No particular order

Ouran High School Club
Tokyo Ghoul
Zenkyou No Terror
Legend of the Galactic Hero
Area88

I am surprised you didn't put Sailor Moon.

The cultural impact is ridiculous .
If you are to overlook the " Soft , Sissy, Girly, Gay etc etc " name calling ...especially if you are a Guy watching it or watched it before.

Toei Animation, the animation team and the writer did a crazy job back in the 90s.

By the way Sailor Moon's creator Naoko Takeuchi is the wife of Yoshihiro Togashi who created Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter.

I am particularly very attracted to Sailor Moons 90s OST and BGM. by Takanori Arisawa who also did DIGIMON.

Takanori Arisawa is crazy impressive, considering he picked up and learn the Piano at the ripe old age of 20 and created Sailor Moons BGM and most of the OST.
He took inspiration from 70s to 80s music i.e Charlie's Angels 1970s. and did Sailor Moon.

The fusion of Rock, Jazz, Pop and Classical feel of Sailor Moon's BGM and OST is right there at the top.

Sadly speaking Takanori Arisawa passed away at 54, 2005. The industry lost a great composer.

This post was edited by Hamsterbaby on Jul 9 2026 04:30am

Here is the official top 5 someone must watch even if they aren't into the genre in general:

Deathnote: Best introductory anime with just enough supernatural for someone that's new into the genre.

Code Geass: Good segway from Deathnote and introduces the mecha concept and more supernatural, without going all in, in case you don't like mecha.

FMA:B Very good story and segways from mecha with a bit kf cyborg and way more supernatural (central to the story). Enough gore and holy shit moments to get someone hooked without going full-R like some other ones out there.

Kuroko no Basket: The ultimate sports anime and shiwcases what anime blended with sports really is about. Keeps the supernatural with "plausibly real" abilities while keeping you hooked. Introduces the school life anime.

Clannad or similar: End with a school + slice of life romcom which make up a bunch of the industry productions. This showcases what lots of otaku spend time watching and that the genre itself is more than superpowers.

Do not comment on the list, simply accept its truth.

i like solo leveling

nice list

1. Death note : nothing better than this beauty
2. Parasyte : Seriously one of the best it needs to be more popular
3. Sakamoto days : Hilarious and chill banger !
4. Hunter X Hunter : The story about killua and gon
5. Solo Leveling : I dunno why people are complaining but it's a must !


But the list is though.. Dan da dan, gachiakuta, kauju N°8

Unpopular opinion : I dont understand why SnK is that big i like Levy but that's about it...

This post was edited by craplax on Jul 13 2026 09:35pm

studio ghibli is nice

I believe so, it goes through most of the basic tenets of anime while trying to smoothly transition someone without alienating them. The choice of starting with Death Note instead of Clannad is that when you watch an animation you expect to see something that can't be recreated with real actors so it needs something supernatural. Once you're past the "anime = cartoon" phase you are ready to delve into real-world stories without special powers or w/e. Stuff like Tokyo Ghoul or Chainsaw Man are not something a new fan should watch, they're simply recreations/extrapolations of older concepts and don't bring core anime ideals to the table. Also huge anime like OP or Naruto are out of the question because they will alienate the newbie due to their sheer time investment (and mid-stories).

DRAGON BALL (z)
Naruto
Death note
Chainsaw man
Tokyo ghoul

This post was edited by Krester47 on Jul 17 2026 04:40pm