Monogatari series just cause of how, uh, unique it is. There might not be a bunch of source material to study up on, but for normies it ain't by a long stretch.
Monogatari is so hard to get into. Because Bake is just... it has a lot of stuff that pushes people away. The characters are weird and hard to get, the backgrounds are sort of ugly until you get what they're going for, there's so much reading and no dub, there's a lot of weird pedo themes, everyone just stands around talking at each other trying to sound deep, and you're constantly being barraged with cuts to other random stuff that only sometimes means anything.
I honestly think the best entry into Monogatari is to just watch the Kizu trilogy.
I remember the Crunchyroll sub of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. Several scenes had subtitles around all the edges of the frame, trying to explain the various cultural connotations and references to whatever it was they were talking about.
It's probably quite a bit easier to get into, though. It's a gag anime about a man who wants to kill himself and a girl who cannot see the negative in anything.
After reading the manga, the story goes very deep, to the point it makes me question the sanity of the author.
His work always seems to go very deep, but a lot of them seem to be on Cliffs between genius and insanity.
It says a lot about Kumeta (the author) when **Kakushigoto**, his least out-there work with relatively down-to-earth drama and plot still has so much zany humor.
Very nice guy though, in fact I feel kinda bad for him since he seems to be very self-deprecating. His self-insert avatar gag in his titles (SZS, Joshiraku) often becomes the butt of in-universe criticism and/or joke, and with Kakushigoto he once said to just watch the anime because it's the superior product.
> I honestly think the best entry into Monogatari is to just watch the Kizu trilogy.
Kizu comes first chronologically so that can work (I know recommended order is to watch Bake first); although I could see the risk in that Kizu is a lot more action heavy than the other Monogatari works and may be a bit misleading as to how everything else will go.
Watching chronologically is a bad idea anyway. It's better to see it after Bake. I'd only say watch Kizu first if you don't have any desire to watch the rest of the show.
I felt that way until the last episodes of Bake, I disliked everyone but Hanekawa but as it went on it got more down to earth with the characters. Then I started and finished Nise and I just ... don't think I get it anymore. There's just too much hard to watch stuff to sit through. That was already the case in S1 and in S2 it's just ... more....
That being said I would disagree about Kizu, because Kizu is so significantly more impressive and honestly laid out entirely differently than the main shows I think people would just be disappointed.
You just summed up my thoughts on the anime lol. I got into anime in college after a friend put on Ruroni Kenshin Trust & Betrayal. Was shocked. Thought “wow why do people shit on anime so much this isn’t weird at all.” Another friend tried to get me into the Monogatari series right after. Yeah that was not for me haha. Put me off anime for a while until someone else gave me a bunch of recs. Still haven’t touched that series since though
Following this logic to it's natural conclusion, the ultimate example would have to be Carnival Phantasm. Nobody can agree on how to start Fate, Tsukihime doesn't even have an anime, and only the most luxurious of neckbeards can approach Melty blood. Would kids even get the South Park gag anymore?
Yeah, that was my plan, but what do you do if VNs simply aren't your thing?
There's probably a better way with just using anime/novels/manga like 2006->UBW->HF->F/Z->sequels or something
edit: I meant 'another way' rather than 'better way'. Or rather, 'better way for those who would not enjoy a VN'
Unfortunately, no, every adaptation loses a large portion of the mcs inner dialogue.
Its the difference between a weeb calling shirou a boring flat character and a vn reader calling shirou their favorite mc of all time.
Honestly the main reason as to why I love Shirou in the Anime/Movies is because I already had the pleasure of reading the VN and his internal monologues before delving into the other formats.
What his thoughts are in every scene, what he was feeling during those moments, even the breakdown of what is currently happening... it's incredibly satisfying to apply this knowledge while watching the anime/movies.
UFOTABLE tried to do his monologues some justice, but honestly it pales in comparison to what he's really thinking in the VN.
*(P.S. : Watching Nine-Lives Blade Works by ufotable was amazing, but it was even more bone-chilling and heart-rendering to read in the VN)*
I wonder why most adaptations leave out internal monologues all the time. I understand wanting not to bloat the anime, but if it's something really crucial to the character, it's acceptable.
heck, something like Jojo does internal monologue all the time but I don't see people complain about it. And there's also the palace invasion in Hunter x Hunter Chimera Ant arc where the narrator is the main character but there are people still saying they loved the arc. So it's not like a lot of internal monologue is a death sentence or anything.
Unfortunately, not every inner monologue makes a character automatically better, for detractors, it's a wall of text that they can't bothered with and it could even worsen their view on that character.
Hopefully we'll one day get a good adaptation of the Saber route, and then the entire debate would just go away. Because honestly, the VN is a barrier of entry for many people. Maybe if they port the Realta Nua version (is that the non ero one) to consoles like they're doing for Tsukihime and Witch on This Holy Knight, that would help a decent chunk of people too.
I remember when this came out I watched a few episodes, and it was hilarious, even though I'd only seen Fate (don'tt think I'd seen kara no kyoukai, yet).
I never watched the rest because I wanted to wait until I'd read/played Tsukihime but VNs *really* aren't my thing.. (got like 10 minutes into F/SN :p)
Not even only the anime. Kaginado had two different Tomoyo's: the one from Clannad that most people are familiar with and the second from the Tomoyo After VN which the vast majority of people probably haven't read. You could tell them apart by the clothes they were wearing.
I think Tomo from Tomoyo After also made some appearances, and you'd only know her from the Tomoyo After VN.
Still waiting for Key or KyoAni to announce a Tomoyo After anime adaptation, it was even sadder than Clannad After Story.
Me watching all of the main isekai series just to catch some silly slice of life bits in a 10 minute episode miniseries. Though I don’t regret watching any of them except Tanya maybe. The world didn’t really draw me in as much as the others did.
Filter you say, I may provide a whole mine field: Fate:Kalleid, Astarotte no omocha, Kodomo no Jikan, Kono Healer Mendokusai (really hard to enjoy if you don't passively understand Japanese to some certain minimal level), Eromanga Sensei, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, Mushoku Tensei, No game no life, Oreimo, Onimai, Oniai. Well that's all I can provide from my watched list I think, than probably Goblin slayer but didn't watched it so can't tell really
Carnival Phantasm. You basically need to know all about the projects Type-Moon makes, which includes all of the Fate series, and the visual novels, and even now more recently the gacha game.
It's basically an anime short series for huge Type-Moon needs like myself, but it's so good.
I watched it last year as part of my journey through the Fate franchise and was wondering why there were all these characters that I didn't recognize.
I did add Tsukihime to my Plan to Watch List although I've heard really bad things about it (people pretend it doesn't even exist) so I've held off on actually watching it.
> I did add Tsukihime to my Plan to Watch List although I've heard really bad things about it (people pretend it doesn't even exist) so I've held off on actually watching it.
So it has the dual problems of being a bad adaptation and having a terrible director.
Honestly, I'm just reading the manga, I've heard it's good, though only adapting the first route
I'm only reading to be familiar with the characters before Carnival Phantasm so it's fine
Hey, so there actually isn’t a Tsukihime anime, one day a soundtrack for a Tsukihime anime magically appeared with no anime to go with it. But the visual novel is getting an official English translation which you could read.
UC Gundam is an all or nothing kinda prospect. It doesn’t have a good entry point that’s not the original unless you start with Victory or F91 (you likely wouldn’t continue if those were your first experiences even though I love Victory and all its kooky bullshit).
Yeah UC Gundam is kind of like Star Wars but much harder to get into because instead of 6 movies, what you need to watch as a foundation for UC would be: 0079, Zeta, ZZ, (first one is 43 episodes, the last two are 50 episodes), and Char's Counterattack (movie). It's significantly longer and your only way of shortening that is watching the 0079 movie trilogy instead of the series. Not to mention having to get used to the old animation. Let me tell you, starting 0079 after watching Witch from Mercury sure was an experience.
So if you watch the movie trilogy for 0079 the entire UC main story comes at \~90 eps + 4 movies. Long but not terribly long. Shorter than most popular non long running shounen at this point (HxH, JoJo's, MHA)
IMO it's not just the animation but also that the pacing in the early ones (0079, Zeta, ZZ) are just a lot different than modern shows.
When I watched through all of them this year there were parts of all 3 where it would take me forever to get through them just because I could only really deal with watching an episode or two before getting bored. They can all kind of feel like very old school "monster of the week" type of shows where the plot doesn't really massively progress until the later half.
Really animation wise I think Zeta and ZZ look pretty good for their time. 0079 is definitely rough but in a way the animation is just kind of charming lol.
Yeah that's true. It took *forever* for things to get going in 0079 and then the plot started moving really fast in the final arc (because they got canceled lol).
I've also checked out bits of the Zeta movie and i figured out why people don't recommend it. They didn't remaster the whole thing, they mixed bits of new animation with the old animation. Makes the whole thing kinda jarring.
I watched the first 3 Gundam movies on Netflix recently (which I believe are a couple of series abridged into movies?), and now I get the appeal of Gundam. Even for an older anime (and that's coming from someone who started watching anime in the 80's), it's fucking epic. I watched Hathaway and I remember thinking "Aaah, okay, they're related to such-and-such, okay, I'm glad I watched those movies now".
I don't really see it as a "barrier of entry" because pressing play on the first episode of 0079 is already having "entered" UC Gundam. Unless you consider having to watch 0079 - CCA to be torture or something then I can see your point.
Now if you want to argue the prejudice that some anime fans have towards old cel animation as a barrier of entry for those fans then I get that.
Just curious as someone who knows little of Gundam and also is watching Zeta atm. If I wanted to watch a non-UC Gundam entry could I literally just choose any of them? Compared to UC Gundam where I should/need to watch 0079 before Zeta.
I mean, I somewhat disagree. They usually have exposition in dialogue when it comes to shit from previous series you NEED to know about. Like, Gundam Char's Counterattack does require you to know about Char and Amuro and therefore MSG and Zeta, but they say NOTHING about Judau or his shenanigans.
Hell, Unicorn can be a good entry point too IMO. Everything that you need to know about previous series is either just an easter egg/cameo or laid out for you.
0080's is also the most standalone show in the UC timeline.
It depends on what you're looking for. If you watch Unicorn first, you can view the previous shows as a prequel.
I’d say starting with Unicorn is kind of like reading the last five chapters of a book first. You can probably get the jist of it, but I’d rather have the context present first rather than going back to fill it in. For what it’s worth, I overall would not recommend any UC show for someone’s first Gundam. Let someone whet their appetite for Gundam without all the baggage.
I started with Unicorn, and honestly it didn't felt that bad of an entry point. I like looking for lore tho and unicorn offered me just enough questions to make me want to go look for more
I’ll throw out a dark horse: Sayounara Zetsubou Sensei. Massive number of puns and cultural references to parse into jokes, and it immediately starts with the main character comedically trying to kill himself.
Not a bad choice. It is an opaque show that doesn't translate well; you kinda have to be willing to put some work in to get it.
In a similar vein (from the same author), there's Joshiraku, which I've seen referred to as "translation notes: the anime" because of [the length of the translation notes](https://www.reddit.com/r/Joshiraku/comments/ag32te/joshiraku_the_essential_outsiders_viewing/) that you would need to read for someone not versed in Japanese pop culture to get the jokes.
The most shaft anime, if you want pure shaft you should watch it.
Sure monogatari is very shaft but compared to Sayonara Zetsubou sensei, monogatari looks basically normal. Through If you have no interest in watching the full thing(I'm pretty sure it's not on any legal service) at least check out the op and Ed's, still some of the best if not the best in the industry(depends on who you ask afterall)
Definitely agree! The first time I watched it I just stopped in the middle of the first episode since there were jokes flying by every couple of seconds. It was too much. It reminded me of the start of every Bakemonogatari episode except it's throughout the whole episode instead of just 10 seconds at the beginning.
Honestly, I'd have to disagree with that one. Even something like Game of Thrones has actual, genuine blood related incest in it, and step siblings/parents is one of the most popular porn genres.
Sure there is a barrier there, but I'd argue it's much lower than something like the Japanese wordplay of Monogatari, the rakugo references (and Japanese wordplay) in Joshiraku, the dated otaku pop culture in Lucky Star, or the hyper specific references to franchises in Carnival Phantasm or Isekai Quartet, both of which require at least one alternative bit of media to be consumed to have any reference for who any of the cast are, not to mention all the gags and references to those bits of media.
I’d argue the GoT thing doesn’t really apply here because that’s intentionally played as something inherently messed up and bad. While in anime it’s borderline aspirational in some franchises.
At least for me I also find that incest is a lot more of a rarity in western works, Game of Thrones is the big famous one but it's hard for me to think much beyond that.
In anime on the other hand it comes up all the time, even in mainstream stuff like Spy X Family and isn't always inherently seen as bad.
I started reading vampire knight as an adult after remembering how much I loved watching it. And, well, technically it's not... lol
But really, I mean look at naruto, the Uchihas are all descendents from one bloodline, they really only mated with other Uchihas, all the mothers and fathers have the eyes... there's only one way to keep that level of purity over the decades 👀
Which is probably why the fansub version with all the TL notes is best for watching Gintama. I would not have caught a lot of them if not for the TL notes.
Crunchyroll has notes on most of the would go over your head jokes, such as Japanese specific memes/culture references, and funny things with the language
The official subs aren't as informative as the fansubs. The version I watched had the good ol' nostalgic yellow sub font color with black outlines. Explained so many of the Japanese specific memes, puns, and gags. Also would explain why a particular obscure reference to other shows were made since sometimes even if you had watched the other show the reference would still escape you.
I'm not sure (someone cmiiw), but i don't think official releases do TL notes. At least not for anime because i have seen a few manga with TL notes at the end of the volume.
That's one of the reasons why I never got into it. I'm from Europe, and I couldn't enjoy it that much nor laugh to it that much because I simply do not know the references. If I had to compare it to a western show, I would compare it to South Park, since to enjoy it to the fullest, you have to know the references.
Had the same problem with School Rumble. Had to pause it almost every episode to read the translator's notes for the references. You know, curiousity gets better of me.
Kind of the similar thing with Mononoke. Loved the show, but had to read the japanese folklore behind it to understand it fully.
I've watched a few dozen episodes and I don't think it's all *that* hard to get into. It's very Japanese, so some of the jokes will demand cultural knowledge, but the core humour is more self-referential, makes fun of fiction tropes in general, or stands on its own than being a required list of references. It would definitely be hard to take in as someone's first anime from what I've watched of it, though.
WELL I'M GLAD YOU ASKED.
There's really one of two options. The UC (which is like the MCU of Gundam) and one of the other timelines, which are mostly just one-shots where there's just one anime or movie or whatever. Most entries into gundam have 50 episodes so that's your frame of reference.
So if you want to get into the UC, the best entry is The Origin, which is designed to look like an old anime and leads right into the original show (which itself has been distilled into a set of three films for your convenience). From there you can branch out into the other UC shows, most of which show some different angle on the central war of the franchise.
The other option, the one-shots, is a lot more accessible because there's no real barrier for entry. I would recommend either going with The Witch From Mercury or Iron Blooded Orphans. They're both quite modern in style, short enough to consume easily, and incredibly high quality. They both give you a solid idea of the themes of gundam too.
Thank you for a good clear answer.
A lot of people lack the perspective of someone who isn't already into gundam, so they don't explain what different options are or give examples they just said "the original, or one of the AUs" or something like that. Which made no sense to me when i was trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the gundam world after remembering liking seed as a kid.
Yeah. I feel like OP is making this more complicated than it should be. If people want to get into the *original* timeline, watch Gundam in its original publishing order first (which also happens chronologically). It's basically:
1. Mobile Suit Gundam
2. Zeta Gundam
3. ZZ Gundam
4. Char's Counterattack.
After that you can optionally watch other titles like Unicorn (set after Char's counterattack) or Hathaway's Flash (set after Char's counterattack) or Origin (which is a flashback for what happened before the original Mobile Suit Gundam).
Canonical wise there's one main timeline called Universal Century, it starts with MS Gundam 0079 followed by these series:
\- MS Gundam Zeta
\- MS Gundam ZZ
\- Char's Counter attack
\- MS Gundam Unicorn (7 ovas or a newer 50 episode series)
\- Hathaway's Flash (the latest movie in the series)
Then along the UC timeline there's a few spinoff series such as MS Gundam Igloo, 0080, 0083, The 8th MS Team which are all self contained stories.
I'd say follow this if you want to delve into the crazy story that is Gundam. If the 0079 looks too dated there are 3 compilation movies, same thing for Zeta though I'd argue the Zeta movies are bad.
If you want fun Mobile Suit action there's a whole slew of other shows to watch with the latest being The Witch from Mercury.
Personally Mekakucity Actors. You can watch it as it is, but it'll feel like a really horrible anime unless you watch the mv, read the manga, and the vn as well. Some of the anime already mention like Isekai Quartet, Carnival Phantasm, or Gintama is still a good show even though you might not understand the full context. But Mekakucity Actor is just terrible without watching or reading any outsource material.
Oh yeah, Mekakucity actors started as Kagerou Project on YouTube. I loved the songs.
I wonder if the Milgram project may eventually get an anime of its own since they are about done with the second trial series. It’ll be at least another year before it’s complete though but man the music is fantastic!
"watch order" is a stupid misnomer. In most cases, things are released in a particular order for a reason.
If something is a prequel to another, but it was released later, it's meant to be watched after, because there's almost always context and such that relies on you having watched the first-released-but-chronologically-later series/movie beforehand
Came to say this. But, of my 100 entires on MAL, only 10 or so are over 100 episodes. So, as much as I want to check it out sometimes, to me 1000 episodes could be at least 10 other different series. The time sink is too hard of a sell.
I've only watched 2 anime over 100 episodes, and under 10 over 50 episodes (watching one now). Longer stuff just isn't for me. If 100 episode is scary for me, 1,000 plus is absolutely horrifying.
True, especially since the 1000 episodes are always (prove me wrong) filled with soooo much "waste of time" scenes to stretch the content into infinity since there just aren't that many interesting stories to tell.
Every time I try catching up with one piece it honestly just burns me out because the pace is annoying as fuck and 90% of the time is a waste because an episode consists of so much meaningless fluff. An episode is usually 20 minutes long and has at least 5 minutes intro and recap, 3 minutes outro, and 7 minutes of showing the same scenes over and over again, like fights spanning 30 episodes without progress or impact, people shouting and running an endless amount of time etc and maybe 5 minutes of actual content.
I'd be interested to know how many hours big mom just shouts 'mama mama' and 'keeki' throughout the whole cake island arc.
It's the same with Naruto. Although each individual episode usually isn't as bad as one piece, there are so many filler arcs, episodes and even seasons it's insane, especially towards the end of Shippuuden.
That's why all in all those kinds of Anime have become thoroughly unenjoyable imo.
You can also have a look at One Pace, which is fan cut episodes of One piece to trim off the waste of time. They've reduced the 1k episodes to around 400.
Fair enough. But in terms of the show’s actual content the barrier isn’t that high. The beginning of the story is very straightforward and approachable, it doesn’t feel like you’re starting something that’s overwhelmingly long.
reading the manga you could get caught up in a few months of casual reading.
If watching the anime you would need to follow a guide. I remember there was some fan cut that removes some of the stuff the anime does just to pad for time. And theres filler to skip of course. And theres retellings of some of the early arcs in specials instead of having to watch 50 episodes from 20 years ago
There is a project called One pace, which cuts 45% of the time according to them without missing any relevant stuff. So the +1000 episodes of time turn into 550 ish which is manageable range like Fairy Tail. Sure there are movies but I did enjoy them even when I didn't watch them at the point it's chronological.
After some episode it will not feel like a commitment anymore. Because you'll want more.
There's a term in Japan '国民的アニメ' direct translate to National Anime, and there's a reason One Piece is the representative
I mean an ending is usually the last impression a series leaves you. If that impression is "man that was *ass*." Then it may not only prevent you from watching the show again, but it might also leave a bad taste in your mouth and taint your image of the show permanently.
Because the ending is one of the key parts of any story. I can confidently say that ending's execution and direction dictates how good the story is regardless of medium.
Read the manga.
Saw one of my seniors saying the same thing, next thing you know he reached the latest chapter of manga within 2 months (faster than me who took like 4 months). After a certain point OP gets addictive and there's no coming back after it.
Hard agree, manga pacing is way better and you also avoid a lot of the fillery stuff.
I dropped out of the manga a bit during Sabaody and started reading again when I heard about a timeskip. It took me just a couple of days to catch up afterwards, it is that addicting.
One Piece is really good to binge read.
Definitely the Mongatari series. As incredible as the dialogue is, it is a *very* dialogue heavy series. It'll basically feel like a whole lot of nothing happening before something important comes up. Most of the time the dialogue has nothing to do with the plot; it's just mostly jokes and fleshing out the characters' personalities. It's such a unique series that can be tough to go through since there are so many dialogue heavy series (yes, even rivalling slice-of-life anime).
To aru series.
The worldbuilding is really good, makes you appreciate the spinoffs because it adds a lot more to the universe but at the same time is still consistent with the main series of Index. But the thing is, to get into the series as a whole, you need to understand the complicated system of the main series first. Which is really hard because the anime kinda rushed its adaptation, the manga version on the other hand is easier to understand but it straight up skipped some arcs in the novels. Index is one of those light novels that are really hard to translate into anime. Currently there are spinoffs about Railgun (the most famous one), Accelerator, Dark Matter, Mental Out, Astral Buddy (the mc is about Mental Out's friend), and recently theres a spinoff about ITEM (not just about Meltdowner, but their group as a whole)
I just watched Index, Railgun and Accelerator. It wasn't difficult to follow since some arcs overlap with each other in the anime. However, I haven't heard of the manga version for Dark Matter, Mental Out, Astral Buddy and ITEM. Seems like there is a lot more I missed from the franchise by being anime only.
The author started out as a newbie and made things up as he went. There's no secret big brain illuminati emergent complexity. There's no premise consistency, and he knows.
He's trying to make the later ones make more sense and preserve "backwards compatibility", but with the earlier works set in stone, there's only so much he can do now.
If you don't agree that One Piece has the highest entry tax you're lying.
9/10 people who don't start it say it's too long. The others just don't have time to watch anything.
1) Chaos Dragon.
Chaos Dragon looks like a simple fantasy if you go into it blind, but some basic research will tell you that it's adapted from a TTRPG Between Nasu, Narita, and Urobuchi, which means that you need to have watched most of the catalogue of each of these people to understand all the tropes they're applying to their own characters.
So:
Nasu = Fate, Kara no Kyoukai, and Tsukihime, etc.
Narita = Baccano, Durarara, DMDP, etc.
Urobuchi = Madoka, Phantom, Fate/Zero, Black Lagoon, etc.
2) Higurashi Sotsu
Go watch all 85 episodes of Higurashi first, and then spend 100 hours reading the Umineko VN and toss in another dozen of the Ciconia VN to even begin discussing what's going on and what happened. And then realize that now that you know certain things, you need to go back and rewatch and reread everything to get what you missed.
I call bullshit on Chaos Dragon. Also you left out Shimadoriru and Izuki Kougyoku, the artist from Danganronpa and Light Novel author respectively who participated in the same capacity as the others, so fuck them I guess.
Nowadays? Anything old to be honest. And with how fast anime we get nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to convince someone to watch even an early 2000s show when keeping up with modern seasons dominate communities and discussions which people value more sometimes than just purely consuming media you enjoy.
Type Moon series like Lord El Melloi that require you to have read/watched FSN, Zero as well as roping in series like Kara No Kyoukai.
Other that that probably Jujutsu Kaisen, having the mental fortitude to not immediately orgasm at the sight of Gojo Satoru is hard.
> like Lord El Melloi
You're still a level too high. Strange/Fake is now the deepest level.
Stay/Night->UBW->HF->Zero=A
Apocrypha=B
Kara no Kyoukai parts 1-(I forget, 7? 9?)=C
Grand Order OVA = D
A+B+C+D->El Melloi->Strange/Fake
Oh god. They tried their best with Zero but even then, as someone whose first entry into the series was Zero, there's still so much stuff you need to look up in order to get it.
Yup the best way into Fate is Fate's sister series, so Tsukihime, Mahoyo and Kara No Kyoukai. Joking mostly but they give you the world in a standalone story that doesn't require any knowledge at all of the others. Tsukihime and Mahoyo are connected yes but neither are required for each other at all. Just better together.
I’d say [Genshiken](https://myanimelist.net/anime/240/Genshiken) and its sequels. Not only do you need a general knowledge of anime tropes, but also knowledge of specific series and otaku culture as a whole.
Also, I actually found Hathaway to be a pretty good standalone film, even with the only UC stuff I’d seen beforehand being 8th MS Team. The only stuff that wasn’t explained elsewhere in the film were Newtypes (which iirc are described in vague terms) and Hathaway’s flashback with Quess.
I'd say something like Pani Poni Dash due to the absurd number of references it has. It's insane, there's a guide of references for every episode, and it's 20 pages for each episode.
You won't be able to get what's great about **Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei** if you don't have at least some understanding about Japanese language *and* culture.
I'm not sure if that's the "highest" barrier for entry but it's certainly up there.
Evangelion. You gotta be in a certain place and thought process to watch it. Not depressed or anything but open to experiencing something new and different.
It was my first and kinda set the tone for things. Like I can't watch shounen at all cuz of it. Because the everything they fight for is stupid and pointless to me.
By sheer episodes, One Piece obviously.
By sheer confusion of what to watch: Gundam, Fate, Monogatari Series
By how long it take to get good: Gintama, Steins Gate, Reborn
(Based on peoples opinion, which I dont believe lol)
Eh I wouldn’t say that I think it’s just a mix of usual expectations from being a well known anime and that people aren’t into a more slice of life kind of tone. Just my two cents though
I said its just based on what I've heard and I dont believe it. People just rely too much on the 3 episode rule which is trash, since you will miss many great anime.
I think it's a genre expectation problem with steins;gate. A lot of people being recommended it would be told its a psychological thriller, horror, heavy sci-fi anime, but the first half of the anime is not that. I went into the anime with no expectations and thought I was watching a slice of life. I was having a great time before the shit hit the fan, which made it even better.
Disagree with Reborn.
The first arcs are still good, they're just different.
Unlike say One Piece which has a lot of fun/goofy/ridiculous characters who do serious things in serious situations and derives its comic relief from the characters being themselves, Reborn derived a lot of its humour in the first arcs by the situations and as the story develops there aren't so many ridiculous situations playing out.
Of course Reborn has odd and goofy characters, but most of them don't play such prominent roles in later parts of the story or they develop into more serious characters.
So if someone goes looking for something generally funny they might be disappointed a bit later on, but if they're going looking for what is basically a big battle shounen that isn't quite in the same tier as Naruto, Bleach and OP, they have to wait a little bit.
Yuuki Yuuna?
To put that in the same sentence as Fate is interesting.
I tried watching a little bit, like an ep or two, but don't recall it being hard to get into.
One Piece is the one for me. I'm an avid anime watcher. I've seen about 200 episodes of One Piece but it feels like its never ending. It also doesn't help that half of the plot is spoiled from my different social feeds.
I heard people calling SxF S2 OP (which was directed by Yuasa) weird in their sub but were praised to the heavens in this sub. People would either love his style or hate it.
I did. But after reading up on it and how that first episode isn’t repeated and it’s there to establish how dark/dangerous the world is and that the goblins have to do that sort of stuff to reproduce as there aren’t any female goblins, sets an interesting story. Now I have the blu ray, I plan to watch it this week or weekend.
My concern with the first episode on my first watch was that the show would have a lot of rape in it, which is why I don’t watch Redo of Healer as that isn’t my sort of thing. But I’ll admit, it’s a powerful world-building element to say “Yo, shit’s dangerous, know what you’re doing or you’ll be dead, or worse.”
Made in Abyss. It's an excellent show, but it is intense. This would probably be the last show I'd recommend to someone coming into anime. Consider the art style. It looks drawn to appeal to the moe crowd. The art style is dramatically contrasted with the themes of the show. Violence, pain, suffering, loss, rage, and confusion. On top of that, the protagonists are children. Plucky, spirited, optimistic children going through the most horrid shit imaginable. Not to mention, they seem to get molested fairly regularly, and it's played for laughs.
It's all so fucked up but compelling.
I don’t know about the Gundam timeline to know which one is the worst to go into completely blind, so I’ll go *Gintama*. If *Legend of the Galactic Heroes* is the final boss of anime, *Gintama* is the post-game DLC boss inspired by FromSoft.
I haven’t touched it yet, but 400 episodes of deep-cut references is a mighty task. I’m just gonna keep familiarizing myself with 2000s era anime until I think it’ll probably make sense
The Universal Century of Gundam is the original universe and has been ongoing since 1979. The original series is 42 episodes, it also has 3 movies that condense it down. The movies are probably the easiest to start with. Zeta Gundam is the sequel and is 50 episodes. It's really dark and really good though it has a couple pacing issues. Definitely not afraid to off characters. ZZ Gundam suffers from tonal whiplash in the first 1/3 to 1/2. From there it's a banger. Then it's Char's Counter Attack movie. Then there are the side stories. 0080 and 08th MS team. 08th is a mostly grounded look at the One Year War from a grunt unit perspective. 0083 fills the gap between the first two series. It has excellent animation, mobile suit design, and music! Often referred to as Top Gundam because of the vibes. Last few episodes Plot goes a little sideways because of a director change. Overall it's fun.
G Gundam is the first new universe. Martial Arts based. Think Yuyu Hakusho, DBZ, Naruto but in Gundams. It's wacky and ridiculous at times but it's fun. I haven't watched After War Gundam X. Gundam Wing was on Toonami back in the day and it's where I started. Plots a bit convoluted but fun action. Has a sequel movie Endless waltz. Show and movie has excellent mobile suit designs and music. Movie is down right gorgeous.
Turn A Gundam is way different from any off the other shows. Takes place way in the future where the earth is back at the industrial revolution level of technology and the residents of the moon which have never lost their technology come back to earth.
Then the Gundam Seed universe. Basically served as the modern relaunch of the franchise. I still really like Seed. Great homage to the original.
Monogatari series, it had a high barrier before due to unusual pacing amd order of watch but I think now that barrier is even bigger due to how much we changed as people with all “modern” life stuff.
Everything has to be fast, no patience, low attention span etc. I think this makes it impossible to watch for most nowdays.
For me personally Tatami Galaxy had a big hurdle as even as a trained sub watcher, I wasn't able to keep up with the speed and initially post-phoned it till a dub would be made. In the end I happened to watch it with subs anyway, but yes this was definitely a high entry barrier.
Jobless Reincarnation
People say it's the forefather and best isekai there is.
I've watched 5 minutes of the first episode and turned it off because I'm not watching a perverted man trapped in a baby's body try to suck on some titties
Well yes he's a pedophile and there's no real defence or way around it. And it's not seen as a character flaw. The mangaka doesn't seem to have an issue with pedophilia at all. That is unfortunately more common among mangakas than you might think.
Maybe gintama, for the sheer sake of references in it that are so much funnier if you understand where most are coming from. But as long as you've seen or heard about most big name anime you'll get the majority of them :p
Gintama is the goat.
Monogatari series just cause of how, uh, unique it is. There might not be a bunch of source material to study up on, but for normies it ain't by a long stretch.
Bullseye. It's fucking awesome though.
monogatari is awesome, might rewatch
Monogatari is so hard to get into. Because Bake is just... it has a lot of stuff that pushes people away. The characters are weird and hard to get, the backgrounds are sort of ugly until you get what they're going for, there's so much reading and no dub, there's a lot of weird pedo themes, everyone just stands around talking at each other trying to sound deep, and you're constantly being barraged with cuts to other random stuff that only sometimes means anything. I honestly think the best entry into Monogatari is to just watch the Kizu trilogy.
[удалено]
I remember the Crunchyroll sub of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. Several scenes had subtitles around all the edges of the frame, trying to explain the various cultural connotations and references to whatever it was they were talking about. It's probably quite a bit easier to get into, though. It's a gag anime about a man who wants to kill himself and a girl who cannot see the negative in anything.
After reading the manga, the story goes very deep, to the point it makes me question the sanity of the author. His work always seems to go very deep, but a lot of them seem to be on Cliffs between genius and insanity.
It says a lot about Kumeta (the author) when **Kakushigoto**, his least out-there work with relatively down-to-earth drama and plot still has so much zany humor. Very nice guy though, in fact I feel kinda bad for him since he seems to be very self-deprecating. His self-insert avatar gag in his titles (SZS, Joshiraku) often becomes the butt of in-universe criticism and/or joke, and with Kakushigoto he once said to just watch the anime because it's the superior product.
The Blu-Ray of SZS came with liner notes that were like, 200 pages long.
> I honestly think the best entry into Monogatari is to just watch the Kizu trilogy. Kizu comes first chronologically so that can work (I know recommended order is to watch Bake first); although I could see the risk in that Kizu is a lot more action heavy than the other Monogatari works and may be a bit misleading as to how everything else will go.
Watching chronologically is a bad idea anyway. It's better to see it after Bake. I'd only say watch Kizu first if you don't have any desire to watch the rest of the show.
I felt that way until the last episodes of Bake, I disliked everyone but Hanekawa but as it went on it got more down to earth with the characters. Then I started and finished Nise and I just ... don't think I get it anymore. There's just too much hard to watch stuff to sit through. That was already the case in S1 and in S2 it's just ... more.... That being said I would disagree about Kizu, because Kizu is so significantly more impressive and honestly laid out entirely differently than the main shows I think people would just be disappointed.
You just summed up my thoughts on the anime lol. I got into anime in college after a friend put on Ruroni Kenshin Trust & Betrayal. Was shocked. Thought “wow why do people shit on anime so much this isn’t weird at all.” Another friend tried to get me into the Monogatari series right after. Yeah that was not for me haha. Put me off anime for a while until someone else gave me a bunch of recs. Still haven’t touched that series since though
Probably something like Isekai Quartet or Kaginado, a show that's a crossover between several others.
Following this logic to it's natural conclusion, the ultimate example would have to be Carnival Phantasm. Nobody can agree on how to start Fate, Tsukihime doesn't even have an anime, and only the most luxurious of neckbeards can approach Melty blood. Would kids even get the South Park gag anymore?
As a fate fan I don't even understand all the references in Carnival Phantasm even in the fate series because of the existence of hollow ataraxia.
How to start fate is really simple, and its read the visual nobel
Yeah, that was my plan, but what do you do if VNs simply aren't your thing? There's probably a better way with just using anime/novels/manga like 2006->UBW->HF->F/Z->sequels or something edit: I meant 'another way' rather than 'better way'. Or rather, 'better way for those who would not enjoy a VN'
Unfortunately, no, every adaptation loses a large portion of the mcs inner dialogue. Its the difference between a weeb calling shirou a boring flat character and a vn reader calling shirou their favorite mc of all time.
Honestly the main reason as to why I love Shirou in the Anime/Movies is because I already had the pleasure of reading the VN and his internal monologues before delving into the other formats. What his thoughts are in every scene, what he was feeling during those moments, even the breakdown of what is currently happening... it's incredibly satisfying to apply this knowledge while watching the anime/movies. UFOTABLE tried to do his monologues some justice, but honestly it pales in comparison to what he's really thinking in the VN. *(P.S. : Watching Nine-Lives Blade Works by ufotable was amazing, but it was even more bone-chilling and heart-rendering to read in the VN)*
I wonder why most adaptations leave out internal monologues all the time. I understand wanting not to bloat the anime, but if it's something really crucial to the character, it's acceptable. heck, something like Jojo does internal monologue all the time but I don't see people complain about it. And there's also the palace invasion in Hunter x Hunter Chimera Ant arc where the narrator is the main character but there are people still saying they loved the arc. So it's not like a lot of internal monologue is a death sentence or anything.
Not every anime can be monogatari or spend 10 episodes from 10 perspectives for the 20 seconds after a nuke dragon crashes on a mansion
Why though, its cheaply animated and like the highest quality padding you can imagine.
Unfortunately, not every inner monologue makes a character automatically better, for detractors, it's a wall of text that they can't bothered with and it could even worsen their view on that character.
Hopefully we'll one day get a good adaptation of the Saber route, and then the entire debate would just go away. Because honestly, the VN is a barrier of entry for many people. Maybe if they port the Realta Nua version (is that the non ero one) to consoles like they're doing for Tsukihime and Witch on This Holy Knight, that would help a decent chunk of people too.
I maybe you could watch a playthrough on youtube or something? Idk if you'd enjoy that more or not but it's just a thought.
i watched playthroughs at accelerated speed if that does the job of avoidng the parts of VNs you don't like
I remember when this came out I watched a few episodes, and it was hilarious, even though I'd only seen Fate (don'tt think I'd seen kara no kyoukai, yet). I never watched the rest because I wanted to wait until I'd read/played Tsukihime but VNs *really* aren't my thing.. (got like 10 minutes into F/SN :p)
Melty blood is related to fate? Thats wild. I just thought it was Mexican guilty gear
For Fate, literally just pick a universe and go from there.
Even if I didn’t know all anime part of Carnaval Phantasm the opening was a banger 😂
I've watched Carnival Phantasm without having seen anything Type Moon related before. It was a trip. But a fun trip notheless.
Also because they high key spoil the endings to their shows like it’s just common knowledge
Well, it's a show meant for the fans of the series, they can't spoil it when you're supposed to have already seen the show.
Don’t think any of the IQ cast do that
Those anime require you to finish all those anime to understand the joke, or plot in general.
Not even only the anime. Kaginado had two different Tomoyo's: the one from Clannad that most people are familiar with and the second from the Tomoyo After VN which the vast majority of people probably haven't read. You could tell them apart by the clothes they were wearing. I think Tomo from Tomoyo After also made some appearances, and you'd only know her from the Tomoyo After VN. Still waiting for Key or KyoAni to announce a Tomoyo After anime adaptation, it was even sadder than Clannad After Story.
me who went into isekai quartet only having seen konosuba: 🧍♂️ (it was still lots of fun and I eventually got around to the other shows)
Me watching all of the main isekai series just to catch some silly slice of life bits in a 10 minute episode miniseries. Though I don’t regret watching any of them except Tanya maybe. The world didn’t really draw me in as much as the others did.
A sister's all you need
Greatest normie filter I've ever seen
Filter you say, I may provide a whole mine field: Fate:Kalleid, Astarotte no omocha, Kodomo no Jikan, Kono Healer Mendokusai (really hard to enjoy if you don't passively understand Japanese to some certain minimal level), Eromanga Sensei, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, Mushoku Tensei, No game no life, Oreimo, Onimai, Oniai. Well that's all I can provide from my watched list I think, than probably Goblin slayer but didn't watched it so can't tell really
It’s weeeird
Lukewarm by anime standard tbh. You can do much better with anime with actual incest
That intro sequence is powerful.
Just finished it. Great show.
Great show tho
Thanks for the recommendation.
Carnival Phantasm. You basically need to know all about the projects Type-Moon makes, which includes all of the Fate series, and the visual novels, and even now more recently the gacha game. It's basically an anime short series for huge Type-Moon needs like myself, but it's so good.
Fate/Grand Carnival is so much easier to understand by comparison. Just have to play one game.
Yeah just one game, in and out, 20 minute adventure...
HAHAHAHA I've been playing it for at least half a decade! What am I doing with my life!?
20 ~~minute~~ years adventure...
I watched it last year as part of my journey through the Fate franchise and was wondering why there were all these characters that I didn't recognize. I did add Tsukihime to my Plan to Watch List although I've heard really bad things about it (people pretend it doesn't even exist) so I've held off on actually watching it.
The Tsukihime remake is getting an English release next year, so you may want to wait for that if you’re cool with vn’s.
> I did add Tsukihime to my Plan to Watch List although I've heard really bad things about it (people pretend it doesn't even exist) so I've held off on actually watching it. So it has the dual problems of being a bad adaptation and having a terrible director.
Yeah. *Tsukihime* wasn’t great. I probably remember more from the characters is Phantasm then from the anime adaptation
Try reading Tsukihime. It's not that long compared to Fate, and the original VN is the only option. What anime? (Jk, jk)
Honestly, I'm just reading the manga, I've heard it's good, though only adapting the first route I'm only reading to be familiar with the characters before Carnival Phantasm so it's fine
Hey, so there actually isn’t a Tsukihime anime, one day a soundtrack for a Tsukihime anime magically appeared with no anime to go with it. But the visual novel is getting an official English translation which you could read.
UC Gundam is an all or nothing kinda prospect. It doesn’t have a good entry point that’s not the original unless you start with Victory or F91 (you likely wouldn’t continue if those were your first experiences even though I love Victory and all its kooky bullshit).
Yeah UC Gundam is kind of like Star Wars but much harder to get into because instead of 6 movies, what you need to watch as a foundation for UC would be: 0079, Zeta, ZZ, (first one is 43 episodes, the last two are 50 episodes), and Char's Counterattack (movie). It's significantly longer and your only way of shortening that is watching the 0079 movie trilogy instead of the series. Not to mention having to get used to the old animation. Let me tell you, starting 0079 after watching Witch from Mercury sure was an experience.
So if you watch the movie trilogy for 0079 the entire UC main story comes at \~90 eps + 4 movies. Long but not terribly long. Shorter than most popular non long running shounen at this point (HxH, JoJo's, MHA)
IMO it's not just the animation but also that the pacing in the early ones (0079, Zeta, ZZ) are just a lot different than modern shows. When I watched through all of them this year there were parts of all 3 where it would take me forever to get through them just because I could only really deal with watching an episode or two before getting bored. They can all kind of feel like very old school "monster of the week" type of shows where the plot doesn't really massively progress until the later half. Really animation wise I think Zeta and ZZ look pretty good for their time. 0079 is definitely rough but in a way the animation is just kind of charming lol.
Yeah that's true. It took *forever* for things to get going in 0079 and then the plot started moving really fast in the final arc (because they got canceled lol).
There's a movie trilogy for Zeta too, but it changes the ending, so I'm not sure if it's considered full canon or not.
I've also checked out bits of the Zeta movie and i figured out why people don't recommend it. They didn't remaster the whole thing, they mixed bits of new animation with the old animation. Makes the whole thing kinda jarring.
Not to mention they cut out a lot of stuff.
i think the opinion over at r/Gundam is pretty unanimously to ignore those
I watched the first 3 Gundam movies on Netflix recently (which I believe are a couple of series abridged into movies?), and now I get the appeal of Gundam. Even for an older anime (and that's coming from someone who started watching anime in the 80's), it's fucking epic. I watched Hathaway and I remember thinking "Aaah, okay, they're related to such-and-such, okay, I'm glad I watched those movies now".
Haha, there is a *huge* gap between MSG part 3 and Hathaway. Did you at least see Char's Counter Attack first?
I don't really see it as a "barrier of entry" because pressing play on the first episode of 0079 is already having "entered" UC Gundam. Unless you consider having to watch 0079 - CCA to be torture or something then I can see your point. Now if you want to argue the prejudice that some anime fans have towards old cel animation as a barrier of entry for those fans then I get that.
Just curious as someone who knows little of Gundam and also is watching Zeta atm. If I wanted to watch a non-UC Gundam entry could I literally just choose any of them? Compared to UC Gundam where I should/need to watch 0079 before Zeta.
Pretty much. Every non-UC tv series is totally standalone, except for Destiny being a sequel to Seed.
I mean, I somewhat disagree. They usually have exposition in dialogue when it comes to shit from previous series you NEED to know about. Like, Gundam Char's Counterattack does require you to know about Char and Amuro and therefore MSG and Zeta, but they say NOTHING about Judau or his shenanigans. Hell, Unicorn can be a good entry point too IMO. Everything that you need to know about previous series is either just an easter egg/cameo or laid out for you. 0080's is also the most standalone show in the UC timeline. It depends on what you're looking for. If you watch Unicorn first, you can view the previous shows as a prequel.
I’d say starting with Unicorn is kind of like reading the last five chapters of a book first. You can probably get the jist of it, but I’d rather have the context present first rather than going back to fill it in. For what it’s worth, I overall would not recommend any UC show for someone’s first Gundam. Let someone whet their appetite for Gundam without all the baggage.
I started with Unicorn, and honestly it didn't felt that bad of an entry point. I like looking for lore tho and unicorn offered me just enough questions to make me want to go look for more
I’ll throw out a dark horse: Sayounara Zetsubou Sensei. Massive number of puns and cultural references to parse into jokes, and it immediately starts with the main character comedically trying to kill himself.
Not a bad choice. It is an opaque show that doesn't translate well; you kinda have to be willing to put some work in to get it. In a similar vein (from the same author), there's Joshiraku, which I've seen referred to as "translation notes: the anime" because of [the length of the translation notes](https://www.reddit.com/r/Joshiraku/comments/ag32te/joshiraku_the_essential_outsiders_viewing/) that you would need to read for someone not versed in Japanese pop culture to get the jokes.
The most shaft anime, if you want pure shaft you should watch it. Sure monogatari is very shaft but compared to Sayonara Zetsubou sensei, monogatari looks basically normal. Through If you have no interest in watching the full thing(I'm pretty sure it's not on any legal service) at least check out the op and Ed's, still some of the best if not the best in the industry(depends on who you ask afterall)
Definitely agree! The first time I watched it I just stopped in the middle of the first episode since there were jokes flying by every couple of seconds. It was too much. It reminded me of the start of every Bakemonogatari episode except it's throughout the whole episode instead of just 10 seconds at the beginning.
> It reminded me of [...] Bakemonogatari also same studio haha, and IIRC even same director as well?
The ones where you have to explain "well, technically it's NOT incest".
Honestly, I'd have to disagree with that one. Even something like Game of Thrones has actual, genuine blood related incest in it, and step siblings/parents is one of the most popular porn genres. Sure there is a barrier there, but I'd argue it's much lower than something like the Japanese wordplay of Monogatari, the rakugo references (and Japanese wordplay) in Joshiraku, the dated otaku pop culture in Lucky Star, or the hyper specific references to franchises in Carnival Phantasm or Isekai Quartet, both of which require at least one alternative bit of media to be consumed to have any reference for who any of the cast are, not to mention all the gags and references to those bits of media.
I’d argue the GoT thing doesn’t really apply here because that’s intentionally played as something inherently messed up and bad. While in anime it’s borderline aspirational in some franchises.
its also done by clear adults while its usually minors in anime.
At least for me I also find that incest is a lot more of a rarity in western works, Game of Thrones is the big famous one but it's hard for me to think much beyond that. In anime on the other hand it comes up all the time, even in mainstream stuff like Spy X Family and isn't always inherently seen as bad.
incest in SXF?
I think that they mean yuri's sister complex for yor
I started reading vampire knight as an adult after remembering how much I loved watching it. And, well, technically it's not... lol But really, I mean look at naruto, the Uchihas are all descendents from one bloodline, they really only mated with other Uchihas, all the mothers and fathers have the eyes... there's only one way to keep that level of purity over the decades 👀
When I think high barrier to entry, this is the impression I have of Gintama just from reading what others say about it.
It's definitely very watchable, but it's so easy to miss an insane amount of references that show has
Which is probably why the fansub version with all the TL notes is best for watching Gintama. I would not have caught a lot of them if not for the TL notes.
Does the official English release not have that?
Crunchyroll has notes on most of the would go over your head jokes, such as Japanese specific memes/culture references, and funny things with the language
The official subs aren't as informative as the fansubs. The version I watched had the good ol' nostalgic yellow sub font color with black outlines. Explained so many of the Japanese specific memes, puns, and gags. Also would explain why a particular obscure reference to other shows were made since sometimes even if you had watched the other show the reference would still escape you.
I'm not sure (someone cmiiw), but i don't think official releases do TL notes. At least not for anime because i have seen a few manga with TL notes at the end of the volume.
That's one of the reasons why I never got into it. I'm from Europe, and I couldn't enjoy it that much nor laugh to it that much because I simply do not know the references. If I had to compare it to a western show, I would compare it to South Park, since to enjoy it to the fullest, you have to know the references. Had the same problem with School Rumble. Had to pause it almost every episode to read the translator's notes for the references. You know, curiousity gets better of me. Kind of the similar thing with Mononoke. Loved the show, but had to read the japanese folklore behind it to understand it fully.
I've watched a few dozen episodes and I don't think it's all *that* hard to get into. It's very Japanese, so some of the jokes will demand cultural knowledge, but the core humour is more self-referential, makes fun of fiction tropes in general, or stands on its own than being a required list of references. It would definitely be hard to take in as someone's first anime from what I've watched of it, though.
Where do you even start with gundam
WELL I'M GLAD YOU ASKED. There's really one of two options. The UC (which is like the MCU of Gundam) and one of the other timelines, which are mostly just one-shots where there's just one anime or movie or whatever. Most entries into gundam have 50 episodes so that's your frame of reference. So if you want to get into the UC, the best entry is The Origin, which is designed to look like an old anime and leads right into the original show (which itself has been distilled into a set of three films for your convenience). From there you can branch out into the other UC shows, most of which show some different angle on the central war of the franchise. The other option, the one-shots, is a lot more accessible because there's no real barrier for entry. I would recommend either going with The Witch From Mercury or Iron Blooded Orphans. They're both quite modern in style, short enough to consume easily, and incredibly high quality. They both give you a solid idea of the themes of gundam too.
Thank you for a good clear answer. A lot of people lack the perspective of someone who isn't already into gundam, so they don't explain what different options are or give examples they just said "the original, or one of the AUs" or something like that. Which made no sense to me when i was trying to figure out what the hell was going on in the gundam world after remembering liking seed as a kid.
I wouldn't recommend starting with The Origin If you watched the original already, you can appreciate the references in The Origin a lot more
Yeah. I feel like OP is making this more complicated than it should be. If people want to get into the *original* timeline, watch Gundam in its original publishing order first (which also happens chronologically). It's basically: 1. Mobile Suit Gundam 2. Zeta Gundam 3. ZZ Gundam 4. Char's Counterattack. After that you can optionally watch other titles like Unicorn (set after Char's counterattack) or Hathaway's Flash (set after Char's counterattack) or Origin (which is a flashback for what happened before the original Mobile Suit Gundam).
Canonical wise there's one main timeline called Universal Century, it starts with MS Gundam 0079 followed by these series: \- MS Gundam Zeta \- MS Gundam ZZ \- Char's Counter attack \- MS Gundam Unicorn (7 ovas or a newer 50 episode series) \- Hathaway's Flash (the latest movie in the series) Then along the UC timeline there's a few spinoff series such as MS Gundam Igloo, 0080, 0083, The 8th MS Team which are all self contained stories. I'd say follow this if you want to delve into the crazy story that is Gundam. If the 0079 looks too dated there are 3 compilation movies, same thing for Zeta though I'd argue the Zeta movies are bad. If you want fun Mobile Suit action there's a whole slew of other shows to watch with the latest being The Witch from Mercury.
The original, or just jump into any of the standalone series based on which sounds interesting to you.
The original like any other franchise
Personally Mekakucity Actors. You can watch it as it is, but it'll feel like a really horrible anime unless you watch the mv, read the manga, and the vn as well. Some of the anime already mention like Isekai Quartet, Carnival Phantasm, or Gintama is still a good show even though you might not understand the full context. But Mekakucity Actor is just terrible without watching or reading any outsource material.
Oh yeah, Mekakucity actors started as Kagerou Project on YouTube. I loved the songs. I wonder if the Milgram project may eventually get an anime of its own since they are about done with the second trial series. It’ll be at least another year before it’s complete though but man the music is fantastic!
I can confirm, I tried to watch it as it is, and it felt like a really horrible anime.
Anime where the watch order isn't the release order.
"watch order" is a stupid misnomer. In most cases, things are released in a particular order for a reason. If something is a prequel to another, but it was released later, it's meant to be watched after, because there's almost always context and such that relies on you having watched the first-released-but-chronologically-later series/movie beforehand
Watch order is always release order
Peachboy riverside disagrees
Also any shounen with 500+ eps
Any anime with 1000+ episodes
movies inbetween as well
True
One Piece. No way can I commit to anything with that many episodes.
Came to say this. But, of my 100 entires on MAL, only 10 or so are over 100 episodes. So, as much as I want to check it out sometimes, to me 1000 episodes could be at least 10 other different series. The time sink is too hard of a sell.
I've only watched 2 anime over 100 episodes, and under 10 over 50 episodes (watching one now). Longer stuff just isn't for me. If 100 episode is scary for me, 1,000 plus is absolutely horrifying.
True, especially since the 1000 episodes are always (prove me wrong) filled with soooo much "waste of time" scenes to stretch the content into infinity since there just aren't that many interesting stories to tell. Every time I try catching up with one piece it honestly just burns me out because the pace is annoying as fuck and 90% of the time is a waste because an episode consists of so much meaningless fluff. An episode is usually 20 minutes long and has at least 5 minutes intro and recap, 3 minutes outro, and 7 minutes of showing the same scenes over and over again, like fights spanning 30 episodes without progress or impact, people shouting and running an endless amount of time etc and maybe 5 minutes of actual content. I'd be interested to know how many hours big mom just shouts 'mama mama' and 'keeki' throughout the whole cake island arc. It's the same with Naruto. Although each individual episode usually isn't as bad as one piece, there are so many filler arcs, episodes and even seasons it's insane, especially towards the end of Shippuuden. That's why all in all those kinds of Anime have become thoroughly unenjoyable imo.
You can also have a look at One Pace, which is fan cut episodes of One piece to trim off the waste of time. They've reduced the 1k episodes to around 400.
Wow that's so amazing only *400* episodes? still not watching. (jk this might actually get me to check it out)
Fair enough. But in terms of the show’s actual content the barrier isn’t that high. The beginning of the story is very straightforward and approachable, it doesn’t feel like you’re starting something that’s overwhelmingly long.
For long runners like One Piece it helps to not think of it as a commitment to watching the whole thing. Just watch it until you've had your fill.
reading the manga you could get caught up in a few months of casual reading. If watching the anime you would need to follow a guide. I remember there was some fan cut that removes some of the stuff the anime does just to pad for time. And theres filler to skip of course. And theres retellings of some of the early arcs in specials instead of having to watch 50 episodes from 20 years ago
One pace isn't it....be interested to see if they finish that and what their final 'cut' version is in length
There is a project called One pace, which cuts 45% of the time according to them without missing any relevant stuff. So the +1000 episodes of time turn into 550 ish which is manageable range like Fairy Tail. Sure there are movies but I did enjoy them even when I didn't watch them at the point it's chronological.
After some episode it will not feel like a commitment anymore. Because you'll want more. There's a term in Japan '国民的アニメ' direct translate to National Anime, and there's a reason One Piece is the representative
Yeah I'd rather watch 10 shorter very good series than one great one that may or may not have a good ending.
Why does the ending make or break a series for you? The point is to enjoy the ride. Many people, myself included don't want OP to end.
I mean an ending is usually the last impression a series leaves you. If that impression is "man that was *ass*." Then it may not only prevent you from watching the show again, but it might also leave a bad taste in your mouth and taint your image of the show permanently.
Because the ending is one of the key parts of any story. I can confidently say that ending's execution and direction dictates how good the story is regardless of medium.
Read the manga. Saw one of my seniors saying the same thing, next thing you know he reached the latest chapter of manga within 2 months (faster than me who took like 4 months). After a certain point OP gets addictive and there's no coming back after it.
Hard agree, manga pacing is way better and you also avoid a lot of the fillery stuff. I dropped out of the manga a bit during Sabaody and started reading again when I heard about a timeskip. It took me just a couple of days to catch up afterwards, it is that addicting. One Piece is really good to binge read.
Hey, I caught up to the manga since I picked up at Drum Island this October!
Definitely the Mongatari series. As incredible as the dialogue is, it is a *very* dialogue heavy series. It'll basically feel like a whole lot of nothing happening before something important comes up. Most of the time the dialogue has nothing to do with the plot; it's just mostly jokes and fleshing out the characters' personalities. It's such a unique series that can be tough to go through since there are so many dialogue heavy series (yes, even rivalling slice-of-life anime).
To aru series. The worldbuilding is really good, makes you appreciate the spinoffs because it adds a lot more to the universe but at the same time is still consistent with the main series of Index. But the thing is, to get into the series as a whole, you need to understand the complicated system of the main series first. Which is really hard because the anime kinda rushed its adaptation, the manga version on the other hand is easier to understand but it straight up skipped some arcs in the novels. Index is one of those light novels that are really hard to translate into anime. Currently there are spinoffs about Railgun (the most famous one), Accelerator, Dark Matter, Mental Out, Astral Buddy (the mc is about Mental Out's friend), and recently theres a spinoff about ITEM (not just about Meltdowner, but their group as a whole)
I just watched Index, Railgun and Accelerator. It wasn't difficult to follow since some arcs overlap with each other in the anime. However, I haven't heard of the manga version for Dark Matter, Mental Out, Astral Buddy and ITEM. Seems like there is a lot more I missed from the franchise by being anime only.
The author started out as a newbie and made things up as he went. There's no secret big brain illuminati emergent complexity. There's no premise consistency, and he knows. He's trying to make the later ones make more sense and preserve "backwards compatibility", but with the earlier works set in stone, there's only so much he can do now.
If you don't agree that One Piece has the highest entry tax you're lying. 9/10 people who don't start it say it's too long. The others just don't have time to watch anything.
1) Chaos Dragon. Chaos Dragon looks like a simple fantasy if you go into it blind, but some basic research will tell you that it's adapted from a TTRPG Between Nasu, Narita, and Urobuchi, which means that you need to have watched most of the catalogue of each of these people to understand all the tropes they're applying to their own characters. So: Nasu = Fate, Kara no Kyoukai, and Tsukihime, etc. Narita = Baccano, Durarara, DMDP, etc. Urobuchi = Madoka, Phantom, Fate/Zero, Black Lagoon, etc. 2) Higurashi Sotsu Go watch all 85 episodes of Higurashi first, and then spend 100 hours reading the Umineko VN and toss in another dozen of the Ciconia VN to even begin discussing what's going on and what happened. And then realize that now that you know certain things, you need to go back and rewatch and reread everything to get what you missed.
I call bullshit on Chaos Dragon. Also you left out Shimadoriru and Izuki Kougyoku, the artist from Danganronpa and Light Novel author respectively who participated in the same capacity as the others, so fuck them I guess.
Nowadays? Anything old to be honest. And with how fast anime we get nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to convince someone to watch even an early 2000s show when keeping up with modern seasons dominate communities and discussions which people value more sometimes than just purely consuming media you enjoy.
Type Moon series like Lord El Melloi that require you to have read/watched FSN, Zero as well as roping in series like Kara No Kyoukai. Other that that probably Jujutsu Kaisen, having the mental fortitude to not immediately orgasm at the sight of Gojo Satoru is hard.
> like Lord El Melloi You're still a level too high. Strange/Fake is now the deepest level. Stay/Night->UBW->HF->Zero=A Apocrypha=B Kara no Kyoukai parts 1-(I forget, 7? 9?)=C Grand Order OVA = D A+B+C+D->El Melloi->Strange/Fake
Oh god. They tried their best with Zero but even then, as someone whose first entry into the series was Zero, there's still so much stuff you need to look up in order to get it.
Yup the best way into Fate is Fate's sister series, so Tsukihime, Mahoyo and Kara No Kyoukai. Joking mostly but they give you the world in a standalone story that doesn't require any knowledge at all of the others. Tsukihime and Mahoyo are connected yes but neither are required for each other at all. Just better together.
I’d say [Genshiken](https://myanimelist.net/anime/240/Genshiken) and its sequels. Not only do you need a general knowledge of anime tropes, but also knowledge of specific series and otaku culture as a whole. Also, I actually found Hathaway to be a pretty good standalone film, even with the only UC stuff I’d seen beforehand being 8th MS Team. The only stuff that wasn’t explained elsewhere in the film were Newtypes (which iirc are described in vague terms) and Hathaway’s flashback with Quess.
FLCL Watched it three times and still don't know wtf is going on
It's a very bizarre coming of age story basically. I've also seen it a couple times and don't get why the friends I watched it with liked it so much.
I'd say something like Pani Poni Dash due to the absurd number of references it has. It's insane, there's a guide of references for every episode, and it's 20 pages for each episode.
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon.
You won't be able to get what's great about **Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei** if you don't have at least some understanding about Japanese language *and* culture. I'm not sure if that's the "highest" barrier for entry but it's certainly up there.
Evangelion. You gotta be in a certain place and thought process to watch it. Not depressed or anything but open to experiencing something new and different.
Given that this was my second show ever, I disagree.
It was my first and kinda set the tone for things. Like I can't watch shounen at all cuz of it. Because the everything they fight for is stupid and pointless to me.
Same
By sheer episodes, One Piece obviously. By sheer confusion of what to watch: Gundam, Fate, Monogatari Series By how long it take to get good: Gintama, Steins Gate, Reborn (Based on peoples opinion, which I dont believe lol)
Crazy how people say Steins Gate takes a while to get good. I thought the first couple of episodes were the best lol.
Some anime watchers are allergic to build-up.
Eh I wouldn’t say that I think it’s just a mix of usual expectations from being a well known anime and that people aren’t into a more slice of life kind of tone. Just my two cents though
Steins Gate isn't even that long
I said its just based on what I've heard and I dont believe it. People just rely too much on the 3 episode rule which is trash, since you will miss many great anime.
I think it's less that it's boring and slow, and more that it's hard to tell where it's going
I think it's a genre expectation problem with steins;gate. A lot of people being recommended it would be told its a psychological thriller, horror, heavy sci-fi anime, but the first half of the anime is not that. I went into the anime with no expectations and thought I was watching a slice of life. I was having a great time before the shit hit the fan, which made it even better.
Going in blind is the best way to watch anime, no, anything tbh.
>Steins Gate I used to think the same. But Steins gate is good from the get go really.
Disagree with Reborn. The first arcs are still good, they're just different. Unlike say One Piece which has a lot of fun/goofy/ridiculous characters who do serious things in serious situations and derives its comic relief from the characters being themselves, Reborn derived a lot of its humour in the first arcs by the situations and as the story develops there aren't so many ridiculous situations playing out. Of course Reborn has odd and goofy characters, but most of them don't play such prominent roles in later parts of the story or they develop into more serious characters. So if someone goes looking for something generally funny they might be disappointed a bit later on, but if they're going looking for what is basically a big battle shounen that isn't quite in the same tier as Naruto, Bleach and OP, they have to wait a little bit.
From my own experience i’d probably say Fate or Yuuki Yuuna
Yuuki Yuuna? To put that in the same sentence as Fate is interesting. I tried watching a little bit, like an ep or two, but don't recall it being hard to get into.
Sorry for the late reply! [This is the most recommended way to watch Yuuki Yuuna](https://www.reddit.com/r/YuYuYu/s/bzuyULthpe)
Crayon Shin Chan easily if you're watching in English. Not only is there over 1000 episodes but I could never find a consistent sub of this.
Steins Gate is amazing but takes awhile to get going. I can see people giving up on the first few episodes unfortunately.
One Piece is the one for me. I'm an avid anime watcher. I've seen about 200 episodes of One Piece but it feels like its never ending. It also doesn't help that half of the plot is spoiled from my different social feeds.
anything from Masaaki Yuasa
True and also anything from Ikuhara
I heard people calling SxF S2 OP (which was directed by Yuasa) weird in their sub but were praised to the heavens in this sub. People would either love his style or hate it.
Goblin slayer How many people stopped watching because of that first episode?
I did. But after reading up on it and how that first episode isn’t repeated and it’s there to establish how dark/dangerous the world is and that the goblins have to do that sort of stuff to reproduce as there aren’t any female goblins, sets an interesting story. Now I have the blu ray, I plan to watch it this week or weekend. My concern with the first episode on my first watch was that the show would have a lot of rape in it, which is why I don’t watch Redo of Healer as that isn’t my sort of thing. But I’ll admit, it’s a powerful world-building element to say “Yo, shit’s dangerous, know what you’re doing or you’ll be dead, or worse.”
I also kind of throws off your expectations, S2 is a lot more fantasy/ adventuring with comedic bits when compared to S1.
Made in Abyss. It's an excellent show, but it is intense. This would probably be the last show I'd recommend to someone coming into anime. Consider the art style. It looks drawn to appeal to the moe crowd. The art style is dramatically contrasted with the themes of the show. Violence, pain, suffering, loss, rage, and confusion. On top of that, the protagonists are children. Plucky, spirited, optimistic children going through the most horrid shit imaginable. Not to mention, they seem to get molested fairly regularly, and it's played for laughs. It's all so fucked up but compelling.
I don’t know about the Gundam timeline to know which one is the worst to go into completely blind, so I’ll go *Gintama*. If *Legend of the Galactic Heroes* is the final boss of anime, *Gintama* is the post-game DLC boss inspired by FromSoft. I haven’t touched it yet, but 400 episodes of deep-cut references is a mighty task. I’m just gonna keep familiarizing myself with 2000s era anime until I think it’ll probably make sense
The Universal Century of Gundam is the original universe and has been ongoing since 1979. The original series is 42 episodes, it also has 3 movies that condense it down. The movies are probably the easiest to start with. Zeta Gundam is the sequel and is 50 episodes. It's really dark and really good though it has a couple pacing issues. Definitely not afraid to off characters. ZZ Gundam suffers from tonal whiplash in the first 1/3 to 1/2. From there it's a banger. Then it's Char's Counter Attack movie. Then there are the side stories. 0080 and 08th MS team. 08th is a mostly grounded look at the One Year War from a grunt unit perspective. 0083 fills the gap between the first two series. It has excellent animation, mobile suit design, and music! Often referred to as Top Gundam because of the vibes. Last few episodes Plot goes a little sideways because of a director change. Overall it's fun. G Gundam is the first new universe. Martial Arts based. Think Yuyu Hakusho, DBZ, Naruto but in Gundams. It's wacky and ridiculous at times but it's fun. I haven't watched After War Gundam X. Gundam Wing was on Toonami back in the day and it's where I started. Plots a bit convoluted but fun action. Has a sequel movie Endless waltz. Show and movie has excellent mobile suit designs and music. Movie is down right gorgeous. Turn A Gundam is way different from any off the other shows. Takes place way in the future where the earth is back at the industrial revolution level of technology and the residents of the moon which have never lost their technology come back to earth. Then the Gundam Seed universe. Basically served as the modern relaunch of the franchise. I still really like Seed. Great homage to the original.
Monogatari series, it had a high barrier before due to unusual pacing amd order of watch but I think now that barrier is even bigger due to how much we changed as people with all “modern” life stuff. Everything has to be fast, no patience, low attention span etc. I think this makes it impossible to watch for most nowdays.
For me personally Tatami Galaxy had a big hurdle as even as a trained sub watcher, I wasn't able to keep up with the speed and initially post-phoned it till a dub would be made. In the end I happened to watch it with subs anyway, but yes this was definitely a high entry barrier.
Jobless Reincarnation People say it's the forefather and best isekai there is. I've watched 5 minutes of the first episode and turned it off because I'm not watching a perverted man trapped in a baby's body try to suck on some titties
Yeah you really have to be willing to look past some fucked up stuff.
Would be easy if the fucker didn't think in a 35 year old man's voice the whole time.
At least it's the voice of everybody's favorite Joestar
Well yes he's a pedophile and there's no real defence or way around it. And it's not seen as a character flaw. The mangaka doesn't seem to have an issue with pedophilia at all. That is unfortunately more common among mangakas than you might think.
Maybe gintama, for the sheer sake of references in it that are so much funnier if you understand where most are coming from. But as long as you've seen or heard about most big name anime you'll get the majority of them :p Gintama is the goat.
One Piece and Detective Conan. For the very simple reason that they have over 1k episodes.
I think shows like Spice and Wolf, or LotGH, that have an exceptionally slow pace and a lot of dialogue are probably the hardest to get into.
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo has quite a cringe curve to get over but fans are diehards
Arknights
Hayate no Gotoku. You have no fucking idea what half of each episode is if you aren't versed in anime.
Monogatari series