By Nelson Schneider - 04/21/25 at 12:04 AM CT
Everyone on the MJ Crew (except Nick) used to be avid fans of anime – the Japanese flavor of animation that initially started out as a rip-off of Disney before moving in its own decidedly-bizarre and unmistakably-Japanese direction – but we’ve really fallen out of the habit as of late. I was pondering why this was, and it essentially boils down to a few factors: 1) The rampant success of shonen anime like “One Piece” and “Naruto” absolutely flooded the pipeline with similar fare, 2) The online communities we were part of either stopped recommending good anime, stopped recommending anime altogether, or decided that anime was sexist and bigoted and should be actively fought against, and 3) After a few poor choices in DVD/Blu-Ray purchases that turned out to be duds, we became leery about going into any new series blind.
Recently, however, I’ve been using the free “Roku Fast Channels” on my living room TV to watch streaming programming as if these channels were any other over-the-air broadcast. They’re completely free, but the catches are two-fold: They have just as many ads as a standard OTA broadcast and you are at the mercy of the bot-powered broadcast schedule to determine what’s on and when. While my local OTA channels all have 3, 4, or even 5 sub-stations now which re-broadcast these streaming lineups, my Nebraska local market apparently doesn’t crave anime enough for the local stations to pick any streams dedicated to the art. If it wasn’t for Roku populating my TV with literally hundreds of subject-specific or even show-specific channels, I would have remained largely in the dark about the state of anime currently.
To my utter shock and surprise, in spite of the entire medium seeming to be in a torpor for the last 20 years, there have actually been quite a few engaging shows and movies released in that time span that, upon viewing through Roku on either the Crunchyroll, RetroCrush, Pluto Anime All Day, or Anime X HiDive channels, I actually enjoyed.
Here’s a rundown of 10 such shows that might just help you reignite that snuffed candle that was once your love of Japanese animation:
10. Akiba’s Trip the Animation (2017) - Crunchyroll
It’s an officially Licensed tie-in for Sega’s incredibly dumb Beat ‘em Up game about an otaku kid in the Akihabara neighborhood of Tokyo defending the streets from a plague of vampires by… stripping them naked. While you might be inclined to think that this is a hentai or ecchi show, it really isn’t. It’s generally quite clean and doesn’t rely all that much on dirty humor. Instead, it’s a parody series that lampoons a huge range of subjects in Japanese pop culture, with a different vampire trying to take over Akihabara via a different stupid method in each episode. My personal favorite was the Yu-Gi-Oh parody episode, which had me rolling with laughter! Negate, negate, negate!
9. Helck (2023) – HiDive
This show is lower on the list than it could be due to the fact that it’s only one season in, and I’m not sure what direction it’s going to go. The season we do have introduces us to the titular hero, who is a big, hulking, barbarian-type character in a stock Fantasy world who has decided to travel from the human kingdom to the demon kingdom in order to enter a combat tournament to determine the new Demon Lord. “Helck’s” story is full of mysteries, and most of the first season takes the form of flashbacks, revealing some deep, heavy, and unnerving worldbuilding at the series’ core. It’s also quite a bi-polar series, radically shifting in mood from the grimmest of GrimDark to the most silly and idiotic comedy possible (there is a round, green bird-demon named Piwee who joins Helck’s party midway through the season… and yes, he is very much like Chris). The only caveat is that as the season ramps down into the finale, it seems like it might just be heading in the direction of becoming a “Bleach”-like Battle Anime with ten-thousand characters, consternation about power levels, and a grating, one-dimensional villain who is just impossible to kill. I’ll give season 2 a chance if it ever gets made (and dubbed), but I’m prepared to walk away disappointed.
8. Laid-Back Camp (2018) – Crunchyroll
Ugh. I really should hate this show, but I find it impossible to. It’s a Slice of Life (*groan*) story about a bunch of Japanese high-school (*groan*) girls (*double-groan*) who are part of the Out Club. No, it’s not about gayness, as the ‘out’ is simply short for ‘outdoor’ and the girls spend all of their time thinking about camping, gushing about camping, and going camping at a variety of real-world Japanese campsites. The show was partially made as propaganda to get more young people to use Japan’s public camping spaces… and it worked! Of course, I’m still too old and rural to enjoy camping, but watching this show gives me that melancholic feeling of false nostalgia that those damned Japs are so good at. (And they even have a word for it AND do it intentionally!) The worst part is that ALMOST NOTHING HAPPENS in this show! It’s purely character interaction and a medium for generating a cozy feeling of anemoia. Plus the Season 1 end credits song always moves me to tears.
7. Uzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out! (2020) – Crunchyroll
THIS, weirdly enough, is the only anime on this list that I was even remotely aware of before streaming it. It’s a romantic comedy about two college students (oh, EFF-ing thank you, Aphrodite!) who went to high-school together, and reconnect a couple of years after graduation. He’s a loner who spends all of his free time in his apartment playing videogames. She’s the titular character, and a fairly stereotypical Manic Pixie Dream Girl who insists on “fixing” him so he doesn’t end up alone. She’s also the TITular character because her favorite outfit consists of a jeanskirt and a mid-cuffed blue-and-white t-shirt emblazoned with the mantra “SUGOI DEKAI” stretched over her J-cup boobs. “Sugoi dekai” literally means “amazingly great,” but is typically translated idiomatically as “super huge.” So THAT’s why I was aware of this show ahead of time, but even in spite of the heroine being a boob monster, it’s a cute, clean show about two people who obviously love each other but are both too oblivious and stubborn to admit it.
6. Outbreak Company (2013) - HiDive
Oh, ho, ho! Japan is capable of being introspective, it seems! In this one-season show, we are presented with a fairly-typical isekai setting, wherein the Japanese government discovers a portal to a Fantasy world of sword and sorcery, populated by elves, dwarves, beastfolk, and the like. The Japanese government’s first order of the day? Create a cultural exchange program with a school, library, and curriculum devised by the wisest and most savvy expert in Japanese pop-culture: A random NEET, hikikomori otaku whom they abduct from his squalid apartment. Doing his job in earnest, our hero befriends the queen, accidentally seduces the elven slave/maid assigned to him, and fills the Fantasy world with the best (and worst) of otaku culture. But when dwarven farmers get into arguments about who has to harvest the potatoes when the newest issue of some dumb magical girl light novel hits the school library, it seems that not all cultural exchanges are mutually beneficial. Good job, Japan! Being aware of the problem is the first step toward correcting it!
5. The Time of Eve (2010) - RetroCrush
Yeah, 2010 seems like forever ago, but I drifted away from anime around 2005, so… deal with it, I guess. This is the only movie on the list, and I really had no idea what to expect going in. It’s kind of slow moving, but it does a really good job of examining the relationships between people and AIs, which is only going to become more important as AIs get better and more people-like. What’s amazing is that this show is so old that there’s no way the writers were cribbing off of current events, making it seem even more prescient. Another way to look at it is like an anime version of Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” that somehow reverses things and is less bizarre and nonsensical than its Western counterpart.
4. Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1991) - RetroCrush
Yeah, I have no excuse for missing out on this one the first time around. This should have had a cheap DVD boxed set by the time I was really getting into anime around Y2K, but it completely slipped under my radar. It’s basically what you’d get if Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and Jules Verne teamed up to write a story. It’s a fairly long series with a number of distinct arcs running through the seasons, but there’s plenty of plot, plenty of character development, and plenty of worldbuilding, resulting in an enjoyable overall experience. Yeah, there are a few dud episodes that could be considered “filler,” but I don’t think that takes away from the show’s overall quality. It’s also interesting to see some inspirations for things that would pop-up in later anime series – like the villains-turned-friends from “Nadia’s” early episodes clearly providing the template for “Pokemon’s” bumbling Team Rocket.
3. The Vampire Dies in No Time (2021) – Crunchyroll
This is a spoof on the older “Van Helsing” anime. Set in a modern world completely beset by vampires, our story revolves around a vampire hunter named Ronaldo who, in spite of being quite good at his job, makes most of his money by writing a series of pulp novels based on his exploits. At some point, Ronaldo ends up going into the heart of a vampire castle to defeat the occupant: The world’s least durable (but also somehow most durable?) vampire lord, Draluc, who literally dies and turns to ashes several times per episode. Ronaldo’s possibly-demonic publisher (who always brings a battle-ax to client meetings) loves the idea of the vampire hunter and the defeated vampire teaming up, so Ronaldo is suddenly stuck with a new roommate… who also has a pet armadillo named John (who is also remarkably like Chris). The sheer hilarity and vast quantities of idiocy in this show make it laugh-out-loud hilarious… and that’s not even getting into some of the incredibly stupid vampires the new duo finds themselves fighting… like the one who makes everyone speak in sexual fetishes, or the one who can’t control his shapeshifting powers and is usually in the form of an indescribably terrible (and poorly-drawn) chimera that probably spawned from Tingle’s (of “Wind Waker” fame) dreams.
2. Chaika the Coffin Princess (2014) - Crunchyroll
This two-season adaptation of a light novel (that is a serialized novel, not a manga, but with some illustrations) plays it straight as a Fantasy show set in the aftermath of the fall of the Evil Emperor. As the nations of the world try to rebuild amid their own squabbling, a mysterious white-haired girl, speaking broken English, appears, carrying a large coffin on her back and claiming to be the Evil Emperor’s daughter, Chaika. Her task: To reclaim the remains of her late father to give them a proper burial. Chaika soon recruits a couple of out-of-work-post-war saboteurs (read: ninjas with the serial numbers filed off) to assist her in this task, as she travels around the world, seeking the heroes who claimed her father’s remains as battle trophies. Things quickly get complicated, however, as another girl claiming to be Chaika, the Emperor’s daughter, appears, also seeking to gather the remains. Ultimately, this show just has a great story with great characters, and incredibly cool world-building. This isn’t a stock Fantasy world, but really has a unique identity of its own, while still remaining recognizable to genre fans.
1. To Your Eternity (2021) - Crunchyroll
I didn’t think any anime series would ever come close to “Neon Genesis Evangelion” with regard to exploring deep, philosophical topics, emotional story arcs, and mindblowing worldbuilding, but THIS show may have actually done it! The story here revolves around a spiritual entity known as Fushi who begins as a featureless, white orb, dropped into the world by its creator. Over glacial periods of time, the orb begins to experience the things around it, eventually developing awareness and the ability to shapeshift into creatures that have died in its presence. Taking the form of a wolf, Fushi befriends a boy… and eventually becomes the boy after his death. While many animes tend to spin their wheels with action that never moves and status quos that are never allowed to change, “To Your Eternity” moves and changes drastically. Fushi meets all sorts of new people, but because he is an immortal spirit being, the people he meets die, but he goes on. Season 1 alone features three different story arcs with three different casts, with the only connection being the presence of Fushi. The writing is incredible, as the audience is brought along for the full emotional ride as Fushi learns of pain and loss and what it is to be human. I’ve only seen halfway through Season 2 (there is no Season 3), and I just can’t say enough good things about this show.
