My children are nine and seven years old. I’ve always intended to show them anime – and they’ve seen Totoro and a couple other pieces – but it was never a great priority for me. In fact, I’ve been more concerned with sharing geek culture and 80’s/90’s pop culture with them than anime. But something unexpected happened this summer. Under my wife’s guidance (and through some of my suggestions), they ended up watching a lot of anime.
Here’s their summer watch list:
TV Series
- Squid Girl (finishing up from spring)
- Acchi Kocchi
- Himouto! Umaru-chan
- A couple episodes of Fairy Tail and One Week Friends
Movies
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
- My Neighbors the Yamadas
- Whisper of the Heart
- Spirited Away
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Ponyo
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
- Summer Wars
- The Boy and the Beast
Whew. For a family that doesn’t watch that much TV, that’s a ton. Although I wish I had approached this watchathon more methodically (and our own MRNewman has provided excellent strategies on how to do just that) – there were some uncomfortable moments that I could have avoided – it was generally a really good thing. I was able to enjoy a few series that I had either never seen or hadn’t finished, and was able to share a bunch of my favorite movies with the family and see them react and laugh and cry at all the right moments.
You’ve likely noticed that many of the posts these past few months have focused on some of these series. Besides a couple of currently airing series, this is what I was watching. And you’ll see a few more posts about some of them in the coming week or two.
What about you? Do you watch anime with family? How has that experience been?
Nice list. I don’t usually watch anime with my family. I am the only one in my family who watches anime.
That was me for a longgggg time.
I bet it’s nice to watch anime with more people.
Do you have any “real life” friends to watch anime with?
Well, only 2 but we can’t hang out that much.
Oh, that stinks. :/
Yeah, I know. It’s reality.
It’s always a real joy when you take the risk of sharing that odd, esoteric, and personal interest of yours with someone you love – and they end up liking it as much as you do, if not more. It’s definitely the sort of experience that brings people closer.
For my part… well, my dad has always enjoyed old-school science fiction, film noir, and jazz music. Take a wild guess which anime was a big hit with him!
Hmm…haha. That’s actually a really good series to share with someone who has those interests, or an interest in 80’s/90’s pop culture, but who might never watch another anime again!
Great news! 😀
It was a fun summer. 🙂
I’m the loner who only watches it….though sometimes my wife will join me 🙂
Haha, how nice of her. Oh, the sacrifice of a wife joining in her husband’s interests!
I love that both you and your wife are active in bringing anime to your children. Those series and movies are all great choices! Have they ever seen A Little Snow Fairy Sugar? It’s a bit older, 2001-2002. Yumeiro Patissiere is another great one with fairies and cooking.
I’ve never heard of A Little Snow Fairy Sugar! Thank you for the recommendations! 😀
First – thanks for sharing my article! I hope it does provide some helpful hints for parents as they share anime with their kids.
My kids & I watched a few different shows over the summer too. They were sucked into the currently airing 100% Pascal-sensei with it’s ridiculous premise & over the top teacher, Pascal. My oldest has gotten to reading the subtitles for his younger siblings…some of the time. We also just started Pikotaro’s new Fairy Tale series Pikotaro no Lullaby Lullaby. It’s so weird, but my kids couldn’t stop laughing from the visuals alone of Pikotaro throwing himself into the middle of fairy tales. I mean, it starts with him in the house of the Ant encouraging him to not let the Grasshopper in!
My kids also watched quite a lot of Yokai Watch and Beyblade on Disney XD. They also got really excited about Pokemon Sun/Moon. Beyblade had not been watched in our house until recently and…it’s unoffensive, so I’m good with it.
Cardcaptor Sakura keeps coming around with my kids. They’ll binge like 10-15 episodes, then forget about it for a few weeks or so, then restart it from the beginning because they keep forgetting what happened.
This was also a summer with manga. Through our library system, my 6 year old had been reading (or having me read to her at bedtime) Chi’s Sweet Home and Fluffy Fluffly Cinnamorol. She’s on Volume 3 of each series. My 8 year old is still working his way through Pokemon Adventures. He’s on Volume 4 now of the main series.
TFW you respond to an article from a website you write for…not with your account for said website.
I tried some Cardcaptor Sakura with the kids, but they weren’t particularly interested. I have the WHOLE series to go (I’m rewatching – or for some episodes, I imagine, watching for the first time), so I’ll plenty of chances to see if they come around. I think it may be less accessible to kids in its proper format and without the chop-chop done when it originally aired in the U.S.