Debate: Best Recommendations for Newbies?

There is no master list of best anime. And if there were, it would be this one here.
https://tezukaosamu.net/en/anime

@Lucifrost I don't believe you read my post

I guess it’s a good list, I might have changed Hetalia and Shimoneta for something else if I made it but overall it seems like you got some good recommendations here.

The best recomendation list for new people entering anime is always them should watch sth based on the gernes they already watched in other mediums such as live action, as everyone are different thus having different tastes and priorotizes different values of storytelling.

For example, just because I like adventure, slice of life/comedy (Tie), historical hence weekly shonen jump (for adventure and slice of life/comedy) and weekly shonen sunday for laid back stories are my favorites does not mean many other people will like it neither as them may prefer sports genre, mystery genre etc etc.

@jacobPOL I understand. But this is just for fun. Pretending someone googled "Top 10 beginner anime" and wanted to find what lists would show up

Perhaps the "great 10" would suffice as the perfect list for beginner anime.

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I would just do the boring thing and fall back on movies, from Studio Ghibli and Satoshi Kon. Plus Your Name, Wolf Children and A Silent Voice.

They're the most universal and inoffensive picks with minimal "anime BS," and they also all happen to be great movies.

When it comes to series, I also think Mushishi and Frieren are easy recommendations, but that person has to be okay with something slow, meandering and atmosphere-heavy. I can imagine some people squirming in their seats, asking, "what is the point of all of this"?

Haven't considered Bocchi the Rock until now, but I do think it's a good CGDCT for newbies, because it's got music, is mainly a comedy and is not sickeningly cutesy and sweet.

I'd probably pick something out from:

Demon Slayer
Vinland Saga S1
Great Pretender
Haikyuu (alternatively Chihayafuru)
Erased
Cowboy Bebop
Violet Evergarden
Kaguya-sama

I still wouldn't throw the entire list at someone, though. And always check beyond the list. Everyone's too different.

Perhaps the "great 10" would suffice as the perfect list for beginner anime.

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I don't like any of those except Ghibli, and even then only sometimes. I dislike most of your suggested series too.

@Lucifrost Okay. And?

I wasn't trying to list what you personally like. I wasn't even trying to list what I personally like. The thread topic is about what I think newbies would like. Or, more precisely, what has the highest probability of being liked by newbies.

Fuck 10 titles, why even limit the shit to a specific number? Why even suggest one should fucking watch all of them? If they just watch a handful of titles from this curated list that I randomly dumped out and someone enjoy a single title, then "mission accomplished!" / "Job done" / "education over" / they are on their own now... i didn't even rank the shit and just randomly dumped a list of 25 titles, just because that was the limit https://gqgs.github.io/3x3-generator/ would let me fucking produce in a single image. lol



"Agent AIKa", "Cowboy Bebop", "009-1", "Dragon Ball", "Food Wars!", "Full Metal Panic!", "Girls und Panzer", "Goblin Slayer", "Ikkitousen", "Initial D First Stage", "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?", "Kiddy Grade", "Hellsing", "Great Teacher Onizuka", "Golgo 13 (TV)", "Dirty Pair", "Burn Up Excess", "Bubblegum Crisis", "Blood+", "Trigun", "Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar", "Slayers", "Rune Soldier", "Project A-Ko", "Desert Punk", etc...

Who gives a shit how proper of an anime fan one is or not... if someone isn't into a few of the titles I have listed above, I "probably" wouldn't want much to do with them to begin with and think it would be lame to ever have a conversation with them about anime in the 1st place. lol

And User on this platform who have been into this medium for at least a decade and aren't into even half the titles I have listed, then they probably take this medium too fucking seriously anyways. lol

@ColourWheel That's a great list, a lot of variety and interesting titles

I didn't "suggest one should fucking watch all of them" so I'm not sure what you're talking about there. I just listed some anime that I thought newcomers like to check out.

Fuck 10 titles, why even limit the shit to a specific number? Why even suggest one should fucking watch all of them? If they just watch a handful of titles from this curated list that I randomly dumped out and someone enjoy a single title, then "mission accomplished!" / "Job done" / "education over" / they are on their own now... i didn't even rank the shit and just randomly dumped a list of 25 titles, just because that was the limit https://gqgs.github.io/3x3-generator/ would let me fucking produce in a single image. lol



"Agent AIKa", "Cowboy Bebop", "009-1", "Dragon Ball", "Food Wars!", "Full Metal Panic!", "Girls und Panzer", "Goblin Slayer", "Ikkitousen", "Initial D First Stage", "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?", "Kiddy Grade", "Hellsing", "Great Teacher Onizuka", "Golgo 13 (TV)", "Dirty Pair", "Burn Up Excess", "Bubblegum Crisis", "Blood+", "Trigun", "Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar", "Slayers", "Rune Soldier", "Project A-Ko", "Desert Punk", etc...

Who gives a shit how proper of an anime fan one is or not... if someone isn't into a few of the titles I have listed above, I "probably" wouldn't want much to do with them to begin with and think it would be lame to ever have a conversation with them about anime in the 1st place. lol

And User on this platform who have been into this medium for at least a decade and aren't into even half the titles I have listed, then they probably take this medium too fucking seriously anyways. lol

I love all the different takes and approaches that everyone has in putting together a recommendation list. They are all so wide in variety to cover as many genres as possible. Some come from a history standpoint, others come from an accessibility standpoint, others allow themselves to insert their own biases, some prioritize animation/story quality, etc.

I also find it funny that no matter who posts a recs list, there's always going to be someone who's like "THAT LIST IS TRASH" lol

What's hard is that anime itself is still very niche under the large umbrella of performing arts. 90% of what has been mentioned in this thread are probably more niche than we think they are, especially with the culture gap between Japan and wherever the viewer is from. New anime viewers will likely need time to accept/adjust/get used to that. Maybe that's part of why it's so hard to put together a "good" recommendations list and we have such elaborate debates on the topic.

I am unable to put together a concrete list because it's so dynamic depending on who I talk to, and I'm just really indecisive. However, I will probably recommend Spirited Away to anyone who has never seen a single blip of anime and just wants to know what it's all about. Obviously this won't really be a good choice for someone who's, for example, a mystery fanatic; I'll probably recommend something else then (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Apothecary Diaries) OR Hyouka, maybe?).

For recommendations beyond Spirited Away, I'll try to match whatever genre/mix of genres they like with newer shows and recommend something that was relatively popular. (If someone asks for J-pop recommendations I probably won't recommend 80s tunes unless they specifically want to go that direction— it's the same idea here with recent vs old.)
There's a merit to popular shows in that it's a fact that for one reason or another it reached a large audience and had staying power with a significant portion of that audience, and that tells a lot about the show's likelihood of resonating with any given viewer.

If the genre is limited, then I think I can put together a list of recommendations (unless I don't watch that genre much, then I'll come up blank haha)

@perseii
It's hard to imagine those suggestions would satisfy a hypothetical newcomer if they don't satisfy real people like you and me.

I see then, I apologize for assuming that. Just to be clear beyond my harsh language that I use. This isn't really gatekeeping. It's stressing more about incompatibility. Who wants to have a conversation about Anime with someone who rejects the shit they love and keep trashing on them for it? lol

I consider Spirited Away to be mysterious, though admittedly it's not a detective story.

Earnestly. Recommending One Piece, Naruto, Bleach etc is an automatic no. People who watch those won't necessarily like other anime, and they have so many episodes!

You can easily get someone to watch 50 short anime for a little more than half as much time as they'd spend on One Piece.

1. Haibane Remnei
2. Koutetsushin Jeeg
3. Ninkoro
4. Apocalypse Hotel
5. Giant Robo OVA
6. Soremachi
7. Shigofumi
8. Kannagi
9. Kamichu
10. Night Raid 1931
11. Dancouga Nova
12. Bento
13. Serial Experiments Lain
14. Birdy Decode
15. Denpa Onna
16. Shiki
17. Darker than Black(s2 doesn't exist)
18. Gurren Lagann
19. Fate Zero
20. Madoka
21. Mayonaka Punch
22. Medalist
23. Ya Boy Kongming
24. Revenger
25. New Getter Robo
26. Skip to Loafer
27. Redline
28. Summer Wars
29. Zegapain
30. Hale + Guu
31. Detroit Metal City
32. Ef a Tale of
33. Haruhi
34. NGE
35. FLCL
36. Getter Robo Armageddon
37. Gunbuster
38. Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko
39. Shoushimin
40. Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de
41. Kyokou Suiri
42. Lycoris Recoil
43. Bocchi The Rock
44. Mugen No Ryvius
45. My Home Hero
46. Spice And Wolf
47. Baccanno
48. Nichijou
49. Samurai Champloo
50. Cowboy Bebop

This is like, 800 episodes of One Piece worth of time I think.

Recommending anything older than 2+ years to a newbie is dumb af

rejecting older anime that has aged like fine wine if tourist af

@ItachiDeltaForce

Yes... Newbies are tourists....
that's why you shouldn't recommend older anime to newbies -_-