Here are the Rotten Tomatoes reviews of season one. (94% fresh from critics, 87% fresh from the audience.)
And if you’d rather sample the manga first, you can try it here.
I remembered a couple other anime shows I watched on Netflix: My Hero Academia and Spy x Family. I liked them both (although the former leaned somewhat towards the interminable fight scenes that I’m not always a fan of).
Spy x Family is brilliant, we love it.
Never really took to MHA. Little Witch Academia, on the other hand, was great.
I would second that as well.
Blue Eyed Samurai is very good. It’s not strictly “anime” as it is produced by an American company.
I came across a show called Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune. I only watched one episode that seemed to mostly consist of a group of Earthlings who enlisted in some crappy Starship Troopers-esq space infantry.
I thought of another Netflix show I watched: The Way of the Househusband, about an ex-yakuza leading a very mundane life shopping, cleaning house, etc. Harmless and funny.
If you’ve never seen it, Yu Yu Hakusho is definitely worth a watch. It’s old school, and starts off a little slow, but it is one of the best anime of all time. If you notice tropes from other anime it’s because they were taken from YYH, not the other way around.
I’m about halfway thru Dandadan, which I started watching because the theme song by Creepy Nuts popped in my feed and is ridiculously catchy (one of the perils of a playlist of anime themes). I also think the title being the “dramatic chipmunk” musical sting as written is funny.
I’d recommend Pluto.
I was reading the chapters of Dandadan as they were released, but lost interest along the way. Looking back I read up to chapter 62, and it doesn’t look as bad as I remembered so maybe I’ll give it another try sometime. I see that season one of the anime covers up to chapter 33 or 34. (179 have been published so far.)
New seasons of Dr. Stone and Spy x Family are out on Netflix. I spent New Year’s Day bingeing way too many episodes of Dr. Stone (which is still one of my favourites).
The series also won a Best Anime award in 2020.
Manga Barcelona Limited Edition awards the best manga and anime of the year
:snip:In the anime category, the winner in the Best Series category was “Beastars”, directed by Shinichi Matsumi and distributed by Netflix…
(Google translation)
Mashle: A dumb guy with super-strength tries to be the top student at a famous school of witchcraft and wizardry, despite having no magical ability. Kind of like “One Punch Man goes to Hogwarts”. The animation is pretty clunky, but I got some good laughs out of it.
I’m an anime enthusiast, so deweight the following recommendations accordingly:
Not anime, but the live-action adaptation of the One Piece manga was exceptional, largely due to Iñaki Godoy’s portrayal of the main character, a role I thought would be impossible to nail.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. A classic about 2 boys whose experiment went horribly wrong, and their subsequent attempts to put it right. Great world building, some philosophic depth.
Vinland Saga - Can’t praise this enough. Based on historical manga about the Vikings, set in England, Denmark and elsewhere around 1000AD. Four story arcs follow Thorfinn, loosely based upon an historical person.
Death Note: I read the manga, but only dipped briefly into the anime. Has favorable reviews.
My Happy Marriage: Meh, I enjoyed it but it’s not a rave fave. 3 stars?
Your Lie in April: Romantic shonen drama. Shonen works are made for boys, but enjoyed by both genders.
Naruto, part I: The parts based on the original manga are great. But there are also parts that are not, which are properly derided as filler. Naruto is a rambunctious kid from a ninja village, generally looked down upon. Naruto is motivated by a desire for acceptance, which is a refreshing motive compared to Hollywood’s obsession with revenge.
Delicious in Dungeon - there was a thread here about this fun series.
Hajime no Ippo - An old school boxing anime.
Overlord - given the mayhem that he tolerates, I’d say that the main character drifts towards LE in this sardonic series. Agreed that that there’s a good case for LN. The main character is a decent man who has had his human empathy removed, but the story is mostly about the world he finds himself in. I found myself rooting for the main character’s opponents more than once. Recommended.
Komi Can’t Communicate - a sweet slice of life romance.
Kotaro Lives Alone - another slice of life anime about a very mature 4 year old.
FWIW, I once posted in the “series you have watched” thread a list of anime that I picked out from browsing a list of Chunkyroll options. This is a combination of things I’ve seen at least some of the anime for and things where I have only read at least some of the manga. All are worth checking out, depending on your tastes.
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GEXH3WK52/mieruko-chan
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G6GG38246/spice-and-wolf
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G6WEV3WM6/noragami
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G9VHN9P7W/gleipnir
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GR3KVPQER/cells-at-work
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GR24PVM76/nichijou---my-ordinary-life
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GRWEW95KR/laid-back-camp
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GG5H5X3Z9/space-battleship-yamato
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G649J4XPY/a-certain-scientific-railgun
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GRVNZK5PY/a-certain-magical-index
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GRGG7701R/the-melancholy-of-haruhi-suzumiya
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GDKHZEJVG/the-disappearance-of-haruhi-suzumiya
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G68V4NDJ6/junji-ito-collection
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GR9P3GD46/tonari-no-seki-kun-the-master-of-killing-time
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G63K4W296/space-dandy
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GYQ42D876/ergo-proxy
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GYVDV1N0Y/sing-yesterday-for-me
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G6X0P133Y/karakai-jozu-no-takagi-san
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G63VMKVQY/yamada-kun-and-the-seven-witches
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GNVHKN75X/life-lessons-with-uramichi-oniisan
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GYGG92K7Y/erased
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G4PH0WPV2/oddtaxi
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GYMGD89VY/barakamon
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GY5PDD4PY/a-certain-scientific-accelerator
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G65VP5ZK6/polar-bear-cafe
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G1XHJV22X/lucifer-and-the-biscuit-hammer
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G65VE2G36/flying-witch
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G69PVE29Y/space-brothers
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GYVNE7QD6/yakitate-japan
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GYDQN15K6/dagashi-kashi
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GRP8PGDWR/arakawa-under-the-bridge
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GMEHME8EZ/diary-of-our-days-at-the-breakwater
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GR751MQ4Y/moyashimon
https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G649445JY/kumamiko--girl-meets-bear
Sounds like Black Clover, a little.
It’s definitely parodying various anime tropes as well, so that could certainly be in the mix.
For those subscribing to Crunchyroll I highly recommend the Psycho Pass series and movies, especially the first season. My rave fave. Also great are Bungo Stray Dogs, the absolutely nutso Birdie Wing, and Golden Kamuy. Demon Slayer is wildly popular and good to great. Spy x Family is a lot of fun. Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju made me into a Rakugo fan, despite the fact that I’ve never watched any Rakugo. Those who enjoyed Lucifer and the Bisquit Hammer should check out Planet With.
Musashi, Non Non Biyori, The Aquatope on White Sand, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, and Natsume’s Book of Friends are reliable mellow shows.
Does anyone know how I can view the original Space Battleship Yamato?
Made in Abyss is fantastic and not for kids. Cheerful but very dark fantasy. The 2nd season is available on
…HiDive. Watch the movie after the first season and before the 2nd season. Incredible world building.
There was a project to try to recreate something close to the original, available on Archive dot org. I looked for it a few days ago after starting watching some episodes of Tranzor Z, which I loved as a kid, but it is pretty bad.
There’s a Filipino anime on Netflix called Trese that I liked. It’s a tropey tale of an action girl trying to keep a fragile peace between the human and supernatural worlds, but I thought it was well done. All the creatures are from Filipino folklore. I actually came to it by watching a doc on Filipino monsters. There’s only one six episode season (Thanks Netflix!) but it’s a self contained series. There’s a fair amount of gore if that’s a concern.