isyasad

Kare Kano

It’s directed by Hideaki Anno, so it’s kinda similar to Evangelion, only without the fighting mechas. Everything about the show is perfect but I especially like the character Tsubasa Shibahime who has an arc around the middle of the show.

If you liked Eva, this one is a must-watch. The Anno characterization works so much better for me in a more realistic setting. And it has an amazing soundtrack by Shirou Sagisu

There’s a really good short video (4 minutes) from The Bellman about some of the differences in the demographics between shounen and seinen. youtu.be/o0Ts5_q6sMc

TL;DR is that a lot of it is the dialogue complexity. Frieren might appeal to an older audience, but it is written in a simple way that children can understand. Maybe it uses more common words, more furigana, or less kanji. It’s hard to notice, and maybe comes across even less in translated subtitles/dubbings.

Another thing to keep in mind is that anime databases like MAL usually categorize demographics entirely based on the magazine in which the source manga was published. Anime originals and light-novel-source anime don’t have demographic tags. [Though it seems that with consensus/community tags on AniList, this isn’t necessarily true.]
If it was published in a shoujo magazine, it’s technically a shoujo. Even if it’s something like Nana that has themes about contraception, pregnancy, and rape, it’s a shoujo because it was published in Cookie.

I’m personally not really a fan of these demographic categories since they are kinda arbitrary and useless, especially for western anime-watchers who won’t even notice or care if the dialogue of the source manga had more furigana (reading/pronunciation guides) or not.
And as an adult male who accepts shoujo manga as easily the greatest of any of these categories, I think I can also acknowledge that the demographics themselves don’t really apply to me.

But to just literally answer your question, it’s Nana. Like WOW, it’s pretty heavy for something ostensibly oriented towards children. Also featuring drugs, underaged prostitution, and a character who is a porn actress.

Code Geass is structured around having huge twists every 5-10 episodes. My favorite is the one from

Jaw-dropping, gasping for air, falling out of your chair kinda plot twist

Internet search shows me this website: anistats.kluge-it.tech

But I’m not sure if it includes score differences stats

Christmas in January is probably one of my favorite movies ever, but it only has a 5.57 on MAL. It’s only 46 minutes and it’s the most densely good anime I’ve ever seen. As in like, it’s the best anime ever per-minute.

If you have a MAL account, you can plug in your username to anime.plus and you can view a bunch of stats including what your biggest score differences are. Here’s everything that I have rated around +2 points higher than the average score:

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (2009)	10	7.24	+2.76
Paniponi Dash!	10	7.44	+2.56
1-gatsu ni wa Christmas	8	5.57	+2.43
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou	10	7.60	+2.40
Gamers!	9	6.72	+2.28
B-gata H-kei	9	6.82	+2.18
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu	10	7.82	+2.18
Hibike! Euphonium	10	8.03	+1.97

All of these I would say are quite underrated, though Kare Kano and Hibike! Euphonium are pretty well-renowned. Haruhi is also very popular.

The first season of Golden Kamuy was amazing but I took a break after the first episode or two of the second season and totally forgot the plot. It’s pretty dense and has a lot of characters so it’s easy to forget exactly what was going on last.

I gotta get back into it at some point

Trying to think of more objective ones rather than “Gamers! is really underrated” or “you should watch Galaxy Angel”…

• the first 5 stages of Initial D were done by a different studio every time
• Hideaki Anno, director of Evangelion, voices the main character in The Wind Rises
• Hideaki Anno also animated the god warrior scene from Nausicaa
• the story and characters of Hibike! Euphonium closely mirror Ace wo Nerae!
• Azumanga Daioh was the first in the “cute girls doing cute things” genre and is super influential
• Likewise, Urusei Yatsura was one of the most influential anime of all time

I will definitely check this out because I was not a fan of the vibe in the movie or SAC.

I don’t believe it actually bans “Pikachu” when spelled as 光宙 because ピカチュウ is actually a pretty reasonable reading, although maybe not the #1 most obvious one. Based on a random Japanese article I read about it (link), I really don’t think 光宙/Pikachu will be technically illegal, although all the English articles will say so because it’s click fodder.

The law bans: things that are not related to the kanji reading at all, things that add unexpected extra stuff on the end of the obvious reading, or things that mean the opposite of what the kanji means.

I don’t believe any of this applies to Pikachu, and the examples they cite are not really comparable.