There was a time not so very long ago that I was a dedicated fan of Japanese animation. I was always working my way through one show or another, participating in fan communities and reading and looking for fanart and fanfiction to enjoy.
And then… something changed. My tastes, I guess. Some of those anime I loved back in the day just didn’t age as well, and I was moving on to other things. By the time I got into college, I just wasn’t really tuned in to which anime were the most popular, and the medium fully dropped from my radar.
But in recent weeks something has shifted. Likely, it’s been my recent habit of having a Mother’s Basement video on in the background while I work, but I started compiling a list of anime he mentioned that I thought me and my partner might enjoy watching together. Suddenly, we had plowed our way through several of the shows on my list.
Today I bring you a list of our favorites from this recent anime habit – a mix of genres from romance to fantasy to action, old classics and currently-running favorites. All of them I highly recommend for anime fans seasoned and new, loyal and, like me, returning after some time away.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie
When I said I spent some time away from anime completely, I was lying just a bit, because there was one anime I watched to completion during college. I can’t explain what exactly landed Recovery of an MMO Junkie on my radar during a time when I wasn’t really paying much attention at all to anime. But, I have a few guesses.
The anime follows Moriko just after she has quit her soul-sucking office job to focus entirely on her long-time hobby – playing MMOs. While a lesser anime might take this set-up as a chance to make fun of the choice to reject the more conventional “adult” path of career dominating anything else in your life, though, the show focuses on the joy, fulfillment, and meaningful relationships Moriko finds through her dashing male avatar, Hayashi.
I think what stuck with me so much about this anime is the kindness and empathy it extends toward its characters. There are a lot of anime that make fun of the “NEET” stereotype of a person who spends all day at home playing video games, but the exploration of Moriko’s decision is by comparison extremely sensitive and complex. The show has a cast of really lovable and compelling characters, ones that you can’t help but root for.
A Sign of Affection
Another unique romantic anime, this is a currently-airing anime following a young college aged deaf woman named Yuki. In a chance encounter on the subway, she meets the globetrotting polyglot Itsuomi, who becomes one of the first of her college friends to take a real interest in learning sign language in order to communicate with her on her own terms.
Besides its unique protagonist and her interesting perspective on the world, what I’ve really been enjoying about this show is how refreshingly adult it is. I don’t mean adult as in sexy, I mean adult as in all of the characters don’t fall for the dumb immature miscommunication subplots romances love to focus on. Everyone in this show is so refreshingly upfront about their wants and needs, and the conflict comes when these naturally, well, conflict.
Beautifully animated and drawn, this is a great anime to reach for if you’re a fan of romance.
Mob Psycho 100
This is an anime that was everywhere in 2016. I couldn’t go anywhere without hearing how much everyone loved Mob Psycho – but, as mentioned, this was right in the midst of my phase where anime just wasn’t resonating with me, so I gave it a skip. Now that I’m back in it, though, I totally see what the hype was all about.
This anime focuses on Mob, a socially-awkward middle-schooler with incredible psychic abilities. His mentor, Reigen, is a fake psychic who relies heavily on Mob’s abilities to help his clients with their actual cases of hauntings and spiritual contacts.
What really works about this show all comes from Mob himself. He’s a bit of an oddball, but the more you get to know him the more it’s so easy to root for him. His earnest and dedicated attitude mixed with the touch of immaturity that is easy to overlook when he’s blasting bad guys with psychic beams and telekinetically throwing them around is too fun as a central figure. Plus, there’s a lot of shockingly complex character drama (and a shockingly beautiful animation style) hidden beneath the simplistic character designs.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
It’s hard to do something totally unique in the high fantasy world. Particularly if you’re an anime – if you didn’t know, anime is full to the brim with shows attempting to chase the absolutely massive anime Sword Art Online with it’s “stuck in a video game” premise. It’s actually strangely rare to find fantasy played completely straight – a lot of shows instead transport a normal protagonist into a fantasy world.
Frieren is a bit unique, though, in the way its world is played straight. Sure, it focuses on your typical high fantasy MMORPG party saving the world from a great evil, but here’s the thing – the show is set 80 years after said party completed their goal. The show’s timeline picks up after the party’s great hero, Himmel, has died, and the party’s elven mage, Frieren, the only one who hasn’t visibly aged, decides that it’s time for her to pay her respects to her dead friend. Along the journey, she picks up successors and has to grapple with the loneliness of being the one nearly unchanged person of her original party. But, how unchanged is she, really?
Frieren is a wonderful protagonist, with a detached attitude that only slightly masks a deep sadness at her situation. This is a slow-paced, beautifully animated show that makes you feel her perspective on the world. The world itself is lovely, too – nothing groundbreaking in terms of high-fantasy settings, but it’s the sort of thing that makes you remember why these settings are so common and beloved when done well.
Princess Jellyfish
The oldest anime on this list, this is one that I had watched before but decided to revisit when I learned my partner had never seen it. It’s always a bit of a gamble when you revisit old shows like this – sometimes they just don’t age well. But I was shocked to find how much of this anime’s humor and story had completely flown over my head when I first watched it in middle school.
The story focuses on Tsukimi, a young woman living in an apartment building with only other women (no men allowed). She and her roommates are all hyperfixated on something or other – for Tsukimi, she is totally obsessed with jellyfish. On a rare solo outing one evening, she spots a jellyfish improperly housed at a local aquarium. Too socially awkward to step in, she’s aided by a beautiful, fashionable woman named Kuranosuke, who helps her buy the jellyfish and build a proper home for it in her apartment. Except, oops, Kuranosuke is actually a man who enjoys doing drag.
The concept might not seem to be the sort of thing that would age well, and sure, there are some parts of this show that probably would be done differently if it was made today, but the heart and genuine character building in this anime doesn’t need one single ounce of updating. I love the art style too, particularly with the many fabulous outfits Kuranosuke dresses in. Definitely a classic anime worth your time.
Skip and Loafer
I’ve focused a lot on romance anime with adult characters, implying that there’s something wrong with a high school romance, but that’s not true at all. High school romance, while a bit played out at times, can definitely still be fun and enjoyable (as the next two anime will show).
Skip and Loafer is a charming and fluffy little show about a girl from a small rural town who gets the chance to strike it out on her own at a big-city high school. Living with her aunt, she must make the transition from a big fish in a small pond to a little fish in a big pond – a difficult adjustment at times. She gets lost on the subway on her way to the first day of school, and is only helped when she runs into the soft, seemingly slacker-type, Sōsuke, who also goes to the same school.
Sure, it’s predictable to tell where things might go next for this high strung type-A student and frequent class-skipper, but this is a show that takes its time and really lets you get to know and love not only its main couple but also their friends and family. The art style is also so adorable and fun.
Kaguya-sama Love is War
But probably the best high school romance anime on the market right now, as well as likely one of the funniest anime I’ve ever watched, is Kaguya-sama Love is War. It’s an absolutely (excuse my French) batshit show in all the best possible ways.
At the immensely wealthy and high-class Shuchiin Academy, school council president Miyuki Shirogane has a lot to prove as the son of a poor single father. For that reason (and a few others), he’s reluctant to admit his crush on his vice president, the serious and studious daughter of an extremely wealthy and influential family, Kaguya Shinomiya. However, as it turns out, Kaguya has an intense crush on her president as well, but is similarly reluctant to tell him for fear of coming off weak.
What ensues is a totally balls-to-the-wall battle of wits between the two as they try to manipulate each other into confessing their romantic feelings before the other. Often caught in the crossfire are their fellow councilmates who are, don’t worry, just as insane as their president and vice president. The show chronicles each of these tiny battles in extremely dramatic and humorous detail.
What’s fun is beyond the silly plot, there’s a surprising amount of development for all the characters, so it’s worth it for more than just the hijinks. Definitely one of the best anime I’ve seen in a while.
Delicious in Dungeon
But I’ve saved my favorite for last. I talked a bit in my Frieren entry about the absolute glut of fantasy video game anime out there, to the point where a show focusing on an MMO just gets pretty tired pretty fast, making straightforward fantasy anime a surprisingly rare occurrence. Well, Delicious in Dungeon is once such refreshing take on the genre, where the fantasy world is obviously inspired by video game logic but remains steadfastly rooted in an actual world. And I love it.
The world of Delicious in Dungeon features the titular dungeon – a place afflicted with a mysterious curse that tethers the soul of anyone who enters to their body. This allows parties of explorers to venture further and further into its depths, undeterred by the threat of death, looking for treasure and glory. The show opens on one such party getting absolutely wrecked by a huge red dragon. Just before being eaten, the party’s cleric, Fallin, teleports her comrades to safety.
Now, the remnants of her party willing to stick around, including her brother, the – to put it politely – unhinged knight Laios, the small and very divorced halfling Chilchuck, and the trigger-happy elven spellcaster Marcille, resolve to head back into the dungeon in the hopes of recovering Fallin before she can be digested, the kind of death that she likely can’t recover from.
If you think this premise is wild, don’t worry, it gets wilder! You see, one of the greatest obstacles to their mission is, surprisingly, supplies. Having lost everything but the armor on their backs and the weapons in their hands, the party is unable to buy supplies (including, most importantly, food) for their journey. Thankfully, they meet the dungeon-dwelling dwarf Senshi, who has long made a life for himself on what he can find – including cooking and eating the very monsters that threaten the party. Under his unlikely tutelage, the party sets off, eating their way through the treacherous depths of the dungeon.
This is a totally unique concept that seems too farfetched to work – but it totally does. The characters are goofy, sure, but there’s real heart to their mission and real stakes to each and every step they take. They’re freaks, sure, but they’re my freaks. This has become one of my all-time favorites and as I write it’s not even halfway through the season.
Absoludicrous 