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Cake day: August 7th, 2024

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  • There are a lot of Gundam shows that take place independently from the others and thus make good starting points. My favorites are Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury. As Endmaker said, the original Mobile Suit Gundam (sometimes called Mobile Suit Gundam 0079) is also a good place to start if you don’t mind watching something that’s kinda old and kinda long.

    It’s important to note that Mobile Fighter G Gundam is very different from the others and almost feels like a saturday morning cartoon sometimes. The other shows I listed have a far more serious tone to them, including the original Mobile Suit Gundam.














  • Cowboy Bebop, Edgerunners, and A Place Further Than the Universe are all great but I’ve also seen all of them pretty recently. On the other hand, I’ve heard good things about Mushishi from various people but have never seen it. I’m just one person but that would be my preference.

    As for pacing, I agree that 1 episode per day is a lot. I think 1 per week isn’t nearly enough though, so I’d be happy with 2 or 3. I like the idea of scheduling it for days that don’t have already have a lot of strong seasonal releases.

    edit: It also occurs to me that there’s no reason we couldn’t do something like this in /c/manga, though maybe that community isn’t quite large or united enough.


  • Sword Art Online taught publishers that people really want bland wish-fulfillment stuff where the hero just steamrolls any problems that shows up and then gets all the girls. Of course SAO had other things going for it, like good animation and a great soundtrack, but that isn’t what they can easily copy.

    Shield Hero taught publishers that people want that but also with the main character owning slaves for some reason.

    Anyways, due to these two things isekai has been almost universally weird af lately. That said, it’s not all bad. I liked The Eminence in Shadow, but I recommend the manga adaptation over the anime. The mangaka just has a really good sense of comedic timing. I’ve also heard good things about Shangri-la Frontier. There are a few more good isekai if you look at the pre-SAO era. Vision of Escaflowne was really good, as long as you come in with the expectation that this is a shoujo mech isekai so it’ll have a somewhat different feel to it.

    Of course, that’s if you’re stuck on wanting to watch/read isekai. There’s been tons of great stuff coming out every year that has nothing to do with isekai. My favorites from the last 5 years have been:

    • 2020 - Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - A team of high school girls form a club and set out to make whatever anime they can with their limited resources
    • 2021 - Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- - The first AI-powered humanoid robot tries to prevent the robot apocalypse
    • 2022 - Chainsaw Man - A sad boy has a wild (and bad) time. Honorable mentions go to Spy x Family and Bocchi the Rock. It was a strong year.
    • 2023 - Skip and Loafer - A book-smart girl from the country moves to Tokyo for a better high school and adapts to city life
    • 2024 - LOOK BACK - A story about 2 artists. Honestly this year was stacked too, so honorable mentions go to Bang Brave Bang Bravern! (big gay robots), DAN DA DAN (romance, yokai, and aliens), and Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi (traditional fantasy, but really well executed).

    Notably even though every year a whole pile of isekai gets released not one of them made it into that list. I’d avoid them as a general rule for a while, except when you hear a lot of people recommending a specific specimen.