Anime like Ningen Kousaten

Ojii-san no Lamp

Studio: Telecom Animation Film
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

A boy finds a strange object while playing hide-and-seek. His grandfather tells him the story of his own youth, and the important role the old lamp played. This story is about the modernization of Japan and the changes that came with it.

The Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan invested 214 million yen ($2.26 million) in "Young Animator Training Project" and entrusted the execution of the project to Japan Animation Creators Association (JaniCA). JaniCA produced four original anime (23 min long with OP and ED sequences) in cooperation with four production studios. Ojii-san no Lamp was one of these four projects.

Tags: Historical , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Rural , Tanned Skin , Outdoor Activities , Work , Marriage , Agriculture , Family Life , Heterosexual , Orphan , Time Skip , Economics , Youkai , Revenge

Otona Joshi no Anime Time

Studio: bones , NHK , Ashi Productions , The Answer Studio , WAO World
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

A series of animations based on prize-winning short stories for women.

Kawamo wo Suberu Kaze (January 7, 2011)
In the story, 33-year-old Kanazawa native Noriko had decided long ago not to accept an ordinary, provincial life for herself. So, she had gone to college in Tokyo, worked on her own, married a man at an elite trading firm, and had a child. She has just returned home from five years abroad with her husband and four-year-old son. However, she senses a large emptiness in her heart since coming back. Moreover, there is a man who shares a big secret with Noriko.

Yuuge (March 10, 2013)
Mimi, a wife in her late 20s, leaves her family and begins living with a young man.

Jinsei Best 10 (March 17, 2013)
Hatoko, a business woman, faces her upcoming 40th birthday and reunites with the person with whom she shared her first kiss in middle school, over two decades ago.

Dokoka Dewanai Koko (March 24, 2013)
A 43-year-old housewife gets a glimpse of a complicated relationship between a mother and a daughter.



Tags: Female Protagonist , Anthology , Primarily Adult Cast , Episodic , Primarily Female Cast , Family Life , Heterosexual , Food , Work , Marriage

Takahashi Rumiko Anthology

Studio: Tokyo Movie Shinsha , TV Tokyo
Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance , Slice of Life , Supernatural

Rumic World TV (2003) consists of thirteen independent series based on short stories from 1987-2000 by Takahashi Rumiko. The episode order is not sorted based on the year the story was written. For example, the first episode "Tragedy of P"'s story was written in 1991 while the last episode "Senmuno inu"'s story was written in 1994.



Tags: Anthology , Shounen

RAY THE ANIMATION

Also known as Ray.

Studio: OLM , Touhouku Shinsha , Maiden Japan
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance , Sci-Fi

If you have enough money, you can buy anything. So why wait for an organ you need to become available? Raised to be harvested for parts, Ray had already lost her eyes when renegade surgeon Black Jack rescued her. Now, ten years later, she has grown up to be a surgeon herself. And thanks to the unique artificial eyes she received as replacements, she has a reputation for performing incredible medical operations that no one else could even attempt. But unknown to any but a select few, her surgical endeavors are only part of a greater mission: to discover what happened to the other children she was raised with, and to find the men who stole the eyes she was born with and to bring them to justice.



Tags: Medicine , Primarily Adult Cast , Work , Love Triangle , Ero Guro , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , Female Protagonist , Seinen

Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi

Also known as Kotaro Lives Alone.

Studio: Netflix , LIDENFILMS
Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Slice of Life

A lonely little boy moves into a ramshackle apartment building all on his own and makes friends with the broke manga artist who lives next door.



Tags: Found Family , Family Life , Tragedy , Primarily Adult Cast , Episodic , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Iyashikei , School , Estranged Family , Cute Boys Doing Cute Things , Delinquents , Detective

Shouwa Monogatari

Studio: WAO World
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Dramatic story of the Yamazaki family during the year Showa 39 (1964), the year that Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics.

Tags: Historical , Family Life

Aoi Bungaku Series

Also known as Blue Literature Series.

Studio: MADHOUSE
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Thriller

The series consists of adaptations of six modern classics of Japanese literature: Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku) & Run Melos! (Hashire Melos!), Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro, Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Hell Screen (Jigoku Hen) & The Spider's Thread (Kumo no Ito), and Ango Sakaguchi's In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom (Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita).

No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku) - A high school student becomes lost and alienated. Despondent and aimless, he falls into a cycle of self abuse, depression and drugs that taints his life for years. Told in three chapters, each chapter deals with a different point in his life and the final chapter leaves him standing alone - an empty and hollow charicature of his former self.

In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom (Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita) - A love story between a 12th-century woman and a mountain bandit who abducts her.

Kokoro - A 1914 tale of a young man's life journey during the Meiji era. The work deals with the transition from the Japanese Meiji society to the modern era, by exploring the friendship between a young man and an older man he calls "Sensei". It continues the theme of isolation developed in Soseki's previous works, here in the context of interwoven strands of egoism and guilt, as opposed to shame.

Run Melos! (Hashire Melos!) - An updated retelling of a classic Greek tale of the story of Damon and Pythias. The most prominent theme of "Run Melos!" is unwavering friendship. Despite facing hardships, the protagonist Melos does his best to save his friend's life, and in the end his efforts are rewarded.

The Spider's Thread (Kumo no Ito) - The Buddha Shakyamuni chances to notice a cold-hearted criminal suffering in Hell. But this criminal did perform one single act of kindness in not stepping on a spider in a forest. Moved by this selfless act, Shakyamuni takes the silvery thread of a spider in Paradise and lowers it down into Hell, but it falls upon the criminal to seize the opportunity and pull himself out - if he can.

Hell Screen (Jigoku Hen) - A famous artist is commissioned by a great lord to create a series of paintings depicting scenes of the 'Buddhist Hell'. The artist is unable to paint scenes that he has not seen himself, prompting him to torture and torment the Lord's staff to create his imagined images of hell. His creative efforts taint the household, as the story descends into madness and destruction.



Tags: Classic Literature , Tragedy , Philosophy , Anthology , Historical , Suicide , Autobiographical , Urban , Primarily Adult Cast , Drawing , War , Gore , Trains , Politics , Rural , Demons , Ojou-sama , Female Harem , Writing , Fairy Tale , Afterlife , Delinquents , Psychosexual

Gallery Fake

Studio: Tokyo Movie , Tokyo Kids , Aniplex , TV Tokyo , Trinity Sound
Status: Finished
Genres: Mystery

Fujita Reiji is the owner of an art gallery, Gallery Fake. He deals with fake items, and is also familiar with the black market. However, he has a special talent for art, and used to work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as a curator.



Tags: Seinen , Episodic , Work , Tanned Skin , Male Protagonist , Urban , Primarily Adult Cast

Salaryman Kintarou

Studio: TBS , JCF , Cosmos , Echo
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Comedy , Drama

After former motorcycle gang leader Yajima Kintaro saves the life of the Yamato Construction Company's CEO, he is offered a job working for the company. However, when it becomes apparent that a corrupt faction of the company is trying to gain full control, Kintaro's moral and physical strengths become more useful than the CEO ever imagined. As he works his way up the career ladder Kintaro is forced to deal with many problems, from confrontations with Yakuza bosses to preventing the collapse of a tunnel. But can an uneducated and rowdy person really make it as a salaryman?

Tags: Seinen , Work , Primarily Adult Cast , Gangs , Yakuza , Motorcycles , Nudity , Urban

Shinigami no Ballad.

Also known as Momo, the Girl God of Death.

Studio: Group TAC , Pony Canyon , Ginga Ya , Maiden Japan
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Psychological , Supernatural

A girl wrapped in white, her name is Momo...in her hand lies a blunt yet shiny scythe. By her side is a winged black cat by the name of Daniel. Carrying the souls of humans, the girl's existence parallels to that of a "Death God" or "Shinigami". At the instant when this white Death God touches the hearts of humans, the world is filled with kindness and grief...



Tags: Episodic , Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Primarily Child Cast , School , Gods , Rural , Heterosexual , Shoujo