jghiorse

Aoi Hana is still, so far, one of the most realistic portrayals of female homosexuality I’ve seen. Otsu Hiyori also tends to write pretty realistic portrayals, and although all characters are high school age, they’re not all in a school setting, which is always nice.
I definitely tend to lean towards yuri which isn’t over exaggerated. God knows how Kannazuki no Miko or Marimite ever became popular in the first place, Kannazuki for just being plain terrible, and Marimite for being the most boring manga I may have ever read in my life – which is really saying something.
The yuri genre really does need to step up it’s game, and this article does a great way of showing that.

I just watched Mekakucity Actors this summer, after catching up on the manga. I don’t agree that certain episodes should’ve been merged, because a lot more would’ve been left out rather than added. Instead, the main issue seemed to be exactly as you’re saying – there’s just too much information to cram into 13 episodes. The only solution to this would’ve been to extend the series into at least 22-26.
The world of Kagepro is honestly just really intricate, there are so many details winding together to create the story, and everyone’s backstory is not only relevant, but vital to understanding what’s happening. It’s not plot-based, but rather character-based, and so it had to develop every single character thoroughly, which it failed to do.
I remember thinking about how disappointed I was that we didn’t get more of an explanation for Black Konoha in the anime, though the manga does a wonderful job in introducing him and then thrusting us back in time almost immediately afterwards. That was only one character who ended up being pretty underdeveloped, but it’s the best example of information that would’ve been useful in the anime that I only knew about from reading the manga, because Black Konoha’s appearance helps to hint at the time-jumps and explain the triggers to why time reverses itself.
While Kagerou Project is extremely fantastic, you’re completely right that Mekakucity Actors just wasn’t up to par. The series had so much potential and they botched it.

Shaman King was a great anime, I almost forgot about it! Just out of curiosity, did you ever watch Yu Yu Hakusho?
And I suppose you’re right about the whole raised eyebrows thing. That’s something I didn’t really think of. Naruto was and always will be a great gateway, regardless of length, so I totally agree with that one.

I definitely agree with most of these. Actually, I was really excited to see some of my own gateway anime in this list! What I was surprised about was that I never saw Fruits Basket, which is a great example of a show that eases the audience into anime tropes and cultural differences while giving its audience a pretty good laugh.
Of course, every show has its cons, and Fruits Basket is definitely a show that overdoes the over dramatic in some cases, but as a gateway, it really is a good option.
I also agree with the person who said ongoing anime aren’t good for a gateway. I started Bleach back before it had 300 episodes, and at the time, it was good, but if I were to start watching it now, I would lose motivation pretty quickly (the plotline also gets pretty weak and repetitive later, or so I hear, so that could have something to do with it). I was late in starting Fairy Tail, as well, and got to about episode 120 before I had to take a very long break. One Piece is way too much to start out with.
All-in-all though, this is a pretty good list, and I loved reading this article!