Anime Rec List: More Underrated Faves

People really ended up liking my last post about underrated anime, and I know there’s a ton more underrated shows that I’d like to bring attention to so I decided to make another one! As I said in the first post, ‘underrated’ is a difficult thing to define. But rather than try to fit that mold, I decided to just pick some shows I personally wish were more popular/more talked about. Let’s go!

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki Kun

This show is such a funny anime, up there with some of my other favorite comedies (Saiki K, Love is War). It starts off pretty standard focusing on a girl named Sakura who has a crush on Nozaki, a boy in her class. However, he misinterprets her love confession as a confession that she’s a fan of the shoujo manga he writes. It’s so cute and funny, I highly recommend it to comedy anime fans!

To Your Eternity

By no means is this show totally underground; from what I understand it’s a decently popular manga and I did hear a lot of buzz about it when the first season aired, but in between seasons I haven’t heard much more about it and that is a crime. It’s a really unique fantasy drama written by the author of A Silent Voice. Please watch To Your Eternity, read my WYSW post linked above if you want to learn more!

Kimi Ni Todoke

This show definitely wasn’t underrated when it aired, but these days I’m seeing fewer and fewer people talk about it. Kimi Ni Todoke is essential shoujo; it’s so cute and fun and soft and I really love the art style. It’s about a girl named Sawako who is ostracized at school because she looks like the girl from The Ring.

Odd Taxi

Odd Taxi aired this past year, and while it got some attention I really didn’t see much buzz about it after the finale. It’s a super compelling 12-episode crime drama with a unique art style and a very interesting twist. If you like short-and-sweet anime or mystery anime, you really should check it out.

Welcome to the NHK

Welcome to the NHK is definitely not for everyone, but it is for some people and if you’re one of those people it’s a must see. It’s about a 22 year old shut-in who decides to try and face the world using his teenage friend’s multiple step program. This show is really wild but definitely requires some trigger warnings, so if you’re interested in watching, read my previous post linked above and see how you feel about it.

Anyway, I really hope some of you check out these shows! thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking

I LOVE Fushi, they were my favorite character from To Your Eternity, what a sweet little guy. It’s so nice to see him learn and grow as a person as the story progresses.

I also think their design is excellent, both in the regular boy form and in every other form they take throughout the show. I’m really looking forward to season 2 to see more of his development, hopefully they can be happy for like more than 5 seconds pls

(also I have written a WYSW post for To Your Eternity if anyone hasn’t seen the show yet)

Thank you!

-threecheersforinking

Top 2021 Anime

Hello! At the end of the year I love making lists of my top anime I watched this year and the top new anime I watched this year. Unfortunately I didn’t watch a ton of newly aired 2021 shows even though a lot of them caught my attention, because I just had older anime on my to-watch list that were more of a priority. Regardless, I did still end up having a few favorites. So here are my top anime that aired in 2021!

OddTaxi

When I first heard about OddTaxi it gave me off-brand Beastars vibes, but Mother’s Basement recommended it and as I generally trust his obscure/less popular picks I figured I’d give it a shot. I surprisingly really ended up liking it, and I’d recommend it to anyone else who likes mystery shows and shorter length anime. I was intrigued by the mystery the whole way through, and the characters were really developed and interesting.

To Your Eternity

On the other side of the spectrum, it didn’t surprise me at all that I enjoyed To Your Eternity as the story was written by Yoshitoki Oima, one of my favorite manga writers. This also was the only new 2021 anime that I knew about beforehand and was looking forward to. I don’t want to say much more as I’ve already written a recommendation post of it, but I love this show and I’m so pumped for season 2. It’s just a very unique concept that I haven’t seen done before and I was super compelled by the story and the protagonist.

Wonder Egg Priority

I have a love/hate relationship with this show after its incredibly disappointing finale, but I did have a lot of love for it at the beginning of the series so I still felt like mentioning it here. WEP tried a lot of things and failed at many of them. It really seemed like it was on the path to being one of the better shows that try tackling difficult subjects and a horror genre at the same time, but it fumbled last minute. Still, the first and last episodes of the main series (NOT including the special) are just really incredible episodes of TV. I still love many things about this show despite its flaws.

In conclusion, there were a lot of great anime this year including ones I haven’t watched. Blue Period and Ranking of Kings, for example, are on my radar but I haven’t gotten to them yet. Let me know what your favorite shows were of 2021 that I might have missed. Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking

WYSW: To Your Eternity

**spoiler-free!**

To Your Eternity released this Spring season, and is another animated work originally written by Yoshitoki Oima, the author who created A Silent Voice. Both of these works are excellent, but they’re vastly different. A Silent Voice takes place in the real, modern world; meanwhile, To Your Eternity takes place in a fantasy universe and is filled with much more action and adventure. One thing they have in common, though, is that they both will absolutely destroy you emotionally.

Here’s a short summary: To Your Eternity is about a magical orb created by a mysterious god-like figure released into the world in order to learn about the planet. This orb has the ability to change its form into any object, creature, or person it touches (with some caveats, of course). Eventually gaining sentience and the name Fushi, this orb sets off on a heartbreaking journey to learn the meaning of life and death.

It is difficult to discuss this kind of anime without spoiling it, but I will say this show is full of really heartbreaking and emotional scenes, fun characters, and frightening villains. Fushi is an incredible protagonist. It is so fun to see them learn and grow, and they develop into a really sweet and lovable character.

Fair warning, there is a significant amount of gore and violence in this show, although I wouldn’t say it’s gratuitous or hard to watch. The most difficult part is definitely the emotional hits. If you’re mentally prepared for a really heartbreaking story, I would highly recommend To Your Eternity! A second season has already been announced, but if you’re impatient, there’s always the manga.

Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking

First Impressions: To Your Eternity

**spoilers for episodes 1-12**

To Your Eternity is the only show this season that I’m actually keeping up with, and it was also the only one that caught my eye before it even started airing. I’m a huge fan of Yoshitoki Oima, author of the well known series A Silent Voice, so I figured I would enjoy anything else she wrote as well, and so far I’m not disappointed.

If you were expecting something like A Silent Voice from To Your Eternity, though, you’re definitely going to be a little thrown off. I didn’t know what to expect going into this show, but it wasn’t this.

A Silent Voice is certainly sad, but it’s sad in a raw, realistic, relatable way. To Your Eternity is sad in a completely different way, although I’m not sure if I know how to articulate it. It’s like, existentially sad?

Now that this first arc has concluded, I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that the rest of the show will just be Fushi meeting new people and loving them until they die. Which I know is kind of the whole point, but I am a little concerned about growing numb to the same routine of characters dying over and over again. And boy, do these characters die. Not just in a ‘oh, they died, how sad, but it was peaceful and pleasant’ way, these characters die in a Grave of the Fireflies, horrible, rip-your-heart-out way.

But I understand that this is the nature of the show. The first episode was so emotional and well done it could practically stand alone, and I was thoroughly moved by both March and Gugu’s stories. But man, am I sad!

One of the best parts of the show is definitely Fushi as a character. I think his Japanese voice actor is amazing, and the way he is eager to learn and make friends is just so adorable. Also, the past couple episodes that introduced Fushi’s ‘creator’ as a character are establishing a darker main storyline that I’m looking forward to discovering more about.

Overall, I do really like it so far, and I hope the series continues to keep the audience’s attention. A bunch of new characters are going to be introduced in the upcoming episodes, and hopefully they prove to be just as interesting as Fushi’s past companions.

Let me know if you have any further thoughts on this new show. Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking