10 Essential Anime All Otaku Should Watch

In the whole wide world of anime, there is no dearth of series and movies that qualify as innovative and important in the genre — and perhaps even in the world of animation as a whole. And when it comes down to individual tastes, every anime is essential to some otaku somewhere, for some reason. But when we talk about what is essential in this form of media — I mean, the founding fathers (or mothers, of course) of what is out there today — we’re talking about a specific group of shows and movies that changed the game. These anime shaped the way anime is made, viewed, and consumed today, and there’s no way around that. These are the series and movies that everyone has an opinion about, that will come up in any otaku conversation — and with good reason. In no particular order, here are the top-10 essential anime all otaku should watch

Akira  

This is non-negotiable. This is one of those crossover gems that not only changed people’s views of anime (and converted many viewers into hardcore otaku), but also changed what people thought an animated movie could do. A violent, high-speed, dystopian fantasy, Akira set the stage for sci-fi and cyberpunk anime, sub-genres that — even if they’re not your cup of tea or Red Bull, as the case may be — are undeniably important to the genre as a whole. In its critics’ consensus for the film, Rotten Tomatoes said, “Akira is distractingly bloody and violent, but its phenomenal animation and sheer kinetic energy helped set the standard fo…