Tips: 0.25 INK
by Zodia195 on Tue Dec 24, 2019 10:59 pm
Oh hehehe, as someone who's been watching anime before I even knew what is was (the original Voltron Force back in the 80s), I've seen plenty of anime. Now what I would recommend is actually hard. I will say this, I tend to prefer anime with romance in it. I also enjoy the occasional mystery and fantasy, but I've become super picky. These are not in any order so hear we go-
1. Jing: King of Bandits- One of the most underrated anime I ever saw. It's pretty short (13 episodes) and very episodic like there's no overarching theme. Sometimes a 'story' will have 2 to 4 episodes dedicated to it. The anime itself is like combining James Bond with Robin Hood. The Main Char is Jing aka the Bandit King. He has this Robin Hood like persona where he does steal, but is a noble thief. He is SOOO chill, but there are a few times he breaks a sweat. He's very smart though. Oh, and almost every char and location is named after alcoholic drinks. Every adventure Jing is paired up with a "Jing Girl". Man I love this anime, it's so funny but has very interesting chars and settings to it.
2. Sailor Moon Crystal (seasons 1-3)- I am a HUGE Moonie. Crystal is more faithful to the original Manga and I personally prefer this to the original because the chars are treated with more respect. I will admit, the original anime is funnier and has better music, but considered on how much they changed things from the original manga, I would prefer this much shorter version. However if you are fine with watching 200 episodes that is mostly made of filler, but still is more expressive and is still a solid anime, then I say go for it.
3. Magic Knight Rayearth (Seasons 1, 2, and OVA)- I would say anything by CLAMP would be good, but my personal favorite franchise by them is this one. I've read all of the manga and seen everything there is to see. The original anime is fun to watch. Before Madoka Magica turned the Magical Girl Genre on its head, this one was the first to take a very dark route. It wasn't afraid to take risks either. The first season revolves around 3 Teen girls (total strangers) being summoned to the magical land of Cephiro by the ruler of it to become the Magic Knights and save the land basically. It gets much more complicated then that and does get pretty dark, but it's funny, touching, and there's even a little romance in it. Season 2 pretty much picks up where the 1st season ends, and the Knights return to Cephiro again to save it from invaders, all the while still dealing with how the first season ends. The OVA is something completely different with the same chars, but their personalities are different. Like the OVA starts out with the 3 girls going to the same school and being friends. 2 chars from the original anime are siblings, and even one char who was an ally to the Knights (for the most part) in the anime becomes a foe to the Knights here. This time, people of Cephiro invade Earth with everyone person on Earth vanishing too and the girls must save the day.
4. Howl's Moving Castle- Fav movie of all time here. But then again most of Ghibli's work is awesome lol. But I am biased to this because this is Ghibli's most romantic movie set in a magical setting (everything feels European and Steampunk).
5. Madlax- Another underrated anime. This anime is a mystery/action anime. It has 2 main female protagonists, but both couldn't be more different. One char, Madlax is like a Lara Croft type of char. She's nice, but is a mercenary and is very badass. She lives in a war-torn country. The 2nd main char is a young lady called Margaret Burton, who is a noble living in a peaceful country. These countries do exist in the same universe and in fact, in Episode 3, Margaret is seen watching the News about something that Madlax did. How these 2 chars are connected is probably the biggest mystery of the anime and they do show hints early on, but they are very subtle. There are also mysterious chars that just pop out of nowhere to through out context that just confuses the viewer, and I love it! And when you do find out about the mysteries, they all just connect nicely but still caught me off guard and I was literally shocked by what I learned and it takes a lot nowadays to shock me since I am pretty good at solving mysteries and puzzles.
There are others I could list, but I'll save that for later.
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