And though I think that generally speaking that's the correct reaction-because we have far more important things to worry about than cracking down on pervy animations and comics (while they may be offensive to a lot of people, they hurt no one)-I can't help but be a tiny bit taken aback when someone comes on a fairly clean site like Giant Bomb asking for anime recommendations and casually name drops Boku no Pico as a reference.Hers was a white lie built on a grain of truth that snowballed as one lie after the other piled up. It's all just a weird deal because I believe stuff like Boku no Pico is technically illegal in the States and a lot of other places (though rarely enforced, from what I can tell), but so normalized in Japan that everyone tends to just shrug their shoulders. And if you don't know what I'm referring to, I ain't going to enlighten you. What I distinctly remember is that the song for the AMV I'm thinking of was "White Christmas," the lyrics of which became a euphemism for something else entirely from what the song originally intended. Three months late, but: As someone who also watched Boku no Pico, it kinda gets more and more overrated as using it as a troll recommendation has lost it's potency at least among the millennial anime fans who learned about it though AMV Hell /0.Ĭome to think of it, yeah, I think I may have first been exposed to it via an AMV. There is also a deeper story about self-esteem and the gradual loss of the self. There's some really memorable characters and moments here, and plenty of waifu tropes of all types to choose from. Log Horizon - the first isekai I experienced that took more interest in building the world and answering questions like "Are the NPCs alive now that the world is real?" than creating a Mary Sue power level story. Martian Successor Nadesico - did you watch Neon Genesis Evangelion and wish it took more cues from Tenchi Muyo? Then Nadesico is for you. No waifus to fawn over, so I guess if that's a hard sell then skip this one. Story is nothing surprising, it's literally the Count of Monte Cristo in anime form with a slightly different framework. BONES really got to flex their creative and artistic muscle for this one and it shows. Gankutsuo: The Count Of Monte Cristo - another story about characters over action. Main focus is in what happens when the psi powers go wrong and how they try to control it. Story focuses on a new society after psi powers awaken in humans and cause wideswept societal collapse. Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) - fairly low budget, even by anime standards: Styles switch mid-episode for artistic effect, puts a lot of people off. Some "cute" characters, but they're not outright waifus as the intention is to have depth to the characters rather than tropes. Nagi No Asukara: A Lull In The Sea - interpersonal drama about different societies co-existing. I could recommend lots of other stuff, but this is probably the best of it that kinda sorta vaguely fits your brief. It's one I've ended up re-watching a lot and it just never really gets old for me, it's so well-written. The main character is a spear-wielding woman in her 20s who ends up being the guardian of a prince-a prince whose father, the king, is trying to have him assassinated.
It's a fantasy/adventure anime based on a series of light novels and directed by the same guy who did the Ghost in the Shell series (which is itself a classic). not so much.įinally, I highly recommend Moribito.
The first season of it (13 episodes) is awesome. And while some of their hit jobs are shown, the show is actually more about their lives when they're not doing hits.
It's about these orphaned little girls who have been scooped up by a covert government agency in Italy and turned into assassins through intense training and some unspecified form of conditioning/brainwashing. It's also not as action-oriented as the title might suggest.
Gunslinger Girl is great, though it's (somewhat unexpectedly) not about waifus, but actual little girls. And of course it has some romance elements in it as well. Ouran High School Host Club is the best shoujo comedy I've seen, I find it hilarious every time. One of the few newer anime that I'm actively following. the fourth season recently came out in Japan, but I didn't like that one quite as much. The first three seasons especially are awesome. And the first couple seasons are up on Netflix. I never thought I would be into a sports anime, but this one is friggin' amazing. It's a sports anime about a boys' high school volleyball team. Here's one that doesn't really fit well with what you say you're looking for, but nonetheless is really good and might surprise you: Haikyu!!.