In one sense, almost every fantastical element in anime can be called “magic,” from monsters who spit fire to characters with superpowers to aliens who can travel through time. But if you’re looking for real magic in the traditional sense—with wizards and mana and spells and magic systems—then you’re going to want a very specific kind of fantasy anime series. Here are our picks for the best anime series about magic and wizards, including ones about students at magic schools....

There are thousands of fantasy movies out there set in magical realms with witches and sorcerers, packed with spellbinding escapism. But what about the magic we encounter in everyday real life? Although stage magicians might not actually break any laws of nature or physics, they do entice us with their promise of illusion. We can spend hours trying to figure out how they pulled an entire bunny from thin air, or we can just sit back and enjoy being enchanted....

Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up in another person’s body? It’d be quite the trippy experience, which makes for a pretty awesome premise for movies across genres. But not all body swap movies are made equal. The premise is easily squandered, either by scripts that fail to do anything unique or original with the ones who get swapped or by scripts that become bogged down by the mechanics to the detriment of their characters....

The cop-and-criminal dynamic is one of the oldest tropes in storytelling, but with the explosion of television as a prestige narrative medium, these cat-and-mouse stories have never been fresher. Television’s serial format is perfect for crime dramas, giving us more than enough time to delve into the characters on all sides and show us the arduous process of catching criminals at large and/or the intricacies of what it’s like to be a criminal mastermind....

Sometimes, the one thing that elevates a good movie into a great movie is the wardrobe design. Even if you’re more of a film buff than a fashionista, you still know a fantastic outfit when you see one. From 1920s flappers to 1950s haute couture to futuristic-fantastical attire that takes inspiration from across history, there have been all kinds of unique looks that stand out as iconic and memorable. Here are my picks for the best movies with wardrobe designs that go above and beyond the norm in cinema, with many of them (rightfully) earning Academy Awards for Best Costume Design!...

In My Hero Academia , most people are born with so-called Quirks, which are special innate abilities that exhibit once awakened. These gifted people can use their powers in many ways, like protecting the weak, treating the sick, and saving endangered lives. Then again, many Quirks are destructive by nature and can really only be used to hurt others, threaten peace, and bring about widespread extinction. So many Quirks have been featured throughout My Hero Academia , but some are a lot cooler than others....

If you have an Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass provides an enormous value no matter what types of games you love, whether racing games, RPGs, strategy games, or anything else. But if you’re a fan of shooters, Xbox Game Pass provides an extraordinary value. For both first-person shooters and third-person shooters, the selection is vast and of high quality. We’re focusing on modern shooters in this article, so we’re skipping side-scrolling shooters and top-down shooters....

Hey, take it easy, man! Stoners may be prone to getting themselves into a lot of inadvertent trouble—especially in movies—there’s actually a lot we can learn from their laid-back attitudes to life. From hippies to surfers, there have been all kinds of stoner characters in movies who spend most of their on-screen time “dazed and confused,” many of whom have gathered cult followings over the years. Here are my picks for the best movies about stoners and potheads to watch when you want to chill out—even if you aren’t a stoner yourself!...

Sick of anime series that take place in fantasy realms or outer space galaxies far, far away? Prefer your anime to be a little more grounded, in a setting you can personally relate to? How about… high school?! If you’re a high school student, you have to worry about homework, projects, and final exams. When you get home from school, you need ways to unwind and destress. (And if you’re out of high school, you likely remember what those days were like!...

When you think of apocalypses in cinema, you probably think of dystopian movies like I Am Legend and The Road that stand out for their post-apocalyptic settings . But how did those settings become that way in the first place? Well, some sort of apocalypse came upon them—and they lost. I love post-apocalyptic movies as much as anyone, but sometimes the threat of an apocalypse can be just as thrilling as watching people try to eke out a living after the world has been destroyed....

Hauntings and demonic possession are two of the most common themes in horror cinema, which means any movie that wants to take this route needs to be truly unique to stand out. A well-crafted horror film is more than just jump scares. It gets you invested in the characters, explores deeper subjects with layered meanings, and even makes you re-evaluate your own beliefs as characters are forced to navigate their own dilemmas....

Everybody has those moments where life feels overwhelming, when it all gets a bit much to handle, like we’re losing our minds a bit. Well, it’s a common occurrence in movies, and many characters have felt this way with all the crazy plots and developments that can happen in a script. Of course, cinema protagonists tend to go through the worst of the worst, and their worlds may literally crumble before them....

In My Hero Academia , the all-out war between the Pro Heroes and All For One, Tomura Shigaraki, and the many other villains is thrilling because we’re treated to so many awesome characters along the way. Ever since the overall story shifted into its do-or-die theme, the characters have regularly gone beyond their limits and exceeded their potentials, showing us who’s truly the strongest of the strong. Even characters who only appeared in the background during the early arcs have stepped up and started contributing significantly to the story, leading to all kinds of memorable and impactful scenes....

Ever since second-wave feminism surged through the Western world in the 1960s (with a third wave in the 1990s), Hollywood has made many movies to empower and celebrate women’s voices. Although not always successful—particularly in the case of poorly rebooted film franchises with all-female casts—there’s a huge number of witty and progressive feminist films that deserve to be seen. They might be made for women, about women, or by women, and they aren’t always of the all-in-your-face type of feminism....

Manipulative anime characters often have what it takes to be among the most hated characters in anime fandom. It’s not just that they’re usually arrogant, but they rarely play fair. They go beyond established rules of social conduct and treat everyone around them as pawns. In doing so, they often destroy the trust and bonds that once existed between friends, family, and alliances. These manipulative characters tend to be products of their own dark pasts, driven in various ways to reach their own goals even at the cost of those around them....

One of the flashiest powers in anime is the ability to control fire. At its worst, it can create towering pillars of intense heat that burn everything to the ground. More importantly, the ability to manipulate flame is often a metaphor for a character’s personality. Aside from the destructive power and inward insight, the animation of flames is itself thrilling, badass, and fun to watch unfold in any scene. Few powers are as visually engrossing as a conflagration gone wild....

In adapting a book for cinema, the success really comes down to whether the creative team really understands the crux of the book’s narrative. They need to capture the heart of the story while leaving out parts that just won’t fit into a movie’s runtime. The whole book-to-movie adaptation process has become the bane of many authors, who wanted to see their works brought to theaters with 100% authenticity but ended up with filmmakers transforming their original writings into something almost unrecognizable....

When Nintendo first introduced Mario in 1981’s Donkey Kong , they didn’t just create what would eventually become the company mascot—they created a mascot for the entire gaming industry. The soft-spoken Italian plumber is one of the most immediately recognizable characters on the planet and has been a mainstay of gaming culture for more than 40 years. When it comes to the official Super Mario franchise games, Nintendo has done a bang-up job in making sure that every single title starring Mario is a unique, polished, and fun experience....

Some of the best standup comedians in the business aren’t exactly clean: Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Jim Jefferies. Of course, there are plenty of unclean “comedians” who aren’t funny at all, so it’s not like vulgarity and swearing are necessary to evoke laughter from an audience. And that’s what I like best in my standup comedy: those who are clean enough to be watched with the whole family, although I’m happy to let the occasional swear or crass joke through as long as it’s done with taste....

There are two kinds of people: people who have heard the term “roguelike” and people who argue long into the night about what the term actually means. We’ve even written about it! Related: What does “roguelike” actually mean? Literally, the term roguelike means “like Rogue ,” a game developed in 1980, using ASCII text characters to help the player imagine the dungeon they were traversing. The games we’re looking at are all descendants of that game in one way or another, but some stay closer to the original formula than others....