Evangelion opens up with a global disaster known as the Second Impact which happened in 2000. It almost wiped out the human race entirely. Those that survived made NERV, an organization with the resources capable of fighting back. NERV then constructs giant mecha known as Evangelions to fight back angel invaders as they arrive on Earth against to cause a Third Impact. Demure Shinji Ikari, the son of Gendo Ikari, who runs NERV, is selected/forced to pilot an Evangelion now in the newest onslaught of invasions and fight against the angels. We are sure most everyone out there has seen of or at the very least seen this classic, so let’s talk about the world itself.

For starters, humanity is a shell of what it once was. Humanity was almost completely obliterated by the Second Impact and they don’t seem to be doing the best. While they do live on the surface, they are under constant threat of invasion and have to go into hiding or be evacuated frequently. On top of that, the city is being constantly destroyed with each invasion which means that the problem of rebuilding is almost pointless. It would be better to just honestly move somewhere else if you were not a pilot. Now if you are an Eva pilot, every battle is essentially a new one since all of the angels are different and have different capabilities. The threat of death is constant and you have a very good chance of being killed or at the very least, seriously injured, if you do not take care. While Evangelion is a great story, living in that world would be a bit difficult.

For more than 100 years, humanity has been living behind giant walls. You see, there are these horrifying monsters called Titans that live on the outside and only want one thing: to eat humans. So, humanity, reduced to a former shell of what it was, now ekes out an existence behind the walls. Eren Yeager has one goal in life: join the Survey Corps. He cannot stand living in the city as he feels akin to a cow or a sheep; he does not want to be livestock his whole life. One day, a giant titan, known as the Colossal Titan, breaks through the first outer wall which then allows other smaller titans to come through killing everyone. Eren runs home with his “sister” Mikasa to try and save his mother, but a titan grabs her and eats her. His resolve steeled, he joins the Survey Corps along with Mikasa and their friend Armin in hopes of not only getting revenge, but learning more about the world outside the walls that humanity has shunned since the appearance of the titans.

Of course, the titans are the worst part of the series. Going outside literally can get you killed and with walls being how they are, apparently even just existing is dangerous enough now that we know that the titans are living among humans. Then within the walls, there is civil unrest and plenty of issues simmering that we see at the beginning of the first season, and we are sure that, as history dictates, it is a pressure cooker with a final straw creating a violent reaction. AoT is a kickass anime and no one can ever deny the influence that it wields. However, living in that world would be like living in hell.

The Magical Girl Raising Project is a popular mobile game for many a resident in the city that Koyuki lives in. However, one day, Koyuki gets a notification that out of all of the players of the game, she has been selected to become a real magical girl! Having the look as her in-game character Snow White, she meets other magical girls with the same mission; they need to help others using their powers and accumulate candies. Simple enough. The powers that be though, change the game suddenly and announce that there are too many real magical girls, and there is not enough magic to go around. So, everyone now has a weekly competition to have the most candy. Those who have enough survive, but those who do not, drop out. When the girls learn that by dropping out, they mean you die in the real world, suddenly it is an all-out battle to get more candy from anywhere you can; that includes taking from others. Quitting is not an option as you will die. Suddenly the girls have to rush to try and hide not only their abilities, but also succeed in their weekly mission and beat the others in this grimy survival story.

You may be saying, “a magical girl? What is so bad about that?” but the reality is though is that when you friends in the real world are dying as well as your ally within the game, it’s pretty dark. Not to mention too, the terrifying aspect of knowing that you cannot truly trust anyone, as you do not know what their motives are, is scary. If nothing could be worse, you would also have to conceal yourself as much as possible in the real world, since, if you are attacked in the real world by magic, you will die. The stakes are high, but the punishment for not participating is even higher. True, you do have the choice to participate, but no one would take that offer if they knew what was going on. Would you?

In this alternate world, Ghouls now live amongst humans. Ghouls cannot eat food or drink anything as they need blood and flesh to survive. Humans are oblivious as to who may be a ghoul and who is not though as the ghouls do their best to hide amongst humans lest they be hunted down by the government who looks to harness their powers. Ken was your average boy and finally gets to meet his favorite author, a woman named Rize. When he walks her home though, Ken learns that she is a powerful ghoul and she wants to eat him. In a freak accident, Ken survives, but his organs need to be replaced and since Rize is dead, doctors put them in him. Thus, his life is changed forever as he is now part-Ghoul. He meets Touka and together, they work on maintaining their hidden identities while learning more about how truly dark and twisted the world is around them.

The fact that you are constantly about to be eaten is a pretty terrible notion. Combine that with if you are a Ghoul, the government is hunting you down and humans may report you, and much like Koyuki from Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikau, you are doing everything in your power to stay hidden. As we watch Tokyo Ghoul, we realize that the Ghouls are having their own problems with turf wars and what not, making things even more difficult for Ken who is just trying to figure out how this new Ghoul thing works. The other part that makes life hell in this series is the fact that the government is actively hunting you down. The shock value comes from them being able to use the powers of Ghouls that they have killed. So, everything wants to kill you in this series great.

Shinsekai Yori is a fantastic sci-fi, post-apocalyptic thriller, that tells the story of human evolution. A long time ago, humanity was able to develop telekinesis and other psychic powers. By develop, we mean that it suddenly appeared one day among humans. This lead to a new form of power grabs by governments as they tried to control these new espers. Eventually governments and societies were overthrown leading to the establishment of a new world order that put espers at the top of the society. However, it needs heavy regulation as it is extremely fragile. After Saki’s powers awaken when she is 12, she goes to school the next day and meets all of her classmates but feels like something is missing. Shrugging it off as a coincidence, she focuses on honing her powers. Then one day though, she overhears an argument her parents are having and has a flashback to something that triggers a fuzzy memory, but she cannot recall it clearly. It’s almost as if it was erased. Via a chance encounter, she pulls back the curtain on an evil conspiracy where she has to go all the way to the abandoned capital city called Tokyo to find out what really happened in the past and why their society is so strict now.

If anything is terrifying, it is the fact that one small, and we mean small, misstep such as a question or action, can ruin your life and have you either banished to where your powers will consume you or you can be consumed by the Tainted Cats that dispose of children. Anything that markets itself as a utopia is not to be trusted as there will always be something going on behind the scenes. The corruption goes all the way up to the highest levels of government and the only beings you can trust are those who aren’t even human. Or are they? Betrayal and manipulation run rampant as well which means that again, trust is hard to come by. Not to mention too, powers can and will kill you. They should not be able to kill due to what they have been taught and the guilt killing you, but it does fade with experience and time as we see which means you can be ripped in half at any given time.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni tells the story of Keiichi Maebara who has just moved to the village of Hinamizawa (Shirakawa-go in real life) and joins the local school. There, he becomes fast friends with Rena, Satoko, Rika and Mion. They spend their days learning and playing together. The Wataganashi Festival to celebrate the local god, Oyashiro-sama, is coming and it seems that people have been disappearing at recent festivals. As Keiichi starts to ask his friends, they all fall silent and tell him it’s not a good idea to talk about it. Then it builds when he keeps looking and dangerous events around him occur until he too becomes a victim of his circumstances and is unable to distinguish fact from fiction. Higurashi is told over multiple arcs over multiple seasons. Know that watching to the end is necessary to grasp everything and get the true ending.

Two Words: Hinamizawa Syndrome. No matter how mentally strong you may be, if something is infecting you like that, you will be driven over the tipping point into insanity leading to death or suicide. It is only a matter of time. So, if you don’t end up killing yourself in the Higurashi universe, then you are very likely to be killed by someone else suffering from delusions. And if you are Rika, it’s even worse as constantly being reincarnated to die is true hell. She tries to break free from the cycle many times, but is not successful.

Yuki loves her school! Every day is an adventure with Yuuri, Kurumi, and Miki. Let’s also not forget about Megu-sensei as well. Together, these five girls live in a school and take part in the School Living Club. Yuki loves being here and cannot think of anywhere else to be, until we learn the dark, shocking truth: the girls are not willingly living in the school, they have turned it into a bunker because a zombie apocalypse has broken out and they have nowhere to do. Yuki has no clue though due to a past trauma and tries her best to make the most of every day.

Zombie Apocalypses were all the rage a few years ago and it is really surprising to see a show, as like this, that would be such a game changer. Anime can and do shift genres, but to see something jump back and forth between Slice of Life and Horror is pretty surprising. Being trapped in a literal hell has to be taxing enough for the girls, but keeping up the false pretense of hope has to be even more draining. Imagine how bad it has to be for them trying to keep alive, make sure there is enough water and food, as well as deal with someone who has a very, very fragile grasp on reality.

In the 22nd Century, Japan has developed the Sibyl System which allows law enforcement to assess how close someone is to committing any form of crime. This is reflected by their crime coefficient known as their Psycho-Pass. Their weapons then can be fired to either stun all the way to destroy. Akane Tsunemori is a brand-new investigator with the police force who has a very staunch position on Justice. As she works in the police force, she begins to question what Justice is itself and what is she actually doing. Is she contributing to a better society or merely just playing right into the system’s hands.

For the most part, Psycho-Pass is a very safe show to watch. The universe inside the anime is set up well, and there is a lot to enjoy. However, the problems do being to crop up and the ugliest one is when there are those helmets that reflect crime coefficients onto other people. This then renders the government useless as they cannot fire their weapons. It is at this moment, that living in the Psycho-Pass universe would be hell. I mean… if you can get past the whole, living a life controlled by brains of former criminals. This is yet another dystopia billed as a utopia, so the familiar phrase “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is”, comes to mind.