There are some anime series that just stay with you. You watch them when they first come out or even years after they’ve been released and you just want to talk about them every day with everyone. However, there are also good anime series that you watch, and genuinely enjoy for one reason or another, and then they just kind of fade from memory. This can be for a lot of reasons, age of the series primary among them. Sometimes other series come out that are similar and just sort of overshadow it. However, regardless of the reason, it doesn’t make these series any less good.
Best Anime We All Forgot About
Yakitate! Japan
Yakitate Japan is a series that masterfully blends comedy and cooking. However, unlike more modern cooking anime like Food Wars, which is only lightly educational, you can actually learn a lot from Yakitate Japan, too. It’s not just factoids either, the shows gives you straight up recipes if you want to bake the bread you see on the show. However, recipes are fun, but the comedy is better. Even if cooking anime isn’t really your thing, if you appreciate comedy, you can appreciate the hell out of this.
Full Metal Panic
Full Metal Panic is a likable series primarily because it jumps around between several different genres. It has a high school comedy themes, and better yet, it did high school comedy before they all became essentially the same show. As it uses more random comedy rather than slice of life stuff as well as because it jumps from high school comedy to high octane mech fights, you never really get bored with it. It also stands as one of those shows that it is quite difficult to predict what comes next.
Excel Saga
It used to be when you thought of comedy anime, you thought of Excel Saga first, or at least it was somewhere on that list. Now people barely even remember it. However, its comedy is a particular sort. It’s not always very high brow, but rather random and raunchy, so it might not be for the finer connoisseurs. However, if you don’t need any intellectualism or plot, but just want to laugh, it can provide.
Slayers
Slayers is another series like Excel Saga that was best at making people laugh, but often easy to forget about. However, it was popular enough that it was able to get a rebooted closure series quite a few years after its original run. There’s not too terribly much plot to Slayers, but it shines in its characters. Essentially Slayers is a lot like an abridged series of an anime, but not abridged, just funny.
Gunbuster/Diebuster
People still regard Gunbuster (not so much Diebuster) as one of the best mecha series. However, it’s not really brought up much. Even when it brought up, it only has six episodes and many people tend to give it a pass. Think you can’t tell a compelling and cohesive story in six episodes? Gunbuster will prove you wrong. Diebuster, on the other hand, is not so iconic, but still a decent watch. This is particularly true if you were a big fan of Toppa Tengen Gurren Lagann, since it has very much the same feel in story and the same style of animation.
Kekkaishi
At a glance, Kekkaishi is Generic Shounen Series #2048. It has a lot of the same tropes and never quite took off as much as other shounen series, but it has some very interesting elements to it. The battle mechanics of the series in particular are enough to set it apart. However, most people take a look at the first episode and hope to forget it.
Escaflowne
Who says all mecha needs to be in the shounen genre? Escaflowne proved that misconception wrong by creating a series that weaved mecha, fantasy, and all the good things from the shoujo genre together into an unforgettable series. It is not quite gundams smashing against each others, nor is all just talking and drama. In fact, though not quite as politic-heavy, it is a bit like a precursor to Code Geass.
Crest of the Stars
There are so few good space opera-type shows that by all rights Crest of the Stars shouldn’t have been forgotten. However, like many space operas, its age is really the cause. It has older animation, but tells a story and creates a universe that definitely holds up over time. If space politics is one of your favorite parts of many of the anime you watch, then this series is a must. However, it’s also not a bad option if you also crave a little romance too.
Great Teacher Onizuka
Great Teacher Onizuka is nothing short of legendary. However, when it comes to the anime series, it is getting up there in years. Even when it came out, the animation wasn’t particularly great, and still today it just kind of puts people off. However, under the term “Badass” in the anime character dictionary, you would find a picture of Onizuka. He’s not just a good-hearted thug and comical pervert, but he has a way of inspiring both students and audiences.
D-Frag
D-Frag is a great comedy series for gamers, unfortunately that is a specific niche that is growing more crowded with each passing season. As such, D-Frag just gets buried deeper and deeper down in the pile until even those that watched it have forgotten about it. However, its lovable characters lend greatly to the comedy and it sits as an all-around great watch.
Noein
You know sometimes you just read a synopsis and it doesn’t really draw you in? Noein is one of those series, combine that with some underwhelming first episodes, and this is a series that just begs to be forgotten. However, it is also a series that soars to greatness the longer you watch it. The characters and original story create a tale that draws you in so you just have to see how it ends.
Texhnolyze
There are so few good cyberpunk series that you’ll probably kick yourself for not choosing this one. Not only is it a psychological cyberpunk thriller, but it is kind of brutal too. It’s also an excellent watch for another rare genre – crime politics. It follows a four-way war for the city and one ex-prize fighter that is caught in the middle of it. Throw in artificial limbs and augmentations, and that creates some very unique situations.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
This series was bright, imaginative, and innately something that every anime fan could love. Despite being a short little one-off, it packed quite a punch. While it is tied together with a relatively flimsy overall plot, you don’t watch it for the plot. Instead, you watch it because each episode is a parody of something. It could be old martial arts movies and anime, noir crime drama, mecha, and of course there is an RPG parody too. Each episode, save for the first and the last is a different world and a different parody. While it is an older series, the parody is mainstream enough that it makes the comedy timeless.
Azumanga Daioh
There was a time where everybody into anime was all about Azumanga Daioh. This is a series made before girls were overly moe-ified so in this moe age, they aren’t as cute, but this is still a cute girls doing cute things series. However, the real reason it was so popular is because it was so random and so funny. It is the Nichijou before Nichijou existed. Unfortunately, it is just one of those series that people loved at the time, but just kind of forget about as it gets older.
Dennou Coil
Dennou Coil is proof that you don’t need to do sci-fi in such a way that is confusing or occasionally really boring like Ghost in the Shell of Serial Experiments Lain. Instead, it can be fun and colorful with characters that you can actually relate to. Furthermore, it doesn’t need to be straight mecha either. Instead, Dennou Coil combines technology and sci-fi with more of a childhood mystery sort of tale.
We’d like to know if you have any anime series that you thought was really good and the world seems to have forgotten about. So, providing you haven’t forgotten about it yourself, why not tell us in the comments section below.
