Anime is one of the most widely beloved mediums of entertainment for a very good reason. Few companies have collected as many great anime as Netflix. The company has helped finance and distribute countless anime over the last several years.

However, when someone asks you "What anime should I watch on Netflix?" or when you ask yourself that question, the sheer quantity of anime can be overwhelming. Thankfully, this list will direct you to the best shows the platform has to offer. We narrowed it down to 10 essential anime on the platform. If you need a start on your anime binge, start with these.

Studio Ghibli

This one comes first because Studio Ghibli's body of work is not available worldwide. American, Canadian and Japanese viewers sadly can't watch the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata on Netflix.

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For those who can, however, you have access to some of the greatest works of animation ever conceived. Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Whispers of the Heart, Kiki's Delivery Service and countless more are available for the first time on digital streaming on Netflix. If you can't figure out what to watch, revisit the magic of these titles and more.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Shonen anime rank as among the most popular anime around, with those based on manga running in Weekly Shonen Jump ranking among the most widely loved. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is one of two of these adaptations to make this list, but that's only because it's one of the greats.

Follow the Joestar Family and their many adventures from generation to generation, each one more wild than the last. Each arc takes place in a different period of time -- or even reality -- as insane things transpire, from vampire slaying to Nazi-related hi-jinks to time-warping brawls with unkillable monsters. If you like fights, prepare for some of the most wacky powers ever conceived of in anime.

Death Note

Light Yagami is a teenage boy given a Death Note. Anyone whose name he writes in the book will die. So naturally, he uses it to kill all the bad people in the world, which draws the attention of the world's greatest detective, L. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game between two geniuses, each trying to outdo the other, as the world is rewritten in Light's image.

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What Death Note offers is combat driven not by fighting but by intellectual warfare. The battle between L and Light is like watching lightning chess, with each player in the game reacting and countering the other's schemes almost as fast as they make it. Death Note is essential viewing for any anime fan.

Carole & Tuesday

Shinichiro Watanabe is famous for Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, two of the greatest anime ever created by a mile. His Netflix exclusive anime, Carole & Tuesday, continues the Watanabe tradition of making amazing works of art.

Carole is an orphan living on the streets. Tuesday is a rich girl, running away from home. The two meet up by chance, bonding over a mutual love of music. The two become social media sensations for their performances, which leads to them starting a career as musicians. What sounds like a simple premise launches into a brilliant meta-commentary on artistic achievement, societal pressures and systematic oppression -- all with some of the most moving and powerful songs in any anime.

A Silent Voice: The Movie

As a kid, Shoya cruelly bullied a young deaf girl so badly she ended up transferring to another school. His classmates have rejected him, seeing him as beyond forgiveness. Worse still, Shoya in his teenage years sees himself as beyond forgiveness and starts the film contemplating suicide. He can't even look people in the face, too ashamed of his own actions to even register their faces.

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A Silent Voice is a story of both regret and pain but also of potential redemption, painting a realistic portrait of genuine self-loathing and isolation. It's not an easy film to watch, but it's one of the most powerful animated films produced in the last decade.

Your Lie in April

Kosei is a piano prodigy who loses the ability to hear sound following the traumatic death of his mother. This deafness is entirely psychosomatic, as is his increasing colorblindness. All this changes, however, when he meets Kaori, a free-spirited violin player who helps Kosei on the path to recovery -- even though Kosei is hiding from the world her own sickness.

Your Lie in April is at once a story about recovery as it is about processing the balance between life and death. It ranks among the most profoundly sad and melancholic anime around while still making the argument that, despite the inevitability of death, life is still worth living and can be beautiful.

Kill la Kill

Ryuko is investigating the mystery behind her father's death, believing the killer resides somewhere at Honnouji Academy. Along with her scissor-shaped sword and sentient school uniform, Ryuko challenges the insidious school council and her mother in a saga beyond the limits of imagination.

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Describing Kill la Kill's plot is an injustice to this saga's sheer madness. It's a story of unrestrained action that never takes itself too seriously, with characters that are impossible to ever forget. It's the anime that put Studio Trigger on the map.

Gurren Lagann

Simon is a lowly digger in an underground village who, along with his hyperbolic best friend Kamina, dreams of traveling to the surface. His dreams end up coming to him when a gigantic robot plummets through the ceiling, introducing the two undergrounders to a world-wide war between Beastmen and rebellious humans. But humanity is in luck: Simon, in his digging, has uncovered an ancient robot powered by manly spirit that can rewrite the laws of reality.

Made by the same people behind Kill la Kill, this anime never holds back from being entirely outrageous. It pierces through all limitations of imagination, then plows even further beyond

Devilman Crybaby

Akira is a timid boy who cries at the drop of a hat. He's unassuming and seemingly entirely innocent -- but all that changes when he reunites with his old friend Ryu who reveals the existence of demons dwelling in this world. In a ritual Akira is forced into entirely unwillingly, his spirit is blended with that of Amon, setting him on a warpath with both the demons plaguing humanity and the same human race he defends.

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As a re-adaptation of the classic Go Nagai manga from the '70s, Devilman Crybaby is a nihilistic relaunch of the Devilman property, being at once action-packed, emotionally intense and profoundly disturbing.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

A failed attempt to restore their mother cost the Elric Brothers an arm, a leg and an entire body. Now, with Al's body infused in metal armor and Ed replacing his limbs with automail, the two set out to find a way to return their bodies to normal. Along the way, they uncover an eldritch ritual that will threaten the country with untold devastation.

Few anime are capable of telling an epic story with so many moving parts so perfectly. Every character is fleshed out, necessary to the plot and feels organically woven into this epic narrative. The original series, Fullmetal Alchemist, is also on Netflix, but Brotherhood is the superior adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's manga.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji Ikari is called one day by his estranged father to pilot a giant mecha known as an Evangelion to fight alien-like entities known as Angels. He gets to live with the beautiful Misato Katsuragi and his fellow pilot, Asuka. He's growing close to the enigmatic and haunting Rei. On paper, all of this sounds wonderful. He gets to be a hero, live with spirited women and gains a chance to reconnect with family. So why is it that Shinji's life is an insurmountable pit of despair and pain, driving him to a psychological meltdown that could, in theory, bring the human race to extinction?

Existential, disturbing and thought-provoking, even decades later, Neon Genesis Evangelion and its film finale, End of Evangelion, remain some of the most powerful pieces of animation ever.

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