Your ideal anime/manga order

If you could instruct your younger self in the best order to watch your favourite anime or read your favoiurite Manga, what would it be and why?

Would you put the darkest works first, or mix them up with light-hearted stuff?

Do you believe that there is an ideal order? Or do you just want to leave out some of the ones you aren't quite so fond of?

Feel free to ignore actual release dates since this is hypothetical anyway. And include stuff like games, visual novels and light novels if you feel they are relevant.

For me, my original order was something like: Princess Mononoke, Fate Stay Night, Code Geass, FLCL, Darker Than Black, Haruhi Suzumiya, Rozen Maiden, Kaze No Stigma, Devil May Cry, Rune Soldier Louie, Sailor Moon, Ranma ½, Princess Tutu, and then basically everything else on my anime list.

Don't ask me how I picked Anime before TVTropes, it was undoubtedly not pretty.

Basically I think Princess Mononoke is a good start for me. It hooked me, and I pretty inevitably came into contact with it.

However, apart from that I think I'd move some of the darker stuff to later. Maybe something more like:

Sailor Moon, Ranma ½, Code Geass, Darker Than Black, Fate Stay Night, Haruhi Suzumiya, Baccano, Mushishi, Angel Beats, Nichijou, Clannad, and beyond that everything I've rated at least a six on my list.

Well that's my strategy. I haven't really taken into account previous anime experience for these shows (except for Angel Beats. I expect It would have sadly less impact if I watched Clannad first, which is the only reason it's second), I'll also mention that I'd definitely leave Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei until later this time, so I get the full impact and some more of the jokes of the show.

I've also avoided showing my younger self the parts I like less, but perhaps this isn't the way to go if you want your younger self to learn the lesson of Sturgeon's Law.

So, what's your ideal order?

edited 15th Dec '11 2:20:52 AM by UltimatelySubjective

Order? I just watch/read whatever I liked.

I would change nothing, because I regret nothing.

Just watch everything in the same order I did, but skip the entirety of the fall 2004/spring 2005 season.

edited 15th Dec '11 3:35:52 AM by Dragonzordasaurus

Man, I don't give a shit what order I watch my anime in. (On a show-by-show basis, I mean. I don't just watch episodes in random order.)

My only regret is that now I'm too old to appreciate certain works that I would have really enjoyed when I was younger. Sailor Moon, Pokemon Special, Ojamajo Doremi, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt...

I'm also sad that I read Hunter X Hunter before Yuu Yuu Hakusho, because frankly Hunter X Hunter is far superior (story-wise at least) and it shows. It would have been a great experience to follow Togashi's career from beginning to end and to have his works keep on improving as I went. The same goes for Love Hina and Ken Akamatsu. I don't think I can read any of his earlier works now that I've read Mahou Sensei Negima, but if I'd only read Love Hina when I was younger, I'm sure I would have at least enjoyed it.

Stuff like that aside, I regret nothing! Muahahaha.

Well, maybe that I wasted my life on Suzumiya Haruhi. But apart from that, nothing!

edited 15th Dec '11 9:58:25 AM by Anarchy

Wouldn't change too much, but I WOULD tell my younger self not to have the first anime I ever saw be X The Movie.

Seriously, I came out of it thinking, "Wow, anime really *is* random sex and violence with no plot!"

Instead, I would start with my second try, which just happened to be Princess Mononoke. And the rest, as they say, was history...

X? As in Clamp X?

Yes, as in the movie (not the TV series, which is supposedly much much better — I haven't seen it). The movie, as far as I know, has been critically panned everywhere.

Oh yeah, the tv series was way better.

And I think I'm fine with what life threw at me. Though I guess I would have liked it if my childhood had more mecha, it's kinda hard to find stuff like Getter Robo nowadays.