Anime that is targeted to <10-year-olds will rot their brain. Don’t show them any. (Examples are like Doraemon, Pokemon, a lot of magical girls shows.) They definitely separate out the boys from the girls at an early age, then target the boys with shows with lots of competitiveness, while target the girls with…with…magic-or-something-I have no idea I’m not a girl. Anyways, American cartoons are much better.
Not even remotely. Even if you look past the violence and occasional nudity / fan service, it’s got a complicated conspiracy theory and goes all weird and metaphysical in the latter half.
Yeah, I would say the DC / WB animated series were more enjoyable and more kid-friendly than 95% of the anime I’ve seen. Teen Titans is particularly fun and probably the most kid-friendly series, though it does have its darker moments.
Lynxara
1943
Magical girls are what under-10 girls get for superheroes, but there’s quite a lot of non-superhero anime for little girls. A lot of shoujo for the under-10 set is noteworthy for having complicated plots and female leads who are really active and motivated.
Heidi of the Alps and Anne of Green Gables are sort of the defining shows here… and work on both produced a generation of defining anime creators like Tomino and Miyazaki. So it’s sort of baffling to see someone write it all off as brainrot because of repetitive stuff like Pokemon.
(And the Doraemon movies are really good so I don’t know what you’re on about there.)
Speaking of blood and dark things, why exactly is it such a bad thing ? Except when there’s gore for the sake of gore.
Did anyone read any traditional fairy tales ever ? No matter which nation, they are pretty violent. And is that really so wrong ? The world is not one happy place. I know that half of USA is on antidepressants by this point, and there’s all the fake smiling going on, but life isnt supposed to be one merry hallucination, there’s good times, and there’s bad times, and you have to be prepared to face this reality. Shielding the child’s mind can only go that far.
drteeth
1945
There’s stuff like Crayon Shinchan and Professor Slump. That should work fine for really young kids. Keroro Gunsou was pretty overtly sexual as I remember.
Of course Shinchan spends half his time running around with his pants off but that’s because he is one hundred percent trouble.
Lynxara
1946
The US version of Shin-chan isn’t really suitable for small children, though. FUNi I believe dubbed it using the Simpsons as a model, so the language is a little rough for five. It’s more of a ten-year-old’s show, when the kid will be more sensitive to the idea that different levels of language are appropriate to different situations.
Those are both based on classic novels, right? What if any original IP is out there that’s good for kids? Apart from Miyazaki, of course.
Every parent has their own standards about how much violence, sex, profanity, etc. they want to expose their kids to and at what age. [I tend to think Americans are over-protective - but hey, not my kids, not my place to choose for them.] I just try to provide suggestions based on what I’ve seen whenever someone looks for good kids’ shows.
The US version of Shin-chan isn’t really suitable for small children, though.
Japanese think it is. I kinda want to say that i REALLY appreciate Japan being this incredibly unique place filled to the brims with creative people and absolutely astonishing ideas, but on the other hand…i wouldnt personally want to have a family while living in Japan of today, if you know what i mean.
What if any original IP is out there that’s good for kids? Apart from Miyazaki, of course.
- Uninhabited Planet Survive! - a space robinson kind of story, fansub only though. I would think very good for children, all the “kids getting over their differences and working together” kind of stories. Very clean, enjoyable, and somewhat well-regarded title.
Lynxara
1950
Candy Candy is sort of the defining shoujo series of the era and not, IIRC, based on any Western IP. It’s a heartbreaking love story that was as important to girls of its generation as Mazinger Z was to the boys.
Other really significant non-IP shoujo anime/manga franchises I can think of off the top of my head: Glass Mask, Rose of Versailles, Ace o Nerae!, Yawara, Mizu-Iro Jidai, Sally the Witch, Marmalade Boy, Kodomo no Omocha.
Now, in terms of what is available to buy from Best Buy with a good English dub… not much. The US market for anime DVDs is dominated by single male students who primarily want shows with a lot of violence, memetic humor, and/or sexy women. There are exceptions for breakthrough titles but for the most part it’s kind of hard to find kids’ anime on DVD that’s been dubbed for kids to watch.
This. I’ve watched it as a late-20’s adult and found it very enjoyable, but a 5 year old would most likely find it just as fun to watch.
Lynxara
1952
If it’s sub-only, a five-year-old is going to have a hard time following it. Remember that most five-year-olds are just learning how to read picture books. I wouldn’t even try subtitles with any kid who wasn’t at least into chapter books yet.
Oh… I didn’t know they hadn’t dubbed it yet. Yeah, forget it then.
drteeth
1954
Yeah, I wasn’t even thinking of whether a show was dubbed or not myself. It’s too bad that shinchan has a poorly written dub.
But now that I think of it, Keroro Gunsou with a clever rewrite could be brilliant for kids.
So what else is there? The original Dragon Ball is good and far less retarded then the follow up series. And Hello Kitty and friends but after I took a piyo piyo punch to the groin from a Japanese five year old I wouldn’t call it safe either :P
May I remind you the request was for anime that is fun for kids and adults.
Lynxara
1956
The Shin-chan dub is quite good for what it is (Evan Dorkin is one of the writers!), but it’s definitely not a faithful dub. It’s really about transforming a Japanese kids’ show into something more suitable for Adult Swim, which means it introduces a lot of language most people wouldn’t want five-year-olds hearing and repeating.
But now that I think of it, Keroro Gunsou with a clever rewrite could be brilliant for kids.
FUNimation has a sample episode of the Keroro dub up on YouTube. It’s what made me think it’d be quite good for little kids. (Yeah, it has some fanservice bits, but most of that would go over a five-year-old’s head.)
The original Dragon Ball is good and far less retarded then the follow up series.
Is this available in fully dubbed form in the US yet? It just occurred to me that I honestly had no idea.
Yeah, pretty sure it is. I think I remember seeing it on shelves years and years ago.
FUNimation has a sample episode of the Keroro dub up on YouTube. It’s what made me think it’d be quite good for little kids. (Yeah, it has some fanservice bits, but most of that would go over a five-year-old’s head.)
I believe there was a beach chapter, which was all about tits. Of course they toned it down in the anime substantially… Also the kids’ mom is smoking hot. That reminds me, i still havent seen the Keroro movies, which is totally obligatory.
Lynxara
1959
The manga of Sgt. Frog is not suitable for five-year-olds, no. The anime is toned-down all across the board and is pretty PG-rated (at best).
Subversive sexy characters in shows for little kids are a fine tradition in Japanese and American animation! I mean, people are recommending Bruce Timm shows all over the place in this thread and that guy is all about the good girl art.
Canaan is easily the best show this season.
