I have watched a lot of the studio Ghibli stuff but not sure what series to start on, looking for recommendations
You’ve got some good suggestions already. Here are a couple that I think are good for somebody that is fairly new to the deep rabbit hole of anime tropes/conventions:
- Mushishi - My personal favorite anime of all time. Very contemplative and melancholy. Don’t binge this, just watch an episode before bed or something like that, and let it sit in your brain.
- Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End - This just recently finished airing its first season and was excellent in every respect. Classic high fantasy story (think Lord of the Rings) which follows the near-immortal elf Frieren in her travels. Very approachable for previously non-anime watchers.
- Cowboy Bebop - An all-time classic space western following some bounty hunters.
- One Punch Man - A humorous take on the superhero genre. If you are looking for something more comedy oriented, this is a decent starting point.
The problem with recommending opm as a starter is that it parodies a bunch of shows and Manga that OP probably won’t have the references for. I would worry that OP might miss most if not all of the jokes without the context.
I’ve been wanting to get into OPM myself. What would you recommend to watch first to understand at least 80 % of the references?
Just watch it, you really don’t need to know much about the stuff its parodying
They don’t “need” to know the stuff they are parodying, true, but it’s a lot less funny without that frame of reference. It’s like listening to a Wierd Al song without knowledge of the original.
Oh no, he might not understand that Saitama’s shirt says boobs? How will he ever enjoy the show?? I watched OPM as one of my first anime, got almost no references and its one of my favorite anime of all time.
Not what we’re talking about.
Just making a point, you can enjoy without getting every little detail
- Full metal alchemist
- Steins;Gate
- Violet Evergarden
- Legends of the galactic heros
- Initial D
- Dragon Ball
- Code Geass
- Death Note
- Planetes
- Dororo
- Cowboy Bebop
- Black Lagoon
- Vinland Saga
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.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
It’s an anime that I recommend to people who already dislike anime, and it’s a great starting point
Do you like fantasy? Check out Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End; it’s what recently got me to watch anime. It tells a great story with compelling characters, has some awesome action scenes, and keeps all of the things I hate about anime (excessive melodrama and fanservice) to a minimum.
It’s just a great show, and not merely a great anime.
Its a masterpiece.
Another fantastic fantasy being produced right now is Dungeon Meshi aka Delicious in Dungeon.
15 episode are out on Netflix.
It’s a bit more on the comedic side than Frieren, but also keeps the weirdness typical in a lot of anime to a minimum. It also comes with fantastic characters and gorgeous animation.
People who like Frieren are likely to enjoy Dungeons Meshi and vice versa. I certainly do.
And also !dungeonmeshi@ani.social
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My all time favourite anime is Steins;Gate. It’s a really cool take on a time travel story and it’s an emotional rollercoaster. I just finished rewatching it recently and it has some cringy scenes but I still love it :D
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.
Best to start is series that are finished with one season (24 max). My recommendations
- Charlotte
- Odd Taxi
- Gurren Lagann
- A Place Further than the Universe
- Cyberpunk Edgerunners
- Ping pong the Animation
- Lycoris Recoil
- Tatami Galaxy
Gurren Lagaan is a parody of mecha anime, it’s not really something you can recommend to normies.
Yes. It doesn’t look like normal mecha anime but I don’t see it as a parody anime. I believe it can be a good anime for starter since Gurren Lagann shows how crazy and stupid anime can be sometime.
Sure, but the show is explicitly a deconstruction of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
NGE was a deconstruction of ordinary mecha anime.
I’m not saying someone with no experience with anime couldn’t enjoy GL, but it’s wrapped in so many layers of meta, most of the themes and inside jokes would be missed.
My recommendations:
- Sazae-san
- Soreike! Anpanman
- Doraemon
- Chibi Maruko-chan
- Case Closed
- Crayon Shin-chan
- One Piece
(I woke up today and chose violence.)
Good lord, 2640 episodes with a total runtime of over 37 days.
I also just checked, and these shows (the ones still airing anyway) are able to have episode discussion threads requested from the bot if there are people that want to discuss them. Not sure how big the Chibi Maruko-chan audience might be in this community, but the capability is there if they exist and are looking for a home.
…these shows (the ones still airing anyway)…
I specifically listed only shows still in production to preclude any possibility of OP being able to finish, even if they did spend 37 days trying! 😈
(Also, Case Closed and One Piece are the only ones I’ve ever watched any episodes, of, LOL.)
Hard to give advice with no context. What do you like in other mediums? Anime is broad.
Even your fav Ghibli movies would help. I’d have different recommendations for some whose fav was Princess Kaguya as apposed to Pom Poko or Nausicaa
Your Name
Wolf Children
It really depends on what genres of other media you’re into. If you like super hero stuff then My Hero Academia might be a good choice. It’s set in a world where most people have super powers, so it’s kind of an interesting take on that whole thing. It’s still being made, but there’s enough to keep you busy for a while.
My jumping off point for anime was Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It’s an action anime with solid characters and a good plot, and there’s not really any filler. It’s about 80 episodes and is a complete story. Definitely worth checking out even if it’s not your first.
It’s a lot of pressure imagine someone saying, “Recommend me a book”.
I believe the best starter animes must meet 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’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.
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.
FCLC
I thought it was FLCL, “Fooley Cooley”? Or am I thinking of something else?
Nope, that’s correct. I misremembered.
How’d SAO make that list?
I liked it. The novel was a little better maybe.
I mean, it IS basically a self-insert masturbatory ‘little guy is super badass’ anime… but it is a FUN and visually neat one at the same time. I would tell people to watch it if they like the premise. Just don’t read the book. It somehow was more mary sue-ish.
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.
Attack on Titan is great if you don’t mind the occasional bit of brutal, horrific violence.
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.
