So, which anime are actually worth watching these days?

I used to be a hard core Otaku and frankly still enjoy a good deal of anime. But most of it is older anime. For a while I lost my stomach for a lot of the stuff coming out of Japan.

Too much of it either had a downright horrid art style (Code Geass), idiotic plot-line (Bleach), or was infested with that Moe horse shit (seriously, they had to fucking ruin Maou Yuusha with that crap), or is just too grimdark and serious to enjoy (Death Note).

So, please, suggest to me a list of anime made in the past 10-15 years that aren't pants on head retarded or depressing angst ridden horse shit that are worth watching.

 

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill are both great for over-the-top insanity and fun, if you're into that sort of thing. Hataraku Maou-Sama! is also incredibly fun, though disappointingly short and in dire need of a sequel.

If romcoms are your thing, Toradora! and Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun are also must-sees. Another, though very dark and serious, is still something I'd recommend, just for the sheer prettiness of the art and design.

Black Lagoon is action-y, but can be pretty grim at times, the same with Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu.

I could go on and on, but those are some I would recommend from a variety of genres.

 

Gurren Lagann? Already seen it. Fucking loved it and consider it Ginax's apology for making us sit through Eva.

Panty and Stocking is also on my love beyond rational thought list.

 

Then you'll adore Kill la Kill. I also second Bii's recommendations of Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. The UFOTable edition, of course.

 

The Fafner series~
---Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor <-literally a decade ago.
------Right of Left (OVA) <-more or less a decade ago too.
------Heaven and Earth (Movie) <-about 5 years ago.
---Fafner Exodus (2nd Season, First Half) (Second Half not aired yet) <- current. Yes.

 

*Thinks* Maybe One Piece if you like Shounen? Though it is really damned Long as an Anime by now I think and the art is, if not bad, at least peculiar.

World God Only Knows was pretty good by my opinion and it is quite self-critical and amusing.

Bibliotheca Mystica de Dantalian and Gosick are nice with well made stories and a good feel of Drama. Especially the female lead of Gosick feels like some Kind of female Sherlock Holmes.

Natsume Yujinchou is good and quite interesting too. Dude finds magical book with the names of Youkai that his grandmother get (By beating up Yokai and forcing them to write their names down), decides to give them back since they are precious (Even though it means risking his life like, every second week or so.), pretty deep stuff at times.

Nurarihyon no Mago (Not sure if I wrote the first part right) is also not bad, though more action oriented compared to the former.

Beelzebub is a bit like Bleach but personally feels better to me.

Puella Magi Madoka Magika is also worth watching and pretty famous by now.

Ai Yori Aoshi for a serious love Story that has some fun parts.

Chibi/Cheeky Vampire Karin was not bad, though personally I didn't like the ending too much. Was an interesting take on Vampires.

Shonen Onmyouji for a more serious Shounen which actually has some sad parts.

Haruhi Suzumiya maybe? xxxHolic is damned good if confusing at times.

Soul Eater... I think there is a Let's Play of the Anime on Sufficient Velocity.

 

Parasyte is a real page-turner of an anime that came out recently.
Another is a great horror series that puts numerous American efforts to shame.
Unlimited Blade Works is likely to be the best anime in 2015. fate zero was good too. Don't watch the latter on Crunchyroll with ads though, the placement is extraordinarily magnificently bad.
The first 4 episodes of When The Cicadas Cry/Higurashi: When They Cry could be edited into the best horror movie I've ever seen; sad that the live action movie was done so poorly, what with the sound design and constant winks. The dub of the anime is watchable, but matching lip-flaps shackled some of the actors/writers severely.
Puella Magi Madoka Magika enough said
Kill la Kill should be watched dubbed. The sheer energy of the show just doesn't translate that well subbed.

Since you haven't seen FLCL you should check it out. dub and sub are equal.

 

Watch Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

It's kind of like Death Note, in that everyone is constantly planning around everyone else's plans, except it's not grimdark at all (you may actually vomit rainbows after watching it it's so fabulous), and all of the plans are being developed and executed in the middle of fights.

And the payoffs are always amazing.

 

D.Grey-man was pretty good. Lots of ups and downs. Very few characters are safe from death though. It's a war to save the world from demons, and the author's not holding back any punches. The anime finished and while the manga continues, the author has poor health so there's a big delay between chapters.

 

I like the Onegai franchise (Onegai Teacher, Onegai Twins and Ano Natsu de Matteru). Not shounen stuff, no fights, but despite Aliens (and MIB on the later!) the human interactions of the show are pretty well done, despite some Ecchi (light compared to the current standard).

On a similar style, Tasogare Otome X Amnesia. It starts light hearted, but its still capable of give you a few creeps when it comes to human mentality. Downloaded it by accident, from UTW (it was in the middle of FateZero torrents) decided to watch, never regretted it.

Sankarea (the Manga is better though), its a fun thing to watch, although it's a little ecchi heavy at times. A story of Love, Death and Zombies.

Chuunibyou Koi Demo ga Shitai. Surprisingly deep for a child's show. A story where the cast either had or still have too much imagination to keep it contained.

Cross Ange. It starts TERRIBLE, but it gets better. Lots of fanservice on this one though.

Accel World. Games don't work that way yet, but goddamn they should. This is what SAO should have been if they haven't fucked up the pacing.

 

There's a new Dragon ball anime out now. I like it so far even though it's just a retelling of the movie that came out a long time ago right now. But after that, it shoud pick up the pace and have godly enemies for goku and co to face.

Overlord seems pretty interesting.

Still don't have an opinion on god eater yet.

I second Jojo because its rather well... you would have to watch it to see what I mean. I blame DIO!

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo is pretty interesting, just wish it was more than 10 episodes and an ova.

There's more, but well. I don't want to take up an entire page.

Sailor moon crystal is running as well, if your interested in a classic being reborn. I think it stays truer to the manga so far. Haven't really watched it that far though.

There is DBZ abridge and SOA abridge that are rather entertaining. But I don't know if those count.

 

Understatement of the year here. Overlord is probably my anime of the season so far, only just narrowly beating out Rokka no Yuusha.

 

I'm only three episodes in, but Senhime Zesshou Symphogear looks to be the best parts of Ar Tonelico, Xenosaga, and black Michael Jackson combined. I might have to take that back later, but so far it looks amazing.

 

If you haven't watched Ghost in the Shell you're missing out. Arise is eh though.

 

Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)
Gin no Saji (Silver Spoon)
K-On! (anime far, far superior to source manga)

 

Old ones.

 

I suggest Ikkyu san. Don't ask about my age.

 

Tenchi Muyo OVA.

 

Odd Taxi

 

Made in Abyss is pretty good, though it does get grim but not always, I cried at least twice while watching.

 

What genres are you looking for? I primarily stick to Slice-of-life and fluff.

 

I dunno what you like from this (perhaps be more specific) so I'll just drop my old anime list.

https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Shrapnel893

There are about 400+ shows on there. Shrug. See if you like any.

 

I'm pretty sure I know exactly which two scenes you are referring to.

 

I've been watching Martian Successor Nadesico and I really like it.
Is quite a good parody of mecha shows, decided to watch it after finishing Super Robot Wars V

 

The Leadale anime is... really good when it's on point and sort of "meh" when it's not.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series (novels, manga, and now *finally* anime), Leadale was one of the earlier trendsetters for the whole isekai-into-an-MMO thing. As I recall, it came out around the same time the original SAO did... and took the idea in a very different direction.

It even got its fair share of imitators. You may be familiar with one of them, which basically tried to do something similar to Leadale, only darker and edgier: Overlord.

The basic premise is roughly parallel: Leadale is a popular MMO, Keina is one of the top players... only she's a prototype of SAO's Sleeping Knights, and is so high-ranked in the game because she's playing from a hospital bed while on life support. Then there's a power outage, her life support fails, and she finds herself in the bed of an inn, in the body of her in-game self, not far from her guild base... two hundred years after the time-period depicted in the game.

And now she has to live with all the various decisions she made as an MMO player... only in real life. To give you one example: those three NPCs she took in via the game's foster system and designated as her children? Yeah, they now are very much loving characters who've worked their way into important positions... and who really view Keina (a 16-year-old virgin) as their mother.

This is also despite the fact that one of them is a dwarf... and Keina is a single, unattached elf. Any issues with this are handwaved away the same way they would be in an MMO, even though the series itself does almost everything it can to rub our faces in it. She also set their descriptions to what she thought was funny at the time... only, well...

The first of her kids she reunites with is said dwarf, Kartatz, who's become the head of a shipbuilding company. This is how it initially goes.

When she visits Mai-Mai, who's become the head of the local magic academy, lead there by one of the students (who she's befriended)... this happens.

When Skargo (the oldest) "finds out" that his "mother" is sick (she isn't -- she's just depressed because of something she found out), he... well. Here.

And yes, the special effects are really happening with Skargo. It's a plot point. Keina gave him a special effects skill in the game, you see...

Like I said, the anime's somewhat hit or miss, although its "miss" is more "meh" than suck. Specifically, the original tends to zig-zag between genres (those who remember Slayers will have some idea of the concept, although Leadale does it between different genres and in a very different style), and the animation team really didn't seem to "get" that, instead treating it as a straight comedy.

Still a rec -- because when it's good, it's good.

 

Its really sad to know that many of the trendsetters like MT and now this gets introduced to the general audience later than the imitators or derivates of their formula. Its history is interesting but not enough for me to give time to watch it as I have some other series like Bisque Doll to watch.

 

It's worth noting that I rec the novels and manga much more strongly than I do the anime -- although the anime, when it gets it right, is absolutely worth it.

 

I do see that. Its just that its not on my watchlist anymore as I usually exclude isekai and pseudommo.

 

Makes sense. I don't generally do that sort of thing because I don't believe in excluding based on what I view as relatively minor elements (e.g. I think of "pseudo-mmo" as a plot element on the same level as "with tanks" -- and thus equally irrelevant to genre or any of the things I actually care about)... but, well, different strokes and all that.

With that said, one other thing I should mention is that Leadale -- in all its media -- handles the MMO elements really well. I mean, things like the now-stereotypical floating screens exist, but they tend to only pop up when they're immediately plot-relevant (e.g. when Keina first wakes up) or when they're being used for a gag (e.g. the novel's version of this scene).

On another note, one scene from the latest episode (this one, although that posting's been cut quite a bit) goes into an extended gag that really doesn't make much sense if you don't speak Japanese. The key issue? The "beg" command Keina uses when playing with her dragon there is phonetically identical to a Japanese word for "penis."

So, yeah. "Look closely, you two! Shake! The other one! Down! Penis!"

"Look closely..." (Blushes.)

Followed by an extended gag about, "Is this the first time you've seen one?"

With suitable miscommunications. Oh, and between Keina and a girl with a crush on her son.