The Most Popular Anime of the Year Is On Netflix

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 30 seconds ago

When 2024 started, I thought Solo Levelinga back isekai shinen, would be the biggest new show of the year, but as the year went on, I realized that no matter how popular that show was, it didn’t capture the hearts of legions of anime fans on social media the way it did. I expect Rather, it was Tastea very different type of shinen that combined romantic comedy with aliens and the supernatural, which has set the anime fandom on fire over the past few months. It seems that throwing every anime trope into a blender doesn’t result in an unwatchable mess; instead, it’s one of the best new shows in years.

Aliens And Yokai And Superpowers

Taste follows the cheerful Momo Ayase, who, like Fox Mulderchoose to believe in aliens, and the grieving Ken Takakura, nicknamed Okarun for his interest in the occult, as they inadvertently gain superpowers that let them fight back against malevolent spirits, alien invaders, and humans bad That sounds like the main focus of the series, and in a way, it is, but the pair’s motivation is to retrieve a part of Okarun’s body that he lost after being possessed and gaining the ability to shift into a demonic form. It’s absurd, comical, and over the top wild, but somehow, the series manages to balance it all with moments of raw emotion.

Episode 7, “To a Kind World,” is one of the highest rated anime episodes in history on IMDb, with a rating of 9.7, dropping the crude humor and fan service found throughout most of the series for a story centered around one of the yokai (ghosts), Acrobatic Silky. The yokai’s backstory is so tragic and heartbreaking that after the episode aired, social media was filled with fans posting videos of themselves crying. They are both Dandadan’s best episode and showcase for the power of anime.

While Episode 7 is notable for ditching most of the show’s humor and fanservice, the rest of the Taste still worth binging. The developing friendship and budding romance between Momo and Okarun provides heartwarming moments in almost every episode, even as they have to defeat the yokai or deal with dinosaur-shaped aliens. It’s a delicate balancing act to maintain the absurd and the emotional in each episode, and most anime fail at this incredible feat, but with one rather notable exception, the Science Saru team pulls it off away

Dandadan is not for everyone

We would be remiss if we did not mention the one exception that might make Taste a hard watch for some, and it’s not the crude humor or the quest for Okarun’s missing parts that matters, but that’s how Momo is put through the cracks. There are scenes of implied attack, including the Season 1 cliffhanger in the hot springs, that stick out compared to most other Shinen. Overt moments of fan service have also fallen out of favor in recent years, but the show embraces them, especially when it comes to Momo, so for everything the show does to push anime storytelling in its front, one foot is still stuck in the 90s.

Taste it may be universally praised, but it’s not for everyone, and while I found it a refreshing roller coaster ride of a series, I also watch a lot of anime, including pay to see the Solo Leveling repeat filmand anything that dares to be this different and take a risk gets my immediate attention. Season 2 won’t be out until Summer 2025, which gives you plenty of time to binge during the first season’s 12 episodes. You’ll want to eat it all at once, so sit back, relax, and let the strange combination of classic glitter with aliens, the occult, vengeful ghosts, and crude humor wash over you in delightfully animated waves.

Taste is streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+a Crunchyroll.