PUBLISHED February 10th, 2021 05:30 am | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 12:35 pm
In a time when culture icons like Kanye West and Megan Thee Stallion are proud anime fans, this once niche genre of art has irrevocably gone mainstream. There’s no better indicator of this in Singapore than the launch of Hakken!‘s first physical space in Plaza Singapura, retailing official anime merchandise, taking it from online to off. New to the genre? Check out their YouTube Channel, Muse Asia, which offers free episodes and same-week simulcasts of popular animes from Japan. Here are our favourites to get you started – some spoilers ahead.
One Punch Man
This cult favourite became notorious for its hilarious dialogue and gave us one of the most recognisable characters of all time, the bald-headed protagonist Saitama. The show’s story follows a self-made superhero who trains so hard that he becomes able to defeat superpowered enemies with a single punch (hence the name). He grows bored with the lack of worthy challenges and seeks stronger opponents – hilarity ensues.
Watch One Punch Man here.
Re:Zero
This fantasy series gets surprisingly dark, so don’t let anybody tell you anime is for kids. In Re:Zero, protagonist Natsuki Subaru finds himself transported to another world where he can’t tell heads from tails. He then befriends an elf named Emilia, and dies in the process of trying to help her. He then wakes up and after dying a few more times, finds he has the power to turn back time after his death, but carries all the memories of his previous deaths and the suffering he endured.
Watch Re:ZERO here.
BanG Dream!
More than just a show, this series is part of a whole media franchise. Based around all-female bands that voice their own characters, this light-hearted anime follows Kasuma Toyama who finds her calling in music and starts a band called Poppin’Party, with the intent of making her dreams of stardom come true. If it isn’t enough, they have a mobile game too.
Watch BanG Dream! here.
Harukana Receive
Heard of Haikyuu!!? The volleyball anime that took the world by storm has a sister in Harukana Receive. This series follows two very different cousins who decide to team up and form a beach volleyball club at their school, one of whom has a complicated history with the sport. The eponymous protagonist, Haruka Oozora, helps her cousin Kanata overcome her anxiety around the sport and navigate their relationship both on and off the court.
Watch Harukana Receive here.
School Babysitters
This cutesy anime is more or less what it looks like, with a darker than expected backstory. Ryuichi, a teenager, loses his parents in an airplane crash, leaving him to take care of his toddler-aged brother on his own. The chairman of an academy takes them in, on the condition that Ryuichi babysits the kids at the daycare room of the school. He becomes the first member of a babysitter club full of very small children with very big personalities.
Watch School Babysitters here.
The God of High School
This action anime follows a high school student, Mori Jin, a martial artist from Seoul. On joining a martial arts tournament, he fights enemies who take power directly from the gods, all of whom are battling for a prize from a mysterious organisation – a wish, any wish, granted to the tournament’s winner. With the promise of fulling their dreams, these teenagers are fighting with all they have.
Watch The God of High School here.
Top image: One Punch Man