Top 10 Anime that continue to live in the back of my mind and heart rent free

10. Another

A horrific tale based on a novel by

In 1972 at Yomiyama north middle school, when a beloved student named Misaki dies, her classmates decide to include her and carried on as if she were still alive by keeping her desk around and even bringing it to the graduation ceremony. This deceased classmate somehow shows up in the picture of their graduation photo.

And so the curse begins.

Twenty six years later, the same room class is said to be cursed. Our protagonist Kouichi Sakakibara transfers to this class and quickly picks up on the oddly superstitious classmates and their avoidance of the classmate he met while at the hospital, Mei Misaki. At school the students pretend she doesn't exist, she tells him not to mind her and ignore her like the rest of the students but he doesn't. That's when things take a dark turn as the people in class start to gruesomely die.

Who is the dead student? Is it really Mei Misaki?

Until they can figure it out the universe will try to balance it out and kill all the students of that class, until they find and kill the true dead one.

I remember being very touched when watching this anime. The way Kouichi protected Mei really struck a chord in me. Now that I'm older I realize he is classified as a knight sort of character. Not a white knight but Mei's exclusively. Nowadays male characters are nice to every female- it's not as interesting.

9. Blood +

I watched it in middle school, transitioning out of an unhealthy mental state. There was a library where I could finally go ham and check out a bunch of anime DVDs. I watched in dub- because back then they did make good dubs. And I think upon getting older I forgot that after becoming hooked on subs. I personally prefer the dub to the sub even now to this day.

I fell in love with it from the very moment I saw it. An intriguing opening tracing back to the Vietnam war but instead of it being a man vs man, it's man vs monster, however at the arrival of a single young girl that quickly changes as she goes on a killing spree killing both man and monster indiscriminately. A beautifully haunting scene that switches to a kick ass song that still pulls out the young fourteen-year old in me.

The story follows on a cute girl with short hair, named Saya, her reality seems wholesome but there are some lurking elephants in the room foreshadowing disruption, like the two government officials secretly surveying Saya and military officials in Japan secretly talking about some missing "mice". Turns out Saya is an amnesiac and adopted into a family, after encountering a sexy cellist on the streets (her exclusive dark knight), his music reminds her of a childhood memory.

After forgetting her sports shoes at school, everything goes to hell when one of the missing "mice" strongly resembling the monsters from the Vietnam war show up as well as the sexy cellist who goes on to protect her as well as snap her out of her damsel mode and into her true self. A hunter.

As to what kind is up for you to find out. . . if you're interested. It's a gory show for sure but it has its nice sprinkle of wholesomeness. Romance wise this is one of those anime with the Master-servant relationship dynamic that only grows deeply into friendship/ love(?) upon Saya recalling her memories.

8. Eureka Seven

It's all a blur now but I remember being so deeply invested that I once had the username "coraliangurl" as a handle and would go around fishing for eureka photos and fan art using it as my profile pictures.

Eureka Seven is a story of Renton, a boy who gets entangled with a group of outlaws that pilot mechas that fight... Alien fungus called coral?

The love interest, Eureka is a girl born from coral who can pilot a special mecha called the Nirvash type Zero. Anyway Renton, is also able to pilot the Nirvash, so the two become co-pilots and go on missions together.

I probably didn't do this explanation justice, it's just been such a long time. I remember being deeply invested in Renton and Eureka's budding relationship and the whole concept of a mecha anime.

There's a lot going on in this show- there's always a lot going on in mecha/gundam shows, you can't always keep up which is why I can't even begin to remember it all. But the ending was so romantic and the moment where Renton actually gets angry at Eureka after chasing after her for wanting to leave him upon reaching alien puberty really makes my heart pound. I may not remember much that scene and one-liner. Gah! My heart.

7. Katekyo Hitman Reborn

I remember when I first read the manga to this, I thought I was reading just another gag manga but as I continued to read it things got more serious out of nowhere, the funny and comedic pranks were actually necessary training to prepare the protagonist for future battles to the death.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn is a story revolving around a boy named Tsunayoshi Sawada aka "Tsuna." He's been chosen to become the next mafia boss of the Vongola family. A child who isn't good at anything and has poor grades in school is suddenly whipped into shape by his mysterious tutor that looks like a baby. What kind of mafia boss will Tsuna become under his watch? But more importantly, will his grades ever improve?

This show does very well at throwing out ridiculous situations and somehow making it all work out. The friendships he makes along the way are so heart touching, and the characters become immortalized in your heart even if you don't end up finishing the manga or anime.

6. Mitchiko & Hatchin

Where are all my orphans at? Abused kids? Or none of the above but you can just relate to feeling unhappy and miserable due to having to grow up around miserable people that subject you to the misery they think you deserve.

We can all relate to that feeling of wanting to leave home, or of hoping that someone would show up to take you away from an unhappy situation.

For Hana, her wish comes true when the crazy ex-girlfriend of her blood father fresh out of prison, escapes and pulls up at her place claiming to be her mother. Follow the story of the trainwreck Michiko and innocent Hana and their quest to track down Hana's deadbeat Dad.

This show is everything, oddly scratching a special itch in the hearts of wanting to see a badass dark-skinned female character as a deuteragonist. For us darker folks sometimes expecting to see others in an anime is a tall order but this story takes place in South America so be prepared to see plenty of diversity! Diversity aside, the story of Michiko and Hana's bond is an interesting one, I don't think describing it will do it enough justice.

5. The Island of Siliang

A fantastical tale about cultivators exiled onto an island for a mysterious crime. Should the fairies take one step off the island and get exposed to the ocean water they will surely die, there's also a barrier trapping them within the area. Their only hope is to wait for judgment day to be approved to return to the heavens which takes many years (a century if I remember correctly?).

In the beginning, we're shown a tragedy that happened when one of the families tried to cheat the system, as a result, the sole survivor of that cultivating family, Tu Li, a human adopted by her family (cultivators are regarded as fairies or celestials) experiences discrimination from society. We follow the story mainly from her point of view.

The reason why I found this story refreshing is because our female lead can't use magic. She has her own strengths as a human that make you want to root for her. Consuming the magical fruits on the island has made her stronger than the usual human, she can swim throughout the ocean and hunt huge fish, not only that her vision is super clear.

This ability reminded me of the manga Children of the Sea, a story that spread awareness about eyesight and how just like how different people have different degrees of visual clarity, it also applies to underwater. There are some people out there that exist who can see underwater as clear instead of a blur, and our protaganist is one of those people.

Not only that Tu Li has freckles! Whenever I read chinese novels they always stress how having freckles or blemishes was a defect so it felt nice to see. Tu Li is a wildflower her character grows on you over time.

4. Magi

There's a lot I could say but mostly because it has everything. It's also very cute. I remember being down a magi rabbit hole. I still haven't finished the manga.

3. Link Click (Shiguang Dailiren)

This donghua takes the cake. I'm still waiting on season 2! Yall check it out and give it some love!

Link Click is the story about two guys who became friends in college, they realize that both of them have had powers for some time and after graduating they open up a Photo Studio. Secretly, they are a Time Photo Studio. They help relieve their clients of regrets, sometimes by changing things in the past or observing things in the past they original client didn't pay attention to.

The white haired fella, Lu Guang, has the ability to look into a photo and see everything that happened to the subject up to 12 hours.

Cheng Xiaoshi, the dark haired fella, has the ability to jump into photos from the perspective of the main subject and live as them, experiencing everything they experienced, he can also control their actions. The problem is, if he doesn't act like the person normally would, the future can be affected, no matter how small it is.

With their powers combined Lu Guang can see what Cheng Xiaoshi is doing in photos and can also see ahead through security cameras in the area.

Link Click is a heart-wrenching/heart-touching story about the different experiences of people, and how changing one little thing can cause a domino effect that brings about disaster for everyone. You will cry when watching this.

2. Erased

A heart-shattering tale of the disappearances and murders of children, as well as child abuse.

The protgaonist is a boy who had a few kids in his class that went missing. However he didn't remember this at all as his mother and the adults present tried to keep it from. It's never explained how he acquired the ability, but as an adult, it is as if the heavens intended to force him to pay attention to his surroundings now. His ability briefly sends him back in time forcing him to notice any tragedy that is about to take place around him.

His ability to briefly travel back in time is busted by his reunion with his mother who finally tells him about the kidnapping after realizing the culprit's identity. He is sent back in time at the beginning of it all to prevent the murder of his mother and the 5 kidnapped children.

Needless to say you will be bawling your eyes out if you watch this. Both out of sadness and joy. And if you're left wanting to watch something similar to Erased I suggest you check out the K-drama, Mother

1. Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

I don't think I've ever seen an anime with as perfect a story and magnificent an ending like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. You truly feel like the story connected to the end, it felt complete, everyone learned their lessons, and you just can't help but feel downright jolly in your soul but also very sad. So sad you want to cry because you know you were given the perfect ending and you won't be able to have any more episodes.

I stayed up late watching this as a young child probably still in elementary on adult swim, only later sitting down to watch it when I was in middle school. It's just a work of art. And I think Edward Elrich... now that I think of it my first childhood crush I always thought might have been Peter Pan, Ben Tennyson from Ben 10, Ash from Pokemon or Huey Freeman from The Boondocks thinking properly back on it now it was probably Edward Elrich... Either that or Robin from Teen Titans.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is about the tragic tale of two young brothers, Edward the older brother and Alphonse, the younger. They are the sons of an alchemist who left his family when they were very young leaving them in the care of the mother. Their mother dies from illness unfortunately and the older brother taking after his Father of being very intelligent proposes an idea to his younger brother. To resurrect her using alchemy.

Sadly the two brothers learn that you can't just play God. Edward is granted an audience with Truth (God in this sense). Truth gives Edward unlimited knowledge but at the cost of a huge price.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is the tale of two brothers punished by "Truth" who are left with undoing what they have done to themselves and also resurrecting their Mom as Ed learns that there is something called the Philosopher's Stone, which has enough power in it to resurrect a human.