My relationship with anime has always been peripheral compared to music. You’d assume I watched a ton of it in high school because I had bright red hair, sticking out jauntily with tons of pomade like Radical Edward from Cowboy Bebop. Cowboy Bebop was my gateway show back then. I didn’t pursue anime any further because I was obsessed with its soundtrack by Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts. I watched Ghibli movies and sought out their soundtracks at Best Buy. I spent my spare time downloading music on Napster and trading mixtapes (more on this in another post).
It wasn’t until June 2021, when Viz Media reached out to me to test the recipes in the English translation of One Piece: Pirate Recipes by Sanji. I felt a little embarrassed that I had never watched the show, the longest-running franchise in the world. I figured, “Why not get to know the source material?” Many people laughed at me when they heard I was binge-watching One Piece. I did the math, if I watched 4 episodes per day, I could catch up to the current episodes in 9 months. It was fun to be cheered on by strangers on Twitter and celebrate when the 1000th episode aired in real-time. I joined the millions of people who wait for new episodes every week. My journey even earned me an interview on the One Piece podcast. I loved it so much, I re-watched One Piece when my partner said they hadn’t seen it. Yes, I’ve seen the whole of One Piece twice.
Once we were done, I developed a daily habit of watching anime during my meals. It was perfect because they ranged between 15 to 25 minutes, enough time for me to step away from my computer and to sit down if I was cooking all day. I’ve learned about the kinds of anime I like to watch: heart-warming adventures, isekai “another world”, cooking shows, slice of life, and some boy’s love (ooh la la). This is the first time I’ve written a list. I hope it helps folks new to anime find a show or two they might like.
In no particular order, here’s my 2024 in anime highlights:
Highly recommend
Barakamon - A disgraced calligrapher moves to a remote island for inspiration.
Bocchi The Rock! - A secretly talented guitarist has paralyzing social anxiety.
Laid-Back Camp - Teenage girls discover the peace of winter camping.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End - After an epic adventure, an elven mage reckons with the passing of time.
My Daemon - Sci fi where a young boy adopts an illegal creature with weird powers.
Fruits Basket (2019) - Beware, there are two of these on Crunchyroll! The 2001 version is not complete. An orphaned girl befriends a mysterious family with an astrological secret.
To Your Eternity - An alien lives for eternity on Earth, slowly becoming part of it.
Polar Bear Cafe - If talking animals had a sitcom in a cafe.
Ranma 1/2 - An arranged marriage becomes complicated when a ninja is cursed to transform whenever he gets wet.
The Aquatope on White Sand - A teen idol quits the spotlight and becomes an employee at a small-town aquarium.
One Piece - Yeah, I’m still watching this pirate adventure.
Spy Family - Amid a cold war, the world’s best spy embarks on his most difficult mission yet: building a fake family.
Apothecary Diaries - A Murder-She-Wrote period dramedy.
Delicious in Dungeon - An adventuring party is ravaged and broke but must go back into the dungeon to save one of their own. Their solution? Eat the monsters they defeat.
Welcome, Chitose - Delightful shorts of a tiny penguin exploring Kyoto.
Demon Lord 2099 - A demon lord awakens after 500 years of slumber to a futuristic world immune to his influence. So…he becomes a Twitch streamer.
Buddy Daddies - Two assassins kill a little girl’s father without her knowing and take her in as their own.
A nice watch…
Pluto - Serious! Someone’s killing all the robots.
Tonari No Yokai-San - If you like Japanese folkore.
Those Snow White Notes - All about shamisen!
Snow White with The Red Hair - Political intrigue mixed with a feminist retelling of the fairytale.
White Album 2 - High school love triangle.
Bartender: Glass of God - Lots of cool cocktail history.
Ramen Akaneko - Cats run a ramen shop.
Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness - All about the art of wagashi and family obligations.
Let’s Make a Mug, Too - High school girls get into pottery.
Do It Yourself!! - Adorable all-girl DIY club. Recommended if you love crafting.
Forest of Piano - A piano savant enters a piano competition against a life-long rival.
Thermae Romae - A Roman architect time travels to modern-day Japan whenever he falls into bodies of water.
Grandma & Grandpa Turn Young Again - Exactly as the title says.
Erased - Time travel mystery where a man awakens as a child again.
Spice & Wolf - A merchant befriends a wolf god who protects the harvest.
I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too - Like if you woke up and discovered your life was an RPG and you could level up.
Watched but…not my thing
Kakegurui - The bullying is pretty intense and the concept is silly, a high school that runs on high-stakes gambling. The live-action is a little better, which leans into extreme over-acting. The series did not reach a conclusion, alas.
GOOD NIGHT WORLD - I did like the concept of a family unknowingly playing an MMO together, but the incel-type behavior of the main character was very offputting. It was too gloomy overall for my taste.
Uncle From Another World - At first I thought it was funny how obsessed the uncle was with Sega consoles, but his misogyny is unforgivable. I couldn’t finish the series.
I’m continuing to watch every day in the new year and am excited to learn about more new anime series.