Favorite obscure anime

[Greenfrost]

What's your favorite obscure anime? Mine's, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.

 

[Manko-sensei]

Only one? Probably Inferno Cop.

 

[Angry_Panda]

What's your favorite obscure anime? Mine's, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.

I have the box set - it's one of the series I hung on to when I sold most of my collection.

Personally, Excel Saga is a favorite. I should rewatch that again.

 

[BakedBanana]

Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!, I especially like it's ED which is very unique compared to most animes:

 

[Basic_human]

Crap I love saiki kusuo

24 episode and genuinely laughed my ass.

 

[araya_tatsuya]

Crap I love saiki kusuo

24 episode and genuinely laughed my ass.

same here

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

Either my entry Drug, Rozen Maiden, or my all time favourite Steins;Gate.

 

[ononrf]

idk

 

[MilkDrinker]

Eve no Jikan

 

[DavidianMillerian]

Steins;Gate

hey he said obscure

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

hey he said obscure

Honestly, it kinda feels like it is obscure. At least for people who aren't that deep into it.

 

[DavidianMillerian]

Honestly, it kinda feels like it is obscure. At least for people who aren't that deep into it.

yeah I can understand that, as somebody who watched the entire thing, I still don't get a lot of stuff

maybe I'll rewatch it later

(hold on a minute, I'm stupid, this is about obscurity)

 

[undeed]

what does "obscure" even mean?
is it obscure because it is old? where is the cutoff?
some hardcore would define "obscure media" as media that is lost, no longer available, or you can no longer legally access,

which means to me, for anime , if it is at least not an OVA or OAD, then I think it is not really obscure,
and even then, nowadays you can watch OVAs legally on various streaming platforms

for OVA, I really like Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, but I see that you can watch it on crunchyroll
so my second pick would be Macross Zero
(not that I watched many OVAs to begin with)

 

[PantsMan]

I'm a basic bitch when it comes to my taste in anime, so I don't think anything I really enjoyed would qualify as obscure. I have a big soft spot for the original Macross series, though (even despite the spotty quality, like that terrible "dream episode").

Every other series in that franchise I've seen since then seems to get the series' appeal less and less as time goes on; even DYRL compromises on a lot of the points that made the original unique (but makes up for it with that lavish animation quality and that beautiful ending). Macross: Frontier, you fucker, you're not even close to being worthy of using "Do You Remember Love".

 

[PantsMan]

Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!

This CGDCT looks wild.

 

[BakedBanana]

This CGDCT looks wild.

 

[Manko-sensei]

what does "obscure" even mean?
is it obscure because it is old? where is the cutoff?
some hardcore would define "obscure media" as media that is lost, no longer available, or you can no longer legally access,

which means to me, for anime , if it is at least not an OVA or OAD, then I think it is not really obscure,
and even then, nowadays you can watch OVAs legally on various streaming platforms

for OVA, I really like Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, but I see that you can watch it on crunchyroll
so my second pick would be Macross Zero
(not that I watched many OVAs to begin with)

You can always check the magic book called dictionary, it gives the answers. When this is asked they mean not well known, it has nothing to do with being old. Steins;Gate was extremely popular and only the most casual ones (or half of the Gen Z kiddos) has not watched it yet. For instance, Candy Boy is obscure to non-yuri fans (well, even among yuri fans) or simply people who didn't watch anime around those years, but Grey: Digital Target is not well known because only those who dig deep get to know these kind of titles. In the case of the latter, being old has nothing to do, as Akira is mostly as old as it but everyone knows about it even nowadays normies because like Steins;Gate people keep recommending it. A Wind Called Amnesia (ironical) falls under the same category of Grey, but Galaxy Express 999 is not obscure at all, but not as popular as Akira. Megazone 23 could be argueable, since up to Gen Y people knew about it but Gen Z is alien to it. I could compare more old anime or anime from the 2000s and even later, but I think it's more than clear now.
PS: Macross saga is not obscure at all, even nowadays they keep releasing stuff. I don't know about your first pick, since I detest mecha so I completely avoid it unless there's something more.

 

[undeed]

You can always check the magic book called dictionary, it gives the answers. When this is asked they mean not well known, it has nothing to do with being old. Steins;Gate was extremely popular and only the most casual ones (or half of the Gen Z kiddos) has not watched it yet. For instance, Candy Boy is obscure to non-yuri fans (well, even among yuri fans) or simply people who didn't watch anime around those years, but Grey: Digital Target is not well known because only those who dig deep get to know these kind of titles. In the case of the latter, being old has nothing to do, as Akira is mostly as old as it but everyone knows about it even nowadays normies because like Steins;Gate people keep recommending it. A Wind Called Amnesia (ironical) falls under the same category of Grey, but Galaxy Express 999 is not obscure at all, but not as popular as Akira. Megazone 23 could be argueable, since up to Gen Y people knew about it but Gen Z is alien to it. I could compare more old anime or anime from the 2000s and even later, but I think it's more than clear now.
PS: Macross saga is not obscure at all, even nowadays they keep releasing stuff. I don't know about your first pick, since I detest mecha so I completely avoid it unless there's something more.

I think you are contradicting yourself there

obscure to non-yuri fans (well, even among yuri fans)

vs

Macross saga is not obscure at all,

well then, I'd argue that Macross might be obscure to non Mecha fans

and again, please enlighten me, how do you clearly define that a media is not well known?
what is the clear cut?
for not being talked?
well then again, I'd argue that any media is obscure to anyone who is outside that media's fan/talk bubble

that's why for me I'd define this anime obscure as the OVAs and OADs, because once the physical relases are sold out, there is an actual "obstruction" or difficulties for anyone to consume the media (at least legally)
and that's what I understand people refers as "obscure media"

 

[Manko-sensei]

There's no contradiction at all, yuri is still considered niche and even among yuri fans I found people who I was talking to that never heard about Candy Boy. I am not using quantitative data as an argument because everyone can check that if they really have interest in comparing titles, both in terms of people who watched it/rated it and amount of comments + reviews. Mecha genre is there since the 70s, whereas yuri only since the mid 2000s, and in particular Macross franchise started in the 80s and there are yet TBA projects nowadays, I find it ridicule to say that something that has survived for more than 40 years is "obscure". They may not have seen/read the entire saga, but people know Macross as well as Mazinger Z or Gundam because they were screened dubbed in a lot of countries and the three of them are iconic. It'd be good if you supported somehow your arguments, since not only DVDs/Blu-ray/streaming rights have provided huge income to the creators plus all the merchandising. And well, I find it laughable that "they need to be accesibly legally" for not being obscure when pirated stuff has contributed to make works more known and alive. Maybe it just that you've been around less time than me or have talked to less people (or didn't even cared about contrasting anything I said), but for me, someone who's not fan of the genre, these three titles are as obscure as Dragon Ball, Naruto or One Piece. And well, if you want to watch Candy Boy, either use an illegal streaming site or torrent, unless you have Japanese friends.

 

[undeed]

well then, since you're not using quantitative data as an argument, then it is back to my argument that any media is obscure to anyone who is outside that media's fan/talk bubble,

yeah, my argument might be weak, because you said that Macross saga is not obscure,
but I picked just one title within the well known Macross umbrella, which is within the well known Mech umbrella.
I can say that you picked just one title within the well known Yuri umbrella, which is within the well known Romance umbrella

like you said that even among yuri fans there are people who never heard about Candy Boy, I also know several people who never knew other iterations of Macross aside from the original, or never knew about Gundam OVAs aside from the popular TV versions.
heck, I've read 150+ yuri stories by my count, and it doesn't even scratch 10% of what is listed on mal,
and I didn't say the entire Macross saga is obscure, I picked only one title which I considered to be obscure.

so my argument still stand, by your definition, anything can be considered obscure
even your link said that it is the 3rd highest rated/most popular even higher than my pick
it even had several iterations
I'd say it is not really "not well known"

that's why I want to narrow the scope
which is: if I cannot directly, easily, and safely consume it, then it is obscured to me
something makes it harder for me to see it

I said nothing about income and merchandise
because as you said about piracy, nowadays you can practically search anything on the internet, and go out of your way to deep dive into the high seas to acquire it. So every anime is technically available to the general public (maybe apart from the highly illegal stuffs)
so I just throw that illegality there for the easily accessed part
just like your Candy Boy, if it takes extra effort to watch it, then to me it is obscure

edit:
here's one more dumb argument from me,
streaming platform only pick titles that are popular, well known, those that people want to watch
they don't want to try licensing the "not well known" or "obscure" titles and then lose profits
so, if the anime is not available legally, I can safely say it is quite obscure

I have almost 1K anime on my list, I need some specific criteria to narrow things down