anime you now adore but didn't before: "how I came to love [insert title]"

[Akito Kinomoto]

Don't worry I searched General Anime and rest assured there was no thread title that registered the same sentiment and it's not like we need an excuse to further kill the forums anyway

Anyway moving on, as the topic says, what are some anime you now adore but didn't before? And of course explain how you came to love them or something. Or maybe you don't love them but now you really like them, different intensity levels and all that

Spoiler for I really like Eureka Seven:

I now actually do really like this show. First time I saw it was before Neon Genesis Evangelion, but since then it's set in my mind that there's different ways to go about balancing levity and drama, and it especially applies to Eureka Seven. I have to hand it to this show for just being an emotionally smack face coming of age story, but by far my favorite part is Holland Novak as Crispin Freeman. Such an interesting man to watch on-screen. ...I don't like "season 3" though because that part of the show just makes me wonder "what's happening again?"

Spoiler for but I absolutely adore The iDOLM@STER:

The first time I watched The iDOLM@STER was back when it first aired. Reasonably entertaining if a bit hollow

I recently rewatched it and I'm now wondering how I never loved this. Similarly to Love Live!, this is a very easy anime to overlook the emotional cues beneath the surface. Everything from Miki's sense of competition to Takane's maturity and role as semi-counselor to Chihaya to Makoto's insecurity on her upbringing to Ritsuko's mentor role to Ryugu Komachi and hints of earlier days to just how much of a bro Iori is in the first 10eps or so. They slowly step into the spotlight before their success finally culminates into an astonishingly powerful final act, the earnestness of one girl's wish an antithesis to what she grows into be as the story goes on. At that point, the most notable criticism of the show, it being stuck between having an ensemble cast and having a main character, is all but overridden by how much fun everyone is having shining, but more than that, how much fun they have with each other, turning into something incredibly endearing. Jeez this anime is much more loaded than it lets on ;;

[SeijiSensei]

It took me three tries to get into Baccano!, but it's now among my favorites. The large cast and disjoint style of story-telling put me off the first two times.

[Infinite Zenith]

K-On!: unexciting, pointless and lacking suspense when I first saw the first episode back in high school, that same show helped me relax and regroup in university by immersing me in a world with no conflict and where every day was bliss. I was about to fail out of my degree at the time and so, I credit K-On! with giving me the breather I needed to put things in perspective and get my game together.

[0cean]

The second time I watched Evangelion was really, really awesome. Probably because I didn't understand it the first time, since I watched it in Japanese with English subtitles while knowing neither language. I only remember looking up the word "ceiling" way too often. Of course, I already liked it the first time around, else I wouldn't have rewatched it.

Then there's Cowboy Bebop, which I really hated and dropped after a couple of episodes the first time around. I rewatched it about ten years later and that time got to finish it. I still think it's shit, though.

Never had a case of coming to love an anime I hated. And I gave lots of anime I didn't like a second chance. but they all still sucked. There were a couple of cases of me rewatching anime I liked that weren't any fun to rewatch, though. But that's rare. I've probably rewatched a couple of hundred anime and there were only two or three I didn't like as much the second time around.

[Sheba]

Gintama, how did I miss over 10 years of Tomokazu Sugita goofing around and that series still manage to blend comedy and drama in a seemingly near perfect package?

[Mad Pierrot]

Scryed. It's by the creator of Code Geass with ridiculous fight scenes, black and white morality that disolves as the plot moves on, the actors are pretty good regardless the version and the final fight scene is pure fanservice.

[Archon_Wing]

Probably Kanon (2006) (and to a lesser degree, most Key things) It took me like 3 years to watch it because the elevator music and "special" girls making dumb noises made it quite annoying. In the space of that I managed to finish Clannad which I also found somewhat annoying at first but liked it however could really not deal with Kanon. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm actually not too fond of that sort of Kyoani moeshit actually, it's more like I like stuff in spite of it And yes I know the derpiness comes partly from Key. Shit sucks.

96% of why I tried again is because I discovered Yukari Tamura voiced a character in it, and I've certainly watched much things I wouldn't watch normally just because of her (Nanoha, and now that Island thing this season) and so that went well until the end because this is Key and their endings are kinda shit.

However, over the years I've sort of come to appreciate smaller nuances in the anime and it in fact has things that were "lost" in its somewhat sterilized successor. I still like Clannad more, but the way it handled certain things like "Kissing is too lewd to be seen" and "Virgin Birth, probably" is pretty pathetic and borderline slander.

But really, they really fucking loved snow in the anime and really made the motif go around it. That was pretty good. Then halfway through the series actually came with some rather genuine emotion I've not seen much elsewhere.

Little Busters is like this to a lesser degree. I would say Angel Beats, but I don't adore that though I view it more positively these days, if only because at least it wasn't Charlotte or God Forbid, Rewrite.

Another anime that's made a good turnaround over the years is Inu x Boku SS. Honestly, that anime was pretty boring when I first saw it, and I can't remember like 80% of what actually happened. It was mostly remembered in terms of memes involving that funny guy and I remember Ririchiyo as well, but honestly I look back to it and realize it was a pretty unique experience. I'm not even sure why this anime is any good, but it does get remembered well. It probably has to do with the quick witted humor that actually works without being slapstick you always see.

I'm gonna put them together, because I thought the same way and that has to go to the Trio of Troubled Romance drama of Sola, White Album 2 and True Tears. Honestly, when I saw these at first, I didn't think it was anything special much less deserving of any hype except they were just supposed to piss the viewer off for dumb reasons with misery porn (and silly fanservice!) and deny any real resolution until I gathered that was the point. Then I realized they were unique in their own sense because they provoked emotions that other series not tread or at least not jump around like a idiot (School Days) It's just kinda funny how I reacted to them in a similar way though. Kind of a delayed like in a way.

This is a subset of a series so I'm not sure if that counts but I've also seen Madoka Magica: Rebellion more positively over time. At first I thought it was decent, but not really a worthy continuation of the series as I could never shake the cash cow idea. On the other hand looking back to it, I suppose it was more of a natural turn of events then I'd ever like to admit, so I have to be giving it some degree of respect and actually accept it as a part of the series as a whole.

Finally, I'd like to mention Bakemonogatari. I certainly didn't like it at first, but over time.... wait, I still really don't. It's okay though. Never mind.