Anime from 2001 turns 25 this year.

Given the 2000s are my favorite Decade of Anime, we’re entering a period when what turns 25 a given year might start interesting me more then what turns 20. But of course I might become more nostalgic for the late 00s and early 2010s as they turn 20.

For these 25 year anniversary posts I want to start including some discussion of material in other mediums that became source material for future Anime, or haven’t yet but should. But my knowledge on those subjects is not as deep as my knowledge of Anime, which is itself far from comprehensive or complete. 

Type-Moon’s first Visual Novel Tsukihime was initially released at Comiket at the very end of 2000 but I feel it’s safe to say 2001 is when it really spread. The proper founding of Type-Moon as a company is considered to be in 2001. And January 21st 2001 was the release of Tsukihime Plus-Disc which included the first four chapters of the Kara no Kyoukai LN series. 

For Detective Conan this year opens with an episode that was at the time celebrating the show’s 5th anniversary and is now one of the Episodes with a new English Dub on Netflix, the last episode of the Rivals collection. Episode 219 The Gathering of the Detectives! Shinichi Kudo vs Vaitou Kid.  The show during winter went on to have some Heiji appearance I might have seen, 226-227 The Battle Game Trap which introduced an important recurring character and 228-229 The Murderous Pottery Class which is one of the show’s Columbo Episodes and perhaps among the best of them.  

There is no TV Anime to start in Winter 2001 I’ve watched to completion yet. Arjuna I’ve seen a few episodes of and keep considering watching more of, my feelings on it are mixed. For notable stuff I haven’t seen there’s Tales of Eterinia The Animation which I should check out since I’ve liked other Tales Of series Anime but there seems to be no Dub. And Ojamajo Doreme, a notable Nakayoshii/Toei Magical Girl series airing in the future PreCure timeslot, switched from its 2nd to 3rd series. 

The Manga being serialized in the Nakyoshi magazine during 2001 were Mink, Ojamajo Doreme, Little Cute, Tokyo Mew Mew, Zodiac PI, Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts and Musume Monogatari.  Elsewhere the Manga for Nana was also running this year. 

February 2001 had the Light Novel Boogiepop Paradox: Heartless Red.  None of the Boogiepop Anime or other adaptations have gotten this far, I have no idea what happens in it. Later in December was Boogiepop Unbalance: Holy & Ghost. 

In the OVA department March had the last episode of FLCL which is probably my “I don’t care for The Godfather” Anime opinion. But also the first episode of Puni Puni Poemii which wasn’t as funny as I was hoping it’d be, it’s 2nd and last episode was in December. 

Spring 2001 has a number of great shows, starting with Noir, my absolute favorite Anime of all Time.  Also Pretear, which I consider one of the most underrated classic Magical Girl shows, it was directed by Junichi Sato who was the Series Director for the best era of Sailor Moon. Angelic Layer might be my favorite of every proper Clamp Anime I’ve seen.  Comic Party which I consider the Lucky Star of the early 00s.  Sister Princess is a great forgotten Gem and Galaxy Angel was also a fun comedy. For shows I haven’t completed, SoulTaker is a notable Akiyuki Shinbo Anime which looks neat.  And SuperGals is an underrated Shoujo Anime I intend to watch more of, it’s currently streaming for free on Nozomi Entertainment's YouTube Channel.  

The 5th Detective Conan movie, Countdown to Heaven, came out in April. I still consider it one of the 4 best movies, and I know some consider it the absolute best.  Metropolis came out in May, it’s a movie I have mixed feelings on but ultimately recommend people check out. 

Back to the Detective Conan TV Anime.  April has 230-231 The Mysterious Passenger which is the formal start of the Vermouth Arc and among the episodes you can watch both Dubbed and Subbed on Netflix. This is what I still consider the best era of the show, so much of 2001 has I'm confident pretty good episodes even though I haven’t seen most yet. Metropolitan Police Love Story 4 and The Man From Chicago are also from 2001. 

In June was Lupin III: Alcatraz Connection this year’s annual TV Special.  I haven’t seen this one since it doesn’t have a Dub and I’ve chosen to be strictly Dub only with Lupin. But I know from asking about the topic once that it’s the first of the specials to be Digital Animation rather than Cell Animation. So it’s an important artifact of this transitional period that people researching should check out.  The same studio, Toho, wouldn't fully switch to digital for Detective Conan till the following year. 

For Pokémon this year was deep into the Johto Era, which for the TV Show I don’t have as much nostalgia for as other eras.  But it was the US release of the 3rd movie Spell of the Unown which I still consider the best Pokémon movie, as well as Mewtwo Returns which is a personal favorite of mine..  In Japan this year’s movie was the Celebi movie known to the West as 4Ever which is flawed but still good, and the Legend of Thunder special which was neat. 

What was different for the Western Fandom is something I need to keep reminding myself to get into more when making these kinds of posts.  Pokémon was usually a year behind, but some shows we didn't get till five years later.  It was in 2001 that Toonami finished Dragonball Z and started Dragonball.  Sailor Moon was also still broadcasting its Cloverway Dub era material S and SuperS. Gundam fans got both the 08th MS Team and 0080 War in The Pocket. Also The Big O and more Tenchi Muyo. 

I literally haven’t even started any TV Anime from Summer 2001.  Something like this seems to happen most often with Winter and Summer.  I think back when multiple Cour shows were still more standard those were the seasons getting fewer new Shows because so many slots were filled by second cours. But one of those Spring shows I talked about was single Cour. It looks like the most popular Anime from Summer 2001 was Fruits Basket which is a Shoujo. 

In the VN department July had the full release of Air, the second Key Visual Novel. And in August Age’s Rumbling Hearts was released. Both produced some very good Anime later, but Rumbling Hearts I’d recommend more strongly.

In the OVA realm August had the preview episode of the upcoming TV Anime version of Clamp’s X which was interesting but I don’t think necessary. 

Also the first episode of the non Hentai OVA series for One Kagayaku Kisetsu e.  I found this 4 episode series garbled and confusing, the Hentai version is legitimately a better presentation of the story. It’s based on a 90s Visual Novel the Key founders made before they started Key. 

Another OVA from August was Jikuu Ihougin Kyoko: Chocola ni Omakase! (it has no official localization but that seems to translate to Time Stranger Kyoko: Leave it to Chocola).  It’s interesting, I checked it out once because it's the only other Anime based on a Manga from the same author as Kamikase Kaitou Jeanne. 

The two episodes of the Pure Mail Hentai OVA that I talked about before came out in September and December of 2001. They are in the same universe as School Days. 

And Fall 2001 has the TV Anime version of Clamp's X which I recall really liking but I can’t describe it right now. The original Hellsing Anime which I still prefer to Ultimate aesthetically.  Mahoromatic and Najica Blitz Tactics. I’m also just now realizing as I write this that I had neglected to add Kirby Right Bat At Ya to any of the database websites even though I have watched a few episodes of it. 

One of the last things to come out this year was the Overflow Bishoujo Game Snow Radish Vacation!  It’s the chronologically first game of the universe that School Days and Pure Mail take place in. 

Lost Kitten

Noir is my long time Favorite Anime.  Of every one off target of the week episode with no bearing on the main plotline the episode I consider the best is the 6th episode titled Lost Kitten.  It’s the one I think about the most intently.

And that’s no small feat since I love all of them. In the many times I’ve rewatched this show the only episode I’ve ever even considered skipping is episode 5 and it’s technically not a one off, it’s the one that names the villain organization.

Maybe you find that weird if you remember how in 2018 I misremembered the name of the episode as Snow.  But that just shows how great and memorable Yuki Kajiura’s music in this show is. Snow is the name of a song from the soundtrack that only plays in this episode since this is the only episode to feature any snow.

I shall spoil what happens in the episode for the rest of this post, you have been warned.

Our assassin protagonists have been hired to kill an old man living in some vaguely Eastern European city devoting his time and energy to helping all the poor and homeless people.  However decades ago he was a participant in an ethnic cleansing.  He has a pet kitten that Kiraka kind of befriends and so they bond some.

But we then learn that way back when he was a child his people were ethnically cleansed by the people he massacred later.  Mirielle talks about how that doesn’t make what he did forgivable and in the end Kirika kills him and he accepts his fate.

One of the themes of the episodes is clearly Violence and Revenge being cyclical.  It’s a theme I see in Anime a lot but it hasn’t been unheard of in western media.

But it’s a theme some online Leftists are uncomfortable with, it reminds them too much of the “Reverse Racism” BS of American Conservatives.  The righteous vengeance taken by the oppressed against their oppressors can never be morally equivalent in their minds.

The YouTube Channel M Laser History has a video on what happened to the Germans of the Sudetenland after WW2 called Germans of Czechoslovakia : What Happened?  The truth is what happened there is inexcusable, no matter how much you view it as payback for what the Nazis did.  I can’t prove that is what inspired this episode of Noir but I definitely think about it.

Anime Recommendations for Inklings.

Anime is such a vast and diverse medium that I truly believe it has something for everyone even though a lot of it will struggle to appeal outside the specific subculture that created it.  So one recurring theme of this Blog is me as a person who was once a more normal western Nerd with a wide range of interests for a long time before Anime took over my brain appointing myself as an expert recommender.  And of course one of my top Western Nerdy interests is J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Now if any long time followers of this blog exist you may think I’ve already covered Tolkien and Lewis like Anime in various ways, but the truth is the prior examples of one or both of them and Anime coming up in the same post were more the other way around if anything.  In this post I want to focus on Anime that I think could have appealed to Tolkien and Lewis themselves if they were still around, not merely fans who like their work but also a lot of stuff very unlike them.

So for example while I’ve made a few posts on why Fantasy Anime even at its most Generic and Gamerfied would appeal to someone whose tastes in the Genre were shaped by them more then the slew of GOT wannabes that western “Prestige” television spewed out in the 2010s.  I am still not insane enough to think either of them would like a show that’s basically literally about being in a Video Game.

Maquia and Frieren are the top two Fantasy Anime I would truly call Tolkienesque.  Maybe Grimoire of Zero and Dawn of The Witch could fit in.  Something that actually qualifies as Isekai would have a better shot with Lewis then Tolkien but not most modern Isekai.  Lewis and Tolkien’s different views on Allegory would have me recommending something like Princess Tutu or an Ikuhara show to Lewis way before Tolkien.  The third Pokémon movie Spell of The Unown might be able to appeal to both.

Also Tolkien's anxieties about Technology and Nature make him a bit of a kindred spirit with Miyazaki but that's not something people needed me to learn about, there's already a YouTube Video Essay on it.  I have also already stated that the ending of Nausicaa counts as a Eucatastrophe, also an observation I didn't make on my own.

However I want to remind people that Tolkien was capable of enjoying more kinds of fiction than just the genre he's most well known for writing.  

For example I was intrigued when I learned that Tolkien was a fan of Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End.  Now the first Anime that I would recommend to any Clarke fan is the Gundam franchise, the Childhood’s End influence is there right form the original Mobile Suit Gundam, I often feel like I’m the only western fan who notices that the term Newtype itself is basically a Childhood’s End reference.  However I feel the best Gundam in many ways including as a Clarke homage is Gundam 00, now 00 like a lot of non UC Gundam Anime in my opinion struggles in its early episodes. I was lucky I caught Gundam 00 randomly in the middle of season 1 on the SciFi channel.  (The Witch From Mercury finally avoided this problem by just making its Pilot a remake of Utena’s pilot).

Heck I’m gonna leave Anime for a second to mention how I see a lot of thematic similarities between Tolkien and the works of 19th Century French Novelist Paul Feval.  They are most apparent in The Companions of The Treasure the 6th and in my headcanon last Volume of The Blackcoats saga, a Tolkien fan reading it will be reminded of a number of things.  Part of it might be how Feval was also a Roman Catholic seemingly specifically to be contrarian (it wasn’t rare in his nation like it was Tolkien but was among those writing serialized novels for newspapers).

Anime that reminds me of Paul Feval are also something I’ve already talked about on this blog.  But which ones do so in specifically a way that speaks to why I compare Feval to Tolkien?  Well I suspect Princess Principal may exist at exactly the right crossroads for that.

Since Tolkien was a Linguist first and foremost he might have been amused by some of those Detective Conan episodes that play on language for a key clue.  Like episode 651 which used differences between the Kansai and Kanto dialects of Japanese.  Or that subplot from the latter part of the Clash and Red and Black where Conan used a sort of reverse Shiboleth.  

Thing is I have no idea if Tolkien ever had any interest in Detective Fiction as a genre.  Lewis did make a Sherlock Holmes reference once and I will definitely recommend Detective Conan aka Case Closed to any Holmes fan, it’s a way better modern reimagining then what the BBC and Hollywood have given us in the last 20 years.

Given the interest Tolkien seemed to have in the idea of Cursed objects that kind of Doom their possessor I’m almost inclined to wonder if even Death Note would have an appeal.

Update February 10th: I recently learned about both Tolkien and Lewis being fans of Voyage to Arcturus thanks to the Media Death Cult youtube channel.  I'm sure there are a number of Anime you could compare to Arcturus but they aren't on the tip of my tong right now.

Update November 18th 2025: Narnia is the obvious C.W. Lewis reference for discussing Isekai, but  when I watch one of the rare Isekai that actually at first tries to have the protagonist communicate with the residents of the new world through a language barrier instead of immediately ignoring or handwaving that issue, I immediately think of Out of The Silent Planet when Ransom first meets Hyoi and begins learning the Hross language.   I wish I could remember which Isekai those were off the top of my head, it kinda happen in YU-NO which doesn't become an Isekai till episode 18.

I remember reading once about how the climax of Peralandra is compared to The Lord of The Rings because they both involved a confrontation in a subterranean cavern where the villain winds up falling into lava.  And today as I rewatched my favorite Anime Noir I realized how it's final confrontation can also be described the same way.

Update March 2024: And ya know what that also applies to the ending of Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel too.

Update August 9th 2026: I feel like adding that The Ribbon Hero has scenes that feel like what an Anime adaptation of The Fall of Gondolin could look like.

Sailor Moon has been very influential

Now you may be thinking, "Why are are you making thar the title of a post as if it's even remotely controversial, of course a show that founded a Genre and was one of the 90s' big three was influential".  But I think Sailor Moon's influence is wide enough that it's still underappreciated, that it has had an influence on Anime that are not at all the kinds of shows you'd expect to have Sailor Moon homages in it.

Take for example my favorite Anime Noir.  Noir is a show about professional assassins, it's a fairly dark show inspired by Film Noir and Luc Besson films.  One of the pivotal pillars of the Girls With Guns genre.  Not a show you'd at all think would have any reason to make overt homages to a show made for little girls in the prior decade.

Well it has a meta reason, Mireille Bouquet is voiced in Japan by Kotono Mitsuishi the voice of Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon herself.  But she's had a very prolific career actually so I don't expect casting in-jokes to be part of every Anime she's in.

Now I have a unique history with both Anime as a whole and Sailor Moon in particular, Sailor Moon is one of the few Anime I'd already partially watched even before I watched Noir.  But the emphasis there is on partially, I don't think I'd properly watched the actual first season finale of Sailor Moon till I was already using MAL.  And that's the thing, that first season finale has the Sailor Moon moment that I suspect Noir was referencing in it's penultimate episode.  So when I finally completed the Dark Kingdom saga, I watched a certain scene play and was instantly reminded of Noir. 

So since I'm talking about such late in the story developments, I have to put a Sailor Warning here before going further.

Mystery Box Storytelling can be good, J.J. Abrams is just bad at it.

Now I know the first response is gonna be that Abrams coined the term so how can he be the one doing it wrong?  Did he identify a type of storytelling but not fully understand it?

I myself in the past have sometimes gone along with those saying Mystery Boxes are inherently bad because that's how you get Disney Star Wars.  And I still agree that it shouldn't have been the approach taken to Star Wars, that the Original Trilogy was Absolutely not Mystery Box storytelling.  Abrams' problem seems to come from him seeing it everywhere.

But since I think this idea particularly is done dirty by it's very name it's perhaps necessary to define it.  It's not any Mystery at all, it's certainly not twists where we weren't expecting there to be one, nor even every twist where we were expecting there to be a twist, and it's not anytime a character isn't named in the very first scene they appear in.  

A Mystery Box is something the story presents as being an unanswered question early on and builds up to revealing, possibly for quite a long time relative to the story's total length.  But I would also argue it only truly exists in serialized storytelling and doesn't include any question both asked and answered in one self contained Episode or Movie.

I feel bad about claiming I agreed with Mystery Boxes being inherently bad in the past because I've absolutely loved plenty of TV Shows and Anime that Absolutely did this, and specifically enjoyed engaging in that mystery speculation.  And that includes ones where the answer to the Mystery can be considered disappointing because it was either very obvious or not something I ever had a fair chance at solving in advance.  Because I truly believe in the adage that it's about the journey rather then the destination.  But the thing is I can hold the view that the answer to the mystery doesn't really matter and still enjoy engaging in all that speculation and coming up with theories of my own anyway because it simply is fun.

There is no actual tangible rule that explains what the Mystery Box stories I like did differently from Abrams.  The closest I could come to is saying the good ones don't have that as the only thing going for them, they are stories where I was actually invested in the characters and so the investment in the Mystery is about how the Answer is relevant to them, or at least they think it is.

But the thing is that's subjective, plenty of the shows I'm about to talk about loving are hated by others, and plenty of people like Abrams's Star Wars Movies, even Rise of Skywalker, I know because depending on my mood I've been one of them.  Yes I just admitted that the last part of the title of this post is Subjective, in fact it's a subjective opinion I have based on very limited information because his Star ____ movies are the only Abrams things I've seen, I haven't watched any of Lost.  Maybe it's really more Abrams being bad at explaining it in that Ted Talk people meme on then actually bad at doing it, artists are like that sometimes.

My favorite Live Action TV show and my Favorite non Japanese TV show was Pretty Little Liars, it's Mystery is ridiculously convoluted and ultimately doesn't hold up under scrutiny, and I don't care, I enjoyed every stop of the ride to get there.  It means way more to me then any Star Wars does, even The Prequels.

But the Mystery Box approach is also core to Twin Peaks and Game of Thrones going back to it's books.  Deliberately withholding information is Absolutely vital to what they were doing.

But what I'm most into is Anime.  Right now the most well known Mystery Box style Anime is Attack on Titan, and I enjoyed the first "Three" seasons of that show.  I stopped enjoying it during the "Final" season but not because I found any reveals bad or disappointing, everything about the show had changed basically which isn't inherently bad but I just wasn't into it anymore.

However my personal Favorite Anime of all time is Noir.  And it too had a Mystery Box, who killed Mireille's parents and why does Kirka have their Watch.  If you think you've solved that mystery from just the information I provided you in that sentence you are correct, the answer is that simple and obvious but it didn't matter, I still love the scene where it was revealed and love that they pretended it wasn't obvious.

Witch Hunter Robin, Madlax, El Cazador de la Bruja are other fairly obscure 2000s Anime I enjoy in part for their Mystery Boxes.

Even Revolutionary Girl Utena and Neon Genesis Evangelion are Mystery Box shows, the objection you may make to explain why they are not are equally applicable to The Force Awakens as far as the people who still like that movie are concerned.

Basically the Mystery Box is one of those story telling devices that people insist on claiming is inherently Bad and then come up with endless excuses why the ones they like don't count.

Noir is my Favorite Anime again

I'd bumped it down from that position principally because I was concerned it was too atypical of my general tastes.  But it's not that Atypical, it is Bishoujo art style and almsot explicitly Yuri, and while Darker then average it's not the only Dark Anime I like, it's not even the darkest I give a 10/10.

The thing is there's no point in trying to make one single show the summary of everything I like about Anime, the shows I like are very diverse no matter how much I pretend there is some subtle ill-defined Otaku ideology behind all of them.  And that vague Otaku ideology I still see in Noir, it's simply teaching it in a different way.

The show is just too good, too perfectly executed while appealing to enough of my tastes that I can't demote it simply for not conforming to all of them.

It's a show that's constantly reminding me of other things I like, while being reminded of it when I watch those.  Girls with Guns as a genre seems to be making a come back lately with Lycoris Recoil and Akiba Maid Wars, Noir was arguably the original so it's perhaps more relevant then ever now.  But that's not the only new thing I had to appreciate about it in my most recent re-watch.

There are so many things I want to say about this show yet I don't feel qualified to say any of it.  It's subtle and it's blunt, it's realistic and yet also absurd, it has no typical Anime fanservice and yet one of the cleverest NTR scenes ever animated.

Even it's English Dub still holds up, maybe some of you are expecting any old ADV Dub with subject matter like this to be overly indulgent in the edgier inclinations of some of the people who worked there, but it's not, it only ever uses one swear word and only once.  Three of the four leads are using voices very different from what you are likely to expect from them today, and the one who is very recognizable is still very good, it's a perfect voice that suits every character who has it.

It's now up on Crunchyroll and I was surprised to see that it's in 16:9, so yeah it felt like watching the show fresh in a way I never had before.  I recommend everyone give it a shot, it really is great.

Kuudere list

 Since I’ve started defining myself online as a Kuudere, I figure I better break down this Anime archetype by talking about the ones I’m most into, and try to list them basically in the order they came into existence, though for some their Anime came quite a bit later.

The Tsundere and Yandere are the Dere types most well known and the only ones ever the subjects of any serious Video Essays I know of.  I honestly have no idea if my perspective on who is and isn’t a Kuudere even agrees with most Otaku.  Also I’ve still only seen a small percentage of Anime that exist, it’s perhaps revealing that my Kuudere timeline begins in the 90s.

First is Rei Hino in the Sailor Moon Manga, most casuals don’t know this since the 90s Anime changed her personality completely making her much more of a Tsundere. But Manga/Crystal Rei Hino, as well as PGSM, is very much a classic Kuudere. Some may also count Hotaru during the Infinity Arc as a Kuudere, as well as Rei Ayanami in NGE, but they are a type of Kuudere distinct from what I have in mind when I call myself one.

Second is Kanna Hateno in 1996's YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound of This World.  This early Visual Novel was huge in Japan, one of those classics of Otaku media that western fandom doesn’t fully get the influence of since it didn’t get a proper Anime adaptation till 2019.  Just as Mio was vital to the development of the Tsundere, Kanna is a key genesis point for the Kuudere.

Third is Ai Haibara who was introduced to the Detective Conan Anime in 1998.  She is a cool and collected character, in how this show models itself after the Legacy of Sherlock Holmes she is perhaps in a sense Kudo’s Irene Adler.

Fourth is Mai Kawasumi in the 1999 Visual Novel Kanon, she’s an early example of a Kuudere who’s also a Samurai.  After this point I’m not really gonna number them anymore.

Next is Yumera Kirika in the 2001 Original Anime Noir.  The character of Chole also qualifies in different ways, so this show provides two.

But Chiefly of all is Setsuna Kiyoura from the 2005 Visual Novel School Days.  This is the character I’ve been using as my Avatar since I started calling myself a Kuudere and I've ranked her as my number 1 favorite character on MAL.  So for me personally she is the standard I hold all other Kuudere characters to.

Amazingly there is another Kuudere I really like also named Setsuna in the 2007 Anime Shattered Angels.

Then in April of 2008 came Ayase Kishimoto in the 2008 Visual Novel Chaos;HEad which got an Anime adaptation the same year.

Those 9 are the big ones, plenty of other characters in shows I’ve liked could be argued to count, but these are the core to defining what being a Kuudere means to me personally.

Update: October 2022: Now that I've seen all of Karin (2005-2006) for this Halloween month I want to add Anju Maaka, she's similar to Kiyoura in how she's the Kuudere but also kind the brains of the cast, certainty the smartest member of her family in-spite of being the youngest.

It occurs to me that Humora in Madoka Magica probably qualifies.

Update May 2024: I made a post on Miyu from Prisma Illya who I really should have included from the start.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2024/05/miyu-edelfelt-supreme-kuudere.html

Normie Friendly/Otaku Oriented Anime levels

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?

Noir may no longer be my favorite Anime

Make no mistake it remains very important to me.  It remains my favorite of a number of Sub categories you can fit it into.  And probably remains in my opinion the most perfectly executed Anime of all time.

But in terms of my current relationship with Anime, with how I like to talk about Anime, it's not very representative of what my overall tastes in Anime are.  It became one of the first Anime to catch my interest back when I was much more of an Edgelord then I am now.

Still I do not consider it in conflict with my current Otaku Values, the ending is a happy one, it's perhaps as optimistic as a show with it's starting premise could be.  But when I'm using Anime references to explain my Evangelical Universalist Theology, as analogies for how I view The Gospel, Noir is of little use.

You may think "that's unfair, so what if Number 1 doesn't represent the whole, shouldn't it's uniqueness be why it stands out?"

And that's where I have to mention how it isn't as rewatchable to me as it used to be.  When it was literally the only Anime besides Saturday Morning kids shows I'd watched at all I could binge the entire show on a daily basis.  Now I have too many interests for any single show to take up that much of my time.  But when I do feel compelled to re-watch something even though I'd already seen it fairly recently, it is something much more inline with my general Otaku Values.

Perhaps A Certain Scientific Railgun is a good candidate, it's something that since I first watched it I've seen on average more then once a year, it touches on many different aspects of what I like about Anime, and yet is fairly Normie friendly, one I like to recommend to people as a potential entry point (though with the caveat of skipping the second episode of season 1 on the first watch through).

On the other hand, I have come to feel that Fate/Kaleid Liner Prsima Illya is the Most Anime.

I've now seen the original La Femme Nikita

The movie was good.

You can consider this post a follow up of sorts to my post on Leon: The Professional, which was kind of about the Nikita franchise as much as it was that film.

My interest begins with the film's status as a stated inspiration for Noir my favorite Anime.  I do see this film's stylistic and aesthetic influence on Noir, but I feel like writing in depth on the specific homages would be easier for Leon.

As I also stated before a key difference between Noir and the Nikita franchise is that Noir is a show with no significant male characters.  A theme in Nikita is definitely the titular Femme's life being controlled by powerful men, a "Patriarchy".  That Theme is also relevant to Noir, but the patriarchy is at a distance, a faceless council of old white men.

Another difference is that Noir is not nearly as interested in how the main characters became such good killers.

I noticed Jean Reno in the opening credits and went "hmm an actor Besson likes to reuse it seems", but then he wound up playing basically the same character.  I mean there are a few reasons you can't actually imagine a shared cinematic universe here, but I watched a couple Video Essays on Leon and none mentioned how it was basically spiritually a spin-off of this movie.

Nikita has clearly been an influence on more then just Noir.  I actually deduced a certain scene would exist in this movie from the derivative media I'd seen first.  The sniping someone from a hotel bathroom scene has been remade at least twice, I imagine it's also in Point of No Return.  If I were to make my own remake of this scene I'd replace the Ham with Chickpeas just for the sake of a Meme only PLL fans would get.

The film is also more similar in genre to it's TV remakes then I at first assumed it would be.  It's a more "realistic" style but still essentially a morally ambiguous spy movie.

Ya know I always assumed the CW's Nikita show was more just a reboot of the 97 show that probably didn't go back to the original film for inspiration at all.  But I now observe that the CW's Michael looks much more like his film counterpart then the prior TV one.  The old IMDB forum spent a lot of time talking about how Amanda was basically the new show's version of Madeline but I don't think anyone ever mentioned Amanda being the name of a similar character in the movie.

I have now seen Luc Besson's Leon: The Professional

Notorious Anituber Digi-nee has said in a few places that when you’re a fan of a certain artist or work of art you should also check out what prior art influenced them.  Rick Worley I’m sure would agree, his frustration with most Star Wars fans is partly their lack of interest in actually watching the older films that were an influence on George Lucas in making the 6 Star Wars films, especially the more obscure ones.

I agree on principle, but it can be difficult when the older work you’re aware of that has influenced what you like is more obscure.

La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional are two Luc Besson films that are frequently cited as the principal inspirations for my absolute favorite Anime, Noir.  So I’ve been meaning to try and watch them for a while and finally got around to getting started.

I decided to watch Leon first partly because it’s the one that’s in English, and because I like Jean Reno via Godzilla 98 and Natalie Portman as one of the internet’s most vocal Prequel Stans.  And Gary Oldman is the real best performance of The Dark Knight trilogy so I also expected him to be good.

However it also turned out to be the one that was a lot easier to find.  I had wanted see both movies the same day and do one blog post for both of them, but that didn't work out.  So I'm writing this having at this time still only seen Leon.

It turns out this particular genre of film isn’t all Luc Besson has done and there are in fact two Besson films I’d already seen, The Messenger and much of The Fifth Element.  I’m really not a fan of The Messenger.

I saw this movie's influence on Noir quite a bit, which is exciting since I was/am kind of expecting it to be the less significant influence of the two.  I saw it in the general style, in many of the tactics of the titular assassin, but I also saw specific details that I think Noir was homaging in pretty meaningful ways.  I even think the movie’s music was a little bit of an influence on what Yuki Kajura did, it’s still very different Yuki totally did her own thing, but I do think she also watched this movie.

The film is good, in addition to being an influence on future Anime I also see how it is both similar to and distinguishes itself from the general trends of 90s crime fiction, like the works of Tarantino.  If you like those kinds of movies you’ll probably also see something in this one.

Part of the reason La Femme Nikita is so hard to find is that in general popculture that movie has been eclipsed by it’s TV reboots.  But those TV shows while having technically the same starting premise are barely the same genre.  If you’re a fan of those shows and want a similar Anime I’m more inclined to recommend Witch Hunter Robin.  Of those two shows I've watched the first season and a half of the CW's Nikita and the pilot of the late 90s Canadian show.  Going off that both shows have their strong suits.

I do already know enough about that premise to say that Gunslinger Girl might actually be the Anime with a more similar premise then Noir given its emphasis on the older male handlers.  I like Noir partly for its lack of any significant male characters.

So while I was working on trying to find that movie I decided to watch another more recent piece of East Asian media that cites Nikita as it’s inspiration, a South Korean movie called The Villainess. It was… interesting.  I don't think I'll be writing anything about it but it was interesting.

The writer of Noir

I've been becoming one of those who thinks that for both American movies and Anime we perhaps sometimes give directors too much credit (or blame) and the writers not enough credit (or blame).  And I have brought this subject up before, but I figure the best way to properly introduce this idea to my blog would be by looking at the writer of my absolute favorite Anime, Noir.

Noir is a good example for this subject not just because it's my personal favorite of an entire medium.  You see while I like every aspect of Noir considering how it was handled perfect for what Noir is, I would have guessed even before checking the credits that the writing is the chief thing that sets it significantly apart from other Bee Train shows.  And the credits verified that, it has the same director as several other Bee Train shows, and Yuki Kajiura does the music for most of them, but this is the only Bee Train show written by Ryoe Tsukimura.

And Tsukimura is the only writer, a lot of other shows I've looked at there is usually one writer who does the most but still some separate writers for individual episodes.  But as far as ANN is aware Tsukimura single handedly scripted all 26 episodes and has the Original Concept credit, and his name is on the Copyright.

Looking at his other work, of what I've seen already it's all stuff I also like, but mostly not stuff I would have guessed had the same writer.  He was the head writer for Tenchi Universe (and worked on two other Tenchi projects), and while I'd observed before it kind of being similar to Noir in how it is structured as a 26 episode show, the nature and genre of the story in question is different.  Tenchi and El-Hazard get dramatic but they also have a lot of Otaku style humor that is absent from Noir.

What does perhaps anticipate the nature of Noir more is that he scripted 6 episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena.  Two of them are two of the key Juri and Shiori episodes, (their Black Rose episode and the first Ruka episode).  What perhaps shows the level of trust he had was that he's the only person besides Utena's head writer (who may be the subject of a future post) to write any of the final Apocalypse Arc, the two prater about the final Duel with Touga.

So in the future I want to watch some of his stuff I haven't seen yet.  Perhaps UFO Princess Valkyrie would be a good introduction for me to the Magical Girlfriend genre.

Update:  Well before that I decided to watch one mid 90s Hentai OVA he's credited as writing.  And there is a character in it who is absolutely the prototype of Shaoli from episodes 15 and 16 of Noir.

2022 Update: If you do want to learn more about Noir's Director check out this cool video from Trixie The Golden Witch called The Anime Director I Admire The Most.

November 2025 Update: I'm disappointed to have learned about a Blog Ryoe wrote in 2022 where he expresses that not intend the main relationship of Noir to be read romantically blaming that on the director and saying the last episodes was greatly changed from his script.

Sailor Moon in Japanese

Of the major pillars of the 90s American Anime Fandom, of the Anime that American Millennials are Nostalgic for, Sailor Moon is the only one I've watched a significant percentage of in Japanese.  I've heard clips of what Japanese voices sound like in DBZ and Pokémon and other stuff in YoutTube videos.  In some cases all I've seen of a franchise in Japanese is stuff the localizations skipped.  But generally stuff I've watched Subbed is stuff more recent or never got an official if any English Language localization till recently if at all.  And is all stuff I watched pretty much within the last 4 years.

Most of it happened because of the Hulu Revival, I watched the first few episodes on there as well as most of Crystal, then the Sailor Jupiter introduction for the sake of the research for that old Sailor Jupiter post I made.  And other random examples till I eventually just flat out watched Sailor Stars and season 3 of Crystal as they went up on Hulu.  But some I'd seen even before that, I remember looking for the R movie online because it was the only movie not at my video rental store and the Sub was all I could find (I have now also seen both Dubs for that movie though).  But I later much more intentionally chose to seek out some Subs for Sailor Moon S.

Looking at the reasons why, I feel like I'm probably not alone in that.

With DBZ the Dubs were viewed as very good, so while there was a niche of people watching bootlegged VHS fan subs even before the rise of Internet streaming, those of my generation mostly weren't interested.  Some people I've heard turned to bootlegging more out of impatience then any issues with the Dub.  But for me even when I did start learning these shows came from Japan it never occurred to me that Japan would be that far ahead of us.  I only in the last few years realized the earliest DBZ episodes were already nearly a decade old when they first aired on Toonami.

With Pokémon when I did first start learning that a lot of stuff was changed I didn't really care much.  I already knew certain Mario stuff was different in Japan so I accepted it as part of how Nintendo does things.  I'm certainly not gonna play Pokémon in Japanese so why bother watching it in Japanese?  And I'm pretty sure 90% of Pokémon fans trying to look smart by telling you about the differences are just repeating what they read on Dogasu's Backpack and Bulbapedia, if they're not spouting long debunked rumors about Butterfree.

There are two things that made me more interested in seeking out Sailor Moon in Japanese then many other Anime that I was often generally more into.

Even though I have nostalgia for the DiC voice actors I always knew on some level they weren't really good the way DBZ and Pokémon's Dub voices were.  And for the Cloverway stuff I found some of them outright bad.  And no it's not just because they were Canadian (something I didn't know at the time) the Futari Wa Pretty Cure Dub holds up and I always knew that one was Canadian.

And then there is the fact that I knew even very early on some Sailor Moon censorship changes were specifically about erasing LGBTQ representation.  The 4Kids Dub of Pokémon if anything did the opposite however unintentionally.  Even with Hun oddly enough, if that character simply had a male voice I may not have thought of them as Androgynous, but the Dub voice hardly sounds blatantly female, they actually sound pretty ambiguous.

So because I've always been interested in LGBT subjects even though I wasn't always the full vocal supporter I am now, I had an interest in wanting to experience the Japanese Audio of Sailor Moon that I still don't have for any other classic show.  And lots of people were obviously far more invested in that aspect then I was.

Now my most recent earlier this year experience with Sailor Moon has been pretty exclusively the new Viz Dub since most of it is out now and I love all of the VAs they're using.  But I remain a fan of what I've heard of the show in Japanese.  And when I can finally find a way to watch the first Sailor Moon Memorial I will, I'm quite curious about that.

So I'm partly making this post because I want to learn if there are indeed others for whom this is the case, or had a similar yet different experience?

But also if it is true that this is the case, what could that information be useful for?

Well if you're someone trying to convince people you know to watch more stuff in Japanese.  My first advice is don't be a judgmental Jerk about it, respect that they enjoy stuff you don't and try to convince them to watch more Subs in addition to not instead of the Dubs they like.  Don't accuse them of disrespecting the original intent or make ablest comments about being unable to read, you will only make them mad at you.  For me it's often easier to follow a Sub when I've already seen it dubbed and know the gist of the dialogue already.

After that figure out what stuff they are already a fan of the Japanese audio for (every Anime fan has probably watched something Subbed by this point) and try to recommend them stuff that has the same Seiyu they like in different roles.  And in this case Sailor Moon may be the place to start.  Of course even the most purely 4Kids Pokémon fans are fans of Ikue Ootani's voice, but guess what, she was also on Sailor Moon as Nyanko Suzu/Sailor Tin Cat during Sailor Stars.  I wonder if she'll reprise the role if Crystal ever gets that far?

Some people might be surprised to learn how much other work the voice of Usagi Tsukino herself did considering how in the West we're used to Iconic TV Superhero actors getting too type cast to have much success doing anything else.  But Kotono Mitsuishi has actually done quite a few other roles and not just obscure random throw away stuff.  She's three different human Pokémon characters including Domino one of my favorites, I still haven't watched Mewtwo Returns in Japanese but I might someday just to see if she can be as memorable as Kerry Williams.  She was also Excel in Excel Saga.  And she's mother fraking Mireille Bouquet a lead character in my absolute favorite Anime Noir, I did watch Noir in Japanese once in late 2016 but didn't know this at the time, it must show her range cause I never once went "she sure sounds like Sailor Moon".  She was also Misato Katsuragi on some little show called Neon Genesis Evangelion.  And she was one of the more fun villains on Wedding Peach.  She was the title character of Maze, and she was Juri on Utena (I suggested earlier this month Juri's dub VA was the main reason that Dub is looked on poorly, how ironic to now learn she was filling in for possibly the biggest Seiyu of them all).  Back to her Pokémon contributions, MAL doesn't list this one but she was also Ditto (Metamon in Japanese) in at least two episodes including it's Anime debut.  Oh and she provided narration for Eromanga-Sensei.

Apparently more Noir voices were Sailor Moon alumni.  My favorite character Chloe was Ami Mizuno.  I'm starting to wonder if it'd be easier to list shows that don't share a Seiyu with Sailor Moon?

Since Dogasu cares so much about convincing more people to watch Pokémon in Japanese, he should perhaps write something specifically on how much Seiyu overlap it has with Sailor Moon.  Jessie/Musashi was Himeko in the S movie for another example.

Update December 2nd 2023:  Case Closed???

I've got big into Detective Conan a few years after writing this, I've watched everything Dubbed that exists but also countless hours of Subbed content.  I'm not sure how much that makes my opening statement less true then it was since I don't know how much traction it's old Dub got or even if it aired soon enough to really part part of Millennial Nostalgia.

But it's what I talked about near the end that is really relevant.  Kotono Mitsuishi voiced the character of Kir aka Mizunashi Rena who is introduced in episode 425 an episode that still doesn't even have a fan Dub, then is in a Coma for over 2 real world years till the Clash of Red and Black.  And finally got to do something significant again earlier this year in episodes 1077-1079 and Movie 26 a Sub of which finally surfaced online at the end of November 2023.

However the Japanese Seiyu Detective Conan has made me a fan of it Minami Takayama the voice of the title character.  I like both of Conan's official English VAs and the two FanDubs I've heard are fine as well.  But Minami's talent at giving Childlike Conan and true Conan distinct voices while still also sounding plausibly like a little boy is amazing, I'm will to designate her the Bud Collyer of Anime.  I was hoping to find out she was also someone on Sailor Moon but so far no luck, unless someone hasn't been properly added to MAL yet.

Update December 5th 2024: Turns on the subject of shared VAs between Sailor Moon and Detective Conan became pretty awkward not long I after added that update. Fortunately Mamoru has a different Japanese VA in Crystal/Eternal/Cosmos, Kenji Nojima, who's also voiced two one off Detective Conan Characters.  

Further Update: And now Zero's replace VA on Detective Conan is Yoshiyuki Kono who was also a one off character in Sailor Stars. 

Madlax is the most difficult to recommend of the Bee Train Girls With Guns Trilogy.

Noir is my favorite Anime period, and as such is better then anything else I've seen from Bee Train by a significant margin.  And I know it's a good show to recommend to people who are into Film Noir or Luc Benson films.

El Cazador de la Bruja is on a number of people's short list to recommend for Anime with a Neo-Western quality to it.  The fact that it's lighter in tone can also make it easier to recommend in some contexts.  And it comes the closest of the three to making the Yuri unambiguously canon.

Madlax is a show I love unconditionally, it's perhaps better representative then Noir of what I generally look for from Anime which makes it pretty important to my history with Anime as probably the second non Kids show I watched.

But like a lot of 2004 Anime it's look hasn't aged all that well, it arguably has the most Het of any of the three, and I don't think I can justify arguing that it's plot actually makes sense.

I however love how wacky and over the top ridiculous it is.

All three shows are a pretty fun relic of the period of Anime history they were made in, but in different ways.

Shoumetsu Toshi aka Afterlost is the kind of the show the 3 Episode Rule exists for.

The problem with Digibro's attempt to refute it is I don't think he picked the best possible examples of why it's important.

Last week I watched the first episode of this show and was initially going to just drop it, but since episode 2 was already up I figured why not, and I found that episode more enjoyable.  Now after episode 3 I can't exactly call it an Anime of the year contender but I'm firmly interested to see where it's going.

Also since I'm watching Dubbed I feel like observing that I think (Yuki, the main girl with the Blue Hair) is being voiced by Hilary Haag but very different from the usual kind of voice she does.  She usually voiced characters who are supposed to sound annoying. I'd already noted how she's quite different as Chloe in Noir, there is a she a cold calculating yet oddly kind hearted assassin with a slight subtext of being sexually aroused by what she does.  If this voice is indeed also her, it's very different from either of those.

[Turns out it's not Hilary]

Fairy Gone also had the third episode of it's Dub recently drop.  I'd say that's another show where episode three has increased my interest.

And as I was checking those I saw that Kampfer suddenly has a Dub, so I'll be checking that out.  Follow my Twitter and my MAL.

https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir
https://myanimelist.net/profile/JaredMithrandir
Kampfer Dub Thread
https://twitter.com/JaredMithrandir/status/1125648214223392768

The Seventh Episode factor

I'm really annoyed that TVTropes has changed the name of the Seventh Episode Twist trope to Mid-Season Twist and thus changed most of the examples so now even most Buffy ones are not the actual Seventh Episode.  The importance the Seventh Episode often has on Buffy and many other shows is a totally separate kind of importance from why the halfway point of a 20-26 episode show is important.  Calling it a "twist" was always misleading I suppose as they aren't usually twists per se, though neither frankly are most midway point episodes.

Since I've had Buffy on the brain lately for the first time in a awhile, let me break it down.

Now the Seventh Episode is often not vital to the "plot", most Buffy examples actually don't feature the Big Bad, they're usually introduced in episodes 3-5 and may reappear in episode 8, but their plot-line mainly kicks off in the second half.  Rather it's important to the emotional Story, the Character Development and the Themes.  Often I've noticed it having a tendency to be important to that season's romantic story-line(s).  Sometimes episode 14 has a similar Romantic significance, which could be because it's a multiple of 7 or maybe a reference to Valentines Day.

Season 1 Episode 7 was the episode titled Angel.

This episode features the Big Bad, but it's importance is still more like what I just laid out above, indeed it's named after the Love Interest.

Season 2 Episode 7, Lie To Me.

This one again features the Big Bads, but that's because Spike and Dru are more directly linked to the Romantic Story-line then most future ones will be.  In the way the show is interpreted by The Passion of The Nerd's Episode Guide, this episode contains a vital mission statement to the show's moral philosophy (which in my current opinion is very toxic).

Season 3 Episode 7, Revelations.

This episode is again a vital escalation in the Angel story-line of the season.  But it's also vital to Faith's story-line, her trust issues in general and putting her for the first time in conflict with Buffy.  Perhaps the Faith importance is consistent with the romantic importance, depending on how you interpret things.

Season 4 Episode 7, The Initiative.

This one is important to the Big Badish story-line but mainly because season 4 was inherently different from most seasons in that regard.  It is still the real beginning of season 4's romantic story-line.  And the introduction of Spike's new status-quo, who has been and will be important to romantic story-lines.

Angels Season 1: Bachelor Party.

It's the first Doyle centric episode.  And it ends with the set up for the first full crossover story-line.

Buffy Season 5: Fool For Love.

The beginning of the end of Buffy's current relationship and a vital stage setter for what will dominate her love life for the rest of the show.

Angel Season 2: Darla.

The romantic story-lines of this season are all about Darla.

Buffy Season 6: Once More With Feeling.

The Musical Episode, while the romantic story-lines come up, this is perhaps the least directly about those so far.  It makes itself a turning point for every story-line, but chiefly is where the Scoobies finally learn how Buffy really feels about being brought back to life.

Angel Season 3: Offspring.

Darla shows up pregnant, do I need to say anything else?

Buffy Season 7: Conversations With Dead People.

This more then any other is the real beginning of the final season's arc.  It's romantic importance is there, we learn something about what's going on with Spike.  Like the Musical it tried to make itself important to every plot, though it's strangely the only episode of the entire series Xander isn't in.

Angel Season 4: Apocalypse, Nowish.

The introduction of the sorta Big Bad.  And it's a turning point in the romantic story-lines as well.

Angel Season 5: Lineage.

Important to Wesley's romantic story-line, since it's mainly a Wesley episode over all.  Given earlier patterns I kinda wish episode 8 had been this season's episode 7.  Both Angel Season 5 and Smallville season 2 named their 7th episode Lineage, this one aired a year after that one.

So, that is the list of episodes that TVTropes page used to talk about for Buffy and Angel, though what I said about them is kind of different.  To what extent this happens outside the Buffyverse is hard for me to objectively determine.  For example the extent to which I used to see it on Smallville I think may have mostly been my looking for it.

But I think a factor in why Noir so quickly sucked me in as the first not a kid's show Anime I watched was in how the way it was structured happened to echo Buffy(Like how Episode 5 was the formal introduction to the antagonist force.), though having 4 more episodes to it's total length kind of made the 16/17 significance happen twice, the other being 20/21 which was the same number of episodes from the end as 16/17 would be in a 22 episode show. 

Episode 7 of Noir was The Black Thread of Fate.  The Soldats were to my recollection not relevant at all.  The most important thing about this episode is how it's the first time we see definitive evidence our protagonists have come to actually care about each other.  A brief throw away scene is also when we see Chloe for the first time, it feels like an after credits scene yet that's not where they put it.  Also the title of the episode echoes the title of the show itself, Noir being the French word for Black.

On Madlax episode 7 was the first part of a two parter and the point at which the seemingly two different shows we were watching begin to come together.  I feel like episode 7 of El Cazador de la Bruja can also fit this pattern.

Witch Hunter Robin would have fit if only they switched episodes 7 and 9.

Episode 7 of Code Geass begins with our first flashback and ends with Zero's first defeat, episode 7 of R2 was Lelouch's Achilles in his Tent moment.

Lupin III Part IV has two episode 7s due to two intended episodes becoming OVAs in Japan but being added back to the series for the Adult Swim airing.   It's the order without the OVAs that makes it kinda fit.

In Katana Maidens episode 7 is where the Avengers are finally assembled.  I think episode 7 of Darling in The FranXX's significance is self evident.   Episode 7 of Doki Doki Precure inspired something I did on Tumblr once.
http://jaredmithrandir.tumblr.com/post/139417960233/magicalgirlconfessions-doki-doki-precure-won
I love you Glitter Force but I hate how you screwed up the episode order symmetry here.

But let's take a look at Anime that is too old to be accused of doing this because Buffy did it.

If you view Misty as a love interest on Pokémon, then episode 7 was the real establishment of her character even though she'd been there from the start.  I also wonder if episode 5 being Ash's first Gym Battle could be compared to the significance I read into Buffy's episode 5s?

The fact that the classic Sailor Moon Anime fits this pattern more in it's DiC episode order I find really interesting. In that version episode 5 introduces Ami, episode 7 introduced Rei and episode 10 was the defeat of Jadite, all three things that could be compared to how Buffy seasons would be structured with episode 10s usually being semi-finales before a hiatus.  The Anime version connects Rei to the romantic story-line since she was dating Mamoru/Darrien briefly.  These episodes aired in English in 95, is it possible Joss had watched them?

The statement Joss once made about originally not wanting Angel to be a fighter makes me wonder if in general his role in the story was partly inspired by Tuxedo Mask (and the other part by The Vampire Diaries).  I've been thinking of doing a separate post on if Buffy could be considered a Magical Girl Warrior.

In the live action Sailor Moon series episode 7 is made an important development in the Tuxedo Mask/Sailor Moon relationship.  In Sailor Moon Crystal which more directly follows the Manga episodes 6 and 7 both are major Tuxedo Mask developments, and the end of 7 is when Sailor Venus first appears.

All I'll say about episode 7 of Utena is that when production issues delayed the intended episode 6 it was swapped with episode 8, another Nanami "filler" episode.  Which tells me Ikuhara or Enokido for some reason saw it as important that Unfulfilled Juri be the seventh episode not any other number.

Feel free to leave comments about what Episode 7s of various TV Shows or Cartoons you think are interesting.

Update 2022: The Seventh episode of Detective Conan was the first episode where Ran almsot figures out the truth, and it's pretty good.

What Genre is Anime bad at?

I recently made a blog post disagreeing with a common claim that Anime is somehow not good at Horror.  But is there any Genre that even I as an enthusiastic Anime Evangelist have to admit Anime hasn't done that well?

Well the genre I have in mind is more of a Sub Genre of a Sub genre, but I think the one very popular Genre Anime hasn't done right yet is the Mafia movie.

Now what I mean when I say "Mafia" movie is much more specific then Gangster.  I'm sure there's plenty of Anime that can scratch one's Gangster movie itch, after all certain Anime were a major influence on Tarantino.  I'm sure Japanese entertainment media is the best place to go if you want fiction about the Yakuza.  And I'm kind of surprised how often Street Gangs in Anime remind me of American media about Street Gangs of the 50s and early 60s.

Now I'm gonna express an opinion that might be a bit controversial and hard to fully explain. What I mean by "Mafia" fiction is even more specific then just being technically specifically about the Italian Mafia, and depicting Italian characters with Italian names and maybe Italian accents.  For example I can't truly count any Golden Age 30s/40s Gangster films as Mafia movies even though plenty were basically just about Al Capone.  Yet what I mean by "Mafia" movie still has enough variety within it that it can include The Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas/Casino and at least some episodes of The Sopranos.

When I say I wanna see a Mafia movie, I want an atmosphere that makes me crave Spaghetti with Marinara Sauce, but Anime tends to give me Egg Noodles and Ketchup.

Much of what you'll see in any alleged "Top 10 Mafia Anime" list is based on treating "Mafia" and "Gangster" as synonyms.  Here is a site recommending 6 that at least knows to stick to the Italians.
https://www.fandom.com/articles/6-must-see-mafia-anime
Most of those seem to be set in the 30s and with a look that tells me they are more inspired by those Golden Gangster films.  One is an over 200 episode Shonen monstrosity involving a hitman who's a baby and an MC who's character design is aping Hunter x Hunter.

I've watched two episodes of Arcana Famiglia, it looks fine as an Anime, in fact I'm optimistic for how it'll compare to other Reverse Harems with genre elements.  But it does not succeed in capturing that proper Mafia movie vibe.  I'd very much like to see an Anime combine what I love about mafia movies with what's distinctly Anime, like a Mafia Princess walking around in Twin Tails, Zettai Ryouiki and the voice of Luci Christian.  But something is just inherently missing.

The one time Anime has come at least close to giving me a vibe like a Godfather movie are certain episodes of Noir, my favorite Anime.  As I've said before Noir was the first proper Anime I ever watched, and interestingly enough the first episode of Noir I watched was episode 9, the second part of a two part episode about the Mafia.  One of the reasons those 20 minutes of Japanimation kept my attention was how much it reminded me of The Godfather Part III, the last Godfather movie most people would intentionally want to evoke but my personal favorite of them.

In total I'd say there are 4 episodes of Noir that have this Godfatheresque quality, 8 & 9, 14 and 17, but it's mainly the parts of those movies where they're in Sicily they remind me of.  Coincidentally enough those are the same four episodes that are the main basis for why I like to Headcanon this Anime being part of The Blackcoats Universe.

I think the obstacle here is a cultural one.  Now I'm not someone who normally thinks that's a problem, I think lots of stories can be re-imagined into or adapted by other cultures.  But Mafia fiction isn't just about one culture, it's not just American or Italian, it's Italian-American.  And the definitive Mafia movies I refereed to above were the ones that had Italians as more then just actors but as the key creative minds, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola (and his father who did the Music) and Martin Scorsese.  So even though you can say these movies are problematic in how they relate to negative Italian Stereotypes, the good ones are about how the American Dream failed for many of those who immigrated here, and the hypocritical corruption of Capitalism.

I hope someone can find me an Anime that can refute this premise, I definitely want to find Anime that can succeed in filling every nerdy niche.

The Dark Age of Anime

If Anime had a Dark Age it's the very late 90s and very early 2000s.  At first glance there is a stark contrast between the aesthetics and sensibilities of 90s Anime and 2000s Anime.  But that change didn't happen over night, there was a transitional period.

This is true of any area of Popular Culture, like it's sometimes weird to me that Eminem and Britney Spears are considered 90s stars when they became stars in the very last year of that decade, they don't particularly represent the decade as a whole and 90% of what they're now known for happened later.

But with Anime the visual distinction is particularly striking because of the rise of digital animation.  With most Anime critics even who are nostalgic for this very era thinking of it as mostly Anime that hasn't aged well because of the awkwardness of that transition.  The early to mid 90s and mid to late 00s are both Golden Ages of Anime for segments of Otakudom, yet this time in-between is never given such an honor.

Which kind of shows how Pokemon is uniquely compartmentalized from how we think of Anime in general.  For Pokemon this time period is the Golden Age, the Kanto, Orange Islands and Johto sagas as well as the first 5 movies and for me personally Mewtwo Returns.  And remember Americans didn't get Pokemon till September of 98, so yeah, classic Pokemon is kind of the Eminem and Britney Spears of Anime. However Cardcaptor Sakura was also from this time, so maybe the Saturday morning kids shows were transitioned with more finesse.

Agent Aika and Najica Blitx Tactics are two very fansercivy anime from the same director, the former is late 90s and the latter is a 2001 anime.  On the one hand it's not surprising how similar they are in-spite of a technical change in Decade/Century/Millennium on the Gregorian calendar.  And yet on the other hand that some time however small had passed between them is still kind of apparent, though having radically different approaches to how they were dubbed might be a factor in how I perceive them.

Of course a lot of this observation about this era of Anime is for Western fans at least a product of looking back with new information.  When these shows were airing in Japan we Americans were mostly getting stuff from 3-10 years before.

2004 is the year where I'm unsure if it's too late to still count as this period.   The first Pretty Cure series is the only PreCure series that can be potentially confused with a 90s Magical Girl show.  Meanwhile Lyrical Nanoha and Kannizuki No Miko very much feel like the beginning of what 2000s Anime would become, for better and for worse.

Almost any pre Pretty Cure Magical Girl Show looks like it could've been the 90s whether it was or not.  But one exception is Ojamajo Doremi which Zeria just did a video on, it looks almost late 2000s or 20tweens in it's aesthetic.

This post has mostly been about the visual differences, art style and character designs.  As far as the kinds of stories told go, a lot of what we think of as inherently 21st Century Otakudom was already in 90s Anime, just mostly not on Television but rather relegated to OVAs, and that's maybe true even before this transition really starts.  Just going back to Agent Aika and Najica Blitx Tactics for example, the 90s one was an OVA but the 2001 series was on TV.  Galaxy Fraulein Yuna when watched now looks like someone threw Nanoha, Prisma Illya and Symphogear into a blender, yet it predates all of those.  Devil Hunter Yohko looks like one of those male audience oriented appropriations of the Magical Girl Warrior formula, yet it actually started at the exact same time as Codename Sailor V, too soon for either to have influenced the other.  Of course the real birth of the Otaku oriented semi-pardoy Magical Girl show was Pretty Sammy in 95.

And in many ways Western Audience perceptions of the history of Anime is still clouded by how often we didn't get these shows in the same order Japan did.  We can debate endlessly how much the claim that Evangelion "changed Anime eternally" is a massive overstatement.  But it's particularly the claim that Eva was the first "Waifu War" that is dependent on how many Western fans still don't seem to know that Tenchi Muyo actually came before Eva in Japan.  Yes, there was a full blown Harem that came before Eva, the first TV Tenchi Series ended a week before Eva debuted, and it was preceded by OVAs.

But let's get back to the main topic.

The main reason I wanted to discus this particular neglected period of Anime history is because it produced my absolute favorite Anime, Noir.  Noir is truly unique, it doesn't seem like a 90s Anime that came too late or a 2000s show that came too early, it stands on it's own as the best manifestation of what TV Anime in 2001 was capable of.  So perhaps I can call this masterpiece the King Arthur of Anime's Dark Age.

Witch Hunter Robin is another show from this era I'm a huge fan of.  Yeah it doesn't seem as polished as what a show with this same story and style would look like a decade later, but it has a charm to it that makes me glad it was a product of 2002.

Madlax was a sister series of Noir that came out in 2004.  It is perhaps the best show to label the end of the Dark Age.

I just decided to look at 2004 on MAL and Wow, there is a lot of stuff I need to check out.  How did I not hear of the Isekai show with Magical Girl in the title till now?

Noir Snow

If something can count as a good quasi Christmas episode just from featuring Snowy weather (Western TV tends to pretend it only Snows at Christmas and New Years even though in my experience Winter is only just starting then) then the Sixth Episode of my personal favorite Anime, Noir, makes a pretty good one.  It’s an episode titled simply Snow.

It’s not quite as cheerful and uplifting as what I’d generally prefer to promote at Christmas time, but it’s not typical Dark and Edgy Anti-Christmas Nihilism either.

Death Note and Social Commentary

What bugs me about the utter failure of the Netflix Death Note movie is that it's gonna be seen as a vindication of those who felt it was wrong to make an American set adaptation in the first place.  I stand by my conviction that a Western re-imagining of Death Note is necessary, as well as that in a Western setting Light should be White because being privileged is vital to his character.  What the Netflix movie screwed up is that it ignored his privilege.

You see, I'm gonna suggest something really controversial. I think the greatest logical weakness of the original story of Death Note is that it's set in Japan.  Japan's crime rate is actually way to low to make sense as a place for Light's particular frustrations to fester.

I know that is potentially a very offensive thing for a Western Anime fan who's never been to Japan and can't speak Japanese to say.  But maybe we should view it as problematic how often Western Anime critics want to view every single detail of every Anime in the context of what's inherently Japanese about it, when really I'm pretty sure every country has lots of writers who would like for their writing to resonate universally and transcend their native cultural context. 

Noir is my favorite Anime, and as such one I've often pointed to as one that could make a good Live Action adaptation (though I've also come to feel it might be pointless to adapt since there is nothing I'm willing to change).  But at least one time I expressed that, someone responded with "Noir could only be done in Live Action well if it's made in Japan".  This confused me since Noir ISN'T EVEN SET IN JAPAN.  It sets foot in Japan only in the very first episode.  If you want to express some frustration at Americans messing with Anime in the context of this show then say France should make it, because it's mostly set in France and is inspired by French films like La Femme Nikita and Leon.  And a French Dub already exists, so if it's as good as the English one then you already have the dialogue written for you.  Kirika is ethnically Japanese, but due to her amnesia plot point nothing about her ever reflects being a product of Japan.  But make no mistake I would never tolerate her being white washed in an adaptation, that's because it's precisely Asians living in the west who need more representation.

With Your Name (which J. J. Abrams expressed a desire to adapt) I understand the arguments for it being inherently Japanese when it comes to how it uses Shinto.  But I once read someone saying it's "about the cultural divide between Urban and Rural Japan", as if there is no way that could be recreated in an American version.  I shouldn't need to explain why that sentiment expresses an utter ignorance of America.

Back on topic.  The first thing Death Note's existence reflects about modern Japan is how influenced it's become by western media.  When you get right down to it, it's basically another literary descendant of Holmes vs Moriarty and Gregory Temple vs John Devil, but with a supernatural twist, and even that aspect is by no means a proper representation of the Shinto view of death and the afterlife, the word Shinigami may be Japanese but the concept is a foreign import.

Mother's Basement described Death Note as being about Japan's harsh stance on crime.  The thing is, that only works if Light is an allegory for Japan itself, and really he isn't written like an allegorical character at all.  Light makes most sense as a deconstruction of American characters like The Punisher and Charles Bronson in Death Wish, characters who appeal to an American attitude that we have so much crime because we're not being harsh enough on it.  An attitude that at first seems inherently Conservative, but it manifests on the Left in things like calls for Hate Crime legislation.

And of course these American characters tend to be White, because Americans who feel that way tend to be White.  Because when they get their way it's minority communities who suffer, they know full well the police are hardly playing with kid gloves.  And that is why Light as an ethnic Minority in America would never make sense to me.

Heck the show itself seems aware of how unlikely Japan is as a setting for all of this since everyone was shocked at the Law Enforcement gathering when L said he thinks Kira is in Japan.  You can argue that shock is mostly him narrowing it down to one country at all and not picking the most obvious one, America, but that still backs up my point.  (In an American's setting you can create that same shocking narrow down to knowing which State.)

I've seen people say you couldn't set the Near and Mello arc in America because then the CIA's involvement wouldn't be a political controversy.  Do these people not know that the CIA isn't supposed to operate domestically? 

Now lots of Anime feature literary archetypes and conventions that are western in origin in-spite of being set in Japan.  But few are as easy for me to imagine being moved to another country as Death Note.  So little time is actually spent at Light's school life that the particulars of why Japanese High School is different never show up.  Nothing annoys me more then when people act like Misa can only work in Japan, celebrity worship is absolutely a thing in America.

Frankly the only thing that would be difficult to keep word for word in an American setting is Chief Yagami refusing to carry a gun when he's no longer officially a Cop due to it being illegal.  But even then you could explain it by saying he's a Democrat.

Yes I said Word for Word, I genuinely feel that the English Dub Script of the Death Note anime shares Shakespeare's ability to work word for word in multiple settings.

Light never once even at an early transitional phase says he's interested in cleaning up Japan.  It was always The World.