Anime Color Wheel! When Opposites Match!

As I was bouncing around the anime blog-o-sphere recently, I happened upon an interesting post from Irina at Drunken Anime Blog about her blogging process. Part of her writing method includes watching seasonal anime episodes in a certain order so her viewing experience stays balanced. For example, she might watch a very violent anime like Chainsaw Man paired up with a light and fluffy anime like Play it Cool, Guys. It was interesting how she kept in mind to watch complimentary anime together to make both series more enjoyable. When I say “complimentary”, I don’t mean that the two anime say nice things about each other, but rather that they are like complimentary colors on a color wheel. They are different or even opposite colors but they look good together. Like how red and green look good together, or red, yellow, and blue look good together. Irina suggested that anime could be viewed in a similar way, but rather than with colors, the series could be categorized via the emotional content. Like a very scary anime could be paired with a very silly anime to compliment each other! Irina also threw out a gauntlet (not really a gauntlet, more like a fluffy mitten) that maybe someone could write a post about some anime series that might compliment each other. (gasp!) Someone like me?! I totally accept that challenge! So here are some anime series that might just be better together!

My 6 categories of anime will be: Scary (purple), Action Packed (red), Heart Warming (orange), Silly (yellow), Though Provoking (green), and Sad (blue)

Scary and Silly

Shiki (purple)

Shiki is a great anime to really scare your socks off! I often recommend this series for Halloween. It has plenty of suspense, mystery, and jump scares to keep you on the edge of your seat. I think the seemingly bucolic village life tainted by a dark and sinister plague that slowly creeps through the community, gives the story an even more dreadful vibe that slowly builds from one episode to the next. If you want to see 30 Days of Night or Salem’s Lot in anime form, than this is the series for you!

Onipan! (yellow)

After getting your heart racing with blood thirsty vampires out to eat everyone, what better way to calm down than with some silly oni girls! These cheerful demons are sent from Ogre island to the human world to improve the reputations of all ogre kind with the power of a silly song and their magic bloomers! From returning a lost toy to it’s very upset little owner to remembering not to fight at school, these good natured characters work hard to be the best citizens they can be. If you like bubbly Idol characters, but wished they did more volunteer work, this is the anime for you!

Sad and Heart Warming

Haibane Renmei (blue)

One thing I learned while compiling all the potential anime that could be featured in this post and then categorizing them into emotional content groups was that, I don’t watch much sad anime. It’s just a genre that I actively avoid. It’s not that I don’t enjoy good stories with depth and drama and emotion. It’s just that once I hear that an anime might have a slim chance of having a sad ending or even a sad part in it, I refuse to watch it because I cry suuuuuuper easy. Even though I do try to avoid sad endings, some still manage to sneak up on me. And that’s what happened with the sweet angel filled anime of Haibane Renmei. It starts out as a cute slice of life anime of a newly hatched angel girl that is learning about the bucolic village that she was born to. But little by little the pieces start falling together to form a very bleak picture. And then the end was so Sad! Soooo Sad!

My Love Story (orange)

To help dry your tears, there’s nothing better than a RomCom about a kind hearted big guy that just wants to fall in love! Unfortunately for him, he’s really big and kind of scary looking so all the girls at his high school tend to fall for his more diminutive and much nicer looking best friend. But after a heroic act on a train, this big lunk with a heart of gold might just have found a petite girl that has become quite smitten with him. Unfortunately for the big guy, he’s been spurned so many times, he might not recognize it even when a tiny love is staring him right in the face, and making him snacks every day.

Action Packed and Thought Provoking

My Hero Academia (red)

It’s hard to make an anime that is more action packed than one that is literally a training school for heroes! From the very first episode this anime is packed to the top with bad guys in monstrous forms attacking innocent bystanders, mighty heroes saving the day, a plucky and optimistic main character that isn’t afraid to jump in to help, a school bully with an explosive temper that you just know is going to become the main characters best friend in the future and of course the strongest, the bravest, the greatest hero of all that shows up just in the nick of time to save the day! And that’s just the first couple episodes. By episode three we already get a training montage!

Mushishi (green)

An action packed anime might get you fired up to run outside and get some exercise, but it’s important to exercise your mind too. And what better way to do that than to watch some truly thought provoking anime! Mushishi is a calm and at times relaxing anime about a traveler named Ginko that goes from village to village in rural Japan solving problems that the villagers have with the local spirits and little monsters that live in the nearby forests and mountains. Often the misdeeds of the local spirits is actually caused by the foolish actions of the villagers themselves. This anime really helps you think about how seemingly innocent little actions can have huge outcomes, the nature of being human, and the inevitability of life and death. The anime Mushishi is filled with questions and problems that will certainly have you pondering long after the episode has ended.

Thank You Irina!

I want to give a special shout out to Irina from Drunken Anime Blog.com for suggesting this topic for a blog post! It was an excellent idea and a lot of fun to write! She always has interesting and unique posts to read over at her blog, so please go check them out!