Tired of generic battle shounen series? Here are some action series that do things differently!
Sometimes, we want action, but a lot of anime fights feel rather generic. However, there’s more to the genre than you might have thought: here are some great examples of series with very unusual approaches to fights!
World Trigger
World Trigger is a battle shounen series that follows a group of protagonists fighting in another world. What is quite unique about it is the nature of the anime itself — it’s just an endless circle of fights, making the anime essentially a large tournament arc.
Various cool weapons and powers only make it more fun — and while the anime was somewhat controversial at the start due to its repetitiveness, getting into it is incredibly rewarding.
Kengan Ashura wouldn’t be anything special — it’s just another martial arts series — if not for the unique way it is presented. While most anime fans tend to criticize anime that is made in 3D CGI, Kengan Ashura is a series that actually benefits from this technology.
3D is used in the series to showcase the insane choreography of the fights. The camera work is incredibly fluid, and the angles the anime uses constantly are often very hard to achieve via traditional animation — yet another proof that CGI is not always bad.
Katanagatari
Despite being written by the author of the Monogatari series and having a similar name, Katanagatari has nothing to do with it. Instead, it follows a journey of Togame and Shichika to collect twelve unique swords. With Nisio Isin being the creator of the series, you know it’s going to get weird.
Shichika himself is a master of unarmed combat. “Swords” of his opponents range from somewhat normal to truly bizarre — one of the swords is a set of armor, and that’s not even the weirdest part. No fight is similar to the other ones, and the anime constantly surprises you with its twists.
Area 88
Area 88 was a series of three one-hour-long OVAs. Despite the original anime dating back to the 1980s, it still has some of the best animation sequences for the kind of action it focuses on: specifically, the main draw of the anime is its highly realistic and well-animated aerial combat.
While not as popular nowadays, the anime is still popular with military otaku, who praise it for its realistic portrayal of an army setting. In addition to great action, it also has a surprisingly mature romance/drama subplot, which makes this forgotten gem a truly great show.
Kishin Houkou Demonbane
Demonbane adapts a series of long visual novels into a 12-episode anime. As such, the result is a breakneck-paced action series which focuses more on craziness than on actually explaining the plot.
Despite that, it’s fun in its own way: the main character’s weapon is The Shining Trapezohedron. Yes, the series is full of references to H. P. Lovecraft.
Tired of generic battle shounen series? Here are some action series that do things differently!
Sometimes, we want action, but a lot of anime fights feel rather generic. However, there’s more to the genre than you might have thought: here are some great examples of series with very unusual approaches to fights!
World Trigger
World Trigger is a battle shounen series that follows a group of protagonists fighting in another world. What is quite unique about it is the nature of the anime itself — it’s just an endless circle of fights, making the anime essentially a large tournament arc.
Various cool weapons and powers only make it more fun — and while the anime was somewhat controversial at the start due to its repetitiveness, getting into it is incredibly rewarding.
Kengan Ashura wouldn’t be anything special — it’s just another martial arts series — if not for the unique way it is presented. While most anime fans tend to criticize anime that is made in 3D CGI, Kengan Ashura is a series that actually benefits from this technology.
3D is used in the series to showcase the insane choreography of the fights. The camera work is incredibly fluid, and the angles the anime uses constantly are often very hard to achieve via traditional animation — yet another proof that CGI is not always bad.
Katanagatari
Despite being written by the author of the Monogatari series and having a similar name, Katanagatari has nothing to do with it. Instead, it follows a journey of Togame and Shichika to collect twelve unique swords. With Nisio Isin being the creator of the series, you know it’s going to get weird.
Shichika himself is a master of unarmed combat. “Swords” of his opponents range from somewhat normal to truly bizarre — one of the swords is a set of armor, and that’s not even the weirdest part. No fight is similar to the other ones, and the anime constantly surprises you with its twists.
Area 88
Area 88 was a series of three one-hour-long OVAs. Despite the original anime dating back to the 1980s, it still has some of the best animation sequences for the kind of action it focuses on: specifically, the main draw of the anime is its highly realistic and well-animated aerial combat.
While not as popular nowadays, the anime is still popular with military otaku, who praise it for its realistic portrayal of an army setting. In addition to great action, it also has a surprisingly mature romance/drama subplot, which makes this forgotten gem a truly great show.
Kishin Houkou Demonbane
Demonbane adapts a series of long visual novels into a 12-episode anime. As such, the result is a breakneck-paced action series which focuses more on craziness than on actually explaining the plot.
Despite that, it’s fun in its own way: the main character’s weapon is The Shining Trapezohedron. Yes, the series is full of references to H. P. Lovecraft.
