10 Best Educational Anime That Are Endlessly Entertaining

The best educational anime are series that not only have something to teach but will keep viewers captivated by the content they are trying to convey. Furthermore, the educational content does not particularly have to be the main focus of the anime, as a lot of series perfectly weave fun facts and specific subject details into the main conflict or storyline.

Anime series that have informative content can also range between a wide variety of genres, from science fiction to shonen, to slice of life. There are no theoretical barriers to how far out the box an anime can go because there is so much subject matter that has infinite depth. Shows such as March Comes In Like a Lion will educate on the rules of shogi, or Japanese chess, and the brutality of the professional scene, whereas shows like Food Wars! have spearheaded almost a new genre of cooking anime. This proves that almost anything can have meaningful educational value.

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10 Bakuman Gives the Mangaka Behind-the-Scenes

Based on the manga by Obata Takeshi and Ohba Tsugumi

The story of Bakuman, an anime produced by J.C. Staff, is a comedy romance that does much more than crack jokes and write love stories. The series is both entertaining in its narrative value and its informative value, as it follows Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito on their journey to becoming manga artists also called mangaka. In this dynamic duo, Mashiro’s role is to draw the art, and Takagi writes the story, a strategy with endless trials and tribulations that pushes both characters to the limit of development.

Bakuman shows the real backside of the manga industry, from editing work to marketing, giving exposure to the often unappreciated sides of the medium. Any prospective comic or manga writer will definitely learn a lot from Mashiro and Takagi’s journey.

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9 Wagnaria!! Sheds Light On the Service Industry

Based on the manga by Takatsu Karino

The anime Wagnaria!!, otherwise titled Working!!, is a comedy-based series revolving around a small family restaurant called Wagnaria. The anime introduces an amazing cast, each with their own quirks and reasons for entering the restaurant industry. The main character, Takanashi Souta, picks up the part-time job seemingly on a whim, and Aoi Yamada is a girl who has run away from home. As more and more personalities aggregate in this diner-like atmosphere, the gritty details of the service industry quickly come to light.

Through dealing with difficult customers, or simply learning to balance a server’s plate, Waganaria!! shows that work is tough, but with the right crew, endless enjoyment can be found.

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8 Food Wars! Episodes Are Cooking Lessons Repackaged

Based on the manga by Saeki Shun, Tsukuda Yuuto, and Morisaki Yuki

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Souma, produced by J.C. Staff, is the poster child of cooking anime, as Food Wars weaves together competition and school elements into a comprehensive display of the gourmet world. The story follows protagonist Yukihira Souma, the son of a small restaurant chef, who enrolls in the prestigious and cutthroat Totsuki Culinary Academy. Among the halls of the elite, Souma brings his unique but controversial flair developed from work in the low-brow diner industry.

With Souma’s adventures, Food Wars takes detail to the next level, as each dish prepared in Food Wars! can almost be perfectly replicated with the series’ provided recipe, bringing educational cooking television to its peak.

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7 Silver Spoon Is Agriculture As Self-Discovery

Based on the manga by Arakawa Hiromu

The comedy Silver Spoon is a story that quickly exposes its surprising educational value, as the anime follows Hachiken Yuugo, a talented student who decides against traditional high school and enrolls in an agricultural school despite having no knowledge of the subject. Hachiken is the embodiment of academic burnout, and the anime makes that clear. However, a new world of experience awaits him in an agricultural landscape that features things such as cheese-making, livestock upkeep, industrial farming practices, horses, and more.

Through Hachiken, Silver Spoon provides a layperson’s perspective on the backend of how produce is procured, which culminates into an educational, but relatable experience.

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6 Ascendance of a Bookworm Injects Modernity Into Medieval Society

Based on the light novel by Kazuki Miya and Shiina You

Ascendance of a Bookworm is an anime that takes an unprecedented spin on the isekai genre, featuring a librarian who is crushed by her own objects of adoration and transmigrated into the body of a sick, young girl in a world resembling medieval times. The biggest conflict that arises in this story is that the primitive world that main character Myne has woken up in has no books to speak of, save the upper echelons of society. As a booklover, Myne cannot accept that the common people have no access to literature, and takes it upon herself to modernize the world with one “new” invention at a time, starting with shampoo.

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5 Chihayafuru Teaches the Arts of Ancient Japan

Based on the manga by Suetsugu Yuki

Chihayafuru is a sports anime that takes a turn from traditional sports, but still features intense competition mixed within literature’s beauty. The series focuses on the journey of Ayase Chihaya from childhood into adulthood alongside the sport of Karuta, a game deeply rooted in poetry. Karuta is similar to the game Concentration in that cards need to be matched, but not much more, as there are complex strategies to enhance reaction times and the memorization toll borders that of games like chess and shogi.

Chihayafuru teaches not only persistence but the beauty of literature through its riveting plot and visuals.

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4 Dr. Stone Rewinds Time

Based on the manga by Inagaki Riichiro and Boichi

Dr. Stone is a science fiction anime produced by TMS Entertainment that follows the curious and hands-on high school scientist Ishigami Senku, as he navigates through an artificially induced Stone Age. One day, all humans on Earth are turned to stone, and only 3700 years later does Senku awaken. Through his genius, Senku quickly finds a way to thaw the stone statues that litter a ruined world and embarks on an adventure of rediscovering the world and the mysteries that led to the harrowing phenomenon.

Dr. Stone offers a shonen-like atmosphere while still finding space to add splashes of science lessons, from creating cola from scratch to metalworking.

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3 A Place Further Than the Universe Explores the Arctic

An original series directed by Ishizuka Atsuko

A Place Further Than the Universe is an endearing, and motivational anime produced by Madhouse that ventures into lands no anime has gone before. The story follows a group of four girls who have almost nothing in common except for their quickly realized goal of reaching Antarctica. Although this passion first started with Kobuchizawa Shirase, each of the four girls comes to find their own perspective on the enthralling nature of the icy landscape. However, they meet obstacle after obstacle before even leaving Japan, and A Place Further Than the Univers takes the time to teach lessons in problem-solving as well as practical field training such as tent-pitching and harnessing configurations.

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2 Hetalia Axis Powers Is History Personified

Based on the web manga by Himaruya Hidekaz

Hetalia Axis Powers is a hilarious comedy anime produced by Studio Deen with a title that sounds almost exactly like what the series is about. The anime follows a cast of characters who go by the names of countries that have participated in World War II. Although the subject of the narrative is serious, through the characters’ embodiment of the countries themselves, Hetalia offers satiric reenactments of certain points in history.

Hetalia treads an incredibly fine line of sensitivity but succeeds in a manner that is both sensitive and offers hilarious renditions of history.

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1 Cells at Work! Perfects Biological Worldbuilding

Based on the manga by Shizimu Akane

Produced by David Production, Cells at Work! is an anime with a somewhat absurd premise, as it is in its entirety a biology lesson repackaged as a comedic depiction of the world inside a human body. Although the series is grounded in science, its wide cast of characters allows for creative learning that is not present in any textbook.

Instead, the human body is transformed into an independent society that functions with cells in place of humans and their functions in place of jobs. Furthermore, each type of cell is given a personality that highlights their unique purpose, from the cheerful red blood cell, to the militaristic killer T cell, and even cute platelets that resemble elementary school children. All of this adds up to making Cells at Work! the best educational anime that’s still entertaining.

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