Science, Economics, Crafts and Biology? In my anime?
Education doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it can be fun — so fun it counts as entertainment instead. And over the years, there were numerous anime that, either accidentally or intentionally, taught you real life knowledge and skills. Here are five of them.
1. Economics: Spice and Wolf (Ookami to Koushinryou)
Kraft Lawrence (a traveling merchant) and Horo (a goddess of harvest) travel between villages and towns, see beautiful sights, meet interesting people, slowly fall in love — ah, and also teach you about economics. After all, a traveling merchant has to buy and sell items like grain, tools and the like, so they have to navigate fluctuating market prices, business partnerships and even ponzi schemes.
You can watch two seasons of their travels in Spice and Wolf (2008), or wait for January 2024 for the story’s much anticipated reboot.
2. Science: Dr. Stone
One day, you suddenly turn to stone. Then, you wake up 3700 years later. There’s no civilization left, only wilderness. No infrastructure, no supply chains, no Internet even. What do you do? Well, Ishigami Senku decided to start civilization from scratch, using his boundless academic knowledge to bring humanity back to its previous technological level.
He goes from wooden huts and clay jugs to the reinvention of gunpowder, to electricity, to radios and beyond, showing us all the steps there. Of course, as a shounen, Dr. Stone skips a lot of minutiae and iterative work in lieu of action, but that’s where our next show comes in.
3. Crafts: Ascendance of a Bookworm (Honzuki no Gekokujou)
A librarian at heart was reincarnated as a sickly peasant named Maine - in a world where only nobility and clergy have access to books. So, as a modern isekaied person, she had done the only logical thing — and began making her own books.
The story guides us through the process of making different mediums for written texts — from papyrus scrolls and clay tablets to modern paper — followed by the printing press, ink and book production. All while telling us neat little things about medieval trade, crafts and the like. Which we, honestly, adore.
4. Human biology: Cells at Work! (Hataraku Saibou)
A human body consists of 30 trillion cells, all working tirelessly to keep it alive and well. But what if these cells were also cute? The story follows AE3803 (a red blood cell) as she delivers oxygen to various parts of the body and allows us to learn of their functions, and U-1146 (a white blood cell) as he fights against various threats.
As a villain-of-the-week story, it can deal with something as minor as a common cold or a scrape one episode, and something as serious as cancer the next, allowing you to learn more about how your body works through these various threats and maladies.
5. Animal biology: Heaven’s Design Team (Tenchi Souzou Design-bu)
After creating Earth, God decided to outsource creation of animals to a specialized department of angels, each with their own specialization. One loves all things cute, another loves making morbid creatures. One strives for beauty, one for efficiency. One likes to make tasty animals, another peaked at making horses. Together, they go through the grueling process of making animals that can fulfill God’s (often nebulous) quotas while being able to survive on Earth, even showing us why things like dragons and unicorns can’t exist.