15 Best Uncensored Anime to Watch in 2023

Censorship is a thing in both Japan and the West, although the Western editions tend to be even more censored than the original Japanese editions of the show. In this article, we will give you a list of the 15 best uncensored anime series and movies, regardless of the reason for their censorship.

List of Best Uncensored Anime

You’re going to get some basic information on the shows themselves, their production and a short synopsis for each of them. Let’s finally take a look at the best uncensored anime of all time!

15. Prison School

Author(s): Akira Hiramoto
Genres: Comedy
Release Date: July 11, 2015 – September 26, 2015
Episodes: 12

Additional Material: 1 OVA episode

Hachimitsu Academy is an elite high school for girls in Tokyo characterized by strict rules of conduct including a ban on dating boys. At the beginning of the series, however, the school decides to open its doors also to the boys keeping the same rules, but to their amazement, the new male students turn out to be only five: Kiyoshi Fujino, Takehito “Gakuto” Morokuzu, Shingo Wakamoto, Jōji “Joe” Nezu, and Reiji “André” Andō.

The boys quickly become friends but things turn bad when the group is discovered spying on the women. The punishment is established in a month of imprisonment and hard labor by the strict secret student association of the school led by President Mari, daughter of the principal, vice president Meiko, and secretary Hana.

Shortly before the punishment began, Kiyoshi had managed to interact with a girl, Chiyo, who turns out to be Mari’s sister: the two will continue to see each other clandestinely, and when the boy’s friends find out they will isolate him, also because this behavior will determine for everyone the increased punishment.

Over time, the situation returns to normal also because Gakuto helped Kiyoshi escape so that he would get him a rare action figure he had longed for and Shingo falls in love with another member of the association, Anzu, and will escape as Kiyoshi, who he will accept without batting an eye all the spite of his friends and will sacrifice himself several times for them.

Mari, meanwhile, has in fact organized a secret operation aimed at obtaining their expulsion by exploiting the weaknesses of each of the boys, but with an elaborate stratagem and the benevolence of the headmaster, the five eventually regain their freedom.

The three main members of the association are put in prison and their place is taken by another triad.

14. Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou

Author(s): Okayado
Genres: Comedy Fantasy, Harem, Romantic Comedy
Release Date: July 7, 2015 – September 22, 2015
Episodes: 12

Additional Material: None

For years, the Japanese government has kept a secret: mythical creatures like centaurs, harpies, and lamias are real. Three years before the story began, the government revealed the existence of these creatures and granted them a legal pass license, the “Interspecies Cultural Exchange Act.”

Since then, these creatures, known as “liminals” or “extra-species”, have become a part of human society, living with normal families as foreign exchange students and au pair visitors, but with other rights and certain restrictions. (The main restriction is that liminals and humans are prohibited from hurting each other).

Kurusu Kimihito did not initially volunteer for the exchange program, but when he watches in amazement as Mrs. Smith accidentally delivers the scared and embarrassed Miia to her doorstep, he doesn’t have the heart to deny her a roof and they start living together. Over the course of the story, Kimihito gathers and shelters other female liminals, each of a different species.

Some come more or less by accident, some are forced to be with him by Mrs. Smith or forced by themselves, and before long he finds himself in a hectic environment in which he struggles to live in harmony with his new life. housemates, as she deals with their constant advances and the dramas about helping them navigate the human world.

The situation takes on a new twist after the girls are notified that due to anticipated changes in the law on human-liminal relationships, Kimihito is expected to marry one of the girls on a trial basis, increasing thus between these tenants competition for their attention.

13. High School DxD

Author(s): Ichiei Ishibumi
Genres: Comedy, Harem, Supernatural
Release Date: January 6, 2012 – March 21, 2012 / July 7, 2013 – September 22, 2013 / April 4, 2015 – June 20, 2015 / April 10, 2018 – July 3, 2018
Episodes: 12 / 12 / 12 / 13

Additional Material: 6 OVA episodes / None

The high school student Issei Hyōdo has been trying to find a friend for some time, along with two other school friends. However, the three of them are more likely to attract attention because of their careless approach and tension, so that actually no girl at school wants to get involved with them.

But one day, a student seems to be particularly interested in him and he can hardly believe that she invites him on a date so quickly, which he accepts without hesitation, blinded by her charm. At the end of the day, he is unexpectedly killed by the girl after she turned out to be a fallen angel.

To his own amazement, however, he wakes up nude in his bed as if it were just a dream if it weren’t for the beauty of the school, Rias Gremory, next to him. While she tries to calm him down as well as charm him, and in between his mother stands in astonishment on the doorstep, she explains to him that he was truly killed the previous day, that she resurrected him as a demon as the leader of the demon clan of Gremory and he is now part of the clan.

Rias ’group disguises itself as an occultism research club at the school. Likewise, he must first understand what it means to be a demon and what circumstances and duties result from it. It is only in the club that Issei seems to understand what happened to him for the first time, and Rias explains to him the hostile relationships between the demons, the fallen angels, and the angels, as well as his followers of the church.

He also learned that he could have his own servants if he tried hard enough and rose so that his ultimate goal was to become a harem king. Despite the knowledge of the enmity, he gets to know the young, always friendly, and naive nun Asia, with whom he befriends quickly despite all the enmities.

As a result of a plot by the fallen angels, Asia is killed, which Issei cannot prevent, although he gave everything. However, Asia can also be revived as a demon and has since been an integral part of the clan, for whom her healing powers prove to be very helpful. She also became the first of many girls to come who will fall in love with Issei.

In the further course, Issei gets stronger and stronger and he plays more and more an important figure for the people within the occult research club and especially for Rias Gremory and the other girls. Although naturally weaker than most of the other – and predominantly female – demons, he can still assert himself repeatedly with unusual techniques and his unbroken will.

Besides, all the girls in the club gradually fall in love with him and especially he developed a deep romantic relationship with Rias. But the other girls don’t let it sit down. They also always try their luck with Issei by seducing him, which sometimes puts him in a difficult situation.

For his part, Issei still aims to become the most powerful farmer and to rise to the demon nobility so that he can protect Rias again and again and find his harem. Noble demons take part in a rating game based on chess and are used for combat training and receive 15 chess pieces.

In addition to the king, these are queens, knights, runners, rooks, and pawns, each with their own skills: knights have increased speed and mobility, runners have increased magical abilities, towers increased strength and robustness, and queens. All of these pawns can convert to a queen, knight, bishop, or rook in enemy territory.

12. Shinmai Maou no Testament

Author(s): Testuto Uesu
Genres: Action, Harem, Supernatural
Release Date: October 9, 2015 – December 11, 2015
Episodes: 10

Additional Material: 2 OVA episodes

Basara Tojo is a high school student studying at Hijirigasaka Academy. One day, his father Jin suddenly “marries again” and asks Basara if he wants to have sisters. Basara meets his two beautiful adoptive sisters, Mio Naruse and Maria Naruse.

After his father travels abroad, Basara quickly discovers that the two sisters are actually part of a demonic clan, and he must be with the clan of heroes. Mio, a demonic princess, tries to force a master-servant contract with Basara, but Maria turns out to be the opposite, with Basara as master.

Basara always ends up getting into weird situations, trying to protect Mio from being chased by other demons who seek their heritage passed down by former demon lord Wilbert.

11. GANTZ

Author(s): Hiroya Oku
Genres: Action, Psychological Horror, Thriller, Science Fiction
Release Date: April 12, 2004 – November 18, 2004
Episodes: 26

Additional Material: None

Kei Kurono, a selfish and insecure boy, and Masaru Kato, his childhood friend are run over by a subway train for not being able to leave the tracks after saving the life of a drunk homeless man who fell on the rails. Instead of dying, their consciousness is transferred to copies of their bodies, in a Tokyo apartment where other people are present, all of whom have just died in various ways.

The doors of the apartment are closed and it is impossible to get close to them or to the walls, the group cannot leave.

Shortly after, a mysterious black sphere, known as Gantz, is activated, revealing different equipment inside: a black suit made to measure each person present, which gives the wearer superhuman strength, endurance, and speed, and a controller, which works as radar, and three different types of weapons. A text on the outer surface of the sphere informs those present that their lives are over and that they now belong to it.

The players, called “gantzers”, are then assigned a mission, which consists of finding and killing target aliens, being rewarded with points proportional to the strength of the defeated monsters. At a total of one hundred points a player can decide whether to restart the game with a more powerful weapon, bring back to life a person contained in Gantz’s memory, or return to his own life but without remembering anything about the “game”.

Those present are then teleported to the hunting site. With little information available and a considerable amount of expertise, especially from Kei, the group survives the first two missions, losing only a few members. During the third, however, the entire group is decimated by the boss, including Masaru, and only Kei manages to make it back to the apartment alive.

As the story unfolds, a new group of players forms around Kei, while the young man struggles hard to keep his teammates alive and free himself from the game. After many missions, Joichiro Nishi, a young gantzer of the Tokyo team, an expert connoisseur of the game, reveals to the group the Katastrophe counter, a countdown at the end of which there will be a great cataclysm with still unknown effects.

The participants are freed from the game and, a week later, a massive alien horde invades Earth and the extermination of the human race begins, while Kei, Masaru, and their companions do their best to turn Gantz’s equipment against the force of ‘invasion.

The Tokyo team comes into contact with other gantzer teams from around the world and with a new extraterrestrial species, which turns out to be the one who armed humanity with the technology of Gantz, necessary to defend itself from the alien invasion.

The hunters succeed after a series of battles to get the better of the alien army and Kei and Masaru return to Earth, greeted respectively by the girl Tae and by her brother Ayumi.

10. Berserk

Author(s): Kentaro Miura
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Epic, Sword and Sorcery
Release Date: October 7, 1997 – March 31, 1998 / 1 July 2016 – 23 June 2017
Episodes: 25 / 24

Additional Material: None

In a sort of alternative Middle Age, Guts is a formidable mercenary warrior who in his life has known nothing but war and violence.

Gambino is a detached and violent father; one day he tries to kill Guts, who, to defend himself. Continuing to fight from battlefield to battlefield, Guts draws the attention of the charismatic leader of the Hawk Squad, Griffith, who defeats him and forces him to join the company.

In the following period, Guts becomes deeply attached to Griffith, experiences affection and friendship for the first time for his new companions, and falls in love with Caska. The Hawk Squad is enlisted by the kingdom of the Midlands in the Hundred Years War and quickly gains victories and fame.

At the end of the conflict, feeling more and more imprisoned in the shadow of Griffith, Guts decides to leave the team in search of his own identity. The abandonment of him, however, upsets Griffith, who ends up ruining himself: he seduces Princess Charlotte and, discovered, is imprisoned and subjected to cruel torture for a whole year.

When Guts learns of his friend’s fate and gathers the scatterbrained members of the Hawk Squad to free him, Griffith is now hopelessly mutilated and destroyed in his spirit. In desperation, Griffith attempts suicide, involuntarily activating an artifact in his possession; the Hawk Squad is transported to an astral plane where the archdemons of the Hand of God dwell.

Encouraged by these creatures, Griffith sacrifices his soldiers to the demonic offspring of the Apostles, in a banquet of death called Eclipse, in order to be reborn as a fifth member of the Hand of God, Femto.

Only Guts and Caska manage to escape the catastrophe thanks to the intervention of the Skull Knight, but Guts has lost an eye and an arm in the fighting, Caska is in the grip of madness due to the violence suffered by Femto, and both are marked with a symbol that identifies them as sacrifices, attracting supernatural creatures to torment them every night.

Guts then set out to hunt down the Apostles, swearing revenge against Femto and the Hand of God, but must temporarily interrupt his plans to save Caska, who risks being burned as a witch in the city of St. Albiom, and to lead her safely into the kingdom of Elfhelm’s elves.

During his journey he meets the elf Pak, the members of the chivalric order of the Holy Iron Chain Farnese and Serpico, the young Isidoro and the witch Schierke, who decide to support him in his mission. Meanwhile, Griffith is reborn in his physical form and, thanks to the support of numerous Apostles, creates a new Squad of Hawks to fight the Kushan army that has invaded the Midlands.

The final clash between Griffith and Emperor Ganishka leads to the transformation of the world and the overlapping of the astral and real dimensions.

With the engagement to Princess Charlotte and the blessing of the pope and the people, who consider Griffith the incarnation of the Hawk of Light, the savior of the world, Griffith takes possession of his new capital Falconia, and transforms it into a utopian kingdom sheltered from monsters. that have begun to invade the world.

9. GANGSTA.

Author(s): Kōsuke
Genres: Adventure, thriller
Release Date: July 1, 2015 – September 27, 2015
Episodes: 12

Additional Material: None

The chaotic and violent city called Ergastulum, born to contain the mercenary troops during the war is used as a great prison for the Twilight, who cannot cross its borders, under penalty of killing.

In this city, the law is not that of the police or the state, but that of the street: in fact, the city lives in the balance between the great Mafia families and the guilds of mercenaries.

The power within Ergastulum is divided between the 3 great mafia families, the Monroe, the Corsicans, and the Christians (these, weakened by the premature death of the boss, are affiliated with the Monroe family and are responsible for the production of the celebrated drug) and the PaulKlee’s Guild of Mercenaries, made up entirely of Twilight, some of which stand out among the strongest in Ergastulum.

Each family deals with a specific aspect in the daily life of the city in order to maintain an essential balance between forces.

Worick Arcangelo and Nicholas Brown, are linked by a mysterious and violent past, known as the “Benriya” (or “Handyman”), and carry out jobs that normal people would never do: eliminate the drug dealer on duty, smuggle strange medicines and a thousand other illegal activities.

The former prostitute Alex Benedetto acts as their secretary.

8. Blade of the Immortal

Author(s): Hiroaki Samura
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Epic, Historical
Release Date: July 13, 2008 – December 28, 2008
Episodes: 13

Additional Material: 24 ONA episodes

Former samurai Manji has gone into hiding in historic Edo (former name of Tokyo). For moral reasons, he has his master, Lord Shigenobu, and a hundred of his followers on his conscience. He had Manji killed not only criminals, but also citizens who had dared to rebel against the prince.

Manji is tired of life. He would love to just die, but worms, so-called Kessenchu, live in him, which keep him alive and close his wounds again and again. Desperate, he turns to the nun Yaobikuni, who gave him these worms, and asks her to take them back from him.

But since everything has its price, he has to make a deal with her: if he manages to kill a thousand criminals, she will free him from his curse. At the same time, a new martial arts school, the Itto-Ryu, is being built under the leadership of the gifted swordsman Kagehisa Anotsu.

He wants to renew the Japanese art of swords, since most schools have long since degenerated into unsuitable commercial institutions. So he forces other schools to join him – those who refuse must die. The same goes for the parents of young Rin, who swears vengeance.

But she can’t do it alone. Through Yaobikuni’s advice, Manji and Rin meet and try to achieve their respective goals together.

7. Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

Author(s): Gen Urobuchi
Genres: Crime
Release Date: April 2, 2009 – September 24, 2009
Episodes: 26

Additional Material: 3 OVA episodes

Phantom is the name that characterizes the most successful assassin in Inferno, a mafia organization in the western United States. The Phantom is considered the best sniper in the world, and its name has an international reputation.

A young boy wakes up with complete amnesia in a former industrial building in the company of a young girl, Ein, the Phantom, who first tries to kill him to test his fighting skills and trains him as an assassin under the name of Zwei.

He then discovers that he is being used by Inferno, and, after regaining his memory and discovering that his real name is Reiji, he attempts to free Ein from his beloved Scythian master. After Scythe betrays Inferno, he attempts, under orders from Claudia McCunnen, to kill him, but Ein, too attached to her master, intervenes and receives the bullet instead.

Zwei believes her dead and is shot in turn (by Scythe Master), but survives. Three months later, Zwei became the official Phantom of the organization, the assassin of Claudia McCunnen. Then six months later, while investigating the murder of representatives of a Yakuza group, the Godohs, he takes charge of a young girl, Cal, who previously lived with a friend who happened to be between the two camps and took a stray bullet while trying to protect the girl.

Cal, hoping to find someone capable of avenging the death of his sister Judy, retrieved the bag full of money that was to be transferred to Inferno’s friendly group, the Bloodies, with Isaac Wisemel at their head, and the Godoh group, which McCunnen is trying to affiliate with Inferno, both begin to doubt the organization.

To save the young girl from her employers, he pretends that she has a strong will to kill at home and teaches her the basics of assassination. It is then that he discovers that Ein is still alive and at the behest of Scythe who, in her attempt to overthrow McCunnen, reveals to the members of the Godoh a compromising photo, which forces Claudia and Reiji – Zwei to flee.

Upon returning home, when he had promised Cal to come back at all costs, he sees the apartment explode and believes her dead. After a confrontation with Ein during which the two refuse to kill each other, he promises to take him away from Scythe and both flee to Mexico.

Two years later, it is discovered that Elen and Reiji have settled in Reiji’s hometown, in Japan, under the cover of college students. Cal, mad with hatred and resentment towards Reiji (whom she believes abandoned her for Ein), is under Scythe’s manipulation and has returned to Inferno to which the Godoh group is now affiliated.

She became Inferno’s third Phantom, Drei. She arrives in Japan with the aim of killing Reiji. The latter and Elen then attempt to flee to regain a normal life, and use Mio, the younger sister of the former leader Godoh, whom the new one has taken an oath of faith to protect, as protection against the assassin of Inferno.

But Drei is impatient and wishes at all costs to make Reiji suffer as much as she can. It is then that Scythe unveils his ultimate weapon, the last act of his Machiavellian play, forcing Ein and Zwei to face his latest creations, the Zahlenschwestern.

6. HELLSING

Author(s): Kōta Hirano
Genres: Action, Dark Fantasy, Horror
Release Date: October 10, 2001 – January 16, 2002
Episodes: 13

Additional Material: 10 OVA episodes

The Royal Knights of Protestant Order are a noble house of London led by Abraham Van Helsing. For generations, he has been fighting against creatures that most ordinary people are unaware of like vampires, ghouls, and any non-human entity that is generally referred to as a “monster”. The Order operates in great secrecy and has long been a paramilitary organization in the service of her Majesty.

Leading the organization is Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, a direct descendant of the first Lord Hellsing. Still a teenager, she is forced to take control of the Order. Her father Arthur, sick and close to his death, orders his daughter, should she feel threatened, to go down to the basement of the mansion, where there is something able to protect her.

Upon the death of her father, Integra’s uncle tries to kill his niece, infuriated that Arthur had chosen her as the new leader of the family. Integra, as suggested by her father, hides in the dungeons of the mansion, where she finds a corpse. Her uncle still manages to find her and doesn’t hesitate to shoot her. The first blow only touches her, but the bloodshed is enough to awaken the corpse that instantly kills his uncle and his minions.

Integra thus comes face to face with Alucard, a vampire in the service of the Hellsing family for more than a century, as well as an ace in the hole of the organization which, by the will of Arthur, had been locked up in the dungeons many years earlier. The girl, although still very young, thus becomes Alucard’s Master (The Master).

Ten years have passed since that incident and Integra has now become a young woman. When the number of vampires in London begins to grow exponentially, the Vatican also begins to move. The exorcist priest Alexander Anderson, the best agent of the Iscariota (a thirteenth secret division of the Catholic Church), is sent to Badrick, a border area between the Catholic and Protestant territories.

However, monster appearances do not seem to follow any logic; it is as if the rules for creating the undead have been changed, suggesting that the whole thing was orchestrated by someone.

This is how the ghosts of 50 years earlier, the Nazis of the Millennium, make their appearance; all this time they have been acting in the shadows, trying to fulfil the shattered dream: the landing in England, the destruction of London and the annihilation of Alucard and the Hellsing family. A full-blown war, from which no one can escape.

5. Afro Samurai (ΛFΓO SΛMUΓΛI)

Author(s):
Genres: Action, period piece, post-apocalyptic
Release Date: January 4, 2007 – February 1, 2007
Episodes: 5

Additional Material: 1 television film

In a futuristic Japan with the feudal system still in force, it is said that the one who wields the armband called Number 1 will be the proudest fighter in the world and will have in his hands a power equal to that of the gods. The only way to get this armband is to challenge the current owner to a fight.

However, only those who have the Number 2 band can afford to challenge the owner of Number 1, while anyone can face those who keep Number 2 with them, making the owner of these condemned to face continuous struggles.

In the mountains, the Justice fighter, wearing the Number 2 band, duels with the owner of Number 1, Rokutaro, who is beheaded during the fight before his opponent gets hold of his sling. Afro Samurai, son of Rokutaro, witnesses the fight and swears revenge against Justice, who tells him to seek him only when he is “ready to face a god”.

Several years later, Afro has become the owner of Number 2, as well as a seasoned swordsman who travels the Shumi Mountains in search of Justice, in the company of a mysterious, grueling talking individual named Ninja-Ninja. Along the way, Afro faces several enemies including the “Clan of the Empty Seven”, determined to obtain the Number 1 band for their purposes.

During a battle, however, Afro is wounded, but is saved by a miracle and is rescued by a woman named Okiku. The woman shows interest in the samurai, and although he tries to resist, he will eventually give in and spend a night of passion with her.

The girl, however, turns out to be both a member of the Seven and an old acquaintance of Afro, but she will be killed by her own allies for helping the samurai to escape from an ambush. After a long time, Afro arrives at the Shumi Mountains and the headquarters of the Seven, where he confronts and kills them and their various agents, robots, and assassins, including the Afro Droid, created in his image and likeness and with his own abilities to he.

He also battles his vengeful childhood friend Jinno. A narrative flashback later reveals that the samurai teacher with whom Afro had trained as a child to become a swordsman, known as the Swordmaster, wore the Number 2 band, until he met and confronted the protagonist. Both were attacked and killed, leaving Afro, Jinno, Otsuru (Okiku) and their master alive.

The moment Afro killed their master and claimed possession of the Number 2 band, Jinno swore revenge on him, but due to his injuries, he slipped off a cliff and disappeared. Shortly after, we see how the Seven recovered Otsuru and Jinno dying and with the tortured body, deciding, through their scientist, to transform Jinno into a cyborg with a teddy bear-shaped mask (like that of his sister) and to put him on top of the mountain to wait for his former friend.

The narrative returns to the present and Jinno confronts Afro, proving as skilled as he is, but in the fight, he kills Ninja-Ninja, who turns out to be Afro’s imaginary friend. The latter manages to stop the opponent and defeat him, without killing him, being still tied to his friend.

Afro then enters the temple of Number 1 and discovers the existence of other bands, the classification of which is completely unknown, and notes that the bodies of those who have owned these bands are hit.

Justice then arrives on the scene, telling the protagonist the truth: the Number 1 band, although it gives great power, must be combined with the others (including Number 2) to give the power of the gods.

With that said he faces Afro in a duel, and the fight between the two is long and difficult for both sides (Justice is aged and Afro is seriously injured in the fight with Jinno), but in the end, the old gunslinger is defeated. A

fro thus obtains the Number 1, before all the bands disappear into thin air, and then returns to the mountains to confront Jinno, who wears all kinds of headbands in order to satisfy his revenge.

4. Sekirei

Author(s): Sakurako Gokurakuin
Genres: Harem, Romantic Comedy, Supernatural
Release Date: July 2, 2008 – September 17, 2008; July 4, 2010 – September 26, 2010
Episodes: 12; 13

Additional Material: 1+1 OVA episodes

In Tokyo in 2020, referred to as Shintō Teito (“New Eastern Imperial Capital”), the boy Minato Sahashi fails the university entrance exam for the second time, has not yet had any success with women, and moreover, he is still unemployed. However, he is very intelligent, but cannot cope with the pressure of an exam, which explains his constant failure.

As a result of these circumstances, however, he is labeled a loser by many, even his little sister. One day the attractive Musubi falls into his hands as if she had fallen from the sky. However, he soon realizes that Musubi is not an ordinary girl, but that she is a Sekirei and has chosen him as her Ashikabi.

The Sekirei are extraterrestrial life forms that crash-landed on earth with their spaceship in 1999 and were found by students Minaka Hiroto and Takami Sahashi. On board, the ship were 108 life forms, which are also described as “a pillar and 107 small birds”, as only one, the pillar (# 0 / # 1), was in the adult state, while eight other living beings (# 2 – # 9) were present as embryos and the remaining 99 (# 10- # 108) as fertilized eggs.

Due to their DNA, which largely corresponds to the human, they have a human appearance, but also have special abilities. The single-digit numbers are particularly strong.

Minaka and Takami, Minato’s mother, now chair the Mid Bio Informatics (MBI) organization. They modified the Sekirei in various experiments and achieved very different results in order to then let them compete against each other in the so-called Sekirei Plan.

In the process, very different personalities emerged, ranging from helpless and innocent to mean and murderous. The Sekirei themselves are looking for a worthy Ashikabi, whose kiss gives them wings or puts them into a special state in which they are much stronger than usual.

Ashikabi Minato finds himself in fight scenes faster than he would like and soon finds out that several Sekirei chose him as Ashikabi, which leads to numerous problems of all kinds.

3. Mnemosyne

Author(s): Hiroshi Ōnogi
Genres: Action, science fiction, supernatural
Release Date: February 3, 2008 – July 6, 2008
Episodes: 6

Additional Material: None

A mysterious tree called Yggdrasil has repeatedly appeared in the human world and released many small balls into the human world. A small fraction of the balls, known as “Time Fruits”, is quite special. When a fruit of time enters a woman, she becomes immortal. When a fruit enters a male, he becomes a mad winged being known as an “angel”.

Rin Asougi is an immortal who, along with her equally immortal assistant Mimi, runs a private investigative agency in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. Rin often talks on the phone with a mysterious stranger. She is often hunted by an assassin named Laura, hired by Apos, an angel who pursues the immortals and is the current guardian of the Yggdrasil.

The story begins in 1990. While searching for a missing cat, Rin instead finds Koki Maeno, a young man with distorted memories. While investigating his past, she discovers that he is a clone created by Sayara Yamanobe, a woman who seeks immortality. After finding out about this, Koki decides to work for Rin at her agency.

In 2011, Koki married a former client, Yuki. Sayara Yamanobe returns, kidnaps Rin, and attempts to attack Japan with biological weapons. After becoming an angel, Koki sacrifices himself to save Rin and Japan.

In 2025, Rin investigates a case involving Koki’s son Teruki after meeting his longtime cyber-girlfriend in real life. Rin manages to save Teruki; In the end, however, she sacrifices herself.

In 2055, Rin lost her memory and her name is Tamaki Saito. She had fallen in love with a mortal named Ihika. However, she regains her memories when Laura finds out that she is alive and tries to kill her. After Apos kidnaps Rin, Mimi and Teruki’s daughter, Mishio, travels to Apos Castle to save her.

Rin is locked in a room with an angel and kills him, later finding out that he is Ihika. It is revealed that the unknown man on the phone was Tajimamori, Rin’s savior a thousand years ago, a former guardian of Yggdrasil and Apos’ father.

After impregnating Rin, he is killed by Apos, who is himself imprisoned in the roots of the Yggdrasil. Rin later gives birth to a baby boy who will one day become the tree’s new guardian.

2. Jinrō

Author(s): Mamoru Oshii
Genres: Action, Political Thriller
Release Date: November 17, 1999
Running Time: 102 minutes

Additional Material: None

The story is set in Japan, in the sixties of an alternate historical universe, and is centered around Kazuki Fuse, a member of the elite anti-terrorist police unit of the Kerberos Panzer Cops, equipped with heavy protective armament, called Stahlhelme, equipped with an oxygen mask and night vision, and German MG 42 machine guns.

Trained to behave as if he were part of a pack of wolves, hence the name Kerberos, Fuse is confronted with his own humanity when failing to shoot a young terrorist: the girl kills herself by detonating a bomb in front of Fuse.

Later, Fuse begins a doomed relationship with Kai, whom he meets on his way to the grave of the murdered terrorist.

The movie features several references to Japanese political themes of the 1960s and early 1970s. During this period there were student protests led by the left mainly, but not exclusively, centered on the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan.

In addition to Mamoru Oshii, two other prominent exponents of Japanese animation, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, participated in this movement, which took the name of ANPO Hantai. The influence of Nazi Germany on Japan, which took place in the parallel universe described in the film, refers to the fears of the left political factions that the fascists had actually returned to power in Japan.

A famous episode that greatly influenced this perception was the assassination of the head of the Japanese Socialist Party, Inejirō Asanuma, speaking on live television in the National Diet of Japan (1960); further controversies were sparked by Nobusuke Kishi, head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LPD), convicted of war crimes.

The widespread sense of turbulence of those years is represented throughout the entire film. The municipal police forces featured in the film are inspired, albeit exaggerated in some aspects, by the special forces that were organized in accordance with Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, which prohibited the formation of armed forces, and in response to the pressure of the United States of America to fight Communism.

By the sixties Japan had, in fact, formed real military forces, but which were called police forces to formally respect the constitution. The demonstrators are instead a reference to the political forces opposed to the cooperation and security treaty, which however required not only its denunciation but also demonstrated in favor of better working conditions and to obtain changes in social and economic policy.

Eventually, these political forces fell apart, as a result of internal conflicts and a series of compromises between the government bureaucracy, the unions, the keiretsu, and the LDP.

The movie presents this political situation as an allegory of the recent situation in Japan, which until 2009 was ruled by the LDP, with little influential opposition. This lack of opposition to power is depicted by Fuse’s inability to separate from the “herd” to which he belongs, thus forming a critique of Japan as a conformist society that rejects change even when the time is right.

1. Nana

Author(s): Ai Yazawa
Genres: Musical, romance
Release Date: April 5, 2006 – March 27, 2007
Episodes: 47

Additional Material: 3 recap episodes

Nana Ōsaki is a punk singer whose only wish is to be able to debut with her group and surpass the band Trapnest, in which her ex-boyfriend, Ren Honjō, works as a guitarist. Nana and Ren were partners in the same band in the past, Black Stones (aka Blast for short), but split up when Ren was offered the opportunity to replace a member of the popular band Trapnest, so he left his gang to head to Tokyo.

Nana, after realizing that if she went with him to Tokyo she would see her chances of becoming a popular singer greatly diminished, she decides that a life in which she is simply considered Ren’s girlfriend, remaining professionally in his shadow and fulfilling a role that is not more than that of a housewife who is not an independent woman, it is not the life she wants.

So she finally decides to keep what is hers. For her part, Nana Komatsu, the other nana, is called by Ōsaki “Hachi” (which derives from “Hachiko” a very famous puppy in Japan), since she considers that she looks like a small puppy, very loyal towards those who care about her but demanding a lot of attention in turn.

All her life Komatsu lived in a very pampered, overprotected way and where she very rarely had to think on her own, which, as she became an adult, began to bring her greater problems. With the habit of falling in love at first sight with anyone, Hachi always depends on the people around her to help her put her feet on the ground, especially her high school friend Junko Saotome, nicknamed Jun.

After high school, Junko and the rest of his group of friends leave Hachi behind to attend an art college in Tokyo. Hachi desperately wanted to follow both Junko and her boyfriend Shōji to Tokyo, but she had no means of living there or establishing herself.

However, after working a lot on her own, she finally manages to save enough to be able to become independent, move to Tokyo, and begin her adult life. On the train to Tokyo, by chance, Komatsu and Ōsaki meet for the first time.

Both travel to Tokyo to start their new lives there, and after talking during the trip and after numerous coincidences that occur (especially having to do with number seven) they coincide to rent an apartment and decide to rent it together, thus sharing expenses and being roommates.

Despite their personalities contrasting sharply, once they meet, both Ōsaki and “Hachi” begin to respect and like each other, becoming close friends.

Throughout history, the Black Stones, who now meet again with a new bassist Shinichi Okazaki (due to Ren’s absence), begin to become popular at underground concerts in the suburbs of Tokyo, playing in different bars.