You’re paying for a Netflix subscription - or your friend probably is - and you should make the most of it. Netflix has slowly but surely become an excellent resource for your average anime fan. If you’re not the kind of fan that is obsessed with watching anime the same day-and-date that they go live in Japan, and you don’t mind waiting a little while for a more curated selection of what to watch, then Netflix has a great library of truly excellent titles available to you.

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But it’s difficult to figure out what to watch next, especially if you’ve just gotten started with the wide world of anime. Not to worry though, for I’ve sat down and put together a guide to the ten anime that you should be watching on Netflix. There’s a lot to choose from, and this guide neatly cuts the wheat from the chaff so you can immediately begin watching something that’s to your tastes. Just read below for everything you need to know about Netflix’s anime highlights in 2021.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure / Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Netflix’s recently released Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, is entirely unique. The concept of Stands is dumb, yet opens up for a myriad of storytelling possibilities. There are glaring plotholes, but these holes are opened up so that interesting events can happen within the story. The people in this tale do utterly ridiculous things - including stopping their owns hearts to appear deceased - but I’ll be damned if it isn’t gripping. JoJo is flamboyant, stylish, and utterly ridiculous, and that justifies the time you will spend watching it alone.

My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia Ultra Impact iOS Android 2021
via Toho Animation, Funimation, Shonen Jump, Kohei Horikoshi, and Studio Bones

My Hero Academia is a very traditional shounen story. It follows a young by who is downtrodden, yet ambitious, and through a streak of good luck, he is able to become one of the most powerful heroes the world has ever seen - as long as he embraces the notion of self-sacrifice. Izuku Midoriya’s tale of becoming the greatest hero can be at once heartbreaking and inspiring, but at the end of it the adult world of heroes is far more layered and complex than a child can really comprehend.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

This is one of the classic anime series. The story of Edward and Alphonse Elric is almost always heartwrenching, and is written with a kindly feminine touch that is seldom seen in the boys-club of shounen anime, but still ends up being gripping and inspirational. These are two boys who are at once gifted and cursed, wishing to undo the sins of their past, while being acknowledged only as children in a harsh world of adults. This story is family-friendly, to a point, as long as you’re willing to explain man’s hubris being a slight against God and the occasional genocide.

Violet Evergarden

This is three seriously emotional series in a row, and I’m sorry for structuring the article this way, but it had to be done. Violet Evergarden is the ultimate ugly-cry anime. It is basically purpose-built to make you emotional, and if you really need a trigger for a cathartic cry session right now, this is it. Violet Evergarden herself is a young girl who is entirely shut off from her own emotions, and it’s by becoming a letter writer for others that she slowly uncovers and realises her own feelings. And then it ends with her kicking the hell out of some military types. Pure gold, and beautifully animated.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion
via Studio Khara
Evangelion

Everyone in this series is a mess. No, really, everyone in this series is missing an essential part of what makes a fully functioning, healthy person, whether that’s self-affirmation, empathy, humility, or even humanity itself. What happens over the course of this series can be so confusing that they decided they need to make an entire movie out of the final episode - and then retell the whole story again with a series of movies. But, my God, it’s damn good, and you need to see it at least once.

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Devilman Crybaby

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This is a weird recommendation for me. On the one hand, this series can feel juvenile and immature in a way I simply do not gel with - anime nudity and girls peeing themselves makes for a bad first impression, if I’m being honest. But the soundtrack is excellent, the visuals are wonderful, the gay undertones are delicious, and the message is clear: humanity is most monstrous when ignorant and violent.

One Punch Man

Via moddb.com

This is, at its heart, a comedy. A comedy with some gorgeously animated and beautifully choreographed action scenes. Saitama is the most powerful being in the world - possibly the galaxy - and he really likes punching things. He just wishes they would put up a fight instead of dying after the first blow. Saitama’s lackadaisical attitude just underscores how effortlessly awesome he is, and his message is clear: humans are great because they have the ability to change themselves.

Studio Ghibli Movies

My Neighbor Totoro Catbus
Gonna be a bumpy ride... via: dailymotion.com

Yes, all of them. Except Tales of Earthsea. The Studio Ghibli movie collection contains some of the best animated movies of all time, and puts Walt Disney to shame over and over again. These are true classics, and are necessary watching material for families and couples alike. Or by yourself with a bag of snacks, if you prefer.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia is wholesome as hell - which makes a nice change after writing about anime with broken characters and constant allusions to sex. All of the characters in Little Witch Academia are adorable, likeable, and you want to cheer them on. The lead is Ako, who really wants to be a witch, despite having zero innate talent for it. Imagine Harry Potter, except with girls, anime, and not written by a TERF. High art, basically. Oh, and there’s a Gurren Lagann reference in there that is *chef’s kiss*.

The Seven Deadly Sins

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Honestly, this choice is just for the dumb fun factor. The Seven Deadly Sins is, in my opinion, not amazing. I do not care for the characters really, I don’t think the sexual humour is particularly endearing (the plot about Meliodas and his love interest is actually weirdly predatory, in my opinion), and overall I can’t engage with it fully. However, the action scenes? Damn. If you want a textbook example of a hype anime battle scene, this series has it in spades, with almost every character seemingly pulling out a Super Saiyan-level power jump every few episodes. They even have a power level system that is there seemingly just to ride the hype that Dragon Ball created years before. Dumb fun, and if that’s what you’re looking for, this is perfect.

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