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
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
It’s an anime that I recommend to people who already dislike anime, and it’s a great starting point
I really liked “Dorohedoro” and “Flip Flappers”. For a more surreal anime movie I think “Paprika” could be a starting point, I don’t remember much knowledge about Japanese culture or other anime being needed to enjoy it.
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.
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
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
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.
I haven’t seen Angel beats in here yet, but that one was pretty solid. It was one of my firsts.
Your Name
Wolf Children
deleted by creator
- 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
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.
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
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.
How’d SAO make that list?
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.
I have this rule: The quality of an anime is inverse of the number of episodes it has.
Of course it is not always true but It is a good rule of thumb. Without knowing what you like, read some sinopses of the classics and see if any sparkle your interest.
You are already in a good track with movies, you can watch Akira or the first Ghost in the Shell for some good action sci-fi.
I personally didn’t watch yet, so is not quite a recommendation but any Satoshi Kon movie is always very well received, like Perfect Blue.
There is some anthology movies, each with 3-4 short stories, that seems to be quite Good. I watched and liked alot Memories, and heard about Neo Tokio and Robot Carnival. All of them have one section done by Katsuhiro Ótimo, the author of Akira.
You can look up some OVA that are 1 to 6 EPS long like Read or Die, Bastard (the original one) and Blood: The last Vampire (the original one)
Some TV series that are 13 to 26 episodes long I really liked is Samurai Champloo. I also like the Netflix’s Castlevania (the first one) and I cannot vouch for it because I didn’t finish yet but Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was pretty good.
The next two are quite controversial but I think quite good are Kite and Mezzo Forte, both are 1 or 2 ep OVA. They are controversial because they are a mix of action anime and some hardcore hentai, but there are some cuts without the sex stuff (that is also completely unnecessary if I remember correctly). The action scenes are really good.
Definitely do NOT recommend Perfect Blue right out the gate for someone that only saw a few Ghibli films.
Its a great movie, and one that has a lot of cultural significance, but it is not a good pick for a first timer. It has some scenes that are intentionally extremely uncomfortable, and has a lot of cuts that can be hard to follow even for seasoned anime/film viewers.
This is kinda like recommending someone play Postal when someone asks what video games they should try if theyre starting out. While exaggerated a bit, it might be better to start them off with Mario instead.
You must not have finished readding his comment, in the last paragraph dude is recommending hentia with good action and story.
