edit: feel free to reply no matter how old this thread gets!
I’m not particularly into anime, I like it just as much as live action shows or other types of animation. Having said that, I feel like watching some and I’m not sure what to pick.
Here’s a list of other anime shows I’ve watched/manga and novels I’ve read, so you can better judge what to recommend. ( would greatly appreciate the story to be completed, I hate waiting years for closure) :
Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto : both great stories, I’ve read the mangas and loved them. They wouldn’t be a priority to watch because I already read them.
Attack on Titan: started with the anime, it was great, switched to the manga, got extremely disappointed with the story development and its ending. It felt a bit like nonsense for me.
Dragon Ball/Z : probably my favourite, I’ve rewatched it recently. I don’t like GT and Super.
Overlord: I’ve read good part of the novel and manga. I’m liking it so far
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: please No thanks. Not for me.
Death Note: loved the first arc, not a fan of the ending but no hate for it unlike with AOT.
I also recall Escaflowne and Inuyasha, they were alright but not something I’ve loved or hated. Cowboy Bebop also in this category, excellent visually and great OST but the story wasn’t as gripping.
Other than that… Feel free to suggest any other titles! Extra thanks if you are specific about any versions and why is the show so great.
TIA
If you like DBZ you would probably like Hunter X Hunter and Yuyu Hakusho. These two are both written by the same person and have similar vibes but the story and setting are very different. HxH especially is very widely acclaimed for good reason. In this vein you may also like Black Clover.
Anime that I’d recommend in general would be Akame Ga Kill, Mahou Shouju Madoka Magicka (watch 3-4 episodes, trust the process), Parasyte, Gurren Laggann, One Punch Man, Angel Beats, Katanagatari, Made In Abyss, and Berserk (1997),
If you want to get in your feelings: Erased, Kotaro Lives Alone, and The Promised Neverland (season 1 only). Spy X Family (cute and silly but very good)
Some current very popular DBZ-esque anime is My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Demon Slayer Kimetso no Yaiba.
Oh boy. I’m not the kind of person that rewatches shows, but I’ve seen Yu Yu Hakusho 3 times and HxH twice. Both of them are just so excellent. I had no idea they were by the same guy. That’s awesome
I watched Yu Yu Hakusho only once, and several episodes when it aired on Cartoon Network many years ago.
As I just finished recently I can say that I loved it, although I’m not sure if I would re watch it again, I feel like it peaked at the Dark Tournament arc, which is not a bad thing, but I struggled a bit to finish it after that.
About HxH is on my backlog!
Some say it is better than Yu Yu Hakusho, some say the latter is the best, so well, only one way to find out.
Okay, points for Hunter X noted… Thank you for all the recommendations!
I’m not particularly into anime either, but I thought that “The Devil Is A Part-Timer” and “One Punch Man” were really funny and clever.
My recs, roughly in order of what I’m predicting that you’ll like the best, based on what you said.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - mechas, action, epicness, plot twists? Yeah, you got all of them, while you follow the story of a bunch of people raised underground, fighting their way up.
- Chainsaw Man - fast-paced action in a world full of demons. The protagonist merges with one, after living in shit since childhood, and that changes his life. Expect lots of humour, and the intro becoming an earworm.
- Kimetsu no Yaiba - historical-ish setting. The protagonist is a demon killer, who’s sided by his demonised sister (yup). Sword fighting, great visuals, interesting and atypical story.
- Dr. Stone - humanity has been petrified for thousands of years, and a single genius boy is trying to discover why, how, and how to revert it. The science there is 90% accurate, 10% fantasy.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) - you watched the “original” FMA (2003), right? This one has slightly better worldbuilding and plot, and it’s better grounded in the manga, although the homunculi are more relatable in the original.
- Noragami - the story of a stray god, a girl who can see spirits and gods, and the spirit of a dead boy.
- Mairimashita! Iruma-kun - protag gets sold to a demon by his parents. And the demon actually treats him better than they did. So he goes to school, alongside demons, while pretending to be one.
- Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka - a boy who wants to be a hero, fighting in a dungeon full of monsters, in a world where the gods descended and granted their blessing to mortals of their liking. Which gods? Yes. Romantic comedy with epic vibes.
- Kill la Kill - watch this one if you watched TTGL and liked it. Heavy nudity, but the same “vibe” as TTGL. Hard to explain without giving you spoilers.
A few classics that I feel like they should be mentioned, but don’t relate well to what you said that you liked:
- Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi - movie, not a series. About a girl who’s spirited away to a world full of yokai, trying to save her piggyfied parents.
- Tonari no Totoro - also a movie, not a series, about children who move to a suburban neighbourhood full of magical creatures.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion - psychological drama pretending to be a mecha anime.
Some old style isekais, since you mentioned that you liked Overlord:
- Log Horizon - also “transported into a game”, except that it happens with a fuckload of people at once. Most focus is how those people organise themselves in their former MMORPG, now real life, as well as how they handle the NPCs around them.
- Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu - two girls in a fantasy world decide to summon someone, hoping to enslave him to help them out… only to get their magic deflected and end enslaved. The world is the same as the game world that the protagonist (the summoned guy) played.
- Re:Zero - protag gets transported to a fantasy world. He doesn’t know how or why. His main ability is to go back in time, when he dies; so he experiences death over and over and over.
- Mushoku Tensei - the protag starts as completely scum, but he gets slightly less worse over time. Great worldbuilding and characterisation.
- Benriya Saitou-San, Isekai ni Iku - a handyman gets transported into a swords-and-magic world. Big focus on character relationship.
I don’t recommend the anime, but check the manga if possible:
- Elfen Lied - a discussion on what makes a human “human”, morals, and the likes. The anime adaptation is rather poor to be honest, but the manga is decent. Content warning: gore, sexual violence, a girl pissing herself right off the bat.
- Hoshi no Samidare - a great story, but poorly animated, about a bunch of people trying to save the world from a giant biscuit hammer that you only see if you know about it, that’s going to hit Earth and destroy it. While subordinated to a girl who actually wants to destroy the world.
EDIT: GreenZanbato mentioned Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken, or “That Time that I Reincarnated as a Slime”. It’s also an isekai, roughly with the same vibe as Overlord; but the protagonist reincarnates as a slime, and he’s far more self-aware than dummy Ainz. The novels are also great to read.
Wow you went above and beyond with the recs menu, thank you. TTGL sounds interesting when you put it like that! Appreciate the other recommendations too. As for the movies- I was looking for series, and yes I’ve seen most of studio Ghibli ones, Chihiro and Totoro being the two I liked the most.
This is a great write up, but I’d put Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (TenSura) at the top of the isekai list for any Overlord fan. Unlike Overlord, the main character starts off as the weakest monster, a slime, but the power growth is absurd and you quickly get into the same satisfying power fantasies as Overlord.
As a sort of non-spoiler comparison for those that have seen Overlord, two of my favorite (similar) scenes in the later seasons of each show are the iä Shub-Niggurath scene (Overlord) and the Megiddo scene (TenSura). Feel free to look them up if you don’t care about spoilers and want to see some amazing ultimate attacks out of context.
TenSura
You’re right - I’ll add it to the list, thanks!
Discussion about the Megiddo scene
Rimuru did nothing wrong! Shion alone is worth more than 10k invading soldiers!
Serious now. This comparison is really cool because it highlights how both Ainz and Rimuru are slowly losing their humanity, but only Rimuru is aware of that. For Ainz, using the spell is basically a “I need people to respect me, right? I’ll show that I’m ultra strong”; while for Rimuru, Megiddo is a conscious moral event horizon, where he actually chose between the life of the monsters vs. the life of the invading army.
And alongside those lines, even Rimuru absorbing Shizu was a way to distance himself to his former human past. For a modern Japanese that would be cannibalism, but he already committed himself to live as a slime.
That’s an awesome way to compare the scenes!
spoiler
You made me realize that, while Ainz has some character development, he doesn’t go through nearly as much as Rimuru does. Same with most of the companions. There’s plenty of character development in Overlord, especially with like Sebas and Brain, but a lot of Rimuru’s companions go through multiple complete transformations of their bodies and their personalities adapt to that, just like Rimuru himself. Full transparency: I’ve only watched the anime for each series, but I plan to read the novels when I get around to it lol.
Also forget Shion, Megiddo gave us my boy Diablo! :P
For me it’s the characters in Overlord, their morals, goals, the atrocities they commit, their intentions and how they feel/think that makes it interesting- much more that the power itself. But I also like the power fantasy element in it, thanks for the recommendation!
The characters in TenSura are definitely less “evil” than in Overlord, but you have a great variety of side characters, subordinates, etc. growing alongside the mc.
Seems to be a confluence of One Piece popularity right now. If you start watching the anime you be caught up around the time the final airs - which is in 3-4 years, which goes to show how much you have to watch through.
Yeah I heard lots of praise but couldn’t get myself to watch it, it’s visually not something that catches my eye and there is nothing about the plot premise that lures me (at least from what I’ve read- spoiler free). Perhaps I would love it if I give it a chance, after all that’s how DBZ went for me. But I’ve never heard anyone tell me what makes the show so good. It’s just “watch it, it’s good”
First of all, I probably won’t watch it because of just how long it is (and the art-style). But the plot is one of the best ever written, asking some surprisingly deep questions about freedom, power and corruption, while still being fun and enjoyable by young boys and teenagers.
So… You know this because you read the manga or…?
I’ve only read parts of the manga, as I find the artstyle rather jarring. I know the story because half my friends won’t stop talking about it. I then read blogs and articles about aspects / characters who interest me.
Haikyu is great. It’s about volleyball and follows the same sort of theme of DBZ about constantly pushing to improve.
If you liked the environment and feel of Cowboy Bebop you might enjoy Samurai Champloo. Same director but replace jazz with hip hop and space with feudal Japan. I think it’s a masterpiece.
I have heard so much about Haikyu, I could not care less about volleyball, but I have read it, somehow does not matter to enjoy it.
That’s interesting, I usually eschew when a sport is the main theme in a show. But you’re saying it’s enjoyable regardless of the volley?
That is what I have been told, I couldn’t say for sure because I haven’t watched it, but it is sitting in my backlog though.
I’ve only seen a couple anime over the years, but I really enjoyed the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix
All the series I recommends below are complete. (tells story from start to end)
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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (There are TV series and movies that both tell similar story but not the same, TV series have darker story)
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Kill la Kill
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Blast of Tempest
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Assassination Classroom
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Back Arrow (first half of series is meh but it becomes better and better)
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Mob psycho 100
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Summer Time Render
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Cowboy Bebop, the series and movie. I’m not particularly into anime either but the story, characters, music and animation are all top tier.
Yup I’ve listed it last, it a good show and I agree on all scores with you except the story, which for some reason feels a bit too relaxed for me. But it is good, no doubt
The original Bubblegum Crisis of course.
Never heard of this show before. Quick search tells me the original is the 1987 version? In few words, what makes it so good?
Renegade industrial robots, cute kickass heroines, an evil megacorp … you know, stuff.
Another, The Devil is a Part timer, Noragami, and Food Wars
If you want some 80s badassery, Hokuto no Ken.
Listen to the opening, “Ai wo Torimodose” and decide if it’s to your liking or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9hhDEfV4uo
https://piped.video/watch?v=T9hhDEfV4uo for the Piped buddies
- Code Geas is similar to death note, i think it’s a more satisfying ending than death note.
- My hero academia is great super hero/fighting anime.
- One punch man is a masterful parody of the super hero genre
- seven deadly sins is good, with lots of interesting characters.
- Hetalia axis powers is an amusing take on European history as told by Japan with a comedy style.
Hmm something tells me code geass is looking like a good choice. Thanks for the detailed suggestions!
Mostly action/shonen so heres a couple: fire force, hells paradise, zom 100, one punch man, demon slayer, hunter x hunter, jujutsu kaisen, The Eminence in Shadow, noragami, mob psycho 100, parasyte, Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, Assassination Classroom, berserk (1997 version screw the other ones), Drifters, and blue exorcist.
3-gatsu no lion or in English: March comes in like a lion. One of the best anime series I’ve ever watched.
I hate cliche anime bs so I usually can’t stand regular slice of life or shonen but this slice of life feels a lot more real with minimal anime bs.
If you don’t like anime bs, I’d highly recommend it. By anime bs I mean like high school kids, power of friendship, fan service, etc.
That’s an interesting way of recommending. I’ll keep in mind
I recommend Mob Psycho 100. The anime fully adapted the source material and its made by the same guy as One Punch Man. Don’t let the strange art style stop you. The animation team goes full budget in action scenes. It’s a character driven story with a cast of charming characters.
