Aside from age-inappropriate or socially-controversial tags, I wouldn’t recommend otaku culture and others that require prior knowledge to get the jokes or the story.
FLCL.
And if movies also count “Grave Of the Fireflies”.
[Discussion] What anime would you NOT recommend to a newbie?
Submitted 3 weeks ago by mo_lave@reddthat.com to anime@ani.social
Comments
Senal@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
zangwill@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Eminence in Shadow. If you are not aware of chuunibyou, you’ll think it’s meant to be taken seriously.
missingno@fedia.io 3 weeks ago Komi-san. The characters are all exaggerated parodies that will go over their head if they don't know the tropes being lampooned. And also the fact that the show is only good when one particular character is not onscreen, and you have to build up a heavy tolerance to Anime Bullshit to be willing to put up with this stain on an otherwise great show.
Unboxious@ani.social 3 weeks ago
Certainly Gintama. Several of the main characters are parodies of actual Japanese historical figures few westerners would recognize, and there are a ton of points where it plays off of everything from other influential anime that non-anime fans might at least be tangentially familiar with (Gundam for example) to classic rakugo stories that they definitely will have never heard of (Jugemu).
CsXGF8uzUAOh6fqV@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago On the other hand, while a lot will go over your head you will also learn a lot. Watching Gintama was what set off my evolution from “boy who watches popular shounen” to “otaku who is in the know”. Well aging past being a teenager helped as well of course.
TeamSports_or_CuckPorn@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Cuck porn
mo_lave@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
TeamSports_or_CuckPorn@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
kiri@ani.social 2 weeks ago
MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
i_need_your_bones@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Serial experiment lain maybe?
Unique_Emerald_Sol_I@ani.social 2 weeks ago
That, I feel, is entirely subjective. Like, Lain might experiment with the medium and not be good for a kid, I imagine an adult with a love of sci-fi or niche films might find it much more tasty than a typical battle shounen.
phanto@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
That parody Fate series. Hello, I’ve seen a bunch of Fate, and it still didn’t make sense to me.
pastermil@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The original Fate series consists of three different scenarios in the exact same timeline, based on the visual novel.
pastermil@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Mushoku Tensei, definitely gonna traumatize them one way or another
hexagonwin@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
boku no pico
bluelabel@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Steins Gate
- it’s a long-burn, might give the wrong impression of it being boring
- it will break their heart
NineSwords@ani.social 2 weeks ago
I consider Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day the perfect beginner anime for a couple of reasons:
- short - with only 11 episodes it’s not a huge time investment (compared to multi-cour shows or mammoths with hundreds or thousands of episodes)
- universal - the concepts of the show are universal to every gender and culture. You don’t need to know or learn any Japan-specific terminology to immediately understand the plot (ie. chuunibyou, shinigami, yokai, etc.).
- everyday people - the show has normal people who are thrown into an uncommon situation, which makes it easy to empathize with the characters.
- likeable characters - self-explanatory.
- believable - the show is juuust outside the norm. Enough to be interesting but not so far-fetched that every little thing is a new concept watchers have to wrap their heads around.
- instant hook - the show’s hook is near-instant. No “it gets good after 10 episodes” or “once the X arc starts in episode 180 it’s really great”.
frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere.
Good luck having anyone you show it to to understand what the hell is happening. I don’t know what’s happening, but it constantly dumps more lore and literary references to Japanese and western history & folklore. It’s also very dialogue heavy. And the women are all drawn in a very specific way.
I watched two seasons hoping at some point I’d understand what the hell was going on, but I just got more confused. It apparently makes sense as a light novel? But the anime squeezed way too much into each episode.
CumbrianCucumber@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I got started on Dragonball, but I don’t know if it’s recommendable as someone’s first anime? On one hand, it’s so popular and so influential on so many anime that came after, it helped me familiarise myself with the tropes and stuff, but on the other hand, it’s too long and could be intimidating for new people. I guess Detective Conan and One Piece for the same reason. Something that says all it wants to say in about 30 episodes seems like a better first anime.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Inuyashiki. That isn’t a typo — I’m not talking about the canine ninja dude, I’m talking about the old man and the young man who get replaced with killer androids. That second episode…
mo_lave@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Them: “I watched Inuyasha, what should I watch next?”
Me: “Inuyashiki”
TheShamMirrors@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Awww I loved that show. What happened in the second episode, was that when the killing spree starts?
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Yep. Specifically the bathtub scene.
Toes@ani.social 3 weeks ago
Konosuba, Monogatari Series and Lucky Star.
Anything that relies heavily on familiarity of weeb culture or Japanese history.
Unique_Emerald_Sol_I@ani.social 2 weeks ago
I’ve really liked the weeb-ass-shit scale for cases like this ever since I learned about it.
Three 1-10 scores:
Toes@ani.social 2 weeks ago
I love it, that’s hilarious.
Manalith@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
Can you rank some anime for me so I understand the scale better? I’m assuming the higher the score the less it should be considered?
Funnily enough, my first two animes were Lucky Star and KonoSuba!
I didn’t realize at the time that KonoSuba is supposed to be a deconstruction/parody of the isekai genre. Didn’t make it any less enjoyable, but now that I’m aware of all the isekai tropes, it becomes a whole lot funnier.
I would definitely put Evangelion on that list, especially if you have no familiarity with mecha.
hypnicjerk@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
eva can absolutely power through on vibes alone if you’re depressed enough
kiri@ani.social 2 weeks ago
I agree. I watched it when I was a newbie and didn’t understand what the point was at all. But I’m happy about I was able understand eva memes after a while.
ellieficent@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Eva was legit one of the first anime I watched.
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 2 weeks ago
Eh, people have to start somewhere to get into the material. My first contact with anime was Akira, and i did not understand a ton of it before watching it repeatedly, but it fascinated me. Evangelion could have taken that spot easily as a first - the themes are pretty accessible for people with some general media compentency.
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Lucky star is a great intro imo