Well, Monogatari series has a special place in my heart but I also have a -lot- of criticism for it.

I love Psycho-pass and Durarara a lot tooooo, but ultimately I'd loosely say Monster

Oh really? I wouldn't say anything on there is especially obscure. Maybe Ergo Proxy a little bit, but some of these are pretty popular. I tend to be interested in anime that are psychological or thoughtful, character-driven, and artsy. I guess what these mostly have in common and that there's a huge focus on character development or back story in all of them

In no particular order~

1) Monster
2) Durarara
3) Psycho-pass (First season)
4) Revolutionary Girl Utena
5) Death Parade
6) Princess Tutu
7) Mawaru Penguindrum/Yuri Kuma Arashi (It's hard to not pick both)
8) Monogatari Series (If I had to pick one series, I'd go with either Monogatari Series Second season or Hanamonogatari)
9) Neon Genesis Evangelion (original series, i don't like the movies -quite- as much)
10) Ergo Proxy

Realllllly tough. Especially the number ten spot, tbh. Honorable mentions would be Tokyo Ghoul (I loved the first season at the time, and then I got really into the manga. It's not a great adaptation, but it was where I started), Shion no Ou, Puella Magica Madoka Magica, Mononoke, Kami-sama no Memochou, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Oreigairu

I've not read the manga, but I've heard it's better than the anime (or at least fairly different!)

I think the anime is very skippable, unless you enjoy half-assed harem and slice of life with a darker plot lurking the background that never quite successfully gets addressed.

Awesome, thanks for the good luck and the rec!!

I definitely support the anime as a production in its own right! The music alone, honestly...There's something about the 90's anime that has this sense of serenity and space between the action, and that's something I really liked. It is nicely animated, too, though I have a hard time ever disliking Miura's art, especially knowing what it looks like later. I'm very glad I watched it first, and I made my friend watch it first, too, for those reasons.

1 - [✔️] Start: 24/03 Finish: 28/03
Watch an anime that combines your favorite and least favorite genre: Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya
Screenshot:
Favorite Genre: Mahou Shoujo, Least Favorite Genre: Ecchi

2 - [✔️] Start: 04/04 Finish: 17/04
Watch an anime recommended to you by a fellow AL user: Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero
Screenshot:

3 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch an anime with a number in the title: Fate/Zero

4 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch an anime that aired this year: Boogiepop and Others

5 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch an anime with less than 12 episodes: Princess Jellyfish

6 - [✔️] Start: 08/04 Finish: 11/04
Finish watching a show on your dropped list: One Punch Man
Episodes Previously watched: 01

7 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch an anime recently reviewed on AniList Revisions Screenshot:

8 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch an anime with an average score below 70% on AniList: Kemonozume Score: 69%

9 - [✔️] Start: Est. 07/2018 Finish: 24/01/21
Watch an anime with an average score above 80% on AniList: Cowboy Bebop Score: 86%

10 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch a one word titled anime: Baccano!

11 - [✔️] Start: 21/04 Finish: 26/04
Watch an anime scored 9 / 90% or above from a fellow participant’s anime list: Flying Witch
Fellow Participant: DynamicDonut

12 - [❌] Start: 03/05 Finish: DD/MM
Choose an anime from any of the AWC Staff’s favorite anime list: Space Adventure Cobra
Electrochemist

13 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch a sequel / spin off / alternative to something you've already watched: Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Previously seen related series: Super Dimension Fortress Macross

14 - [✔️] Start: 25/03/20 Finish: 11/02/21
Watch an anime with your favorite voice actor / staff member: House of Five Leaves
Voice Actor: Sakurai Takahiro
Character Voiced: Yaichi

15 - [✔️] Start: 19/03 Finish: 07/04
Watch an anime from your favorite studio: No. 6
Favorite Studio: Bones

16 - [✔️] Start: 20/03 Finish: 24/03
Watch an anime that aired during the winter: She and Her Cat: Everything Flows

17 - [✔️] Start: 10/06 Finish: 21/06
Watch an anime that doesn't contain any of your top 3 most watched genres: Kaiba

18 - [✔️] Start: 21/06 Finish: 24/03
Watch an Original anime: Samurai Champloo

19 - [✔️] Start: 16/05 Finish: 09/06
Watch an anime with a title that starts with the last letter of your username: Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

20 - [❌] Start: DD/MM Finish: DD/MM
Watch an anime with the format of Tv Short: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

Oh, I'm looking for anime recs specifically, since it's a watching challenge! I really do need to check out Junji Ito more, though—I've read bits and pieces, but not in quite some time. Thank you so much for the rec, though!

Oh definitely! Though, I guess the first things that come to mind I actually watched the anime first....

Anyway, Tokyo Ghoul, for sure. I watched the anime, loved it, read the manga, loved it, tried to watch the second season of TG....hated it. I still think the anime is passable, especially because of the voice acting, but you def won't enjoy it as much if you know the adaptation.

The second that comes to mind is Berserk, the 90's series, particularly (never even mind the later stuff, which I haven't seen). Again, I watched the anime first, but...they REALLY leave out some important back story for Guts, and there's just no way to re-experience the Eclipse for the first time. I'm glad I saw it animated first, I think it impacted me more because of that.

Also, still, to this day, I've been unable to watch either Hellsing anime simply because it's too jarring tonally compared to the manga. Not sure if that's just me.

"I'm only smiling at you because you caught me at my job, and no, it isn't cute that you're hitting on me"

it's just so convenient b/c like I said really recently I've been trying to save manga panels I like (i also have a modest collection of stupid faces saved too but..........)

Lately the art in TG Re: has really been doing it for me. Ishida has really improved and he and Kentaro Miura are probably two of my manga artists rn.

ohhhhh, this is such a good thread.

Anyway, I have a couple to post, b/c I've actually being saving pages lately.

Liar Game chapter 29

this is mostly b/c of the quote I actually saved quite a few pages of that scene but I'll just post one.

Both are from chapter 195 of Berserk

though tbh the art for Berserk in general is incredble.......it's so good christ no wonder the chapters are released monthly I can't imagine how long it takes to draw.

a lso i'd post something from Tokyo Ghoul but I don't have any saveddddd

yeah that's p much what I came into the thread to say.

The two biggest ones for me are Hunter x Hunter (2011) and Monster. Awhile ago, I watched Psycho-pass and absolutely adored it, and thought there was a pretty good chance that I wouldn't find something that surpassed it, not easily. I still like Psycho-pass a lot, but Monster and HxH easily trump it.

Monster really wound up meaning a lot to me because it's so very, very dark and yet despite that, despite everything, the series makes a point to tell you that yes, humanity is good and worthwhile. There's a lot of horror to the series, but there's absolutely optimism in it too. The protagonist proves himself over and over to be a good person, and it was a series that took me by surprise with how much I liked it.

HxH also surprised me. It's a show with a lot of things to say. It starts out like a simple shounen, but there are so many wonderfully written characters, and it also has the contrast of having some pretty dark things but also some rather optimistic messages. It makes a point to give a lot of minor characters even a small amount of back story. One of the things especially that stuck with me is that it has characters whose existences are reaffirmed. They're told that yes, you are worthwhile and you have value as a person, which I think is something very important.

Other honorable mentions: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Durarara, NGE, 'Hashire Melos' from Aoi Bungaku, Shion no Ou, Death Parade, misc Monogatari arcs

Correct~!

Okay! This shouldn't be too hard~

link

The Devil Regains His Strength from Hataraku Maou-sama~

Takumi from Chaos;Head for surreeeeeeee. he's everyone's favorite otaku hiki-neet stereotypes all rolled into one character that makes an interesting story hard to get through.

tho tbf I never watched the anime just played the VN

Goshhhhhh Psycho-pass 2 was terrible. I was so disappointed b/c the first season was one of my favorite series.

Regarding DMMD, I feel like a huge portion of that hype was for the original game? I heard the anime kind of sucked and had some pretty bad budget issues. I can't say for sure b/c I saw the anime, though. But I did enjoy the game quite a bit. (And I'm not a big fan of ecchi or H-games or BL games typically.)

Not used for the butt of some dumb joke all the time or pointless out of character fan service. Relatable, interesting, goes through character growth negative or positive. Characters that are fleshed out and human.

Some of favorite protags are probably Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena , Kenzo Tenma from Monster, Chiyuki from Death Parade, and Shion from Shion no Ou.