I’ve watched anime since I was a kid, but didn’t even know about fansubs until I started blogging in 2011. Since then I’ve learned a lot about seasons, downloading, fandom, etc. I also took anime as something I wanted to watch more of. Due to school, work, then a case of not valuing time seriously, watching more anime faded by the wayside.
Needless to say, I’m still at the stage where I’m finding my niche, finding what I like the most, what I dislike the most, etc. I’m still learning what fascinates me, what bores me, what makes me laugh, and how it affects me. Needless to say that makes me the least likely candidate to figure out what offends my sensibilities and tell you what’s offensive or what’s a mess visual wise.
But while I’m still learning, you can join me in following how I grow my list. For now, the list will change in increments: for every 50 anime I complete, 5 more get added to the list. I will see how I far I go, but I’m looking towards hitting a top 30 list for now.
Anyways, I think I’ve talked enough, so I’ll start the listing now. For my first list though, I’m not ranking anything. I will definitely have a rank more than likely after completing my 250th anime, but I’ll treat my first list as something special. How special? By listing the anime that’s impacted me the most so far. Most of them have made me look at anime differently, and have found themselves wholly recommended. Will some of them still be on the list when I make a new one? I’ll see.
Just know that this list has great anime that you should spend some time watching, whether it’s a lengthy shounen series or an anime intended for kids.
Dragonball
I should note that this doesn’t include Dragonball Z, which is a fine, ok anime that definitely was part of my childhood, but I didn’t get into it until it was on Toonami. It aired on channel 11 in New York, and I wasn’t compelled to watch it, even as classmates got into it.
Dragonball, on the other hand, captured me in a way that made me do stupid things.
One really silly thing it made me do was take Karate. Admittedly a friend of mine had been taking Taekwondo and since I enjoyed competing against him on stuff, that was a factor. But in watching Dragonball, and seeing Goku and Krillin train for the martial arts tournament with Master Roshi, it inspired me to give it a try. I made it as far as blue belt until I couldn’t motivate myself to continue anymore. I think that coincided with DB ending? Probably not. I think I just wanted to enjoy high school without extra commitments. But just that makes you realize this ain’t easy, to train every day and find reasons to keep pushing your body farther and farther past its limits. While Dragonball goes far out there with that, it feels refreshing and that there’s a point to it all, as opposed to DBZ.
The stupid thing I did was, to replicate the training Goku and Krillin did with the heavy turtle shells on their backs, I used my book bag, stuffed with textbooks and notebooks, and started jumping around the apartment. To be fair, I did feel like my body got lighter and more free!
But yeah, for me to do something like that, it takes a work that engages in some sort of meaningful way, and with its comedy, action, and style, Dragonball was that.
Death Note
Now that I’ve watched and at least seen a good amount of anime, Death Note’s premise, while neat in concept, has been done style wise before. And really, I had been watching stuff on TechTV like Lain (which is still beyond me) and Betterman, so I’ve seen more thought provoking works. And since I haven’t watched it in a while, I can’t say aside from its theme of death and who has the power to control it that Death Note is thought provoking.
It sure was one ride that I enjoyed from start to finish.
At the time, it did make me wonder. At the time it had me hooked. But at the time I never really appreciated a battle of wits in anime before this one. It’s definitely due to the two main leads, who steal the show in their case of trying to one-up the other, down to the final moment where their rivalry ends. Airing on Adult Swim at the time, I could hardly wait for each episode every week. It was great. Then I ended up watching the live action. I finally read the manga. Basically, I found a show that thrilled me towards the end. I mean, I even liked the last arc, which may or may not say something about my taste, but in animated form it was crazy, and made me realized that yes, anime can go in many directions, and it can be a work of art.
Granted, I was also enthralled by another show that got on the block *coughcoughcodegeasscough*, but Death Note worked for me, in a way that I didn’t feel at the time, and still remains a memory to this day.
Bunny Drop
Since Death Note though, it had been a while since I found an anime to love a LOT. At the time, I spent my anime watching what was on TV, and made a stubborn vow to never watch anime online. (I obviously broke it). Then of course Toonami said goodbye, even though I did give up on it, and while I was interested in manga, anime watching for the most part was on the downswing. I think aside from Heroman and a bit of Occult Academy, I didn’t watch much anime. Well, aside from that moment where I watched a lot of Naruto and School Days (yes, School Days), I didn’t even realize there was such a thing as seasons. That was until I started a blog. Why yes, this one in particular actually. But even despite that, and even watching some shows, I could barely keep up with anything.
Then it was summer time.
As I was off from school, I had plenty of time to myself. But I also knew this was the chance to finally commit to a season from start to finish. So I resolved to watch every anime that aired that season. I dropped those that were awful or boring, and kept ones I wanted to write about and were good.
Two titles stood out to me that season.
The first is the one that I fell for instantly. The premise seems like it could have been boring – a salaryman having to take care of his grandpa’s love child – and yet, from the moment Daikichi and Rin met, it simply captivated me. From why they met, to the way they were shown on the screen, that moment stuck with me, and I was in love since. It was probably the first slice of life I legitimately enjoyed from start to finish. I don’t think slice of life was shown on TV here, so it may have been the first show I watched that dealt with this type of matter. And boy was it executed beautifully. From its pacing to its visuals to the challenges that the characters, and not just the main characters, had to overcome, Bunny Drop was marvelous.
And just when I thought it could have been some sort of fluke, I watched it again a year later. Still amazing. Slice of life can be great, even if the mundane takes place. Bunny Drop is the example I’ll turn to every time. I’ll just encourage people to accept that it ends in Volume 4 if they ask about the manga.
Mawaru Penguindrum
The second anime was a show that A) made me think back to my childhood B) really frustrated me every week.
A) I may be inaccurate in whether it aired on the station, but there was a channel known as the International Channel that showed anime. That station was the first channel that showed an anime with subtitles. That was Dragonball GT. It also aired stuff like Slayers, Lost Universe, even freakin Record of Lodoss War. At some point though, a show by the name of Utena was on the station. Needless to say, I was young, I thought girls had cooties, and….Utena just looked weird. I also may have jumped into a random episode, so that may have been a factor, but I watched a decent amount of it, had no idea what it was, and dumped it. As I found out when seeing what shows to watch in 2011, Penguindrum was being directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Ikuhara directed the show I gave up on. Utena has been beloved by everybody. Woe is me.
B) This, for the first half, was beautiful. It was highly entertaining, even if I thought something was nonsense, it was good nonsense. I had never seen the styles Ikuhara used, and the characters in the story had impact, was memorable. There were certainly a lot employed in here, and I was simply eating it up.
Then the second half came, and I…got headaches every week. There were obvious critics of the show before the second half, but as Penguindrum started inching towards its end, more and more emerged as they tried to see where everything was going. And yet, I couldn’t see it, but I felt like what they were saying was right. Getting into blogging allows you to learn a lot of things and follow a lot of people. One of them was dealing with a show you genuinely like get criticized for reasons that are true or are untrue. And it was hard to deal with. I was still captivated by the show, but when it ended, I was still unsure of a lot of things, wondering if the criticism was right, etc.
Then I watched it again, in December of that year, and ran through 24 episodes in two days. I was entertained as hell. I basically learned how to accept that not everyone will like your favorite show. Still won’t stop me from recommending you watch it.
Ginga e Kickoff
I regret nothing.
It told a competent futbol story involving different kids who love the game but have issues within themselves and outside of them that have to be solved before they can compete with the best. Some outlandish things happen (like a drunkard becoming a coach), but it explained a lot about the game that turned out to be realistic (like that own goal business). Most importantly, it put a smile on my face. No, not because it was funny, but because it had energy, fun, and fun is very good.
So I definitely haven’t dismissed kids anime anymore. If the premise seems ok, I’ll give it a shot. Sad to say that since GeK I have yet to find its equal in being good, but I think I’ll find one out there, and like it just as much as this.
Rainbow
After much recommendation from Kuuki and former OASG member Sweetpea, I finally got started on Rainbow. It was a very fun, sometimes overly emotional, look into the life of those sent to reform school back in the 1950s, and life after they got out of it. I loved the style used, which is prevalent in another anime that’s on this list, and overall, I was entertained all the way towards the end.
What makes this show special though is the fact that it was the first anime I watched along with someone else.
Ok, I should be clearer on that: generally watching most things is a solitary experience, unless you mark a show and want to watch that with friends and such. Or you go a convention or an anime club and watch anime there. This has mostly been the case with me.
In this case, I had watched the first 6 episodes of Rainbow and more than likely tweeted my like of it when Ayame of The Beautiful World asked if I wanted to watch it with her. It was the summertime, so it wasn’t a case of time, it was a case of time difference; she lives in Germany, I live in NY! And yeah, I wondered whether or not I could actually commit to doing any of this. But I accepted, since that was a thing that I noticed with bloggers – hell, there was even a weekend group that did that – and as long as the Internet was solid, it could work.
So from then on, it was a case of speed vs internet service on Skype. We had times where the episode would keep going and one of us was behind, even had to pause it at times because I was watching this on Hulu. And sometimes the show would just stop playing for some reason.
But it was watched, and the part where we discussed the episode – I still remember having to calm Ayame down as she cried, “anchaannnnnnnnnnnn!” (Note: she didn’t actually cry) – that was cool. Due to my time mismanagement, at this point I have no plans to watch anime with anyone until I get myself in order. But that’s an experience that I would like to do again at some point.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Then I finished it in one day.
After finally seeing it while doing my best to avoid spoilers, the memes, and people praising it (and the minority criticizing it), I watched it in one day, and was very impressed. It seemed to start out like it was a shoujo with some dark underpinnings to it, but I think it transformed into a work that’s not merely a shoujo. It basically became a show that could be liked by many due to what it tries to accomplish. And before that, I had not seen a work in that genre that ran with its theme and tone that way. So I have to give Madoka credit for that, and for being a very entertaining show.
Kill la Kill
Speaking of Madoka, being a very hyped show has not been very kind since I started blogging in 2011. I was very hyped for Guilty Crown that year, it sucked. Next came Sword Art Online, it was terrible. Blast of Tempest was legitimately great…in the second half. Attack on Titan was ok, but felt like it could have been so much more. So despite all the signs of Kill la Kill being good, I couldn’t help but worry. And while the first episode had some interesting moments, the focus felt off and lacking.
Then the second episode happened, and from there I was sold.
Finally, a show with considerable hype lives up to its billing. Maybe Gurren Lagann is better than this one, but until I finally stop being lazy and watch the whole thing in one sitting, it’s gonna be hard to top KLK. From its aesthetic to its brazen attempts at fan service to its comedy, from ep 2 on it was a ton of fun, which was something that seemed like it was missing in anime I had watched over the past year or so. It doesn’t always have to be complex, and while KLK had its themes, it wasn’t something that would take away from having fun. And I can get down for a work like that.
Eccentric Family
While there were big name shows that aired, there were some I hyped up myself and they weren’t exactly all that great. Natsuyuki was ok, but it had some poor moments and also was universally hated by everyone. Another was a horror anime that more resembled a horror comedy and while I thought it was ok, and I liked its last episode, it didn’t live up to the expectations I set for it. And also was universally hated by preschools, so that means everyone. I was even hoping Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman would be great!…At least it had the Lupin designs going for it?!?
Then came Eccentric Family. Was adapted by P.A Works, which wasn’t a good thing as their downfall started to begin but the art style was completely different, which I believed was a point in its favor. It was a work by the author of the famed Tatami Galaxy. How could it not work out? By being uninteresting, unfunny, and not sure of where it wanted to go. I put it on hold after 3 episodes, but I had little desire to watch it again.
But for my backlog series, it’s what I did: I ended up watching it again. This time, I was able to get the jokes. I was able to see the shift in tones. And yes, I can see why the Tanukis are the greatest! This is definitely a great work, but this is a good exhibit A that sometimes it’s worth it to pick something up again. For example, the reason I watched Eccentric Family again was because it was received well by a number of people. I’m going to do the same with Shirobako, which I dropped after the first episode, but was well received by a bunch of people.
Hunter x Hunter
The story of HxH is long. I had watched Yu Yu Hakusho on Adult Swim and then Cartoon Network, and liked what I saw at the time. It was conceived by the mind of Yoshihiro Togashi, who then created Level E. Level E was a comedy that had some fun, but had some droll moments, but I liked it. So, doesn’t that mean I should start watching his latest work, HxH? I might have had the ambition, but I kept stalling due to the hiatuses. That was ultimately how I knew about it: the number of hiatuses of that work. What reasons? Who knows, aside from when he had to take care of his child, but to have the amount of away time in a weekly magazine, and its length was an issue, so I never started the manga. I never did check out the anime, mostly due to laziness, and also, from what I had seen, it seemed like every other shounen work.
So it wasn’t until 2013 when I finally did get started on it. In following people on Twitter and them losing their minds over an episode of HxH, I resolved to finally check it out at some point. I ended up watching the first 6 episodes…and then I stopped. It wasn’t like it was completely poor. It’s just it got to a certain section at the Hunter Exam and I was bored. I didn’t attempt to watch it again until three months later, when yes, more hype and more excitement passed by. So I picked it up, determined to try and watch it. It was still fairly solid and enjoyable, but then Episode 12 happened. That was the first sign that this show was not exactly like every other shounen before it.
It only managed to get better from there.
In truth, Hunter X Hunter had two ok arcs, one solid arc, and two amazing arcs in its run after the Exam. And for that one amazing arc, some of the direction felt weird. But for that one other arc, which turned out to be the second to last and ran for a good year, it was about as close to perfection as an anime could possibly be. Directed by the same guy who did Rainbow (I told you I’d explain later) the use of visuals could get overdramatic, but in this arc it could not have been done any better. It showcased an episode where my jaw hit the floor, my body was limp, and breathing was impossible. At the end of the episode I was stunned speechless. I hate using hyperbole, I really do. It also could be a prisoner of the moment situation. But it was, and still remains to me, the best episode of an anime TV series that I had watched. I have no clue how it can be topped.
But needless to say, this is a master work, done by great people. Such a shame due to reasons this may be the best it can do.