Amazon Prime Video has created quite a stir with the recent acquisition of the film series from Rebuild of Evangelion, a project that began a little over 13 years ago and that has meant one of the most ambitious productions in the Japanese animation industry, with a Hideaki Anno in charge of the script that, on this occasion, is totally removed from budget problems. A whole punch on the table to position the Prime Video catalog as one of the benchmarks worldwide when it comes to anime.
This movement may have led many viewers to stroll through the online sales giant’s anime offering, so in MRT we have considered diving a bit in their catalog to bring you a list that compiles the best of anime present on Amazon Prime Video in the middle of 2021. We begin.
Tetralogía de Rebuild of Evangelion
This year has come to us Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, the closing of the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, one of the most anticipated animated films of recent times. In the first Video they knew it, and that is why they took over the rights of the saga to be able to bring the spectacular end of this reimagining from the mind of Hideaki Anno, although this time without budgetary limitations, rather the opposite.
Right now, in the streaming service we can find Evangelion: 1.11 You are (not) alone, Evangelion: 2.22 You can (not) advance, Evangelion: 3.33 You can (not) redo y la mentada Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice upon a time. A work that is already the history of Japanese animation, a work that delves into the complex narrative that characterized the original work, taking it to another level and delivering impressive production values, superb action and a farewell to match for a product of such depth. Essential.
Death Note
Death Note already has 15 years behind him and yet it is still an absolute reference when it comes to talking about seinen. For anyone who has not yet entered the magnificent world of the shinigami, Death Note puts us on the trail of Yagami Light, a young Japanese man who comes across a black notebook in the courtyard of his school. The script contains instructions that anyone whose name is written in the notebook will die. After testing the Death Note and verifying that it does indeed work, Kira (this is how it will be known to the masses) sets out to purge the world of undesirables from anonymity.
so it begins one of the best duels of intellects that contemporary fiction has given us, a 25-episode series that leaves no one indifferent. Great stress management, great mystery management, and moral debates to dig into while viewing. A whole classic.
Blade of Inmortal
Blade of Inmortal (one of the main inspirations of Hidetaka Miyazaki for Sekiro) is a series that adapts the manga Mugen no Jūnin, written by Hiroaki Samura, a bloody and moving story that stands out visually for its ultraviolence.
The anime places us in the footsteps of Manji, a cursed samurai with the inability to die. While searching for a cure for his immortality, Manji bumps into a young woman named Rin, a young woman who lost her parents to a rival samurai school. The course of the story will see both characters end up joining forces to face the villains and schools that stand between their objectives.
The project has been directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, and the series has a total of 24 episodes.
Dororo
And we continue with katanas, because now we are going to Dororo, the adaptation of one of the main works of Osamu Tezuka, father of manga and in charge of popularizing its consumption among Japanese society after the Second World War.
Despite its simple and childlike appearance, Dororo’s premise is most dark and disturbing: a samurai chief exchanges offers the organs of his newborn son to demonic entities to achieve success in battle. Nevertheless, the child survives through the intervention of a shaman, who equips him with prosthetics as rudimentary as they are lethal (another great inspiration for Sekiro). To get your body back, the young man must face the demons who used him. But, on the way, he comes across a self-proclaimed orphan as the best thief in all of Japan. Thus begins a beautiful friendship that runs throughout an elegant adaptation that has managed to capture the essence of the original work. Highly recommended.
Attack on Titan – 3 seasons
Attack on Titan o Shingeki no Kyojin It is one of the most popular anime of today, a work that does not need much introduction. His fiction, set in a world in which man lives secluded behind the gigantic walls that protect him from the Titans, is marking an entire era. We are talking about a raw, dry and epic anime, which does not hesitate to let go of its characters and which, when it wants, basks in drama, making his characters suffer until they say enough. But there’s also room for humor, quality action, and the terrific soundtrack composed by the prolific Hiroyuki Sawano.
Attack the titans currently has 3 full seasons on Amazon Prime Video.
One Punch Man
One Punch Man premiered last 2019 its second season, but for those who have not approached the adventures of Saitama, we will say that it is a satire of the scales of power in shonen. A parody of the common places in which all the series of adventures and fights that are shown lead as hilarious as it is violent and witty.
The series narrates the misadventures of Saitama, a superhero capable of defeating any rival with a single punch, a skill that has led him to a pseudo-depressive state, of constant boredom and total neglect. Because of that, he decides to take part in the Heroes Association, starting an adventure that will bring you as many laughs as spectacular confrontations.
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes and Awakening of Heroes
Deku and co’s journey has become a phenomenon in its own right. The series has taken the baton of shonen and has managed to win the hearts of the young and not so young of the house. If you have seen the anime (you have part available on Netflix), here you have two of the animated films that complement its story.
The first one is Two heroes, a film set between the arcs of the final exam and the forest training, during the summer, and that will revolve around the existence of a foreign floating city. A ribbon perfect for the fan that works as a showcase in which to make each of its characters shine.
The second is The awakening of heroes. In this case the film presents a new villain, Nine, who is on the trail of Tomura Shingaraki, and decides to attack the island of Nabuto. A film that elevates the spectacularity of its predecessor and that makes his handling of the action set pieces his main strength.
Assassination Classroom
The following series presents una premise as crazy as it is delicious. A creature has destroyed 70% of the moon, after which he announces that, in a year, He will do the same with planet Earth unless there is one condition: that the 3rd E students of the Kunugigaoka Institute, where he teaches murder, succeed in killing him.. Also, if someone is capable of killing him, the Japanese government will reward him with ten billion yen. A series full of action and humor, in which each assassination scene is full of imagination and new ideas that seek how to end the life of a creature who goes out of his way to teach his students.
Psycho-Pass
The following work presents a dystopia in which an autonomous system has succeeded in eliminating crime. The technology developed allows to instantly measure the mental state of people, determining the probabilities that a person will commit a crime depending on the results of the psychosomatic scan. Those probabilities are measured in what is known as “Crime Coefficient“.
The story follows the Unit of the Division of the Office of Public Security and Criminal Investigation, who discovers an experimental prison in which something more than patient rehabilitation experiments may be taking place. Mystery and action in equal parts.
Haikyū !!
Based on the manga by Haruichi Furudate, Haikyū !!, this spokon (sports anime) introduces us to Shouyou Hinata, a Volleyball lover who, after much perseverance, manages to play a regular high school game, in which he has the misfortune to run into Tobio Kageyama, known as “The King of the Court”, who publicly humiliates him. After the game, Hinata swears revenge, and joins the Karasuno volleyball club, a high school team, with the sole intention of meeting Kageyama again.
Haikyū !! stands out from the usual trend of this type of work by betting on an animation that pursues the realism of the plays and strokes made in volleyball. A first big difference that ends up contaminating the rest of the sections. The epic is still present, but its starting point has the feet closer to the ground than is usual in this type of series. In this way, sport is mixed with the personal evolution of each of the characters, giving rise to a recommended cocktail for any anime fan, as much as (like the vast majority) volleyball does not tell you much.
