No. 6 |
2011 |
scifi, dystopian, m/m, thriller |
11 |
A sheltered teen falls from grace for saving a fugitive's life, and slowly uncovers the secrets behind the rarefied cities of his youth. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume's Book of Friends) |
2008 |
fantasy, contemporary |
74 |
A boy works to free the spirits his grandmother subdued in her youth. A series about loneliness, kindness, and recovering from abuse |
Personal favorite |
Crunchyroll |
Mushi-Shi (Mushishi) |
2005 |
fantasy |
46 |
Contemplative, lyrical, at times horrory vignettes following an unassuming wanderer as he helps people using his ability to see the unseen. |
Personal favorite |
Crunchyroll (partial), Hulu (full) |
Chihayafuru |
2013 |
sports, contemporary |
65 |
A bunch of dorks, including an OT3y trio of childhood friends, are brought together by the competitive scene of a traditional poetry card game, each for their own reasons. |
Personal favorite |
Crunchyroll |
Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) |
2011 |
coming of age, slice of life, contemporary |
12 |
A shy middle-schooler struggles with gender identity, and the complications and consolations of friends going through similar journeys. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Yagate Kimi Ni Naru (Bloom Into You) |
2018 |
coming of age, contemporary, f/f |
13 |
Faced with an upperclassman's crush on her, a high school first-year grapples with the uncertainties of sexuality, romance, and interpersonal relationships. |
I personally disliked this one, but a lot of people loved it |
|
The Twelve Kingdoms |
2002 |
fantasy, isekai, drama |
45 |
An ordinary girl is thrust into ruling a magical kingdom, utterly unprepared, and must contend with the power dynamics and harsh realities there. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Net-juu no Susume (Recovery of an MMO Junkie) |
2017 |
romcom, contemporary, f/m |
10 |
A young office worker, gripped by anomie, quits her job and finds friends in reverting to her old MMO obsession. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Hinamatsuri |
2018 |
scifi, slice of life, contemporary |
12 |
A headstrong telekinetic child soldier from the future lands in the metaphorical lap of a gangster; they bond and change each other and form new friendships. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood |
2010 |
fantasy, thriller, dystopian |
64 |
A pair of talented brothers, disabled from a young age by an alchemy mishap, seek the Philosopher's Stone; instead, they begin to uncover a vast, bloody conspiracy. |
Personal favorite. Also, the premise is dark, but it's very much not grimdark. |
Netflix, Hulu |
Kuragehime (Princess Jellyfish) |
2010 |
contemporary, romcom, f/m |
11 |
An all-female group of geeky housemates is thrown for a loop when jellyfish geek Tsukimi hits it off with a stylish crossdresser; they work together to save their home from predatory realtors. |
Explicitly tries to shut down non-heterosexual readings. |
|
Baccano! |
2007 |
fantasy, historical, action |
16 |
A nonlinear puzzlebox of an ensemble adventure, pulled together by the intersection of its various characters with each other and with the elixir of immortality. |
Personal favorite. Very gory, but you're not missing anything if you look away from the gore. |
|
Princess Tutu |
2002 |
fantasy, magical girl |
26 |
Kindhearted Duck, granted her wish to be a human ballerina, uses her power to help the troubled while struggling against tropes and tragedy arcs wielded by the undead author who has the town in his thrall. |
A story-about-stories. Hard to summarize! |
|
Aggretsuko |
2018 |
contemporary, workplace comedy, anthropomorphic |
20 |
Meek, put-upon Retsuko endures the indignities of her office-lady life in silence during the day and vents with heavy metal karaoke at night, but can she break out of the cycle? |
Sanrio-style animation |
Netflix |
Wakakozake |
2015 |
food, contemporary, short |
12 |
A young woman unwinds after work by going out alone to enjoy delicious food and drink at different places in the city each day. |
There's also a live-action adaptation. |
Crunchyroll |
Silver Spoon |
2013 |
contemporary, slice of life |
22 |
A city kid, rejected from his dream high school, enrolls in an agricultural school instead -- only to find out that farming is much more complex and interesting than he imagined. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori |
2018 |
contemporary, slice of life |
12 |
Four young men who run a tea house together try to make their customers' lives a little better, no matter in how small a way. |
|
Crunchyroll |
ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. |
2017 |
drama |
12 |
A mild-mannered inspector visits each district of the kingdom, noting both the regional atmosphere and bureaucratic discrepancies of each, and becomes embroiled in a political conspiracy. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Sarai-ya Goyou (House of Five Leaves) |
2010 |
historical, drama |
12 |
An inconveniently meek and unassuming ronin finally lands a job as a mysterious gangster's bodyguard, only to be drawn into more and more complications. |
|
Hulu |
Miss Hokusai |
2015 |
historical, drama, feature film |
1 |
A series of vignettes from the life of the stubborn and talented artist O-Ei, apprentice and daughter of the famed artist Hokusai. |
|
Netflix |
Poco's Udon World |
2016 |
contemporary, slice of life, fantasy |
12 |
A young man returns to his hometown to manage affairs after his father's death, only to discover a baby tanuki. A story about family, home, and parenthood. |
|
Crunchyroll |
Tokyo Godfathers |
2003 |
contemporary, drama, dramedy |
1 |
Three homeless citydwellers encounter an abandoned baby and set out to return her to her family. |
It may be officially labeled "comedy" but there's a pretty violent beatdown scene. Also, one of the heroes is a trans woman and the translation probably is terrible about it. |
|
Little Witch Academia |
2017 |
fantasy, adventure |
25 |
A clumsy but enthusiastic girl enrolls in witch school despite having no magical heritage; what she lacks in talent she makes up for in sheer grit and uncanny ability to find trouble. |
|
Netflix |
Seinto Oniisan (Saint Young Men) |
2013 |
slice of life, comedy, feature film |
1 |
Jesus and Buddha visit Earth in the form of young men and spend a vacation as roommates in Tokyo. |
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