AfterCrunchyrollandNetflix, the biggest anime streaming site is undoubtedlyHIDIVE. HIDIVE typically ends up with anime that are largely of a low profile, whether it’s an older title or a simulcast, and because of that, they’re often ignored in favor of Crunchyroll and Netflix, who almost always end up with the biggest and best anime to stream.
HIDIVE doesn’t have anywhere near the level of prestige as other major streaming services, but it’s still wrong to overlook it. Even if Crunchyroll and Netflix tend to get the most mainstream hits, HIDIVE has plenty to offer in terms of both new anime and older classics, and overall,HIDIVE has plenty of old and new animethat are just as good as Crunchyroll and Netflix’s selection, if not better. A few of those anime are especially worth highlighting, as no matter what year they came out in, they perfectly highlight how underrated a platform HIDIVE is.
10No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular
Anime Series By Silver Link; Based On The Manga By Nico Tanigawa
Silver Link’sNo Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popularstars Tomoko Kuroki, a girl who goes into high school thinking that she can use dating sims to become the most popular girl in school. Predictably, her knowledge is completely worthless in real life, and she quickly becomes an antisocial loner spouting misanthropic diatribes at her peers while forcing herself through one humiliating experience after another.
While it was never a big hit,No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popularis a fun anime to watch thanks to its fun assortment of references and incredible cringe comedy, all of which still hold up after over a decade.The anime getting canceledafter one season meant it evolved the same way the manga did, but even so, it’s a series that’s plenty of fun to watch.
Yuki Yuna Is A Hero
Cast
Yuki Yuna Is a Hero follows Yuki Yuna, an ordinary middle school student who is part of the Brave Hero Club. Set in Year 300, Divine Era, the narrative explores the club’s mission and their encounters with the enigmatic Vertex, blending daily life with extraordinary tasks.
Studio Gokumi’sYuki Yuna Is a Herorevolves around Yuna Yuki and the Sanshu Middle School Hero Club. While the club was originally centered solely around volunteer work, they get the chance to become real heroes when they’re recruited to become magical girls to protect their guardian deity from the monstrous Vertex, although there’s far more to it than they originally thought.
Yuki Yunais a dark magical girl anime made to capitalize onPuella Magi Madoka Magica’s success, but whether it’s through its great animation, its stellar character writing, or especially in how it balances dark story beats with a largely optimistic narrative,Yuki Yuna Is a Herodoes a perfect job of selling itself as a dark magical girl anime with its own identity worth engaging in. The entire series is available on HIDIVE, and any fans of magical girl anime would be remiss to pass it up.
OLM, Inc.’sDark Gatheringstars Keitaro Gentoga, a college student trying to live a normal life, despite his ability to sense the supernatural. All of that changes, however, when he meets Yayoi, a girl with similar supernatural abilities who uses them to capture and enslave violent spirits to prepare for battle against the spirit that stole her mother’s soul, and much to Keitaro’s dismay, he gets dragged into the dangerous and horrifying battles she undergoes for her mission.
Dark Gatheringnever gained that much attention during its run, but between its great character writing, incredible character designs, and increasingly unique executions of gore,Dark Gatheringis one of the most unique dark urban fantasy anime of recent years with plenty to offer from start to finish. As ananime without a second season, the series does end on a notable cliffhanger, but fortunately, it’s still plenty great to watch.
Gushing Over Magical Girls
Gushing Over Magical Girls follows Hiragi Utena, a magical girl enthusiast who discovers her true role as a villain after transforming. Embracing her new identity, she becomes a sadistic tormentor of the very heroes she idolized, inverting the traditional magical girl narrative.
In Asahi Production’sGushing over Magical Girls, ordinary middle schooler Utena Hiiragi is a major fan of her town’s magical girl team, Tres Magia, and she jumps at the chance to become a magical girl just like them. Unfortunately, Utena was recruited to become an evil magical girl, and whenever Utena fights as Magia Baiser, she can’t stop herself from indulging in her repressed sadist urges and subjecting them to BDSM-style torture, resulting in varying degrees of arousal from both parties every time.
Gushing over Magical Girlshas a surprisingly thoughtful exploration into BDSM and sex positivity, two fields rarely ever addressed in media, and doing so through same-sex relationships adds an extra level of thoughtfulness to its writing. Add in stellar animation for the fanservice and fight scenes, andGushing over Magical Girlsis an incredible anime, despite its inappropriate nature.
Madhouse’sNo Game No Lifestars Sora and Shiro, a pair of gaming siblings collectively known as Blank who are transported to Disboard, a world where all disputes between sixteen races are settled through games. Imanity, Disboard’s equivalent to humanity, is the lowest-ranked race in Disboard, and so Sora and Shiro, wanting a challenge as they look for a way home, decide to use their superior gaming skills to put Imanity above all the other races.
Between its unique art and animation style and a premise that always makes way for interesting conflicts and dialogue,No Game No Life’s writing and overall presentation make it one of the bestisekaianime and anime, in general, a person can watch. The fact that it never got a sequel has been a major sticking point with fans for years, but even that shouldn’t stop someone from picking up such a fantastic series.
Call of the Night
Liden Films’Call of the Nightstars Ko Yamori, a young boy who, in his first foray into night-walking, meets the vampire Nazuna Nanakusa. Ko decides that he wants Nazuna to turn him into a vampire so he can become a permanent night-walker, but a person can only become a vampire if they’re in love with the vampire who sucks their blood, thus setting Ko on a journey to learn what it means to be in love.
Not only doCall of the Night’s visuals always sell the hauntingly beautiful atmosphere of the night, but its take on romance does wonders to make it stand out from other romance stories, as well.Call of the Night’s overall presentation is some of the most unique of any recent anime, and withCall of the Night’s second seasonset to premiere this July, there’s never been a better time to watch it.
Kyoto Animation’sClannadstars Tomoya Okazaki, a high school senior with no ambition for anything after graduating due to his troubled home life. On a whim, Tomoya helps reestablish the drama club with Nagisa Furukawa, a girl who’s had to repeat her senior year due to illness, and their time together inevitably changes them in ways they never could have imagined.
Few anime of the 2000s are as iconic asClannad, and sure enough,Clannadmore than earns its stellar reputation thanks to its gorgeous visuals and how well it sells its romance, whether it’s trying to be heartwarming or it’s trying to be dramatic. Even with the anime being almost 20 years old now, it’s still one of thebest Kyoto Animation anime of all time, and romance fans would be remiss to pass it up.
Kyoto Animation’sK-On!follows the daily lives of Houkago Tea Time, a band formed from the four—later five—members of a high school’s light music club. Naturally, many episodes of the anime focus on the girls’ growth as musicians across the anime’s two seasons, but the primary focus of the series often ends up being the various antics the core cast ends up involved in that tend to be completely divorced from music but are nonetheless fun to watch.
LikeClannad,K-On!is one of the most iconic Kyoto Animation projects from the 2000s, and unsurprisingly,K-On!’sincredible combination of great animation, catchy music, and engaging character writing and comedy still leaves it as one of Kyoto Animation’s best works to date. It’s a series that helped define the “cute girls doing cute things” genre of anime, and overall, it more than deserves that reputation.
J.C.Staff’sAzumanga Daiohis a slice-of-life anime centered around five—later six—girls and their two teachers across three years of high school. Unlike other slice-of-life anime, which tend to involve romance or have some gimmick behind why the main characters associate with each other,Azumanga Daiohfeatures nothing of the sort and is focused solely on the daily lives of the cast.
Azumanga Daiohhas very little depth to it and gives the viewer everything they can expect from it right out the gate, but that’s not an issue in the slightest, asAzumanga Daioh’s great character and comedy writing is always fun to watch and still holds up tremendously well after so many years.Azumanga Daiohhelped build the foundations of modern slice-of-life anime, and even now, it’s easily one of the best entries of the genre, by far.
Doga Kobo’sOshi no Kostars Goro Amamiya, a gynecologist who, after his sudden murder, is reincarnated as the son of his latest patient and idol, the famous pop idol Ai Hoshino. While initially content with simply going through his second life as Aqua Hoshino, tragedy strikes when Ai is suddenly murdered, and Aqua now decides to devote his life to tracking down Ai’s murderer and avenging her death.
As another work by Aka Akasaka,Oshi no Kohas all the same engaging and deconstructive writing that madeKaguya-sama: Love is Wara hit, and with some of the most gorgeous animation and direction of any modern anime,Oshi no Ko’s incredible combination of writing and visuals leave it as an amazing and revolutionary series everyone should experience. NeitherCrunchyrollnorNetflixhas an anime quite like it, and it’s easily thebest anime on HIDIVE to watch, by far.
