RESULTS: What is Your Best Anime Rec for Beginners?
At the end of November, I asked all of you to come together and vote for the best anime for newbies, and over 1,600 votes later… well the top shows won’t be too surprising, but there are a few notable mentions I wasn’t expecting.
Let’s start by getting the top four out of the way. These are the only shows with over 100 votes:
One of my biggest surprises in going through this data was seeing that Death Note and Attack on Titan topped the chart. Death Note I saw plenty while parsing the data, but I didn’t think it was outright the most popular option as THE show for a newbie to watch!
Let’s look through some of the reasoning people gave:
“It has a very compelling main character and the story [is] so unpredictable yet engaging at the same time. The sense of morals we have IRL are also tested in Death Note which I love.”
I totally understand people voting for Attack on Titan due to the show’s lasting popularity and awesome fight scenes, though I personally would’ve thought that all of the politics, along with the tonal and artistic shift of the later seasons, would’ve been a little more difficult for newbies to roll with.
Two people in particular summed up the parts that I hadn’t considered though:
“Isn’t bogged down by weird anime tropes but still has Shonen hype, more adult/dystopian world, great character growth and animation/action. Long but not dauntingly long.”
“Has everything you need: a first episode that sets the tone for the entire series, a captivating score, a solid cast of characters with great individual arcs, huge plot twists, incredibly choreographed action sequences.”
Fullmetal Alchemist… yeah, I actually think that might be one of the best jumping-on points in all of anime. It’s easily accessible for newcomers, has great rewatchability and is simply an extremely well-written story, so die-hard and seasoned fans can enjoy it.
Or, as one comment managed to make as succinct as possible: “The story is perhaps the best story in anime. The characters are memorable and the animation still holds up. Plus the show only has 64 episodes.”
Finally, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Honestly, the moment I saw this one pop up, I knew it was going to be at least near the top of the chart. It was so popular it managed to change the entire landscape of anime and the second season lived up to the hype after the movie.
That’s my thinking though. What did the voters say?
“It introduces them to some standard tropes, while showing what the industry/medium is capable of in terms of animation and visual quality. Not to mention, it has a simple-to-follow story and characters that you can root for while you watch it. Has some lively characters and nice emotional moments that can keep a watcher engaged and give them a preview as to what other animes can really capitalize on.”
Or, as another person put it:
“Because the animation is top tier and the characters are also good and it has Michael Jackson as the villain”
After the top four, there’s a pretty steep drop off, but for the sake of transparency, let’s expand that out to the top 10 to show off all of the most popular responses:
What about those notable mentions I alluded to before? Well, there were two shows, in particular, that got a genuinely surprising number of votes, but I’m hardly going to complain about getting to shout out good anime, so here they are:
Getting a dozen or so votes among 1,600 may not sound like much, but let’s expand that out to see their peers. Here are all of the shows with votes in the teens (10-20):
Sure, 18 votes may not be a huge number, but that makes ERASED tied with Mob Psycho 100, and it has more votes than the likes of KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
If I’d voted myself, Kaguya would’ve been a serious consideration, so I’m actually really curious about why those two shows were so popular in the vote. Let’s take a look through a few of the reasons why they make for good gateway anime.
First up, Violet Evergarden:
“Somes people view anime as “silly kids’ cartoons” but although it’s sometimes true, most anime is targeted toward adults and teenagers. I think Violet Evergarden would be able to communicate that idea because of its emotional themes and stray from the typical anime formula. I think it’s also a great anime for beginners because it doesn’t contain any overly-sexual scenes, which is why most people (understandably) dislike anime. The show’s animation (go Kyoto Animation!) and the soundtrack are beautiful and I think it’ll touch anyone’s heart despite their opinion of anime.”
As for ERASED:
“Its a 12-episode anime that can be finished quickly, has great plot and no fanservice”
“I personally enjoyed it. The mystery and the plot twists kept me on edge throughout the whole series.”
Now for a few of the oddballs. What are the shows that just got one or two votes?
It’s worth remembering that only one or two people voted for those shows, so they aren’t necessarily going to be great for every newcomer; but each of those shows stuck with that person enough for them to want to show it off to their friends, so I wanted to take a moment to highlight them. Also, there are some shows in there that even I haven’t heard of before, so now I have some new stuff to watch!
Let’s see what some of the reasons were for choosing these shows. First up, the vote for Say “I Love You”:
“I would start them off with say I love you because of how it makes you feel. While watching the series it just makes you feel happy and giggly and makes you feel like theres butterflys in your stomach, although it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and can make you tear up and cry, but thats what makes the anime so good. It just sucks that they never continued the series, cause it would have gone down in history for how good it is.”
Next, The Ancient Magus’ Bride:
“Good action, wonderful animation, amazing character development, impressive plot progression”
I do need Season 2 of Bone Daddy. Anyway, moving on to Summer Time Rendering:
“The first cour of the anime had a lot of thrills and amazing moments. The whole anime series is very entertaining and full of mysteries elements that enhance the watching experience.”
And finally, Yu-Gi-Oh!:
“Cardfight!! Vanguard”
Truly a reason anyone can get behind.
Also, those of you who voted for Avatar: The Last Airbender or Miraculous… well played. Avatar may be up there with Fullmetal Alchemist in my opinion.
Those who voted for Boku no Pico, Redo of Healer, and Bible Black: see me after class, and bring your parents. You know what you did. People who voted for High School DxD, I have my eye on you…
And the person who specifically said they wanted to see my reaction to them voting for Redo of Healer (yes, I DO actually read as many of these entries as I possibly can): bland disappointment. Try going for some completely forgotten but recent show if you want to impress me. My sister and I started watching Kageki Shoujo!! recently and were both shocked to learn it only started airing in 2021!
And to round it out, let’s look at the full pic chart of all of the votes counted at once. Please note that to reduce clutter, the lower vote count shows are being compressed into their category, rather than every individual show being visible at once.
Which movie or series first got you into anime? Let me know in the comments!
Kevin Matyi is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. He’s been watching anime for as long as he can remember, and his favorite shows tend to be shonen and other action series.
