We have been well conditioned in all media that the good guy should win. They are who you should root for. They are the character that you should like. You what’s great, though? When they don’t actually win. Sure, the good guy will probably win in the end, but some anime series have those “good” characters so thoroughly thwarted by evil, that it might not seem like they will ever come out ahead. It’s pretty smashing. Berserk One of Berserk’s core concepts is the struggle. Gutts, as the struggler, goes through the most horrible life and just keeps moving forward. Even when his best friend sacrifices all his other friends to become a demon to fulfill his ambition and then rapes his lover in front of him. Even after that event, things don’t get better. In fact, Gutts continues to struggle and the evil in the world seems to just take a stronger hold. Devilman Crybaby Well, the world is kind of trashed at the end of Devilman. The

Once an elite runner, Kakeru is now only running to escape those accusing him of stealing food. While fleeing, he meets another runner, Haiji, who persuades him to live in his old apartment complex. There, Kakeru finds it is full of fellow residents who all have one goal – to enter the Hakone Ekiden Marathon. Unfortunately, aside from he and Haiji, they are all pretty novice. Although a sports anime about running, it still holds a lot of sports anime tropes. So if you are a runner, then this is perhaps an anime for you, but, so, too, are these other anime recommendations. For Fans of Troubled Athletes Big Windup When it came to batting, Ren Mihashi was an ace of his middle school baseball team. However, it was his pitching that lead to their constant loses. The bullying of his teammates got to be so much that his self-esteem was crushed and he moved to a new prefecture for high school with no intent on playing ball. However, while is unwillingly dragged in, he f

Do you remember your student council president from your school years? No, probably not, right? They really weren’t very important and typically didn’t have a lot of power. However, student council presidents in anime are often more than just people that want something fancy to put on a college application. Sometimes they have crazy, world-ending powers. Satsuki Kiryuin From Kill la Kill Perhaps the most famous of all powerful student council presidents, Satsuki rules her school with an iron fist. Thanks in no small part to her and the student council’s special uniforms, they can physically overwhelm any student. Furthermore,because her mother is the chairman of the school’s board of directors, she can even exert power over the principal and the faculty. Milly Ashford From Code Geass Well, Ashford academy was founded by the Ashford family, so their daughter was pretty much almost guaranteed a spot on the student council, right? However, as stu

In this world, there is a minute amount of magic left. Hitomi is a descendant of an old witch family, and also lost her emotions and color at a young age. Feeling bad for her granddaughter, the great witch Kohaku sends her into the past where interactions with her young self and Kohaku’s friends will hopefully foster some growth in her granddaughter. Light and whimsical, Iroduku doesn’t have a lot of flash to stand out, but it was great to unwind with. If you are looking for similar anime recommendations, then you need not look any further. For Fans of Whimsical Auras Violet Evergarden After the Great War and her time in it came to an end, Violet Evergarden is adrift. Her purpose was once only battle, and now she must find a new one. After recovering from the loss of her arms, Violet takes up a job at the CH Postal Services. Here she transcribes people’s thoughts into what should be emotional letters. However, the “emotional” part seems t

We don’t do manga series in our recommendations here, just anime. However, that doesn’t mean that anime fans don’t want to lie in bed and read a few good chapters quietly before bed. Instead of branching out into manga recommendations, we’re going to give you a few good ones that you can look into. So if you want to read some good ecchi manga or are just some sort of anime hipster that wants to be all “I read the manga before it was cool and animated,” then check out these ecchi manga recommendations below. Famidol! One day, a girl asks Shouta to take a picture of her with Enoshima in the background. However, she is so cute that he gets embarrassed and runs away after snapping it. He later discovers she is an actress filming in his home town. In order to get ready for her role, she suddenly asks Shouta to be her boyfriend. Ai Kora Where most young men lust after the whole woman, Maeda only likes specific parts of a woman. When he moves to attend school in

Amnesiac Yuta Hibiki one day encounters Hyper Agent Gridman inside an old computer. Gridman tells him that he needs to fulfill his mission. While sorting out what that all means, a giant monster attacks his city. Yuta then discovers he can merge with Gridman to fight the monster, but once it is done, everyone’s memories reset and the dead are forgotten. If you crave a mecha story that is less anger and drama and more like the mecha stories of old, then SSSS.Gridman is a gem. For more anime recommendations like SSSS.Gridman, head on down below. For Fans of Light-Hearted Mecha Planet With Despite not having memories of his past, Souya lives a peaceful high school life. However, one day his town is threatened by huge objects floating in the sky. Conventional weapons are useless against them, but the 7 heroes charged with defending the city emerge in their mechs and head into battle. Souya, too, finds himself drawn to battle, but not against the objects, he is drawn

If you believe most romance anime, your love life dies after high school. If you aren’t engaged by graduation, you are doomed to die alone, right? However, adult relationships can be just as touching, dramatic, and even more interesting since it allows for a wider array in terms of setting and romantic activities. It is so much more interesting when flings aren’t limited to just the school yard. Golden Time Golden Time is a rather interesting sort of romance between college students. While the main character has some convenient amnesia, the plot surrounds a rather complicated triangle of relationships. Banri, the main character has to deal with the maybe-unrequited love for Linda, which he can’t remember. Meanwhile Banri also develops new feelings for his friend’s Mitsuo unrequited girlfriend Koko. Koko, in turn, needs to come to terms that Mitsuo doesn’t really love her. Arakawa Under the Bridge After falling off a bridge, Kou is rescue

After a run in with a robber, the 37-year-old Satoru is suddenly killed. However, he finds himself able to reincarnate into a fantasy world as a slime named Rimuru Tempest. This allows him a fresh new life of adventure while being surrounded by a number of other unique beings. Another season, another isekai show. However, this one is actually pretty fun to watch. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime, we can provide. For Fans of Isekai Other Worlds No Game No Life In the real world, siblings Shiro and Sora are NEET shut-ins. However, in the virtual world, they are the legendary gaming duo. One day, after a strange email, they find their reality taken away as they are transported to the realm of Tet, God of Games. Here, Shiro and Sora must play games to defeat the sixteen races of this world as well as Tet in order to become the new gods. In both shows, you follow characters as they are transported to a new world

It’s that time again. The fall 2018 season has progressed enough where the good rises to the top and the bad ends up completely forgotten. However, you don’t have to sort that out yourself. You’re busy, we get it. So we watched the new season for you to give you a clue on what was worth watching. As always, this only covers wholly new series. So any subsequent seasons won’t be included. If you are a fan of A Certain Magical Index, Golden Kamuy, Sword Art Online, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, or Fairy Tail, then by all means go watch those. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai On a day like any other, Sakuta is in the library, and there he spots a wild bunny girl. This wild bunny girl, or rather, Mai Sakurajima, a semi-retired actress dressed like a bunny girl, catches no one else’s eye. In fact, Sakuta seems to be the only on that can see her on that day and on many other days. This phenomenon, called Puberty Syndrome, is rumored on the internet.

As a young girl, Yuu has always loved shoujo manga and has awaited a love confession that sets her heart aflutter. However, when she gets one from a junior high classmate, she feels nothing. Unsure how to respond, she watches Nanami, her high school student council president, expertly let someone down who just confessed to her. Seeking her guidance, she asks for Nanami’s help. However, the next love confession she receives is from Nanami, could this be the romance she was waiting for? Touching yuri anime seems to be all the rage these days, and this is another well done series for it. If you are looking for similar, then look no further than these anime recommendations. For Fans of Shoujo-Ai School Love Citrus After her mother remarries, fashionable Yuzu moves to a new city. However, with her all-girls school being strict and conservative, she immediately butts heads with the stoic student council present. Worse yet, later that night, she discovers that the stud

There was a day, likely very long ago, that someone was watching an idol in real life in Japan (something not so far off from the boy bands and girl bands of the 90s in the west), and they had an idea. They suddenly had an idea that they could transfer that loyalty and admiration of idol fans to an idol made of perfection – an idol given form in anime. Seeing how obsessive people can be over animated characters today, it is no wonder that anime idol series do quite well for themselves. This way, an idol can’t grow old, can’t disappoint you with marriage, and can’t quit. Perhaps it is best for all if the most popular idols are those in anime. If you enjoy your cute anime idols, for whatever reason, here are some excellent options. Love Live Although actually rather new, Love Live has become one of the most famous idol shows. Their goal was to stop their school from closing, which is as noble a cause as they come. However, what makes this series

Ushio Hinomaru is a new student, small of stature and body. However, he appears before the sumo club of his school and wishes to join. Although all the other members are big men, the sumo club is hardly renowned. However, this little sumo wrestler has a goal – the Hinoshita Kaisan, the pinnacle of sumo wrestling. You’d think there would be more sumo anime series out there, but no, really just this one. If you are looking for more good anime series like Hinomaru Sumo, then check out the recommendations below. For Fans of Aiming For The Top Hajime no Ippo Makunouchi Ippo has been bullied his entire life, but dreams of changing himself. One day, he is saved by Takamura Mamoru, who happens to be a boxer. After Ippo faints from his injuries, Mamoru takes him to his gym where Ippo asks to be trained in the sport of boxing. Boxing and sumo are not so dissimilar, and neither are the plots of these shows. In them, you watch a character with nothing, who doesn’

On many occasions, anime has a very strange time with age. Maybe a character becomes so iconic, they just don’t want to age them. Sometimes, creators are trying to convey something by making a character deceptively young. Does it make them cuter or seem more mature? That’s up to us to decide, but here are some strange examples of anime character who aren’t the age they look. Hagu from Honey and Clover This is perhaps one of the strangest cases of this age phenomenon. Hagu is a perfectly legal 18-year old college girl, apparently. Except that she looks like a perfectly illegal 8-year old. Furthermore, she acts like a kid, too. I mean, being young at heart is fine, but there should be a line. The weirdest part is that she’s a major love interest in the show, so… Honey from Ouran High School Host Club Every guy in the host club has a niche they fill, and Honey fills the shotacon niche with his small stature and boyish looks. He looks like h

For Sakura Minamoto, she started her day off normally, right up until she skipped outside and got hit by a speeding truck. She died of course, but 10 years later, she wakes up as… a zombie. However, her story is just beginning as a man wants her and several other undead girls from throughout Japan’s history to become a regional idol group to save Saga from becoming an obscure prefecture. If you like zombie shows and idol groups, then this is like, your perfect show. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get any more perfect than this. However, if you are looking for something similar, then check out these anime recommendations. For Fans of Idols Love Live Chika Takami is a self-proclaimed normal girl with minimal interest in clubs and no discernible talent. However, after visiting Tokyo, she discovers a stage where even a normal girl like her can shine – school idols. Thus, she sets off on a mission to create her own high school idol group, but not without

Sexuality drives anime characters as it does many people in real life. You watch a romance show to watch characters fall in love. You watch a show like Naruto or My Hero Academia to ship different characters and hope those ships set sail. However, not everything is about those feelings of attraction. Sometimes, people can feel love, but they don’t feel an explicit sexual attraction to any gender. They are labeled as asexual and widely ignored in all media, anime included. However, whether they were created as asexual or not, there are many characters who exhibit signs of asexuality in anime. Sunakawa in My Love Story Suna is actually a pretty interesting case for a boy in a romance anime. At one point, he is confronted with a love interest, and he lets her down as gently as someone can. Now does his lack of love for her make him asexual? Certainly not. Men can be just as not into women as women can be to men. However, what makes him likely asexual is he shows no

On a day like any other, Sakuta is in the library, and there he spots a wild bunny girl. This wild bunny girl, or rather, Mai Sakurajima, a semi-retired actress dressed like a bunny girl, catches no one else’s eye. In fact, Sakuta seems to be the only on that can see her on that day and on many other days. This phenomenon, called Puberty Syndrome, is rumored on the internet. As Sakuta decides to solve the mystery, he grows closer to Mai and other girls that suffer the same malady. Don’t judge an anime by its name should be said about this show. It is a bit harem-esque, certainly, but also a nice slow burn romance. If you are looking for similar anime recommendations, then give these try. For Fans of Slow Romance Golden Time Banri Tada has finally been accepted into a private law academy in Tokyo, but due to an accident, he is without all his memories. During his freshmen orientation, he meets Mitsuo Yanagisawa who is consummately stalked by a girl from his

The world has always had a certain enamored nature when it comes to twins. They are an interesting phenomenon, to be sure, but anime has a particular interest in them. Unfortunately, most anime series will use twins in one of two tired old ways. Ichiru and Zero From Vampire Knight These twins have a long and contentious history. However, their story as twins is an interesting one. Ichiru was born weak because those born a vampire hunter rely on instinct and use that instinct in the womb. Typically they would reabsorb their twin, but not this time. However, Ichiru’s weakness made him the bane of his parents, leading to him hiding his survival after his family’s slaughter from his own twin for a long while. Shion and Mion From Higurashi: When They Cry Higurashi is a confusing show, 90 percent because of how they structured it. That other 10 percent comes from its use of twins. It actually is one of the few shows to do the old trope of switching the twins ou

A young priestess fresh out of the temple is excited to start her life as an adventurer. On her first day, she joins an adventuring party to go slay some goblins. However, like so many young adventure parties before them, they underestimate the goblins. It ends with two dead, one viciously raped, and the priestess saved from fate by a man whose only mission in life is to slay all the goblins. Goblin Slayer got off to a controversial start for reasons I can’t quite comprehend, but if you became a fan, then consider these similar anime recommendations. For Fans of Dark Adventuring Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Thrown into a fantasy land with no memories of their previous life, the strong among this new group of people bind together while the weak are left to fend for themselves. Grimgar tells the tale of the struggles of the weak as they pick up combat skills and fight the creatures of the world in order to earn a living. Of all the other anime series on this list, G

We don’t do manga series in our recommendations here, just anime. However, that doesn’t mean that anime fans don’t want to lie in bed and read a few good chapters quietly before bed. Instead of branching out into manga recommendations, we’re going to give you a few good ones that you can look into. So if you want to read some good horror manga or are just some sort of anime hipster that wants to be all “I read the manga before it was cool and animated,” then check out these horror manga recommendations below. Dead Tube Dead Tube is a website, it s videos a flurry of sex and violence. The more disturbing the video and the more views it gets, the better the profit. Tomohiro is a member of his school’s film club. At present, he is being pestered by a girl from the swim team to make a video for her. When he accepts, he watches this girl murder a classmate brutally and naked for this Dead Tube submission. Like God Says Shun Takahata’s day started o

In the real world, siblings Shiro and Sora are NEET shut-ins. However, in the virtual world, they are the legendary gaming duo. One day, after a strange email, they find their reality taken away as they are transported to the realm of Tet, God of Games. Here, Shiro and Sora must play games to defeat the sixteen races of this world as well as Tet in order to become the new gods. Visually stunning and occasionally clever, No Game No Life and its games draw you in, if you are looking for good anime recommendations like No Game No Life, then look no further. For Fans of Games Kakegurui Hyakkaou Private Academy is an institution for the elite of society with a very special curriculum. These students are the children of the wealthiest people in the world, but they won’t need athletic prowess or book smarts for a successful life, they will need to know the art of the deal and how to read people. So instead of traditional classes, this school features a curriculum of rigoro