Returning to Anime? The Best Anime Series of 2010 That You Missed

Been away from anime for awhile? We understand. You go out and have your life, anime will always be waiting for you when you come back. They always come back. If you are finally coming back and stopped watching sometime in or before 2010, here are all the best anime series that you missed and definitely should go back and watch.

Shiki

The fifteen-year-old Megumi Shimizu dreamed of leaving her small country town behind for the big city, but those dreams died when she did. It was her murder that kicked off a summer of blood and terror in this small town where a city boy and a country doctor try to stop the epidemic of death happening around them.

In Shiki, unless you have already spoiled yourself, the threat to this town is not immediately apparent. That makes it all the more fascinating. You want to understand what is happening and all the while you watch a creeping wave of death and dread overcome an equally confused town.

Angel Beats

One evening Otonashi wakes up in a strange place and a strange girl with a gun tells him he is dead. Trying to recruit him to her organization that rebels against God, Otonashi decides to talk to her enemy, a mysterious girl named Angel. After she kills him for being too literal, he finds himself siding with the SSS Battlefront and the oddballs within.

Like most Jun Maeda series, Angel Beats has that intoxicating blend of tragedy and comedy that jumps from one to the other so quickly it will give you whiplash. As it always is, one will make the other much sweeter.

Bakuman

As a child, Moritaka Mashiro wanted to be a manga artist like his uncle. However, after certain events transpired, he refocused his efforts towards studying in middle school. One day, aspiring writer Akito Takagi notices some detailed drawings in Moritaka’s notebook and approaches him to propose they become a mangaka together. Realizing that he might be able to get his crush if they make an anime adaption of it with her as the voice actor, Moritaka agrees, and thus, the mangaka Muto Ashirogi is born.

Chances are good that if you like anime, you like manga. Bakuman provides an interesting look at how manga is made.

The World God Only Knows

Keima Katsuragi is known as the “God of Conquest,” a man that can conquer any girl’s heart, at least in his dating sim games. However, when Keima arrogantly accepts an offer to prove his dating sim supremacy, he finds himself at the mercy of a demon that forces him to woo over real life girl.

This series provides a comical look at how one thinks their knowledge of dating sims can transfer to real dating. Obviously it isn’t that simple, but it is damn funny while trying.

Rainbow

In 1955 Japan, delinquency is on the rise. For Mario Minakami and six other teenagers, they are not alone when they are sent to Shounan Special Reform School on criminal charges. Once in their cell, they meet the older inmate Rokurouta Sakuragi, a former boxer, who teaches them how to survive in their new harsh prison environment.

A look at post-war Japan in anime is rarity, and a look inside a prison is even rarer. Rainbow documents the struggles of the generation after World War II as they are kept in a wholly brutal environment for their crimes.

SYD

Ousai Private Academy used to be an all-girls school, but Takatoshi Tsuda is among one of the first male students. However, on his way to class, he is stopped by the student president who needs a male’s point of view in order to better accommodate new male students. As such, she ends up making him the vice president of the student council. However, this seemingly upstanding institution is not quite what it seems.

If you are in the mood for comedy and so many dirty jokes, then this series is for you. It is one of those series that is difficult to explain because really it is just jokes, and good ones, at that.

Amagami SS

After being stood up on a Christmas Eve date, Juichi has a hard time opening himself up to romance. However, upon a chance meeting with several girls he is romantically interested in, he has hope that this year he can spend Christmas Eve with someone he truly loves.

The flagship of the omnibus romance genre. Amagami SS is a romance show for those who cannot pick a best girl. Instead, it just explores what a relationship with each girl would be like.

Tatami Galaxy

At a mysterious back alley ramen stand, a lonely college student in his final year accidentally bumps into a man that calls himself the God of Matrimony. There he pours his soul out to the god about all the regrets he has about his college life that he spent bitterly trying to break up couples. However, soon he finds himself back at the very start of college career. Can he change the past or will he repeat past mistakes?

Tatami Galaxy may in fact require a few rewatches in order to fully grasp the intricacies of plot, but while you are doing that, the animation is a feast for the eyes.

Ookami-san and Her Seven Companions

Ookami and her best friend Ringo are part of the Otogi Bank, a club that assists students with problems in return for assistance later on. In order to ensure these loans, the Otogi Bank members go all out, but their members are all females. Knowing some problems require a male touch. Ookami seeks to recruit Morino Ryoushi, a boy with a fear of being looked at who just confessed to Ookami.

Widely overlooked, Ookami-san is a harem show of a different nature. It is a girl who is harem king. It is another great comedy series with not much point, but this time it has a great bonus of some slick looking animation and many great waifus.

Katanagatari

In Edo era Japan, Shichika Yasuri practices one of the most unique sword styles among a culture of unique sword styles, a technique that uses his own body as a blade. As the seventh head of the style’s school, he lives in exile with his sister Nanami until the ambitious Togame barges into his life. Togame tries to recruit him on her mission to collect the twelve unique swords known as the Deviant Blades for the shogunate. Interested by the girl more so than her mission, Yasuri accepts, only to later find the challenge in collecting these swords is defeating the legendary swordsmen that wield them.

What gets most people to sample this series is the unique and fluid animation. That is a great selling point. However, the series also has a really interesting plot that doesn’t sound unique, but ends up fairly inventive.

High School of the Dead

It happened suddenly. The dead rose and threw Japan into chaos. In the high school of Takashi Kimuro, the situation forced him to kill his bitten best friend and protect the man’s girlfriend, Rei. As they narrowly escape the school with a few others, they find the real survival just beginning.

This is a traditional zombie apocalypse story that you don’t see much in anime. It also has lots of bewbs and fan service. It is a weird mix, but it ends up a pretty fun show if you are not expecting anything serious from it.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Kou Ichinomiya, as the son of a wealthy businessman, has vowed never to become indebted to anyone. However,when he falls in the river under Arakawa Bridge, someone dives in to save him, thus he owes his life to this person. She is a homeless girl named Nino who wants only one thing – to fall in love. In order to pay her back, he accepts her offer to be her boyfriend, thus moving out of his home and starting a new life under the bridge.

Arakawa is known for its cast of weird characters who live free. However, what it is not known is how good of a romance series it actually is.

B Gata H Kei

Yamada is beautiful and just entering high school, but she has one strange goal – to have casual sex with 100 men. The problem is that she is afraid of being teased for being a virgin. Upon happenstance, she stumbles upon a solution to her problem, the soft-spoken (also virgin) Kosuda. The problem is, he knows nothing about sex and is a shy gentleman about it.

This series is pervert comedy at its finest. Some call it trash, but it is indeed a funny comedy without any lewdness.