Approved Anime

This is a list of /tg/ approved anime, organized loosely into genres. For /tg/-approved manga, go here.

Before you add anything...READ THIS

/tg/ likes its anime, but if we listed every single one that could be interpreted as being /tg/-related this article would be large enough to be its own wiki. So before you add in a new title, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it a licensed material from a traditional game? (If yes, add it right now, no questions asked. And homebrews don't count- it has to be a real, established game.)

• Does it feature traditional gaming? (If it's an important part of the show, add it.)

• Is it fantasy or sci-fi? (We have a huge boner for that, but explain how it's relevant first.)

• Does it cater to our demographic? Fa/tg/uys tend to be males in their 20s. (Again, see if it fits the other criteria well enough.)

• Does /tg/ talk about it a lot, or does it have some historical relevance to /tg/? (Like the one directly above, it's not enough on its own, but it might get a pass if it fits more criteria.)

• Is this just /a/'s flavour of the month bleeding over into /tg/? (If your answer is yes, DO NOT ADD IT TO THE PAGE. Your addition will likely be reverted, so don't bother. As a general rule wait a few months after it shows up; if it's still being discussed by that point, add away.)

Add important details (e.g. tv series or OVA, number of episodes or movies) in brackets. Furthermore, follow the formatting in general, we beg you. Also keep in mind that anime gets adapted from manga far more often then cartoons in the west get adapted from comics, so there is liable to be overlap with the "approved manga" page linked above.

Genres

When we say [READ THE MANGA] we fucking mean it. We are not responsible for the butthurt caused by watching that overly-truncated (yet visually stunning) Akira movie or, saints preserve us, Berserk 2017.

Action

• Fist of the North Star: The singular manliest show ever made. Slap together Mad Max and a ruthless, hyper-violent Bruce Lee, and that should help explain how this show became the legend it is today. [READ THE MANGA][TV series: 152 episodes + 1 movie, OVA series: 3 episodes, Spin-Off series: 12 episodes + 4 OVAs]

Related games: Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game, playing a monk in D&D, Dark Sun

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The singular manliest and most FABULOUS! show ever made. Unreasonably beautiful men with weirdly convoluted superpowers hunt vampires. Hop in the car, loser, we're going posing. Character designs appear in TTS, so you know it's good. The anime is currently at part 6 as a Netflix exclusive, but the previous 5 parts that have been animated are available elsewhere. [READ THE MANGA][OVA series: 13 episodes + 1 movie, TV series: 185 episodes and counting]

Related games: Mutants and Masterminds, FATE, low-level Exalted, The Ballad of Edgardo

• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Da singulah Orkiest show evah made. Starts out with human rebels on looted mechs fighting bio-engineered beastmen, gets progressively more and more out of hand. Exceedingly, gloriously out of hand. Surprisingly well-written and philosophical below the pumped up appearance. Steve Blum also voices a queer guy, no joke. Notable for the fact that by the final episode/the second movie the main characters achieve Enuff Dakka by shooting at EVERY POINT IN SPACE AND ACROSS TIME. [TV series: 27 episodes + 2 movies + 15 shorts + 1 sexy ass music-video]

Related games: Mekton, Toon, playing Ork Mechs in 40k

• Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z: Not initially thought to be /tg/ related, /tg/ is now getting shit done and writing an RPG in a similar fashion to how Adeptus Evangelion suddenly appeared. (There's also the cash-in RPG, if that counts.) They both share an entry since they're essentially just part 1 and 2 of the same story. Among THE most popular anime to ever exist, it goes from "Journey to the West" pastiche fantasy adventure to science fiction aliens and space gods. [READ THE MANGA] [Original TV series: 153 episodes + 3 movies, Z/GT/Super series: 397 episodes + 4 specials + 2 OVAs + 16 movies]

Related games: Legends of the Wulin, Exalted, Dragon Ball Z: The Anime Adventure Game

You will meet all these people, and three quarters of them will die.

• Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Space Prussia/Britain fights Space France/America in one of the longest running debates on the relative merits of Dictatorship and Republicanism ever written. Aside from the 19th century army tactics IN SPACE, it is well regarded for the enormous amount of very well-written characters and an even-more-bloody disregard for the lives of said characters than GRRM. To sum it all up, grand and gruesome galactic battles rivaling 40K in scale, manly marines in power-armor hacking others to bits with axes, and the rivalry between Kaiser Reinhard (who's like a combination of Napoleon and Alexander the Great) versus Yang Wen Li (who’s like a mix of Yi-Sun Shi and Benjamin Franklin). Also quite possibly the single most screencapped anime on /tg/ for its wealth of brilliant monologues. The anime is actually an adaptation of a series of books (not manga, actual book-books) from the early 1980's that are now available in english. Technology level is basically Traveller to a T. It has two series with a space opera super series from 1980's and an ongoing remake with a good soundtrack and modernized animation in the 2010's [OVA series: 162 episodes + 3 movies, ONA series: 48 episodes + 3 compilation movies]

Related games: Traveller, GURPS Space, Full Thrust, Battlefleet Gothic

• One Punch Man: The adventures of an in-universe Muscle Wizard superhero who can literally take down anything (ANY-FUCKING-THING) with a single, low-effort punch. Naturally, he's bored shitless and only seeks a worthy fight. An instant classic despite its anaemic twelve episodes thanks to its sense of humour, surprisingly smart character and genre writing, and utterly off-the-fucking-wall levels of batshit insane action -some of which gives even JoJo and Gurren Lagann a run for their money. Also a great lesson in writing an OP character without sacrificing fun. [TV Series: 24 episodes + 13 OVAs and [one fucking badass opening theme].

Related games: Playing an epic-level character in D&D (especially a monk), most superhero RPGs.

• My Hero Academia: Take X-Men. Make almost everybody a mutant, but give most people mediocre or incredibly specific powers. Then make Xavier's school an actual school for learning how to use your powers. That's My Hero Academia, the anime that launched over 9000 low-PL Mutants & Masterminds games. While the general plot is a standard "audience surrogate claws his way to the top" affair, it's still achieved widespread acclaim on both /co/ and /tg/ for avoiding the traps that make most shonenshit and capeshit insufferable, putting a reasonable amount of thought into how large numbers of people with superpowers would affect society and focusing on relatively tame and limited powers applied creatively over cheesy super-kill-everything moves, which makes it a goldmine for anyone looking to run their own supers game. One of the side characters also looks like a Daemonette, which has got to count for something. However, it must be noted that it has the affliction known as a toxic mainstream fandom, much to the dissapointment of many, so be careful where you speak of it. [TV series: 134 episodes and counting + 8 OVAs + 3 movie]

Related games: Mutants and Masterminds or any other superhero game with a flexible powers system

• Samurai Champloo: A show about two samurai with completely differing fighting styles being forced together along with a token female to fight for their personal goals. Combines crazy fight sequences with a very 80's-style feel, along with quite a few moments of both slapstick and gallows humor. [TV series: 26 episodes]

Related games: L5R, Derailed D&D quests, allying Necrons, Blood Angels, and Tau in a game of Warhammer

• Youjo Senki - Saga of Tanya the Evil (My Little Proto-Nazi or Ciaphas Cain: Isekai Loli Edition): Strike Witches if it was actually about war instead of lesbians. A high functioning sociopath salary-man is murdered by one of his disgruntled former employees and gets reincarnated into alt-fantasy 1910s Germany as the smuggest of lolis. Follows the general rhythms of the 21st-century-wargame-nerd-gets-transported-back-in-time genre, with the twist that God is actively fucking with Tanya to ruin all her carefully-planned attempts to escape the war and lead a cushy rear echelon life. While the premise may sound silly, the military action and writing are good enough to make it work. Tanya is more likable by miles than the stuffed-shirt protagonists of similar shows, despite a level of sociopathy that should make her the automatic villain. Lawful Evil without "World Domination". If you want frequent comedic misunderstandings and a "conventional artstyle", read the manga. If you want a bunch of elaborate explanations read the light novel. If you want more "Magical Loli Ace" fight scenes, watch the anime. Also contains a fair amount of background for using modern concepts in WW1 for those GMs who have to live Darth and Droids/DM of the Rings on a weekly basis. [TV series: 12 episodes season 2 soon^tm + 1 movie]. Fun Fact: Page 142 of the 1st light novel has the phrase "Sanity Checks"

Related games: Magical Burst, GURPS Infinite Worlds, Only War, Torg

• Blood Blockade Battlefront: A portal to another dimension opens in the middle of New York, transforming it in a combination of the two worlds. The city is renamed Hellsalem's Lot and become inhabited by both humans and the so-called beyonders. The series follow the members of Lybra, a clandestine organization made of people with special abilities that protect the city, and prevent lunacy from affecting the rest of the world. Special mention to Lybra's leader, Klaus Von Reinherz, a guy with looks and the strength of an ogre, the demeanor of a true gentlemen, and attacks with giant crosses of destruction made with his own blood and created through manly punches. As an added /tg/ bonus, one episode revolves around a boardgame called Prosfair, which is basically what you would get if Tzeentch decided to write homebrew rules for Chess. [TV series: 12 episodes + 1 OVA]
  • Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond: Sequel continuing the story. [TV series: 12 episodes]

Related games: Esoterrorists, World of Darkness, Chess

• FLCL: Have you ever asked yourself what a Noblebright Evangelion might look like? Well, FLCL is the result of this. Many consider FLCL to be the "Anti-Evangelion" of sorts, alongside Gunbuster and Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan, but this doesn't mean fans of Evangelion can't enjoy it. The term is used because while Evangelion mindrapes you into being horrified, FLCL mindrapes you into laughing out loud and feeling fuzzy all over yourself. Long Story short, a small boy, Naota, meets an alien girl and giant robots start appearing out of his head. From there on, many unusual and surreal events happen in his town, leading to bizarre and hilarious antics with him, his family and friends, and a surprisingly great "Coming of Age" story that completes all of this. And the robot/mecha designs are cool as hell and can inspire some great Mecha designs (Even if they don’t make any sense) (TV series: 6 episodes. Has 2 sequel seasons, but they are more divisive than the original. Also has a manga adaptation that is darker and somehow even more weird.)

Related games: Lancer (If it snorted even more coke before being created)

This is a legit Starfinder party.

• Outlaw Star: The show that Josh Whedon ripped off to make Firefly, down to the frozen chick in a suitcase. Follows the adventures of a far-future band of literal murderhobos with a stolen military spaceship designed for melee combat as they hunt treasure, come in third in a space grand prix, slum it for a while working as a port tugboat, fight magic wielding chinese space pirates, and then chase after some ancient big dumb object. Party includes a cocky gunfighter with a gun that shoots spell cartridges, a geisha-esque ninja assassin, a catgirl who can transform into wookie-sized werecat, a 12 year old engineer, and an android copilot who strips down to fly the ship from a fishtank.

Related games: Starfinder; no Traveller DM would stomach this much space magic, but Stars without Number has an expansion book for Space Magic.

Comedy

• Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: 2009 flash animations, still on crunchyroll. [Web series: 21 shorts.]
  • Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos: A 2012 anime, it's one of those wacky highschool comedy bits that Japan shits out every season, except starring Nyarlathotep. Yes, seriously. Pop culture references, /d/eviance, SAN loss (complete with official-format Call of Cthulhu character sheets), and gratuitous rape of canon ensue. "She's an eldritch abomination, not your waifu!" Canonically ends with the protagonist losing whats left of his SAN points as Nyaruko has her way with him during their "honeymoon". Seriously. [TV series: 24 episodes + 3 OVAs]

Related games: Call of Cthulhu (barely), Maid RPG

• Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! / KONOSUBA: GOD'S BLESSING ON THIS WONDERFUL WORLD! (KonoSuba): A 2016 parody of the isekai meme that hit flavor-of-the-month status after the anime adaptation hit Crunchyroll. The main character dies and gets reincarnated into a generic fantasy world (would normally be cliché if it wasn’t for the fact that he had one of the most embarrassing deaths in the history of man), but he ends up with an incredibly un-optimized party of dumbasses. Starting with "the weakest" generic Adventurer class (which he chose mind you), he's joined by a brain-dead goddess (who gets downgraded to an archpriest due to being forcibly dragged to the fantasy world kicking and screaming…literally) who spent most of her skill points on party tricks, and outright refuses to spend them on anything else. a Wizard who can only cast one spell per day because she absolutely refuses to learn anything other than the top-tier attack spell, and also hates,and will attempt to destroy anything that accomplishes the same task without using magic, and a Fighter who built herself as a pure meatshield because she's a hardcore masochist. (this particular girl needs SERIOUS HELP They're also joined by a big-tittied lich who is actually semi-competent but keeps getting nearly purged by the priest due to being undead. (And is far to wholesome for being a lich), and a different mage, who, despite being far more competent than the first one, has no friends or respect, (in universe). It resembles a group of new players stumbling though their first RPG campaign, run by an experienced GM who is laughing his ass off. Now getting a dub(it's here), so be prepared for mistranslated memes to be quoted ad nauseam. [TV series: 20 episodes + 2 OVAs + 1 film]

Related games: MMORPGs, Dungeon World, Knights Of The Dinner Table, [KonoSuba| Konosuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! TRPG]

• Everyday Life with Monster Girls: A 2015 anime that tickles the fancy of anyone who claims /tg/ can become /d/-lite-ful in the wee hours of a Saturday morning. Monstergirls everywhere, in glorious full-color animation. The manga this is based off of had a few brain cells and funny bones to rub together as well; expect to love or hate slaking your thirst for waifu herein. The manga is also a goldmine of reaction images. Be warned: this is an ecchi show, so the artist gets as close as he can to actual sex without the sex, thus stringing along the wallets of horny otaku without losing the support of high-profile publishers. So you should be right at home. Also expect older /d/eviants to call you a normie if you like this series, thanks to its comparative tameness and the number of lightweights who only discovered monster girls when this series stripped out the "weird" and then get triggered by something like Mon Musu Quest! If you want to see actual boinking, the original author had some webcomics about monster girls he made under the same name before the manga and anime; weeaboos collectively call them Daily Life with Monster Girls to avoid confusion. [TV series: 12 episodes + 2 OVAs]

Related games: Dungeons and Dragons PC race expansions, Mon Musu Quest! (barely), Maid RPG, Low-stakes GURPS Technomancer, quests, quests, quests

• Those Who Hunt Elves: A movie star, a champion martial artist, and a teenage gun nut are pulled into generic fantasy world during a fight with a big bad, whom they immediately beat up. The elf priestess who inadvertently summoned them tries to send them back but rolls a critical fail, blasting the return spell into fragments embedded on other elves which the "heroes" must now track down. Which they do but in the most expedient way possible, gaining a reputation as infamous murderhobos with terrifying powers who roam the world stripping elves on sight. Those Who Hunt Elves is one of the few shows to lampoon isekai as a genre. Airi, Junpei, and Ritsuko are fully aware they've become Ash Williams meets Sengoku Rance, even 4th walling on occasion; but they don't care, they just want to get back to modern Japan. They didn't choose to be here, they don't want to be here, and they will strip every goddamn elf they have to in order to get home. It isn't a hentai series outright but it gets about as close as you could in the 90's.

Related games: Virtually anything with fantasy elves (Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder) crossed with Army of Darkness RPG

Fantasy

Cleric, Wizard, Fighter, Elf, Thief, Dwarf

• Record of Lodoss War: Particularly noteworthy because it actually started life as a series of role-playing game sessions (Basic edition D&D!) that were turned into novels and then an Anime, that alone gives it major points. Sometimes known as Record of Loads of War. Plot wise it's a bit cliché, but it is still well regarded. [OVA series: 13 episodes + 27 TV episodes]
  • The same setting has two less famous anime titles: Legend of Crystania and Rune Soldier

Related Games: Dungeons & Dragons (Basic), Sword World (1st edition)

• Fullmetal Alchemist: Forever among the ranks of the most popular anime EVER (and maybe the best, too, but you know, Skub), it follows a young alchemist trying to recover both his missing limbs (his right arm and left leg) and his brother's ENTIRE BODY, which were lost following an alchemy accident where they attempt to revive their mother. The story eventually diverges from the manga to the point of characters having completely different roles in the story and which is polarizing when compared with the later series. [TV series: 51 episodes + 1 movie + 4 OVAs] [Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa]
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Take Iron Kingdoms, take magic out, ignore a good part of the tech but add element-bending, daddy issues and the more awesome parts of the Imperial Guard, and you get Brotherhood. It's impressive that there hasn't been made a RPG to this setting yet, as it's almost perfect for a Dark Heresy-esque game. Includes copious amounts of blood without becoming gore, genocides and unholy powers taking your body in exchange for knowledge. Has better animation and the original manga's story in exchange for being less grimdark than the 2003 series and skipping some unimportant but still interesting filler. [TV series: 64 episodes +1 movie + 4 OVAs] [Movie:The Sacred Star of Milos]
    • Fullmetal Alchemist (film): This is a live action movie that covers the first four volumes of the original storyline and is a dark fantasy, science fiction, and adventure film. It can be seen on Netflix.

Related games: Dark Heresy, Warmachine, Eberron

• (The) Slayers: AD&D 2nd edition: The Animation. Known for being a significantly more realistic take on what tabletop roleplay is like than the aforementioned Lodoss War, despite not actually being so closely based off an actual campaign. Lodoss War has been described as being the campaign the DM planned, whereas Slayers has been described as the campaign the players ended up playing. The TV series and OVA series are separate continuities with some overlap in the form of cameos. [TV series: 104 episodes + 1 movie, OVA series: 6 + 4 movies]

Related games: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, BESM

• Spice and Wolf: A show about Horo, wolf-girl pagan goddess of the harvest (Often mistaken for Leman Russ,) and also economics. Proof that not all medieval fantasy has to be sword-and-sorcery to be interesting.

Related games: Settlers of Catan, GURPS Fantasy Setting

• Maoyuu Maou Yuusha: (Geopolitical Economic Theories in My D&D?): An anime in which the brave Hero (named Hero) enters the Demon Realm in an attempt to kill the evil Demon Lord (named Demon Lord). In retaliation the Demon Lord diplomances him into submission, explains how the economy works, then proceeds to dominate the southern human realm with basic human rights, intelligent farming methods and smart business strategies. Originated as a webnovel published on 2ch's text boards, and matriculated into the spiritual successor to Spice and Wolf. [TV series: 12 episodes]

Related games: Settlers of Catan, GURPS Fantasy Setting, Ironclaw, Road to Enlightenment, Deus Vult: Wargaming in the Time of the Crusades, Reign

• Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings: A retelling of the Sengoku Era of feudal Japan, spearheaded by OP historical figures with varying accuracy and their own special attributes like six-wielding lightning shooting katanas. It is also nearly as manly as Fist of the North Star and somehow includes a fucking cyborg titan, steam-punkesque machinery, and magic. Sengoku Basara itself is a series of video games that predate and proceed the story of the anime (not to be confused with Samurai Warriors due to the same setting, same characters, and similar gameplay). [TV series: 24 episodes + 2 OVAs]

Related games: Exalted, Civilization, LoL

• Escaflowne: What you get when you combine Dungeons and Dragons with Mecha anime. Or simply say that it's DragonMech: The Anime... kinda. Series follows a girl from IRL Earth getting teleported to a magical world, a hotheaded prince who pilots the titular Escaflowne, a large cast of other interesting characters as they deal with the Zaibach Empire. The movie is its own continuity but parallels some of the major arcs of the anime. [TV series: 26 episodes + 1 movie]

Related games: Dragonmech

• Night Wizard! is a 2007 anime licensed from the same-named Japanese TRPG (that uses FEAR's free Standard RPG System). It's based on an actual campaign and the DVD even has the original sessions as an alternate audio track, which is awesome... for anyone who understands Japanese. [TV series: 13 episodes]

Related games: Standard RPG System obviously

• Chaos Dragon: Sekiryū Sen'eki is a 2015 anime based on sessions of the Japanese TRPG Red Dragon. The players and GM are veterans from other anime productions, more details at ANN. [TV series: 12 episodes]

Related games: Red Dragon obviously

• Maria the Virgin Witch: What makes us add Maria to this list is not anything about its characters or its plot detailing a Witch in the 100 years war between England and France trying to stop the fighting, but it's accuracy. To be blunt, it's not just historically accurate for an anime, but it's historically accurate period. If you want to get a decent idea of the Hundred Years War weapons and techniques, Maria is far from worst media you could watch to see what this kind of fighting looked like. [TV series: 12 episodes]

Related games: Warhammer Fantasy, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

• Izetta the Last Witch: A witch gets thrown into a pandemonium of a world. The year is 1939 and the Empire of Germania has just invaded the small principality of Elystadt. Includes: Magic, World War 2, actual fucking trench warfare (and its failure to blitz tactics) and pretty much all things 1939 (also has moe lovechild of the SAS and a Vindicare temple). It's not quite Valkyria Chronicles and it's not quite Pumpkin Scissors, but if you liked either one you'll probably like this too. It also has Imperial Guard-tier holding the line long enough for the MCs to take all the credit. The amount of detail may be enough to compensate for the admittedly weak story, dodgily written female characters, and the fact MC is a full blown Mary Sue. That said, she rides a fucking fuckhueg Anti-Tank Rifle (a derivation of the Boys and Type 97) as a broom and makes swords fly like any respectable rogue psyker. [TV series: 12 episodes]

Related games: Warhammer 40k, Warhammer, Bolt Action,Flames of War, Axis & Allies

• First Squad: The Moment of Truth: This is set in the eastern front during the Second World War where a group of "gifted" Soviet youth are trained to be a countermeasure to the Schutzstaffel trying to reanimate (through dark arts) an army of Teutonic Knights from a 12th century invasion of Russia (specifically, it's probably the Battle of Peipus (Battle of the Ice)). It has Soviet and Nazi Paranormal Tech, Panzers, and short but well made battle scenes, and what is probably a progenitor of the Ordo Malleus. What more is there to say? [Movie, Japanese Audio: 1:00:28 + Russian Audio with "interview" cutscenes: 1:12:53]

Related games: Warhammer 40k, Warhammer, Bolt Action, Flames of War, Axis & Allies

• Queen's Blade: An ecchi anime full of Hot Chicks ripping apart each other's clothes. There's a plot involving a tournament to become the ruler of the world and claim the titular Queen's Blade, but you're not going to care about it. Based on an old-school gamebook series that became big in Japan by stealing their secret art of hoovering up NEETbux with gratuitous nudity. [TV Series: 24 episodes + 6 OVAs + 12 specials]
  • Queen's Blade: Rebellion: A sequel to the previous. After Claudia won the Queen's Blade, she abolished the tournament and became a ruthless tyrant. The series follows rebels trying to overthrow her. Grinds against the line between ecchi and hentai like it was a table corner. [TV Series: 12 episodes + 2 OVAs + 6 specials]

Related games: Fighting Fantasy

• Dororo (1969) and Dororo (2019): A pair of adaptations of a manga by the legendary Osamu Tezuka. Hyakkimaru, a now young man whose feudal lord dad sold the various body parts of to 48 separate demons before he was born. With the help of some really advanced prosthetics, given to him by his adoptive father, he travels Sengoku era Japan to kill all the demons and reclaim his body. He's joined by Dororo, a reverse trap loli thief (better executed than it sounds). Thanks to the original manga being canceled mid-way with no ending, the two take the basic premise into wildly different directions (and there's some non-anime adaptations that diverge in even more directions) that are both worth a watch. [TV series: 26 episodes. 24 episodes.]

Related games: L5R (or any Oriental Adventures setting), especially when taint is played up, Promethean: The Created (2019 version).

• Interspecies Reviewers: Arguably the most infamous animu of 2020, the premisse is both stupid and genius: A group of adventurers, more specifically a human, an angel, an elf and the ocasional guest visit brothels made up of monster girls of the most varied fetishes and themes possible while rating them based on how enjoyable the experience was. Did we mention that the angel is an hermaphrodite? In spite of seemingly being create to satisfy the creator's pants (and to be fair, it probably was), the series is noted for having a surpising depth of research when it comes to worldbuilding in... well, interspecies relationships and monster girl anatomy and biology, going in-depth on why some species value and feel attracted to some aspects as opposed to others (the standards of old and young between humans and elfs is quite different for example) while also having the ocasional look into non-monster girl details of the setting like the political systems and economy and can be very useful for DMs who want to go into biological detail of their fantasy races and their sexual relationships/reproduction without coming off as as a /d/M. [TV series: 12 episodes]

Related games: Towergirls, Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Maid RPG, any fantasy game one could plausibly depict sexy monster gals as a "norm" really

Gaming

• For the same reasons that Western cinema has too many movies about chess, anime has a number of titles dedicated to classic board games:
  • Go: Hikaru no Go
  • Mahjong: Akagi: Yami ni Oritatta Tensai, Furiten-kun, Legendary Gambler Tetsuya, Mahjong Hishō-den: Naki no Ryū, Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku (The Legend of Koizumi), Saki, Ten: Tenhoudouri No Kaidanji.
  • Shogi: March Comes in Like a Lion, The Ryuo's Work is Never Done!, Shion no Ō.
  • Uta-garuta: Chihayafuru

• Problem Children are Coming from Another World, aren't they?: Sakamaki Izayoi, Kudou Asuka and Kudou Yoh are invited and transported to a place called "Little Garden", a sprawling melting pot of races grouped into communities. The three children are given "Gifts" and participate in the high-stakes "Gift Games", that can win back the prestige and territory of their community. The setting has analogies to Planescape's Sigil in general. [TV series: 10 episodes + 1 OVA]

Related games: Planescape, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, quests

• No Game No Life: Two basement shut-ins who win every game they play are dropped into a world where everything is decided with games, even national borders. They have to save the humans from getting steamrolled by 15 other races, all of whom use magic to cheat since Humans can't sense magic being cast. Involves plenty of traditional-of-traditional games being played, with metagaming tricks and cheating. [TV series: 12 episodes]

Related games: A lot of "normal" board games, Metanopoly

• After-School Dice Club: A high-school club of mostly cute girls who play Eurogames, with each episode featuring an actual Eurogame.

Related games: A ton of Eurogames, including of course Settlers of Catan

• Tonari no Seki-kun: A slice of life High School show following a girl and her classmate who spends all class playing miscellaneous strange games with himself. The English adaptation is subtitled, "Master of Killing Time" for some weird reason. The manga it is based on is a gold mine of reaction images. [TV series: 1 OVA + 21 episodes]

Related Games: Board Games, bored games

• Log Horizon: Players of popular MMORPG awaken in the game world itself. While the "trapped in an MMO" premise is by no means a new thing in anime (a recent and infamously bad example being Sword Art Online) Log Horizon is unique in the way it explores how the people thrust into such a situation would adapt without skipping straight to the shitty cliches. Now with its own TRPG core book. [TV series: 50 episodes]

Related games: Log Horizon TRPG, Everquest, 4e

• Kantai Collection: Originally a browser waifu game, it's about WW2 naval warfare, where the ships are personified as lolis fighting themselves/the allies/what are basically daemons of battles, islands and sunken ships. Yes, seriously; it's in route of becoming something akin to Touhou, given the amount of material out there getting mass-produced by the fans. When combined with Girls und Panzer and Strike Witches, you got the moe armed force to end all moe armed forces, period. Now with a second, unrelated series [TV series: 12 episodes + 1 movie, 8 episodes]

Related games: Battleship, Axis & Allies, quests, quests, quests.

• Overlord: A 2015-2018 adaptation of the novels written by Kugane Maruyama, after his tabletop group disbanded. It follows Satoru Suzuki, a leader of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown, on the very last day of the MMORPG Yggdrasil, just before it shuts down. Instead of getting kicked offline, he turns into his level 100 character, the eponymous undead "overlord" Momonga and discovers he has entered another world. Sigh, yes, it's yet another Isekai setting; but! there are a few twists: he's ended up in a new world that's not Yggdrasil, in the middle of three countries at war, and has an entire castle full of guild NPCs that are suddenly alive Night at the Museaum-style. Its highly recommended to read the light novels after finishing season one if it interests you, as the anime begins skipping a lot of important details and becomes a CG fest after that point (the anime even skips stuff in season one but its far less). Also, almost every spell name is ripped straight from D&D. [TV series: 39 episodes + shorts]

Related games: High-level 3.5e

• Girls und Panzer: As mentioned by the Kantai Collection entry above, this show rounds out the 'Holy Moe Armed Forces Trinity' by having schoolgirls actually fight each other in historic World War II tanks (tanks manufactured slightly after World War II, such as the British Centurion, are also featured, and the most recent add-on puts in FV tanks and a FUCKING MK V LANDSHIP) in a war game blown up to real proportions. The main story follows a ragtag Japanese high school 'tankery' team as they try to beat the more elite (and powerful) teams competing on the international level. Featuring towns built on oversized aircraft carriers, plenty of World War II references, and a diverse cast of characters, this show panders to anime fans and World of Tanks/War Thunder players alike (In fact, GuP and WoT are cross-promoting each other's materiel and GuP skins make up a massive proportion of War Thunder user skins, in fact I make them myself) [TV series: 7 OVAs, 12 episodes and 2 recap episodes]

Related games: Flames of War

• Mythbreakers: Mythbreakers is a series of livestreams by Hololive EN following an ongoing Hunter: The Vigil campaign. The full list of VODs can be found here. [Please expand] [5 session zero streams + 6 proper sessions + various other streams]

Related Games: Hunter: The Vigil

Horror, Grimdark, & Mindfuckery

• Akira - Famous for being THE Japanese animation that introduced its kind into the West, as well as being a cornerstone in the foundation of the cyberpunk genre. Japan gets nuked again, but not by an actual nuke but by the eponymous psionic superhuman. A dystopian Neo-Tokyo is created from the ashes, only to be destroyed again due to one of the MCs becoming a psychic as well and unleashing another death blast. Unfortunately the movie gimps a lot of content from the manga to fit into the standard 2-hour runtime of a film and thus compresses a lot of themes, and also came out before the manga actually concluded, so it's best to bust out those reading glasses if you want the full story. It's a huge inspiration for many works internationally including several tabletop games, and broke the Western mold of animation being only for kids - it's only natural /tg/ enjoys it. [READ THE MANGA] [1 movie]

Related games: Shadowrun, Mutants and Masterminds, playing Psykers in 40k

• Berserk: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: The Anime. Guts, a brutal and unstoppable swordsman, walks the land of grimdark as he recounts his impossibly bad-assed past. Noted for being GUTS HUEG because GUTS is HUEG, meaning he has HUEG GUTS. Includes copious amounts of rape, extreme violence, a guy (who did nothing wrong) selling the souls of his friends to the local version of the Chaos Gods and tons of general badassery. [TV series: 25 episodes][READ THE MANGA]
  • Berserk: The Golden Age Arc Movie Trilogy: This focuses on the Manga's Golden Age Arc only. The whole trilogy is currently on Netflix (added bonus: it's dubbed in english). [3 movies]
  • Berserk (2016): Building largely on the achievements of the aforementioned movie trilogy, the latest incarnation of Berserk finally explores a more monstrous and demon-infested setting set two years after the Golden Age Arc. While despised by many fans for its terrible CG animation and skipping major character moments, it's the only thing you're going to get for a long while. Made by the same people that gave you Teekyuu, the nine season shitpost. (also shows you one of the many ways of how to not introduce characters to a fanbase that would probably have given their organs to the author to keep him alive.)
  • Unfortunately the author of the manga died prematurely in May 2021, leaving the story technically unfinished (though the point at which it ended conveniently was "good enough", making some think he saw his demise coming) - any adaptations now will have to take liberties if they plan to go beyond where the manga stopped. Keep that in mind for any adaptations below this.
  • Fortunately, the author's best friend, also an accomplished manga author, took the reins of the studio and is determined to finish the manga according to the notes of the original author. There is hope for Berserk yet!

Related games: Warhammer Fantasy

• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners: Direct by Studio Trigger (who is founded by a former Gainax employee named Hiroyuki Imaishi which is why most of their works reminds the viewer of TTGL and FLCL). This awesome cyberpunk anime tells the story of a youth living in Nigh City named David Martinez, who becomes an Edgerunner after his mother's death and chromed the shit out of himself to the point of suffering Cyberpsycho like pretty much everyone in the Night City. Like a true Cyberpunk story, the series ends with David's crushing defeat as he's Zeroed/Flatlined by the hands of Arasaka's greatest agent: Adam Smasher (who, unlike the game, is actually portrayed correctly this time as the grim evil Darth Vader-like living legend badass who is Edgerunner's greatest nightmare and goal, and makes you properly hate him and feel motivated to tear him apart (or idolize him if you are a villain fan). Thank you Trigger), showing just how cruel the life in 2077 actually is (Fitting for a cyborgpunk story. Once again, unlike the game, the anime made many portrayals to the world of cyberpunk 2077 that the game could not). This anime's characters are also contained a wide range of well written yet relatable and likeable characters, such as Rebecca (a 20's-something trigger happy solo - with a youthful appearance that caused a little controversy when she was mistaken for a loli - who falls for David with unrequited love, loses her older brother Pilar to a Cyberpsycho, tries to help David save Lucy - the woman he actually loves, tries and fails to stop David succumbing to cyberpsychosis, and is heartbreakingly murdered by Adam Smasher just before they can make a getaway). And there's Maine (a solo who is like a father figure to David, who is about to reach his limit having experienced Cyberpsychosis many times, and the final time when he unwittingly kills his lover Dorio when she tries to snap him out of his cyberpsychosis, then kills a lot of law enforcement officers and himself with an explosive funeral pyre for Dorio). All in all, you could say Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a show about a family, a boy left with no choice but to chase the dream in the dangerous Night City, and the usual live fast, die young theme of the Cyberpunk genre. Such is the life in the Night City and a Cyberpunk setting. The show is generally well received among cyberpunk fan, especially to those who were unsatisfied with the Cyberpunk 2077 game, once again showing CD project RED are just a bunch of hacks and proves Studio Trigger's ability to get shit done. It also caused a slew of people to go back and buy the game so they could annihilate Adam Smasher and the Arasaka Corporation with extreme prejudice as punishment for Smasher's brutal murders of Rebecca and David. [TV Series: 10 episodes]

Related games: Cyberpunk 2020 or its successor Cyberpunk RED

• Death Note: A random high schooler finds a book that lets him kill anyone whose name is written in it. What does he do with it? He tries to become a god by killing criminals. Only one dares oppose him: the mysterious detective L. An exciting game of "He knows that I know that he knows," ensues. Originator of Just as planned thanks to an especially shitty translation. [TV Series: 37 episodes + 2 movies + 2 live-action movies + one real-life murder case]

Related games: Esoterrorists, Kult, Hunter: The Reckoning, Delta Green

• Devilman CRYBABY (2018): An adaptation of Go Nagai's Devilman (published 1972) aka the OG grimdark. Simply put, virtually none of these examples would exist without Devilman. It's arguable that 40K would be somewhat different without Devilman. A high school boy named Akira Fudo gets sucked into the world of demons and merges with a demon but somehow keeps his humanity. As he fights the demons on behalf of his boyfriend Ryo Asuka, Ryo reveals the existence of the demons to humanity at large, which plunges the whole world into hell, ultimately culminating in a three-way battle between humanity, Akira and Ryo (who reveals himself to be Satan) and his legion of demons. The battle ends in the death of everyone but Ryo, only for God to reset the world. [TV series: 10 episodes..]

Related games: CthulhuTech

• Ergo Proxy: What if Cthulhu was in Ghost in the Shell? Starts out like as a fairly political investigation story set in a distopian city, evolves into one hell of a journey in the post-apocalyptic world outside filled with acid trips. Like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with a story. [TV series: 23 episodes]

Related games: Dark Heresy, Shadowrun, Dark Sun, CthulhuTech

• Gantz: Most often written off as guro porn and for delving into taboo subject matter, but there IS meaning behind the madness, otherwise it wouldn't have the cult following it has. People get revived by a mysterious spherical machine upon death, and are free to return to their normal lives on one condition: they kill an alien hiding on Earth once a week. Said aliens range in motivation from just trying to live in hiding on Earth to being actually malicious, but most have lethal tricks up their sleeve that can, and often will, result in high casualties. Many are also abominations worthy of being Chaos Spawn-AGHADAKJAGJ *BLAM* And since the sphere picks indiscriminately, fucked up situations can and will ensue - be it getting a child involved, working with sociopathic assholes who would gladly sacrifice you for their own survival, and degeneracy. It isn't a total loss though - if someone gains enough points from purging enough xenos, they can choose to leave the death game permanently (though the trauma will most definitely haunt them). A tale of humans surviving against nigh-insurmountable odds and people making the best of a truly horrible situation. Borders on Grimderp at times, but is usually as grimdark as an average Guardsman's life, just with Khorne levels of blood being constant. Can be Skubby for /tg/ and any other place on the Internet, but there's a significant group on the board who like it for being Deathwatch but with normal people. [READ THE MANGA] [TV: 26 episodes] [If you dislike large amounts of blood & gore, body horror, and themes/scenes that would trigger the local SJW, avoid]

Related games: Dark Heresy, Delta Green, Call of Cthulhu, Monster of the Week

• Ghost in the Shell: This was the big Cyberpunk (the genre, not the setting) Anime before Cyberpunk Edgerunners. The 1995 film is about a sexy cyborg federal agent and her pursuit of a hacker who's targeting the minds of cyborgs, alongside a poignant question about the meaning of humanity. Features all the cyberpunk tropes, set in a dense city full of skyscrapers and slums, lots of rain and fog sequences, spider-legged tanks, creepy cybernetics, and all of the hallmarks of the 1980s and 90s — Neon lights, hacking sequences, CRT televisions, bodysuits, and big hair. After the original 1995 movie, there was a sequel movie and several re-adaptations, including the Scarlett Johansson live-action movie that was limited by the human body. Just compare 1995 to 2017. [Original: 2 movies, Stand Alone Complex: 52 Episodes + 1 movie + wack Netflix version, Arise: 10 Episodes + 1 movie, Dreamworks: 1 movie]

• Goblin Slayer: I'm Goblin Slayer, I hunt goblins. The epic tale of a hardcore autistic adventurer who refuses to fight anything other than goblins, even when the BBEG is about to take over the world. Notable for its "realistic" take on medieval adventuring: D&D-style darkvision monster spam is a plot point, weapon lengths are taken into account, what magic exists is highly limited and time-consuming, and the titular goblins are Tucker's Kobolds gone grimdark with the shit-covered prison shankings and whatnot. Also lots of rape. Started as a web story on 2ch that immediately took off and transformed into the modern inheritor to Berserk's grimdark crown. [TV Series: 12 episodes and counting]

Related games: The Riddle of Steel, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, a theoretical good version of FATAL, Goblin Slayer TRPG

• Hellsing: An action horror centering around the Hellsing organization: a secret agency who uses vampires to protect the British Crown from other supernatural forces. Alucard, a gun-toting vampire who is possibly one of the most powerful in all of fiction (basically he's fucking Dracula at full power and not stuck in a shitty old man body; at one point they give him an SR-71 to possess into his personal batplane), and his new big-titted, former cop, fledgling Seras are their main agents. Their enemies include rogue vampires, a homicidal Scottish Irish priest from the Catholic Church, and Millenium: a psychotic group of neo-Nazis Actual OG Nazis (1,000+ Waffen-SS volunteers to create the Letzte Bataillon) who want to take over Europe through a battalion of artificially-created Nazi Vampires. Mostly known for its Biblical references and imagery and abnormal amounts of blood spewing out of anything and anyone like a bunch of Fruit Gushers (though nowhere near as Grimderp as Devilman or Violence Jack.) Divided into two continuities; the original, 13 episode, TV series (which overtook the manga and so went in an entirely different direction, and has lackluster animation, but also deeper characters, a more even theme, and a rocking soundtrack) and the "Ultimate" OVA series (totally faithful to the manga, but that also means it keeps ping-ponging between beautifully animated guro and cutesy-poo chibi "comedy" sections). [TV Series: 13 Episodes, OVA series: 10 Episodes]

Related games: Dark Heresy, maybe Achtung! Cthulhu, Vampire: The Requiem + Hunter: The Vigil + Deviant: The Renegades (TV series only), some batshit insane fusion of Vampire: The Masquerade and Scion or Exalted (Ultimate)

• Hunter x Hunter: What if Warhammer 40k was a shonen manga? Two shota boys fighting dudes. In all seriousness, there are four major characters introduced in the series: Gon, the country raised kid who wants to find his awesome dad (shota #1); Killua, the young assassin raised in an assassin family who wants to befriend Gon just to escape his assassin duty (shota #2); Kurapika, the last of her his clan of special humans, seeking vengeance against the super-strong psychopaths that killed them; and Leorio, who's the weakest of the group (in the anime, anyways) but wields THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! HxH combines the worldbuilding of One Piece, the psycholigcal aspects of Death Note, and the lovecraftian horror and brutality of Berserk and Warhammer 40k, which is a huge commendation. It also created somewhat balanced and unique power/class/level system called "nen", a downright rare accomplishment in a genre of OVER 9000 nonsense. [TV series: 1 pilot + 62 episodes + 30 OVAs; Reboot: 148 episodes + 3 movies]

Related games: FATE, Exalted, quests, quests, quests

• M.D. Geist: A psychotic super soldier is released on a post-apocalyptic abandoned colony to breach a former governmental compound and prevent the activation of an army of killer robots that are programed to exterminate all surviving humans on the planet. He blasts his way in, slaughtering the cybernetic defenders... then releases the army himself so he can fight forever, and if the rest of humanity is wiped out, who cares? Khorne approves! [1 OVA + 1 movie]

Related games: Black Crusade

• Made in Abyss: Aka Hunter x Hunter's seinen cousin. What happens when you cross Studio Ghibli with the lovecraftian horror of Madoka Magica, the brutality of Berserk and the psychological horror of Digimon Tamers? You get Made in Abyss that's what! Made in Abyss is set in a pseudo-fantasy/adventure genre that is populated by a lot of moe lolis mining and excavating ancient relics of a past civilization found scattered in a giant, deep fucking hole in the middle of the island. Like Digimon Tamers and Madoka Magica, it starts off cute and whimsical with absolutely gorgeous background art that would make the Great Hayao Miyazaki proud. But partway through the plot, the series turns into a very dark turn, and we mean DARK. The way the anime (and manga) handled its mature themes, its art design, the musical score, a well paced story progression and conclusion as well as not treating its audience like they are a bunch of mindless, horny basement dwellers earned it critical acclaim to not only anime elitists, but normal plebs as well. Furthermore, the fantastic world building of Made in Abyss has made it popular for D&D conversions. That and the fact that it gave /tg/ a bucket load of memes thanks to a certain bunch of characters, the series also hosts the only furry you should not kill on sight... [TV Series: 26 episodes + two movies]

Related games: Dungeons and Dragons

• Neon Genesis Evangelion: A philosophical character drama and Lovecraftian Horror Mindrape that pretends to be a mecha anime for its first half. Either one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) anime ever produced, or an overrated piece of tripe that collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness and awful budgeting, depending on who you ask; there is no middle ground. Rumored to have originally been a "next generation" sequel to Anno's earlier work Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water but the producers wouldn't allow it. Inspiration for Adeptus Evangelion, obviously. [TV series: 26 episodes + 2 movies, Reboot (Rebuild of Evangelion): 4 movies]

Related games: Adeptus Evangelion, JAEVA Project, CthulhuTech

• Now and Then, Here and There: A young Japanese boy and American girl are transported through time and space to a dying world orbiting a dying star, and are forced to fight as a child soldier for evil men who rape and breed them, while the humans of the planet slowly fight themselves to extinction over water. Not for the faint of heart, or for anyone who thinks Warhammer 40k is as grimdark as humanly possible. This is true, hardcore grimdark. [TV series: 13 episodes]

Related games: Dark Sun so very much, FATAL, Gamma World

• Psycho-Pass: Classic cyberpunk dystopia from Gen "The Butcher" Urobochi. Japan has once again isolated itself from the world after a poorly defined apocalypse and is now governed by the SYBLE System, which tracks everybody based on their "Crime Coefficient," imprisoning anybody who shows the potential for antisocial behavior. The series follows a squad of investigators and the "latent criminals" forced to work with them as they hunt down the people at the margins of the system with guts and giant fuck-off handguns that can disintegrate solid steel but are programmed to only kill bad people. An absolute goldmine for cyberpunk imagery somewhere in between the black-trenchcoat look of Cyberpunk 2020 and the post-cyberpunk iPod future. [TV series: 22 episodes + 1 movie (named Mandatory Happiness of all things)]
  • Psycho-Pass 2: Sequel series without Urobochi. Takes away everything that made Psycho-Pass interesting and replaces it with guro. Avoid.

Related games: Paranoia, Shadowrun

• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: A middle school girl gets approached by a magical girl mascot animal with an offer to join a secret war between the grotesque witches and the magical girls that fight to curb their destructive influence. Naturally, it's a trap. Also the music is great (while the composer has been known to use Kajiuran (a gibberish language she made that sounds nice), quite a few people have manged to translate and even make covers in other language for some of the music, German sounds especially good.)! [TV Series: 12 episodes + 2 compilation movies and one expansion movie][watch the first compilation movie or first 3 episodes. If you aren't hooked, drop it]

Related Games: Liberi Gothica, Magical Girls - The Game, Magical Burst, Princess: The Hopeful, Quest:Magical Girl Noir Quest

• The Rising of the Shield Hero (2019): From Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari published 2017 (and originally from 2012). Naofumi Iwatani gets isekaied with three others. The quartet are assigned their legendary weapons: Spear, Sword, Bow, and... Shield. Naofumi gets the Shield and a companion, the princess... who proceeds to totally fuck him over by lying to everyone and claiming he had (literally) fucked her. Now disgraced, the "false hero" plays ronin: by helping villagers clean up after the heroics of the other three, usually because they'd moved on from some temporary victory without finishing the job. Naofumi acquires the usual anime isekai harem of loli, the tanuki Raphtalia, whom Naofumi redeems from slavery; and Filo the blonde chicken-girl shapeshifter. Can almost be seen/read as a response to the poorly-written Cavalier in the 1980s D&D Cartoon. [TV series: 25 episodes. More planned 2022.]

Related games: Dungeons & Dragons (Basic)

Mecha

• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion: When you take terrorism, high school, chess and a protagonist smoother than a dwarf (mine)shaft then throw in some mech suits you get Code Geass. The plot focuses on a masked vigilante called Zero who may remind you of a certain someone and their efforts to fight back against the Brittanian Empire but that's not all. The power of geass plays a major role (explaining it properly would be a spoiler but it's basically magic/hypnosis). The mechs of the series are known as Knightmares which serve as the main fighting force for Brittania and the rebels. If you want a show that has qualities even the Emperor's Children would appreciate then watch it. [TV series: 25 episodes]
  • Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2: Follows as a continuation of the first season. Just as fabulous. [TV series: 25 episodes]
  • Code Geass: Lelouch of the Resurrection: An alternate timeline based on the compilation movies made of R2, which had slight but significant changes to series events (like, oh, Shirley being alive), it follows C.C's life after the end of R2, as well setting up Lelouch's return (as the compilation movies didn't have him "dead"-dead). Series writers have stated that any continuation of the series will use this timeline moving forward.

Related games: Battletech, playing with Imperial Knights in Warhammer 40,000

• Eureka Seven: A boy who aspires to become a 'sky surfer' (think floating surfboards) links up with a cute girl who pilots a gigantic mech for the 'Gekkostate' organization. Said mechs ride upscaled versions of hover boards and battle government forces for control of a rare power source. To get a good idea what the mechs look like, picture Evangelions that can transform into vehicles and that carry fuckhueg surfboards. Noted for having references to vintage rock music. [TV series: 51 episodes + 1 movie in an alternate universe setting]
  • Eureka Seven AO: A sequel to the original that shits on basically the themes of the first series was about in the most aggravating manner possible (the reason being, the writer absolutely loathes the TV series ending and has made it his duty to make each following iteration in the franchise much more closer to his vision -- i.e. as depressing as possible). However, it has fans that didn't care for the first series and it got praised for having better mechs and monsters so if you're more into that take a stab at it. Like the first series it retains its vintage rock music references. [TV series: 25 episodes + 1 OVA]

Related games: Traveller, Battletech

• Macross: One of the best mecha franchises of all time, this show revolves around fighter jets that transform into mecha. Started with Super Dimension Fortress Macross, and spawned multiple series and movies afterwards. Kinda took a left turn into the idol-genre (especially after the 'Do You Remember Love?' OVA), but overall pretty decent. Involves humanity fighting giant aliens with the help of transforming starfighters called Variable fighters. It should stand on it's own merits, rather than on my explanation of the plot. (4 TV series, 6 OVAs, 8 Full-length animated movies)

Related games: Battletech, Star Frontiers

• Robotech: An abomination born out of the early days of the US anime market, Robotech is a composite localization of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (see previous), Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA into a single work. This isn't as crazy as it sounds, the same thing was done to make Power Rangers. Anyway, here's where it gets interesting. The original creators of BattleTech were lazy and couldn't be bothered to actually design any giant robots; instead they licensed designs from Macross franchise. But Harmony Gold (owner of Robotech) called it infringement and sued FASA, which spiraled into suing Microsoft due to Mechwarrior. Robotech used to be pretty well known but since Macross Frontier the Macross-vs-Robotech fight has ceased to be a thing. [TV series: 85 episodes + 4 movies + 2 OVAs]

Related games: BattleTech, or you know Palladium's Robotech game

• The Big O: Batman meets mechs meets Japanese monster movies in a post-apocalyptic world where nobody remembers anything prior to forty years ago and advanced androids walk the streets of an otherwise 1920s-era city dominated by glass domes. One of the biggest contenders for "Most Confusing Ending" award, it is otherwise well-regarded by the anime community and it's lack of a third season to answer all the questions is much-lamented. That said, the director had originally been given two seasons to plot out his story, had it cut to one due to poor ratings, then had a second season greenlit thanks to its performance in the US, only to give us another season of questions. [TV series: 26 episodes]

Related games: Mekton, Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron, Spirit of the Century

• Armored Trooper VOTOMS: A Mecha pilot of few words and fewer expressions seeks revenge on those who framed him, uncovering an ancient conspiracy along a way. One of the grittier and "realest" entries of the real robot genre without going into the hard sci-fi. Inspired Heavy Gear, which the Japanese described as "The Votoms mecha in the Dougram setting", the latter referring to Fang of the Sun Dougram, VOTOMS creator's earlier real robot series. It also has its own role playing system running off the Fuzion rules. [TV series: 52 episodes + 10 OVAs]

Related games: Heavy Gear

• Fang of the Sun Dougram: A pack of Guerillas with Real-Robot 'mechs fight a war of independence on a shitty-ass planet. Fairly strong amounts of cynicism and grey morality and minimal wacky shit firmly separate it from Gundam and the like. Was one of the direct inspirations for Battletech, which cribbed all it's 'mech designs verbatim and much of the extremely mad-max-esque setting. [TV series: 75 episodes + 2 movies +1 OVA]

Related games: BattleTech, A Time of War

• Mobile Suit Gundam: The mecha anime that not only helped popularize Real-Robots in the first place but also started one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises in Japan and in time would help influence the Tau. Set in the midst of a bloody "One Year War" between the Earth Federation and Space Nazis oppressed colonists called the Principality of Zeon, it follows the trials of a whiny teenager who quickly grows a spine, the titular Gundam and the crew of the White Base as they generally try to win the war in one piece, with some psyker Newtype hijinks along the way. Also known for its grey morality, gritty portrayal of war, intrigue, lots of mass-produced robots dying in droves and even more deaths. Basically, the Japanese equivalent of Star Wars if it deconstructed Star Trek. Had poor ratings at its initial airing in 1979, only really gaining popularity with successive reruns. Now known for its massive library of spinoffs ranging from "Romeo & Juliet (with giant robots)" to "Top Gun (with giant robots)" to "Mortal Kombat (with giant robots)". Also, when we mean death, we mean death - the series creator, Yoshiyuki Tomino is known as "Kill-Them-All Tomino" not only for this series but pretty much any series he touches seeing large parts of the main cast and numerous side characters getting offed, often in just plain brutal ways. [TV series: 43 episodes + 3 movies + many spinoffs]
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket: If you want to get taste of the franchise without watching a long ass series or (almost) any prior knowledge about the setting or timelines, then this excellent little OVA migh be for you taste. It's story about one unlucky Zeon rookie (and hamburger lover) who is signed up with a team of bad-asses and send into infiltration/suicide mission to "neutral" space colonie and destroy secret Gundam prototype. During the mission he recruits school kid and meets hot redhead who is pilot of said prototype. Did I mentioned that their failure would meant to the nuking of said colony by renegade Space Nazi. It's awesome... in it's description of tragedy of war, cheapness of civilian lives and futility of honor and sacrifice. Also the main character is voiced (in dub) by David Hayter aka the same guy who voiced Snake from MGS series.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: The Chad Older Brother of the Gundam series that followed it. It still follows the Gundam formula of Earth vs Colonies vs Pacifists, but is notable for having the Best-Girl-Princess of Japan the peace-loving neutral state of the ORB union joining the mujahideen (a year after 9/11, too), waifu-swapping protagonists, and being censored to shit in NA and Japan. Controversially showed the obligatory-queen-bitch-character naked in the intro, and showing her having sex with the protag and the antagonist in the show, which got people butthurt. So obviously, the animation studio did the right thing and extended the scene.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: One of the latest (and most awesome/failed (terrible plot pacing, wonky villain motive) (It's complicated)) iterations of the Gundam franchise, IBO focusses on a group of young orphans-turned-soldiers and their struggle to protect a princess trying to bring peace to the land. There are only 72 Gundam suits ever produced in this post-apocalyptic setting, and a good bunch of them appear in the hands of both the antagonists and the protagonists. As expected of a Gundam show, the deaths are aplenty and there are a ton of intense mecha-on-mecha action scenes to enjoy. What differentiates this Gundam series from the others is how the protagonists suffer extraordinarily painful events throughout the show, despite the fact that they are children barely approaching their teen years (as expected, this has generated much debate on the topic of child soldiers and other more serious business brought up in the plot, such as slavery and neo-colonialism). The main crew will fight pirates, mercenaries, and a huge military organization along their journey, and the show also features a charismatic soldier trying to manipulate people on both sides of the conflict to bring balance to the Force the aforementioned military organization. Ignore the fact that he is technically engaged to a kid despite being a fully-grown adult. Also, unlike…hell, most anime in general, there’s a semi-legit reason for the child soldiers here. The kids have special spinal implants that are basically 40k mind-impulse links, allowing them to control mobile suits and mobile workers with their minds, as extensions of their own bodies, and thus giving them much faster and more fluid control than any normal pilot. The catch is that only the still developing bodies of kids can safely accept the implants. Then we go into derp territory when these mind-impulse link child soldiers are treated as disposable trash by their commanders, considered worthless beyond the fact that they have "whiskers." Oh, also, unlike any other Gundam series, this one is not only an on-Earth exclusive one, but (due to advances in armor rendering lasers almost completely impotent) the use of ranged weapons is much more sparse, with XBOX HUEG melee weapons as the main instrument of fighting. [TV series: 50 episodes]
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: the newest and hottest Gundam series, and one that's taking a very different turn from Iron-Blooded Orphans. Set in a post-Capitalist Corporate Dystopia where the rich have moved into space and left the poor to rot on Earth, it follows the transfer student from the Mercury Mining Colony, the unimaginatively-named Suletta Mercury, and her stumbling into the cutthroat world of corporate politics when a chance encounter leads to her engaged to the heir to the massive megacorporate conglomerate, the Benerit Group. Said heir happens to be another woman, Miorine Rembran, and the possibility of Gundam's first same-sex romance between its two leads has caused an endless storm of skub and shitposting. In this universe Gundams are illegal due to their technology slowly killing whoever pilots them, and the revalation of the existence of Suletta's Gundam ( Which may or may not be possessed by souls of other children. Its basically confirmed in the second cour that Aerial is Sulettas big sis.) threatens to overturn the careful balance of power between the OLD MEN, RUNNING THE WORLD.

Related games: BattleTech, Warhammer 40000, Mekton, Battle Century G

• Getter Robo: the granddaddy of the combining mecha and crazy ride even when it started in the 70s. Got a bombastic start being inspired after seeing a minor car pile up. They came up with a mech powered by evolution rays that combined by crashing three jets into one another at Mach 8 piloted by three crazy bastards as they fight off an underground empire of dinomen and their mech-dinosaurs. Then things go more unhinged as time goes on as we get increasingly larger robots, Time travel, body horror, existential dread, cosmic horror, and some of the bolerest of anime opening songs. MANGA timeline: Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, Getter Robo go (don't use anima version), Shin Getter Robo, Getter Robo Arc (original Getter Robo author dead before writing an ending so see anime for a conclusion) [READ THE MANGA][TV series: 82 episodes + _ movie, OVA series: 13 episodes]

Related games: Mutants and Masterminds(a mecha related GARPS supplement)

• Gunbuster & Diebuster: a precursor to Gurren Lagann in many ways and related to Getter Robo above due to the themes of war PTSD, existential dread, angst and isolation caused by time dilation and escalating stakes that take on ludicrous proportions as the series goes on. The first series is ideal for gauging weather or not the particular kind of mecha anime is right for you due to it's condensed and trope-distilled nature. Aside from that the anime also boasts a fair depiction of realistic space combat that persists through the show (time dilation is a big factor and plot point). [OVA series: 6+6 episodes + _ movie, supplementary material: 11]

Related games: Mekton

• Acrobunch: A family of six go on a treasure hunt while being chased by an underground kingdom of goblins that want revenge on humanity. This anime was created in 1982 by Kokusai Eiga-sha, the same people responsible for the 80s Tetsujin 28 series (aka The New Adventures of Gigantor for you 90s kids) and God Mars with the same staff as the J9 trilogy (consisting of Braiger, Baxingar, and Sasuraiger). Before the late 2010s this remained under most people's radars and even /m/ saw it as just "that one anime that premiered with Escaflowne and Betterman in Super Robot Wars Compact 3 and wasn't Mechander Robo". Since its fansubbing completion this hidden gem is notable for being one of the few series that consists of the titular super robot going against real robots. While it includes a lot of ancient alien tech, Tzeentch having a cameo eating virgin goblins in Ireland, and even God smiting both sides for disturbing Noah's Ark, it has enough war gaming minutia: Mass produced units, subfactions, cannon fodder vehicles, combat tactics, and parallels to real life history and religion. In the last quarter we get a red shirt army that doesn't suck ass at their job (shocking!). Also neo Nazis are confirmed to be a rogue goblin group in this timeline, call Goblin Slayer and the Inglorious Bastards. The ending, despite being a happy one, is said to be on a level of bonkers even Evangelion was unable to reach. No spoilers, but we will say you can't skip any episodes because even the standalones come into play at the end. [TV series: 24 episodes]

Related games: Battletech

Things That Aren't Anime, But You Thought Were

• Touhou: An arcade-style, shoot-em-up vidya series, featuring a 100% loli cast, barring one or two NPCs here or there. Its fandom is incredibly large and kooky, and so fanart of its characters get plastered all over 4chan, causing newfags to ask what anime they are from and incite much derision. It has however, received several official manga spinoffs. [Video-game series: 27 titles, as of Hidden Star in Four Seasons]

Related games: /v/ stuff, shmups, Exalted, 4e (that's a joke, a joke someone made terrifyingly real.)

• Wakfu: A French (and therefore absolutely cringe) cartoon about a kid named Yugo who discovers he is part of a long-lost race of people with the ability to create portals. A fun world with fun characters and a surprisingly deep BBEG that is not to be confused with your waifu. [TV series: 52 episodes + 6 specials + 27 episode mini-series]

• Dofus: The Treasures of Kerubim: Is an episodic series about a retired adventurer who runs an item shop, set around 1000 years before the Wakfu timeline and 200 years before the game. [TV series: 52 episodes + 1 movie]

(Both Dofus and Wakfu stem from flash-made MMOs of the same names, both games have multiple classes that decide players' abilities and base appearance so homebrews are very possible.)

Related Games: Krosmaster, which features the same characters and races. Wakfu had an unofficial early beta RPG and the company Ankama has asked if anyone is interested in an official RPG.

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In a world where creatures are able to manipulate the elements through martial arts, a child capable of controlling air who froze himself in ice awakens to find that he is the last of his kind. This child is also the Avatar, a person with potential to manipulate all elements and multiply their power by communing with past lives. His adventure involves traveling with friends to master the elements in hopes of unlocking his powers and overthrowing the evil emperor of the Fire Nation that seeks to conquer the world. Is awesome and is famous for having some of the best written characters/character development in any medium. we argued about it once. No we didn't. [TV series: 61 episodes, Live-Action: 1 movie, 1 TV Show this summer.]

• Avatar: The Legend of Korra: The sequel to the above set sixty years in the future. The next Avatar (Korra, a delicious brown girl from the water-manipulating tribe) struggles to make peace between the normals and the element-fu-wielding upper class amid the setting's equivalent of the Roaring Twenties. There's also some stuff about a god of darkness disrupting the spirit world. Incredibly skubtastic on /co/ due to various hamhanded attempts at character development. Is also nowhere near as good as the previous series. Still decent, though, especially when you consider how Nickelodeon consistently fucked its creators sideways. [TV series: 52 episodes]

Related games: Exalted, Legends of the Wulin. Also has a card-game that uses QuickStrike rules.

• RWBY: Anime-esque CGI production Not anymore, and lo behold the official anime adaptation! Made by the late Monty Oum and RoosterTeeth, pronounced "ruby". The world is filled with creatures known as Grimm that seek to destroy humanity, stemmed back by a pseudo-magical substance known as Dust and an order of protectors known as Huntsmen, which the four main female characters are training to be. Started off noblebright with themes of tolerance and improving society, then got more grimdark by the middle of the third season and kept going down from there. Depending on who you ask, it's either an enjoyable (if flawed) series with good characters, an interesting setting and ideas, and cool weapons, or a dumpster fire of bootleg anime tropes smashed together with hackneyed writing. Pretty much everyone agrees that the fight choreography is amazing in the first two seasons (and most of the third, till Monty unexpectedly died), which lends itself to some popularity among fa/tg/uys. Has an official card game / RPG hybrid called Combat Ready, alongside a few fan RPG systems [[1]] conversions. Most are dead, as always. There's also a D&D campaign using RWBY models by Roosterteeth.

Also notable for being widely hated on both /co/ and /a/, unlike most of the things on this list, so tread carefully when discussing it. Also, someone wrote a surprisingly touching crossover with 40k. Lamenters on Remnant works better than you think. [TV Series: 116 episodes and counting + 74 Chibi episodes + crossover film with the Justice League, of all things (with a second part announced)^WTF] [Anime: 12 Episodes]

Related games: low-level Exalted, Big Eyes, Small Mouth

• Transformers: Due to originating as imported Japanese toys, it was inevitable that the global franchise of robots that turn into other things would have some weeaboo in it. Most notable are the actual anime produced in Japan, such as the various original series branching off of G1 and other continuities, to the Unicron Trilogy of the early-to-mid 2000s that revitalized the franchise long enough for Bayformers to happen in spite of most of the trilogy being FAIL. Even without those, though, the brand owes its existence to its forefathers in the mecha genre, since without them we wouldn't have robots that can change shape, much less robots that can combine into bigger ones. Also has a pretty funny fan wiki with Darth Vader.

Also, Gundams keep getting mistaken for them.

Related games: Battletech

Things That Aren't Approved but Merit a Footnote

• Aura Battler Dunbine: Tomino made this after Gundam. A trainwreck to some, a classic to others. Some guy and his motorcycle gets transported to a fantasy world Ash Williams style, only to discover it's full of fantasy giant robots with fantasy missiles and fantasy laser beams. Imagine guys in armor with swords piloting bug-like mecha against castles defended by spearmen and rock throwing catapults; it's like they deliberately set out to be more Gamma World than Gamma World. If it came out today it'd be a steaming pile of skub but the same is true for most things from the 80's. Halfway through the series the whole mess gets transported from fantasy world to Cold War Earth and the Cold War goes hot. Everybody dies and the final battle mimics Acrobunch. A three part OVA called Tales of Neo Byston Wells was released years later and took a more traditional fantasy approach, ditching the guns and other contemporary elements. [TV series: 49 episodes + 3 OVAs]

Related games: Army of Darkness RPG, Gamma World

• Sword Art Online: Though not the first portal fantasy that dealt with the whole "being trapped in a video game" shtick, SAO is definitely the one the made it incredibly popular in recent years. Starting off with an incredibly ridiculous premise to begin with, that being that not just one person or even a small group of people are stuck in the video game world but several thousand are because the creator is some freak wanting to test the resolve of humanity. As such, he set it up the VR helmets (which render users immobile while playing) used to enter SAO to microwave their user's brains if they attempt to remove them while logged in or die in the game. How this design feature managed to slip past health and safety regulations is not explained. The main character of the show is Kirito, a Beta Tester who uses his incredible fighting prowess and knowledge of the game from being a "beater" (that's a portmanteau of "beta tester" and "cheater") to soar in both levels and varying amounts of prestige/infamy. May or may not have been responsible for several peoples deaths in the game world. Quickly acquires a waifu and harem, which expands as seasons go on all the more to mixed reactions. The first season is generally accepted to be alright, if by the numbers, though the second season onward is where many argue the show starts to take a nose-dive in quality still making money by Beating its Corpse in the form of games and ANOTHER anime "Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online" thats still ongoing. If you MUST watch it, do yourself a favor and stick to the Hilariously Awesome Abridged series instead.

Related games: It's own line of board, card games and video games, BESM, OVA RPG, Gratuitous Anime Gimmick, a whole slew of poorly written fan-made RPGs

• Sonic X: An anime about Sonic the Hedgehog that centers around the "Adventure era". While 4kids butchered it, the Japanese and French versions are largely considered to be the least molested by the censors. Decent character work, its claim to fame in Sonic media is the whole "Shadow removing his ring thingies to get stronger" thing. The third season earned appraise for being a cross of Sonic and Star Trek, and is just begging for a setting in it. Episodes 68, 77, and 78 are pretty intense, but the resolution is kinda ass. Good show, though the english dub and annoying characters really drag it down. Watch it for the Adventure 2 adaptation and the Metarex saga.

• Banner of the Stars: Grand space opera with space ships and space battles and space elves and fukkin nukes 'n lazorbeamz. Should be right up the /tg/ & /m/ alley, right? Wrong. Because the main character, Lin Jinto, is a fucking traitor who sells out his homeworld and species for the supposed affection of a space elf princess raging tsundere who left him to die on at least one occasion. After fighting a war against his own people (how dare they resent him being appointed their hereditary planetary lord), he has the gall to whine about how he's hated by everyone and so can't go see the places he cared about growing up. It's not his fault, he didn't choose to become a space prince, he was picked, see? He didn't ask for this; but having been made space prince, will he give it up and stand with his kin? Fuck no. Watch this show, and by the end you'll agree that the only thing Jinto deserves is the noose he whines about his people saying he deserves.

Related Settings: Traveller, Star Army of Yamatai (if you're a cretin who thinks Lin and the Abh are actually the good guys), and frankly any system with space elves

• /m/'s list of recommendations for war gamers

• Strike Witches: WWII flying aces redrawn as loli airplane machines which zap aliens while flying around without pants. Not really beloved by /tg/, but someone thought something about the show would make a good homebrew. [TV series: 24 episodes + 1 movie + 4 OVAs]

Related games: Axis & Allies, Axis and Allies Angels 20, Ace of Aces, a metric fuckton of quests

Tie-In Games

Whilst there are /a/-related "generic" games, such as Big Eyes, Small Mouth (an attempt at a "GURPS Anime") and Teengers From Outer Space, there are also some anime that have actually gotten their own licensed RPGs. Whilst the various products of Guardians of Order are the oldest and most notable examples, there are younger examples that've come out since GoO sunk itself, and for obvious reasons we'll list them here.

• Demon City Shinjuku
• Dominion Tank Police
• El-Hazard
• Goblin Slayer
• Hellsing
• KonoSuba
• Revolutionary Girl Utena
• Sailor Moon
• Slayers
• Tenchi Muyo
• Trigun