Netflix has a lot of cool stuff to offer, from long-forgotten TV shows to original programming and, of course, a lot of great animated series. While some of animation's greatest series — like Batman: The Animated Series, Samurai Jack and Gargoyles — might not be available on the streaming service, Netflix still has plenty of great cartoons to offer, including a chunk of original animated series that are definitely worth watching. For instance, Voltron: Legendary Defender has taken the world by storm, releasing season after season to great critical and viewer praise, a powerful fandom forming soon after its premier. Voltron is just one example of the many great animated series on Netflix, and there are plenty more available, but which are the best?
We've already covered some of the best anime that Netflix has to offer, so let's take a look at all the other animated series you can enjoy anywhere, anytime. Most of the animated series included are Netflix originals, but we also threw in a few series that have been mainstays on the service for quite some time and don't appear to be going away any time soon. We also have quite the mix of genres, demographics, animation styles and mediums, countries of origin and time periods in which they came out. It's time to hold a contest of cartoons and see which animated series on Netflix are the best. We've narrowed it down to 15 series, taking into consideration fan reviews and popularity to bring you the 15 greatest cartoons available on Netflix.
16 HONORABLE MENTION: SHE-RA & THE PRINCESSES OF POWER
Before we get started, let's throw in an honorable mention for the upcoming Netflix original animated series, She-Ra & The Princesses of Power. Though the series has yet to premier, it already deserves a TON of praise for the brilliant designs that have already been released.
She-Ra's new design and the few screenshots we've seen are incredibly promising, despite what some angry "so-called-fans" of the original might say. Though we've yet to learn any plot details, if other Netflix original series are any indication (i.e. Voltron), this reboot is sure to be one of the streaming service's best animated shows yet.
15 THE MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN SHOW
Speaking of reboots, starting off at the bottom of our ranking is The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show, a follow up of sorts to the Dreamworks film that played off of the format of the original series of shorts featured before The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
The series might have been short-lived and somewhat unknown, but we think it deserves some praise for the wonderful animation and design, which combines the retro designs of the original with some modern sensibility and amazing color and background design. Plus, what's not to love about the time-traveling adventures of a boy and his dog... or is it a dog and his boy?
14 WAKFU
Wakfu is another somewhat unknown series, perhaps because it originates from France and is based on a French video game of the same name. Regardless, Wakfu has a lot of charm and a lot of heart, which helps to make up for its sometimes less-than-stellar flash animation.
The series follows Yugo, a young boy with the power to create teleportation portals who is on a quest to find his true family. He is joined by a group of friends on this magical adventure that has plenty of twists and turns along the way. The series originally aired in France on television, but is only available on Netflix in America.
13 BUDDY THUNDERSTRUCK
Though it didn't gain much attention, Netflix's Buddy Thunderstruck is a delightful series that deserves a spot on this list for the comedic writing alone. A stop-motion animated series created by Ryan Wiesbrock and written by Tom Krajewski, Buddy Thunderstruck is about a truck-racing dog who is something of a celebrity in the town he lives and brings "good times" in the form of rather destructive stunts and antics.
The series didn't gain a ton of popularity, but did recieve praise for its writing and incredible stop-motion animation, the latter of which was recognized by both the Emmys and the Annie awards, which is part of the reason it makes our ranking.
12 HUNTIK: SECRETS & SEEKERS
Remember that time around 2004-2012 where there were a ton of anime-styled animated series coming out from all around the world? Shows like Totally Spies and Winx Club started dominating kids TV networks/programming blocks, and among them was Huntik: Secrets & Seekers. While the series might seem like fodder for this era of cartoons, Huntik, which has been on Netflix for quite some time, has a bit more depth to it.
The age demographic is a bit evident with Huntik, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the series' interesting world, mysteries and plot. If you're looking for a fun action/adventure, Huntik has got some cool stuff to offer.
11 BIG MOUTH
Warning, this series is definitely not for kids! Big Mouth is an animated series created by and starring Nick Kroll that follows a group of teenagers as they go through the horrific, wonderful process of puberty, which is portrayed in fantastical, metaphorical and downright hilarious ways to accurately depict the feelings we all went through.
Though the art direction of the series has been subject to some criticism — many claiming it to look just like every other adult animated series — some praised the writing and the surprisingly realistic and informative depiction of growing up and discovering the changes of maturity that come with it.
10 NEO YOKIO
Don't let your eyes deceive you, while Neo Yokio is animated in the style of most anime, it is an American production, so it counts on our list. The downright bizarre series follows Kaz Kaan (voiced by Jaden Smith), a bachelor in the metropolis of Neo Yokio, where he must work hard to fight demons in order to retain his family's rich socialite status.
The series is pretty strange, but that strangeness works in its favor, finding charm in the tongue-in-cheek-ness of its bizarre characters, setting and fantasy elements. Unfortunately, that tongue-in-cheek-ness goes overboard at some points, going from "purposely weird and bad" to just "weird and bad" in some of the episodes, lowering its ranking a bit.
9 ZAK STORM
A joint production between Zagtoon (the people behind Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir) and Man of Action (creators of Ben 10 and Mega Man: Fully Charged), Zak Storm is a sci-fi/pirate series that is great for kids who love action and adventure. It follows the titular Zak Storm, a teenager who gets lost in the Bermuda Triangle, where he must unite the seven seas in order to return home.
Zak Storm is a whole lot of fun, and the great designs deserve praise on their own, as does the interesting cast of characters that make up Zak's pirate crew, which includes a viking, a princess, an alien and a ghost.
8 STRETCH ARMSTRONG & THE FLEX FIGHTERS
While Stretch Armstrong seems like an old property that was dusted off for the sake of cashing in on nostalgia and reboots, the resulting animated series, Stretch Armstrong & The Flex Fighters, is actually pretty great. The series features some impressive animation and was co-developed by Victor Cook, who many know for his wonderful work on the critically acclaimed series, The Spectacular Spider-Man.
If that's not enough to convince you to give the series a try, it also has some great design work in the characters, colors and background design. Furthermore, Stretch Armstrong & The Flex Fighters earns some points for being creative with one of its episodes, which had a "choose-your-own-ending" feature that Netflix had never done before.
7 MIRACULOUS: TALES OF LADYBUG & CAT NOIR
While it originally premiered on Nickelodeon, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir has now found a home on Netflix, and it has quite the fan following. Combining aspects of magical-girl anime and other superhero storytelling elements, Miraculous is a French production created by Zagtoon and follows the titular Ladybug, a young superhero fighting against the evil Hawk Moth and his villainous creations.
There are plenty of episodes of Miraculous to watch on Netflix, and the series is a delightful superhero show that rocks some awesome female empowerment, interesting villains and cool fights on both large and small scales of action.
6 TROLLHUNTERS: TALES OF ARCADIA
Dreamworks has been putting a lot of focus into its Netflix series, and it really showed with Trollhunters, a cgi-animated series following Jim Lake Jr., the first human to be chosen as the protector of all Troll-kind. Throughout the show's three seasons, Jim gets stronger and stronger as a Trollhunter, his friends joining in on the battle as a fantastic plot unfolds.
Trollhunters had some pretty great voice talent as well, featuring Ron Perlman, Kelsey Grammer, Clancy Brown and Anton Yelchin — standing as one of the late actor's final roles. The show's demographic is definitely present in the series, but beneath it is some strong character and plot development and brilliant art direction that is worth checking out.
5 TRANSFORMERS: PRIME
Transformers: Prime is another series that didn't originate on Netflix, but has since found a home on it, and it is, in our opinion, the best Transformers series of all time. Where most previous incarnations of Transformers more or less focused on the war between the Autobots and Decepticons that started on Cybertron and continued on Earth, Transformers: Prime instead chose to focus on what happens after the war.
We saw the Autobots dealing with the fallout of the end of the war — things like coping with the loss of one of their own, the vacuum of power left by Megatron, keeping themselves hidden, handling rogue Decepticons, etc. — all of which were depicted in a gritty, dramatic and interesting manner.
4 STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is coming back for another season, and fans were elated to learn that one of the most critically acclaimed animated series was coming back. The show was originally broadcast on Cartoon Network, but after cancellation, it was revived at Netflix, where the new season will also be streamed.
Perhaps the best way to put how good Clone Wars is is that it made the Star Wars prequel trilogy interesting. It took the mess that was Episodes I-III and found a way to tell dramatic, interesting, deep and otherwise fantastic stories within what is usually considered to be the worst part of Star Wars.
3 CASTLEVANIA
Another Netflix cartoon that looks like an anime but is an American production is the critically acclaimed Castlevania, which at this point needs no further praise... but we're gonna give it anyway. Depicting the events of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, the series has created a powerful and dramatic plot out of the original video game source material, thanks in no small part to series writer Warren Ellis.
As for the animation itself, it is, simply put, absolutely astounding. No expense was spared and no corners were cut with this series; everything is beautiful, from the hand-painted backgrounds to the intense action sequences and frightening monster designs. Castlevania is easily one of the most beautiful and well-written animated series of all time.
2 BOJACK HORSEMAN
Bojack Horseman is easily one of the deepest series that Netflix has to offer, animated or otherwise. It follows the titular horse/man as he deals with, amongst other things, depression, addiction and the crippling feeling of knowing that his relevance and importance are slowly fading away. The show perfectly balances the bizarre world of Hollywood with the effects of fame and the self-destruction that is mental illness and stunted maturity.
The show received universal praise almost immediately, critics noting the series' depth, as well as its simultaneous cynicism and irreverent humor. Then, of course, there is the voice cast, which includes Will Arnett as the titular character, Aaron Paul and Alison Brie.
1 VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER
Coming in at number one is Voltron: Legendary Defender, a series that, unlike most reboots, is FAR better than the original. Legendary Defender gained a following and fandom since season one, tons of critical praise coming along with it. The series took strong elements of the original and gave it a powerful update, making sure to tell compelling, planned-out, stories within the world it built.
The character development is perhaps the series' strongest trait, each Paladin of Voltron going through changes both subtle and drastic. The dynamic nature of the characters combined with the sweeping, epic, overarching plot and FANTASTIC animation is why we chose it as our number one pick for the best animated series on Netflix.