[carl_dr]

> Note that this article shouldn't necessarily be used as a way to find new things to watch; there are some clangers in there to avoid.

Are there any “much watchers” in the list? For someone who is visiting Japan later this month, has been a couple of times before, and has some (very!) basic language?

[livueta]

Well, taste is subjective and all that but out of that list, I'd say these are fairly objectively successful and popular if you're willing to take that as a rough proxy for "good": Haikyuu, Yuru Camp, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, Girls und Panzer, K-On, Haruhi, and the Shinkai films

I personally also quite like Hanasaku Iroha, Barakamon, Natsume Yuujinchou, Night is Short and Summer Time Rendering

Kinda depends on what you're looking for, e.g. Haikyuu is very much a sports anime and does a lot with the tropes of that genre. If you just want to watch a single good thing that has a bearing on a locality in Japan and isn't a project in and of itself (cough Haruhi cough) or otherwise cult, I'd say just watch Wolf Children.

[aidenn0]

FYI for "The Shinkai films" it's Your Name and 5 Centimeters Per Second.

The first is the second largest domestic box office ever for Japan (after Spirited Away) while also being critically acclaimed.

The latter is quite well received critically, but was less popular (without spoiling anything, the ending is somewhat divisive). Still at a 63 minute runtime it's well worth watching, IMO.

Also, I'll second the Wolf Children recommendation. Everybody in my family liked it, and that's rather rare for a film.

[carl_dr]

Thanks, Wolf Children is a good place to start I think!

[carl_dr]

Thanks, I'll take a look at some of those.