30 Best Foreign Shows on Hulu Right Now

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld gets many things right—the fashion is spectacular, the drama is gripping, and the details feel true to the time. It’s never over-the-top and cartoonish, which seems to be a problem in most other biopics. But for all it has going for it, Brühl is the real star of the show. He seems to operate on a level beyond his peers where he’s no longer acting but simply inhibiting. Lagerfeld is a distant and wealthy designer, unavailable even to those closest to him, but Brühl manages to ground him with deeply relatable traits, like bitter jealousy, crushing loneliness, and unapologetic ambition. He doesn’t need a big scene or wordy dialogue to get these across, either, just a flicker of the eyes will do the trick. The only downside to the show is the occasional uneven tone. It’s as if the directors were unsure how to maximize the wealth of material they have on hand, so they crammed and juggled as much as they could into six episodes. Still, if you’re a fan of period pieces, powerfully subtle performances, and luxury fashion, then you’re in for a treat.

Making a bucket list at the height of a zombie outbreak seems ridiculous, yet totally reasonable when you’ve spent the last three years overworked and undervalued. In real life, our workforce already feels zombified as higher-ups enslave the working class to high production and insufficient pay, so it’s nice to see Zom 100 exemplify that notion. Zom 100 also immediately captures that essential reminder to “live now,” which has become especially relevant as the Covid-19 pandemic found most people rekindling old hobbies and discovering new ones as death and sickness felt ever near.

Though there isn’t a lot of character-building in episode one, the titular 100-item bucket list promises an eye-opening, personal journey with our protagonist Akira. Thankfully, the opening didn’t shy away from the gore and electrifying tension of the zombie attacks, making this an interesting horror/slice-of-life/coming-of-age/drama to keep an eye on. 

Mesmerizing as its idol, Oshi No Ko is a spellbinding adaptation of the original manga hit. Centered around an idol’s secret twin children, this binge-worthy anime brilliantly takes the reincarnation trope to tackle the Japanese entertainment industry. The premise alone is brilliant, but stunning animation and catchy tracks elevate the source material. The show isn’t afraid to go in-depth– as the twins progress through their careers, certain scenes effectively explain quirks in the industry that regular viewers wouldn’t know. However, the show remains mindful of its young characters, ensuring a careful discussion without going too far. Oshi No Ko uncovers what makes stars so captivating, without sacrificing the glitz and glamor in its explanation.

It’s chilly this summer with vengeful spirits, cursed hands and double pupils in the horror-comedy Dark Gathering. Keitarō Gentōga has always attracted ghosts, and despite his fear, he is ready to socialize again after two years. Unlucky for him, his first student as a tutor is Yayoi Hôzuki, his best friend’s cousin obsessed with finding the ghost that stole her mother. Although Yayoi’s obsession with using a reluctant Keitarō is played up for laughs, her moe appearance preserves a level of disturbing (thanks to her double pupils). By episode two, the story still feels shallow, but there’s enough spook to carry you through the heat. 

Mind-bending, intense, and mysterious, it’s hard to put Tengoku Daimakyo into words. The anime might be a post-apocalyptic adventure series where two teenagers fight against man-eating monsters, but it also happens to be a sci-fi-based contemplation of genetic experimentation, AI, and interventionism. The structure of the series is strange too, with its two seemingly unconnected parallel storylines. At the start, it’s unclear why the show alternates between a futuristic utopian boarding school and the monster-filled ruins of Japan. However, there’s something very compelling about the way this show unveils itself. When a question about the premise is answered, even more questions pop up. When the kids’ wishes and predictions get fulfilled, it’s never in the way they expect it would be. When the show drops an unexpected revelation, sometimes a rewatch of previous episodes is required to understand the weight of that scene. But once things click, the brilliance of the show is undeniable. Tengoku Daimakyo is strange but downright fascinating.

Based on an arc of the classic Space Age manga, Phoenix: Eden17 reimagines the future of space exploration into a contemplation of human nature. While the show’s pacing speeds through its plot points within four episodes, each reveal feels gut wrenching, as Romi consistently has to deal with changes in Eden, Earth, and what happened to her loved ones. Modern-style animation is used, but inspired the original style of its time, creating a modernized version of the original mangaka Osamu Tezuka’s stunning images. But it’s the series’ ideas that make the show unique. Greed, betrayal, isolation, and human error causes all the disasters in this show’s universe, and even when you know it’s coming, it’s still hard not to feel the devastation the characters feel. Despite being based on a manga created decades ago, Phoenix: Eden17 still feels like an entirely singular work. Given modern animation, the ideas of the father of manga feel like it’s something never seen before.

When live-action and animation meet, it can lead to interesting results. With each medium as a separate world, this choice can lead to awesome, mind-bending, genre-breaking stuff, but not all films or shows that mix media achieve this. One such show is Dragons of Wonderhatch, which at its core, has an interesting idea of two worlds, one mundane, one fantastical, colliding, but there’s just something off with the way the show just drops the audience in the land of Upananta. Rather than take the time to introduce Nagi to us first, and then let Tyme introduce himself in the real world, the show just shifts to the other world, which might cause some confusion for new viewers. As far as the plot goes, it’s not terrible, but there was more that could have helped Dragons of Wonderhatch in taking flight.