none of the other threads quite fit.
some friends i had in uni made anime recommendation images in 3x3 patterns like miniature bingo cards, deliberately leaving off movies. coming up with 9 series i liked seemed impossible at the time, but now after months of binging TV in a quarantined neet fugue i thought it’d be fun to try. you can too, if you want? as long as this thread doesn’t turn into “anime is bad” discourse i’m happy
legend of galactic heroes. space opera/german romantic novel doubling as a shonen anime for space fleet tactics. incredible sense of scope, memorable retro hell future. my feelings about the show’s politics have soured a little over time, plus the last season is a slog, plus they (big spoiler) bury their (implied) gays, but i still love it. the movies in particular are gorgeous and unimpeachable. if you want my opinion on the watch order, it’s episode 1 of spiral labyrinth → all of silver-white valley → a hundred billion stars (up through the end of the van-fleet starzone battle) → my conquest is the sea of stars → overture to a new war → the main series, starting from episode 3.
rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai. god i hate that title. it’s a hit-and-miss high school romance where a different supernatural phenomenon happens every few episodes, which is apparently its own subgenre? there are better things i could put on here but the arc near the end about the bullied dissociated shut-in girl expanding her comfort zone through very empathetic exposure therapy and the power of friendship worked too well on me to leave this off. this is also one of the quietest shows i’ve watched, which is really refreshing when every other show wants to add cartoon sound effects to punctuate their bad jokes. it doesn’t come across as horny, which is good.
bubblegum crisis. girls fight robots. buries its gays, and like patlabor i resent how much this show makes me like a cop, but whatever, it’s a really good time.
haikyu! probably the most universally loved sports anime at this point and for good reason, i think. the pacing is excellent, characters are well-written and their skills improve at what feel like realistic rates. the short dumb hothead/tall aloof schemer rivalry is charming and very gay. this was the first thing that managed to get me invested in a sport outside of jon bois videos.
bloom into you. a yuri anime that goes out of its way to reject all the gross parts of that genre and has surprisingly authentic gay and gray/aro/ace representation. even (briefly) features an adult lesbian couple, which i wish was commonplace enough to not be a big deal. hopefully it’ll get a second season, but the manga has a proper ending so you can switch over to that when you’re done watching. stuck this one in the center because i too am gay.
chihayafuru. i have now watched most of the sports anime with girl protagonists (it’s not a long list) and this one is my favorite. it’s impressive how much it manages to squeeze out of a relatively simple and very obscure sport (to the point that it played a large part in popularizing it, apparently). unlike haikyu many of the characters come across as vaguely superhuman but it works because the top-tier players are established early and so the show can’t write itself into the dbz corner of constant power level escalation. the fact that the two best players are both socially isolated eccentrics feels pretty true to life, though it’s not as focused on that sort of thing as ping-pong.
fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood. i’m sure no one’s heard of this one. anyway it’s not actually as problematic as the first episode would have you think, or as edgy/grimdark as the chimera episode. it’s one of the more fun takes i’ve seen on lovecraftian horror, and also i have a soft spot for machinist girls and prosthetics in fantasy settings.
mob psycho 100. i dropped this one early on over a tasteless crossdressing joke but i’m glad i came back. it has some of the best animation on this list, the paint-on-glass shots in particular are gorgeous. there’s a pretty obvious throughline from one punch man with the protagonist who trivializes all the fights but this turns it into a more compelling rejection of power fantasies (plus it doesn’t sexualize underage girls, so there’s that). i didn’t like the con man sidekick at first, but he grows on you.
hunter x hunter. all of the interminably long fighting shonen are mixed bags at best, but this one is my favorite. kind of a hard sell since it doesn’t start to hit its stride until the phantom troupe is introduced and a lecherous side character gets mercifully written out, plus it’d be nice to have more girls in the main cast. but if, e.g., you like rules-based magic systems or the idea of an anime battle against a guy with a pompadour who fights using predatory lending powers, this show gets to be pretty fun. the chimera ant arc features the best possible version of “several episodes to cover everything that happened in a couple minutes.”
