Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

I‘ve never met a kid who doesn’t like cartoons.  My kids love them, too.  There was a time when they watched nice, innocent, toddler cartoons like Backyardigans, Little Einsteins, and Bob the Builder.  I honestly thought those days would last longer.  But, here we are. They are 5 and 6 years old, and they have made a sudden switch to more complex story telling.  Here is a fairly complete list of the things they like to watch.  Some of these series have ended.  I included them because the boys either watched them all over again or they were so captivating that they continue to play make believe with the story-lines.

Naruto

For a long time this was the only anime they watched.  It is all about a young ninja in training who goes on missions with a group of friends who are also ninja.  Naruto carries inside of him the spirit of “The Nine Tailed Fox” which a generation before had nearly wiped out his village.  The elders sealed the fox’s spirit inside a baby (Naruto) to contain it’s power.  Naruto is a good boy that struggles with that power as it sometimes seeps out and reveals itself.  Anyway, that is the short version.  It’s an ongoing series.

Bleach

The boys’ new favorite anime is Bleach.  It’s about a teenage high school student who can see the spirits of the departed.  One day he encounters a being known as a soul reaper who’s responsibility it is to guide these spirits to the soul society (the place they should have gone in the first place but somehow didn’t).  There are evil spirits called hallows that devour wayward souls which the soul reapers have to fight.  Long story short, Ichigo (the student) inadvertently gets transformed into a soul reaper and finds himself, a mortal, fighting hallows and saving the world.  The Japanese really are awesome at this stuff!

Full Metal Alchemist

Another anime series.  This one is finished, but it might be the boys’ favorite yet.  It’s about two brothers who are alchemists (from a parallel universe).  Their mother dies when they are young.  They try to bring her back from the dead, but they fail miserably.  In the process, one of the brothers loses and arm and a leg and the other loses his entire body and becomes a soul attached to an empty suit of armor.  They then go on a search for a mythical philosophers stone which is supposed to have the power to make them whole again.  My boys love this series because they can pretend they are the brothers on a great quest.  They have even gone to calling each other Al and Ed (the names of the brothers).

Batman

It makes no difference which series we’re talking about.  If it’s batman then they love it.  There is not much to say here because everybody knows, and loves, batman.  The kids are no different.

Spiderman

Goes right along with Batman.

Ben 10

Ben 10 is one of those series that we didn’t watch for a long time because we didn’t understand the concept.  I’m still not sure I entirely do.  Well, the boys watched it one day and are completely hooked.  It’s about a boy who is given an Omnitrix (essentially a watch that can change him into any creature in the galaxy).  He’s a modern crime fighting superhero who has teenage friends with their own special powers.  His goal is to save the universe, somehow.  Somebody is going to have to explain this one more to me because, as much as the boys are hooked to it, I have not watched more than an episode or two.  The boys have a mess of Ben 10 action figures, too.

Kim Possible

I didn’t think they would watch a show who’s main character is a crime fighting girl.  Boy was I wrong.  This is such a well made, smart show that even I like it.  It’s about this teenage girl, Kim, who runs a crime fighting delivery service (sort of).  Her father is a scientist for a top secret lab and her mother is a renowned doctor.  She also has two genius little brothers that are always inventing awesome James Bond type gizmos and gadgets.  It’s episodic in that each episode stands alone and does not follow a general storyline.  It’s just a great action cartoon that is also really funny.  Her sidekick is this bumbling doofus named Ron Stoppable.  How great is that!?

Avatar

This one finished a few years ago.  Nevertheless, the boys continue to watch reruns on TV.  Their interest has been sparked again recently by a live action movie that is coming out next year.  It’s about this boy named Aang who is the last of his kind (The Air Benders).  The world has been taken over by the fire benders and it is up to him and his friends (two water benders and an earth bender) to save the world.  Aang is supposedly the Avatar.  The Avatar is the peace keeper of all the benders because he has the power to control all the elements (Not just one).  Aang never completed his training as the Avatar before the fire benders started laying waste to everything, and since he is the last of his kind, he has to seek out masters from the other tribes to teach him so that he can save the planet.  Something like that.

Fantastic 4

Episodic cartoon about superheroes.  What else is new?  They still love it though.  For some reason they like the human torch the best.  They run around pretending they are catching everything on fire.  As long as they don’t do it for real I’ll be fine.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

This series just started last year but it has already become a favorite in our house.  It comes on on Friday nights and we all sit together as a family to watch it.  The boys are big Star Wars fans so it was inevitable that they would fall for this cartoon version.  It chronicles the exploits of Anikin and Obi Wan during the interim period between the Revenge of the Sith and Attack of the Clones.

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