#Returning to Anime? The Best Anime Series of 2009 That You Missed

Been away from anime for awhile? We understand. You go out and have your life, anime will always be waiting for you when you come back. They always come back. If you are finally coming back and stopped watching sometime in or before 2009, here are all the best anime series that you missed and definitely should go back and watch.

Kimi ni Todoke

Quiet and relatively timid, Sawako Kuronuma is misunderstood by her classmates. Due to her long black hair and shyness, they have taken to calling her Sadako, the ghost girl from The Ring. Longing to make friends, she is drawn to Kazehaya Shouta, the most popular boy in school and his refreshing personality. However, when Kazehaya starts talking to her, Sawako’s lonely world begins to open up.

A lovely shojo series that features a girl trying to come out of her shell. As a romance show, it is slower than molasses with its progression, but as a poignant teenage series about issues girls face, it is a shining gem.

Fairy Tail

After meeting a powerful fire mage named Natsu Dragneel by chance, celestial mage Lucy Heartfilia discovers he is part of the famous Fairy Tail wizarding guild. Returning home with him, she decides to join, a decision that will take her and Natsu on a series of life-changing adventures.

Fairy Tail’s popularity was sweeping enough to be counted as one of those big classic shounen battle series. However, it had the good graces to end when it felt the story was over. While the Fairy Tale anime suffers from some filler, it is not quite as bad as it could be.

Bakemonogatari

After being saved from a vampire attack, high school student Koyomi Araragi finds he has several supernatural side effects. While trying to live a normal life, he ends up catching a classmate after falling down the stairs and finds she is near weightless. Thus begins to his foray into a weird and wonderful world.

If you are going to delve into the Monogatari series, this is where you start it. It is visually beautiful and wonderfully weird. Furthermore, finishing this series is just the start of the long and often confusing Monogatari series.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Frustrated with her family, middle schooler Mirai Onozawa wishes to tear everything apart. Unfortunately, that wish comes true in an unexpected 8.0 earthquake. Suddenly, she and her younger brother find themselves surrounded by chaos in Odaiba. Single mother and motorcyclist Mari runs into these two scared kids and decides to help them get back home.

There are profoundly little anime series showing off natural disasters despite how often they afflict humanity. Tokyo Magnitude is one of the best of that small handful. As Japan has been the victim of absolutely devastating earthquakes in the past, this also gives you a distinct glimpse into Japan’s past pain.

Cross Game

The Kitamura and Tsukishima families have always been close due to one owning a sports store and the other owning a batting center. Being the same age, Kou Kitamura and Wakaba Tsukishima spend a lot of time together with Wakaba’s younger sister Aoba being jealous. However, this is a tale of these three friends and their deep foray into baseball.

Cross Game is one of those big iconic sports series that serves as a flagship for the sports genre. While it is well overshadowed by Haikyuu now, if baseball is more your speed, this is one of the best. It not only makes the sport exciting, but it is really carried by its characters.

Eden of the East

On an event known as “Careless Monday,” Japan was hit by a series of missiles in a terrorist act that fortunately did not harm anyone. Months later as the attacks are all but forgotten, Saki Morimi goes on a celebratory trip to America. There she falls into unexpected trouble with a man named Akira Takizawa, a man that appeared before her completely naked. Drawn into the mystery around him, Saki’s life is changed forever.

Nothing makes you want to solve a mystery more than starting with one of the main characters naked in Washington DC. The series has a heady mix of cuteness and intrigue that sort of really draws you into the series.

K-On

Upon entering high school, Yui is immediately entranced by the Light Music Club. The problem is, she can’t play an instrument. Deciding to join the club anyway, the other club members, despite disappointment in her lack of musical knowledge, allow her to join to prevent the club’s disbandment. Today begins Yui’s musical education!

While the K-On hype has faded quite a bit, there was about a solid five years there where is was beloved. It is cute girls doing cute things and making music, cutely. It helped solidify moe as the go-to art form for anime.

Kemono no Souja Erin

In the small village in Ake lives Erin, a bright girl who spends her days with her mother Soyon who serves as a doctor to the empire’s Touda war-lizards. However, when the Grand Duke’s favorite lizard Kiba dies, Erin’s peace is shattered as her mother is arrested and suspected with its death. In an attempt to save her mother, Erin sets off on an epic adventure.

This series is a lovely coming-of-age where you grow up with the character. You see the world as a child would see it and grow your view of it as she grows. It is a tale not flush with action, but a poignant look at the themes.

Welcome to Irabu’s Office

This is the story of the many patients and their many problems that come to the psychiatric ward of Irabu General Hospital. Here, these patients undergo counseling by the child-like son of the hospital director, Dr. Ichiro Irabu and his sullen but sexy nurse Mayumi. While his treatments are unique and his advice seems insane, he gets results.

If you want something wonderfully weird, brightly colored, and really underrated, then this is a series for you. It is essentially a series about an endless array of oddballs being treated by an insane oddball.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

After their mother’s death, brothers Edward and Alphonse try to bring her back through alchemy, even though human transmutation is strictly forbidden. After things go horribly wrong, Edward is left without an arm and a leg while Alphonse lost his body all together, only saved by his brother when he attached his soul to a suit of armor. Now they head out to search for the fabled philosopher’s stone in order to return Al to his body.

While just plain old Full Metal Alchemist came out years before this, it went a bit off the rails. As it was based off a then unfinished manga, it had to make its own ending. Brotherhood is the official and canon adaptation of the FMA manga. It’s a classic, nothing else really needs to be said.

Umineko: When They Cry

Rokkenjima is an island owned by the wealthy Ushiromiya family. As is the custom, once a year the family gathers on the island to discuss financial matters. However, this year, because of the poor health of the family’s head, they are to discuss a successor. Things go south as soon as a violent typhoon hits the island, trapping them there, but things turn dire when a string of mysterious murders begin.

While unrelated to sister series Higurashi: When They Cry, Umineko is still the same sort of beast. Except instead of a small town, the characters are all part of the same large, wealthy family. People start dying and there is a supernatural mystery that needs solving. If you enjoy horrific murder mystery, then this is a great one.