This post is a revision of sorts of a post I made almost a year ago. I'm no longer naming each level after a Fate/ show mostly because some have names to long to make a good short hand. But I will still list at least one Fate/ show first for each level because it's status as I think the only franchise to exist on every level makes it useful to help understand what I'm talking about. I've also changed my mind on where to place a few shows, even since the update I added to that post.
I also want to have at least one Magical Girl show on each level, since I presented a thesis in June of last year that the Magical Girl genre is the most important Genre in all of Anime. That genre existing on every level should also back up that thesis.
This is not a quality rankings list, all of the Anime being mentioned are either ones I personally like at least in part, or ones too popular within the community to not mention. They all come recommend by someone, this is just one measuring stick of how broad their appeal is.
There will be some popular shows I won't mention largely because I haven't seen enough of them yet to have any idea where they'd fit. I'm hoping people who have seen them can read this post can offer me their own theories on where they'd fit.
A Level: Shows with no real Otaku elements at all, or if they do have some they are in a way you'd have to already be an Otaku to notice.
Trixie The Golden Witch once said her problem with most "entry point Anime" recommendations are that people just list shows that have broader appeal because of how they aren't like what Anime is normally like. Shows on this level are what she was referring to.
You might at first think this would be just a list of the most well known Anime, and indeed almost everything so well known you don't have to be an Anime person to already know of them are here. But there is also niche stuff, some shows I often feel like I'm the only person who still cares about them at all.
And Otakuness is just one measuring stick of how broad something's appeal can be. Some stuff here might not appeal to you for reasons that have nothing to do with that but simply what their Genre/Style is. It also includes stuff that is weird and experimental in their own unique way. Also some stuff might be more impenetrable for Western audiences because of mainstream Japanese culture rather then Anime Culture (contrary to some jokes people make most of Japan finds Otaku stuff just as weird as Americans do).
Basically if you watch one of these and don't like it, don't blame it on Otaku, it was something else that turned you off.
Fate/Zero, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, Lupin The Third, Miyazaki/Ghibli films, Noir, Witch Hunter Robin, Madlax, Vampire Hunter D, Cardcaptor Sakura, Angelic Layer, Pretty Cure, Little Witch Academia, Detective Conan/Case Closed, Cowboy Bebop, Romeo x Juliet, Monster, Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Trilogy, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in The Pocket, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, Macross/Robotech, Attack On Titan, Legend of The Galactic Heroes(either version), Serial Experiments Lain, Revolutionary Girl Utena, The Rose of Versailles, Princess Tutu.
B Level: The True Anime Gateway Drugs.
Shows on this level are the answer to the problem Trixie mentioned. Everything here I think is mostly just as potentially appealing to Normies as the A Level stuff, just as much of a good choice to potentially be someone's very first Anime, but still has a noticeable Otaku character to them, these are shows I consider ideal for easing someone into those Otaku tropes. A few of these shows were among the first I watched, then I returned to them years later and realized how much distinctly Otaku stuff I'd been exposed to long before I knew the terms for them.
The only people who'd be turned off by the Otakuness of these shows are not Normies really but Anti-Otaku, that's my term for people who watch a lot of Anime in-spite of Otaku values rather then because of them.
There are problematic elements in some of these shows, but problematic in a way that bothers me no less now then they would have before I got used to it.
Fate/Stay Night adaptations (the best of which is UFOTable's Unlimited Blade Works), A Certain Scientific Railgun, Code Geass, Death Note, Sword Art Online, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, Pretear, Neon Genesis Evangelion, SSSS.Gridman, Tenchi Universe, Magical Girl Pretty Sammy TV Anime., Higurashi When They Cry (the original 2006 show and Kai), Boogiepop and Others, Kanon, Clannad, To Heart, Citrus, Azumanga Daioh.
C Level: The Center of the Normie-Otaku Spectrum.
Anime on this level could be enjoyable to a person who's still a Normie if they've gotten somewhat used to Anime via shows in the above levels. And maybe even rarely could work as someone's very first if they're the right kind of Normie, if they already have at least an element of the Otaku mind set. Christians who believe in Universal Salvation would be one example. But in those cases you still need to know the right show to recommend.
For the last 15 years or so, this level is about the Average of where most Anime winds up falling. Which makes it a pretty significant percentage of the total Anime that exists.
Fate/Apocrypha, A Certain Magical Index, Occultic;Nine, Yuki Yuna Is A Hero, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Selector Infected Wixoss and Selector Spread Wixoss, Daybreak Illusion, Darling In The FranXX, Re:Zero, Tenchi Muyo Ryuohki, Magical Girl Pretty Sammy OVAs, War On Geminar, That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Rebuild of Evangelion films, Umineko When They Cry, Mawaru Penguindrum, Strawberry Panic, So I'm a Spider, So What, Nerima Daikon Brothers, Eden of The East.
D Level: Highly Otaku Oriented.
This level is for shows that someone still considering themselves a Normie could enjoy, but definably not as their first. But it's also possible at least some shows on this level can still be in some ways respected by some of the Normies who can't get past their Otaku elements. For Otaku however this level contains many of the shows that we would cite as a manifesto.
Carnival Phantasm, Lucky Star, Yuru Yuri, No Game No Life, In Another World With My Smartphone, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, School Days, Chaos;HEad, Chaos;Child, YU-NO: The Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound of This World, Excel Saga, Higurashi OVAs, Shattered Angels.
E Level: The Point of No Return, once you like one of these you can't claim to be normal anymore.
Before I had literally only one show I listed here, and I was hard pressed to think of any others that aren't just plain Hentai. And I don't want to simply say "and Hentai" because believe it or not some Hentai I do place on other levels, though I'm choosing not to name any for this post, I'll save that for a potential future project. But after putting some thought into it, I think I do have some now. But also I think most Otaku content on this level just doesn't have an Anime incarnation yet, the other mediums associated with Otaku culture like Visual Novels, Light Novels, Manga and Anime Style Video Games is where the really out there stuff originates.
Fate/Khalied Liner Prisma Illya, Engaged to The Unidentified, School Days: Magical Heart Koroko-Chan, Eromanga-Sensei, A Sister's All You Need.
Update: I quickly started to question putting A Sister's All You Need on the E Level, this is a show I'd recently re-watched a bunch of before 2021 ended. The character of Miyako is clearly meant to serve as an audience surrogate for any Normie who winds up watching the show. So in that context it clearly wants to have at least some Normie accessibility, the question is does it succeed?
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