Three Best Anime from My History for New Anime Fans

I’m so busy of late, it has really been hard to watch anime. 😥 But I do sometimes become aware of things on Twitter than I find of interest. (You can follow me on Twitter if you want more of my babble–https://twitter.com/AstroNerdBoy.) This time, the Japanese were tweeting about the #わたしのアニメ歴3選 tag, which literally translates to 3 selections of my anime history.

Some translator, whom I don’t know, put this as “Three Best Anime from My History for New Anime Fans”. Whether that was the intended impact of the hashtag or not, I don’t know. But I thought I’d go with it for a blog post. As such, here are my three titles.

Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro (movie)

For those who don’t know, the story has the gentleman thief Lupin III and his gunman partner Jigen robbing a casino. However, the cash turns out to be counterfeit, so Lupin decides to track down the source. He already believes the source to be a tiny country named Cagliostro, where he’d previously been. After saving the escaping Clarisse, she’s recaptured. So Lupin decides to rescue her from being forced to marry Count Cagliostro while finding where the counterfeit bills are being printed at.

I’ve told this story many times, but when I lived in Japan, my best friend and roommate Robert introduced me to anime. While most of it had limited impact on me, Lupin IIIL Castle of Cagliostro spoke to me across the language barrier. Lupin had great chemistry with his gang and Zenigata, and the other characters were interesting. The story is a simple one, but executed well. And visually, the anime movie looks very good. As such, it is easy for me to recommend as an entry title to anime from my personal history.

Inuyasha (TV Series)

In the Waring States era, the half-dog youkai, half-human Inuyasha is sealed by the priestess Kikyou for attempting to steal the sacred Shikon no Tama jewel. She dies, and her body and the jewel are burned. In the modern time, a teen girl named Kagome “falls” through the Bone Eater’s Well on her family’s shrine grounds, arriving fifty years after Inuyasha was sealed. Somehow, the Shikon no Tama emerges from Kagome’s body. It gets shattered, sending shards across Japan. The unsealed Inuyasha reluctantly teams up with Kagome, and the two, with other companions they encounter, attempt to restore the jewel and stop the evil youkai Naraku.

I was introduced to this (initially) fun series via Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. It has a simple, fetch quest and defeat the main villain for a plot. I liked the concept of the Warring States period in Japan being filled with magical monsters and such. It was an easy series for me to get into as a new anime fan. And I introduced several non-anime fans to the series, who all loved it. The downside to Inuyasha is that because the source manga story dragged, the anime dragged. But I still have fond memories of it.

Yu Yu Hakusho (TV Series)

A teen male punk named Yusuke gets run over by a car and killed while attempting to save a child. His spirit is ferried to the Spirit World, where Koenma, the son of the king of the Spirit World, decides to resurrect Yusuke after giving him some tests. He’s given the title Spirit World Detective and has to investigate supernatural incidents, usually with powerful youkai. During the process, he is joined by two youkai named Kurama and Hiei, as well as classmate Kazuma. The group eventually end up attending youkai battle tournaments. Eventually, Yusuke discovers why he’s so powerful, leading him to a final tournament.

As with Inuyasha, I was introduced to Yu Yu Hakusho via Adult Swim. I really enjoyed the series, though the tournament battle formula became a bit tiresome due to how more than half of the series is dedicated to it. But it was a lot of fun, and I did like following Yusuke’s journey. A lot of non-anime folks at work borrowed the series from me and loved it. Sadly, one of them (I don’t know who) still has one of my old FUNimation box sets, which sucks. That aside, it is an easy series for new fans to get into.

So what are your three titles? Let me know in the comments.