3mo ago

Looking for recommendations

Hi there, I'm trying to get into more anime as of late, but don't really know where to start.

For reference, here's my anilist.co with what I've watched (AFAIR).
I really enjoyed Sousou no Frieren recently and I've also watched a lot of Studio Ghibli, with Mononoke-hime being an all-time favourite of mine. And FWIW Meitantei Conan is my favourite manga, although I haven't watched the anime that much.

Thanks!

EDIT: Thanks for all your recommendations already, I've added them to my watchlist and will check them out!

34 comments

If you're looking for another cool fantasy thing I can heartily recommend Delicious in Dungeon. It starts out as a simple adventure where the party is trying to get deeper into the dungeon to resurrect their fallen comrade while scavenging for food along the way. Once it's taken a few episodes to establish the personalities of the main cast it quickly starts expanding on everything else that's going on and the adventure gets a bit more complicated. It's got really cool worldbuilding, character writing, and animation and is easily among my favorites.
- !dungeonmeshi@ani.social for anyone who hasn't found it yet!
- Thanks for the summary, I'm adding it to the list!
All great recommendations but one is missing:
Kusuriya no Hitorigoto - The Apothecary's Diary
Dungeon Meshi
Not personalized, but I recommend Steins;Gate to anyone who hasn't watched it yet. Out of all the 200 animes I've watched, I still consider it to be in my top 3.
- I actually have the game on my wishlist, I don't know whether the anime and the game are one and the same?
  
  Haven't played the VN but I really enjoyed the anime. It's the same story and my understanding is that while the VN explains things deeper and more thoroughly the anime is one of those adaptions that the source material (VN) fans like.
  
  I don't know how better the VN is, but like you, I also have it in my wishlist. VNs generally are more detailed than anime though.
  If you are into playing VNs, my first VN was Umineko: When They Cry. I can recommend that.
  
  The Steins;Gate game has a very opaque choice system. The ending you get has to do with how you use the character's phone in the game, not really how you interact with people. I suggest playing with a guide.
  It's really good, though.
- Ah, Steins;Gate, one of the most praised animes that I hear often that I specifically don't play because I forced myself to check it out once I finish the Vita game (which is buried in my backlog 🫠).
Kiki's Delivery Service
Laputa
Ponyo
Nausicaa
The Secret World of Arrietty
From Up on Poppy Hill
Porco Rosso
Death Note
Tokyo Godfathers
Paprika
Jujutsu Kaisen
I don’t suppose you’ve heard of Full Metal Alchemist or Avatar the Last Airbender (technically not anime)? To me those are staple titles of the medium.
- I'm pretty sure I read Fullmetal Alchemist 15 or so years ago, but I don't remember the story well at all.
  I've seen Avatar the Last Airbender mentioned countless times, but never took a look at it, I'll check it out!
  
  I should clarify something about Fullmetal Alchemist. There are actually two Fullmetal Alchemist anime. The original aired in 2003 and was quite good for a while, but then about 1/3 of the way through the story it caught up with the source material and had to start making things up. Unfortunately I don't think it did a great job of that. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was made in 2009 and does a really good job of following the story of the original manga. It probably has the best ending out of all the action/adventure anime I've ever seen; I highly recommend it. It also has the best English dub I've ever seen in an anime, so that's also something to consider if you don't feel like reading subtitles.
- Avatar is an American cartoon animation with anime-style inspired appearance, not an anime per se. In fact, they never did even regional japanese versions, only japanese dub over the originals America-made
  
  Fascinating.
A lesser talked about Studio Ghibli: Porco Rosso. As well as Steamboy
The Big O.
Trinity Blood
Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans
Dimension W
Soul Eater
Samurai Jack, Well not an anime it is a Western cartoon It has a lot of anime sensibilities.
- Big ups for Samurai Jack & Big O
Hard to put words to this one, but I really enjoyed it:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31646/3-gatsu_no_Lion/
Feel-good Slice of life with camping:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/34798/Yuru_Camp%E2%96%B3
- Adding those to the list, thanks!
Orb: On the Movement of the Earth is, in my opinion, the best show I've ever watched. Also strongly recommend Vinland Saga and Summertime Rendering.
Edit to add brief summaries:
Orb - set in 15th century Europe-ish with the main theme of astronomy research amid church persecution, but also more general questions of science, curiosity and inspiration. Not many action scenes, but excellent storytelling and characters. Gets pretty dark at times, considering one of the main characters is a church official tasked with interrogations.
Vinland Saga - another historical fiction piece, this time with early 11th century Vikings. More action, but also excellent story and characters, including some real historical figures of that period. Portrays war and slavery in very dark colors, so keep that in mind before watching.
Summertime Rendering - describing the main premise would be kind of a spoiler for the first episode, so I'll stick to the vibes. For me, it was like a Stephen King novel met a Resident Evil game. Unsolved mysteries in a small town, characters that are actually smart and resourceful (on both sides of the conflict) and just a sprinkle of eldritch horror.
I don’t have a big list or guide or anything, but I thought Delicious in Dungeon was great fun
- Thanks, that looks really up my alley, I'm adding it to the list!
I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record with these two series, but Mushishi is a slow series about a guy who travels around and solves peoples' supernatural problems, usually with strange brings called mushi.
Natsume Yuujinchou is a series about an orphan boy, who moves to a small town, and discovers more about his mother, makes friends, and other slice of life things. Oh, and his mother made a deal with a bunch of yokai, and he is left to help these yokai, with the help of one, who takes the form of a cat.
I wish there are more mystery series out there, for some reason, all I can think of is Hyouka and Paranoia Agent.
Speaking of Paranoia Agent, I see you have Paprika, and Perfect Blue, may I recommend Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, also by Satoshi Kon.
- Thanks, those sound great!
  Yeah, I also wish there were more mystery/detective series out there, but haven't found that many so far.
Have a look at this post
From my favourites
Deep Psychological Anime
Serial Lain Experiment (Incomprehensible like NGE probably you will not like it)
Parasyte
Death Note
Monster(Very Deep psychological Anime)
Pluto
Good Comedy Drama(Little bit of romance) Slice-of-LifeAnime
The Apothecary Diaries
Anne Shirley (Releasing but you can watch 1977 version)
Komi Can't communicate
A Silent Voice
Girls Last Tour
Shonen Anime
Dan Da Dan
Jujutsu Kaisen
Demon Slayer
I recommend Bakemono no Ko.
Attack On Titan is an easy suggestion
Berserk (1997) has amazing artwork.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Gurren Lagann is hilarious
Yu Yu Hakusho is a classic, and it's better in the dub.
Nodame Cantabile
Ouran High School Host Club is cute
Great Teacher Onizuka
Clannad is okay, but it's worth it to set up for Clannad: After Story which gets real heavy
FLCL
Trigun
If you liked Frieren, I highly recommend Violet Evergarden . It has very similar themes in how the protagonist is out of touch with humanity, but learns and grows through those around her. (Skip the second movie though)
Besides that, my list of general recommendations:
Azumanga Daioh - 2002 classic about a bunch of high school students who are all idiots. That's it, that's the entire show. Endlessly quotable and extremely influential to 2000s era internet humor.
The Apothecary Diaries - A medical drama set in imperial China (or a fictionalized version of it). The protagonist is unhinged in all the best ways.
Bocchi the Rock! - A protagonist with cartoonishly overexaggerated social anxiety joins a band in the hopes of becoming popular. What really elevates this show above and beyond is the animation, whenever she starts imagining the worst of every situation, they take it to the extreme with live action, claymation, 3D modeling, paper cutouts, all manner of silliness.
Kaiji - I'd like to recommend Akagi as my favorite series of all time, but Akagi is completely incomprehensible if you don't know anything about mahjong (and if you do know anything about mahjong, you already watched Akagi and you read the manga too so you didn't need me to recommend it to you). So instead here's another series by the same author that is understandable to general audiences.
Kaguya-Sama: Love is War - Romcom about two idiots who clearly like each other, but they are idiots. They're both too stubborn to confess, instead believing that they have to get the other to fall for them and confess instead. This is one where you absolutely have to watch the dub, the narrator is amazing.
Little Witch Academia - It's like if Harry Potter wasn't written by a terrible human being. I love the art style and character designs.
Spy x Family - The first two episodes set up what appears to be a suspenseful thriller about a spy and an assassin, only to bait and switch with a delightful slice of life comedy about two absolute bozos trying to be good parents.
Bro gave End of Evangelion a 1/5 💀 Maybe try the Rebuild movies, they have a happier ending than End of Eva. Mononoke-hime is peak though.
But checking on the rest of your list, here are a few others of ranging quality:
Claymore - Serious dark fantasy, basically a show that follows Witcher women that hunt monsters.
Black Lagoon - Sometimes serious, sometimes comedy, follows a boring office kid on an adventure with a rag tag group of criminals
Bubblegum Crisis (the original OVA series) - Peak 1980s Cyberpunk anime, basically Power Rangers but armored women vs androids called Boomers. Shame its only 8 episodes. The Tokyo 2040 remake was mid, the story was a little better but the art style and theme style was pretty much trashed compared to the original
Full Metal Panic - Sometimes serious, sometimes comedy, follows a PMC agent assigned to protect a young girl, features mecha
Jin-Roh - Very serious war time style movie, set in an alternate timeline where Nazi Germany conquered and occupies Japan, follow an elite counterterrorism officer and his struggle between love and country. Lots of symbolism with Little Red Riding Hood in the story
Record of Lodoss War - Peak 90s Dark Fantasy anime. Like, the daddy of almost all modern fantasy anime with a gold standard art style to match, seriously don't skip this one

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