Anime

[Haywire]

Likewise, I have no idea what's on Crunchyroll, but I can always throw out some recommendations:

For Cyberpunk, try Bubblegum Crisis. I liked both the original series and the remake. AD Police is also set in the same universe, but the original is quite a bit grittier.

For Ghibli, maybe you've already seen them, but Laputa and Porco Rosso are both gems. Probably not quite up your alley, but I also quite like Whisper of the Heart (the family's house and the antique shop both speak to my childhood) and The Cat Returns, which are mildly connected. Not technically Ghibli, but Miyazaki, is The Castle of Cagliostro, which is a Lupin III movie and quite good. (Lupin III is also pretty fun)

City Hunter (particularly seasons 1 & 2, and the Shinjuku Private Eye movie) is quite good, somewhat on the pervy side, but plenty of action. Think A-Team, Magnum PI, Knight Rider, and Airwolf, but through an anime lens. Cats Eye is easier to find now and sort-of in-universe as well, because of events in Shinjuku Private Eye.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is also fun, lots of colorful characters, sort of an inversion of the typical Space War anime.

Finally, probably my favorite mecha series is Patlabor. Set in the near future where piloted robots (called Labors in-universe) are commonly used for construction and military purposes, the story follows the (mis-) adventures of the division of the Police tasked with handling crimes involving those robots. The original OVA and the 3 movies are set in one continuity, while the TV series and its OVA followup are a separate, slightly altered continuity, and there is a live-action sequel (that is fairly humorous).

Again, not sure which, if any, of these are on Crunchyroll, buti think they would be worth looking for.

 

[Daith]

Yeah most of those aren't on CR. If you got Prime Video some may be available there like City Hunter *EDIT Is on CR surprisingly*. Crunchyroll isn't the best for classic anime. They have some of the big names, but a good number of older titles are spread out among Freevie sites or oddball streaming platforms. Ghibli for the most part last I knew was primarily streaming on Max other than a few Netflix have.

Edit: City Hunter and Captian Tylor are on CR

 

[Caldwin]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I'll want to finish Nier first. But I'll definitely see about putting some of those on my watch list.

Haywire:
Is City Hunter the same franchise as the Jackie Chan movie? If so, that's possibly a bit too silly for me.

 

[Videomaster21XX]

I'll second Revenger. Good show.

Two others to suggest:

Buddy Daddies. It's about two hit men who end up having to adopt a little girl.

Demon Lord 2099
So basically Demon Lord was defeated, but set to reincarnate in the future. The future is just the year 2099 of this sorta cyberpunk city with a fushion of magic. Like the internet exists, streamers stream videogames. Except you can get this device on your neck that helps cast magic faster, but also can display holograms that only you see and other things.

Meanwhile our MC the Demon Lord tries to play catch up while trying to get 'followers' to regain his powers. The show is a big mix of how magic works, how immortals work, and how the tech they have in that day and age functions. It's just a unique set up and world, and the characters are pretty fun.

 

[Confuzor]

Honestly? Sounds like youd like Solo Leveling

I recently finished Megalobox (and its sequel, Nomad). Im not super into sports but the animation feels like a great 80s throwback style while being a very engaging story too.

I also find Dr Stone really fun, but not sure if thats up your alley.

Also Freiren is like SO good.

 

[Haywire]

Haywire:
Is City Hunter the same franchise as the Jackie Chan movie? If so, that's possibly a bit too silly for me.

@Caldwin While the Jackie Chan movie is loosely based on the manga and anime, it's not a very close adaptation. The anime, while silly at times, is much more serious than the movie (Honestly, the Street Fighter bit is the best part.), and the manga is even more hard-core. An even better live adaptation is the French film, Nicky Larson et le parfum de Cupidon, which is much more faithful to the original.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

My two cents on Gundam and Ghost in the Shell:
I HIGHLY recommend Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Season 1, 2, and Solid State Society. A mix of serial and stand alone episodes, the first season is just solid cyberpunk even once the big political machinations come into play. Season 2 skews a little heavier on the philosophical stuff, but as a "franchise", SAC is probably the most accessible iteration of the Ghost in the Shell series. Just ignore the compilation films (which recast a number of roles) and 2045 (which is just trash).

In terms of Gundam, my personal favorites are Wing and Unicorn. Wing is the spiritual precursor to 00, featuring a lot of the same themes and concepts (boy band pilots trying to establish peace by using advanced war machines). It's similar to how SEED is a modern "recontextualization" of the original series. In terms of SEED, the first season is fairly decent. Destiny started interesting until it became a Marty and Mary Sue circle jerk and pandering to character shippers.

I highly recommend Unicron on several fronts: as an OVA series, it looks good and is well animated. And, watching it several times, it feels like a thematic "capsule" of the franchise as a whole. The young adult soldiers, the secret societies, political machinations, evolutionary theologies, the mecha battles with an overpowered hero machine, the anti-war message and exploration of the psychological toll of war, it really does touch on key ideas across the franchise. While set in the Universal Century, it is still fairly accessible.

And then there's Build Fighters. Does it have much to do with the rest of the franchise? Besides robots, no. Is it a glorified commercial for Gunpla kits? Absolutely. But this series has NO Earthly right to be as good, well written and the music goes harder than most action anime series. On its own, I recommend watching it.

 

[Caldwin]

I think I have enough to get me started. Thanks, everyone!

 

[Daith]

And then there's Build Fighters. Does it have much to do with the rest of the franchise? Besides robots, no. Is it a glorified commercial for Gunpla kits? Absolutely. But this series has NO Earthly right to be as good, well written and the music goes harder than most action anime series. On its own, I recommend watching it.

I do recommend the Build Fighters series if you like the Gundams fighting and the interesting builds it comes up with. It's definitely the easiest to approach and while it does the kiddy toy battle tournament format of show, it does it well. Though stick to the subs. The Dub was not cast well at all. Thankfully the dub isn't on CR

 

[Videomaster21XX]

I've always wanted to check out a few more Gundams. I've only ever really seen all of three shows, and while I love them. They are all really different...

I really like G Gundam. Have the four DVD box sets released years ago.

I enjoyed the love story of Gundam 8th MS Team.

I liked the premise of Gundam 00.

I like what I've seen of Wing, but never actually got to finish it.

I tried watching the original and the Gundam 0080 or 0083, but it didn't click.

I watched some of Seed, but I can't remember a damn thing about it.

Other then that it's only been an episode here or there.

Build Fighters has been on my radar for a while. Sounds like it might be fun.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Worth noting that some of the Gundam series are available for free on the official GundamInfo YouTube channel. Not sure which, they rotate them sometimes, but I'm pretty sure it at least has the Build series and Witch From Mercury.

 

[Superomegaprime]

Witch From Mercury, starts out well but really goes downhill in its second half because of bad pacing and clearly what was likely planned as a 52 eps got halved and they had to wrap up the story rather quickly leading to a sloppy finally!

 

[Dekafox]

Of the ones not mentioned:

Gundam X is great in that it's sort of a Fallout Gundam, but it loses that a bit in the last third of the series, and that section is a bit rushed as it was decided to cancel somewhere around there, so two arcs got smushed into one.

Turn A Gundam is a interesting mishmash of early 1900s with Lostech ala Battletech, and a lost colony wanting to return to Earth, but some factions want to rule while others want to just reintegrate. It's also officially the endpoint for -all- Gundam timelines.

Victory Gundam is fairly standalone despite being a UC series, and is well known for killing a huge portion of the cast, but the MC pilot is very good at properly using his Gundam like an actual machine rather than a giant human like most mecha. Examples being at one point he rotates the head 180 and operates his unit in reverse, and since the first Victory is a combiner with two drone pieces making up the top and bottom, he's used them as weapons or ejected and replaced them mid-battle.

 

[Videomaster21XX]

I did start Witch of Mercury when it began to air. I was drawn in by the interesting premise of it being "Gundam High School" where you go to school and have Gundam battles. Sounded like it could be a fun silly show in the same league as G Gundam.

Spoiler

I got to the part where she wants to hang out with that one guy and they kill him so he can't make it, I began to have my doubts that I'd enjoy it. Then my roommate talked about the scene where she apparently flattens a guy with the Gundam's hand, then slips in his blood and laughs. That's just not what I wanted, and not what I enjoy. It gives me a "We want to be the edgy grimdark Gundam!" vibe. I don't want an edgy Grimdark Gundam.

So yeah that show's out.

Victory Gundam is fairly standalone despite being a UC series, and is well known for killing a huge portion of the cast,

Unfortunately I'm going to have to pass. One of my favorite things about a show is the characters. If the show is going to give me a ton of characters I might like then just kill them all, I don't see a point in watching the show.

It's the same reason I avoided Game of Thrones. It's just not a writing style that clicks with me.

 

[Dekafox]

Yeah, Victory is where Tomino got his "Kill 'em all" nickname(for a time) from. It was when he was in his more depressed era(compared to the "Happy" Tomino of Overman King Gainer and Reconguita in G), plus he was fed up with executive demands and seeing how far he could push the envelope( and arguably trying to crash the franchise with no survivors).

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Haven't seen it myself, but from what I've heard, Victory is one of the bleakest entries in the franchise. Usually seems to come down to Victory or Thunderbolt.

 

[Superomegaprime]

I just been watching the start of the new season of Doctor Stone, its more a light hearted ep to ease people back in, yet it still has some stuff of science, another reinvention, but also a debate about the quickest way from Japan to the US via sea, but how the debate is resolved is the highlight of the ep:

Spoiler

"A game of poker!!"

 

[Daith]

Yeah, I'm wondering how this season plays out adaptation wise. I read the rest of the manga so I know how it goes. Just read that it will be split into three seasons (cours, quarters, whatever you want to call it.) Hopefully Winter, Summer, and next Winter. I don't want a repeat of Attack on Titans final "season"s.

Otherwise I've been checking out some of the new shows so far. Still too much Isekai but I'm dealing with it since it's most of what's interested me this winter so far.

"Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big 4!" - So far it's scratching the oddball Isekai situation itch. Demon Lord summons an underappreciated middle management guy to help manage his kingdom and immediately appoints him as one of the 4 big generals. Of course he's got the outsiders view that allows him to appraise the situations in his own way. And of course the ladies are falling for him. Okayish fun so far 2 episodes in.

"I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic" - Guy is reborn as like the 5th son of a dishonored nobleman but has the Magic capacity of a prodigy and gets a magic ring that has hundreds of spellbooks worth of knowledge. OK as well but too similar to a lot of others lately.

"Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time" Guy is accidentally summoned as a third wheel, thus losing his original body. Goddess of the summoners world takes pity on him and gives him a new young mans body and massive magic cheat skills. Befriends a cute Spider monster and proceeds to live life to the fullest while being sent to the world earlier than the others summoned and outside the influence of the summoners. Again too similar to others but I'm interested to see how the others summoned will end up having things turn out for them.

"The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World" So far middle aged guy gets randomly Isekaied and has the ability to still bring up an online shopping window just like Campfire Cooking a while back. But where Campfire had the poor guy constantly feeding his monster familiars, this guy looks to be growing a harem of adventurer ladies. I'll give it some time to cook itself as Campfire Cooking was a favorite and this feels like it could be as fun with some more cheesecake involved.

"Even Given the Worthless "Appraiser" Class, I'm Actually the Strongest" - Not an Isekai at least, but still a generic power fantasy from the looks of it. First episode doesn't really get into the Strongest part yet. so far dude got brutalized in the first episode but it's probably a Goblin Slayer start where it's will get less brutal later. I'll give it another episode yet.

"Promise of Wizard" - Girl is Isekaied to a world to be a group of pretty boy wizards great sage to lead them and...... I got bored halfway through the first episode. It's not a good look when the intro barely features the PoV heroine and each of our wizards look like the should be in a boy band. Dropped hard.

"Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You." - A young manga artist recalls her teenage years of 2020 >_<. Yeah it's right at the start of Covid. That got a interest in how they were going to play it out. But She's remembering her time as she turns 17 with her four best guy friends being the nerdy girl buddy. Until one of them asks her out. Not liking how the guy is going about it as she's not really interested in him at the start here. It's a bit of an uncomfortable start. But I've been a sucker for a romance anime in recent years so I'll give it an episode or two more at least.

"Beheneko: The Elf-Girl's Cat is Secretly an S-Ranked Monster!" - Knight is reincarnated as a Behemoth Kitten, and a busty Elf Girl finds him in a dungeon and adopts him. Not going to lie. Guilty Pleasure watch of the week. Though mentions of the cat being able to Cross Breed with the girls and their willingness has me a bit ehhhhhh?

Still a few more yet to premiere. And still a lot more continuing or starting back up. Winter is packed but I'm not sure any of the newbies are going to thrive