Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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Notes -
Anime recommendation thread:
(My interest in Gurren Lagann improved significantly when one of the most annoying characters in the show died.)
My own subjective rankings:
Made in Abyss- 10/10
If you plotted "child suffering" on the x-axis and "visual beauty" on the y-axis, Made in Abyss would occupy the upper-right quadrant where angels fear to tread. The show operates on the principle that the human brain can only process so much cognitive dissonance before it either shuts down or ascends to a higher plane of aesthetic appreciation. Each frame looks like it was painted by a Renaissance master who'd just discovered mescaline and child endangerment laws.
One could argue the series functions as a case study in the Dunning-Kruger effect as applied to spelunking; the characters' confidence in their ability to survive the Abyss is inversely proportional to their understanding of its true nature. The soundtrack, by Kevin Penkin, is not merely an accompaniment but an essential component of the world-building. I have it saved to Spotify and I listen to it regularly.
Madoka Magika: 10/10.
I seem to have a thing for the psychological torment of small children, in this case a bunch of magical girls who make regrettable decisions by signing up for that lifestyle. You will never hate a cute little kitty cat more in your life.
Shaft's decision to animate this as if it were directed by someone having a particularly artistic psychotic break was the correct one. The show functions as a deconstruction of the magical girl genre in the same way that a wood chipper functions as a deconstruction of trees.
The central tragedy unfolds from a series of Faustian bargains made by adolescent girls under conditions of extreme emotional distress and information asymmetry. The catalyst for these regrettable decisions, a feline-like creature named Kyubey, is a chillingly perfect depiction of a paperclip-maximizing artificial intelligence or a utility monster; it is a perfectly rational agent whose value system is simply orthogonal to human flourishing.
Do not expect to leave the show feeling happy. But you will leave satisfied.
One Punch Man: 10/10
I must provide a strong qualification here: this rating applies exclusively to the first season. The series subsequently suffers a catastrophic decline in quality, falling off a narrative cliff from which it has yet to recover. But that initial season is a sublime achievement in parody. It succeeds not by merely mocking shonen tropes, but by exploring the philosophical endpoint of shonen power progression: the existential ennui of absolute, unchallengeable strength. The protagonist, Saitama, has solved the problem of physical conflict so completely that he is left with a terminal case of goal-contentment dysphoria. Once away you have punched away all the problems susceptible to punches, what are you going to do about those that are left?
The humor is derived from the constant category error of applying godlike power to mundane problems. The superlative animation and soundtrack are merely the icing on a conceptually brilliant cake. You must truly understand and love a genre to mock it so beautifully.
Attack on Titan- 9.5/10.
AoT succeeds primarily because it takes its premise seriously and follows the logical implications wherever they lead. The mystery-box structure works because the mysteries have actual answers that recontextualize everything you've seen before. This is mystery writing done right - not arbitrary confusion, but genuine information management. The show's treatment of warfare deserves particular praise. Unlike most anime where combat is individualistic spectacle, AoT understands that military effectiveness comes from coordination, logistics, and tactical innovation. The development of anti-titan combat techniques feels like watching a tech tree progression in real time.
Overall, a remarkably well-executed epic that largely succeeds despite occasional pacing issues and certain grating secondary characters. Its primary virtue lies in its consistent portrayal of characters as agentic, rational actors within the horrifying constraints of their environment. The world of AoT is a high-stakes, low-information war game, and the characters, for the most part, behave accordingly, making sensible, calculated decisions under immense pressure. The periods of narrative slowness are forgivable as they represent the necessary lulls for strategic planning and information gathering that make the subsequent kinetic, high-casualty engagements so impactful.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: 8/10.
A wet dream for the aspiring pseudo-intellectual. NGE is an exercise in what can only be described as symbolism-as-a-service; it drapes a veneer of Gnostic and Kabbalistic mysticism over a standard Kaiju narrative to feign a profundity it never earns.
The plot’s coherence degrades exponentially with applied thought. The protagonist, Shinji Ikari, is a case study in clinical depression and crippling anxiety (and also a little bitch), and I'm left with the distinct impression that the entire plot could have been averted if NERV had employed a single competent staff psychiatrist with a prescription pad for SSRIs. And yet, for all its narrative failings, the show is compulsively watchable. The action sequences are iconic, a few characters possess genuine depth, and the entire production is a triumph of aesthetic and mood. My inability to "understand" it is, I now suspect, a diagnostic indicator that there is, in fact, nothing of substance to be understood.
The Melancholy of Haruhi
Suzuki MotorsportsSuzumiya: 8/10An elegant thought experiment executed with surprising sincerity. The premise: a being functionally equivalent to God has reincarnated as a Japanese high school girl, and the universe's continued existence is contingent upon her not experiencing boredom. We have all seen Pascal's Wager; meet Pascal's Entertainer. The protagonist, Kyon, is effectively the world’s sole, overworked AI safety researcher, tasked with aligning a god-like entity's utility function away from the existential risk of ennui. The show is played remarkably straight and is better for it. I think I watched around 8 episodes, so there's plenty left. It remains in my queue, pending sufficient activation energy to complete.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood : Closer to 8 than it is to 7
A show that frustrated me. Too tropey, too many characters being retarded. I find it hard to articulate my dissatisfaction in a satisfactory way.
FMAB represents everything that's simultaneously right and wrong with shounen storytelling. The worldbuilding is genuinely excellent: alchemy as magic system with consistent rules and costs, political intrigue that feels like actual statecraft, character motivations that make sense within their contexts.
But the show consistently undermines itself with genre conventions that feel obligatory rather than organic. The power of friendship speeches, the reluctance to actually kill major characters, the way complex moral situations get resolved through superior firepower, it all feels like the show is checking boxes rather than exploring the implications of its own premise.
The homunculi work brilliantly as antagonists because they represent genuine philosophical positions (pride, wrath, envy as ways of engaging with the world), but the final confrontations devolve into standard boss fights rather than ideological reckonings.
Chainsaw Man: 7.5/10
Chainsaw Man operates in the uncanny valley between genuine artistic ambition and adolescent power fantasy fulfillment. It's a show that simultaneously wants to be a profound meditation on trauma, exploitation, and the commodification of human suffering, while also being a series where the protagonist's primary motivation is touching boobs (me too buddy, me too...). This tonal schizophrenia should be fatal, yet somehow the series maintains enough coherence to be genuinely engaging.
The genius of Fujimoto's conception lies in recognizing that most shonen protagonists are essentially feral children who've been weaponized by adult institutions, then having the audacity to actually say this out loud. Denji isn't noble or pure-hearted; he's a walking collection of base desires who's been systematically deprived of every basic human need except survival. The Public Safety Devil Hunters don't disguise their exploitation behind rhetoric about heroism or duty; they openly treat their operatives as expendable resources in a cost-benefit analysis against apocalyptic threats.
The action sequences deserve particular praise for their kinetic brutality. Unlike the choreographed dance of most anime combat, fights in Chainsaw Man feel genuinely dangerous and unpredictable. Characters don't trade blows in neat exchanges; they attempt to murder each other with the frantic desperation of cornered animals. The animation captures this beautifully, particularly in moments where Denji's chainsaw form moves with the mechanical violence of actual industrial equipment rather than the fluid grace of typical anime transformations.
What elevates the series beyond competent ultraviolence is its commitment to the psychological consequences of its premise. Characters don't bounce back from trauma with shonen resilience; they carry their damage forward, making increasingly destructive decisions as survival mechanisms. The devil contracts function as externalized representations of psychological damage, with characters literally trading pieces of themselves for the power to keep functioning in an hostile environment.
The series' treatment of sexuality deserves analysis beyond the surface-level horniness. Denji's obsession with physical intimacy isn't played purely for comedy; it's the desperate reaching of someone who's never experienced basic human affection toward the only form of connection he can conceptualize. The fact that this is consistently used to manipulate him creates an uncomfortable but effective commentary on how vulnerability becomes a vector for exploitation. (I wish Makima-san would groom me . I'm weak for mommy GFs, even if they probably intend to ritually sacrifice me later)
Where the series falters is in its occasional retreat into conventional anime bullshit. Certain episodes devolve into standard monster-of-the-week format, losing the psychological intensity that makes the series compelling. Some supporting characters exist primarily as trope fulfillment rather than genuine personalities, though the core cast maintains enough complexity to carry the narrative weight.
The ending of season one represents the series operating at peak efficiency. Without spoiling specifics, it manages to deliver genuine emotional catharsis while completely recontextualizing everything that came before. It's the rare anime climax that feels like both a natural culmination of established themes and a complete surprise, demonstrating that the series' apparent chaos was actually precisely controlled narrative architecture.
Best enjoyed with the frontal lobe mildly disinhibited or disengaged, but not because the series lacks intelligence, rather, because its intelligence is often buried under layers of deliberate crudeness that require a certain receptivity to appreciate. It's junk food that occasionally achieves the status of art, which is more than most anime can claim.
Steins Gate: 7.5/10
The most frustrating anime I've ever watched. So close to greatness. A lot of nothing ever happens, and a waste of what might have been excellent worldbuilding potential. If I ever hear another "tuturuu," I'll stab a bitch. I warn you, the show will ramp up tension over and over again, and rarely justify it.
Steins;Gate has one of the best premises in sci-fi - time travel that follows consistent rules and has meaningful consequences (but completely wastes it on pacing that would make a DMV clerk impatient). It also betrays its own commitment to internal consistency, the plot eventually hinges entirely on whatever mechanism running the timeline being actually malevolent.
The first half consists almost entirely of setup that could have been accomplished in three episodes, followed by a rushed resolution that doesn't adequately explore the implications of its own concepts.
Mob Psycho 100: 7.5/10
In a nutshell: One Punch Man, but worse. Still manages to be above average, but maybe I'm grading on a curve here.
Mob Psycho 100 represents ONE's attempt to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle success of One Punch Man, but with the satirical edge sanded down into something resembling a generic coming-of-age narrative with psychic powers stapled on top. Where Saitama's overwhelming strength generated genuine philosophical comedy through existential ennui, Mob's god-tier psychic abilities are merely a vehicle for tediously earnest lessons about "being yourself" and "friendship is magic" - the kind of treacly moral messaging that wouldn't be out of place in a Saturday morning cartoon.
The series markets itself as a psychological character study, but scratch the surface and you'll find the same tired anime formula: awkward protagonist learns self-confidence through the power of believing in himself and having friends who believe in him. Mob's "journey" isn't particularly sophisticated - it's bog-standard therapy speak wrapped in supernatural window dressing. The show treats basic social skills development as if it were profound character growth, when really it's just watching a 14-year-old learn to make eye contact.
Studio Bones' animation style oscillates between genuinely creative psychic sequences and the kind of deliberately ugly character designs that mistake "stylistic choice" for "artistic vision." Yes, the psychic battles look impressive, but they're essentially expensive distractions from a story that lacks the conceptual sophistication to justify its runtime. The visual flourishes feel like compensation for narrative thinness rather than organic extensions of the storytelling.
Reigen, the series' most acclaimed character, is fundamentally a conman who's stumbled into an accidentally functional mentorship role. The show wants us to find this charming, but it's essentially watching an adult manipulate a psychologically vulnerable child for personal profit while occasionally dispensing fortune-cookie wisdom. That this relationship is treated as heartwarming rather than concerning says more about anime's comfort with questionable power dynamics than it does about compelling character writing. The fact that Reigen's exploitation "works out" only redeems him to a certain extent.
The series suffers from the same structural problems that plague most slice-of-life anime masquerading as action shows: it doesn't know what it wants to be. Episodes oscillate between mundane school comedy, supernatural battle sequences, and heavy-handed moral lessons without achieving coherence in any category. The cult storylines, praised by some as sophisticated social commentary, are actually fairly surface-level examinations of charismatic manipulation that any undergraduate psychology student could deconstruct. They're not profound; they're obvious.
Most damning is the series' fundamental dishonesty about its own premise. Despite positioning itself as a meditation on the dangers of unchecked power, Mob never faces genuine consequences for his abilities. The show consistently pulls its punches, ensuring that his psychic outbursts never result in permanent damage or loss of life. This safety net renders the entire "dangerous power" concept toothless - it's hard to take the moral complexity seriously when the universe conspires to prevent any actual moral complexity from occurring.
What we're left with is competently executed mediocrity that benefits from lowered expectations. It's One Punch Man without the wit, insight, or satirical precision that made the original compelling. The 7.5 rating is more a reflection of anime's generally dismal quality standards than any particular merit of Mob Psycho 100 itself. It's the kind of show that feels profound when you're 16 and vaguely embarrassing when you're old enough to recognize therapy-speak platitudes dressed up as wisdom.
Elfen Lied: 5/10
Elfen Lied represents everything wrong with edgy anime from the early 2000s. It mistakes graphic content for meaningful content and confuses shock value with emotional depth. The premise (evolutionary superior beings emerging to replace humanity) has potential, but the execution prioritizes gore and fan service over coherent storytelling (and I like gore and am a fan of being serviced). I gave up on it 3 episodes in, and would need a very large bribe to give it another go.
Demon Slayer: 5/10
A case study in how far superlative production values can carry a work with an empty core. The animation, courtesy of Ufotable, is undeniably god-tier. However, this aesthetic brilliance is a crutch for a story populated by a protagonist whose head contains little more than noble intentions and air. It is high-production narrative slurry. Slop, but served in a pretty box. I gave up on it a few episodes in, and see no reason to continue.
GATE: 6/10
Not enough curb-stomping of Virgin Magic Wielders by Chad Modern Military Hardware, in a series where that's the core conceit. Massive JSDF fan-wank by a Japanese revanchist.
GATE had one job: show modern military technology absolutely demolishing fantasy armies, and somehow managed to get distracted by harem antics and political messaging. The few scenes that actually deliver on the premise are genuinely satisfying, but they're buried under layers of irrelevant subplot and nationalist wanking.
Tokyo Ghoul: 3/10
I was incredibly high when I binged this series, and I still found nothing that could redeem it. I barely remember anything about the plot except it involved, as the name suggests, man-eating ghouls in Tokyo, and the fact that it gargled donkey balls. I'd say it only warrants mention due to how forgettable it was.
Miscellaneous:
Vinland Saga: Maybe an 8.5/10?
Didn't get very far before I got distracted, but I enjoyed what I saw. On the back burner for now.
What I saw of Vinland Saga suggested a show that takes historical setting seriously while using it to explore themes about violence, revenge, and the possibility of redemption. The animation quality was solid, and the characters seemed to have genuine psychological depth rather than anime archetype substitutions. Also, Vikings are just hella cool.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Never got past the first episode, something about the faux-British setting set me off. I mean to, at some point, if only so I can appreciate the memes better.
There's probably more I've seen, but I usually didn't finish them, and didn't have very strong feelings when I did. Will add in later.
I suppose I should add my own anime recommendations to the list. In no particular order:
K-On: 10/10
This is a series about high school girls who are in a rock band together. The personalities range from "very responsible" to "complete moron slacker", and a lot of the enjoyment comes from seeing how the different girls interact and handle the situations that come up. There is essentially zero plot to this show, which would normally bother me as a plot-centric person, but somehow works here. The closest to a plot is a general sense of the girls moving through their young lives - figuring out where to go to college, having to face the pain of saying goodbye to friends when they graduate, that sort of thing. It took me a bit to get into it as you need to get to know the characters some to fully enjoy it, but once I did it was a blast. Also one of the few shows to ever make me cry, which it somehow does every single time I watch one episode in particular.
As an aside - there's one part which I always found kind of bizarre, where the girls are on the beach and one of them feels embarrassed because she has bigger breasts than everyone else. @George_E_Hale, do you know if that's an actual thing for Japanese girls? I know you have boys and not girls, but thought you might have some insight. It was odd to me because as far as I know, American girls feel self-conscious if they have small breasts, not large ones. But maybe it's different over there, IDK.
Fullmetal Alchemist: 7/10
Note I don't mean Brotherhood here. I've seen that and rate it quite highly (9 or 10), but figured I would focus on the first anime adaptation. Overall it's not as good as Brotherhood, because about halfway through the series they caught up to the manga and had to figure out their own ending. Questions like the origin of the Homunculi and the nature of the alchemy gate play out very differently in this show. I generally prefer the manga author's vision (as seen in Brotherhood) for those plot elements, but this was still good. There are also various parts of the manga that were only adapted into this show, as Brotherhood chose to skip material that was in the first show unless it was critical to the plot. So that is another reason to watch the show, more fun adventures with the characters that you don't get otherwise.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 9/10 first season, 8/10 second season
While the movie is good (as I argued in the WW thread this week), the show is better. Rather than trying to adapt the Puppet Master story again, the team wisely chose to write their own original story for this. Each season is divided into episodes which are self-contained plots, and episodes which are part of the story arc for that season. This structure works very well for the series, as it means they don't have to stretch the story arc too thin. It also means they can poke into more corners of the world even if they aren't strictly relevant to the main story. Overall I really enjoy the look at day to day operations for Section 9, and getting to know the characters better than you can with a 2-hour movie. It also has my favorite take on the GitS art style, and great music. Season 1 is overall stronger than 2, but both are good and worth watching.
Durarara: 7/10
Based on a light novel (side note: can anyone explain to me the difference between manga and light novels? They seem the same, as they are both comics), this series follows a huge cast of characters as they deal with gang warfare and paranormal activity in their corner of Tokyo. And when I say huge cast, I mean it. There are probably 20-30 characters in this story, all of whom get a decent amount of screen time over the course of the two seasons. The plot gets kind of messy and overly complicated at times, but it's a very fun show and the characters are a treat. There are real gems like Celty (a dullahan, as in the Irish mythical creature), who has lost her head and is working as a courier in the city while she tries to find it. Or Izaya, an info broker who loves to stir up shit just so he can see how people react, because he gets bored otherwise (and who is arguably the villain of the series, to the extent it has one). Or Simon, a black Russian who has landed in Tokyo running a sushi restaurant, and who is freakishly strong (he can throw refrigerators), but who is a devoted pacifist. And a lot more. The plot lets this one down at times, but it's still great fun and the music slaps.
Food Wars: 7/10
This show is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. It's about a culinary school where disputes are settled with dramatic cooking duels, where everyone gets together in the school gym to see whose honor will prevail based on the votes of the judges. It's about a world where people's clothes fall off (mostly girls) when they taste food that is good enough, or people will imagine themselves being forcibly penetrated by squid tentacles as they eat a particularly nasty squid dish. It is not remotely serious or in good taste. But that's exactly why I love it. They go so over the top with the ridiculous premise that it loops back around from "stupid" to "actually hilarious" just by virtue of how hard they commit to the bit. Very fanservice-y, don't watch this one on public transport or anything. You also cannot try to take it seriously, you have to just enjoy it for the farce it is. Special props to the animators for making the food the star of the show, they know that a show focused on dramatic cooking needs to have delicious looking food and they deliver. Some of the recipes actually seem like they would work pretty well in real life, which supposedly is because the manga author worked with an actual chef to develop them and would even include recipes in each issue. I do think the show goes on one or two seasons too long, but it's great fun despite that.
Delicious In Dungeon: undetermined, not yet finished
This show is about a group of adventures who are too poor to afford provisions, so they plan to cook and eat monsters they find in the dungeon. I really wanted to watch this based on the premise alone, it sounded funny and I once DMed for a D&D campaign where my players did a very similar thing. What surprised and delighted me was that it turns out there's a plot, and it's pretty good (so far). I don't want to say much more than that, because for me discovering that was part of the joy. It's also incomplete, so it might not stay good. But possibly the highest praise I can give is this: the story gets so good that I seriously considered buying the manga just to see what happens next faster, and I hate reading manga. The fact that I was that eager for more speaks volumes, to me. I would definitely watch it, but can't really rate it just yet.
Food Wars had so much potential. Behind all the titillation was a genuine coming of age story and a solidly executed food power system. It goes downhill real fast in the 2nd half. But the 1st half was a ton of fun.
Can confirm that the manga ends with a conclusive and satisfactory ending. Worth it.
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