Personal choices
:
1) Ah! Megami-samaSimply the best shoujo story ever. And that's a rare thing because most shoujos are too sugary, the typical boy/girl story who fall in love etc etc. But Ah! Megami-sama is a masterpiece: AWESOME characters design (every one of the charas is so win >__<), awesome music, and lots of laughs
And it has and OVA with chibified characters
.
2) Mermaid SagaStunning series. I really don't know why it isn't more popular, it's better than Inu Yasha (whose manga author is the same as Mermaid Saga, the great Takahashi Rumiko~). Highly recommended for the terror and suspense fans.
3) Hagane no RenkinjutsushiIt was a shocj discovering that when I was watching the anime (through torrents ¬¬) it was still on air on Japan o_o! The manga is better, though, Arakawa-sensei works more the suspense in the manga (aka she'll surprise you a-l-w-a-y-s). The balance between suspense, comedy, drama and action is almost perfect... almost. They make fun SO MUCH of Edward on the anime that it becomes boring after a while. But, for character's design, this wins too. Hawkeye has to be one of the two women I admire on anime/manga
.
4) Fruits BasketAnother rare good shoujo. In theory, the story is simple, but the developpement of it it's what it's complicated. Meaning that at least one of the characters makes you feel indentified (even a bit
), every member of the cursed family got a sad past. And at the same time it has an hilarious story! The crazy emo amounts are worth watching, for watching all the jokes that are on the next episode.
5) Love HinaOne of the greatests, most epic love comedies ever, not just another one of the bunch. Even on the first episode, you can see how great it'll turn out. It's a bit ecchi though, but with a lovely story, a nice variety of personalities (you've got the hot gal that tries to disimulate her body, the female ditzy geek, the male ditzy geek
, the crybaby, the machines-creating genious, the drunk b*tch -if you think you're one, just check her out! She'll put you on shame
-, the boys-hater spadachin, and the addicted-to- cigarettes). And they're all on the same house. What you're imagining contains maybe only half of the crazy things they do!
No CLAMP series are listed here, because I think they're MUCH better on manga, IMO. (by just watching the horrible work on Tsubasa, X and Chobits anime)