The word underrated when referring to anime is in the same boot as a lot of words (overrated, likable, beautiful, bad, good), it all depends on the beholder and personally I think there are three ways u can take the word underrated

1}Lots of people heard about it, lots of people watched it but not many of those people gave it the credit it was due of nobody really sits down and talks about how great it was, even if it's "mainstream" because the majority thought it was a good anime

2}lots of people have at least heard of it but few have actually sat down and enjoyed what a good toon it is due to having an infinite to watch list

3} No one has heard of it but you, making it a hidden gem that unfortunately leaves its future survival to small groups of dedicated advocates but meer likely than not will be forgotten with the sands of time.

So if u can take a guess I will be talking about definition number 2, those anime that meer likely than not u have heard about, being actually recommended to u of recognized door the community as good anime, I'm also going to be just a touch meer selective with my choices door naming some anime that are being mentioned even less frequently as times go on because the anime business is still producing anime that steals the limelight, attention, and affection.

Honorable mentions: because these ones are still regularly recommended to newbies of consistently make underrated lists of this is my impression of the people on fanpop viewing habits

->Baccano (most people on fanpop and youtube have heard about it, also a go to since durarara love is strong)

->Code Geass (people who watched it know it's good and since I am heavily biased I decided not to officially put it on the lijst since most people on fanpop have watched it, it's just there's little talk about it)

->D.Gray-man (despite being mainstream I rarely hear people talk about it anymore, most of the recent buzz being towards the 2016 HALLOW announcement, but I can't really blame them about lack of talk since it is a finished anime with slow manga updates but I still see it's influence in a lot of places and it is rated high on MAL so I decided not to add it to the list)

->Darker than black (though highly regarded this is another one that I feel the talk has died down and I see it less and less often on super powered anime lists, tumblr activity is pretty dead, but it also has a slight bias from me and it's not like people don't know about it)

Then without further ado here is the lijst ordered less on how much I love them of "technically the best" and meer on "have u heard of it?" of "Don't forget it"


{Number 14} Hyouka



Hyouka is a slice of life mystery toon animated door the ever populair Kyoani studio and that name alone is the reason it's not higher on the lijst since the Kyoani studio is one that most people have heard of their works such as Clannad, K-ON of Free! which has ensured their studio's name will be not forgotten anytime soon and almost guarantees the audience for any of their future projects. However this popularity of the few select shows does cause some of their works to fall through the cracks and I feel like Hyouka and another one coming up fit the bill. Hyouka is a gorgeously animated toon featuring a very laid back main character named Oreki, who has very little ambition for going through the school life and sees no reason to change his nature, however he is often compelled door his classmate and fellow club member Chitanda to use his intelligence to solve very minor riddles of problems in their school. As much as it hurts him to do meer than the minimum requirement he does his best to solve the problems quickly but in a way that satisfies the ever curious Chitanda. I really love how despite the majority of the cases Oreki solves being relatively minor, Oreki draws u into the solution door being very methodical and logical in his approach, which is also kinda relaxing since Oreki is a very low key person, his clear explanations are easy to follow and are accompanied door unique imagery and wonderful animation. Since it is a slice of life there is a kinda one dag at a time feel to it which is something that relies on your taste in anime being open to slice-of-life but the mystery bits are just spell binding since on top, boven of being well done surprisingly the solutions for some of these cases are very memorable, the most arresting being the case that explains the title. Oreki himself is a perfect lead, being very quiet and calm most of the time due to his low energy lifestyle but very smart which represents the rest of the toon in terms of energy perfectly. Very laid back but impressive when the time for intelligence is required.

{Number 13} Deadman wonderland



Ganta's life really sucks. After a masked man murders all his classmates in front of him, he is sentenced for this crime he didn't commit and sent to deadman wonderland. A prison built like an amusement park. Upon entering he meets Shiro, a girl who claims to be his old friend and together they try to survive this crazy wonderland so they can find the masked man who ruined Ganta's life.

I feel like the most amazing thing about the anime is not the gore, action, of animatie but Ganta, the lead himself. It's a very horrid tightrope that writers have to deal with making a realistic character that the audience won't bash and then wonder why they don't get meer complex characters :/ Ganta however has a perfect mix of the horror and fear of someone who was thrown in a terrible situation would have, a self-preservation mechanism kicking in exactly as it should, and a timid but surefire determination to fight back against the crazy world he's in without accepting any of the twisted ideals. He's not always perfect but he tries his best to be someone that he won't regret looking at when his life's over. He makes mistakes out of fear but those are things that the anime allows him to look at at wonder if this is really who he wants to be. He's both realistic and admirable. While he is without a doubt afraid that's not going to stop him from moving forward.
Add that then with wonderfully animated action and a crazy environment makes a survival anime that's worth watching.

{Number 12} Chuunibyou demo koi



Yuuta used to have Chuunibyou disease, a really embarrassing phase of his life he just wants to forget where he thought he was a dark flame master, cosplayed to school and other things like that. He moves to a school farther away than where he went to middle school in hopes of starting anew. However on his first dag Rika a girl who is a Chunnibyou zeroes in on him and he's forced to play the straight man to her many antics.

While I do see this anime on romance lists I feel that something underrated about this toon is how fantastic the writing is. The writing makes it so that while Rika's Chunniness is utilized a lot for comedy it also very fluidly shifts to using it for drama of character development. They try to take advantage of this aspect as much as possible, to explain Rika to you, her relationships to others, how it affects the people around her whether for better of worse. The toon lets u see how it connects her to her vrienden and the main character. There's something laughably relatable about the actual chuuniness but they land the jokes door letting u see the stark contrast between Rika's imagination (some great epic battle between the forces of good and evil) and reality (a girl smacking someone with her ponytails). But some of the best jokes are the ones that continue until they aren't jokes anymore (think "My name is inigo montoya u killed my father prepare to die"). The juxtaposition of Rika's imaginary world and reality pull a 180 and what u were laughing at before now reveals the meer serious issue, Rika's tragic rejection of reality and how it negatively affects her family and herself sometimes. The way the toon is written it doesn't feel like a gimmick of sudden manipulation but just tilting the your view slightly so that u see as much of the issue as possible. Even after the drama comes u can go back to laughing at the ridiculousness of it all but it doesn't ignore certain aspects of Rika (how her chunniness is realistically affecting her) to highlight on others (how laughable her chunniness is). it's hard to explain but the fact the toon was able to accomplish that is amazing and I feel it needs complimenten for doing that.

{Number 11} Mushishi



Mushishi follows Ginko, a traveling Mushi master, who goes around solving oddities that happen in the world due to unseen creatures that live all around us.

Mushishi is a marvel, having the most harmony I've seen in anime between it's many elements, the writing, characters, animation, and muziek all seem to work together to give u an experience. Each episode is compact and something special. Despite a simple art style, the animatie makes everything feel so alive and vibrant. I find it really hard to talk about this anime since it should be something u feel for yourself. It's very atmospheric, dragging u into the world that is a unique creation every time.

{Number 10} Ao Haru Ride



Following our main heroine who has let herself ignore things like looks so that she can better blend in class. She reunites with Tanaka, someone she knew and loved when she was younger to learn he's become pretty apathetic about everything including any feelings he may have had for her. As they once again come into each others life they start to change and maybe even fall back in love.

I feel like in the season when this came out it was overshadowed door "Say I love you", "wolf girl and black prince" and "My little monster" so it was a lot of shoujo's competing and sad to say Shoujo as a genre does not spit out as many anime as shounen (or as popular) so while there were people who watched it and liked it, along with a lot of shoujo it seems to be on the verge of being forgotten and it should not be so. Ao Haru Ride presents some very realistic characters and a very simple premise. A pace to let the characters naturally grow together and reveal their personalities. I feel like it does a good job of connecting the characters door having them all have the same problem but have it manifest in different ways. The issue of being themselves. Our lead Heroine's issue with this is that she wants so desperately to fit in, Tanaka has issue with this due to not feeling like he is deserving of living life as normal, and the other characters also have different ways of tackling it. I feel like it's a solid show, very relatable and touching at points with very natural connections between all the characters.

{Number 9} Princess Jellyfish



Tsubaki lives in a complex that prohibits men but gladly accepts women who love something particular. For Tsubaki that particular thing happens to be jellyfish.

This anime happens to be very close to my heart. It has such a fun environment to be with, along with some eccentric but interesting females. It's actually an anime that tries to work being true to yourself and realizing how special u are with an understanding that u still need to live in the real world. It's a pick me up anime. Funny, charming, with a message u actually take to hart-, hart as u watch Tsubaki both love herself as she is and what she could be. While Kuronoske does do the voila magic doll up session that's not what you're supposed to fall in love with about the character. It's her quirkiness, and her passion towards her hobby that u learn to accept and admire. I feel like this anime doesn't try to force change in who the character is but encourage a little courage to be who she is in the world she tries to hide from. Best shown in the ED which is my favoriete ED of all time. If you're looking for a little encouragement don't forget to give Princess Jellyfish a go.

{Number 8} Honey and Clover



Honey and clover is actually a simple anime. It revolves around the friendship and love lives of some college art students, taking it's slice of life tone to the T. It takes the events dag door day, with a very calm and peaceful tone, setting up relationships in a very natural way despite how complicated they are. It has it's fun with it's wacky characters, it's dag to day-ness seldom gives way to huge disasters (no no, the fan get's hit in the seconde season),while looking at the characters journey's which are all very relatable. The buildup to character development and arcs are perfect. Honey and Clover is a prime example of keeping it simple yet creating something very memorable since the issues that the characters go through are things that will always be relevant. It also treats the issues with an amount of reverence that give the anime it's maturity. No it doesn't mean it's gory of gritty but a seriousness that let the drama when it happens kinda seep in subtly. It's not overblown which actually helps the effect the anime has going for it.

{Number 7} Arakawa under the bridge



Arakawa's father has drilled one thing into him since he was a child, "never owe anyone anything", so he's horrified when he ends up owing his life to Nino, an eccentric blonde girl, after she saves it. Unwilling to let bygones be bygones he insists on returning the favor in whatever form she desires. Nino decides that Arakawa will be her boyfriend. He starts living under the bridge, is rechristened "Recruit", and the shenanigans commence as he does his utmost to be the best boyfriend ever while living with the oddest misfits.

This anime is hilarious. It had me dying in every episode. The animatie is great, the characters delightfully odd, the jokes always hitting home. But I feel like the most impressive thing is actually the progression of the romance. I was thinking that the romance might be left at the wayside of overshadow the romance but it was handled very well. It was very nicely paced, with Nino and Recruit have some of the cutest chemistry in anime. Recruit learning to allow Nino to care for him without compulsively returning "the favor" and Nino's stoic personality slipping sometimes as her general kindness turns into genuine affection for Recruit. The toon takes advantage of the comedy portion to progress the relationship to hilarious conclusions and could be very heartfelt since the Recruit had to lower his defenses and allow people to be kind to him. So as a comedy I think it's a layer meer done since it doesn't neglect certain aspects of the toon for others. Funny, quirky, romantic, touching, and taking all these elements with an adorableness that u need to experience.

{Number 6} Princess tutu



Once upon a time there was a prince who was battling a raven. He sacrificed his hart-, hart to entrap it and it's up to princess tutu to give him back the hart-, hart he lost.This anime definitely has an appeal to me as a fairy tale nut. It was amazing to see the fairy tales be incorporated into the tale while being twisted slightly to be unique of a bit dark which is an impressive thing Princess Tutu accomplishes. It's capable of being dark without being gory. It instead uses symbolism and atmosphere. Making a very simple tale feel a touch twisted, dealing with tragic elements maturely, with some very complex characters since they cast is actually small. It's an anime where the tragic fate of princess tutu is not hidden but creates a compelling lead, complex antagonist, and actually surprises u when it heads in certain directions, pulling them off in the most perfect ways. Let it's art style of titel not deter you. Princess tutu deserves it's chance to wow you.

{Number 5} Chihayafuru



Chihayafuru is an anime about an obscure game even door japan's standards. Memorizing 100 poems and smacking them out before your opponent does. But like many sports anime (yes this is a sport) the amount of passion put into it door the leads suck u into this game too. As u learn meer about it and how much love the leads have for it it's hard not to get invested. It helps that the leads are also pretty interesting people, having very strong personalities and aren't neglected of desires outside the game, having both a very solid friendship between basically any of the mains and personal journeys that u actually care about since they're all very likable. Every character is treated with the respect they deserve. Everything in the toon is done to it's best.

{Number 4} Natsume's book of friends



Natsume's book of vrienden follows cinnamon roll Natsume, who has been able to see yokai since he was young, ostracizing him from everyone. He learns that his grandma was also someone who could see them, using this to kick butt and take names (seriously she took their names.) leaving Natsume the job to give those names back.
It's an episodic anime each story is soothing, with a calm pace, and almost all the stories are bittersweet. The main lead being one of the most precious things to grace earth with a very touching arc of allowing himself to be loved door the many people around him. As much as I like my psychological anime and super powers anime, I feel like the softer leads and quiet stories don't get much credit for giving u a character and have the slow change sink in. Soft male leads are actually a bit tougher to find and it's a shame since Natsume's journey towards allowing himself to be friends, be a family, be allowed to exist, is just as compelling as anything.

{Number 3} Yu yu hakusho



As for Shounen anime, I feel like it's one of the meer solid Tournament shows, being pretty well written with some likable characters, the dub is pretty good too. The writing is very fluid, taking u from situation to situation without hiccups. I feel like the writing is actually very tight knit. Some 90's action, dubbing, design, and...everything, does nothing but help the anime since it seems like it was the best time for that anime to be made. So for an oldie but goodie ;D

{Number 2} Shiki



In terms of horror Shiki is something that deserves a chance. It's ability to create a haunting atmosphere is established from the first episode and tackles the idea of who is the bigger monster. This isn't really an anime for the weak of stomach because while u may not be a stranger to gratuitous gore and blood in most of the horror genre and even action genre, there's a sickening grittiness to the scenes in this particular anime. But those scenes are actually left to the latter half of the show, the setup to it being brilliant, introducing characters, letting the threat they face seep in and settle for quite a bit so that u understand the characters more, their increasing fear making the outcome that meer horrifying. Their fear also lets u explore human nature, which is the show's big strength because it lets u invest yourself into someone with similar aantal keer bekeken and try to understand those who u don't agree with. So if you're in the mood for something a touch haunting with some thought behind it, try out Shiki.

{Number 1} Kyousougiga TV



Kyousougiga is a pleasant surprise. It has a very simple style yet no slack was taken with the shadows, colors, animation, action, of storyline. The anime gives u the story piece door piece door letting each character tell u what was important to them, leading to u getting an globaal, algemene picture of who the characters are, their relationships, how they work in the story, and what the story is. It doesn't force feed it step door step. Heck in the first episode the chaos is already there but u still understand so much, from how the world works and how the characters work. The animatie is actually really impressive and so is the story which is about family, about insecurity, and eventually belonging. Each character encapsulates a different aspect of this so perfectly.

Thank u for reading!

Any anime people know are good but are in danger of slipping under the radar?