The era of the samurai ended much earlier on this version of Earth than in our own. A race of aliens called the Amanto invaded Earth and have taken over feudal Japan. The samurai have been quickly swept away for the new order of Amanto. Gintoki Sakata, however, possesses the love of bushido and the heart of a samurai. Along with his companions, a bespectacled boy named Shinpachi, an oversized pet dog named Sadaharu, and Kagura, a member of the Amanto, she does odd jobs, as the group navigates a world stuck between the feudal world and the futuristic technology of a space-faring civilization.

Kagura has many distinguishing traits but her fashion sense is one of the most memorable. She loves wearing Chinese-style clothing, particularly a red dress and side buns. To most people, Kagura is a normal human girl. In reality, she belongs to the Yato Clan, one of the strongest warrior races of the Amato people. She is seldom seen out and about without her parasol that protects her light-sensitive skin. The parasol also can protect her from bullets as hers is custom-made. The young Amanto is also extremely strong which can be a drawback as she is often unable to control her great strength. We have Kagura on this list because after more than 200 episodes we’ve really gotten to know her and watching her is like visiting an old friend.

The main character of this show is a boy named Kyon, not the titular character Haruhi Suzumiya. The story is seen from his eyes since in many ways Haruhi is the center of the universe. Haruhi is a high school girl that is only interested in aliens, time travelers, and espers (people who have extrasensory perception). In order to focus on these interests, Haruhi forms a club to investigate the supernatural and dubs it the SOS Brigade. She quickly recruits or shanghaies new members Kyon, Mikuru Asahina, Itsuki Koizumi, and the silent literature club member Yuki Nagato.

Spoiler: She’s not human! Yuki is a humanoid interface or human AI. She was created by the Data Entity, a mysterious and non-terrestrial superintelligence, with the purpose of observing events on Earth. The quiet girl with her nose a book also has the ability to change the properties of her environment. She can also change the properties of objects by changing data on a molecular level. Yuki also has great strength, stamina, and the ability to heal or reconstruct herself when injured. The audience loves her quiet yet very powerful persona. She became so popular a character she even got her own movie. Haruhi Suzumiya ranks very high on multiple lists of memorable characters.

WAR! The Earth is at war with an alien empire known as Gamilas. The planet has become so ravaged that soon living on it will no longer be an option. A voice from the stars reaches out to humanity with a message of salvation. The only challenge is the answer to their prayers is 148,000 lightyears away, deep within Gamilian territory. A young crew under the seasoned command of Captian Juuzou Otika must make the trek in an experimental space cruiser integrated into the naval battleship, Yamato.

Second Lieutenant Melinda Deitz is a decorated fighter pilot operating in the Milky Way theater of operations. She is also a Gamilian. She comes from a long line of military officers and takes great pride in the fact that her father is Admiral Gal Deitz, supreme commander of the Imperial Space fleet. She flies a red Gamilian Tsyuelke. She isn’t just an ace pilot. Melinda is a skilled diplomat. She finds herself rescued by the Yamato and makes great inroads into the sides understanding each other. Melinda could very well be the reason the Yamato gains allies during its quest for humanity's salvation.

The plot here is a bit complicated. Mizuho is an officer with the Galaxy Federation sent to Earth to study and observe humans. Her arrival didn’t go unnoticed as Kei Kusanagi sees her land and sees her walking around the lake shortly thereafter; did we mention she was glowing? You’d think he’d think that was the craziest thing ever but he has an illness that causes his system to shut down into a deathlike state at random intervals and all his classmates think he’s 15 when he is 18. The crazy continues when Mizuho is introduced as his new homeroom teacher. He and the beautiful alien sensei fall in love and once discovered decide the only way to continue their relationship to tell everyone they are married. The rest of the plot is filled with teacher-student hijinks and the potential of her possible departure.

We find that Mizuho is the youngest observer in the Galaxy Federation. She is half alien and half human. We find out from her mother that she had never been in love or in a relationship before meeting Kei. She is smart and a great teacher, always holding her students to high standards -- even her husband. Mizuho and Kei are completely in love. We add her to the list because this is a great rom-com.

To LOVE-Ru Darkness is, for all intents and purposes, the third official season of the anime To LOVE-Ru. The story is a continuation of the harem anime following the good-natured Rito Yuki and his overly affectionate, super-intelligent inventor, heir to the most powerful empire in the universe, fiancé Lala Deviluke. The continuation also brings her sisters Momo and Nana as full-time cast members and that causes even more trouble and commotion in this screwball harem comedy. A large part of the season is the arrival of Golden Darkness, a blonde, petite, cute, genetically modified super assassin with her sites on Rito Yuki.

Golden Darkness or Yami-chan is officially looking for the right time to kill Rito as she spends her days on Earth ready, eating taiyaki, and hanging out with Rito’s little sister. She seems to have put a hold on her assassination plans due to the intervention of one of the Devilukian princesses. She is physically stronger than any human and can change her hair’s state of matter making the ends of her long locks fists, blades, or shields. She has a particular dislike of perverts. She isn’t sure if she can feel like a human, but the people around her are showering her with all the reason and understanding an elite assassin can get.

Macross is the story of the crew of the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (SDF-1), a crashed alien vessel that humanity reverse engineers into a powerful battleship. The day the ship is about to be put into service the Zentradi, a warrior race wanting to reclaim the SDF-1, rains death and destruction on the planet. Against all odds, the ship escapes the initial onslaught and jumps to the far side of the solar system. The Earth is devastated by the war and most of the remaining humans are refugees aboard the SDF-1. We then watch various battles and personal dramas play out as the massive ship tries to return home.

Milia is a Zentradi, a genetically engineered race of giant warriors that served a super civilization more than 100,000 years ago. She is an ace pilot who is intrigued by the vessel and that there is a pilot defending it that she can’t seem to shoot down in a dogfight. Milia decides to be micronized (shrunk to human size) and infiltrate the SDF-1 to find Max Jenius, the human she can’t beat. She and Max eventually fall in love and get married, becoming the first interspecies couple in human and Zentradi history. Milia’s exploits don’t stop at the end of Macross, either. She goes on to have several children including one of the protagonists in the series Macross 7. Milia herself proves to be an adept politician as she is elected mayor of the colonial fleet Macross 7. She also proves in the series that despite her age she hasn’t lost the feel for the cockpit; she continues to be an adept pilot.

The colonization of Mars is a success. We should celebrate, right? Wrong. The colonists discover an ancient civilization and quickly adapt their super-science to fit their colonial needs. The Martians get a little uppity because of the ancient technology and adopt a new name: Vers, the name of the ancient civilization. The former earthlings now start making demands of their mother planet and bring substantial military force to bear. The first war sunders the moon and creates Heavens Fall, the name given for all the lunar chunks that devastate the planet. Mars and Earth decide to go to their corners and a tentative peace takes hold. The Martian princess Asseylum decides to help thaw relations and visit Earth. The Martians that want war decide to attempt an assassination of their princess to provoke a war. The plan works. The Earth forces are quickly put on the ropes. The story follows the very young crew, many of them drafted at 16, of a space battleship called Deucalion that was called up in the fight for Earth.

Rayet is from Mars. She came to Earth with her father and his fellow conspirators to carry out the assassination of the princess in return for being granted land and titles in the Vers feudal system. She then witnesses her father and his fellow agents murdered by a member of the cabal in order to silence them. We first meet Rayet as she blends in with the refugees and then the Earth military in order to get revenge on the Martians. She becomes an integral part of the Deucalion crew as a pilot. We also get to watch her character grieve and grow over the course of several years. She begins the story at age 16 and ends the series at 18. Her personality doesn’t do a 180 but she does open up, eventually getting over her simple need for revenge and focusing on protecting her friends and crewmates. She even has moments when she acts cute and is called a tsundere by some of her shipmates. Most importantly, Rayet grows as a character.

Kaito Kirishima wants to test out his new movie camera and sees a blue light streaking across the sky while standing on a dam. The wind generated by the mysterious light throws him over the railing. He wakes confused, not quite understanding how he got home. He brushes off his experience and decides to make a movie over the summer with his friends. Kaito also notices a new feeling inside him, an attraction to Ichika Takatsuki another student in their school. She is drawn into the film-making club and a summer of fun and romance begins.

The events are blurry to him but it was Ichika that saved him that night when he was blown off the dam. She was also the cause of his injuries and responsible for their repair with the advanced technology from her spaceship. Ichika wants to spend her time near him because she is uncertain if there will be any side effects from her healing efforts. She is kind and smart and naïve in many ways, especially when it comes to dealing with her own feelings. Ichika is like the girl next door you’d never mind spending the summer with just hanging out and goofing off.

Ano Natsu de Matteiru PV

Macross Delta takes place decades after the events of the original series in a populated section of the galaxy called the Brísingr Globular Cluster. The population has been infected by Var syndrome. The syndrome turns normal people violent and is a side effect of bacteria left behind after the war with the Vajra in Macross Frontier which occurred almost a decade earlier. The fever of Vars has a cure: music. A team of talented idols, Walküre, is able to use their voices to calm those who go on a rampage. The team often has to perform in war zones and is assisted by the Delta Flight, a team of experienced Valkyrie pilots. Macross Delta is filled with all the great elements of Macross like grand galactic wars, personal struggles, music, and romance.

Freyja Wion sneaks away from her home planet of Windemer in order to pursue her dreams of becoming a member of Walkure. She has the gift of Windemerean physiology that makes the music she sings resonate at a higher amplitude than the other members of the group. The story follows Freyja as she struggles to succeed in the dangerous and glamorous world of Walkure. She has amazing physical abilities but lacks coordination at times, leading to some endearing moments. Freyja wears her emotions on her sleeve; she is extremely passionate about her friendships and music. We love her infectious childlike optimism especially when it is displayed against the depressing backdrop of an interstellar war.

Macross Delta PV

The plot, as we mentioned in the earlier section on Golden Darkness, is the story of Rito’s daily struggles and out-of-this-world chaos that enters his daily life when he meets the princess of the Deviluken galactic empire, Lala.

We first meet Lala when she runs away from home so she won’t be forced to get married. Her solution when she is found is to say she has decided to marry Rito Yuki, a human, and resident of galactic backwater Earth. We don’t know from the anime if that was a just an excuse at first but she soon develops feelings for the kind protagonist. Lala has incredible strength and speed compared to the average human. We think it’s all simply good genes since her father is the height of a munchkin but one of the strongest beings in the universe. She has a long, slender black tail that ends in a spade. Her tail has the natural defensive ability to fire lasers out of it yet, it is very sensitive to the touch so it can also be considered a weakness. Lala is an incomparable genius and inventor. Her creations are amazing but often come with as many flaws strengths and tend to cause a lot of commotion. We love her perky personality and her innocence as she always means well and never seems to have malice towards anyone. She has been a fan favorite since she debuted and was an easy pick for best anime alien girl.

To-Love Ru PV