"Kid friendly" Anime?

[kevin87]

My 9 year old cousin keeps asking me if I can find him anime to watch, but there's really no good way to tell if an anime is kid friendly because ones that look it should be for kids are actually really perverted. He likes fantasy/supernatural/scifi stuff, and light PG/PG-13 cussing is alright (like with Summer Wars, Princess Mononoke, Mushi-shi etc) as long as it's not a lot. Obviously nudity is out of the question. Naturally Studio Ghibli and things like Pokemon and Digimon will spring to mind, but he's seen all those... Blu-ray/HD preferred but SD will suffice.. Anybody have any suggestions?

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by kevin87

My 9 year old cousin keeps asking me if I can find him anime to watch, but there's really no good way to tell if an anime is kid friendly because ones that look it should be for kids are actually really perverted. He likes fantasy/supernatural/scifi stuff, and light PG/PG-13 cussing is alright (like with Summer Wars, Princess Mononoke, Mushi-shi etc) as long as it's not a lot. Obviously nudity is out of the question. Naturally Studio Ghibli and things like Pokemon and Digimon will spring to mind, but he's seen all those... Blu-ray/HD preferred but SD will suffice.. Anybody have any suggestions?

Hunter X Hunter
Bleach
Nadesico

[tacanmj]

If you go on Netflix, I have found lots of amine titles. I'm not a fan personally but they have many titles to chose from. Hope this helps.

[NoSurprises]

Pretty much anything by Mamoru Hosoda.

So; Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. They're all fairly kid friendly.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time gets a little dark maybe? They all deal with death in some way or another, but it's handled in a more kid friendly way the other two.

There's also kind of a love scene in Wolf Children that you may or may not find inappropriate? You don't see anything, but it's heavily implied. Depends how heavy on the censor you are.

Summer Wars is probably the most recommendable. Deals with some mature themes that only adults will understand, but enjoyable by kids too, like any good Pixar film. Though you mention this has been seen?

You could also just blow his mind with Cowboy Bebop. Though some episodes are more than a little kid unfriendly, due to the nature of the show you could just omit them, as most of the episodes are rather stand alone. Suggest watching it through yourself first if you've not already.

There's also Children Who Chase Lost Voices, it's Ghibli-esq. It's a little violent at times (though none more than Mononoke). I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would, maybe a 9 year old would appreciate it more?

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by wormraper

Bleach

Bleach came to my mind as well, but then I remembered a few episodes were fairly bloody and there is a bit of fan service in there. Better let the OP make up his mind on that one; I seem to remember the first season being pretty tame.

[wormraper]

oh yeah

queens blade
Hellsing
High School DxD

those would do nicely

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by kevin87

My 9 year old cousin keeps asking me if I can find him anime to watch, but there's really no good way to tell if an anime is kid friendly because ones that look it should be for kids are actually really perverted. He likes fantasy/supernatural/scifi stuff, and light PG/PG-13 cussing is alright (like with Summer Wars, Princess Mononoke, Mushi-shi etc) as long as it's not a lot. Obviously nudity is out of the question. Naturally Studio Ghibli and things like Pokemon and Digimon will spring to mind, but he's seen all those... Blu-ray/HD preferred but SD will suffice.. Anybody have any suggestions?

A 9 year old is watching Princess Mononoke? There's a deception in the first scene!

Anyway, I'd say Pokémon. Naruto is ok too. Oh and also the first season Ruriuni Kenshin has very little blood. More bloody in season two, but not *that* bloody...

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by wormraper

oh yeah

queens blade
Hellsing
High School DxD

those would do nicely

Might as well add Hellsing: Ultimate, Gantz, Elfen Lied, and Berserk to the mix.

Note to Kevin87: do not take this post seriously, these shows are as gory and pervy as they come.

[madlost1]

Give One Piece and Naruto a shot.

[Al_The_Strange]

Just remembered: Samurai 7 would be a good pick.

[varmintx]

Here's a thread over at ANN with this specific topic.

[Kirben]

Unfortunately there is a real lack of good recent anime for children, only anime series based around merchandise manage to get an English dub these days. And several anime series (Ghost Stories, Sgt. Frog) for children ended up getting butchered, as companies try to appeal to other age groups.

Crunchyroll offers a few good series (Digimon Xros Wars, Fairy Musketeers, Web Ghosts PiPoPa), but they only offer English subtitles. Gaiking is another good title on Crunchyroll, but the episodes are flawed (cropped, poorly subtitled).

SD Gundam: Legend of the Three Kingdoms Brave Battle Warriors on YouTube, although not sure what regions it is available.

Maybe Dragon Drive or SD Gundam Force or Zoids: Chaotic Century, if you can still find them?

Titles like Dragon Ball/Z, Hunter X Hunter, Naruto and One Piece are more suited for teenagers, as the uncut versions can be quite violent at times. Dragon Ball/Z can be quite perverted at times too.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Might as well add Hellsing: Ultimate, Gantz, Elfen Lied, and Berserk to the mix.

Note to Kevin87: do not take this post seriously, these shows are as gory and pervy as they come.

Ninja Scroll

[IdeaOfEvil]

There's really very little kid friendly anime in the US. You gotta figure that the market for anime has always been young adult/teenager based in English speaking countries because that's what sells, so any anime that would be suggested by a general forum is going to be heavily influenced with fighting and/or sexual innuendo.

At best you can only really look towards the longer Shonnen variety anime's that have as many lighthearted moments as they do serious drama. These animes are usually influenced by the sales of toys and games (and other cross promotion items that sell to kids), and are meant to appeal to kids: One Piece, Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, Dragonball, and Dragonball Z. These are the anime's that have children as their main cast that never move beyond simple romances and themes that deal with death without being gratuitous about it. Evenutally some titles grow with their audiences, and the characters mature and move into more adult themes (Dragonball goes from a cast of kids to those kids having their own children in DBz, for instance). Nudity wise, that's a culture issue. Uncut, Dragonball (and Japan in general) has no shame about showing a little boys penis if he's bathing or peeing. There's absolutely nothing sexual or perverse about it as it's just a way to show characters as innocent and natural. But again, these visuals (which doesn't happen often but do happen) are gonna mean many different things to many different people and whether you find it inappropriate or not.

Titles like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Evangelion, Robotech/Macross, Gundam, or Escaflowne (etc etc) are for the more mature crowd (early teens-ish). The violence in these anime's show death in a more gratuitous way (bullet holes in a persons head, dead bodies laying on the floor, etc) and the serious tones of sex and romance are plot devices used to motivate a story (not that anyone is shown having sex).

Your best bet is to go to anime websites to find your answers instead of general population websites like this one. AnimeNewsNetwork is excellent, Animenation has good people, and reviews written by Chris Beverage (formally of animeondvd.com, which turned into some other website I'm not familiar with) won't ever steer you wrong.

[jala12]

Some of the suggestions here a little baffling. The kid friendly ones I can think off the top of my head are Oban Star Racers and Little Witch Academia.

[madlost1]

Originally Posted by jala12

Some of the suggestions here a little baffling. The kid friendly ones I can think off the top of my head are Oban Star Racers and Little Witch Academia.

Like Ninja Scroll and Queensblade? Those guys are just messing around.

[Al_The_Strange]

Outlaw Star, Dirty Pair, and Heroic Age are a few good, pretty tame spacey shows.

[madlost1]

Oh forgot about Fairy Tail.

[Vracer111]

Dai-Guard might be a good one...I believe just very minor cussing with a most hilarious English dub. Insane comedy/action Sci-Fi Giant Robo Vs Space monsters show...

[wormraper]

Rouroni Kenshin is always a classic.