7 Great Crunchyroll Anime You Can Binge In One Weekend

If someone is looking for a site for devoting all their time to watching anime, there’s no better site than Crunchyroll. Between their massive amount of simulcasts and how many shows fill out their library, there’s always something for someone to watch, and they can spend days or weeks doing so and still end up with shows to spare.

Crunchyroll is also good for people who don’t have a lot of time on their hands, as Crunchyroll is home to plenty of anime that are great to watch, despite their short runtimes. A few anime like that especially stand out, as if someone just wants something to binge over the weekend, there are few better anime to go with.

7) Lycoris Recoil

A-1 Pictures’ Lycoris Recoil revolves around the Lycoris organization, an anti-terrorism task force that trains young girls as elite fighters. After injuring her teammates during a mission, Takina Inoue is sent to work with Chisato Nishikigi, an elite but eccentric agent who teaches Takina how to have a life, all while a new threat to the country slowly emerges.

While anime originals often have a hard time reaching an audience, Lycoris Recoil became a hit almost overnight thanks to its fluid action, emotional storytelling, and the engaging cast of characters filling it out at every turn. It’s one of the best anime originals to watch, and hopefully, there’s plenty more in store for the series.

6) Takopi’s Original Sin

Enishiya’s Takopi’s Original Sin stars Takopi, a happy-go-lucky alien from Happy Planet who comes to Earth to make people happy. Takopi begins his mission by trying to help a girl named Shizuka who suffers from bullying, but thanks to Takopi’s innocence and naivete, his attempts to help make things hauntingly worse at every turn.

With its combination of gorgeous animation and a surprisingly heartwarming story about overcoming trauma to find happiness, Takopi’s Original Sin came out of nowhere to become an instant hit that took everyone by storm. It’s already an easy contender for the best anime of the year, and at only six episodes, it’s easy enough to binge it in one sitting.

5) Steins;Gate

In White Fox’s Steins;Gate, wannabe mad scientist Rintaro Okabe and his friends somehow create a working time machine out of their microwave, and sure enough, it isn’t long before things escalate into Okabe going on a time-travelling adventure to save not only his friends, but his entire timeline, as well.

Between writing that’s equal parts clever, comedic, and heartwarming, and a hard sci-fi narrative that’s surprisingly easy to follow, Steins;Gate is a true gem with one of the most unique takes on a time travel story around. The sequel story, Steins;Gate 0, is fairly divisive, but that doesn’t make the original story any less worth a person’s time.

4) Bocchi The Rock!

CloverWorks’ Bocchi the Rock! stars Hitori Gotoh, a socially awkward girl who learns to play the guitar in a failed attempt at making friends. Years later, though, Hitori, now nicknamed “Bocchi”, is abruptly drafted into the band Kessoku Band, and it’s there that Bocchi finally has a shot at the friend-filled life of her dreams.

With its infectious soundtrack, gorgeously inventive animation, and a heartwarming story about overcoming social anxiety, Bocchi the Rock! is a slice-of-life anime unlike any other, and it’s easy to see why it’s taken the world by storm. There’s never been an anime quite like it, and with Bocchi the Rock! season 2 in development, there’s plenty more in store.

3) Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

In A-1 Pictures’ Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, five years after a group of friends was broken up by the death of one of their own, Menma, one of those friends, Jinta, suddenly finds himself encountering Menma’s ghost, and it now falls on him to get his friends back together so he can help Menma pass on.

Thanks to its emotionally resonant storytelling and a gorgeously bittersweet finale, Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day excels in drama at every turn, all of which is complemented by incredible animation from start to finish. There’s never been a drama quite like Anohana, and the fact that it does so much in such few episodes makes it even better.

2) Cowboy Bebop

Sunrise’s Cowboy Bebop takes place in a futuristic setting where humanity has begun living in space, bringing about a new wave of crime and bounty hunters called Cowboys. Among those Cowboys are Spike Spiegel and the crew of the Bebop, and the series follows their episodic adventures as they chase bounties while occasionally confronting the demons of their pasts.

Between gorgeous animation that holds up decades later, an exciting story that perfectly balances drama and heart, and the infectious jazz soundtrack accompanying every story beat, Cowboy Bebop is as close to perfection as someone could ask for. Many people consider Cowboy Bebop to be one of the greatest anime of all time, and overall, it’s easy to see why.

1) The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya

In Kyoto Animation’s The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kyon is forced by Haruhi Suzumiya to join the SOS Brigade, a club dedicated to finding the supernatural. What Haruhi doesn’t know, though, is that the other club members are the supernatural beings she’s looking for, who are observing Haruhi’s godlike powers, all of which Haruhi has to be kept unaware of.

With its stellar animation and witty dialogue that laid the groundwork for nearly all light novels to follow, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a phenomenal genre-busting anime that everyone should watch at least once. It’s the best Kyoto Animation anime, by far, and above all else, it’s easily the best Crunchyroll anime to binge in one weekend.

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