Curated playlist

Funimation

Street Fighter: Assassin's FistA Kickstarter for Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist was cancelled, yet not because it failed.
Fullmetal Alchemist: BrotherhoodFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood began with a notice printed in the 20th volume of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, released in August 2008. Its author, Hiromu Arakawa, used that volume to announce that a second anime adaptation was already…
Cowboy BebopCowboy Bebop lost its toy company sponsor after early footage showed it would never sell spaceship toys.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (TV series)In a 2020 poll, Japanese schoolchildren admired a fictional demon slayer more than their own mothers.
Oh My Goddess!A wrong number connects a college student to a goddess who offers him one wish. He wishes she will stay forever.
One Piece (1999 TV series)One Piece, the Japanese anime television series made by Toei Animation, first aired on Fuji Television in October 1999. Since then, more than 1,100 episodes have gone out, and they were later exported to over 80 countries. The series…
Dragon Ball ZDragon Ball Z got its name because its creator wanted the series to end.
Jinki: ExtendIn the manga Jinki: Extend, a robot unit commander ordered her own daughter kidnapped.
Kurau Phantom MemoryA lab accident scattered twelve-year-old Kurau into light. When she reformed, another being came back with her.
FunimationFunimation was partly funded by the sale of a Texas feed mill. The Cocanougher family sold it to back the anime company.
Fist of the North StarAn editor's used-bookshop find led to the manga Fist of the North Star.
Paranoia AgentIn Paranoia Agent, a Japanese anime television series created by director Satoshi Kon, none of the victims can recall the face of the boy who attacks strangers in Musashino, Tokyo. Each of them remembers the same three things. Golden…
Akira (1988 film)Akira opened in Japan on the same date its story says Tokyo was destroyed. Otomo chose that symmetry on purpose.
Attack on Titan (TV series)Attack on Titan was the first non-English show to become the world's most in-demand TV program.
Captain Harlock (manga)Captain Harlock is a space pirate who refuses to accept his civilization's slow collapse.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen TrainDemon Slayer: Mugen Train topped the 2020 worldwide box office. It was the first non-American film to do so.
Black ButlerIn Black Butler, a demon ignores a cult's summoning and answers a twelve-year-old boy's call instead.
FLCLFLCL begins with a Vespa, a twelve-year-old boy, and a blue vintage Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar. The boy is Naota Nandaba. The woman swinging a left-handed bass at his head is Haruko Haruhara, an alien who has just run him over. She…
Mob Psycho 100Mob Psycho 100 follows a middle school boy named Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed Mob, who carries immense psychic power and works constantly to keep his feelings down. The two facts are linked. His power threatens to break past its limits as…
Initial DInitial D is a Japanese street racing manga written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno, and its hero starts each day delivering tofu. Takumi Fujiwara is a high school student. For years he has made those early morning runs in his father…
HellsingHellsing is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. Its central vampire is Alucard, the original and most powerful of his kind. He serves the family of the man who defeated him one hundred years before the story…
Soul EaterAtsushi Ohkubo's manga Soul Eater runs on a strict counting rule. A living weapon must absorb the souls of 99 evil humans, followed by one witch, in exactly that order. Break the sequence and the tally starts over from zero. A rule like…
Crayon Shin-chanWhen Crayon Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui died in 2009, the manga did not end. His team began a new manga.
Speed RacerSpeed Racer began as a Japanese comic inspired by Elvis and James Bond. Tatsuo Yoshida merged two films into one hero.
Your NameYour Name began in a fishing village wrecked by a tsunami. Director Makoto Shinkai visited Yuriage in July 2011.
Momotaro: Sacred SailorsHow did a Japanese film screened in April 1945 spend decades presumed lost? Momotaro: Sacred Sailors turned up in 1983.
Haruhi SuzumiyaHaruhi Suzumiya is a Japanese light novel series by Nagaru Tanigawa, illustrated by Noizi Ito, and it helped solve a math problem that had stayed open since 1993. In 2011, a crowd on 4chan set out to answer a puzzle inspired by the anime's…
Claymore (manga)The magazine that launched Claymore shut down exactly six years to the day after the manga began.
Lucky Star (manga)Lucky Star, a four-panel comic about high school girls, also spawned chemistry textbooks.
Serial Experiments LainThe anime Serial Experiments Lain begins with a dead girl's email.
Baki the GrapplerBaki the Grappler is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki, and it has sold in numbers few comics ever reach. By May 2021, the various Baki series had more than 85 million collected volumes in circulation. By…
Panty & Stocking with GarterbeltPanty & Stocking with Garterbelt is a Japanese anime series that began with a director's blunt promise. Hiroyuki Imaishi said the theme of the show would be vulgar and indecent jokes. He added, "If we are going to do this, we will try it…
Baccano!In 1711, alchemists aboard the ship Advenna Avis summon a demon and walk away with eternal life.
Higurashi When They CryHigurashi When They Cry is a Japanese murder mystery, released as a dōjin soft visual novel by the circle 07th Expansion. It opens in June 1983, when a boy named Keiichi Maebara moves to the village of Hinamizawa and befriends five girls.…