It has occurred to me that I’ve never written this article. The recommendations on this site are indeed for any level of anime fandom, but for many of them, you need to at least have some knowledge of anime. You need to have watched at least one series that you can remember the name of so you can find more like it.
But what if you have never watched anything?
Not one series in full, but caught bits of pieces that ignited the intrigue in anime? You don’t know that you can just pick the most popular anime series and find enjoyment from them in some form because you have no idea what those popular series are. I’m not really the authority on the best anime for beginner anime fans, but I certainly can point interested potential fans in the right direction with recommendations that balance just the right amount of great moments and anime-style weird.
Best Anime For Beginners
My Hero Academia
Seasoned anime fans may heave an mighty sigh at this because the more popular and mainstream an anime gets, the more veterans seem to hate it. However, I believe this is one of the very best introductions to anime because it doesn’t wander too far from what we love in the west. Anime, despite having many characters that might technically be “super” heroes, doesn’t have huge superhero culture in the same way that Marvel and DC has made. However, this series does follow superheroes as they go through their schooling as well as overcoming a lot of obstacles that come with their powers, their society, and the great burden of being a hero.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Fullmetal Alchemist is perhaps the most enduringly popular anime of all-time, maybe because it was the first anime of so many, but also likely because it is a great show. What makes it such an excellent beginner anime is hard to put into words exactly. It just tells a great fantasy story in a well-built and interesting world. It mixes action, drama, and dashes on a little mystery in a way that makes you excited for every episode.
The series follows a pair of young alchemists who tried to bring back their mother against the fundamental rules of alchemy, and ended up having one brother lose his body and the other lose limbs in order to bind his brother’s soul to a suit of armor. They end up joining the state alchemists in order to pursue leads on a stone that might get his brother’s body back. From there, they end up entwined in the various stories going on in their world.
Parasyte
Unlike the standard aliens in anime who turn out to be hot girls that fall in love with some random guy, Parasyte highlights a Invasion of the Body Snatchers-type alien that descends and takes over human bodies. The main character accidentally impeded this parasite from taking over, and now they have to share his body. With aliens seeking to kill humans and failed parasites alike, they end up under constant threat.
What Parasyte really has going for it compared to actual sci-fi movies is that it can do horrifying things with the human body without being hampered by special effects. It tells that classic sci-fi story, but with more creative freedoms from animation.
Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is one of a small pool of series that always gets brought up when anime recommendations need to go out. For veteran anime fans, it immediately established itself as different from the standard action anime by brutally murdering many of its characters unceremoniously, including the seemingly main character at one point. From there, it proceeded to tell a gripping story that ended up in a vastly different place than it started.
If you are looking to get into anime and don’t want a lot of blood and violence, then this is perhaps the wrong choice. However, if you want a absorbing story that twists as much as it turns, then this is as good of an entry point as you can get.
Erased
Erased is a story best enjoyed by people that don’t overthink things, I guess you might say. It is a story about a guy who goes back in time after witnessing a murder which allows him to save three children his own age that are about to get murdered. The time travel aspect is never explained, but you end up not minding. You get charmed by the characters, and even more so get drawn in by the mystery that is filled with misdirects.
The one flaw with Erased is the ending, but that’s really for you to decide. It definitely isn’t the first anime to tell a great story with a letdown of an ending, and won’t be the last.
Toradora
If romance is for you, Toradora is one of the best anime can offer. It tells the story of two people misunderstood by everyone around them. Ryuuji looks like a thug, but acts like a househusband. Taiga looks like a doll, but has the fierce temper of an actual tiger. They end up friends, and form an agreement to help each other woo their crushes. If you are experienced in any romance media, you know the exact turn this takes.
Demon Slayer
This is, at present, the hot new thing on the block, but no anime becomes popular for no reason. Demon Slayer does a not uncommon story about… Slaying demons with a distinct visual flair. It really highlights what anime can be as an art form, and I think that is what really draws people to it. It also does a really great job of creating wonderfully weird characters that each come with powers that create different visual splendor. The plot itself is pretty standard for an action anime, but it is really the visuals and the characters that carry the series.
Snow White With The Red Hair
This series may be inspired by fairy tales, but it provides very much an anime take on them. It still creates a fairy tale-like love story as well as feels like being wrapped up in a fluffy blanket, but there is a plot going on here besides a girl trying to land herself a prince.
The enjoyable thing in Snow White With The Red Hair is that the female main character has motivations aside from just being a love sick puppy. The prince in her life also has his own problems. Sometimes they solve these things together, other times they having to handle things themselves. The series does a good job of keeping that fairy tale air, but building solid characters as well.
Seraph of the End: Vampire’s Reign
Anime doesn’t always do vampires so well, but Seraph of the End does them in a way that is at least interesting to watch. The series starts at the end of humanity. A virus killed all the adults and the vampires rose up to care for the children. By “care for,” I mean turn into livestock. The main character ends up struggling to escape and joins a rebel group that fights against the vampires. From there it becomes a standard action anime series that is done well and animated beautifully.
Your Lie in April
Why I picked this particular drama is specifically to highlight how great a capacity that anime has to hurt you without being a little bit of a slog that other popular drama anime series can be. Looking at you, visually beautiful, but deliberately slow moving Violet Evergarden.
The story follows a young prodigal musician that has lost the ability to play the piano after his mother’s death. He meets a girl that brings music back into his life, but as far as happy love stories go, this is not that. The unique thing that Your Lie in April has going for it is that it can really foster an appreciation of classical music throughout your brief romp.
91 Days
This series is more for people that crave something more mature and often find themselves drawn to more criminal dramas. 91 Days does nothing fast, but it creates a well-paced story of revenge growing more complicated by the day. As a series about a man looking to take down the organized crime family that killed his own family as a child from within, it also remains one of the less “Japanese” anime if your interest is more in the stories and less on the culture.
Tsurezure Children
The helpful thing about romance anime is that love is kind of a universal experience. Yeah, anime can get a bit weird with it as you move into things like ecchi and harem genres, but those things aren’t in this. Instead, Tsurezure Children focuses on several couples and condenses out all the moments that lead to character building and are required for plot. That sounds like a bad thing, but it actually isn’t. Instead, Tsurezure Children shows off small vignettes of those lovely moments of a romantic relationship that you actually want to see. The ones that make you swoon and make all that drama (which this show doesn’t have) worth it. It is also a short form series, so episodes are only 12 minutes long, which is both great for your time, but also just awful if you love it.
Death Note
While Death Note is a bit edgelord-ish with its plot about a bored high school honor students finding a notebook that kills anyone who has their name written in it, the show does carry it out well. The charming thing about Death Note, at least in the first half, is that it is a masterful game of cat and mouse between the main character and the young detective trying to catch him. It carries out their game very well while also having very meme-worthy moments of anime weirdness.
To Your Eternity
To Your Eternity might be a bit of a weird one to start off your anime career, I’ll admit. However, it was special among watchers and I believe it has a lot of value in what it does. Essentially, To Your Eternity tells you stories through the eyes of a main character who started off as nothing, gained form, and eventually becomes human. He travels and learns what it means to be human through his interactions with the world.
It is yet another series that will hurt you with the tragic tales it shows, but it creates an imaginative world and shows it off from the most remote corners to the most crowded cities
Vinland Saga
Western media is endlessly enamored with vikings, but anime is rather less so. Vinland Saga is the sole anime about vikings, but really leaves you sad that it is the only one because it does such an excellent job. This series tells a darker and more brutal story about a boy who becomes a mercenary to avenge his murdered father only to get caught up in the political struggle of the vikings and other rulers. Intrigue, action, blood, and battle are all abound.
A Place Further Than The Universe
Anime can be prone to ridiculous and over-the-top situations even in its stories that are grounded in the modern world. A Place Further Than The Universe seems like it will be one of those shows as a bunch of high school girls develop a plan to go to Antarctica. Yet, the series highlights the grounded and realistic way they reach that goal instead of saying “they just go there”. That is really what made it such a special series.
A Place Further Than the Universe really highlights the special non-action-packed stories that anime can tell. Slice of life is a pretty big genre, but often can be difficult to get into because there tends to be little plot. This series features all the charms of slice of life with a tangible goal that the characters are working towards.
Great Pretender
There are plenty of anime series about crime and criminals, but there is profoundly little about actual heists. There’s really just Lupin the 3rd and Great Pretender, and some are definitely put off by the age of Lupin even if the newer series are quite good standalone watches if you where to start the Lupin anime.
Anyway, Great Pretender follows the newest recruit in an international heist ring. This means that the series takes viewers all over the world with characters that are all complex and, in a hopefully growing trend in anime, racially diverse. The series is very much like a blockbuster heist movie, but animation allows the heists to be more grand and it really brings vibrant color into the world.
Black Clover
I remember when Black Clover premiered and people faulted it for being “too trope-y,” but if you’ve not seen every shounen anime in existence, then you won’t find any faults. Black Clover is built on the back of hard work versus natural talent in terms of a non-magic main character finding his strength when surrounded by magic users. Though, as with any shounen series, the power scaling gets out of hand over time.
Regardless, for fans of action anime, they will find plenty to love in the epic battles as well as the interesting character and character relationships within. Perhaps the most charming thing Black Clover does is create rivals that don’t actually seem like they hate each other most of the time.
Do you have more anime recommendations that would be great for absolute beginners in anime? Let potential fans know in the comments section below.
