Netflix has been doing well with anime lately

Anime has long been a staple of the streaming wars, and lately it’s only gotten more complex: Sony bought Crunchyroll; Disney tests the waters; and new players have jumped in. Through it all, Netflix has tried to build itself into a viable anime destination. The streaming service has been released a lot of anime over the years, and the results have been quite mixed. (This is a common theme for the company as a whole.) But in recent months, Netflix has shown a surprisingly good array of movies and series. Perhaps most impressive is how diverse the offerings have been, ranging from a hyper-violent sci-fi series to a time-traveling tale about an ancient Rome architect.

Here are four relatively recent releases that show the magnitude and potential of Netflix’s ongoing quest for anime.

There are many stories of real world people being sucked into a fantasy universe, but Uncle from another world takes the trop in a slightly different direction. The titular uncle awakens from a 17-year-old coma and during that time he was transported to a D&D-inspired alternate universe, where he survived as a sort of adventurer. When he wakes up in the real world, he immediately wonders what happened to Sega in the console wars.

It should go without saying that Uncle from another world is an extremely goofy series. The Uncle earns a living in the real world by showing off his fantasy magic skills on YouTube and uses a DVR-esque ability to showcase his adventurous feats—which almost always have a ridiculous twist—to his nephew. He’s lived an incredible life, but most of the time he just wants to stream Gunstar Heroes.

Just like the game from which it originated, edge runners doesn’t necessarily do much new within the now-familiar confines of cyberpunk. That means the series follows some fairly familiar storylines, such as the over-reach of mega-corporations and the future confluence of man and machine. Still, it’s a very well done example of the genre. The series is produced by Studio Trigger, the same team behind Killed La Killed and Promareand it looks incredible, making cyberpunk’s standardized imagery—think lots of neon signs and flashing guns—somehow feel fresh and interesting.

The action is exciting and the show really digs into the different ways everyday life has made money, from an obscenely oppressive health care system to the future of distance education. (Imagine sinking because you couldn’t afford a software update.) The 10 episodes flew by with such speed that I jumped back into the game so I didn’t have to leave the world so quickly – and I’m not alone .

Thermae Romae Novae is a series about a Roman architect named Lucius who a) is absolutely committed to his career as a bath house architect and is completely obsessed with the bath culture and b) is able to randomly travel to modern Japan once per episode. Those two things are the crux of the show. In each episode, Lucius faces a particular problem – such as designing a small personal bath or creating an entire spa – which he solves by stealing ideas from the future.

His unparalleled skills eventually catch the eye of the Roman emperor, and before you know it, Lucius is influencing an entire country just by building baths. However, the real joy of the show comes in seeing how much he really loves baths and the excitement he feels learning new ideas and concepts. In a charming addition, each episode ends with author Mari Yamazaki, who created the original manga, visiting a real-life spa or hot spring to discover new things about the wide world of bath culture.

On the movie side there is Driving homewhich comes from Studio Colorido, the same team behind the 2020 Netflix movie A whisker away and one of the better entries in Star Wars: Visions. It’s a coming-of-age story mixed with some magic and an almost post-apocalyptic atmosphere. The premise is unique to say the least. A group of friends sneak into an abandoned apartment building, assuming it’s haunted. Instead of finding ghosts, they are stranded in the building amid a vast ocean.

The childhood story of Driving home covers some trodden ground, but it’s told with a seriousness that really helps you connect with and take root for the kids. What makes the film especially striking, however, is how fully this strange alternate world has been realized and how it forces the kids to face not only extreme danger, but also the truth of growing up. I’m not sure what it is with Netflix and floating buildings this year, but it makes for great animation.