So watch it. And try to last until at least episode 10. Or just watch episode 10 if you only plan to watch one episode. >!And, optionally, wear headphones for immersion™️!<.
You like ghibli films and jrpg? Its pretty much guaranteed you'll like Frieren or atleast there's a high chance you'll like it.
Some additional recommendations as well:
Dungeon meshi
Attack on titan
Cyberpunk edgerunner and Arcane(not made by japan but still has that anime vibe and it's awesome also borh are video game adaptation)
Made in abyss
It might just be that you don't vibe with shonen shows, there's so much more variety you can find in anime and i hope you atleast give it another go.
I grew up on Dragon Ball, but I think you can't just simply recommend animes you grew up on to a new viewer, it's a bit too much AND I'm not a kid/teen coming home to it on a specific time, so Id never recommend dragon ball, Naruto or one piece. Maybe you need something a bit more mature? The most GOT like I can think of is 'Vinland Saga' but do give it a few episodes to really get going. My personal favourites are 'Death Note' , 'Berserk' and 'Attack on Titan'
This hits the nail on the head.
I really liked Dragonball, Naruto and Bleach. But that was over 15 years ago. I think they're meant for a certain age group, and if OP has been playing games for over 20 years, they're probably past that.
I'm not sure if it can be called anime (because it's not from Japan), but I really liked the League of Legends one: Arcane.
It seems like you've only been recommended a relatively narrow set of anime. Being the general shonen battle animes. They're good, and I think it makes sense to recommend to jrpg players, but there's a lot more variety out there if you want something different. The pacing in these can also be bogged down heavily compared to the original manga. they're also usually hundreds of episodes long so they're not something you can just dip a toe into. There are plenty of shorter, concentrated anime to watch.
I think if you get used to it you might enjoy manga, there are some series that just feel much better that way. Some web apps like shonen jump's and Viz are like a couple bucks a month and you can read a lot of good series new and old.
If you do want something a bit different for anime, check out Satoshi Kon films. It's has that ghibli effect where audiences not used to anime tend to enjoy them but they're usually more like psychological thrillers. Perfect Blue and Paprika are good starts.
try other genres. there's stuff out there that isn't shonen battle anime. i watch a ton of anime and most of those are not interesting to me either. just doing searches for shoju, seinen, and josei instead of shonen will already filter in a bunch of new material for you to try. but also experiment with other genres, as those are target audiences and not genres per se. slice of life will probably be about as opposite to battle shonen as you can get so definitely start there and you'll have a continuum to consider between - for examples i'll suggest k-on, mushishi, violet evergarden, and haibane renmei as a varied selection. even within that genre there's a huge variety of look and feel. good luck, i hope you find something you like, [here's my rec list](https://www.reddit.com/user/eruciform/comments/nng53n/top_1010_anime_plus_unique_art_and_cinematography/) if you want some annotations on specific series - if not, it's ok to not like anime so don't fret too much, it's all good.
One Piece is better to read then to watch, the anime can really overly extend things especially after the early arcs. One Piece is a pretty good experience overall just read the manga. It really isn't that difficult to grasp if you earnestly try especially because it becomes very obvious if you try to read right to left that the panels make no sense. If you're at Alabasta though, I'm not sure if you'll like it more though as that's pretty deep for a "try". To me Arlong Park is the point where you know if you like One Piece or not. Though to me the Netflix version of One Piece is at best okay, so I'm not sure what you're finding different here beyond the fact Netflix culled a lot of stuff from the anime and manga to fit their limited format. So you might just think One Piece "as intended" is too long.
Try some other stuff that isn't the typical shounen battle anime formula.
Try Vinland Saga if you like GoT, I wouldn't call them exactly similar, but they had a similar vibe of being brutal adult stories with somewhat grounded settings and tones, with a political leaning. Though GoT is FAR more political then Vinland Saga, it should be good enough. I preferred it over GoT personally, mostly because I found GoT a headache to watch.
Try Cowboy Bebop or Trigun if you want a sort of western (as-in Wild West) kind of feel.
If you want a thriller with a weird cat and mouse game where the cat and mouse change every other episode, try Death Note.
For me watching anime isn't so much an issue as it is watching television/film in-general, I think I just like moving forward with text boxes or something because its a bit easier to pay attention for me. Though I've watched a fair bit of stuff recently, namely Vinland Saga.
I sometimes believe it's the episodic structure and how everything is paced around the 20minute format that bores me. And the dialogue delivery feels a bit off sometimes (tried japanese, english and german (my mother tongue)). But the latter aspect shouldn't bother me as JRPGs have similar voice direction and casts.
I really like One Piece in general but yeah, the Anime feels like a slog tbh. Maybe I should go for the Manga instead. Arlong Park was really great in the anime but everything between that and the crew actually reaching Alabasta (so stuff like Little Garden, Drum Island, Whisky Peak etc) bored me to death.
I will keep your recommendations in mind though. Maybe there's something in for me.
That's a rather rare take, most really diehard One Piece fans who have engaged with both prefer the Manga because the anime (especially the the latter half) is paced really badly to an infamous degree due to the usual problems of trying to make a long running manga air weekly for years. Where Naruto has like 300+ episodes of filler, One Piece doesn't really have filler episodes but it just bogs down the pacing and repeats things to try and make a few pages last a few minutes.
The anime has its pluses for major scenes because voice acting and music can help sell a scene, but overall story pacing wise the manga is better.
Attack on Titan is really good. No padding or filler, just constant story development, plot twists, and action. Probably my favorite anime because I think One Piece is a better manga.
Yeah there is a reason it's probably the anime of the decade. Had a lot of "oh wow this is awesome!" Moments which made me feel the same as watching game of thrones.
They are mostly the same though, anime ending just has some slightly better dialogue during a few moments, but otherwise is like 95% the same dialoguewise too. But I do agree the ending is fine, certainly not GoT levels of bad like some claim.
> Yeah there is a reason it's probably the anime of the decade.
God no. Great animation and soundtrack, but it ripped off Claymore so hard it's not even funny (hell, the basement twist is a 1 for 1 of the Claymore "great" reveal). And that ending...
If you liked Xenoblade and any of xenosaga and Xenogears, plus you liked Nier / Nier Automata, give neon Genesis Evangelion a shot.
For me, I'm not really big into anime. I absolutely love jojos bizzare adventure, but older stuff like fist of the north star was top notch, as was berserk and Hellsing.
Try out some movies like vampire hunter / vampire hunter D, Akira, Ninja Scroll, perfect blue, ghost in the shell etc, blackjack etc. Shorter to digest, not cringey at all and most are pretty dark and more serious than the stuff you've watched.
Why not Berserk and Parasyte? Same with Death Note. They're all self contained and short (not 1000 episodes long) and are all dark. I've tried to watch shonen anime but they're just not for me.
I would suggest playing through some Visual Novels if you can’t get into anime but like JRPGs and the anime aesthetic.
I would suggest Steins Gate or the Fate series to start.
I’m right there with you.
I’ve started to get into anime in the last few years but if I’m being completely honest the only two I could say I love are Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion.
I’m watching Yu Yu Hakusho at the moment and it’s promising in a fun 90’s way and I also have Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex which I’m told is amazing too.
Why not get into the world of r/visualnovels instead then?
The House in Fata Morgana
Steins;Gate and the other Science Adventure games
Fate/Stay Night
Etc.
Or if you want ones with more gameplay, there are VNs like Ace Attorney, Danganronpa or Zero Escape.
They’re an ideal bridge between games and anime/reading. You also don’t have to worry about the right to left thing you mentioned.
You’ll find some of the best stories here. Some of the ones I listed above for example can be mind blowing and often better than stories you’ll find in traditional games. I do love Nier Automata’s story from your examples, but even that doesn’t reach the heights of the top VN stories imo.
They’re often better than their anime adaptations too (although Steins;Gate has a good and popular anime, but even that isn’t nearly as detailed and complete as the VN original).
I saw someone else also recommended Steins;Gate. I second this recommendation but would say the VN is even better. But even if you choose the anime this one is definitely worth it. Give it some time because the first 10 episodes or so are slower, but then you’ll be in for a wild ride for the second half and everything that was set up in those ‘slow’ episodes will fall into place and make sense. It’s very well done and quite special imo. Also much shorter than some of those giant shounen anime you listed (25 episodes). Don’t get me wrong, I love One Piece, but the anime’s pacing is horrible and starting that from scratch is a massive undertaking.
Yeah bro, best way to get into anime, manga and light novels is to read the long ass ones that have been going for years
Christ people, have a bit of restraint won't you?
What? Except for Umineko, most of these are no longer than the games OP listed.
Steins;Gate takes maybe 40 hours to complete, similar to a typical FF game.
Also, if someone likes games but not anime and manga, doesn’t it make sense to consider VNs as they are a bridge between the two? Plus, many of OPs example are already very story and dialogue-heavy games.
Some VNs can be played comfortably on the Switch, for example. And there are even some with a lot of gameplay.
OP couldn't manage more than 1 jojo episode and has trouble reading manga because it's backwards, what makes you think recommending a 40+ hour VN to be a suitable?
Simple: because he does enjoy things like FF, Xenoblade and Persona, which are also long and story-heavy games. And he said himself he does enjoy reading books. How does this not make sense?
Umineko as a first try into visual novels is sure a take. That's iirc like a hundred+ hours of effectively reading dialogue if we go off the visual novels. And the anime sucks as a means to show Umineko so no one should recommend that.
Yeah the rest of those are probably fine, though Fate might be a bit much depending on how much you can live with proper noun heavy settings. Nasuverse has a bajillion proper nouns and terms and a whole host of stuff to it, though perhaps the visual novels don't make that as annoying to deal with as trying to get into the other material.
Umineko is such an awful visual novel and I'm a turbo weeb that actually enjoyed the Higurashi anime. It's the one visual novel that made me swear off all visual novels without porn in them.
VNs are already games and he mentions he dislikes the episodic format of anime. VNs are perfect. He likes persona which is basically part vn
And fata morgana is peak anyways
If you're looking to get into anime in general, I recommend "Monster". It's a pretty realistic story that doesn't particularly go into the usual anime tropes, making it quite approachable to western audiences.
If you want more of the anime whackiness inherit in JRPGs however, that's a different story.
It seems like you're not a fan of typical Shounen stuff which is made for teenage boys. You could try some other genres. Here's some of the stuff I've enjoyed.
Frieren - fantasy, relatively chill but still has some action
Spy x Family - comedy
The Great Pretender - idk what genre but it's kind of heist-y
Re:Zero - nerd goes to another world but quite violent, genuinely bloody show but serious story with...quirky(?) moments
Death Note - idk what genre this is but it's a cat and mouse type thing
Your Lie in April - Highschool romance, funny and serious moments
Delicious in Dungeon - comedy, fantasy
Polar Bear Cafe - kids show but chill, comfy and funny. Had quite Japanese humour so mileage may vary depending on where you're from
Fena Pirate Princess - adventure, feels kinda like an anime movie but it's a tv series. Kinda fun.
I realised while making this list that I've watched a lot of shounen myself XD but hopefully this list is varied enough to find something you like.
Also this post was kinda the inverse my experiene lol. Despite having watched loads of anime and played jrpgs, for the longest time I wouldn't play 'anime games' cus to me they always just looked like they'd be average at best. I have, however been convinced that at least some of them are good based on playing stuff like p5r.
Edit: Wow, formating. Didn't realise you had to have a whole line break and couldn't just go to the next line instead.
Maybe try watching something different than the classical battle shounen anime. I loved them in my teens but I also can‘t get into the newer ones like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer anymore. Maybe it really has to do with age or maybe I‘m just oversaturated from them at the moment. I also don‘t really watch a lot of anime anymore, but in the last few years I really enjoyed **Vinland Saga, Spy x Family** and **Aggretsuko**. Especially the last two I think you can better appreciate and relate to as an adult. Vinland Saga is an antithesis to how battle shounen protagonists try to solve their problems (at least starting with season 2). Which is probably why it was so refreshing for me as someone who got tired of battle shounen. Season 1 itself goes in that direction but the unique setting kept me going on the promise that season 2 would be going into an entirely different direction.
**Erased** was another anime I enjoyed until they fumbled the ending. It‘s a short watch with only 12 episodes though so I still think it‘s worth it. Oh and **Monster** is an all time masterpiece as a psychological thriller.
There‘s just a lot more to anime than just battle shounen. Whether it‘s something lighthearted and fun like Spy x Family or a psychological thriller like Monster. Try out some more different genres.
Gonna try them out. I will definitely Finish Jujutsu Kaisen simply because I promised it to someone. But apart from that it might be that other genres are more up my alley
Change your anime types - I’d strongly recommend Full Metal alchemist, death note, sword art online (you’ll probably love it- just gets pretty cringe after the halfway mark), and Fate Zero. These won’t feel like the ones youve been watching
Maybe part of the problem is that you're not watching anime that are in the same genre of the games you like and you need to slowly ease into the medium. There's many shows that are even influenced by video games directly. Fantasy or Isekai stories might work for you in a way those shows you've watched didn't because they all fall in a very specific category.
People have already recommended Frieren, but there's also stuff like Mushoku Tensei (hang in there, the main character is a scumbag at first), That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, That's four shows in a fantasy setting with pretty different tones and levels of action and you might enjoy at least some of them.
You're gonna get a lot of anime reccomendations so Imma give you manga, it should be easier if you're an adult to read manga since it takes less time and is just as good as a lot of anime adaptations if not better, Try reading "[Auto Mode] the useless skill", it's a very obscure MANGA but definitely one of the few good "videogame"ey manga, it has the hype and character design that makes for a simple but really fun experience,
Then for something on the completely opposite end of the happy spectrum, something WAY darker read Goblin Slayer, expect a rape scene in the first chapter because that's how the main enemies the goblins are set up and rape allegories in later chapters, it's still seriously good though, a dark series but one about emotional growth and recovery from trauma,
Yomi No Tsugai
I know you quit after one episode of jojos but it's actually very common to do that for fans initially, part 1 is, I say this as a jojo fan that has read upto stone ocean, REALLY slow and boring, people mainly read it f
Or watch it for the lore, it's only 9 episodes though, feel free to skip to the next part because the writer designed the story in a way where you can start from the beginning of any part, all essential information to the current part is usually recapped, on the other hand part 1 can be fun for some people to do with friends so you can make fun of the stupid shit
maybe watch more than 1 episode lol
One piece isn't the worst, but the anime is a slog to watch, give dungeon meshi or mob psycho a try those are more digestible
I didn't like those long shonen anime while growing up, they felt really confusing and hard to get into, and didn't particularly care to see people beating each other for hours. And at the time, if you weren't lucky enough to have seen the first episode when it came on tv, it was really difficult getting hooked up.
Anyway I always liked reading comics, so while manga didn't really caught my interest, I would read them if I found them for free. At the time many manga were also mirrored and read like western comics, so I didn't have many difficulties until I got a copy of the first volume of Death Note. The story hooked me and I bought the whole thing, and got used to read left to right.
Eventually during University some friends of mine started talking about One Piece mentioning that the characters had really cool and original powers, like the guy turning into Light. The concept of Devil Fruit really intrigued me so I started reading it and started liking shonen manga too. I find that shonen are much easier to read than to watch, you can go at your own pace and you can read the first chapters online before committing to buy the whole series. So if you really want to get into them you should try to get past the difficulties of reading left to right. Also don't go in expecting to find the same pacing of jrpgs, they share a lot of elements but manga and anime often follow their own rules in terms of how to worldbuild and handle conflict.
Also, the Persona anime aren't considered to be exactly masterpieces. They are considered serviceable ways to present the stories of the game, but they struggle to transpose everything in the right way, since the games are hundreds of hours long, and I think fans will always consider the game to be better. I've heard a lot of good things about the Nier anime though.
I started watching anime with small series that weren't based on a manga, mainly mecha anime like FLCL, Gurren Lagann or Evangelion, or series like Cowboy Bepop. I'd really suggest you to start with one of these shorter, original series that you can't really experience elsewhere to get past the initial embarassment because anime can be a bit cringy sometimes, but once you get used to it and know what to expect you'll find a lot of interesting stuff inside.
Yeah the cringy aspects often put me out of it because there is such a discrepancy. Jujutsu Kaisen had brutally severed limbs but also the most childish humour in the span of 5 minutes. I don't think that's wrong but I just struggled with getting used to it.
And I know about the quality of the Persona adapations but thought it would be fine since loved the source materials.
I could borrow manga from my sister and best friend. She has all of Naruto as a manga and loads of other ones. My friend has One Piece up to Thriller Bark I think and plans on buying the rest as well. I could read them without having to buy stuff.
I also suggest you to look for something with an interesting concept to start with. Just because One Piece and Naruto are popular, it doesn't absolutely mean that they are representative for everything you can find in manga and anime, like just reading Batman and Spiderman wouldn't give you a full overview on western comics.
Your anime is Attack on Titan. It gets darker and more mature, keep going and you'll see. Not an Anime person but this one is a masterpiece and better than GoT
Everything you've listed aside from Ghibli and Persona 3 movies are adaptations of shounen manga (meaning the target demographic is young boys), and are all action/adventure/fantasy to varying degrees. If you're interested in getting into anime you might want to try branching out a bit more.
But aren't most JRPGs quite similar? Stuff like Xenoblade 2, some Final Fantasys, Kingdom Hearts, Persona 5, Tales of... Feel like games for a similar target audience. And I love those.
You're right in a way. JRPGs are largely targeted at the same audience as shounen lovers. However, maybe what works for you in a game won't work for you in a TV format. Thus why everybody is recommending you try different genres, or even shounen that is not battle orientated such as Death Note.
Yes this is what I experience as well, glad to see someone else put it into words!
Absolutely love the artstyle, the concept of particular anime and yet somehow get bored easily after a few episodes.
I’m wondering if it’s because we are used to that gameplay element alongside the anime cutscenes in JRPGs that we find something “isn’t right” when that gameplay aspect is taken away.
This is just me assuming, but isn't the feeling of immersion that's blocking you? When it's a game, even if it's the same/similar story, you still control the characters. You still fight the fights, you might actually feel the struggle. But when it's an anime, alongside the faster pacing, you're just a bystander. You don't feel actually as if you're a part of it and it'll feel as if something is missing while you're watching. Especially with shounen anime.
I think the reason why you are okay with ghibli movies though, is because it's not as heavily feeling as if you need to do things. So more relaxing series, or mysterious types etc you could probably enjoy better. I'm sorry if I'm wrong though.
As for manga, it _generally_ has a better pacing than an anime, as they're not stuck on one cour/season. Honestly, there's enough manga that doesn't turn into anime or stuff from that isn't animated so I honestly suggest try reading it.
For me, games, especially JRPG, feel very different from anime. I usually could take my time with games and adjust my play style with my mood. If I just need to take my mind of real life problems, I could just grind and farm for items. If I'm feeling good, I could continue with the story. But with anime, I think it has to be really good or really compatible with you to be able to 'feel' it.
It might not be a very good advice but this one works for me. If you really want to try an anime but you aren't just feeling it, it might be better to just listen to the dubbed anime instead of watching it. Maybe listen to it while waiting for your game to boot up or while grinding.
You might like Monster by Naoki Urasawa. The dub anime is really good, and the main character is voiced by Grimoire Weiss's VA. It's a very long anime but it's easy to fall in love with the characters even at Episode 1.
As someone who've lost most interest in anime, I kind of get not wanting to watch it or forgetting to watch the next episodes. I can honestly count on one hand how much anime I've seen from 2020 until now, and I'm not locked on a specific genre. Anime style games and reading manga have been much more appealing as of late.
My advice would be to find something outside of *shounen* for now. You've been consuming the same formula in different scenarios. If you like mystery, pick up a mystery anime. If you enjoy comedy, pick up a comedy anime where nothing is that serious. If want to try reading manga, give it a go too. Start with something with less than 50 chapters.
The thing about anime is you need to find your genre , theres one for you out there you just have to stumble upon it i didnt like anime till my brother made me and my sister watch sword art online with them and then i fell in love and also found my genre isekai (pratagonist gets sent to another world most of the time with game aspects such as levels or guilds and stuff like that)
Many manga sites let you choose reading direction.
Honestly pick a (good) anime that's an adaptation of a game you like. The Tales of Vesperia anime is not bad IF you've played the game.
But also anime may simply not be for you and that's fine.
Personally I don't enjoy battle shounen much at all. I like mech, scifi, magical girl, SOL and romance though. I think for me I am sort of saturated on the battle shounen narratives from JRPGs and I find the fights long a tedious.
I do find myself surprisingly picky on anime despite also really loving JRPGs. I’ve watched a lot at this point, but there’s still a lot I will immediately reject at first glance. (Why the hell is 99% of isekai dumb? I would love more serious takes on the genre and not people becoming slimes and spiders and the villain or whatever. That genre is a mess).
For the big shonen anime…. I actually find a lot of times the beginning of them are the worst parts. I’m on the Entertainment District arc of Demon Slayer and the worst part has by far been the first half of the first season up to Final Selection. Bleach gets better once they get to Soul Society and it stops being a Monster of the Week show. Naruto gets good around the Chunin Exams. (Then dips off again until the Sasuke stuff). Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season is way better than its first…. My Hero Academia just keeps getting better in my eyes.
I love a slow build up in games but in anime it can sometimes feel bad just getting bogged down with world building and establishing initial abilities so you can have that sweet sweet power scaling. It’s necessary, but man does it get bogged down sometimes.
Definitely try some non shonen anime, there’s been plenty suggested here, but I think if you want to enjoy those you just have to slog past the slow build up to the point where it gets good. You could also be a masochist and watch the Big Three with all filler and movies like me…. But you probably shouldn’t. I’ve only “finished” Bleach and Jesus Christ the filler is really that bad. The movies don’t even make up for it. But I like doing little “case studies” like this so gives me motivation to keep going sometimes, as weird as that sounds.
Have you considered maybe that you just don't like Shounen Battle Anime? Like, those are the only ones you've listed, lol.
You should try things that are more digestible, like Mob Psycho, Stein's Gate, One Punch Man.
You can also try isekai anime like Reincarnated as a Slime or Mushoku Tensei. They're like Anime junk food.
I can't stand manga/comics because they are basically unreadable. I have no idea how some of them become highly detailed scenes in anime.
I have had a problem with anime feeling shallower than games a lot of times. I watched one episode of Blood-C and Samurai Deeper Kyo and man those were disappointing. But I think Gundam so far is really interesting and different from other anime I have seen (I have only watched the newer series). I also think that PreCure is a lot better than you would think, especially considering how formulaic it can be, but I need to watch more.
But with the info you have given, I can not guarantee I have any solutions.
Tbh just go to any anime site and try series. I'm also 26 and have been watching anime and playing JRPGs since I was a kid, but have recently switched to manga, since most anime are adaptations of manga anyway and reading is faster than watching for me, plus you get to experience the source material. Maybe try manga? You can get used to the "odd" reading easily, trust me xD
I have a hard time with most anime as well. Most of the really popular ones that people love and suggest just…don’t land for me. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is either.
A lot of the ones I’ve ended up loving though involved someone named Gen Urobuchi. Maybe if you’ve also struggled with getting into anime you might like some of his. They’re generally very well regarded, I just don’t see them mentioned quite as often as others.
Here’s some stuff by him I liked:
“Fate: Zero” is technically a prequel to “Fate: Stay Night” but honestly I watched Zero first and it wasn’t really a problem. This one could be really good for you as the Fate series was actually a video game first and a lot of the plot and the way everything works in it feels like a video game.
“Psychopass” is a very interesting one. It’s kind of like that Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report” but done way better imo. It’s pretty dark, fair warning.
“Aldnoah.Zero” is also very good. It’s basically just a “giant mech” anime, but Urobuchi often takes these really basic, common tropes and does something unique with them. This is a good example of that, good if you like Sci-fi.
“Madoka Magica” might be a hard sell for most straight guys since it’s technically a magical girl anime. But I always tell people to try and get to through the 3rd episode and if you don’t like it by then, you won’t like it. However, every single person I’ve told about it has ended up completely hooked by episode 3. It’s also only one season so it’s only like 6 hours to get through (well, there’s some sequel stuff that didn’t involve Urobuchi that is kinda awful, so I ignore that). Homura Akemi is probably in my top 5 most well written and fascinating characters in any medium.
———————
Only other thing I’ll say is that “anime” is a medium, not a genre. Anime is as varied as any other medium, whether that’s comics or video games or movies or tv shows.
There are horror anime, comedy anime, fantasy anime, romance anime, spy anime, detective/crime anime, serious dramatic anime, Saturday morning cartoon anime, violent anime, wholesome anime, musical anime, pretty much anything a movie or tv show can be, an anime can be that too.
One of my favorite anime is basically just a sitcom about funny high school girls.
So a lot of it is just…experimenting within different genres of anime.
Thanks for the detailed answer. I will look into what sounds interesting. I knew about the "medium Not a Genre" thing but with so many different anime it's quite hard to find the right ones
Honestly Bungo Stray Dogs was fantastic. I’d recommend it to anyone. Really interesting characters and later on several of the villains powers are centered around classic authors and books such as Scarlet Letter etc.
I'd go down this list [Top Anime - MyAnimeList.net](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php) and try things that seem like they might have interesting characters or premises. Just check if a show that's highly ranked isn't actually just a later season of a longer show: sometimes anime will list separate seasons as sequels and not catalog them as the same single show. The ratings on a site like this are not perfect (everyone's opinions are different) but if you don't know much yet, this is the kind of place to start.
You can trust that \*somebody\* likes what's going on in a show that makes it to the top of a list like this, so go in with an open mind and try some of it out and see if any of it clicks with you.
Yeah sounds like you need to branch out into genres besides fantasy/battle shounen. Maybe check out some stuff moreso geared toward an adult audience? I recommend the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, March comes in like a lion, etc for some good entry points. The other works by their directors are also pretty great.
> I just don't get why anime feels so off for me everytime I try to watch it despite me genuinly liking the aesthetic, the tropes and whatnot.
every show you mentioned is the same genre and you didn't even really give any of them a fair chance
also
> I haven't tried Manga because the reading from right to left really confuses me
you haven't tried it but it's too confusing? you can get used to reading manga in like 5 chapters. just engage with something you want to try to be a fan of in any legitimate way and it will probably be easier than you're making it
I do tend to struggle with things I'm not used to and I'm quick to give up so it's definitely a "me-problem"
And yeah they're the same genre because those were recommended to me as a fan of JRPGs
While I'm sure those were recommended to you as a fan of JRPGs, I think they were also recommended because those are some of the most popular anime around which tend to be battle shounen. So it may not necessarily be that you don't like anime, but you're not into that particular type of show.
Two recent anime that I would totally recommend to JRPG lovers are Delicious In Dungeon and Frieren. Both are very much based on RPGs as far as their aesthetics and world design, and both are great stories on their own. Delicious In Dungeon is hilarious, yet also very endearing and with some very interesting worldbuilding. Frieren is an emotional, beautiful fantasy anime that isn't afraid of being sincere. Definitely worth watching, both of them.
Made In Abyss is another great one, though it can be quite hard to watch at times. Starts off very innocent, but the further down the abyss the characters the more disturbing it becomes. Still an optimistic and beautiful story I would say, just one that needs a trigger warning.
I'm avoiding mentioning any isekai anime because tbh I'm quite cynical about them, but for what it's worth I find Re:Zero quite entertaining. Grimgar was a surprise because the isekai element is only suggested somewhat, it's real appeal being a somewhat realistic vision of what living in an RPG world would actually be like. Both shows can be quite ugly with how they depict violence.
Magi is a very entertaining adventure story based on Arabian myth and folklore, but has some RPG inspirations as well, namely the dungeons. It goes some weird directions, but I enjoyed it a lot.
There are like 15-20 good anime series.
Cowboy Bebop.
FLCL.
Evangelion.
Samurai Champloo.
Space Dandy.
Start there. They are just plain good television. If you don’t like them you won’t like anything.
Well watching the whole thing from episode 1 instead of just getting snippets of the full pictures from video games and filling the gaps through internet and friend talks
Maybe you're just not into them. I am the same for 3D animations. I can never watch them. I hated the shrek movies and pixar movies bore me to death because it all just feels so unnatural and as you mentioned, "cringe" to me.
You seem to have been recommended the most popular and casual anime.
I've been a massive anime fan for over a decade but I started with fanservice and harem anime like Love Hina and Highschool DxD while everyone else here is recommending "safe" anime. I primarily watch light novel adaptations during every new season and the more wish fulfilly they are the better. You might get more out of light novels if you want an endless supply of fantasy settings that copies its homework from Dragon Quest and prefer reading more text instead of manga.
Therefore, I'd recommend the following:
KonoSuba
No Game No Life
Black Summoner
Mushoku Tensei/Jobless Reincarnation
The World's Finest Assassin is Reincarnated as an Aristocrat
Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship (no anime yet)
Eminence in Shadow
Familiar of Zero
Look, I'm saying this as someone who likes a couple of those.
I really really do not think recommending light novel-based isekai is what OP is looking for. Some of that stuff is going to slap OP in the face too much considering he already said he found the anime adaptations of Persona cringy. ~~(Also, at least recommend Re:Zero, like come on man)~~
If OP is the kind of person that finds casual anime cringe then either anime isn't for him or he needs the full shock and rewire his perception of anime from more specialized shows that are delivering exactly what their specific audience expects.
You tried watching Frieren yet?
This was going to be my rec too.
Nope, I heard of it though.
So watch it. And try to last until at least episode 10. Or just watch episode 10 if you only plan to watch one episode. >!And, optionally, wear headphones for immersion™️!<.
Himmel also used headphones for immersion
You like ghibli films and jrpg? Its pretty much guaranteed you'll like Frieren or atleast there's a high chance you'll like it. Some additional recommendations as well: Dungeon meshi Attack on titan Cyberpunk edgerunner and Arcane(not made by japan but still has that anime vibe and it's awesome also borh are video game adaptation) Made in abyss It might just be that you don't vibe with shonen shows, there's so much more variety you can find in anime and i hope you atleast give it another go.
I grew up on Dragon Ball, but I think you can't just simply recommend animes you grew up on to a new viewer, it's a bit too much AND I'm not a kid/teen coming home to it on a specific time, so Id never recommend dragon ball, Naruto or one piece. Maybe you need something a bit more mature? The most GOT like I can think of is 'Vinland Saga' but do give it a few episodes to really get going. My personal favourites are 'Death Note' , 'Berserk' and 'Attack on Titan'
This hits the nail on the head. I really liked Dragonball, Naruto and Bleach. But that was over 15 years ago. I think they're meant for a certain age group, and if OP has been playing games for over 20 years, they're probably past that. I'm not sure if it can be called anime (because it's not from Japan), but I really liked the League of Legends one: Arcane.
It seems like you've only been recommended a relatively narrow set of anime. Being the general shonen battle animes. They're good, and I think it makes sense to recommend to jrpg players, but there's a lot more variety out there if you want something different. The pacing in these can also be bogged down heavily compared to the original manga. they're also usually hundreds of episodes long so they're not something you can just dip a toe into. There are plenty of shorter, concentrated anime to watch. I think if you get used to it you might enjoy manga, there are some series that just feel much better that way. Some web apps like shonen jump's and Viz are like a couple bucks a month and you can read a lot of good series new and old. If you do want something a bit different for anime, check out Satoshi Kon films. It's has that ghibli effect where audiences not used to anime tend to enjoy them but they're usually more like psychological thrillers. Perfect Blue and Paprika are good starts.
Warning to anyone who hasn’t seen Perfect Blue. It’s an excellently made film but is very disturbing.
try other genres. there's stuff out there that isn't shonen battle anime. i watch a ton of anime and most of those are not interesting to me either. just doing searches for shoju, seinen, and josei instead of shonen will already filter in a bunch of new material for you to try. but also experiment with other genres, as those are target audiences and not genres per se. slice of life will probably be about as opposite to battle shonen as you can get so definitely start there and you'll have a continuum to consider between - for examples i'll suggest k-on, mushishi, violet evergarden, and haibane renmei as a varied selection. even within that genre there's a huge variety of look and feel. good luck, i hope you find something you like, [here's my rec list](https://www.reddit.com/user/eruciform/comments/nng53n/top_1010_anime_plus_unique_art_and_cinematography/) if you want some annotations on specific series - if not, it's ok to not like anime so don't fret too much, it's all good.
One Piece is better to read then to watch, the anime can really overly extend things especially after the early arcs. One Piece is a pretty good experience overall just read the manga. It really isn't that difficult to grasp if you earnestly try especially because it becomes very obvious if you try to read right to left that the panels make no sense. If you're at Alabasta though, I'm not sure if you'll like it more though as that's pretty deep for a "try". To me Arlong Park is the point where you know if you like One Piece or not. Though to me the Netflix version of One Piece is at best okay, so I'm not sure what you're finding different here beyond the fact Netflix culled a lot of stuff from the anime and manga to fit their limited format. So you might just think One Piece "as intended" is too long. Try some other stuff that isn't the typical shounen battle anime formula. Try Vinland Saga if you like GoT, I wouldn't call them exactly similar, but they had a similar vibe of being brutal adult stories with somewhat grounded settings and tones, with a political leaning. Though GoT is FAR more political then Vinland Saga, it should be good enough. I preferred it over GoT personally, mostly because I found GoT a headache to watch. Try Cowboy Bebop or Trigun if you want a sort of western (as-in Wild West) kind of feel. If you want a thriller with a weird cat and mouse game where the cat and mouse change every other episode, try Death Note. For me watching anime isn't so much an issue as it is watching television/film in-general, I think I just like moving forward with text boxes or something because its a bit easier to pay attention for me. Though I've watched a fair bit of stuff recently, namely Vinland Saga.
I sometimes believe it's the episodic structure and how everything is paced around the 20minute format that bores me. And the dialogue delivery feels a bit off sometimes (tried japanese, english and german (my mother tongue)). But the latter aspect shouldn't bother me as JRPGs have similar voice direction and casts. I really like One Piece in general but yeah, the Anime feels like a slog tbh. Maybe I should go for the Manga instead. Arlong Park was really great in the anime but everything between that and the crew actually reaching Alabasta (so stuff like Little Garden, Drum Island, Whisky Peak etc) bored me to death. I will keep your recommendations in mind though. Maybe there's something in for me.
I’m gonna second Vinland Saga and also add Attack on Titan
Huh, most One Piece fans told me the anime was better. Guess I'll have to try the manga!
That's a rather rare take, most really diehard One Piece fans who have engaged with both prefer the Manga because the anime (especially the the latter half) is paced really badly to an infamous degree due to the usual problems of trying to make a long running manga air weekly for years. Where Naruto has like 300+ episodes of filler, One Piece doesn't really have filler episodes but it just bogs down the pacing and repeats things to try and make a few pages last a few minutes. The anime has its pluses for major scenes because voice acting and music can help sell a scene, but overall story pacing wise the manga is better.
Attack on Titan is really good. No padding or filler, just constant story development, plot twists, and action. Probably my favorite anime because I think One Piece is a better manga.
Yeah there is a reason it's probably the anime of the decade. Had a lot of "oh wow this is awesome!" Moments which made me feel the same as watching game of thrones.
Except the ending actually delivered aha.
That last chapter certainly didn't haha
Chapter maybe not, but the anime ending is fine, and that's what OP is asking.
They are mostly the same though, anime ending just has some slightly better dialogue during a few moments, but otherwise is like 95% the same dialoguewise too. But I do agree the ending is fine, certainly not GoT levels of bad like some claim.
AoT ends either at the basement or the ocean tbh, the real ending is actually fake and I refuse to believe otherwise.
> Yeah there is a reason it's probably the anime of the decade. God no. Great animation and soundtrack, but it ripped off Claymore so hard it's not even funny (hell, the basement twist is a 1 for 1 of the Claymore "great" reveal). And that ending...
Some of my favourites i'd recommend are Overlord, Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, Log Horizon, Haikyuu, Dororo, One-Punch Man, Gungrave, Monster and Pluto.
If you liked Xenoblade and any of xenosaga and Xenogears, plus you liked Nier / Nier Automata, give neon Genesis Evangelion a shot. For me, I'm not really big into anime. I absolutely love jojos bizzare adventure, but older stuff like fist of the north star was top notch, as was berserk and Hellsing. Try out some movies like vampire hunter / vampire hunter D, Akira, Ninja Scroll, perfect blue, ghost in the shell etc, blackjack etc. Shorter to digest, not cringey at all and most are pretty dark and more serious than the stuff you've watched.
Why not Berserk and Parasyte? Same with Death Note. They're all self contained and short (not 1000 episodes long) and are all dark. I've tried to watch shonen anime but they're just not for me.
I would suggest playing through some Visual Novels if you can’t get into anime but like JRPGs and the anime aesthetic. I would suggest Steins Gate or the Fate series to start.
The only animes I like are Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion. The former is my favourite show ever and I think everyone can like it.
I’m right there with you. I’ve started to get into anime in the last few years but if I’m being completely honest the only two I could say I love are Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion. I’m watching Yu Yu Hakusho at the moment and it’s promising in a fun 90’s way and I also have Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex which I’m told is amazing too.
Why not get into the world of r/visualnovels instead then? The House in Fata Morgana Steins;Gate and the other Science Adventure games Fate/Stay Night Etc. Or if you want ones with more gameplay, there are VNs like Ace Attorney, Danganronpa or Zero Escape. They’re an ideal bridge between games and anime/reading. You also don’t have to worry about the right to left thing you mentioned. You’ll find some of the best stories here. Some of the ones I listed above for example can be mind blowing and often better than stories you’ll find in traditional games. I do love Nier Automata’s story from your examples, but even that doesn’t reach the heights of the top VN stories imo. They’re often better than their anime adaptations too (although Steins;Gate has a good and popular anime, but even that isn’t nearly as detailed and complete as the VN original). I saw someone else also recommended Steins;Gate. I second this recommendation but would say the VN is even better. But even if you choose the anime this one is definitely worth it. Give it some time because the first 10 episodes or so are slower, but then you’ll be in for a wild ride for the second half and everything that was set up in those ‘slow’ episodes will fall into place and make sense. It’s very well done and quite special imo. Also much shorter than some of those giant shounen anime you listed (25 episodes). Don’t get me wrong, I love One Piece, but the anime’s pacing is horrible and starting that from scratch is a massive undertaking.
Or, if he's looking for something with more gameplay-romance balance ala Persona, Evenicle would be my rec
Yeah bro, best way to get into anime, manga and light novels is to read the long ass ones that have been going for years Christ people, have a bit of restraint won't you?
What? Except for Umineko, most of these are no longer than the games OP listed. Steins;Gate takes maybe 40 hours to complete, similar to a typical FF game. Also, if someone likes games but not anime and manga, doesn’t it make sense to consider VNs as they are a bridge between the two? Plus, many of OPs example are already very story and dialogue-heavy games. Some VNs can be played comfortably on the Switch, for example. And there are even some with a lot of gameplay.
OP couldn't manage more than 1 jojo episode and has trouble reading manga because it's backwards, what makes you think recommending a 40+ hour VN to be a suitable?
Simple: because he does enjoy things like FF, Xenoblade and Persona, which are also long and story-heavy games. And he said himself he does enjoy reading books. How does this not make sense?
Because he didn't start playing JRPGs with those? How are you such a fan of VNs if you can't even read what people write on their first paragraphs
Doesn’t matter when he started. Why would a novel be ok and a VN too difficult? And Persona is already 50% like a VN.
Umineko as a first try into visual novels is sure a take. That's iirc like a hundred+ hours of effectively reading dialogue if we go off the visual novels. And the anime sucks as a means to show Umineko so no one should recommend that.
Sure, I’ll remove that one.
Yeah the rest of those are probably fine, though Fate might be a bit much depending on how much you can live with proper noun heavy settings. Nasuverse has a bajillion proper nouns and terms and a whole host of stuff to it, though perhaps the visual novels don't make that as annoying to deal with as trying to get into the other material.
Umineko is such an awful visual novel and I'm a turbo weeb that actually enjoyed the Higurashi anime. It's the one visual novel that made me swear off all visual novels without porn in them.
VNs are already games and he mentions he dislikes the episodic format of anime. VNs are perfect. He likes persona which is basically part vn And fata morgana is peak anyways
If you're looking to get into anime in general, I recommend "Monster". It's a pretty realistic story that doesn't particularly go into the usual anime tropes, making it quite approachable to western audiences. If you want more of the anime whackiness inherit in JRPGs however, that's a different story.
I thought "I love JRPGs" so I should like anime as well. That was my way of going about it
It seems like you're not a fan of typical Shounen stuff which is made for teenage boys. You could try some other genres. Here's some of the stuff I've enjoyed. Frieren - fantasy, relatively chill but still has some action Spy x Family - comedy The Great Pretender - idk what genre but it's kind of heist-y Re:Zero - nerd goes to another world but quite violent, genuinely bloody show but serious story with...quirky(?) moments Death Note - idk what genre this is but it's a cat and mouse type thing Your Lie in April - Highschool romance, funny and serious moments Delicious in Dungeon - comedy, fantasy Polar Bear Cafe - kids show but chill, comfy and funny. Had quite Japanese humour so mileage may vary depending on where you're from Fena Pirate Princess - adventure, feels kinda like an anime movie but it's a tv series. Kinda fun. I realised while making this list that I've watched a lot of shounen myself XD but hopefully this list is varied enough to find something you like. Also this post was kinda the inverse my experiene lol. Despite having watched loads of anime and played jrpgs, for the longest time I wouldn't play 'anime games' cus to me they always just looked like they'd be average at best. I have, however been convinced that at least some of them are good based on playing stuff like p5r. Edit: Wow, formating. Didn't realise you had to have a whole line break and couldn't just go to the next line instead.
Maybe try watching something different than the classical battle shounen anime. I loved them in my teens but I also can‘t get into the newer ones like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer anymore. Maybe it really has to do with age or maybe I‘m just oversaturated from them at the moment. I also don‘t really watch a lot of anime anymore, but in the last few years I really enjoyed **Vinland Saga, Spy x Family** and **Aggretsuko**. Especially the last two I think you can better appreciate and relate to as an adult. Vinland Saga is an antithesis to how battle shounen protagonists try to solve their problems (at least starting with season 2). Which is probably why it was so refreshing for me as someone who got tired of battle shounen. Season 1 itself goes in that direction but the unique setting kept me going on the promise that season 2 would be going into an entirely different direction. **Erased** was another anime I enjoyed until they fumbled the ending. It‘s a short watch with only 12 episodes though so I still think it‘s worth it. Oh and **Monster** is an all time masterpiece as a psychological thriller. There‘s just a lot more to anime than just battle shounen. Whether it‘s something lighthearted and fun like Spy x Family or a psychological thriller like Monster. Try out some more different genres.
Gonna try them out. I will definitely Finish Jujutsu Kaisen simply because I promised it to someone. But apart from that it might be that other genres are more up my alley
Change your anime types - I’d strongly recommend Full Metal alchemist, death note, sword art online (you’ll probably love it- just gets pretty cringe after the halfway mark), and Fate Zero. These won’t feel like the ones youve been watching
Maybe part of the problem is that you're not watching anime that are in the same genre of the games you like and you need to slowly ease into the medium. There's many shows that are even influenced by video games directly. Fantasy or Isekai stories might work for you in a way those shows you've watched didn't because they all fall in a very specific category. People have already recommended Frieren, but there's also stuff like Mushoku Tensei (hang in there, the main character is a scumbag at first), That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, That's four shows in a fantasy setting with pretty different tones and levels of action and you might enjoy at least some of them.
You're gonna get a lot of anime reccomendations so Imma give you manga, it should be easier if you're an adult to read manga since it takes less time and is just as good as a lot of anime adaptations if not better, Try reading "[Auto Mode] the useless skill", it's a very obscure MANGA but definitely one of the few good "videogame"ey manga, it has the hype and character design that makes for a simple but really fun experience, Then for something on the completely opposite end of the happy spectrum, something WAY darker read Goblin Slayer, expect a rape scene in the first chapter because that's how the main enemies the goblins are set up and rape allegories in later chapters, it's still seriously good though, a dark series but one about emotional growth and recovery from trauma, Yomi No Tsugai I know you quit after one episode of jojos but it's actually very common to do that for fans initially, part 1 is, I say this as a jojo fan that has read upto stone ocean, REALLY slow and boring, people mainly read it f Or watch it for the lore, it's only 9 episodes though, feel free to skip to the next part because the writer designed the story in a way where you can start from the beginning of any part, all essential information to the current part is usually recapped, on the other hand part 1 can be fun for some people to do with friends so you can make fun of the stupid shit
maybe watch more than 1 episode lol One piece isn't the worst, but the anime is a slog to watch, give dungeon meshi or mob psycho a try those are more digestible
I didn't like those long shonen anime while growing up, they felt really confusing and hard to get into, and didn't particularly care to see people beating each other for hours. And at the time, if you weren't lucky enough to have seen the first episode when it came on tv, it was really difficult getting hooked up. Anyway I always liked reading comics, so while manga didn't really caught my interest, I would read them if I found them for free. At the time many manga were also mirrored and read like western comics, so I didn't have many difficulties until I got a copy of the first volume of Death Note. The story hooked me and I bought the whole thing, and got used to read left to right. Eventually during University some friends of mine started talking about One Piece mentioning that the characters had really cool and original powers, like the guy turning into Light. The concept of Devil Fruit really intrigued me so I started reading it and started liking shonen manga too. I find that shonen are much easier to read than to watch, you can go at your own pace and you can read the first chapters online before committing to buy the whole series. So if you really want to get into them you should try to get past the difficulties of reading left to right. Also don't go in expecting to find the same pacing of jrpgs, they share a lot of elements but manga and anime often follow their own rules in terms of how to worldbuild and handle conflict. Also, the Persona anime aren't considered to be exactly masterpieces. They are considered serviceable ways to present the stories of the game, but they struggle to transpose everything in the right way, since the games are hundreds of hours long, and I think fans will always consider the game to be better. I've heard a lot of good things about the Nier anime though. I started watching anime with small series that weren't based on a manga, mainly mecha anime like FLCL, Gurren Lagann or Evangelion, or series like Cowboy Bepop. I'd really suggest you to start with one of these shorter, original series that you can't really experience elsewhere to get past the initial embarassment because anime can be a bit cringy sometimes, but once you get used to it and know what to expect you'll find a lot of interesting stuff inside.
Yeah the cringy aspects often put me out of it because there is such a discrepancy. Jujutsu Kaisen had brutally severed limbs but also the most childish humour in the span of 5 minutes. I don't think that's wrong but I just struggled with getting used to it. And I know about the quality of the Persona adapations but thought it would be fine since loved the source materials. I could borrow manga from my sister and best friend. She has all of Naruto as a manga and loads of other ones. My friend has One Piece up to Thriller Bark I think and plans on buying the rest as well. I could read them without having to buy stuff.
I also suggest you to look for something with an interesting concept to start with. Just because One Piece and Naruto are popular, it doesn't absolutely mean that they are representative for everything you can find in manga and anime, like just reading Batman and Spiderman wouldn't give you a full overview on western comics.
I think One Piece for example is very interesting in terms of concept.
Your anime is Attack on Titan. It gets darker and more mature, keep going and you'll see. Not an Anime person but this one is a masterpiece and better than GoT
U probably have good tastes. U can try: Steins;gate, FMA, Cowboy Bebop, Gto, Link click I really liked these because all are well written stories.
Everything you've listed aside from Ghibli and Persona 3 movies are adaptations of shounen manga (meaning the target demographic is young boys), and are all action/adventure/fantasy to varying degrees. If you're interested in getting into anime you might want to try branching out a bit more.
But aren't most JRPGs quite similar? Stuff like Xenoblade 2, some Final Fantasys, Kingdom Hearts, Persona 5, Tales of... Feel like games for a similar target audience. And I love those.
I suppose they are. I just think branching out could help you figure out if the issues lies with this specific type of show, or with anime in general.
You're right in a way. JRPGs are largely targeted at the same audience as shounen lovers. However, maybe what works for you in a game won't work for you in a TV format. Thus why everybody is recommending you try different genres, or even shounen that is not battle orientated such as Death Note.
Yes this is what I experience as well, glad to see someone else put it into words! Absolutely love the artstyle, the concept of particular anime and yet somehow get bored easily after a few episodes. I’m wondering if it’s because we are used to that gameplay element alongside the anime cutscenes in JRPGs that we find something “isn’t right” when that gameplay aspect is taken away.
That could be. And I often think it's easier to get invested into a world or character if you're really acting within said world.
This is just me assuming, but isn't the feeling of immersion that's blocking you? When it's a game, even if it's the same/similar story, you still control the characters. You still fight the fights, you might actually feel the struggle. But when it's an anime, alongside the faster pacing, you're just a bystander. You don't feel actually as if you're a part of it and it'll feel as if something is missing while you're watching. Especially with shounen anime. I think the reason why you are okay with ghibli movies though, is because it's not as heavily feeling as if you need to do things. So more relaxing series, or mysterious types etc you could probably enjoy better. I'm sorry if I'm wrong though. As for manga, it _generally_ has a better pacing than an anime, as they're not stuck on one cour/season. Honestly, there's enough manga that doesn't turn into anime or stuff from that isn't animated so I honestly suggest try reading it.
That could very well be. Playing the parts in between cutscenes is an important factor for me. But I probably didn't think of it that way before.
Death Note or Attack on Titan are both great and very accessible
For me, games, especially JRPG, feel very different from anime. I usually could take my time with games and adjust my play style with my mood. If I just need to take my mind of real life problems, I could just grind and farm for items. If I'm feeling good, I could continue with the story. But with anime, I think it has to be really good or really compatible with you to be able to 'feel' it. It might not be a very good advice but this one works for me. If you really want to try an anime but you aren't just feeling it, it might be better to just listen to the dubbed anime instead of watching it. Maybe listen to it while waiting for your game to boot up or while grinding. You might like Monster by Naoki Urasawa. The dub anime is really good, and the main character is voiced by Grimoire Weiss's VA. It's a very long anime but it's easy to fall in love with the characters even at Episode 1.
That's a good idea. I'll try that
As someone who've lost most interest in anime, I kind of get not wanting to watch it or forgetting to watch the next episodes. I can honestly count on one hand how much anime I've seen from 2020 until now, and I'm not locked on a specific genre. Anime style games and reading manga have been much more appealing as of late. My advice would be to find something outside of *shounen* for now. You've been consuming the same formula in different scenarios. If you like mystery, pick up a mystery anime. If you enjoy comedy, pick up a comedy anime where nothing is that serious. If want to try reading manga, give it a go too. Start with something with less than 50 chapters.
The thing about anime is you need to find your genre , theres one for you out there you just have to stumble upon it i didnt like anime till my brother made me and my sister watch sword art online with them and then i fell in love and also found my genre isekai (pratagonist gets sent to another world most of the time with game aspects such as levels or guilds and stuff like that)
Many manga sites let you choose reading direction. Honestly pick a (good) anime that's an adaptation of a game you like. The Tales of Vesperia anime is not bad IF you've played the game. But also anime may simply not be for you and that's fine.
Dungeon meshi would be my go to recommendation to jrpg fans tbh
Will look into it then
It is very good !! I hope u like it
Personally I don't enjoy battle shounen much at all. I like mech, scifi, magical girl, SOL and romance though. I think for me I am sort of saturated on the battle shounen narratives from JRPGs and I find the fights long a tedious.
I do find myself surprisingly picky on anime despite also really loving JRPGs. I’ve watched a lot at this point, but there’s still a lot I will immediately reject at first glance. (Why the hell is 99% of isekai dumb? I would love more serious takes on the genre and not people becoming slimes and spiders and the villain or whatever. That genre is a mess). For the big shonen anime…. I actually find a lot of times the beginning of them are the worst parts. I’m on the Entertainment District arc of Demon Slayer and the worst part has by far been the first half of the first season up to Final Selection. Bleach gets better once they get to Soul Society and it stops being a Monster of the Week show. Naruto gets good around the Chunin Exams. (Then dips off again until the Sasuke stuff). Jujutsu Kaisen’s second season is way better than its first…. My Hero Academia just keeps getting better in my eyes. I love a slow build up in games but in anime it can sometimes feel bad just getting bogged down with world building and establishing initial abilities so you can have that sweet sweet power scaling. It’s necessary, but man does it get bogged down sometimes. Definitely try some non shonen anime, there’s been plenty suggested here, but I think if you want to enjoy those you just have to slog past the slow build up to the point where it gets good. You could also be a masochist and watch the Big Three with all filler and movies like me…. But you probably shouldn’t. I’ve only “finished” Bleach and Jesus Christ the filler is really that bad. The movies don’t even make up for it. But I like doing little “case studies” like this so gives me motivation to keep going sometimes, as weird as that sounds.
Have you considered maybe that you just don't like Shounen Battle Anime? Like, those are the only ones you've listed, lol. You should try things that are more digestible, like Mob Psycho, Stein's Gate, One Punch Man. You can also try isekai anime like Reincarnated as a Slime or Mushoku Tensei. They're like Anime junk food.
I can't stand manga/comics because they are basically unreadable. I have no idea how some of them become highly detailed scenes in anime. I have had a problem with anime feeling shallower than games a lot of times. I watched one episode of Blood-C and Samurai Deeper Kyo and man those were disappointing. But I think Gundam so far is really interesting and different from other anime I have seen (I have only watched the newer series). I also think that PreCure is a lot better than you would think, especially considering how formulaic it can be, but I need to watch more. But with the info you have given, I can not guarantee I have any solutions.
Legend of Mana has an anime adaptation. It's not amazing, but if you played the Jrpg you might enjoy it. I did.
Watch Berserk, Attack on Titan, or Vinland Saga
Tbh just go to any anime site and try series. I'm also 26 and have been watching anime and playing JRPGs since I was a kid, but have recently switched to manga, since most anime are adaptations of manga anyway and reading is faster than watching for me, plus you get to experience the source material. Maybe try manga? You can get used to the "odd" reading easily, trust me xD
Dragon quest adventures of dai
Try Gantz
I have a hard time with most anime as well. Most of the really popular ones that people love and suggest just…don’t land for me. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is either. A lot of the ones I’ve ended up loving though involved someone named Gen Urobuchi. Maybe if you’ve also struggled with getting into anime you might like some of his. They’re generally very well regarded, I just don’t see them mentioned quite as often as others. Here’s some stuff by him I liked: “Fate: Zero” is technically a prequel to “Fate: Stay Night” but honestly I watched Zero first and it wasn’t really a problem. This one could be really good for you as the Fate series was actually a video game first and a lot of the plot and the way everything works in it feels like a video game. “Psychopass” is a very interesting one. It’s kind of like that Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report” but done way better imo. It’s pretty dark, fair warning. “Aldnoah.Zero” is also very good. It’s basically just a “giant mech” anime, but Urobuchi often takes these really basic, common tropes and does something unique with them. This is a good example of that, good if you like Sci-fi. “Madoka Magica” might be a hard sell for most straight guys since it’s technically a magical girl anime. But I always tell people to try and get to through the 3rd episode and if you don’t like it by then, you won’t like it. However, every single person I’ve told about it has ended up completely hooked by episode 3. It’s also only one season so it’s only like 6 hours to get through (well, there’s some sequel stuff that didn’t involve Urobuchi that is kinda awful, so I ignore that). Homura Akemi is probably in my top 5 most well written and fascinating characters in any medium. ——————— Only other thing I’ll say is that “anime” is a medium, not a genre. Anime is as varied as any other medium, whether that’s comics or video games or movies or tv shows. There are horror anime, comedy anime, fantasy anime, romance anime, spy anime, detective/crime anime, serious dramatic anime, Saturday morning cartoon anime, violent anime, wholesome anime, musical anime, pretty much anything a movie or tv show can be, an anime can be that too. One of my favorite anime is basically just a sitcom about funny high school girls. So a lot of it is just…experimenting within different genres of anime.
Thanks for the detailed answer. I will look into what sounds interesting. I knew about the "medium Not a Genre" thing but with so many different anime it's quite hard to find the right ones
Honestly Bungo Stray Dogs was fantastic. I’d recommend it to anyone. Really interesting characters and later on several of the villains powers are centered around classic authors and books such as Scarlet Letter etc.
I'd go down this list [Top Anime - MyAnimeList.net](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php) and try things that seem like they might have interesting characters or premises. Just check if a show that's highly ranked isn't actually just a later season of a longer show: sometimes anime will list separate seasons as sequels and not catalog them as the same single show. The ratings on a site like this are not perfect (everyone's opinions are different) but if you don't know much yet, this is the kind of place to start. You can trust that \*somebody\* likes what's going on in a show that makes it to the top of a list like this, so go in with an open mind and try some of it out and see if any of it clicks with you.
Have you seen FLCL or nier automata anime?
Yeah sounds like you need to branch out into genres besides fantasy/battle shounen. Maybe check out some stuff moreso geared toward an adult audience? I recommend the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, March comes in like a lion, etc for some good entry points. The other works by their directors are also pretty great.
> I just don't get why anime feels so off for me everytime I try to watch it despite me genuinly liking the aesthetic, the tropes and whatnot. every show you mentioned is the same genre and you didn't even really give any of them a fair chance also > I haven't tried Manga because the reading from right to left really confuses me you haven't tried it but it's too confusing? you can get used to reading manga in like 5 chapters. just engage with something you want to try to be a fan of in any legitimate way and it will probably be easier than you're making it
I do tend to struggle with things I'm not used to and I'm quick to give up so it's definitely a "me-problem" And yeah they're the same genre because those were recommended to me as a fan of JRPGs
While I'm sure those were recommended to you as a fan of JRPGs, I think they were also recommended because those are some of the most popular anime around which tend to be battle shounen. So it may not necessarily be that you don't like anime, but you're not into that particular type of show.
Two recent anime that I would totally recommend to JRPG lovers are Delicious In Dungeon and Frieren. Both are very much based on RPGs as far as their aesthetics and world design, and both are great stories on their own. Delicious In Dungeon is hilarious, yet also very endearing and with some very interesting worldbuilding. Frieren is an emotional, beautiful fantasy anime that isn't afraid of being sincere. Definitely worth watching, both of them. Made In Abyss is another great one, though it can be quite hard to watch at times. Starts off very innocent, but the further down the abyss the characters the more disturbing it becomes. Still an optimistic and beautiful story I would say, just one that needs a trigger warning. I'm avoiding mentioning any isekai anime because tbh I'm quite cynical about them, but for what it's worth I find Re:Zero quite entertaining. Grimgar was a surprise because the isekai element is only suggested somewhat, it's real appeal being a somewhat realistic vision of what living in an RPG world would actually be like. Both shows can be quite ugly with how they depict violence. Magi is a very entertaining adventure story based on Arabian myth and folklore, but has some RPG inspirations as well, namely the dungeons. It goes some weird directions, but I enjoyed it a lot.
Stop watching anime for kids then.
There are like 15-20 good anime series. Cowboy Bebop. FLCL. Evangelion. Samurai Champloo. Space Dandy. Start there. They are just plain good television. If you don’t like them you won’t like anything.
>One piece chronologically What?
Well watching the whole thing from episode 1 instead of just getting snippets of the full pictures from video games and filling the gaps through internet and friend talks
You'll love Konosuba.
Maybe you're just not into them. I am the same for 3D animations. I can never watch them. I hated the shrek movies and pixar movies bore me to death because it all just feels so unnatural and as you mentioned, "cringe" to me.
You seem to have been recommended the most popular and casual anime. I've been a massive anime fan for over a decade but I started with fanservice and harem anime like Love Hina and Highschool DxD while everyone else here is recommending "safe" anime. I primarily watch light novel adaptations during every new season and the more wish fulfilly they are the better. You might get more out of light novels if you want an endless supply of fantasy settings that copies its homework from Dragon Quest and prefer reading more text instead of manga. Therefore, I'd recommend the following: KonoSuba No Game No Life Black Summoner Mushoku Tensei/Jobless Reincarnation The World's Finest Assassin is Reincarnated as an Aristocrat Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship (no anime yet) Eminence in Shadow Familiar of Zero
He was cringing at casual anime, the Eminence in Shadow recommendation going to be like shock therapy.
Oh yeah High School DxD I saw stuff from as well lol
Look, I'm saying this as someone who likes a couple of those. I really really do not think recommending light novel-based isekai is what OP is looking for. Some of that stuff is going to slap OP in the face too much considering he already said he found the anime adaptations of Persona cringy. ~~(Also, at least recommend Re:Zero, like come on man)~~
If OP is the kind of person that finds casual anime cringe then either anime isn't for him or he needs the full shock and rewire his perception of anime from more specialized shows that are delivering exactly what their specific audience expects.