Anime, or Japanese animation, has been popular in the western world for quite some time. In recent years, however, its appeal has become a lot more mainstream. Thanks in part to the success of films like Parasite, American audiences are becoming more accepting of and interested in content produced on the other side of the globe.
And, of course, wherever there’s a cultural shift, there’s a streamer to profit off of it. To be fair, Netflix has been interested in content from that side of the world for much longer than the Academy Awards have. In the past, they acquired hit shows like Seven Deadly Sins, and even allowed Will Smith’s son to create one of his own.
Now, as the appetite of its subscribers grows, the streamer is busy acquiring more and more Japanese content. Recently, for instance, it added the first hundred episodes or so of the behemoth franchise that is One Piece to its selection. One of the best-selling media properties of all time, it tells the story of a young boy whose goal in life is to become the most-feared pirate on the planet. With such aspirations, you can understand that it takes him a while – over eight hundred episodes, at this point – to get there.
Another classic anime that’s now available on Netflix is Yu-Gi-Oh. Those of you who grew up in the 90s may remember this IP fondly, if not more fondly, than household names like Pokémon, and for good reason. Like Pokémon, this series centers on a trading card game where people collect and battle with monsters. Unlike Pokémon, however, these monsters don’t look cute and cuddly, but fearsome and ferocious. Basically, it was what the cool kids watched in middle school.
If neither of those work for you, though, then there’s also a ton of other great anime currently on offer, like Cardcaptor Sakura, Megalo Box, Baki, Pokémon Journeys: The Series and many, many more. But tell us, which anime do you want Netflix to add to its library in the future? Let us know in the comments section down below.
