Editing Approved Anime (section)

==Horror, Grimdark, & Mindfuckery==
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*'''''Akira''''' - Famous for being THE Japanese animation that introduced its kind into the West, as well as being a cornerstone in the foundation of the cyberpunk genre. Japan gets nuked again, but not by an actual nuke but by the eponymous [[Psyker|psionic superhuman]]. A dystopian Neo-Tokyo is created from the ashes, only to be destroyed again due to one of the MCs becoming a psychic as well and [[Exterminatus|unleashing another death blast]]. Unfortunately the movie gimps a lot of content from the manga to fit into the standard 2-hour runtime of a film and thus compresses a lot of themes, and also came out before the manga actually concluded, so it's best to bust out those reading glasses if you want the full story. It's a huge inspiration for many works internationally including several tabletop games, and broke the Western mold of animation being only for kids - it's only natural /tg/ enjoys it. ['''READ THE MANGA'''] [1 movie]
:Related games: [[Shadowrun]], [[Mutants and Masterminds]], playing [[Psyker]]s in [[40k]]

*'''''[[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 [[Rip and Tear|HUEG GUTS]]. Includes copious amounts of rape, extreme violence, a guy ([[Magnus the Red|who did nothing wrong]]) selling the souls of his friends to the local version of the Chaos Gods and tons of general badassery. [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: it's 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. (also shows you one of the many ways of how to not introduce characters to a fanbase that would ''probably'' have given their organs to the author to keep him alive.)
**Unfortunately the author of the manga died prematurely in May 2021, leaving the story ''technically'' unfinished (though the point at which it ended conveniently was "good enough", making some think he saw his demise coming) - any adaptations now will have to take liberties if they plan to go beyond where the manga stopped. Keep that in mind for any adaptations below this.
** Fortunately, the author's best friend, also an accomplished manga author, took the reins of the studio and is determined to finish the manga according to the notes of the original author. There is hope for Berserk yet!
:Related games: [[Warhammer Fantasy]]

*'''''[[Cyberpunk 2020#Cyberpunk 2077|Cyberpunk: Edgerunners]]''''': Direct by Studio Trigger (who is founded by a former Gainax employee named '''Hiroyuki Imaishi''' which is why most of their works reminds the viewer of TTGL and FLCL). This awesome cyberpunk anime tells the story of a youth living in Nigh City named '''David Martinez''', who becomes an Edgerunner after his mother's death and chromed the shit out of himself to the point of suffering Cyberpsycho like pretty much everyone in the Night City. Like a true Cyberpunk story, the series ends with David's crushing defeat as he's Zeroed/Flatlined by the hands of Arasaka's greatest agent: '''Adam Smasher''' (who, unlike the game, is actually portrayed correctly this time as the grim evil Darth Vader-like living legend badass who is Edgerunner's greatest nightmare and goal, and makes you properly hate him and feel motivated to tear him apart (or idolize him if you are a villain fan). Thank you Trigger), showing just how cruel the life in 2077 actually is (Fitting for a cyborgpunk story. Once again, unlike the game, the anime made many portrayals to the world of cyberpunk 2077 that the game could not). This anime's characters are also contained a wide range of well written yet relatable and likeable characters, such as '''Rebecca''' (a 20's-something trigger happy solo - with a youthful appearance that caused a little controversy when she was mistaken for a loli - who falls for David with unrequited love, loses her older brother '''Pilar''' to a Cyberpsycho, tries to help David save '''Lucy''' - the woman he actually loves, tries and fails to stop David succumbing to cyberpsychosis, and is heartbreakingly murdered by Adam Smasher just before they can make a getaway).  And there's '''Maine''' (a solo who is like a father figure to David, who is about to reach his limit having experienced Cyberpsychosis many times, and the final time when he unwittingly kills his lover '''Dorio''' when she tries to snap him out of his cyberpsychosis, then kills a lot of law enforcement officers and himself with an explosive funeral pyre for Dorio). All in all, you could say Cyberpunk Edgerunners is a show about a family, a boy left with no choice but to chase the dream in the dangerous Night City, and the usual live fast, die young theme of the Cyberpunk genre. Such is the life in the Night City and a Cyberpunk setting. The show is generally well received among cyberpunk fan, especially to those who were unsatisfied with the Cyberpunk 2077 game, once again showing CD project RED are just a bunch of hacks and proves Studio Trigger's ability to [[get shit done]]. It also caused a slew of people to go back and buy the game so they could annihilate Adam Smasher and the Arasaka Corporation with extreme prejudice as punishment for Smasher's brutal murders of Rebecca and David. [TV Series: 10 episodes]

:Related games: [[Cyberpunk 2020|Cyberpunk 2020 or its successor Cyberpunk RED]]
 
*'''''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 oppose him: the mysterious detective 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 + [[wikipedia:Manga Murder|one real-life murder case]]]

:Related games: [[Esoterrorists]], [[Kult]], [[Hunter: The Reckoning]], [[Delta Green]]

*'''''Devilman CRYBABY''''' (2018): An adaptation of Go Nagai's ''Devilman'' (published 1972) aka ''the'' '''OG''' grimdark. Simply put, virtually none of these examples would exist without Devilman. It's arguable that 40K would be somewhat different without Devilman. A high school boy named Akira Fudo gets sucked into the world of demons and merges with a demon but somehow keeps his humanity. As he fights the demons on behalf of his [[Gay|boyfriend]] Ryo Asuka, Ryo reveals the existence of the demons to humanity at large, which plunges the whole world into hell, ultimately culminating in a three-way battle between humanity, Akira and Ryo (who reveals himself to be Satan) and his legion of demons. The battle ends in the death of everyone but Ryo, only for God to reset the world. [TV series: 10 episodes..]

:Related games: [[CthulhuTech]]

*'''''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]]

*'''''Gantz''''': Most often written off as [[Khorne|guro porn]] and for delving into [[Slaanesh|taboo subject matter]], but there IS meaning behind the madness, otherwise it wouldn't have the cult following it has. People get revived by a mysterious spherical machine upon death, and are free to return to their normal lives on one condition: they kill an alien hiding on Earth once a week. Said aliens range in motivation from just trying to live in hiding on Earth to being actually malicious, but most have lethal tricks up their sleeve that can, and often will, result in [[TPK|high casualties]]. Many are also abominations worthy of being [[Chaos Spawn]]-AGHADAKJAGJ {{BLAM}} And since the sphere picks indiscriminately, fucked up situations can and will ensue - be it getting a child involved, [[That Guy|working with sociopathic assholes who would gladly sacrifice you for their own survival]], and [[/d/|degeneracy]]. It isn't a total loss though - if someone gains enough points from [[Blam|purging enough]] [[xeno]]s, they can choose to leave the death game permanently (though the trauma will most definitely haunt them). A tale of [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|humans surviving against nigh-insurmountable odds]] and people making the best of a truly horrible situation. Borders on Grimderp at times, but is usually as grimdark as an average Guardsman's life, just with Khorne levels of blood being constant. Can be [[Skub]]by for /tg/ and any other place on the Internet, but there's a significant group on the board who like it for being [[Deathwatch]] but with normal people. ['''READ THE MANGA'''] [TV: 26 episodes] [If you dislike large amounts of blood & gore, body horror, and themes/scenes that would trigger the local [[SJW]], avoid]
:Related games: [[Dark Heresy]], [[Delta Green]], [[Call of Cthulhu]], [[Monster of the Week]]

*'''''Ghost in the Shell''''': This was the big Cyberpunk (the genre, not the setting) Anime before Cyberpunk Edgerunners. The 1995 film is about a sexy cyborg federal agent and her pursuit of a hacker who's targeting the minds of cyborgs, alongside a poignant question about the meaning of humanity. Features all the cyberpunk tropes, set in a dense city full of skyscrapers and slums, lots of rain and fog sequences, spider-legged tanks, creepy cybernetics, and all of the hallmarks of the 1980s and 90s — Neon lights, hacking sequences, CRT televisions, bodysuits, and big hair. After the original 1995 movie, there was a sequel movie and several re-adaptations, including the Scarlett Johansson live-action movie that was limited by the human body. Just compare [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpqdYt9hw2g 1995] to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5X4gEB7i94 2017]. [Original: 2 movies, Stand Alone Complex: 52 Episodes + 1 movie + wack Netflix version, Arise: 10 Episodes + 1 movie, Dreamworks: 1 movie]

*'''''[[Goblin Slayer]]''''': I'm Goblin Slayer, I hunt goblins. The epic tale of a hardcore autistic 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]], a theoretical good version of [[FATAL]], [https://yenpress.com/9781975318314/goblin-slayer-tabletop-roleplaying-game/| Goblin Slayer TRPG]

*'''''[[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; at one point they give him an SR-71 to possess into his personal batplane), and his new big-titted, former cop, fledgling Seras are their main agents. Their enemies include rogue vampires, [[Ecclesiarchy|a homicidal <s>Scottish</s> Irish priest]] from the Catholic Church, and Millenium: a psychotic group of <s>neo-Nazis</s> Actual OG Nazis (1,000+ Waffen-SS volunteers to create the Letzte Bataillon) who want to take over Europe through [[wat|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)

*'''''Hunter x Hunter''''': What if ''Warhammer 40k'' was a shonen manga? <s>Two shota boys fighting dudes.</s> 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); Kurapika, the last of <s>her</s> his clan of [[psyker|special humans]], seeking vengeance against the super-strong psychopaths that killed them; and Leorio, who's the weakest of the group (in the anime, anyways) but wields THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! ''HxH'' combines the worldbuilding of ''[[One Piece]]'', the psycholigcal aspects of ''Death Note'', and the lovecraftian horror and brutality of ''Berserk'' and ''Warhammer 40k'', which is a huge commendation. It also created somewhat balanced and unique [[stat|power/class/level system]] called "nen", a downright rare accomplishment in a genre of [[meme|OVER 9000]] nonsense. [TV series: 1 pilot + 62 episodes + 30 OVAs; Reboot: 148 episodes + 3 movies]
 
:Related games: [[FATE]], [[Exalted]], [[Quest thread|quests, quests, quests]]
 
*'''''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]]

*'''''Made in Abyss''''': Aka ''Hunter x Hunter'''s seinen cousin. 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 <u>''a lot''</u> of [[Loli|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 <u>'''DARK'''</u>. 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 [[Meme|memes]] thanks to a certain bunch of characters, the series also hosts the only [[furry]] you should not kill on sight... [TV Series: 26 episodes + two movies]

:Related games: [[Dungeons and Dragons]]

*'''''[[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.  Rumored to have originally been a "next generation" sequel to Anno's earlier work ''Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water'' but the producers wouldn't allow it. Inspiration for [[Adeptus Evangelion]], obviously. [TV series: 26 episodes + 2 movies, Reboot (Rebuild of Evangelion): 4 movies]
 
:Related games: [[Adeptus Evangelion]], [[JAEVA Project]], [[CthulhuTech]]

*'''''Now and Then, Here and There''''': A young Japanese boy and American girl are transported through time and space to a dying world orbiting a dying star, and are forced to fight as a child soldier for 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]]

*'''''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," [[Grimdark|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]]

*'''''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, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu98k5vVP-Y 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]]

*'''''The Rising of the Shield Hero''''' (2019): From ''Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari'' published 2017 (and originally from 2012). Naofumi Iwatani gets isekaied with three others. The quartet are assigned their legendary weapons: Spear, Sword, Bow, and... Shield. Naofumi gets the Shield and a companion, the princess... who proceeds to ''totally fuck him over'' by lying to everyone and claiming he had (literally) [[Rape|fucked ''her'']]. Now disgraced, the "false hero" plays ronin: by helping villagers clean up after the heroics of the other three, usually because they'd moved on from some temporary victory without finishing the job. Naofumi acquires the usual anime isekai harem of loli, the [[tanuki]] Raphtalia, whom Naofumi redeems from slavery; and Filo the blonde chicken-girl shapeshifter. Can almost be seen/read as a response to the poorly-written [[Cavalier]] in the 1980s [[D&D Cartoon]]. [TV series: 25 episodes. More planned 2022.]

:Related games: [[Dungeons & Dragons]] (Basic)

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