Anime and manga publisher Viz Media just made a handful of really great anime series freely available to watch on YouTube. If you’re looking for a good entry point into some seriously productive shows, this is an excellent opportunity to dive into some stone-cold classics.
The company has uploaded six of the hit shows it owns rights to on YouTube and have compiled them into helpful playlists. death notice, Hunter X Hunter, Inuyasha, Mr Osomatsu, NarutoAnd Sailor Moon are all there, most in their entirety, for your viewing pleasure. Specifically, these are the Japanese versions of the shows with English subtitles. So if you like watching dubbed anime, this might not be what you’re looking for. But if you want to keep it original, there’s plenty to explore here. Personally, I always wanted to watch death notice having heard about it through cultural osmosis over the years, and while I tend to prefer dubs, this is too good an opportunity to squander.
Let’s go through each show:
death notice
death notice is the shortest anime on the list with only 37 episodes in one season. It revolves around the eponymous Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written in it. A teenager named Light Yagami finds the book and uses it to kill people he deems immoral and unworthy of life. This chain of seemingly unstoppable, random murders eventually catches the attention of L, an eccentric, brilliant detective, leading to an electrifying, supernatural game of cat-and-mouse.
Hunter X Hunter
Hunter X Hunter follows Gon Freecss, a boy trying to follow in his absent father’s footsteps as a hunter, heroes who seek out rare creatures, seek treasure and also hunt other people. Hunter X Hunter is famous for getting almost universal praise from everyone who sees it, making them proselytizing proponents who really, really think you should check it out. The show is one of the longer Viz has released on YouTube, with 148 episodes available across its six arcs. But there are some that are even longer. Such as…
Inuyasha
Rumiko Takahashis Inuyasha follows the titular half-demon who joins a high school girl named Kagome Higurashi to recover the shards of a shattered Shikon Jewel. A big hit on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block at the time, the show’s seven seasons total 197 episodes.
Mr Osomatsu
Mr. Osomatsu goes way back to the 1960s when Fujio Akatsuka’s comedic manga was a cultural phenomenon in Japan. This anime adaptation is much newer, dating back to 2015. That’s worth noting Mr Osomatsu is the only show Viz has uploaded to YouTube that doesn’t include the entire run. The currently uploaded first two seasons of the animated family comedy make up 50 of the series’ 75 episodes.
Naruto
At 220 episodes, Naruto Is nearly the largest time sink that Viz has set up on YouTube. The five season show makes up the first part Naruto, which follows the title character as he attends a school to become a ninja. These 220 episodes are followed by Naruto Shippudenthat’s another 500 episodes, and another sequel series called Boruto that follows Naruto’s child. So you’re opening Pandora’s box if you decide to sit down and look at this one.
Sailor Moon
However, the show with the most episodes in this (first?) wave of uploads is the bishoujo phenomenon of the 1990s Sailor Moon, which comes with a whopping 238 videos over its five seasons. It’s the classic Magical Girl anime and follows a group of teenagers who turn into superheroes and do superhero shit. She is the icon. She is the moment. And her show is free to watch on YouTube. (The few specials and later films are not available at this time, however.)
If you’re not an anime buff there are some really great entry points here, but if you’re a real nutcase and have already seen these shows, now you have a really easy way to revisit them. Speaking for myself, I’m about to cue some death notice. It’s about time I finally checked it out.
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