8 Cross Game

Sports anime are not in short supply, especially when it comes to baseball. Major, Ace of Diamond, and Big Windup are all great series, but Cross Game is a different beast entirely. While the sport is ever-present, the shonen anime is predominantly a character study and a coming of age story for its two leads, Kou Kitamura and Aoba Tsukishima.

Fueled by a tragedy, Cross Game realistically explores grief, friendship, anger, and love. Hard-hitting and simultaneously delicate, this anime is a unique and worthwhile representative of the sports genre.

7 From Today, It’s My Turn!!

OVAs are typically harder to track down than traditional series, and that goes double for shows released prior to the turn of the century. While the live-action version has some presence on streaming services, From Today, It’s My Turn!! anime adaptation is a rare commodity that precious few people know about.

The anime follows two students – Takashi Mitsuhashi and Shinji Itou – who begrudgingly join forces as they head down a path of delinquency. From Today, It’s My Turn!! is split into a couple of arcs that find the heroes taking on different gangs, and the shonen anime is hilarious. Mutsuhashi and Itou have brilliant chemistry, and they are aided by fantastic secondary characters like Katsutoshi Imai and Makoto Nakano.

6 Zatch Bell!

For a battle shonen anime that lasted for three years, Zatch Bell! has a rather muted legacy. Now, it should be said that Makoto Raiku’s manga is superior to the anime in almost every way, but the latter is still an entertaining mid-2000s series that was a part of many people’s childhoods since it aired on Cartoon Network.

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In Zatch Bell!, Takamine Kiyomaro becomes the caregiver of Gash Bell, a demon in a battle to determine the new ruler of his realm. Good action, decent comedy, and some pretty epic arcs make Zatch Bell! an easy, if somewhat predictable watch.

5 Gaogaigar: King Of Braves + GaoGaiGar Final

Takara’s Brave series spanned most of the ’90s, producing eight anime in the process. With most clocking in at roughly 48 episodes, this project certainly delivered in terms of quantity, however, Brave frequently fell short in the quality department.

The franchise’s final entry, Gaogaigar: King of Braves is by far the best anime to come out of Takara’s mecha franchise. Putting aside a somewhat slow start, the Super Robot anime picks up considerable steam in its second half, culminating in a genuinely fantastic OVA sequel.

4 Mitsudomoe

Looking for an irreverent anime comedy? Then Mitsudomoe should fit the bill, although the show’s two seasons are not currently available on any streaming platform. For his first teaching assignment, Satoshi Yabe is handed the class containing the Marui sisters, Futaba, Hitoha, and Mitsuba. They are a lot on their own, and together they can drive even the calmest of teachers up the wall.

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Satoshi quickly takes a backseat as the anime focuses on the siblings, all of whom have distinct personalities to help diversify the show’s sense of humor. The anime goes to some bizarre, borderline uncomfortable places, but Mitsudomoe rarely fails to get a laugh.

3 Getter Robo: Armageddon

Ken Ishikawa and Go Nagi’s Getter Robo aired in the mid-70s and played a crucial role in establishing the Super Robot subgenre of mecha. The franchise has spawned plenty of anime, manga, and even audio dramas, so newcomers might find things a bit overwhelming.

Getter Robo: Armageddon serves as a sequel to the original manga, and once again finds the Getter Robo crew dealing with an alien invasion. The narrative can be difficult to follow without knowledge of the franchise’s history, but Armageddon’s selling point is its action and not its characters. In that area, this show is glorious.

2 Tomorrow’s Joe

Undoubtedly one of the most important anime of all time, Ashita no Joe is sadly quite inaccessible in this day and age. Unfortunately, Tomorrow’s Joe shares this fate with many other ’70s anime.

1 The File Of Young Kindaichi + The File Of Young Kindaichi Returns

The File of Young Kindaichi is cut from the same cloth as Case Closed. The anime follows a high school student who investigates murders, most of which span a couple of episodes and tend to hold a number of neat twists. As a procedural, The File of Young Kindaichi is quite formulaic as most arcs follow the same basic structure.

However, the anime’s strong writing ensures that each mystery is captivating. This is one show whodunit fans will probably love, it is just a shame that the series has slipped through the cracks.

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