Anime For The Curious College Student

There are many people who believe that anime is just the Japanese version of 6 a.m. kid’s cartoons, and manga are simple comics. While there are plenty of series that are aimed at children, there are also a number of them either aimed at a more mature audience or written in such a way that adults find them enjoyable as well.

Some may remember the Attack on Titan phenomenon that spread like wildfire when the series premiered in 2013, a good example of anime for an older audience. Following that, I’ve compiled a short list of anime that I’d recommend for anyone college aged.

hulu.com

1) One-Punch Man – One-Punch Man is another anime that received a huge amount of attention after it began airing in October 2015 for its quirky sense of humor, fantastic animation, and colorful characters. The series takes familiar superhero tropes and turns them on their head, starting with the main character, a man called Saitama who became too powerful after training to reach his dream of becoming a superhero.

Saitama’s insane strength allows him to defeat any enemy with a single punch and withstand any attack, but this results in him losing all sense of the excitement and happiness being a hero originally brought him. The 12 episode series follows Saitama as he begins to gain recognition from the official hero community, ‘accidentally’ making friends as his fellow heroes finally experience his strength firsthand.

Among these unwitting companions are Saitama’s (self-proclaimed) disciple, Genos, the serious(ly) attractive cyborg hunting for those who killed his parents; Speed of Sound Sonic, the super speedy ninja for hire who becomes Saitama’s (self-proclaimed) rival; Licenseless Rider, the weak, but steadfast bicycle-riding hero; and Bang, an elderly martial arts master, one of the strongest heroes in the world.

One-Punch Man is adapted from the redrawn manga series of the same name by the manga author known as ONE. Comes with a violence warning.

crunchyroll.com

2) Mob Psycho 100 – MP100 is another fantastic series by ONE, once again featuring an overpowered protagonist in the form of Kageyama Shigeo, an ordinary middle-schooler in every way … except for his exceptional psychic abilities. In order to prevent an accident occurring, Shigeo (known as Mob by most) unconsciously suppresses all his emotion to keep his uncontrollable power in check.

Yet a 14-year-old can only take so much before his emotions explode. MP100 follows Mob as a he exorcises evil spirits, protects his friends from unfriendly ESPers, and avoids the cult that worships him as a god, all while struggling through the pitfalls of ordinary life as a 14 year old boy. The series attains an emotional depth that’s missing from most of One-Punch Man, while maintaining that same sort of strange humor.

The first season is about to end, along with its artistically hallucinogenic animation, but the manga is currently ongoing. Warning for violence and a little bit of blood.

myanimelist.net

3) Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress – Kabaneri can most easily be described as Attack on Titans with trains. The premise of the series is that heavily armored locomotives are the only transportation between Stations, high-walled cities that are all that’s left of Japan after an outbreak of ‘kabane,’ zombie-like creatures whose metal coated veins lead to the iron cage that protects their heart, making them incredibly difficult to kill.

Caught in the middle of an industrial revolution, protagonist Ikoma develops a jet-powered gun capable of piercing the iron cages. His research into the kabane prevents him from turning after being bitten, but his entire life changes when he learns he is now a ‘Kabaneri,’ a kabane with a human mind. Kabaneri truly begins when the walls of Ikoma’s home Station are destroyed, forcing the inhabitants to evacuate on a locomotive called the Kotetsujou, the Iron Fortress.

A story of acceptance and the bonds between people, Kabaneri come with a warning for rather tame amounts of violence and gore for a series with a zombified, undying protagonist. Kabaneri is self-contained and served up with a satisfying ending, so no long-term investment is required.

myanimelist.net

4) Ultimate Survivor Kaiji – Itou Kaiji is something of a bum. He’s a good-for-nothing that lives in a rundown apartment and works a minimum wage job at a convenience store. That changes when Kaiji is visited by a debt collector, there to take the money owed on the debt-compounded loan Kaiji co-signed with a friend. Turns out his friend, unable to pay the debt, has gone into hiding, and now the responsibility has fallen to him. Kaiji is forced into a series of deadly ‘games’ to repay the 3.8 million yen.

Luckily, Kaiji is also something of a genius for the sort of psychological warfare and underhanded tactics that come with the sort of games that can end in death, especially when his co-worker gets involved. Cowardly crybaby Kaiji is certainly a rarity of a protagonist, getting himself into increasingly worse situations because of his own greed, yet all that only serves to highlight his moments of unusual cleverness and shrewd kindness.

Kaiji comes with a warning for the violence and gore typical of underground crime, including amputation. There are currently two seasons of anime and an ongoing manga, but each season can be considered is its own series. Originally sold to me by the line ‘Yu-Gi-Oh for grown-ups.’