Ever since the flourishing of anime online in the past five or so years, which allows fans around the world to follow Japan’s otakudom in real time and know every single anime that comes out each season, it’s hard to find anime nowadays that no one is watching or discussing. I’m one who usually follows all the popular and most discussed series. I know some fans watch obscure, unpopular titles all the time, but for me, I haven’t seen many old or niche anime so the number of little known titles I have under my belt is virtually nil. However, there are a handful of anime that I’ve watched during my 11+ years as a fan that I’ve hardly seen anyone mention. So today, I’ll be giving brief shout-outs to five of the most “least known” anime that I’ve watched…
Massugu ni Ikou
Year: 2003
Episodes: 4
Massugu ni Ikou is a 4-episode OVA (which I believe was followed by a 5 episode TV series ~_^) based on a manga. It stars a dog named Mametaro and the little everyday misadventures he has with his neighborhood dog friends and the few human characters in the show – mostly his owner “Iku-chan” and her boyfriend Junichi. Massugu ni Ikou is very much like the moe/slice-of-life anime of recent years, except with dogs instead of school girls XD The dogs are able to talk to each other (not to the humans of course) and they have personalities very fitting for a light SoL show, for example, Mametaro is plucky and adventurous (and jealous whenever Iku-chan pays attention to Junichi instead of him!) and his doggy girlfriend Hanako is kind of air-headed. I’m not sure why the anime adaptation of Massugu ni Ikou was so short, but it’s pretty cute and fun if you’d like a SoL show with dogs.
Here’s the opening below. The visuals convey the anime perfectly and the song is so catchy~
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Tactics
Year: 2004
Episodes: 25
This is an anime I never would have watched if I hadn’t received the DVD box set as a birthday gift about three years ago. It takes place in Japan’s Taisho era and revolves around Kantarou, a folklore writer who can interact with demons and makes a living by keeping the peace between them and humans. Kantarou eventually frees the so-called strongest demon, Haruka, who joins him and others in many demon hunting adventures. I only watched Tactics once when I first got it so I don’t remember it all that well – but I do remember its cast of main characters was very fun and likable, and there was a pretty heavy yaoi atmosphere between Kantarou and Haruka. Some good seiyuu in it too, such as Takahiro Sakurai and Nana Mizuki.
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Sensei no O-jikan: Doki Doki School Hours
Year: 2004
Episodes: 13
This was an early slice-of-life/comedy/school anime that I watched a few years ago. Like others in its genre, it doesn’t have much of a plot besides following the daily lives of a short, flustered teacher named Mika Suzuki and her class of wacky students. I honestly don’t remember the characters very well, but overall it was a funny show – nothing hilarious, but funny enough.
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Ginga Densetsu Weed
Year: 2005
Episodes: 26
Wow, another dog themed anime on this list XD This series from 2005 is actually the sequel of another series that came out nearly twenty years before, in 1986! (what took them so long?) Both are based on a manga that ran for nine years from 2000 to 2009. Obviously it must have been pretty popular in Japan to run for so long, but I’ve hardly heard it talked about at all amongst English-speaking fans. Ginga Densetsu Weed is very much a shonen series, but with dogs as the characters – it has all the shonen staples; gruesome, violent battles, adventures full of angst, and a hero that’s coming of age. The setting is kind of strange though – most of the dogs live in the wild in packs that fight against each other over territory, grudges, or whatever (being dogs, they fight with bites and tackles rather than weapons and super powers). Humans exist in the series but aren’t seen and usually try to exterminate the dogs. The dogs convey decent shonen archetypes, but I also remember the show being insufferably dark, disturbing, and violent, but still strangely entertaining.
The opening, embedded below, is just so “GARRR!!!” it’s funny XD
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Voogie’s Angel
Year: 1997
Episodes: 3
One of just a handful of 90s anime that I’ve seen, Voogie’s Angel is a 3-episode OVA I watched about eight years ago via renting the VHS from a video store XD It takes place a hundred years in the future in which five cybernetically enhanced women are trained to fight against alien invaders. Despite being only three episodes, I remember feeling fulfilled at the end. Each of the girls is developed well and we get to see flashbacks of each of their horribly tragic pasts when they were still fully human. Being new to anime at the time and not yet knowing what depressing lives anime characters can have, I was taken aback by this OVA. Even though I watched it dubbed, apparently it had two of my favorite seiyuu in the original version – Aya Hisakawa and Kotono Mitsuishi.
Voogie’s Angel had a great opening too.
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As I’ve said in other posts, I’m into watching the currently airing shows because I like following anime fandom as it develops in real time, and I always tend to like the popular titles anyway. I only go back and watch older anime once in a while, nor was I into anime during the 90s and before when the majority of titles were obscure and hard to come across. But despite all this, I’m glad that I’ve seen at least some lesser known titles out of the 300+ total anime I’ve watched. You should watch what you want of course, but it’s nice to branch out once in a while =)
I’ve never heard of any of the shows on this list XD
But since Tactics has Nana Mizuki and Takahiro Sakurai, I’m tempted to check it out :D
Hm..my least known shows:
– Sketchbook ~full ColorS~
– Mokke (only watched two episodes, but Nana Mizuki’s in it)
– Last Exile (only watched two episodes orz)
– Nijuu Mensou Musume (Hirano Aya was in it. It kind of sucked, but I watched five or so episodes, including the last one)
Not sure if there are any others as I usually watch (semi)popular/mainstream shows. Natsume YuujinChou (<3) is a bit underrated and under appreciated though. As is Itazura na Kiss.
least known manga:
– Doubt (aka Rabbit Doubt)
– Heart no Kuni no Alice (which has actually been rising in popularity a bit since it recently got liscensed.)
– Parasyte. (I didn't like it, but I read through a fourth/half of it because I was bored OTL)
– School Mermaid (only 3 chapters long)
Pretty sure there's more to add, but I can't think of any right now.
Yeah, Tactics is a pretty good show. Nothing spectacular but I’d say it’s slightly above average =)
I haven’t heard of or seen any of the shows on your list except for Last Exile (which I’ve completed), Natsume Yuujinchou (heard it’s good and plan to watch it one day), and Nijuu Mensou Musume (which I watched one episode of at my university anime club). Oh, and I love Itazurana Kiss! One of my favorites from 2008 and I agree that it was underrated (I blame the age of the manga and the old-school character designs).
Least known anime:
– Naisho no Tsubomi (It’s like SexEd for girls)
– Genocyber (blood, guts, and the rest doesn’t matter)
– Puni puni poemi (Weirdest anime ever, brought to you by the creator of Excel Saga)
– Jungle wa itsumo hare nochi guu (A boy and a weird girl/thing living in a sort of crazy jungle)
I know others, buy maybe they’re not that rare [Like Kirarin revolution, only watched cuz Koharu’s voice]
Wow, I haven’t seen any of those and the only one I’ve heard of is Hare Guu. That’s why they’re “least known” of course XD
“Last Exile”
Really…really ? I just…really ?
Examples of shows that barely anyone ever saw – Ippatsu Kiki Musume, Angel Densetsu, Shura no Toki.
Last Exile, on the other hand, was THE oversaturated show of the middle of last decade.
Haha really? I don’t know anyone who knows that show xD
Yeah, probably not many newer anime fans have watched Last Exile, but it’s always been pretty popular and talked about, especially among Gonzo and steampunk fans (I think the character designer has a fan following as well). Coincidentally, they recently announced a new Last Exile anime to be released this summer.
Wow. Weed looks like an anime version of Call of the Wild to me. It was a pretty greusome book.
bye.
–End–
Apparently there’s already been an anime version of Call of the Wild. Was the story originally a book?
Yep a book by Jack London. He’s pretty good, but like i said his books were pretty gory.
bye.
–End–
I had never even heard of those :S
Midori no Hibi – Not many have watched this because… well. because… it’s pretty bad :P
Pandora Hearts – It’s not too obscure, but hardly anyone talks about it. And not many have seen it either.
Lost Universe – This one is actually pretty good! It just starts far too slow, but after a while moves along pretty well. I guess it’s by the same people that made slayers because there are many similarities. Even the main character looks a lot like Lina, but male (Lino?). Anyway, pretty obscure, but I did like it in the end.
Oh, and I did watch Last Exile. It was actually pretty interesting.
I’ve actually heard of all three of those =)
I heard the manga of Midori no Hibi was a lot better than the anime, so that could be why it’s not very talked about (but I think older fans are more likely to have heard of it).
I’ve seen about half of Pandora Hearts but never finished it because I fell behind and didn’t like it enough to want to catch up. But yeah, it hasn’t been discussed all that much (it has a great OP though).
Lost Universe is an oldie – never seen it, but yes, it’s by the same creators as Slayers I think.
Pandora Hearts? Unknown? Not really.
The only reason why I’ve heard of Midori no Hibi is because my one friend talks about it all the time, gaga.
Watching Legend of Black Heaven right now, & wondering why I’d never heard a whisper about it till last month.
Two of my favourite relatively obscure ones are Fuujin Monogatari (Windy Tales) and Futatsu no Spica (Twin Spica) . Twin Spica ends abruptly, which sucks – it’s just building up steat m to be a great story when it ends…
Puni Puni Poemi…ewwwww…
Sorry, never heard of any of those, so I would say they’re obscure then =P But glad they have at least one fan in you =)
LEGEND OF BLACK HEAVEN is equal parts ridiculous, hilarious, and awesome. If you can get past how strange the story is, then you’ll have a lot of fun, no doubt. It’s one of my favorite titles from Geneon’s bygone era of artsy-but-not-quite release schedule.
I also believe the series aired for a short time on the channel formally known as TechTV.
I’ve actually watched a few episodes of Doki Doki School Hour. Like you said, it was fun, but not really memorable.
I’ll name two anime I think are fairly obscure. The first is Darkside Blues:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=132
I frankly don’t remember what it was about, except that it bored me.
The second is Planetes — yes, a 2003 series that has more or less vanished from the fandom’s imagination:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2654
I always cite this show as an example of how you don’t need giant robots, half-naked girls, cat ears or other gimmicks to tell a good, gripping story with an ensemble cast. We need more anime like these!
I may have heard Planetes and Darkside Blues mentioned somewhere but that’s it. Planetes sounds like a good show. I’ll have to watch it one day since you think so highly of it =)
I enjoyed DARKSIDE BLUES, but it’s moody atmosphere and strong roots in 1980s anime ultraviolence is an acquired taste.
I’ve watched Tactics too, and heard of Ginga Densetsu. Tactics is actually fairly well-known I believe (or maybe just in the yaoi fangirl communtiy LOL). The rest do look very obscure indeed.
Personally the more obscure ones that I’ve watched include:
– Ajimu Kaigan Monogatari (not sure what possessed me to watch this one)
– Licensed by Royalty
– Bus Gamer (awful OVA of a pretty good manga)
– Sci-fi Harry
– Texhnolyze
– Windy Tales
– Kemonozume (I’ve been seeing a certain scene from this anime around the internet, so it might have garnered some attention recently)
Frankly, though, if a series is past a certain level of obscurity, chances are that it’s because it’s crap. Lol. There are plenty of unknown series out there but the reason why nobody watches them is because they have such low ratings from whose who did bother to give them the time of day.
Yeah, I’d imagine Tactics being popular among yaoi fans, but amongst average bloggers and fans that I know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard it talked about.
The only one I’ve heard of on your list is Bus Gamer, probably because it’s a newer series.
You definitely have a point that a reason certain titles are obscure is because they’re not good. But there are still a handful of underrated gems, or random others that may be gems to you personally but not to others. Too bad it’s hard to know which title is obscure because it’s bad or simply underrated =/
Mine would be Shinigami’s Ballad and Yokohama Daikaishi Kikou. YDK seemed like a pretty famous manga many years ago, but not many people know of the anime.
The name “Shinigami’s Ballad” sounds a little familiar – but other than that I haven’t heard of those two. It’s kinda weird that a manga can be so popular but the anime adaptation isn’t, and vice versa.
I’ve heard of Tactics, I always see the DVD box set at my library, but it looks boring to me. Some lesser known anime series I’ve seen are:
Kogepan (pretty awesome at only like 4 minutes each)
Hakaba Kitarou (VERY weird, but quite enjoyable)
Eternal Family (Not really worth watching)
Akiba-chan (lame)
The U.S. release of Tactics is by Manga Video…are they even in business anymore? If not, I would assume the DVD box sets are getting harder to find. If that one at your library is still there, someone should buy it XD
I don’t know if MAL’s popularity rankings are the best measure of obscurity, but the least popular anime I’ve seen appear to be Love Get Chu (#1825), about 5 aspiring seiyuu; Animal Crossing (#1991), and yes, it’s based on the long running Nintendo video games; and Kokoro Library, a slice-of-life series about three sisters who run an isolated library. None of these are as obscure as Voogie’s Angel (#3616) and Massugu ni Ikou (#3803) and they’re not what I’d call hidden gems either (cute & forgettable would be a good description); however, I haven’t been watching anime long, so this thread is a good reference for some titles I may not have heard about otherwise! And I think the adaption of Jack London’s Call of the Wild may be the most obscure anime in this thread. . . .
Yokohama Kaikashi Kikou is a long running & popular manga that’s been compared to Aria for its sedate atmosphere, but its only received two OVAs, each only two episodes long.
Last Exile is the series that’s inspired my recent infatuation with anime. Prior to that I’d only seen Studio Ghibli and a few other famous anime features.
Cool, thanks for the info. I didn’t know there was an anime adaptation of Animal Crossing. The only title on your list that I’ve heard of is of course, Last Exile =)
I don’t know if MAL’s popularity rankings are the best measure of obscurity, but the least popular anime I’ve seen appear to be Love Get Chu (#1825), about 5 aspiring seiyuu; Animal Crossing (#1991), and yes, it’s based on the long running Nintendo video games; and Kokoro Library, a slice-of-life series about three sisters who run an isolated library. None of these are as obscure as Voogie’s Angel (#3616) and Massugu ni Ikou (#3803) and they’re not what I’d call hidden gems either (cute & forgettable would be a good description); however, I haven’t been watching anime long, so this thread is a good reference for some titles I may not have heard about otherwise! And I think the adaption of Jack London’s Call of the Wild may be the most obscure anime in this thread. . . .
Yokohama Kaikashi Kikou is a long running & popular manga that’s been compared to Aria for its sedate atmosphere, but its only received two OVAs, each only two episodes long.
Last Exile is the series that’s inspired my recent infatuation with anime. Prior to that I’d only seen Studio Ghibli and a few other famous anime features.
Hehehehe, I own Tactics. Haven’t watched it yet though.
Mine. Let’s see:
Alien Nine
Galaxy Railways
Night on the Galactic Railroad (sadly)
Jubei Chan the Ninja Girl
Ultra Maniac
(and some I don’t even know the name of)
Enjoyed all of them. :)
Ultra Maniac was one of the first mangas I ever read! Didn’t watch the anime though.
Haven’t heard of any of those except for Jubei-chan – that was actually the very first non-kids anime that I watched way back in 2000 on dubbed VHS XD It was a good series though I never got around to watching the second season.
I really wish FUNimation promoted GALAXY RAILWAYS a bit more, it certainly deserved it.
I must say that I had never heard of the animes that you listed in your post. ^^;
Here are mine. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them or not, so I just wrote a little bit about each of them.
1) Tetsuwan Birdy/Tetsuwan Birdy Decode -Tetsuwan Birdy was originally a 4 episode OVA aired back in ’96. Later in 2008 a 13 episode remake was made, with an OVA, and a sequel that arrived just a year later. It’s honestly one of the best sci-fi’s I’ve seen yet. It’s a little cliche, though.
2) Quiz Magic Academy – a one episode OVA (it has a sequel, though) based on a visual novel. It’s not a masterpiece, but quite enjoyable. To me, it’s like the Harry Potter of the anime world. X)
3) Hitsuji no Uta – a four episode OVA about two siblings who are vampires. Their vampirism more or less is a disease and it tears their family apart. The animation is pretty bad and lame, but it’s a pretty good story so to say.
4) Gokujou Seitokai – the only reason why I ever watched it because it was the centerfold poster in an old ’07 edition of Newtype. It’s a very fun and cute 26 episode series about the all powerful student council at a private all girl academy.
5) Nanatsuiro Drops – I only watched it because Noizi Itou designed the characters. It’s a rather shiny and sweet 12 episode love story with mahou shoujo in it.
6) Miyuki-chan in Wonderland – A two episode OVA based off of one of CLAMP’s least known works, it’s a different take on Alice in Wonderland with an all female cast. There’s a little shoujo-ai in it and it’s quite bizarre, but somewhat enjoyable all the same.
There are more, but that’s all I’ll say for now. :) It’s a shame that not to many people have heard of/seen so many great series.
I’ve read and watched Miyuki-chan, and heard of Nanatsuiro Drops and Birdy Decode. Never heard of any of the others.
I’ve only heard of #5 and #6 on your list ^^,,,
Good to see the original BIRDY OVA still has some fans. The original was short but sweet, and the new series packs quite a punch as well — I’ll definitely agree on that one.
I’d have to say out of the series I’ve seen Midori no Hibi, Noein, Welcome to the NHK and Vandread are some of the stuff no one knows about, at least in my set of anime friends. three of those 4 are favorites, vandread for a more sentimental reason than anything else; however Midori no Hibi never really appealed to me all that much, the manga was decent, but the anime wasn’t so hot.
I’ve heard of all four of those series – From what I’ve seen, Welcome to the NHK is actually very well liked and popular. Not hugely popular but semi at least =)
I haven’t watched much of the 90’s or late 80’s anime either. I was an animation/graphic design major back in college and well… those anime series are far too painful for me to watch. Anime has come a long way in quality.
Many of the unheard of anime are unheard of for a reason. Of course there are some gems but by and large most are pretty terrible. I generally stick to the mainstream. A lot of obscure anime suffers from bad animation like the 90’s and 80’s anime did.
I like looking at good animation too, but you can’t have the same expectations watching anime from the 80s and 90s before the animation technology of today was developed. I love animation in general and can still enjoy a work if the story/characters/writing is good even if the animation is lacking. Some of my favorite anime such as Evangelion and Cardcaptor Sakura were produced in the 90s, and even though they don’t “look” as good as new stuff, they’re so great it doesn’t matter =)
This was a great post.. lots of shows I’ve never heard of, some I have, and overall a good read.. Please check out my blog, and I’ll be sure to do the same.
honestly i dont really know how well know the titles im about to mention are but, to me they were something like… “i dont really have a clue about this show, but lol lets try it cos im out of options” and they turned out to be great shows =p
since you dont know planetes you might not know these shows too =p
-kimagure orange road(1987): once upon a time i really had the balls to watch fillers(a normal thing considering the vintage of this show) turned out to be a great triangle love story.
-crest of the stars(1999): as i was looking for something to watch again, i bumped into this sci-fi title. turned out to be quite amazing if you consider politics and other social stuff interesting. (theres also 3 sequels if you find it amusing)
(these shows are within my confort zone)
theres also shows that are quite nice but just “underrated”, like “Uninhabited Planet Survive” or “Kemono no Souja Erin” but these are just… nhk shows? haha
its sad that i reached a point that i need to watch oddstuff instead because i have already ran out of good things to watch lol
*** i remembered another one before posting lol
this can be either well know or unknown to you but theres a movie called “the Ideon: be invoked”: well animax usually had old movies or something on weekends, so one day i got lucky and well, thats how i got to watch this
Kemono no Souja Erin was one of my most favorite anime from 2009 and is ranked highly among the anime I’ve seen in general. Definitely an underrated gem.
“Least known” sounds like a useful category for a bunch of old anime in my collection that I should dread the day of ever replacing… Time to turn back the clock:
KOI KAZE (2004, series): Not very well known to a lot of U.S. consumers, considering it was swallowed up by the earth when Geneon went under. But an emotional series nonetheless.
TWILIGHT OF THE DARK MASTER (1998, OVA): I’m sure this is better known than others on my list, but it’s dark, violent, creepy, and actually kind of engaging.
PRINCESS ROUGE (1997, OVA): An incomplete two episode series-that-never-was. Simple and charming title about a cross-dimensional princess with amnesia, and the hapless guy whose lap she falls into.
SHINESMAN (1996, OVA): Also two episodes, I believe. A send-up of super sentai programs, but with jaded adult characters with day jobs and families.
NINJA MONO (1996, OVA): Teen ninjas in training who were motivated, comical, and pretty damn talented, but definitely not annoying.
GREEN LEGEND RAN (1992, OVA): Released in the U.S. as a movie way back in the day. It has an old school save-the-earth theme, kind of like THE E.Y.E.S. OF MARS (1993), but has a wider scope. Flawed but fun, I think.
EARTHIAN (1989, OVA): I don’t watch yaoi or shounen-ai at all, but the narrative presentation and execution in this title was so promising, any casual fan could readily forget the handsome dudes romancing at the story’s center.
The only one I’ve heard of on your list is Koi Kaze, mostly because my knowledge of pre-2000 anime is limited I’m afraid =/
I’ve now been back to this post to watch the “Ginga Densetsu Weed” op for the third time. What a great opening – GARRR!!!
A DOG’S GOTTA DO WHAT A DOG’S GOTTA DO – GARRRR!!!
(It really puts you in a seinen mood…. ^^)
LOL, I didn’t know the Weed OP would appeal to you so much. Have you listened to the full version? We should try it at karaoke next time XD I think you’d probably like the show since it’s filled with shonen elements – if you can put up with watching dogs in action rather than bishounen that is ^^a
I have heard of Ginga Densetsu WEED and Massugu Ni Ikou. Have you seen the first Ginga series? Ginga Nagareboshi Gin? Personally, they are among my favorite animes.
Hourglass of Summer Colors, a 2-episode OVA. Also, Yokohama Shopping Trip. Wish it were on DVD or that the manga were translated into English.
Le Portrait de Petite Cossette–3 ep. OVA. Beautiful art, not sure about the story.
The Snow Queen–saw 23 episodes on Fansubs. Where are the other 13? Why is it not licenced? It’s a Scandavian-style anthology with perfect rustic atmosphere in its art, characters, music, and stories.
Kigeki–a short film of an Irish legend set to “Ave Maria.” It’s ten minutes long, go to YouTube and watch it!
Earth Maiden Arjuna–it doesn’t seem to have much of a fanbase, but it’s a more mature take on the magical girl genre.
I saw Texhnolyze last year. I don’t know if it hits the “least known” category, but it certainly isn’t as well-known as ABe’s other series, Lain and Haibane Renmei. Well, there’s also NieA_7, but I’m not sure about the fanbase of that one.
Fantastic Children seems to be pretty obscure, which is a shame because it’s a unique, epic story with a rather well-done tragedy at its heart. And a great score.
Going to watch Sola, Emma, and Key the Metal Idol next. Those aren’t well-known.
Yay I’ve heard of every anime on your list! A few anime’s that I’ve seen that I don’t think are very well known:
Slap up party ~arad senki~ (I love this anime!! I’ve seen it 12 times already!)
07-Ghost
Tokko ( cliffhanger ending ;_; )
Witch Hunter Robin
Lamune
Code-E
Wolfs-rain
Kobato
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan
Dogs: Bullets & Carnage (manga)
B.ichi (manga)
Shinigami no Ballad
Kyo no Gononi
Shion no ou
Togari (best manga EVER)
Petopeto san
Kuragehime
no glass fleet? it was not popular atall. made sept 2006(first air date) made by Gonzo and Funimation, sort of like the french revoulution in space+a lot of awesome.