Anime and gaming have long been intertwined, with many anime series inspiring their video games. Some of these games have become classics in their own right, beloved by both anime fans and gamers alike. In this article, we’ll be highlighting the top 20 anime series that have inspired their video games, from action-packed fighting games to immersive RPGs.
No Game No Life
Sora and Shiro are two hikikomori step-siblings who are known as Blank, an undefeated group of gamers, in the online gaming world. Tet, a god from another reality, challenges them to a game of chess one day. The two are victorious and are allowed to live in a world centered on games.
Sword art Online
The animes plot follows the exploits of Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki, two players trapped in the virtual world of “Sword Art Online” (SAO). To be released from the game, they must clear all 100 Floors and defeat the final boss.
Log Horizon
The plot is set in a universe where 30,000 Japanese gamers and hundreds of thousands of players from around the world are locked in the Elder Tale fantasy online gaming world. Once called a “sword-and-sorcery universe” is now the “actual world”!
Overlord
An office worker in a dystopian world log into a video game for the final time, only to discover that he and his entire guild have been transported to another reality.
Accel World
Haruyuki “Haru” Arita is a short, overweight boy at Umesato Junior High School who is routinely mocked by delinquents. He logs onto the school’s Local Network cyberspace, where he always plays virtual squash alone, using his Neuro Linker to escape the torment of real life, and his innate video game skills bring him to the attention of Kuroyukihime (literally meaning “Black Snow Princess”), the school’s popular, highly intellectual, and attractive female Student Council Vice-President.
Death Parade
The concept of heaven or hell is non-existent in the mysterious anime Death Parade. Those who die will end up at Quindecim, a bar where they will play various games against other recently deceased people under the watchful eye of the bartender, Decim. Watch these dearly departed souls battle it out, whether it’s darts, air hockey, or even bowling because those who win will safely reincarnate to their next life, while those who don’t will be cast into the void. This establishment has been run in this manner for all eternity until the arrival of a certain man causes even the ever-patient Decim to question himself.
Kakegurui
Students are ranked based on their monetary contributions to the Student Council, which fuels an intricate gambling system in which students freely bet against one another after class. Those who win gain popularity, prestige, and connections, while those who lose and go into debt become slaves to the whims of the rest of the student body known as Pets, nicknamed “Doggy” or “Kitty” (“Fido” or “Mittens” in the dub) and identified with a collar-like tag around their necks. Pets who are unable to pay off their debts by graduation are given “Life Schedules” that dictate their futures while they work to pay off their debts.
Btooom!
This series revolves around a 22 years old unemployed boy named Sakamoto Ryoto who lives with his mother. In reality, he has nothing really special about him but in the online world, he is the world’s strongest player of a combat game, Btooom!. One day he wakes up on an island having no memory of why or how he got here. Ryoto while wandering finds a stranger and asks him for help. The stranger in response throws a bomb and at that moment Ryoto realizes that he is stuck in the real-life version of Btooom! and his life is also in danger. Will he be able to survive?
3-gatsu no Lion
Rei Kiriyama’s parents and younger sister were killed in a car accident when he was a child. He then moved in with the family of Masachika Kda, a friend of his father’s. When Rei reached adulthood, he left his foster family, believing he was only causing trouble. He is now single and has few friends. Akari, Hinata, and Momo, three sisters from the Kawamoto family, are among his acquaintances. Rei deals with his maturation as a professional shogi player and as a person as the story progresses, all the while strengthening his relationships with others, particularly the Kawamoto sisters.
Yu☆Gi☆Oh!
As the series progresses, Yugi and his friends discover that the person inside his puzzle is the spirit of an unknown Pharaoh from Ancient Egypt who had lost his memories. As Yugi and his companions try to help the Pharaoh regain his memories, they face numerous trials as they wager their lives against gamers wielding the mysterious Millennium Items and the dark power of the Shadow Games.
Hack//Sign
The story revolves around Tsukasa becoming mentally trapped in the game. It does not rely on action sequences despite being a “fantasy quest type adventure.” Instead, the show is driven by mystery, gradually revealing its secrets to the audience while focusing on the individual characters. The story is driven by questions such as what happened to Tsukasa in the real world, who he is, and why he can’t log out. Tsukasa is led to a hidden area soon after the series begins. He meets Morganna, who appears as a voice with no physical appearance, and Aura, who appears as a young girl dressed entirely in white floating asleep above a bed.
Chihayafuru
Chihaya Ayase is a young woman who has spent the majority of her life assisting her sister in her modeling career. That changes when she meets Arata Wataya, a gifted karuta player. He believes Chihaya has the potential to be a great player after becoming friends with him.
New Game!
Aoba Suzukaze, a high school graduate, begins working as a character designer for the game’s developer, Eagle Jump, after being inspired by the character designs of a particular video game when she was younger. As she works on character modeling and design for games in development, she meets her colleagues in the character design department as well as those from within the company.
High Score Girl
Yaguchi Haruo, aka “Beastly Fingers,” rules the arcade gaming scene, but beneath his famous identity as a pro-gamer is a regular sixth-grader with an ordinary life. He is not popular, intelligent, or athletic, and he excels in only one area: video games. Haruo would rather spend hours honing his gaming skills at the local arcade than take his life and academics seriously. Haruo meets his match one day with his classmate no Akira. Akira is not the type to visit an arcade: she has perfect grades, is well-liked, and comes from a wealthy family. Despite this, she not only manages a 29-game win streak, but she also defeats Haruo seven times in a row.
The King’s Avatar
The story of Ye Xiu, a professional player in the online MMORPG game ‘Glory,’ is told in The King’s Avatar. Glory is a well-balanced game in which the only thing that matters is the skill of the players; the game features both PvE and PvP. Ye Xiu, also known as the ‘Battle God,’ is a player that every Glory player knows about; he is a legend, an idol, and many people will go to great lengths just to shake his hand. When you reach great heights, however, there will undoubtedly be people who will do anything to see you fall. And Ye Xiu’s story is no exception. Friends, colleagues, and teammates force Ye Xiu to abandon his career as one of the most successful competitive players in Glory.
Persona The Animation
Yu Narukami, a quiet adolescent, moves to Inaba to live with his uncle and cousin for a year while his parents work abroad. Yu and his new friends, Yosuke Hanamura and Chie Satonaka investigate a rumor about a mysterious ‘Midnight Channel’ that appears on televisions during rainy days and discover a strange world hidden inside the television, inhabited by strange monsters known as Shadows and a curious bear-like creature named Teddie. Yu discovers a mysterious power known as ‘Persona,’ which enables him to fight the Shadows. Yu and his friends quickly realize that this TV World is linked to a mysterious string of murders in which dead bodies appear on foggy days.
Grimgar of fantasy and ash
The plot begins with a group of inexperienced adventurers battling goblins in a forest. The party appears to be completely out of its element and is forced to flee. A flashback reveals that the party, which is most likely from modern Earth, awoke with a large group of people in this world just a few weeks ago. With no recollection of how they got there and no other options, they are pressed into service as Trainee Volunteer Soldiers by a mysterious individual named Chief Britney. Some people adapt better than others. The lead party is made up of those who did not participate. They have banded together, joined class guilds, and begun hunting weak monsters, led by a man named Manato.
Net-juu no Susume
Moriko Morioka, a 30-year-old successful career woman, decides to leave her demanding corporate job and become an elite NEET to live a more fulfilling life. She joins the online MMORPG Fruits de Mer and creates a male avatar named Hayashi. Hayashi meets another character in the game, Lily, a high-level player who assists him in learning the game. Hayashi and Lily become friends, and he eventually joins her guild, @HomeParty. Meanwhile, in the real world, Moriko meets Yuta Sakurai, a handsome elite company employee who may have ties to her online life.
D-Frag
The plot revolves around a semi-connected series of sketches in which delinquent student Kenji Kazama is forced to join his school’s struggling “Game Creation Club” (Game Development Club in the Seven Seas translation) by its members, a quartet of crazy women who drive him insane. As he tries to distance himself from the club, he seems to run into not only club members, but also people from his school who drive him insane to varying degrees.
Summer Wars
Kenji receives an e-mail containing a mathematical code and deciphers it. His actions, however, inadvertently activate Love Machine, a virtual intelligence device that uses Kenji’s account and avatar to hack the infrastructure using the encryption that Kenji had inadvertently cracked, causing widespread damage. Love Machine is confronted by Kenji, Sakuma, and Natsuki’s cousin Kazuma Ikezawa. Love Machine defeats Kazuma’s avatar King Kazma and continues to absorb accounts in the OZ mainframe, allowing Love Machine to cause catastrophic traffic congestion and the disabling of electrical devices due to many accounts being connected to devices for public infrastructure. Rika and Shota Jinnouchi, two of Sakae’s relatives, discover Kenji’s involvement. Shota arrests Kenji, but due to traffic, Natsuki returns them to the estate.
Whether you’re a fan of anime or gaming, these titles offer a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in your favourite anime worlds and explore them in a new way. So, grab your controller and get ready to join your favourite anime characters on epic adventures in these amazing anime-inspired video games!
