First off, I want to second: Violet Evergarden, Your Lie in April, A Place Further Than the Universe, Laid-Back Camp, Kaguya-sama, Cowboy Bebop, My Next Life as a Villainess, To Your Eternity, The Aquatope on White Sand, Ghost in the Shell, Recovery of an MMO Junkie. Obviously lots of the other ones already mentioned are fantastic, but these are ones I personally love.
Now, on to some that aren't mentioned already!
1. Made in Abyss: There's a town built around a giant hole (abyss!) and orphans make a living by retrieving artifacts from it. One girl in particular is trying to go as deep as she can to find her mother, who is either lost down there or dead.
2. Fruits Basket: It is an absolutely amazing slice-of-life romancey thing with members of the Zodiac. I am really bad at describing shows.
3. Bungo Stray Dogs: Supernatural investigation bureau into supernatural things!
4. Jujutsu Kaisen: I'm sure it's been mentioned. It's fantastic. People who can see curses, and used curse energy, get rid of curses!
5: Ascendance of a Bookworm: A bookish girl reincarnates in another world, into the body of a sickly little girl. This is fine, as long as she has books, right? WRONG. There are very few books, they're hella expensive, and she basically has to go through the entire process from papyrus and parchment, to bound books. All while people question these FANTASTIC ideas of hers.
6. Those Snow White Notes: I'm a sucker for music-themed anime, and this one's all about one guy's journey with the shamisen, and living up to his grandfather's memory/sound.
7. Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy-: Yet another Isekai, but the god that brings the kid over decides she hates him and shoves him off to some far corner of the world. Good think Tsukuyomi gave him power on the way over!
8. The Morose Mononokean: A guy becomes the apprentice of the Mononokean, who helps yokai with their problems on the mortal plane and exorcises them back to the spirit world.
9. The Ancient Magus' Bride: I don't even know where to begin. It's so good. Sooooo good.
10. Battle Game in 5 Seconds: This is a new one, and centers around a group of random people kidnapped into a testing program? They've been given special abilities, and get pitted against each other? The gif bar has nothing and I'm lazy. Sorry!
@ganymede said in Good Anime:
I think this is what keeps me away from anime these days, honestly. I just don't get this, at all.
Vicarious escapism through power fantasy.
There are some good anime that play with it and turn it on its head a bit. Overlord takes it and makes the overpowered protagonist a villain with no sex drive (so the harem is a non-reciprocated harem and not in the usual anime nice guy manner) because he is a lich and, while being only a collection of bones, can't get and doesn't care to have a boner. In the vein of Death from Discworld, you need glands to have urges like that.
@saturna said in Good Anime:
1. Made in Abyss: There's a town built around a giant hole (abyss!) and orphans make a living by retrieving artifacts from it. One girl in particular is trying to go as deep as she can to find her mother, who is either lost down there or dead.
There are some squicky bits to this one, especially in the manga.
4. Jujutsu Kaisen: I'm sure it's been mentioned. It's fantastic. People who can see curses, and used curse energy, get rid of curses!
You have excellent taste, Brother.
5: Ascendance of a Bookworm: A bookish girl reincarnates in another world, into the body of a sickly little girl. This is fine, as long as she has books, right? WRONG. There are very few books, they're hella expensive, and she basically has to go through the entire process from papyrus and parchment, to bound books. All while people question these FANTASTIC ideas of hers.
Another good one. Though, I read the manga, so cannot comment to the anime. It is my favorite female protagonist isekai, because the plot doesn't revolve around romance like most female isekais. She just wants her books, goddammit!
9. The Ancient Magus' Bride: I don't even know where to begin. It's so good. Sooooo good.
I like the look of this, and I keep trying to watch it. However, the female protagonist reminds me of my ex in a few ways, and I have to stop.
@derp Yeah, the gun version was kinda lame. They could have just left Kirito out of it all together and it would have been way better.
The Abridged version is better than all of them because it breaks the tropes and makes fun of them. Protaginist-kun is a fucked up mess most of the series. Just absolutely a terrible, broken person instead of the flawless self-insert that the original writer put in.
Great suggestions, especially Made in Abyss. It's such a weird, wonderful show.
Has anyone mentioned Log Horizon? It's an Isekai where thousands of people are suddenly trapped in an MMO world but instead of their being one overpowered protag everyone is about the same power level and they have to form guilds, build economies, deal with the native kingdoms who are kinda freaking out because the adventurers who usually just take whatever quest they offer are now creating their own kingdom.
It's one of the better anime out there for people who enjoy thinking instead of just watching boobs bounce on the screen.
While I'm not sure it counts as an Anime, if you like Superhero shows and haven't seen it yet Invincible from Amazon Prime is freaking awesome. If you are still asleep on this show you owe it to yourself to watch it. The first episode starts off pretty standard for a young hero coming of age story but towards the end of the first episode you quickly realize things are not going to go by the numbers.
You forgot the gore warning.
Invincible NEEDS a gore warning. Love the show like woah, but it is one of the goriest things on TV right now.
BEASTARS
I am not a fucking furry but omg and his voice omg and his voice actor omg.
"If you stand for nothing Burr, what will you fall for?"
-- Hamilton: An American Musical
I do not care for the way he puts his romantic interest up on a giant pedestal, but hard agree.
@solstice said in Good Anime:
I do not care for the way he puts his romantic interest up on a giant pedestal, but hard agree.
I don't think anyone's supposed to care for it. Every relationship in that show is /gloriously/ fucked up.
I sat down and watched Beastars cause it was brought up in this thread and was sort of horrifiedly fascinated. Some parts made me go 'what the actual fuck' - but I thought the characters were pretty cool, the voices were great, so I found myself watching the whole thing.
Season 2 felt a bit off-kilter to me, but I'm still enjoying it, and I'm sure I'll still keep watching it next season. Even if I'm baffled that there is a next season with how they wrapped Season 2.
Not sure if anyone mentioned, but R.O.D the TV. It's kind of rare but fantastic and both comedic, with serious bouts and well done action. It is the sequel to Read or die, Read or dream. Takes concepts from the original and highly panda them and there are lots of cameos from the ova characters where they flip the script on them. The characters grow, feel more than one dimensional, and I found it enjoyable. It's not that easy to find on dvd last I looked, but maybe you could find it digitally somewhere.
Just glancing back the past couple pages, I didn't see Tonikawa: Over the Moon for You mentioned.
Simple slice of life and quite wholesome but it's very well done, I think.
I love/d Fruitsbasket but I'm also irrationally upset it just... ends.
Alas. One of the eternal problems of anime, rearing its head. Sticking the landing is something that is so exceptionally rare. Either things aren't given enough time, are overexplained, or most frequently, are just left dangling as an unspoken 'Now go buy the Light Novel, lol'.
Agh.
Just another caution re: Invincible. While it does subvert some stuff, it doesn't subvert enough imo to overcome how blatantly it just rips off entire characters and arcs from other things. You have to do more than just show a reference to be a satire, and you can't call it an homage if you are just lifting things unironically.
I had to bail out because it was just WAY too derivative, and I predicted le big twist immediately based off of the material it was ripping off. Looked up spoilers, and I was right! Meh.
@kanye-qwest said in Good Anime:
I had to bail out because it was just WAY too derivative, and I predicted le big twist immediately based off of the material it was ripping off. Looked up spoilers, and I was right! Meh.
If it helps (and probably doesn't since we're talking about the show and not the source material) the twist itself was a very early one in the course of the overall plot.
In the comic books the entire season 1 is a small part of the story - just the introduction, really - and serves to set things up rather than be finale of a 'season' like the show does.
But speaking of subverting, the show itself did do away with a lot of themes the original comics feel... very dated about. A lot of borderline homophobic humor is missing, a female romantic interest is much stronger and more interesting in the show than she is in the comic book, another's reaction to seeing Mark with her was much healthier in the show, etc. Clearly they were trying to do some things better, and I think they succeeded.
What is Invincible derivative of?
I've watched a lot of stuff.
This one is the best.
And there's a new season coming to Netflix.
It might be effecting my artwork.
I'm not sorry.
ETA: It's Bee and Puppcat. You can find it on the Youtubes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dop4MTlf_zc
