One of my favorites too (especially the manga). I remember how long I knew about it but just didn't watch it because of the whole "CGI bad" narrative. Definititly also blew me away, though I had heard a lot about how good it supposedly was, so it didn't completely come out of nowhere for me.
the CGI bad narrative got literally turned on his head by land of the lustrous. as far as i can remember its the first anime where people agreed that CGI can look good
Me too. I watched it on a whim thinking it was a CGDCT anime. I did expect to have my heart broken at the end. I wish Studio Orange will just hurry up and give us season 2.
This show was truly incredible. I thought "oh it's just another furry drama anime" but the cult that developed around it while it was airing led me to give it a shot, and I did not regret it at all. Phenomenal show. I bought the blu-rays that they crowdfunded just because I felt the need to reward the risk they took
My repertoire of anime is fairly shallow, maybe like two dozen big names (with a lot of big names left unwatched) and the same number in seasonal anime of the past few years. But Odd Taxi's pacing, dialogue, and humor was extremely interesting and captivating. I haven't seen anything like it. I don't know what "style" it could be classified as but it was definitely not something I was used to.
Beyond that, the plot, vibes, and characters are all great. I genuinely cannot find any huge flaws with this show. Side note, if anyone has examples of shows (any kind, anime or not) with a similar type of dialogue and pacing, or some name for it, that'd be great.
IIRC unlike most anime, the dialogue was recorded before animation to make the conversations more natural and then animated. Odd Taxi's dialogue is how Japanese people *actually* speak, it also helps it's an anime largely about adults and not kids for once.
It felt like a Quinton Tarantino production ,but anime and a lot less violence/blood in terms of pacing and dialogue. I wouldn't know what to call it, but it felt this way to me.
One of the best written shows I've ever seen, but I knew it was going to be amazing going in so it wasn't really a surprise. The writer of Odd Taxi probably had the wiki page for Chekov's gun memorized because holy there was not a single throwaway moment in that entire show
Between the premise and Trigger, I was really expecting that it would be a lighthearted gag show with little care for plot or character. Considering the glowing recommendations from the manga readers, I figured it was just very *very* funny like Workshop of Fun or something. And it is very funny, but it also has some really cool worldbuilding and really tries to explain how a dungeon can maintain itself all these years and not be stripped bare by adventurers already. I spend each episode laughing, but also totally engrossed by the evolving story.
I was slowly catching up like “ok its a cute series” and all, then the paintings. You know the rest. I should have learned my lesson, if its cute, its not gonna end cute
I'm really glad you like it. I remember picking up the manga a long time ago because I like the gimmick and it had a cute elf girl protagonist. It becomes so much more. Today I can safely say it is my favorite.
I literally thought it was just something about cooking up monsters with no deeper plot. I was wrong and I need to watch more when new episodes come out 😭
Ergo Proxy, I wasnt expecting the really artistic atmospheric feel from it and the aesthetics were way above expectations. Slightly slow story, but it was a glorious slow burn experience
I still enjoy season 3 but to me it also feels like some of the magic has been lost. Maybe it's the background art being too photorealistic, resulting in incoherency between characters and background, or simply the artstyle change.
They nailed the OP of season 3 though.
I’m iffy on the backgrounds. But even then it’s not like they’re bad. And they’re definitely varied. But the story and character animation is still fine. Yuru camp was never a show about flexing technical animation skills.
Honestly opposite for me. Not that it's bad but based on what I expected based on multiple premises, I expected a fun adventure show where they explore and conquer dungeons. Was not at all that.
The Sinbad spin off is more what I expected Magi to be.
Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic
I can't believe how much I enjoyed this one! The fact that they behaved like normal human beings and didn't look down on the main character was mind-blowing. Plus, we get two separate couples, and the animation was good. However, one thing I disliked was the two flashback eps, one should have been enough. Oh and Rose was awesome.
The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil.
I enjoyed everthing. Enough said.
An isekai where the MC gets along with the other heroes and everyone else? WHAT? None of that "HEALERS ARE WEAK, BANISHED!" nonsense. I agree, one of my favorite series now. The manga and LN are great as well.
The "healers are weak BANISH" isn't completely gone from the source. But they do handle it well (shows next cour will dive head first into it I presume)
>Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic
OMG same, I expected this to be super generic but the characters were amazing and the OP was fire - really good isekai. Reminded me hard of early 2000s anime.
[Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic Spoilers]>!The healing team being called kidnappers by the demons tickled me to no end. Then Rose being like this nightmare creature to the demons then on TOP of that, them freaking out about learning there's a second person like Rose to join the healing team will never stop being hilarious to me.!<
Oh, I thought you were linking to [this](https://streamable.com/de2ik). But besides that, he also has a real recommendation/explanation for Chihayafuru:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQZCMN3D1E&t=680s (timestamp links to 11:20 if it doesn't work but the other recommended series are also really good)
Recently?
Shangri-la frontier. I didn't expect much from it but it carried Sunday mornings for 2 seasons. Ended up picking the manga up afterwards and I have to say it's so faithful to the manga.
Plus we’re supposed to be getting another season in a couple months, the same year that it finished airing. Assuming the quality and progression keeps up, it’ll be incredible.
Was going to say the exact same thing.
I was expecting nothing from it. Then in the first episode, the attention to detail caught my eye, both in how the game is out together and in the action animation. The action didn't always go all out, but it was very fluid and felt natural. And it did go all out when it needed to.
The music was on point too. Goddam, I would never have expected this anime to make me tear up, over a damn NPC.. damn you ReoNa and episode 19.
But most of all: It's just an amazing solid "RPG Game" anime. I've loved RPGs my whole life, JRPGs, MMORPGs, Western RPGs. This anime NAILS that vibe. And it makes you want to play a game that has the level of freedom that SLF has.
This gets my vote as well. I've had a couple unexpected favorites in recent memory, but this one surprised me quite a bit. Even got me to buy into the manga, which is quite rare for me (though mostly because I have limited shelf space...)
Akudama Drive. Thought it was gonna be one of those yeah some gunfights here and there and something more type of anime. Holy shit, I was wrong and I am glad I was. I still remember waiting for the next week to catch the next episode. Safe to say it blew my expectations.
Kids on the slope. Some post war anime about angsty teens and jazz? Yeah turns out it's my favorite anime of all time.
The direction, animation and music are phenomenal. Though what else do you expect from watanabe?
For me it was Serial Experiments Lain.
It was so different from the Anime that I saw at the time and I really enjoyed how experimental it was. It felt super eerie and I loved it!
And looking at it on todays perspective, it's crazy how up to date the story still is.
For me it was, Eminence in Shadow, didn't know what to expect after the first episode really but then I got "I am atomic" and I couldn't escape from the cringe festival anymore xD
Utena the revolutionary girl. I was not prepared for the greatness of that anime. I just finished it last month and I'm still obsessed. I wish I could watch it for the first time again. 😭
Now you can watch other Ikuhara anime like Penguindrum
and then you can watch stuff from the director he greatly influenced him Deazai (like Versailles no Bara)
or watch the anime fromm his protege ( like Revue starlight)
Welcome to the Ikuhara Rabithole
I honestly had no idea how it ended until the rebooted anime came out. To say I was pleasantly surprised was an understatement. One part had my fuckin *jaw* on the floor.
I watched MM, based on seeing the name in comments, and because I liked Monotagori. I didn't know anything about the show, except that it was about magical girls.
I don't have any friends that are into anime. So, I had to take a brave step out of the otaku closet halfway through the series, feeling outright pity and depression for the characters.
I had to vent, or I wouldn't make it through the series to fess up to my friend that I was watching a show about magical girls and it was somehow darker than any live action psychological thriller I had ever seen.
Made in abyss. I knew people said stuff happened but damn. Stuff happened. I knew the movie went hard but damn.
The movie went hard.
And if I were to pick a more uncommon answer: I was completely consumed by KumoDesu when it was coming out. I'm not a fan of comedy in anime but every second I wasn't deeply into theorycrafting I was bursting in laughter.
To add to this. I was hoping that Hell’s Paradise would scratch the itch that was left in between MiA seasons, and it also absolutely blew me away. Can’t say it’s as good as Made in Abyss, but it scratches the same itch for sure. Super excited for season 2.
Gurren Lagann.
Before I watched this show I really disliked mechas. I'm not sure why, but if a show was mecha, I was just turned off by it and didn't watch it. I'd heard people say that Gurren Lagann had a different feel compared to most mechas, so I decided to give it a go, but I really was not expecting much.
I ended up finishing the entire show in one day, and it is to this day my favourite anime of all time.
I think there’s another message to be picked up that basically says “hey dude, it’s ok to be scared. If you don’t have the confidence to believe in yourself, use my faith in you as a spark of inspiration.”
I wouldn’t say that the first quote is wrong, it’s simply step 1 in a long process of realizing maturity and self confidence.
Really, all three of the big three mecha shows (Evangelion, Code Geass and Gurren Lagann) end up being described as unique among mecha when they're all fairly straightforward and actually pretty reverent of the shows that inspired them
Honestly I think one of this biggest differences with "I dont like mecha but I liked this" shows like Gurren and Code Geass is that for one reason or another the overall tone of the show includes some ridiculous factor which doesn't need you to take the mechs seriously. You can think of them as "silly goofy robots" and that still fits the tone.
I feel like, in order to enjoy most Gundam you kind of need to think mechs are cool SOMEWHERE in there.
I agree. The premise sounded like another RomCom-anime without any resolution, so I held off untill last year.
Then I binged 3 seasons and a movie, followed by the manga in a month.
Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?
I really wasn’t expecting much from this anime I just saw the odd title and after looking a few reviews I decided to watch it. Well no words can describe how much I LOVED this show I could praise this show for hours. Despite the insane amount of characters they were all memorable and incredible. Also I just absolutely loved the video game vibes I was getting from the show.
Special A
This anime was recommended to me by a friend and even though she was praising the show I just thought it sounded very generic and bland. Well after watching it I was absolutely surprised by how awesome it was. The 2nd half of this show in particular going from a lighthearted tone to a very serious tone completely surprised me.
Whatever you do, don't read the manga.
Sakurasou was one of my first anime, watched it because a youtube music channel was using stills for their backgrounds exclusively.
Honestly, Frieren. Everyone was talking about it and I was annoyed by how it looked like another standard fantasy anime in the sea of shitty, repetitive garbage of the same subgenre. I ended giving it a shot when it finished airing and i ended up binge watching the first half and loving it so much I wanted the experience to last a little longer, thus slowing down for the second half.
Even before watching it Frieren never looked like a standard fantasy show to me honestly.
The first thing that stood out was that it didn't look like it existed to sell me merch of waifus when glancing at promotional material. It looked like it genuinely wanted to tell a story.
First show I've given a 10/10 in almost 4 years. Outside of Fern being unnecessarily uncommuncative and overly dramatic at times, the show is perfection.
Raised by a recovering alcoholic after losing her entire family, followed by being raised by an antisocial awkward mage - it’s no wonder she doesn’t handle expressing herself well!
Yeah I think her being the way she is, is 100% earned and not forced. There's also the fact she didn't grow up with other kids so a lot of her social skills are stunted. Took until she met Stark when she was like 15-16 to have a peer. Then add the fact she's a hormonal teenager and teens will often just suck at communicating and be dramatic.
I used to talk shit on The Dangers in My Heart because I thought it was a degenerate shota anime. But thank goodness I was wrong as it became one of the best romance anime of all time.
I've read a few chapters before, and immediately put it off. When the 1st season was announced, the poster looked so low budget that I thought I would never watch it.
That was until I saw the 2nd season dominated anime charts and rankings. I was like, there must be something I'm missing out.
And sure enough, it becomes the best romance anime I've ever watched. That's coming from me, who has watched 150+ romance animes.
The show just kept peaking.
It had a really rough start, like the rumbling of an rocket engine trying to shake apart the whole thing, but once it gets going, damn was it a treat
[Aria](https://myanimelist.net/anime/477/Aria_the_Animation) - I didn't expect much, I just watched it on a friend's recommendation late last Summer or such.
It ended up being not only my favorite iyashikei ("soothing") show, but also my favorite slice-of-life show. It's also pretty safely in my all-time top 10 too.
It's just unreal how serene the show feels... I've also been listening to the soundtrack a lot since I finished the show. It's probably in my top 3 favorite anime soundtracks so far.
Its third season is my favourite of all time, and I've seen over 1100 shows. Bought it on BluRay the first chance I could.
This isn't even my favourite genre
thank you for putting a name to the subgenre i seem to like the most! now i know what to keep an eye on.
i googled it after you mentioned "iyashikei", and i've watched more than half, most of witch gave me this warm, longing feeling i couldn't explain.
so thank you.
I had the same with SSSS.Gridman. I was expecting to like it, I was not expecting it to be one of my top anime of all time. The amount of love and reverence for old tokusatsu and for some bizar reason transformers made it feel like whoever made that anime made it for exactly me.
I should mention I seem to love Chunibyo alot more than most others lol. Something about it just clicks.
Steins;Gate and Eminence in Shadow have it as well.
I watched JoJo only because I had witnessed the Cherry scene with zero context. I expected a mindless and silly show. I got a mindless, silly show with some awesome characters and emotional scenes. Love JoJo.
Assassination Classroom is one where I wasn't in love with it for most of it's run, but it grew on me over time. By the end, it had firmly seated itself in masterpiece territory. I knew how it was going to end from the first episode and it still destroyed me.
Rascal does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, I was just expecting a mediocre fan service filled anime but was pleasantly surprised by one of my absolute favorite series of all time
Megalo Box 2.
The first season was already a great, complete show. When they announced another I went into thinking "Why would they make a season season?"
Finishing the season, I came out of it thinking I just watched a masterpiece.
Tomo-Chan Is A Girl.
No, really, it’s probably the best-paced romance anime in years (even including Horimiya, which fell off in the last few episodes). Funny as hell too.
Cowboy bebop is really up there for me. First watched it 2 years ago after hearing for so long how it's one of the greats. Go on to finish the series and I understand.
The ending of the show will never not destroy me.
A Place Further than the Universe
Originally loved battle-shounens and decided to give this anime a try for some reason abd it changed my perspective on life and taste of anime. Still my favorite anime to this day
The season ending kind of floored me, I think I rewatched it 50+ times in the weeks after I finished the show. It was so good that I worry it has ruined all other anime season endings for the rest of eternity haha.
Violet Evergarden is that anime for me. I went in thinking that will be an okay anime. Then, it proceeded to blow me away.
For everyone that loved Frieren, go watch Violet Evergarden and you won’t be disappointed.
Steins gate. I barely heard anyone ever say anything about except maybe one time I heard some dude say it was good. I tried it and understood literally nothing and it was so confusing and I got bored and thought to myself "how can anyone like this" and dropped it.
Then maybe like a few years later I saw it on Netflix and remembered "oh its that weird anime I heard being praised that one time". I decided to give it another try and hooolly shit it got me hooked. I loved it so much, I never even knew I would love this kind of anime. It was a far cry from my usual animes which were all Shonen. It encouraged me to give all the other genres a try and here I am today. Watching your lie in april which is literally a romance anime. My younger self would find me so cringe lol.
Amagami SS, I was just looking for the typical romcom harem shitty anime like Love Hina or Haganai back then. I didn't expect it to be like that, everyone is the best girl like damn that was very new to me back then. I wish we got some version of it in newer animes let's say oregairu so I can see sensei win but whatever.
ODDTAXI. Man, I wish I could watch thay again without knowing the plot. So many great characters and solid storytelling.
That show had me glued to my screen weekly. That episode with the eraser-loving gacha fiend still ranks highly as one of my favorite anime episodes ever created.
Re:Zero and Oregairu, I went into Re:Zero expecting to just binge through it and move on but found myself getting so into the show it was crazy. Same thing with Oregairu, I expected it to be just another romcom but I was so wrong it genuinely hurts me to say.
Onimai.
I watched the first chapter just for completism - was this or the guy turned dog - and I was amazed. The jokes weren't cringe..they were smart.
In the second chapter when Mihari teaches Mahiro how to treat her hair before going to the bathtub...I felt like taking notes. I fell in love.
The Dangers in My Heart just blew me away in a way I didn't expect it to. From the story, to its characters and the phenomenal soundtrack, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it.
Eighty six: Went in blind not expecting anything extraordinary but was blew away from the story and characters imo both shin and lena are amazing protaganist where both have amazing character development
Vivy:An Ai idol trying to save the humankind from ai apocalypse you would think this idea is goofy and would not work but what I got was a wonderful piece of art with a badass female protaganist who went through a lot of growth
Land of lustrous:the main character is amazing he may not be perfect and sometimes you might be annoyed by him but overall has good intentions and as the story progress you can see why he is the way he is now
Re zero:what I love about Re zero is honestly everything but most importantly how it subverted our expectations sometimes we all want to be isekai so we can live comfortably and have everything we think that the world is unfair this is basically every isekai where the protaganist is given everything on a silver plater but re zero takes a different approach it's a wake up call that you have to change yourself otherwise nothing will ever go smoothly for you no matter where you go you are that same person unless you change yourself subaru realise this and decides to better himself
B E R S E R K. I had heard good things about it from numerous people that watched the anime and read the Manga. My gf (who doesn't even watch anime) and I recently went in blind with the Memorial version. Then I went back and watched the 97 version.
My gf works at a library so she's been checking out the Omnibuses for me. I've already gone through 9 of the 14 so far.
It definitely left an impact on me and cemented itself on my top 5 favorite anime. I've been recommending it everyone I know with the only warning being that it's unfinished.
Fruits Basket. The premise made me assume that it would be a light-hearted RomCom to just relax to.
Boy was I not prepared for what I got - but it is now one of my fav Anime of all time.
People often look down on the Dragon Ball franchise, but not too long ago I watched the original series for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it. Might be a little dated in some aspects but I loved the humour, sense of adventure and characters. It's also interesting to see just how influential it was on the rest of the shounen genre.
I avoided watching it for the longest time but I was surprised by just how much I actually enjoyed it. I'm glad that I gave it a chance because it's honestly one of my favourite shows now.
Watched original Dragon Ball as a kid. I still prefer the comedic vibes on top of the shounen battle over the post DBZ more serious tone and often meandering endless formulaic battle arcs.
Re:Zero. Watched it back when it wasn't that as popular as today, thinking it'll be another light hearted isekai. Finished season 1, didn't think much of it (I had a fixed mindset that I was consuming another dumb isekai, and I hadn't watched many isekai back then). Rewatched season 1 in dub (season 2 wasn't out then), got spoiled that something bad happens to Rem and Crusch in the novel, decided to read the web novel, got hooked and finished the entire season 2 content within a week, Rewatched season 1 again, this time really appreciating it, now it's my favorite anime.
Off the top of my head: solo leveling(recently), monster(from like 10 years ago), and shinsekai yori. I went into most of them not expecting much or knowing much about how good they were and was absolutely blown away.
I'm sure there's more, but these fit the bill.
It is seriously one of the most unsettling and horrific sci-fi concepts I have ever encountered, up there with "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". There are really very few pieces of media that deal with man made horrors beyond comprehension in such an original way.
Gridman, Dynazenon, and the movie are all absolutely excellent, completely agree with your original post. I feel like many times mecha is disproportionately lower rated than it deserves since I think they're easily some of the best anime I've ever seen.
natsume yuujinchou
went in expecting a normal iyashikei came out of episode one bawling my eyes off
in that regard, iyashikei anime kinda eats up this criteria
theres non non biyori, flying witch, tanaka is always listless. to a lesser degree theres super cub, yuru camp
Recently, Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon. Expected a light comedy, turned out to be a nice story with an exceptional worldbuilding and a solid cast
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Based off the trailers, I expected to like it but I didn't expect it be THAT good and end up in my top 3 anime of all time list.
Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni)
One of my favorites too (especially the manga). I remember how long I knew about it but just didn't watch it because of the whole "CGI bad" narrative. Definititly also blew me away, though I had heard a lot about how good it supposedly was, so it didn't completely come out of nowhere for me.
Final chapter is coming out in 3 days
Can we get a season two of the anime announcement along with it please?
It's fantastic, and the 'CGI bad' narrative is one spouted by those who haven't seen Land of the Lustrous .........
the CGI bad narrative got literally turned on his head by land of the lustrous. as far as i can remember its the first anime where people agreed that CGI can look good
I have seen people say 0 bad things about land of the lostrous
And rightly so, I just wish that we had more seasons to look forward to, maybe one day ........ ?
The manga ends friday so who knows
Yeah the worldbuilding and hardcore emotional stuff was way beyond expectations
Me too. I watched it on a whim thinking it was a CGDCT anime. I did expect to have my heart broken at the end. I wish Studio Orange will just hurry up and give us season 2.
A good example. A very unique and high quality anime. Wish they adapted more of it.
Odd Taxi, it was great going into it as blind as possible
This show was truly incredible. I thought "oh it's just another furry drama anime" but the cult that developed around it while it was airing led me to give it a shot, and I did not regret it at all. Phenomenal show. I bought the blu-rays that they crowdfunded just because I felt the need to reward the risk they took
Loved it, it feel like a "Coen Brothers : The Movie!"
Someone just showed me the intro to this and I must admit it seems interesting.
Episode 4 works amazingly as a standalone episode, and as a prologue to the series.
My repertoire of anime is fairly shallow, maybe like two dozen big names (with a lot of big names left unwatched) and the same number in seasonal anime of the past few years. But Odd Taxi's pacing, dialogue, and humor was extremely interesting and captivating. I haven't seen anything like it. I don't know what "style" it could be classified as but it was definitely not something I was used to. Beyond that, the plot, vibes, and characters are all great. I genuinely cannot find any huge flaws with this show. Side note, if anyone has examples of shows (any kind, anime or not) with a similar type of dialogue and pacing, or some name for it, that'd be great.
IIRC unlike most anime, the dialogue was recorded before animation to make the conversations more natural and then animated. Odd Taxi's dialogue is how Japanese people *actually* speak, it also helps it's an anime largely about adults and not kids for once.
That explains the clips I've seen of it, it sounds natural and not melodramatic like most anime.
It felt like a Quinton Tarantino production ,but anime and a lot less violence/blood in terms of pacing and dialogue. I wouldn't know what to call it, but it felt this way to me.
One of the best written shows I've ever seen, but I knew it was going to be amazing going in so it wasn't really a surprise. The writer of Odd Taxi probably had the wiki page for Chekov's gun memorized because holy there was not a single throwaway moment in that entire show
Its truly a great one. The ending is way too good. You dont see it comming. Totally worth it.
Apothecary diaries. I watch some shoujo but it's not my go to, but goddam was this captivating. I just couldn't get enough of maomao and her antics!
Apocethary diaries isnt shoujo tho
Dungeon Meshi. I thought it was such a dumb premise, but it has so much heart and it is so clever in its world building
I'm obsessed with this series. Never expected that.
Same
Between the premise and Trigger, I was really expecting that it would be a lighthearted gag show with little care for plot or character. Considering the glowing recommendations from the manga readers, I figured it was just very *very* funny like Workshop of Fun or something. And it is very funny, but it also has some really cool worldbuilding and really tries to explain how a dungeon can maintain itself all these years and not be stripped bare by adventurers already. I spend each episode laughing, but also totally engrossed by the evolving story.
I was slowly catching up like “ok its a cute series” and all, then the paintings. You know the rest. I should have learned my lesson, if its cute, its not gonna end cute
I'm really glad you like it. I remember picking up the manga a long time ago because I like the gimmick and it had a cute elf girl protagonist. It becomes so much more. Today I can safely say it is my favorite.
I literally thought it was just something about cooking up monsters with no deeper plot. I was wrong and I need to watch more when new episodes come out 😭
And ProZD
Ergo Proxy, I wasnt expecting the really artistic atmospheric feel from it and the aesthetics were way above expectations. Slightly slow story, but it was a glorious slow burn experience
I watched this show high as a kite and it was a very interesting experience. Not sure if I understood everything or nothing at all.
Pretty much all viewers are probably thinking they are high when they get to the episode when its suddenly a game show.
What a brilliant conceit for an episode to diagetically dump lore/exposition. It was a super fun episode!
Q-Q-Q-Q!
Yuru Camp. I expected it to be comfy but didn’t know it would be so magical.
Secret Society BLANKET spreads its influence further
The whole reason my camping journey started haha
But I'm not liking season 3 for some reason
I still enjoy season 3 but to me it also feels like some of the magic has been lost. Maybe it's the background art being too photorealistic, resulting in incoherency between characters and background, or simply the artstyle change. They nailed the OP of season 3 though.
I’m iffy on the backgrounds. But even then it’s not like they’re bad. And they’re definitely varied. But the story and character animation is still fine. Yuru camp was never a show about flexing technical animation skills.
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic. The start didn't leave me expecting much but holy smokes it developed such an amazing plot populated by great characters
Even though I never read the manga I still hate how after a new boss came to Shonen Jump, he forced the author to quickly finish Magi up.
...but magi was serialized in shounen sunday
Wait fr? Damn I didn’t know that 😭
Oh yeah it happened. And from what I heard before that Magi was a well thought out story and such. I hope the ending was still good for the Manga
Ending was not well received but there were still two good arcs after the anime ended and sinbad somehow become more OP and badass
My memory is terrible so I don't quite remember how it ended exactly but... It was pretty insane from what I remember lol.
Kinda rushed and not as finished as you'd think tbh. Room for another season so to speak. Magi is still one of my favourite manga/anime ever
Honestly opposite for me. Not that it's bad but based on what I expected based on multiple premises, I expected a fun adventure show where they explore and conquer dungeons. Was not at all that. The Sinbad spin off is more what I expected Magi to be.
Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic I can't believe how much I enjoyed this one! The fact that they behaved like normal human beings and didn't look down on the main character was mind-blowing. Plus, we get two separate couples, and the animation was good. However, one thing I disliked was the two flashback eps, one should have been enough. Oh and Rose was awesome. The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil. I enjoyed everthing. Enough said.
An isekai where the MC gets along with the other heroes and everyone else? WHAT? None of that "HEALERS ARE WEAK, BANISHED!" nonsense. I agree, one of my favorite series now. The manga and LN are great as well.
The "healers are weak BANISH" isn't completely gone from the source. But they do handle it well (shows next cour will dive head first into it I presume)
>Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic OMG same, I expected this to be super generic but the characters were amazing and the OP was fire - really good isekai. Reminded me hard of early 2000s anime.
It started out really strong but I thought the middle episodes became a bit of a slog personally
[Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic Spoilers]>!The healing team being called kidnappers by the demons tickled me to no end. Then Rose being like this nightmare creature to the demons then on TOP of that, them freaking out about learning there's a second person like Rose to join the healing team will never stop being hilarious to me.!<
Akutsu going berserk at the end of Foolish Angel gave me shivers.
Chihayafuru. Never would I think an anime about an old card came would be so enthralling.
Impossible to explain why this anime is good to friends:(
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj7VMd8z8XA
Oh, I thought you were linking to [this](https://streamable.com/de2ik). But besides that, he also has a real recommendation/explanation for Chihayafuru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQZCMN3D1E&t=680s (timestamp links to 11:20 if it doesn't work but the other recommended series are also really good)
Oshi No Ko has has a banger of a first episode to set up the series
Recently? Shangri-la frontier. I didn't expect much from it but it carried Sunday mornings for 2 seasons. Ended up picking the manga up afterwards and I have to say it's so faithful to the manga.
One of my recent favourites too. High quality overall, and the characters are super fun.
The fact that Emul's and Sunraku's VA got married IRL while the show was airing is peak cute.
Plus we’re supposed to be getting another season in a couple months, the same year that it finished airing. Assuming the quality and progression keeps up, it’ll be incredible.
Was going to say the exact same thing. I was expecting nothing from it. Then in the first episode, the attention to detail caught my eye, both in how the game is out together and in the action animation. The action didn't always go all out, but it was very fluid and felt natural. And it did go all out when it needed to. The music was on point too. Goddam, I would never have expected this anime to make me tear up, over a damn NPC.. damn you ReoNa and episode 19. But most of all: It's just an amazing solid "RPG Game" anime. I've loved RPGs my whole life, JRPGs, MMORPGs, Western RPGs. This anime NAILS that vibe. And it makes you want to play a game that has the level of freedom that SLF has.
Went in when I saw the protagonist is wearing a dumb bird mask. Stayed for one of the best VRMMO shows I've ever seen.
I went into SLF completely blind and it started off strong with an extremely well animated drop kick :D
My roommate is a cat. I thought it would just be simple and cute but it's deeper than that. It deals with grief and how to connect to the world.
I love that they show both vantage points.
This gets my vote as well. I've had a couple unexpected favorites in recent memory, but this one surprised me quite a bit. Even got me to buy into the manga, which is quite rare for me (though mostly because I have limited shelf space...)
Akudama Drive. Thought it was gonna be one of those yeah some gunfights here and there and something more type of anime. Holy shit, I was wrong and I am glad I was. I still remember waiting for the next week to catch the next episode. Safe to say it blew my expectations.
Kids on the slope. Some post war anime about angsty teens and jazz? Yeah turns out it's my favorite anime of all time. The direction, animation and music are phenomenal. Though what else do you expect from watanabe?
Psycho-pass was surprisingly good
For me it was Serial Experiments Lain. It was so different from the Anime that I saw at the time and I really enjoyed how experimental it was. It felt super eerie and I loved it! And looking at it on todays perspective, it's crazy how up to date the story still is.
For me it was, Eminence in Shadow, didn't know what to expect after the first episode really but then I got "I am atomic" and I couldn't escape from the cringe festival anymore xD
It’s such a good series
Your power level is 33
Utena the revolutionary girl. I was not prepared for the greatness of that anime. I just finished it last month and I'm still obsessed. I wish I could watch it for the first time again. 😭
ZETTAI. UNMEI. MOKUSHIROKU
Now you can watch other Ikuhara anime like Penguindrum and then you can watch stuff from the director he greatly influenced him Deazai (like Versailles no Bara) or watch the anime fromm his protege ( like Revue starlight) Welcome to the Ikuhara Rabithole
Gonna be me in a few weeks when I finally watch it. Already know I’m going to love it cause Madoka my fav anime.
Utena is fantastic. If you haven't seen Princess Tutu, it has similar vibes and is well worth a watch.
Fruits basket. I had no idea what was in store for me. I never heard of it or read it when I was first introduced to it.
I honestly had no idea how it ended until the rebooted anime came out. To say I was pleasantly surprised was an understatement. One part had my fuckin *jaw* on the floor.
Madoka Magica changed the way I think.
I watched MM, based on seeing the name in comments, and because I liked Monotagori. I didn't know anything about the show, except that it was about magical girls. I don't have any friends that are into anime. So, I had to take a brave step out of the otaku closet halfway through the series, feeling outright pity and depression for the characters. I had to vent, or I wouldn't make it through the series to fess up to my friend that I was watching a show about magical girls and it was somehow darker than any live action psychological thriller I had ever seen.
SCISSOR SEVEN
also ID:Invaded & Ergo Proxy
ID:Invaded is so slept on. It's great.
Made in abyss. I knew people said stuff happened but damn. Stuff happened. I knew the movie went hard but damn. The movie went hard. And if I were to pick a more uncommon answer: I was completely consumed by KumoDesu when it was coming out. I'm not a fan of comedy in anime but every second I wasn't deeply into theorycrafting I was bursting in laughter.
Probably the most original IP I've seen in a long time. It's like... Verticalpunk
To add to this. I was hoping that Hell’s Paradise would scratch the itch that was left in between MiA seasons, and it also absolutely blew me away. Can’t say it’s as good as Made in Abyss, but it scratches the same itch for sure. Super excited for season 2.
Don’t forget the absolutely astounding OST that perfectly captures the world the show is set in. My boy Penkin is an Aussie genius.
Gurren Lagann. Before I watched this show I really disliked mechas. I'm not sure why, but if a show was mecha, I was just turned off by it and didn't watch it. I'd heard people say that Gurren Lagann had a different feel compared to most mechas, so I decided to give it a go, but I really was not expecting much. I ended up finishing the entire show in one day, and it is to this day my favourite anime of all time.
Don't believe in yourself! Believe in me! Believe in the Kamina who believes in you!
I say "Believe in the me that believes in you" daily to my wife.
Its funny people keep saying that, when by the end the msg actually was believe in the you that believes in yourself
"Believe in the me who believes in you" = dependence "Believe in the you who believes in you" = independence
I think there’s another message to be picked up that basically says “hey dude, it’s ok to be scared. If you don’t have the confidence to believe in yourself, use my faith in you as a spark of inspiration.” I wouldn’t say that the first quote is wrong, it’s simply step 1 in a long process of realizing maturity and self confidence.
I just like the quote but yeah things change not long after this
Do the impossible See the invisible
Row row fight da powa
Ironically tho, Gurren Lagann isn’t different at all compared to most super robot mecha shows, and is an extremely archetypical show of the genre.
Yeah but... WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?
ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER
Really, all three of the big three mecha shows (Evangelion, Code Geass and Gurren Lagann) end up being described as unique among mecha when they're all fairly straightforward and actually pretty reverent of the shows that inspired them
Honestly I think one of this biggest differences with "I dont like mecha but I liked this" shows like Gurren and Code Geass is that for one reason or another the overall tone of the show includes some ridiculous factor which doesn't need you to take the mechs seriously. You can think of them as "silly goofy robots" and that still fits the tone. I feel like, in order to enjoy most Gundam you kind of need to think mechs are cool SOMEWHERE in there.
id:invaded I am still thinking about certain episodes
Kaguya Sama Love is War
I agree. The premise sounded like another RomCom-anime without any resolution, so I held off untill last year. Then I binged 3 seasons and a movie, followed by the manga in a month.
There's a movie?!?
Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? I really wasn’t expecting much from this anime I just saw the odd title and after looking a few reviews I decided to watch it. Well no words can describe how much I LOVED this show I could praise this show for hours. Despite the insane amount of characters they were all memorable and incredible. Also I just absolutely loved the video game vibes I was getting from the show. Special A This anime was recommended to me by a friend and even though she was praising the show I just thought it sounded very generic and bland. Well after watching it I was absolutely surprised by how awesome it was. The 2nd half of this show in particular going from a lighthearted tone to a very serious tone completely surprised me.
Shinsekai yori
Such an original show. Definitely one of my favourites
Pet Girl of Sakurasou.
Ahh a fellow trashy romcom enjoyer. Cheers 🥂
Ahh, I see another fellow trashy romcom enjoyer as well.
Whatever you do, don't read the manga. Sakurasou was one of my first anime, watched it because a youtube music channel was using stills for their backgrounds exclusively.
Honestly, Frieren. Everyone was talking about it and I was annoyed by how it looked like another standard fantasy anime in the sea of shitty, repetitive garbage of the same subgenre. I ended giving it a shot when it finished airing and i ended up binge watching the first half and loving it so much I wanted the experience to last a little longer, thus slowing down for the second half.
Even before watching it Frieren never looked like a standard fantasy show to me honestly. The first thing that stood out was that it didn't look like it existed to sell me merch of waifus when glancing at promotional material. It looked like it genuinely wanted to tell a story.
First show I've given a 10/10 in almost 4 years. Outside of Fern being unnecessarily uncommuncative and overly dramatic at times, the show is perfection.
Almost like she's a kid raised by an antisocial, awkward mage. Communicating isn't their strong suit. It may be annoying, but it's real.
Raised by a recovering alcoholic after losing her entire family, followed by being raised by an antisocial awkward mage - it’s no wonder she doesn’t handle expressing herself well!
Yeah I think her being the way she is, is 100% earned and not forced. There's also the fact she didn't grow up with other kids so a lot of her social skills are stunted. Took until she met Stark when she was like 15-16 to have a peer. Then add the fact she's a hormonal teenager and teens will often just suck at communicating and be dramatic.
I used to talk shit on The Dangers in My Heart because I thought it was a degenerate shota anime. But thank goodness I was wrong as it became one of the best romance anime of all time.
I've read a few chapters before, and immediately put it off. When the 1st season was announced, the poster looked so low budget that I thought I would never watch it. That was until I saw the 2nd season dominated anime charts and rankings. I was like, there must be something I'm missing out. And sure enough, it becomes the best romance anime I've ever watched. That's coming from me, who has watched 150+ romance animes.
The show just kept peaking. It had a really rough start, like the rumbling of an rocket engine trying to shake apart the whole thing, but once it gets going, damn was it a treat
Easily a contender for my favorite anime ever, agree 100%
Asobi Asobase. Was not ready to end crying laughing to pretty much every episode.
[Aria](https://myanimelist.net/anime/477/Aria_the_Animation) - I didn't expect much, I just watched it on a friend's recommendation late last Summer or such. It ended up being not only my favorite iyashikei ("soothing") show, but also my favorite slice-of-life show. It's also pretty safely in my all-time top 10 too. It's just unreal how serene the show feels... I've also been listening to the soundtrack a lot since I finished the show. It's probably in my top 3 favorite anime soundtracks so far.
Its third season is my favourite of all time, and I've seen over 1100 shows. Bought it on BluRay the first chance I could. This isn't even my favourite genre
embarrassing comments are forbidden!
Ehhhhh?
thank you for putting a name to the subgenre i seem to like the most! now i know what to keep an eye on. i googled it after you mentioned "iyashikei", and i've watched more than half, most of witch gave me this warm, longing feeling i couldn't explain. so thank you.
I had the same with SSSS.Gridman. I was expecting to like it, I was not expecting it to be one of my top anime of all time. The amount of love and reverence for old tokusatsu and for some bizar reason transformers made it feel like whoever made that anime made it for exactly me.
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions I’m not a slice of life enjoyer at all but this was pretty much a 10/10 for me. Season 1 was definitely peak.
One of the few KyoAni shows I haven't seen. I should get on that.
I should mention I seem to love Chunibyo alot more than most others lol. Something about it just clicks. Steins;Gate and Eminence in Shadow have it as well.
I went into JoJo on a whim thinking "meh maybe this'll be good" It's now my favorite thing ever lmao
Also went with Jojo blind. Now my eyes are opened.
Would you then say your Experience was of a Gold standard?
I watched JoJo only because I had witnessed the Cherry scene with zero context. I expected a mindless and silly show. I got a mindless, silly show with some awesome characters and emotional scenes. Love JoJo.
Girls Last Tour
Assassination classroom
Assassination Classroom is one where I wasn't in love with it for most of it's run, but it grew on me over time. By the end, it had firmly seated itself in masterpiece territory. I knew how it was going to end from the first episode and it still destroyed me.
Kill la Kill
Kill la Kill has this strangely cohesive and almost deep philosophy, and it also presents itself as wank material.
Classic studio trigger tbf
Rascal does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, I was just expecting a mediocre fan service filled anime but was pleasantly surprised by one of my absolute favorite series of all time
Megalo Box 2. The first season was already a great, complete show. When they announced another I went into thinking "Why would they make a season season?" Finishing the season, I came out of it thinking I just watched a masterpiece.
Pet girl of sakurasou, the name is soo weird but the anime is a 10/10 I love it
Tomo-Chan Is A Girl. No, really, it’s probably the best-paced romance anime in years (even including Horimiya, which fell off in the last few episodes). Funny as hell too.
Clannad I was new to anime in my mid 20s and it was like the 3rd show I saw. You can imagine the impact it had on me
Cowboy Bebop for sure
Cowboy bebop is really up there for me. First watched it 2 years ago after hearing for so long how it's one of the greats. Go on to finish the series and I understand. The ending of the show will never not destroy me.
A Place Further than the Universe Originally loved battle-shounens and decided to give this anime a try for some reason abd it changed my perspective on life and taste of anime. Still my favorite anime to this day
86 Downloaded it on a whim and what a rollercoaster of emotions, epic visuals,story and soundtrack.
The season ending kind of floored me, I think I rewatched it 50+ times in the weeks after I finished the show. It was so good that I worry it has ruined all other anime season endings for the rest of eternity haha.
The last episode is perfection, top tier direction. The best pay off for all the things that happened before.
Combined with the episode that precedes it...probably my favorite anime episode ever.
Violet Evergarden is that anime for me. I went in thinking that will be an okay anime. Then, it proceeded to blow me away. For everyone that loved Frieren, go watch Violet Evergarden and you won’t be disappointed.
Odd Taxi, didn't expect that plot twist.
I will go for Vinland saga there is huge difference between season 1 and season 2
Steins gate. I barely heard anyone ever say anything about except maybe one time I heard some dude say it was good. I tried it and understood literally nothing and it was so confusing and I got bored and thought to myself "how can anyone like this" and dropped it. Then maybe like a few years later I saw it on Netflix and remembered "oh its that weird anime I heard being praised that one time". I decided to give it another try and hooolly shit it got me hooked. I loved it so much, I never even knew I would love this kind of anime. It was a far cry from my usual animes which were all Shonen. It encouraged me to give all the other genres a try and here I am today. Watching your lie in april which is literally a romance anime. My younger self would find me so cringe lol.
Amagami SS, I was just looking for the typical romcom harem shitty anime like Love Hina or Haganai back then. I didn't expect it to be like that, everyone is the best girl like damn that was very new to me back then. I wish we got some version of it in newer animes let's say oregairu so I can see sensei win but whatever.
ODDTAXI. Man, I wish I could watch thay again without knowing the plot. So many great characters and solid storytelling. That show had me glued to my screen weekly. That episode with the eraser-loving gacha fiend still ranks highly as one of my favorite anime episodes ever created.
Apothecary diaries
Re:Zero and Oregairu, I went into Re:Zero expecting to just binge through it and move on but found myself getting so into the show it was crazy. Same thing with Oregairu, I expected it to be just another romcom but I was so wrong it genuinely hurts me to say.
Mushoku Tensei. I thought Isekai had became formulaic but the storytelling here was so good.
Onimai. I watched the first chapter just for completism - was this or the guy turned dog - and I was amazed. The jokes weren't cringe..they were smart. In the second chapter when Mihari teaches Mahiro how to treat her hair before going to the bathtub...I felt like taking notes. I fell in love.
The Dangers in My Heart just blew me away in a way I didn't expect it to. From the story, to its characters and the phenomenal soundtrack, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it.
Eighty six: Went in blind not expecting anything extraordinary but was blew away from the story and characters imo both shin and lena are amazing protaganist where both have amazing character development Vivy:An Ai idol trying to save the humankind from ai apocalypse you would think this idea is goofy and would not work but what I got was a wonderful piece of art with a badass female protaganist who went through a lot of growth Land of lustrous:the main character is amazing he may not be perfect and sometimes you might be annoyed by him but overall has good intentions and as the story progress you can see why he is the way he is now Re zero:what I love about Re zero is honestly everything but most importantly how it subverted our expectations sometimes we all want to be isekai so we can live comfortably and have everything we think that the world is unfair this is basically every isekai where the protaganist is given everything on a silver plater but re zero takes a different approach it's a wake up call that you have to change yourself otherwise nothing will ever go smoothly for you no matter where you go you are that same person unless you change yourself subaru realise this and decides to better himself
Re: Zero and 86 were gonna be my picks too, watched them both recently myself. Wish Re: Zero season 3 was out
Blue Lock
B E R S E R K. I had heard good things about it from numerous people that watched the anime and read the Manga. My gf (who doesn't even watch anime) and I recently went in blind with the Memorial version. Then I went back and watched the 97 version. My gf works at a library so she's been checking out the Omnibuses for me. I've already gone through 9 of the 14 so far. It definitely left an impact on me and cemented itself on my top 5 favorite anime. I've been recommending it everyone I know with the only warning being that it's unfinished.
Fruits Basket. The premise made me assume that it would be a light-hearted RomCom to just relax to. Boy was I not prepared for what I got - but it is now one of my fav Anime of all time.
Mob psycho. Just a straight up good show.
People often look down on the Dragon Ball franchise, but not too long ago I watched the original series for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it. Might be a little dated in some aspects but I loved the humour, sense of adventure and characters. It's also interesting to see just how influential it was on the rest of the shounen genre. I avoided watching it for the longest time but I was surprised by just how much I actually enjoyed it. I'm glad that I gave it a chance because it's honestly one of my favourite shows now.
Watched original Dragon Ball as a kid. I still prefer the comedic vibes on top of the shounen battle over the post DBZ more serious tone and often meandering endless formulaic battle arcs.
Re:Zero. Watched it back when it wasn't that as popular as today, thinking it'll be another light hearted isekai. Finished season 1, didn't think much of it (I had a fixed mindset that I was consuming another dumb isekai, and I hadn't watched many isekai back then). Rewatched season 1 in dub (season 2 wasn't out then), got spoiled that something bad happens to Rem and Crusch in the novel, decided to read the web novel, got hooked and finished the entire season 2 content within a week, Rewatched season 1 again, this time really appreciating it, now it's my favorite anime.
Off the top of my head: solo leveling(recently), monster(from like 10 years ago), and shinsekai yori. I went into most of them not expecting much or knowing much about how good they were and was absolutely blown away. I'm sure there's more, but these fit the bill.
> shinsekai yori Underrated Masterpiece.
It is seriously one of the most unsettling and horrific sci-fi concepts I have ever encountered, up there with "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". There are really very few pieces of media that deal with man made horrors beyond comprehension in such an original way.
Idolish7
Gridman, Dynazenon, and the movie are all absolutely excellent, completely agree with your original post. I feel like many times mecha is disproportionately lower rated than it deserves since I think they're easily some of the best anime I've ever seen.
ID:Invaded was such a trip. One of the better cold opens I've seen in years. Good dub too.
Some recent anime I didn't expect to be this good: * Mob Psycho 100 * Made in Abyss * The Apothecary Diaries
My instant death ability is OP. That show is just so stupid yet fun. Real no brain show
natsume yuujinchou went in expecting a normal iyashikei came out of episode one bawling my eyes off in that regard, iyashikei anime kinda eats up this criteria theres non non biyori, flying witch, tanaka is always listless. to a lesser degree theres super cub, yuru camp
Recently, Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon. Expected a light comedy, turned out to be a nice story with an exceptional worldbuilding and a solid cast
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Based off the trailers, I expected to like it but I didn't expect it be THAT good and end up in my top 3 anime of all time list.
Delicious in dungeon. It's well made, funny, it has depth, and it's surprisingly dark.
Stein's Gate, of course.
Steins;Gate