Monster Musume. It’s far better than the premise would lead you to believe. Rachnera best girl, incidentally.
When I was in college, I had a tendency to grab random series from an fserv in IRC. One day I got Kaleidostar not knowing what it was and proceeded to marathon the whole 50 something episodes. I told the homies I was in my room watching porn lest they know I’d secretly become invested in binging anime made for middle school girls.
I think this depends on the intended audience. My answer would be different depending on if I am talking to somebody familiar with the anime landscape vs somebody not familiar with anime. Trying to keep things generally spoiler-free below…
For the anime-initiated
- Fullmetal Alchemist (not Brotherhood) - I know, this makes me a terrible person, but I actually like the anime-original ending of the first Fullmetal at a conceptual level. It raises a lot of questions about the nature of alchemy and how it is inseparable from violence. You can really read a lot into it and apply it to things irl.
- Usagi Drop - The manga has ruined this series for many, many folks in the greater anime community. However, just taking the anime as a standalone piece of media, Usagi Drop is a great series.
For casuals
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You - The title of this series makes people think that this is just some trashy, fan service filled, harem trash…which it kind of is. But, at the same time, it is actually hilarious and quite touching a lot of the time. The premise is ridiculous, but so is how much effort they put into making sure that it is executed to perfection.
- Reincarnated as a Vending Machine - Another series in which the title makes it sound incredibly stupid. However, I enjoyed this show a lot and it was way better than I had thought the premise would allow.
- Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai - This is a series that I have recommended to people irl before and gotten some weird looks in return after they hear the title. In reality, this is a great series that uses supernatural occurrences to explore the insecurities and difficulties that arise as children grow up.
FMA is good. I’d still consider it a silver standard compared to Brotherhood which is now a gold standard.
There are a lot of little things that happen in FMA that don’t happen in FMA:B that are still referenced, and personally I always kind of took both series together as a bunch of adventures for the brothers. I do prefer the ending of Brotherhood though.
Also obligatory Olivier Mira Armstrong is best girl.
Brotherhood skipped a lot of stuff that was in FMA03 on the assumption that anyone watching Brotherhood at release would have also seen 03 and would know the divergence point, which does weaken Brotherhood to an extent as time passes and more people watch it without 03.
While I feel Brotherhood had a better ending, I still really like the ending of 03. The writers had to basically guess an ending based on an incomplete manga? And they went for a really personal, small stakes ending that lined up with the clues given and I think they did a really good job. Mangahood ended with a giant nationwide crisis and the intensity of the stakes at that point made it clear the home team would succeed. FMA03’s final conflict was so personal that you could believe the bad ending was a possibility, and in some minor ways I appreciate it
Onimai: I’m now your sister
It got looked down on as it involves a man being transformed into a little girl and making friends at school with other girls that age. But if you ignore the fact the younger sister was a man it’s just a story about an elder sister helping her little sister get out and make friends.
I didn’t have a thing for tights and stockings untill I saw Miru Tights. This anime made me appreciate stocking, tights and feet related stuffs after watching.
