What anime should I watch or finish.?
I've watched a few animes complely like Jojo's, DBS, and Assasination Classroom.
.
At the same time I've also left a few animes unfinished like:
- Mha (3 seasons)
- Aot (3 seasons)
- One Piece (180 episodes)
.
What I'm looking for:
.
I'll keep it simple. I'm looking for an anime that is both action packed but filled with a deep storyline with in depth characters, cool plot twists, and wonderful visuals.
.
My Major Red Flags:
1. Bullshit Powerups out of nowhere.
- A major flaw I've seen in animes like Dragon Ball and some other animes are powerups that come from irrelevant things like "the main character getting really angry" or "the main character getting beat up." I think this ruins character development and gives clear bias to the protagonist.
2. Overused theme of Power of friendship
- One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing the absolute immaturity of a cast in an animes. Seeing all those stupid faces and all those goofy scenes just makes it a hard watch and is something that would honestly be frowned upon if seen in public.
3. Abuse of plot armor
- Something I really enjoyed in animes such as Assassination Classroom and Jojo's is how much of an underdog the protagonists can really be and how they need to rely on more than just their raw power to stop some villains. I absolutely despise when shows give the most powerful ability to the protagonist just because hes the main protagonist. Or making them the one to kill all the main villain's for the sake of being a protagonist. Being a protagonist is more than just being powerful and winning every major fight. Its about having depth as a character, reveal important themes that dont always correlate in favor with the protagonist, and at the end of the day realizing that protagonists dont always win. One of my favorites examples of this is in Jojo Part 5 when they ran away from Notorious BIG and never ended up killing it.
4. 1 emotion being a characters entire personality.
- A character being evil just because theyre evil is fine seeing once or twice but I would much rather have depth in a character. Versatility always makes something more interesting. Other examples of this is Luffy being happy all the time, vegeta being angry all the time, and levi being "nonchalant" all the time.
5. The way a Villain is defeated.
- Overpowered will always be the most bland form of defeating a villain and it correlates well with "abuse of plot armor". The way a villain is killed reveals a lot of how much favoritism there is an anime and the last thing I want is an anime to be one sided. I'd prefer things like being a villain through strategy, plot twists, a side character beating the villain, the villain accidentally beating himself, hell I'd even prefer a villain having a moment of humanity. Another form of favoritism is a villain doing stupid stuff that leads to there demise. Not anime but a popular example of this is in Invincible where Conquest had so many clear chances of beating Mark but decided to go on a rant for 10 minutes of his life in Viltrum which allowed Mark to recover and get the upperhand.
Recap: As of now, those are all I can think of at this moment. But feel free to leave an anime that doesn't have one of these major red flags.
TL;DR
I’m looking for an action-heavy anime with a deep, well-written story, strong character development, smart plot twists, and great visuals.
Hard no’s:
Random or lazy power-ups (anger ≠ character development)
Overdone “power of friendship” or goofy, immature casts
Heavy plot armor or protagonist bias (MC shouldn’t always win just because)
One-note characters (one emotion = entire personality)
Bland villain defeats (no dumb villain mistakes or brute-force wins)
What I love:
Underdog protagonists who win through strategy, creativity, or sacrifice
Meaningful consequences and moral complexity
Villains defeated in clever, thematic, or unexpected ways
Characters with depth and versatility
Stories where the protagonist doesn’t always win
Think JoJo (especially Part 5) and Assassination Classroom, not Dragon Ball-style tropes.
.
At the same time I've also left a few animes unfinished like:
- Mha (3 seasons)
- Aot (3 seasons)
- One Piece (180 episodes)
.
What I'm looking for:
.
I'll keep it simple. I'm looking for an anime that is both action packed but filled with a deep storyline with in depth characters, cool plot twists, and wonderful visuals.
.
My Major Red Flags:
1. Bullshit Powerups out of nowhere.
- A major flaw I've seen in animes like Dragon Ball and some other animes are powerups that come from irrelevant things like "the main character getting really angry" or "the main character getting beat up." I think this ruins character development and gives clear bias to the protagonist.
2. Overused theme of Power of friendship
- One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing the absolute immaturity of a cast in an animes. Seeing all those stupid faces and all those goofy scenes just makes it a hard watch and is something that would honestly be frowned upon if seen in public.
3. Abuse of plot armor
- Something I really enjoyed in animes such as Assassination Classroom and Jojo's is how much of an underdog the protagonists can really be and how they need to rely on more than just their raw power to stop some villains. I absolutely despise when shows give the most powerful ability to the protagonist just because hes the main protagonist. Or making them the one to kill all the main villain's for the sake of being a protagonist. Being a protagonist is more than just being powerful and winning every major fight. Its about having depth as a character, reveal important themes that dont always correlate in favor with the protagonist, and at the end of the day realizing that protagonists dont always win. One of my favorites examples of this is in Jojo Part 5 when they ran away from Notorious BIG and never ended up killing it.
4. 1 emotion being a characters entire personality.
- A character being evil just because theyre evil is fine seeing once or twice but I would much rather have depth in a character. Versatility always makes something more interesting. Other examples of this is Luffy being happy all the time, vegeta being angry all the time, and levi being "nonchalant" all the time.
5. The way a Villain is defeated.
- Overpowered will always be the most bland form of defeating a villain and it correlates well with "abuse of plot armor". The way a villain is killed reveals a lot of how much favoritism there is an anime and the last thing I want is an anime to be one sided. I'd prefer things like being a villain through strategy, plot twists, a side character beating the villain, the villain accidentally beating himself, hell I'd even prefer a villain having a moment of humanity. Another form of favoritism is a villain doing stupid stuff that leads to there demise. Not anime but a popular example of this is in Invincible where Conquest had so many clear chances of beating Mark but decided to go on a rant for 10 minutes of his life in Viltrum which allowed Mark to recover and get the upperhand.
Recap: As of now, those are all I can think of at this moment. But feel free to leave an anime that doesn't have one of these major red flags.
TL;DR
I’m looking for an action-heavy anime with a deep, well-written story, strong character development, smart plot twists, and great visuals.
Hard no’s:
Random or lazy power-ups (anger ≠ character development)
Overdone “power of friendship” or goofy, immature casts
Heavy plot armor or protagonist bias (MC shouldn’t always win just because)
One-note characters (one emotion = entire personality)
Bland villain defeats (no dumb villain mistakes or brute-force wins)
What I love:
Underdog protagonists who win through strategy, creativity, or sacrifice
Meaningful consequences and moral complexity
Villains defeated in clever, thematic, or unexpected ways
Characters with depth and versatility
Stories where the protagonist doesn’t always win
Think JoJo (especially Part 5) and Assassination Classroom, not Dragon Ball-style tropes.
Commentaires
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64 episodes of the best anime you will ever watch. fantasy world with powers (no dumb power leveling), action, adventure, comedy, sorrow, mystery. all in a satisfying story, with amazing music, near perfect pacing, and fantastic lovable characters, with character development. and villians with an actual motive.
That said, even if you hadn't watched it for some ironic reason, I still can't recommend it to you.
The reason for that is because they announced a reboot, and that reboot is basically going to heal/correct the abominable season 1 adaptation (old adaptation was a rushed weekly format, the new upcoming re-adaptation is a high quality seasonal adaptation). The old seasons 2 and 3 are already recent high-quality seasonal adaptations though.
Ok, but what can you watch in the meanwhile? Sounds like you might enjoy some "the floor in now lava" trope since you listed creative powers and JoJo Part 5. You could try "Unluck x Undead", which is characters bending 1 rule of reality and trying to narrow down what the opponent's power is for the sake of defeating them.
I'd also recommend "Dandadan" and "Frieren" for action and characterization. That said, these don't stand out for being smart/strategic/subversive, so be reasonable. And Frieren has a slow 4 episode prologue (I know, I know, trust me, it's a rare exception, it's worth watching, but you CAN skip/postpone the 4 episode-prologue if you want).
"Dungeon Meshi" doesn't have much action (less frequent), but it has everything else you want. Character depth, worldbuilding, unexpected but justified twists.
Wait, you DROPPED My Hero Academia?! I was going to be snarky, but since you dropped MHA, you have my respect. You really do have standards (that's good).
Battle anime don't tend to be the best things out there. But you can try "HxH" (edgy and childish, but does have some fun fight outcome subversion, charismatic antagonists, and a merciless protagonist, and is VERY slow to start), and "Naruto" (Naruto as a whole sucks. Shippuden was a burning trainwreck. The protagonist is generic. But it has the smart and cunning side character "Shikamaru", he has a handful of fun fights. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel though, it's a really old anime. Definitely consider watching it if you feel THAT desperate. Oh, but don't watch Naruto Shippuden, the writing in Shippuden is terrible).
Huh, for some reason I just assumed you wanted battle shounen... I'm not writing a second draft. Feel free to ignore my post, and good luck! (and sorry for making you read a wall of text)