While most of my favs have been mentioned, gonna write down some that have not been mentioned. Still, at first, going to second FMA (both Brotherhood and the manga), Fate Zero, Monster, Teppuu, Kenshin (even if the whole thing with the author is shit), Black Lagoon, PMMM and probably others I am missing right now with MAL links.

Anime:

So, there are a few recent-ish ones

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is only 12 episodes long but a lot of fun. It's about three girls doing animation as a school club and the whole anime is a love letter to the medium of animation and the creative process in general. It's just a blast to watch.

A Place Further than the Universe is also only 12 episodes but man, what 12 episodes. It covers the journey of four school girls going to Antarctica and while the premise sounds a bit whacky, it is actually very entertaining but also very endearing and heartfelt and the series can hit you right in the emotions. Has been years since I watched this but the emotional and funny scenes still resonate with me.

Angel Beats! is 13 episodes but honestly, it should have been 24/25, because the series, while very good, needed more episodes to appropriately flesh out the cast. It is a very emotional series, being able to make you laugh but also cry and I am speaking from experience there. Premise is, that a dude wakes up in the afterlife after death but the afterlife turns out to be a highschool where other dead kids are waging a guerilla war against an angel. Another zany premise but the characters that are fleshed out resonate and even those who aren't are properly entertaining and interesting, which is why the series feels so rushed at the end, because while set up, they didn't get the development that was kinda promised. Still, a very good watch, an anime that I have revisited several times over the years. Can't say it is for everyone, which is the case for all three of my recs, tbh.

Manga:

Ranma 1/2 is pretty famous, was the first manga I bought and read, which I did so on a whim at the age of 14 by grabbing volume one during a school trip and it still remains one of my all-time favorites nearly 20 years later. The story is about a martial artist named Ranma who, because he fell into cursed water, turns into a girl whenever he comes into contact with cold water but turns back into a guy when splashed with hot water. He is also, thanks to his father, engaged to Akane Tendo, and the two have not hit it off very well. The series is a bit hard to describe, tbh, because there is a lot. At its core, it is a comedy series, with the story making fun of a lot of tropes and genres. The story is about marital arts and has great fight scenes, but many of the martial arts are weird like Martial Arts Tea Ceremony. There is a harem at the core, but due to Ranma being able to change his gender and most of the cast being very eccentric, the relationship web is a lot more complex, where some suitors love one of his gender forms while hating the other, with very entertaining caveats in place. It hits this sweet spot of taking itself just seriously enough for everything to have weight, while never too seriously to not forget how dumb everything is.

The characters are all outstanding, memorable, timeless and most of all, very entertaining. Most of them are some flavor of asshole idiot, but very charming and endearing ones. The whole cast is excellent and their interactions are gold. The fighting is great, the relationships are fun and there is some good fanfic out there, what with Ranma being rather old.

Eyeshield 21 is a story about Japanese high school boys playing American Football and as someone who has never watched a game of American football and has zero interest in it, it is really, really awesome. Kobayakawa Sena is a meek boy who is just starting high school and is a bit of a loser, having been bullied a lot and the only friend he has is his older sister figure. When the group of boys who usually bullied him are making it clear they still want to treat him as their gopher, he tries to refuse and ends up running away. However, a lifetime of running errands for others has made him a very good runner, which catches Hiruma Youichi eye, who promptly makes him join their American Football team as a running back, and thus begins Sena's journey as an American Football player. The cast is rich with memorable characters and great development for the main cast. Sena going from a meek, bullied loser to someone who genuinely becomes competitive and self-confident is very rewarding to read and makes for an excellent journey where it truly earns its reward.

In true shonen sports fashion, you end up really giving a shit about a topic you previously didn't before. Hell, it made me buy an American football which I play around with from time to time. The matches are very fun and engaging since it does the typical anime thing of the battles being larger than life and pretty epic, with a host of a very interesting and colorful cast of characters clashing on the football field. There are even clashes of ideologies and worldviews and almost everything is handled excellently.

There is one caveat though, and that is that the manga gets very weird about race in a few places which is...not great. It doesn't ruin the reading experience for me, but it does sour it, and the last arc is a bit rushed, but otherwise, it's an excellent read and one of the all time greats.

Edit: Oh, one thing that I have to mention that this manga has one of the all time best rivalries in manga between Sena and Shin. It distinguishes itself by the character archetypes of both of them being very different from the usual shonen rivalry, with Sena being meek and polite whereas Shin is reserved and polite. They are very respectful and encouraging of each other, but both are driven by the desire to win and improve themselves in a very believable and compelling way. I don't think I ever saw anything quite like this before or since, because you quite often have brash protag vs elitist or arrogant rival and this is very much not that.

GTO/Great Teacher Onizuka is about a delinquent street thug becoming a teacher and thanks to his very different disposition, character, and outlook on life he is able to connect with a class of problem kids that have a reputation for destroying teachers. He is also dealing with the principal and stuffy colleagues, who of course want him removed and he is, of course, also a bit of an idiot. This series is mainly going for humor but it also develops its cast, especially the students very well, and the way their relationships with Onizuka form is very well done. I can't promise that the manga and its humor aged super well, though, since he at times still plays a bit into the horndog main char trait liking sexy schoolgirls bit, which is with him being a teacher not great, but it never goes to a place where it ruins the story as far as I remember.

Holyland is about a loner and isolated dude entering the world of street fights to prove himself and it was honestly an experience reading this. Character development is insane and the story is very gripping. I can't say the characters themselves stick with you, because it has been years since I last read this and I can't remember that many, but I remember loving this and being very impressed with it. It takes a few edgy turns in the second half, so I am not 100% sure it aged super well in that regard but it should still hold up. Maybe I should reread this one of these days.

 

Kind of a necro but it’s not so bad so eh.

I don’t watch much anime these days, don’t watch much of anything, but I read a lot of manga, and in that are a couple worth mentioning.


1. Horimiya. One of my two favorite manga, and seeing as the other isn’t finished, easy top choice. Don’t mistake it for the anime, though; someone had the bright idea to condense 130 chapters into 13 episodes and straight up cut 80% of the content.

It’s your classic slice of life romcom, but unlike most of those manga, it actually makes me laugh. Doesn’t hurt that its humor is basically straight up my alley, but still. My favorite thing in fiction is interesting characters more or less just talking to one another, and this has a lot of that.

2. Helck. Probably the most underrated Manga I’ve ever read. Never seems to get much attention, probably because what looks and spends the first few chapters as a gag manga, ends up getting more serious as it goes and becomes one of the best complete adventure stories I’ve read. Also gets big bonus points for having male/female deuteragonists and NOT hooking them up at the end. That’s rare shit.

3. Dorohedoro. Really, the only mark against it is the author’s tendency to cut characters off when they’re giving you answers, just to arbitrarily extend the mystery elements. Fantastic story with unique art, great plot twists, and a lovely balance of humor and action. Who thought mushrooms could be so deadly.

4. Jigokuraku. In a way your classic action story, but with a neat blend of ominous mystic horror. Drops off a little toward the end as the author realizes he’s whittled the cast down to his personal favorites and loses the balls to kill them off, but still a lot of fun. The last chapter is nice as well, even if some leading up to it left something to be desired.

5. Golden Kamuy. Half cooking guide, one quarter comedy, one quarter gory action. What could be a better mix? Sort of like Dorohedoro, it strikes the balance of humor and hardcore action that draws me in. Also, the faces:

Spoiler

I’d love to put Vagabond, but not even an optimistic view could call that anything but abandoned like a prom baby.

 

@Mr. Mixed Bag Helck ruins me every time I re-read it. It's unabashed and unashamed tearjerker, and I fall for it every time.

 

An online synopsis has never prepared me less for what I was getting myself into, but in a great way. Summary: Level 99 hero blows away tests in silly wacky ways! Actual story: Genocide, ancient magics, and and a steel-tipped combat boot to the emotional balls.

It’s just a shame how hard it is to find. The site I first read it on shut down, and I haven’t been able to find a new one that isn’t missing chapters or burying the manga under buckets of ads. I think I even looked for a physical copy but finding all the volumes is its own challenge.

 

Helck did get an anime adaptation announcement earlier in the year but after the horror that was the Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer adaptation I worry...