Anime like Penguin's Memory: Shiawase Monogatari

Kino no Tabi: the Beautiful World

Also known as Kino's Journey.

Studio: WOWOW , Genco , A.C.G.T. , Sentai Filmworks , Studio Wombat
Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Fantasy , Psychological , Slice of Life

Based on a hit light novel series by Keiichi Sigsawa, the philosophical Kino's Journey employs the time-honored motif of the road trip as a vehicle for self-discovery and universal truth. Deeply meditative and cooler than zero, the series follows the existential adventures of the apt marksman Kino along with talking motorcycle Hermes as they travel the world and learn much about themselves in the process. Imaginative, thought-provoking, and sometimes disturbing, Kino's journey is documented in an episodic style with an emphasis on atmosphere rather than action or plot, though still prevalent.

Tags: Philosophy , Episodic , Travel , Tragedy , Foreign , Meta , Motorcycles , Female Protagonist , Achronological Order , Dystopian , Agender , Rural , Guns , Snowscape , Steampunk , Mopeds , Politics , Cannibalism , Robots , Kuudere , Battle Royale , War , Aviation , Tanks

Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru

Also known as Night on the Galactic Railroad.

Studio: Group TAC , TV Asahi , Nippon Herald Eiga , Asmik Ace , Asahi Shimbun
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Mystery

Based on a short story by the popular children’s writer Kenji Miyazawa, Galactic Railroad offers viewers a slow-paced, dreamlike journey through space and time. When Giovanni, a lonely boy in a hill town, goes to get milk for his ailing mother, he finds himself crossing the Milky Way on a faster-than-light steam railroad. The stations he visits in various constellations, like the planets explored by St. Exupery’s Little Prince, offer curious adventures and an assortment of human "types." Reality and fantasy blur aboard the train, and its travels across the light-years sometimes suggests the journey through life. The characters are depicted as cats, presumably to avoid the problems of animating humans.



Tags: Afterlife , Philosophy , Classic Literature , Trains , Anthropomorphism , Tragedy , Astronomy , Travel , Primarily Animal Cast , Animals , Space , Religion , Mythology , Male Protagonist , Kids , Historical , Bullying

Tobiuo no Boya wa Byoki desu

Studio: Tsubasa Production
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Based on a picture book of the same name, inspired by the event in which the crew of a japanese fishing boat was affected by the radiation of the H-Bomb, which was being tested by the US military on a site nearby, causing them to develop different types of radiaton diseases.

The film follows the story of a flying fish that becomes unable to fly due to the effects of radiation.

Tags: Tragedy , Animals

Cosmo Warrior Zero

Also known as Cosmo Warrior Zero.

Studio: AT-X , Media Blasters , Vega Entertainment , MediaNet , Tsuburaya Eizou
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Sci-Fi

The long war between the planet Earth and the machine men is finally over, resulting in a peace that is more a victory for the machine men than the Earth. Warrius Zero lost his family in the war to the machine men but despite this he is still is a member of the Earth fleet that is now working in concert with the machine men. His ship, made up of both humans and machine men, has been given a near impossible task: capture the space pirate Captain Harlock. While Zero struggles to accomplish this task, evidence begins to surface that the peace between machine men and Earth may not be as it seems....



Tags: Space Opera , Space , Military , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Pirates , Robots

Mawaru Penguindrum

Also known as Penguindrum.

Studio: Brain's Base , Mainichi Broadcasting System , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Supernatural

Once you make a decision, does the universe conspire to make it happen? Is destiny a matter of chance, a matter of choice or the complex outcome of thousands of warring strands of fate? All twins Kanba and Shoma know is that when their terminally ill sister Himari collapses at the aquarium, her death is somehow temporarily reversed by the penguin hat that she had asked for. It's a provisional resurrection, however, and it comes at a price: to keep Himari alive they need to find the mysterious Penguin Drum. In order to do that, they must first find the links to a complex interlocking chain of riddles that has wrapped around their entire existence, and unravel the knots that tie them to mystifying diary and a baffling string of strangers and semi-acquaintances who all have their own secrets, agendas and "survival strategies." And in order for Himari to live, someone else's chosen destiny will have to change. It's a story of love, fate, life, death... and Penguins!



Tags: Philosophy , Found Family , Family Life , Coming of Age , Tragedy , Ensemble Cast , Terrorism , Meta , Denpa , Parody , Inseki , Trains , Surreal Comedy , Heterosexual , Henshin , Crime , Memory Manipulation , Magic , Satire , Fairy Tale , Ghost , Cult , Tsundere , Primarily Teen Cast , Twins , Achronological Order , Psychosexual , Love Triangle , Incest , Age Gap , LGBTQ+ Themes