eldiax (Level 13)

The best high-school romance/comedy anime I have watched so far. The character development is extremely well done, as well as the way the story is presented to the viewer. Also, the plot is completely believable, no crazy over the top drama, just a typical high-school romance story that isn't unlikely to happen in real life. Great amount of detail has been put in, allowing for some really emotional scenes. I really enjoyed it. EDIT: After rewatching this series, everything I wrote above still stands true. Toradora is truly a brilliant example of how romance comedies should be made.

I watched the first 14 episodes by nonlinear ordering so far, and I plan on watching everything again chronologically but with new episodes in the future. So far, I'm loving the plot and the characters and I'm really interested how will this pan out. EDIT: Ok, done with the complete rewatch of Haruhi including the second season and the movie. It's been a year since I last watched this show. I have to say it absolutely reminded me why is it this high on my list. The movie was fantastic, and I can't wait to see more of Haruhi. I hope they put something out soon. Kyon is such an amazing male lead, his character has a great sense of humor and I love love love his sarcasm. I won't mention Endless Eight. Don't watch that arc. Period.

In genre, Angel Beats! is pretty similar to Haruhi, because it incorporates comedy, action and romance, and it is set in a high-school -- however that's where all the similarities end. Angel Beats is set in a world where high-schoolers seeking revenge on God for giving them a horrible life come after dying. The concept is extremely interesting, and the story, although it kind of slows down before the end is absolutely amazing and has a fantastic conclusion. There's even a short 5-min episode titled "Another Epilogue", which might suit you if you are not for some crazy reason satisfied with the ordinary ending. I have to say that the humor in this series is top-notch, I was laughing like crazy during some of the scenes. However, the show isn't scared of switching to serious mode, and such transitions are essentially flawlessly done. The music and the animation are excellent. The only thing I didn't like was the shortness of the series: only 13 episodes long + OVA + Another Epilogue. The story does kind of falter in the second part of the show but it comes around for a spectacular ending. All in all, an absolutely amazing anime that I wrongly accused of being a Haruhi ripoff before watching it -- it doesn't rip off anything, and is amazing in its own way.

Wow. This anime felt more like an epic movie, breathtaking start to finish. Amazing plot, amazing characters, ending was perfect.

A beautiful romance/mecha action anime. The setting is interesting, the characters are endearing and the plot is quite good as well. What I liked the most were the relations between characters. Eureka, the female lead, is a wonderful character and also my favourite in the show. I'd recommend this to both male and female viewers if you're looking for a very good romance story sprinkled with excellent mecha battles. It's also worth noting that this anime has zero bad fan-service. Besides the original 50 episodes, I have also watched the movie. The movie has nothing to do with the plot of the series, it just takes the setting and the characters and assigns them new roles. The movie was okay, but nothing more than that.

Bakemonogatari is a blend of supernatural, romance, comedy, and some action too. The art style is absolutely excellent, and it is something I have never seen before in an anime. The characters are really interesting, and the plot is quite good too. I can't wait for the remaining two episodes to be aired. EDIT: After watching the second season (Nisemonogatari) and the remaining first season episodes I hadn't seen yet, everything still stands true for Bakemonogatari. The series is really on a pretty good path, and I can't wait for the movie and another season to come out. One thing bothered me a bit, and it's that Nisemonogatari has quite a bit of fanservice; but the art, story and characters are so good it didn't really affect my view of this anime.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica joins the ranks of anime that have a very stupid-sounding title but are actually pretty good. Well, Madoka Magica is more than good. It is fucking amazing. This 12-episode anime has such a great plot, told with such great pacing that it could be called a little masterpiece. Warning, the plot is pretty dark, so if you're looking for something light-hearted Madoka Magica DEFINITELY isn't the anime to go to. If you want amazing art and music however, you can find plenty in this anime. The animation is so well done that every scene is an enjoyable experience to watch. Music is fantastic. I highly recommend this anime to anyone who's looking for a great story. I stole a quote from someone on TVtropes.org which sums up this anime perfectly: "It uses characters done in the cute style of Hidamari Sketch to tell a story that can be accurately likened to Neon Genesis Evangelion.".

Ergo Proxy is a cyber/steampunk anime in which the humans, after the destruction of the outer world, all live in some kind of dome-shaped cities. This anime has such high quality of animation and art, it's really a joy to watch it, it's extremely detailed. The sound complements the atmosphere perfectly. The characters are amazing, there are no stereotypes, and the plot is superb as well. If you're into this kind of anime I couldn't recommend it more.

Cowboy Bebop probably delivers the best atmosphere out of all of the shows on this list. It combines noir, music of the 20th century and science fiction. The music in Cowboy Bebop is absolutely fantastic, and I couldn't seem to find even one song that I didn't like. Both the characters and the story are really good and the ending left quite an impact on me, and I would recommend this to anyone, especially to someone who had just started with anime.

Shiki is a mystery/supernatural anime which holds place in the recluse village of Sotoba, where people mysteriously start dying one after another. First of all, I have to give props to its excellent music and animation. It truly is something else. The characters and the story are absolutely amazing. It's hard to talk about it much without spoiling it, however I absolutely recommend it.

Darker than Black is one of the rare series that gets really, REALLY better nearing the end. You can read my review here (copy the link in the browser): http://www.animevice.com/darker-than-black/11-2352/user-reviews/?review_id=554

Anime with the most intense moments I have yet seen, literally keeping me on the edge of my seat. A very good concept and constant mind games are what makes this series awesome. Too bad the peak of the show was somewhere half-way through. It is interesting afterwards, although not nearly as much as in the first half. Ryuzaki is one of my favourite male characters in anime, I really like his personality and way of thinking. The plot can be kind of hard to follow though, especially near the end.

Louise is undoubtedly my favourite tsundere so far. I enjoyed this show a lot, as it does a very good job on merging the romance and comedy aspects. It does go a little over the top sometimes, but that isn't that big of a problem. The ongoing plot isn't the best, but it doesn't even need to be because the show is actually about Louise and Saito's (her familiar) relationship. All the negative points in this show are outweighed by Louise's character. I'm hoping season 4 gets made. It probably isn't better than some anime below it on the list, but dammit I had so much fun watching this.

Katanagatari is a beautiful anime. The art is amazing, the details are so many, and the music is pretty good too. It has its funny moments, its serious moments, its romantic moments, it really is amazing. The battle scenes are excellent. The main two leads are pretty fun to watch and they work together quite well.

Kimi ni Todoke is my first foray into shoujo anime (more oriented for female viewers), and I really really liked it. The main charater is Sawako, a girl who scares everyone just by her appearance and thus has no friends. However, she meets a boy who helps her and... you can guess where the show goes from there. Sawako is most certainly an interesting character, and what I liked most about her is that she does not make mistakes that the viewers suppose she will make, Sawako follows her heart. On the same note, the other characters are quite smart too and refrain from making obvious mistakes. It is most definitely a romance comedy, although this may be the first one I had seen that relies much more on romance than comedy. One minor thing I didn't like is that the characters go often into inner monologues - especially Sawako. I really enjoyed this show and I sincerely hope that a second season will get made because the ending kinda left me wanting more. EDIT: After watching the second season, the thing that I praised this show for in season one has disappeared. The characters start being complete idiots (the two main protagonists mostly). I have to say I liked Kurumi's character development in this season. Rest is the same lovey-dovey stuff that's pretty cute and interesting to watch in the end, except for the crap I've been fed in episode 6 (when the characters act really retarded - I cringed the entire episode).

I had quite a bit of trouble putting Neon Genesis Evangelion on this list, I simply couldn't decide how much I liked it. I watched the first 26 episodes (the Director's cut version for 21-24) and the movie End of Evangelion. Episodes 25 and 26 aren't the real ending (they are there just because Studio Gainax ran out of money), the End of Evangelion is, so I'm not going to comment on those episodes. The series is absolutely amazing,and what I liked the most is how realistic the characters were portrayed. You can't expect a 14-year old to jump into a huge, killing machine and be all tough. Shinji Ikari, the main protagonist, and the rest of the mecha pilots all have severe traumas because of it. The story and the atmosphere definitely sucked me in. However, the sad thing is, the movie End of Evangelion ends completely weirdly and changes Shinji's personality so much that nothing he did felt logical anymore. I am quite interested in seeing what are they planning to do with the new Rebirth of Evangelion movies. Overall, I quite enjoyed the series, ending: not so much.

Extremely interesting concept, no clichéd characters, and an engaging story make this a really good anime. Note that I watched only the first season (11 episodes) and the first movie. The second one is out soonish. It's about 12 selected people who are playing a game to make Japan a better place. Each had recieved 10 billion yen on their special cellphones. The one who spends it to "save" Japan wins. We are following the story of one of the selected, who wakes up with an amnesia in front of the White House. Naked. It's quite interesting and I recommend watching it. Also it has an Oasis song for the opening, with me being a huge fan of Oasis, it blew my mind. Quality stuff.

Extremely gory, violent and disturbing anime. The plot is really amazing and the characters have depth to them, but again this anime seriously isn't for anyone. There were a couple of scenes that left a pretty big impact on me, as they were pretty disturbing for the viewer. Also, I can see some people not liking the ending, but it made perfect sense to me. The song that plays at every episode ending is extremely happy and relaxing, so it contrasts the whole tension the episode made towards the end, but I liked that for some reason. Probably because it reminded me that I'm just watching a show. In conclusion, although I don't normally enjoy this kind of a genre, I found Elfen Lied interesting and satisfying.

A very cute love story with a lot of drama and some comedy elements. I have to admit that this anime got the biggest emotional response from me than all the other ones on this list. Fuuko is the cutest character I've ever seen in any anime so far. Music is excellent, and complements the atmosphere very well. The "Another World" chapters were a nice touch too.

I have to say I quite liked this anime, the setting, the music, the characters, and especially the fight scenes - all awesome. However, what bothers me the most is that there is hardly any continuous plot, so if you miss one episode, it doesn't matter much, because nothing related to the main plot happens until the last three episodes. The ending was quite good, although I must say that I would've liked it if things ended a little differently. The soundtrack is one of the best ever, especially if you like kind of jazzy hip-hop.

Pretty fun anime, don't have many comments for this one as I'm waiting for the third season to air. So far so good!

I watched the Stand Alone Complex, both seasons and Solid State Society movie. Anime with beautiful visuals, music and setting. However, similar to Samurai Champloo, most episodes don't connect to the main plot so it makes it kind of hard to watch. Political mumbo-jumbo is sometimes too much to grasp. Very good anime, although I didn't really like the disconnectedness of the plot.

Damn I wish I had a teacher like Onizuka. This particular 22-year old teacher (who was a gang member before taking up teaching) has his own way of solving problems in his classroom. Although he gets the worst class, which terrorize their homeroom teachers until they quit the job, he slowly manages to turn his students around. Insanely funny throughout the whole show, it never got old. The characters were interesting and unique, and although there were a lot of characters, it was never difficult for me to keep track of them. If you want a good high-school based comedy, Great Teacher Onizuka is definitely the way to go.

Short, sweet and entertaining anime about four girls who form a music club. I found it similar to Lucky Star in some ways, as it doesn't have any real plot going on. It also has two less male characters than Lucky Star, which makes a grand total of zero. However it surprised me with so many branded names (Fender, Gibson, Yamaha, Korg, Sonor, etc.). This anime was good and I enjoyed it, but it could've been so much better if the girls were playing music more often instead of doing random stuff. EDIT: After watching the second season, I have to say I warmed up to this completely. None of the episodes were boring. If someone is after a relaxing anime, this is what I absolutely recommend. Even though they graduated, I feel we are going to see a lot more of K-on, and frankly, I'm looking forward to it.

The Vision of Escaflowne could be described as an anime slightly oriented toward the female viewers (despite the mecha elements in it). Essentially, it tells the story about a girl from Earth, Hitomi, accidentally coming on a planet called Gaea. The setting is quite weird, because it mixes the medieval period with mechas, and actually that looks quite amazing and is probably my favorite thing about the show. On the other hand, the thing that could've improved this anime by a mile would be better character relations. The soundtrack however is consistently amazing (Yoko Kanno is the lady behind the music). Overall, it was pretty fun watching this anime, but it kind of makes me sad the characters didn't resonate with me.

Seitokai no Ichizon is like Lucky Star without being overly moe (well, kind of) and with a little bit of plot, and that is a good thing. The characters are wacky and memorable, so if you're looking for a short anime (12 episodes) that will make you laugh, look no further.

Ever watched Seinfeld? Well this is what Seinfeld would look like if it was an anime starring a girl otaku. Extremely funny with great characters, although it doesn't have any kind of a plot. A lot of references to other anime (especially to the rest of KyoAni work).

Everything was really awesome until the ending, which disappointed me a lot. Extremely funny series, but I seriously can't get over the lazy ending. It actually pissed me off more than the last two episodes of Evangelion.

HOTD is a zombie anime. Which is awesome, and I have to say that everything in the anime related to zombies was done perfectly. What was not done perfectly however was the HUGE amounts of fanservice, making this series almost unwatchable. Characters are extremely bland and HOTD can't decide if it wants to be a zombie or a harem anime. However, huge props for using a different song for each episode's ending (12 total, even though one of them's a total ripoff of Radiohead's Karma Police).

In Hetalia Axis Powers, all characters are countries. It is a very interesting concept, and every country gets parodied (even Japan). England defies everyone and tries to be different, France always loses wars, Italia is extremely cowardly and loves pasta, Japan usually isolates himself from the rest etc. I found it to be really funny at first, but jokes kind of get old after a while. I only watched the first season so far, and it is worth noting that every episode is 5 minutes long.

Kind of slow at first, but the story picks up after a while. Note that I'm referring to the first Fullmetal Alchemist (not the Brotherhood one) and the movie. It could've ended a little better, but the ending was satisfactory I guess. Also, I thought before I started watching that it was going to be pretty childish, but it ended up being extremely violent in some scenes. Overall, very good anime and I enjoyed it.

Very good, however the plot was so hard to follow and I even played the Persona 3 game it was based on. Had a lot of potential but unfortunately failed to realize it. However, I could easily say that this anime had the best atmosphere of all on this list (except for Cowboy Bebop). The music and cold winter blend well to deliver such atmosphere.

Interesting anime, but it couldn't really hold my attention. Probably because the main character, Shirou, annoyed me so much. He would always rush into obvious traps and try to be overly heroic. On the other hand, this anime has very pretty visuals. The plot is okay, but I didn't find myself enjoying this too much.