Some more of my favorite Anime Shows

Just a few more of my favorites. Even though it's pride month, I won't just be including shows with LGBT characters (at least not canonical ones). 

Toradora

This slice of life follows Ryuuji and Taiga in their quest to help each other win over their crushes. Ryuuji is a sweet boy who cooks and cleans for his overworked mother. Taiga lives alone and can't even cook or clean for herself. Both of them have a crush on someone, but don't have the courage to let them know. It starts with a misunderstanding, Ryuuji takes the wrong bag and ends up accidentally stealing the love letter Taiga had written to her crush. Taiga breaks into his apartment to get it back and the two form an unlikely alliance since Taiga is friends with his crush Minori. Some things I liked about this show: I liked the slow burn romance. I've heard a lot of people complain because the two should have figured out their feelings much sooner, but I liked the way it played out. Sure I would have preferred Taiga to end up with Minori. I would have preferred that Minori's joke teasing Ryuuji had not been a joke. Minori tells Ryuuji at one point that she's a lesbian and that she's in love with Taiga. I wish the creators had made it pan out like that instead of making her actual crush be Ryuuji. Oh well, missed opportunity. I liked several of the side characters, especially the parrot Inko. But my absolute favorite thing about the show is the theme song. I can't see a picture of the show without hearing the song start in my head. It's just so catchy. Hard to pick a favorite character, but I'm actually pretty fond of Ryuuji for the fact that they had him break gender stereotypes. 

Re: Zero

What if you woke up in a fantasy world one day and realized you couldn't die? That's the reality for Subaru, but it isn't fun. It turns out that when he dies he returns to a save point (the same point until he clears whatever the objective is) but he has no powers, no special intelligence or magic to help him figure out what he's supposed to do. So he has to die until he gets it right and he experiences every agonizing moment. Along the way he meets a bunch of interesting people. The first is a girl name Emilia who for whatever reason first gives him the name of the witch Satella who she's always mistaken for. After he dies the first time, he tries calling her by that name and she is understandably upset by this. Anyway, lots of stuff happens, Subaru gets PTSD more than once, there are multiple unique and lively characters. Emilia has a familiar named Puck who watches over her like a father. He usually takes the form of a cute animal. She lives in a mansion with a man named Roswaal who wants her to be chosen to be the next ruler of the land. He is the lord of the nearby territory, the people of which don't really trust Emilia because she is a half-elf just like the witch Satella was (Satella has a bad reputation). In fact, most of the people in the land don't really like Emilia and Subaru finds himself defending her on more than one occasion. Rem and Ram are twin demons who serve as maids at the Roswaal mansion. They do a lot to help teach Subaru how to help out when he first decides to stay and both of them become staple characters. I really love the complexities of the Roswaal character, he is shrouded in mystery for the first season, but eventually you learn a lot more about him. Eventually Subaru meets a gender non-conforming fox-person named Felix, I like that character but I don't like the way the story uses them to tease Subaru (the "trap" trope). There are lots of other characters that get introduced later. Garfiel is one of my favorites that gets introduced later on in the series and a lot of that has to do with the fact that I really like his VA. And sorry Rem fans, but Subaru x Emilia is the best ship. Warning, this show has a lot of graphic violence and blood. It might be enough to bother some people.

Bungo Stray Dogs

I really like this show for a lot of reasons. This is a story about a detective agency full of young men and women with powers. All the characters (and I only learned this after getting into the show) are named after famous Japanese authors and all their powers are named after one of that author's most famous works. The main character of this story is Atsushi, a boy whose life keeps on being upended by this mysterious tiger. It's only after being taken in by Dazai and the other members of the Armed Detective Agency that Atsushi learns the tiger that has been plaguing him is himself. He can transform into a tiger, but he has no memory of the transformation or what he does while transformed. The members of the ADA want to help him learn to control his power so he can remember what he does as the tiger and use it to help the agency. My favorite character in this show is Dazai, who is brilliant but slightly odd. A lot of people ship Dazai with his ex-partner Chuuya who works for the enemy organization Port Mafia which Dazai defected from. I think this is because Chuuya's power is so destructive he can't let loose and go all out unless Dazai is around because Dazai possesses the power "No Longer Human" which allows him to negate any and all other powers with the touch of his hand. I will admit that the two have pretty good chemistry and I'd buy it if they became canonical. I like the story, all the characters are really interesting in their own right. I love to see Dazai in action because you always know he has something up his sleeve. Sometimes it seems like he might be a double agent for Port Mafia, and other times it's pretty obvious that he's not, but either way he's a super complicated and intriguing character. He's also pretty morally grey, unlike his partner Doppo who is the very definition of an upright character. One thing that might trigger some people, Dazai has a death wish and is constantly trying (unsuccessfully) to commit suicide, usually in very comedic ways.

Erased

This is an unusual take on time travel. Basically, the main character Satorou can project his consciousness into the past. At the onset of the show, this is limited to about 15 minutes and he uses this power to stave off disaster when he can. But after finding his mother murdered, the police think he was the culprit and Satorou inadvertently projects himself back to his childhood. He begins to unravel a mystery that might solve his mother's murder and save the life of a little girl who was killed when he was 10. This show is very intriguing, and kind of messed up. I really enjoyed the mystery element and the time-travel element. The animation was also top-notch. This show was a thrill from start to finish. Trigger warning: this show contains depictions of child abuse/neglect.

Okay, that's it for this edition. I'll probably do another one in the future. Honestly, I have so many shows I like that I would recommend it's not even funny.