We’ve Found the Best Anime Series to Watch on Hulu This Month
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The days of watching anime episodes in three separate parts on Youtube (the way I happened to watch Sailor Moon in middle school) are long over. Nowadays, with the genre becoming more accessible than ever, you might be surprised to find that you don’t need to fork over cash to one of the big two (Crunchyroll or Funimation) to get all your favorite series online. Hulu has become one of the best streamers for anime, with a hefty catalog of long-running series and beloved anime films to supplement their main offerings.
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With a diverse mix of old-school series you might have caught on a late-night Toonami watch once upon a time on Cartoon Network (Cowboy Beebop, any of the Gundam series), to hot new shows and exclusive simulcasts (like the shonen hits Demon Slayer or My Hero Academia), you’ll find the best anime on Hulu for every fan possible under the sun. But if you don’t know where to start, we’ve found the top anime (in our opinion) you can stream on Hulu right now.
Can You Watch Anime on Hulu?
Of course the answer is yes, but you’ll need a subscription to the streamer first. If you don’t have a Hulu plan yet, you can stream anime with any of Hulu’s packages, including Hulu (With Ads) for $7.99/month, Hulu (No Ads) for $14.99/month, or Hulu + Live TV for $69.99/month. With your plan, you’ll get access to new (and future) episodes of your favorite anime series, plus all of Hulu’s original content. Stream anime on Hulu here.
Hulu Subscription
How to Watch Anime On Hulu for Free
Don’t have Hulu yet, but still want to binge an entire arc of that 900+ episode pirate series? Keeping up with the latest seasons of your favorite anime for free is easier than ever, and fans can watch anime for free with two different Hulu free trials. Hulu offers a 30-day free trial for its ad-supported and ad-free plans. Get a 30-day free trial on Hulu.
Naruto (2002-2007)
One of the most popular shonen anime of all time, Naruto is a classic franchise that follows its titular character from an outcast of the Hidden Leaf Village training to become an elite ninja, to a father and a leader in the sequel series Naruto Shippuden and Boruto. Naruto has a lot of filler and is certainly a time commitment, but it’s an anime touchstone that every fan of action-centric series should watch at least once.
Watch ‘Naruto’ on Hulu
Cowboy Bebop (1998)
If your only exposure to this show is from the Netflix live-action series, we apologize. Another “greatest of all time”, this classic sci-fi anime is a space western and pulls in a lot of neo-noir elements to make a ragtag team of space bandits feel like a family over just 26 episodes. There’s a lot of fantastic standalone episodes as well as an overarching mystery, but we can see why this was the series that helped popularize anime with Western audiences.
Watch ‘Cowboy Bebop’ on Hulu
Spy X Family (2022-)
Spy x Family has one of the best families dynamics in anime right now, mostly due to the odd nature of their arrangement — the Forgers are a fake family on a top-secret diplomatic mission made up of an international spy, a top assassin, and their telepathic “daughter”. Each are hiding their secret identities from each other, and in the short time since Season 1, they’ve all become fan favorites. The season’s second part will start streaming on Hulu starting October 1.
Watch ‘Spy X Family’ on Hulu
Trigun Stampede (2023-)
A remake of the classic Nineties anime Trigun, old and new fans alike will rejoice as these memorable characters are reinvented in the brand-new series, Trigun Stampede. Still focusing on gun-slinging pacifist Vash the Stampede with a $$60 billion “double-dollar” bounty on his head and the reporters who follow him, the series plans to follow the manga’s storyline more closely than the original, and will fully-animate the original manga’s ending.
Watch ‘Trigun Stampede’ on Hulu
Fruits Basket (2019-2021)
Both anime adaptations of Fruits Basket (often abbreviated to ‘Furuba’) are available on Hulu, the 2019 reboot series follows the manga’s entirely storyline. Unlike the original series, Fruits Basket (2019) allowed fan of the original anime to see the manag ending the way it was intended. Compared to the at times comedic and silly tone of the original, Fruits Basket (2019) feels more mature in its visuals and storytelling, even if the original is nostalgic for many who grew up in the early aughts.
Watch ‘Fruits Basket’ (2019) on Hulu
Sailor Moon (1992-1997)
Sailor Moon my first introduction to anime, and for many fans this iconic Nineties adaptation was theirs, too. While the series recently received its own reboot, the Nineties adaptation in all its filler-filled 300-episode glory is considered the most popular to this day. Many watched this beloved magical girl series with its notoriously bad English dub that aired on 4Kids in the early 2000s, but its fully available in English with a proper dub on Hulu — Moonies rejoice!
Watch ‘Sailor Moon’ on Hulu
My Hero Academia (2016-)
My Hero Academia has been one of the biggest anime in recent years (second only to Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen), a must-watch shonen for any fans of superhero shows (although it leans more towards Sky High than MCU territory). The show is centered around Izuku Midoriya, a boy who was born without a “Quirk” superpower, but finally gets to the change to chase after his dream of becoming a superhero when his idol All Might passes his Quirk onto him and helps him get into U.A. High School for heroes.
Watch ‘My Hero Academia’ on Hulu
Demon Slayer (2020-)
Demon Slayer, well known for it’s beautiful animation, mind-blowing fight scenes, and lovable cast of characters is another shonen anime that has captured millions of fans. The story follows Tanjiro Kamado, a boy who sets off to find the Demon King after the man slaughters his family and turns his sister Nezuko into a demon. With his fellow Demon Slayers in training Zenitsu and Inosuke, their journey won’t go on for as many seasons as something like Naruto, but we’ll be watching until the very end.
Watch ‘Demon Slayer’ on Hulu
Dragon Ball Z Kai (2009-2015)
Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise has been on of the longest-running and most well-loved anime series internationally. Dragon Ball Z is still consider the GOAT of the anime and manga franchise overall, but if you want the most accessible way to get into it now (considering the wild number of English dubs and their fumbled releases), Kai is a great place to start. It’s actually a remaster of the original adaptation, featuring more polished animation and cutting out the majority of the filler episodes.
Watch ‘Dragon Ball Z Kai’ on Hulu
Chainsaw Man (2022-)
Another fantastic anime with a recent debut, the highly-anticipated Chainsaw Man had fans of the original manga biting their nails to see how the adaptation would hold up, but so far it’s left an incredible impression on the industry. More gory and violent then other action-packed series like Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia in recent years, this shonen series is best gone into blind. Just maybe wait to eat lunch or dinner until after an episode or two.
Watch ‘Chainsaw Man’ on Hulu
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