8 Underrated Anime Series You Should Have Watched

[Encaen]

8 Underrated Anime Series You Should Have Watched

Not all series are created equal, some are better than others. These are diamonds in the rough that haven't gotten the respect that they deserve. So take a look and check out a few new series you may like.

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[LysanderNemoinis]

Tokyo Ravens? Underrated? That's a good one! Oh, that tickled my funny bone.

Wait...you're serious? How can that ripe turd be underrated? I haven't seen any of those other shows, so I can't judge, but Tokyo Ravens was boring as hell. You want underrated shows, how about GunXSword, Escaflowne, Madlax, The Portrait of Little Cossette, Whispered Words, Witchblade (and no, not because of the fanservice), Sweet Blue Flowers, and ESPECIALLY RahXephon? Now those are underrated.

Alright, now if you'll excuse me, I'll go hide in my little bunker...just in case.

 

[Akjosch]

I'm not sure how Ergo Proxy (AniDB average rating: 8.18), Full Metal Panic! (8.24), Last Exile (8.29) or Hajime no Ippo (8.79) can count as "underrated". Even Gunslinger Girl gets a respectable 7.65, and that show is definitively not to everyone's taste.

For those unfamiliar with AniDB rating, those are use ratings in the range of 0.00 to 10.00, typically with thousands of votes for each anime. The currently best anime in the DB is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, at 9.08 average rating. Of TV series only, this makes Hajime no Ippo #11, Last Exile #104, Full Metal Panic! #114 and Ergo Proxy #134 out of 3165 series.

Lowest rated one is "Hero Bank" at 3.38, but since the series is still ongoing, this will likely change a bit (it only has 25 votes so far, mostly from people who gave up watching).

 

[shintakie10]

That last one kind of reminds me of an anime I stumbled onto on Hulu.

Somethin like, "Strongest in the World!"

The premise was interestin enough to click on and watch. Pop singer turns professional wrestler in order to defend her friends honor and realizes she's good at it, not the greatest, but good and it inspires her to keep tryin to become the strongest in the world. Anime + professional wrestlin sounds fuckin awesome right? You'd be partially right! The actual wrestlin and story is cool, but then the damn thing just keeps decidin it wants to be some weird fetish anime where they spend a disturbin amount of time zoomed on womens crotches while they writhe in pain stuck in honest to god wrestlin moves. Someones in a Boston Crab? Shove that camera right into their crotch while they scream in pain.

I sat through the whole thing because I really was interested in the story, but talk about a decent anime that was ruined with fan service. The worst part was you could have gotten away with fan service, but because they decided the fan service only happened durin the damn wrestlin while people were stuck in cloverleafs and boston crabs it got creepy really quickly.

Payoff was good though.

Which brings me to a new point! I want more anime based off of sports! Where's my anime about soccer? We have a Tennis anime, but no soccer one? Where's my ridiculous bowling anime? I want to see some totally bizarre baseball anime. There's all kinds of fun stories you can tell with a sports settin so lets get a crackin yo!

 

[Zontar]

ESPECIALLY RahXephon? Now those are underrated.

Ah yes, RahXephon, that's got to be one of the most underrated anime I've ever seen. God did I love that show.

OT: I'm a little upset there wasn't anything here I haven't already seen (hell, I own a copy of most of the things on this list).

 

[Akjosch]

Which brings me to a new point! I want more anime based off of sports! Where's my anime about soccer? We have a Tennis anime, but no soccer one? Where's my ridiculous bowling anime? I want to see some totally bizarre baseball anime. There's all kinds of fun stories you can tell with a sports settin so lets get a crackin yo!

You don't even know about Captain Tsubasa (there's several series and at least one film)?

There's also: Akakichi no Eleven, Ashita e Free Kick, Blue Legend Shoot!, Burn! Top Striker, Forza! Mario, Ganbare! Kickers, Victory Kickoff!!, Goal Field Hunter, Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, Inazuma Eleven, Offside, Soccer Fever, The Knight in the Area and Whistle!, for example - as far as TV series go.

(I could even find soccer-related hentai: Offside Girl and Karen)

 

[shintakie10]

Which brings me to a new point! I want more anime based off of sports! Where's my anime about soccer? We have a Tennis anime, but no soccer one? Where's my ridiculous bowling anime? I want to see some totally bizarre baseball anime. There's all kinds of fun stories you can tell with a sports settin so lets get a crackin yo!

You don't even know about Captain Tsubasa (there's several series and at least one film)?

There's also: Akakichi no Eleven, Ashita e Free Kick, Blue Legend Shoot!, Burn! Top Striker, Forza! Mario, Ganbare! Kickers, Victory Kickoff!!, Goal Field Hunter, Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, Inazuma Eleven, Offside, Soccer Fever, The Knight in the Area and Whistle!, for example - as far as TV series go.

(I could even find soccer-related hentai: Offside Girl and Karen)

I've never actually heard of any of those <.<

To be fair to myself, the only way I find anime is if it pops up on Netflix or Hulu.

 

[meiam]

Yeah I'm not quite sure how ergo proxy and full metal panic are considered underrated.

I am however quite happy to see gunslinger girl, at first glance that manga/show seems to be everything that's wrong with anime, but in actuality it's everything that's right in (serious) anime, an anime I was extremely surprised I ended up liking.

As far as anime based on sport, what I wouldn't do for a teppuu anime, but that'll never happen.

For my underrated anime that I'll try to plug, daily live of high school boys. So funny.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Gunslinger Girls yanked on my heartstringes with pretty much every episode.

 

[Tanis]

Crest/Banner of the Stars:
EASY replacement for FMP, which I find to be OVERrated.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

RahXephon is as over rated as EVA............ As for the list I like them all but the boxing one.

No love for Space Brothers?

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Hajime no Ippo sure is underrated. You know, what with it being in serialization since 1989 and being one of the most influential sports manga out there. But you know. "Underrated".

 

[Entitled]

I'm not sure how Theo (AniDB average rating: 8.18), Full Metal Panic! (8.24), Last Exile (8.29) or Hajime no Ippo (8.79) can count as "underrated". Even Gunslinger Girl gets a respectable 7.65, and that show is definitively not to everyone's taste. The currently best anime in the DB is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, at 9.08 average rating. Of TV series only, this makes Hajime no Ippo #11.

The fact that these are so close to FMA in terms of how highly the few people who have actually watched all of them would rate them, is precisely the proof of their undeservingly tiny public appreciation.

A show that gets low ratings, is not underrated, it's just badly rated. A show that gets great scores, but no popularity with it, is underrated.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes has even been #1 for some time, but I would argue that it's even MORE underrated than any of the mentioned ones, since after all, it's treated as an obscure classic, a Citizen Kane of anime that we are supposed to watch yet almost nobody watches, even though the few who do all agree that it's great.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

ESPECIALLY RahXephon? Now those are underrated.

Ah yes, RahXephon, that's got to be one of the most underrated anime I've ever seen. God did I love that show.

OT: I'm a little upset there wasn't anything here I haven't already seen (hell, I own a copy of most of the things on this list).

You are now my new favorite person EVER. Period. I've never met anyone outside my friends (who I forced to watch RahXephon at gunpoint...though they thanked me later) who has so much as heard of it, much less appreciates it.

 

[Zontar]

ESPECIALLY RahXephon? Now those are underrated.

Ah yes, RahXephon, that's got to be one of the most underrated anime I've ever seen. God did I love that show.

OT: I'm a little upset there wasn't anything here I haven't already seen (hell, I own a copy of most of the things on this list).

You are now my new favorite person EVER. Period. I've never met anyone outside my friends (who I forced to watch RahXephon at gunpoint...though they thanked me later) who has so much as heard of it, much less appreciates it.

Yeah, not many people seem to have herd of it even in anime circles these days, seems to be one time has forgotten. A shame really, it deserves more notoriety then it has. Plus it used the Mayan 2012 doomsday myth a decade before it was cool, so it's always fun to watch it just for that alone (and the fact it was off by about a week for the date of the supposed end of the world).

Plus it had one of the top 10 anime love stories I've seen.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Favorite episode of Full Metal Panic was the football rugby episode in the fumoffu season. I cried laughing during that ep.

I was hoping to see Nodame in that list but, oh well.

You want underrated shows, how about GunXSword, Escaflowne, Madlax, The Portrait of Little Cossette, Whispered Words, Witchblade (and no, not because of the fanservice), Sweet Blue Flowers, and ESPECIALLY RahXephon? Now those are underrated.

I loved Escaflowne till the last ep pissed me off... Shoulda stayed in the other world.

EDIT:

Favorite episode of Full Metal Panic was the football episode in the fumoffu season. I cried laughing during that ep.

Rugby. Not football. Otherwise yeah, that was a mighty fine episode.

Ah, you're right. It's been a while.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Favorite episode of Full Metal Panic was the football episode in the fumoffu season. I cried laughing during that ep.

Rugby. Not football. Otherwise yeah, that was a mighty fine episode.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Which brings me to a new point! I want more anime based off of sports! Where's my anime about soccer? We have a Tennis anime, but no soccer one? Where's my ridiculous bowling anime? I want to see some totally bizarre baseball anime. There's all kinds of fun stories you can tell with a sports settin so lets get a crackin yo!

You don't even know about Captain Tsubasa (there's several series and at least one film)?

There's also: Akakichi no Eleven, Ashita e Free Kick, Blue Legend Shoot!, Burn! Top Striker, Forza! Mario, Ganbare! Kickers, Victory Kickoff!!, Goal Field Hunter, Hungry Heart: Wild Striker, Inazuma Eleven, Offside, Soccer Fever, The Knight in the Area and Whistle!, for example - as far as TV series go.

(I could even find soccer-related hentai: Offside Girl and Karen)

Major was another one. It was a particularly interesting baseball anime as each season centered around the main character at a different age starting from when he was in elementary school to an adult (I forget which league he got to before it ended).

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

only heard of 2 of the anime they listed (ergo Proxy and Fullmetal Panic) and i already saw Ergo Proxy and have no interest in FMP.. I think Witch Hunter Robin, Hyakko, Solty Rei and Burst Angel are more underrated anime then the ones listed.

 

[ryukage_sama]

Where's the love for Giant Robo?

And Ergo Proxy? That show completely changes its focus as it moves along. It takes a while to even figure out what the series is about.