I'm also almost entirely a reader. The three series I watched this winter to spend time with my wife was the first anime I've seen since Soul Eater was airing, whenever that was.
I don't know about Apartment for Rent, so I can't speak to it. Lain is just a special case because of how adopted it got by trannies and spammed until everyone turned on it.
When I think "mainstream" I usually think names that even people who haven't seen it would still recognize through their popularity one way or another. Something that escapes purely weeb boards and has name recognition even among the casuals.
NHK was big at the time the anime was happening, but its otherwise not seen much talk outside the weeb places. And even then only the anime, trying to talk about the manga or the novel (and how hugely different both are) will get a lot of confusion.
Which sucks, because the novel is the best form of the story and some of the changes are massively for the worst, like making Satou a virgin (taking away a huge cause of his stunted development caused by the one time with his senpai) or removing his constant apathy and complete disconnect from things happening around him most of the time (while his overreactions are funny, him being a barely eating, drug abusing shell of a hermit would not leave him with the constant energy he shows in other versions).
I really think the anime only got as big as it did because it turned Misaki into a pure waifu for lonely weebs and added an amount of romantic comedy angles, instead of her being an insane, controlling BPD (literally confirmed) nutcase in the manga and the barely described wistful thing she was in the novel.
Though manga NHK is incredibly deranged once it stops being an adaptation and creates an entirely new final third of the story. The "Hyper Self Pleasure" scene alone is pure insanity.
Damn, then I'm screwed, I tend to read more than watch, Is Apartment for rent also consider mainstream?
I'm also almost entirely a reader. The three series I watched this winter to spend time with my wife was the first anime I've seen since Soul Eater was airing, whenever that was.
I don't know about Apartment for Rent, so I can't speak to it. Lain is just a special case because of how adopted it got by trannies and spammed until everyone turned on it.
Was a bit of trick question to be honest, it is Chinese and a webnovel.
The Welcome to the N.H.K is also mainstream right? (and it is not enough weird/deranged tbh)
When I think "mainstream" I usually think names that even people who haven't seen it would still recognize through their popularity one way or another. Something that escapes purely weeb boards and has name recognition even among the casuals.
NHK was big at the time the anime was happening, but its otherwise not seen much talk outside the weeb places. And even then only the anime, trying to talk about the manga or the novel (and how hugely different both are) will get a lot of confusion.
Which sucks, because the novel is the best form of the story and some of the changes are massively for the worst, like making Satou a virgin (taking away a huge cause of his stunted development caused by the one time with his senpai) or removing his constant apathy and complete disconnect from things happening around him most of the time (while his overreactions are funny, him being a barely eating, drug abusing shell of a hermit would not leave him with the constant energy he shows in other versions).
I really think the anime only got as big as it did because it turned Misaki into a pure waifu for lonely weebs and added an amount of romantic comedy angles, instead of her being an insane, controlling BPD (literally confirmed) nutcase in the manga and the barely described wistful thing she was in the novel.
Though manga NHK is incredibly deranged once it stops being an adaptation and creates an entirely new final third of the story. The "Hyper Self Pleasure" scene alone is pure insanity.