Netflix offers a variety of animated shows, and while some have succeeded, many other great shows have gone unnoticed. Thanks to its original content, Netflix has a couple of projects among the best TV shows of all time, such as Stranger Things, Ozark, and Mindhunter, and it has also brought some great animated shows.
Although many of those animated shows are either for children or family-friendly, Netflix has animated shows for a mature audience, too. Shows like Big Mouth and BoJack Horseman have made Netflix stand out among other platforms, but there are other great animated shows that haven’t gotten the recognition and praise they deserve.
Tuca & Bertie
Three Seasons
Tuca & Bertie is an animated sitcom created by Lisa Hanawalt. Tuca & Bertie is set in a world with anthropomorphic animals and plants, and follows birds Tuca Toucan (voiced by Tiffany Haddish) and Roberta “Bertie” Songthrush (Ali Wong). Tuca and Bertie are friends and live in the same apartment complex, but they have opposite personalities.
Tuca is impulsive and has just stopped drinking alcohol, relying on odd jobs to make a living, while Bertie is nervous and career-minded, juggling an office job and an apprentice job at a bakery. Tuca & Bertie explores their friendship as well as their individual struggles, covering mature topics like substance use, sexual abuse, mental health, and more.
Tuca & Bertie is reminiscent of the world of BoJack Horseman (and with good reason, as Hanawalt was the production designer of that show), but without feeling like a copy or extension of it. Tuca & Bertie has been praised for its concept, animation, sense of humor, and how it addresses serious topics, making the show quite relatable.
Blue Eye Samurai
Second Season Releasing In 2026
Blue Eye Samurai is an adult animated action TV series created by Amber Noizumi and Michael Green. Blue Eye Samurai is set during Japan’s Edo period, and follows Mizu (Maya Erskine), a female mixed-race, blue-eyed onna-musha, a female warrior. Mizu’s experience with discrimination throughout her life has turned her bitter, cold, and vengeful.
Mizu is forced by her mother to disguise herself as a boy so she won’t be found, and she keeps this disguise into adulthood because she has a mission: Mizu is seeking vengeance against four white men, one of them her father, a European man who illegally stayed in Japan during the closing of its borders.
Mizu, then, uses her training as a deadly warrior to go against those who made her a “creature of shame.” Blue Eye Samurai’s stunning visuals, complex characters, revenge story, themes, and action scenes are some of its strengths, and at the time of writing, the show is preparing its second season.
Trese
One Season
Trese is an anime-influenced TV series created by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, based on their comic series of the same name. Trese follows Alexandra Trese (voiced by Shay Mitchell), a private investigator and healer warrior who inherited the latter role from her father.
Alexandra’s mission is to maintain peace between the human world and the supernatural underworld. With the help of her twin brothers, Alexandra investigates crimes involving supernatural entities, many of them inspired by Filipino folklore. Despite ranking high in many countries and being praised by critics, Trese only stayed for one season.
Trese brings together crime, fantasy, supernatural horror, and action, with beautiful animation, a gritty tone, great performances from its voice cast, and offers a unique look at Filipino culture and mythology. The bright side of Trese’s early cancellation is that the show is easy to binge-watch, with only six episodes of 25 to 33 minutes each.
Kid Cosmic
Three Season
Kid Cosmic is an animated superhero TV show created by Craig McCracken, who also created The Powerpuff Girls. Based on McCracken’s 2009 comic The Kid From Planet Earth, Kid Cosmic follows Kid (voiced by Jack Fisher), a nine-year-old boy in New Mexico who finds the first of five Cosmic Stones of Power, with which he fulfills his dream of being a superhero.
The Stones came in a spaceship that crashed in the area where Kid lives, and they end up attracting alien invasions. Kid forms a team of diverse superheroes to defend the planet from invaders. Each team member has a stone, which grants them a unique power, with Kid first having telekinetic abilities.
Kid Cosmic was very well-received, with critics praising its animation style (done in “retro 2D”) and concept, though some found that the side characters lacked development. Still, Kid Cosmic is a great watch for those into light superhero stories that are reminiscent of cartoons from the 1990s.
Inside Job
One Season
Inside Job is an adult animated sci-fi workplace sitcom created by Shion Takeuchi. Inside Job takes place in a world where many conspiracy theories are actually true. The show takes the audience into the American shadow government organization Cognito, which controls Earth along with the Illuminati, Atlantians, Reptoids, Juggalos, and the Catholic Church.
There, viewers meet Reagan Ridley (Lizzy Caplan), a genius but socially awkward robotics engineer who works alongside different species and types of creatures and humanoids. Various episodes of Inside Job are focused on well-known conspiracies, such as those of flat Earth, the Mandela effect, the Moon landing, JFK’s assassination, and more.
Inside Job was praised for its unique format and concept, humor, and for firing shots at topics like gender dynamics at work, corporate lifestyle, and more. Unfortunately, Inside Job was canceled after part 2 of its first season was released, despite being renewed for a second season.
The Dragon Prince
Seven Seasons
The Dragon Prince is an animated fantasy TV series created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond. The Dragon Prince takes viewers into a unique fantasy world, more specifically, to the magical continent of Xadia. The show follows princes Callum (voiced by Jack DeSena) and Ezran (Sasha Rojen), and moonshadow elf assassin Rayla (Paula Burrows).
Together, they embark on a quest to bring peace to their continent, which is torn by an old war between humans, dragons, and elves. On top of this, they must take care of the infant Storm Dragon, Azymondias, the title Dragon Prince. The Dragon Prince was a critical success, and it ran for seven seasons.
The Dragon Prince succeeded thanks to its character development, unique world, well-developed characters, and compelling story. At the time of writing, a sequel series is in development and will be set seven years after the ending of the main show.
The Midnight Gospel
One Season
One of Netflix’s best hidden gems is the adult animated series The Midnight Gospel. Created by Pendleton Ward and Duncan Trussell, The Midnight Gospel is set in the Chromatic Ribbon dimension. There, The Midnight Gospel follows spacecaster Clancy Gilroy, who owns an unlicensed multiverse simulator with which he travels through different worlds on the brink of disaster.
There, Clacy interviews some of their residents, with these conversations taken from Trussell’s podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour. In these interviews, Clancy and his guests talk about a variety of complex topics, such as death, love, existentialism, spiritualism, transcendence, and more. To make it even better, the animation is surreal and trippy, following the topics of the conversation.
The Midnight Gospel has been praised for its animation, themes, and depth, with the final episode getting the most praise for how it addresses love and death. Despite its quality and positive reception, The Midnight Gospel wasn’t renewed for a second season, but it’s one of Netflix’s finest works.
