Here we are again, with another list of recommendations. You would have thought that after the last
time I did one of these lists that people would have enough to last them, you know long
enough to be able to figure out their own tastes and their own kind of preference in
anime. But I suppose that doesn’t always necessarily need to be the case. After all,
if that was the case, then I wouldn’t be able to have the fun that I do making these
lists. So last time I went over 25ish anime, films,
directors, and studios to give you a variety of different tastes and styles as a nice jumping
off point. But when trying to recommend anime, 25 is a fairly small number so of course,
I have to have more. As usual, I don’t guarantee that you will like everything on this list.
There are a variety of different genres and styles that not everyone will like but, as
I so often say, I hope at least one of them will be to your liking. Before you comment
down below though, telling me about how I forgot one of your favourites, please keep
in mind that this is a sequel to my previous one. So you might want to watch that first
and check out the entries I listed there before starting on what I have listed here. Also,
while I am again limiting myself to 15 or so entries again, please keep in mind that
any other anime I mention in this video by name is probably also worth a look if you
want to go beyond and check out things that I didn’t have listed.
Now, without any further ado, ladies, gentlemen and others, my name is Arkada and welcome
to Glass Reflection. Today: 15-ish more anime recommendations. And we begin with one that
I really should have mentioned last time.
*MONSTER AWESOMENESS*
This is a show that I wanted to have on the previous list but ultimately cut it because
of its absolutely horrible availability in North America, but I’ll get to that.
To try to describe this absolute masterpiece of a story by Naoki Urasawa, I can only put
it in this way. You know that figurative question people sometimes ask, “What would you do
if you could go back in time and kill Hitler?” Well, try to imagine a doctor who has the
choice to save an influential man, or a small child. On the surface the answer is obvious,
screw the man with money, let’s save the child. But then what if that child grows up
to be a murderer. What would you think of your decision then? This is the start of Monster,
as Dr. Kenzou Tenma has to deal with the fact that a boy he saved becomes one of the most
evil men he will ever have the displeasure to meet. And also that the man becomes insanely
interested in the doctor who spared his life.
Totaling in at 74 episodes, Monster is Urasawa’s magnum opus, and for reasons
I cannot comprehend, it is impossible to get it state side anymore.
Which is the biggest shame ever
because, out of any series that I’ve been hyped for before watching it, this one was
one of the few that deserved all the hype it got.
Speaking of magnum opuses…
*PREPARE FOR ZETTAI UNMEI MOMUSHIROKU*
Revolutionary Girl Utena is the brainchild of Kunihiko Ikuhara, who is mainly known for
working on Sailor Moon, this and another series that I don't care to get into. But Utena is
widely considered to be Ikuhara's opus. The animation, while dated, has its moments of
brilliance, and an expansive soundtrack with a different battle theme composed for nearly
every episode. All that aside, however, where the real meat and potatoes lie is in the characters
and their relationships. There is a very wide cast, and almost every relationship you could
imagine outside of parent/child is explored, whether it breaks taboo or not.
That and you could call this subtext the anime, with a story which when you reach the end
will make you want to go back and go “ohhh, that's what that means...wait, what?!” With
such a short amount of time, I can't fully do the show justice in explaining why it deserves
to be on this list, but trust me, it does.
Space, the only frontier. The anime Planetes is an interesting breed as it manages to make
a relatively boring description quite entertaining. Because this is a show about space janitors.
Humanity has recently been expanding its reach into the solar system, but with each test
and attempt at furthering our reach into space, junk has been left behind from the things
that did not burn up in the atmosphere. That junk regardless of size poses significant
danger to any ship attempting to either leave or enter earth’s atmosphere, and so it’s
up to cleanup crews to go out and make space safe. But this series is oh so much more than
just cleaning up junk. In the span of 26 episodes, we see the show’s
characters not only handle what their industry refers to as a laughing stock of a job, but
also see them strive for something greater. These people have hopes and dreams, and the
way that the show is able to effectively tell their stories is brilliant. Despite the rather
unconventional setting, if you enjoy any aspect of space as a story backdrop, Planetes will
definitely be worth your time.
DESPAIR! PEOPLE NOT WATCHING ZETSUBOU SENSEI HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, is not a series with a plot. It doesn’t have a story, and
most of the time it doesn’t have much of anything. It’s a slice of life series that
revolves around a deranged class full of problematic misfits and their suicidal teacher. But what
follows is the class’s misadventures through reference humour, sexy times, and the often
theme of death. Whether you like the show will depend mostly on your sense of humour
and whether or not it matches what the show has to offer. It’s not an off-the-wall,
random kind of humour like some other shows by the same studio, and at times can walk
down a rather depressing road, but overall it’s a uniquely solid comedy that’s a
bit more on the weird side than what is generally standard in anime, for those who like that
sort of thing.
On the other hand we have Nichijou, a show all about random, off-the-wall comedy-based
humour. Want a principal suplexing a deer? This is your show. Want over-the-top heavily
detailed animation about dropping a piece of food? This is your show. Want a series
that is quite literally out of fucks to give? Nichijou is your show.
Never before or since has a comedy come quite to these levels of absurdity and randomness.
Cromartie High School came close, but even then it didn’t have the extreme budget that
this show apparently did for its animation. The biggest downside to this series isn’t
actually anything from the show itself. It’s the fact that Crunchyroll no longer offers
it for streaming and thus it’s not legally available anywhere. Goddamnit…
*sigh* but at least they have this next one.
*BOKURANO INTENSIFIES*
Bokurano is a story about sacrifice and about greed. It’s about a group of children who
are thrown into a dangerous melee between giant robots that they have no business being
in, but cannot back out for fear of the end of the world as they know it.
It’s hard to really talk much about the beauty in Bokurano’s storytelling without
traversing into spoiler territory. Because of this, I’ve noticed that finding people
who have watched the show are few and far between. When you can’t properly explain
the show without spoiling, you can’t really give anyone proper motivation to check it
out. Even the initial episodes in the show contain some monumental plot twists that will
have so much more of an effect if you can’t predict them and don’t know what they are
before they happen. But please take my word for it. It is so worth
the watch. If you like shows that take a psychological look into the lives of children put into impossible
situations, then Bokurano should be a series you move to the top of your to-watch list
pronto.
Sound of the Sky or Sora no Woto is one of two anime that I like to pull out every once
in a while just to relax and have a pleasant evening. It’s a story about friendship,
hardship, music, and how important these things are to people who are confronted with ever-looming
adversity. As you may notice, it has the same sort of animation style as shows like K-On,
however is much tamer as far as the overabundance of cuteness that it portrays. It’s much
more than merely high school girls living their uniquely mundane lives, as it’s an
occasionally lighthearted military drama that’s as refreshing as it is heartfelt and beautiful.
If that doesn’t get you interested, then go and look up the soundtrack. Its calming
tunes will make you feel better even if the show itself is not to your taste.
I mentioned this in my review of the series, but I freaking love Berserk. Like a lot. A
lot, a lot. Honestly, I like it so much that I’m really curious as to why the hell I
didn’t have it on the original list, but whatever. Berserk is a kind of heavily violent
gore fantasy that we don’t see much of nowadays. It follows a skillful swordsman Guts and his
dealings with the mercenary group Band of the Hawk, as their leader Griffith traverses
the country gaining power and influence to one day potentially take over as king.
One might guess this path is not one that’s to be treaded lightly, and the group of characters
end up facing many hardships over the course of its 25 episode run. It’s got demon slaying,
blood, nudity, and great music that all wraps up in a truly spectacular way. Now it does
have a “read the manga” ending, which I can also recommend because the manga is
amazing, but even considering that, this series is worth your time. But I’m not biased or
anything. Seriously. Okay, maybe a little.
Angelic Layer is a series adapted from the well know mangaka group CLAMP, which I always
find myself coming back to. It’s the one show on my shelf that I keep looking at thinking,
“I should review that. It’ll give me an excuse to watch it again.” Totally forgetting,
of course, that I’ve already reviewed the thing a bunch of years back.
It’s this rather upbeat tournament style anime about a young girl named Misaki, and
her crazy cool fighting robot doll Hikaru. Misaki gets into Angelic Layer because she
had this kind of childlike curiosity about it after seeing it on a jumbotron once after
arriving in Tokyo. And after some friendly advice from a totally not suspicious man in
a lab coat, she gets her own angel doll and discovers, yeah, she’s actually quite good
at this whole thing. Like other shows I watch regularly, it has these heartwarming aspects
to it that make it infinitely re-watchable, even if you know how it ends. It is the type
of show you should watch if you can handle the more lighthearted nature that it has and
not be bored by it. Most people end up picking a favourite CLAMP series after watching a
few of them. This one is mine.
This is the other series like Sound of the Sky that I enjoy taking out, purely for the
love of watching it. As the title gives away, this series is about a journey. Travelling
from point A to, well, wherever. There isn’t really a point B, but it’s the journey itself
that’s the adventure here, not the destination. In each episode, our main character Kino stops
or gets stopped in a new locale as she attempts to see the world. This allows us as the audience
to get to experience this sometimes strange and mystical world along with her. This world
contains many wonders that are designed to bring up a variety of emotions, both good
and sometimes quite disturbing. Because of this, it’s a series that’s nice to take
in short bursts, a slow gentle reprieve from whatever else you’ve been watching, as a
faster pace would have you miss out on quite a bit of contemplation that the series lends
itself towards having after each episode. It’s only 13 episodes long, if you don’t
include the movie that has never been localized in North America, and ultimately like the
journey itself is quite open-ended. But despite that, it’s a series that I’ve always been
able to get people to watch, even if they are not into anime, as its stories are accessible
to everyone.
MUDADA
ZA WARDO!
Holy crap, I don’t know how anyone expects me to explain the utter insanity that is JoJo
in just a paragraph, but okay I’ll try. JoJo is a series that starts off, well, quite
boring actually with a small family feud that over the course of time expands and explodes
into…well overly bizarre and epic proportions. It’s a return to form of the older action
heavy macho manly man anime from the 80’s, reminiscent of Fist of the North Star, but
at the same time does not singularly define itself as such. The overarching plotlines
tend to be simplistic, with for example one character being an extremely cliché villain
archetype of a puppy-punching shitbag, just because reasons, but all of that is made up
simply by overflowing itself with style. The show has this personality that does what it
wants because it can and it’s cool at doing it. There is so much sublime testosterone
in this series, it spills out into over the top action scenes that can only described
in one word. Bizarre. Quite a fitting title that. The series ain’t over yet, with the
third season adapting the manga’s 4th arc that’s airing at the time of this video,
but honestly this will end up being one of those series for which I discard my usual
motto of the ending being paramount, because I almost don’t want JoJo to end.
But on the topic of over-the-top anime shows, there is one other that I think should be
mentioned.
If you want a series about action, about overcoming adversity, about fighting spirit, about GRITTING
THOSE TEETH! then look no freaking further then Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. This extremely
dynamic and absolutely insane action series, is what has been burned into most anime watchers
minds when someone refers to studio Gainax. Because screw Evangelion, we all know who
the real heroes are here. I kid of course, but it’s hard not to get
pumped up when taking about this series that goes a bit beyond living up to its hype. Because
you can’t really imagine just how crazy Gurren Lagann is going to get until you experience
it with your own eyes. It starts literally from the ground up as our character Simon
learns to cope with his social anxieties to eventually be thrown into life or death situations
with the entire planet and the subjugation of his people on the line. This series is
giant robots taken to the most unrealistic extremes that you can think of and it is amazingly
entertaining the whole way though. Okay, well maybe not the whole way. There is this dip
in the middle that I thought was rather boring, but then it explodes to become bigger and
more insane than ever before. If you haven’t seen it, hell if you haven’t
heard of it for some reason, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I would be very
surprised if you walked away disappointed.
Figured I might as well add this here, mainly because it’s the most enjoyable long running
series that I have had the pleasure to marathon through. Generally speaking, I tend to avoid
shows longer than 50 episodes with few exceptions, because I find when you get to that length
and longer there’s a lot of time that’s just wasted in-between arcs and actual decent
storytelling that to me could be better spent on another show entirely. Hunter x Hunter,
was a series that kind of changed my perspective on that.
It follows one boy’s journey to become one of the world’s greatest Hunters, to train
to become the best, all the while helping out his friends and looking for his father.
It also is a series that takes an extremely sudden but gloriously awesome shift in tone,
from happy-go-lucky “this show is totally for kids” to, levels of violence and dark
themes far different from how it started. Now it has an extremely slow beginning and
considering the state of the manga it’s based on, there’s no end in sight. But the
entirety of the middle, the vast majority of this series, it is of far greater quality
than I could have expected out of a series this long. It’s not something I recommend
for you to marathon all in one go though, but if you take your time with it, I’m sure
you’ll probably enjoy it as much as I did.
So what do the creators of Evangelion do immediately after finishing that gigantic implosion of
a series? Well, they make a romantic comedy, of course. As you might expect though, it’s
not your traditional romantic comedy. It seems that way at the start. It’s upbeat, and
it has likeable and funny characters. But it’s a show that never falls into the same
romantic pitfalls that you see happen over and over and over again. It’s not a series
that tries to drag out the romance, not constantly making you question will they or won’t they,
nor does it try the typical plot where the characters take forever to realize their real
feelings. It’s not all sunshine and roses, and it at times can start to go into much
more psychological themes where appropriate. And I loved that about it.
But the worst thing about the series, is in fact the ending, as the mangaka withdrew her
permission for Gainax to continue adapting her work. However, if you just pretend that
the series actually ends a few episodes before it actually does, then everything wraps up
quite nicely. Check it out if you can find it, and let me know what you think.
Normally when making these kinds of lists I would want to avoid any series that is too
new. If I’m going to put something on a recommendations list, then I want to know
that I enjoy it because of what it is, not because I’m still drunk off of the enjoyment
of watching it. Well it’s been a year since I watched Shirobako, and if I’m still drunk
off the enjoyment of it, then damn was it some strong stuff.
Shirobako is a rather rose-coloured look into the very industry that we ourselves enjoy
on a regular basis, with our main character Miyamori being a new production assistant
for Musashino Animation. Throughout the series she goes through all the trials and tribulations
of getting two very different anime series through production and onto the air. Her story
is written by people who ripped the plots and sometimes characters from their own experiences
in the industry. It’s probably not the most realistic of
interpretations of the industry that you will find, but it is most definitely one of the
most entertaining. I named it my favourite anime that came out in 2015 for a reason and
if my recommending it twice so far hasn’t gotten you to watch it, then here’s a third
time, because damnit you should. So, there we go. 15-ish more things for you
to potentially add to your watch list and another video that I can point people towards
when they ask me what I think they should watch. If you think I forgot something over
the course of the two lists that I’ve done so far, let me know down in the comments and
if I haven’t seen it yet, I’ll be sure to check it out for a potential 3rd entry
down the line. If you like this sort of thing and of course the kind of videos I make on
a regular basis, I would be oh so grateful if you went and checked out my Patreon page,
if you have the time. I would also like to give a very special thanks to Joshua Garcia,
Grace Anderson, Nicolai Grey, Rurika Adachi, Viktor Ekmark, Samuel Fombellida, Halo Millennium
and Calhounboy for donating already, because you all are superbly awesome.
I hope you have enjoyed this list and until next time, ladies, gentlemen, and others,
stay frosty.