Anime Series That Are Way Too Smart For Kids

On the surface, Death Note is the story of a boy, a detective, a demon, and a magical book. But, scratch a little deeper and you'll find a complex crime thriller that is also a supernatural horror fable rolled into one. The majority of the series is comprised of highly intelligent characters playing mental chess with one another. Though the anime does its best to dramatize these scenes (sometimes with hilarious results), densely written stories like this don't usually go down well with kids.

Fullmetal Alchemist may have occasional whacky moments, but the gags are sandwiched between large amounts of highly conceptual stuff, like alchemic transmutation, the philosophical idea of "Equivalent Exchange," and the existence of parallel worlds. In addition to fantastical ideas, the show also explores some weighty, more down-to-earth themes such as discrimination, ethics in science, and the brutal aftermath of war. 

Not only is Neon Genesis Evangelion not suitable for kids on an intellectual level, it's also not the ideal introduction to the mecha genre. Why? Because it's considered to be a complete deconstruction of it. To understand a deconstruction, you first have to become really familiar with the genre itself. It would be like reading Watchmen as your first superhero comic book, and anything that requires homework first is bound to be off-putting for a kid. 

In the same way that Yuri!!! On Ice isn't about ice skating lesbians, Monster isn't really about the snarling, red-eyed, hide-under-your-bed kind of monsters you might expect if you take the title literally. It's more about the other kind of monster - humankind. Essentially, this anime uses the "would you save a baby even if it turned out to be Hitler?" ethical debate and spins it into an entire story with terrifying results. Younger viewers should probably stick to Pocket Monsters instead.