These Are the Best Anime for Cheerful Cynics Awaiting the End of the World
Even the end of the world can be entertaining, as seen by the grimdark and violent nature of many post-apocalyptic anime.
Fans often cite anime’s enormous range of topics and genres as one of its most appealing features. These range from sci-fi and fantasy action to slice-of-life romance and comedy, and everything in between. Post-apocalyptic titles tend to get a lot of attention, even if they may be a little more specialised. Examples include classics like Berserk, Wolf’s Rain, and Evangelion as well as more recent series like The Promised Neverland and Attack on Titan.
It should come as no surprise that anime set in these types of settings tends to be fairly violent, nasty, and sad at times. After all, these shows are essentially set after the end of the world as viewers know it, usually in the wake of some catastrophic catastrophe that rendered the very act of human existence challenging. Some anime, on the other hand, manage to take the opposite tack, giving the standard post-apocalyptic setting a more enjoyable, upbeat, or even comic twist.
Gurren Lagann Incorporates Hot-Blooded Action With Gainax’s Signature Energetic Style
Two young men, Simon and Kamina, find a curious relic that turns out to be the literal key to a powerful weapon in a world where people are born and nurtured in communities deep under the ground and the surface is nothing more than a fiction. Along with a self-assured redhead called Yoko, they quickly find themselves battling the wastelands above as well as the formidable Gunmen robots used by the Beastmen in order to retake the surface for mankind.
The anime-based Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is unquestionably one of Gainax’s most cherished series of all time. It is everything that viewers probably wouldn’t expect from a post-apocalyptic show — a dynamic, boisterously funny spectacle filled with chaotically subversive positivity and purposefully over-the-top excitement. Gurren Lagann, a force of nature who is now regarded as a contemporary classic of the genre, aims to elevate and inspire rather than to disturb or demoralise.
Humanity Has Declined Is Fantasy Satire At Its Most Absurd
Humanity is now all but extinct due to a sharp decline in birth rates, and those few individuals who are still alive depend on the resources left over from earlier generations to survive. An unidentified little girl serves as an official mediator between the two species. Fairies, who may be diminutive in height but possess extremely sophisticated technology, now call Earth home. Even while this duty first seems simple, “Watashi” quickly discovers that it requires much more work than she had anticipated in order to stop the calamities that fairies unintentionally cause in their compulsive quest for sugar.
For individuals who like surrealism and have a dark sense of humour, Humanity Has Declined, also known as Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (often abbreviated to Jintai), is the ideal pick. Sarcastic and scathing, the series often pushes every idea to its logical conclusion, creating a brilliant, candy-colored comedy whose attraction is based more on clever social commentary than conventional slapstick humour. Humanity Has Declined is playful and weird, but it’s also inventive, clever, and darkly and ridiculously humorous. It never sacrifices entertainment value for tragedy.
Gargantia Crosses a Waterworld-Style Setting With Mecha and Pirates
In a distant future, humankind has left Earth and founded the Galactic Alliance of Humankind, which is at war with an extraterrestrial race known as the Hideauze on a continual basis. Ledo, a 16-year-old mecha pilot, learns that humans still inhabit the now ocean-covered planet aboard their numerous fleets of ships after he and his mecha, Chamber, are launched to Earth during a battle. Ledo must now adjust to life on Earth and all its peculiar, “primitive” customs after being taken under the care of one such fleet known as the Gargantia by the vivacious Amy.
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (Suisei no Gargantia), written by Urobuchi Gen of Madoka Magica and Psycho-Pass fame, is a mostly serious anime but certainly not a joyless one. Its spirit is about surviving and even flourishing in the face of tragedy as opposed to just battling to remain. Gargantia provides the audience with both amusement and depth thanks to its endearing array of characters and the sometimes humorous fish-out-of-water scenarios that Ledo encounters. The show’s main themes and messages are also joyful and optimistic rather than sad or overtly gloomy.
School-Live!’s Characters Make for a Cutesy Zombie-Filled Adventure
Takeya Yuki, a high school student with optimism and enthusiasm, participates in the School Living Club and lives on campus with her pals Ebisuzawa Kurumi, Wakasa Yuri, and Naoki Miki. In fact, the city has been overrun by zombies, and Yuki is leading a deluded life after every other student outside of her tiny group has already been slaughtered. It quickly becomes clear, however, that not everything is as it appears. The sisters and their Shiba Inu dog Taromaru are now reliant on their own intelligence and tenacity to live, from creating food to protecting themselves.
Beginning with a sugary “pretty girls doing nice things” facade that is found to be concealing a far darker reality, in large part due to its unreliable narrator with very serious mental health difficulties, School-Live! (Gakkou Gurashi!) throws a little bit of everything at the audience. Even if the anime’s darker side is shown when the truth is disclosed, the programme never loses sight of the fact that life is just as important a topic as death. Even if reality must finally be faced, School-Live! treats its characters with compassion, and generally, the series’ shock factor is managed by a sincere viewpoint that serves as a reminder to viewers that even “moe horror” may have some real heart.
Girls’ Last Tour Is a Slice-of-Life Iyashikei Take on a Post-Apocalyptic Future
Chito and Yuuri, the only survivors of a war-torn city in a nuclear winter-like setting, ride their motorcycle around the desolate countryside in search of food, shelter, and helpful goods. The couple fights to survive not human or even inhuman opponents but rather loneliness and nearly absolute isolation as the only two people in their local environs and maybe the whole globe. However, their connection to one another provides them encouragement to continue on their journey, making new discoveries along the way and finally bringing happiness to each other’s lives.
The true brilliance of Girls’ Last Tour (Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou) resides in the way it elevates even the most unimpressive events to the level of being lovely and amazing. Because to them, life is genuinely amazing, and they want to make the most of it, its two main protagonists, who have only the faintest recollection of what life was like before, relish every encounter and every new day. Girls’ Last Tour is a contemplative, low-key slice-of-life series that reminds viewers that even the seemingly little things may have significance and that even those who are literally the last humans on Earth can still experience life to the fullest.
These Are the Best Anime for Cheerful Cynics Awaiting the End of the World
- Reference Sites:
- https://animesee.com/
- https://www.crunchyroll.com/
- https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/
- https://www.cbr.com/
