Anime is a very unique cartoon. It is a cartoon in the sense of it is animated, but when I think of cartoons I imagine something like Tom & Jerry or Dexter’s Laboratory. Cartoons are usually animated to look silly and have a rather upbeat mentality to them. Anime is usually based off of a Manga or Japanese comic. Anime are also usually drawn better and animated. They tend to have a more realistic look to them as well. Cartoons usually have a story that lasts one episode maybe two while an anime can run the story for the whole season. Netflix has seen the growing anime boom and has begun adding anime to their instant stream as well as DVD’s that can be rented. This collection is rather small but hopefully Netflix will begin expanding their collection. With that being said I would like to suggest five Anime series streaming on Netflix that you should be watching.
5. Soul Eater.
Soul eater spans 4 seasons or chapters, however you would like to put it but it is a really good series to watch. The series is about Maka Albran who is a student at an Academy for Meisters. The School is basically teaching kids how to be reapers, while their partners or demon weapons. It is the Meister’s job to help their demon weapon to acquire 99 souls plus one soul of a witch. Acquiring the souls will allow the demon weapon to become a death scythe, a weapon that will be wielded by death himself. Death is the dean of the academy where all the Meisters train and learn. Death founded the school to train them to help prevent the rebirth of a Kishin. A Kishin is an evil weapon that consumes the souls of the innocent. Maka with her fellow students Black Star, and Death the kid journey around helping to eliminate the evil souls that plague their world. While there are tons of students in the show, the majority of the series follows these three students.
One of the things I like about this series is just the concept of the show. It basically takes place in a secondary world. One of the cool things about the characters personality is that meshes well with their weapons. Maka has a very stubborn personality. She is very studious while her partner Soul is a laid back personality who doesn’t seem to care about much, he is a slacker. Black Star is supposed to be an assassin but he is a hot head and a loud mouth. He is convinced that he is a celebrity and everyone should know and revere him. Instead of being a silent killer he tends to rush into things head long and refuses to come up with a game plan or think things through. His Weapon Tsubaki is a rather reserved person. She is very quiet and friendly. She is the calculated one of the group who always tries to think things through.
Death the Kid who if you realized is the son of Death, is one of the stranger characters. He is a bit of a narcissist, he has severe OCD when is comes to symmetry. He will freak out if things are not perfectly symmetric at all. His need for perfect balance is part of the reason why he carries two weapons. He is one of the few people if not the only that can manage to control two demon weapons. Liz and Patty are former criminals who Death the kid met and gave them the chance to change their lives. The two of them tend to be a little bit scatter brained. Liz tends to be paranoid about pretty much everything while Patty is rather goofy and doesn’t seem to understand, you can almost say that she has an IQ of 30.
The show just has a really good vibe. While it tends to drag the story a long some times there is a lot of really good action sequences that keep the pace of the show going along. I can’t say that the story is that difficult to follow in the way of if pretty much telegraphs what is going to happen at every point. That doesn’t really bother me because the story doesn’t need to constantly keep you guessing. It is worth checking out the first season to see if it fits your style.
4. Sword Art Online.
Sword Art Online is a newer Series, which Aired in 2012. SAO as I will call it for the rest of the time is actually the first in a series of stories. This is another one based on a Manga. The Series goes Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online, and Underworld. SAO is an online Sword fighting game where players put on a helmet or (Nerve Gear) as it is called in the series, which beams their conscious into the game where it is almost like they are actually in the game. SAO is a giant castle world game where the players are all competing to clear all one hundred floors and beating the game. On the day of the game thousands of players beam themselves into the game anticipating a thrilling new game only to find out that the log out feature is missing from the game preventing them from leaving the game and going about their lives.
A panic begins to flow through the community now trapped inside the game when its creator Kayaba Akihiko appears floating above them in the town square. A sense of relief comes over the crowd when they think that it is an Admin who is about to tell them they are going to fix the log out issue and allow them to go home, but he announces to the players that The log out button was purposely removed because he does not want anyone to leave. Because their conscious is inside the game the players cannot pull off the nerve gear and leave. Kayaba also announces that if the headgear is removed it will kill anyone. Adding insult to injury he also informs them that if they die in the game the nerve gear will send a pulse killing them in real life. The only way to go home is to beat the game.
This revelation causes mass panic among all the players in the game. The Series follows beta tester and game master Kirito who decides that he must go through the levels and beat the game freeing everyone. Kirito Leaves his friend and ventures out on his own to move through the game as quickly as possible. He Eventually Meets Asuna a female player who he creates a strong bond with. The two of them spend some time playing together as a team before Kirito thinks it best for everyone if he goes alone again. I enjoy this series because I am a huge video game fan and the fact that the nerve game essentially puts you in the game where what you think you do. The aspect is also very clever with the fact the Nerve gear was a unique system up until them. I think it is scary to think that being trapped in a video game could be one day possible if nerve gear actually existed.
The Series while keeping a rather lighthearted mentality is kind of dark. The fact is everyone is stuck in the game and struggling to stay alive. The series really explains how series something like that could be. There are players who purposely kill others with no regard for the fact that they are dying in real life. Some people hide in the safety of the towns just waiting for the game to let them out while Kirito and others struggle to beat the game all the while putting their lives on the line in the hopes that they will get out of the game. The series does leak into the second book Alfheim online. There are rumors that they will be converting the rest of the manga series into Anime.
3. Samurai Champloo
Something you need to know about this show before watching it, this show is a very mature show. There is a lot of swearing and blood shed. The Series is a straight Anime Series and is not based of any Manga series. The same people who created Cowboy Bebop create Samurai Champloo. Champloo as it will be called is one of the older ones on the list airing originally in 2004. It is rather shorts being only 26 episodes long. The series takes place in an alternate hip-hop version of Edo-era Japan. The series follows three travelers.
Fuu is a fifteen-year-old girl who is on a journey to find a samurai who smells of sunflowers. Fuu is orphaned at a young age and is forced to fend for her self, finding odd and end jobs to keep food on her plate. Fuu tends to be a bit of a klutz and seems to always stumble into a bad situation. She also tends to attract plenty of men suitors no matter where she goes which ends up getting her and he partners in trouble. Fuu meets two men by the name of Mugen and Jin, two sword fighters who are to be sentenced to death. She helps distract the guards allowing the two men to go free. In return for her help they agree to stave off killing each other to help her find the samurai she seeks.
Mugen is a twenty one year old man and he is a free spirited womanizing swordsman who has a very unorthodox fighting style is a bit of a hot head who tends to find him self in a fight or being arrested. Mugen prefers to fight his way out of all situations. Mugen is a bit of an anti hero as his antics and personality make him come off as a bit of a bully. Mugen at one point was a long time prisoner before he finds himself accompanying Fuu on her journey.
His counterpart and sworn enemy Jin, a twenty two year old swordsman is a quiet and reserved man. Jin Is very secretive about his past. He doesn’t speak much or talk about his past. His posture is very proper that would hint that he has a very strict upbringing when he was a kid. He is routinely the target of assassination attempts. It is revealed that he killed the master of his dojo and not his fellow students seek to make a name by taking Jin out. Jin carries two swords on him at all times, a katana and a wakizashi. Jin is a very honorable fighter and does not break the rules of Bushido.
The series has a very serious aspect to it because the three friends are constantly on the run from people wanting to do them harm. They constantly are low on money and must take menial jobs to get enough food to survive. For as serious as the show is there are also bouts of rather silliness. Fuu is constantly being kidnapped when she is in the wrong place at the wrong time. When she isn’t being kidnapped or assaulted, she tends to be constantly hit on by perverted guys. Fuu doesn’t seem to understand why Jin and Mugen are always chasing after other women and paying no attention to her. Mugen’s lust for women tends to land him in trouble more often than not. There are many episodes where Mugen and Jin are drunk and at least one where Mugen is high from a marijuana field catching fire. For as guarded as they all are, they begin to grow on each other and become closer. Jin ends up calling Fuu and Mugen his friends, even though He swore to Kill Mugen once they helped Fuu complete her journey.
2. Full Metal Alchemist
This could easily be number one as it is an amazing series. There are two Series and a movie that follow this series. Full Metal is also based off of a manga series. The original Full Metal was released in 2003 and spans 51 episodes. It will take you quite a while to get through this series and into Brotherhood. The Series ran a full year and brotherhood was released in 2009. Full Metal follows two brothers, Edward (Ed) and Alphonse (Al) Elric. The two brothers are traveling the world to find the mythical philosophers stone. It is believed that the philosophers stone is an alchemical substance that can turn lead into cold and it is said that it also has the ability to bring a human back to life or giving someone immortality
Ed and Al are seeking the stone to revive their mother who has died. In an attempt to revive his mother Al is killed and Ed loses his left leg. In a desperate attempt to save Al, Ed sacrifices his right arm and bonds Al’s soul to a suit of armor. Edwards’s body is severely damaged and he has to be rushed to an automail company so that his limbs can be replaced. Ed’s missing limbs are replaced with automail, which allows him to use his new limbs as if they were his actual limbs. After Ed is better the brothers decide to burn down their house and start on a journey to get their bodies back.
Ed is convinced to take a state alchemy test. Ed passes the test and becomes a member of the military, which now allows him to better his alchemy skills and gain access to research and files that he could never get as an ordinary citizen. Ed uses his new position to investigate the reports of the philosopher’s stone. Al and Ed travel the world helping the military as cover for finding or being able to create the philosophers stone. Ed’s mentor Dante had once created a philosophers stone with the help of her lover hohenheim. They used the philosopher’s stone to swap bodies allowing them to live for many years before guilt caught up with hohenheim. Dante cannot remember how to create one so she must convince Ed and Al to make one.
The series is a very complicated and in depth one. There is a lot going on with the brothers trying to help people while trying to find the stone. Ed tends to be a bit over eccentric. He likes to show off and acts very tough. He gets upset when people make jokes about his height; especially they question how he is the older brother when Al is much taller. Everyone confuses Al for the full metal alchemist because he is in a giant suit of armor. There are multiple conflicts that arise because of Ed’s notoriety. The series while rather slow and sometimes complicated does tend to make it that much better. There is constantly some sort of underhanded dealings going on and Ed and Al are usually in the middle. It will take some time to watch all of it, but it is worth the time.
1. Attack on Titan.
Attack on Titan is by far one of my favorite series. While it is still in its first year of production, the manga is very popular. The Anime Version just released in 2013 and there are plans on a second season coming to play especially since the first season ended with such a cliffhanger. Attack on Titan has a really unique premise behind the show. It takes place in a rather dystopian future as humans have been relegated to living inside giant walls. They live there to protect them selves from titans. Titans are giant creatures or humanoids that feed on humans. They never really explain where the titans come from or why they only eat humans and ignore animals but it has caused the humans centuries of fear and destruction.
We follow the story of Eren Yeager, his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman, and their friend Armen Arlet. Eren is enamored by the Military that defends the people from the titans. Tragedy strikes when a colossus titan appears and breaks a hole in the outer most walls, allowing dozens of titans to enter. The titans begins ravaging the city and killing dozens. Eren watches as a titan eats his mother. He is whisked away by a member of the military to the sanctity of the second wall. Eren becomes determined to join the military and become a member of the survey corps, the elite soldiers who valiantly travel outside the walls to fight the titans that have plagued them for so long.
A second armored titan appears and forces everyone to evacuate from wall Maria and wall Rose. This leaves only the inner most districts and wall Sina. The titan’s very in height and type but they are very deadly and their appetite is insatiable even though they don’t need to eat to survive. They get energy from the sun and have the ability to regenerate lost body parts. The only way to kill them is by cutting deeply on the nape of the neck. Eren, Mikasa, and Armen enlist in the military and begin their training to become soldiers. Eren struggles to complete the training but it is later discovered that his maneuvering equipment is faulty.
In order to combat the titans, every solider is outfit with vertical maneuvering gear which allows them to move quickly in all directions. Eren and his friends pass through the class and join the survey corps thus fulfilling Eren’s goal of being able to kill every titan that crosses his path. The colossus titan appears a second time and the survey corps responds. During the fight Eren discovers that he has a unique ability to transform into a titan though he has trouble controlling his newfound powers. The discovery of his new abilities causes turmoil among the military and the citizens.
This show was highly addicting from the beginning to end. While some parts are slower than others it does have a rather complete and well moving story. This is a rather dark series as it is very violent and bloody. Eren is constantly trying to figure out why and how he became what he is and Mikasa has dedicated her life to protecting Eren at all costs, because he is all the family that she has left. There are a lot of twists as the series comes to a close but it is all very interesting and well rounded. While they never really explain where the titans come from or how they existed before humans it tends to lend small hints through out the season. The season ends with out revealing a lot of questions that emerged during the series but it will make for a spectacular season two when ever it is finally released.
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