Five Animes to Binge Before You Cancel Your Netflix Subscription
Netflix hasn’t been popular of late. But before you move away from the streaming service, make sure you’ve seen these bingeworthy animes.
Netflix is about to roll out a few unpopular policy changes that have lots of people threatening to walk away from the streaming giant forever. We’re not sure how many people will actually be dropping Netflix over the upcoming changes or if this will be a good or bad move for them in the long run. But I do know that there is a whole lot of anime on Netflix waiting to be binge-watched. So before you cut the Netflix cord – if you were planning to – make sure you check out these animes first.
Kotaro Lives Alone
I haven’t seen anything else quite like this show ever. Kotaro is a little boy in a little apartment who’s way too young to be living by himself, even by anime trope standards. But he also acts much older than his age by borrowing the personality of his favorite samurai from TV. He moves in next door to manga artist Shin Karino who himself isn’t terribly mature but is immediately drawn to this kid and starts taking care of him. This leads to all of Kotoro’s neighbors doing to same and before you know it he has a collection of weird found-family guardians. Eventually, the show starts revealing why it is that this small child lives all alone, and usurpingly, it’s a little tragic.
This is a show that hurts you while projecting that it’s going to hurt you from a mile away… but it still manages to land the gut punch somehow.
Dorohedoro
This was one of my favorite shows to come out of 2020 and I’m more than a little sad to see that we probably won’t be getting any more. Luckily the manga had a solid eighteen-year run to catch up on and the season we did get was pretty great. Dorohedoro takes place in a weird horror show of a world where magic is used almost exclusively for evil and most people live in underground slums. The main character Caiman lost his identity when a sorcerer transformed his head into a reptile’s and took all of his memories. So now he and his friend Nikaido go out hunting sorcerers for fun and information. Hard R for violence on this show, but if that’s something you’re okay with, it’s a ridiculous and surprising amount of fun.
Komi Can’t Communicate
As a person with social anxiety, I’m a huge sucker for shows about social anxiety. And Komi Can’t Communicate is such a sweet, kind, and adorable show. Komi is the most beautiful girl in class who never speaks to anybody. So naturally everybody assumes she’s stuck up and mean. Turns out, she actually has debilitating social anxiety to the point that she can hardly speak to people at all. And once her classmates figure out that she’s actually very nice and actually wants to be friends, they’re tripping over themselves to help her overcome her own social fears and join their various social groups. Also, there’s not too much to it, so it’s the perfect feel-good anime to keep on in the background.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
via Netflix
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a show that is legendarily weird. The Jostar family has been fighting the forces of evil vampire Dio (y’know, from the memes) for generations with the help of very strange and specific powers. It’s cheesy, stylized, and full of the exact sort of over-the-top high fashion-inspired costumes that cosplayers go gaga over. And while you can find a bunch-to-all of Jojo’s on Netflix depending on your region, the most recent installment, Stone Ocean, was a Netflix exclusive. You might love this show and you might hate it. But most likely, you’ll be really confused at first and then eventually come to love how truly bizarre their adventures are.
Great Pretender
My husband and I watched the first season of this show over the course of a couple of days. Like adults with jobs and hobbies and responsibilities. And then we watched season two in one completely hypnotized sitting followed by asking “What time is it!?” I like this show a lot. Makoto “Edamame” Edamura is dragged into a life of crime when he meets a crew of conmen. The characters are hilarious, well-written, and very well-fleshed out. The comedy is on-point. And most importantly, the cons are fantastic, smart, and keep you guessing until the end.
What’s your favorite anime on Netflix? Have you seen all of the shows on our list? Do you think you’ll be leaving the streaming service any time soon? Let us know in the comments!
Ja ne, adventurers!
