The Best Anime to Watch

I had to include this 2006 classic mystery, psychological/supernatural thriller. I firmly believe Death Note is a strong anime for beginners. It has such a simple concept and builds on it so well giving you what is almost a masterpiece of a show. The story follows high schooler Light Yagami, an incredibly bored and bright student. He's a straight A student, does what he is told, and lives life completely mundane. He is walking home from school one day and stumbles across a notebook titled Death Note--a book dropped by a God of Death or as they call it, a Shinigami . He wasn't going to pick it up at first but his curiosity got the best of him. He is then followed by Ryuk , the Shinigami that dropped it. Little does he know that this Death Note is a form of mass genocide and destruction, but what can you expect when this thing comes straight from a Grim Reaper? You write someone's name inside, and they will die. But it obviously comes with certain rules that were actually nic...

  This weeks anime is an adventure fantasy show. This 2011, extremely popular anime follows the story of 12 year old Gon Freecss who leaves his small town to become like his father by taking the Hunter Examination. There he meets his now best friends who also take the exam with him. Kurapika who takes the exam because he wants to avenge his dead clan from the Phantom Troupe . Leorio, who takes the exam to pay for medical school and receive all the benefits that being a Hunter gives you. Lastly, 12 year old Killua Zoldyck who takes the exam because he's tired of following his family's assassin life. Because this is a long running show--148 episodes--the story is split into various arcs, sections of the story that focus on a subplot that ultimately affect the entirety of the plot. So yes, these four characters are extremely important, but there are also  many  more that play a huge roll into shaping the story. We slowly get introduced to more characters throughout the arcs....

This week's anime falls under the drama romance category. This 2016, 13 episode anime focuses on Naho, her group of friends, and new transfer student Kakeru. At the start of the show, Naho receives a letter from herself 10 years in the future--26 year old Naho to be exact. The letter tells her of events that happened throughout the course of those 10 years but more specifically, her and her friend's time in high school and Kakeru's tragic death. At first she didn't believe the letter but as events described in the letter starting coming true, she decided to follow her future self's wishes. Naho realizes the letter is full of so much regret from her future self, wishing she could have saved Kakeru. So, current 16 year old Naho takes it upon herself to keep an eye on Kakeru and save him from dying. The story continues to depict the adventures of the gang with Kakeru. Naho struggles to follow the letter's wishes so it does get a bit frustrating to watch as she fail...

Yet another incredibly sad anime. This show made me ugly cry so much from how sad it was. This 2011 emotional, drama, anime focuses on a group of six childhood friends--"Tsuruko", "Yukiatsu", "Anaru", "Poppo", "Jintan", and the one who died in an accident, "Menma". They all used to play together everyday in the summer, they even had their own secret base where they all hung out and planned their days' adventures--they were called the Super Peace Busters and the best of friends. Kids being kids, they began to talk about who liked who. Jintan, the leader of the bunch was accused of liking Menma, but he got flustered and run off. Memna chased after him but never came back. Due to Menma's passing, over time, the group completely drifts apart where some don't even think the other exists.  Fast forward ten years later, a slightly older Menma appears in front of Jintan as a ghost asking for a wish to be granted, which sh...

  Here is another somewhat dark and depressing anime--a drama/psychological show to be exact. This 2014 anime follows the short and lively adventure of a bullied high school girl--Lisa, and her unexpected meet up with two incredibly, intelligent, high schoolers who are bombing Japan. The boys go by the names Nine and Twelve. Nine is the calm and collective one who is the mastermind of it all, while Twelve is the kindhearted and skillful automotive one who befriends lonely Lisa. Both boys were part of a secret government experiment conducted on highly intelligent orphans with  savant syndrome in hopes to make them into human weapons. Most died, but these two were survivors out of the 26 others. The show starts off with a radioactive chemical element being stolen by the two boys with the message "VON" left in red spray paint at the nuclear facility. Six months later, Nine and Twelve enroll in Lisa's school. A video of the two boys in masks is also uploaded online, threate...

If you didn't like the "edgy" anime recommendation from last week, here's something that will hopefully make you go  awww . The anime follows various couples in high school and how hard it is for them to say "I love you". Yes, cheesy, but the comedy aspect is the best part. The plot revolves around multiple couples, so you get to see everyone's different quirks, thoughts, and reactions to one another's gestures. There's also a LOT of miscommunication between one partner to another, but that's only natural, plus these are high schoolers we're talking about. And because everyone has a unique character, there may be a few moments that viewers can relate to. There is no such thing as a "perfect couple" and this show really puts an emphasis on that. Some may overthink about their partner's motives, or some may overstep boundaries making the situation incredibly awkward. This anime has it all. Basically, love is weird and makes us...

You may be thinking, "that's such a dark title", well it is a pretty dark show . This 12 episode anime takes place in the afterlife, in a bar called Quindecim. There's a mysterious white haired bartender, Decim and his helper Chiyuki who bring two people at a time, who passed away, and make them play a game to see whether they can reincarnate, or go to a place which is basically purgatory. You may be thinking "games are fun, right?", well, if you want to call throwing darts onto a board that inflicts pain on a certain artery is fun, well then, I guess it could be fun? With each different "couple" that comes in, the game is different but ultimately both are staking their lives, or you could say their future lives'? These people don't know their dead, so with that, they are incredibly confused as to where they are and why. This is purposeful. With them not knowing they're dead, they tend to give it their all in the game their playing to w...