Anime like Katanagatari

Bakemonogatari

Also known as Bakemonogatari.

Studio: Aniplex , Shaft , Kodansha , Aniplex of America , Hanabee Entertainment
Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Romance , Supernatural

First season of the Monogatari Series, part 1/6. Contains the arcs Hitagi Crab, Mayoi Snail, Suruga Monkey, Nadeko Snake, and Tsubasa Cat from the Bakemonogatari light novels.

Thanks to Meme Oshino, Koyomi Araragi, a high school student, is able to remain a human after coming across a female vampire... However, since the incident, Koyomi seems to meet girls who have an apparition-related issue. Hitagi Senjougahara doesn’t weigh anything, Suruga Kanbaru’s right arm becomes like that of a monkey’s, and a young girl, Mayoi, cannot find her way home no matter how many times she tries. Koyomi, a Mr. Nice Guy, ends up helping each and every girl solve her problem with the help of Meme Oshino.



Tags: Youkai , Ensemble Cast , Urban Fantasy , Male Protagonist , Surreal Comedy , Kuudere , Philosophy , Coming of Age , Vampire , Ghost , Primarily Female Cast , Satire , Primarily Teen Cast , Meta , Heterosexual , Dissociative Identities , Psychosexual , Curses , Monster Girl , Mixed Media , Yandere , Female Harem , Love Triangle , Tomboy , Parody , Gore , Rotoscoping , Nekomimi , Gods , LGBTQ+ Themes , Tsundere , CGI , Rehabilitation , School , Amnesia , Aliens

Samurai Champloo

Also known as Samurai Champloo.

Studio: Manglobe , Fuji TV
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy

Let's break it down. Mugen's a reckless sword-slinger with a style that's more b-boy than Shaolin. He's got a nasty streak that makes people want to stick a knife in his throat. Then there's Jin, a deadbeat ronin who speaks softly but carries a big blade. He runs game old-school style, but he can make your blood spray with the quickness. When these roughnecks bring the ruckus, it ain't good for anybody, especially them. Enter Fuu, the ditzy waitress who springs her new friends from a deadly jam. All she wants in return is help solving a riddle from her past. She and the boys are tracking the scent, but there's 99 ways to die between them and the sunflower samurai.



Tags: Travel , Swordplay , Samurai , Rural , Assassins , Historical , Orphan , Female Protagonist , Martial Arts , Anachronism , Episodic , Primarily Adult Cast , Anti-Hero , Male Protagonist , Hip-hop Music , Prostitution , Kuudere , Heterosexual , Calligraphy , Tanned Skin , Ninja , Drugs , Politics , Shogi , Pirates , Yakuza , Religion , Crossdressing , Nudity , Language Barrier , LGBTQ+ Themes , Zombie , Baseball , Indigenous Cultures , Guns , Disability

Dororo

Also known as Dororo.

Studio: MAPPA , Twin Engine , Tezuka Productions , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Supernatural

Dororo, a young orphan thief, meets Hyakkimaru, a powerful ronin. Hyakkimaru's father, a greedy feudal lord, had made a pact with 12 demons, offering his yet-unborn son's body parts in exchange for great power. Thus, Hyakkimaru - who was born without arms, legs, eyes, ears, a nose or a mouth - was abandoned in a river as a baby. Rescued and raised by Dr. Honma, who equips him with artificial limbs and teaches him sword-fighting techniques, Hyakkimaru discovers that each time he slays a demon, a piece of his body is restored. Now, he roams the war-torn countryside in search of demons.

Tags: Demons , Revenge , Disability , Swordplay , Tragedy , Samurai , Youkai , Estranged Family , Anti-Hero , Orphan , War , Male Protagonist , Curses , Parenthood , Historical , Travel , Rural , Urban Fantasy , Gore , Episodic , Philosophy , Crossdressing , Female Protagonist , Body Horror , Tomboy , Kuudere , Shounen , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Ghost , Cannibalism , Heterosexual , Prostitution , Nun

Monogatari Series: Second Season

Also known as Monogatari Series Second Season.

Studio: Shaft , Kodansha , Aniplex of America
Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Romance , Supernatural

Second season of the Monogatari Series, part 1/2. Contains the arcs Tsubasa Tiger, Mayoi Jiangshi, Nadeko Medusa, Shinobu Time, and Hitagi End, from the Nekomonogatari White, Kabukimonogatari, Otorimonogatari, Onimonogatari and Koimonogatari light novels, respectively.

These stories take place after the end of the summer vacation when the apparition of the bee had left and the apparition of the phoenix avoided any consequences… Now that Koyomi Araragi and the girls were entering their new school terms, they were once again about to encounter supernatural beings…but this time, they may not be so easy to deal with.

Tsubasa Hanekawa, Mayoi Hachikuji, Nadeko Sengoku, Shinobu Oshino, and finally Hitagi Senjougahara. The girls’ loneliness, their confessions, and their departures… 5 new “stories” begin now.



Notes:
Includes 3 recap episodes from the TV version (Ep. 6, 11, 16).
The recap episodes were not included in the Blu-Ray version of the anime.

Tags: Urban Fantasy , Ensemble Cast , Primarily Teen Cast , Coming of Age , Youkai , Philosophy , Yandere , Primarily Female Cast , Achronological Order , Anti-Hero , Unrequited Love , Vampire , Gods , Love Triangle , Male Protagonist , Tragedy , Heterosexual , Time Manipulation , Ghost , Female Protagonist , Dissociative Identities , Meta , Alternate Universe , Nekomimi , Post-Apocalyptic , Female Harem , Nudity , Zombie , Tomboy , School

Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregotozukai

Also known as Kubikiri Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense User.

Studio: Shaft , Kodansha , Aniplex
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Thriller

It's the vacation of a lifetime, a trip to a remote island filled with geniuses–and murder.

On Wet Crow's Feather Island, a tiny speck in the Sea of Japan, lives Akagami Iria, the exiled daughter of a powerful family. Born into great wealth, she was a princess of the highest pedigree–until she was cut off by the leader of the Akagami Foundation. For the last five years, she's lived on Feather Island with her maids. But she hasn't been alone. She has invited the best minds Japan has to offer to come and stay with her.

And so nineteen-year-old college student Ii-chan and his best friend, computer genius Kunagisa Tomo, find themselves as Iria’s guests at her elaborate mansion. Surrounded by fascinating women – a chef, a fortune-teller, a scholar, and an artist, not to mention his own friend Tomo – Ii-chan is feeling a little overmatched intellectually. But the sudden discovery of a grisly murder sends the island into shock. And Ii-chan discovers that he does possess a bit of genius: the ability to discover what is real and what is fake, who is who they claim to be and who is a killer.



Tags: Detective , Philosophy , Crime , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Female Cast , Conspiracy , Maids , Tragedy , Body Swapping , Ojou-sama , Hikikomori , Female Protagonist , Super Power , Heterosexual , CGI , Kuudere , Gore , Time Skip , Ships

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (2023)

Also known as Rurouni Kenshin (2023).

Studio: LIDENFILMS , Aniplex , Shueisha , Fuji TV , Dentsu , Animax Broadcast Japan
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Romance

Re-adaptation of the main manga series.

One hundred and forty years ago in Kyoto, with the coming of the American "Black Ships," there arose a warrior who, felling men with his bloodstained blade, gained the name Hitokiri, manslayer! His killer blade helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu era and slashed open the progressive age known as Meiji. Then he vanished, and with the flow of years, became legend.



Tags: Swordplay , Historical , Samurai , Male Protagonist , Martial Arts , Shounen , Found Family , Assassins , Age Gap , Heterosexual , Rural , Travel , Drugs

Ookami to Koushinryou

Also known as Spice and Wolf.

Studio: Imagin , Funimation , Kadokawa Pictures Japan , Victor Entertainment , Pony Canyon , Movic
Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Fantasy , Romance , Slice of Life

The peddler Kraft Lawrence travels through the world selling all kinds of things. After visiting a village, he discovers a sleeping girl under the pelts in his cart. She has wolf ears and a tail. The wolf girl explains that she has been called a "god", but that her name is Holo and nothing more. Lawrence teases the girl a little, but after hearing more of her story, he is moved and decides to accompany her further north. On their travels the two have many adventures, often getting into trouble, but the bond between them grows stronger.

Tags: Economics , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Work , Historical , Female Protagonist , Religion , Kemonomimi , Medieval , Travel , Agriculture , Heterosexual , Monster Girl , Politics , Rural , Foreign , Gods , Nudity , Inn

Kimetsu no Yaiba

Also known as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Studio: ufotable , Aniplex , Shueisha , Aniplex of America , ufotable , ufotable
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Fantasy , Supernatural

It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself. Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family.



Tags: Demons , Shounen , Swordplay , Male Protagonist , Vampire , Tragedy , Primarily Teen Cast , Travel , Monster Girl , Revenge , Orphan , CGI , Gore , Primarily Male Cast , Mythology , Rural , Historical , Rotoscoping , Body Horror , Super Power , Curses , Chibi , Time Skip , Snowscape , Animals , Food

Heike Monogatari

Also known as The Heike Story.

Studio: Science SARU , Asmik Ace , Dentsu , Fuji TV , bilibili , Pony Canyon , BS Fuji
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Supernatural

A young orphan named Biwa is taken in by the powerful Taira Clan—also known as the Heike—after their leader witnesses her extraordinary psychic abilities. Unfortunately, what she predicts is a future of bloodshed, violence, and civil war. Inspired by the 12th-century epic tale Heike Monogatari.



Tags: Tragedy , Politics , Classic Literature , War , Historical , Philosophy , Military , Religion , Samurai , Suicide , Ghost , Female Protagonist , Orphan , Conspiracy , Archery , Time Skip , Tomboy , Adoption , Ships , Transgender

Golden Kamuy

Also known as Golden Kamuy.

Studio: Geno Studio , Funimation , Good Smile Company , Twin Engine , TOKYO MX , JR Higashi Nihon Kikaku , Sammy , NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy

In the early twentieth century, Russo-Japanese War veteran Saichi “Immortal” Sugimoto scratches out a meager existence during the postwar gold rush in the wilderness of Hokkaido. When he stumbles across a map to a fortune in hidden Ainu gold, he sets off on a treacherous quest to find it. But Sugimoto is not the only interested party, and everyone who knows about the gold will kill to possess it! Faced with the harsh conditions of the northern wilderness, ruthless criminals and rogue Japanese soldiers, Sugimoto will need all his skills and luck—and the help of an Ainu girl named Asirpa—to survive.



Tags: Historical , Seinen , Survival , Outdoor Activities , Military , Ensemble Cast , Snowscape , Primarily Adult Cast , Food , Guns , War , Indigenous Cultures , Wilderness , Primarily Male Cast , Gore , Anti-Hero , Male Protagonist , Educational , Assassins , Crime , Body Horror , Episodic , CGI , Gender Bending , Archery , LGBTQ+ Themes , Twins , Transgender , Torture , Medicine , Oiran