Anime That Define Growing Up

Not every anime has to be an isekai or all about fight scenes. Sometimes, fans want something a little more wholesome and real. That's where anime about growing up comes in -- generally with plots that feature nuanced characters dealing with situations in realistic, human ways.

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By  Ritwik Mitra

There are many, many anime out there that feature elements of growing up, but a select few nail the feeling of having to let go and move forward -- something people experience many times throughout their lives and not just during their teen years. After all, no one is ever really done growing in a metaphorical sense. So, which anime defines growing up?

1 FLCL (First Season)

Puberty Sucks (And Giant Robots Come Out Of Your Forehead)

• Released in 2000 by Gainax
• A hard sci-fi story following a middle school boy and a space-faring bounty hunter
• Features mecha battles and commentary on growing up

Gainax, also known for creating Neon Genesis Evangelion and other iconic anime, created one of the most formative anime for many fans in the form of FLCL. The slice-of-life, coming-of-age story is spliced with a space-age robot mecha in a very bizarre way. It all centers around a pre-teen boy named Naota who lives with his elderly grandfather, a widower father, and an absentee brother. His mundane life changes forever when a mysterious woman riding a Vespa and wielding a bass named Haruko comes into their lives. Robots literally come out of Naota's head.

The phrase "nothing amazing ever happens here" gets repeated constantly in the series as Naota navigates difficult feelings about Haruko, his brother's ex-girlfriend, and why robots are coming out of his head. By the end of the show, Naota has a very different perspective than when it started. Though told from a male perspective, the story about growing up resonates with most people, and subsequent seasons in the series revolve around other young people, with Haruko being the main connection.

2 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

The Journey Is Just Beginning

• Released in 2023 by Madhouse
• A fantasy story following an Elven mage named Frieren
• Features a unique flashback story mechanism where Frieren recalls memories as she experiences new things

The story of the mage Frieren is just as much the story of Fern and Himmel and Stark and other characters in the show. After all, Frieren is an elf, and they live extremely long lives -- a friction Frieren begins to understand as the show progresses through the help of humans like Fern and Heiter.

As the audience sees Fern and Stark navigate a first-time romance as young people, they also see Frieren learn how to empathize with others and adjust her more selfish behaviors to keep the people she cares about in her life. On top of all that, the audience gets a wildly cool and fun story about demons, magic, and friends traveling the world together. It's also a great anime for D&D fans, much like the recent success Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon.

3 Assassination Classroom

A Class Of "Losers" Has To Assassinate Their Teacher

• Released in 2015 by Lerche
• A realistic story with fantastical elements that follows a group of middle school students
• Features a healthy combination of mystery, slice of life, action, and whimsy

At first blush, Assassination Classroom is a silly shōnen anime about middle schoolers and an "octopus" forced to share a classroom before he blows up the world in a year. But the show quickly grows on the audience with its immense heart, unique and engaging characters, and heartwarming message that no one is alone and life is worth living. What's more, it serves as a commentary on growing up in Japan.

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By  Gauri Raj

Season two gets heavier than season one, but in a way that feels similar to life. As we grow up, the choices we have to make become more complex and relationships require more effort, patience, and understanding. Learning how to forgive others is just as important as learning how to forgive one's self. The action in the show is also exciting and fun, with stellar voice acting to boot.

4 Kids On The Slope

MAPPA Can Make Non-Action Anime, Too

• Released in 2012 by MAPPA
• A realistic story that follows a trio of students over three years
• Features stunning animation of musical performance on top of the awesome narrative

There aren't many shows about jazz, but Kids on the Slope captures the magic of music alongside what it means to grow up in Japan. The characters are unique, mirroring each other's circumstances and finding companionship through their shared love of music. The anime features the hallmarks of slice-of-life stories including a beach episode, but the interpersonal stories run much deeper than average.

Kaoru (the guy with glasses) moves to a more rural location to live with extended family -- away from his wealthy family and the city. There, he meets Sentarō, a mixed Japanese-American Catholic orphan with the responsibility of taking care of his siblings, and Ritsuko -- a fellow classmate whose father owns a record shop. The series follows three years of their lives with music underpinning all of their experiences. The show focuses on the dynamic between Kaoru and Sentarō, exploring male friendships.

5 Neon Genesis Evangelion

It's A Classic For A Reason

• Originally released in 1995 by Gainax
• A hard sci-fi story following the NERV group battling otherworldly beings attacking Tokyo
• Features mecha battles and a deep story underpinned by philosophical themes

The show, known for its huge mecha battles in a futuristic Tokyo, can actually be seen as an allegory for Japan's financial crisis and PTSD of the 1990s. Mostly everyone in Evangelion is under the age of twenty-five except for Gendo Ikari and a few others. But each of these young characters undergo completely different journeys with defining moments that determine how they "grow up." Without getting into spoiler territory, each character has a series of failures and then one big success where they "prove" that they've grown up. They've broken the cycle.

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By  Juliet Childers

But the way the series handles coming of age is perhaps best exemplified by a scene between Misato and Shinji toward the end of the anime. Misato makes a hail-mary decision because she has nothing left to lose to try and motivate Shinji to make a decision -- to stop giving into the fear of choice and anxiety around the consequences. Many fans have opinions about which "version" of the show is the best, but the message is clear: even in a world that isn't beset by murderous creatures, existence and the mortal fear of being known by another person are harrowing things.

6 Wandering Son

An Anime About Growing Up Trans

• Originally released in 2011 by AIC Classic
• A realistic story that follows two young people exploring gender identity over the years
• Features explorations of gendered experiences in school and interpersonal relationships through the lens of gender

Gender is often played with in anime with male characters being taken for women or people swapping bodies, and therefore, genders. But it isn't often that an anime tackles the subject of being transgender. Wandering Son, the drama/slice-of-life anime by Takako Shimura, tells the story of Shuichi and Yoshino -- two students who don't feel at home with their birth-assigned genders. They confide this fact in each other, and the story unfolds as they go through their lives and explore their gender identities.

It's a wonderful examination of growing up as a trans person that doesn't put the focus on what adults or society thinks, though that is an inescapable part of the trans experience. Instead, Wandering Son is more about the experiences of these characters and their interpersonal relationships. The only downside is that the series is just twelve episodes long.

7 Kino's Journey -- The Beautiful World

An Imaginative Exploration Of The Human Experience

• Originally released in 2003 by A.C.G.T. And Genco with the following release in 2017 by Lerche and Egg Firm
• A realistic story with fantastical elements that follows a young explorer named Kino and their sentient motorcycle as they explore the world
• Features explorations of many concepts such as individuality vs. The collective, freedom vs. Tradition, the meaning of life, and more

The original anime debuted in 2003 with another series released in 2017 that follows the same formula: Kino, along with their talking motorcycle named Hermes, travel the land and encounter unique stories and people. One part road trip movie and one part slice of life anime, the story reveals information about Kino's past through these random encounters.

The themes of the show revolve around people's desires, delusions, and what they'll do to protect them. Kino is almost an audience avatar, bearing witness to these strange places such as a mobile city, a country of liars, and even a "land of adults" where children are forced to grow up at just age eleven to become "hardworking adults." Though not as explicitly about growing up as something like FLCL, Kino's Journey explores the way experiences shape people into who they are -- either by embracing those experiences, defying them, or just riding off on a motorcycle into the wild horizon.

8 Space Dandy

Growing Up Is About Mitigating Unhappiness, Baby

• Originally released in 2014 by Bones
• A surreal sci-fi story that follows the crew of alien hunters on the Aloha Oe -- Dandy the human(?), Meow the Betelgeusian, and QT the (outdated) robot
• Features a main theme that life is about overcoming the fear of choice and to just have fun with it, baby

Many people call Space Dandy "Cowboy Bebop, but surreal and not serious." In reality, if Cowboy Bebop is about how trauma defines a person, Space Dandy is about how one moves forward despite one's circumstances. And doing it in a totally cool way, baby. It might be hard to see that meaning in Dandy's cavalier exterior, Meow's laissez-faire, horn-dog behavior, and QT's anxiety. But the show is all about growing up and making choices.

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The show also displays how people deal with big emotions, expectations of others, unrequited love, and the burden of responsibility when one doesn't have a clue what one is doing. What's perhaps most interesting is the agency most of the characters have in deciding their fates. The biggest lesson to learn from Dandy though? Don't take life too seriously. Living is about having a good time and trying to do right by one's self and others along the way. And certain body parts and jazz odysseys.

9 Kotaro Lives Alone

We're All A Bit Braver With A Toy Sword And A Nice Bath

• Originally aired in 2021 with 10 episodes TV Asahi with a following 10-episode arc from Liden Films on Netflix
• A realistic story that follows a very young boy named Kotaro who is, for some reason, living alone in a small apartment complex
• Features an exploration of loneliness, how to overcome things like the fear of success or failure, and how to adapt to less-than-ideal situations

Much like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Kotaro Lives Alone is a story about different kinds of growing up. Though the young boy Kotaro serves as the protagonist, his neighbors become just as important as he is -- adopting a found family trope in the bittersweet story. It's a slice-of-life anime, but it's a bit of a mystery, too. Why is this 5-year-old living alone?

Kotaro's main friend and direct neighbor, Shin, is a mangaka, while another neighbor is divorced and estranged from his child. Another neighbor is a hostess and victim of abuse. The group, along with Ayano -- a lawyer tending to Kotaro's needs for reasons revealed in the show -- learn and grow together over the series. Despite their circumstances, each person strives to better themselves, which makes the show heartwarming instead of utterly depressing.

10 Mob Psycho 100

We All Hit 100% From Time To Time, Don't We?

• Aired in 2016 from Bones
• A realistic story with fantastical elements that follows a young man named Mob with psychic powers
• Features an exploration of how power and empathy interact with one another within the framework of growing up

The mangaka known as "One" is known for creating unique manga that deconstructs the expectations of the superhero or powerful people. Fans see this in One Punch Man, but Mob Psycho 100 focuses instead on how a person navigates growing up and learns to manage their emotions. It also just so happens that the main character, Mob, can see spirits and use telekinetic powers.

But the show goes so much beyond how the middle school characters like Mob, his brother Ritsu, and others grow. Dimple, the green spirit, sees perhaps the most growth in the series, while Reigen, Mob's mentor, transforms from a directionless con man into a real adult who cares for himself and others. It's a wholesome, heart-warming show that consistently surprises its audience with its emotional core while delivering incredible fight scenes and nuanced characters.

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