Ever since Hot Girl Summer CEO and creator, Megan the Stallion revealed her love for anime (as if I could love her any more), I’ve been making it my personal mission to get more people watching it. I always try to push the same 2 shows every time, Hunter X Hunter and Sailor Moon. When I was younger, there were only 2 things I wanted to be when I was older, either a writer or a sailor scout. The sailor scout thing wasn’t possible obviously so here I am now!

With so many shows to choose from, how do you pick the show to start with? With a short but sweet guide of the best starter animes, my humble picks of course:

Hunter X Hunter

Watch if you like: action, coming of age shows, weird villains 

HXH is based on Yoshihiro Togashi's manga and begins with a young boy named Gon Freecss, who discovers that his dead dad is actually alive, as you do. He learns that Ging (dad), is a legendary "Hunter", someone who has gone through the Hunter Exam and is meant to be the best of the best of a certain area like treasure hunting for example. Even though Gon now knows that Ging abandoned him to to pursue his own dreams, he becomes determined to follow in his father's footsteps, pass the "rigorous Hunter Examination", and eventually find his father to become a Hunter in his own right.

One of the greatest animes I've watched (so far) and if you will only watch one of the shows from this list, then please watch this one.

tip: give the first few episodes a chance, it does start off a bit slowly but picks up around episode 10! 

FairyTail

Watch if you like: fighting, the power of friendship type shows, magic 

Do you want to discover what the power of friendship can achieve while watching a group of idiots (in a nice way) kick ass? Then FairyTail is the show for you! It is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima and is set on Earth-land where there are numerous guilds where wizards apply their magic for paid job requests. Natsu Dragneel, a dragon slayer wizard from the Fairy Tail guild, explores the Kingdom of Fiore in search of his missing adoptive father, the dragon Igneel. He then forms a team with Lucy Heartfilia a celestial wizard, his cat Happy, Gray Fullbuster, an ice wizard; Erza Scarlet, a magical knight; and Wendy Marvell and Carla, another dragon slayer and cat duo. The team embark on numerous missions together, which include subduing criminals, illegal dark guilds, and ancient demons.

The whole 'power of friendship' schpiel can get a bit repetitive with this one but the overall storyline and hilarious characters definitely make up for it.

tip: they have a lot of filler episodes so it may be worth skipping those to stay on track for the main story 

Boku No Hero Academia

Watch if you like: superheroes, shows with a school theme

Boku no Hero is a Japanese superhero manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It follows Izuku Midoriya, a boy born without superpowers (called Quirks) in a world where they have become the norm, so you're pretty much regarded as a weirdo if you don't have one.  He still dreams of becoming a hero himself and is scouted by Japan's greatest hero, All Might, who shares his quirk with Izuku after recognising his potential, and later helps to enrol him in a prestigious high school for heroes in training.

This show is quite new but it's already one of my favourites, it's one of the only shows where you end up loving each and every character as equally as you do Izuku and the character development is very well done. 

tip: not a show to have on in the background, there are quite a few characters so it pays to pay attention.

Sailor Moon

Watch if you like: romance, princesses, predominately female characters 

When it comes to this show, I am incredibly biased but I will try to be as objective as possible. Sailor Moon is based on a shōjo (geared towards girls specifically) manga series created by Naoko Takeuchi. It's about a schoolgirl named Usagi Tsukino who transforms into Sailor Moon and with help from the Sailor Soldiers, scouts in the english version, fights evil and searches for the Legendary Silver Crystal. 

A new adaptation called Sailor Moon Crystal was released with the original Sailor Moon (Kotono Mitsuishi) reprising her role. Getting to watch these episodes again has brought back so much nostalgia and they're strictly following the manga for this one so there's something new every few episodes!

tip: there are movies after each season, leave these until you've finished the show, they only make the story more confusing. 

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Watch if you like: comedy, absurd story-lines, superpowers 

The strangest show on this list but also the funniest. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K is a gag manga series written and illustrated by Shūichi Asō Kusuo. Saiki is a high school student who was born with psychic powers, including telepathy, psychokinesis, teleportation, and many more. Despite having all these powers, Saiki faces all kinds of hardships and tries to avoid attention as much as possible. The story follows Saiki as he attempts to secretly use his powers to live a normal high school life while dealing with his classmates at P.K. Academy.

This show is on Netflix and downloadable, perfect to watch after a shit day when you're in need of a laugh

tip: Every episode is random but there is a bit of a story-line so definitely watch in order

One-Punch Man

Watch if you like: comedy, fighting and gore, superpowers 

One Punch Man is superhero web manga created by ONE, the series quickly went viral, surpassing 7.9 million hits in June 2012. Saitama is a bald-headed 25-year-old man who is bored of fighting because he is able to defeat enemies with a single punch. Three years before the start of the series (back when he had hair), Saitama was applying for jobs as a salaryman, when he defeats a crab-like monster that attempted to kill a child. He then decides to become a hero 'for the fun of it' and achieves this with a daily workout that I can only describe as vomit worthy: 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, a 10 km run, eating right, and not using the air conditioner or heater to strengthen his willpower.

tip: Please don’t copy his workout routine, trust me I tried and it didn’t end well