Netflix has added some fantastic series to its anime catalog recently and here are 21 Best Anime Series on Netflix to watch in 2023 from classics or originals.
The streaming service takes care to provide a wide range of genres, including action, comedy, and romantic shows. If you’re ready to explore even the most obscure corners of Netflix in search of binge-worthy entertainment (and you should be), we’re here to help.
With each passing day, interest in anime television shows and motion pictures has risen dramatically in India. The public has matured and is now better able to comprehend the concept and depth of animes, while previously it was just thought of as merely cartoons for kids. In light of this, Netflix is the greatest option if you’re a newbie seeking a platform to view some of the best anime.
The collection has just gotten too enormous for anyone who values their time or hasn’t spent all of their time watching anime to browse. We’ve assessed and suggested the 21 greatest anime shows on Netflix in our revised list below. We’ve done our best to traverse the genres and age groups of anime in order to paint a wide picture of the collection while showcasing the strengths of each film. If you’re unfamiliar with the cartoons themselves and looking for something to watch, keep reading for our choices and the live-action films that match well with them. Here is the list of top 21 Anime Series on Netflix.
Best Anime Series on Netflix (2023)
1. Demon Slayer
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is popular among American anime enthusiasts but nearly impossible to avoid in Japan. The manga is still selling well years later, and the film shattered Spirited Away’s record for the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time in the midst of a pandemic with no vaccinations available!
What is Demon Slayer’s secret to success? The story of Tanjiro Kamado, a youthful demon slayer, and his journey to save his demon-transformed sister Nezuko may not be the most creative action series to emerge from Weekly Shonen Jump, but it hits all the genre’s most attractive cliches with excellent artistry. The Taisho era backdrop is well-realized, the characters are instantly likeable, and the animation by Ufotable is fantastic.
2. Baki
Baki is an exhilarating demonstration of hyper-masculine titans executing an iconic scenario of a young warrior striving to outperform his father. This high-action shonen is packed of frantic battles amongst the buffest males ever drawn. Seriously, a short film of all the pictures of males flexing and tensing their muscles should be its own show on Netflix. If the muscles and hyper-tough voices weren’t enough, these characters represent the meathead tool attitude that drives the series with knowing smirks and sneers. Baki maintains traditional notions of strength, but questions their relevance to kindness and freedom.
3. Hunter x Hunter
There are several shonen (and even American TV programmes) that centre on a group of youthful people that use magical talents and deductive thinking to solve problems. Because of its attention to detail and emotional engagement, Hunter x Hunter is a rare discovery amid this homogenised pattern.
This anime is plenty of amusing subplots that don’t necessarily conclude with a significant event, but do show that the characters in this universe existed before you started watching them. Hunter x Hunter begins with Gon Freecss on his quest to become a Hunter. He’s your usual shonen savior-figure protagonist, but thankfully he keeps the boring, repeating platitudes to himself. His desire to see the best in others is a series wonder, and his devotion to others propels the storyline.
He befriends a little child from an assassin family, and their polarising dynamic forms a bond that makes the series inspirational. The powerful bond between these two guys necessitates your emotional engagement. Togashi highlights their inexperience and youth by setting them against much older, more experienced adversaries, and presents strong mentors who help them grow. He is thorough in customising his characters’ talents to their personalities, yet everyone derives power from determination. The sheer tenacity displayed in this anime will alter you. Togashi has been battling a physical ailment for several years, but he insists the manga is far from done. Hopefully, a seventh season of the restored anime will be released shortly.
4. Beastars
Beastars was the finest anime released in 2019. This may be a contentious viewpoint, given that last year was characterized by beautiful animation wherever you looked, from the fluid, ballet-like fighting of Demon Slayer and Mob Psycho 100 II to the high-stakes intensity of The Promised Neverland and Vinland Saga. Despite offers from Kunihiko Ikuhara and Shinichiro Watanabe, two of my favorite directors (and some of their best work), the curiously evocative melodrama of a wolf, rabbit, and deer attracted my attention the most. If there is one unifying element in the world of Beastars, it is the uneven forms of power between carnivores and herbivores.
The narrative begins with the brutal death of an alpaca student named Tem. Whether or not there was a visible separation amongst pupils before to this occurrence is debatable, but it surely sends every species into a tailspin. Legoshi, a wolf, is a member of the theatre club, which has become recognized for its collaborative and positive membership, which ranges from small squirrels to enormous tigers. The drama club is the ideal setting for many of the show’s themes—not only do we see the problems of herbivores, who are perpetually underestimated and live in continuous dread of being devoured, but we also see the suffering of predators.
5. Naruto
Naruto is the angst-filled high-school romance that teaches every adolescent that nice people may turn wicked and relationships can fall apart. Masashi Kishimoto introduces us to a group of ninjas that live and die to protect their town, before he tragically rips apart their family. The plot focuses mostly on Naruto losing Sasuke and relentlessly pursuing him to return him home, but the writers place equal emphasis on the community Naruto already had at the leaf village.
The Hidden Leaf Village’s solidarity in the face of conflict and terror is a key component of the emotional framework in this metaseries about unconditional friendship, revenge, and the forgiveness that is the only route to peace. The fighting in this shonen is fantastic. This anime will capture your interest with its massive magic system and sophisticated, smoothly rendered hand-to-hand fighting. Excessive flashbacks and monologues are a turnoff in this series, but they haven’t stopped this game from generating its own distinct iconography in popular culture.
6. One-Punch Man
Even by superhero genre standards, One-Punch Man’s baseball lunacy is in a league of its own. When a 25-year-old college graduate saves a rosy-cheeked, butt-chinned youngster from the deadly grips of a lobster man-monster (see what I mean? ), he foregoes his hunt for a paying career and commits himself to a three-year training program with the goal of becoming a hero. His hair naturally falls out. With a Jim Lee-esque physique and a visage that belongs in a Charles Schultz comic strip, Saitama is the world’s strongest hero, endowed with the incredible ability to slay adversaries with a single punch.
Even by superhero genre standards, One-Punch Man’s baseball antics are out of this world. When a 25-year-old college graduate saves a rosy-cheeked, butt-chinned child from the lethal clutches of a lobster man-monster (see what I mean? ), he foregoes his search for a paid job in favor of a three-year training program with the objective of becoming a hero. His hair comes out naturally. Saitama is the world’s strongest hero, blessed with the astonishing power to slaughter opponents with a single punch. He has a Jim Leeesque body and a face that fits in a Charles Schultz comic strip.
7. Children of the Whales
Children of the Whales explores the concept of a post-apocalyptic planet devastated by ecological calamity, but this time as a worldwide desert rather than an ocean. A small group of survivors now lives aboard the Mud Whale, a massive floating metropolis, and the bulk of them have evolved psychokinetic skills. Its 12 episodes investigate what occurs when the Mud Whale discovers another island with vastly different beliefs, as well as the resulting conflict. While this is all intriguing, the show’s stylistic animation, watercolor-like backdrops, and sluggish tempo set it apart.
8. Death Note
The Light of Death Note Yagami is maybe one of the most sinister Macbeth villains of the last 20 years. Over the course of 37 episodes, he kills innumerable people by writing their names in the titular magic book, lies to almost everyone in his family or social circle, and strives to construct his own paradise as a god of death. When a brilliant detective named L begins to shut in on him with his own mind tricks, the programme becomes a dark, suspense-heavy cat-and-mouse chase for the ages.
9. Inuyasha
The history and supernatural merge in this epic anime about Kagome, a high school student who is sent hundreds of years into the past only to meet Inuyasha, a half-demon. As the embryonic country’s violent Sengoku period rages, their travels take them around Japan, gathering fragments of a magical gem. They make a merry band of companions along the road who help them in their mission to discover the shards and battle the demons that get in their way. Inuyasha is a 193-episode drama fueled by slow-burning character scheming and the slaughter of dreadful creatures.
10. Berserk the Golden Age
Berserk, the first television version of Kentaro Miura’s brutally graphic and viscera-laden comic Berserk, is regarded a masterpiece. While most anime specialists dismiss the first two films in this triptych from 15 years later, its concluding offering is as compelling as the medium has to offer—and as violent as well.
This grimdark tale, set in a feudal setting obviously patterned on mediaeval Europe, follows Guts, a sellsword who is compelled to join the Band of the Hawk after its captain beats him in single combat twice in a row. From then, it’s all blood and guts as a vicious loop of wars, assassinations, sieges, duels, and the like draws humans, bears, and demons alike into its vortex, with all sides seeking to rip each other to shreds in the name of sex, power, and money.
11. DOTA: Dragon’s Blood
Dota 2 is one of the finest free strategy games on Steam, but Valve wanted to bring the series to a new platform, which is how Dota: Dragon’s Blood came to be on Netflix. The plot is mostly around Davion, a Dragon Knight who marries Slyrak, one of the eight great Eldwurm dragons.
The programs is packed with action, and the sights of certain bouts are breathtaking due to the magic involved. Davion and Slyrak are foes, but they band together to fight Terrorblade, a demon that desires to alter the cosmos. Dota 2 also features a cast of supporting characters who want to preserve their own communities from conflict and catastrophe. Book 3 was released in August and includes an alternate chronology as well as an epic fight between Terrorblade and the heroes.
12. Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
If you remember the delectable dinners from Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, you already understand the significance of food in anime. Food Wars! is an excellent anime series that takes that concept and runs with it. The plot revolves around Souma, a young and brilliant aspiring chef.
Though he was happy working with his father in their little Japanese restaurant, he is thrown into an altogether new world of cooking when he enrolls at a culinary academy with some of the world’s best young chefs. If you’re looking for more series like this, we’ve uncovered some of the finest culinary shows on Netflix.
13. Blue Period
Blue Period, a visually beautiful and slightly more realistic take on anime culture, is one of the newest Anime to reach Netflix. Yatora Yaguchi, a popular high schooler, grows dissatisfied with the routine and predictable pattern of his everyday existence, which is abruptly disrupted by an accidental fall into an art studio, which alters his life and outlook forever.
14. Vinland Saga
Wit Studio, which created the first three seasons of Attack on Titan, is responsible for the animation of Vinland Saga. The plot revolves around Thorfinn, the son of a former Viking captain who longs to visit Vinland, the Viking paradise. One day, a Viking arrives at their home and recruits Thorfinn’s father, but the Viking’s true objective is to kill his father.
Thorfinn infiltrates his father’s ship and witnesses his father’s death at the hands of Askeladd. He swears to avenge his father and plans to do it by defeating Askeladd in a duel. The anime includes a lot of action and violence, and the animation is excellent. The series has a fair lot of politics, and it depicts how revenge can transform a nice young child into a frenzied murdering machine.
15. Blue Exorcist
The earth is divided into two realities in Blue Exorcist: the human world and the demon world governed by Satan. He desires to conquer the human world, but exorcists stand in his way. The main character, Rin Okumura, lives in the human realm, but he is also Satan’s biological son. When Satan murders Rin’s human guardian, he swears to become an exorcist to destroy his father. Rin isn’t the finest shonen protagonist, but he does have a mythological sword and the ability to harness tremendous blue flames. Netflix now only carries the second season, which is OK considering the 12 episodes are packed with action.
16. Kakegurui
Kakegurui premiered on Netflix in 2017 and follows Yumeko Jabami, an unusual high school student. Yumeko is a compulsive gambler, which sets her unique from other female anime characters. Yumeko transfers to Hyakkaou Private Academy, a school with a complex gambling system, to begin the anime. Everyone else gambles to increase their social and economic standing, and the losers become servants to the rest of the pupils. Yumeko gambles for fun and is unconcerned about rationality. Her acute observation abilities enable her to spot gambling cons.
17. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has a rather unusual art style that may not appeal to everyone, but it is absolutely a series worth watching because it is one of the finest anime on Netflix. The sitcom follows various members of the Joestar family rather than focusing on a single character. Their names are sometimes shortened to “JoJo.”
This universe is similar to ours, except that it is home to various extraordinary entities and talents. There have been eight JoJos in total, and each one has had a completely different life until the necessity to fight otherworldly entities comes. The animation has so far covered the first five segments, which are all available on Netflix. More excitingly, Netflix has now released the first 12 episodes of the STONE OCEAN Arc, which stars the first female JoJo.
18. Erased
Erased, as a psychological thriller anime, will captivate you and keep you watching. The narrative revolves around Satoru, a 29-year-old man with the uncontrollable ability to travel back in time whenever anything horrific occurs in his close area. This power has helped him prevent many horrific events in his life, but it has never taken him more than a few seconds or minutes back in time.
However, after an encounter with a serial murderer triggers past memories and results in death, Satoru discovers that he must travel back 18 years to his fifth-grade body in order to stop the killer.
19. Komi Can’t Communicate
Komi Can’t Communicate, directed by Ayumu Wantanbe and based on Tomohito Oda’s iconic manga series, follows Shouko Komi, an enormously popular girl, and socially mediocre Hitohito Tadano. Komi appears poised to others at school, but she is actually suffering from acute social anxiety, making it difficult for her to engage with others. When Hitohito learns of a gorgeous classmate’s secret, he promises to assist her in reaching her goal of earning 100 friends at their renowned prep school.
Komi Can’t Communicate is a fantastic slice-of-life animation. It tackles difficult topics in a lighthearted, amusing manner. The personalities of the characters are interesting, and the situations they find themselves in are at times ludicrous, amusing, or quite serious, but always realistic. This series is a well-balanced joy, brought to life with near faultless animation, a vibrant colour palette, and amazing character design. If you enjoy slice-of-life anime shows, but not necessarily waiting. The first season of Komi Can’t Communicate is now available in the anime library.
20. Exception
With a narrative about a mission to terraform a planet that goes tragically wrong, exception ventures into post-apocalyptic horror territory. Humans have flown to space in quest of a new home in order to escape AI rule. The advance party is made up of humanoid beings manufactured (from the DNA of live individuals) in a biological 3D printer called The Womb. A mistake turns one of the crew members into a monster just as they arrive to begin the job of creating a new livable planet. Their spacecraft soon becomes a hunting ground.
The exception is a visual stunner with a distinct style of combining humour, mayhem, and action. The plot blends complex issues about what it means to be human with an action-packed, disturbing sci-fi thriller. Exception, directed by Yuzo Sato, brings to life an original story by Hirotaka Adachi, also known as Otsuichi (Goth: Love of Death), with non-traditional animation and character design that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but its original story and immersive pacing make this a must-see space horror.
21. Spriggan
Spriggan, based on the manga by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryji Minagawa, makes the list following a six-episode premiere filled with action, elegant character design, and an intriguing idea to overcome an inconsistent start. Spriggan follows Yu Ominae, a 16-year-old super soldier entrusted with tracking down and protecting magical treasures. With numerous military and commercial factions fighting for ownership of what they perceive to be potential weapons, Yu must defend against all comers if he is to fulfil his employer’s responsibility to protect the relics.
This anime series stays true to the source material by emphasizing open-ended storyline, fascinating characters, humour, necessary brutality, and grandiose action sequences. This globetrotting adventure is all about world-building and setting the stage for future adventures, but it nevertheless makes the most of its character arcs to get both newbies and aficionados of the manga and previous film off to a wonderful start.
How to pick the best Anime Series on Netflix?
The objective is to compile a list of outstanding anime shows from a variety of subgenres. A variety of well-known masterpieces, such as Hunter x Hunter ,Beastars as well as somewhat less well-known works, including One-Punch Man have been featured. There is something here for everyone, regardless of your level of anime knowledge or level of otaku fervour.
We hope this article on the Best Anime Series on Netflix has been helpful in guiding you to discover some of the most exciting and captivating anime titles available on the platform. Happy streaming!
