Great Teacher Onizuka:

GTO was one of the first anime I have ever watched. This anime will always be one of my favorites. Eikichi Onizuka, a legendary gang leader becomes a teacher working at a private middle school. His class, however, have a history of getting teachers fired but they never met a guy like Onizuka. His goal is to become the greatest teacher and as you watch the show you are going to wish he was yours. Onizuka is a really cool character. He doesn’t care about the system and instead talks about irrelevant things and fools around. He helps students with their problems as he slowly gains their trust and changes their lives.

Puella Maji Madoka Magica:

There are countless anime shows about teenage girls transforming into cute frilly dresses and fighting crime. These shows are typically cute and generally predictable, fight evil and fall in love. I expected Mahou Shoujo Madoka to be the same thing. I was dead wrong. In a world filled with unseen witches, magical girls are the only ones that can destroy them before they cause harm to the real world. One day Madoka Kaname saves a mysterious white creature named Kyube. He has the power to grant any wish, in return girls must agree to a contract to fight witches. He offers a chance to become magical girls to Madoka and her friend, Sayaki Miki. Is their wish enough to risk their lives? This show is amazing. The animation is unique and the story will leave your mouth hanging. It has completely re-defined magical girl anime, proving it can also be dark and twisted.

Clannad:

This is one of my favorite love stories. It has everything you want in an anime, a slice of life with elements of comedy, family, friendship, and tragedy. The show follows the life of a delinquent, Tomoya Okazaki. He has given up on school and his life until he meets the cheery, Nagisa Furukawa. Full of hope and ambition to make friends and form a drama club, Tomoya helps her making his days brighter. There are a lot of funny scenes in this anime and also heart felt moments. You watch each character grow as a person. The one thing I love about this anime is that there is an after story. You can watch what happens after their high school life ends. Not a lot of shows do this which is why you grow a connection with the characters because you witness what they overcome and what happens to them. Clannad is a must watch because of its genuine story and characters that will leave you in tears from both laughter and sadness.

Angel Beats!!

The show is set in a high school that serves as a purgatory or an afterlife to the characters. They all know they’re dead but don’t know why they ended up there. Confused and angry at God they form a brigade called the Afterlife Battlefront. An angel, they believe is preventing them from leaving the high school purgatory, stands in their way to finding out the truth. Is there a heaven awaiting the characters? What do they have to do in order to move on? All the characters in the show are unique and serve their own purpose. The best part is when you learn about their life on Earth because they all have painful stories. Their friendship and fighting Angel makes them feel alive but in the end they want to be free of their unfulfilled dreams or connections on Earth. Angel Beats is simply great. It’s really funny and then all of a sudden you’re in tears. It’s a really entertaining show that is worth watching.

 Toradora!

I’m a sucker for romantic comedies and Toradora is one of the best I’ve seen. It’s about Ryuji Takasu befriending Taiga Aisaka in order to get closer to her best friend. Taiga agrees because she is in love with Ryuji’s best friend. They work together to overcome their insecurities, Ryuji’s evil looking eyes and Taiga’s brutal personality. The two, at first were only friends to get closer to their crushes, but they end up genuinely caring about the other and learning things they don’t share with anyone else. It’s one of those shows that will please any anime fan.

Just like how you never judge a book by its cover, do not judge an anime by its name or style. I hope you enjoy these shows as much as I did and appreciate them too.

Thanks for reading~