Most of my exposure with anime was whatever was on Toonami and Adult Swim in the 2000s. I've not watched stuff like, Ghost In The Shell, Cowboy Bebop (only disjointed episodes out of order), Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I know are highly regarded.

I've seen just about every Miyazaki movie at this point. I've seen Akeria.

I'm sure there's more mainstream shows and non mainstream shows that I'm missing and would enjoy.

Thoughts?

  • StalinIsMaiWaifu@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    7 months ago

    My recommended list to try out and see what you like

    1 of the "old school" battle shonen: Dragon Ball (and DBZ + DBZA), Bleach, Naruto, or One Piece (God help you)

    1 of the current battle shonen: My Hero Academia, Black Clover, Demon Slayer, or Jujitsu no Kaisen

    1 of other classic shonen: Inuyasha, Hunter x Hunter, YuYu Hakusho, Yu-Ghi-Oh, Pokemon, or Digimon

    Anti-Recommend to Ruroni Kenshin, it's a good series but the author is a legit pedophile and is not being punished for his crimes

    1 of "foreign" anime: Avatar the Last Airbender, Wakfu!, Black Dynamite, Boondocks

    1 of One's work: One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100

    1 of general romance: Clannad, Toradora, Your Name, Your Lie in April, Hibike Euphonium, Ouran Highschool Host Club (reverse harem!)

    1 gay bait romance: Yuri on Ice, Free!

    1 of school comedy: Kill me Baby, Nichijou, Daily Life of Highschool Boys, Chromartie Highschool

    2 of old neck beard favs: Haruhi, Lucky Star, Code Geass, Serial Experiments Lain, Legend of the Galactic Heros, Afro Samurai, or Steins;Gate

    Neon Genesis Evangelion- this is highly influential but try to watch some general Mecha beforehand to really appreciate

    Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann (does NOT count as a general Mecha for above)

    Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

    Revolutionary Student Utena

    1 of (from most to least serious) Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, or Space Dandy

    Azumanga Daioh or Yotsubato&, both are Slice of Life "comfy" series, Yotsubato& is the 4chan girl and manga only

    Anti-Recommend to Usagi Drop

    1 of: Gundam, Gundam Zeta, or Gundam Iron Blood Orphans

    Frieren's Journey

    1 of the "trapped in video game": Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, hack//sign, or Solo Leveling

    1 of your edgy series: Attack on Titan, Goblin Slayer, Berserk (read the manga), or Puella Magi Madoka Magica

    1 of Isekai: Re:Zero, Overlord, Tanya the Evil, or KonoSuba

    If you like multiple of the Isekai shows then Isekai Quartet is for you

    Movies:

    Redline

    Sword Of the Stranger

    Grave of the Fireflies

    • Cromalin [she/her]
      ·
      7 months ago

      don't watch more than one big shonen, just go for one and if you like it maybe check out others. all the ones listed are hundreds of episodes (minus the modern ones, which are all kinda bad. many of the others are also kinda bad). check out yu yu hakusho, which is a very solid classic action series and is "only" ~100 episodes compared to naruto's 700 or one piece's 1000+. hunter x hunter is a little longer but is also great, though it's much less of a traditional shonen fight story so it won't give you the best idea of what others may be like

      yuri on ice isn't gaybait, those men kissed! if you want gaybait check out hibike euphonium, or the movie liz and the blue bird. i know you put hibike in the general romance category, but that is a lesbian anime where the girls get with guys at the end. idk that liz and the bluebird is gaybait but the girls are never explicitly interested in each other

      you really shouldn't watch zeta gundam without watching first gundam, it's a sequel that is building a lot on what was already done in the first one. i'll second ibo though

      anti-recommend all of the trapped in a video game ones. they're bad. log horizon starts good, but it kinda just spins its wheels forever and never does anything with the things it sets up

      it is INCREDIBLY unfair to put madoka magica and berserk (which are good, and not fascist) together with attack on titan and goblin slayer (which are bad, and also fascist). madoka is not nearly in the same league in terms of edginess either, it's genuinely a very hopeful and uplifting show imo. anti-recommend attack on titan and goblin slayer, but i am pro-berserk and madoka

      anti-recommend the isekai. they're bad, and tanya is really heavy on the lolicon and nazi imagery together to a VERY uncomfortable extent

    • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
      ·
      7 months ago

      boondocks is excellent on its own even if you don't like other anime, but if you do like other anime watch some of the stuff that influenced it to pick up on the homages.

      • CloutAtlas [he/him]
        ·
        7 months ago

        Having Samuel L. Jackson voice the whitest character in the show was a masterstroke. The MF DOOM soundtrack.

        The George W Bush and Rumsfeld analogy starting a random conflict in an Iraqi convenience store because they wanted to shoplift in broad daylight and bullying a cop named Officer French to side against the Iraqi shopkeeper while they were supposed to be doing something completely different is just chefs kiss

    • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Great post, lots of good recs here.

      I'd add to the "neck beard favs" as you call them:

      Akagi and Kaiji - gambling winner and gambling loser

      Death Note policing-brain