Short answer
It depends on the content. Watching anime, cartoons, films or series is not haram as an act, but much mainstream content includes music, nudity or immodest scenes, or ideas against Islam, and watching those is haram. Clean content in moderation is allowed under the view many Hanafi scholars take on digital images.
Looking at awrah or indecent scenes and listening to music are haram, so content with them is not permitted. Clean content without music, watched in moderation, is permitted according to the Hanafi scholars who do not treat on-screen digital images as forbidden image-making; stricter Hanafi muftis advise avoiding it altogether.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
The Quran tells believing men and women to lower their gaze and says that hearing, sight and heart will all be questioned. The Prophet ﷺ said the eyes commit zina by looking and the ears by listening. These principles decide the ruling on any show.
Issues that come up often in anime:
- Fan service and ecchi scenes: revealing outfits and sexual jokes, which are haram to watch.
- Opening and ending songs: skip or mute them, since music is forbidden in the Hanafi school.
- Gods, spirits and magic: stories built on worshipping gods or making deals with demons. Watching fiction is not belief, but a steady diet of it can dull your sense of tawhid, so be selective.
- Haram relationships shown as normal and romantic.
The same tests apply to Hollywood films, Netflix series and cartoons. Choose content that is clean, check parental guides before you watch, skip scenes and songs, and keep it from eating into prayer times and sleep. Binge watching that leaves you missing Fajr is a problem even when every episode is clean.
On images: the traditional Deobandi view treats animated characters as images and advises against watching them. Many later Hanafi scholars do not count digital images on a screen as forbidden image-making, so under their view the content decides. For children, educational cartoons without music are the safest choice. The four schools share these principles of gaze and listening.
The evidence
Quran, Surah An-Noor 24:30
قُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّوا۟ مِنْ أَبْصَٰرِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُوا۟ فُرُوجَهُمْ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ أَزْكَىٰ لَهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ خَبِيرٌۢ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ ﴿٣٠﴾
Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what they do.
Believers must avoid looking at what is indecent, including on a screen.
Quran, Surah Al-Israa 17:36
وَلَا تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِۦ عِلْمٌ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلسَّمْعَ وَٱلْبَصَرَ وَٱلْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْـُٔولًۭا ﴿٣٦﴾
And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about all those [one] will be questioned.
You will be asked about what you watched and listened to.
Sahih Muslim 2658
Sahih... فالعينان زناهما النظر والأذنان زناهما الاستماع ...
"The zina of the eyes is looking, and the zina of the ears is listening."
Watching indecent scenes and listening to what is forbidden are sins.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Hazr wa al-Ibaha, chapter on looking and touching. Rules on what a person may and may not look at.
- Takmilat Fath al-Mulhim (Mufti Taqi Usmani), Kitab al-Libas wa al-Zina, discussion of images. The view on digital images and screens.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.