AnimeSuki Forums

Well, we just had the results of several anime year-end awards, including Anime Suki's own AS Choice Awards. Considering them altogether, I don't think anybody can consider Re:Zero or Yuri On Ice underrated.

But are there some anime TV shows or movies or OVAs that people here felt deserved more accolades, or at least attention? There's a couple I have in mind myself, but I think I'll leave the floor open for now, to hear what the Knights of the RRRound Table have to say!

Shounen Maid and the shorts series Honobono Log come to mind most immediately.

I'll put forward Amanchu. It may not capture the same mystique as Aria and even Tamauyra managed to have but its still a very solid effort.

The soundtrack by GONTITI is also very good even if early on in the show it isn't particularly well used.

Three Leaves, Three Colours (Sansha Sanyou) and Tanaka-kun is Restless. The latter admittedly has a bit of a cult following and did okay in the AS awards, but Sansha Sanyou definitely feels underappreciated.

Weirdly enough, I just ran into a video that analyzes what makes Sansha Sanyou work so well in considerable detail. It's some damn fine moe scholarship if I do say so myself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLIMHh6GclA

(I seem to have a thing for nominating SoLs for this category, last year I thought Gourmet Girl Graffiti was horribly under appreciated.)

I also notice that Girlish Number didn't make the cut in any category, thought I feel like it's had a pretty good critical reception elsewhere inthe fandom.

I realize now that I haven't seen a lot of the really unpopular, underappreciated anime of 2016. I mean, Flip Flappers was what first came to my mind since it's still something that hasn't gotten a ton of attention among the anime community as a whole, but I don't think it quite makes the cut since it did get a wildly passionate cult following in certain areas full of many people who praise it to death, and it was rated as the best anime of 2016 on /a/ and (I believe) Reddit, which is far more appreciation than some other anime can aim to achieve.

Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga aru!
This is just a lovely treat of a show that should have been watched by more people. If you like cute comedy, tsundere girls (the good type, not the bad), and themes of innocent adolescent romance, you should check this out.

Time Travel Shoujo
This is a very fun kid's edutainment anime about the history of physics that pretty much nobody watched.

Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou
A tough show to get into due to the denseness of its content and the confusing and convoluted plot (which is why many people didn't make it past the first episode), but that was what made a lot of its charm for me. This is a love letter to Japanese superheroes and old-school entertainment in general, it's a fascinating wild ride.

Excellent replies, everyone! Everyone did a good job in picking shows that are somewhat obscure and underappreciated even by the "hardcore fan" standards of Anime Suki and RRRound Table.

I'm split on if Flip Flappers should count or not, though. While Tempester is right about it being very popular among a certain range of anime fans, Flip Flappers also ended up bombing sales-wise, sadly.

So I certainly feel like it's underappreciated, at the very least. Perhaps underrated as well.

Well I'll put forward the motion that Flip Flappers absolutely deserves being called an underrated show but I doubt there's anyone left in the RRRound Table who doesn't know that

It's interesting contrasting the two and then comparing them with other general "communities" or groups of people. Sometimes such things serve as a reference point on one's tastes and reactions and the like.

For myself, after thinking about it a bit, I would include a few other titles ... Scorching Ping Pong Girls and Matoi the Sacred Slayer come to mind, for example, but I would not call them "deserving of accolades" or "first rate series" as much as feeling that they were good series that deserved more attention.... In other words, I would divide the underrated into the good and the great.

While I am thinking about it though, what I felt was a great series that deserved way more attention would be Fune wa Amu.

Would also definitely agree with regards to Concrete Revolutio.

Let's see here....

I would add another series: The Ancient Magus Bride. I know it is still ongoing, but the first epeisode was absolutely ... brilliant in my opinion.

Another series would be the two season adaptation of 12-sai; I thought it was very well done and drew almost no attention whatsoever.

Also, Mahoutsukai PreCure had some really excellent storytelling and world building, and for a PreCure series really stood out and trailblazed new ground. I have seen quite a few PreCure viewers miss the ramifications of the story as a whole as well - kind of sad to see it underappreciated in the small English speaking community of followers and fans as well.

And finally, a controversial title would be Dagashi Kashi. Few series drew such flack from source readers last year as this one - I thought it was a very well done adaptation, though, and was kind of sad to see it so passionately shouted down by what seemed to me to be a small group of especially vocal and convinced viewers. Definitely underappreciated in my opinion, even taking the niche content and all that.

Fune wa Amu had its share of flaws but I agree that it was criminally underrated.