Anime - how to start?

As a starting point, I want to say that you shouldn’t be afraid to watch anime series. “Oh, it’s so long! I’d rather watch something shorter…” - sounds familiar? Forget about it :) In reality, one episode is about 15-20 minutes (especially if you skip the opening and ending), so a whole season is roughly two episodes of “Lord of the Rings”. Don’t watch the whole season at once, just like “Lord of the Rings”, but believe me, the anime significantly wins over the movie in terms of atmosphere, meaning, plot, and all of that can’t be fully captured in 1.5 hours, of course.

Separately, I want to mention that if you watch for the first or second time, try to watch with Japanese audio and subtitles. Yes, it’s unfamiliar (but quickly gets used to), unlike Western cinema/anime, Japanese voice actors (seiyū) put so much into their work that in my opinion, it’s 20-40% of the whole work. Personally, the voice acting (not dubbing) sounds so parody-like to me that I can’t help but laugh if I accidentally switch to the Russian track instead of Japanese…

Below is my very subjective list of recommendations to start watching anime. And then you can choose the genres that interest you or experiment, as there’s a lot to choose from…

The list is in random order, you can choose as you like. After the name - my brief comment.

Score(): fist is action level(), second - humor level(), third - cultural value().

• Summer Wars - full-length movie. Summer/sun/light-crime? One of the few full-length movies where the story is told at the highest level. Beware, some files in the network have bad sync sound and video, check to avoid spoiling the impression. //
• Cowboy Bebop - space, blues, bounty hunters. Atmospheric thing, at least 3-4 episodes should be watched before deciding whether to continue or not. //
• Full Metal Panic! - peaceful school life and world politics with big robots. Plus comedy. Impossible? Not at all… //
• Ghost in the Shell - full-length movie with cyborgs, criminals and police. There is a continuation and two TV series. //
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - adventures of a state alchemist (magician, in other words) and the fate of the world. A stunning detective story with a well-thought-out magic system and vivid characters (NB there is an older series, there is another plot, it is advisable to watch Brotherhood). //
• Mushishi - profound stories about a person who can see “spirits” that live among us. Soulful, peaceful. //
• Haikyuu!! - never thought that school voleyball club may so interesting. //
• Chobits - одно из самых милых и наивных произведений, неизменно в моих любимых, несмотря на старую рисовку. //
• Bakemonogatari - arthouse, mystics (a bit), OMG, I need more! (and yes, don’t try to read the text on abstract inserts, they are for mood, there are no speacial meaning). //
• One Punch Man - hero, who wins by one hit. Boring? No way! //
• Level E - old style graphics, but one of the best comedys I faced. //
• Tonari no Seki-kun - main character’s class mate slacks in school. But how! //
• Shokugeki no Souma - Food-porn - do you know what is it? (No-no, that’s different!) And here we have a plot, and nice characters. Go break food stereotypes! //
• Kyoukai no Kanata - main character convinces a girl of jumping from the school roof, and she pierces him with a sword, made of blood. Wait, whaaaat??? No-no, this is not an absurd title, here we have some mystics, complicated relationships, and… You have to watch it, this is one of my best beloved ones. //
• Kimetsu no Yaiba - I doubted if it fits here. Living classics of “the hero becomes stronger, and overcomes for a great goal”, with perfect graphics, and cool plot. Probably it may be good for the first experience (P.S. The move - sequel of the first season - got top money in cinema in Japan, left behind “Avatar”, “Titanic”, etc.). //
• Yakusoku no Neverland - detective, which kept me on my toes till the last minute… You worry about the characters, as about yourself. Plus great graphics. //
• Psycho-Pass - society, where potential crime people are detected even before the crime. May be old idea, but here we see also personal story of the police girl, and it worth to watch it. IMHO. //
• Eve no Jikan - people and robots - there is the line, whay are we different and other questions. Atmospheric, philosophic, nice. And short. //