Are there any animes or TV shows you can’t stop recommending?
OMG!!! I get to recommend Delicious in Dungeon!!! The show is a bit of a slow burn, but the early episodes set up the incredible world building and the basic plot points. Then as it starts churning it gets crazy. The story is strong enough on it’s own, but it’s animated by Studio Trigger so the anime is pure perfection.
I keep hearing it’s amazing but I bounced off hard on the first couple episodes. I wish anime didn’t need the 5 episodes rule, things should sell themselves from the start. Maybe I’ll give it another go. My wife is keen to watch it.
I powered through as I kept hearing everyone recommend this. It felt pointless because I didn’t get watching a cooking show about stuff you could never eat because it isn’t real.
The comments I read said it took a tonal shift when they finally got back to the red dragon. It’s about halfway through, which took me weeks to get to.
The second half is awesome! If this is what it was like all along, it would have been amazing. The first half gives you nothing to expect what the second half is, which makes it feel more intense, but I still feel is kinda terrible pacing.
I want more now because the characters really are good, which is probably why they used that first half the way they did, but it was tough before seeing where it was going. Frieren had a much better buildup before it really started getting serious for example.
Drag liked the first half better. Drag came for the cooking. Drag thinks the second half has too much drama. Drag likes the kitty, though.
anon does not judge Drag negatively for having different preferences. anon understands why a dragon person may not enjoy the second half. anon also approves of the kitty. anon and drag find common ground.
I was hooked by the second episode.
I was also watching a lot of cooking shows while playing Elden Ring. So maybe it was right fit right time.
Read the manga first to get past that initial hump. You can clear like 5 episodes worth of material in the time it takes to watch an episode and see if it’s for you.
The Good Place
Season 1 is just setting up the story
Holy motherforking shirtballs… someone stole my post idea!
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
The first half was some of the best anime I’ve seen. Then it devolved into a by the numbers shonen complete with a magical school and “tests” with unnecessary action scenes. I was ultimately disappointed by it because the whole season didn’t live up to the amazingly high standard the first few episodes set. I still enjoyed it and would give it a solid recommendation but it gets worse as it goes on in my opinion. The first half where you are properly seeing the world through the eyes of someone ageless has that beautiful sadness I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else.
100% agree with you. Loved the first half and was really let down by the 2nd.
The only other show that’s given me similar vibes to the 1st half of Frieren was Violet Evergarden. Not so much for the content but in the melancholic, beautiful-yet-bittersweet vibes the whole show gives off.
I think that show greatly benefitted from the limited runtime though and would have suffered if they’d tried to push it out to Frieren length.
Scavengers Reign is incredible, easily the best animated sci fi show made in the past few years IMO. It’s weird and emotional and deeply sincere in a way a lot of media isn’t anymore.
If you liked Fantastic Planet you’ll probably like Scavengers Reign.
I really enjoyed this show. The characters were all good the life cycles and the weird biology were interesting and largely made sense. There were only a couple points where I went that’s silly the writers clearly just wanted x to happen but x was cool enough for the silly to not bother me too much, it just took me out the moment a little. Solid recommendation, one of the best sci-fi I’ve watched in the last couple years.
scavengers reign knocked me on my ass, great recommendation.
Gurren Lagan, to second like a dozen people. Kill la Kill is A+ if you can get over it being weird Also I adored Promare.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners is another great one from Trigger. Set in Night City, same world the Cyberpunk 2077 game, a year or so beforehand (but the plots are largely independent).
Real strong warning though: There are no happy endings in Night City. The ending will fuck you up.
Yeah someone already spoiled me on that, I find myself not enjoying stuff that has turbo-downer endings.
Steins;Gate, can’t believe I haven’t seen anyone mention it yet. It’s good, but do watch at least halfway before you judge it.
This one happened during a period when moe was more brain-dead than cute, and the sister character who is supposed to be his motivation for everything just ruins the whole show for me she acts so stupid.
There’s definitely a bit of untasteful moe stuff but it’s not a big part of the show. But yea it would be better without it.
Mayushii acting stupid I cannot recognise at all. She’s just extremely genuine and she’s probably way more emotionally intelligent than any other character in the show.
It’s been a very long time since I watched it, but I distinctly recall being very annoyed by her character. I just checked out the Wiki, and the very first line on her personality is “[she] possesses an extremely childish and naïve attitude for her age.” While not stupid exactly , is just about what I recall hating about her.
For anime, I highly suggest Serial Experiments Lain if you haven’t seen it. Non-anime cartoons I’d recommend are Adventure Time and Lower Decks (its star trek and hilarious). For crude/absurd humor Rick and Morty and Human Resources. For non-animated tv I’d recommend Strange New Worlds (star trek again), Sandman, Fall of the House of Usher, Severance (I haven’t seen season 2 yet but the 1st season was really good)
I had like a good month long period where I’d just randomly stop whatever I was doing and think to myself, “God DAMN Fall of the House of Usher was SO GOOD.”
Really? I’m super curious what made you feel this way. I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed by it compared to Flanagan’s other series’.
It may have been because Poe was one of the few authors I read as a kid, and seeing what they did with the stories tickled my brain in all the right ways.
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Frieren was awesome but it’s so fresh I’m not absolutely sure it’ll keep being that
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Severance season 1 (follow-up seasons upcoming, not sure if they can keep up with the extremely high quality of S1)
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True Detective season 1
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Madoka was great, thanks to tight storytelling and the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard
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Kino’s Journey – somewhat similar to Frieren but 20 years prior
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Chernobyl (2019)
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Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
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Firefly
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Twin Peaks, especially seasons 1 and 3, but season 2 and the movie might be needed to fully appreciate
- Frieren was awesome but it’s so fresh I’m not absolutely sure it’ll keep being that.
Oh but it does (imo), I mainly read but I think Frieren and Atelier Witch Hat is the strongest running fantasy series currently.
Having pushed past season 2, I think the rest of True Detective is worth watching, although they’re still very different from the first.
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Pretty much anything by Trigger is going to be worth at least a watch through at least once, usually multiple times.
The League of Legends show, Arcane, is some of the best animation I think I’ve ever seen and season two comes out next month.
FLCL and FLCL Alternative are both amazing, I couldn’t get into Progressive.
Mob Psycho and One Punch Man are wild rides. I think OPM is better, but that’s because I’m bald.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an absolute hoot if you can see the humor in all the over-explanations and goofiness
I’m about to start Dead Dead Demons Dedede Destruction tomorrow. I’m going in blind, but I really love Inio Asano’s other works. Goodnight Punpun changed my life, but really, do not read it if you are already depressed.
I keep editing this because I keep remembering stuff.
Frieren is amazing and makes you feel incredibly close to these characters.
Delicious in Dungeon is Trigger, but a different Trigger than something like Kill la Kill or BNA. It’s slower, comfier, and like Frieren, makes you feel SO close to these characters.
I think OPM is better, but that’s because I’m bald.
Based.
The original Legend of the Galactic Heroes. This is top tier sci fi, politics, and mitary drama that is more impactful today than when the original novel was written.
The Expanse- Very grounded scifi with an amazing cast.
HBO’s Rome- The reason men can’t stop thinking about ancient Rome
Ranking of Kings- Anime that looks cute and wholesome but has surprisingly mature storytelling and compelling characters.
I thought the reason men can’t stop thinking about Rome is because the crimes of Rome are the foundation of all Western Evil
Erased is my favorite anime of all time. I’m a sucker for both time travel and “big damn heroes” stuff.
Just watched it based on this comment. This anime is seriously good, definitely in my top 5s.
Have you watched Steins;Gate? It definitely has some parallels.
Yep, I love Steins;Gate. I rank Erased higher because it’s “all killer no filler”, while SG has a bit of a slow start. They’re very close though.
Yea I get that - although I kinda like the slow start, it makes the hook all the better. I also wouldn’t have minded Erased going on for a bit longer, I think Steins;Gate is like the perfect length.
You’re not wrong, but I was about to drop it due to how slow it was. I decided to give it one more episode, and that was the one that got interesting. xD
Scavengers Reign. One of the best pieces of sci-fi I’ve ever seen. They managed to create a world that feels truly alien, and the environment has such complex cause/effect relationships. Highly recommend!
My Deer Friend is amazing.
Which reminds me that there’s probably a new episode out right now. 😃
I also would always recommend the staples in anime:
Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Dragonball, DBZ, Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rouroni Kenshin, Full Metal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell, and Ninja Scroll.
@Kolanaki @Shkshkshk I recommend a few of those and also Samurai Champloo
For sure! I’m sure I’ve missed a bunch more that I would put in that list, too.
