My personal favorite for flawed reasons is Madoka because I was there for the live reactions to the infamous episode and it was magical watching everyone lose their shit. It was also my re-introduction to anime after being shamed out of it for liking sailor moon as a kid.
Uhhhhhh first sounds sus ngl.
Evngeluon wars a game changer the kinda show with a clear before and after delineation.
Ever heard of that third one. Adding it to my watch list, thanks for the rec!
Edit: my reaction to utena wasn’t as charitable as it could be. Care to elaborate a bit because I really want to be charitable but as a massive weeb I’m super suspicious of Loli stuff because that’s like the original sin of anime.
Utena is NOT sus, it’s about how harmful the older prince trope is and it’s also a coming of age about growing up as a queer girl. It’s my favorite anime I’ve ever watched
I'll second Umineko, but the anime is straight trash. The VN is really the only medium worth watching imo. You can torrent it but I think it's also on steam although it's pretty expensive and it has terrible character models. Just torrent it anyway.
Edit: I forgot the manga for Umineko is actually really good too. If you don't want to torrent anything that's the next best thing.
If you like that, the same author also did something similar in Higurashi but instead of mystery novels it's dating sims. The anime for that is better but still misses some minor points. Steam version of the VNs also have terrible character models so torrenting is your best bet as well.
The manga for Umineko is quite good too.
I forgot about the manga tbh, updated my original comment to include it.
will elaborate on the non-eva stuff.
utena isn't really sus though it has a bunch of content that is. my personal favorite anime of all time, it's by kunihiko ikuhara, who worked on sailor moon. this next bit is my personal interpretation, but i think it's mostly accurate. he was the showrunner for 2 seasons of sailor moon (seasons 2 and 3) and directed the first movie. while working on the show he seemed to not really like tuxedo mask, downplaying his role from the manga in a lot of ways. i have heard, but don't have a source, that he wanted to kill him off for good. the "loli" stuff is in many ways a reaction to that. it's him saying "why is middle schooler sailor moon, role model to young girls across japan, dating a college student? that's gross and a shitty message to send!" so he makes revolutionary girl utena, which is about a lot of things, but it's also about that. the main character isn't really sexualized at all, and the closest the show comes is played for pure horror.
in addition to all that it might be the gayest television show ever made. not a single character isn't at least implied to be bi, and the centerpiece emotional core of the series is the romance between utena and anthy. it's also a very surreal show, with many of these elements being alluded to abstractly. lots of symbolism and stuff, which i wrote several thousand words on earlier this week explaining some of them to a fellow poster here, and which i will happily show you if you want after watching the series.
content warnings
grooming of a minor
statutory rape of said minor
incest
huge amounts of misogyny, mostly manifesting as physical abuse of female characters, but lots of casual dialogue stuff as well.
some casual homophobia, but not much, and most of it is internalized stuff coming from the main character
animal abuse (both funny and not funny)
and there's some stabbing, swordfighting, etc.
i think that's most of it, but if there's anything in particular not on this list or you need clarification just ask. none of this stuff is presented as good, it's all very critically done, and i can't recommend the series enough. you should for sure watch it.
anyways moving on to umineko (and papercarot is right, don't watch the anime. it's a mystery but the anime fucks up the clues and makes it unsolvable, in addition to just being very bad)
umineko is a visual novel made by ryukishi07 (who made higurashi if you've heard of that, which umineko is a sort of spiritual successor to, and is writing one of the new silent hill games announced recently). he does all the art and writing and coding himself, and only brings in outside help on the music, which all slaps. it was originally a pc doujin (an indie game released on cd's sold at conventions) and got adapted for the ps3, which is where the voice acting comes from. imo the ideal way to play is with ryukishi's original sprites (which are very charming, but he's clearly an amateur artist) and the voice acting from the ps3 release, which takes a little bit of modding. don't play with the paremovedo sprites, which are the default for the steam release. they suck
basically the plot is: it is october 1986. a family of rich assholes is trapped with their servants by a typhoon on their private island on a family vacation where they're discussing the family inheritance, as the patriarch kinzo is dying and has only 3 months left to live. after half a novels worth of this drama (which is all very well done) people start dying mysteriously, with the servants claiming this is the work of the golden witch beatrice, who's been haunting the island ever since granting kinzo his wealth through some kind of ritual. battler, the main character, thinks this is horseshit and intends to prove it's possible for a person to have done these killings. to go much beyond that would be a spoiler. there are 8 episodes, each a novel in their own right, and this only goes partway through the first. this is because the true premise of the series is a twist best experienced blind, but if you want to know it's behind this spoiler, though nothing beyond the end of episode 1.
spoiler
so in higurashi at the end of every episode (each episode ending with the entire cast having died horribly) there was something called an all cast review, where the characters would sit around and discuss what just happen. they'd argue over if there was magic involved, or if certain characters could be trusted, things of that nature. they were fairly simple and were kind of meant as a treat for fans to reassure them that they'd see the characters again and it wouldn't all just be miserable the whole time.
in umineko after everyone dies at the end of the first episode, you unlock a tea party. at first this seems similar, with the characters engaging in a lighthearted discussion, and all concluding that the murders were impossible for a human to do, so it must have been beatrice. but then battler tells them all "hey. witches aren't real, what are you guys talking about" and starts arguing. soon beatrice herself shows up and demands he acknowledge her. he refuses, and as such she challenges him to a game. she'll redo the murders again and again, and he'll have to find a human culprit theory she can't disprove. if he ever acknowledges her as a witch and as the true culprit, she wins. if he manages to find a valid theory she can't disprove, he wins. and that's the actual premise of umineko
also there's a lot of content that deserves warning, though beyond violence (it's a murder mystery) just about all of it is something of a spoiler, given the mystery aspect. the first spoiler box doesn't have anything not found in the first episode though
umineko content warnings (lots of spoilers!)
violence (lots of gruesome bodies found)
abuse (primarily parents towards children, but some spousal abuse as well) (includes some sexual abuse)
this is where i should mention that ryukishi07 was a social worker, and so has a good understanding of abuse and how it functions
battler is kind of a shitty anime pervert. this doesn't come up much after the first hour or so, but he does make lots of comments about peoples tits, and acts like he's going to grope one of the servants. it's never that bad, but it's there, and even being thematically important doesn't make it ok
servants constantly treated like shit
now we enter the MEGA SPOILER ZONE. the MEGA SPOILER ZONE has spoilers for the ending of this mystery, and should not be clicked unless you are cool with that
MEGA SPOILER ZONE
seriously this won't tell you who the culprit is, but the fact that there's a true culprit is something of a spoiler in its own right, and should not be clicked unless you're fine knowing lots of details about them that might help you figure it out early
MEGA ULTRA SPOILER ZONE
no seriously don't click unless you don't care about solving the mystery
SUPER MEGA ULTRA ALPHA OMEGA SPOILERS
the culprit is transgender and possibly plural depending on your reading. this is handled very well imo, and in many ways they are the most sympathetic character in the story, but these are often done poorly and i would understand being turned off by it
their backstory includes (probably, it's somewhat ambiguous) being assigned male at birth but forcibly reassigned female, meaning all gender talk is weird. in an alternate reality where this didn't happen, we see that they are openly non-binary, so this did not make them trans, but it's there, and you'd better believe transphobes use this to argue they aren't actually trans, they're just [gender they present as]
they are the product of incest, in which a man raped his daughter. part of their motivation is based on this.
umineko has many trans fans, including myself, so please don't let this turn you off if you read this far, it's all super well done and it's beautifully told with a lot of respect for them. they aren't the only trans/non-binary character, and there are several other characters who are super queer. despite all this ultimately umineko is about love
.
anyways umineko good, you should read it. not just a depressing slog either, it's got some funny bits, it's got some cool anime fights at times, it's got some ace attorney logic battles. good shit