Ryouhei Arisu is bored. He sees everything around him as a meaningless cycle that he would do anything to escape. He gets the unexpected chance when, alongside his two friends Daikichi Karube and Chouta Segawa, they see a very bright firework in the sky. When their vision clears, the three of them have been transported to Borderland. It’s a strange place where everyone is playing a deadly game, and if you want to survive, you have to complete certain tasks. Ryouhei and his friends have to find a way to not only live, but get back home — though Ryouhei has never felt so alive.

There are a lot of parallels between The World Ends with You The Animation and Alice in Borderland. Both anime also explore the idea of a survival game to earn the right to return to the character’s normal reality. And in both anime, there is a male main character who feels like his normal life was pointless, and who finds more purpose when put in a life or death situation. The anime also focuses on friendship and teamwork, building stronger relationships through the adversity that the characters face. If you liked these things about TWEWY but want something a little darker, Alice in Borderland is a great next choice. It has a live-action version on Netflix, too!

Gantz begins with the main character’s death, but that’s only the start. When Kei Kurono dies, he becomes trapped in a nightmarish game where he has to fight to survive. Everything about him is tested from his willpower to his strength to his very morals. There are aliens and robots and all manner of things trying to defeat him. While Kei may have found his life before to be pointless and terrible, what he finds after he dies is considerably worse. Be warned that Gantz is not for the fainthearted, and contains graphic violence and rape.

Gantz and The World Ends with You: The Animation both have the same central idea — the main character is killed, and if he wants to come back to life, he has to participate in a sadistic “game” to fight for his life. In both games, the characters have to fight against strange monsters unlike anything they have ever seen, and losing would mean permanent death. Gantz has a lot more gore and violence than TWEWY, giving it a more mature vibe, but the central themes are the same. Gantz is an intense follow-up to TWEWY, taking its concepts to the next level.

Shintarou Kisaragi is a recluse at the start of Mekakucity Actors, staying home all the time and using his computer. When he accidentally spills soda on the keyboard, he has to go to a department store to buy a replacement. As if being outside wasn’t bad enough, at the store Shintarou ends up in a hostage situation! He is saved by a mysterious group of youths who have supernatural powers. They call themselves the Mekakushi Dan, and now that they have saved Shintarou - he has to join them, along with Ene, the virtual girl who lives inside his computer. There is something bigger at play between all the members of the Mekakushi Dan, though, and through exploring their pasts they can find that secret.

Mekakucity Actors’ Shintarou and The World Ends with You The Animation’s Neku are similar main characters. Both are loners that would prefer to be left alone, and are quite shy. But they are forced to work with others when the stakes are high, and both slowly open up to their new friends and have a lot of character growth. Both anime also have side characters with complicated pasts that slowly come to light and affect the outcome of the story as they come to terms with their pasts. And there are also the supernatural powers that all of the characters have! Despite having very different plots, Mekakucity Actors and TWEWY have quite a lot in common when it comes to themes and storytelling ideas.

Yuu Otosaka is an average teenager with an above-average ability. He can take over other people’s minds for five seconds, allowing him total control of their body. When he’s caught using his power by Nao Tomori, Yuu transfers with his sister to a school specially for those with supernatural abilities where Nao is the president of the student council. The student council tries to find people who are abusing their abilities, much like Yuu had been, and Yuu is forced to join and help do exactly that. Together with Nao, they face many challenges that begin to reveal that perhaps Yuu’s power is stronger than they ever imagined…

Both Charlotte and The World Ends with You The Animation have characters with telepathic abilities. In both stories, the lead characters can enter the minds of those around them, and use that ability as means to an end. Of course, these two stories go in very different directions after that, but the idea is the same! Charlotte and TWEWY also have characters with supernatural powers stemming from their telepathic abilities that work together with their friends to overcome challenges and obstacles, using their powers to do what needs to be done. If you like the telepathic powers in TWEWY, check out Charlotte.

Persona 4 The Animation is the story of a boy named Yuu Narukami who moves to a seemingly quiet town. Around the same time that he moves, rumours about a strange “Midnight Channel” abound. The rumours claim that if you stare into your TV at midnight, you can see the face of your soulmate. When Yuu tries, he sees the face of a murder victim! Trying to see it again, Yuu discovers he has a power to travel into his TV using his “persona,” or true self. There, he and his friends can fight the mysterious shadows working behind the dark reality that is the Midnight Channel.

The first parallel between Persona 4 The Animation and The World Ends with You: The Animation is that they are both based on successful video game franchises! They’re perfect for gamers who want to experience a great game again without the same time and energy commitment, and make these excellent stories accessible to non-gamers, too. They’re both also about a group of teens that have to fight against supernatural forces in a reality that is not their own, but a dark shadow of what they know. What they do in the alternate world also affects their lives in the real world.

Occultic;Nine begins with a blog run by friends Yuuta Gamon and Ryouka Narusawa which is meant to disprove supernatural occurrences. Soon, an entire team of unlikely people are brought together through the blog, including a doujin artist whose art predicts the future, a high school fortune teller, and a local curse expert amongst others. This group of individuals have to work together when confronted with a mysterious murder with supernatural connections to figure out their own fates as well as the mysteries of their own city. They were brought together by fate, and they have to figure out why.

Both Occultic;Nine and The World Ends with You The Animation are about people brought together through strange, supernatural circumstances that have to work together to solve a problem. In both anime, those characters have to figure out how their pasts connect to their present, and both stories show how the characters’ relationships develop and change through the adversity they face. Occultic;Nine and TWEWY also have elements of the supernatural, and a bit of mystery! In both stories you aren’t sure exactly what is going on until the end, when the characters uncover the truth. They have that shared element of unpredictability!