Approved Anime

This is a list of /tg/ approved anime, organized loosely into genres.

Add important details (e.g. tv series or OVA, number of episodes or movies) in brackets.

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 flavor of the month bleeding over into /tg/? (NO. Your addition will likely be reverted, so don't bother.)

Updated to add 2013 titles, etc.

Science Fiction

• Cowboy Bebop: Animu fans will argue forever if this is the best anime or not, but it is probably one of the best space-westerns anybody has made ever. An astounding look into one of the best parties a campaign could ever have. [tv series: season 1 - 26 episodes; 1 movie]

Related games: Traveller, GURPS Space, Diaspora

• 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.

Related games: Traveller, Battletech

• Fullmetal Alchemist: Forever among the ranks of the most popular anime EVER (and maybe the best, too, but you know, Skub), it has a young alchemist trying to recover both his missing limbs (his right arm and left leg) and his brother's ENTIRE BODY, which was lost following an alchemical accident. There's a newer series titled "FMA: Brotherhood", with updated animation and a storyline that fits much closer to the original manga. Which version is better is up for debate.
  • 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 an Dark Heresy-esque game. Includes copious amounts of blood without becoming gore, genocides and unholy powers taking your body in exchange of knowledge.

Related games: Dark Heresy, Warmachine

• Ghost in the Shell: /k/ makes a show about cyborgs and politics. The two movies and TV series take place in different continuities, and have very different feels. You may love one but hate the other. [2 movies; tv series: season 1 - 26 episodes, season 2 - 26 episodes, 1 made-for-TV movie]

Related games: Eclipse Phase and Shadowrun

• Robotech/Macross: One of the most well-known anime series of all time, it basically revolves around humanity fighting against multiple alien invaders with transforming mecha. It helped influence the Transformers franchise and is a must-watch for mecha/sci-fi enthusiasts.

Related games:Battletech

• Serial Experiments Lain: The trippiest philosophy class you will ever take. A near-future anime set around 2020 or so, diverging around 1990. A must-watch for cyberpunk and conspiracy fans, as well as existentialists.

Related games:Shadowrun, Eclipse Phase, and maybe Paranoia and Server Crash.

• 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, then had a second season greenlit thanks to it's performance in the US, only to give us another season of questions.

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

• Trigun: An impossibly skilled and improbably young outlaw (Arbitrator) roams a barren Wild West planet helping people out with his skill at shooting people, aided by a somewhat faithful party of well-armed priests (Clerics) and insurance agents (Adepts). Replete with pseudo-religious symbolism and Metal Gear-worthy antagonists.

Related games: Dark Heresy, Deadlands

• 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.

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.

Related games: Battletech, A Time of War

• Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Space Prussia 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, is well regarded for the enormous amount of very well-written characters and an even more bloody disregard for the lives of main characters than GRRM. Also quite possibly the single most screencapped anime on /tg/, for it's wealth of brilliant monologues. Technology level is basically Traveller to a tee. [OVA series: 110 episodes; Prequel: 52 Episodes; 2 movies]

Related games: Traveller, GURPS Space, Full Thrust

Action

• Fist of the North Star: The singular manliest show ever made.

Related games: Street Fighter the RPG (by White Wolf), playing a monk in D&D

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The singular manliest, and most FABULOUS! show ever made. Men with weird and convoluted superpowers hunt vampires. Hop in the car, we're gonna get posin'.

Related games: Mutants and Masterminds, FATE, The Ballad of Edgardo

• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan: The singular Orkiest show ever made. Also Steve Blum voices a gay guy, no joke. [TV Series: 27 episodes; 2 movies, a dozen or so parallel works (short videos)]

Related games: Mekton, Toon

• HunterxHunter: Two futa boys fighting dudes [TV Series: 148 episodes]

Related games: FATE, FATAL

• 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. They both share an entry since they're essentially just part 1 and 2 of the same story. Goes from fantasy adventure to science fiction aliens and space gods.

Related games: Playing a Monk/Sorcerer Gestalt in D&D 3e, Exalted

• 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.

Related games: Derailed D&D quests, allying Necrons, Blood Angels, and Tau in a game of Warhammer, and anything related with classic RPGs

Gaming anime

• Kantai Collection: Originally a browser game and now getting its anime, it's about WW2 naval warfare, where the ships are girls. 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 to moe armed force to end all moe armed forces, period.

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

• The Legend of Koizumi: The world leaders all play Mahjong to determent the fate of the planet. Later on a team of Koizumi, The Bushes, The Pope, Putin, and Yulia Tymoshenko fight Hitler who took over the Moon.

Related Games: Mahjong

• Saki: The journey of Miyanaga Saki and her friends to rise to the inter-high school and eventually, the National Mahjong championship. Also lots of fan shipping between the girls.

Related Games: Mahjong

• Tonari no Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time: A slice of life High School show following a girl and her classmate who spends all class playing miscellaneous strange games. The manga it is based on is a gold mine of reaction images.

Related Games: Board Games

• Log Horizon: Now with it's own TRPG core book. Players of an MMO all over the world awaken to what is seemingly the game world, but now they're living it instead of being merely trapped in the game.

Related games: Log Horizon

Horror, Grimdark & Mindfuckery

• Neon Genesis Evangelion: A philosophical character drama and Lovecraftian Horror Mindrape that pretends to be a mecha anime for its first half. Either one the greatest anime ever produced, or an overrated piece of tripe that collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness, depending on who you ask; there is no middle ground. Inspiration for Adeptus Evangelion. Obviously. [TV series: 26 episodes; 5 and counting 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/raped and bred by evil men 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.

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

• 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!

Related games: Black Crusade

• 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, and his new big-titted fledgling Seras are their main agents. They're enemies include rogue vampires, a homicidal Scottish priest from the Catholic Church, and Millenium: a psychotic group of neo-Nazis who want to take over Europe through a battalion of artificially created 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.) Had a real shit 13 episode TV series back in 2001, but was given a glorious OVA in 2006. Took until fucking 2014 for all ten episodes to be released, however.

Related games: Dark Heresy, maybe Achtung! Cthulhu

• Ergo Proxy: What if Chtulhu 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.

Related games: Dark Heresy, Shadowrun, Dark Sun

Fantasy

• 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.

Related games: Warhammer Fantasy

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

Related Games: Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition), Sword World (1st edition), Table top RPGs.

• (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.

Related games: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

• 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 coincidentally) enters the Demon Realm in an attempt to kill the evil Demon Lord. In retaliation the Demon Lord (named Demon Queen/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 2chan's text boards, and matriculated into the spiritual successor to Spice and Wolf.

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: Several feudal cults fight each other in massive battles, spearheaded by OP hystorical figures with their own special attributes like six-wielding lighting shooting katanas. It is also nearly as manly as Fist of the North Star. Somehow includes a massive fucking cyborg titan.

Related games: Exalted,Civilization, LoL

• Strike Witches: (Little Girls in Panties): 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.

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

Related games: A lot of "normal" board games

• Escaflowne: What you get when you combine Dungeons and Dragons with Mecha anime. Or simply say that it's Dragonmech: The Anime...kinda.

• 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 meltingpot 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.

Related games:Planescape, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

• 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]

• 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]

• Maria the Virgin Witch: What makes us add Maria to this list is not anything about it's characters or it's plot, it details 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 historically accurate for an anime, but it's historically accurate period. If you want to get a decent idea of period weapons techniques, Maria is far from worst media you could watch to see what this kind of fighting looked like.

Related games: Warhammer Fantasy, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Comedy

• Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: 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, Sanity loss (complete with official-format Call of Cthulhu character sheets), and gratuitous rape of canon ensue. "She's an Eldritch Abomination, not your waifu!"

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

• Daily Life with Monstergirls: An anime that tickles the fancy of anyone who claims /tg/ can become /d/-lite 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. Be warned: this is an ecchi show, so while there is no actual sex, don't go in expecting "good clean fun!"

Related games: Dungeons and Dragons PC race expansions, Mon Musu Quest!, Maid RPG

Things That Aren't Anime, But Which 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.

Related games: /v/ stuff, shmups, D&D 4th edition (that's a joke, a joke someone made terrifyingly real)

• Wakfu: A French 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. Not to be confused with your waifu.

Related games: /v/ stuff, generic mid-Europe fantasy setting, and apparently has its own RPG rules in France.

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: we argued about it once. No we didn't.

Related games: Exalted, Legends of the Wulin

• RWBY: Popular anime-esque CGI production made by Monty Oum (oh, and Roosterteeth too). A world filled with horrible 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 Huntsman, which the four main female characters are training to be. Started off fairly noblebright at first, but the writers turned up the grimdark almost out of nowhere in the middle of the third season. Although not based on any RPG system, it has a number of really impressively animated fights, some engaging/endearing (if somewhat cliche) characters and storylines, and impossibly cool weapons. Also, someone is apparently making an RPG based on the setting; there's also that.