Great Shows on Japanese Netflix for Little Ones (and You)

If you've got Netflix in Japan and need to entertain your little people while they have time off from school, here are some selections that my kid and I have found pretty entertaining.


She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

    One of my favorite new shows is the remake of She-Ra the Princess of Power, the eighties girl-power cartoon alternative to He-man. I did not watch the original growing up and was reluctant to try this one out, but my kid insisted and I am so glad she did. The dialogue is fresh and somehow believable. The characters, even the bad guys and gals, have dimension and back-story, to the point that I personally feel that I have too much in common with Scorpia. I couldn't help but love this one. We have seen all thirteen episodes twice so far.

Brain Child

    This one is more educational and fun, with intended ages between four and fourteen I figure. Each episode discusses a different topic, from social media to whether kids or adults are smarter. The information was accessible and interesting for all ages. Even my husband and I got in on playing some of the games along with our daughter and it was a great time. Not as re-watchable as some other shows, but still a lot of fun in short twenty-ish minute bursts.

Ed Norton disguised for his Cameo as a used electronics salesman in an episode about how electricity works.

StoryBots

    If you don't know about StoryBots already, it's a pretty popular Netflix show back in the states. This show is great because it takes questions, plausibly from small children, and shows the various animated robot characters figuring out how to find the answer, and then answering the question with the help of a variety of added cast including at least one celebrity cameo per episode. In the first episode of the second season, Snoop Dogg explains how computers work. None of that is typo. And it is actually really informative and understandable. I have exactly 2 problems with StoryBots. First is their praise of both Edison and Marconi, who did accomplish many things but sometimes at the expense of others (namely Nikola Tesla, unmentioned in any episode), and second is the lack of more episodes. My kid loves this show.

Hilda

    Another great girl-power show but this time with the native monsters of somewhere like Ireland and based on a graphic novel, this show is refreshing and fun to watch with a kid or without. There are supernatural forces at play, many of them friendly or misunderstood. That's where the show's protagonist comes in and does her best to make sense of the mysterious world around her, one supernatural encounter at a time. It's a fun ride that we haven't gotten to the end of yet.

    If you're stuck inside with your kid this season, why not try out one of these shows. What kid show is your favorite?