Don’t make any plans because these shows might consume your life. Good animes tend to do that.
20 Animes That Are Perfect For Binge-Watching And Definitely Not For Kids
By
Michael Avery in
Entertainment
On 5th December 2014
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1. Attack on Titan
Recommended if you like:
Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, very sad things constantly happening
The elevator pitch:
People live in walled cities hiding from giants that eat humans. Legions of knights who fly around like Spiderman with grappling hooks, hoping to stop the giants from eating people. A lot of people get eaten.
Streaming on:
Netflix, Hulu
2. Berserk
Recommended if you like:
Game of Thrones, 300, just totally outrageous violence
The elevator pitch:
Berzerk is one giant bloody mess of a medeval slash-em-up knight story. It's known as one of the rawer animes out there and for good reason. You've been warned.
Streaming on:
Netflix
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3. Big O
Recommended if you like:
Batman: The Animated Series, Dark City, big robots
The elevator pitch:
Take a millionaire like Bruce Wayne, put him in a giant robot, and then have him fight other huge robots. Also, bonus, the whole show is one big quest to solve the mystery of how every single person in the city lost their memories all at the same time. It's trippy and cool and definitely a weird, good time.
Streaming on:
Nowhere (officially)
4. Claymore
Recommended if you like:
Game of Thrones, 300, medieval slash-em-ups
The elevator pitch:
Female knights hunt down shapeshifters and kill them in a very loosely medieval kind of world.
Streaming on:
Hulu
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5. Cowboy Bebop
Recommended if you like:
Firefly, Blade Runner, The Fifth Element
The elevator pitch:
Take the coolest crime noir you've ever seen and put it in space. It's known for its gorgeous art and beautiful jazz-inspired soundtrack. There's a reason it's a modern classic.
Streaming on:
Adult Swim
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6. Darker Than Black
Recommended if you like:
Intense sci-fi mysteries like The X-Files or Lost
The elevator pitch:
A story full of assassinations and espionage set in a world where the gates to heaven and hell have opened up, giving certain people special powers.
Streaming on:
Hulu, Netflix
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7. Death Note
Recommended if you like:
Hannibal, The Following, Orphan Black
The elevator pitch:
An overachieving high school student gets a notebook that will kill anyone whose name is written in it. When he starts killing bad guys with it, let's just say things get out-of-hand real quick.
Streaming on:
Hulu
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8. Fate/Zero
Recommended if you like:
Alias, Merlin, magic and fantasy, coming-of-age stories
The elevator pitch:
Every 60 years a bunch of mages summon a great hero from the past, like Gilgamesh, or Alexander The Great, and make them fight each other. To tell you anymore would probably ruin it. Has some of the best fight choreography you're bound to come across. Plus, it has a slew of insanely cool female characters!
Streaming on:
Hulu
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9. FLCL
Recommended if you like:
Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, Venture Bros, giant robots
The elevator pitch:
Oh boy, so FLCL is only six episodes long and let's be glad it's that short. An angsty teenager discovers that when he, uh, becomes aroused, giant monsters crawl out of his head and start to destroy the city. Luckily, he has a robot friend that helps him beat them. It's also not really about any of that. But it is. But not really. You know what I mean?
Streaming on:
Nowhere (officially)
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10. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Recommended if you like:
Inglorious Basterds, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harry Potter (especially the later books), steampunk
The elevator pitch:
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is technically a reimagining/sequel of the more kid-friendly Fullmetal Alchemist. It follows the Eldric brothers, two teenagers who have the ability to use a magic known as alchemy. Brotherhood is much darker than the first installment. It's also much longer and has an epic feel to it that makes it an absolute must-see.
Streaming on:
Netflix, Hulu
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11. Fushigi Yuugi
Recommended if you like:
Chronicles of Narnia, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, world-spanning adventures
The elevator pitch:
A super-cute romance starring high schoolers who can jump between dimensions using a magical book they found in their school's library.
Streaming on:
Nowhere (officially)
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12. Hellsing
Recommended if you like:
Hellsing, Blade, World War II-era politics
The elevator pitch:
Vampires, Nazis, and the apocalypse, oh my! But seriously, Hellsing is known as a top-tier anime. It is not your typical by-the-books vampire story, at all.
Streaming on:
Netflix
13. Hunter X Hunter
Recommended if you like:
Indiana Jones, National Treasure, goofy paranormal action
The elevator pitch:
A standard search-for-lost-father fighter anime turns into an urban mafia detective story, an auction house drama, a reality-bending video game, and probably the scariest ecological disaster you'll see in anime. This isn't about the triumph of the plucky. At every moment, you're worried that the people you're rooting for are going to die.
Streaming on:
Hulu
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14. Kill La Kill
Recommended if you like:
Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, gross-out humor, coming-of-age stories
The elevator pitch:
It starts as your typical gross, kind of sexist magical girls anime set at a high school where students physically fight to be popular. But it gets turned on its head and transformed into something darker, more interesting, and incredibly tough to pin down.
Streaming on:
Hulu
15. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Recommended if you like:
Pacific Rim, serious teenage angst, having your brain melted out of your ears
The elevator pitch:
You've never seen a big robot story like this before. Actually, to be completely honest, you've probably never seen anything like this before. There's really no point in trying to pitch this to you quickly, but basically a teenage boy has to get in a big robot and kill angels that come down from maybe heaven to bring about what is maybe the rapture.
Streaming on:
Nowhere (officially)
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16. Paranoia Agent
Recommended if you like:
American Horror Story, Twin Peaks, True Detective, psychological thrillers
The elevator pitch:
You think you're watching a story-of-the-week anthology series, then toward the end of it, characters and storylines start tying together to reveal a larger plot you literally couldn't have seen coming. It's also seriously creepy in the best way.
Streaming on:
Netflix
17. Rurouni Kenshin
Recommended if you like:
When Harry Met Sally, sprawling samurai stories, lots of action
The elevator pitch:
There are samurai dramas about wandering ronin and then there is Ruroni Kenshin, which operates at such a high level, it's in a league all its own. It's also a pretty darn cute romance story.
Streaming on:
Hulu, Netflix
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18. Samurai Champloo
Recommended if you like:
The Boondocks, alt-history, contemporary hip-hop culture, samurais
The elevator pitch:
It's another wandering ronin series, but it's sort of an alt-history thing with this weird/great mash-up of Edo period japan and American contemporary hip-hop culture. In the episodes themselves, there'll be graffiti artists and beatbox battles, and there's even an entire episode about defeating the Americans at their own game: baseball.
Streaming on:
Hulu, Netflix
19. Soul Eater
Recommended if you like:
Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, dark science fiction and fantasy, coming-of-age dramas
The elevator pitch:
Basically, a bunch of students go to an academy whose headmaster is actually the grim reaper. Then they fight other schools for the chance to kill everyone else. Imagine an insanely out-there version of Harry Potter. Like a really, really out-there version.
Streaming on:
Hulu
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20. Trigun
Recommended if you like:
Deadwood, Breaking Bad, adventure stories
The elevator pitch:
If you're into Westerns, you'll love Trigun. If you're not into Westerns, you'll still love Trigun. It starts out goofy and then it gets real, and boy does it stay real.
Streaming on:
Hulu, Netflix
