I don't get the love for SAO. Interesting concept, but I watched the first 5-6 episodes, and it was pretty bad. I remember it jumping forward in time between episodes in a way that felt disjointed. My drop off point was when a character was introduced in the beginning of an episode, the main character acted as if they had a relationship with them, and then the new character was killed off at the end of the ep. But it was played as if we just watched a beloved character's death and not some rando we were just introduced to 15 minutes ago. Basically the show spent no time fostering any kind of investment in its characters. Maybe it gets better after that episode, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it anymore.

I agree with pretty much all of the other popular recommendations though.

If you want some stuff that's a little more on the lighter (or at least non magical/supernatural) side of things, I'd recommend Welcome to the NHk, Wata Mote, Nana, Or Ouran High School Host Club (all good ones to watch with a gf/wife if she's a bit nerdy too).

Its a bit juvenile but there is a very short weekly one that I like called RWBY "Ruby". Each episode is under 20 minutes so its not a big time investment but I think its a cute show but not real dark or preachy.

Aginnebraska said:

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Its a bit juvenile but there is a very short weekly one that I like called RWBY "Ruby". Each episode is under 20 minutes so its not a big time investment but I think its a cute show but not real dark or preachy.

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I could never get into this series. Its horrible animation style just put me off too much.

There's one on global politics and history called Hetalia thats lighthearted and hilarious. Each character is a country and is given the personification of that country(USA eats alot, France is gay, italy can't fight, etc...)

If your even remotely interested by world history consider it, each episode is only 5 minutes so it's not a huge time investment anyway.

hunter2012 said:

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There's one on global politics and history called Hetalia thats lighthearted and hilarious. Each character is a country and is given the personification of that country(USA eats alot, France is gay, italy can't fight, etc...)

If your even remotely interested by world history consider it, each episode is only 5 minutes so it's not a huge time investment anyway.

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Hetalia is great.

Just wanted to add that I have a Crunchyroll sub and I think it's worth it at $7 a month.