I used to watch anime but haven’t watched anything new in a while now. Have a 6 year old kid and thought it would be a good excuse to start watching some together with her. We just completed little witch academy and we have seen the ghibli movies. I’m seeking more series and movies that would be appropriate for kids and also not to boring for an adult to watch.
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Came here to give my 2 cents, but it seems all the anime I had in mind have already been recomended. Y’all have good taste.
Except… Why has nobody mentioned Pretty Cure!? It should be the obvious choice!
Except… Why has nobody mentioned Pretty Cure!? It should be the obvious choice!
Good question! I briefly considered it, but I haven’t seen it so I have no idea whether an adult would enjoy it too. Would you say it appeals to both age groups? It’s honestly tough since the span between “6-year old child” and “6-year old child’s parent” is so wide!
I watch it regularly and I love it. Heartcatch, Star Twinkle, Hirogaru Sky, Tropical Rouge and Mahotsukai are the best seasons.
Children anime are often the eternal ones, get some pretty cute and case closed for stories, Shin-chan for comedy.
Shin-Chan
Hi. Chiming in as a parent myself, with some suggestions that I would have let my kids watch at that age:
- Mitsuboshi Colors - Good, clean fun childhood adventures of 3 young girls.
- Strawberry Marshmallow - Same as above, but heavier on the comedy side.
- Cells at Work! - Educational about how the body works, though there is some fighting and battle shounen tropes.
- Flying Witch - magical slice of life that instills a sense of wonder.
- Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - 3 creative high-schoolers are fighting to keep their animation club. This is the one to watch if your kid has even the slightest interest in art.
- Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle - a heartwarming comedy that humanizes monsters as super friendly. Might be a good watch if she’s afraid of monsters. Even a good watch if she’s not.
I personally rate each one of them very highly, but I’m not sure whether they have dubbed versions or how good they are.
Lastly, there is Dr. Stone. I have never seen it due to my aversion to battle shounen, but I’ve read that it is very educational about how stuff works. As I said, I haven’t seen it, so I’m not sure how light or dark it is, but it might be worth looking into. I’m also trying to remember how kid-friendly Silver Spoon was. All I remember is that I learned a lot about farming. That’s why I’ll list it for the educational aspect, but everything else about the show is wiped from my memory. I don’t think there was anything in it that would disturb a kid, but I’m also not sure how entertaining it would be for one.
6 year old is too young for most anine, i would stick to Doraemon or similar, very light and innocent anime. Be ware of age ratings.
I feel like I watch a good amount that I’d think might be super kid friendly. It’s been a little bit since I’ve watched some of them, so I’d recommend double checking their age ratings. Here’s some ones that are bubbling into my head that now:
- Do It Yourself!
- YuriYuri
- My Clueless First Friend
- Laid-back Camp
- Non Non Biyori
- Ruri Rocks
CITY The Animation
I really think most of the jokes here will fly over a 6-year-old child’s head. It may not have anything inappropriate in it, but the target audience is still adults.
How many jokes in Animaniacs fly over the heads of kids? If a kid can watch and enjoy it, even if they don’t get all the jokes, that’s fine.
If a kid can watch and enjoy it
That’s the problem, I don’t think a 6-year-old child would enjoy it. There’s a difference between not getting all the jokes and not even getting half of them. The primary target audience of Animaniacs is children, with some effort put in to allow adults to also enjoy it. The primary target audience of CITY The Animation is adults.
Media targetted towards children is generally garbage. Are you afraid of children asking parents to explain things?
Tis Time for “Torture,” Princess, is very friendly and can be fun.
Mushi shi is pretty great.
+1 for the Pokemon and Digimon recommendations
For Pokemon, the specific series I can recommend is Pokemon: Horizons. It has a new protagonist but I think I enjoy this story more. (Haven’t watched enough of the original to make a fair comparison)
For Digimon, the one I have the strongest impression of - from the time I watched them as a kid - is Digimon Frontier.
One more recommendation is Cells at Work!. I know of a parent who watched this anime with their kids, and praised it. Besides being entertaining, it is educational too.
I think Nichijou and K-on are pretty kid friendly.
I thought about Nichijou, but I’m not certain a 6-year-old would be able to understand some of the jokes.
Jokes in Disney movies go over children’s heads, as do entire plots, settings, character motivations. Same for the Wiggles, Fraggle-Rock, and most others that have stood the test of time.
I’m struggling to name a show that a six-year-old could entirely wrap their mind around, or doesn’t have problematic elements requiring explanation, and isn’t Caillou/Coco-melon -level garbage. Even Veggie Tales invokes stories that are horrendous behind the scenes.
True but there are lots of shows I loved at that age where some of the jokes went over my head.
Apothecary Diaries
Frieren
One Piece Live-Action
The Way of The Househusband
Dr. Stone
Delicious In Dungeon
Canon Busters
Sakamoto Days
NIMONA!!!
Kpop Demon Hunters
Spy X Family
Bright
Romantic Killer
Violet Evergarden
Kakuryo - Bed & Breakfast for Spirits
Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin
'Tis Time For Torture, Princess
Kyousougiga
Fairy Tail
Solo Camping for Two
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale
Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets The Wise Wolf
Usagi Drop
Secrets of the Silent Witch
With You and the Rain
The Devil is a Part-Timer
Buddy Daddies
The Eccentric Family
Zenshu
Dragon Goes House Hunting
Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time
The Too Perfect Saint
BarakamanThe greatest difficulty lies in making yourself available to answer questions appropriately(by your parental judgement) and screening episodes in-advance so you can be prepared both for questions, and to raise/answer questions you believe shouldn’t be glossed.
It’s a 6-year-old kid for God’s sake.
Apothecary Diaries -> solving murders is the main theme. Plus prostitution, harems, blackmail, slavery, etc…
Frieren -> slow burn for adults that understand the concept of missed time and looking back. Not to speak about all the atocities done by the demons
The Way of The Househusband -> haven’t seen it but a Yakuza themed show …
Delicious In Dungeon -> sister dies gruesomely and gets turned from a bloody flesh mob into a monster that hunts her own brother and friends.
Sakamoto Days -> I think this one was assassin themed? Not sure.
Romantic Killer -> another assassin-themed show IIRC
Violet Evergarden -> lots and lots of very dark themes, including the war orphan origin of MC.
'Tis Time For Torture, Princess -> nothing wrong with this one, but I don’t know how entertaining it would be without knowing what it parodies (torture)
Solo Camping for Two -> adult drama/romance? Why not suggest Yuru Camp instead?
Sugar Apple Fairy Tale -> okay now I know that you are trolling.
Usagi Drop -> aimed at adults. Utterly boring for kids.
Secrets of the Silent Witch -> sure OPs daughter will enjoy MC losing her father due to being burned alive and all the assassination attempts.
With You and the Rain -> another show aimed at adults. The only thing that a 6-year-old would find interesting is that the “dog” is cute.
The Devil is a Part-Timer -> is it really funny to someone who hasn’t worked a day in their lives? Plus, again, the theme of dying parents in FMC.
Anything worth watching is going to have some dark themes, and don’t ask me why I haven’t recomended shows I’ve never watched.
There’s nothing on my list my own daughter hasn’t been able to watch if/when she wanted, as I was watching them. She loved The Devil is a Part-timer her first few years of grade-school. Same for Buddy-daddies, Usagi Drop, With You and the Rain. Have your kids never met a homeschooler, stay-at-home parent or adult who never moved out of their parents house?
I’ll admit I haven’t been able to get her watching Solo Camping for Two, largely because I’m waiting for it to be dubbed so we can watch it with my her mom, and we camp a lot, so there’s not-so-much novelty for her there.
Apothecary Diaries has murders? Well, I guess that would be its single biggest difference versus Disney’s Aladdin, what with Aladdin’s Brothel scene and … oh wait, no, Gazeem dies in the openning scene.
Frieren? Sure, every death is shocking, corpses too. The alternative is comfort with things, just because you don’t see that they’ve happened.
The Way of The Househusband has Yakuza characters doing every-day things. The fact they can’t even dress normally and don’t know how to act non-threatening is part of the humor. Meanwhile, the MC bakes cookies and takes the lunch he made to his wife at her job.
Sakomoto Days? The protagonists don’t kill, and the protag-faction grows by way of people they’ve spared realizing that killing is always optional, never mandatory(honestly, one of the more fantastical elements, considering the extreme situations portrayed).
Romantic Killer? What, your google-fu abandon you? No one dies or kills for a living in this one.
Lots of lazy counter-arguments and shows you-haven’t-even-watched in your comment, nevermind fully half of what you poo-poo’ed is on the, granted, hillariously-bad Bored Panda list linked by another commenter here.
Just about the only thing you’ve pointed out that isn’t covered by the Ghibli movies OP’s child has already watched is death, although one wonders if they watched the whole of Howl’s Moving Castle or any of Grave of The Fireflies.
Pretending grade-schoolers and Stay At Home Moms should never have to see or hear about death or naked people(my list could be over twice as long, but I read the room and chose my battle) has done such wonders for society. If OP were trying to raise one of the 53% of White Women who voted for Trump, they could hardly go wrong with your voluminous advice.
Interesting thread and thanks for the suggestions. My daughter is pretty “adult” for being 6 years old. That being said violence, sexism and too dark themes is of course a no go. When we watched spirited away a year ago I was a bit hesitant it being to scary, but she enjoyed it and had some good insights. But I’ll have to do some vetting to find some good gems out there
You’re welcome. I’m amazed how-much backlash my list got with that last paragraph, what with being called a troll right out of the gate, but how dare I suggest you ultimately make your own judgement calls as a parent, right?
Vetting and limited, almost-entirely supervised, screen-time in general are the way to go. Most of the rest of what I’ve seen from others here would look like gibberish versus books, ie “that one has too many big, made-up words!” Not that anime doesn’t have so-much else in-common with manga or comics, but if you’re present for anime, there’s always the fast-forward button or just " … let’s take a break, then watch another show".
If you want a laugh at my expense, sample Kamferer in-private. Yes, I have a line, and episode one(or two?) of that show was my single-biggest failure at pre-screening. Accidentally stumbled-upon something I wasn’t even comfortable re-visitting on my own time with that one, nevermind how shocked my daughter was to hear me say “hey, listen, I know you were laughing you’re ass-off for the last 30 minutes straight, but none of that stuff on-screen was cool for you to see/hear at your age. Now I’ve got to explain this to your mother. Don’t try to watch this show again, with or without us, and don’t suggest it to your friends or teachers.”
(I learned the hard way that day, at 10 years old, she no longer has a line where she openly-expresses discomfort with animation. Also, school has apparently exposed her to casual cruelty on a great many topics in ways I was not prepared to learn of. I pity her classmates that were blind-sided by topics which they still only know-of from schoolyard bullying, or thinking they are missing-out instead of just being normal 4th-graders)
Y’know, your rebuttals for each anime do make sense. However, the ad hominem at the end is uncalled for IMO.
Versus accusing me of trolling? I didn’t even look to see if they gave any actual advice to OP; I was honestly somewhere between not caring and hoping to be wrong.
Oh wait, do you think I called them a SAHM, a Trump voter, white, a woman(OP’s daugher/“her” is the only gender I’ve noted in this whole Post/Thread), or even a USian? Like, between you and me, who here is confused here, and about what? Are you thinking I was questioning OP’s motives, this far down a thread they aren’t participating in?
Other than the “voluminous advice” thing and shows they flat-out stated they hadn’t watched, I’m not seeing anything a reasonable person would remotely expect has a real chance of applying to @NineSwords@ani.social, or even be insulting to those they applied to, in my last few paragraphs.
Wasn’t even going the “if the shoe fits” route: I just laid out what I think is one of the many, many problematic outcomes of the popular outlook re: raising children and death and mature topics in general. It takes way too many adults a lifetime to learn how to handle such things responsibly and respectfully, if they ever do, when parents see their entire role as stearing them away from those topics until time robs them of the means to do so.
If OP is trying to raise one of the 53% of White Women who voted for Trump, they can’t go wrong with your voluminous advice.
Okay, I’ll bite ;) Please go on and elaborate.
The last two paragraphs you pulled that out of spelled out plenty. I’m not here to de-rail the whole post or call people names.
Spy X Family might be good. A lighthearted tone, a solid family dynamic, spy action and a “six” year old girl trying to make friends at school. Do be warned about some gory scenes (it doesn’t focus on the details, at least) and some darker themes (it’s a spy story, so there’s war stuff going on). But it has a solid dub and good comedy.
I would recommend Heaven’s Design Team (a workplace comedy about adding animals to the garden of eden, complete with fun animal facts), but I don’t think it has an English dub.
spy family has some moments and expresssions certainly not suited for a 6 year old, its about two nation on the brink of war, there are terrorists who say they want to kill people, etc , its rating on netflix is 16+, certainly not recommended for a 6 year old.
I already mentioned the war themes, and I think actual violence is more notable than threats of violence. And we get both in episode one.
Despite that, I do think kids would enjoy it, and there’s nothing to warrant a 16+ rating over a PG rating. I think OP should watch the first ep, then decide whether to watch the rest with the kiddo.
Cardcaptor Sakura might be good. Note that there’s a really inappropriate relationship between a student and teacher but they removed that relationship when they made the English dub so I’m guessing that’s the version you’d want to go with here. I imagine you’d want something with a dub anyways for someone that age.
Wasn’t that relationship mostly nixed in the anime in general? I realize the manga heavily implied a relationship (well, implied a physical relationship, the emotional “relationship” was obvious pretty early on) but I thought they mostly just implied an awkward crush in the anime?
In the manga they straight-up got engaged. He gave her a ring and everything. In the anime the relationship was downplayed a bit, but it was still there. In the English dub of the anime they rewrote it so the relationship was non-existent and if she was blushing while talking to him it would be because she forgot her homework or something, rather than romantic reasons.
The very first entry on that link is A Silent Voice. Absolutely phenomenal film, my all-time favorite in fact, but extremely not one I would show to a 6-year old child.
spoilers for anyone who doesn't remember
The film begins with Shoya’s suicide attempt, and much later Shouko tries to kill herself too. Not appropriate for age 6.
👌🙇♀️
So how does #50, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, compare to Gushing Over Magical Girls?
I would rather not be asking this question, or admitting I finished “Gushing”, no matter how much of each episode I skipped(not enough to understand Amazon Prime’s failure to blur/cut most of it), but here we are.
Oh, and for anyone wondering, The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant is hardly any better, although the story is … Oh wait, its just another Damsel In Distress plot, plus SA and water-color tea parties/picnics. Even with Druj … and the rest, The Great Jahy is actually more wholesome - the female characters help themselves, or eventually learn to without the help of a big strong man, at least.
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