Approved Anime

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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 flavor of the month bleeding over into /tg/? (NO. Your addition will likely be reverted, so don't bother. As a general rule wait a few months after it shows up.)

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

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 weird and convoluted superpowers hunt vampires. Hop in the car, loser, we're going posing. [READ THE MANGA][OVA series: 13 episodes + 1 movie, TV series: 74 episodes and counting] Referenced in TTS so you know it's good.
Related games: Mutants and Masterminds, FATE, low-level Exalted, The Ballad of Edgardo
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The singular Orkiest show ever 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 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
  • Hunter x Hunter: 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); Kurta, the last of its clan of special humans that seeks vengeance against a group of super-strong psychopathic bandits; and Leorio, who's the weakest of the group (in the anime, anyways) but wields THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! HxH builds worlds like One Piece, 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: 62 episodes + 30 OVAs; Reboot: 148 episodes + 2 movies]
Related games: FATE, Exalted, quests, quests, quests
  • 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
  • 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, 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 hacking others to bits, and Kaiser Reinhard (who's like a combination of Napoleon and Alexander the Great). 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 from the early 1980's that are now available in english. Technology level is basically Traveller to a T. [OVA series: 162 episodes + 3 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 + 9 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 and 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. [TV series: 38 episodes and counting + 2 OVAs + 1 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 Nazi): 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. This makes her a wonderful inspiration for anyone who wants to play a Lawful Evil character with a personality beyond "rule the world with an iron fist." If you want frequent comedic misunderstandings, read the manga. If you want a bunch of elaborate explanations read the light novel. 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]
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

Comedy

Related games: Call of Cthulhu (barely), Maid RPG
Related games: MMORPGs, Dungeon World, Knights Of The Dinner Table
  • 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 faggot if you like this series, thanks to its comparative tameness and the number of lightweights who only discovered monstergirls 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 monstergirls 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, quests, quests, quests

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 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 (1st edition), 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 has 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]
    • 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. [TV series: 64 episodes + 4 OVAs]
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
  • 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: 25 episodes + 2 OVAs]
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
  • 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. [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
  • Escaflowne: What you get when you combine Dungeons and Dragons with Mecha anime. Or simply say that it's DragonMech: The Anime... kinda. [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

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.
  • 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. 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. [TV series: 12 episodes + 1 movie]
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 Momonga, 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" 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. 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). [TV series: 7 OVAs, 12 episodes and 2 recap episodes]
Related games: Flames of War

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 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. Inspiration for Adeptus Evangelion, obviously. [TV series: 26 episodes + 2 movies, Reboot: 3 movies and counting]
Related games: Adeptus Evangelion, JAEVA Project, CthulhuTech
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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), 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)
  • 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. [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 its 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.
Related games: Warhammer Fantasy
  • 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
  • Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED): Some nerd has the power to go back in time but only when a blue butterfly feels like it, and he uses this to solve murders and stop life threatening events. It's a lot like Butterfly Effect if it wasn't absolute pretentious crap. Also involves a lot of kids dying. [TV series: 12 episodes + 1 movie]
Related games: one of the GUMSHOE games but with supernatural stuff toned down
  • 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 to oppose him: the mysterious 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
  • 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
  • Made in Abyss: 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...[TV Series: 13 episodes + upcoming second season]
Related games: Dungeons and Dragons
  • Goblin Slayer: I'm Goblin Slayer, I hunt goblins. The epic tale of a hardcore autist 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, FATAL

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: A third season announced for 2017 2018. Widely considered to be the producers milking the franchise but all the fanboys will no doubt end up watching it anyway.
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. [TV series: 51 episodes + 1 movie that you shouldn't watch because it is bad.]
    • Eureka Seven AO: A sequel to the original that shits on basically everything the first series was about in the most aggravating manner possible. Avoid. [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 hmanity 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: 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. Also the reason why many of the original BattleTech designs can never be remodeled again; FASA licensed the designs from Japan first but Harmony Gold didn't want to share. Now mostly known for the lawsuits it spawned, which at one point briefly saw Harmony Gold facing off against Microsoft. Is an adaptation and combination of three Japanese anime: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, for which the term "Macekre" was coined, referring to producer Carl Macek. [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 there are at least [TV series: 43 episodes + 3 movies]
Related games: BattleTech, Warhammer 40000, Mekton, Battle Century G
  • 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]
Related games: See above

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 based) 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.we argued about it once. No we didn't. [TV series: 61 episodes]
  • 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. [TV series: 52 episodes]
Related games: Exalted, Legends of the Wulin. Also has a card-game that uses QuickStrike rules.
Related games: low-level Exalted, Big Eyes, Small Mouth


Things That Aren't Approved but Merit a Footnote

  • Aura Battler Dunbine: Tomino made this trainwreck after Gundam. 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. Halfway through the series the whole mess gets transported from fantasy world to Cold War Earth and the Cold War goes hot. Everybody dies. [TV series: 49 episodes]
Related games: Army of Darkness RPG, Gamma World
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