The Best Anime For Beginners

Getting into anime is an absolutely daunting task. It’s available on just about every streaming platform, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Crunchyroll, which exclusively hosts anime content.

Across every platform, there are hundreds of series available to watch, some of which number in the hundreds or even thousands for episode counts. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds and get so overwhelmed that you give up before you even begin.

That’s why we’ve searched through every streaming platform to find the best anime for beginners on each of them, across a wide range of genres for a wide range of tastes.

Spy x Family

Available on Crunchyroll

Spy x Family is an adorable and exciting anime that sees the lives of three curious individuals intertwined. Loid is an undercover spy, Yor is a secret assassin, and neither knows the other’s secret. To give them both cover, the two get married and adopt a young girl called Anya, who can read minds and therefore knows the secrets of the other two. Together, they’re the Forger family, and they get into all sorts of high-stakes hijinx. Spy x Family has a little bit of everything, and it’s a great jumping in point for anyone interested in anime.

Mob Psycho 100

Available on Crunchyroll

One of the most popular genres of anime is called shonen, which is anime aimed at young boys and teens and often includes a lot of fighting — think Dragon Ball Z or Naruto. Some of these can be a bit overwhelming, but Mob Psycho 100 is a great starting point before diving into something a little more intense. It follows a young boy named Mob who’s gifted with powerful psychic abilities, who works as an assistant to Reigen, a conman who operates an exorcism business. Mob struggles to process his emotions, and Reigen struggles with the truth, but the two find solace in each other and learn to grow. It’s got a lot of action, but a lot of heart, too.

Love Live! Sunshine!!

Available on Crunchyroll

Looking for something a little less fight-y and a little more sing-y? Love Live! is the anime for you. Love Live! is a series of idol anime, complete with cute girls in even cuter outfits that sing their hearts out in almost every episode. Sunshine!! is the second series in the franchise – though you don’t need to have watched the first to enjoy it – and follows a group of schoolgirls who try to keep their school from shutting down by forming an idol group and entering competitions. It’s very sweet, looks absolutely gorgeous, and is filled with plenty of bops that will be stuck in your head for years to come.

Little Witch Academia

Available on Netflix

Little Witch Academia is an adorable series that sees schoolgirl Atsuko Kagari enrolling in a magic school, despite having a non-magical background. Throughout the series, you’ll see her grow both personally and magically, and it’s an absolute blast to watch it all unfold. There’s drama and intrigue, of course, and some of the best visuals in any anime ever made, but at the end of the day, Little Witch Academia is a coming-of-age story that pulls at your heartstrings and puts a smile on your face.

Pokémon Horizons

Available on Netflix

Pokémon is the biggest media franchise on the planet, and for good reason — it’s got over 1000 cute little creatures to be friends with, some solid themes of friendship and striving to be your best, and strong character work across the franchise. Pokémon Horizons is the latest series in the Pokémon anime franchise, and it’s a total reboot — Ash Ketchum and his trusty Pikachu are gone, and replaced with two new protagonists, Liko and Roy. Horizons is a perfect jumping in point for Pokémon, even if you’ve never watched or played it before, and it’s packed with charm, solid character work, and yes, even a Pikachu, just in case you don’t know any other Pokémon.

Star Wars: Visions

Available on Disney Plus

Star Wars: Visions is a curious little project that’s effectively Star Wars’ version of Marvel’s What If…? concept. Rather than focus on alternate histories, though, Visions focuses on different stories throughout the expanded Star Wars universe. Each episode tells its own story, and in the first season is animated by one of half a dozen famous anime studios, like Trigger, Production IG, and Science Saru. The series’ third episode, for example, is animated by Trigger, and tells the story of two genetically modified Force-sensitive twins who are trained to use the dark side of the Force, before one of them defects. Every story is fascinating, and all of them are absolutely gorgeous visually, making you wish Disney would make a feature-length film out of one of these. Maybe someday.

Hunter x Hunter

Available on Amazon Prime Video

Hunter x Hunter is one of the most beloved anime series among fans, and it’s not hard to see why. It focuses on the story of a young boy, Gon Freecss, who learns that his father – who he believed to be dead – is actually a world-renowned Hunter, a prestigious job that has professionals locating rare animals, treasure, and bounty hunting. Gon sets out to do the same, meeting a host of compelling characters along the way, in the hopes of finding his dad. It’s one of the quintessential shonen series, and is well worth checking out.

One Piece

Available on Crunchyroll and Netflix

Are you brave? Do you want to dive right into the deep end? Then One Piece is for you. Some call it the greatest story ever told, and if it’s not that, then it’s at least one of the longest stories ever told. At the time of writing, over 1100 episodes of One Piece have aired, with a total runtime of well over 400 hours. It’s a commitment, to be sure, but there’s a reason it’s lasted so long: it’s very dang good. One Piece is a pirate epic shonen anime, where the world is filled with mysteries, colorful characters, and mysterious “devil fruit” powers that give people wondrous abilities. There’s a One Piece remake anime coming at some point in the future, and the live-action Netflix series is pretty good too, but the original series is phenomenal, and has been for well over 20 years.

Related: 8 Best Anime Series Coming to Netflix in 2024