Top 50 Anime – 30 through 21

30. Gamers

Some of these it’s been a while since I watched them, but I remember liking them. Gamers is one of those. It’s about a high school game club, not this time it’s video games. But it’s about the characters, really, who go from being a unique group to actually be a group and working together. They learn what the others are best at, and they grow together. There’s some romance sprinkled in as well, because, well, that’s a good enough reason for one of the kids to join the club that the person he likes is in it.

29. Little Witch Academia

Next up is Little Witch Academia, another one that I watched a while ago, but one that is again a lot of fun. What would you do if you really want to be a witch, but you aren’t that good of one. That’s the struggle of the main character as she tries to make it in magic school. The story is cute, it has some fairly classic anime feel to it. The character who is overcoming everything, the typical bad guy groups, but it’s a really enjoyable show. Mainly because the main character is do endearing.

28. A Couple of Cuckoos

A newer watch on the list is A Couple of Cuckoos. And I enjoyed it a lot, though how it ends season one, I feel like it was a bit disappointing. It has some of the typical harem anime style story to it, all the girls fall for the main guy, kind of. But the big hook is the two main characters find out they are arranged to be married. But they don’t know that’s the case to start the show. It is a fun premise and made even better by some of their interactions before they find out.

Now, why it is likely to drop is because of the harem aspect. I wish it just focused on the two main characters getting to know each other and how both of them are weird in their own ways, but also why they like that about each other, that’d be fun. But now it mixes in a bit more, and where it ends, I won’t spoil that, just feels lazy and like the writer didn’t have a good plan on how to stretch out the story. So they went with the most simplistic and harem focused approach.

27. Beast Tamer

A fantasy story, this one is not an isekai like a lot of the fantasy ones that I watch are. But it does have the harem elements mentioned above, but it’s less romantic in nature. The main characters “beasts” that he tames are all legendary creatures with female forms, that’s the main thing. And they protect him versus being damsels in distress almost all the time.

The plot is fun as well. The main character is kicked out of the heroes party because he’s just a beast tamer. That’s not that big a deal or that important. Turns out, he’s the best beast tamer that there is, and not just by a little bit, but by a ton. So no the question is, is he maybe the hero instead. But it’s not something that he really wants nor is it the title the other hero wants to give up. So the story has some standard things to it, but I like the beast tamer powers and how they play that out.

26. Restaurant to Another World

This is one that I’ve watched a couple of times. I like the food in this anime and the story is pretty simple but it works. There are doorways in another world that appear once a month. And those doorways open up to a restaurant in another world. Mainly, it’s a restaurant on Earth in Japan that is open to creatures and characters from this other world. You get their stories as you go through and you get to see lot of different foods. It’s a cute one that has some solid feel good elements to it which I really enjoy. I find it to be a nice relaxing anime to watch.

25. Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy

In standard isekai the main character appears from another world. But the goddess who summons him, well, she thinks that he’s disgusting and worthless. So instead of making him one of her heroes in the wars against the demons, she drops him off on the far side of the world.

Turns out that he is way less useless than she had thought and he starts to develop his own way in the world. It has a lot of Reincarnated as a Slime to it. There is city and society building, but really it’s about the character and how he’s navigating the world. I enjoy that sort of story. And this one doesn’t get bogged down into some kind of weird side stories or long stories that Slime does.

24. My Roommate is a Cat

Do you want an anime that is all about a lot of heart and a cat, this is the one for you. And it’s actually surprisingly emotional for just having a few characters and not that many settings. A novelist who just likes to stay by himself is adopted and adopts a cat. Well, that cat leads him into some new relationships and helps him through some tough times and some meaningful growth. But it’s also saving the cat as well, which is just adorable.

What really drives home this anime is that you get the episode played back, most of the time much more quickly, from the cats perspective. Of times that fills in some really meaningful and cute pieces to the story.

23. Cowboy Bebop

We’re going a bit more serious here with Cowboy Bebop. I say a bit because Cowboy Bebop does have a lot of light moments to it as well. But the story is much heavier in terms of the overall plot. But it works so well. Cowboy Bebop is a classic masterpiece of an anime that has some of the best music if not the best music for an anime ever. Each episode has it’s own well crafted score and that really drives the feel for that episode. It just works. I don’t know what more to say than that this is an anime that every anime fan should watch.

22. My Love Story with Yamada-Kun Lv999

Another romance and this one I watched just recently. Lv999 as I’ll be referring to it as, is the story of a girl who is dumped by her gamer boyfriend. She swears of gamers as all being horrible. Turns out, they aren’t as horrible as she thought when her life bumps her into Yamada. It’s a will they – won’t they – can they admit their feelings for each other sort of story. Neither of them really wanting to, or knowing how to as their relationship grows and starts to mean more to both of them, obviously. It’s really cute and the stakes are never that high, so it’s relaxing and enjoyable to watch as well.

21. Dagashi Kashi

And wrapping up this section we have Dagashi Kashi. Another one that I haven’t seen a bit, but it’s a cute story about a dagashi store being run by basically a kid. If you’re not familiar with dagashi, it’s basically cheap candies and snacks. They are one of a few of these stores that is still family run and owned. And it’s about that, but it’s also about the history and story of the food.

The cast of characters is fun, there’s a bit of romance to it, and overall just another one of those relaxing and enjoyable watches. It’ll make you want to try all of the foods as well, which is good and bad all at the same time.

Final Thoughts

I really love so many of these. Little Witch Academia is one where I feel like I want to watch again. And this time it’s a little bit less funny and more cute or heartfelt anime on the list. Is there one that stands out to you as a favorite? Or is there one that you’d want to watch?

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Top 15 Anime

HM: Fruits Basket, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Restaurant to Another World, After School Dice Club

These were all close. Fruits Basket is so heartfelt. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K is really funny. And Restaurant to Another World is a lot of fun with great food. After School Dice Club is about board games, and it’s good but not as great as it could have been so just misses as well. All of these, probably, could have made it only my list.

15. Ghost Hunt

Oddly enough, this is the only horror one on my list. Ghost Hunt is about a kid who can deal with ghosts who has his own agency. But he’s not the main character, the main character is a girl who gets roped into being his assistant and might be better at the job than he is. He knows how all the things work but is too cold and calculating. It’s a nice balance of everything for an older anime.

14. BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense

There are some premises for anime that just get me. BOFURI is one of them. A girl joins an MMORPG and she’s worried about it. What will it be like to die, will it hurt, and she really doesn’t want to die. So instead of leveling up by going out on epic adventures, she levels up by grinding and focusing only on her defensive stats. It’s a fun play on the genre with a character getting really over powered, but in such an odd way.

13. Gamers!

This follows another trope that I really enjoy. A main character who maybe is a bit out there, they have their own nerdy hobby or odd thing that they do that makes them not quite fit in. Gamers! follows that character who loves video games, into finding out that there are more people like them in the world directly around them. It’s cute and heartfelt and just works well.

12. Dagashi Kashi

Dagashi Kashi is all about yummy snacks, their history and eating them. Mixed in with all of that is a slice of life show that is a lot of fun. You might notice there are a few shows on the list about food. Anime tells a lot of really enjoyable stories about food and Dagashi Kashi gives more of a unique flare to it than some. While not the highest on my list, it is very realistic and focused on tradition of these snacks and shops.

11. Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? does some of my favorite anime tropes. Mainly the clueless main character so focused on one goal he doesn’t notice the group forming around them. This isn’t the best I’ve seen of that, but Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? works well and especially for the first season gives a fun romp. I don’t like season two nearly as much, but it is an anime that I keep on coming back to. There is just something wholesome about the main character that makes this fantasy, and fairly standard fantasy, but with good twists, fun to watch.

10. The Devil is a Part-Timer

This Isekai really handles the genre differently. Most Isekai a character gets pulled out the real world and into a crazy world. In this case, the Devil is pulled out or leaves their own world and ends up on Earth without enough power to go back. So now he needs a part time job. This is another one that I need to watch again, I started the 1st season because a 2nd season just came out. But it’s fun and well done.

9. Cowboy Bebop

Used to be higher on my list. And in terms of technical, this is probably the best anime on the list. An anime that tells interesting stories and all set to different types of music, it’s just fascinating. But it also falls into that category of an anime that I’ve watched, and I’d watch again, but I’m less likely to pick it myself. Still, the music in it is so good and just the story that it weaves, it’s done so well.

8. Space Dandy

Space Dandy is another anime set in space and this one is easier to watch again, mainly because it’s such a comedy. The main character, Space Dandy, is not a competent character at all. But through dumb luck he somehow survives. He doesn’t do so well, but with a cat and a robot he somehow makes it work. Just well done comedy throughout this series.

7. Food Wars!

Food Wars is odd to me that it’s so high. Mainly because it can be a bit inconsistent. There are some arcs in the show that are amazing. It is also one of the highest on the list that has this amount of fan service. But it’s generally fan service overall and played for a very specific reason. But the whole concept of the show is about being the best chef that you can be, and the enjoyment that can come from food.

6. Assassination Classroom

Assassination Classroom might push Food Wars! for the weirdest anime on the list. Part of the moon is destroyed and an alien decides to become a teacher of students who are poor students so that they can try and assassinate the alien. That sounds so crazy, but what worked for me with it is that it tells a good story of the characters coming together. Yes, it is an completely absurd situation and setup, but somehow it manages to work.

5. My Senpai Is Annoying

Now we hit a few that fall more into that slice of life category. My Senpai Is Annoying is about an office worker who has an annoying senpai that she is under. Well, maybe he’s not quite as annoying as she thought. It’s really a romantic comedy of characters liking each other but not knowing how the other character likes them back. Plus a whole lot of fun and crazy situations to get into revolving around work. I think the whole work setting is a lot of fun and works really well for this type of story to make it feel different than high school.

4. Komi Can’t Communicate

But speaking of high school and romance we have Komi Can’t Communicate. It’s about Komi who is the prettiest girl in the class and seems aloof. But really she just has crippling anxiety when talking to people and can’t for the most part and it is a lot of effort for her when she does. Tadano, new to the class ends up making friends with her through writing and agrees to help her with her goal of making 100 friends. This is a sweet show with a lot of weird characters.

3. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

And then another high school series. This one again about a nerdy character who loves the game TakFam, think Smash Bros sort of game. To him, it’s the best game ever, much better than life. When he finds out that the #2 player of the game in Japan is in his town too, he’s #1, they decide to meet up. It turns out to be a classmate, but not one who is a bottom-tier character like him, someone who doesn’t think that life is a lousy game. Can she convince him and level him up so that he’s not a Bottom-Tier character anymore?

2. Steins;Gate

Constantly a high one on my favorites list. And it’s also one that I probably would watch again, but man, would it be hard to watch again. There is so much depth in this time travel story with tragedy and distress. But the story is told and woven together so well that it just stands out. While Cowboy Bebop can be heavy and gorgeous, Stiens;Gate for heavier anime on my list, just tells such a good complete story. And it handles time travel in such a good way.

1. Sword Art Online

Finally, and I know this one bounces around a lot for me, we have Sword Art Online (SAO). SAO is just comfort food of an anime for me. It gives me big adventure, romance, comedy, all wrapped up in one. But it is mainly about that adventure and how the characters are navigating different worlds, of computer games, as they go. And the craziness that can end up following from these games into the real world or the other way around. Plus, there is just so much story and so much work done on developing the characters, you care for them as you go through it.

Final Thoughts

It’s tough to do a Top 10, it’s even tough to do a Top 15. I’ve really found myself gravitating towards watching anime a lot. It used to be and it does happen in certain time periods, of throwing on a cooking show or some house remodeling show. But there is just so much anime out there that I need to checkout still and want to checkout. I actually went through recently and created a massive list, I just don’t know when I’ll have time.

And I am guessing that I’ll think about it and come up with a show that I missed that I really enjoyed. And for as many good or great anime as I watch, there are a lot that are just fine. Pretty rarely do I end up sticking with and watching one that is bad. But if it’s short enough I might power through it. I can think of one example which just went from being okay starting out to so bad at the end.

What are your top anime?

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Anime

Now, I could do probably a whole list that is just anime, there’s a whole genre of anime, slice of life, that tends to be less heavy and more light hearted. Granted, some of them deal with heavier things, but a lot will be happier. But let’s focus on two of them.

Dagashi Kashi

Now, maybe we shouldn’t be sitting on our couches just eating candy the whole time, but Dagashi Kashi is all about that Dagashi. Dagashi are basically cheap candies and snack foods in Japan. The main character works with his dad in a little Dagashi shop that a big company wants to buy and take over. His dad makes an agreement, but only if the company can convince his son to take over the shop instead of becoming a manga artist. The show takes you into the history of a lot of Dagashi and will make you want to get some, but it’s generally a really good and light hearted romp that is worth checking out.

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

A new one that we just started recently, this one is about two high schoolers. Chiyo who has a crush on Nozaki, who is in her high school. However, she can’t ever get the words out right to him. She finds out that he’s a manga creator and accidentally gets roped into helping him with his manga. It’s a very cute story and has lots of weird characters and light hearted moments in it. Definitely a bit all over the place, but that’s what so many slice of life anime are.

Movies

I could pick a lot of kids movies in this category because a lot of them do have good wholesome and up lifting messages, and I could pick a lot of animated movies in general because again, they tend to be made more for kids, but I wanted to give a couple of different options, so only one kids movie.

My Neighbor Totoro!

It’s an animated movie from Japan and it definitely has a slice of life feel to it. Two girls move with their father to a place in the country. Life is fine there, but they are really waiting for their mother to get better and join them. However, there are some unique spirits living around them, most notably Totoro. Totoro is a goofy seeming creature, but is often there to help them and to help them through the times ahead. It has some moments that do have some emotion, but mainly this movie floats through on it’s iconic moments and pacing of a story that really doesn’t go anywhere. It’s nice and short as well, which makes it easier to sit down to in an evening.

Stardust

Now this movie is a bit different, based off of a book by Neil Gaiman of the same name. It’s about a fanciful world and the real world where they meet up, and what seems like true love and real true love. The story has some epic fantasy moments, some final face offs of characters, but overall, it’s done very well and tells what is generally a very light hearted story. In the end it’ll definitely leave you feeling like you’ve sat through an enjoyable romp in a crazy fantasy world.

Television Shows

Now, I could just go back to more slice of life anime for feel good watching, but I don’t want to do that, and I split anime out for that reason. So many TV shows focus around some sort of drama, we have a ton of procedural cop shows out there, but what are some shows that leave you feeling like you had a good time after watching them.

Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency

Of course, I’m starting out with Douglas Adams, or at least something vaguely adapted off of a couple of books of his. This falls into that camp of completely absurd humor, but it does it in a great way. Add in Elijah Wood whom we know was Frodo from Lord of the Rings, and that’s a fun little addition as well. This show, both seasons, won’t make a ton of sense always, but it does all come together and it is all light hearted fun after a fashion, it just might be a little bit absurd as well. It has a mystery element to it, but that even keeps you wanting more.

The Great British Baking Show

Now, I didn’t mean to do two British shows, but if you are a fan of reality TV, but the drama is getting to you during the winter months, this, and the SyFy channel show Face Off will give you a couple of options to watch, The Great British Baking Show is just on Netflix so easier for me to tell you were to find it. This is a baking competition where they make all sorts of glorious things to eat, but that’s not all that is great. We have shows in the US like that, but generally there is some drama around it, in this show you can genuinely tell that they care about each other and they want to win, but they want everyone to do well as well.

Board Games

You know me, I love my board games, though, this is harder part of the board game section is that not all games are going to work well with a limited player count. While we’ve never been told during the pandemic to see no one in Minnesota, naturally in Minnesota during the winter, less people go visit people because it’s cold, dark early, and often the roads aren’t great. So what are some fun games that can be played with not a ton of players.

Marrying Mr Darcy

Now, being a Jane Austen fan might help for liking this game, but it works well as a light hearted and light little game that can play from two all the way up to six or possibly more. This game is all about playing one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice and getting paired up and marrying your perfect match. The game has very simple mechanics, draw a card and do what it says, and some set collection card play. That’s about it, but the cards keep Jane Austen’s dry and sarcastic humor on them. I think this works better with more players so everyone is laughing about it, but it can play at a lower count and be a lot of fun.

Second Chance

What, I put a roll (flip) and write on the list, who’d have guessed. This game is very peaceful to play. You flip two cards and fill in one of the shapes on your board, you repeat, repeat again, and so on until no one can fill in anything. What adds to the peaceful nature can be how you fill in the shapes. You don’t just box them in because eventually you’d lose track, so I doodle mine in, my wife makes patterns by filling them in in various directions. You can really do whatever you want, and even with the doodling the game plays so quickly, so there’s no need to feel like you’re rushed.

What is Your Nerdy Mood Lifter?

I could have gone into books and comics as well, but these are four things that I know pretty well, so I wanted to focus on them. What are some of your favorite light and fun things to watch, play, or read?

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10 – My Roommate is a Cat

This is just a really fun anime, slice of life story about a writer who has a cat adopt him. The writers life is hard, his parents have passed away and he’s living in the house he grew up in. But with the help of the cat, he’s able to start to reach back out into the world, though not always because he wanted to. The story does a great job with it being focused on what the human is doing, but then the second part of each episode gives you the cats perspective on everything that happened and what the cat is worried about with the human. It’s very adorable and just one of those anime that is relaxing to watch.

9 – Space Dandy

He’s a dandy guy in space. This anime is just a completely silly romp as you follow around crew of the Aloha Oe as they travel space looking for exotic and new monsters to bring back to the central processing agency in order to get a reward. Now, it would work better if he was even remotely competent at his job, but he’s not and his crew is even less competent than he is, possibly? All the while, well doing this, they are being chased by Dr. Gel who is out to get them. The whole thing is just absurd but such a good time.

8 – Dagashi Kashi

Another sillier and lighter anime, this one delves into the world of dagashi, cheap candy and snacks. The main character works at his families dagashi shop, Shikada Dagashi but doesn’t want to take it over. When someone from the Shidare corporation comes to try and get Shikada Dagashi to join them, the owner agrees but only if they can convince his son, the main character to take over the shop. The story is just little vignettes for the most part and stories about how certain dagashi came to be. It’s a lot of fun and has more energy than the previous two, but is still very relaxing to watch.

7 – The Devil is a Part-Timer

Another slice of life anime, I do like them quite well and they tend to run less into fan service, though, this one has it’s fair share, The Devil is a Part-Timer focuses on what happens to the devil when he ends up on Earth with no way to get back to his realm. That means that he has to take on a part time job and a lot of weird adventures ensue has he starts to figure out how to deal with the mortal world and maybe, it turns out, the Devil isn’t such a bad guy after all. Very much a slice of life, but has more of a full through storyline running along in the background than some others.

6 – The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Saiki K has special powers. He can teleport objects, read minds, and do many amazing crazy things. But for the most part, he just wants to be left alone. Of course, he can’t be, and it’s even a bigger issue because he doesn’t notice the pretty girl who everyone notices, so she wants him to notice her, he can’t read the mind of an idiot so he can sneak up on him and wants to be Saiki’s friend, and of course, there are the evil forces of Dark Reunion, a completely made up organization. It’s completely absurd and just little vignettes into Saiki’s life but very much worth checking out.

5 – Sword Art Online

SAO, one of those classic anime that really isn’t that old but has gotten a huge following and even a spin off show, which I didn’t like. Sword Art Online is the story of what happens when full dive MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games) go wrong and everyone becomes stuck on it. The only way to get out of the game is to clear the game and if you die in the game you die in real life. This could have been a massive hack and slash adventure type of game, but instead we get an interesting look into the minds of those trapped in there, those who want to survive, and those who have something to fight for, and those who let them game twist them.

4 – Assassination Classroom

An alien has landed on earth after destroying half the moon, and what he really wants is to die. But he won’t go easily and he won’t let just anyone kill him, because most normal methods of death, he can avoid. Instead, he wants to teach a class, and those students, through training, will be the ones who will be creative enough how to kill them, plus, they just might learn something along the way. A completely absurd premise, but they do a really good job with the anime and with the students. It’s less about assassination and more about how he ends up helping all the students in some way. Also, he’s a human size yellow tentacle monster, so there’s that weirdness going on as well.

3 – Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon

It’s a long title and one that seems like it should just be a dumb fantasy anime, and in some ways it is, but it is really entertaining. There’s some fan service in it and falls into the trope known as a harem anime, but it feels different, probably because the main character never puts together that hes the person the harem is forming around, he is too innocent and pure. All he cares about is becoming strong enough to be worthy of the girl, Aiz Wallenstein who saved him from a Minotaur in the dungeon. It’s a lot of fun, and it takes something that you see a lot in anime, leveling up, and codifies it into the story so that while it is silly that it’s in the world, it makes a lot of sense. A light hearted fantasy anime that’s definitely worth checking out.

2 – Cowboy Bebop

Now if we’re talking revered anime, Cowboy Bebop has to be up there. This space opera follows a group of bounty hunters as they travel around to different planets, meet different people and tell their story. However, what really makes this anime work is the music. The music is just amazing and it’s a new for each episode. And each episode has it’s one distinct style and feel to it because of the music, the story was woven into the music, not the music put around the story. It’s just so well done and while it might not tell some massively epic tale throughout everything, it creates a mood that just works so well and you care about the characters.

1 – Steins;Gate

I don’t thin there will be many surprises with my #1, I’m pretty sure every time I do a top five, it’s my number one as well. But Steins;Gate is just so good. It’s a time travel story, which generally I’m a sucker for, and it tells it really well. The characters are so sympathetic and what seems like just a silly quirk early on ends up revealing way more about the character than you’d think later in the show. The time travel aspect is well done and while there are some completely implausible things, overall, I think it works really well. There’s just a sense of the conspiracy around it and the story just speaks so much into the characters and the world. Clearly I highly recommend this one, it can be intense and times, but so very good.

There are a few that just missed the list that I wanted to mention as well. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I need to finish watching it, but I did enjoy it. Ghost Story, just a really enjoyable anime and something different in how it told it’s stories. After School Dice Club which is about board game. There’s so much out there that’s good that I probably could have done a top twenty, also a lot that is pretty crappy, so hopefully this’ll give you some new shows to checkout.

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5 – Sword Art Online
#5 was actually the hardest spot to fill, because I have a number of anime that I want to put here after a definite few that are some of my top ones. But Sword Art Online (SAO) is just a solid anime that has had multiple stories through it, regular SAO, Gun Gale Online, Ordinal Scale, and they are all solid. It tells an interesting story in the first season as well, where you have the main character (and a lot more people) who are going into a full immersion video game, like they’ve done before, but the creator of the game is making his masterpiece and legacy and traps them all in the game. And, if you die in the game, you die in real life, but if you can beat the final boss of the game, you can escape the game and free everyone from it. But that means clearing a lot of levels. SAO isn’t a show about clearing levels, though, it’s about how people adjust to living in this digital world and the problems that arise from it. Then the other seasons deal with more virtual reality or augmented reality, but not in the same way as the first season. There’s definitely fan service in this show, but not a ton, and the story can be simplistic at times, but the premise was interesting to me.

4 – Assassination Classroom
A silly anime, it actually ended up having more heart to it than I expected, which I enjoyed. Assassination Classroom is an insane premise, which most anime area, and from the sounds of it should be about a classroom full of assassins, instead, it’s about a class of middle school (maybe junior high) age kids who have been tasked by the government to kill their teacher, a weird yellow tentacle monster. That is an insane premise, but what you get is a classroom of misfits who eventually have to start working together and growing after getting in trouble previously, all of this being led by their weird yellow tentacle monster teacher. I don’t think this anime is for everyone, but I think it did a good job of doing what it was trying to do and tell a compelling story of the growth of the kids.

3 – Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
Long title, good fantasy anime. This is one of the things that really got me checking out LitRPG on Audible, for better or worse (fairly often they were worse), but in Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeons (IIWTPUGIAD (not catchy)), it does a good job of creating an interesting world and an interesting story. And it does a trope that I enjoy, the clueless hero, he’s very earnest, and he wants to do the best possible after being rescued from this magical resetting dungeon by Aiz Wallenstein, this extremely talent female dungeon delver. Then there are a bunch of other characters who may or may not be interested in the main character. It has some of the harem anime feel to it, which isn’t a genre that I care about, but the main character is so earnest and caring that it doesn’t feel as gazy as some of them, but it does still have fan service in it. I also like how it ties in real world pantheons in an interesting way, so it’s not just a generic fantasy setting.

2 – Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop is a very immersive space opera that pulls you in not just through the story telling, which is well done, but so much through the music. The music of each episode helps inform the story that is being told and draws you further into what you are watching. It also is really well done and the variety of music throughout the show, because each episode has it’s own feel, is really impressive. This is an anime that has good character depth as well, even with being thrown into the middle of their story, you start to get an idea of who the characters are, and what they have gone through in their lives.

1 – Steins;Gate
This has been #1 for me for a while, this time travel anime is just well put together with a good cast of characters. I really feel like they do a good job of developing those characters as well. And while there are definitely characters that can fall into various anime tropes, they do a really good job of keeping most characters out of them and even the tropy characters end up having more depth than it seems. The time travel is also really well done. Time travel is one of those things that I generally like in concept, but too many shows and movies end up having time travel become so convoluted that it doesn’t work, or too simple that you can poke holes in how they are doing things. Steins;Gate does a good job of making something simple enough that you can generally understand the concept of it, but complicated enough that it doesn’t feel like time travel can be easily solved.

As always there are some honorable mentions that I need to add in as well.

Honorable Mention:
Ghost Story
Fruits Basket
The Devil is a Part-Timer
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K
My Hero Academia
My Roommate is a Cat
Dagashi Kashi

There are a lot of anime out there that I want to watch more of that I either can’t easily find on Funimation or just haven’t had the time for yet. But Ancient Magus Bride, Fairie Gone, and Afterschool Dice Club are all that I’ve watched a chunk of and want to watch more that could make it to my list eventually.

What are some of your favorite anime? Do any of the ones I’ve listed here sound interesting to you?

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Gamers! is a cute little slice of life anime about Amano, a big video game nerd who just loves to play video games and have fun with it. He gets invited by Karen Tendou, the prettiest girl in the school, to join the gaming club that she started. However, that isn’t why Amano plays games, and he declines. The problem is that Tendou is head over heals for Amano and the anime follows their relationship as it grows and the meddling of Tasuku, a closet video game nerd, who befriends Amano and tries to help him with his girl problems.

It’s a slice of life anime that focuses on those main characters as well as Aguri, Tasuku’s girlfriend, and Hoshinomori, another girl in the school who is also a huge gaming nerd who just loves video games, but not competing like Amano does. It really focuses on Amano and how Tasuku tries to help him get out of his shell so that he can be part of society. There are all sorts of crazy twists and turns and everyone tries to figure out who likes whom and who to try and set-up together.

What this isn’t is a gaming anime. A more traditional gaming anime like Sword Art Online or Overlord focuses in on the game that is being played. In this anime, though it is called Gamers!, it’s about the people who play the video games and their relationships versus the actual games themselves. The games are really there to bring the characters together, if you go into it thinking it’s going to be about some epic game or focus in on a game every episode, you’ll be disappointed. But what it does, it does well. It really focuses in on the relationships and how gamers aren’t always the best at talking relationships through and saying what they mean. So there are lots of misunderstandings about what is going on and who likes who, it’s a real Comedy of Errors.

Now, is it a great anime? I don’t think so, I don’t think it would likely even hit my honorable mentions list when I do my top 5 (or 10) anime at the end of the year. But it is definitely enjoyable. The characters are all quite sweet, so you don’t have the traditional antagonist in the story. Each character, is, in some ways, their own antagonist, as they struggle through relationship drama. Also, with the relationship drama, it’s never heavy or overbearing drama, it’s almost always the case of someone thinking something that isn’t happening and it just works quite well.

So, would this be an anime that I recommend to people? If they are looking for an anime with a cute story line and some fun characters, it’s a good choice. There is a bit of fan service, heavy fan service in the finale, but for reasons you’ll understand if you watch the anime, so it does a solid job of not going too over the top. This isn’t a thinky anime and it isn’t an action anime, so if that’s more your thing, this one is probably going to seem too fluffy and simple for you.

If you’ve seen Gamers! what are your thoughts on it?

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Dagashi Kashi is a classic slice of life style anime. For those not familiar with the term, or who just need a refresher, a slice of life anime doesn’t have the giant overarching story that most any do with likely some crazy fantastical monster or powers in it. It’s simply about the weird stuff that happen in a persons life. Even The Devil is a Part-Timer is a slice of life anime while having some crazy powers and fantastical world, because it doesn’t focus on that, it just focuses on the every day. Dagashi Kashi is like that, except there is nothing fantastical about it, except one of the main characters love of Dagashi .

So, let’s explain the premise, the story is about a small dagashi shop in a small town that is run by Yo, but really run much more so by his son, Kokonotsu. But Kokonotsu really doesn’t want to be running it, he wants to be drawing and working on his manga. Then one random summer day Hotaru, a pretty girl, shows up at their door and she works for a dagashi company and really wants to recruit Yo, but that can only happen if Kokonotsu takes over running the shop. So, Hotaru spends her time trying to get Kokonotsu to stay by trying to get him to love dagashi as much as she does.

There is one burning question for most people right now, and that is, what is dagashi?

Dagashi is basically penny candy and snacks. Basically it’s the stuff that kids are going to be able to afford with their allowance. There are things like Baby Star Ramen, which are flavored fried noodles, Fue Ramane, which is a candy that you can blow through the middle like a whistle. What is cool in the show is that all of the dagashi are in fact real dagashi that you can get. In fact, Kristen ordered a subscription box, just one as a gift to herself, that has dagashi, because of the show. Also, with the dagashi, they do give some history of it, though at times it is completely random stories that Hotaru tells.

So how is the anime?

It’s very cute. The story and the characters are interesting. Hotaru is a crazy person, but in a good way, the same with Yo. Kokonotsu and all the other characters can be odd as well, but seeing him run the shop and his friends in the town is fun. With slice of life, you just can’t expect a serious anime, because you won’t get it. It’s going to be goofy and fun, and it really depends on how well they do the characters. Dagashi Kashi does a good job with the characters, even the ones who are a bit crazy.

That is what really makes this anime work. If it was just the bits with the dagashi, it wouldn’t work nearly as well. It also works well because of how satirical it is towards other anime and other movies and shows. There are nods to quite a number of things that are fun to catch. They don’t make it worth watching by itself, but them added in is just some extra fun. Without them, it would still be enjoyable.

Now, to wrap this up, I’m not sure this anime is going to be for everyone. Hotaru’s voice in the dub could be annoying for some people, though I find it quite goofy and matching the character, and unless you can get into learning about random dagashi, it might not be the right thing for you. But if you like a slice of life style anime, Dagashi Kashi is definitely a good one, and, like I said, it’s fast. So even if it might not pull you in completely, if you are a completion-ist, you can easily get through it. Overall, this is definitely an enjoyable and goofy anime.

1. I resolve to play the games that I got in 2018 that I haven’t played yet. Board games and video games. But really mainly board games is what this is for. Now, I’m not going to be too crazy and say something like I won’t buy more until I’ve played these games, but I want to get these games to the table. On the Dice Tower FB group, they call those unplayed games as your shelf of shame, and I have a number on there right now. The streaming of the games is going to make getting them off the shelf of shame easier.
2. That takes me nicely into Nerd Year Resolution #2. I resolve to do 20 streams this year. Now, what that looks like is still up in the air, but I want to stream a board game play 20 times. It might mean that I take a week of vacation in the summer and do a stream each day to get a bunch of them done, it might mean that I stream every other week (or at least try to). Or it might mean that I end up streaming 100 times (that would be a lot), but I want to try and stream board game content 20 times.
3. Complete the Pop Sugar reading challenge. I tend to think Pop Sugar is a pretty dumb site, but three of my co-workers and myself are doing their 40 book reading challenge, and people who don’t finish it by the end of the year have to buy the others lunch. I fully expect to fail at this simply because of having a small child, or baby as they are known as by most people, but I’m going to give it a go and see how many Dresden Files books I can get onto the list.
4. Watch and/or finish five new animes this year. That isn’t a big number, but look at what else I’m resolving to do. With my previous work schedule I was able to watch a lot of animes, but now it’s a bit trickier, and Funimation leaving VRV slowed it down for a moment as well. But now we have Funimation’s streaming service, so we’re watching Dagashi Kashi which has been hilarious.

Now, four things isn’t a ton of resolutions, but a few of them are pretty big, actually all of them could be big, but I’m probably not going to say I need to watch all of One Piece as the anime, it’ll probably be shows with 20-50 episodes for the whole show. But I was trying to do a few specific things with these resolutions.

First, I was trying to make them at least semi-attainable. It is going to be tricky to get through all 40 books for me, unless I find some pretty short books to read. Maybe some of the baby books will fit a category. But one thing you’ll notice, to make them semi-attainable, was that I set bigger numbers, but not a specific pace.

I could have said that I want to stream every other week, but I don’t have my streaming computer yet, and I don’t know how long it will take to get the set-up for streaming right. So instead of going with something that I might fail at easily, because it might not show up and get set-up until two weeks into January. So I went with the bigger numbers, 40 books is daunting, but saying that I want to read a book a week sounds nearly impossible.

Secondly, I’m fine with failing at all of these resolutions. I could have said that I wanted to get back to the gym three times a week and lose 30 pounds so that I’m healthy again or something very important like that, like graduate college or get a job if I were job hunting. But those aren’t great resolutions, those are things that you should be wanting to do without actually making a resolution about them. While I hope all of these comes true and I can get them done, because they would be fun to get done, they aren’t key to my survival still.

That actually quite nicely flows into the final point. All of these are fun resolutions. Kind of like being fine failing at any of them, I’m also going to be more tempted to keep them as compared to losing 30 pounds or finding a job, because I like them. Again, doesn’t mean that those two things aren’t highly important, but you get the point. It’s more that resolutions should be stuff you want to do for yourself to better yourself because you want to do them, not because you have to do them.

Anyways, those aren’t really resolutions, but I wanted to add that in to help people think about their nerdy or non-nerdy resolutions. It might help to put down something you need to do as a resolution, but make sure you pepper in some fun stuff as well

What are your nerdy resolutions for 2019? Do you want to try a new nerdy hobby, read a book that’s been on your reading list for years, or watch a certain TV show or movie? Leave them in the comments below so that people know, and you can help hold me accountable to what I put above as well.

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