Three Underrated Anime Titles Worth Adding to Your Watchlist Right Now

A handful of anime tend to dominate conversation thanks to flashy fight choreography, instantly recognisable characters, and large manga followings. Three series that get far less airtime, Planetes, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, and The Eccentric Family, are now being pointed to as stronger picks for viewers who want something different from the standard lineup.

Planetes is set in 2075, a future where space travel is routine and the orbital cleanup is a job nobody envies. Its crew works for a corporate Space Debris Section, retrieving dead satellites and stray equipment. Protagonist Hachirota Hoshino wants his own ship and a route into deeper space, but he spends his days doing dirty, risky maintenance. Sunrise produced the 26-episode series, which aired from 2003 to 2004, and Makoto Yukimura's four-volume manga provided the source material.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit takes a more traditional fantasy route. Balsa, a skilled spear fighter, is hired to shield Prince Chagum after his own father orders him killed. The boy hosts a water spirit that the emperor sees as a threat, and the pair's flight becomes a search for the truth about that spirit and the kingdom's past. Production I.G adapted Nahoko Uehashi's novel into 26 episodes in 2007, with Kenji Kamiyama directing. The story is driven by the bond between its two leads rather than by spectacle alone.

The Eccentric Family offers a very different tone. Kyoto is home to humans, but also to tanuki that can shape-shift and tengu that dwell above ordinary life. The narrative centres on Yasaburō Shimogamo, a easygoing tanuki who must deal with family rivalries and the unclear circumstances of his father's death, alongside a group of humans called the Friday Fellows. P.A. Works produced two 13-episode seasons, in 2013 and 2017, based on Tomihiko Morimi's novels.

For viewers, the appeal is simple: each show builds its story on a distinctive premise rather than on the familiar battle-and-tournament template. For the industry, the attention matters too. Studios such as Sunrise, Production I.G, and P.A. Works have back catalogues that can find new audiences long after their original broadcasts, and that kind of renewed interest is worth tracking as streaming libraries and fan discussion keep shaping what gets watched.

Read the full recommendation list at IGN India.

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