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Read Majikoi. The friendship dynamic there is really great and heartwarming

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure immediately satisfied me, especially in my nether regions.

I also second Majikoi, it sounds like a perfect fit for what you're looking for.

Well, there's not that many anime I can 100% say are good from episode one, and I assume you want something that is more conventional so I'm going with safe picks here Gurren Lagann - an obvious pick to recommend. It's just incredibly fun from the very start and is easy to get hooked on. Usagi Drop - fantastic anime that everybody should watch, and is amazing the whole way through. Only thing wrong is that it doesn't have an ending, but it doesn't matter too much with the type of story it is. Hanayamata - If you want her to watch any CGDCT anime, then this is the one to give her. Very well done drama, well written characters, and it doesn't really have fanservice of any kind from what I remember. Gakkou Gurashi - Most of the first episode sucks, but by the end of it, she'll be hooked. Flying Witch - In the case of SOL/iyashikei, Flying Witch is probably the best introduction along with Usagi Drop. Has a fantastic first episode and the rest is harmless and charming.

Let's see. You want a strong cast of likeable characters? And genre doesn't matter? In no particular order, there is Chrono Clock, Kindred Spirits, Steins;Gate (and the sequel S;G 0), Persona 3-4, Demonbane, Koihime Musou, Littlewitch Romanesque, Tokyo Babel, Princess Evangile (Konomi and Ruriko by themselves ought to work out well, some of the others are kind of bland), Chou Dengeki Stryker, and A Kiss For The Petals New Gen. Oh, and if you like RPGs, then you should also check out Recettear and the Trails series (Trails in the Sky / Trails of Cold Steel - 1st 3, and 1st game of 3rd arc, are on Steam).

Seconding this

For me the best VN of September 1999 is Kazeoto, Chirin. There's such well known game as Memories Off as well, but a I place a good midscrew over a good slice of life in most of cases. 1. Love Lesson ラブレッスン [990902] Melody When our guy ask a girl to be his steady, he found out that she loves someone else. While drunk from depression, he made a mess of helping his new neighbor. It turned out that his new neighbor is his new homeroom teacher. What fun, now he can chase after his teacher or the girl that rejected him. There is one pure love and an one insult route. The romantic route is quite thorough, but the picture quality is rough. 2. Tomoyo Venture Episode1 知世べんちゃー Episode1 [990902] Atelier Kurimami Main character comes to Chi-chan's house to play. It all starts with laughing and cuddling, but can take young people far. Doujin H-tilt crap 3. Escape ~Akizora no Roof Garden~ エスケープ ～秋空のルーフガーデン～ [990903] Telluru October, before the school festival. Main character painfully recovers from his lover's death. At school rooftop he decides to move on and pay attention to school girls. Genre is sentimental novel. Basically it's chasing school girls at the pauses between lessons and at free time. Guess just sentiments and rooftop is not enough for auditory already - game got zero reviews. 4. Fushidara Fu・shi・da・ra [990903] Mink Our girl is one of those people who can't even think of H stuff. When she start to have exciting thoughts about her boyfriend(our guy), she has to seek counselling. What she got were some tapes and a bottle of perfume. While watching the tapes and inhaling a drop or two of that perfume, she has fun dreams with her boyfriend, guided by one of her friends. After a few sessions, she just might gain enough experience to live a happy life with our guy. There are three girls apart of main heroine. Most of H events are happening only on the tape. But the reality H events are interactive touch ones. Length is insufficient. 5. L L-エル- [990903] TopCat The story takes place in the two weeks right after the protagonist graduates from university. There's nothing to add to the synopsis. The guy studied so hard that he never seen the city he was studying at and only after graduation went breaking bad. There are eight characters overall. Capturing one heroine takes some hour while not accustomed to the system and some 20 minutes afterwards, so there is a feeling that the content is thin. 6. Be-reave Primary Be-reave Primary [990910] Unison Shift 1 A collection of short unrelated H-AVG stories, each drawn by different artists. You start out with 3 stories to choose from. More stories may be unlocked as you complete the stories first available to you. Though the length of each story is pretty short, there are many crossroads to be made that do have an impact on the flow of the story, unlocking various events and scenes and perhaps even multiple endings. There is more to each story than meets the eye. After you complete each story, a green bar will show how much of that story you have covered, giving you an indicator of something you may have missed. There is an English review. 7. Be-reave Secondary Be-reave Secondary [990910] Unison Shift There are four mini games in this part. In Blueeyes/graymaN, a guy got his wish of seeing a girl he met long ago, but might have some trouble keeping her. In Sora, a terminally ill guy might get saved by someone who love him. In Instant Spir, a guy can help out some special people. In Gyu, with two magical girl's help, a girl can't go wrong, or can she? Again, there are extra endings if you played all four mini games, but you might need to get the bug fix file to see them. The structure is the same as first game, so can generally refer to that game review. 8. Five Card ファイブカード [990910] Cross Net Main character is a new teacher in a private high school. There are five girls that stand out among the class and rival for teacher's attention. Will new teacher be able to do a good job in such circumstances. What is the mysterious prostitution organization dwelling in the shadows of the school? All the choices have two variants with one variant usually being H-scene and game over and the second moving forward, so basically it's a one-road scenario. Graphics are really cute and form the main appeal point. But in the end it's just a nukige, that's why there is a hentai anime of it as well. 9. Inda 2 淫打2 [990910] Hyperspace The second bullet in erotic keyboard lessons with strengthened erotic aspect. This time successes and failures are not only accompanied by voice, but by animation as well. Native English speakers read English sentences, so it's a good way to brush up English skills. Animation during typing is poor with several paranoid pieces cycled. Text drawing is too slow and can't be adjusted. Content is really low quality, even in H sequences. 10. Kairai no Hazukashime o Kimi ni 傀儡の辱めを君に [990910] Fuuro Hero is given the power to manipulate girls after meeting girl Sarah. It's not a complete control power, so needs to be mastered on daily basis. Multiple branch scenario. There are other girls but Sarah as well. But do you really expect an interesting story from the game that has "humiliation puppet" in the title? 11. Kazeoto, Chirin かぜおと、ちりん [990910] C's Ware 1 Satoshi, the protagonist, and Takashi his best friend, are both college students who came back to their old town to spend their summer vacation. In their village, Satoshi came back to his small house that is now an inn since his mother died. But there was some event going on there. "People will disappear" - a strange woman says to him. Residents suddenly start to disappear without any reason. The most optimistics came with the opinion that many people are being spirited away. And no one can avoid that. The hero decide to look into the matter. "Do not try to solve this case without us" - said his friend Takashi to the half-hearted hero. I've actually already written a full review of this work 12. Megami no Haka 女神の破瓜 [990910] Speed Goddess of Salvation is spreading chaos, devastation, conspiracy, rebellion in the fantasy world and it's not clear whether it's for destruction or creation. Carmine controlled by the spirit of the goddess is looking for a shrine maiden holding "the beads of gods". The player takes role of an inquisition officer who aims to eradicate the rebellion spreading around the country and to suppress those who receive the trust of the heretic Goddess of Salvation. Game's is noticeable for a heavy dark fantasy atmosphere. There's quite a lot of infodumping. In the first half main character moves the story but later on he just moves with the flow. There is no good ending. It may be quite close to being an eroge, but it's impossible to know since the game's is very rare. 13. Smile for Me [990910] [K]rimzon Fake Main character suddenly becomes an adventurer. But he does not know any magic or how to use a sword. But there are so many pretty girls around to drag about - he needs to try his best! There are 8 girls with different personalities and strategies. Game is mostly about collecting items and that triggers new events. 14. Sweet Palace [990910] Zero Hero got a job as summer hotel manager. The staff and guests will keep him busy! We need to choose locations and meet girls/trigger events. Graphics are rough. It's all packed with H events through and through. 15. Tokyo Nyoshuu Shuukanjo 東京女囚収監所 [990910] M' Main character is a man of great wealth and power. His new quirk is taking prisoners and training them as slaves. There are five prisoners to train. Depending on the means of training there are different endings. 16. V.G. Max [990910] Giga 1 A game in which the V.G. waitresses are rendered as super deformed (chibi) style characters. Includes the original six V.G. contestants, as well as Satomi Yajima from Advanced V.G., Tamao Mitsurugi from Advanced V.G. 2, Yumiko Watanuki from V.G. II and new character Masako Houjouin. It's the franchise that comes from the pre-windows era and it's at least the third title in the V.G. fighting series (not visual novel fighting, but real fighting fighting), but it must the first one with substantial ADV part. It's the first such mix with very active fighting action gameplay. There are H insult scenes present. V.G. MAX is said to be of better quality than the predecessors and holding a new interesting character, but overall a very average passable game. 17. Zetsubou ~Aoi Kajitsu no Sanka~ 絶望 ～青い果実の散花～ [990910] Studio Mebius 1 A guy got killed because of what he did. Since he still wants more, he is back as a ghost to get some. His servant(ghosts too) found him a place and a brain dead guy that he can take control to get more girls. As for how many more, how about 28 girls total, plus some side shows. This time, he can even take over a girl's life or do whatever he likes. There is an English review. 18. Tokyo Mermaid TOKYO魔迷奴 [990911] Ryuujinsha Tokyo survived a massive earthquake, and the ruins of it turned into an illegal zone. Langhao and her sister Mika, a cosplay masochistic young lady, encounter a mysterious cat girl creature. The three people start to travel together and notice the shadow of a mysterious organization. Nonstop erotic survival battle develops in Tokyo set into ruins. What is the true identity of a cat girl? And what is the conspiracy behind the mysterious organization? So you think game's crazy already? The reality is even more severe. Add to that the fact that it's possible to save only at the end of each chapter, poor graphics and very poor voicing. There's no thing as description in the game - only dialogues and often even in form of manga strips to add action. The story is crazy by itself. 19. Kimi no Kimochi, Boku no Kokoro 君の気持ち、僕のこころ [990914] Takara Main hero is a high school student adept in sorcery. He's got the power to possess other people & even animals bodies. You don't really possess others as you can't control them - you just peep from their eyes. There are three main heroines, but you can haunt pretty much anyone at any time, so it's very tiresome to try out all the combinations and see if it works. There was no manual released at that time so it was a game of guesses. Difficulty is skyhigh because of that. There are also some technical questions like a very long load time. Heroines aren't attractive enough and it's not clear what's the target auditory of the game. 20. Eve Haze ~Biyaku no Ou-sama~ ｅｖｅ　ｈａｚｅ～媚薬の王様～ [990917] Brownie A plague fell upon a village killing most of inhabitants including both pharmacists. Only the son of pharmacists Diano survived. He found an old book about aphrodisiacs and started his study. At the same time something strange happened to monsters of this country... Hero needs to prepare recipes to solve individual troubles or make monster bosses surrender. The main part of the game is collecting different herbs on a map and brewing potions which does not make it much different from Little Witch series. What's different here is card battles with the monster bosses. 21. Joousama to Oyobi! 女王様とお呼び！ [990917] Side-B Main character is a devil king. He has lots of servants from different races. One day he is brought a noble human girl. The devil king is going to make her a queen. For that she must undergo a thorough training. A training SIM with fantasy entourage as the only prominent feature. There aren't any reviews to peek at end content around. 22. Paradise ee [990917] Hyperspace Main character is a member of resort club and is sent to a remote island called paradise ee. There are four angels working here as guides during day time and giving private service during night time. Game itself ends in less than an hour. Picture is rough and backgrounds are very extorted. 23. Saikidou ~Shiawase na Ashita no Mukaekata~ 彩季憧 ～幸せな明日の迎え方～ [990917] iMAGE CLUB Main character lives alone and prepares for entrance exams to the university. One day he dies by accident. Just before his death he regrets about not having fun during school years, and a miracle happens - he gets resurrected from the second year in high school. This time he's going to have a happy school time! You need to choose a club to attend. Each club corresponds to one girl, each having an ending. Drawing is rough and rendered real time photos are mostly used as backgrounds. 24. With You Toybox うぃずゆーTOYBOX [990917] 1 2 This is a side-item to With You with lots of wallpaper and mini games inside. Mini-games include: W-Sisters CD Player Naori no Hyper Udon Manami-chan no NekoNeko Panic EBC News Scramble Special Edition Mini Adventure/Side Stories Fortune Telling Manami's Stereo Haneru! Keiji Gotouda - The Worst 3 Days in the History of S.P.S MoeMoeNoeNoe Quiz The Legendary Archangels - Card Survivor There is an English review. 25. Court no Naka no Tenshi-tachi コートの中の天使達 [990921] Pinpai Two sisters manage to get our guy out of his depression of pass glories to train his team of girl volleyball. In mode 1, he has no choice but to use the girls for revenge against the volleyball league. But in mode 2, if he can complete mode 1, he can find a girl to love. Basically it's a raising SIM training several people at the same time for three months. Best use walkthrough since consequences of choices aren't evident in the short run but may already doom your team without your knowing. 26. BOYS BE... 2nd Season [990922] Kodansha 1 Based on the second manga under the BOYS BE... name. 2nd season of some SIM 27. Little Witch Reinette ~Swan no Namida Rhapsody~ リトル・ウィッチ レネット 〜スワンの涙ラプソディ〜 [990923] It starts with a magical competition mentioned in original Little Witch Parfait. Now from Reinette point of view. It's been just five months since releasing the original. So, did you even wanted to be a magical girl and create wondrous recipes? Well, I did not. 28. Maboroshi Tsukiyo まぼろし月夜 [990923] The player takes the role of Takashi Tanaka who one summer night meets a ghost of a girl in the park, and this ghost starts living with him in his apartment. The ghost can enter other people's bodies too... Usual trigger events on the map system. The period is two months. The appeal point of the game is the background of the ghost heroine. She died in Taisho era and is a typical Yamato Nadeshiko. There's a huge culture gap that's the scene for many jokes. There are a lot of colorful characters who are interested in this ghost for various reasons. You can easily shift to one of them, but you need to exorcise Ayame spirit for that, then it's an ordinary galge. But if you pursue Ayame, there's more of the story and as many as two endings prepared. 29. Toriaezu Air Plants! とりあえず　えあぷらんちゅ! [990923] Air Plants Fan disk contains short stories on games Dearest Vampire and Fluorite ~Hotaruishi~, demo versions of both games as well as CG, deskop accessory, minigame, music tracks, staff and new works information. Since it's a fandisc, gg. 30. Album no Naka no Hohoemi アルバムの中の微笑み [990924] Curecube 1 You as male main character returns to japan after completing your Europe ART studies. As a rich man's son you were allowed to travel around to seek education around the globe. Now that you have completed your quest its time to return to japan... and marry Satsuki, your preset bride to be. There is a problem, you have got a maid that's been following you most of your life. She likes you. After arriving in Japan, you soon became the art teacher of an all girls school. Now 3 more girls join the wagon and they all want a piece of you alright. Who would you chose? There is an English review of this work. 31. Berries ~Kagayaku Kisetsu ga Owaru Mae ni...~ Berries ～輝く季節が終わる前に…～ [990924] Pocket Summer. Yuusuke Sugihara runs with a father a family restaurant "BERRIES". One day Yuusuke wakes up and finds a letter on the desk saying that his father went surfing and that Yuusuke should be store manager in his absence. What kind of memories will he gather by the autumn? Pocket tried to get into the pocket of gamers and put such high price for this usual setting game - 9,000 yen - that there is still not a single proper review of the game. What's known is that the game has terrible systems, but quite normal content. Still, it' feels more like a doujinshi in a box rather than a professional work. 32. Costume こすちゅ～む [990924] Optim One day hero helps a strange looking girl. He allows her to change clothes at this home, but as soon as Sarah rose hands to change clothes she was covered in a whirlpool of white light appearing in a nurse suit. Thus, a strange cohabiting with Sarah began. But Sarah's younger sister Kira came to pick her up and made a fuss about it. A cosplay nukige. 33. EA Mind [990924] LiLiM Near future. Private Maritime Academy is governed by students and its head is student council which consist only of women. All the male students study in oppression there. Main character deliberately transfers to this school in order to set male dominance there. Frankly speaking, only first part is about domination since in the second part he chooses one of girls' paths. You move around the map and trigger events and fights. Fighting is led till you embarrass opponent enough winning in hit/block game for five rounds. There are five girls to capture. Atmosphere is light and there are enough funny moments. Game period is 10 days and play time is around 5 hoursg. 34. Entrance ENTRANCE [990924] TinkerBell Tomoya Kamijo returns to his hometown after 12 years. He has no clear aim and during university course "Learning ways to create a future" he learns his due course. There are four heroines. All the characters are linked to the psychology department and this game was supposed to be as close to reality as possible, it's written in a manner of a book. That's all that's known and I bet the price of 8,800 yen has played an important role in that. Pretty soon Tinkerbell will drop all those psychology movements and will only be making hardcore eroge. 35. Guardian [990924] Aaru Our guy woke up in a dungeon without his memory. What will you have him do? Live life unknown, or go to town and find out who he is? This may sound like a role playing game, but it is a pick your choice adventure game with 90 different endings. Oh well this kind of games again. 90 endings and stories are ultra short (some 5 minutes) and follow some typical pattern. It's enough to entertain, but not for everyone. 36. Kaiki! Drill Otoko no Kyoufu 怪奇！ドリル男の恐怖 [990924] Tetratech 1 2 3 4 Three schoolgirls are wandering in the forest, looking for the pension, where they planned to spend the night. However they are stumbling upon a seemingly empty mansion in the middle of the forest instead. Since the sun is about to go down and it's raining anyway, they decide to spend the night there. However, the Drill Man appears soon after and tries to hunt them down. Will they be able to find out the secret of the mansion? Will they make it out alive? Or will they be captured and kept as playthings for the mysterious inhabitants of the mansion? Game is localized and has English reviews. 37. LOE ~Legend of Enomoto~ [990924] Aaru Our guy received an invitation to enter a contest to win a very rich man's inheritance. The contest consist of quizs and games. Other contestants will compete with him. He can either do it alone or with someone's help. Forget about the story here. There is more to the synopsis in here, but the story does not lead anywhere. It's puzzles + H events and since it's reported that the quantity of H-events is ordinary, I'll leave it be for now. 38. Mania na Onna 2 まにあなおんな2 [990924] Foster 1 The game is set in modern Tokyo, and is divided on chapters. On the first chapter, you are a college girl and in 5 days you find out why your boyfriend is cheating on you. On the way you pick up a lot of new characters and at the end of that if done right you will have sex with your boyfriend. On each chapter, the protagonist is different but all the characters know each other. There is an English review. 39. Rapture [990924] Gondola You start on a floating island, grappling pillars and pushing buttons till the bottom of the cave turns to grass. After that you get to know that your girlfriend is cheating on you. You're going through her memories to get to the bottom of it. It's almost as if the developers had been playing LSD Dream Emulator making this weird 3D maze with tons of pre-rendered horrible 3D H videos. 40. Snow White ~The Veil of My Heart~ [990924] Eden A small town between the sea and the mountains. The last school year passes by and main hero has time before Christmas to settle his feelings. Hero suffered from consequences of his parents divorce and only partly recovered from that by the last year of school. There are 8 girls. There's a month of time. Both pure love and devil mode are available for the girls. 41. Tenshi no Wana 天使の罠 [990924] MBS Truth Main character was leading a normal school life till an angel visited him depriving him of virginity. After that things start to change around him - men and women start masturbating and having sex everywhere. Nothing to see here, just MBS Truth keeps making weird nukige with enormous speed. 42. Tousatsu Mania Act 1 TV Kyoku 盗撮マニア ACT1・テレビ局 [990924] Waffle I want to see... even if I commit a crime... I want to know more about this child ... her real face that can't be seen on TV... I want to make private photos of her and to take her belongings... This is a story of one young man who stepped on an evil path of voyeur. Nothing good can come out of a game titled "Voyeur mania". The purpose of the game is walk around TV station without being caught by guards, set surveillance equipment and hide in waiting. 43. Waru Gaiden ~Akumu no Rush Hour~ 悪っ外伝 ～悪夢のラッシュアワー～ [990924] Interheart 1 The legendary mischief master Honda is released from prison. He thinks of finishing with molesting, but he sees a seducing dancer and goes breaking bad. At the same time the railway company hires two new girl staff memebers - morality countermeasures expert Shinomiya and national idol Hayakawa. Can they pose a challenge to Honda? An improved version of Waru!! ~Itazura~ with two new characters. There's even an English review. 44. Yuuhei 幽閉 [990924] Deep Zone 1 "I will teach you a way to sneak into Women's Dormitory." One day, such flier get into main character's house. The phone number on it belongs to a girl who lives in the same dormitory. For 30,000 yen she tells all the secrets of this building. As it turns out, hero was chosen not by chance - the fate of all dormitory women greatly depends on his behavior. I'm very disappointed with previous D'z works and this one is just a nukige as well. 45. Blow ~Michita Tsuki, Kaketa Tsuki~ Blow ～満ちた月、欠けた月～ [990930] Rock Climber Main character is a normal high school student. During the preparation week for the culture festival a series of rapes happens right at the school campus. Who is the culprit? What are his motives? Can you get to the truth? Basically hero investigates the victim girls, befriends them and can find love with one of them. One of such "good" endings finishes with cannibalism. There's also the True ending. A heavy work of very bad aftertaste, mostly because of how realistic it is. 46. Hushaby Baby [990930] Alice Soft 1 In this game you had a girlfriend who died in a train accident about a month ago. One day, when you are going back to your home, you found her waiting at the door! The story starts from there and last for several days as you accompany her through the last days before the 49th day after she died... There is an English review. 47. Memories Off メモリーズオフ [990930] KID 1 2 3 4 5 6 It's a surprisingly bittersweet tale about a guy named Tomoya Mikami who actually was dating the girl of his dreams, Ayaka Hizuki, for a long time...only to have her die tragically a good while before the game starts. The game even begins with Tomoya having a flashback about Ayaka whilst walking to the train station to get to school. On the train, as usual, is Yue Imasaka - a close friend of Tomoya and Ayaka who pretty much grew up with them. The gist of the story is that Tomoya feels that he's spent enough time grieving over the loss of Ayaka and is ready to try his hand at love again and hopefully find another wonderful girl to make beautiful memories with. Game has English reviews.

Yes. A lot of the VN's h-content can be very abrupt. This is exceptionally bad in key VN's (Kanon, Air) works, where they can be talking about furniture, and then randomly compare the spilt water on the floor to the beauty of a girl, and then have random sex. It actually kills the mood. Thankfully, most Key releases, nowadays are without H. The first and only censoring I am grateful for. Majikoi's h has a lot more buildup and is better than most as far as h goes. The protag has a certain fetish however. In grisaia some of the h is actually relevant to the plot. Overall I liked grisaia more, but that's mostly because I'm a sucker for that kind of plot. I like deep psychological issues, and the writing is really good. Majikoi undoubtedly has the better world though. And the slice of lifey interactions, and friendship based themes are also far stronger here, They are both unbelievably excellent VN's, so check out both of them. The order doesn't really matter. Personally I thought, Persona 3 had the best story. (Minato ftw). If you haven't played it but liked the other two I strongly recommend you check it out.

Steins;Gate is pretty much exactly what you said you wanted: great characters that you'll really get to know over the course of the game. H-scenes are a thing, though. Of the VNs that I listed, Steins;Gate is all-ages (I mean, it's on Playstation). Tokyo Babel is also all-ages. All the others, except 3, are h-games, but also have a non-H version available. Koihime Musou is a huge game, so even though H is a pretty small part of it overall, there's still a lot of it. Kindred Spirits is so tame that it could be put on Steam 100% as-is with no censorship, but it's technically adult. And Demonbane is really low on H as well. Those are the 3 I mentioned that don't have a non-H version. I have no idea if that matters to you or not.

Overlord Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei One Punch Man Macademi Wasshoi (though you might consider filtering this one out, since I just picked it for being hilarious from day one... and it is kind of excessively ecchi/harem) Drifters Gundam 00 (just for the hell of it, see if she can get into it, lol) Shakugan no Shana (Maybe? It does get off on the right foot, even if the second season is slow) FSN UBW (Comes out strong from the beginning, exciting right until the end... if you can stand Shirou) Fate/Zero Seto no Hanayome (extremely humorous series)

I would also recommend Little Busters! Some other Key titles such as Clannad and Rewrite might also work, though do note that all of these might reportedly make you a little bit sad at some points.

Thank you all very much for your time and effort, i really appriciate this! @Nandemonai i played persona 4 and 5 and loved them didnt come to my mind that they could be VNs though. I have Steins:gate for ps3 lyring around somewhere... maybe thats a good start for a more exciting VN. @Akshay Thank you very much. You put very much effort and thought into your post I dont really mind the H scenes, from time to time it seems "weird" to me that a lot of VN seem to be pure and then have H scenes, but who am i to judge. i can still skip them if i dont like. So many people here recommended Majokoi, but Grisaia sounds REALLY interesting, too. I think ill choose between these two for now thanks again <3

All recommendations are in bold~ You have only read two vn's both which are not very traditional nor long. And neither have h-content. Since you liked phoenix wright with its game play elements, fast pacing, and you want somewhat good development, try anything made by spike chuunisoft i.e. Danganronpa, 999 (These are NOT heartwarming, nor do they combat loneliness, but as someone who enjoyed the phoenix wright series, this is something that you will probably enjoy.) You liked doki doki, which was pretty unique among VN's If you want some heart warming sweet stories (that are also reasonably short), go for nekopara, and corona blossom (both which can be played without h-content) If you don't mind the h-content, and a VN quite a bit longer (easily 50+ hrs if you are just starting out) you must definitely try the above mentioned Majikoi (some of the best world building, immersive experiences). If you don't mind psychological problems, (though far far more developed than doki doki, try Grisaia (No matter the situation, I cannot recommend the non-h version) If you want something more casual (slice of life/mostly happy),other than majikoi you could also check out Princess Evangelion (its not great to be honest though). If you don't mind a steam-punk type world, check out liar-soft titles like Gahkthun of the golden lightning (it is Dark, but there are several really nice moments. One of my favorite couples is from here) Overdrive games try to blend a good amount of comedy and characters. Kirari's cuteness will take your loneliness away! Try Kirakira or Deardrops. Dengeki Stryker is awesome as well. If you are new to VN's, try to start with the smaller, more casual ones at first. When you are more comfortable with them as a whole move on to the bigger ones. While you may be unnerved by the h-content in these VN's. (Assuming you didn't find VN's from ecchi anime/hentai). You will find that a lot of these are unbelievably good stories, so give them a chance regardless.

elfen lied. jk, try say i love you. someone recommended usagi drop and i gotta second that one. just tell her not to read the manga if she ever gets the urge.

katawa shoujo. its about a young man sent away to a new school after months of feeling completely alone and discovers love and friends in the new environment. the art is nice, the writing is great and so is the music. the music is very soothing to the ears.

Agree with Majikoi. Maybe Da Capo III could also fit, taking: Although you may not understand part of the story (which is very good regardless) without reading Da Capo I and II beforehand.

Sakamoto Desu Ga? It's comedy but it's fucking HILARIOUS from the get go.

Actually, I was convinced they had. But reading this announcement closely, I don't think that's right anymore. Here's what they actually said. They gave it a "Winter 2017" window. Except because "Winter 2017" runs from 12/21/2017 to 3/20/2018, realistically, they're releasing sometime in the first quarter of 2018. (I very much doubt they'll be shipping the game out over Christmas, after all.)

Seconding Psycho Pass

Hyouka - I don't quite remember what ep 1 was like for it, but I remember it picked up quite quickly. One Punch Man - Can't get much faster than that in terms of action. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi - I hate how they skip over the first few episodes, but it does make it go faster overall. Kuroko no Baske - ep 1 is enough of a hook, I think. Baccano! and DRRR! - I remember showing these to teenagers a while back and they love it. Magi - I would actually suggest watching ep1 of season 2 first. That got me pretty interested in the series. Ookami to Koushinryou - aside from minor nudity should be fairly interesting Reservoir Chronicles Tsubasa - not the best anime adaptation, but hey Nodame Cantabile - I can't actually remember how it started but I know I enjoyed the entire series. Gin no Saji - Again, not sure where it picks up, but is interesting from ep1 Moyashimon - If anything ep1 was probably the most interesting. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun - This was hilarious from start to finish. Hikaru no Go - Is slow to pick up so goes against the requirements, but I'd still recommend this. Kami-sama no Memo-chou - Being able to introduce a bunch of interesting characters in one episode is good

Recommendations in bold ~ Psycho-Pass Has similar themes to death parade (psychological in nature). Starts up reasonably fast. Has female protagonist. Death Note Both mature and psychological ,however does have mature themes and some form of fanservice (misa-misa). However most of the fanservice is only towards the mid-end and its not very much. She will probably be invested in it and not care too much if she does see it later. Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler A classic. Action, psychological themes, this show has quite a lot of this stuff. One of my first animes. Told in interesting story arcs, with some problems similar to the ones viewed in death parade. Steins;Gate After she has watched a couple anime. Starts a little slow Youjuu Senki Another female (maybe?) protagonist. Very fast paced, very interesting concept. Not too long (12 ep) and very good visuals. Gundam 00 A really awesome fast paced anime. Very fun and despite the action, feels more mature than most shounen. Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso Really nice romance with very interesting theme/story. The thing in common with this list is it is full of safe choices, that can identify her taste. If she likes the Mayuri loop, in Steins;gate, then she will probably enjoy angst, so you could get her into things like Anohana or clannad. If she likes death note and gundam, code geass becomes a much safer bet despite the amount of fanservice it has. (Code Geass is very interesting but has too much early fan service. Stay away from this till she is more invested in anime.) Another thing that you can try is to show her a few episodes of Mushishi, the storytelling style is similar to death parade. Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is probably one of the best first romance-type anime to watch, it can get you into the genre, still go over the others on the list first. If she really likes gundam, guran lagan and Gundam Wing are viable options Avoid SAO. Not only is it garbage, It is also a harem.

The year's still not over! The claim was Eiyuu Senki in Summer, Princess X in Fall, Flowers in Winter, and Katahane early next year. JAST is actually releasing Princess X in fall like they claimed, so who knows. Maybe we'll see a December Flowers release or something.

Hmm I'm just saying what comes to my head. I may elaborate in the future. Madoka Magica - it's one of my favorite and simply all my friends who watched it (even who don't like animes at all) loved it. Selector Infected WIXOSS - Very similar to Madoka (girls battling for their wishes, but with consequences). It is kind of a Yu-gi-oh meets Kyubey. Little Witch Academia is very good, but I suggest watching the OVAs first, as they set the tone for the series (the show is great, but starts pretty slow). If she's into heavy stuff, you could show her Attack on Titan, Mirai Nikki and Another - all of them are violent. Sword Art Online, although it is not good, it has a huge legion of fans around the world, and it is enjoyable. AnoHana for drama, I think it is a good one. If she's into Girls Love (nothing explicit), you and her should definetely watch Shoujo Kakumei Utena (in Blu Ray!), as it is one of the best anime ever made to this date.

I equate our current position in time in the VN development world to that period in anime propagation when fansubs started having a massive decline and official localisations started rising in number quite abruptly. Not long after that we had official localisations for the bulk of the anime being produced and even simulcasts of the material. This to me was when we had succeeded in our fandom for creating a market where there wasn't one before through the efforts of fansubs to show there was a niche market and the businesses came to fill it. Fansubs have persisted after that stage but to me they're redundant and they became the raison d'etre instead of filling a missing niche which would inspire markets to create official localisations. They've become more about e-penis. We used to go to great pains to point out that our translation was free and that should an official localisation come out we stopped all distribution of our subs and encouraged people to buy that instead. VNs probably will never get to the popularity in the west that anime has seen due to a whole swag of reasons that has been discussed to death in other threads but nonetheless we are now finally getting what we wanted in the VN world with lots more localisations but some are continuing to fan translate things that are already being, or have been localised, because "we can do it better". As far as I'm concerned the fan translation scene for VNs has succeeded since we are now seeing a plethora of new translations appearing (compared to the JAST days @Clephas mentioned.) Unlike anime though, there will be thousands times more VNs available than those being translated so I can't see the worth for fansubs going away any time soon for more fringe works (leave the stuff that's obviously going to be translated to the official groups.) I'd never partake in a fan retranslation of an official localisation for so many many reasons...

I'm really tolerant if it comes to translations and barely complain about them, but even I think the translation of Chrono Clock was a mess, or at least certain parts of it. The top offender is D.D's translation. She's a supposedly British girl who constantly throws English words in when she speaks Japanese. The translator therefore thought it would be a great idea to give the English readers the same 'feeling' by inverting the whole language and let her constantly throw in Japanese words when she speaks English. Too bad that an English speaking girl that constantly uses Japanese words will appear JAPANESE and not British!!! And since its clear from the whole context that she's British her whole dialog doesn't make sense anymore. It's beyond me how a translator could loose his complete common sense in such a way and come up with such a dumb idea. Besides that, I disliked the crude translation of the protagonists narrative. He used the F-word so often that you could almost got the idea that the protagonist did grow up in the slums. Granted, I can't prove that the original Japanese text wasn't that way either, and I'm too lazy to look it up, but I highly doubt it since he was more of a spoiled rich-kid. The rest was okay though, it's just the protagonist and D.D. that really got on my nerves.

To me it seems like you just have very different ideas of what a good translation is, no real need to bite people. Though maybe I'm even on your side, I didn't play SakuSaku or ChCl but I did get annoyed at times when Himawari's translation straight up added literal wordy interpretations of the simple japanese phrases that I didn't even agree with when I looked at the immediate context.

Got a new translator to translate Eris' chapter (Chapter 2), so progress is still on track. Also, I'm more than halfway through translating Fione's chapter (Chapter 1) Still going to take a while before the partial patch is released though (editing and QA still to come).

EDIT: Nevermind, it was indeed painfully obvious. I gave up on the "Illya's castle" game back then, I don't know why I found the third stage difficult. No new events, no exclamation marks, am I missing a painfully obvious way to access the Einzbern Castle?