on Netflix right now, not too deep but has its moments.
But mostly I want to recommend the wild ride that is Baccano!
Adam L Silverman
@WaterGirl: We got to a live action shot of Anne Laurie introducing WaterGirl to anime…//
via Gfycat
Anne Laurie
@Curt: Ooh, Wotakoi sounds like a must-find!
Have you seen (or read) Genshiken yet? It’s about a group of otaku misfits finding ‘their people’ at the college club the cobble together. And it’s so lovingly familiar to my (our) own college experiences I sometimes have to watch through my fingers! (S.U. and I first met at our college’s sf / Star Trek / Tolkien Fellowship groups, which had a lot of member overlap. That was 40 years ago, but apparently while the technology might change, us otaku nerds don’t… )
Xentik
@Gravenstone: Yeah, this was disappointing. I’m holding out hope that Netflix will pick it up, since they seem to have someone very talented curating their collection. It has gained a strong following outside of Japan due to its LGBTQ+ friendly plot/characters.
Adam L Silverman
I don’t watch much anime, but for those who want a complete story arc across multiple movies, I highly recommend the DC Animated Movies that begin with Flashpoint Paradox. Sometimes referred to as the Tuckerverse for DC Animation’s James Tucker. This video does a pretty good job of providing the timeline and viewing order:
And while not part of this timeline, I’d also recommend Justice League Vs The Fatal Five even though that is in the Bruce Timm animated continuity sometimes referred to as the Timmverse.
bmoak
@Gravenstone:
I’m sure it’s around somewhere. I just don’t have those streaming services, and I doubt Anne Laurie does either.
Ridley
Pretty much all I do lately is watch anime. I don’t really go here, but if I can add my suggestions:
Hulu:
Yona of the Dawn – Fantasy set in something like Korea. Princess witnesses her cousin murder her father and goes on the run with her bodyguard. Action, adventure, and a little romance.
Noragami – A homeless minor god befriends a high school girl after she’s injured trying to save him from a bus. An urban fantasy with a good mix of comedy and drama.
My Love Story – Wholesome af romcom about a gentle giant and the petite girl who loves to bake him sweets.
Snow White with the Red Hair – Fairytale romance for all ages about a prince and a redheaded herbalist.
Assassination Classroom – This one is like Fruits Basket in that the premise sounds totally Anime Weird, but you’d be surprised how sweet and emotional a show about training a middle school class in assassination to kill their teacher can be.
Kono Oto Tomare – High school koto club wants to go to nationals. Beautiful music and a good balance of comedy and drama with a hint of romance.
Amazon Prime:
Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku – Workplace romcom about a variety of adult nerds.
Library War – Like a mix of Fahrenheit 451 and Full Metal Panic, it’s about a military force that protects books and libraries from destruction.
Dororo – A teenage boy befriends a younger boy while wandering feudal Japan and fighting demons to get his body back.
Netflix:
Cells at Work – The immune system imagined as a battle shounen. Fun and the science seems solid.
Dorohedoro – Horror comedy about a world of mages and the world of non-mages they treat like a playground.
Violet Evergarden – If you like the look of Victorian period dramas and you like to cry, this is for you.
Adam L Silverman
@Ridley:
This never stops anyone else!
bmoak
@Adam L Silverman:
Hey, Adam. Are you watching Stargirl on DC Streaming/The CW? I’m a huge JSA fan and I am really liking it.
Anne Laurie
@Emma: You guys are giving me sooo many additions to my must-watch list!
Have you seen Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad? Despite the unpromising title, it’s great fun: A riff on high-schoolers who want to be the Next Cool Thing in rock stardom, created by an artist as his personal hommage to… the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Recommended even to non-anime watchers, but it is incredibly difficult to describe in a single paragraph…
Gravenstone
@pinacacci: Where can you find Baccano!, aside from buying on DVD?
snarlymon
One anime that hasn’t been mentioned is One Punch Man which follows Saitima, an unlikely hero who can defeat any opponent with one punch. I think it’s a great satire on the superhero genre, with humor and enough plot twists to keep the series interesting. It is a light view but does have some great observations, especially when his greatest opponent arrives in the final several episodes.
Season one is on Netflix while season two, which I have yet to see, is on Hulu (I believe)
eddie blake
yeah. i like a lot of anime. old school fan. was getting unlabeled vhs’ wrapped in brown paper in the ’80’s, where you hadda go and get a magazine like protoculture addicts or newtype to get a precis of the plot as most of the movies and shows we were getting had no subtitles.
but yeah.
films? a few i’ve seen and really liked: akira is great and essential. ditto ghost in the shell. the second ghost in the shell is one of the most beautiful movies i’ve ever seen. area 88. megazone 23 parts I and II. wings of honneamise. grave of the fireflies. (very depressing but great) paprika (hell yeah.) char’s counterattack. nausicaa of the valley of the wind. my neighbor totoro (of course). castle in the sky. princess mononoke. spirited away. ponyo. vampire hunter D: bloodlust. ninja scroll. memories. jin roh: the wolf brigade. Metropolis. Kite (very hardcore.) blood: the last vampire. steamboy. wicked city.
definite agreement on cowboy bebop. that’s a very good show. watanabe also made samurai champloo. the ghost in the shell: stand alone complex stuff was really good, and they made a few features out of them. i’m a huge fan of tomino’s work, the stuff he did on gundam defined an era and created a genre. the first gundam doesn’t really hold up but the SECOND one does, mobile suit: zeta gundam, from ’85. good shit. gundam shows are like star trek shows. they’re hit or miss, depending on your tastes. and there are so many of them, MS gundam is known as the star trek of japan. good shit in there. there’s a recent one, gundam: iron blooded orphans that is on netflix and i think amazon and is just outstanding. there are a few other gundam shows on hulu.
anyway. yeah. i like anime. anime is good.
NotMax
Oh, dusty brain cells sparked.
For history-based (and autobiographical), Barefoot Gen.
For a landmark of the genre, Akira.
For (how to phrase this?) remorseless hard core, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend.
oatler.
Belladonna of Sadness. Pure 1973 psychedelia.
bmoak
@Emma:
Cowboy Bebop bragging rights! I have a CD of the soundtrack signed by Yoko Kanno.
eddie blake
@Adam L Silverman:
did you get into the DCAU? (that’s what the timmverse is known as in the nerd-verse)
yeah, i liked the movies they did, dc animation has been doing some stellar work since the mask of the phantasm. the animated movies have certainly been better than the bulk of dc’s live-action stuff.
Gravenstone
@NotMax: Saw a couple days ago where the original creator of Akira is involved in a possible remake. Potentially as a series said to more closely follow the source material. I for one am intrigued by the prospect.
piratedan
@pinacacci: I will second your recs, all three series can be great fun, with distinctive characters…
There’s loads of good stuff out there , but just like regular programming, its a matter of what kinds of shows appeal to you..
for love stories there’s stuff like Toradora!, for those who enjoy a fantasy genre scenario, Full Metal Alchemist, would be a good fit. For those who enjoy their horror.. I would point to Higurashi no Naku Koro. For others that want something foreign but steeped in Japanese culture, Hikaru no go. The scary thing is that there are so many awesome titles, there’s also a fair bit of dreck, so its just like anything else, find something that speaks to you and enjoy.
eddie blake
@bmoak:
stargirl is top-notch.
Adam L Silverman
@bmoak: It’s in the queue. I’ve read good things about it. It is going solely to CW next year. Or whenever they’ll be able to film season 2.
Adam L Silverman
@bmoak: I’m still two seasons behind on all the other CW DC shows at this point. But given there won’t be any new TV for a while, I’ll have plenty of time to catch up.
NotMax
@Gravenstone
Yeah, while the movie was fine for what it was (some rather major changes dictated by limitations of time and budget), the original manga stands head and shoulders above it.
Leto
@Adam L Silverman: DC’s animation has just been superior, for so long, to Marvels. Both animation style and story. I haven’t watched the past few they put out, but I’m sure I can fix that.
Anne Laurie
@Gravenstone: Yeah, we originally subscribed to Netflix (over a decade ago) so we could watch anime before buying the sets we liked. There’s so much richness available now on various streaming services, it can be overwhelming!
Will look for Violet Evergarden; have you seen Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed?
Yutsano
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet and I’m aghast. You absolutely cannot be a lover of anime and not watch Shirobako. It’s a successor of sorts of Genshiken but it’s about an anime studio. But it’s also very much an ensemble show and no lie is one of the best anime I have ever seen. It’s still on Crunchyroll and it’s free to watch the whole series so you don’t even need an account to watch it. The only flaw is that it has never been dubbed (yet, that might change with the movie that just came out) but it is so good. Just…go watch it.
And Miyamori Ai is best girl in anime and don’t even begin to @ me about it.
bmoak
@Leto:
Ehh. I mean, Robotech literally changed my life in that it was the base point for me getting into anime and then going to Japan, but I don’t think it holds up, primarily because…
a). It’s three totally unrelated Japanese shows strung together into a really long series to get enough episodes to get a US syndication deal.
b.) The scriptwriting, translation, and dubbed voice acting are really kind of primitive compared to now. Anything in the original dub involving, say, Minmei singing makes me cringe.
Just watching Macross as a standalone would probably work better, and be 50+ episodes shorter.
Boussinesque
So happy to see Haibane Renmei already mentioned a couple times–it’s one of my favorite shows from when I was in college, and I still have my DVD box set for it kicking around somewhere. Also definitely will cosign Summer Wars and The Ascendance of a Bookworm.
A few (relatively) recent ones that I’ve enjoyed but haven’t seen mentioned yet are the following:
Aldnoah/Zero: Mecha and political drama set in the future where colonists on Mars found alien superscience and came back to try to take over Earth. They failed, but the Moon was destroyed and a fair portion of the Earth was devastated in the process. Story follows a group of high school students and their teachers who get caught up in events surrounding a goodwill/peace mission visit from the Martian princess. Main character is definitely of the “guile hero” archetype, having to outsmart and figure out ways to use the Martians’ superior tech against them.
Erased: Horror/drama anime. Main character occasionally gets deja vu, where he’s able to go back a minute or two to try to prevent something bad from happening around him. Events of the first episode have him finding himself back when he was in grade school, when several of his classmates went missing and turned up dead, and he resolves to use what he can remember to try to set things right and prevent the tragedy. As a warning, there is some graphic violence (in the present, with adults), and one of the classmates the main character is trying to save is suffering from abuse/neglect from her parents.
AICO: Incarnation: Sci-fi series with a girl on a quest to recover her real body from a facility that unleashed a biohazard-flavored mini-apocalypse several years prior. Last I checked, it was still on Netflix. It has a trailer, and I’ve found reactions to the trailer to be a pretty good indication of whether someone will enjoy it.
eddie blake
@NotMax: it’s not about the limitations of time or the budget.
the manga wasn’t even CLOSE to being finished when they put that movie together in ’88.
bmoak
@Adam L Silverman:
I would recommend just skipping to Stargirl, especially over the last two seasons of Arrow or Flash.
Adam L Silverman
@eddie blake: I watched Batman: The Animated Series/Batman: The New Adventures and Superman: The Animated Series when they aired. I’ve got all the movies. Either on DVD or digital download. Everything since about 2011 has been purchased as a digital download via iTunes.
Emma
@bmoak: what the hell, flexing on me like that ;)
Someone already mentioned Your Lie in April, and I have no idea if it’s related, but March Comes in Like a Lion is very good too. Quiet and thoughtful, like the main character.
I was just trolling through Japanese shows on Netflix, and they have an Ultraman series from 2019?!?!?! That’s my childhood! Although I waaaas scarred by that one episode where the man’s arms turned into cow legs and he ended up turning into a cow monster or something…
Gravenstone
@Anne Laurie: Not familiar with that one. Looks like it’s on HiDive (which is owned by Sentai Filmworks, who happens to license the show).
Anne Laurie
@Yutsano: Ooh, gotta get our hands on Ascendance of A Bookworm!
Think we’ve been subconsciously avoiding it because… well… we’re both trying to prune our separate book collections and joint DVD collections. And it’s going slooowly. Some 15,000 books between us, several hundred DVDs, at least 1500 manga (that’s when the S.U. stopped letting me count/catalog them), his 40-year runs of sf pulps, my ever-expanding boxes of hobby mags… sometimes it feels like a bonfire might be the easiest solution, but it would kill both of us!
aliasofwestgate
I second A Place Further Than The Universe, One Punch Man, and Noragami.
I tend to watch A Place Further Than the Universe for comfort watching kind of thing. Noragami is just pure fun with some very japanese concepts of gods, which i remain intrigued with, besides some fun as fuck music.
OPM remains funny as hell, because Saitama is just so…Saitama. His mentorship with Genos is surprisingly sweet as well.
If you don’t mind longer faire? Go to CrunchyRoll for Natsume Yuujinchou(Natsume’s Book of Friends). A very pretty and quiet shoujou about a boy who is very powerful spiritually and how he slowly emerges from isolation after finding his Grandmother’s old book of the names of local spirits/gods she tricked into signing when she was his age. It’s slice of life, with a dash of low key suspense and horror, but also amazingly sweet in the storytelling. Also, watching a cat drink and be the worst glutton ever, never gets old. (that would be his guardian, Nyanko-Sensei.) It has 6 seasons, most of them 13 ep course. So if the first doesn’t grab you, you probably won’t like the rest. But it remains one of my fave shoujou(girls anime) to this day, up there with Princess Tutu in sheer beauty and amazingness in storytelling.
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: I’m one of the people that have long been persuaded that if they put Timm and Tucker an McDuffie before he passed away in charge of the DC live action superhero movies they would have done better. As they understand the characters and have coherent visions for the story arcs and how everything connects. Even if Timm has some borderline notions regarding what to do with Barbara Gordon/Batgirl.
Adam L Silverman
@bmoak: I want to get caught up so I can watch Crisis on Infinite Earths. And to get caught up.
Boussinesque
Also, I really enjoyed Trigger’s new series, BNA, that just released on Netflix about a week ago.
aliasofwestgate
@Emma: The new Ultraman anime is based on a manga they started up a few years ago. It’s very different from the original show, but has many characters from the 66′ show, and many of the later ones as well showing up. As a watcher of the current tokusatsu (Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Garo, etc) it’s not a bad adaptation, even with the iron man type armor aspect. Season 2 is going to be on Netflix soonish. Either this month or by September by the latest i think. I’d have to double-check.
Craig
I concur, Cowboy Bebop is magical. One of the best American localizations ever, the english script writers, and voice actors really get the stories. I’m pretty sure it was a big influence on Joss Wheden’s Firefly. It’s just fantastic film making all around.
Robert Sneddon
@miserybob:
Kino in “Kino no Tabi” is actually a girl, although it’s not emphasised in either the manga or the anime.
My own suggestions…
A few folks have already mentioned Kamichu! about the Goddess of Middle School (Kami no Chuugakusei!) which is a lot of fun, and it’s set in my favourite Japanese town of Onomichi which is depicted quite accurately in the anime — I’ve been to most of the locations featured in the series.
Haibane Renmei is a masterpiece. It is not easy to explain and the animation is actually not that great but the art director was Yoshitoshi ABe so it’s a cut above most others in that regard. You will cry, guaranteed.
An older shonen (young boy) sports rival anime that’s a bit out of the ordinary, Hikaru no Go, about a schoolboy who becomes infatuated with the board game of Go, aided and abetted and hindered and mentored by the thousand-year-old ghost of a previous master of the game, Fujiwara no Sai. Drama, battle music, victory and defeat, rivals rivals everywhere! Also racism (Chinese and Korean Go players are mostly better than Japanese players, this is elided over somewhat in the anime’s plot.)
Someone else mentioned the recent series Bofuri (it’s real name is one of those isekai titles that goes on for a couple of lines), very enjoyable. The protagonist Maple is a newbie playing an immersive online game and she’s having so much fun while breaking all the limitations on what should be possible. The game devs hate her. It helps that there are no real baddies, even her opponents in the game can’t help liking her. There’s a second series promised, not out yet.
Overlord — it’s another isekai but this time the poor salaryman who gets trapped in the game world isn’t the Hero but a high-level undead skeletal monster. He is reincarnated in his old game’s Guild base (the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick) complete with high-powered minions, several of who are actually a lot smarter than he is while being totally and absolutely loyal to him as the Supreme Being and committed to his idly-expressed wish to conquer the world. Hilarity ensues, along with an incredible amount of true nastiness (human beings are not the focus of this series, generally and definitely not the top predator in the world depicted).
“GATE — thus the JMSDF fought there” is a sort-of reverse isekai, a wormhole-type gate opens up in downtown Tokyo and a fantasy army invades modern Japan to be met by modern weaponry and summarily defeated. Unfortunately for the fantasy world the army came from, the Gate stays open and Japan counter-invades. This is very Japan rah-rah-rah but it has its moments and is often actually quite funny.
Aria — there are three series out (Animation, Natural and Origination), pure and unadulterated scenery porn plus music by Choro Club. It’s set on Mars in a recreation of the city of Venice, complete with female gondoliers and yes that’s a totally silly concept but scenery porn! and music!
Flying Witch. Makoto is a witch and she flies, not very well but she’s just a beginner. More scenery porn, it’s set in Aomori province to the north-east of Tokyo, out in the country.
Speaking of the Japanese countryside, Non Non Biyori is more scenery porn. A small group of girls spend time together, sharing a one-room schoolhouse.
Dennou Coil, a world where immersive VR is everywhere and kids have build their own worlds, created their own currencies and play games in the cracks of the adult world, hacking and generally repurposing the systems they can access. Gets very weird sometimes.
Hataraku Saibou — Cells at Work! The Japanese will anthropomorphise anything, so this series takes you inside the body of a human being where an industrious red blood cell works hard all day transporting oxygen and nutrients to other cells while being rescued from bacteria, viruses and other nasties by a hunky white blood cell. Very apropos for the current milieu. The Platelets are portrayed as kindergarten schoolkids, don’t mess with them, just saying.
Monogatari — this is a number of series anchored by Bakemonogatari. It’s about a vampire, sort of, incredibly art-styled and confusing with various interlocking storylines and characters (I had to put together a spreadsheet to keep track of who did what and when). You’ll either like it or hate it.
One Punch Man — the first series is the best. A hero for fun, Saitama can defeat any monster with just one punch and he’s bored. Joining the Hero Association seems like a good idea but…
Planetes (sic) — the Orbital Garbage Detail gets a new recruit. Quite a serious storyline, the physics are real, the politics hard-core.
Serial Experiments Lain — another Yoshitoshi ABe series, a bit dated now in regards to the Internet but a deep strong cyberpunk storyline.
Suzumiya Haruhi — this is another series like Monogatari where multiple interlocking stories play out. The main character Suzumiya Haruhi is what God wants to be when he grows up, she doesn’t know it though. Hilarity ensues.
Llelldorin
@Yutsano: If you liked Shirobako, have you seen Sakura Quest? It’s totally out to lunch, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Gravenstone
@Boussinesque: Speaking of Studio Trigger, they’re collaborating on a stand alone anime set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe. To bring a game into an anime thread.
Adam L Silverman
@Leto: @bmoak: I’d really like them to adapt the three major Alex Ross books for DC Animated movies. Justice, Kindgom Come, and Shazam: The Power of Hope.
They could do Justice as a three parter – one for each book. Same for Kingdom Come, which is internally divided into three parts. Shazam: The Power of Hope is a one and done. They’re just great stories and I’m a huge fan of Ross’s art. This would all be outside of the new continuity they’re going to start with the next Superman animated movie, but that’s not a real issue.
Morzer
I will drop in recommendations for Hanasaku Iroha and Shirobako.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanasaku_Iroha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirobako
Gravenstone
@Robert Sneddon: Was going to mention the Monogatari series. Unfortunately it has a very complex airing structure and the three Kizumonogatori movies aren’t currently available for streaming that I know of.
Boussinesque
@Gravenstone:
Oooh, I didn’t know that! Will definitely have to keep an eye out for that, whenever it drops!
Emma
@aliasofwestgate: ooo, good to know, thanks for the quick review.
While I’m talking about my childhood Japanese shows, Gundam Wing was another one that my brother and I watched every week. Not that I could tell anyone a damn thing about what it’s actually about (then or now), but I liked Relena a lot.
aliasofwestgate
Also, now that i think of it?
Tiger and Bunny: A parody of superhero genre blended with the reality shows of today. Done in 2011, and best watched in japanese for the voice actor of Kotetsu, who is one of my fave voice actors out of japan. It’s 26 episodes of full on storytelling and comedy at its best. It’s on Hulu! The heroes are a bit western superhero, and a dash of tokusatsu here and there. It’s awesome on so many levels, and they FINALLY announced a season 2 for it, so many years later. We get it next year in 2021 and i’m ecstatic as can be for it!
The comedy is hilarious, especially between the title characters. But like the best satire out there, it has heart. Hence the wild popularity of the show in both japan and here. :D
Robert Sneddon
@Gravenstone: I saw the three Kizumonogatari movies in my local cinema during an anime festival a few years back.
Another good anime, very laid-back and Miyazaki-like, deep and meaningful is Mushishi, tales of the spirits of place that inhabit the Japanese countryside for good and ill. There have been two series made (I think), I preferred the first one myself.
Off-the-wall anime, not available on streaming that I know of — Rain, the Little Girl and My Letter. You should find it on the Internet somewhere — it’s an amateur creation, a short movie about, well, the rain, a little girl and a letter.
eddie blake
@Adam L Silverman:
justice league and justice league: unlimited (as well as batman beyond) were sequels to both the superman show and the batman one. good shit.
eta- i TOTALLY agree in regards to DC’s live-action output. geoff johns needs to be sacked. he isn’t a very good writer, and it’s not surprising the movies he oversees aren’t very good.
also, zach snyder is kind of a terrible director, and is an objectivist. he doesn’t understand selflessness, and should stay as far away from heroes as he can.
piratedan
@Robert Sneddon: good call on Mushi-shi… very Japanese feeling series…. good storytelling chops
aliasofwestgate
@piratedan: Mushi-shi is gorgeous on so many fronts. ^_^ I have the box set for it, but i also have the manga as well which is just as pretty. The anime was well crafted to capture the beauty of it.
Blue Mouser
Erased is one of the best time travel drama anime. Though it suffers from the ‘manga/book series was not finished before the series aired syndrome”, towards the end, it has one of the best opening I have seen in awhile
For sports anime, second Haikyu and Run with the Wind. And for those who love baseball would recommend Ace of the Diamond
In terms of drama,
A Silent Voice is an anime movie about bullying and it’s aftermath. It’s also about forgiveness and redemption and coming to terms with the aftermath of your actions when you have wronged someone. It is one of the few anime with a main character with a disability, in this case deafness..
Orange wraps the concept of time travel within your typical slice of life high school setting. It asks if you could change an event in the future, would you or could you? It’s about regret and loss and communication and connection and suicide and it’s aftermath.
The Promised Neverland is about a group of orphans realizing their “home”, the orphanage, and their caretakers are not what they seem. They have to push themselves physically and mentally to survive. It’s not as brutal or nihilistic as a lot of recent anime. The kids are smart and physically fit but not overpowered. You come to care for and root for them to survive.
For cat lovers and writers, My Roommate is a Cat is a delight. The cat is a cat, not a cat girl, or a spirit cat or an alien cat or a cat or becomes human. It’s just a cat, actually a kitten. It’s about a lonely introverted socially awkward writer who inadvertently adopts a kitten. Each episode is told from the point of the kitten, who is named Haru and the point of view of the writers, Subaru. It’s about learning how to connect with an animal, the emotional support they bring, the responsibilities of owning them and the way they can help open up our world
The BL anime Given is a lovely romantic story without a lot of the problematic tropes that come with a drama. It’s actually more of a music anime about a rock band and the members of the group and their dynamic. It’s also about two young men who meet and come to understand their growing feelings for each other. It’s has a delightful short piece of math rock in the first episode that lets you know it takes its music genre roots seriously
One of the more beautifully animated action anime to air recently is Demon Slayer. It is a bit different because it a a blend of shonen action anime with horror anime and war movie anime. Each battle takes its toll. The antagonists, the demons, were actually human once. And in the aftermath of the battle, it takes you into their backstory to recognize their past humanity, like a war story will make recognize the humanity of the enemy, though in this case it’s the past humanity that is recognized. The author of the series has spoken of their love for the horror genre and you can see the influences in the imagery and the brutality of some of the scenes. It also has the optimism of youth and the aspirational themes of usual shonen manga, but in this case the protagonist is not motivated to become a better fighter or chef or pirate or athlete. He is motivated to help save his sister turn back into a human and to end the suffering causes by demons. I’ve noticed the hard core fans of shonen,esp the younger ones, don’t really get it because it’s not straight up shonen. There is an underlying sense of loss and of sacrifice to each battle, and the battles don’t end with triumphant theme music and the screaming hoorah of victory. They end with the exhaustion of the protagonists having fought a long and brutal fight that has pushed them to their limit. A lot of the more modern superhero anime’s like My Hero have a more nuanced take on battles, especially in the later fights. Demon Slayer from the beginning is not your typical action hero series. It has a lot of nuance and thought
For something completely different there is The Saga of Tanya the Evil. A Japanese businessman with a love of military history is reborn into the body of a young girl named Tanya in a different world with Magic and his memories intact. The world is in the middle of World War II situation. Tanya gets into a feud with the God of the World regarding issues of faith and belief. Tanya as a young girl with the memories and the soul from her previous life rises to command a broomstick flying battalion it’s actually pretty good!
Blue Mouser
@Robert Sneddon: all those series you mentioned are fantastic
i wish Cells at Work and Planetes had more attention. The virus episode of Cells at Work is very instructive, especially in these Covid 19 times. And the plot of Planetes, a team has to clean up accumulating space junk is very futuristic but it could become an important issue especially with all the satellite being launched into orbit
Tenzil Kem
Samurai Flamenco.
Doug R
@ThresherK: Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away are amazing
Luthiengineer
Serial Experiments Lain is my favorite, tho not available for streaming. 12? episode series.
It’s … different, I think. Confusing, at first. Strange. But deep enough for multiple watchings.
edit:slightly more info
eddie blake
@Tenzil Kem:
whatever you say, matter-eater-lad!
L.L.L.
Anne Laurie
Thanks, everybody — I wondered if this post was actually worth doing, but it looks like we may have shared a fun evening together. And you’ve inspired me with a new list of must-watches!
I’m gonna break away for the moment, or there will be nothing else posted tonight / tomorrow morning. Will check back later, and be assured, I *do* appreciate all your comments!
Not going to set up a hard & fast schedule, but it looks like there might be enough interest to do more posts about anime, just as diversions. Yes / no?
Mathguy
@piratedan: I am so happy you pointed to Cowboy Bebop as a great one. The music is wonderful. “Pierrot Le Fou” is possibly the finest episode of anything I’ve ever seen. The whole series is a masterpiece.
jonas
@Anne Laurie: That must be it. There’s also a bunch of anime they watch that always has something to do with a high school for demons or vampires or aliens or something. It sounds like this when they explain the concept to me: “So there’s this elite private academy in hell…and this one guy is a demon, but he’s also a member of a noble family, so he’s not totally evil, but he’s a butler or something trapped in this spirit dimension because of an ancient curse. And his girlfriend is also a demon, but she’s half human, so she can understand him like the other demons can’t and he’s trying to rescue this other evil spirit who can bring him back to the interdimensional portal where the other demons like him live, but the extraterrestrial cheerleader clique at the high school wants to keep them in hell, so…”
On the other hand, does Scooby Doo make a lick more sense?
A
Old school mecha/sci-fi fan here, before the term otaku was a thing (here, at least):
Star Blazers (have first season reboot, but haven’t watched it yet) and other Leijiverse: Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, etc
Gundam, mainly UC, but IBO is proving to be more interesting as I go along. Think I’ll ultimately be upset though. Typical Gundam.
Legends of Galactic Heroes: amazing old school space opera
Ruroni Kenshin: lighthearted samurai series
Ghost in the shell
among newer things, some already mentioned:
Cowboy Bebop
samurai Champloo
psycho-pass
darker than black
last exile
attack on titan
Leto
@Emma: Gundam Wing was really good. First Gundam all three of us watched (Avalune, the boy, and I). Animation Nation!!! :)
Doug R
@bmoak: Stargirl should be called Stargirl and the new JSA. I’m actually excited for new episodes, like I was in Flash season 1.
Doug R
And based on anime produced by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodreguiuz-Alita: Battle Angel.
eddie blake
@A:
oh the ending of Iron-Blooded Orphans is pretty hard. not depressed-tomino levels of hard, but still pretty hard
eta- TOTALLY forgot about space pirate captain harlock. good stuff.
Blue Mouser
@Doug R: I liked the movie but I felt that cutting out Hugo’s backstory took out a lot of the emotional impact of his death. His history was really sad. They made him into an typical eye candy love interest figure.
Pappenheimer
Always a soft spot in my heart for R.O. D.
Eolirin
Not that it’s available for streaming as far as I can tell, but no mention of Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex? The first two seasons and the Solid State Society ova are very good. Closer to the manga than the films, and while bleak and emotionally devastating at times, it’s also filled with a lot more humor and light moments, especially involving the Tachikomas. The new stuff on Netflix isn’t quite so great, though there’s some promise there in the last few episodes. Overall feels flatter and more shallow and it’s really hard to get over the shift to 3d animation.
Also no one’s brought up Fate/Stay Night though that’s a bit of a complicated property to get into. Lots of alternate universe spinoffs. Good supernatural action though.
Garden of Sinners is also pretty neat. Supernatural detective agency, kind of. Sort of a precursor to some ideas that get expanded on more in Tsukihime, which is also pretty good.
eddie blake
@Leto:
gundam wing was like the light beer of gundam shows. a nice way to get on board. it’s not part of tomino’s universal century arc. As a matter of fact though, the gundams in that show were super-robots, the genre tomino was trying to kill when he invented the real-robot genre with the ’79 mobile suit gundam.
pretty decent show, but a far cry from the more “serious” gundam fare.
eddie blake
@Eolirin:
i brought up the ghost in the shell: stand alone complex stuff in #84.
also, i think you can watch them on hulu and amazon prime
Eolirin
@eddie blake: I generally suggest Seed and 00 as entry points to Gundam if the art style of the original is an issue.
And then there’s Try Fighters, which is just fun.
Also, gah, missed the GitS:SAC call out, and I was looking too.
eddie blake
@Eolirin:
yeah, both seed/ seed destiny and 00 are very well drawn. there’s a lot of computer assists in those shows, but that’s the world we live in now. as i said, you can go back to second gundam, ms zeta gundam from ’85, and its art largely holds up. ZZ and char’s counterattack even more so. it’s just that the seventies-style art from that first show is just SO dated.
Eolirin
@eddie blake: GitS: SAC is only available for purchase on Amazon, and I think it left Hulu, but it was not available in the original japanese in any event, only the english dub, and it was a particularly bad dub, imo. Maybe not Naruto level bad, but pretty bad.
eddie blake
@Eolirin:
ah, i didn’t notice hulu yanked them. TY.
Penty
@ThresherK: If you are after all things Miyazaki try to find a used copy of his collected works like this listing on EBay. It’s well worth the money.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Collected-Works-of-Hayao-Miyazaki-Blu-ray-Box-Set-Complete-Studio-Ghibli/114291937455?hash=item1a9c5490af:g:yJEAAOSwol9fA427
pinacacci
@Gravenstone: I’m sorry! I didn’t realize it wasn’t available. I snaked it from the pirate den back when I was less morally clear about intellectual property theft. If you’ve got an anime-loving friend (ETA whose collection may differ from yours because clearly you love anime), maybe they’ll let you borrow it…I’d buy it. It’s worth it.
So much good anime in this thread.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@eddie blake: yeah but even though the animation was simple for the first season the story was very real. The people who wrote this had experienced total war.
eddie blake
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
oh, totally. first gundam pulls NO punches.
did you see 2015’s MS gundam: the origin? it was a really good miniseries. great modernizing of the art while keeping the designs of the mobile suits largely the same.
i was REALLY hoping that they would just continue it into the beginning of first gundam and run through the full show.
Cthulhu
As many have mentioned, Cowboy Bebop is a classic. I would include Full Metal Alchemist at the top of the form. There are two series, the second one, more true to the manga, is better in my opinion but both are interesting in their own way.
As for newer stuff, DeathNote was so popular to inspire an American film (though I don’t hear good things about the film). Leveraged off the moral dilemma of a teen suddenly given ability of an avenging angel of death.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, is a rollicking and ridiculous series, that ultimately is super fun with the anime a couple of seasons behind the manga. Vampires are involved though that’s the most normal thing.
And for very new (first Netflix season a few months ago), Beastars, with a bit of a Zootopia set-up, but a lot more adult yet primarily set at a secondary school. With a crossbow-wielding panda vigilante side character, what more can you ask for?
NotMax
Somewhat ancient – any Urusei Yatsura (a/k/a Lum) fans?
Totally goofball. Gotta accord some measure of some kind of respect to a high school which includes a Future Torturers club.
piratedan
@NotMax: Believe that the same person was responsible for Ranma 1/2
Emma
@piratedan: and Inuyasha. One of those shows where I loved it as a kid, but as an adult, I look back and think “why the hell was I addicted to this dumbassery…”
piratedan
@Emma: yeah… but it was great eye candy… the english dub wasn’t cringeworthy and they picked some great opening and closing music… for its time Inuyasha was a LOT better than its contemporaries… another long running series that no one has mentioned yet was Case Closed… nor Lupin the Third or even Bleach.
Emma
@piratedan: welp, Bleach the manga crapped the bed after the Soul Society arc, so I didn’t even want to try the anime after that. I’m still salty after more than a decade.
There’s an older soccer anime called Hungry Hearts, Wild Striker. Not sure how it would hold up on a rewatch, but I mostly remember it for having hilariously unbelievable fouls and penalties. Edit: speaking of hilariously unbelievable sports anime… Eyeshield 21.
piratedan
@Emma: I hear ya, I tend to stay away from most of the sports anime that’s out there. I will say that I have enjoyed Mix, Major, Big Windup! and Yowamushi Pedal.
Just kind of glad that the thread popped up because there’s a good bit of pretty decent story telling out there and almost each entry acts as a springboard to further discussion
A
@eddie blake:
yeah that’s what I’m fearful of. Like you said though, things like zeta and war in the pocket (both of which I loved) have steeled me to the inevitable downer.
yeah leijiverse was my entry into anime when I was a kid. Iconic.
daryljfontaine
Man oh man this thread exploded more than I ever figured.
@Xentik: you’re the only I’ve seen recommend Eizouken. I threw it into a media recommendations thread sometime back.
Eizouken isn’t just delightfully meta; it’s a sheer love letter to the entire creative process generally, and to the creation of animation specifically. It’s not even starry-eyed; while you have the creative dreamers, the fact that the one non-artist friend is the sharp-eyed producer type always dragging the other two back to earth nods firmly to the realities of the medium. (Crunchyroll only)
Kyoto Animation’s Sound! Euphonium is a delightful, non-cliche story about members of a high school concert band and their pathway to play at the highest levels of competition. The music is very well done, as you hear the improvements in the characters’ playing over time. Two seasons and a movie, with almost none of the common anime high school tropes.
I’ve seen many of my favorites elsewhere in the thread, which brings my heart joy. Ascendance of a Bookworm is a marvelous story. My Hero Academia is a superhero nerd’s dream (with a superhero nerd MC, go figure). If you’ve ever thought about creative uses for superpowers while reading comics, this is the show for you.
Good thread, AL!
D
bluefoot
@Ridley: The science in Cells at Work is definitely solid. The Netfilx subtitles aren’t great. Still, as someone who used to work in immunology, I like the show.
VFX Lurker
I just want to add FOOD WARS to the superb suggestions in the original post and in the comments. The show revolves around cooking and the pursuit of excellence in cooking. I don’t recommend it for kids, because clothes fly off every time someone tastes an exquisitely delicious dish. Me, though….I love that show. It inspires me to try different recipes and cooking techniques.
Available on Netflix.
eddie blake
@A:
have you seen any of tomino’s stuff since he’s gotten help for his depression? he pretty much re-did zeta with a bunch of new scenes and happier ending in zeta gundam: a new translation, which ended up as three feature length releases
i got to harlock later, but enjoyed it quite a bit. i have fond memories of my youth in arcadia
Blue mouser
@bluefoot: Cells at Work gets so many elements right. It is so great to hear an immunologist confirm it. I’m in health care and from what I remember from my old immunology and biology books, Cells at Work does depict a lot of the science correctly. It also does it so creatively. I love how the red blood cells’s jacket changes color depending upon whether she is going to the heart or away from it, depending upon whether she in an oxygenated state or not. There are several doctors on YouTube who do reaction videos to the series. They spend a good deal of time in the video talking about the immune system and how it works and discuss what the series gets right and when it takes creative license. I recommend the series to my sister a way of introducing my young niece to this science topic and referenced a couple of the Youtube MD channels to watch after the episodes to learn the science behind it. My favorite episode is the one about allergies. The way it depicts steroids and how it acts on the body is so funny
Sasha
Serial Experiments Lain – awesome ’90s-00s cyberpunk
Monster – what would you do if you realized you saved the life of future Hitler/Keyzer Soze?
Urusei Yatsura – idiot highschooler accidentally gets engaged to beautiful alien princess, hilarity ensues
Ukai
Wow, Anne, Princess Tutu, Princess Nine, KamiChu, and Figure 17 are all on my list of underrated anime to recommend to other people. Maybe we can trade notes sometime.
Currently watching Maison Ikkoku. I know it’s a rom-com classic and all, but some of its representations of male-female interactions would be problematic for a show set in present day (it’s from the mid-1980s), and contain tropes which have ruined other anime in the same genre for me.