I have an odd relationship with binging anime. On one hand, it’s a much preferable method of watching, compared to watching a single episode per week. But depending on the length of the series in question, it can be an almost insurmountable obstacle to overcome.
It’s made especially bad if you have issues with focus or sitting still. I will sit down to watch an anime I’m extremely excited to catch up on, only to check my phone, go to the kitchen, open the fridge, realize there’s nothing to snack on, grab a drink, go back upstairs, play some games, and then finally be like, “Oh, that’s right — I never finished that one episode, did I?” and repeat the process ad infinitum.
But, some anime are simply made to be binged. Whether it’s because the series is incredibly exciting or because the series only received a single season, sometimes it can be best to watch it all in one sitting. I want to highlight some of these titles here, and perhaps even recommend your next binge.
Top 10 binge-worthy anime titles
10. I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying (Crunchyroll)
I want to start this list with a series you literally could finish in just over an hour, I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying. It tells the story of a married couple, one who is an office worker and the other an anime/manga otaku. The title refers to Kaoru’s inability to comprehend Hajime when talking about his intense passions and obsessive tendencies. And at three minutes per episode, you can’t beat that runtime.
I recall being incredibly moved by this story as much as I found it hilarious. Even if Kaoru can’t see what’s so funny about a bunch of references and inside jokes, she still loves him most of all, and I find that really refreshing in a world that sometimes punishes people for having passions and (harmless) obsessions.
9. Space Patrol Luluco (Crunchyroll)
I know most of these are (theoretically) possible to binge the entire season in one day, but how’s about a series where you can binge four seasons in a little over an hour-and-a-half? Space Patrol Luluco is by Trigger, a studio that formed from Neon Genesis Evangelion studio Gainax, and in thirteen 8-minute episodes tells a digestible story in four “seasons” of a couple of episodes each.
It follows Luluco, who is thrust into becoming a space patrol detective to make up for her — now frozen — father being taken out of commission. Luluco teams up with Midori and Alpha Omega Nova to solve crimes throughout the universe. It just so happens a lot of this universe closely resembles other works by Trigger. So, if you’ve seen Inferno Cop, Kill La Kill, or other titles by the studio, you’ll definitely enjoy this.
8. Pop Team Epic (Crunchyroll)
I think this next one is a little bit different from anything before it. Pop Team Epic is one of my favorite comedy anime because it’s a perfect representation of absurdist meta-humor in an animated format. Pop Team Epic is a comedy sketch series starring Popuko and Pipimi, two girls who are constantly getting themselves into wacky and absurd situations lasting between a few seconds to a few minutes each.
It’s not necessarily a short series — there are two full seasons of 12 episodes each — but it can feel like it is thanks to the fact that the first half of each episode is repeated in the second, with slight changes to the formula including the female voice actors being replaced with male voice actors and vice versa. It’s the kind of series that you might put on in the background of doing other tasks, and because of that, you might find that you’ve binged the entire series in one sitting if you’re not careful.
7. Erased (Crunchyroll)
I think Erased was one of the first anime I watched on my own Crunchyroll account, and it therefore holds a special place in my heart. It’s also a series that has a beginning, a middle, and an end in the span of a single cour — 12 episodes — which can be a luxury in the anime industry.
Erased follows struggling mangaka Satoru Fujinuma, who has been sleepwalking through life ever since he failed to stop a kidnapping incident when he was a child. He has what you might call a superpower that allows him to reset fatal situations where he can make a difference, but after his mother is killed, he’s reset 18 years earlier to the scene of the aforementioned kidnapping incident. It’s definitely worth the binge, if you have about six hours to kill and want a compelling murder-mystery to consume.
6. Talentless Nana (Crunchyroll)
I still feel like too many anime fans are sleeping on Talentless Nana. Talentless Nana is one of those titles that’s better if you don’t know anything about it going in, so I will be selectively vague here. It’s like what would happen if you crossed My Hero Academia with Terminator, and I’ll leave it at that.
I think the hardest thing about recommending Talentless Nana at the moment is that it ends on a cliffhanger that may or may not ever be picked up again. But, it is most certainly a bingeable series; you’ll start the first episode, blink, and be in the final moments of the thirteenth and wonder what happened. I loved seeing the mystery unfold and trying to learn who would make it to the end with a pulse.
5. Kakushigoto (Crunchyroll)
In a wholesome twist, we’ve got Kakushigoto, from the mangaka behind Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei. Kakushigoto is an emotional roller coaster that follows Kakushi Goto and his daughter, Hime. Kakushi is a mangaka who owns his own studio and is known for creating ecchi/perverted manga, and as such has made it his goal to never let Hime find out what he really does for a living.
I remember being yanked along week-to-week when this one was still airing, so I can only imagine how fun it’d be to binge in one sitting. Like Erased, this one is also a self-contained story; no need to worry about cliffhangers or unfinished plot threads, the series ends by the conclusion of episode 12.
4. Magical Sempai (Crunchyroll)
If you’re in the mood for something a little spicier, might I suggest Magical Sempai? Magical Sempai is a short-form serial following characters Sempai and Assistant — no, I’m not kidding, that’s their canon names — as they (or really, one of them) attempt to build up the magic club from scratch.
But Sempai is probably one of the worst magicians in history, which leads to a ton of misunderstandings, shenanigans, and hilarious situations. Each episode is around 12 minutes in length, meaning you can clear all 12 episodes in a little over 2 hours, making it a magical binge.
3. FLCL (Hulu)
I don’t think I could be worthy of forgiveness if I didn’t include one of the classics, FLCL, on this list. To be clear, however, I am specifically referring to the original FLCL, not its more recent sequels. I don’t have anything against the sequels, but I don’t care about them nearly as much as I care about the original.
FLCL is a six-episode series that follows Naota and his very confusing life. He meets a self-proclaimed alien named Haruko Haruhara, he’s got alien robots materializing from his dome, and a secret police force hunting Haruko is now after him, as well. It has a lot of really compelling themes and for a short series like this, the way they’re executed is really, really compelling.
2. Great Pretender (Netflix)
OK — so, this is one of the only shows on this list that has two full seasons (aside from Pop Team Epic) because asking anyone to sit and watch 12 hours of anime in one sitting is … well, it’s not bad, per say, but it’s still a lot to ask. But, that being said, Great Pretender is a series that’ll be easy to binge.
It follows a con artist named Makoto Edamura who has a chance encounter with another con artist, Laurent Thierry, and the two spark up an unlikely partnership. I found this to be an excellent binge because the writers somehow manage to increase the stakes dramatically as the series continues. By the finale, you’ll be on the edge of your seat screaming at your screen because it’s just that good. Plus, it’s getting a second (or third, if you believe Netflix) season soon called Great Pretender: Razbliuto!
1. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Netflix)
Topping our list is a modern classic that managed to change the world’s mind about Cyberpunk 2077 (before the update and Phantom Liberty came out, anyway). It’s a chronological prequel to the game’s story by Trigger — the same Trigger behind Space Patrol Luluco — and features a compelling cast of characters that I will be forever salty aren’t in the game more than they are.
And, such a compellingly written series with only 10 episodes is remarkably easy to binge. I swear, it might’ve taken a hot minute, but Netflix is slowly figuring out how to nab the best anime licenses.
