Returning to Anime? The Best Anime Series of 2017 That You Missed

Been away from anime for awhile? We understand. You go out
and have your life, anime will always be waiting for you when you come back.
They always come back. If you are finally coming back and stopped watching
sometime in or before 2017, here are all the best anime series that you missed
and definitely should go back and watch.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Kobayashi is a programmer and single office lady that lives
alone. One morning, she opens the door to find a dragon named Tohru there. The
dragon immediately turns into a busty maid and wants to repay her life debt to
Kobayashi by cleaning, cooking, and doing other various things. Apparently,
Kobayashi got drunk one night, wandering into the forest, and saved Tohru’s
life, so she accepts the agreement.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is simultaneously as weird as you think and not as weird as you think. In reality, instead of being overly uncomfortable, it is a delightful comedy about an ever-growing gang of dragons integrating into the human world. As per fantasy rules, dragons immediately make everything better, like beach episodes, dodge ball, frolicking in the fields, playing video games, and even cooking. In all seriousness, it’s a great comedy and creates a non-boring slice of life show for people that aren’t usually into the genre.

Scum’s Wish

By all appearances, Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya look
like the perfect couple. However, both of them are only together because they
are both in love with someone else. Both of these other loves are unobtainable
goals in the form of a childhood-friend-now-homeroom-teacher and the other an
older tutor. While they each long for their respective loves, they found solace
in each other’s arms.

What I found most charming about this show is it is set up
like a dramatic romance show, but all the characters are just awful human
beings in one way or another, much like real human beings. The drama is
different than your standard romance and it places a big emphasis on sex rather
than love.

Tsuki ga Kirei

For the first time in their third year, Azumi and Mizuno
became classmates for the first time. These two, alongside their other classmates,
relate to their peers through their feelings. As the year progresses, the group
must come to face themselves as they mature and overcome challenges.

If you like romance shows, this is a must. The genre has hit
a touch of a dry spell, but this was refreshing in every way because it doesn’t
feature heavy, forced, or even standard romantic drama. The drama comes from
standard problems that arise from growing up.

Interview With Monster Girls

Demi-humans have slowly become an accepted part of human
society, but the acceptance is not always completely there. Tetsuo Takahashi is
a biology teacher with an interest in demi-humans and believes acceptance could
be fostered by more knowledge. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know any demi’s to
talk to. That is, until he finds three students at his school and a fellow
teacher that is a demi-human.

The first lovely thing about this show to note is it is a
show about a male teacher researching monster girls, but it is not an ecchi
show. He’s not creeping on kids, but rather has feelings for an adult monster
girl and fellow teacher, so that’s nice that it doesn’t make things weird.
Anyway, this is more light-hearted comedy that places emphasis on problems
monster girls would face, like issues with carrying your own head or what vampires
do to satisfy their need to bite.

Made in Abyss

The Abyss is an enormous cave system and the only unexplored
place in the world. No one knows how deep it goes, but generations of bold
adventurers have descended into it. In the town at the edge of The Abyss, an
orphan named Rico dreams of raiding, as her mother did before her. One day
while exploring the murky depths, she meets a boy, who turns out to be a robot,
kicking off the start of her epic adventure.

A lot of people look at this show and its child-like design
and probably give it a pass. Yet, it is much darker than you think and actually
weaves a really intriguing adventure story.

Kakegurui

Hyakkaou Private Academy is an institution for the elite of
society with a very special curriculum. These students are the children of the
wealthiest people in the world, but they won’t need athletic prowess or book
smarts for a successful life, they will need to know the art of the deal and
how to read people. So instead of traditional classes, this school features a
curriculum of rigorous gambling where the winners live like kings and the
losers suffer. However, they haven’t seen anything yet until they meet new
student Yumeko Jabami.

This show, admittedly is not for everyone. However, if you like gambling anime or at least really intense games, then Kakegurui excels in that. Furthermore, it has some really interesting visuals to it.

Black Clover

After being abandoned at the same church, Asta and Yuno grew
up together. Together they grew up aiming for the same title – The Wizard King,
the strongest wizard in the kingdom. However, it became soon apparent that
while Yuno has skill with magic, but Asta couldn’t use it at all. However, this
all changed when they were attacked and Asta was given a strange grimoire that
granted him skill in magic.

This show got off to a bit of a bad start because, like any shounen series, it needed a bit to wind up. It takes a bit to slip those generic shounen trappings, but once it gets to the big battles and the badass magic, it can really blow you away. If things like Bleach, Naruto, or Fairy Tail were ever your jam, then this is a pretty good next watch.

Blend S

Maika is a person with naturally bad luck, although much of
that comes from her mean-looking eyes. These eyes have since prevented her from
gaining part-time employment in order to fund her dreams of studying abroad.
However, one day she meets a man named Dino who runs a very special café.
Inside, the waitresses all adopt very specific personas for the customers, and
Dino wants Maika to be his sadistic-type girl. However, despite having the eyes
for it, Maika isn’t a sadist.

Outside of the meme-able OP, Blend S did present a low-key fun show. It follows the girls that work at a café where each has a specific personality. However, the actual girls playing those personalities are often not like them at all, which therein creates much of the comedy.

Little Witch Academia

Although Atsuko is an ordinary girl, she became enamored by
witches and magic by a magic show she saw as a kid hosted by a witch named
Shiny Chariot. Now she has aspires to be a witch, taking the first step by
joining a renowned academy for witches call Luna Nova Academy. Although she
faces hardship as a first generation witch and fan of Shiny Chariot, whom many
consider a fraud, she and her two friends do their best each new day.

For some, saying it is an anime by Trigger is enough for them. However, if you don’t care about that, think of this as Harry Potter, but with an all-girl trio and super fluid animation. It is both quirky and magical, but everything about it is enjoyable.

Saga of Tanya The Evil

Once one of Japan’s most elite salarymen, Tanya is reborn as
a little girl with porcelain skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes after pissing off
a mysterious being that calls himself God. Now she uses the memories and
experience from her past life to spread terror on the front lines of war,
becoming one of the most dangerous people in the imperial army.

As anime has an over-saturation of isekai these days, it always good when you find something that tries to do something different with it. In this series, it turns a salaryman into a little girl and you watch her be cute and insane in the middle of a war. If nothing else, the facial expressions in this one are gold.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride

After being abandoned by her family, Chise Hatori is a
16-year-old teenager without hope. In order to not have to worry about herself,
she sells herself to slavers, only to be purchased by Magus Elias Ainsworth.
There she is told she will become his apprentice and, in the future, his bride.
Together they work together to build a relationship and work to control her own
magus powers that will eventually result in her early death.

Obviously, this is set up to be a romance. However, what you got was actually a lot more than that. This series took things very slow and very seriously. Often much of the focus was exploring the magical world around the characters, and that was really what it needed to do. The romance had some nice moments, but really you watch the next episode to find out what creature or area they will visit next.

Gamers

This is the tale of lonely Keita Amano who loves video games
and the video game club at his school that ardently tries to recruit him. While
each member of the club is distinctly different, they are all united through
their love of games.

Chances are if you are into anime, you like games. It’s not guaranteed, but it is an educated guess. However, despite this marketing itself about gamers and starting off strongly in that respect, make no mistake, this is a romantic comedy. The more you watch, the less it becomes about games.

Inuyashiki

At only 58 years old, years of overwork and stress has
Inuyashiki Ichirou looking like he is well into his 80’s. Ignored and
disrespected by his family as well as diagnosed with cancer, all seems
hopeless. However, a light descends from the sky and strikes Ichirou where he
stands. When he awakens, he finds he is a new man, one augmented with alien
technology. However, he sees this as just the power he needs to become a hero
and earn the respect of his family.

You know, while it is clunky sometimes, this series shows that yes, CGI does sometimes does have a place. However, the real star is the story. It tells a fantastic story of a man that has every reason to hate the world, yet tries to leave it better. His nemesis is just as interesting as well. While not a long story, it is definitely worth the watch for the action.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie

Morioka Moriko has had enough of being an overworked
corporate slave, so she decided to retire herself to the NEET lifestyle. While
at home, yearning for the previous connections she once made in online gaming,
she starts up a new MMO. There she creates her character, the handsome Hayashi.
However, in her newbie struggles she meets a Lily, another character willing to
help her and they begin to grow closer to each other. At the same time, in real
life, Moriko also has a shocking encounter with a handsome corporate employee.

What is probably most endearing about this show is that it shines a light on a lot of awkward and relatable things about being a kind of a nerdy, introverted person. If you have ever been really into MMOs at any point, you will definitely adore this.

Land of the Lustrous

In this world, Gems inhabit the ruins of a world. Taking on
certain characteristics, gems are assigned roles depending on their hardness.
The hardest among them fight the Lunarians, aliens that seek to shatter them to
decorate their own bodies. Phosphophyllite, or Phos, is young and fragile, but
wants desperately to help the war effort of fellow gems.

Some may be put off by the unique animation in this show,
but there is a surprising amount of depth under the surface here. Furthermore,
it is actually a lot darker and less generic than you expect going in. Get a
few episodes deep and make a judgement for yourself.

Tsurezure Children

Tsurezure Children depicts the many different scenarios of
young love. From the relationship between the student council president and a
rebel girl or a boy so cripple by his own lack of self-confidence that he can’t
accept a girl confessed to him. With many more tales within, you follow their
triumphs and failures throughout.

If you enjoy romance, then this rapid fire series is for you. It focuses on a large handful of couples, but as a 12-minute episode series, each couple only gets a couple minutes. Essentially it cuts out all the boring bits of a romance series and just shows those heart squeezing, warm and fuzzy bits.

Did we miss any more good anime series from 2017 that you would recommend? Let returning fans know in the comments section.