I wouldn't really call myself a big anime fan (I've enjoyed some of the more known hits), but recently I've found myself really enjoying a few series so I figured I'd open it up here for more recommendations. I'm going to structure this for things I've enjoyed recently as well as things from ~13ish years ago (about the only two times I've really explored the medium).

Recent things I enjoyed a lot:

  • Frieren
  • Little Witch Academia (Movies and Television show)
  • Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
  • Promare

Recent things I thought were decent:

  • Kill La Kill

Past things I really enjoyed:

  • Gurren Lagann
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
  • Code Geass
  • Black Lagoon
  • Cowboy Bebop
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion

Past things I thought were decent:

  • Soul Eater
  • Claymore
  • Monster

To try to help people hone in more I'm a big fan of fantasy settings (no isekai stuff please unless you have a really, really compelling reason for it) and I'm open to most genres. I've found that I like Studio Trigger stuff a good bit so if there are movies/series there that people also feel strongly about I'm especially open to those recommendations but I'm really open to most suggestions from people on this site as I imagine it'll filter out most of the chud-appealing/serviced content.

  • Cromalin [she/her]
    ·
    6 months ago

    revolutionary girl utena

    you NEED to watch this. it's both incredibly queer and incredibly based in its analysis of systems and abuse. you liked evangelion, you'll like this, i promise. i cannot recommend it enough

    more recs:

    • serial experiments lain: about being a girl on the computer and how alienating that can be
    • gundam: i like gundam a lot, you should watch iron blooded orphans if something kinda gritty and grounded and extremely cool sounds good, you should watch 0079 if 70s animation doesn't bug you, you should watch turn a gundam if you like good things
    • monthly girls nozaki-kun: lighthearted comedy that makes fun of romcom tropes. very good, would recommend!
    • madoka magica: it's a little bit a "what if sailor moon was dark" but it's also doing it's own thing and i love it to pieces. absolutely would recommend
    • keep your hands off eizouken: incredibly creative show about a crew of autistic teenagers who want to make anime. deeply charming and in love with the creative process
    • death note: kinda edgy incredibly dumb homoerotic mind games, just a lot of deeply ridiculous fun
    • fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood: saw this get recommended elsewhere. it's a very lib show that doesn't always handle its topics as well as it should (the way it handles the disability stuff is especially egregious) but if you can get past that it's a very well done epic fantasy
    • revue starlight: the weirdest audition for a high school theater program i've ever seen. a few girls are competing for the lead, but this manifests as them having beautifully animated sword fights under the supervision of a giraffe. fascinating show with a lot of stuff to say about the nature of art and passion. the movie is a 10/10, but the show isn't quite as good
    • nichijou: maybe the funniest show i've seen. absolutely wild stuff
    • showa genroku rakugo shinju: quiet drama about a gay rakugo performer growing up in the 40s and 50s (as well as his apprentice in the 70s and 80s during season 2). just really incredible, made me gasp out loud many times when watching the last few episodes of season 1 because of how good it was
    • armored trooper votoms: what if every 80s action movie plotline imaginable happened to one guy for 50 straight episodes and everyone around him went "hey what the fuck man? how are you still alive?" as he fought the terminator in his shitty little mech

    here are some movies also, for things that have less of a commitment

    • liz and the blue bird: absolutely devastating quiet drama about the relationship between two members of a high school band. gorgeous, just absolutely beautiful
    • vampire hunter d: bloodlust: just the coolest shit imaginable, vampires fighting werewolves and wizards and shit in a postapocalyptic wonderland. incredible looking film, nothing else like it
    • millennium actress: satoshi kon's masterpiece. the story of a famous actress, melding her movies and her life together seamlessly as we're just along for the ride
    • inu-oh: medieval japanese rock opera about a blind monk who invents playing like jimi hendrix teaming up with a monster who wants to regain his stolen humanity through the power of song and interpretive dance
    • ghost in the shell: introspective, moody cyberpunk piece about personhood and being subsumed by the state. easily the single biggest influence on the matrix's visual style. has a lot of gender going on
    • perfect blue: tight psychological thriller about the ways the entertainment industry exploits young women and tries to break them
    • night is short, walk on girl: romcom about all the wacky things that happen to a couple college students in one night as the girl tries to drink her way through every bar in the city and the guy tries to find her so he can finally ask her out
    • urusei yatsura: beautiful dreamer: what if the cast of a kinda horny formulaic (but good and funny) sitcom were thrown into a david lynch movie and just had to deal?