17 Anime for Kids and Family.
Amber, the 451 press blogger for Watching Jericho and Watching The 4400, asked me for some recommendations on anime. She wanted to know what she could watch with her munchkin. They’d watched Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro and she wanted something else that they could both enjoy. I thought that would be easy. I was wrong.
It looked like the American distributors were kinda skimping on the anime for young children. I thought it might be because they’re trying to break away from the image of anime as “cartoons for kids”. It was tough to find anime for all ages, but I eventually did.
I found it irritating that I couldn’t search by rating on any of the sites I looked at. Even searches for specific ratings didn’t work. That really bothered me. Information like that should be searchable. All the online anime stores I checked failed that test, including Amazon. On Amazon I wound up having to go to the kids and family section and just browse until I found anime.
Maybe I was being a bit too picky. The only thing she asked for was that it wasn’t too violent. I know that her daughter likes the Powerpuff Girls and Teen Titans. If I’d included shows of a similar age level I’d have had more to work with. Here they are in no particular order.
My recommendations for parents and children.
Keep in mind, you should check out what your kids watch. Don’t take anyone’s recommendations without watching it for yourself first. Everyone has different standards.
Click on a title to find information about that anime.
- Doraemon
- Hamtaro
- Hello Kitty
- Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy
- Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat
- Risky Safety
- Kimba the White Lion
- Petite Princess
Yucie - Panda! Go, Panda!
For the kids.
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Junkers Come Here
- Angelic Layer
- Best Student Council
- Porco Rosso
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
- The Dog of Flanders
- Catnapped! The Movie
For the whole family.
There is a ton of anime out there for the whole family. It’s just hard to find sometimes.
If you want to ask me something, or if there’s a post you’d like to see, just let me know.
Anime, Recommendations, List, 17, Family, Kids, All Ages
October 25th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
[...] If you ask about something I do my best to answer. When Amber asked for some recommendations for family friendly anime I wrote a post about that. I’m sure she’s not the only parent looking for something she [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
[...] My Neighbor Totoro is a great example of that quality. As simple as the story is, it is a must see. It has wonderful characters and some truly magical moments. That’s why I included it on my list of anime for the whole family. [...]
January 15th, 2008 at 12:03 am
[...] A little word of warning. I rented the directors cut. It’s a very violent anime, and that violence is extremely graphic. There’s also a fairly graphic sex scene as well as lot’s of swearing. All in all, if this were a movie it would probably be rated NC-17. Not something to watch with the kids. [...]
May 27th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Thank you for your help!