Hi! I just watched Tokyo Grandfathers and season 1 of Rewrite, and am quickly developing a taste for anime. Problem is, where does a noob start? I’m not overly into fight scenes - it’s OK if it’s important to the story, but I don’t like fight scenes/explosions etc for their own sake. I like anime with a good storyline, relatable characters, make you think, and some cheeky bits of humour. Any recommendations appreciated!
Watch Kotaro Lives Alone next, and then The Ancient Magus` Bride.
AniDB anime ranked by rating; has community ratings you can order by, as well as weigh and filter by tags if you want to make it more specific to your liking.
I have recommendations/ratings on my website.
There are previous posts here on AniDB with recommendations by topic or in general. Looking through my comment history, there was What is your best isekai anime?, Looking for any good slice of life dating anime, and non-harem isekai (since deleted on lemmy, but I saved my comment).
Gave it some thought, and here’s a few that should be good for a newbie to wet their beak.
Cowboy Bebop: A space western that got a lot of classic anime fans into the genre. The action is absolutely in service of the drama, and the storyline is powerful.
Nichijou: A zany comedy by KyoAni, light on story but extremely relatable humour and top quality animation.
KonoSuba: A comedy fantasy isekai. The characters are strong and the comedy is exceptional. Should give you a taste of isekai while still being a good experience if you don’t find isekai appealing.
Kaguya-Sama Love Is War: A romcom about two brilliant minds trying to get the other to make the first move. It’s incredibly funny, and has been a gateway to romance for many.
A Place Further Than the Universe: A slice of life adventure about high school girls joining an Antarctic expedition. It is deeply uplifting and full of the spirit of adventure.
Nichijou might be one of my favorite anime ever.
Stein’s Gate is a good one
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. (The Brotherhood series, not the 2003 one!). There are some fight scenes, but they aren’t just for the sake of fighting, and I think it fits well what you said you like.
Haha I started watching FMA because it apparently has an Asian Kung Fu Generation song I like, but it looked violent so I stopped watching. Maybe I watched the 2003 one? Who knows. I’ll try the Brotherhood series. Thanks.
I think there’s a fight right at the beginning but I don’t think it has that many fights
Powerpuff Girls Z
Sailor Moon
Bastard
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction
Fushigi Yugi
Yuki Yuna is a Hero
Run for Money: The Great Mission
Spy x Family
Darling in the Franxx
Summertime Render
Black Rock Shooter
Mushi-shi. Incredibly beautiful art and wonderfully written stories about a guy who travels the countryside, using research and nonviolent methods to resolve issues between humans and the spirit creatures known as Mushi
My favourite anime is “Haven’t you Heard? I’m Sakamoto!” - Great comedy but also decent story with likeable characters who grow through the plot. I think it might fit what you said you like. No fight scenes.
It’s weird how little that one’s talked about, one of the funniest anime I’ve watched
Sounds great. Thanks.
Akira - a cinematic masterpiece that can be a bit confusing the first time through but any fights that are in it or explosions all have a purpose and in some cases push the story forward.
Angels Egg - If you’re a fan of the Dark Souls/Bloodbourne/Elden Ring games then you might as well view the film that inspired it all. This one WILL make you think. and regardless of its inspiration for those games there are no fights or anything like that. It sets the mood. Very gothic-dystopian.
Bocchi the Rock! - An anime about a girl with massive social anxiety and her joining a rock band. it’s funny, the music is awesome, and if you have any sort of anxiety it’s relatable.
FLCL - A stylized weird tale of a boy with a robot in his head and everyone, except himself, want him to live up to his brothers reputation (and that’s just being incredibly basic with the plot) great music, awesome art style.
Paranoia Agent - A mysterious kid with a baseball bat goes on a serial assault spree in Tokyo. His actions affect many people, all of whom you’ll learn about and follow, and how they could potentially be connected to each other and even the kid. Great mystery tale that REALLY makes you think. I personally love this one.
Cowboy Bebop - Yes there are fights, yes there are explosions, but this one is honestly an absolute classic that is worth the watch with by far the best anime soundtrack ever. Fantastic story with amazing characters that you’ll instantly connect with. you WILL care about these characters and by the time you hit the end you WILL be emotionally invested in the crew of the Bebop.
DoroheDoro - dude with a lizard head is trying to find his real head. There are some fights in this but it’s damn great and really funny. On my first watch through I loved it so much I immediately watched it through again. Characters are great and the style/music are awesome.
Deathnote - It’s silly in the way it pretends to be incredibly serious. You’ve probably seen the countless memes of this show but at it’s core it’s a goofy anime that is a sort of satire for all the incredibly serious anime. Just the way they will explain the plot or things in the show you just have to roll your eyes and laugh.
One Punch Man - again, you don’t want a lot of fights but again this is a satire of all the “super hero super power” animes like Dragon Ball Z. Random nobody salary man decides he wants to be a super hero…over does it a bit.
Finally my personal favorite anime/series of all time which might not be up your ally but it has influenced and inspired so many things like the Matrix films, Countless movies, tv shows, other anime, videogames, cyberpunk in general…
Ghost in the Shell the movie - series Stand Alone Complex and S.A.C 2nd Gig
GitS is my absolute favourite anime series of all time. I watch it back constantly. just fantastic stories, setting, and various plots that questions are we even human anymore? what differentiates us from machine? The film Ghost in the Shell is a cinematic masterpiece and just watching it you’ll see scenes and think to yourself “I’ve seen this before” because you probably have but not from the film itself. You’ve seen this in films, tv, videogames, comics, other anime that have pulled scenes and pieces FROM Ghost in the Shell and adapted it to whatever they’re making.
There are other series I really enjoy like Fire Force but I don’t think that one would be for you. lots of fighting, LOTS of explosions and LOTS of a fan service but it’s funny and I enjoyed it.
That’s quite a list! The notes about satire are helpful too - I started watching One Punch Man and stopped halfway through because it was too silly. I didn’t realise it was a send up. This list should keep me going for a while, and lead me to other anime I like. Thanks!
KON: wholesome slice of life about girls in a music club
Spice and wolf: Historical fantasy about a traveling merchant who meets a wolf girl and tries to help her return home.
Do it yourself: similar to KON but replace music with DIY.
Yuru camp: super chill anime about camping.
Kino s journey: There are some fight scenes here and there but mostly it’s about Kino traveling this fantastical world and seeing all sorts of interesting things.
Keep your hands off eizouken: basically a show about how cool animation is.
I would say, take recommendations but you don’t have to watch them to end. See if they click with you after watching a couple episodes. Once you have found genres you like, you can start from top rated animes of that genre.
A couple suggestions from me:
Bonus:
Idk if Haruhi Suzumiya (you made a typo at the end btw) is a good noob recommendation, isn’t that the one with the “repitition”? 😭 (Didn’t wanna spoil it but I think you get what I mean)
Oh, thanks! It always happens when I write via a touchscreen. -_-
It might not be an exact noob recommendation but I believe it has quite the charm, even for someone who never watched anime. But you might be onto something, I gotta change the order.
Planetes
Kinda weird that nobody recommends the typical “anime for beginners” meme stuff. Finally serious answers to a normal question.
Good posts beget good responses. The asker stated their preferences quite clearly and provided examples of shows they enjoyed.
relatable characters
What kind of characters do you relate to?
If I ignore relatability of characters, here are some anime based on the rest of your criteria - good story, cheeky humour, no unnecessary fights, “noob”-friendly - that others haven’t suggest:
P.S. I deliberately chose shorter series so that you won’t have to commit much of your time.
Sakamoto Days has been a recent favorite of mine, that I think meets your ceiteria. It’s not particularly serious, but it’s not just a comedy either, and it definitely has some action
