black butler is my all-time favorite anime and manga of all time. I first watched the original 2 seasons (which are majorly not cannon, but lovely nonetheless) when i was 12/13. at the time, i hadn’t realized that most anime was derived from manga even though i’d seen volumes and volumes at the library. the story follows ciel phantomhive, a 12 year old boy with a demon butler, sebastian. it is more than worth the read, and i don’t even mind that some chapters make me cry. they’re finally animating the public school arc, and i’d be lying if i said i didn’t ugly cry when watching the most recent trailer LOL. a lot of the juicy details come out later after a character i love dearly is killed, but this is all way after the public school arc. the art style is also gorgeous, yana toboso is a miracle worker.

blue exorcist, like black butler, was also animated pre-2010 so the first season was also only about half manga accurate, after which it went off the rails LOL. i think at the time animation studios didn’t have a lot of chapters to work with, so instead of taking long hiatuses. they instead made up the rest of the story. i’ve also read some of the manga, though i only got up to before season three. what is cannon though is REALLY good, and season three has me crying every saturday. i had read somewhere the season 3 would contain 3 cours, but i think we were all misguided because it turns out they animated 3 cours, but will be releasing them as individual seasons T_T. this gives me time to catch up on the manga though so yay!

wotakoi is SO good. just so unbelievably good. i don’t generally read or watch slice of life, but this series has changed my mind all the way. the anime jumbles up the chapters a little, but honestly it is a non-issue. the story follows childhood friends narumi and hirotaka, as well as their coworkers. narumi is an otaku, and it caused issues for her at her previous job. now that she’s started fresh, we follow her figure out how to balance her work, love, and otaku life while keeping her hobbies a secret. she meets a couple at her job, who hirotaka is familiar and comfortable with, spoiler, they’re also otakus LOL. narumi finally has the opportunity to flourish at work, without having to hide who she is and the things she loves, which i think is something we’re all looking for.

this anime i had stumbed upon totally by accident, and i finished it the same day i found it LOL. the wallflower is a reverse harem story, that follows sunako on her journey to self-love. she is a lovely girl, who after some less than kind words from her crush, becomes more and more introverted until her aunt decides she must intervene and make her into a “perfect lady”. her aunt has sunako move from hokkaido to tokyo into her mansion that houses 4 high school boys she took in. their mission? turn sunako into a woman or pay all their back rent x3! it’s honestly really funny and heart-warming, and i love it so much more after reading it. as the story goes on, sunako learns that self-love is the most important trait of a real woman, and her roommates turned close friends help her find herself, while also appreciating her for her spooky tendencies.

death note, a classic, and the only anime i’ve ever successfully convinced my mom to watch. light yagami, misguided baby, finds a notebook that allows him to kill anyone whose name he writes in it. as he gets more bold and unhinged, international police gets involved and starts the game of cat and mouse between light and super detective, L. i’ve read the manga as well after learning that the ending is different, but really it just paints light in a better way, and isn’t too far off what ended up actually animated. i’d always wished light could’ve stayed himself. when he and misa give up their memories to cover up their involvement in the murders, he reverts to his usual, justice-seeking self. i know it’s not necessarily his true self, but he was just driven to such extremes by the note’s corruption, it felt nice to see him being a normal kid for a little.

tokyo ghoul is so recognizable, not by the imagery per say, but the intro music T_T. i’d started this series first by watching the anime, but after learning that it veers off cannon, i decided to instead read it. kaneki, or main character, goes on his first ever date only to emerge as a half ghoul, created for who knows what purpose by a doctor he cannot find/remember. this leads him to ghoul society, where he needs to wrestle with the idea of relying on human flesh for sustenance, and to also become strong enough to defend himself. i really apprciate that their idea of being a vegetarian isn’t the classic “i eat animals” but instead, they collect and eat the bodies of suicide victims. are they really murderers? opportunists? is there a way for humans and ghouls to coexist when ghouls rely on their flesh to live?

parasyte is the first horror series i’ve read, and it is SO captivating. a meteor-type shower brings parasitic lifeforms to earth, who surprise surprise, need to bon to humans! to be more specific, human brains. if a parasite is successful in nesting in the brain, it controls the whole body and can do what the above image shows. at first, they’re rabid and killing/eating people with no method. as more humans are assimilated, they start to become smarter, planning their moves better, and blending in. Our main character, high school student shinichi, has a near miss with a parasite when he wakes up in the middle of the night to see it entering his hand! he uses a rubber band to cut off circulation in his arm and keep it from traveling further p. the parasite eventually nests and begins to mature in shinichi’s hand, and from there his life is just filled with more horror and pain. his relationship with the parasite, who names itself migi, is symbiotic in nature, and a beautiful example of coexistence.

i’ve chosen the worst thing in the fullmetal universe as my image for the series, because this was where i realized that it would just get darker and darker. edward and alphonse elric are two young boys, who are also government licensed alchemists (soldiers). their father left when their mother became ill, and after her death they attempted the unspeakable, to bring her back to life. this is thought to be the ultimate taboo in alchemy, and there is always a serious price to pay. edward lost his arm, while alphonse lost his whole body and is trapped in a metal sit (which edward was only able to do after sacrificing his leg). the idea is that you must transform existing matter, and cannot create matter. so when they attempt resurrection, they are forced to sacrifice their own matter. their country is stuck in a war, though everything ed and al encounter points to it being an inside job of sorts. we follow the boys and their companions fighting the system, and finding themselves outsde it.

the case study of vanitas is an ongoing serie, that’s relatively short compared to he ones i’ve previously mentioned. the existence of vampires in this series is really interesting, as the series functions on a world formula idea. there’s a formula, that dictates how and why the world works the way it does, and vampires came about due to TAMPERING with the formula. some vampires have abilities, others don’t, but they are all at risk for a disease create by the Vampire of the Blue Moon, Vanitas (not the same vanitas we follow, but adjacent lol). the vanitas that we do follow, is a human being who was orphaned and taken in by the real Vanitas. he bestowed unto our vanitas his spell book, with the mission to cure as many vampires of the red moon as he could, or so we’re lead to believe. there are established character relationships and romances, but i am a firm believer (or hoper) that vanitas and noe (picture above) end up being endgame T_T.