Anime

Smoking behind the supermarket with you (2026)

Not the only smoking-centered anime to be released in 2026. A romcom in which the female lead (Yamada) takes on two identities - the bad girl smoker, and the angel cashier. The male lead, (Sasaki) by virtue of anime logic, is oblivious to the fact that whom he believes to be two different women are actually the same person. This anime adaptation was undoubtedly sponsored by Big Tobacco, who must've felt like they'd struck gold when they discovered it. Nay, diamonds. Or maybe this is original work by Big Tobacco? A product of internal media creation programs aimed at normalizing and propagating smoking cultures which treat addiction and overuse of harmful substances as unserious and laughable issues, making them appropriate material for the plot of a lighthearted romantic comedy? That must be it. In the sixth episode, Sasaki gets misdiagnosed with something vaguely described as "lung problems", and nearly suffers the tragedy of losing his excuse to socialize with Yamada. Thankfully though, he ends up in the clear and can go right back to smoking cigs like there's no tomorrow. Is this the producers subtely trying to deliver subliminal messaging about the relative harmlessness of smoking, while still projecting a pretense of narrative innocence by introducing and discussing the health risks in the first place, but still quietly giving us the idea that we'll be just A-OK if we smoke? Look, I'm not a consiracy theorist.. but...

Fragrant Flowers Bloom With Dignity (2025)

It's rare that I closely follow the release schedule of anything, so the fact that this had me enraptured enough to watch every episode on the same day it released says something: This shit is good. Easily one of the best romance animes I've ever watched. Character design? Great. Animation? Amazing. Writing? Satisfying. It has an ending that actually brings closure, and doesn't leave you grasping at an incomplete story. It's even wholesome, and free of the freaky shit that plagues this genre. Praise the lord for this, why can't there be more stuff like it?

You and I are Polar Opposites (2026)

This anime has received widespread critical acclaim for the groundbreaking innovation of having relatable characters and using contemporary slang in its dub. What is the slang in question? "Chud". That's the most notable example I can think of, at least. It's a good dub. It's also a good romance; wholesome and usually enjoyable. Out of every couple, the main one was the one I liked the least. Their relationship gives me the ick, for a reason I can't really place. This has to be one of the most readily loved animes released this year, but I just... can't bring myself to be that enthusiastic about it. I've complained about the popular girl + introvert guy trope multiple times here, and this show is literally named after its usage of it. I mean, "You and I are polar opposites"? Are we fucking kidding right now? Like I've explained before, that shit annoys me.

Chobits (2002)

Motosuwa Hideki moves to "the city" to prepare for college, and is shocked by female robots called "persocoms" everywhere. He's amazed, but priced out of them until he finds one in the trash and takes it home. I'm still not sure if this anime is self aware about how dystopian its world is. At first it seems like nothing more than some robot girl fantasy shovelware slop set in an inadvertantly disconcerting future, but as the story progresses you get shown more and more concerning things, like people falling in love with and marrying robots whose hard drives eventually die, leaving them with a mechanical cadaver unable to remember anything of their past relationship. There's also the even more disturbing classic, "replace your dead relative with a robotic replica trained on the likeness and mannerisms of the deceased to be as similar to them as possible". This kind of dystopia is nothing new in fiction or anime, but what gets me about Chobits is that, like I mentioned earlier, it's difficult to tell if it's intentional or not. We're shown these little fucked up cases of relationships with robots, as if we were being warned against something, but then other parts of the series are normal and happy, and act as if nothing at all is wrong with the society it's set in. I don't want to say that Chobits is some kind of prophetic work that predicted the hellscape of parasocial chatbot relationships, because ultimately the robots in the universe of Chobits seem to have something slightly more advanced than programmatic emotion. Especially with the lead robot girl - shes's special, might even have some kind of artificial soul in there. So - Chobits: It's cute sometimes, weird sometimes, and disturbing sometimes.

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (2009 - 2010)

Oh my GOD, is that... A SHOUJOOO???! Yeah. I'm going to be honest: This show ticked me off. All of the characters are just... unlikable (hear me out). There's a point when a characters innocence is cute, and a point when it's insufferable and makes me want to tear my hair out. Unfortunately, Sawako is annoying as hell. I also didn't like the artstyle, but I'll at least give it some recognition for being distinct.

The apothecary diaries (2023 - 2024)

A girl named Maomao, who is a skilled apothecary, gets fucking kidnapped and enslaved in the chinese imperial palace (which seems a lot like the forbidden city? I don't know if it's supposed to be that). Thanks to her intelligence and skills, she rises in the ranks from the position of lowly grunt until she's basically the royal doctor. I didn't actually finish The Apothecary Diaries, so I'm not in a good position to actually review it. Why didn't I finish it? Because I found it to be boring. A lot of the story revolves around little enigmas that she has to solve, and they all feel contrived as fuck. Maybe the mystery genre just isn't for me, though. To close, I'll say that Maomao looks like a twelve year old and Jinshi could easily pass as 30 in any other anime.

Jujutsu Kaisen (2020 - 2021)

Yuji Itadori, very normal high schooler, gets wrapped up in demon-killing politics after ingesting an ancient demonic artifact. Infamous for being tragic, and one of the most popular animes of all time. Personally, I don't get it. Ok that's a lie, I do get it - JJK is good, but I just wasn't that captivated by it. I have yet to find myself alight with the enthusiasm everyone else seems to be embroiled in over JJK. It's been a while since I've had my nose in a JJK manga, but I remember the art being unimpressive to me. I was probably thinking something along the lines of "looks too rough, and not enough like Chainsaw Man". Amazingly memorable characters though, what a shocker that they're fucking everywhere on the internet.

Vinland Saga (2019)

A true-blue anime epic. A young boy named Thorfinn has his father killed by vikings, and then joins said vikings with the aim of eventually avenging his father. So he travels and fights with them, so that he can one day kill them. He seems to develop something resembling stockholm syndrome, though it's not very clear since he's such a traumatized little tsundere (and he willingly joined them). The second season of Vinland Saga (which this is not a review of, but I'm going to talk about it anyway) heavily revolves around the consequences of Thorfinns violent life, and essentially preaches pacifism, which I've always found ironic because what brings viewers to Vinland Saga is violence. The show thrived off of the glorification of duels, war, and martial arts. It is literally the thing which it warns against. I found it perplexing that it would pull the "I have no enemies" shit, while still quietly signaling about how cool fighting is. It's a very flawed work from a moral fundamentalist point of view, as this attempt at delivering a serious message feels pretty shallow. Ignoring that though, it's a great watch. And I'm definitely not an expert in the history of the time period this is set in, but I'd guess that it's at least somewhat historically accurate in its depictions of the medieval geopolitics of northern europe.

Frieren: Beyond journeys end (2023 - 2024)

The story of a long-lived elf learning lessons about human companionship. Its post main event setting, and retrospective atmosphere feel unique and enjoyable. It has some romance, and a wee bit of action to tie everything together. The vibes are simply immaculate. Refreshingly basic fantasy, and a relaxing pace. It doesn't get much better than this, which is why I bestow upon it the heaping praise of four stars. Some die-hard Frieren simps may think it should get five, but I think that it's not trying to be a masterpiece. It gets four because it succeeded at doing what it set out to - lowering your damn cortisol. If it made you feel enough to think of it as a masterpiece, something is wrong with your brain chemistry (still). Of course, it is still a fairly emotional story at times, but those elements are crowded out pretty quickly beyond the first few episodes.

Clannad: After story (2008 - 2009)

The only anime to which I have ever shed a tear (and I do believe it was tear, singular). This show has done immeasurable and irrepairable damage to my emotional well-being. The first 9 episodes don't feel that remarkable, but after that, it changes to be a maddeningly tragic story of reaching the realities of adulthood. The name "After Story" so accurately describes it - it's the time we never see in romance animes, the part after they graduate and start their actual lives. I described Clannad as being sad, but it doesn't even come close to the simply ridiculous bullshit that Key pulls in After Story. AHHGGGGh it's just so... I could spend so long trying to explain the atmosphere of After Story, what it means to me, and how it makes me feel. I'll try to do it briefly: Similarly to Clannad, it perpetually carries a melancholy tone, but now it's combined with the fact that they're no longer in school and are now seperated from all their old friends to make that tone and atmosphere even more depressing and emotianally heavy. Even in the initially happy parts, you feel that. And then they (the writers) go ahead and kill Nagisa, sending Tomoya into years of depression. But they wouldn't leave it at that, because that wouldn't be nearly cruel enough - they have to kill his daughter too, right when he begins to feel happy about his prospects in life again. The viewer is shown hope, only for it to be violently wrenched from their grasp in the most brutal manner imaginable. If you asked the average person to come up with the worst tragedy they can think of, they would pretty much regurgitate the plot of After Story verbatum. Thankfully though, happy endings seem to abound even in this world where everyone dies and goes to hell, because that mysterious and ever present rigamarole about a parallel world comes into play, and magically sends Tomoya to a world where Nagisa didn't die in childbirth. It all essentially becomes a bad dream. The relief felt by episode 22 simply cannot be adequately described. It needs to be experienced. I'm not doing the emotion it evokes in the viewer any justice here at all, I think I've done a terrible job of explaining the kind of feeling it creates. Anyway, I've been rambling for far too long and this review is probably the shittiest one yet, so I'm gonna finally shut up after having failed to convey what makes this tragic dumpster fire of a sequel worth watching.

Clannad (2007 - 2008)

I would call myself a clannad superfan, if only I truly understood what was happening in it. Tomoya Okazaki meets a bunch of girls and helps them fix their lives, a formula that now defines things made by Key (I think). Interspersed with that are little snippets from some kind of parallel world with two lone and lonely inhabitants. It's based off of a Key visual novel, so you can of course expect the levels of archaic anime aesthetics to be off the damn charts. However, you can also expect the levels of depression to be off the charts as well. The atmosphere at times is that of a tragedy, which is not in any way indicative of the content to be found in its sequel. Imagine watching a fun slice of life romance, but whenever you would normally be feeling good, this track starts playing and reminds you that what you're watching was created by someone with clinical depression. Not literally (as far as I know*), but still. Despite being overall positive, the plot of Clannad persistently throws little curveballs of sadness, and the sadness is made worse by the meting out of pain to the most lovable characters ever seen. Frankly I am exaggerating just how sad it is, but it really does feel all melancholy and bittersweet. Everything is a sunset, an end. Even the happy parts don't really feel happy, for some reason. In terms of its actual content, Clannad should be graded as middling, but because it inspired such real emotion in me, I'm grading it as a near masterpiece.

Steins;Gate (2011)

Your name (2016)

Your name is like the game of thrones of anime movies - everyone and their mother has seen it or heard of it. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but it is wildly popular. It's a very classic Makoto Shinkai type of story - supernatural phenomena and whatnot. Two people wake up in the other's body, and proceed to have a grand old time improving each others lives until a crazy natural disaster strikes and the viewer realizes that... they're not only swapping bodies, but also times. When I realized what was going on, my initial thought wasn't "Oh my gosh! that's crazy!! She's bean dead for three years!!", it was "Oh my gosh! That's crazy! She's three years older than him!!". Also, how did neither of them ever look at a calender? Or see the date on their phones for that matter. Anyway, despite it being the most mainstream animated film to come out of japan in maybe ever, they of course had to remind everyone that they still can't hold back on the freakiness and added a self grope scene before you even reach the five minute mark. I had to watch this with my family, the cringe is real.

Domestic Girlfriend (2019)

I previously mentioned in my review of "Suzuka" that it had the worst MC I'd ever seen in an anime. However, nothing that I'd previously watched could have prepared me for this one, or the rest of the utterly bizarre freak show of characters I was going to experience while watching Domestic Girlfriend. DG seems to be an attempt at a serious, "mature" romance. It fatally cripples itself by combining that tone with a premise that could normally only be entertained in a comedic context - a ridiculous set of circumstances, where a girl he just hooked up with and the teacher whom he has a crush on become his new step-sisters. The result is a lowkey disturbing and depressing story, where we are forced to watch the previously mentioned main character, who is a total reprobate and hypocrite, repeatedly make the worst life choices imaginable. Even putting aside the quasi-incestuous basis of the plot, his behaviour alone is enough to make DG a hard watch. Some would say, "Art is meant to disturb the comforted", "Not every story is supposed to make you feel good", etc., and to that I'd respond "Of course!". Buuuut I was disturbed before watching this and now I'm just worse off for having seen it. I learned no hard lessons about human nature or relationships, and therefore the existance of this overly salacious piece of media is pointless to me.

Death Note (2006 - 2007)

Ah, Death Note. The progenitor of many a Goth Baddie Enthusiast™. A shinigami drops a death note (people whose names are written in it die) to earth, where it is found by the high-functioning psychopath and genius high schooler, Light Yagami. He quickly gets to work with it, attempting to create a perfect world by killing any and all criminals whose names he can get ahold of. Being highly intelligent and the son of a police chief, Light soon gets the opportunity to join the team which is investigating these killings. In his infinite ineptitude, he actually does join, and 20 episodes of 500-IQ mental warfare between him and the world's best detective, "L", follow. The story eventually takes a turn that I disliked, and some aspects of the plot feel a little forced, which is why Death Note does not earn a full five stars. However, it is still incredibly good - the concept of a notebook that kills people is simple on its face, but with the introduction of rules regarding its use, the plot thickens and becomes intensely engaging. Also, some of the music here is amazing. I mean, how many fucking times have you heard this? (or this, this and this.) Shit's iconic and versatile to boot. Rest in peace to Hideki Taniuchis career. (He was arrested for posession of marijuana in 2012, and served a 10 year jail sentence. Honestly really sad.)

Horimiya (2021)

Yet another romance where the two leads are 'unlikely lovers' - these socially disparate characters who only became familiar by virtue of some lucky ass coincidence and yet they beat the odds and found each other, blah blah blah... Why do so many romance animes feel the need to make use of this gimmick? I really don't get it. Actually that was a lie; they do it to appeal to lonely people who want love to appear in their lives magically. I just wish they would show a little restraint and refrain from doing it so flipping much. It's a cheap trope that makes you feel like you're watching something that was the result of a writer whose lack of a social life led them to bitterly write the life they feel they deserve into existance. Anyway, Horimiya is ok. Some people swear by it, I found it to be just... ok. It's actually a little depressing, even.

Welcome to the NHK (2006)

Welcome to the NHK is depressing as hell, let me say that right off the bat. It doesn't end in a necessarily bad way, but the atmosphere is relentlessly sad, dark, and hopeless. It follows Satou Tatsuhiro, who is struggling as a hikikomori and believes a shadow organization called the NHK is behind his horrific circumstances. One day, by chance, he meets a girl named Misaki Nakahara, who was standing outside his door with an old woman. Misaki learns about his problems and inserts herself into his life as a therapist who will cure him of his social anxiety. The rest of the story is just the ups and the downs of his attempts at actually living again. Most of the ups are actually just elaborate setups for a massive down. Maybe not most, I don't know honestly, I'm not about to count. This might have been the first anime where, while watching it, I stopped for a second and thought, "hey, these filler tracks are really good." Good in the sense that they lend themselves to the crushing atmosphere, that is. Gud muzic.

Spice and wolf (2008)

Smart and cheeky wolf-god-girl named Holo is found by a traveling merchant named Kraft Lawrence and they start traveling around together. The plot is sort of unique - it centers around their business deals and the economics of trade, as Holo helps Kraft game the system, so to speak. Unfortunately I found it to be lowkey boring, since I was either not smart enough to appreciate the mind games they were getting into or I just wasn't paying attention while watching... since it was boring. Have I mentioned that this is also a romance? I wonder how a marriage between a 600 year old wolf and and a 25 year old dude would go. Apparently well, although realistically I would dispute the possibility of any of this shit happening in the first place. Of course, in a world where it's realistic for there to be immortal deities wandering around and stumbling into the backs of wagons while butt naked, it would be a mistake to assume that traditional logic would apply. Why am I questioning anime logic right now? what is wrong with me

Girls last tour (2017)

A unique slice of life, set in a post-apocalyptic environment somewhat reminscent of that of Blame!'s. Two girls, Chito and Yuuri, wander through an endless megastructure/megacity, riding a kettenkrad (!) and surviving off of the supplies they manage to find. The juxtaposition of Tsukumizu's endearing artstyle with a brutalist setting that is littered with the remnants of a bitter war make for a really interesting dynamic/contrast. There's an air of mystery to GLT, even up to the last episode. Nothing about the situation they're in is explained beyond vague exposition about a war, and being sent from home to survive. And that's a good thing - it keeps the level of intrigue high throughout. The final episode feels like a retrospective on all of humanity, showing its beauty and its failings, through a slideshow of contrasting images portraying peace and war. It leaves many questions, and the manga's ending does as well. Both endings (that of the anime and the manga's) feel very bittersweet.

A silent voice (2016)

I give A Silent Voice a five star rating, but hesitatingly. It's a story about the complexities and, for lack of a more fitting word, badness, of bullying. It's centered on a boy named Shouya whose mental health declines to the point of a suicide attempt, on account of the guilt he feels over having bullied a deaf girl in elementary school, and the bullying that he was subsequently on the receiving end of. He attempts to make amends with the girl (Shouko) and slowly heals and becomes happier. It's beautiful in that watching someone go from a bad person to a good person, a sad person to happy person, is a very fulfilling experience. Seeing positive change of this nature is uplifting, even if other parts of the movie are depressing. I give it its rating "hesitatingly" because the main character's actions are a little self-consolatory, and Shouko's situation is treated as an instrument for Shouya's character development and redemption. I'm nitpicking here though, it gets the five stars it deserves.

Dan Da Dan (2024)

A story about two kids becoming unlikely friends and fighting ghosts and aliens with their superpowers and whatnot. It's also a romance. Some genuinely freaky ass shit goes down at times, and the one of the initial main plot points is that the male leads testicle is stolen by aliens. Frankly, Dandadan is overrated. Half the time it's boring, and the other half of the time it's weird. The good part of it is the romance, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a sucker for it. It's well done, but it can't elevate the rest of it to something I would say is really worth watching. The plot just under-delivers.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995 - 1996)

What do I even say about this one... it's a mecha series with striking visuals that seems "normal" in its first half. Creatures called "angels" are attacking humanity, and they can only be fought off by "Evangelions" - mechs that are piloted exclusively by children, for some reason which is never clearly explained. ( I know the actual reason, but it's a bit of a spoiler.) It shows its true colors in its latter portion, with the exposition of several traumatic backstories and the introduction of new horrific events to further drag the viewer into a deep, dark, pit, where it reveals itself to be a story not about fighting robots, but rather loneliness, mental health, the human condition, etc. It is chock full of religious imagery and symbolism, and nearly every more mundane aspect of its plot can be interpreted allegorically. However, I feel that thinking about NGEs story too hard is a mistake - It should be taken instead as "humans are eternally lonely, and seek validation and comfort in others... and also, mechs/divine-techno-dystopian futures are cool as fuck." Hideaki Anno himself has (seemingly) confirmed that inclusion of theological themes was as much as an aesthetic choice as a storytelling one. Still, the rabbit holes run deep. Lots of food for thought is to be found here.

Chainsaw Man (2022)

A homeless boy named Denji is paying off his massive inherited debt to the yakuza, with the help of his pet devil, Pochita. However, the yakuza then make a deal with the zombie devil (every thing that garners sufficient fear, such as small spaces, or knives, gets its own devil) and Denji is ripped apart by a horde of yakuza zombies. Pochita reassembles his body and ressurects him by integrating into him and becoming his new heart. Thus, Chainsaw Man is born. The animation is beautiful and cinematic (Tatsuki Fujimoto's artstyle is amazing), the cast of characters is great (Kobeni my goat) and the story itself is good too. Chainsaw Man is an easy recommendation, and still the one of the only animes that I liked enough to start reading the manga.

Suzuka (2005)

This show features the worst protagonist I have ever seen in an anime. The only word I can think of to describe his behaviour is "enraging".

Blue Box (2024 - 2025)

Blue Box is sort of a combination of a sports anime and a romance. The animation is nice and the plot is relatively normal and relaxed. It carries something of an inspirational tone throughout, which I liked. I would rate it higher, but there's a love triangle, and it adds extremely little to the viewing experience except pain.

Uncle from another world (2022 - 2023)

Instead of the main character being isekaied, his uncle is isekaied and we get to experience the aftermath, when said uncle comes out of a 15 year long coma. Decently funny watch.

Rascal Does not dream of bunny girl senpai (2018)

The fucking name of this one is hilarious. The main plot mechanism is that kids who are experiencing some kind of problem as they mature are stricken with "puberty syndrome", which causes different symptoms for different people: slowly disappearing from the view of others as the syndrome (disease?) progresses, getting trapped in a time loop, and other totally not horrifying effects. The male lead helps the female lead and a few others try to figure out what in the metaphysical hell is happening to them as cases of the weird phenomenon appear. The romance aspect is a little refreshing in the sense that there's no love triangle (no serious one at least) and the characters aren't constantly being dramatic.

One Punch Man (2015)

A guy named Saitama trains to be a hero, and gets so strong that no enemy can survive against him for longer than a single punch. Genuinely funny at times, although the punchline never really changing does get a little redundant.

Sword Art Online (2012)

Ready player one, but in anime form. Sword art online is just an isekai power fantasy, and fairly unremarkable. (at least in retrospect)

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009 - 2010)

Edward and Alphonse Elric attempt to ressurect their deceased mother using alchemy and fail - and because alchemy (AKA magic) always takes something in return for its use, Edward loses a leg and an arm, and Alphonse loses his entire body (Edward attaches his soul to a suit of armor at the cost of that arm). Then, they join the military, become state alchemists, and try to find the "philosophers stone", which would allow them to fix their terrible fuck up. Revelations about massive genocidal schemes, artificial human beings, and the mysterious Elric Sr. ensue. FMA:B is very highly regarded, topping ratings charts everywhere, but while I did like it, I wasn't as impressed as most people seemed.

Dragon Ball (1986 - 1989)

A girl named Bulma runs into a little boy with a tail named Goku, while searching for "Dragon balls". He eventually joins her on her quest to find all 7 of them. (When all 7 dragon balls are collected, a dragon will appear and grant a wish to the lucky assembler of balls.)

Dragon ball feels more akin to a classic cartoon than what we think of as anime nowadays. It has some weird moments, but is overall a great watch.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (2017 - 2023)

Imagine Naruto, but stripped of everything that made it good, and with a new cast of generic, purely derivative characters.

Kubo Won't Let Me Be Invisible (2023)

This is in the thread of "introvert magically gets girlfriend", which is usually a bad thing, but I actually found this one to be really sweet. What seperates something great like this from the likes of "The angel next door spoils me rotten" is that the characters actually have personalities, and aren't just the walking embodiments of a cliche.

Rent-a-Girlfriend (2020)

Kazuya Kinoshita hires a rental girlfriend to get over his breakup, and then magically they (him and his rental GF) get into a situation where they're forced to actually pretend like they're a legitamate couple around each others families. A bunch of dumb bullshit and fanservice follows. This gets two stars and not one because it's so bad that it becomes funny again.

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten (2023)

Absolutely nothing of value here. This takes the "unimportant introvert guy gets the popular girl" formula and makes it ten times worse by, A) having the most corny dialogue ever conceived of, and B) having zero real conflict except to serve the purpose of making the female MC a damsel in distress who is in need of emotional support. It's supposed to be a wholesome, "feel-good" type of story, but it's closer to a sickening fantasy land. There were times when I had to get up from my chair while watching this and scream silently in lament of just how shit it was. I mean, it's such an unabashed expression of a dumb fantasy that it drove me fucking nuts. The kicker is that it takes itself seriously while engaging in this cheesy behaviour - it maintains this attempt at a mature tone, as if the subject matter at hand were worthy of it, or as if the story they're telling is some kind of high-brow literature. And the characters are all unrelatable, one-dimensional skinwalkers who make me want to kill myself every time they open their mouths to speak. In conclusion, ass.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian (2024)

The premise of this one is that the Alya, the half-russian female MC, occasionally will call Kuze, the male MC, cute or some shit like that in russian. The totally unexpected twist is that Kuze actually speaks russian fluently because he had a russian childhood friend who he learned it for, in the hopes of impressing when they reunite or something along those lines. It's cringe and full of cliches, but I regret to say that I still really enjoyed it. It's charming enough, and the english voice acting is actually pretty good. (Although the spoken russian parts sound pretty shit. I don't speak russian though, maybe their pronunciations are flawless.)

Parasyte: The Maxim (2014 - 2015)

An alien parasite attempts to take over Shinichi Izumi's mind but only manages to get in his arm. Shinichi then essentially gains superpowers and fights other alien parasites who have actually managed to take over their hosts entirely. He and his parasite also form a friendship of sorts. Similarly to chainsaw man though, his human side is blunted by the parasites introduction. This anime is the source of the "lock in" meme. Definitely a notable moment.

Naruto: Shippuden (2007 - 2017)

The reject orphan is now older, and less of a reject orphan. He returns to the leaf village after being gone for a three year timeskip, learns more advanced jutsu, and also learns to work with the nine tailed fox. This gets a half a star higher rating than it's predecessor because the high points are actually pretty good.

Naruto (2002 - 2007)

Reject orphan sulks and commits vandalism until he realizes he's actually the shit and glows the fuck up into something vaguely resembling a badass. The initial premise of this show is utterly perplexing once you know who his parents were.

Attack on Titan (2013 - 2023)

AOT is considered by many to be the greatest anime of all time, if not one of the greatest works of fiction of all time. It has an incredibly well thought out and cohesive story, that is both deep and still very engaging at the surface level. It's only drawback is its unfuriatingly, heartbreakingly tragic ending. That utter BS in the last season would've been enough for me to give this a score of one star, but I'm giving it five instead because it really is just that entertaining and riveting. And the characters! Almost every single character, even the relatively unimportant ones, feels memorable and genuinely unique. When you first start watching AOT, you get the feeling that what you're looking at is a pretty typical story about a kid determined to "become the best", but that expectation is slowly shifted till you realize this is something a little more mysterious, and that's when AOT really starts to shine and the intrigue and tension begins to mount. That, and the fact that the play-by-play, blow by blow surface level viewing experience, in visuals, pacing and scenarios, is just, again, riveting, make this my favorite anime.