I have watched a lot of the studio Ghibli stuff but not sure what series to start on, looking for recommendations
If you liked the studio ghibli ones, try Wolf’s Rain. It’s a cool story. The creator then took his ideas that he didn’t get to play with (subterfuge and deeply flawed characters) and created Darker than Black, a really awesome take on regular people getting superpowers.
Check out the Mother’s Basement youtube channel for some good seasonal recommendations. He also covers trashy anime in seperate videos from his ones-to-watch or best-of videos, if you wanted to avoid (or deliberately delve into) that.
I can’t tell you where to start, but I can tell you where not to start.
Death Note is utter garbage. Anyone recommending it hasn’t watched it in ten years, and is forgetting how contrived it is.
For example:
The main characters play tennis while trying to win a mental game of rock, paper, scissors.
They turn a scene about looking inconspicuous into one of those over-edited Indian soap operas (I’ll take a chip… AND EAT IT!).
Misa is annoying as hell.
I have never seen Death Note, and don’t intend to, but the primary target audience for like, 99.8% of all anime is teenagers. So hearing that it tries to appeal to that isn’t all that shocking, honestly.
Naww. Your numbers don’t track.
- Kids (6,487)
- Shounen (1,950)
- Seinen (1,015)
- Shoujo (490)
- Josei (151)
It all depends on the anime itself, really.
You can say the target audience for Ghibli films are kids, but the ones who get the most out of them are adults.
Many of the anime I would consider the best, would include themes I couldn’t really understand the nuances of as a teenager, or even as a young adult, yet are published in Shonen/Young Jump.
My spiciest anime hot take is that the Netflix adaption of Death Note was actually pretty good.
The problem was that anyone who liked the anime would hate it and vice versa, so it had no audience.
But if you disliked the anime, then I highly recommend checking out the Netflix adaption.
It answers the question “what if Light were cringe”.
What do you mean “what if”?
What kind of interests do you have? Genres, settings, etc. Is there anything you don’t have interest in? There are a lot of anime out there, and it would be better to suggest anime kknowing your interests rather than suggesting you something you may not be interested in.
FCLC, Cowboy Bebop, Sword Art Online, and Frieren would be good ones to start with.
FCLC: modern setting with absurdist and Sci fi
Cowboy Bebop: future setting, Sci fi meets western
Sword Art Online: modern characters in a fantasy setting, fantasy with a tinge of Sci fi
Frieren: fantasy setting, plays with tropes of the genre so maybe leave this one until you’ve watched a couple of more traditional fantasy set series. Hard not to recommend it to everyone though.
How’d SAO make that list?
I would argue that there is a reason it has become such a huge success. It’s the vanilla flavor of isekai anime.
That’s why I recommended it. It’s baby’s first isekaia, basically.
FCLC
I thought it was FLCL, “Fooley Cooley”? Or am I thinking of something else?
Nope, that’s correct. I misremembered.
Attack on Titan is great if you don’t mind the occasional bit of brutal, horrific violence.
Hard to give advice with no context. What do you like in other mediums? Anime is broad.
I’ll just suggest some shows in the order I watched them (or some order, I don’t remember exactly):
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Dragon Ball Z (though the pacing is frustrating… You could try playing Kakarot instead though)
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Dragon Ball Super (much better pacing)
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One Punch Man
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Naruto (it’s long but worth it)
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Hunter x Hunter
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Sword Art Online
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Deathnote
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Seven Deadly Sins (though be aware that there’s some consent issues here, though they do craft an interesting scenario for it that I can’t give away without spoiling)
Didn’t they fix the pacing with DBZ in DBZ Kai? Never watched it myself, but that’s what I understood.
I’ve never seen it myself either. DBZ abridged is pretty good, though I think I appreciate it more having known the original version first (otherwise I would have suggested that one).
All I know is that I’m glad I watched DBZ as episodes taped on VHS instead of the weekly format I think they were on TV (I didn’t have cable growing up). There were literally entire episodes that were mainly Goku and opponent, opponent telling Goku how fucked he was and Goku getting excited because fighting his way out of being entirely fucked is his favorite pastime. It was bad enough spending 23 minutes watching that without having to then wait a week to see what happens next (usually massive energy attack, whoever threw it acting smug until the dust clears to show their opponent still standing).
I’m not selling it great, but the real fun of the show was in the character interactions. The fights were fairly predictable but the characters were great.
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I have this rule: The quality of an anime is inverse of the number of episodes it has.
Of course it is not always true but It is a good rule of thumb. Without knowing what you like, read some sinopses of the classics and see if any sparkle your interest.
You are already in a good track with movies, you can watch Akira or the first Ghost in the Shell for some good action sci-fi.
I personally didn’t watch yet, so is not quite a recommendation but any Satoshi Kon movie is always very well received, like Perfect Blue.
There is some anthology movies, each with 3-4 short stories, that seems to be quite Good. I watched and liked alot Memories, and heard about Neo Tokio and Robot Carnival. All of them have one section done by Katsuhiro Ótimo, the author of Akira.
You can look up some OVA that are 1 to 6 EPS long like Read or Die, Bastard (the original one) and Blood: The last Vampire (the original one)
Some TV series that are 13 to 26 episodes long I really liked is Samurai Champloo. I also like the Netflix’s Castlevania (the first one) and I cannot vouch for it because I didn’t finish yet but Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was pretty good.
The next two are quite controversial but I think quite good are Kite and Mezzo Forte, both are 1 or 2 ep OVA. They are controversial because they are a mix of action anime and some hardcore hentai, but there are some cuts without the sex stuff (that is also completely unnecessary if I remember correctly). The action scenes are really good.
Definitely do NOT recommend Perfect Blue right out the gate for someone that only saw a few Ghibli films.
Its a great movie, and one that has a lot of cultural significance, but it is not a good pick for a first timer. It has some scenes that are intentionally extremely uncomfortable, and has a lot of cuts that can be hard to follow even for seasoned anime/film viewers.
This is kinda like recommending someone play Postal when someone asks what video games they should try if theyre starting out. While exaggerated a bit, it might be better to start them off with Mario instead.
You must not have finished readding his comment, in the last paragraph dude is recommending hentia with good action and story.
Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, Fullmetal Alchemist and everything by Studio Ghibli I can NOT recommend because after seeing them, all other anime looks like childish crap by comparison. They’ve ruined me, don’t let the same fate befall you!
Let me add Serial Experiments: Lain and Rurouni Kenshin.
Full metal alchemist Stein’s Gate Violet Evergarden Legends of the galactic heros Pluto Vinland Saga Planetes Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure Initial D Code Geass Dragon Ball Naruto Cowboy Bebop Dororo Death Note
Dunno about all of them, but the first three are very solid representations of their genres.
Maybe throw in a comedy, like Food Wars to round it out.
I’m going to go old-school here:
Magic Knight Rayearth - admittedly the manga was better since the anime had to do filler episodes, but the idea of a good story with no good guys or bad guys, and subtly riffing on RPG tropes, was an interesting watch. The OAV is a different take but also good (object censored nudity notwithstanding) and has a tighter storyline.
The Slayers - one of the anime that I first watched, so it holds a special place in my heart. Megumi does an amazing job as Lina.
Kimagure Orange Road - one of the earlier popular anime in the ‘love triangle’ genre, with the fun add-on that the main character secretly has esper powers. The characters are pretty well-rounded too.
Gundam Wing - yes, yes, but jokes aside it isone of the anime that made Mobile Suit shows popular outside of Japan; if you want to try out the Mobile Suit genre then it’s not a bad one to start with. Plus the Gundam designs are pretty cool, especially the Endless Waltz versions.
…And one more modern one: Spy x Family. It’s cute, dramatic, and the kid actually acts like a kid and not a mini-adult.
Golden Boy, hands down.
I believe the best starter animes must need some criteria:
- not too long (seeing something having hundreds of episodes is a huge hurdle)
- self-contained (no spin-offs of other franchises that you need to know)
- completed (no “if you want to know how it ends you have to read the source material or hope for a second season”)
- no need to know cultural references (what the fuck is a shikigami?!)
- universal themes (love, hate, friendship, hardship, etc… Stuff that applies to everyone)
- characters should be likable (no one keeps watching if they dislike the characters)
- interesting from the start (no “uh, it gets great from the 5th episode, just keep at it”)
- interesting throughout (show shouldn’t fizzle out or run out of steam)
- normal visuals (yes, shows with unique art styles can feel fresh for someone with more than 1000 shows under their belt, but for a new watcher better keep it normal)
- not mundane but not too far “out there” (just the right amount of fantastical)
- no off putting material (gore, over-the-top violence, etc.)
- it should end on a positive note (I wouldn’t have touched another anime ever again if Grave of the Fireflies were my first one)
With all those criteria listed, I believe the best show that ticks all the checkmarks is Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.
Great pick
I would recommend browsing through this list and checking some of them out: https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php?type=bypopularity
As a personal recommendation, I really enjoyed Mushishi and it has some Ghibli vibes. Lots of mystical, spiritual stuff going on in each episode with an overall chill and melancholy feel. https://myanimelist.net/anime/457/Mushishi
