If you like anime, Crunchyroll is probably still the best streaming service for you. While other platforms, including Netflix, have made huge strides in bringing anime into U.S. homes, Crunchyroll still has the largest collection of classics, modern hits, and most importantly, currently airing programs you can find right now.
That’s what makes compiling a list of the service's best shows so difficult. There’s so much on offer that I could be here all day (shounen—the shows with the screamy fight boys—could easily fill this whole list by itself). That’s why, rather than trying to hit every must-watch on the site, I’ve instead chosen a few of my personal favorites from across various genres and time periods. I’ve thrown in a few big names, a few slightly more obscure titles, and a few shows that are still coming out, to try to offer a little something for everybody. I’ve also tried to keep overlap with shows that are readily available on other platforms to a minimum, but there were a few cases where I couldn’t help myself.
Unfortunately, even with my rules, writing this still meant making some hard cuts—but that’s what the comments section is for. I've got 34 years of anime viewing under my belt, and I've mostly tailored this list to people just starting their anime journey. But if you don’t see your favorite show on here, feel free to recommend it to your fellow readers—I won’t be offended if you feel the need to gush about Galaxy Express 999.
Spy x Family
Here’s one for all the Mr. and Mrs. Smith fans out there. Taking place in an alternate history that’s clearly just a vague stand-in for Cold War-era Berlin, Spy x Family stars Westalis secret agent Twilight as he infiltrates opposing state Ostania (I assume you get the theme by now). His mission? Be a father. Yes, as part of his duties, he has to construct an inconspicuous “fake” family and help his “fake” daughter rise through the ranks of a prestigious academy so he can get in good with a specific politician whose son also attends the school.
Why the scare quotes around fake? Well, as you can probably guess, his found family grows to genuinely like and rely on each other. Which only makes it extra hilarious when it turns out that everyone in the impromptu group has a secret to keep from the rest of the family, from Twilight’s stand-in wife being a top assassin, to his stand-in daughter being a telepath. What could have been a dark story about cutthroat spycraft quickly transforms into a raucous family comedy where everyone is constantly in some kind of Three’s Company-style situation that demands they be in two places at once. Ultimately, though, it’s clear that the family loves each other, regardless of how fabricated their bond is supposed to be. Perfect for any older anime fans who have their own family hijinks going on at home.
Dragon Ball Z
The anime that brought many a young viewer into the fold when it started airing on Toonami in 1998, Dragon Ball Z still holds up today. While I personally prefer the more lighthearted series that precedes it, Dragon Ball, DBZ is certainly the more iconic of the two globally, chronicling the saiyan Goku and his friends as they discover that the universe is much bigger than they once thought it was. Still boasting a charming mix of comedy and combat, this show is a decent place for new viewers to jump in, as it almost immediately focuses on lore that's new to Z, and its more kinetic choreography makes it a bit more immediately attention-grabbing than its predecessor. While it’s still getting sequels to this day, there’s something special about this era of the franchise, which was deeply influential to other battle anime and has shout-outs in everything from Chainsaw Man to Jujutsu Kaisen.
Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
Most romance anime are all squishy feelings and slow-burn drama. Not Kaguya-Sama. Instead, this delightful comedy positions romance as a fight, where the first person to admit their crush loses. It’s not the healthiest way to look at dating, sure, but it is so very teenaged. The show follows the student council president and vice president of Shuchi'in Academy, who are clearly madly in love but refuse to say so, as they’re increasingly egged on by their secretary Chika, a young girl who’s easy to write off but seems to be more clever than her cohorts assume. While the show is mostly laughs, there’s also plenty of sweet moments, and even some tension, largely relating to the main couple’s differences in social class.
Yu Yu Hakusho
I said I would be choosy about my picks, but I can’t not put one of my own top five on this list. Yu Yu Hakusho has a lot of the same heart and appeal as Dragon Ball, but aims for a more personal, slightly more grounded approach. Following delinquent-turned-“spirit detective” Yusuke Urameshi, the show is nominally about hunting demons, but is really about the relationship Yusuke, after being shunned by society, slowly builds up with fellow delinquent Kuwabara and two reformed demons named Kurama and Hiei. The result is one of the strongest core cast of characters in the battle anime genre, who quickly build deep and meaningful relationships that transcend any prejudice they might have once held for each other. If you liked this year’s KPop Demon Hunters, consider this the boy band version (minus the singing, sadly).
Hunter x Hunter
From the same author as Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter stars a much more bright-eyed protagonist, Gon Freecs. The ever-optimistic youth lives in a mysterious world filled with “hunters,” or people who excel in unraveling their world's many mysteries. Hunters can have any number of specialties, from treasure hunting to cooking, and Gon’s absentee father is one of the best hunters of all. Desperate to follow in his father’s footsteps, Gon sets out to see what kept his dad away from home while he was growing up, eventually discovering other reasons for continuing his adventure, as well as perils and moral questions that complicate his once naive worldview. I won’t spoil much, but suffice it to say, you’re not exactly supposed to like Gon’s dad.
Nichijou - My Ordinary Life
An early hit from Kyoto Animation, a studio beloved for its smooth animation and detailed backgrounds, Nichijou is, at its best, possibly the world’s funniest gag anime. Essentially presented as a series of sketches, the show follows a group of young girls as their initially normal lives spiral out of control around them. The show’s best sketches start from seemingly innocuous inciting incidents, like “I accidentally lent my friend a notebook with an embarrassing drawing in it” or “I accidentally dropped some of my lunch in front of everyone” and just continue to devolve long past the point where you’d think they would have stopped, becoming increasingly absurd while still being deeply relatable. I’ll admit that not every sketch is a winner—probably due to some of the humor being lost in translation—but when the show hits, it hits. Especially notable is the show’s “sakuga,” or moments when the animation becomes especially smooth, which usually punctuates punchlines in the same way other anime might emphasize climactic moments in a fight scene.
Daily Lives of High School Boys
Often compared to Nichijou, Daily Lives of High School Boys has a similar “sketches about everyday life” premise, but goes in a more grounded direction. There are no robot girls or child geniuses here, but instead, a tight-knit group of guys being dudes. Our characters seem to constantly be bothered by intrusive thoughts, and are always egging each other on to follow them. That means a good amount of lighthearted teasing, but nothing toxic. Instead, they might find a stick on the ground and invent an impromptu LARP session around it, or sit around speculating about the one kid who always wears a baseball cap and what might be underneath it. Or they might cover for each other when one of their sisters calls them out for stealing her stuff. If you’ve ever hung out chugging Monster energy drinks behind the gas station, you know the vibe. It’s a very real depiction of growing up, and in a medium that tends to lean towards bombastic action, it’s a charming change of pace.
Paranoia Agent
The one and only TV series from the late, great Satoshi Kon, Paranoia Agent is a dreamlike, largely episodic thriller about the stresses of adulthood. The show follows the lives of various characters as they encounter a serial assaulter named “Lil’ Slugger,” who frees them from their responsibilities by, well…violently beating them up with a baseball bat. It’s dark, but if you’ve ever daydreamed about getting into an accident and being able to skip work during your hospital stay, you’ll understand.
It’s also a deeply meta series, focusing on the effects the stories we fixate on can have on our lives, and what it might say about our unspoken needs when certain urban legends get popular. If you’ve ever seen Kon’s Perfect Blue or Paprika, you’ll be right at home, and given that the director’s able to maintain that cinematic feeling across 13 episodes, that’s high praise indeed.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Following various members of a single family from Victorian England to ‘80s Japan to modern-day Italy, this globetrotting and time-spanning adventure is like if Dragon Ball Z married Drag Race. Ostensibly a battle anime, the art and locales here take heavy inspiration from high fashion and classic rock, making for a flamboyant cast of characters who, thanks to the show's unique fighting mechanics, practically vogue at each other until their opponents fall over. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is great fun, but don’t let that fool you: There’s a lot of heart here, too, as well as surprisingly tactical fights. Unfortunately, the most recent season is only available on Netflix, but the first six are still on Crunchyroll.
The Apothecary Diaries
A mystery show centered around a strong, slow-burn romance, The Apothecary Diaries is a great choice for anyone looking for a show that will tickle both their brain and heartstrings. The story follows Maomao, a young woman in a fictional analogue for imperial China who is suddenly abducted from her adopted father and sold off to work in the court. Educated in reading, writing, poisons, and medicines by said adopted father (an exiled court physician) she quickly gains the attention of court officials and is promoted to a pseudo-apothecary role (technically—because sexism—she's a food taster).
As it turns out, medical foul play is common in the court, and Maomao frequently finds herself called upon for her expertise and strong deductive intuition. Episodic conflicts are intense and thought-provoking, but as the plot progresses, it’s clear there’s more to our protagonist than meets the eye, as well as the official who noticed her in the first place—a man who should be a eunuch but can’t seem to stop himself from flirting with her.
Cowboy Bebop
If Dragon Ball Z converted a whole generation of kids into anime fans, then Cowboy Bebop did that for adults. This gritty space western follows the crew of the run-down spaceship Bebop, an eclectic group of bounty hunters that can’t seem to catch a break. Despite being highly skilled, protagonist Spike Spiegel and his … friends? ... coworkers? ... always seem to be out of a paycheck at the end of the day. There are rollicking episodic adventures galore, and no shortage of comedy as we explore the absurdities of the dingy near-future the show takes place in, but a big part of what’s kept the show relevant all these years later is its pathos, with each character having some kind of dark past they’re running from … even the dog.
Dan Da Dan
Dan Da Dan is the latest anime from legendary studio Science Saru, and is probably one of the most relatable on this list. While it’s got bombastic fights and supernatural and sci-fi antics galore, it also stars the world’s most awkward teenagers fumbling their way through a very heartfelt and realistic bout of puppy love. There is some raunchy humor, but with such a genuinely sweet core cast, the show is bound to make you go “aww” as much as it plays shock jock. It’s also got a charming blend of genres, creating a colorful world where aliens are trying to invade earth, if only those dang cryptids and ghosts would stop getting in their way.
Mobile Suit Gundam
Starting in 1979, this venerated mecha series has become practically synonymous with the genre overseas. But in Japan, it’s a bit of a different story. Despite being seen as the prototypical giant robot anime in the States, Mobile Suit Gundam was actually a bit of a deconstruction of that type of anime when it came out. Rather than following a bright-eyed youth and a robot buddy, the series pioneered the “real robot” subgenre, which saw the protagonist unexpectedly thrust into a semi-realistic cockpit during a gritty, morally complicated war that quickly had him questioning both his role as a child soldier and the future of humanity.
These themes have followed Gundam to this day, and while there are now dozens of shows to choose from, for my money, the original is still the best. Its animation hasn’t aged the most gracefully, but its central conflict informs pretty much every other Gundam series, including this year’s Mobile Suit Gundam Gquuuuuux (available on Amazon Prime). Plus, it also sets up the excellent sequel series, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and the less good but overall underrated sequel to that, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. All three are on Crunchyroll, and are the perfect trifecta for getting into not just the wider Gundam franchise, but mecha as a whole. The catch? Their stories come to a head in the film Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack, which you’ll need to watch elsewhere (see: Netflix).
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
It’s rare for a remake to eclipse the original, but that’s exactly what happened with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, which is a from-scratch redo of Fullmetal Alchemist from 2004. While I personally like both shows, I recognize that’s the minority opinion, and that’s because the original was made before the manga it was based on had reached its end, instead veering off into a wildly different finale that didn’t fully cohere with everything that came before it.
Brotherhood gives viewers the story as originally intended, and what a story it is. Following brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric as they become “state alchemists"—essentially magical warrior scientists—the show delves into complex themes around war, empire, and the real-world political climate at the time the manga was written (there sure was a lot going on around 2001). Most striking are the show’s questions about “equivalent exchange” and moral calculus, which ask what it really means to sacrifice, or even save, a human life for one’s own gain.
Princess Jellyfish
This show might lowkey have my favorite opening in all of anime. Following a group of unemployed nerds living in a women-only apartment complex in Tokyo, Princess Jellyfish chronicles their lives after they meet a crossdresser who the main character can’t help but compare to a jellyfish (her hyperfixation) thanks to his fluffy wig and the tendril-like appearance of his dresses. Impressed by their new friend’s confidence and beauty, they start to come out of their shells and advocate for themselves a bit more, while he finds himself developing feelings for both the main character and the oddball community she lives in.
Not every aspect of the show has aged gracefully, but it’s a deeply personal and authentic work about being true to yourself and living your best life, and well worth viewing for anyone who has ever been ostracized for caring too much about something others don't understand.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
The beloved original Sailor Moon is not on Crunchyroll, but I’ve got a great replacement for you. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a charming (and not at all suspicious) magical girl anime that follows young girl Madoka as she comes to know Kyubey, a cute cat-looking creature that keeps offering to grant her a wish and turn her into a superhero. Good deal! There’s definitely nothing sinister going on behind the scenes here.
It’s hard to avoid spoilers about this show at this point, but even so, the less you know, the better. Written by Gen Urobuchi, who also wrote Psycho-Pass and Fate/Zero, this show’s fluffy-looking exterior disguises a dark psychological thriller that I definitely wouldn’t recommend to children. Even so, it’s clearly written with love for the genre it’s pastiching, cleverly sidestepping cynicism to land on something a bit more nuanced. The series stands up well on its own, but I’d also recommend the movie sequel, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion (sadly, it's not on Crunchyroll), for the full experience. That movie’s been famously waiting on its own sequel for over 10 years now, but supposedly, it’s finally set to debut next year.
Dirty Pair
Stick with me on this one. I get any hesitation you might have—that title, those bikini-forward character designs. But in Dirty Pair, you’ll find an equally relatable and off-the-wall sci-fi comedy about two down-on-their-luck mercenaries who are always courting disaster in chase of a quick buck. A campy send-up of ‘70s and ‘80s sci-fi tropes, every episode of this gorgeously cel-animated show is like its own mini-movie, where capable but overly cocky “trouble consultants” Kei and Yuri accept seemingly easy missions, only to bumble their way to success while causing extreme collateral damage along the way.
The way the situations here devolve into wacky absurdity isn’t unlike Nichijou, while the delightfully analog animation has some of that Gundam style old-school charm. It’s a great choice for a retro throwback, especially because the episodic nature of the series makes it easy to just throw one on when you want to vibe to something lo-fi. If you miss the Suncoast days of anime, this is for you.
Chainsaw Man
Chainsaw Man is only 12 episodes into its run so far, but having read the entire first part of the manga it’s based on, I can say that anyone getting into it right now is in for a treat. Lovingly animated by MAPPA, the studio behind Attack on Titan (don’t be mad, but I just couldn’t find a spot for that on this list), this show is a heartbreaking look at the perpetually downtrodden Denji, an impoverished and ultimately good-natured, goofy kid who just wants what most teenage boys do (yes, even the NSFW stuff), but just can’t find someone to believe in him. That seems to change when he’s recruited to hunt “devils” for the government, but as we’ve learned from Gundam, being a child soldier comes with its own traumas.
It’s a raunchy coming-of-age story in the same vein as Dan Da Dan, but far bloodier, and with a few more strings tied to the “romance” than you might expect. Even so, I never wanted to stop rooting for this kid.
