What Pairs Well With Social Distancing?
Hey y’all! Are you running low on things to watch while trying to not murder your husband and child? Tired of playing reruns of the Office while you shove Little Debbies in your face? Maybe it’s time to turn off The Good Wife and try something new. Our Patreon pal and all around kick ass person has made a list of some kick ass anime shows that are a good introduction to the genre. Best of all, they are all streaming!
Netflix
- Vampire Knight: If you loved really angsty vampire romances as a teen (or any time in your life, really) then this might scratch that itch. It’s aimed at teen girls and is absolutely full of the sort of interpersonal character drama between its human and vampire characters that makes the subgenre so much fun. The heroine is a girl caught between two worlds, trying to protect the handsome vampire boy she finds herself drawn to while her vampire-hating best friend (also a handsome boy) stews in the well of his own self-loathing. It’s real messy and kinda great.
- Cells at Work: This wild edutainment show works on the metaphor of the human body as a city and the cells within as characters who keep the entire thing working. While this may sound boring, it’s actually really entertaining. The main characters are a peppy young red blood cell woman with no sense of direction and a handsome white blood cell dude with resting bitchface and a berserker mode that leaves him drenched in germ blood when he does his job.
- Aggretsuko: Sanrio–you know, the Hello Kitty people–created this anime about a red panda in her 20s who is Suffering at an office job the way most of us have at one point or another. How does she cope? Metal. Metal is how she copes. This show is beautifully animated, incredibly relatable, and absolutely worth a watch.
Hulu
- Haikyu!: Look. Look. I don’t care if you don’t care about volleyball. I don’t care if you don’t care about watching sports. Give this show three episodes, just an hour of your time, and tell me afterwards if you wouldn’t absolutely murder to protect its determined protagonist and his drive to succeed at the sport he loves. This show is a masterclass in using the inherent drama of sports to drive a narrative. This show is a masterclass in character. The first two seasons of this are also on Netflix, but I put it under the Hulu category because they also have the third season. A fourth season is currently running and being put up on Crunchyroll. Do yourself a favor and at least give this one a try, it’s good kids putting their hearts into something they love.
- My Love Story!!: Takeo Gouda (pronounced goh-da) is a very, very big boy with an even bigger heart who has had every girl he has ever liked fall for his more conventionally attractive best friend instead. This is the story of how he rescues a pretty girl from a train groper and actually has his feelings reciprocated for the first time in his life. It is one of the sweetest romances I’ve ever seen. The best friend is also amazing–I think of the boys’ friendship as a love story of its own. Not a romance, I’m not talking about shipping, but it’s a great depiction of a tight friendship between two very different boys and it just makes my heart soar.
- Princess Tutu: Hey, you like fairy tales? Allegorical fables? Ballet? Magical girls? Ducks? This classic anime is definitely something you should check out. It’s one of those shows where you’ll sit down just to watch a couple of episodes and five hours later you surface clutching your heart and wanting to know what comes next. Perfect for a quarantine binge.
- Yona of the Dawn: This fantasy show about a princess on the run after her father is murdered in a coup d’etat and her quest to retake her country and rightful place on the throne is full of action, romance, and heart. Yona is an amazing heroine. Usually when you get one of those shows where everyone is a little in love with the heroine it’s kinda time-some but with Yona, I get it. I’m a little in love with her too. (Also it is clear from the outset who her love interest is–he’s wonderful–so there’s no dithering about what the endgame is.)
Amazon Prime
- Banana Fish: Lemme just throw out that there are some content warnings on this one. Sexual assault, sex trafficking, drug abuse, child abuse, child sexual abuse…this show is gritty. This show is like…prestige TV style gritty. It’s based on a manga that came out in the 80s, but the anime adaptation moves the timeline into present day. It’s about a Japanese college student named Eiji who comes to New York City to work as a photography assistant and how he gets caught up in the life of a young man named Ash and his incredibly violent existence in organized crime. This is a show for people who liked Breaking Bad or The Wire. Oh, and yes there is a definite romantic through-line between Eiji and Ash.
- Wotakoi: This is a comedy about nerdy adults trying to navigate romance in the modern world and workplace. There are two couples, one new, one well-established, and while there are no huge zany misadventures that go on, it’s a lot of fun to watch them as they live their lives and engage in their nerd subcultures.
