Scrolling through Netflix’s vast anime titles can feel like a daunting task, especially if you’re like me and not knee-deep in the genre. The streaming service makes it easy to delve into classic and newer episodic series and movies, and you’re sure to find something you like.
But if you’d like a little help, I’ve pulled a handful of anime shows and movies I’ve enjoyed recently—everything from a sax prodigy delving into the world of jazz, a group of dungeon adventurers with culinary skills, a demon hunter with a secret, and a cyberpunk dystopia run by machines.
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Devil May Cry
You could call me a casual viewer of anime, which I am not ashamed of. I’ve come across some of my favorites, like Castlevania (I know, not technically anime) and One Piece, by scrolling through Netflix’s library, and I’ve loved most of what I’ve found. Devil May Cry is another recent discovery, and I fell for its style, over-the-top gun-and-sword battles, and quick, clever dialogue.
If you’re like me and never played the Capcom video game the series is based on, Devil May Cry follows Dante, a demon hunter for hire with a very particular set of skills (and a huge, super-cool sword). As it turns out, though, Dante has a secret, and when he’s dragged into the demonic White Rabbit’s plot to tear open a portal allowing demons to flood into the human world, Dante must come to terms with that secret to prevent an apocalypse. Critics praised DMC for its faithfulness to the game, and Rotten Tomatoes scores it a whopping 96%.
Devil May Cry
- Release Date
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April 3, 2025
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Park So Young
3
Blue Giant
Netflix’s Blue Giant is not what comes to mind when you first think of anime. There are no flaming swords or Gundam mech warriors, and it’s not based on a video game. Instead, Blue Giant favors saxophones, pianos, drums, and a whole lot of jazz. Based on the award-winning jazz manga (there’s jazz manga?!) of the same name by Shinichi Ishizuka, Blue Giant feels more like Miles Teller’s Whiplash than a cartoon. The two-hour anime feature film follows the ambitious young Dai Miyamoto, who is obsessed with becoming the world’s greatest jazz saxophonist, so he heads to Tokyo to chase his dream.
There, he meets and forms a band, Jass, with piano prodigy Yukinori Sawabe and inexperienced drummer Shunji Tamada, and the trio grind it out in the clubs, while dealing with their insecurities amid the cutthroat jazz scene that threatens to chew them up and spit them out. The animation is spectacular, the entrancing performance sequences are excellent, and the score from pianist Hiromi Uehara holds this coming-of-age anime together.
Blue Giant
- Release Date
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February 17, 2023
- Director
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Yuzuru Tachikawa
- Writers
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NUMBER 8, Shin’ichi Ishizuka
2
Delicious in Dungeon
I usually don’t go for cute or quirky anime series, but when I read the synopsis for Delicious in Dungeon, I had to, um, bite (sorry). One of the most popular anime series on Netflix (it’s also 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), this 2024 series, based on Ryoko Kui’s hit manga of the same name, is highly bingable with 24 short episodes.
Delicious in Dungeon follows a crew of explorers—the knight Laios Touden, elf mage Marcille, halfling rogue Chilchuck, and dwarf gourmet Senshi—who are penniless and can’t afford to venture into the dungeon to rescue their friend who’s been eaten by a dragon. In an ingenious (and hilarious) stroke of practicality, they decide to survive the journey by cooking and eating the monsters and weird creatures they kill. Yum! The characters and animation are playful, lively, and a lot of fun. Season two is apparently on the way, so get your appetite ready.
Delicious in Dungeon
- Release Date
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January 4, 2024
- Network
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AT-X, Tokyo MX
- Directors
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Yoshihiro Miyajima
1
Blame!
As a big fan of the classic 1988 animated film Akira, any movie (animated or otherwise) with sprawling dystopian worlds (Blade Runner comes to mind as well) goes right to the top of my watchlist. Blame!, a spectacular cyberpunk sci-fi anime based on Tsutomu Nihei’s cult manga, feels similar, drawing you into its world, where an enormous machine-run megacity built by humans turns on its creators and starts hunting them down.
Zuru is a young “Electro-Fisher,” a remaining group living in an area that the killer robots, known as Safeguards, can’t enter. When Zuru and her group of scavengers head out in search of supplies, they’re attacked and then rescued by the mysterious Killy. In a kind of Matrix-Neo situation, Killy has been searching for someone with a gene that will allow humans to retake control of the Safeguard, and Zuru just might be the one. With huge world-building, a darker, more classic anime look, this film from 2017 is an enthralling watch.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Two or four
A cyberpunk dystopian megacity run by machines is challenged by the humans that created it.
Whether you’re already a seasoned anime lover, or just a zealot like me, Netflix has one of the best catalogs of Japan’s globally-famous export for you to peruse. Hopefully, these anime picks get you through the weekend with their stunning artwork and rich stories, but if they’re not your cup of Saki, use the Netflix genre search code 7424 for all things anime.
- Subscription with ads
-
Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
-
Two or four
Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.
