Recommended Animated Shows
Lots of people are staying inside to self-isolate from the coronavirus, so I thought I’d make a list of recommendations of animated shows (as in, cartoons and anime) for people staying in so they can pass the time.
EDIT (03/25/2020): My school got put out of business until May 15 a couple days ago and, there are probably others in the same boat, so I decided to add more shows to the list.
DuckTales (2017) - The modern reboot of the classic Disney cartoon, DuckTales is simply fantastic. It’s got heart, action, drama, comedy, and found family! Who doesn’t love found family?! The show’s also building to a shared universe between the various Disney Afternoon properties- Don Karnage and F.O.W.L. were introduced in season one, season two had Darkwing Duck and Negaduck debut, and season three (which is going to premiere April 4, by the by) is set to introduce Gosalyn Mallard, Kit Cloudkicker, Molly Carpenter, and the Rescue Rangers.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - One of the most popular anime of all time, Fullmetal Alchemist is the tale of the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse. Living in the country of Amestris, the two brothers are prodigies in the art of alchemy, which they use in an attempt to bring their mom back to life. Unfortunately, their mom only comes back as a horrific abomination and each brother loses part of their body as a “toll”- Alphonse his whole body and Edward his left leg while he gives his right arm up in order to bind Al to the mortal realm. Ed then goes on to join the military as a state alchemist in the hopes of using his position’s specific privileges to find the fabled Philosopher’s Stone so that the brothers can restore themselves to their original bodies. Not to mention, there’s also some seriously shady stuff concerning Amestris’s past and present….
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. - Kusuo Saiki is a psychic. He has pretty much any ESP-related ability you can think of. Telepathy, telekinesis, astral projection, clairvoyance, he’s got them all. Unfortunately, each and every one of his abilities is amplified to the extreme, which makes it hard for Saiki to have the one thing he wants more than anything. (Well, besides coffee jelly.) To have a quiet life. Not helping matters is the fact that he’s pretty much the only character in the entire series with a hint of common sense. Said people with no common sense include Saiki’s plethora of school friends- a bunch of eccentrics who Saiki uses his various powers to keep them out of trouble, all while denying that he considers them his friends. Saiki is a lot of things and tsundere is one of them.
Ouran High School Host Club - A school club anime, but with a twist. Haruhi Fujioka is an honors student at Ouran Academy, a school specifically those that are filthy rich and from excellent social standing, which Haruhi can only attend due to her high grades. So you can imagine what trouble she gets in when she accidentally breaks an extremely valuable vase belonging to the titular Ouran Host Club, where the school’s handsomest boys with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands. As such, due to her bifauxnen looks, Haruhi gets drafted into the club as the newest member where she must pretend to be a boy in order to quickly pay her debt. OHSHC also features some state-of-the-art wacky comedy and, even better, found family.
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts - Hundreds of years following the apocalypse, Kipo Oak gets thrust from the safety of her underground bunker home and into the surface, where mutant animals, called “Mutes”, of both the intelligent and bestial variety, run rampant. Kipo then embarks on a quest to find her way home with the aid of surface-dwelling survivors whom she forms a found family with. One thing that stands out about the series’s post-apocalyptic setting is the sheer variety of different animal communities. There are rocker snakes, astronomer wolves, exercise-nut raccoons, lumberjack cats. Also, the big bad of the piece, Scarlemagne, is one scary piece of work that you don’t want to be on the wrong side of.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - Another reboot, this time of the famous She-Ra: Princess of Power. It should go without saying that this is extremely different from the original. While the original had little to no budget for animation and really only existed to sell toys, SPOP has animation like the above and an ongoing plot that actually progresses instead of the status-quo remaining stagnant. Said plot, while occasionally bogged down by comedy that doesn’t work (ie: one of the main side characters copes with the genuinely heartbreaking loss of her kingdom by moping around in the bath tub while eating ice cream in scenes that are played for laughs), is actually pretty well-executed. You (for the most part) genuinely feel for the villains and want to see them go on to be better and happier people. You also manage to take characters with names like “Mermista”, “Double Trouble”, “Perfuma”, and “Glimmer” seriously. And isn’t that all you can ask from a She-Ra reboot?
Soul Eater - Soul Eater’s entire aesthetic can be described by one sentence. That sentence being “What if Tim Burton did drugs?” Not one specific drug, but all of them. “What if Tim Burton did all the drugs?” The answer is an anime where the Grim Reaper (called Lord Death) runs a school for training young warriors that partner with a Weapon (humans that shape shift into weapons) and entreat them with hunting down 99 evil humans and one witch. They’ll then become a Death Scythe (regardless of whether they’re actually a scythe), one of Death’s personal weapons. Bonus points for the main character, Maka Albarn, a girl, which is decently rare in anime that isn’t romance or comedy oriented.
Hilda - “Charming” is the best way to describe this one. Hilda follows the (mis)adventures of Hilda, a brave little girl with a love for supernatural creatures. Along for the ride are her friends, fellow humans David and Frida, as well as other magical creatures, such as deerfox Twig, elf Alfur, and thunderbird Raven. This show is incredibly wholesome and has a pretty relaxed atmosphere, which makes it good for when you just want something you can chill to.
Mob Psycho 100 - Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama is possibly the most powerful ESPer on the planet. That doesn’t matter much to him, though, as he only wants to improve himself in order to build enough courage to confess his love to his childhood friend. The series follows Mob’s growth as a character and has a really nice, almost madcap sense of humor that makes the show really fun to watch. Additionally, the animation is gorgeous when it matters, which makes for some really great fight scenes. Oh yeah. Mob works for a fake psychic who runs a consolation office that includes exorcisms, so there’s fight scenes. Also, there’s this group of evil adult ESPers called CLAW who want to take over the world, so Mob fights them too.
Dr. Stone - Another series set after the apocalypse, Dr. Stone is the story of the scientific prodigy Senku. Thousands of years after every human in the world turns to stone, Senku frees himself from his stone prison. He then vows to bring back civilization and figure out the mystery of the petrification using his scientific genius. And, seeing as how Senku has been to bring light bulbs to the stone world, you know he’s up the task. Senku quickly finds Ishigami Village, where non-petrified people who know nothing about the past reside.
Bungo Stray Dogs - BSD follows the Armed Detective Agency, a found family of oddball detectives who operate out of Yokohama, Japan who each possess a supernatural Ability. They also fight the local mafia, an American criminal organization, and Russian terrorists. Also also, each and every character is named after a famous author and their Ability is inspired by one of their famous works.
RWBY - In the world of Remnant, the Creatures of Grimm are constantly on the attack. Luckily, Remnant has a defense in the form of Huntsmen- specially trained warriors who use an energy source called Dust and an individual power specific to them called a Semblance. RWBY follows the journeys of a team of Huntsmen-in-training called Team RWBY, consisting of Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Ruby’s half-sister, Yang. Together, they deal with monsters, terrorists, crime lords, and way more than people their age should have to deal with. And, even if you don’t check out the show, at least check out the soundtrack. You owe it to yourself.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica - PMMM is another of the most popular anime around. It’s also best experienced when you go in essentially blind about the plot, ‘cause this thing has a roller coaster in place of a plot and it doesn’t let up until the last episode.
Red vs. Blue - Made by the same people behind RWBY, Red vs. Blue is a machinima (basically something animated using video games) with CGI mixed in from season seven onward. Unlike other shows where the main crew are a bunch of badasses who are only underestimated by idiots, the Reds and Blues are idiots who are underestimated by smart people. The humor in this is top notch, with nearly every episode getting at least one laugh. If that wasn’t enough, RvB also has semi-slow burn found family going on. The Reds and Blues start the series as enemies, but, by the end of the tenth season, they’re pretty much family.
Toilet-bound Hanako-kun - Nene Yashiro is a hopeless romantic enrolled at Kamome Academy. Desperate for a boyfriend, she summons Hanako-san of the Toilet, an urban legend and one of the seven mysteries of the school who can grant wishes for the right price. However, upon doing so, Hanako turns out to be a boy, contrary to his usual portrayal. A cheerful, childish, and mischievous boy who, following a turn of events, enlists Nene to be his assistant in maintaining the balance between the human and supernatural worlds. It should also be noted that this came out this year, so the dub is currently on Khold due to the quarantine.
In/Spectre - Kotoko Iwanaga is a “Goddess of Wisdom”, responsible for solving the various problems of yokai. However, the man she has a crush on, Kuro Sakuragawa, is feared by all yokai for reasons they refuse to elaborate on. After a brief misadventure in a library, Kotoko discovers the reasoning behind the yokai’s fear: Kuro ate two pieces of yokai flesh when he was a kid, granting him immortality in the process. Upon finding out, Kotoko asks him to help her in her Goddess of Wisdom work in the hopes that he’ll eventually come to return her feelings.
Camp Camp - Another Rooster Teeth (the studio behind RWBY and RvB) production, Camp Camp follows the various hijinks, shenanigans, and misadventures of the campers at Camp Campbell, a horribly run down summer camp that’s multiple camps in one. A camp camp, if you will. Most of the time, the focus is on the trio of Max, Neil, and Nikki and unnaturally happy counselor David and his infinitely more cynical co-counselor, Gwen. Fitting for a comedy series, the writing is top notch with every single character being either over-the-top quirky or practically made of snark.
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