Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

Bygone days spent as an otaku, often captured in OVA format, have been lost as trends shifted. It’s undeniably melancholic to see the evolving portrayal of otaku in a meta-sense and slowly watching the dwindling importance of Akiba-kei.

This will serve as a continually-updated list of anime that I feel are representative of "otakucore" being a type of show that promonently features otaku characters as one of the main characters, and depictes the zeitgeist of otaku culture/Akiba-kei during the time of airing. Some are less obvious as otaku-oriented, but still contain many elements that are appealing to databasing-types (computers, figures, video games etc.)

Genshiken, Daicon IV and Otaku no Video are the essentials :3

(Still adding WIP)

As the title said, this is a collection of romantic comedy anime I had hunted since I started watching anime. Most will be School themed with your cliche plots and some will be a really worth to watch. So If you are finding some good romcom, I recommend that you try all entries in this stack.
Note: I already created a part 2 of this stack so if you want more romcom anime you can check out my created stack in my account. All hail the romcom god!

Anime where the male lead (or major supporting actor) wears glasses

This is a weird concept for a list, but I think it's worth putting it out there. These are anime which I consider help understand anime better because of their referential humour, commentary on otaku culture (whether it's anime or gaming), exploration of the industry and twisting of classic tropes in self-aware ways that put them in perspective. Also included a couple shows which are not necessarily meta or referential, but they are here for being aggresively "anime" in nature, if that makes sense. With how over the top they are and/or how stereotypically otaku their concepts are, I think they give a good idea of how anime has developed.

Note: If you truly want to understand otaku culture and anime history, I think an absolute essential is a short show called "Blue Blazers". It is live action however, so it can't be added here. I strongly recommend you check it out, even if the humour can be cringy, because of how deep of an insight it gives into the history of anime and the industry.

cute cupid always needed

Romance anime that are set in the (kinda) real world, adapted from light novels. No GL, BL or for-female titles (sorry)

I like this cliché HAHAHAHA I will put only the ones that I liked or that I am seeing, ordered from the best to the most normal (but good)

Anime that either has a lot of fanservice, or is classed as ecchi or erotica.

Girls with big eyes and small brains...If you are in love with this art style then step no further than these animes that helped create and perfect it!