Gakkou Gurashi failed the “you have five minutes to make me care about any of this” test initially for us; a friend later convinced us to watch the first episode all the way to the end—they were absolutely correct and it is now firmly back on our to-watch-more-of list, but haven’t got round to confirming it stays good yet, good to have corroboration.
Another honourable mention: Akagami no Shirayukihime; strong, actually intelligent female protagonist in a misogynistic fantasy setting. Straight romance. It’s a little self-aware initially—she tears up in surprise a bit too often when men aren’t actively horrible to her—but gets better. Not as strong as Akatsuki no Yona though, would really like to see a second season of that.
Everything becomes F A rather well presented ybpxrq ebbz zheqre mystery puzzle. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure that all the information needed to understand what is happening is available ol gur svsgu rcvfbqr or so, though I did not piece it together until much later. On rewatching, you realise there is a lot of attention to detail.
Also, the ending features Life in Life and much Lisp; gotta be a good thing, right? ;)