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May 1, 2015 12:36 PM
#1

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5009
What are some lesser known anime or manga that you'd like others to know about?
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May 1, 2015 11:35 PM
#2

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CROSS ANGE
Members: 40,604
May 2, 2015 7:40 PM
#3

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Nov 2013
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I have several that you may or may not have heard about because I spout praise for them fairly often:

Fuujin Monogatari (~6700 members):
My review

Porfy no Nagai Tabi (~950 members):
My review

Mahou no Stage Fancy Lala (~4800 members):
This anime is far better than its name suggests. It's more of a coming-of-age tale with slice of life and comedy elements than a mahou shoujo series, and far more grounded in realism than I thought it'd be. It also addresses mature themes with a touch of subtlety rarely seen in children's shows. The protagonist is a great character; her attitude and sense of curiosity make her very endearing, and she grows slowly but surely throughout the series. I also want to mention the show's ending, which is at once surprising, daring, and realistic. Again, do not watch this show expecting your run-of-the-mill magical girl anime.

Zettai Shounen (~8000 members):
This is probably one of the most interesting series I've seen. It's calm, slow, atmospheric, and very character-centric despite it being a mystery/supernatural series. I'd say that this series isn't about the supernatural at all but rather about the characters: their interactions with each other, their interpretations of the strange phenomena occurring around them, and the personal changes they undergo from witnessing them. The director took great care in fleshing out these characters by focusing on their body language and dialogue. I want to reiterate that this series is very slow-paced with very little sense of urgency or conflict.
May 5, 2015 6:45 AM
#4

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Feb 2013
17587
Hidden Gem anime are my favourite kind of anime =p I am not so good with persuasive writing, but here are some anime with low member count which i rated 10:

Saint Luminous Jogakuin (1,438 members) - Psychological/Supernatural/Mystery with nice OST, not very dark, and leaves room for interpretation, just how i like it

There She Is!! (9,611 members) - A love story between a cat and a rabbit told through 5 music videos animated in flash. I first saw it on Newgrounds, and i stumbled upon it on MAL when browsing top anime (it's ranked 324 overall, and 2 in the ONA category)

Midori Shoujo Tsubaki (3,862 members) - My favourite anime movie; great atmosphere + music, and the movie itself also has an interesting history.

And here is one of my old posts on the matter
May 5, 2015 9:51 AM
#5

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Nov 2014
5009


Omoide no Marnie (~9,800 members):
All I wanted to do was check the quality of the animation and style and I ended up watching the whole movie; this just happened—again. I found Omoide no Marnie after a random search under the psychological tag. Despite some bumps in the writing, I really liked it. It's very well directed, and the animation—by the way—is stellar.

7.5/10
May 5, 2015 2:07 PM
#6

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Sep 2014
1336
Otona Joshi no Anime Time
Four short stories. First, third, and fourth episodes are amazing. If you like Josei, definitely check this out. It's so real...made me kind of depressed actually. I don't want to end up like any of these women when I'm in my late 30s or early 40s. :(
Jul 7, 2015 5:00 AM
#7

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5009


Anne no Nikki (~2,200 members):
review
aikaflipAug 3, 2015 11:21 PM
Jul 8, 2015 3:08 AM
#8

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Sep 2014
1336
Whaaaat? Anne Frank has an anime?
Jul 8, 2015 12:56 PM
#9

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Nov 2014
5009
SaveTheAralSea said:
Whaaaat? Anne Frank has an anime?

Yeah, and I think it might have emotionally scarred me, lol. I haven't felt right since watching it.
Jul 9, 2015 9:46 AM

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Two, actually.
Jul 9, 2015 6:15 PM

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I'll offer a couple of manga instead: 7 Seeds and Basara. Both are works of the same mangaka and are quite criminally under appreciated (I seem to be the only one recommending it everywhere), particularly 7 Seeds which still publishing. Incidentally, Basara also has an anime adaptation which is also rather unknown and, unfortunately, incomplete.

Some the ones mentioned here that I'm familiar with, like Otona Joshi and There She Is, are great too. And considering it's the newest Ghibli, Marnie is pretty underrated too, although it's really very good.
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Jul 11, 2015 2:07 AM

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I tried reading Basara, but I didn't like it too much. I wasn't a fan of the romance progression and it made me dislike the characters. It seems a lot of people like it, though.
Jul 11, 2015 3:51 AM

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dream_eater1012 said:
I tried reading Basara, but I didn't like it too much. I wasn't a fan of the romance progression and it made me dislike the characters. It seems a lot of people like it, though.
That's unfortunate, but I'm curious as to where you got up to? Because, for one thing, there's a significant improvement around volume 5. However, I personally didn't find anything objectionable or unlikeable up till point anyway. It may be a matter of taste, of course, but I find the mangaka to be particularly adept at writing characters, which is where Basara shone, in my opinion.
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Jul 13, 2015 10:16 AM

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fullmetalbender said:
That's unfortunate, but I'm curious as to where you got up to? Because, for one thing, there's a significant improvement around volume 5. However, I personally didn't find anything objectionable or unlikeable up till point anyway. It may be a matter of taste, of course, but I find the mangaka to be particularly adept at writing characters, which is where Basara shone, in my opinion.

I got up to chapter 8, so I finished 2 volumes.

Jul 14, 2015 2:41 AM

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dream_eater1012 said:
I got up to chapter 8, so I finished 2 volumes.

Hmm well, first of all, since your impressions are based on a fraction of the entire manga (2 vol. out of 27) I do believe you could stand to give it a 'longer' try.
fullmetalbenderJul 14, 2015 3:48 AM
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Jul 14, 2015 2:14 PM

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fullmetalbender said:
Hmm well, first of all, since your impressions are based on a fraction of the entire manga (2 vol. out of 27) I do believe you could stand to give it a 'longer' try.

That might be the case. Maybe at one point I'll pick it back up, but I usually don't drastically change how I feel about stories.




That's probably much longer response than you ever wanted (sorry), I can't help but advocate Basara when the need arises! :)

I don't mind long responses at all. I really like knowing why people think the way they do, and part of why I said something in the first place was out of curiosity. I also just wanted to get my thoughts out there, so in the end I had an even longer response.
Jul 14, 2015 11:37 PM

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dream_eater1012 said:
I think the reason I'm not as willing to look past it in Basara is that my initial reaction to the story was to timidly go forward. Mainly, I'm not a fan of the art. I was willing to look past it, but I was still looking at the story with an overly critical eye, more so than I sometimes do with other stories. So admittedly I was looking for something to dislike. It's not such a good thing to do, but even knowing I'm doing it doesn't really mean I can rewire my brain. But still, because Basara is well-loved I went into the story with pretty lofty expectations, especially since I love politics in stories. So to come across the forcefulness in the romance hit me harder than it probably would have had I had lower expectations.
That's understandable. For one thing, it took me volumes before the art style grew on me (it's become endearing now). And for another, since first impressions are subjective it can 'make or break' the overall reaction to something, so I see where you're coming from.
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Jul 16, 2015 1:13 AM

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fullmetalbender said:
That's understandable. For one thing, it took me volumes before the art style grew on me (it's become endearing now). And for another, since first impressions are subjective it can 'make or break' the overall reaction to something, so I see where you're coming from.

Yeah, that makes sense. Like with Skip Beat too, I still think the art is kind of ugly, but I'm used to it by now. And yeah, first impressions can be important.

I also just saw that you have Song of the Long March on your PTR (sorry, I was creeping). I was thinking that it would be up your alley.

Something I find funny about Song of the Long March is that I think in China it's considered a girls' comic, but in Japan the manhua is serialized in a seinen magazine.

If you like the politics deal you might also like Shoukoku no Altair. The manga is actually made by someone who got a degree in history, and I think the background knowledge shows despite the artistic license she took. Though it's kept relatively simple.
Jul 16, 2015 4:19 AM

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dream_eater1012 said:
I also just saw that you have Song of the Long March on your PTR (sorry, I was creeping). I was thinking that it would be up your alley.

Something I find funny about Song of the Long March is that I think in China it's considered a girls' comic, but in Japan the manhua is serialized in a seinen magazine.

If you like the politics deal you might also like Shoukoku no Altair. The manga is actually made by someone who got a degree in history, and I think the background knowledge shows despite the artistic license she took. Though it's kept relatively simple.

Ah, recommendations are more than welcome so thanks, but I do have one gripe when it comes to manga: ongoing series are the bane of my manga-novice existence. I cannot stand the wait at all, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm juggling one too many publishing manga at this point (though I know '6' is a measly sum to most manga readers), otherwise I'd have picked up so many series by now.
That's mainly why I'm holding off on the enticing Long March even though it checks all my boxes. (The other reason being, I'm kind of 'saving it' for later when I'm in need of a good manga.)
Altair looks fascinating too! I shall remember it. But I must resist now or suffer later lol. Incidentally, if you have any similar completed series to recommend I'd gladly take that up.
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Jul 17, 2015 12:15 PM

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fullmetalbender said:
Ah, recommendations are more than welcome so thanks, but I do have one gripe when it comes to manga: ongoing series are the bane of my manga-novice existence. I cannot stand the wait at all, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm juggling one too many publishing manga at this point (though I know '6' is a measly sum to most manga readers), otherwise I'd have picked up so many series by now.
That's mainly why I'm holding off on the enticing Long March even though it checks all my boxes. (The other reason being, I'm kind of 'saving it' for later when I'm in need of a good manga.)
Altair looks fascinating too! I shall remember it. But I must resist now or suffer later lol. Incidentally, if you have any similar completed series to recommend I'd gladly take that up.

I feel you on that. I'm reading more ongoing series than 6, but I prefer to wait to read ongoing series. I hate the wait too.

I don't know of any completed series with politics, unfortunately. I guess there's Elhanburg no Tenshi, but I haven't read it yet so I'm not too sure about it.

I would recommend Aki's other manga Olimpos, which is a philosophical sort of manga. It's not really a manga for everyone, but you might enjoy it.

And I would recommend Aki's Aruosumente, but that's ongoing.

Satougashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai: A Lollypop or A Bullet is a coming of age story. I thought it was well done.

This isn't really a hidden gem since it's fairly popular, but I really enjoyed Meteor Methuselah/Immortal Rain. It's a little nihilistic, but pretty optimistic too.

Kaori Ozaki's other manga God Tells Lies was a nice romance.

Again, another manga that's not really a hidden gem because of popularity: Angel Sanctuary. I haven't gotten to read it yet, but I just think it's worth mentioning. But I'm not sure if it's your thing.

There's Sugiru Juunana no Haru too. The story was written by the same person who made 12 Kingdoms. I didn't think it was a scary horror, but I thought the manga was interesting.

That's all I got for the moment.
Jul 31, 2015 4:39 PM
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Ojisan no Lamp
A delightful tale about the acceptance of modernization in daily life.

Shirokuma Cafe
An amazing comedy with realistic-looking animals and personalities according to their nature instead of giving them human personalities.
Sep 25, 2015 5:23 PM

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i got some reading to do...
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Apr 14, 2016 4:47 PM
It’s time to ditch the text file.
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