12-year-old Suzuhara Misaki moves to Tokyo to live with her aunt Shoko. On her way to her aunt’s home, Misaki is introduced to Angelic Layer, a battling game played with electronic dolls called Angels. She gets involved in the game, making new friends and developing her own skills in her own journey towards battling and becoming the champion of Angelic Layer.

Angelic Layer and Choukadou Girl both have stories centred on dolls; particularly dolls that gain life in some way. For the Angels in Angelic Layer; however, this mobility is accessible only in the battlefield, otherwise known as The Layer. With romantic elements spread out in the anime’s 26 episode run, Angelic Layer has a slightly more serious tone to its otherwise light and cute feel.

When a strange package arrives at Ao’s house one day, she opens it to find an object known as a Gourai – a Frame Arms Girl, a small robot capable of moving on its own. Equipped with an AI that gives her a personality, Gourai is a prototype Frame Arms Girl who develops through accumulating data, learning about the world around her through living with Ao.

Frame Arms Girl and Choukadou Girl share a similarity in featuring a mini-mechanized companion for their respective protagonists. Although the circumstances for their sentience and mechanisation are different, Gourai and Nona are a similar concept.

Katsuragi Keima, also known online as the legendary “God of Conquest” for his ability to conquer the heart of any girl… in a dating sim! Keima prefers 2D girls over flesh and bone girls who actually exist as a result of his unhealthy obsession with dating sims. When he promptly accepts a challenge to test if his God of Conquest title is warranted, Keima is tricked into helping a sheepish demon called Elsie in rounding up malicious demons that managed to escape from Hell. They have scattered across the human world and possessed many girls in Keima’s vicinity. With a deadly collar tying his destiny with Elsie’s, Keima must now put his skills of conquest to the test and navigate the hearts of real girls in order to drive out their demons!

While vastly different from the other titles on this list, The World God Only Knows and Choukadou Girl share similarities in their main characters. Keima, much like Haruto, is more interested in the world away from the world, not to mention an otaku. Both shows also feature protagonists with non-human companions – Haruto’s Noma figurine in Choukadou Girl and of course, Elucia “Elsie” de Lute Ima in The World God Only Knows.

When the Earth was destroyed in a catastrophe, the legendary clockmaker known as Y created a replacement Earth out of cogs and gears. Miura Naoto is a youngster who wants to become a great clockmaker and he has an incredible talent – he has super sensitive hearing that enables him to understand intricate mechanics from their sound alone. Despite his ability, he has made very little progress towards his goal; until a coffin falls from the sky, containing an automaton created by Y himself. The female automaton, known as RyuZu, attracts the attention of Marie Bell Breguet, the heir of a gifted line of clockmakers. When she and Naoto discover that the planet is actually slowly dying, they are embroiled in a dark secret that many would do anything to protect.

Clocking in at fourth on our list is the 2017 anime, Clockwork Planet. The similarities between this show and Choukadou Girl are immediately apparent – both shows feature creations capable of independent movement and speech. The introduction of these companions changes everything for our main characters and in Clockwork Planet, RyuZU’s appearance is nothing short of fate.

Sakurada Jun is a high school shut-in who has a habit of ordering things online and sending them back when the free trial period ends. One day, he receives a strange note asking him if he’d wind something up upon request, he circles “yes” and his life changes forever. He soon receives a package containing a wind up doll. When he winds up the doll, she begins to move and act like an actual person. She introduces herself as Shinku, the fifth in a line of dolls known as the Rozen Maiden collection created by the legendary dollmaker, Rozen. The Rozen Maiden must find human handlers and eventually compete in a battle royale known as the Alice Game. The owner of the winning doll will become Alice and gain the opportunity to meet Rozen face-to-face. With more of the sentient dolls finding their way to Jun’s place, his life becomes more and more complicated!

Rozen Maiden and Choukadou Girl are very similar in their plot and characters. For starters, the whole idea of sentient dolls forms parallels with that of the living figurine in Choukadou Girl. The protagonists of both titles are also both characters who would be judged to be a little weird in their respective universes – Haruto is a hardcore otaku and Jun is a shut-in, both positions that have sometimes been considered incapable of earning much respect or consideration.

After Masaru’s father passes away, Masaru earns a massive fortune. As a result, there are several people looking to get their hands on a piece of the pie, by any means necessary. When a man named Narumi saves Masaru from being kidnapped by a pair of strange wooden figures. While trying to fight them off, Narumi realises that he is no match for them; however, when all seems lost, a mysterious woman with silver hair named Shirogane appears wielding a powerful weapon: the puppet Arlequin.

Karakuri Circus and Choukadou Girl have a few similarities. The most obvious one; however, is the featuring of toys, dolls, puppets and the like. There is an obvious leaning towards more whimsical elements in both shows, particularly in the mechanisation of non-living objects and the effects of those objects in the lives of the protagonists.