Anime Works

Kobayashi just can't focus—not on studying, not on work—and the adults in his life think he's in danger of becoming a worthless dropout. Then, one day, a strange new presence arrives in his class: an energetic and naïve kid named Uno. Kobayashi saves Uno from getting scammed, and that close encounter launches a new friendship. Uno's definitely a space cadet, but Kobayashi can't help admiring the way he floats through life, and before he knows it, he might start feeling his feet lift off the ground, too... (Source: Kodansha USA)

• Award Winning
• Slice of Life

Although the rounin Souichirou Senou quickly discovers that most of his new neighbors in the Katagi Apartments do not trust him, his childlike wonder at the world around him allows him to strike up a friendship with the carpenter's son, Kankichi. With Kankichi's help, Souichirou begins to establish a life in Edo's tenements and exchanges his longtime sword Kunifusa for a bamboo blade, due to his newfound desire to refrain from violence. Unfortunately for Souichirou, avoiding conflict in Edo is not always possible. Before long, Souichirou finds himself stalked by the brutal assassin Shinnosuke Kikuchi, who delights in butchering anyone caught between him and his target. Each time Souichirou must step forward to defend himself or the people of the tenements, he reawakens the intense bloodlust of his younger days and resurrects memories he would much rather forget. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

• Award Winning
• Slice of Life

Through pain and arduous effort, one can reach the top of the world. Standing where no man has ever set foot before, there is an exhilarating feeling of success. This is what Mori Buntarou trains, works, and lives for. His climb to the top starts when he transfers to a new high school. Despite his lonesome and solitary nature, Mori's classmates persuade him to climb the school building. Without a harness or hesitation, he begins his scale to reach the top. Edging past the point of no return, he halts when he is faced with a final intimidating obstacle—a horizontal overhang. Adrenaline courses through him, and Mori jumps for the final hold at the summit. From there, he casts his eyes upon something that he normally would not have seen—another peak, another goal. With an awakened passion and newfound purpose in life, Mori explores the breathtaking sport of rock climbing. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

• Award Winning
• Drama
• Sports

25-year-old Moriyama Mikuri has an advanced degree, but has had no luck finding a permanent position. She's been living with her parents and doing temp work, and her latest job is doing housework for a single salaryman, Tsuzaki. Mikuri longs to start a career in her field, and her Aunt Yuri, who has had success in her professional life and who regrets never marrying, also wants Mikuri to find love. When Mikuri learns that her parents are planning to move to the country, she realizes her time is running out. She still has had no luck starting her career, so it seems she will have no option but to move to the country with her parents. She finds another option in moving in with Tsuzaki, who doesn't want to lose his housekeeper. To deal with the scandal of their living together, they get married—though just on paper. Now Mikuri starts her unusual new life, as a woman looking to start her career and as a new 'wife'! (Source: MangaHelpers)

• Award Winning
• Romance

The Poe Clan: a race of undead that feeds on the energy of the living, whiling away the centuries in a village of roses where time and geography have no meaning. Circumstances lead to a brother and sister, Edgar and Marybelle, being initiated into the clan too young, and therefore doomed to live out eternity forever on the brink of adulthood, until a wooden stake or a silver bullet should cut them down. In this groundbreaking manga, through three immortal adolescents and the mortals whose lives they touch, Moto Hagio explores what it means to live and to die, to have loved and to have lost. (Source: Fantagraphics)

• Award Winning
• Boys Love
• Supernatural

In 1924, mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted a daring challenge: to be the first to scale Mount Everest. However, they disappeared during the final stages of their trek, leading to one of mountaineering's greatest mysteries—did the pair ever make it to the summit? 1993, Kathmandu. Japanese photographer Makoto Fukamachi discovers a vintage camera in an antique store, which he believes might have belonged to Mallory. However, the camera falls into the possession of "Bikha Sanp," a burly Japanese man who Fukamachi realizes may very well be Jouji Habu, a legendary Japanese mountaineer who disappeared from the scene several years ago. Unfortunately for Fukamachi however, Bikha Sanp refuses to talk to him and leaves with the camera in tow. With the trail gone cold, Fukamachi has only one course left to pursue: to delve into Habu's past and see just what may have brought the former climber to Nepal. For the sake of rewriting mountaineering history, Fukamachi begins his investigation, a task that will bring him to the greatest height in the world—the summit of the gods. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

• Adventure
• Award Winning
• Drama
• +2

Hajime Machida, despite being a completely average teenager, is adored by his family, friends, and even his classmates. His kind and helpful nature leads to special encounters on a daily basis, whether it be with his younger siblings at home or just someone he meets on the street. Through these interactions and brand new experiences, Machida begins to learn more about himself and the differences between the various types of love. [Written by MAL Rewrite] Included one-shot: Volume 3: Ai, Aru Seikatsu

• Award Winning
• Romance

When Roman architect Lucius is criticized for his “outdated” thermae designs, he retreats to the local bath to collect his thoughts. All Lucius wants is to recapture the Rome of earlier days, when one could enjoy a relaxing bath without the pressure of merchants and roughhousing patrons. Slipping deeper into the warm water, Lucius is suddenly caught in the suction and dragged through the drainage at the bottom of the bath! He emerges coughing and sputtering amid a group of strange-looking foreigners with the most peculiar bathhouse customs... over 1,500 years in the future in modern-day Japan! His contemporaries wanted him to modernize, and so, borrowing the customs of these mysterious bath-loving people, Lucius opens what quickly becomes the most popular new bathhouse in Rome—Thermae Romae! (Source: Yen Press)

• Award Winning
• Comedy

In the far future, humans have destroyed their homeplanet, Terra, by carelessly messing with the environment. In order to preserve the life of their homeland, Terra, humans have evacuated this world in order to spread life unto other planets. Humanity, now ruled by a super computer that controls the birth of children, sees the emergence of a new human race called the "Mu," whose telepathic powers have alarmed the System running all of humanity. The Mu, now hidden from the rest of humanity, have one dream, to return home, to Terra... (Source: ANN)

• Adventure
• Award Winning
• Drama
• +1

To cover her expenses, university student Yuki Shirai works as a part-time rental girlfriend. Once a week, she has to manage the burn scar on her face and put on a fake personality—hiding her cold, calculating, and cynical self—all to suit her client's desires. Having grown up in a family lacking any warmth or love, she works believing money is the only thing that will never betray her. Meanwhile, Tsuji Souta is unlike Yuki's past clients. Having lied to his friend about having a girlfriend, he hires Yuki for a double date, from where they develop a growing acquaintance. As Tsuji discovers the true Yuki, she sees him as a refreshing change from her other clients. But as they get closer, the two wonder how far they should take this relationship, or perhaps they should just part ways as merely a client and rental girlfriend. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

• Award Winning
• Drama

What if it's possible to extract some two or more years of a person's memories (projected onto visual display for all to see) from the brain after the person's death? It would certainly be beneficial for solving difficult murder cases since the memories would display the victims' last moments. But at what cost? What of the dead's privacy as strangers poke about in their most private memories? What about the effects the imageries may have on the persons whose jobs require going through psychotic murderers' minds and experience whatever emotions and feelings these murderers felt as they skin and disembowel their victims? In The Top Secret, Shimizu-sensei explores the idea of re-displaying images of decedents' memories from their brains.

• Award Winning
• Drama
• Mystery
• +1

Much of the damage attributed to "Vash" is caused by the activities of bounty hunters who are after the 60,000,000,000$$ (sixty billion "double dollars") reward on Vash's head for the destruction of a city called July. Vash does not clearly remember the destruction of July, and only wants "love and peace", as he puts it; though he is a gunfighter of inhuman skill, he uses his weapons only to save lives wherever he can. As the series progresses, more is gradually learned about Vash's mysterious history and the history of the human civilization on Gunsmoke, the desert planet the series is set on. The series is often humorous in tone, but at the same time it involves very serious character development and especially in later episodes it becomes quite emotionally intense. Vash is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who is almost as good a gunfighter as Vash himself, and later is targeted by a band of assassins known as the Gung-Ho Guns for reasons which are mysterious at first. Trigun evolves into a very serious discussion of the nature of morality, posing questions such as: What is the nature of morality? Can we judge different moral codes? If a person is forced to betray their moral code, does that betrayal invalidate that moral code, and can the person still try to live up to that moral code? Can the person find redemption from their wrongs, and if so, how? (Source: Wikipedia)

• Action
• Adventure
• Award Winning
• +2

The Kouda sisters watched their father leave them to start a life with his mistress 15 years ago. Soon after their mother abandoned them, forcing their maternal grandmother in Kamakura to raise them. Now a working adult, Yoshino Kouda receives a phone call with news from her older sister Sachi: their father has passed away from cancer. Although Yoshino is not distraught by the news, she—along with her younger sister Chika—feels obliged to go to the funeral, as Sachi is unable to due to her work schedule. At the ceremony, the pair meet Suzu Asano—their 13-year-old half-sister. After Suzu's own mother's death, their father remarried. Suzu became the one to shoulder every responsibility, including taking care of her father's deteriorating health. Despite Suzu being a living reminder of their father's infidelity, Yoshino and Chika cannot help but feel sorry for her. Surprisingly, Sachi arrives at the burial as well, witnessing the struggles Suzu has gone through. A newfound sympathy makes Sachi decide to bring Suzu into their immediate family. The four women must now learn how to navigate through life and come together as sisters. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

• Award Winning
• Drama
• Slice of Life

Shirou Kakei, a straitlaced lawyer, cooks gourmet dinners for himself and his longtime gay lover, Kenji Yabuki, a carefree, hippie-ish hairdresser. The story is told through the lens of dinner preparation. (Source: Entropy)

• Award Winning
• Gourmet
• Slice of Life

Tesshō is a high school juvenile delinquent. He has a special ability of perfect pitch. He saves a wild dog with the help of Kashu, a veterinarian. He later names the wild dog inu (Japanese for "dog"). He then finds his purpose in life: to become a veterinarian.

• Action
• Award Winning
• Comedy
• +1

Born during the sunrise—an auspicious beginning—the Azumas' newborn son is named Hikaru, which means "light." But during one play date, his mother notices that her son is slightly different from the other children. In this alternately heartwarming and bittersweet tale, a young mother tries to cope with both the overwhelming discovery of her child's autism and the trials of raising him while keeping her family together. This is a story that resonates not only for those whose families have been affected by autism, but also for all past, present, and future parents. (Source: Yen Press) Included one-shots: Volume 15: Thank You Sensei!, Haru no Manazashi

• Award Winning
• Drama
• Slice of Life

For those who are desperate for cash, drowning in vice and debt, and with no other means of attaining money lawfully, one is eligible for an absurd offer: a cash loan with an interest rate of 50 percent to be paid back in 10 days. That is the service Kaoru Ushijima, the "loan shark," offers. In a society in which he believes one cannot live without either taking advantage of or being taken advantage of, Ushijima strives to be the former, operating in the black market and issuing loans to those he knows cannot afford the principal, let alone the mounting interest. However, he intends to have every yen he gives out to be paid back in full. Yamikin Ushijima-kun follows Ushijima as he wrings his dues out of his customers, believing all of his clients to be undeserving of his compassion. Whether it be prostitution, identity theft, or extortion, there are no miseries Ushijima is unwilling to put his customers through as he journeys through the underworld. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

• Award Winning
• Drama

Arisue Sei is a youth who lives alone with his mother on an outlying island of Okinawa. Though his mother is quiet and fears being conspicuous, they were living happily. But on a certain day, that tranquility is suddenly destroyed. Sei's mother is killed by a group of mysterious men, and he is taken captive. What kind of secret does he have!?

• Action
• Award Winning
• Drama
• +1

The year is 2019, and the Japanese government has recently increased their involvement in censorship of the mass media. The upcoming Tokyo Olympics accelerates their efforts. Depictions deemed obscene by the Japanese government become increasingly difficult to publish, even in manga. Under these circumstances, manga author Hibino Mikio just got an opportunity to publish his horror manga: "Dark Walker." His manga centers around a disease that turns normal people into cannibals during the night. Watch as Mikio finds himself in a manga industry shaken by a war on the freedom of expression. (Source: MangaHelpers)

• Award Winning

Two years after their parents' sudden death, the four brothers of the Yuzuki family have grown used to living together and the loneliness that comes with their situation. The eldest of them, Hayato, has already taken up any and all family responsibilities at 23 years old. The second eldest, Mikoto, manages to calmly pick up the slack of both Hayato and his immediate younger brother Minato, who feels deep insecurities for being just 11 months younger. The youngest, Gakuto, seems to be wise beyond his few years. They may not always get along due to each of the brothers' distinct personalities, but they can always count on one another in both the joyful and bitter moments of their lives. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

• Award Winning
• Slice of Life

The story follows Jeremy, who is sexually abused by his stepfather. Mentally disturbed by this, Jeremy goes down a path of murder; however, he accidentally finds himself the murderer not only of his stepfather, but also his own mother. Soon his stepbrother Ian begins to suspect him as well as discover the twisted truth about his own father.

• Award Winning
• Boys Love
• Drama

The girl Yomi—a creature without legs—leads through a world of horror, which slumbers in the midst of everyday life and only lies in wait to pounce on the unsuspecting. Anyone who is foolish enough to engage in it terrible things will happening!

• Award Winning
• Horror
• Supernatural