Andrew McAfee

So Trina’s asking me if we can watch Evangelion. If I show her Eva, I’m gonna hafta show her Akira. And I don’t know if I’m ready to go down that road with her yet, because there’s a lot of other titles I don’t enjoy at the end of it.

I mean, honestly, a lot of the real tentpole titles of anime aren’t things I’m comfortable with...Attack on Titan, Parasyte, Tokyo Ghoul—they’re super-popular, but I’m just not into them.

Most anime gets into some really philosophical areas in a pretty violent way. It's kindof its "thing." I personally like Akira, but I totally get it. Maybe try the Violet Evergarden path first?

I mean, I went that road myself when I got into anime—Blue Sub 6, Ninja Resurrection, Ghost in the Shell—but I’ve found a happy medium that doesn’t slip into the more disturbing stuff. Or, perhaps just the stuff that doesn’t disturb me, because Hellsing’s on the good-stuff list.

Are the really freaky anime actually necessary to someone’s development as a fan of the genre, though? Do you really HAVE to see the dog scene of Midori: Shoujo Tsubaki before you can say you have an understanding of anime?