What are your NEW recommendations?
Every time someone brings up a topic about recommendations to get normies into anime, they tend to bring up the same old familiar ones like Cowboy Bebop or FLCL or maybe even a Gundam or two. There's always a recommendation of one of the current anime du jour, and the only thing that comes close to being a 'modern classic' recommendation is FMA: Brotherhood.
While I don't have a problem with recommending old anime categorically (Cowboy Bebop won't stop being Cowboy Bebop even if we keep trying to reinvent that wheel), a lot of it is not super accessible, much of it looks very different from modern anime, and the last few years have seen some really amazing productions in both film and TV anime, to the point where a lot of the older stuff just feels really outdated and simple.
With that being said, what are your new recommendations for people who want an introduction to anime?
Haikyu is a really good intro to anime for anyone remotely interested in sports. I also enjoyed Ace of the Diamond (AKA Diamond No Ace), another sports anime.
The Twelve Kingdoms is a really old anime, but I thought it was really really good, though perhaps more suited to older audiences. Darling in the Franxx is good for someone looking for action and robots. Honourable mention to Re: ZERO, which I haven't watched too many episodes of, but I've heard it was pretty popular recently.
Different people like different things.
Whatʼs new? Let me set the start time — 10 years ago, so 2012. So, what I would recommend?:
I tried to select totally or kinda finished animes.
Woah, this is a fantastic list!
I absolutely loved Sonny Boy. The presentation and the storytelling were absolutely fantastic, and I absolutely loved every moment of that crazy journey. The only problem is that nobody seemed to care much about it because I never found anyone interested in talking about it.
I almost feel bad that I didn't think of recommending any Makoto Shinkai movies. For the most part his movies are exactly what I was looking for since they've got mass appeal. You're missing my favorite, though - Wolf Children - but it's just a bit older than 10 years old at this point.
I'm actually really happy to see Patema Inverted on your list, too. Yasuhiko Yoshiura always deserves more attention.
My favorite movie is Perfet Blue by Satoshi Kon whichʼs also older than 10 years old.
My two priorities in Anime are the art and the writing, so I'll choose things that reflect those the best. To make things extra accessable, I'll try to pick from things that are available on Netflix since a lot of people are likely to have access to that service already. I'd also try to talk to whomever I'm making these recommendations to make sure that it's something they'd actually be into rather than just things I like.
The one I'm most likely to recommend to anyone is Violet Evergarden. It's one of the most beautiful productions I've ever seen; the character designs are immaculate, and the colors and shading are second to none. I find it hard to find flaws with it because I'm constantly being blown away with how beautiful everything is. The only real flaw I have is that it's too blurry because it manages to summon tears to my eyes so often! Unfortunately, that emotionality is something of a double-edged sword; it's something I could recommend in person to women but for men they're too likely to be blocked by their sense of masculinity. For men, I'd recommend another Kyoani production: A Silent Voice. It's also extremely emotional but the male protagonist does wonders to break through the masculinity barrier, though it might not work if the person in question is past their 20s.
I'd have to recommend at least one Masashi Yuasa production, and that really depends on whom I'm talking to. Generic internet audiences would probably want something a bit shocking, so I think Devilman Crybaby is probably the best answer. It's really hard to put into words why I would recommend it; it's basically a painfully honest look at the best and worst of humanity. And unlike a lot of other anime which rely on a painfully maintained aesthetic, Yuasa's work relies much more on the actual animation itself for visual impact.
To be honest, probably the perfect Yuasa work to recommend as an introduction to anime is Keep Your Hands off Eizoken because it actually explores the fascination we have with animation as a media. But without an English Dub I feel that it might be a bit hard for people to understand.
There's two other productions that I think are worth recommending, but they're honestly not much like most of the anime that gets produced; Beastars and Oddtaxi. One of the things that I love about either of them is that they're furry but it's a really big mistake to blow them off because of them. Especially in Beastars where metaphorical problems between certain types of people turn into much more pressing and real issues.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is awesome. Also, One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100. For a more traditional shonen with a science twist, Dr. Stone. For something absurd and amusingly homoerotic, Jojo. Not so new, but there are new seasons.
I liked Slime so much I actually started reading the light novels! I was rather surprised that I liked the Anime better. Just slightly changing perspective so you're not quite as much in Rimuru's head makes it a much more interesting story, especially as side characters get more and more fleshed out.