By Ilona Kinnear

Just to get started with a little disclaimer here, these are just the opinions of a highly biased anime fan and should not be taken as gospel. This anime fan is only including anime with full length episodes (roughly 23 minutes each). So, let’s begin!

Number 10: Lostorage Incited WIXOSS

Getting into more entertaining territory, we have a card game-inspired anime with a twist! The main characters are girls!Sarcasm and saltiness aside, it does seem to have a relatively generic feel to it with some ever so clever cliffhangers that just keep you coming back for more.

This anime is about two childhood friends who are tragically separated because their parents are jerks and then are reunited… YAY! Only not yay because now the main character’s friend wants to kill her.

Oh, and did I mention that both of these main characters were coincidentally chosen by this famous card game to basically fight each other over their memories? (Not as epic as other card game premises, but whatcha gonna do with a girl protagonist, amiright? #stillsalty)

Number 9: Nanbaka

Woohoo, gettin’ into some comedy gold right here. We got a luxury prison which basically provides every basic necessity and yet the prisoners, with nowhere to go, constantly try to escape, only to get close and fail.

The anime tries to pull a serious twist with the main, main character having black shackles attached to him that no one can get off and it being his life’s mission to find the person who did it to him but. To me, it’s just to explain his design.

This one is really funny though and has good banter between the prisoners and the main guard, and TRAPS!

Number 8: Magical Girl Raising Project

I wanted to put this one higher on the list, but this premise has been overdone at this point, so I’m deducting figurative points.

This anime follows a girl who is magically transformed by an app into a magical girl, and her goal now that she has enhanced strength and magical abilities is to help everyone! She also meets up with her childhood bf and as it turns out, he’s a magical girl too (yes, I said he).

But oh, there’s a twist! Suddenly, the totally not Kyubey mascot character tells them that he’s offing magical girls because nature can’t handle so many cute girls and then they’re at each other’s throats and everyone is after the main character because she collected so many candies from helping people and candies is what keeps you in the magical game and violence and death ensues.

So yeah, good show.

Number 7: Occultic;Nine

This anime is a real mindfuck with exaggerated characters and logic that races between scientific reasoning and blaming the occult.

The main character has a enormous-chested best friend with a space gun and a blog in which he tries to logically explain occult happenings without blaming the supernatural for a shot at a quick buck.

This blog gathers a downright insane cast of characters and has a pretty big plot twist right in the middle that leaves you wanting to watch more.

Just be warned though, these people talk at a speed of a mile a minute.

Number 6: Drifters

Ooh, now we got some gritty action with a scenario that gathers historical figures from different eras and areas and puts them in a land with elves and has this stuck up other race with a snobby language that puts down the elf race and these “drifters” come and save them with their superior killing ability and bloodlust.

The opening is really funny with the characters all badly lip-syncing the “la la lalala” parts of the song. It’s a good anime if you like good ol’ fashioned bloody, gory violence.

Number 5: March Comes in Like a Lion

Now, taking it a million steps back, we have a shogi child prodigy (shogi is like the Japanese version of chess) who experienced some tough shit in his younger years and feels all lonely and depressed now, even though he beats the shit out of everyone else he goes up against and gets paid for it too because he’s a professional.

And he can’t even sulk in peace because he’s got all these annoying people buggin’ him all the time.

It’s a heartwarming show. Go watch it for some feels.

Number 4: Yuri!! On Ice

Now, as a girl, I suspect some of those who have seen this must be thinking, “Yeaaaaah, of course she likes this show.” But to you people I say, SHUT UP.

This anime is a beautifully animated (except when they use shitty CGI, which bugs the hell out of me) show about two people named Yuri fighting over this professional skater to be their coach. Two Yuris go in and one yaoi comes out.

Great watch ;-).

Number 3: Trickster

You could say that this anime has some yaoi undertones as well, but I say it’s just a good friendship…

There’s a mysterious tsundere boy with magical powers that keep him alive at all cost, causing harm to others if this magical force thinks that they’re lookin’ at him wrong. There’s also this nice kid who says he’ll help this immortal boy out and find a way to kill him.

They go on adventures and solve mysteries out of pure happenstance.

It’s good fun.

Number 2: Flip Flappers

For those who love epilepsy-inducing light shows and gainax-style action along with a magical girl twist sprinkled in there, you’ll love this anime.

You’ve got the reserved, straight-person type of girl, her partner the wild and nonsensical and adventurous type, and the tsundere who works for an evil cult.

And I’ll just leave it at that.

Number 1: Izetta the Last Witch

HOLY SHIT! This girl rides an anti-tank rifle and takes down a fleet of airplanes with lances and causes explosions and is totally in love with a princess. Fiiiiiine, but for some reason she still thinks she’s not good enough for her?

Izetta, who is the last of her kind, able to use magic in the air to control objects and propel them through the air for the sake of the princess who saved her as a child, is the last hope of a small nation being invaded by Nazis, I mean Germania, in a World War Two type setting. It is a highly entertaining watch with beautiful animation and intriguing character dynamics and A WITCH THAT RIDES A FRIGGIN RIFLE!!!

[All images courtesy of crunchyroll.com]