Anime, manga, visual novel and other Japanese phenomena recommendations

[GoldRanger]

Just what the title says.

In another thread @Bacle recommended Code Geas.

I'm partial to Initial D myself, and I'm usually more into visual novels than anime.

Any recommendations and general discussion is welcome.

 

[Bacle]

I personally recommend anyone who even likes anime a bit watches both Black Lagoon and Code Geass.

They are two of the best anime to come out in the last 20 years or so.

 

[Shipmaster Sane]

The original Berserk anime is the best anime ever made, bar none.

 

[StormEagle]

Vinland Saga and Demon Slayer are both very good anime on the technical artistic side of things, and have some of the best storytelling in at least the last five years, if not the last decade.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Anime

• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is set in a fantasy world that resembles 1910. Two brothers who are alchemists (aka wizards) lost their bodies in a ritual gone wrong, and sign up in the army as military mages so they can gain access to restricted knowledge so they can try repair their bodies. Meanwhile, there is a conspiracy within the military. Lots of intrigue. Adventure/war story/thriller. 64 episodes, English dub is great.
• Seirei no Moribito is set in fantasy Edo period Japan. A female mercenary, Balsa, is tasked with hiding the prince from assassins sent by his own father because he's supposedly possessed by a demon. Slice of life with some drama. 24 episodes, English dub is good.
• Kekkai Sensen. New York city becomes taken over by aliens from the Cthulu realm. Our protagonist, Leonardo, goes to New York and gets caught up in fun shenanigans. 12 episodes, English dub is good.
• Log Horizon is about MMO players who get isekaied to the fantasy world of their MMO. The players then decide to try to establish a society in the new world they find themselves in. The first season (24 episodes) is great. The second season is fine. Season 3 is coming soon. English dub is good.
• Rurouni Kenshin is set during the Meji Restoration (late 1870s), as Japan is industrializing. Kenshin Himura, a veteran of the revolution, tries to eke out a new life, but the demons of the past catch up with him. 61 episodes. English dub is fine. The first 30 episodes seem like monster of the week filler, but it's all building up to episode 28, when the story all comes together and the saga begins (which concludes at episode 61. Everything after is noncanon filler).
• Naruto is about an outcast kid who wants to become beloved by his people, so he works hard to try to become his village's strongest warrior. As he and his friends become stronger, they get entangled in a plot that may embroil their village in a war. Watch the Kai fanedit that condenses the whole show down into 80 episodes. I'd recommend watching through to the end of the Pain arc, which is phenomenal. English dub is okay.

Live action TV

• GARO is about Kouga, a Makai Knight who can summon the golden wolf armor of Garo, to fight the horrors, demons who haunt humans at night. The show is rather straightforward, but it's really fun. 24 episodes (which are 20 minutes each, so you binge the whole show in 8 hours over the weekend).

JRPGs

• Trails of Cold Steel is an epic overarching story encompassing four games. Rean Schwarzer, a young man in the Erebonian Empire, enrolls at an academy hoping to get away from his past, but winds up getting entangled in a conspiracy that could lead the Empire to war. Ccheck out the first game. If you like it, get the sequels, which continue (and eventually conclude) the story. English dub is great. The PC and PS4 versions of CS1 and 2 have additional voicelines for the English dub (that weren't voiced in Japanese). CS1 is 90 hours, CS2 is 90 hours, and CS3 is 130 hours. CS4 is probably around 90-100 hours.
• Final Fantasy XII is about a party of people trying to restore power to an annexed kingdom. First half is very heavy on political intrigue. Get the Zodiac Age as it has a revamped character progression system. English dub is amazing. You can beat the main story in about 50 hours.
• Final Fantasy XIV is first and foremost an epic JRPG, and an MMO second. Has a large overarching story like Trails. The story will conclude in the next expansion, 6.0, expected to release next summer or fall. The first story arc, A Realm Reborn, is okay. Story really gets good starting at the first expansion, Heavensward. The free trial includes ARR and HW. That's like Square giving away 2 epic JRPGs + all of the DLC away for free. The English dub of ARR is medicore, but from HW onwards its great. If you only do the main story, you can beat the story up until the latest release, 5.3, in about 200-300 hours. If you do the side storylines (which are REALLY good), expect another 50-100 hours.
• Sakura Wars V is a very lighthearted story about broadway dancers who become super sentai warriors by night, fighting demons in their steampunk mecha (that transform into jets). Is a mixture of a VN and a SRPG. English dub is fine. Is about 50 hours long.

Manga

• Gunka no Baltzar is set in a fantasy WW1. The protagonist, Major Baltzar, is sent by the Empire to prepare a smaller, neighboring country for annexation. He becomes an academy instructor meant to train the local army and to try to ease the country into the Empire. However, the country is caught in a power struggle between Baltzar's country and a rival empire, which eventually leads to a war. Political intrigue and war story. The art is great.
• Heterogeneous Linguistics is about a human linguist who goes into the land of monsters, and rather than adventuring and trying to kill monsters and such, he tries to talk to them. Befriend them, learn their ways, etc. How do you converse with a slime? How do beastmen trade with each other? And so on. Basically a linguist gets dropped into a D&D fantasy setting.

 

[Duke Nukem]

Dr Stone is pretty good imo.

 

[Shipmaster Sane]

Berserk the comic is the greatest cultural achievement of Japan, bar none.

 

[Zachowon]

Well, depends on what you are looking for. I am no gonna say so and so is the greatest anime of all time or anything. Just puts it too high expectations.

for comedic action with some seriousness is Girls und Panzer. It is mainly tank porn honestly, but the story is nice, and the movie and OVA is also great.

for more shonun style there is D grey man, which I recommend the Manga as it is still on going, but the two anime series of it are both good and the story is nice, and somewhat consistent.

Mecha anime I recommend the original Gundam and most of the UC, as well as Iron blooded orhpans. If you like some crazier without going Gurran lagen weird, Gundam Turn A is also good.

There are others I have heard that are good but I have personally not seen them. One of those is similar to Girls und panzer, but with ships, highschool fleet.

Another I have been watching is GATE, and that is nice if you like to see just how overpowered modern japan is compared to a fantasy realm.

 

[Shipmaster Sane]

Another I have been watching is GATE, and that is nice if you like to see just how overpowered modern japan is compared to a fantasy realm.

A fantasy realm where they make sure to take out anything dangerous to the modern force, make sure the scale is low enough that even RL medieval armies would do well there, etc etc.

 

[Zachowon]

A fantasy realm where they make sure to take out anything dangerous to the modern force, make sure the scale is low enough that even RL medieval armies would do well there, etc etc.

I doubt real life medical armies would do good against a lot of those armies

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Tokyo Ghoul

A world where the monsters who hide in the night, can be surprisingly sympathetic and nice and regretful people for all what appears to be casual murder and sadism at times

One where those hunting them could really turn out to be almost just as bad as they let their hatred run hot

For such a “dark & realistic” series, just so you know, most of the human fighters are surprisingly superhuman and the Ghouls’ Kagune sort of eventually shift from tails and tentacles to some really Alex Mercer levels of murder

 

[SuperS4]

Vinland Saga; Vikings. Need I say more? Visually it's pretty impressive. Story is ok, and action is good.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress; steampunk zomibes. The story is, ok. But it's just cool for steampunk zombies.

I'd also second GATE, I'm currently rewatching it.

If you don't mind sports anime, I'd suggest Haikyuu which is about volleyball. I like Ace of Diamond as well. These are more "grounded in reality" type sports anime, no "super special ultimate rocket pitch!" stuff. Outside of jokes within the series I mean.

Then there is Kuroko's Basketball, which does have essentially super power players. It's fun, but lacks the realism to really make it great, IMO.

But...way too many options to suggest without narrowing down genres really.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Gokushufudou; The Way of The House Husband

An Ex-Yakuza who works part time in various areas and as a house husband, spends time being a really good housekeeper and a really good cook who also posts food pics online

All while looking shady and scary AF

It’s not just him, even the guys who are current Yakuza, are surprisingly funny and wholesome

Getting a live action instead of just an anime

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Kengan Asura and its sequel Kengan Omega

A series centered around the Kengan Matches, underground fights between companies to deal with disputes and do some gambling for each others cash and property by using superhuman martial artists from across the world or mainly Japan

Unfortunately it’s “niche” or rather unknown

 

[GoldRanger]

I wonder if anyone here heard of Blue Gender? A hidden gem of an anime IMO.

 

[gral]

I wonder if anyone here heard of Blue Gender? A hidden gem of an anime IMO.

Agree with you, IF you don't count the last episodes.

 

[Captain X]

I wonder if anyone here heard of Blue Gender? A hidden gem of an anime IMO.

It actually started me writing anime reviews for a while, mostly because of how disappointing I found the concluding arc. I really liked the premise and was mostly on board for how the story started, but once they got off the planet and into orbit, it's like the writers didn't really know where to go anymore. There was some potential there in an idea they set-up but never went anywhere with as far as having the two leads work well together in such a way that the obstructionist leadership might actually come around to it, but it kind of went downhill from there, IMO. I kind of feel like the writing team hadn't even really put all that much thought into why the Second Earth government/military was so interested in the main character and the others like him. And then there was the way the government and people of Second Earth were portrayed. Like, I get that it was probably mostly for shock value, but when the survival of humanity on the line, it makes no sense that they would be so callous toward their people, to the point that they'd apparently abandon even strict pragmatism by abandoning assets on the surface because they'd failed in their primary objective.

Anyway, to avoid just writing another review of a show I already reviewed, I'll just sum things up again by saying I was disappointed, in part because the start of it seemed so promising.

I'll have to get around to recommendations at some later time, as I have quite a few of them.

 

[Undertone]

Tenjho Tenge. Mainly a pointless fighting anime, but the English dub is full of silly one-liners.

 

[Captain X]

"If I was a bit younger, you'd be at the top of my 'to do' list."

"You point those tits someplace else."

"Your just a little turd hanging off the ass of a big fish."

 

[Abhorsen]

The way of the House Husband is pretty good. Basically, a Yakuza disappears, and 3 years later he's being a house husband with all the intensity he brought to his last job.