Koe de Oshigoto! The Animation

These are H&E series I'd categorize as "Progressive."

This doesn't indicate quality, originality, or anything sociopolitical so much as being H&E series that have priorities which radically depart from traditional H&E priorities. They could do anything from use some wacky narrative structure to implementing ecchi in some way to focusing more heavily on the MC relative to the harem. Things that go outside of the priorities stated in the traditionalist stack, and either in ways that are far too pronounced to be considered moderate, departing from tradition far too often to be considered moderate, or both.

I'm not saying these series don't tend to appeal to H&E fans, or might appeal more to people who don't typically like H&E. I'm saying that these are the series that don't adhere to traditional sensibilities within the genre, for better or for worse.

Comedy Anime With Great Well Written Characters...

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.

self-explanatory title, the anime in this list have uncommon themes, like pottery, microbes, and (why not?) designing every life form that God wants. either this, or they have an unusual setting; like, a surrealist world or even your body. no, really; it may not be yours, but the setting of the anime is, indeed, a human body!

also, a bunch of those anime are part of the CGDCT sub-genre, since they seem to have pretty unusual topics

list of animes that are usually 15 minutes short with some lewd jokes.

these are the one that I remember for now...

feel free to suggest more if you know of some.

In continuation of my stack of anime adaptations of visual novels https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9471 , I want to present you with a stack of anime that in one way or another relate to either the eroge industry, or the fandom or meta culture associated with it. For example, shows where characters develop visual novels, anime that parody the clichés and archetypes of visual novels, or series where characters enter the world of visual novels, making the most of the meta-narrative of this type of media. In the latter, of course, I tried to include only real meta shows, avoiding otome and eroge isekai where this setting is just wish fulfillment without any meta.