Want something unique? These might be for you.
Genres can be really hard to define. Yet we often have certain expectations from them — and in our minds, certain genres might seem incompatible. However, that’s a misconception: pretty much any genre can go together, and these series prove that.
Blue Lock (Sports/Battle Royale)
Sports anime have followed a very specific pattern for a while. More specifically, team sports anime often emphasize the importance of teamwork.
Here comes Blue Lock, however, which is essentially a battle royale to determine a striker for the national team. Of course, no one dies on the field, but it’s still very intense.
Knight's & Magic (Isekai/Mecha)
Fun fact: the first ever isekai in anime was the mecha series Aura Battler Dunbine (Seisenshi Dunbine). In that sense, Knight's & Magic is not especially unique in combining the isekai and mecha genres — however, it’s a little more complex than that.
The modern take on isekai anime is quite different from ones we’ve seen just two decades ago — let alone in the 80s. In that way, Knight's & Magic is one of the few anime that actually takes the current standards of the isekai genre and adds mecha to it.
What’s crazy is that it actually works — and a big part of the reason is the protagonist, who is really passionate about mechs.
Endro~! (Fantasy/Cute Girls Doing Cute Things)
Endro~! is a slice-of-life series — more specifically, it belongs to the subgenre of “cute girls doing cute things.” It also uses the fantasy setting that is so familiar to otaku.
The anime follows a party of girls who are sent back in time. They’re supposed to defeat the Demon Lord (who is their teacher, but they don’t know it), but they mostly just chill there. It’s a good-vibe, low-stakes series that you can watch to relax and unwind.
Gushing over Magical Girls (Magical Girls/Ecchi)
While fanservice-filled parodies of magical girl series have existed for decades, the currently-airing Gushing over Magical Girls (Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete) is perhaps the first one to fully embrace the genre.
Instead of making fun of the tropes, it embraces them and twists the premise. While that might alienate certain audiences, the creators of the anime made their bet on the ecchi fans being their target audience, and it seems to be paying off.
The Severing Crime Edge (a lot of things)
It’s really hard to pinpoint what The Severing Crime Edge (Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge) is exactly. The premise is already insane — it’s a romance between the boy obsessed with cutting hair and the girl whose hair is indestructible. And yes, it only gets weirder from there.
It’s also a thriller and a battle royale series between the users of cursed objects that make their owners commit murders. As if that wasn’t enough, there are conspiracies, action and whatnot — with occasional fanservice as well. This anime is certainly a unique experience.