Anime Like Ai (ONA)

Fifteen years after the catastrophic Second Impact, humanity is under siege from colossal angelic beings known as Angels, who attack Tokyo-3 one after another. Despite deploying their most advanced weapons and military strategies, mankind is powerless against them. The only hope lies with NERV, a secretive organization led by the cold-hearted Gendou Ikari. NERV operates giant humanoid robots called Evangelions, equipped with cutting-edge weaponry and protective barriers called Absolute Terror Fields, to fight the Angels. After years of abandonment by his father, 14-year-old Shinji Ikari returns to Tokyo-3. He constantly struggles with deep-seated trauma from losing his mother and the emotional neglect from his father. Afraid to form connections, Shinji's life changes when he meets 29-year-old Misato Katsuragi, a high-ranking NERV officer who offers him the maternal warmth he has never known. A sudden Angel attack forces Shinji into action, revealing Gendou's true reason for summoning him: Shinji is the only one who can effectively pilot Evangelion Unit-01, a new robot that syncs with his biological signals. Despite the severe psychological torment of piloting an Evangelion, Shinji defends Tokyo-3 from the angelic threat, unaware of his father's dark schemes.

Devils require a living host to manifest. However, if a person's will is sufficiently strong, they can overcome the demon and claim its power for themselves, becoming a Devilman. Akira Fudou is a timid and gentle soul with an overly compassionate nature. When his childhood friend Ryou Asuka asks for assistance in hunting devils, Akira agrees without a second thought. But to Akira's shock, their destination is Sabbath, a hedonistic gathering of depravity and excess. As bloodshed erupts, demons possess the revelers, transforming them into grotesque monsters and causing chaos. In a desperate bid to save his friend, Akira inadvertently fuses with the demon Amon, transforming into a Devilman and gaining the strength to defeat the remaining demons. This new union grants him immense power, but it also awakens a primal, uncontrollable side of Akira. Now bearing a devil's body while retaining his compassionate heart, Akira joins forces with Ryou, destroying those who threaten humanity and those he holds dear.

Following the death of a close friend, Shinji Ikari falls into an emotional coma. Because his son is mentally incapable of piloting Evangelion Unit-01, Gendou Ikari’s NERV engages in a race against the shadow organization SEELE to execute their respective ultimate plans first. SEELE intends to create a godlike entity by merging their souls into an Evangelion unit, whereas Gendou aims to revert all of humanity into a single primordial form so he can reunite with Yui, his late wife. SEELE deploys its military to launch a deadly assault on NERV headquarters. As SEELE’s troops massacre NERV scientists and security staff, Asuka Langley Souryuu pilots Evangelion Unit-02 in a final, desperate defense against SEELE’s most powerful weapons. The conflict intensifies while a despondent Shinji hides deep inside NERV. With the world’s fate in Shinji’s hands, Captain Misato Katsuragi searches for the teenager as society collapses around them.

Fourteen-year-old Lain Iwakura, a shy and socially awkward student, receives a peculiar email from Chisa Yomoda, a classmate who has recently taken her own life. Despite having no interest or experience with technology, Lain opens the message, which transports her into the Wired, a digital communication network akin to the real-world internet. Her existence is upended as she faces a series of enigmatic puzzles. Individuals known as the Men in Black start appearing in her vicinity, interrogating her with knowledge of her life that surpasses her own self-awareness. As the line between physical reality and cyberspace grows increasingly indistinct, Lain is drawn into increasingly surreal situations that challenge traditional notions of identity, consciousness, and perception. Created by Chiaki J. Konaka, the creator of Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological, avant-garde mystery that tracks Lain’s pivotal decisions, which resonate across both the tangible world and the Wired. Only Lain can grasp the true weight of these dual existences as one realm closes and another opens.

Naota Nandaba is a typical sixth-grader in a town where nothing exciting ever occurs. After his older brother Tasuku heads to America to play baseball, Naota is left to manage everything Tasuku abandoned—from his top bunk to his ex-girlfriend Mamimi Samejima, who keeps hanging around Naota ever since Tasuku departed. But Naota's dull routine is about to be turned upside down: enter Haruko Haruhara, a Vespa-riding, bass-guitar-wielding, pink-haired maniac whose first meeting with Naota ends with tire marks on his back and a giant horn sprouting from his head. Although he only wants some calm, once Haruko moves into his family's house, Naota gets swept into the middle of the most epic fight for control that Earth—and maybe the entire universe—has ever witnessed.

J-pop idol group CHAM! has been entertaining its fans for the past two years. However, all good things must eventually come to an end, and one of its members, Mima Kirigoe, decides to leave the group to pursue acting. Although her decision receives mixed reactions, Mima hopes her fans will continue to support her. But after leaving the group, Mima's life starts to change dramatically. Determined to shake off her pop-idol image, she accepts a role in a crime drama series, and her acting career becomes increasingly demanding and stressful for both her and her manager, Rumi Hidaka. Adding to Mima's growing anxiety, an obsessed fan who cannot accept that she has quit being an innocent idol begins stalking her, a mysterious new website starts impersonating her life with precise details, and CHAM! seems to be doing better without her. Each disturbing development pushes Mima further toward instability, making it harder for her to tell reality from fantasy.

Dreams serve as a profound portal into the human psyche, revealing hidden desires, ambitions, and suppressed memories. A promising research facility has been dedicated to creating the DC Mini, a device capable of entering and navigating the dreams of others. Atsuko Chiba and Kosaku Tokita have worked relentlessly to perfect this technology, aiming to use it to delve deeply into patients' minds and treat their psychological afflictions. Yet, the ability to access the deepest recesses of the mind carries immense weight. In malicious hands, the DC Mini could become a tool for psychological terrorism, inducing mental collapse in its victims. When the device is stolen and individuals around them begin exhibiting bizarre behavior, Atsuko and Kosaku realize they face a grave crisis. With the assistance of Officer Konakawa, who has undergone this experimental therapy, they hunt for the perpetrator across both the waking world and the realm of dreams.

The notorious Shounen Bat is spreading fear throughout Musashino City. Gliding on rollerblades and striking people down with a golden baseball bat, the attacker remains elusive and baffling. His first victim, the famous but shy character designer Tsukiko Sagi, is suspected of masterminding the assaults. Only her anthropomorphic pink plush toy, Maromi, believes her innocence, as Tsukiko becomes one of many targets. As Shounen Bat relentlessly continues his attacks, detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa launch an investigation into the assailant's identity. Yet more individuals fall prey to the infamous golden bat, and news of the perpetrator spreads throughout the town. Paranoia takes hold as chilling rumors circulate among both adults and children. Can the two detectives uncover the truth behind Shounen Bat, or will the paranoia consume them first?

The Takakura family lives under a destiny that turns like an unending wheel, swinging between joy and sorrow before moving on to the next person who makes a wish. Without their parents, twin brothers Kanba and Shouma care for their beloved younger sister Himari, whose fragile health cannot afford any more decline. When Himari is finally allowed a temporary leave from the hospital, her brothers take her to the aquarium to celebrate. There, the family's supposed fate arrives with her sudden collapse. But when Himari is mysteriously revived by a penguin-shaped hat from the aquarium gift shop, the hand of fate keeps ticking faithfully onward. Her miracle recovery comes with a price: a new presence now resides inside her body, and its condition for holding off her doom sends the brothers on a frantic search for the enigmatic "Penguin Drum." As they hunt, they must follow the threads of fate emerging from their own shocking past and into the lives of other wishmakers who also seek the Penguin Drum, each hoping to land upon their chosen destiny.

In the subterranean city of Lux, shrouded in darkness, its inhabitants live under constant dread and subjugation by competing criminal syndicates. Cut off from the world above, these gangs interact with the surface solely through the mining of "raffia," the city's sole reason for existence. This rare mineral, found only in Lux, serves as the foundation for "texhnolyze" transplants, which allow humans to replace body parts with cybernetic limbs. These prosthetics uniquely avoid immune rejection, and the mysterious "Class" organization holds the privilege of researching them. The Class, which also oversees raffia production, entrusts its executive power to a group called Organo, led by Keigo Oonishi—a self-righteous man with texhnolyzed legs, rumored to hear the "voice of the city." The fragile power balance in Lux shatters when a mysterious newcomer, Kazuho Yoshii, begins a series of crimes that incite conflict among the gangs. Amid the ensuing chaos, new figures emerge: Ichise, a former boxer mutilated by Organo and recently fitted with texhnolyzed limbs by Eriko "Doc" Kamata; and Ran, a young florist with the ability to see the future. As Lux spirals into madness, both Ichise and Ran become entangled in the greatest crisis the city has ever faced.

In Kurouzu-cho, Kirie Goshima lives a fairly ordinary life alongside her family. One day, on her way to the train station to meet her boyfriend Shuuichi Saito, she spots his father staring at a snail shell in an alleyway. She thinks little of it and mentions it to Shuuichi, who reveals that his father has been acting strangely lately. Shuuichi confesses his growing urge to leave the town with Kirie, stating that the town is contaminated by spirals. But his father's obsession with the shape soon turns lethal, setting off a series of horrifying and inexplicable events that plunge the residents of Kurouzu-cho into madness.

Quiet rumors circulate among the female students at Shinyo Academy about a mysterious supernatural being. This being is Boogiepop, a shinigami said to kill people at the peak of their beauty before their charm fades. Few know his true identity: a protector who, after periods of inactivity, emerges as the alternate personality of high school girl Touka Miyashita to battle "the enemies of the world." Now, a series of unexplained disappearances—dismissed by the school as mere runaways—has roused Boogiepop. But somewhere on the campus, a dangerous creature lurks, waiting for the right moment to strike. Boogiepop wa Warawanai gently examines the deep connections between human beings and their experience of time, while exploring the intricate relationships, emotions, memories, and pasts of its characters.

The surreal world of Tenshi no Tamago is bleak and empty of ordinary daily life. Instead, it is filled with strange sights: floating spheres containing statues of goddesses, massive army tanks that appear to move on their own, crowds of fishermen chasing the shadows of fish that do not exist, and caves decorated only with glass vessels of water. In this decaying world, a young girl cares for a large egg and searches for food and drink. She meets a mysterious man carrying a cross over his shoulder, who grows curious about who she is and what her egg holds. Together, they journey through the broken landscape, questioning each other about faith, the meaning of the world, and where their lives come from.

In a world where memories are stored on chips separate from the body, physical death no longer means the end of the soul. These chips can be viewed, altered, and transferred between bodies. The wealthy use them to achieve eternal life by selecting ideal vessels, while the poor often have to sell their bodies and preserve their souls in chips just to survive. A barrier of electrolytic clouds separates the heavens of the rich from the underworld of the poor, making this social divide absolute. One day, a man named Kaiba wakes up in an empty room with no memories, a mysterious hole in his chest, and a locket containing a picture of an unknown woman. After escaping an attack and arriving at a decrepit village of underworld residents, he sets out on a journey across the different planets of this strange universe to uncover the truth about his identity and the woman he once knew. Through a voyage of self-discovery and acceptance, Kaiba weaves together stories of souls and spirits, exploring the significance of memories.

Boogiepop is a rumored shinigami said to hide where no one can see them. Five years ago, a series of brutal murders terrified the public, and students blamed some of those deaths on this so-called death god. Now, as strange events once again disrupt the lives of students at Hijiridani High School and Shinyo Academy, rumors of the mysterious Boogiepop are revived. The tales being shared might hold fragments of truth, or perhaps the world humans think they know is far more perilous than they ever imagined.

After the noble Kappa Kingdom is defeated by the Otter Empire, Kappa prince Keppi loses most of his strength and finds himself powerless against the invisible Kapa-zombies that plague the world. These zombies, created by the Otters, are the embodiments of people's deepest desires. With no other option, Keppi must depend on three young boys: Kazuki Yasaka, who always carries a box with him; Enta Jinnai, Kazuki's childhood friend; and Tooi Kuji, a delinquent and school truant. When their mythical organ, the shirikodama, is extracted, the boys gain the ability to transform into Kappa and battle the Kapa-zombies. However, to defeat them, the boys must connect through their minds, bodies, and—most crucially—their secrets. As the fate of the Kappa Kingdom rests on these boys, they must reveal themselves in ways they never have before, all while learning that connections are fragile and truly precious.

Hidomi Hibajiri is a disenchanted girl who never removes her headphones. Her routine never changes—school, helping at her mother's café, and listening to music. With nothing to disrupt the crushing repetition, she keeps her headphones on constantly. That changes when a mysterious woman wielding a guitar runs her over. Later that night, a robot bursts into Hidomi's room alongside a classmate, Ko Ide, and the two are chased through town. The guitar-wielding woman rescues them, but now Hidomi has a horn sprouting from her forehead. She has no idea where the robots come from, what kind of "vespa woman" this strange guitarist warns her about, or what the thing on her forehead is, but clearly she can't just drown it all out with her headphones anymore.

The Storyteller, a figure of unknown identity, wears a yellow mask and appears at dusk wherever children gather. He narrates disturbing tales drawn from Japanese urban legends, which his young audience absorbs with an eerie stillness. But he is no ordinary storyteller—he uses a kamishibai, a traditional paper-scrolling device, to illustrate his already twisted narration. Yami Shibai is a collection of short horror stories. It opens with a bachelor who, after moving into a new apartment, feels an intense, malevolent stare pressing against him. A single talisman hangs from his ceiling, though he does not realize it is one of the few barriers separating him from an endless abyss of suffering. Each story grows more terrifying, more appalling, and more sickening than the last, as the Storyteller's listeners find themselves drawn into the vicious world his words create.

In the past, humanoid bears and humans lived together peacefully. But a meteor shower that struck Earth caused bears worldwide to become savage and develop a craving for human flesh, triggering an endless cycle of violence where bear devoured man and man shot bear, erasing the memory of their once harmonious coexistence. To maintain peace, the "Wall of Severance" was erected, separating the two civilizations. Kureha Tsubaki and Sumika Izumino are lovers attending Arashigaoka Academy. When two bears slip through the Wall of Severance and infiltrate the school, their relationship comes under serious threat. The hungry yet affectionate bears, Ginko Yurishiro and Lulu Yurigasaki, seem to view Kureha—who despises bears—as more than just prey. As they draw closer to her, a web of hidden secrets begins to unravel, secrets that Kureha may not be able to bear. When these relationships provoke the Invisible Storm, a group that enforces order within the ideologically rigid school, the girls must stand trial for their love. They set out on a journey of self-discovery, seeking to achieve the "promised kiss" of true love.

Day-to-day life in a small Japanese town feels stagnant for Kana Koumoto and her group of friends. Each day is a carbon copy of the last, and tomorrow promises to be no different. Kana passes the time with school, hanging out with her friends, painting her nails, and listening to music, yet she can't shake the feeling that nothing truly remarkable will ever occur. Seeking a little excitement, Kana and her friends decide to build a bottle rocket and attempt to send it to space, even if the odds are against them. But just as they finish the rocket, a robot suddenly crashes into it, destroying it completely. Soon after, a woman with pink hair appears, claiming to be a "Galactic Investigator." From that moment, Kana's ordinary life becomes far more thrilling than she ever anticipated, as she grapples with new emotions, shifting friendships, and even romantic complications. Life can pass in the blink of an eye, so fast you might miss it—so why do these bizarre robots always show up at the worst possible moments?

The eccentric psychiatrist Dr. Ichirou Irabu practices at Irabu General Hospital, where he and his alluring nurse Mayumi handle a series of patients whose mental disorders disrupt their daily lives. Mayumi's captivating appearance and ultra-short pink nurse uniform demand caution, while the doctor himself manifests three separate personas: a child wearing an oversized lab coat, an intelligent young man with feminine mannerisms, and a selfish, outgoing green bear. Dr. Irabu treats his patients through dubious methods, often attempting to extract personal benefits beyond his professional duties—and in the process, sometimes loses sight of his medical role. As each patient grapples with the essence of their affliction, a clear yet unseen connection weaves their journeys together.

After watching her board a train at the last moment and get her foot caught between the closing doors, Nishi reunites with his former high school love, Myon. He remains deeply in love with her but is devastated to find out she is engaged to someone else. Nishi agrees to meet Myon's fiancé at her family's yakitori restaurant, but Yakuza members burst in and kill Nishi when he tries to prevent them from assaulting Myon. Now dead, Nishi awakens and encounters a constantly shape-shifting deity who taunts him for his death. The god instructs Nishi to step through a portal and vanish into nothingness, but Nishi refuses, instead dashing past the god and returning to life. With a fresh perspective and foreknowledge of how the Yakuza will attack, Nishi kills one of them with his own weapon and flees in a stolen car with Myon and her sister. Acclaimed director Masaaki Yuasa's first feature film, Mind Game uses its ever-changing animation style to tell a story about embracing life without regrets, making it wholly unique.

A cat named Nyatto sets out on a quest to recover his sister's soul, which was torn in two when he attempted to rescue her from Death. She follows him in a brain-dead state. Together, they face a series of brilliant and mind-bending scenarios, starting with a disturbing magic show.

For centuries, beings known as Shokujinki have secretly coexisted with humans. Though they appear human, Shokujinki can transform into uncontrollable monsters with massive claws and must consume humans to survive. The equally secretive Kifuuken dojo specializes in killing Shokujinki by severing their arms, and it stands as the sole force preventing unchecked Shokujinki dominance. Toshihiko Momota, the son of the Kifuuken's leader, is instantly captivated by a mysterious woman named Yuka Kamitsuki. Their relationship becomes complicated because, unknown to both of them, Yuka is a Shokujinki and Toshihiko is sworn to kill her. Meanwhile, the Kifuuken faces a crisis of confidence as Toshihiko's brother Kazuma pushes against tradition and attempts to modernize the dojo. As emotions grow strained and secrets of both the past and present are revealed, who will survive, and who will be devoured?