The quality of the first episode is often a dealbreaker for anime fans. If it’s not impressive enough, they won’t even watch the rest of the series. Here are some series that will definitely hook you from Episode 1 — try them out if you haven’t seen them yet!
Now, Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) is quite controversial because of its last arcs and finale. That said, we shouldn’t only talk about those. The first episode of AoT is excellent, with some fans calling it the best debut episode in all of anime — and they have a good point.
Attack on Titan’s first episode is brutal, throwing the viewers right into the world where any character can die. It’s amazing at setting up the tone for the series and motivating Eren. Moreover, the first episode of AoT is already full of foreshadowing that will become important later. If you missed it, you should rewatch it — it only gets better on rewatches.
Oshi no Ko
Okay, this might be cheating. The premiere of Oshi no Ko is essentially a standalone movie, not a normal TV anime episode — it is over an hour long. That said, there’s a good reason for it — the premise is quite convoluted, and it requires a longer runtime to properly make the viewers invested.
That said, the end of the episode shocked the viewers with an unexpected plot twist. This ended up being a great hook for the viewers, as they wanted to see how the story develops from there.
School-Live!
It’s really hard to talk about School-Live (Gakkougurashi!) without spoiling it. The anime starts as an innocent and cute slice of life series about the girls belonging to a club focusing on an odd activity — living in school. Yes, that means cooking and even sleeping within the school building.
Of course, there’s a twist that completely flips the premise upside down and makes you want to watch more, but we won’t spoil it.
Death Note has shown how to make the first episode interesting without divulging all the information and keeping things mysterious. It shows the main premise and the tone of the anime, but keeps the true nature of things in the dark.
In a mystery thriller anime like this, leaving the viewers on the edge of their seats is very important. Death Note’s premiere does that perfectly.
Yes, Sword Art Online might not be the best anime ever. In fact, it is very flawed, and while the peaks are amazing, the lows are quite bad. That said, there’s one thing that Sword Art Online did perfectly — and it’s getting the viewers invested with the premiere.
SAO’s premiere sets up the premise of being locked in a game — and explains the rules of it. Someone has to clear the entire game, and dying in the game means dying in real life. This is how you make the viewers invested: after watching the first episode, you want to see how the main character gets out of it.
The first impression is the most important one.
The quality of the first episode is often a dealbreaker for anime fans. If it’s not impressive enough, they won’t even watch the rest of the series. Here are some series that will definitely hook you from Episode 1 — try them out if you haven’t seen them yet!
Now, Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) is quite controversial because of its last arcs and finale. That said, we shouldn’t only talk about those. The first episode of AoT is excellent, with some fans calling it the best debut episode in all of anime — and they have a good point.
Attack on Titan’s first episode is brutal, throwing the viewers right into the world where any character can die. It’s amazing at setting up the tone for the series and motivating Eren. Moreover, the first episode of AoT is already full of foreshadowing that will become important later. If you missed it, you should rewatch it — it only gets better on rewatches.
Oshi no Ko
Okay, this might be cheating. The premiere of Oshi no Ko is essentially a standalone movie, not a normal TV anime episode — it is over an hour long. That said, there’s a good reason for it — the premise is quite convoluted, and it requires a longer runtime to properly make the viewers invested.
That said, the end of the episode shocked the viewers with an unexpected plot twist. This ended up being a great hook for the viewers, as they wanted to see how the story develops from there.
School-Live!
It’s really hard to talk about School-Live (Gakkougurashi!) without spoiling it. The anime starts as an innocent and cute slice of life series about the girls belonging to a club focusing on an odd activity — living in school. Yes, that means cooking and even sleeping within the school building.
Of course, there’s a twist that completely flips the premise upside down and makes you want to watch more, but we won’t spoil it.
Death Note has shown how to make the first episode interesting without divulging all the information and keeping things mysterious. It shows the main premise and the tone of the anime, but keeps the true nature of things in the dark.
In a mystery thriller anime like this, leaving the viewers on the edge of their seats is very important. Death Note’s premiere does that perfectly.
Yes, Sword Art Online might not be the best anime ever. In fact, it is very flawed, and while the peaks are amazing, the lows are quite bad. That said, there’s one thing that Sword Art Online did perfectly — and it’s getting the viewers invested with the premiere.
SAO’s premiere sets up the premise of being locked in a game — and explains the rules of it. Someone has to clear the entire game, and dying in the game means dying in real life. This is how you make the viewers invested: after watching the first episode, you want to see how the main character gets out of it.
