Alright everyone! We surprisingly have never done this one before! So we’re going to have some fun with this one. Luna has watched and read a lot more Shoujo than Star who mainly watched Seinen growing up. With that being said it’s going to be not your average top highschool anime list. Anyways, let get to it.
Ouran Highschool Host Club
Although this is comedic classic, this anime has a lot of significance to how we met. This anime opening is such an ear bug that everyone knew this song. One overheard the other humming this song in gym locker room in highschool and the our story writes itself. (You can read more about our origin story here.) The anime however, is funny and cute. About a poor girl who breaks a vert expensive vase. In order to pay back what she owes she has to work at the host club, the establishment where she broke the vase.
Fruits Basket
This manga took American Millenials by storm in the early 2000s. One resulted in disappointment when the anime lost funding, but that didn’t stop the fans. Many kept reading, collecting, and obsessing about the series to the point where it could be rebooted and completed. This anime is about a girl who finds herself homeless to be semi-adopted by the richest families in her town only to discover members of the family are possessed by spirits of the zodiac and shapeshift when embraced by the opposite sex. As light-hearted as it sounds, it actually has serious depth and trauma that works as a sort of social-emotional learning that is important to understand the point of view of a person who has been hurt.
Kuzu no Honkai
This anime is incredibly controversial and that’s why I think it deserves to be on our list. People who have watched it have visceral reactions to it. It can feel relatable and eye-opening which can be surprising in a self-realization kind of way. It asks the viewers, “Are you or aren’t you okay with what you are watching?”. In this anime we watch high schooler and their teachers struggle through their romantic issues in and out of school. It bends friendship lines so intensely that they nearly break just so the characters can grow from their mistakes.
My Little Monster
It’s an adorable comedy, with the classic shoujo trope of opposites attract following a breakfast club of characters and a chicken. The main female protagonist is stern and studious and her male counterpart is impulsive and free-spirited. Watching the two dance their courtship is actually really enjoyable and sweet.
Full Metal Panic
It’s a mecha anime that’s a throw back for some of us millenials. Although their story has a whole lot of plot, it also has a whole lot of heart. Our confident female sweetheart teaches her male counterpart how to listen to his heart since it’s encased by metal. While also learning to co-exist with people his own age. The story goes, a secret agent goes undercover to at a highschool to protect another highschooler from unseen forces.
Kakegurui
So hear me out. This is about a high school for rich kids that’s built on a gambling system to determine popularity and power while the low-ranking poor members are treated like servants and slaves. So naturally, gambling becomes a huge part of the livelihood of these kids but everything is high stakes and the games can be heavily convoluted or very simple. Using deduction and ratio, logic and reason can only get someone so far. We follow some poor kids who rise to the top due to one of their obsessions with feeling the rush of winning and losing. It’s a psychological roller-coaster thriller that is high stakes in an orgasmic sort of way haha.
That concludes the list but there are definitely some honorable mentions like Say I love you, Death Note, Re-Main, The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-ON, Bochi the Rock, Komi-san can’t communicate and Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Also movies like Kimi no Nawa (Your name) and The girl who lept through time, as other must-sees about highschoolers navigating life in and out of school that can be found as endearing, intriguing, heartwarming, thrilling stories that I couldn’t help but mention.
If you think I missed one or would like to recommend one for others or us to read let us know in the comments!
AishiteLOVEru~
Star
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