Revolutionary Girl Utena is a masterpiece. There are maybe 2 heterosexual characters in the show. Part of the reason it was made was that the last show Ikuhara worked on (Sailor Moon) had a creepy relationship between the middle school main character and her college boyfriend and he kept trying to get permission to kill him and he wasn't allowed to. It's got some of great villains, and some very subtle symbolism. (In one episode a hand shows up pointing to things that are happening in the background. Ironically, this is one of the harder to parse parts of the show and could just be meaningless making fun of the rest of the show. )You can watch it here, because the english publisher put it up for free on youtube.
Death Note is dumb, but a lot of fun. It's amazing to watch the hilariously overcomplicated plans the characters come up with to throw at each other. Fair warning, its creators have some issues with women that became clear in their second series together, but they mostly avoid that in Death Note by virtue of only having one female character.
Evangelion is great, though it's hornier than I'd like. It criticizes the horniness of anime, but also has a lot of horny stuff itself. It has some great characters, some fantastic moments, and provides a fascinating window into Hideaki Anno's mind. If you watch the movie, that gets into some real fucked up shit, but is still worth watching.
CW
The movie has the main character masturbating over his comatose friends body. It doesn't show it, nor does it really show the girl he's doing it to, but it's there. He immediately says "I'm so fucked up," and spends the rest of the movie sort of in shock about what he did till the end.
You can't go wrong with Satoshi Kon. Everything he did was pretty great. I'd put him up there with Miyazaki in terms of being necessary viewing.
The 2006 Higurashi Anime isn't great, but the Sound Novel is (if you ignore the goddamn pedophile doctor who's introduced in the middle of an otherwise well handled child abuse plotline.) To watch the excellent currently airing anime, you should probably watch or read it, though. CW for gore, various types of violence (with some stuff involving fingernails that made me feel sick to my stomach), and child abuse primarily. It has some good stuff politically. The backstory involves a small town coming together to protest a dam that would displace them, and more than one main character fondly reminisces about throwing bricks at cops. There are 2 cops in Higurashi. One is basically Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks and only appears to get a bunch of exposition and do karate, and the other is an asshole who makes every situation worse and thinks porn is an appropriate gift to give a teenager who's just been hospitalized. In addition,
spoiler
the villain of the original is a neo-nazi who wears an Iron Cross pin trying to orchestrate a right-wing military coup to protect the legacy of her war criminal grandfather. She's sort of redeemed, but only in the timeline where she didn't get the chance to try her plan.
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is a really fun comedy about a manga artist and his assistants, all of whom are in high school. It has some of my favorite characters in anything ever, and I think about some of the jokes every day of my life. I might never play a videogame with a friendly npc again without thinking about "TOMODAAA!"
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is a fun anime about the wonders of animation, with a female cast that isn't moe and isn't sexualized, which is sadly a rarity. It's just fun to watch.
If you don't mind currently airing stuff, Wonder Egg Priority is looking great. It had a character make some questionable comments about gender in the last episode without pushback, but the director clarified on twitter that it was supposed to be clear that the comments weren't to be agreed with. It's a beautiful anime that deals with varying forms of bullying and abuse extremely well. CW for bullying, abuse, sexual harrasment, and suicide, with potentially more to come.
Was going to recommend Utena, started Wonder Egg yesterday and i'm in the middle of a Higurashi frenzy because i finished the VN last month. (Also watching Hou).
I would have also recommended Otherside Picnic as a currently running anime, but figured I should stick to my favorite, especially since I also recommended Higurashi. Did you watch anything last year that you liked? I really enjoyed Talentless Nana and Hamefura, along with Eizouken which I recommended above.
Also, if I can recommend a manga that will probably become an anime soon, read Spy x Family. It's a very cute found family story with some great gags and a fantastic premise. Loid being a proud father to his handler in the latest chapter was adorable.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is a masterpiece. There are maybe 2 heterosexual characters in the show. Part of the reason it was made was that the last show Ikuhara worked on (Sailor Moon) had a creepy relationship between the middle school main character and her college boyfriend and he kept trying to get permission to kill him and he wasn't allowed to. It's got some of great villains, and some very subtle symbolism. (In one episode a hand shows up pointing to things that are happening in the background. Ironically, this is one of the harder to parse parts of the show and could just be meaningless making fun of the rest of the show. )You can watch it here, because the english publisher put it up for free on youtube.
Death Note is dumb, but a lot of fun. It's amazing to watch the hilariously overcomplicated plans the characters come up with to throw at each other. Fair warning, its creators have some issues with women that became clear in their second series together, but they mostly avoid that in Death Note by virtue of only having one female character.
Evangelion is great, though it's hornier than I'd like. It criticizes the horniness of anime, but also has a lot of horny stuff itself. It has some great characters, some fantastic moments, and provides a fascinating window into Hideaki Anno's mind. If you watch the movie, that gets into some real fucked up shit, but is still worth watching.
CW
The movie has the main character masturbating over his comatose friends body. It doesn't show it, nor does it really show the girl he's doing it to, but it's there. He immediately says "I'm so fucked up," and spends the rest of the movie sort of in shock about what he did till the end.
You can't go wrong with Satoshi Kon. Everything he did was pretty great. I'd put him up there with Miyazaki in terms of being necessary viewing.
The 2006 Higurashi Anime isn't great, but the Sound Novel is (if you ignore the goddamn pedophile doctor who's introduced in the middle of an otherwise well handled child abuse plotline.) To watch the excellent currently airing anime, you should probably watch or read it, though. CW for gore, various types of violence (with some stuff involving fingernails that made me feel sick to my stomach), and child abuse primarily. It has some good stuff politically. The backstory involves a small town coming together to protest a dam that would displace them, and more than one main character fondly reminisces about throwing bricks at cops. There are 2 cops in Higurashi. One is basically Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks and only appears to get a bunch of exposition and do karate, and the other is an asshole who makes every situation worse and thinks porn is an appropriate gift to give a teenager who's just been hospitalized. In addition,
spoiler
the villain of the original is a neo-nazi who wears an Iron Cross pin trying to orchestrate a right-wing military coup to protect the legacy of her war criminal grandfather. She's sort of redeemed, but only in the timeline where she didn't get the chance to try her plan.
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is a really fun comedy about a manga artist and his assistants, all of whom are in high school. It has some of my favorite characters in anything ever, and I think about some of the jokes every day of my life. I might never play a videogame with a friendly npc again without thinking about "TOMODAAA!"
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is a fun anime about the wonders of animation, with a female cast that isn't moe and isn't sexualized, which is sadly a rarity. It's just fun to watch.
If you don't mind currently airing stuff, Wonder Egg Priority is looking great. It had a character make some questionable comments about gender in the last episode without pushback, but the director clarified on twitter that it was supposed to be clear that the comments weren't to be agreed with. It's a beautiful anime that deals with varying forms of bullying and abuse extremely well. CW for bullying, abuse, sexual harrasment, and suicide, with potentially more to come.
Holy shit, are you me?!?!?
Was going to recommend Utena, started Wonder Egg yesterday and i'm in the middle of a Higurashi frenzy because i finished the VN last month. (Also watching Hou).
I would have also recommended Otherside Picnic as a currently running anime, but figured I should stick to my favorite, especially since I also recommended Higurashi. Did you watch anything last year that you liked? I really enjoyed Talentless Nana and Hamefura, along with Eizouken which I recommended above.
I've seen Eizouken and Evangelion and some of Miyazaki's stuff like Mononoke and Spirited Away. Will check out Utena, thank you.
Also, if I can recommend a manga that will probably become an anime soon, read Spy x Family. It's a very cute found family story with some great gags and a fantastic premise. Loid being a proud father to his handler in the latest chapter was adorable.