If you’re a devout follower of Big Calendar who takes pleasure in celebrating every day like a holiday over some niche thing (without a commercial incentive, we’re sure), you’ll be delighted to know that today isn’t just a random Wednesday: it’s National Anime Day.
Seeing as how the medium has gone from an internet forum hobby to mainstream pop culture acclaim that doesn’t need any help getting put at the forefront of your peepers, we’ve instead opted to showcase 16 deep-pull anime shows that we love (and haven’t written about). We explain why they deserve more love, what they’re about, and where you can watch ’em. So let’s skip the filler and get right to it.
Ajin: Demi-Human
Studio: Polygon Pictures
Why we love it: Ajin is one of those mile-a-minute supernatural horror anime that follows a group of supernatural beings called Ajins, whose powers make them functionally immortal, along with a weird ash monster that also looks over them, which they can command like Stands in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. While what puts butts in seats for the anime is none other than Johnny Yong Bosch playing its disgruntled teen thrust into the government conspiracy against his will, the pièce de résistance is Pete Sepenuk’s performance as Satou, a cool old guy who has grand plans to take over the world that begin with his delight in killing others with his gleeful militarized usage of his supernatural powers.
If you like Chainsaw Man and Death Note, you’ll love Ajin.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Akiba Maid War
Studio: P.A. Works
Why we love it: The premise of this anime is basically: what if the cabaret substory in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series were turned into its own anime? The answer is a jazzy action comedy series about the criminal underworld of Akihabara from the perspective of a newbie maid cafe worker thrown right into the eye of its hail of bullets, costumed turf wars, and customer service with a smile. Akiba Maid War is in on the joke of how dumb its premise is, yet it somehow finds a way to tug at your heartstrings with the film noir elements woven into its madcap storyline about gun-toting maids.
If you like action flicks like John Wick and the Baby Assassins trilogy, you’ll love Akiba Maid War.
Where to Watch: HiDive
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Why we love it: While the anime folks tend to talk about “the one that’ll make you cry” in reference to Your Lie in April and A Silent Voice, the show that had us in our feels is A-1 Pictures’ 2011 supernatural slice-of-life show, Anohana. Set five years after the tragic death of a girl named Menma, the series sees her childhood friends attempt to reunite to help Menma’s ghost remember how she met her end and, most importantly, fulfill her dying wish: mend their drifted-apart friendship. Anohana is one of those shows that you can watch once, cry deeply, and recommend other folks watch in turn, so they’d be cursed with their own share of irritated eyes from all the crying mixed with a wholesome appreciation for the friends in their life that they should check in on more often.
If you like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you’ll like Anohana.
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Call of the Night
Studio: Lidenfilms
Why we love it: Call of the Night is one of those lovelorn anime that we wish we had grown up watching. The show follows an aimless high school student on the verge of dropping out as he chases the inexpressible high of wandering the streets at night—watching his city come alive with that listening‑to‑The‑Batman‑soundtrack‑while‑cruising‑the‑highway kind of vibe. He ends up meeting a vampire and forms an odd relationship with them, then decides he also wants to become one. The catch is that the only way a person can turn is by falling in love with said vampire.
What follows is a singular kind of love story that interrogates what real love is. The show’s neat twist lies in how vampires navigate the world. After all, yearning is an occupational hazard with the humans they encounter, and loneliness is all but guaranteed when you’re a beautiful creature people fall for on sight, despite how superficial that reasoning is, when compared to forming a deeper connection for all eternity. Of course, love is a two-way street, and the series treats it as such as the show materializes the budding love story between its leads.
If you like FLCL and basically any vampire media, you’ll like Call of the Night.
Where to Watch: HiDive, Hulu
Durarara
Studio: Brain’s Base, Shuka
Why we love it: If there were ever a show where the city itself felt as larger-than-life as its characters, it’d be Durarara. Honestly, what doesn’t it have? There’s a cool, motorcycle-riding dulahan; gang warfare where every faction gets to be the protagonist of its own tale; plenty of romance to go around; a helluva lot of action; shifting alliances; betrayals; and even more supernatural chaos thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.
Watching the show is like peering into a kaleidoscope where all the elements intermesh from different perspectives, filtered through characters you love, love to hate, and hate to love—without ever losing an ounce of investment in how the puzzle pieces of their lives fall into place and ruin each other in the process.
If you like Paranoia Agent and Black Lagoon, you’ll love Durarara.
Where to watch: Hulu
86 Eighty-Six
Studio: A-1 Pictures
What we love about it: By now, the whole mecha story about traumatizing youths forced to pilot them is synonymous with the genre. But pound for pound, no anime series depicts the struggle of that endless battle in such a moving way as 86 Eighty-Six. Essentially, a war has been going on for years, but propaganda in this howdy-dowdy society claims the war has had no casualties because it’s being fought with autonomous robots dispatched by handlers. As we teased above, that reality is far from the truth.
What’s actually happening is that a bunch of children considered less than human are the ones piloting these mechs. What follows is a moving tale of how their newest dispatcher, a naively optimistic woman named Vladilena, forms a deep bond with her squad and works doggedly to ensure the dispensable child soldiers survive their endless war.
If you like Mobile Suit Gundam, you’ll like 86 Eighty-Six.
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Elemental Gelade
Studio: Xebec
Why we love it: Elemental Gelade feels like Final Fantasy went all the way in on its romances through its combat system. The series follows a sky pirate named Coud who happens upon a girl inside a crate. Turns out the girl, Ren, is a part of an ancient race called the Edel Raid, which basically translates to a supernatural being who can transform into a weapon after imprinting on their human partner. That’s right, we’ve got magical girl weapon transformations hinged on romantic and platonic love. What follows is a whirlwind adventure where Coud and Ren deepen their connection, battle other Edel Raids and their partners, and other shadow organizations who would see them split apart to use Ren for cosmic ends.
If you like Soul Eater and Eureka Seven, you’ll love Elemental Gelade.
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Heavenly Delusion
Studio: Production I.G
Why we love it: Heavenly Delusion is one of those sci-fi series we think about daily and wish got more play in the grand scheme of the anime zeitgeist. The series tells two different stories, both of which showcase the aftermath of a disease that sends the world into chaos. On one end is the tale of children kept in an underground terrarium by shady adults hiding secrets about the outside world in their pursuit of peace, leading some children to pursue life beyond the walls of their secret society. On the other end is a post-apocalyptic tale where two children venture across the land, battling demons in pursuit of a place called Heaven, which one can only assume is the secret facility the folks in Plot A are at.
Interspersed throughout the show is a pretty compelling drama, with smooth action, picturesque environments, and intriguing world-building that rewards a rewatch as you uncover how the two plots relate more closely than one might assume.
If you like The Last of Us and Fallout, you’ll love Heavenly Delusion.
Where to Watch: Hulu
Land of the Lustrous
Studio: Orange
Why we love it: Land of the Lustrous is arguably the title that emphatically defied the notion that 3GCG anime doesn’t work. The series follows a colorful group of humanoid gems tasked with defending the world from an invasive species from beyond the stars. At the center of its tale is Phos, a young gem who is broken and reformed throughout the show’s many brutal and gorgeously animated battles in their pursuit to become as useful as its fellow gems.
Land of the Lustrous is one of those quietly moving anime gems (literally) that unconsciously hammers home some sharp points about gender dysphoria and agency in a show that put Studio Orange on the map as one to watch long before it’d find mainstream claim to fame with Beastars and Trigun: Stampede.
If you like Steven Universe, you’ll love Land of the Lustrous.
Where to Watch: Formerly on Prime Video, but currently unavailable to stream
Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit
Studio: Production I.G
Why we love it: Moribito is one of those anime you might remember as a comfy watch in the late aughts but forgot the name of (as I did for years). It’s got the usual fixings of some prophecies and a cataclysmic end, thanks to a water demon bringing about a drought. Luckily, humanity has bested this demon by slaying it, and they’re prepared to do so again.
Unfortunately, this time around, the demon has reincarnated into the body of the emperor’s son, creating a tough trolley scenario where, in order to save humanity, it’s gotta come at the cost of a child’s life. A matter that’s made all the more dramatic when a mercenary named Balsa is tasked by the prince’s mother to keep him safe from the emperor’s assassins. What we have is a gender-bent Lone Wolf and Cub-type scenario wherein the two form an odd found family as they battle foes and journey across the land. It’s a chill vibe that’ll illicit the old adage “they don’t make ’em like they used to” out of you once you watch it, trust.
If you like Mushishi and Princess Mononoke, you’ll love Moribito.
Where to Watch: HiDive
Noragami
Studio: Bones
Why we love it: The concept of gods walking among us is pretty old hat in media, much less in anime. But Noragami takes that concept a step further by telling a supernatural modern-day tale of what it’s like for a god to fight for a devout following in a battle shonen setting that did a fusion dance with Inuyasha. The show follows Yato, a minor-league god so desperate for followers that he does gig work for a pittance, like a Swiss-Army-Knife Uber driver exclusively handling supernatural jobs. He winds up meeting a middle schooler named Hiyori, who jumps in front of a car for him, believing he’s human.
What follows is an unlikely partnership in which she can turn into a spirit after the aforementioned car incident, and the pair make a deal to help her become a normal human, while she helps him gain followers. Long-winded setup aside, Noragami‘s main point of intrigue is how it remimagines mythological figures from Japanese folklore into a battle shonen system where gods battle one another and have a group of supernatural spirits with tons of emotional baggage that turn into their trusted weapons.
If you like Blue Exorcist and Death Parade, you’ll love Noragami.
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Odd Taxi
Studio: OLM, P.I.C.S.
Why we love it: Like Durarara, Odd Taxi is another one of those “holy crap, this city is huge, and its characters contain multitudes” types of shows we can’t help but love. And similarly, there’s a fair share of drama and action sprinkled throughout its anthropomorphic-animal anime package. Key among them is Odokawa, a monotone taxi driver who drives around a medley of eccentric customers around town. What starts out as a pretty chill show quickly escalates into a yakuza crime drama filled with corrupt cops, trend-chasing influencers, and a missing persons report that somehow links back to Odokawa whose struggling to remember the person he once was before he got behind the wheel of his cab. Beyond what we’ve already said too much about, try to go into this show blind, because this anime is really good shit.
If you like Beastars and Michael Mann’s Collateral (we’re not kidding), you’ll love Odd Taxi.
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Sonny Boy
Studio: Madhouse
Why we love it: Sonny Boy is best described as an anime Alice in Wonderland. It follows a group of high schoolers who inexplicably find themselves afloat in a void-like dimension. To make matters worse, some of the kids develop supernatural powers, adding a new layer of hierarchy that overrides the last semblance of order their school roles gave them as they jet off to stranger dimensions with their own set of reality-bending rules.
Whenever the anime isn’t endlessly wowing you as its cast tries to sort out the rules that govern the avant-garde worlds they find themselves in, it’s enticing you with their struggle to find agency and purpose within themselves. That’s right, this anime’s got themes and such, and it’s arguably one of the most slept on anime of 2021.
If you like Lost, Lord of the Flies, and The Tatami Galaxy, you’ll like Sonny Boy.
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Hulu
Summer Time Rendering
Studio: OLM
Why we love it: Time-loop anime are a staple of the medium, but not all of them are created equal. Sometimes the loops become frustrating when you find yourself cleverer than the characters, making for a frustrating watch as you re-witness events unfold with subtle variations. Summer Time Render is as perfect a distillation of the best parts of the genre as a new-age anime can get.
It’s got the tried and true formula of horror taking place in a remote countryside town, scares that go far beyond cheap jump scares and make a home in genuine dread (a feat most anime struggle to showcase), and a wink of romance that goes hand-in-hand with a clever protagonist and his allies who use supernatural abilities to overcome proportional supernatural odds. Which only makes the sting of it being robbed a nomination for Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards back in the day the more irksome because it’s truly a brilliant show.
If you like Steins;Gate and Re:Zero, you’ll love Summer Time Render.
Where to Watch: Hulu
Violet Evergarden
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Why we love it: There’s nothing quite as beautiful as writing a handwritten letter to the person you love. The only problem is finding the words to do so. Your favorite anime studio, Kyoto Animation, turns its signature level of wholesomeness and agonizing longing to 11 in Violet Evergarden. It tells the tale of Violet, a soft-spoken young woman raised to fight on the front lines of a great war. Now the war is over, and she’s lost her arms and her beloved commander, Violet is left rudderless.
After gaining some high-end steampunk prostheses, Violet attempts to jump-start her life by working in a post office as an Auto Memory Doll—a ghostwriter of sorts who takes on clients, transcribing their feelings into words to send to their loved ones. It’s downright gorgeous and equal parts heartwarming and heartwrenching, so keep a box of tissues on deck should you venture to watch it.
If you like My Happy Marriage, Vinland Saga’s second season, and Grave of the Fireflies (lord, help you), you’ll love Violet Evergarden.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Vivy Flourite Eye’s Song
Studio: Wit Studio
Why we love it: We live in a time where speculative fiction of yesteryear can feel dumber in comparison to the reality we’re living in. Yet, somehow, Vivy-Flourite Eyes Song finds a way to preserve the wonder of sci-fi action works of the past while somehow crafting a future-proof anime about all the woes of AI in a fun little show that basically asks: what if Hatsune Miku was tasked with going back in time to prevent a Terminator-esque apocalypse? Vivy-Flourite Eyes Song’s action is truly some of the most spectacular sequencing we’ve ever seen in a show. What’s more, its story will stick with you long after its credits roll.
If you like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and, of course, Hatsune Miku, you’ll love Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song.
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
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