A lot of groundbreaking anime has premiered in the past 15 years and irrevocably changed the medium’s scale and style of storytelling. That being said, the level of celebration that surrounds Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan is on a whole other level. AOT immediately resonated with audiences because of its rich lore and world-building, compelling characters and exaggerated action sequences that revolve around the extermination of man-eating monsters.
Attack on Titan is a revelatory action and dark fantasy shonen series, but it’s also an especially creative spin on post-apocalyptic dystopian societies. Immersing its audience in a bleak world that often seems like it’s too far gone to ever truly be healed,. AOT‘s post-apocalyptic plotting is in a league of its own. However, there are still some other impressive anime that push post-apocalyptic stories to even better places.
Blue Submarine No. 6 Tells A Thought-Provoking Tale Of Environmental Awareness
Blue Submarine No. 6 is a pivotal post-apocalyptic anime from the late ’90s that has largely slipped through the cracks because it’s only a four-episode OVA series. Lacking the same extensive narrative as Attack on Titan, it’s stunning to see how much is covered and communicated in only four episodes. Attack on Titan‘s post-apocalyptic world, while containing traces of the real world, is too far removed from reality. Its grander themes about the toxic nature of war are applicable to the real world, but its presentation of the end of the world is incredibly exaggerated.
Blue Submarine No. 6 is by no means a grounded anime, but its bleak vision of the future feels much more steeped in actual real-world concerns. Blue Submarine No. 6‘s world is broken from rising ocean levels that have led to a drowned existence. What’s left of humanity works together to preserve the planet and stop the reckless actions of Dr. Zorndyke, who strives to eliminate humanity in favor of a new world order that’s built upon Mutios – human-animal hybrids who can live in the world’s new aquatic landscape. Blue Submarine No. 6 is such a compelling story because Dr. Zorndyke, while technically the anime’s antagonist, isn’t a mustache-twirling stereotypical villain.
Zorndyke only wants to flood the planet because of how humanity has ravaged the world with endless pollution and reckless, selfish decisions. His actions are ultimately to preserve what’s left of the Earth and give it some hope of a future, rather than seeing it progressively be destroyed. There are many anime that riff on the idea of Atlantis and underwater worlds, yet Blue Submarine No. 6 never feels formulaic or derivative of these stories. There’s a real careful approach to its world-building that leads to rewarding character development and exciting action spectacles.
Blue Submarine No. 6‘s contemplative and prescient storytelling is its greatest asset and it’s hard to not finish this anime and be left with a sense of guilt and responsibility for the planet. However, Blue Submarine No. 6 is also an early adopter of 3D animation blending together with traditional 2D animation. While this process can be awkward, it beautifully contributes to Blue Submarine No. 6‘s unique aesthetic. It amplifies that familiar-but-different version of the world.
Blue Gender Wages A Hopeless War Against Aggressive Alien Invaders
Anime fans have their share of options when it comes to gritty sagas where mankind must battle against extraterrestrial invaders or rogue monsters or become extinct relics of the past. At face value, it’s easy to dismiss Blue Gender as yet another sci-fi/horror hybrid that embraces mecha storytelling staples.
Blue Gender is an exception to the rule due to its extremely nihilistic perspective that depicts humanity on its last stand. When Blue Gender begins, Earth is already overrun with the alien Blue and what’s left of humanity has been forced to retreat to a space station that’s been called Second Earth.
This hopeless starting point is reminiscent of Attack on Titan‘s overall atmosphere and a feeling that humanity may just be on borrowed time. Blue Gender hits even harder because its protagonist, Yuji Kaido, is abruptly awakened from cryo-sleep and is suddenly thrust into a position of power in a war that he knows nothing about. Yuji still evolves over the course of Blue Gender, but he’s never able to fully escape the crushing feelings of fear, guilt, grief, and mounting PTSD.
Any headway that Yuji makes is met with brutal casualties that reiterate his fragility. There’s no “plot armor” to save Yuji or the rest of Blue Gender‘s heroes, which is exactly the vibe that’s necessary in a dark post-apocalyptic anime like Blue Gender. Blue Gender, much like Attack on Titan, begins in a dark place that gradually tackles even bigger themes that argue that mankind is just as rotten as the parasitic Blue. Over 25 years later, Blue Gender continues to find more fans and open minds with its dark, provocative themes.
Now And Then, Here And There Showcases A Cruel World Of Child Exploitation
Now and Then, Here and There has aged incredibly gracefully, but it was a truly groundbreaking anime upon its release in the late ’90s. Now and Then, Here and There presents an unflinching tale of oppression and cruelty in a post-apocalyptic vision of the Earth’s future. However, this depressing adventure is filtered through the fantastical isekai format. Upon the time of its release, isekai anime were typically cheerful and optimistic power fantasies that give their displaced protagonist some special skill.
In Now and Then, Here and There, Shu’s selflessness sees him transported to a bleak version of the future in which he’s now robbed of any agency and freedom. He’s thrust into a horrifying situation, and his efforts to protect a mysterious girl, Lala-Ru, put him in a punishing position where he’s at the mercy of the whims of a corrupt dictator.
Now and Then, Here and There features a world that’s rich in destruction, oppression, and child soldiers, while an increasingly significant drought puts a strain on the planet. Shu is put through the wringer as he witnesses horrible atrocities that highlight how life itself is such a gift and something that should never be taken for granted.
This is a post-apocalyptic anime that’s not afraid to embrace darkness and nihilism, but Shu’s optimistic nature is never erased. He becomes a sliver of hope in a desperate world. Now and Then, Here and There turns into a story that’s even more brutal than Attack on Titan. It’s a challenging watch at only 13 episodes.
Heavenly Delusion Is A Trippy Mind Game That Contrasts Parallel Realities
Heavenly Delusion is a fairly recent anime that came along in 2023 and became one of the year’s most talked about titles. As it stands, Heavenly Delusion only has a single 13-episode season, but it’s enough time to establish a remarkable post-apocalyptic framework. Heavenly Delusion tells an intricate story that spans between dueling timelines and realities.
Maru and Kiruko make their way through a destroyed version of Japanfilled with monstrous entities as they search for “Heaven.” Their distressing story is juxtaposed with a group of happy, sheltered children who live in the coveted “Heaven” utopia.
Heavenly Delusion crafts a compelling mystery between these two contrasting realities and is careful not to spoon-feed its audience answers or get lost in extensive exposition. Part of the joy in Heavenly Delusion is to slowly connect its dots and make conclusions about these disparate worlds and which among them is the truer reality. The children inside of Heaven are told that the outside world and those that exist in it are a part of Hell. It’s such a clever angle that causes the audience to inherently question everything that they see.
Attack on Titan indulges in a similar style of mystery box storytelling, albeit one that takes several seasons to reveal some of its grander questions. Heavenly Delusion is a more economical package that turns each episode into a worthwhile discovery. It’s a brilliant blend of science fiction, mystery, horror, and coming-of-age melodrama, all of which is tied together in a foreboding post-apocalyptic package. If a second season of Heavenly Delusion comes to pass, then it’s likely to become one of the biggest anime events of the 2020s.