So You Want to Get into Anime: The Best Gateway Anime Series to Indoctrinate Normies
Start your journey to become the King of the Weebs.
Even though anime has made its way into the mainstream over the past few years, negative notions about the medium persist.
With the exception of a few mature animated comedies (some of which are fantastic and thematically complex, like Bojack Horseman), animation in the US is still typically viewed as a medium for children. The idea that cartoons are kid sh*t, while perhaps understandable for someone who has only ever been exposed to Western media, is ignorant of the broad range of animation in other cultures.
In a similar vein, a lot of people insist that they just can't get into anime, or they stigmatize all of it because they don't like the "schoolgirl stuff." But it's important to remember that anime isn't a genre–It's a medium.
Individual anime series fall into every genre under the sun, just like movies and live-action TV shows. Saying you don't like anime because of the schoolgirl stuff (which is a very valid thing to dislike) is kind of like saying you don't like movies because of slasher films. You're writing off an entire medium of art over a genre that you can easily avoid.
So let's say you are open to watching anime, but aren't quite sure where to start. Or, more likely, maybe you already love anime and you're trying to find a series to convince your SO that the $200 action figure in your room was a totally reasonable thing to buy (it was, and your life choices are perfect). Just check out any of these gateway anime series that serve as perfect entry points into the medium's diverse offerings.
Gintama
Shueisha
Just joking, this show is not for beginners. As one of the top rated anime series of all time on My Anime List, with six of its seasons and movies ranking in the top 20 entries, Gintama is a force to be reckoned with. Deemed a meta-comedy masterpiece by many anime fans, absolutely everything in Gintama relies on the viewer's deep, prior knowledge of other specific anime series. Gintama lampoons both entire franchises and specific scenes from all genres of anime (but mostly shonen). So come back to this one later, and consider enjoying it as a reward for becoming the Strongest Weeb.
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