There have never been more places to watch anime, and it’s extremely exciting to see how streaming destinations like Netflix have become surprising homes for standout series. Netflix doesn’t specialize in anime, and these titles merely represent a fraction of its programming, but that hasn’t stopped them from amassing a brilliant library.
Anime fans can binge through nostalgic classics, like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Monster, while also checking out modern masterpieces. Some of Netflix’s most celebrated anime are standalone series that don’t extend their stories beyond a single season, like Pluto and Devilman Crybaby, but the platform also carries plenty of longer series as well.
Beastars Is A Tender Deconstruction Of Desire, Prejudice & Instinct With Anthropomorphic Animals
Beastars taps into something really special through its use of a world of anthropomorphic animals to comment upon societal discrimination and labeling. The murder of an innocent alpaca lights a fuse between the already volatile tension that exists between carnivores and herbivores.
Legoshi, a meek wolf, gets caught between these two worlds. He looks inward and figures out where his instincts and desires truly lie, rather than the role that he’s been put in as a carnivore. Beastars combines poignant and thought-provoking social commentary with a captivating murder mystery.
Wind Breaker is set in the aggressive world of high school delinquents and turf wars. Haruka Sakura has grown accustomed to being an outcast and is ready to fight his way to peace when he begins attending a new school that features the worst of the worst students.
Haruka comes to learn that the school’s brawling bullies actually moonlight as the community’s protectors when it comes to outside threats and criminal negligence. He finds a sense of purpose and community with his fellow outcasts as he channels his fighting spirit into something noble.
Fans have patiently been waiting for the announcement of a third season, although a live-action film was instead revealed in the meantime. Only a little more than a third of the series’ manga has been adapted, which means that there’s still plenty of material for future reasons. As it stands, it’s 25 episodes of grounded action excellence.
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Assassination Classroom Mixes Coming-Of-Age Beauty With Alien Hijinks
One of the biggest problems that popular anime face is that they’re pushed to prolong their narrative after its natural end point. It’s always appreciated when an anime understands when it’s the right time to say goodbye, which was 47 episodes across two seasons for Assassination Classroom.
The heightened shonen anime involves an extremely powerful alien who will destroy the Earth in a year if he’s not first executed by his scrappy class of remedial students. It’d be so easy for this premise to get unnecessarily extended or for it to cheat its way out of its initial promise, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome or run away from its hilarious and heartbreaking story.
Dorohedoro Gets Lost In A Dark Fantasy Urban Dystopia Of Magic, Monsters & Murder
Dorohedoro is one of MAPPA’s most extreme anime, which is saying something. The unconventional dark fantasy explores a sprawling web of overlapping stories in a dystopian wasteland that’s full of magical bounty hunters and monstrous abominations. The anime kicks off with Caiman’s efforts to recover his lost memory and figure out who has cursed him with a reptile head and amnesia.
However, this identity-driven mystery is just one of Dorohedoro‘s many intricate character studies. World-building is immaculate here, and it’s an anime that’s easy to just get lost in. It took six years for the anime’s complex second season to debut after the first year’s 2020 run, but it was well worth the wait.
Dandadan Is An Overwhelming Explosion Of Occult & Supernatural Mayhem
Dandadan is an ambitious anime that throws as much as it can at its characters — and the audience — and yet this endless raising of the stakes somehow works in its favor. Momo and Okarun are two individuals who believe in the paranormal, albeit from contrasting spectrums, who find themselves up against aliens, spirits, and a litany of cryptids.
Okarun and Momo slowly meet more supernaturally-charged individuals, but it’s their earnest dynamic that becomes the shonen anime’s beating heart. There are currently two 12-episode seasons that are both without weak links.
Season Two takes advantage of the powers and relationships that are already established as it introduces new individuals and urban legends. Dandadan‘s anime is far from over and a third season has been confirmed for 2027. With any luck, it will continue to push the series’ unpredictable and fearless supernatural storytelling to new heights.
The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K. Is Gag Comedy Excellence With A Put-Upon Psychic
There is no shortage of anime that feature superpowered psychics, but Netflix’s The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. is such a welcome subversion because its exaggerated esper does whatever he can to stay out of the spotlight and live as boring a life as possible. Saiki Kusuo has world-ending psychic abilities, but his true passion is eating sweet treats like coffee jelly and binging anime.
Saiki is surrounded by an entertaining cast of supporting characters, all of whom generate comical chaos in their own ways. The anime’s fast-paced and sketch-like storytelling means that the gags never get old, and the series doesn’t wear out its welcome.
Vinland Saga Presents A Moving Meditation On Forgiveness & Pacifism In The Face Of Hollow Vengeance
Anime fans have plenty of options when it comes to vicious revenge rampages. Vinland Saga begins in this familiar place when Thorfinn, a young Norseman, pledges vengeance on the man who killed his father.
He infiltrates Askeladd’s group and hones his brutal skills as he waits for the opportunity to duel him to the death. However, he experiences a radical personality shift in the anime’s second season. Askeladd’s surprising death robs Thorfinn of purpose, and he evolves from a child soldier into a staunch pacifist who preaches forgiveness, understanding, and redemption.
These two seasons beautifully compliment each other, and both succeed with their contrasting agendas. Some anime struggle when they experience studio shifts during production, but Vinland Saga‘s pivot from WIT Studio to MAPPA gives each season a distinct flavor.
Haikyu!!’s Underdog Sports Theatrics Are Consistently Exciting
There’s an anime out there for practically every sport imaginable, and Netflix has its fair share of available options. Haikyu!!, far and away the most famous volleyball anime by several miles, is also widely considered the greatest sports series of all time.
Haikyu!! has resonated so strongly with audiences because Shoyo Hinata is the ultimate inspirational underdog who won’t let his short stature dictate what’s possible in life. It mixes suspenseful sports showdowns with revealing character development in every single match, and every moment of downtime.
A lot of sports anime suffer from a repetitive structure, which makes it all the more impressive how Haikyu!! tackles different aspects of volleyball in each of its four seasons. Season Three, for example, focuses on a single match between Karasuno High and Shiratorizawa Academy; it creatively pushes sports anime out of its comfort zone.
Mob Psycho 100 Tells A Complete & Cathartic Story Across Three Seasons
ONE’s Mob Psycho 100 was first dismissed as a pale psychically-charged imitation of the mangaka’s One-Punch Man. However, it soon evolved into a superior series that grows actively better with each new season. Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama is an overpowered esper, albeit someone whose psychic abilities are intrinsically linked to his emotional well-being.
This leaves him frightened to get in touch with his feelings under the concern that an apocalyptic burst of psychic strength might be released. The action anime adeptly fluctuates between episodic monster-of-the-week style storytelling and grander threats that punctuate each season. Studio Bones consistently rises to the occasion with its visuals, but this anime is especially expressive and filled with experimental and surreal visuals that reflect raw psychic strength.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Repeatedly Reinvents Itself Through Genre-Bending Generational Storytelling
Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is nothing short of a revelation. It’s remarkable to look at how much the franchise has changed since its debut, right down to completely overhauling its central power system.
There’s something to be said for an anime like this that isn’t overly precious about its characters and is content with resetting the slate after each major saga. Rather than follow a set protagonist, the series instead focuses on a bloodline — the Joestars — and its many distinct descendants.
This means that each JoJo season feels completely original, and it avoids issues of repetitive and formulaic storytelling. Each major saga in the series has its passionate and vocal fans. Some are more popular than others, but none are outright bad, or anywhere close to it.
