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Earlier this year, Kotaku turned heads by declaring that Netflix's original series, Knights of Sidonia, was the best anime on the platform. Although we agree that its distinctive animation and especially its newness are factors in its favor, we'd never rank this series above tried-and-tested favorites like Fullmetal Alchemist, or true genre-bending hallmarks like Samurai Champloo or Ouran.
The main drawback to Netflix's anime selection is that if you're a fan of anime, you've already been exposed to many of these titles over the years. The other drawback is that many series are incomplete: You can watch only the first three of the four recent Ghost in the Shell: Arise films that rebooted the franchise; you can watch Berserk the movie, but not Berserk the series. And you can watch popular recent series like Black Butler, but only the second season, not the first. Meanwhile other recent new series, like Attack on Titan, are on Netflix, but the wait for additional seasons to arrive may be unbearable.
Still, there is a surprising amount of variety, a mix of old and new anime and a wide mix of genre. And if you're new to anime in general, Netflix's collection is a great way to get your feet wet. We've designed this guide full of pointers for newcomers, a way to help them find their way around the often overwhelming number of titles in Netflix's anime collection.
For most of these series, both English dubbing and subtitling are available, so you can simply toggle on English or Japanese audio and/or subtitles from your Netflix menu.
Naruto
Genre: Shounen (boy's) adventure/Fantasy
Complete? No. Only the first three seasons are on Netflix at this time. Although this means fans can skip the notorious long seasons of "filler" episodes, created while the anime was waiting for the manga to complete a major plot arc, the fans who do really like those episodes are out of luck. The main drawback here is the lack of Naruto: Shippuden, the series that finally brings fans back to the ongoing main plot.
Supplements: Naruto Shippuden: The Movie, and Naruto Shippuden: Bonds. These are films set during the time of the Shippuden arc, which is unfortunately not included with the current Netflix order. Still, it's better than nothing.
If you've heard of anime, you've probably heard of Naruto. Based on one of the bestselling titles in Shonen Jump history, this is a classic coming-of-age story about a would-be ninja whose cheerful nature masks untold power. It's also a story, in the long run, about friendship, brotherhood, and found families, and it will move you more than you might expect.
Sword Art Online
Genre: Sci-fi dystopia
Complete? No. A second series, Sword Art Online II, is in effect the second season of the show. It's not yet available on Netflix.
This series is about a virtual-reality game turned nightmare for an entire society of players who find themselves trapped inside it and have to battle for their survival in a Battle Royale-style . That premise is a giant cliché, it's true, but it's saved by gorgeous animation, great pacing, and the unexpected intimacy of the character interactions.
Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Genre: Fantasy
Complete? Yes, for both.
Supplements: Fullmetal Alchemist: Star of Milos, a sequel to Brotherhood. Conqueror of Shamballa, which is a sequel to the original series, is not included.
2003's Fullmetal Alchemist was so universally beloved that six years later its animation studio decided to completely remake the series, but better. This second series, Brotherhood, reprises the animation style of the first and features two main voice actors repeating their roles as brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric. The primary difference is that the second series is wholly faithful to the manga, which was still in progress when the first series was made. The ending is notably different and many plot elements which were only hinted at in the first series are explored in depth in the second.
However, both series are excellent in their own way, mainly because the driving force behind both is Ed Elric's commitment to rescuing his younger brother, Al, from a fate as a disembodied soul trapped in a suit of armor. The originality of the plot, the gorgeous steampunk animation, and especially the character development, shines through in both series, which have spent most of their lives topping "best-of" anime lists like this one.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Shoujo/fantasy. Madoka is essentially a savvy takedown of a sub-genre of shoujo called "magical girl" anime, popularized in the '90s with Sailor Moon and Utena.
Complete? Yes.
There's a shortage of magical girl anime on Netflix, but even if you've never seen a single mid-air power transformation, the genre's tropes have been thoroughly disseminated into the cultural mainstream over the years—enough so that you can watch and enjoy smart deconstructions like Madoka and Kill La Kill, incidentally also on Netflix.
Combining gorgeous animation with an ensemble of fully empowered female fighters, as well as an adorable main character, Madoka has garnered tremendous critical acclaim because of the way it subverts familiar tropes and shows you the dark side of girl power. Fans of Harry Potter should definitely give this series a try.
Gurren Lagann
Genre: Action/Mecha
Complete? Yes.
At times controversial and often deceptively raunchy, this smart, fast-paced anime is beloved for its wide-ranging plot, its gorgeous animation, its take-no-prisoners plot twists, and its character development. While many anime series in the mecha genre tend to turn off newcomers because of all the talk about giant robots, Gurren knows how to plunge you into the middle of the action while getting you emotionally invested before you know what's happening. Even if you're not up on your Japanese sci-fi tropes, this is an excellent, accessible series. Don't miss it.
Samurai Champloo
Genre: Historical action
Complete? Yes.
Created by Shinichiro Watanabe, best known for the landmark Cowboy Bebop, Champloo continues his theme of fusing unlikely cross-cultural markers to create something totally new. In this case, Watanabe merges the aesthetic of late '90s hip-hop with the classic cultural trope of the lone samurai, and the results are incredible. The three main characters here are atypical warriors and even more atypical traveling companions—but you'll come to love them and their unlikely friendship all the more for it.
B Gata H Kei — Yamada's First Time
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Complete? Yes
Why is this relatively obscure anime so high on our list? For one thing, we love trope subversions, and despite the premise—the teenage heroine wants to have sex with 100 boys—it's the farthest thing possible from an excuse for sexist fanservice. What B Gata H Kei actually does is explore what it means for young women to gain control over their sexual agency. That's huge in a culture teeming with anime in which female characters are constantly used as sexual fanservice. In this case, our heroine doesn't actually want to sleep with 100 boys; what she really wants is to be the one deciding when and where and how often she has sex. How she gets there is a hilarious, thought-provoking delight.Ouran High School Host Club
Genre: Satirical romantic comedy / ShoujoComplete? Yes.
This delightful and popular genre-bending comedy pokes fun at the excesses and melodrama of shoujo (girl's) anime tropes. But underneath there's a beautiful story of genderqueer hero Haruhi and the way her high school's "host club"—a group for guys to entertain girls—transforms itself because of her. Although this anime has been out for nearly a decade, it's as fresh today as it was when it aired.
Death Note
Genre: Horror/Fantasy
Complete? Yes.
Despite its many flaws, Death Note is still one of the most gripping horror series around. The plot centers around a sociopathic teen named Light, the "death note" he finds which gives him the power to kill at will, and the cat-and-mouse game he embarks upon with an eccentric genius detective known only as "L." After a certain point, the plot goes fully off the rails, propelled by Light's uncreasingly unhinged behavior, but the anime does a great job at filling in the excesses of the manga's melodrama. Come for the concept, stay for the dark social commentary on modern Japan—but do yourself a favor and stop watching after episode 25. You'll understand why when you get there.
Psycho-Pass
Genre: Sci-fi dystopia/Thriller
Complete? No. A second series, Psycho-Pass 2, is effectively the second season of this show. It aired last fall and is not yet available on Netflix.
Psycho-Pass was intended to be the spiritual successor to the popular and critically acclaimed sci-fi anime Ghost in the Shell. But with its emphasis on, well, psychopaths, and the cat-and-mouse game that inevitably seems to result wherever they occur, it probably has a better claim to the title of spiritual successor to Death Note. The plot is a question of nature-vs-nurture: Is it possible to predict criminality in individuals? Once so identified, is it possible to head them off at the psycho-pass, as it were? A gritty story set in a gritty city, Psycho-Pass's best feature is its overwhelmed but tough protagonist, a female detective who comes to question everything she thinks she knows about criminal behavior.
Samurai Flamenco
Genre: All of them
Complete? Yes.
It's almost impossible to sum up this anime—so impossible that others have tried and failed before us. Is it a fashion show disguised as a lighthearted superhero quest turned violent cop drama turned tongue-in-cheek space western turned Power Rangers riff turned ongoing Monty Python sketch turned epic mindfuck turned thinly veiled gay fairy tale? It's all those things and none of them.
Samurai Flamenco covers a lot—and we mean a lot—of ground in its short but intensely baffling life. This story, which is ostensibly about a regular citizen who decides to turn himself into a real-life superhero, included a long stretch where viewers who weren't stuck in stages of "WTF is happening?" tended to assume the main character was hallucinating most of the action while going slowly insane. But while the overall plot is open to interpretation, what we believe Samurai Flamenco is doing is issuing a superb commentary on the core of the superhero trope itself. It questions who becomes a hero, and why. It also pits itself, its own storyline, against the all-powerful typical superhero narrative. When something totally unpredictable happens to the show's plot line, it's Samurai Flamenco's own special way of facing off against superhero tropes as if they themselves are the monster that must be defeated. You might think that's bizarre; we think it's utterly brilliant.
Knights of Sidonia
Genre: Sci-fi dystopia/Mecha
Complete? No. The second season of the anime is currently airing in Japan and not yet available.
This series concerns a futuristic human society aboard a giant spaceship, fighting to survive against a species of killer aliens. The premise—a young space cadet is unexpectedly thrust into battle—is very clichéd, borrowed from everything from Ender's Game and Starship Troopers to Starfighter. It's the incredible, VR-inspired animation and a thorough take on human gender and human engineering in a sci-fi age that makes this series worth watching.
Other Notable Series we like: Hunter x Hunter, Kill La Kill, Noragami.
What are your favorite anime series on Netflix? Upset that your favorites (we see you, survey corps members!) aren't on the list? Be sure to let us know!
Screengrab via Netflix