Anime for someone who doesn't like (shonen) anime that much
I personally don't love most anime I've been recommended. Admittedly, shonen anime is pretty predictable and boring to watch to me, and I've only mostly been recommended anime in that genre since it's the most popular. There are some exceptions of course, but nothing has grabbed me too hard. I'm not super into the exaggerated reaction shots and repeating everything that's happening on screen like I can't already see it happening. Announcing your feelings and actions is so tiring.
Really looking for something that makes me laugh or feel something.
I've been getting bored of current TV offerings and I'm trying to boost my Japanese learning so I'm wondering if there's anything out there for me. I do try to watch at least a couple of episodes every time I get something suggested, nothing really clicked for me. Even the ones I do like, I feel like I had to force myself to sit through sometimes.
Some anime I do enjoy:
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - Even though I really dislike super over the top things, there's something about the relatively simple story and heart in this one. I really loved it and it's probably my favorite so far.
- most Studio Ghibli things - I mean, who doesn't, right?
- Your Name and Suzume - both kinda in the same vein of interesting stories and something different that is hard to pull off in conventional live-action, and beautifully drawn to boot
- Ju Jutsu Kaisen season 1 - I enjoyed it, will probably watch season 2, but waiting for it to finish
- Persona 5 The Animation - Honestly mostly because I liked the game, the anime was not as great tbh.
Things I've seen and are already on the list and will probably(?) continue -
- FMA:B (1 episode)
- Cowboy Bebop (1 episode)
- Undead Murder Farce
- Chainsaw Man season 1 (this one's a bit iffy imo, I really can't stand the main character's fascination with boobs, the action is good though and the story is actually kinda interesting)
Things I've seen and won't continue/didn't particularly enjoy -
(17 episodes of) Death Note, One Punch Man season 1, Demon Hunter season 1
Edit: Western shows/movies I enjoyed:
Background shows I'll put on:
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
Shows that made me feel things:
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
The Last of Us
Mr. Robot
Not shows but things I enjoy:
Spider-verse movies
Everything Everywhere All at Once (my favorite movie of all time)
The Planet of the Apes trilogy remakes
Lord of the Rings
Heyyy, I'm a relative boomer who ran an anime club and also hates most shounen.
My typical rec list:
Neon Genesis Evangelion - Someone's got to say it. Mecha show about angsty teens piloting robots, and why angsty teens shouldn't pilot robots. Or about making an anime in post-bubble Japan? Or, robots. Wildly influential, it's worth powering through even if you're not crazy about it to "get" some of the scenes and references to it people make all the time. The sequel movie End of Evangelion is necessary if you're at all attached by the end of the last minute or so. The recent reboot movies are a bit hit and miss, but worth watching if you like it.
Planetes - A hard sci-fi story about space janitors cleaning up debris. Paints a lovely spectrum of serious and lighthearted, sometimes at the same time for beautiful effect, while really capturing the wonder and strife you need to dream about normalized space travel. Utterly phenomenal show, I've never been as enraptured by a show as the perfectly-paced last six episodes.
5 cm per Second - A short movie about distant romance in three parts by Makoto Shinkai of Your Name fame. Very, very wistful and very, very gorgeous.
Serial Experiments Lain - A girl gets into the (90's scope of the) metaverse while the border of reality and virtual become blurred. Has a sinister atmosphere. Ever-prescient.
Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro - An early directoral role for Hayao Miyazaki and an utterly sublime adventure movie.
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal - A movie-length OVA. Technically a prequel to Rurouni Kenshin, but no need to watch/read beforehand. Just an absolutely stellar samurai movie, no "for an anime" rider needed. Nails all the hallmarks, cinematography, and mood of the genre.
Daily Lives of High School Boys and Azumanga Daiyoh - Slice of Life comedies about a bunch of goofy boys and a bunch of goofy girls, respectively, with very little plot but which the humor translates well.
Baccano! - Supernatural point-of-view story about a slew of people in or around mafia gangs in the 30s becoming entwined with a set of alchemists who became immortal in the 1700s. Quick-moving action-murder-fantasy-period romp with a great cast.
Madoka Magica - A Magical Girl show with a twist. Gorgeously animated with a great plot, great music, and incredible aesthetic. Give it through episode 3. No idea if any of the sequels are good, but the original season ties itself up perfectly.
Tokyo Godfathers - A homeless guy, a trans woman, and a runaway teen find a baby on Christmas Eve. For all of the craziness that Satoshi Kon directed, this is pretty down to earth but somehow felt more wild. Funny, off-kilter, and moving.
Ping-Pong - A wildly stylized show following a few people involved in a ping-pong circuit. Classic sports tropes, but with some incredible directional decisions that put it a step above. Very quick watch, goes by in a flash.
Tokyo Godfathers is actually my personal favorite Satoshi Kon films. It doesn't have the psychedelic transitions he's known for, but it's got so much personality and heart. Coincidentally it's pretty much the perfect Christmas movie, so now is a great time to watch it.
Dang, are you my secret long lost high-school best friend ?
(I wholeheartedly agree with all of those suggestion; this man has good taste)
I haven't seen someone else mention Planetes in years, even though it's more relevant than ever. It's hard to find, but the entire series is out there in torrent form.
As a big fan of NGE I gotta put in a counter that without the Rebuild movies the whole series is incomplete. The original run and original movies.....
hang on I can't talk about this without spoilers. Spoiler to the end of the last Rebuild movie.
So. At the risk of preaching to the choir.
I would posit that the Rebuild movies are required to fully wrap up the one, single story which the original series began. (By "the original series", I mean the TV episodes plus everything before Rebuild 1.0.)
If the entire series is about the emotional growth and journey of Shinji, then the original series is about looking into that nihilist bagel of awfulness, and instead of tossing himself in, choosing to step back and choose life, such as it is. It's about a quiet acceptance that, yes, I have value, and even if the whole world has ended, it's okay because I've got myself. It's a good beginning
But where does he go from there? The original series left a huge "okay now what" hole in my heart for decades.
At the end of the original series, Shinji is either (a) on a fluffy cloud, surrounded by everyone past and present, being congratulated upon, or else (b) on a desolate beach, with an Asuka whose first words after regaining her breath is "kimochi warui", whose meaning has eluded all of us for decades.
Neither of those are places where Shinji can "live in", or thrive and grow further in. They're either not real, or else the living conditions are too a person to survive in.
Enter Rebuild. A new universe, new actions, new choices....or are they new? Regardless, in Rebuild, Shinji gets to re-make choices, re-make mistakes or make them anew -- he gets to act. So does everyone else: they all get to choose to love, to choose to be vulnerable, to express themselves, to leave toxic relationships, to tell off abusers, to empathize with adults who hurt them, to grow into adult themselves....and to quietly accept death after a life well lived.
I think of the original, especially the instrumentality segments, as a sort of...intensive therapy session. And then Rebuild as the "and where are they now" follow up longitudinal study report. It's very satisfying to see Shinji not stuck on a blood red beach or on a weird made up cloud, but on a train platform, on our planet, in an un-destroyed Tokyo, above ground, able to experience an ocean teeming with life and spring as well as fall and winter. With someone he choose to love who also chose him. (▰˘◡˘▰)
The robot stuff doesn't matter. What's important is that at the end of Rebuild, Shinji becomes a self actualized person who doesn't even need the exclusive attention of a particular girl, or even a chorus of praises. It's as Steven Universe sings:
I totally agree with your take, but I think if you don't attach to the original it doesn't really mean anything to keep going.
Also giant SPOILERS, naturally...
Like, specifically if you don't jive with Anno and the Eva animation teams, or Shinji, or think the show is pretentious, I just don't think Rebuild is going to change your mind.
To me the whole main entries of the series - show, EoE, and Rebuild - were a medium to faultlessly convey the emotions of Anno and the rest of the team from the top down, no filters. I see barely any disconnect between art and artist with it, and it's my favorite thing about the series; the lofty and sinister beginning as everyone's anticipation is sitting on Gainax, the optimistic Monster of the Week drive in the middle because they were on top of the industry, the strained and manic shoestring original ending to reach closure with a literal minute left to go, and the embrace of everything the show was down to the literal death threats they included in the Third Impact - I saw it all as a straight reflection of what it meant to make the show. I need to re-watch Rebuild, but I didn't see it far off from continuing what I presume was the mood of the team working on it. ESPECIALLY the fourth movie.
If you're not convinced to care about Shinji and the cast by EoE, though, I don't think Rebuild would change anyone's mind unless it's directly related to disliking the viewpoint of someone with such deep flaws and depression. Rebuild brings closure, but much of the criticism I see is about the show's lack of "real" meaning in the scattershot symbology and how much they flat-out hate Shinji. Not super rigorous reasons, I disagree with them on some level, but it's just not everyone's cup of tea and I don't think Rebuild ever does anything to fix those concerns. I can see people really using 3 as ammunition for that.
Granted I wasn't as crazy about the show until I saw EoE, which felt like a giant postmodern shift in my understanding of art to look at things less from structure and more from signal. Maybe someone gets through EoE not liking it and then takes the same meaning from Rebuild, like you said.
I agree with your interpretation of Rebuild.
Rebuild spoilers
Especially how everything ends up with Shinji and Asuka and Mari. How all those pent-up expectations end up being a burden. Part of them wishes it could have worked out and they could have kept doing the same thing forever, but they know the right answer for them is to move on. They changed, the world around them changed, and the real closure is being able—being allowed, and allowing themselves—to move on from who or what once consumed their life, finally.
Ooooh thanks for that, I see what you mean now. I do agree with you that if one really doesn't like it then you can't really push on in a slog and suddenly change your mind. In fact maybe even stop way before :/
I prefer to think of Evangelion as a story with three distinct interpretations, and I actually prefer the original ending. One thing you hear a lot in movie reviews is something like “this scene is great because the director trusts the audience to make the connections needed to understand what is happening”. The original finale doesn’t trust you so much as it demands you attempt to understand it. It breaks from the constraints of reality and so it becomes this amorphous shape that fills the container which is your mind; you are explicitly given the freedom to take your own interpretation of it. It effectively turns you into Shinji and attempts to make you put together the idea that you personally are responsible for assigning meaning to your life.
Of course, given the vast varieties of human experience, I wouldn’t expect everyone to come away with that same interpretation, but I think that the differing interpretations is part of what makes this ending so inherently valuable.
A while later we got End of Evangelion which tried to reduce the metaphor into something more tangible, and I think it suffers for it. It’s a very misanthropic and masochistic film. It’s a real disservice to Shinji as a character as it takes place outside of his mind and that really brings out that “whiney little bitch” characteristic that the internet loves to point out. And one of its strongest messages seems to be that life is suffering. It’s a beautiful film in many ways but I don’t like it because it’s so incredibly negative. In some ways it feels adversarial to the series it was supposed to be concluding, which while depressing wasn’t nearly as adversarial towards humanity.
I don’t have a problem with rebuild, per se, and I do like the last film’s messages quite a lot. But as a whole I think it’s kind of unnecessary. The first two films just felt very flat and it didn’t seem like they really knew where they were going. The third one was kind of amazing because it felt like a creator explaining how he grew from where he was when it originally finished. But that makes it into a new story rather than a continuation of the old one.
Besides all of this, all of the revisions tend to shaft ma boi Kaworu. That makes them inherently inferior.
Thanks for your thoughts :) always love hearing discussion on NGE even tho it's been so long. And yes definitely Kaworu will always be my favourite, second best angel <3
Watched Tokyo Godfathers on this recommendation, what a movie! I feel like I have whiplash but did enjoy it. Highly recommend to others. Would prefer it be better about Trans issues but I guess we get what we get in 2003.
Wow, such a detailed list. I really appreciate it! I'll go through all of these, I think 5cm per second I've seen recommended a lot and I really like the director's other movies too, so I'll definitely take a look through that one.
I can really recommend Oshi no Ko.
Would like to tell you about it, but I'll say as everyone else. If you plan to watch, read as little as possible about it, preferably nothing.
I didn't read anything about the show, and wow, the first episode is a roller coaster.
There is only one season out right now, with S2 being produced. Well worth a watch!
Talking point here, Oshi no Ko is the exact kinda thing I absolutely do not want to watch until it's fully complete. This isn't a strictly shounen thing (OnK is labeled seinen anyway), or really an anime/manga/tv thing alone, but something that grinds my gears about a lot of shounen stuff in particular is that plot points string along to maintain serialization. Bad pacing is typically a huge pain point for me, and when it's really transparent it makes me feel kinda affronted. So I generally dislike serial media that's built on being twisty until it's done and there's a consensus it stuck the landing... Otherwise it's just a big salt mine for me.
BUT, still, thank you for the rec! Might sway me down the line, who knows.
I totally get that, but I have kind of given up and just accepted that most shows won't be completed or may take 10+years to be completed.
But of course, sometimes you get burned. Promised Neverland S01 is great, S02 is well.. They tried to fit the whole manga in that season. One can argue that the pacing was less than perfect.
More than once I've watched S01 of a show, and it left me with a cliffhanger. In those cases I usually go for the source material (Manga etc.) if I'm impatient and curious. That not an option if one does not like manga though.
The second season of The Promised Neverland might have been OK if it had only tried to condense the rest of the manga into a single season, but it made some rather insane changes to the plot as well.
Since nobody's mentioned it: Steins;Gate. It's consistently one of the highest rated anime, right alongside Fullmetal Alchemist. I'd consider it to be the best time travel story in any medium.
It's not a "watch a couple of episodes" kind of show; though. It takes its time introducing the characters and premise, then hits you with an abrupt change of pacing.
I'm actually super interested in the Steins;Gate concept, my only problem is that it feels like i really need to be committed to watching it lol. I have a couple of long flights coming up, maybe that's what I'll use that time for.
Personally speaking, I really preferred the original visual novel. The pacing is just way better that way. The anime adaptation is the best VN adaptation out there, but to be honest that's a fairly low bar. That being said, different strokes for different folks. If you can't get the commitment for the anime, you will probably have a harder time reading the VN.
I agree on stiens. It did not meet the hype as a person coming in not knowing anything about it. It is not bad by a long shot, but it really wanders off the plot along the way. After going back and reading it was a visual novel and it was trying to cover a lot of routes it made more sense. Still I was really grabbed by the first few episodes then lost a lot of steam on it as I made my way through.
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is one of the most highly rated shows currently airing and it's a relatively calm show with a lot of emphasis on the characters' interactions with one another, but it has its moments of action and humor.
Mushoku Tensei has great storytelling and action and a very interesting main character, in fact much of the story involves the MC struggling to overcome his grief and trauma. It has its emotionally heavy moments but it's still a fun watch overall.
Land of the Lustrous has some of the smoothest looking CGI animation I've seen in an anime series and it'll also break your heart. I understand if the CGI can be a dealbreaker though, it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Beastars is also CGI and animated by the same studio that did Land of the Lustrous, interesting story that gets pretty dark but you might be accused of being a furry if you admit watching it. Not because it's a pervy show, just because all the characters are anthropomorphic animals.
If you don't mind a show about Japanese high school girls (there's entirely too many of them), Bocchi the Rock is a really fun watch, especially if you like J-rock and/or can relate with the incredibly socially awkward main character.
Ping Pong the Animation is my personal favorite anime as an amazing coming-of-age story, but the art style is reeeeeeally unique. Give this clip a watch and if you're ok with that, I highly recommend you watch the whole thing.
I just wanted to add that Beastars actually uses the the animal thing as a world-building thing that actually affects the character and the world they live in. It's not furry for the sake of being furry, so if anyone were to make fun of you for watching it it's coming from a place of ignorance.
I think of Beastars as "Zootopia but an anime". It's way more in the tradition of that and Jungle Book / Robin Hood / Ducktails than it is furry fandom. (though granted those are probably the progenitors of furry fandom)
I do have Frieren on the list actually, saw it on a short and it looked interesting, I like the synopsis, will definitely check it out!
I also like CGI so I'll have to take a look at the other ones too.
All great suggestions, I'll have to take a look!
for learning Japanese as a beginner i think frieren is pretty fantastic, there aren't a ton of characters talking at the same time or background noise and they speak really clearly and simply, it's on the same difficulty level as simple slice of life like k-on (although you replace the music vocabulary with swords and sorcery vocabulary)
that bumps it up the list for sure! thanks :)
except for the "next episode preview. I gotta say it's so brilliant to use overlapping lines as a preview: you can't understand the lines out of context and with no visuals, but you can grok an overall feeling for it.
I'll limit myself to just one:
Odd Taxi
Make sure to watch the series not the movie.
It's so strange I watched an episode and got stuck. It's like my brain doesn't know how to classify this anime. I liked it but I can't explain why I didn't binge it all or pick it back up.
Second this, Odd Taxi is fantastic. Crazy how a little story about a walrus taxi driver can have so many Chekhov's guns in it.
Hm I'll have to take a look! That looks pretty cool actually.
Hmm, I have a couple ideas I would suggest:
since you mentioned Studio Ghibli, I'll suggest Mushihi, Spice and Wolf, or Natsume Yuujinchou. Three styles of "fairy tale" with focus on nature / spirits and their interactions with the human world.
You might like Baccano!! which is a short, lively shonen that imo feels like a Tarantino film (lots of characters and plotlines weaving past and/or colliding with each other; over the top, gory action sequences; killer OST)
Samurai Champloo is a lot of fun. Some of the episodes are more serious (with some very cool swordfighting along the way) and others are absurd in the best possible way--like the baseball episode.
I can also endorse 3 of those. Spice and Wolf is great, and is finally getting a new season soon (still not sure whether it's supposed to be a continuation or if it's starting over). Samurai Champloo is a classic, and it's the same people behind Cowboy Bebop. I also liked Baccano (and Durarara, which is the same studio).
Second Samurai Champloo. Recently, I enjoyed Blue Eye Samurai.
I checked out Blue Eye Samurai and I couldn't stop watching. Wow. Thanks for the rec!
I keep hearing about this one! I'm looking forward to checking it out
ooh good suggestions! I have Samurai on my list now, and I think other people have suggested Baccano!
Are you looking for shonen anime in particular? Because I don't like those either for the same reasons you started off with.
If you liked Suzume and Your Name, Makoto Shinkai has a lot of other movies that you are sure to enjoy. I strongly recommend watching Wolf Children. It's a masterpiece. While we're talking about movies, you should also check out Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Patema Inverted, Sing a bit of Harmony). Availability is sometimes spotty, but one of my favorite movies of all time is called Metropolis.
If you want anime that makes you feel something, I've got many recommendations. One of my more recent favorites is Vivy: Flourite Eyes Song, which chronicles a long journey of a robot tasked to make people happy with her singing. Violet Evergarden is a series that made me cry with pretty much every episode, and it was endcapped by a very satisfying movie - plus the animation is truely gorgeous. I'd also check out Pluto on Netflix; it's a very well put-together murder mystery that does a fantastic job making you care about the characters. If you want a more in-depth character study you might want to check out Beastars.
If you want something that makes you think, there's a lot of recommendations I could give you there as well. All of the Ghost in the Shell stuff tends to be good, but in particular I would recommend the original movie and the series Stand Alone Complex. While we're in the dystopian cyberpunk genre, you should probably check out Psycho-Pass, which is a story about a system in which people are categorized according to their likeliness to commit crime. Earlier recommendations Pluto and Vivy are also full of brain-food.
You should pull up Wikipedia for the list of stuff made by Kyoto Animation. I don't think they've ever made anything I didn't like, even when it was something completely outside of the stuff I normally like. They have found the secret formula to making something appealing. At one time they made a demo reel for their water animation technology and it got such good reception they not only made a series based on the demand, but it grew into a second series and multiple movies. Just avoid their first OVA, which was somewhat infamously made by contract as propaganda for a cult.
Not really! I feel like most shonen anime kinda always goes the same way, and it tends to get exhausting. If there's any different ones I'd love to hear it but JuJuTsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer I feel like kinda already checks those boxes for me.
Wolf Children looks super interesting actually! Pluto also sounds pretty interesting, I like the idea of murder mysteries too. I actually picked up Ghost in the Shell on 4k bluray because it was on sale (lol) so I'll have to go through that eventually, but Psycho-Pass sounds even more interesting than that lol.
Thanks for the recommendations!
None of the stuff I recommended is shonen, just to be clear. For the most part most of it would probably be better categorized as seinen, which better maps to "Young Adult" in English.
Just so you know, there's a lot of Psycho-Pass anime. I'm only recommending the first series. I didn't care for any of the other stuff I saw.
Just a bit of a warning about Ghost in the Shell; Mamoru Oshii, the creator, has a very "artsy" style which you will find yourself either compelled or bored by. So you might actually want to watch Stand Alone Complex first. You might not know who the characters are at first, but the transition to a series really helps make it more palatable since it's in pieces. Plus it has a Yoko Kanno soundtrack, which is always a plus in my book.
Good to know! Thank you!
Psycho-Pass looks like it's 5 seasons long on CrunchyRoll, so you're only recommending the first season? Or just those 5 seasons.
Crunchyroll has the tendency of putting different series as seasons if they’re closely related. I’m not 100% sure how they have this show on their service, so just stop when it seems like you’ve reached a conclusion.
I came here to recommend Pluto. Do yourself a favor and watch it without any context or prereading/trailers/spoilers. I will say no more. 🤐
Just a small update! I watched the first episode of Psycho-pass. Quick review, I really hated the first 10 minutes lol. One of my major gripes with anime as a whole is that it really feels like the writers treat everyone as stupid, and set up their world through dialog and exposition.
THOUGH I actually really like the setting, and the scenario that the characters were put in. Gives you something to think about. The world feels pretty interesting. I will continue watching but that was my first thought haha.
The studio angle is the right one IMO. This is a decade ago so the master list has probably changed, but I felt like everything Bones, KyoAni, and Gainax did was guaranteed to have a wow-factor.
One that i never see recommended but is my absolute favourite (STUDY STUDY STUDY) is Golden Boy. Its very short, 6 episodes of wholesome good pervy fun and oh, whats this? Its fully watchable on youtube. Kintaro Oe is just such a lovable character.
Additionally, another comedy i recommend with some weight lifting and fitness elements is How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? Its from the perspective of a teen girl and her friends but its... got some shonen elements... definitely. Its just good fun and im convinced was devised by the japanese government to teach shut-ins how to start exercising for their own health.
Last one, Food Wars is fun. Kind of like an iron chef x MILD hentai. The show treats good food like a sexual experience and occasionally has provocative scenes but nothing hardcore, just a fun nod to other parts of the anime industry.
Honestly I've been looking at Food Wars if only to get more inspiration for cooking and such! I might put that in the background.
The Dumbbells one sounds interesting lol. I'll give it a shot!
Since I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else...
Dr. Stone
Sci-Fi series where one day where everyone in the world gets turned to stone. Then in the future the protagonist breaks out and has to use their science knowledge to start from scratch. There's a lot of humor with moments of feels sprinkled throughout. It makes science exciting as well as have pretty good storytelling. It's still Shonen, but it's different.
I'm not sure I'd recommend it to this person since it's still full of many shonen tropes, but I do like this show. It's kind of watching Bill Nye the Science Guy or Beakman's Lab except there's more to emotionally invest you into it. Plus I really like the art, even if it's a bit cheesecake for my taste.
Interesting premise! I've added it to my list.
Dr Stone is great. It's an off best Shonen. Still has the tropes like "MC has near god tier power in his small domain, and each villian has their own god tier power in their domain"..... but it's like....it's science themed power fantasy Shonen. Not science based like The Martian. Science themed :)
I am not a typical anime watcher at all lol. I'm a middle aged woman.
Some anime I enjoyed includes: Your Lie in April, Death Note, Aggretsuko,
Also I highly recommend the live action film Giri Haji and the tv series Midnight Diner
The person I know who studies japanese played the Witcher 3 in Japanese. I would imagine any predominately story based video game with a japanese dub would work.
Haha I'm not a middle aged woman, but thank you for those suggestions, I'll add them to the list!
I liked the idea of Death Note at the beginning, but after about 10 or so episodes I feel like it really lost the plot. L wasn't as interesting of a character as I thought, and Misa's character almost made me uncomfortable. I think Light as a character is the only interesting part but even then he just seems to make seemingly random decisions imo.
I have Midnight Diner on my list! I was on a food tour inspired by it last summer in Japan, haha.
Hmmm I'm currently working through a playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, maybe I should just switch everything to Japanese :thinking:
Since you are playing Baldur's Gate, I will add Log Horizon and possibly Sword Art Online to my suggestions. Log Horizon was better imho, but both feature modern people sucked into a dungeons and dragons type video game.
If you liked Cyberpunk Edgerunners, you should check out other studio trigger works. They are over the top, but they have style and charm. Gurren Lagann is one of our favorites, it's from them and it's a mech anime following a rag tag group of kids forming a revolutionary group to fight the power.
Tamako Market is probably my favorite. It's about the daughter of a mochi shop owner, so slice of life sort of stuff. It's cute, made me laugh and feel things.
We've been watching Nichijou. That's another slice of life, but veers into the absurd. Half of it follows teenage girls, the other half an android and her child creator and talking cat.
Madoka Magica is a good magical girl anime, even if you aren't typically a fan of the genre. It has a unique, avant garde style for their battles and the adventures take a darker turn than the typical magical girl show.
I also really like Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's the mech anime. Basically, the apocalypse happened, most everyone died, and now teen mech pilots are the last line of defense from another apocalyptic event. What I particularly like is viewing it as an allegory about attachment theory and that it's slow -- it makes you sit with scenes and your feelings at times, something I think is rare in media.
Paprika (a movie) is a wild ride following a psychologist that enters the dream world and a sleep terrorist that has stolen a device that allows folks to share dreams. Satoshi Kon has a couple other wild rides if you end up liking this one.
FMA:B is a favorite of ours, I'd recommend keeping with it. I enjoyed cowboy bebop, Watanabe has several other shows such as Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy that are also aesthetic in their own way if you like what he's putting down.
I think these suggestions are fairly accessible, none of them are extremely long or require prior knowledge of other series or anything. They all have high quality English dubs. Nichijou may be considered a bit more inaccessible since some of the humor only works with Japanese cultural context, but that's pretty minor in scope.
I could probably pull out more suggestions, but I think it'd help if we had some more info about what non anime TV you like and what its been failing to offer.
haha funnily enough my very first anime I watched was about 12 episodes of Kill la Kill. Probably why it took me so long to watch Cyberpunk.
I do have Evangelion on the list, and Ghost in the Shell too actually! everything else looks pretty good too, I'll have to add those.
Oooh putting a list of non-anime TV is a good idea actually! I'll add some to my original post but here:
Background shows I'll put on:
Community
Brooklyn Nine Nine
Shows that made me feel things:
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
The Last of Us
Mr. Robot
Not shows but things I enjoy:
Spider-verse movies
Everything Everywhere All at Once (my favorite movie of all time)
The Planet of the Apes trilogy remakes
Lord of the Rings
Although it is certainly a mecha anime, I wouldn't call Evangelion the Mecha anime unless you're talking about one of the revised versions I didn't watch. Evangelion (the TV show) is primarily a drama about Shinji's angst, traumas, mental issues and inadequacies, which are thematically mirrored in different ways both on the Eva's and the Angels.
Macross is way more worthy of being called the Mecha anime/franchise. Even Code Geass has more Mecha action than Evangelion.
Wouldn't that be Gundam?
You make good points. I didn't mean it in the sense that it's the best for mecha stuff per se, but more of "it's that mecha anime." It's got an impressive legacy. In my experience, even non-anime folk are familiar with some of the imagery and such, even if not the show itself. Like I can name drop it and a friend will go "oh is it that the anime with that purple robot or that one meme." It also has a very stereotypical otaku following, so I meant the in a bit of a denigrating sense like "it's the anime you think of with that kind of otaku following." I didn't convey that well with my words and I'm still not sure I have, thanks for the follow-up though.
I'll recommend anything and everything written and/or directed by Satoshi Kon. He has an incredibly inventive visual style that fully leverages the medium of animation. His works have had a notable effect on some big Hollywood filmmakers.
I'll also throw in a recommendation for Planetes, a 2003 hard sci-fi series set in the near future. It is about a team of wage slave astronauts whose job is to collect debris orbiting Earth in order to maintain the safety of space travel. It is very "slice of life", placing a pretty straightforward workplace drama in a pretty believable sci-fi situation.
A few suggestions in no particular order and I’m sure a lot of them are shonen. I signed in to my anime list for the first time in a decade to remember some names.
Berserk but only the series from the nineties. Monster. FLCL. Moyashimon. Samurai Champloo. Azumanga Daiou. Hellsing. GTO(my favorite, but shonen). Ghost in the shell. Mushishi. NHK ni youkoso. Ouran koukou host club. Planetes. Ranma one half. Rurouni Kenshin. Slayers(old ones). Suzumiya haruhi no yuutsu. Gurenn lagann. Tenjou tenge. Xxxholic.
Sorry for the formatting. Now I’m listening to slayers opening after remembering this existed.
Gonna second Samurai Champloo and FLCL. Rewatched Champloo lately and it has held up so well. Feels like the kind of anime that just doesn't get made nowadays. FLCL is also short and sweet, so it's a low time commitment.
Have to watch Samurai Champloo just for the soundtrack.
I've only heard of a couple of those actually! I have Hellsing on the list, as well as Ghost in the Shell. Everything else seems pretty new, so I'll take my time and go through them! Thank you!
I'm extremely picky about my anime. It can't be too chibi, I hate a "beach episode", and I can't handle any sexualization of kids. Animes that I've enjoyed include: Death Parade, Another, Psychopass, The Way of the Househusband, and A Silent Voice.
All of those nitpicks are also on my nitpick list too! Psycho-Pass was recommended by another in this thread so I'll definitely take a look at that. Thanks for the recs!
I'll chime in and say The Way of the Househusband is really funny. Episodes are comprised of several shorts, so it's easily consumable.
Not sure if I missed it in the thread but attack on titan is one of the best things I've seen period. I haven't finished it off yet as I need to block time to rewatch it all to final seasons, but it's just an incredible story thst is animated amazingly. The best part is after finishing it you'll want to watch it again and will be picking up a whole bunch of things you missed. It is my default anime intro series for anyone.
I would also put up there vinland saga. The first season has a lot of anime intensity but then the second season slows it way down and we examine everything that happened in season 1. I did not expect the pace change and I know it upset some fans, but for me it really was a powerful season of character growth.
Hiayakuu is a huge favorite of mine and my whole family loves it. The english dub is also very good and worth watching. I played a bit of intermural volleyball for a few years and miss it, watching this it really covered everything I felt about the game so well. The characters are all so nice to each other, even opponents, and all go through a ton of growth, it's quite a great show.
I usually reccomend deathnote also but do agree about the time you bailed on it that it lost a lot of its strengths in the back 2/3s.
I honestly thought if they kept Ray Penber's wife in Death Note the story would have been way more interesting. Instead they wasted a whole episode on her for literally no reason lol.
AoT I'm kinda wary of because it feels Shonen-like, but I'll give it a couple of episodes! I've watched a season or two of Haikyuu, it was definitely fun but it definitely still had it's anime moments tbh. I'll check out vinland saga too!
I enjoy most things you listed as what you liked but I would not recommend AoT. Extremely predictable and ugly. Imho. It's a titan class of a jugganaut, which even drew in non anime fans, for sure so giving it a few episodes is a fair sampling for your Otaku badge breadth requirements. But I'm only commenting to tamper your expectations and to say if you don't like it, it's totally okay.
As a counter suggestion: if you want to feel something positive and you want something beautiful, but nevertheless highlights the fleeting nature of life, and to treasure even the smallest relationship bonds and experiences... Try Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.
Premise: So the big bad has been defeated and the world cheers for your hero's party.....and then time goes by. Frieren has to find a new life beyond her extremely brief time, merely ten years, with her hero's party. You mentioned Lord Of The Rings and EEAAO.
Frieren is on the top of my list at the moment actually! But yeah I do think AoT might not be for me, I'll give it a couple of episodes for sure. I doubt I'll get through the whole thing unless the action is extremely interesting.
Honestly I get bored by most Shonen. Fights do not excite me (this is why I don’t like JJK that much). AOT delivers a lot more than fights and machismo, but it takes a while to get there imo. The fights are well-animated, which does help as well.
I think I get a lot of my fill of fights from JJK tbh lol. It's like just interesting enough outside of fights for me to actually enjoy watching it so I don't mind as much lol
I have to suggest Clannad.
It's kind of a hail mary suggestion since it doesn't match with any of the anime and non-anime you listed, but it's the first thing that came to mind in response to:
It starts out as one of those school themed, guy helps a bunch of girls, coming of age stories. It's a slow burn—the first half (24 episodes) could be considered an introduction before the real story.
Compared to other similar anime in the genre, it's great because the main character ends up in a relationship and we get to see everything that comes after that. (In a family friendly way.)
I love everything about it—the characters (and their family members), the calm and low-key feel, the melodrama, the corny jokes, the simple yet endearing background music, the scene compositions. I love how it's so rewatchable even knowing all the story beats. It's not a story that requires much thinking; you're here to connect with the characters.
However it's not guaranteed to click with everyone, which makes me sad. Although I am happy with the pacing, some may find it too slow, even though it's already heavily condensed from an 80-hour visual novel. If it's too slow, there are a lot of parts where playing at 1.25x or 1.5x speed helps a lot IMO.
In any case I think it's worth trying out to see why it's considered such a classic. (Before writing this I accidentally binged about 8 episodes.)
Hmmm I'll put it on the list! I've never heard of it but I usually give it a couple of episodes before writing it off haha.
Lots of good recommendations here. I haven't seen Pacific Rim: The Black mentioned yet, so I'll throw that one in if you've already seen the live action Pacific Rim film. I very much liked that one, and it had a nice self contained story.
I actually really liked the first Pacific Rim movie! I'll have to give it a go, I think I saw the first episode when it came out but didn't push through. We don't speak of the second movie though.
I.... didn't know there was a second movie until this very moment. 😮
I guess I got lucky?
There is no second movie. I'm just a filthy liar and love making things up.
I no longer watch anime as I burned myself out when I was a teenager. I made it to 186 shows and movies and kind of just dwindled out. I won’t mention the ones already in this thread, but below are some of the more interesting ones that stood out from my memory and the typical standard shouting anime.
Monster
Paranoia Agent ( Mind Trippy)
Wolf’s Rain
Last Exile
Read or Die
Samurai 7
Durarara (I did not finish this one as this was around the time I burned myself out on anime.)
Summer Wars (this came to mind for some reason since you mentioned spider-verse)
All interesting suggestions! I'll have to take a look through all of them, I think Monster was suggested already so I might look at that first!
Summer Wars is a fun movie. It's a bit spoiler-y so I wouldn't recommend watching it until after watching the movie, whether you like it or not really, but there's a great AMV The Cyrus Virus that reframes the movie around how catchy a Miley Cyrus song is.
Wolf's Rain is moody sci-fi. Tone-wise maybe "blade runner with wolves"?
Samurai 7 is "Seven Samurai" with mechs. :)
In line with some of those I might add Big O, which is detective noir with mechs.
Big O is one of my favorites! Art deco batman is the best batman in my headcannon.
The sad thing about Monster is that I don't think it was ever released in HD. It really needs a remaster. It's even pixelated on Netflix.
There might simply not be a higher quality source for it. But you really don't need high-resolution art to enjoy that show; it does a fantastic job without it.
Haikyu is a fun and relatively grounded volleyball anime. If you're into Ted Lasso-like positivity, this is a must. It's got a well-developed cast of characters who I really felt and rooted for throughout!
Mob Psycho 100 is very recognizably shonen, but it's got great pacing, avoids the usual tropes and despite its fantastical setting, its characters are easy to resonate with because ultimately it's a story about growing up and maturing (across the age spectrum). Super positive and idealistic but genuinely heartfelt rather than corny.
Also, both of these are gorgeously animated and have stellar English dubs!
Just adding a couple more I didn't see with CTRL F. Films, so that there will be less time investment required.
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms / Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou - I was reminded of this one recently due to Frieren's popularity. Like Frieren, the main character Maquia lives much longer than we do, and this film explores her unique perspective as she raises an adopted human son that quickly grows older than herself. Definitely watch if you want to feel things. The art, animation, and soundtrack are all fabulous, and the story is incredibly moving, especially if you are a parent.
Galaxy Express 999 / Ginga Tetsudō 999 The Movie - An absolute classic and must-watch. A coming of age tale about an orphan boy going on a journey to avenge his deceased mother. The story is great, well paced, and in a setting that is well-developed. The soundtrack is an 11 out of 10 fully orchestrated masterpiece that I listen to often by itself, and it never fails to instantly evoke the imagery of the film in my minds eye.
I also don't like shonen very much! I could recommend almost every show I've watched, but I'll try to limit myself to a few. Text compressed to save space, no spoilers ahead.
Mushishi
One of a few shows that I consider a masterpiece. Watching it is like meditating. The show follows Ginko, a mushishi (or mushi master), essentially a travelling doctor helping people when their interactions with the spirit-like mushi cause them problems. Every episode is a different place, a different mushi, different patients. Sometimes he can solve the problems caused by the mushi, other times he can only do his best to explain the situation and help people cope with it. To my memory, this series lacks any action sequences. There are no fight scenes. The slow, deliberate pacing ensures that not a single frame is wasted. It's the least "anime" anime I've seen, so I will always recommend it to people who don't like shonen.
Haibane Renmei
Haibane Renmei is another one I would call a masterpiece. Ancient. Liminal. Timeless. There are questions that someone, at some point, knew the answer to. What are the walls? What are the haibane? Why and how are the halos made for them? Not only are there questions, it seems like those who enforce the customs and live in this world are themselves unaware of the true meanings behind it all. That knowledge was lost with the people who built this strange world. Those who inhabit it now only infer the best that they can. The world evokes the exact same feeling of timelessness that the world of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian did, and the story and characters made me feel feelings that I don't even know the words for. Like a weird amalgamation of depression and hope. Catharsis? It's maybe my favorite show, just don't hinge your enjoyment on finding out the answers to every question. It may look like a mystery series, but this show is about the characters, not the answers.
Nichijou
Now for something entirely different. Nichijou is as frenetic and unhinged as the Mushishi is calm. Part of the show is about a group of high schoolers largely acting stupid and/or finding themselves in absurd situations, and part of the show is about an android and her child inventor. The show is split into a lot of skits with little overarching storyline, so you can easily find clips of it on youtube. A lot of the humor is specific to Japanese culture, but I don't think that hinders an English speaker's enjoyment of the show.
A list of shows that I'll recommend but can't or don't want to write a review
I'm bad at words, it took me like 3 hours to write those reviews up there, but I want these names to at least be spoken in this thread. I'm not gonna suggest watching all of these, but look into them
Netflix's Castlevania
Trigun
Akudama Drive
Gurren Lagann (it has a lot of awful shonen tropes, but still manages to be my favorite series of all time)
ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department
Spy Family
Persona 4
From The New World
Your Lie In April will make you feel something alright
Sk8 The Infinity
A Place Further Than The Universe will probably make you feel something
Bocchi the Rock will probably make you laugh
Redline is sick as hell
Last Exile
Witch Hunter Robin
Since you seem to like a bunch of stuff, here are a few I gave 10/10:
I can give a longer list. I didn't included too many shonen.
I just started rewatching Kino’s Journey (2003). It’s like solarpunk Studio Ghibli. I found it peaceful and cool when I watched it as a teenager but I appreciate the edge a bit more as an adult. It’s about a person who travels with her guns and talking motorcycle, making sure to stay no longer than 3 days in one place.
ooh that seems nice actually! not a lot of solarpunk media out there, i'll take a look :)
I'll tamper your expectations a bit : I don't think solarpunk is an apt descriptor at all for the setting. It has hints of a somewhat higher tech level in some places but that's the only similarity.
It's an interesting setting regardless, however.
I liked Kino's Journey 2003 (not the 2017 remake)! The story takes place in a harsh but interesting world. I remember things getting spooky and dark very quickly.
Tons of suggestions in here and one that I didn't find doing CTRL+F was Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. It's an adaptation of that story, so if you already know it, maybe it isn't as impactful, but honestly I wasn't very familiar with the story and I found the anime to be impactful to me. It also might be the first anime I watched all the way through, I had seen some others before in particular with a friend trying to introduce me to different ones. Still to this day I don't watch much anime. I've seen FMA Brotherhood, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, and maybe a couple others. I think FMA Brotherhood and Gankutsuou were very impactful to me.
Erased - My girlfriend is not an anime watcher by any means and might be more picky than you OP based on your post. We just finished watching this 12 episode mystery thriller and she loved it. Not going to describe too much what this is about because part of the enjoyment is solving the mystery.
One Piece - Is my all-time favorite anime. It's technically in the shonen genre, but it's been running for 25 years and is the top-selling manga of all time (in the running for top-selling comic series of all-time). There's a reason for that and it's not because the main cast fights, gets stronger, then beats the bad guy and rinses and repeats. The world-building is MASSIVE to the point where we are still learning the answers to 20 year old questions and the themes go from fun-loving and adventure seeking to, war, genocide, racism, slavery and everything in between. That being said, it does take a little while for you as a viewer to put together what it even is about in the beginning, and the beginning of the series does feel like an old show since it was animated in the late 90s. The thing about the series is that it evolves as animation technology evolves, the episodes that have released in the last few months have been previewed in movie theaters (a la Demon Slayer levels of animation quality). Cannot recommend this show enough to people who like a good story.
I'll add Erased to my list for sure! Not too sure about One Piece though lol that's a commitment. I'm already balking on things that are more than like 3 seasons haha.
That's the thing! There's no race in real life to watch any of these shows at a pace where you finish them right now. One Piece is an _ epic adventure_, and is as much about enjoyment of the journey and watching the characters learn and grow, win and lose, as it is about getting to the end of the adventure and finding the treasure. You can watch 12 episodes, and come back in a few weeks and it'll all still be there. You are supposed to enjoy it, don't let it become an arbitrarily time-bound thing.
that's fair! maybe i'll watch it eventually, it's been in the zeitgeist long enough where i feel like I can just pick it up whenever. thanks for the suggestion!
Shirobako -- rather grown up take on the early adulthood with situations that are far from unique to the anime industry.
I don't really watch anime as I'm more of an avid manga reader, but there are one or two I'd like to mention.
Psycho-Pass
Wikipedia describes it as a "cyberpunk psychological thriller". I really enjoyed it. It was a mature series, which asked thought provoking questions and put the characters in interesting situations. Highly recommend the first season (episodes 1 - 24), although I haven't watched any of the movies or later seasons.
Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou
Otherwise known as Daily lives of High School Boys. I watched this when I was in high school and absolutely loved it. It's just a funny, dumb series about boys being boys.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Spy x Family. It's great wholesome family fun, good mix of comedy and action. Not the kind of thing I normally watch but it has universal appeal.
Another one of my favorites is Girls' Last Tour. It's about two friends wandering a barren post-apocalyptic landscape. Pretty unique feels, although the chibi art style is a turnoff for some people.
An absolute classic that I haven't seen recommended here is my favorite anime, Revolutionary Girl Utena. This is made by many of the same people that made Neon Genesis Evangelion, though with lower production values (but they managed to not run out of budget at the end). It's sort of like a gender studies essay in anime form, but with an improbably powerful student council and swordfights. It will seem a little ridiculous at first, and it lags a bit in the middle, but it also has some of the best (and funniest) moments in any anime---or, really, any work in any medium---that I've ever encountered. The final arc is truly a thing of wonder.
It's not as well-known as Evangelion, but it's similarly influential, having been referenced in works as diverse as Madoka, Scott Pilgrim, and Steven Universe.
Revolutionary Girl Utena was not made by the Evangelion staff. It was made by a creative team founded by Kunihiko Ikuhara, who at that time was most notable for being one of the directors behind the Sailor Moon anime. The animation was done primarily at JC Staff.
As much as I love Utena, I don't think it's a particularly good recommendation for modern audiences because there doesn't seem to be a good restoration of it, and those who prefer english dubs will suffer for how bad the voice acting is on it.
I practically worship Ikuhara, but I wouldn't recommend his work as an entry point to anime. His work is all about rejecting social systems and as such have many reference to Japanese things which will make no sense to people who are unfamilliar with them. It's not so bad in Utena but all of his other works don't make sense without understanding those references.
I'm honestly shocked that no one has mentioned these:
Made in Abyss: I cried at least once a season
Mononoke (2007): probably my favorite anime of all time at least visually. I don't think there is anything that comes close to its style, and macabe atmosphere
Kaiba: I... Uh... This one is weird but is good, I don't even know where to begin with it. Very stylized and strange.
Berserk is for sure something that I've been recommended a bunch, I'll start at episode 2! Interesting that it's an english dub though, I assume there's a Japanese dub out there too.
Cowboy Bebop I feel like should excite me more, but yeah for sure the first episode felt kinda meh to me. I'll probably force myself to get through it.
I finished season 1 of Chainsaw Man actually! Action is good, pretty creepy at some points and the world is definitely interesting, but yeah Denji as a character just kinda annoys me, as well as some of the other initiates in the Devil Hunter Corp. (The crying girl specifically, I get that she has some growth moments but did they really have to make her so annoying at first? lol)
If the first episode of Cowboy Bebop didn't grab you, there is a chance the rest won't do much for you either. The show is surprisingly episodic even though it does build to a very satisfying conclusion. You might want to instead watch the movie; it's got an original plot but in spirit it's kind of like a condensation of the feeling of the show as a whole, but with a much happier ending. You can use that as a benchmark for if you want to pull through the rest of the series.
The movie as in the live action one? The concept itself looks interesting, I'll have to go through it again to see if it was just me not being in the mood though. I think the other thing for me is that western shows are much easier in terms of accessibility because I obviously speak english, I don't have to commit too hard to it. Maybe I'll start getting into chinese dramas in mandarin or something lol.
Yes please avoid the live action one... especially the last half of the episodes.
No, there is an animated movie. It originally was released as simply Cowboy Bebop: The Movie in English speaking countries, but it’s also known as Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.
It's on my list actually! I'll have to go through that soon.