Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu

A list of Romance/School focused animes. There are also some comedy animes, besides some drama but not a heavy one.

I wrote a note in every anime I've watched.

Check the other rom-com stacks for more recommendations.

Part 1: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/3207
Part 3: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/3214

Bygone days spent as an otaku, often captured in OVA format, have been lost as trends shifted. It’s undeniably melancholic to see the evolving portrayal of otaku in a meta-sense and slowly watching the dwindling importance of Akiba-kei.

This will serve as a continually-updated list of anime that I feel are representative of "otakucore" being a type of show that promonently features otaku characters as one of the main characters, and depictes the zeitgeist of otaku culture/Akiba-kei during the time of airing. Some are less obvious as otaku-oriented, but still contain many elements that are appealing to databasing-types (computers, figures, video games etc.)

Genshiken, Daicon IV and Otaku no Video are the essentials :3

(Still adding WIP)

This is a weird concept for a list, but I think it's worth putting it out there. These are anime which I consider help understand anime better because of their referential humour, commentary on otaku culture (whether it's anime or gaming), exploration of the industry and twisting of classic tropes in self-aware ways that put them in perspective. Also included a couple shows which are not necessarily meta or referential, but they are here for being aggresively "anime" in nature, if that makes sense. With how over the top they are and/or how stereotypically otaku their concepts are, I think they give a good idea of how anime has developed.

Note: If you truly want to understand otaku culture and anime history, I think an absolute essential is a short show called "Blue Blazers". It is live action however, so it can't be added here. I strongly recommend you check it out, even if the humour can be cringy, because of how deep of an insight it gives into the history of anime and the industry.

Anime adaptations of various visual novels. Their total number is clearly more than the allowable limit, so I tried to add mainly adaptations of novels by well-known brands (Key, 5pb, Aquaplus), or those with well-known adaptations. Given the many sequels, spin-offs, and versions (especially in the case of the Fate series), I added only very first anime in the franchise.

Series where pretty much all or a large majority of characters are female, mostly CGDCT but also from genre other than slice of life and/or comedy

𝙍𝙀𝙂𝙐𝙇𝘼𝙍 𝙐𝙋𝘿𝘼𝙏𝙀𝙎 | 𝙌𝙐𝘼𝙇𝙄𝙏𝙔 𝙎𝙀𝙇𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 | 𝙑𝙄𝙎𝙄𝙏 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀 𝙁𝙊𝙍 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀
Anime where the main theme is gaming - playing, developing, learning etc.