HN Explorer

Ask HN: Anime Recommendations 2021

5 points by AlexanderTheGr8 ↗ HN
I am genuinely surprised by lack of recommendation threads in HN. Since most of us here are technical people, we are very likely to have similar interests in entertainment. So what animes do you think are interesting/must-watch?

10 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 39.5 ms ] thread
AlexanderTheGr8
For me, I recently watched Knight's & Magic, and loved it. It was fun seeing someone solving 1 problem after another to create something new - kinda similar to solving a million bugs to finally build the project.
Dracophoenix
My guess is you like isekai with a tech/strategic side to it probably like the following:

- Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

- That Time I Got Reincarnated as A Slime

- The Dungeon of Black Company

- No Game No Life

- Outbreak Company

- Log Horizon (in a computer game, but has a lot of worldbuilding)

- Overlord

- Re;Creators

- Arifureta: From Commonplace to The World's Strongest

- In Another World with a Smartphone (generally considered so bad it's good)

- The Wise Man's Grandchild

- The Saga of Tanya the Evil

I'm guessing you might like the following:

- Sword Art Online

- .hack series (the anime chronology begins with .hack//sign)

If you want something a little bit more tech related with less fantasy:

- The Irregular At Magic High School

- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

- Stein's Gate

- Serial Experiments Lain

- Bubblegum Crisis

- Outlaw Star

- Big O

- Code Geass

Just a personal recommendation:

- Spice and Wolf

AlexanderTheGr8
These are great recommendations, thanks. Also if you don't mind me asking, how do you know so many tech-related recommendations?
Dracophoenix
Firstly, tech of any sort is almost unavoidable in anime. It's just a matter of whether said tech is a significant part of the world-building or just there to keep the plot moving. Even a sword-and-sorcery shoujo isekai like Escaflowne has mech battles.

Secondly, I've watched many of these shows myself, so when you mentioned Knights and Magic (which I enjoyed when it came out in 2017), I knew the kind of premise you were looking for; Coder/office worker/intelligent & talented student uses his knowledge of the laws of nature of his previous world to become overpowered in the new one.

CarVac
Odd Taxi was excellent.
1MachineElf
Have you heard of Akira, that anime from 1988? It's by Katsuhro Otomo. I'm a fan of his work. If you are too, then these two are worth seeing if you haven't already...

Otomo's 1991 Roujin-Z was made available for viewing on YouTube this past year. It's 1h20m. Link: https://youtu.be/itg4zKaUMgY

There's also Otomo's 1995 Memories. It's great. I haven't found a good version of it on YouTube, but a quality stream of it is available on Amazon Prime.

Otomo also worked on Metropolis (2001) and Steamboy (2004). They're both great.

1MachineElf
You may also know about Ninja Scroll (1993). It's a classic. The same director made the lesser known Demon City Shinjuku (1988) and Wicked City (1987). Not sure about those two older works, but Ninja Scroll can be streamed from Hulu.

I can't define it, but I feel like there is a link between the animators who worked on Ninja Scroll and the ones who worked on Puppet Princess (2000). Puppet Princess is short but looks like a lot of work went into it for it's time. If you want to see that, the only streaming service I could find with it was VUDU.

1MachineElf
Studio Ghibli films are popular recommendations, but one you'll probably not hear about is Pom Poko (1984). It's very different from other more well known works from Ghibli. Story is about talking raccoons employing all kinds of wacky tactics trying to save their forest.
sharps_xp
I started watching anime in high school with naruto, one piece, and bleach… these are super long series.

now i have a few favorites that i always rewatch: - hunter x hunter; the greed island arc was my favorite - the irregular at magic high school: magicians are ranked in the school by their compute power and speed, but the protagonist basically has orders of magnitude of more RAM than everybody else