Anime has explored various themes and genres, one of which is the gang theme. Gang theme is a very popular genre. Chances are, one of your top 10 anime might actually be a gang based anime.
This genre focuses on the stories of street gangs, organized crime syndicates, and their struggles for power, money, and respect.
These anime showcase the dark and gritty side of the criminal underworld, with characters who are often flawed and morally ambiguous. From fast-paced action to psychological drama, here are the top 25 gang theme anime to check out.
Heat guy J
Heat Guy J follows the exploits of a young Special Services officer named Daisuke Aurora. He has an android companion known only as “J.” The couple lives and works in the fictional, futuristic Metropolis of “Judoh” (Jewde). There the Bureau of Urban Safety’s Special Services Division is understaffed and underfunded.
Heat Guy J starts out rather small, but at the end, it wraps up as one of the best gang theme anime. It’s easy to get hooked on this one and there aren’t any boring moments. Highly recommended and it is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
Cuticle Detective Inaba
The plot revolves around Hiroshi Inaba, a genetically altered human-wolf hybrid. Inaba is also a private detective who runs his agency with the assistance of his cross-dressing secretary, Yuta, and his “mostly normal” teenage assistant, Kei. The plot revolves primarily around the gang’s attempt to apprehend Don Valentino, a goat who eats money.
Honestly speaking, Cuticle Detective Inaba is a gag-story. Heavily focused on comedy, it still manages to be an interesting gang themed naime. Recommend if you just want to unwind your stress, and be enjoyable! It is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
Kaiji
Kaiji fails to find steady employment three years after graduating from high school and moving to Tokyo. To look for work because the country in its first recession since World War Il. Depressed and lives in his apartment, passing the time with cheap pranks, gambling, liquor, and cigarettes, Kaiji spends his life.
Kaiji is constantly concerned with money, and his perpetual poverty frequently brings him to tears. Kaiji’s unending misery continues until he is unexpectedly visited by a loan shark named Yji End. He wants to collect an outstanding debt that Kaiji carelessly co-signed for his former coworker. The end gives Kaiji two options: repay the debt over ten years or board the gambling ship Espoir for one night.
Kaiji is one of the most underappreciated gems in the anime community. Even thought the anime is decent, the manga is where it develops its full potential. It is one of the Top 25 Gang Theme Anime.
91 Days
91 days is a revenge story, set in a period of 1900s. Following the main character, Avilio Bruno, receiving a letter and entering a flashback of his past. Running away for 7 years from his past, he’s finally back in his hometown. This time, to face the past and get his revenge.
91 Days might not have a huge array of characters, but it does well with what characters it has. The soundtracks are honestly, my favourite part of the series. Highly enjoyable, 91 Days is great! It is one of the Top 25 Gang Theme Anime.
Beastars
This series is about a world of modern, civilized, anthropomorphic animals with a cultural division between carnivores and herbivores. In the middle of the night, someone ruthlessly strangles and consumes Tem the alpaca.
This causes widespread unease and suspicion among vegetarian and carnivorous students.
Don’t be fooled by the art or the furry characters of Beasters. This has the most humane characters than most anime out there. It is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
Hinamatsuri
Hinamatsuri is such a gem in terms of comedy and the gang theme. Even though the anime is just 12 episodes long, the animation’s damn impressive. Hinamatsuri is one of the anime where you just can’t stop laughing at the jokes! It’s hilarious!
Nitta, a Yakuza, encounters a strange event– A strange object falls on his head. Inside the box, emerges a strange girl names Hina. She shows her incredible supernatural powers. Even though Nitta could take advantage of her, he doesn’t use her supernatural powers for his personal gain.
Even under the guise of comedy, it features certain good action sequences too. Honestly, it hits hard at times, emotionally speaking.
Jormungand
Koko Hekmatyar is a young arms dealer who sells weapons through HCLI, an international shipping corporation, and illegal smuggling operations. She sells weapons in various countries while avoiding local and international authorities as one of the company’s unofficial weapon dealers.
A group of bodyguards, mostly former soldiers, travels with her. Jonah, a quiet and deadly child soldier who despises arms dealers, is the newest member of her crew.
Jormungand anime is very enjoyable, almost every single time. This thing has a pretty good re-watch value and gets better each time you experience it. It is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
Golden Kamuy
The central MacGuffin is based on an in-universe tall tale about a gold discovery by a group of Ainu miners. They yielded 20 kan[b] of gold[c] and ended with one man murdering the others. The survivor was discovered and captured by Japanese authorities who falsely claimed his execution.
They hid him in Abashiri Prison in the hopes of torturing the location. To prevent him from escaping, the survivor tattooed many parts of a ciphered map onto his fellow inmates. He offered them a cut of the gold in exchange for sharing it with his comrades outside.
With exactly four seasons of the anime, Golden Kamuy is still just as good as before. If you’re like me, you’ll possibly like it so much that you’ll directly jump on the manga, looking for more! It is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
Tokyo Tribes
Need something to give you GTA-like vibes? Then Tokyo Tribes is the closest thing that comes to mind. A very enjoyable series, but contains tons of explicit content.
The Tribes of Tokyo had been enjoying a period of relative peace five years after the Shibuya riots. It was until Kim and two other members of the Musashino Saru intruded on the territory of the Wu-Ronz in Bukuro. Mera, the leader of Wu-Ronz, murders the three Saru, believing they are members of the Shibuya Saru. After searching for the killers of his friends for two days, Musashino Saru member Kai runs into Mera.
Old high school friends, the two get into a fight that kills Tera. He is the leader of Musashino Saru, and sets the stage for tribal warfare. It is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
Air Gear
Itsuki “Ikki” Minami is a delinquent student. Ikki, also known as the “Unbeatable Babyface,” is the leader of the youth gang “East Side Gunz.” After being humiliated by a Storm Rider team known as the Skull Saders, Ikki returns home. He discovers a secret hidden from him by his benefactors, the Noyamano sisters.
The sisters are members of a Storm Riders team known as Sleeping Forest. In the anime, discovering the sisters’ secret enrages him, prompting him to steal a pair of Air Trecks, abbreviated as “AT.” Ikki eventually settles his beef with the Skull Saders, but he gains more than just the satisfaction of vengeance. It is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
The story of Air Gear is pretty bland to be honest. However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s still very enjoyable. The characters are of hit-or-miss type. You either love them or wish they never existed in the first place. Honestly, at least worth a watch.
Beelzebub
Beelzebub is extremely hilarious and even though it’s 60 episodes long, it maintains the comedic consistency and keeps things relatively fresh. Need an anime for a fun time? Beelzebub is actually great!
Oga, walking along a riverbed one day when he comes across a man floating down the river. After being retrieved by Oga, the man splits down the middle, revealing a baby, who crawls onto Oga’s back and forms an attachment to him right away.
Though he is unaware of it, this baby is named Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV, or “Baby Beel” for short—the Demon Lord’s son! Oga is confronted by Hildegard, Beel’s demon maid as if finding the future Lord of the Underworld wasn’t enough. They try to raise Baby Beel together, but being surrounded by juvenile delinquents and demonic powers, the two of them may be in for a bigger challenge than they can imagine. It is one of the Top Gang Theme Anime.
Nisekoi
Nisekoi follows high school students Raku Ichij, the son of a yakuza faction leader Shuei-Gumi, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter of a boss in an American rival gang known as the Bee Hive Gang. Chitoge unexpectedly meets Raku when he jumps a wall and knees him in the face. Raku realizes he has lost his locket after she flees, which was given to him by his childhood sweetheart, to whom he made a secret promise ten years before the start of the series. When he discovers Chitoge is a new transfer student in his class, he forces her to assist him in his search for the locket. They begin to dislike each other during the search.
Dogs: Bullets And Carnage
Sometime in the future, somewhere in Europe, a city has many underground levels, including secret dangerous levels with answers to the past. Mihai is a retired assassin who has returned home to settle a grudge and begin a new life as a restaurant owner. Haine was genetically experimented on as a child, which resulted in him having dog-like characteristics.
Badou is his clumsy chain-smoking companion who goes insane when he is denied cigarettes. Naoto was orphaned as a child and was trained to wield the sword despite her amnesia. Their histories are linked to the underground and the organization that controls it.
Texhnolyze
The fragile balance of power in Lux is upset when a mysterious visitor named Kazuho Yoshii begins committing crimes that pit the gangs against each other. During the chaos, two new characters emerge Ichise, an ex-boxer mutilated by Organo and recently texhnolyzed by Eriko “Doc” Kamata, and Ran, a young florist with foresight. While Lux continues to spiral into insanity, Ichise and Ran find themselves embroiled in the city’s greatest crisis.
Kemonozume
Shokujinki, a race of flesh-eating monsters that could either assume a human-like form or otherwise live in the shadows while feeding on humans, have existed since ancient times. To hunt down these mythical creatures, the Kifken martial arts style school was founded, and its teachings have been passed down through the generations to the Momota family. The fictional story revolves around Toshihiko, the latest heir of the Kifuken school, and Yuka, a young woman who is also a shokujinki.
Bungou Stray Dogs
Nakajima Atsushi was kicked out of his orphanage and now has nowhere to go and nothing to eat. He saves a man who is attempting suicide while standing by a river, on the verge of starvation. Dazai Osamu is that man, and he and his partner Kunikida work for a very special detective agency. They have supernatural abilities and handle cases that are too dangerous for the police or the military to handle. They’re looking for a tiger that appeared in the area recently, around the time Atsushi arrived. The tiger appears to have a connection to Atsushi, and by the end of the case, it is clear that Atsushi’s future will involve a lot more Dazai.
Bungou Stray Dogs is an interesting anime. It has many cultural references and with 5 seasons, it honestly is incredible! The storytelling, the references, there’s too good! And, Dazai is such a badass character!
Banana Fish
Warning! Don’t watch Banana Fish unless you want to cry so hard like a baby! Seriously speaking, Banana Fish reminds me of why I liked Gang theme anime before and it executes the theme so well! This might probably be many people’s favourite, considering the lengths it goes to!
Golzine is eventually killed in a final battle, his government co-conspirators are exposed as participants in his child sex trafficking ring, and all evidence of the banana fish project is destroyed. Ash realizes the danger he is putting Eiji in and reluctantly ends all contact with him. Eiji returns to Japan, but not before writing Ash a letter in which he tells him that “my soul is always with you.”
A rival gang lieutenant stabs Ash to death while he is distracted by the letter. He staggers into the Main Branch of the New York Public Library, where he dies, smiling and clutching Eiji’s letter.
Psycho-Pass
Psycho-Pass is an anime that asks, “What if the whole country’s ruling body knew you were some online assh*le?” or “what if they knew you were plotting retaliation against those morons who picked on you the other day?”
That is the dismal truth of the world in Psycho-Pass albeit it is even more serious. Thoughtcrime will be real shortly, and a specialized police force will be present to prevent crimes from even being contemplated.
Akane Tsunemori is a rookie detective on the force who is soon drawn into the realm of determining a person’s intrinsic potential to commit crimes using a specific type of pistol. Psycho-Pass is more on the political Sci-Fi side of the genre.
Psycho Pass has aged so well. It still hits just as hard as it did on release. It definitely is one of the best Sci-Fi shows out there, with also a gang theme!
Dorohedoro
What’s better than a gang theme anime? A gang anime based on supernatural events! Honestly though, Dorohedoro brings in the perfect blend of horror and comedy, that I wouldn’t really have thought would mix so well! The anime’s art is mainly focused on 3DCG elements and sometimes highly distracting. However, it’s still pretty good!
A tribe of Sorcerers has been pulling individuals from the streets to serve as guinea pigs for terrible “experiments” in the black arts in a place known simply as “the Hole.” Nikaido came upon Caiman, a man with a reptile head and a severe case of amnesia, in a dark alley.
To break the enchantment, they’re hunting down and killing Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping to catch the correct one. When En, the chief Sorcerer, learns of a lizard man murdering his people, he sent a team of “cleaners” into the Hole, sparking a conflict between the two realms.
Durarara!
Durarara!! follows a dullahan who works as an underworld courier in Ikebukuro, an internet-based anonymous group known as the Dollars, and the pandemonium that ensues around Ikebukuro’s most dangerous people.
Durarara! has a decent story and plot, but the art and it’s animation is on another level! At times, with decent comedic elements and most fun part of all- the bikes!
Black Lagoon
In the early 1990s, a group of pirates/mercenaries known as the Lagoon Company smuggled items in and around the seas of Southeast Asia. They deliver products in the 80-foot boat Black Lagoon from their center of operations in the fictional Thai city of Roanapur.
Black Lagoon is a classic gang theme anime that does so much good things! The anime might feel a bit slow or different at first, but it gradually picks up. The ending episodes are great!
Great Teacher Onizuka
Great Teacher Onizuka is a classic. Many a times, I would just read this thing all over again just so that I could experience it in a new way! With just over 40 episodes, Great Teacher Onizuka executes both comedy and the emotional aspects really well!
Onizuka sets out to become the greatest teacher ever, employing his brand of philosophy and the ability to do almost anything under duress. He is hired as a long-shot teacher by a privately run school in Kichijji to tame a class that has driven one teacher to an undetermined death, another to a nervous breakdown, and yet another to join a cult.
Onizuka embarks on a self-discovery mission, reaching out to each student one by one and assisting each student in overcoming their problems and learning to genuinely enjoy life. He employs unconventional, illegal, and potentially life-threatening methods, yet he is successful in educating and opening up to his students.
Phantom: requiem of the phantom
The series revolves around a Japanese national kidnapped by an assassin syndicate known as Inferno after witnessing an assassination while visiting the United States. Inferno is a criminal organization that seeks to amalgamate all-known underworld gangs into a single entity. Inferno employs assassin operatives codenamed Phantom to achieve their goal. Among them are Ein, an amnesiac girl, and Zwei, a Japanese national who was given the codename Zwei after being brainwashed by his previous memory.
Akira
Ever wonder a gang-theme based anime that discusses topics like God and philosophy in a whole new way? Well, I certainly did not, until I watched Akira! Akira was way ahead of it’s time in terms of its animation. Even 34 years later, it holds up pretty good! Hard to understand, but definitely worth it!
After ESP experiments on children go wrong, the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo in 1988. Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project in 2019, 31 years after the city was nuked.
He fights anti-government protesters, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists, and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo’s supernatural abilities manifest. The experiment’s secrets are revealed in a final battle at the Tokyo Olympics.
Gungrave
This Yakuza anime is about a small-time gangster who joined a group with his best friend, Harry McDowell, and three other close mates. Brandon and Harry joined the Millennion crime organization after the murders of their pals. The head of the organization is Big Daddy.
That’s all folks! These were the top 25 Gang Themed anime. If you know any more awesome gang theme anime do mention them in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you!
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