Anime/Manga Series that grew on you

There's an unofficial "3 episode rule" for a reason. Some series take a while to get going and hook you in. Has there ever been an anime that you were either bored with or disliked at first but later came to enjoy? If so please share what anime they were and what exactly the turning point was for you.

For me it was Hunter x Hunter and Legend Of The Galactic Heroes. I always respected HxH for being a unique shounen that had clear influences on Naruto but it wasn't until coming across Aleczandxr's videos on the series that I could fully understand and appreciate things that initially went over my head.

With LOTGH I think it took about 20 episodes since a lot of the dry political talk and ongoing power struggle can be hard to care about until you get invested in the characters themselves. Once I started to care for characters on both sides of the political power struggle though it became one of my favorite anime of all time. It's like Star Wars meets The Wire lol.

A lot of SoL and Comedy anime can take a few episodes to grow on me. Most recently a friend got me watching Kaguya-sama: Love is War and it didn't do much for me at the start. It's grown on me a lot over the last few episodes though, especially now I've gotten better at tuning out the narrator.

WataTen. I decided to check the anime out after seeing a funny clip from it on youtube. At first I was incredibly put off by Miyako's questionable preferences. I even ended up dropping it after the first episode. I can't remember what made me give it another shot but seeing Miyako struggle in everyday life and improving as a person got me invested and I ended up binging the series. I wouldn't say it was amazing, but it did give me a warm feeling on the inside. The theme of the show is still kinda creepy ngl

one punch man. I originally thought it was meh and the protagonist was really silly looking (in a bad way). friend asked me to watch it online and I was so not into it (but of course agreed to watch anyway because I'm too nice), that I was tabbed out doing something else for most of the time :x then years later when I was a lot more into it and went to rewatch, I was like ??? I thought I watched this anime, why don't I remember this episode?? before remembering I didn't actually watch 90% of the first one ahaha. took me a few weeks and halfway into the show to start caring enough.

Tokyo Ghoul. I think at the time, I couldn't understand the hype of it because the first few episodes for me were hard for me to process (Sorry), but eventually once I got into it, it was amazing. I ended up watching both seasons in a few days, along with the OVA.

Fire Force. I got through about half of the first season and then ended up abandoning it. Didn't pick it back up until I was staying with my mom in between moving apartments and couldn't find anything else to watch. Binged through the last half of the first season overnight and have since been keeping up with the second season.

Sailor Moon. At first I thought it was just corny and kind of repetitive. Over time the characters grew on me. I also started to adore the gorgeous backgrounds and pastel colors. I also learned to not binge the show so the episodic nature no longer bothered me.

Definitely Gintama. I initially could not get into it and did not find it funny, nor did I find the more serious arcs to be compelling, but I eventually gave it a second chance and ended up liking it.

For me it'd be " I am maad scienteesto"


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Wait gimme a minute what was it called?
Ah yes.
Steins; Gate!
It took too long (for my tastes) to pick up but wow it was one heck of a ride and something I'd definitely consider worth it. I had abandoned it twice.
First at episode 3.
Second at episode 8.

I had reached a really low point in life so I thought might as well just watch something to distract myself.
Steins; Gate did wonders.

Black Clover. I almost dropped it because Asta's voice was making my ears bleed but I'm glad I stuck through as it got a lot better after episode 4.

It has a lot of Naruto and Fairy tail vibes but I enjoy the series a lot now.

Sapphire Rose said:

It has a lot of Naruto and Fairy tail vibes but I enjoy the series a lot now.

Click to expand...

You say this like it's a bad thing.

You're still not going to convince me to watch all that though.

Clannad. It was my first and, to this day, only slice-of-life anime I have seen. I was bored one time so I watched it because it looked cute. I adored the artstyle and huge eyes, and then I got hooked. I grew attached to the characters and the mc because at the time I was in high school and I had a bit of a slacker mentality. I watched the English Dub thinking it sounded amazing for an English dub, and I still hold that belief. I ended up watching it the whole way through including after story, and then it made me cry like a new born baby.

Definitely Ping Pong the Animation. The artstyle turned me off so much that I'd almost dropped it on the first episodes, but I decided to watch the next two eps since it was unconventional as a sports anime (ping pong as opposed to say, football or baseball). The plot had me hooked by the third episode and it ended up being one of my favourite anime from 2014. Never judge an anime by its art style lol, might very well be a stylistic choice.

Clannad. I discovered the title late around 2016 and decided to give it a go, to my surprise, I'm out of tissues.

Definitely showed how the real life works from different perspectives and I respect how each character grew from start to finish. It was definitely a great adventure for me!