Great Underrated Series

Tetsuko no Tabi - MAL Score - 6,35 by 367 Users

This anime is both unpopular and under appreciated. I am not too surprised at this because it is a niche series. I personally enjoyed it precisely because it is something rather unique. What is unique about it you might ask? Well that is probably the fact that is a series all about the JR, the Japanese railway system.  

The story is about an author that gets tricked into writing a manga about travelling but unbeknownst to her it is quite literally about travelling, and accompanying her is the travel writer/ tetsuko (railway otaku.) So the series is literally about how she, her editor and the travel writer go around Japan using the widespread JR system.  It does not focus on the place they visit but the train stations since they hop from one train to another since their aim is to visit train stations and experience travelling in the JR system.

It is series with a particular focus that obviously means it is not for everyone, in that sense it is a niche series. This niche-ness shows itself in its lack of popularity in all anime sites like MAL and the likes. It is also rather lowly rated in such sites. It is not masterpiece but I feel like it is a refreshing series that can be rather peaceful and also show people a bit of the nature of Japan and its well developed transport system. 

It is not a technically impressive series either and the character designs are not great either. But it does have beautiful scenery and soothing music, so it is a great relaxing series that is probably not seen by many people because of its initial image and setting. 

Binchou-tan - MAL Score - 6.93 by 3.471 Users 

Another series that is not very popular, but this one seems to be regarded higher by people who watched at least according to MAL and other sites like it. It a short with only around 12 minutes duration plus it is like Tetsuko no Tabi now an older series. Similarly to it is also a slice of life series but it is a very different one. 

Binchou-tan is a series about a girl that lives  in a forest, who often goes into the city for work. She is rather poor and after the death of her grandmother has been living alone. Throughout the series she meets various other girls and makes friends with them. I do realise this is a series basically shaped around the characters who are all various different types of charcoal. Binchou-tan is one of those but she is the main character and the company that owns the mascot character, alchemist was one of the producers of the anime. 

There is no real story here, its just the daily life of the characters working, making friends and playing together. What specifically captivated me about this story, however, was the soundtrack which is so subtle and fits really well with the natural environment. it is rather quite series in that sense, so it is genuinely an excellent iyashikei work that warms my cynical heart.

Kemurikusa - MAL Score - 7.08 by 6.718 Users

An original work by Tatsuki, the director of the first season and surprising hit kemono friends. This is a series that seems to be largely overlooked simply because of the cheap CGI which was also present in Kemono Friends. It indeed looks dated and cheap but underneath that is a incredible story. 

The setting is a post apocalypse world and the main character, who has no memories, finds himself together with a set of sister trying to find resources to survive. It is a gloomy series with things looking rather hopeless as the fights are hard fought and we know there have been deaths in the groups previously and this creates an atmosphere of doom and gloom to the viewer that continues through every episode. 

However, that in itself is not necessarily why this series is great. In fact the reason, I believe it to be great is the story telling, which is natural. It flows incredibly well without any information dumps or poor exposition. The viewer is instead very much like the characters in the series clueless, as to what happened to the world. Throughout the series there are tiny hints of exposition that gradually form the picture of what happened and this is what Tatsuki and this series excels at. It can actually show a story instead of only tell it to viewer, it can immerse and leave the viewer curious and even perhaps confused as they try to from the hints understand the picture before it is unveiled. If what you want is an interesting story then you will find it here in this series, I guarantee. 

Kamichu - MAL Score - 7.10 by 14.778 Users

Another series that is somehow misunderstood, the main character in this series finds that she has become a god. This could be easily misunderstood for western audiences and the idea of god from the western abrahamic judeo tradition that is prominent within western culture. She is a god in the shinto sense, which might be better described as kami instead of using the word god with the connotations it has in western culture. 

Hence, she has become a kami and it gradually unveils how this has happened. However, this is not the focus of the series, the series is about her life and her friends and getting accustomed to this new state. This includes her attempts to get the attention of her crush and her friends using her kami state to boosts visits to their shrine. Alongside all this is her composed friend that has to accomodate to the strange events. I believe the blend of shinto cultural aspects such as the idea of kami means but also what they represent embedded into a slice of life series allows it to be a very interesting and soothing experience for slice of life fans. 

In addition, the animation of this series is excellent. The visuals and the animation are incredibly fluid and stunning. Of course, the pacing and the flow of the story likewise is also natural which is probably one of the benefits of being an original work, so the animation staff and the storyboard and screen compositor and script writer all can work together to create a natural work instead of piecing together someone's else work.  Finally, the music fits incredibly well with the rest of the work, so this a technically impressive work as well as a great slice of life series.

Windy Tales - MAL Score - 7.23 by 3.086 Users

Windy Tales has a specific artstyle that probably turned many people away in the past but I think it stands out in its unique style nowadays. This series has a very intriguing feeling, its for the most part a slice of life series with supernatural elements. The supernatural elements here are focuses are the wind. In Windy Tales, wind users exists and they can use the power of the wind to do many things. One of the main characters, Nao, witnesses a cat using this power and discovers that her maths teacher Taiki was the one who taught it. She becomes interested in learning how to do it herself, alongside her the other members of the photography club also attempt to learn it.

 In this setting, you might expect battles and action but you will not find this here. This is a self contained story and the wind powers are in part a way in which the students characters grow. Some students have an easier time than others which leads the others to questions what is the issue which in itself leads to introspective questioning since the ability of wind users are not tied with simply training or talent but with emotions. Hence in here, we have many stories exploring various issues such as budding romance, familial drama and the likes. How these themes are explored in conjunction with its general daily life feel adds a spray of realism.

The surreal animation style is incredibly unique and it gives the series an edge especially with the blend of realism in its day to day slice of life. It embraces its uniqueness and drives away with it and does not shy away from saying how different it is. If you a bit bored with normal anime stuff maybe give this a try.