The Best Anime To Watch On Netflix

What To Watch

More and more anime, as well as anime-inspired movies and series, are making their way to Netflix. Originals like Castlevania and the live-action Death Note movie join classic series and upcoming ones on the service, and it can be tricky to know which ones you should binge and which you should let be.

While there's a lot of great anime on Netflix, there are some you should prioritize. Click forward to see all the best series you can stream right now.

Death Note

If you haven't seen it yet--or if you thought the Netflix's live-action Death Note was interesting and wanted more--now's the time to watch this classic crime series. Light Yagami, a brilliant high school student and son of a police chief, finds the Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written in its pages. The mysterious killer is dubbed "Kira," and a top detective known only as "L" is given the task of tracking him down.

The series is known both for its fantastic cat-and-mouse dynamic and as a great show for people who haven't seen much anime. It has things like shinigami (gods of death) and a distinctly Japanese style, but it's not the capital-A Anime with big fight scenes and a lot of yelling that you might imagine when you think about anime.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer

The devil's on the run from the hero of Ente Isla, a world he's trying to conquer, and he ends up in modern day Tokyo. In order to survive, he gives himself a human form and...starts working at a fast food restaurant called MgRonald's. Naturally, there are some shenanigans to be had. This is one of the lighter shows on this list and is great if you're looking for a fantastical comedy to watch when you want to relax.

Devilman Crybaby

Don't be fooled by the generous gore or flashy orgy scenes; Devilman Crybaby is a solemn, pensive look at what it means to be human. Based on the Devilman manga from the '70s, Devilman Crybaby follows Akira, an extremely empathetic teenager who is prone to crying at the suffering of others. When his childhood friend Ryo comes to town, he informs Akira that demons will return to earth, and that there's a way for the two of them to save humanity. Devilman Crybaby stands out thanks to its classic-looking animation and phenomenal direction, with layers of meaning to dissect long after you've finished the tenth and final episode.

Durarara!!

If you're looking for action, suspense, and something a little darker, try Durarara! Set in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, Durarara follows a newcomer to the area as well as a gang of dangerous individuals and a headless motorcyclist who runs in underground circles. There's a lot going on, but the episodes switch between different perspectives with a narrator giving context. Durarara is popular for its supernatural-meets-gang-violence style and superb animation. And no, the name doesn't mean anything.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

If you're in the mood for a modern classic, look no further than Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It follows the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, who embark on the one forbidden act of alchemy: human transmutation. Thanks to the alchemic Law of Equivalent Exchange, Edward loses his right arm and Alphonse his physical body. What follows is a search to find their humanity, a mentally scarring scene involving a dog, and one of the finest endings known to anime.

Note that while the original Fullmetal Alchemist is also on Netflix, Brotherhood is the recommended version, since it follows the manga much more closely and is considered the ideal adaptation.

Gurren Lagann

Gurren Lagann is an absolute classic and a must-watch for any anime fan. Made by Gainax, the studio behind Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann is about friendship, believing in yourself, and giant mechs that fight each other. It's action-packed and silly and, despite some weird pacing in spots, is quite the adventure.

One of the coolest things about the series is how it transitions from a hole in the ground--all of humanity lives underground to protect themselves from the dangers of the surface world--to something entirely different by the end, yet still a cohesive whole.

Kill la Kill

After watching Gurren Lagann, your next series should be Kill la Kill. It was made by Studio Trigger, an offshoot started by former Gainax staff, and has the same larger-than-life feel and wacky action in a new world--not unlike FLCL. Be warned: It's about clothes that have special powers, and those powers are usually activated by making the outfit a lot more revealing. But trust me, it makes sense in the end.

Little Witch Academia

Also by Studio Trigger, Little Witch Academia is a feel-good show about young girls studying to become witches. It stars Akko, a girl who's struggling at the academy due to her non-magical background--until she finds an artifact that once belongs to the witch who inspired her in the first place. It's cute and great to watch when you want something a bit more relaxed.

One-Punch Man

If you grew up watching shonen series like Dragon Ball Z, you'll appreciate One-Punch Man's comedic take on the genre. Saitama is the ultimate hero; he can defeat anyone with only one punch. But because of that, he's pretty bored with being the hero, preferring to get excited about sales at the grocery store instead of defeating the latest supervillain. It's funny but also an interesting look at what happens after you accomplish your goals, and its theme song goes hard. Plus, season 2 is coming up soon!

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Remember Sailor Moon? Puella Magi Madoka Magica is kind of like that, except much sadder. It's a twist on the magical girl genre and explores the power of hope over pure despair. The eponymous star Madoka has the opportunity to make a wish with a familiar called Kyubey--any wish, he says, and he can grant it, but she must fight evil in exchange. What wish would be worth the cost?

Puella Magi Madoka Magica has a fantastic, haunting soundtrack and is only 12 episodes, but maybe don't binge it if you don't want to cry a lot. Don't worry, though; believe in hope.

Rurouni Kenshin

The lead character in Rurouni Kenshin is a placid soul named Himura. And despite carrying a sword on his hip, the blade is sharpened on the wrong side; a move to ensure he won't inadvertently take a life, even in self-defense. However, one part comedy and one part drama, Rurouni Kenshin truly stands out when Himura's righteous instincts push back against this mindset.

Himura's present attitude is a result of him rejecting his past as a legendary assassin. But violent ex-samurai seeking fame and power at the cost of innocent lives cross his path on a regular basis, forcing his hand. Himura's left no choice but to rekindle his smoldering aggression to protect the innocent, and though he typically manages to rid evil without resorting to murder, the show craftily keeps the question lingering in the air: will he kill to protect those he loves at the cost of his own humanity?

The 95-episode show on Netflix is a great starting point for anyone interested in the series, but once you connect with Himura's plight, do seek out the OVAs, dubbed Samurai X. Those episodes tell of the disturbing childhood that lead to Himura's violent middle years--though they unfortunately aren't on Netflix.

Tiger & Bunny

Tiger & Bunny is a fun look at what would happen if superheroes were commercialized the way modern sports are. Each hero's costume is branded to a NASCAR-level extreme (with actual brands). While this may sound off putting, the show's tongue-in-cheek nature winkingly pulls it off. The story offers a great buddy duo of the veteran Hero Wild Tiger and new up-and-comer Barnaby (Bunny), and while it show starts with a far more comedic edge, the action eventually picks up when the show's villains come into play.

Your Lie In April

Your Lie in April is a heartfelt story about Arima Kousei, a prodigal pianist whose career is derailed by a traumatic event. However, a chance encounter with Kaori Miyazono, a free-spirited violinist, reignites a passion he thought had long faded.

What makes Your Lie in April interesting is, for the most part, it doesn't focus on the romance between Arima and Kaori. Instead it explores their complicated personal issues and uses these to bring them closer in a way that feels natural and authentic.

from GameSpot http://ift.tt/2nwr9fH

Intel and AMD Say Their Next CPUs Will Not Have Spectre And Meltdown Security Issues

Ever since Google's Project Zero unveiled security issues inherent in CPUs from Intel and AMD (to some extent), manufacturers have been scrambling to patch up the problem software-side. These mitigations have had varying degrees of success; Microsoft administered an emergency Windows security update, while Intel had to retract an early version of its own patch. As Intel and AMD look toward the future, both companies' CEOs have promised to take care of Spectre/Meltdown on hardware level with their next generations of processors.

During an investors conference call, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich stated, "We’re working to create silicon-based changes to future products that will directly address the Spectre and Meltdown threats in hardware. And those products will begin appearing later this year." Krzanich also went on to say that the vulnerabilities won't impact sales. No details were given as to which "future products" he was referencing, but it's rumored that Cannon Lake or Ice Lake (9th generation) could be out by the end of the year, which would fit the time frame Krzanich referenced.

On AMD's side, CEO Lisa Su had something similar to say: "Longer term, we have included changes in our future processor cores, starting with our Zen 2 design, to further address potential Spectre-like exploits." AMD was confident in their CPUs being virtually free of the security exploits when the news initially came out, but fact that the company came out to say its next generation will be free of the problem speaks to the broad impact of Spectre and Meltdown are having. AMD still has Zen+ CPUs set to release in April this though, and Zen 2 chips aren't due out until 2019.

Aside from next generation CPUs to overcome the recently discovered Spectre and Meltdown issues, both chip manufacturers are shaking up the PC hardware market in other ways. At CES 2018, Intel and AMD announced a partnership to bring Radeon RX Vega tech to integrated graphics for Intel Core CPUs in laptops. AMD is also set to launch Ryzen CPUs with Vega integrated graphics next month. For more details on the security exploits, check out our breakdown of the five things you should know about Spectre and Meltdown.

from GameSpot http://ift.tt/2DT7LEZ

Blog: Developing and releasing my first indie VR project

Here's how game developer Bryson Whiteman developed and released their first virtual reality app independently. ...

from Gamasutra News http://ift.tt/2rNWQqq

Get a job: Armature Studio is hiring a Graphics Engineer

Texas-based Armature Studio is seeking a Mid to Senior level Graphics Engineer to join it on exciting, high visibility projects for a variety of platforms and utilizing various engines. ...

from Gamasutra News http://ift.tt/2FuXriH

Motiga's Gigantic to shut down in July

Citing sustainability issues, Motiga and Perfect World have announced that the online servers for Gigantic will be closing for good on July 31, 2018. ...

from Gamasutra News http://ift.tt/2GxqdQS

Here's The Most Anticipated PC-Exclusive Games Of 2018

Despite the launch of two new consoles last year, PC dominated much of the conversation in 2017 thanks to the phenomenal success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which released in Early Access in March and proceeded to shatter player and sales records throughout the remainder of the year. But while PUBG may have been the platform's biggest success story in 2017, it certainly wasn't the only noteworthy PC game to come out last year, with critically acclaimed titles like Divinity: Original Sin II and Doki Doki Literature Club all releasing exclusively for the platform.

2018 is likewise shaping up to be another great year for PC players. In terms of breadth, no platform has more exclusive games on the way this year than PC. Hundreds of games are set to launch on the platform over the course of the next 12 months thanks to digital storefronts like Steam and GOG, which allow independent developers to release their titles to the public more easily than they would traditionally be able to.

While it would be impossible to mention all of the PC games in store for this year, there are a few high-profile releases that should be on everyone's radar. In the video above, we take a look at some of the biggest PC exclusives on the way in 2018, from the Monster Hunter-like co-op RPG Dauntless to the classic strategy game Age of Empires: Definitive Edition and Obsidian's next RPG, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. You can also see all of the year's big PC exclusives in our gallery.

Regardless of which platform you own, there are a lot of exciting games to look forward to in 2018. In addition to the biggest PC titles, we've taken a look at the most anticipated PS4 games, Nintendo Switch games, and Xbox One games of the year.

Learn These 27 Cyberpunk Terms If You Want To Understand Netflix's Altered Carbon

For the sci-fi junkies of the universe.

Netflix's Altered Carbon is some heady, intense science fiction--the most hardcore sci-fi on TV in years. The first episode alone is packed with so many cryptic, futuristic terms and concepts it might make your head spin. And you wouldn't want that--who knows what it might do to your cortical stack?

Don't worry if you have no idea what that means. We've got you covered with this list of the important cyberpunk and sci-fi terms, phrases, and concepts you'll need to fully grasp exactly what's going down in Netflix's noir sci-fi epic, Altered Carbon, which hits Netflix this Friday, February 2.

27. Cortical Stack

The cortical stack is the sci-fi invention at Altered Carbon's core. It shapes the story's world, and it makes all the show's events possible. Think of it like a USB drive that houses your memory and personality--everything that makes you who you are. It rests somewhere within each person's upper spine/lower skull. If your body dies, your stack can be implanted in a new one, as long as it remains intact.

26. Sleeves

Sleeves are what the denizens of Altered Carbon's world call their bodies. Thanks to cortical stacks, bodies are basically disposable--depending how wealthy you are, at least.

25. Re-sleeving

Re-sleeving is the process of your cortical stack being implanted or "downloaded" into a new sleeve. The wealthy can be re-sleeved whenever they want, sometimes treating different sleeves like changes of clothes, while the poor do it once in a lifetime--if that.

24. Spin Up

Spinning someone up or being spun up is the process of being awakened after re-sleeving. It can be disorienting, especially if your most recent memories were heightened or traumatic (such as if your last sleeve died in combat).

23. Sleeve Sickness

Sleeve sickness is a physical malady that includes disorientation and other symptoms. It can occur when your stack is re-sleeved and can be overcome with the aid of re-acclimation drugs.

22. Organic Damage

Organic damage is the illegal act of damaging or killing a sleeve.

21. Sleeve Death

This is simply the name for when your sleeve gets destroyed or damaged. The mind lives on without the body--as long as your cortical stack isn't destroyed with it.

20. Real Death

This is the real, scary kind of death, when your cortical stack is destroyed or lost along with your sleeve, making it impossible for you to be re-sleeved and spun back up. Of course, the wealthy have secure backups, so the richer you are, the more unlikely real death is.

19. Meths

"Meth" is the somewhat derogatory term for the richest of the rich--and therefore the oldest of the old, the untouchable, borderline inhuman elite at the top of Altered Carbon's society. Meths usually live in decadent mansions above the clouds. They're named after the Biblical figure Methuselah. The exact passage quoted in the Altered Carbon book is "and all the days of Methusaleh were nine hundred sixty and nine years."

18. Grounders

"Grounders" is the derogatory term Meths use to refer to those at the other end of society, especially poor people who live on the world's surface rather than above the clouds.

17. Needlecast

A needlecast is a "tightbeam transmission"--in other words, an extremely precise digital broadcast--of the contents of your cortical stack. For example, Meths can needlecast to different stacks around the globe--or the universe--to attend faraway business meetings or simply go on vacation.

16. Personality Frag

A "personality fragmentation" occurs when a person re-sleeves into too many different bodies. Basically, you go insane. That's why Meths keep multiple clones on ice, often in multiple places; re-sleeving into your own body (even a copy of it) avoids adverse effects.

15. Synthetic Sleeve

A synthetic sleeve is a lab-made body that possesses abilities a normal (i.e. born) sleeve does not, such as some shapeshifting capability to change your appearance. However, synths are limited in other ways.

14. AI Hotels

Altered Carbon is set so far in the future that AI hotels--hotels owned and operated entirely by artificial intelligences--are considered archaic. The AI are programmed to crave customers, and they're often eccentric. In the book, protagonist Takeshi Kovacs stays at a hotel called the Hendrix, themed after Jimi Hendrix, while in the show he stays at The Raven, where the AI proprietor resembles none other than Edgar Allan Poe.

13. Dipper

A Dipper is someone who can hack into a transmission and remove or add information, such as copying your private memories while you download into a new stack. For all intents and purposes, they're Altered Carbon's version of hackers.

12. Trauma Loop

One character in Altered Carbon gets stuck in a trauma loop, meaning her sleeve died in so traumatic a fashion that her backup is essentially corrupted. Her stack can't be spun back up properly without her suffering.

11. Songspire

Songspire is a structure that appears to be part rock and part tree. It grows on Mars, and individual songspires can be small enough to fit on a necklace or bigger than a house. They emit pleasant sounds and fragrances when touched. Their purpose isn't fully clear, but they appear to have some significance in both the book and the show.

10. Extreme Organic Damage Event

An "extreme organic damage event" in the context of the show is an event at which significant organic damage--damage to one's sleeve--will occur, like a pre-planned fight to the death. These require permits issued by the police to be fully legal.

9. Simulspace

Simulspace is simply Altered Carbon's name for virtual reality. However, unlike the VR of today, simulspace is often indistinguishable from "the real."

8. Psychosurgery

A form of mental therapy that takes place in simulspace, often to help people deal with traumatic events.

7. VR Interrogation

VR interrogation is a brutal form of torture that takes place in simulspace. Your interrogator spins your stack up in VR, then tortures you to digital sleeve death over and over in whatever creative ways the simulation's programming can support. Your stack and sleeve remain intact in the real, so you never truly die, but you feel everything in your mind.

6. Multisleeving

Multisleeving is a criminal activity that involves copying the contents of your stack and downloading yourself into separate sleeves simultaneously. Essentially, there are two or more yous walking around. It's highly illegal, and the penalties are harsh, though it can be hard to prove.

5. Neo-Catholics

Neo-Catholicism is a religion whose devotees believe in the "natural order," and that being re-sleeved destroys the soul, even as it preserves the mind. Neo-Catholics' stacks carry special "Neo-C coding" that prevents them from being legally spun up when their original sleeves (i.e. their actual birth bodies) die. It's a big source of the conflict in Altered Carbon. Resolution 653 is a bill that would allow murder victims to be spun back up to testify, even if they have Neo-C coding.

4. Reaper

Reaper is a drug that simulates a near death experience. It's cheaper than actual sleeve suicide, a thrill only those wealthy enough to keep clones and backups on hand can afford to experience. It can also be used in small doses to lower your body temperature and instill a feeling of cool indifference that makes it easier to commit violence. As a result, soldiers often use it.

3. Portable 3D Bio Organic Printer

Imagine a 3D printer that can work bones, flesh, and organs into actual living bodies, A.K.A. sleeves. That's a portable 3D bio organic printer, an extremely expensive gadget that Meths sometimes keep around.

2. CTAC

The Colonial Tactical Assault Corp (CTAC) is a universal police force whose soldiers needlecast to pre-trained sleeves on whatever world they're needed. They fight sleeve sickness by injecting chemical cocktails. Depending what side you're on, you might see them as the enemy.

1. Envoy

The Envoys were a group of soldiers who rose up in resistance against humanity's colonial forces and CTAC. It didn't end well. They had some vaguely defined enhanced abilities (including improved senses, intuition, and physical capabilities).