Been away from anime for awhile? We understand. You go out and have your life, anime will always be waiting for you when you come back. They always come back. If you are finally coming back and stopped watching sometime in or before 2014, here are all the best anime series that you missed and definitely should go back and watch.
If you are looking to watch the best anime of 2014, then you definitely need to check out there anime recommendations.
Best Anime of 2014
Noragami
There will be times where you may happen across an odd phone number written in red. If you call it, you will get in touch with a young man who introduces himself as the Yato God.
This Yato God is a minor deity and the self-proclaimed God of Delivery. He dreams of having millions of worshipers, but there isn’t a single shrine dedicated to his name. He spends his time doing odd jobs for spare yen until the day his weapon partner deserts him.
Just as things are looking down, he happens across a young school girl that saves him from a car accident by taking the hit for him. She survives, but her soul becomes loose. Together they set out to find a way to tighten her soul back up.
Noragami starts off seeming more of a comical series thanks to Yato’s carefree approach to life and godhood. However, as the series goes on, it adapts a more gripping story with surprising moments of darkness.
The series uniquely blends comedy, action, and intrigue to a point where it feels like it transcends any one genre. That makes it hard to sell to people, but a magnificently enjoyable watch.
No Game No Life
In the real world, siblings Shiro and Sora are NEET shut-ins. However, in the virtual world, they are a legendary gaming duo.
One day, after a strange email, they find their reality taken away as they are transported to the realm of Tet, God of Games. Here, Shiro and Sora must play games to defeat the sixteen races of this world as well as Tet in order to become the new gods.
Ah, 2014. A time when isekai was growing, but not yet fully done to death.
No Game No Life remains the pinnacle of isekai anime stories for many still to this day. Bright and colorful to an almost psychedelic degree with a unique cleverness in its games, No Game No Life languishes forever waiting for a second season.
The Irregular at Magic High School
After magic, once thought to be folklore, was turned into a technical skill, schools to teach it opened all over.
At one such school are siblings Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba. While Miyuki excels, her brother is placed in a lower class due to his seemingly magical ineptitude. However, he has rather unique abilities that make him quite irregular.
It becomes immediately apparent that The Irregular at Magic High School comes from a densely detailed light novel. The series enjoys its lengthy periods of dialogue and expanding its well-crafted magical world. However, it makes up for those long moments of exposition by having some visually stunning magical fights.
That said, The Irregular at Magic High School is definable not everyone’s cup of tea. The main character is often very much an OP Gary Stu and his sister is uncomfortably attached to him.
Nisekoi
Ten years ago, Raku Ichijou made a promise with a childhood friend to meet again and use the key she holds to open the locket he wears around his neck then be together forever. In the present day, this heir apparent to an intimidating yakuza family continues to wait for his friend’s return while trying to be as uninvolved in family matters as possible.
However, when a rival gang invades his family’s turf, the family leaders decide Raku should start a romantic relationship with the other chief’s daughter, Chitoge.
While they pretend to be dating to maintain the peace, Raku is almost positive his classmate Kosaki Onodera is the girl he made his promise with.
As a staple in the harem genre, Nisekoi drew people in with its light surreal animation and the way it frequently keeps you guessing who the “main girl” of this harem romance is.
While there are now harem anime that do that a little better than Nisekoi’s indecision, it made it quite a memorable and fun ride.
Your Lie in April
Although once a child prodigy in the music world, pianist Kousei Arima is left in a downward spiral after his mother’s death, unable to even hear the sound of his own piano.
Even after two years, Arima has all but left the music world behind, disappointing fans and rivals alike, and living in a colorless world. Then one day that that all changes when he is introduced to the beautiful violinist Kaori Miyazono who brings color into his world once more.
Do you just want to cry because to feel anything is better than feeling nothing? Your Lie in April is the go-to anime you for that untreated depression – or to just feel feeling in general.
Your Lie in April draws unsuspecting victims in with its very standard rom-com set up, and then hurts them deeply.
Tokyo Ghoul
The citizens of Tokyo now live in fear of vicious creatures called ghouls that blend in alongside humans and feast on their flesh.
One day, Ken Kaneki, a shy college student, meets a girl called Rize who is also an avid reader like him. Unfortunately, as he finds out on his first date, Rize turns out to be a ghoul.
Just when she is about to eat him, Kaneki is saved, barely clinging to life. In the process of surviving this attack, Kaneki finds out that he has now become a ghoul.
Although Tokyo Ghoul suffered from some issues later on, the original season captured the attention of many by focusing on vicious flesh-eaters, some of which struggling to fight against their very nature in order to live peacefully.
Tokyo Ghoul is for people that like a nice shounen action story, but also enjoy the gore and torture of horror. While there are plenty of uniquely-powered ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul, there are a few select shocking moments that will remain the thing that people remember the longest about the series.
Akame ga Kill
Tatsumi is a naive boy from a rural village that makes the trip to the city in order to join the military and help his hometown.
However, after he is rejected, he ends up joining Night Raid, a group of assassins part of a revolutionary movement to overthrow the government.
From there, he must fight a brutal and increasingly bloody shadow war.
In its heyday, Akame ga Kill gained the reputation as the “anime where anyone can die” because of the frequency in which it killed off characters. People thought the cast was not clad in impenetrable plot armor, though that proved to not be completely true.
Regardless, Akame ga Kill is a fine watch for shounen action anime fans that wish their shounen anime had just ever-so-many more guts and severed heads.
Parasyte
One night, sixteen-year-old Shinichi Izumi was peacefully sleeping when a race of parasitic aliens descended on Earth.
One parasite infects Shinichi, trying to get to his brain to take over his body, but ends up getting stuck in his right hand. Unable to relocate to the brain, the alien, named Migi, now has no choice but to learn to coexist with Shinichi in his body in order to stay alive.
Unfortunately, the other parasitic aliens are not so friendly with humans or to parasites that failed to complete their mission.
Alien invasions in anime are common, but usually they aren’t actually present in very serious stories. Parasyte tells a gruesome and gripping tale about an incredibly quiet alien invasion of body snatchers.
While Parastye has all the earmarks of a shounen action anime that will go on too long, it actually tells its full story and cleanly concludes.
Seven Deadly Sins
In this feudal world, the realm is protected from those who seek to spread their evil by the Holy Knights. However, in the kingdom of Liones, a small group of Holy Knights known as the Seven Deadly Sins sought to overthrown the king only to be driven off.
Now, ten years later, the world hunts for the Seven Deadly Sins, but the Holy Knights have now turned their blades on the king and taken control of the kingdom.
Now it is up to his third daughter, Elizabeth, to find the Sins and help them take back control.
While a reasonably popular shounen battler in its own right during its run, Seven Deadly Sins was never quite a powerhouse like Naruto or One Piece – but it was damn close.
Like most shounen anime Seven Deadly Sins has wildly creative looking and powered characters. While it front-loads OP power to the core cast, it never forgets to put the occasional challenge in their path. It has a nice balance of them stomping enemies while also occasionally being challenged.
Engaged to the Unidentified
On Kobeni Yonomori’s 16th birthday, it is discovered that her grandfather arranged for her to marry the mysterious Hakuya Mitsumine. Shocked, she now finds herself living with her future husband, his deceptive little sister, and her own perverted older sister.
However, Kobeni takes it in stride, adjusting to her new life and trying to learn more about the new additions.
Engaged to the Unidentified is one of those low-key anime series that no one really talks about, but remains an excellent watch for people who enjoy romantic comedy anime.
That said, Engaged to the Unidentified is actually a much better comedy than a romance. When two side characters sort of take over the show and draw attention from the main couple, it’s usually not a good thing. However, if the attention is grabbed by legitimately funny jokes, then all is forgiven.
D-Frag!
Kazama thinks he has what it takes to take over his high school with his gang, even if it is just his two friends in it. However, when his gang has a run in with the four unique girls of the Game Development Club, he is shanghaied in as a member himself.
You wouldn’t know it from the synopsis, but D-Frag is one of the best comedies you can watch. This is particularly true if you enjoy nerd humor. D-Frag is an anime that really only has the goal to make you laugh, and that’s all an anime needs to be sometimes.
Haikyuu
After being inspired by the small, but talented volleyball ace Little Giant, Shouyou Hinata trains endlessly despite his middle school not having a boy’s volleyball club.
Managing to scavenge enough athletes at his school to field a team for a middle school volleyball tournament, Hinata is soundly crushed in his first and last game of middle school by King of the Court, Tobio Kageyama.
Swearing to surpass him, Hinata joins the volleyball team in high school only to discover Kageyama is now his teammate.
Sports anime attracts a rather specific audience usually, but Haikyuu has been one of those sports anime series that converts a few fans to the genre and brings people to anime in general. It was really that wildly popular.
It is colorful, the characters are beyond lovable, and volleyball has never looked so fun. It is one of those shows about sports, but – like many sports anime – it is mostly about the characters.
Shirobako
The five members of the Kaminoyama High School animation club all make a pledge to make their project for the school cultural festival a huge success, then afterwards move to Tokyo and work in the industry.
Fast forward two years in the future and two members have made their dream a reality, but making anime is no easy task.
Like with food, you should know where your anime comes from. What sort of struggles do the creators go through to get you that beautiful episode every week? Shirobako is just that – a realistic glimpse in what it is like to make anime.
Of course, now that the less-than-great working conditions of animators have come to light, Shirobako sugar-coats things with idealism more than it should.
Rage of Bahamut
Thousands of years ago, ancient dragon Bahamut terrorized the world. However, when gods and demons allied themselves to prevent the world’s destruction, they sealed him away, splitting the key among them so he would be eternally imprisoned.
After the dragon was sealed, humanity returned to normal. However, things are about to get very abnormal for bounty hunter Favaro when he meets a mysterious women that holds half the key to Bahamut’s seal.
While anime adapted from obscure media – in this case, a digital card game – usually doesn’t come with much quality, Rage of Bahamut is such a high quality anime that it wildly overshadows the game that inspired it.
While Rage of Bahamut is likely most fondly remembered for its – even by modern standards – beautiful animation, the plot of the first season is actually quite good. However, while the plot is a basic “vague rising evil” affair, its core cast of amusing characters makes even mundane moments fun.
Barakamon
After losing his temper on a critic, renowned calligraphy artist Sieshuu Handa is exiled to the Goto Islands by his father for a period of self-reflection.
There, he seeks to find new inspiration for his art, but finds that his neighbors and some neighborhood kids keep getting in his way.
If you are a connoisseur of slice of life anime for relaxation, you are doing yourself a disservice by not watching Barakamon.
It is an anime series for chilling to about a high-strung guy that needs to chill. He gets sequestered to a rural island and is plagued by the antics of children.
Yona of the Dawn
After having her luxurious life shattered by the betrayal of her cousin, Princess Yona is forced to escape with her childhood friend and bodyguard, Son Hak.
However, leaving her palace forces her to see the poverty and strife that really makes up her beloved kingdom.
Now she must journey to not only regain her rightful throne, but to return her kingdom to its former glory.
While the Yona of the Dawn anime desperately yearns for another season, the anime is a great introduction to the series and the core characters.
What is perhaps the most interesting thing in this story is that it shows just how naive a princess can be about affairs outside of a castle. You watch as they lift the rose-colored glasses off and show he that her father was actually not such a good king.
Do you have any more good series from 2014 that returning fans might enjoy? Let them know in the comments section below.
