Yuuki Yuuna is a girl who is part of her school’s Hero Club, which is committed to helping other students. However, she has to take up the mantle of a real hero when the world in which she lives is threatened by destructive forces known as the Vertexes. The Hero Club is contacted by means of a strange phone app. Alongside her friends Tougou Mimori and the sister pair Inubouzaki Fuu & Itsuki, Yuuna must become a magical girl and save the world, regardless of the cost to herself.

The juxtaposition of magical girls in anime with a harsher, darker consequence to their magical girl status than what is normally assumed and presented in many shows in the genre is what Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero employs in its plot and characters. The battles against the Vertexes eat away at them psychologically as well as physically; however, the show also employs themes of friendship and self-sacrifice which are mainstays in magical girl anime in tandem with the morbidity of the premise and delivers something quite enjoyable in addition to being pleasing to the eye.

After Earth is devastated by a disaster, the surviving humans find a way to digitise their consciousness and send them to DEVA, an advanced space station orbiting Earth. Without any of the constraints that come with having a physical body, people live in peace until a hacker known as Frontier Setter causes havoc in the system. The authorities soon label Frontier Setter a threat and Angela Balzac, a member of DEVA’s law enforcement is dispatched to a physical body and sent to Earth, where she will narrow in on the threat. Alongside an agent named Dingo, Angela comes face to face with the realities of the ravaged planet below and the contrasting lifestyles of those on DEVA and those on Earth.

Rakuen Tsuihou’s plot focuses less on the aspect of survival, which is common to post-apocalyptic shows and uses that setting in order to play with several sci-fi elements. At first glance the premise is fairly reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, with the presence of Frontier Setter being markedly similar to that of The Laughing Man from Ghost in the Shell. The main character, Angela, also has to deal with the realisation of the truth of the world from which she hails, and the Earth itself.

In the year 2071, the human race has been pushed to the point of extinction by the appearance of monsters known as the Aragami”, which are immune to regular weapons. Desperate to fight them off and reclaim their ravaged land, humanity makes use of “God Eaters”, humans who have been bolstered with Oracle Cells, which allow them to wield God Arcs, weapons capable of defeating the Aragami. Utsugi Lenka is one such God Eater, working for the organisation Fenrir in order to eliminate the Aragami once and for all.

In a period which brought a few big-name CG-animated titles to our watchlists, God Eater is an anime which makes use of familiar tropes within the larger post-apocalyptic theme. These include the walled-city trope, which we’ve seen in titles such as Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). God Eater is high-strung like any other show of this nature and does not hold back on any of the darker elements characteristic of post-apocalyptic plots in general.

In the distant future, the majority of humanity has left the Earth and founded the Galactic Alliance of Humanity in order to guide the exploration of space, as well as ensure humankind’s prosperity. However, when strange creatures known as the Hideauze make an appearance and cause interstellar war, 16-year-old Ledo of the Galactic Alliance hops into his giant robot, Chamber and heads into battle. Unfortunately, Ledo loses control of his mech and crash-lands on the waterlogged Planet Earth. A fleet of scavenger ships known as Gargantia finds Chamber and attempt to take it with them, seeing it as something worth salvaging. Confused, Ledo sees this as hostility and sneaks aboard their ship, taking a young girl named Amy hostage. However, Ledo soon realises he is mistaken and, unable to communicate with his comrades, he prepares to get used to life with the Earthlings – but there’s more to Earth than he initially thought.

With its vibrant art, Suisei no Gargantia is one of the lighter series on this list in both a literal and proverbial sense… at least that is what it seems like in beginning. Despite the waterlogged nature of the Earth in this universe, human beings thrive somewhat aboard their giant ships and have continued to mould culture of their own. The series also boasts its own humorous moments with Ledo’s social awkwardness and lack of knowledge of anything aside from battle as the subject of such humour.

In a dark and mysterious future, crystal-based lifeforms known as Gems live on a world that has been ravaged by six meteors. Gems are each given a role in order to fight the Lunarians, a species which shatters the Gems in order to use their bodies as decorations. Phosphophyllite is a young Gem who is tasked with record keeping – Phos must compile an encyclopaedia for the Gems. However, Phos dreams of being helpful to the war effort and alongside fellow reject Cinnabar, Phos searches for a unique way that they can be useful.

With their home world torn apart by natural disaster, the Gems are living in a prime post-apocalyptic landscape and it is made even more disastrous by the consistent war that they must wage for their survival. The premise is reminiscent of Cartoon Network’s Steven Universe and fans of that series will find Houseki no Kuni’s light-handedness with the dark elements in the show quite familiar.

Takeya Yuki loves school so much that she never wants to leave. Attending Megurigaoka High, Yuki gets to enjoy her life as a senior student and member of the School Living Club, alongside the president Wakasa Yuuri, the athletic Ebisuzawa Kurumi, their junior, Naoki Miki, their supervisor Sakura Megumi and their dog, Taroumaru. Life is good; as long as Yuki continues to be ignorant of the reality of the situation around her. The School Living Club is a ruse to avoid the crushing reality of the zombie apocalypse which has left them barricaded inside their school as the only survivors.

Contrast is the name of the game where the School Living Club is concerned as the initial impression the show gives you is that of a slice of life. Given that the anime is offered from Yuki’s perspective, the audience is completely unaware of what is truly happening; however, there are various parts of the pilot episode which hint at something being horribly wrong. There is much to be enjoyed if one watches this show without reading the synopsis or even seeing any of the promotional art; but like happiness in a zombie apocalypse, that isn’t really possible all the time.

In 2016, the meltdown of a nuclear power plant causes intense destruction in the city of Tokyo. Twenty years after the disaster, the radiation levels have reduced Tokyo to a ghost town; however, the Japanese Self-Defence Force receives a distress signal from the highly irradiated Tokyo area. In response to the signal, the Defence Force dispatches three girls from their special unit Coppelion to the scene to find survivors; however, the girls jump into the fray without a semblance of protection from the radiation.

Incredibly realistic with the way in which the plot receives its post-apocalyptic tag, Coppelion introduces a disaster which would be familiar to the Japanese population and the world at large, given the destruction and pain caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March of 2011. The show explores the three members of the Coppelion Medic Unit, Fukasaku Aoi, Naruse Ibara and Nomura Taeko, as they perform their duties and come to grips with the difficulties of saving lives, and their status as genetically modified human beings. The anime is character-driven and makes use of the post-apocalyptic setting to explore the harshness of the world in which they now live.

In the distant future, humanity is on the brink of extinction after the emergence of giant monsters known as Klaxosaurs. Surviving humans live in giant fortified cities known as Plantations, where children are taught to pilot giant mecha known as FranXX, the only weapons effective against the Klaxosaurs. The FranXX are piloted in boy/girl pairs. Hiro, an aspiring pilot who is dejected after failing his aptitude test, runs into a mysterious horned girl in the forest. She introduces herself as “ZeroTwo”, the codename of a fabled “Partner Killer”. Not long after meeting her, the Plantation is subject to a Klaxosaur attack; however, ZeroTwo’s FranXX takes heavy damage as she tries to engage and her partner is killed. With no one else at the scene, ZeroTwo invites Hiro to pilot the FranXX alongside her and together, they defeat the Klaxosaur. The encounter gives Hiro the type of confidence-reviving experience he needed, but at what cost?

Presenting a plot which is incredibly familiar in the anime medium, as before embodied by series such as the classic Neon Genesis Evangelion, as well as Eureka Seven, Darling in the FranXX is an intense navigation of the post-apocalyptic trope. However, in addition to the trope itself, Darling in the FranXX throws in the familiar boy/girl co-pilot trope, the walled-city trope, among others. The world is desolate apart from humanity’s strongholds and the anime does not let up in letting the viewer know how desolate things really are.

Chito and Yuuri are two young girls who are the sole survivors of a city torn apart by war. Navigating the desolate landscape on their motorcycle, the two search for food and spare parts, while contemplating the world before all the destruction and suffering. Being alone sometimes takes its toll on them but with the companionship they offer each other, Chito and Yuuri are able to survive and bear the crushing weight of the possibility that they are the last surviving human beings.

The placement of cute characters in a setting as dark as this one is rapidly becoming a tool employed by post-apocalyptic anime and it creates a sense of contrast that can sometimes be misleading. Girls’ Last Tour is much like this, giving us an adorable pair of protagonists who have to navigate the dark reality of their desolate world, but it explores their survival from a more adventure and slice of life perspective, which is uncommon for anime of this variety, although not unheard of.

The year is 2039 – ten years after the outbreak of the deadly “Apocalypse Virus” which tore through Japan and subsequently the world in an event known as the “Lost Christmas”. Japan has now fallen under the control of the GHQ, a military force dedicated to the restoration of order. Funeral Parlour on the other hand is a guerrilla group led by a man named Tsutsugami Gai, the purpose of which is to reclaim Japan from the tyrannical GHQ. Yuzuriha Inori, a member of Funeral Parlour, runs into the socially awkward Ouma Shu during one of their operations, which inadvertently results in him receiving the “Power of Kings”, the ability to draw out the manifestation of an individual’s personality, or “void”. With such power in his possession, Shu unwillingly becomes integral to Funeral Parlour’s opposition of the GHQ and must learn to control it in order to take back Japan.

The world as we know it ceases to exist in the Guilty Crown universe as of Christmas Eve 2029, and while society returns to a semblance of its former self, the presence of a military coercive apparatus which runs society serves as a constant reminder of what happened. The instability of such government is what causes the uprising of guerrilla groups like Funeral Parlour; however, the true despair and destruction brought on by the rapid onset of the Apocalypse Virus is only explored later on in the series.

The country of Hinomoto is going through an industrial revolution when zombie-like monsters known as Kabane arise and start attacking people. They can only be killed if their iron-coated hearts are pierced and they infect who they bite, transforming them into Kabane as well. Survivors have built stations to protect themselves from the monsters and they all communicate through steam-powered locomotives called Hayajiro. Ikoma works in one of these stations and invents a weapon especially created to exterminate the Kabane. His station is attacked, most people killed or turned into monsters and he finally has a chance to test his weapon.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress has a very similar feel to Attack on Titan. Something suddenly happens and seemingly mindless monsters appear and threaten to destroy humanity. Fear and hate abound but also mistrust since you can't always tell when someone's been infected and your station or village could be the next one to go. Then there's corruption, and of course a brave hero who will do anything in his power to bring humanity back from this apocalypse.

Imagine one day suddenly humans become unable to reproduce or die. Even when mortally wounded, death won't come. Surely it would seem God had abandoned humankind. That's what happens in the world of Ai Astin, a 12 year old girl who is one of this stagnant world's “grave-keepers” which means she can put the living dead to rest. She lives in a small village and is ready to help all her villagers pass on when she needs to. Until Hampnie Hambart shows up and massacres them all. Now Ai is left to wander with Hampnie as she learns about the truth behind the state of the world, and decides to save all those left behind by God.

That's right, more zombies! And much like in other additions to this list, here we have a world that is teetering between barely holding on and disappearing. Really, if people can't be born and the gravekeepers are eventually putting all the living-dead to rest, there would be a point where all humans would be gone. There is also an unknown reason for the cause of man's demise and a heroine who is searching for herself, answers and salvation. This is a beautiful post-apocalyptic zombie anime full of mystery and action!

After a catastrophic event, Japan is turned into a wasteland and the Kanto region is now the Great Kanto Desert. The few still surviving in this barren land live by the “survival of the fittest” rule. One of those hanging on to life in the wasteland is a little guy they call the Desert Punk. He's a mercenary, bounty hunter and handyman who does anything for the right price. Oh and he's girl crazy, to put it nicely. His name is Kanta Mizuno and he's strong, agile and quick to take action.

In Desert Punk, it's implied that the apocalypse was brought on by some sort of a nuclear catastrophe. Japan isn't the only country affected, but it's where the story takes place. Most people can't survive in the harsh environment, and the ones that can are as harsh and unforgiving as the wastelands themselves. Unlike other anime, where survivors come together, in Sunabouzu, we see a post-apocalyptic world that brings out only the worst in mankind and a free-for-all attitude. It's an oldie but goodie!

After a massive disaster leaves Earth devastated, most of humanity was uploaded digitally without their physical bodies to a high-tech space station orbiting the destroyed planet. The station is called DEVA and without physical needs to fulfill, its inhabitants live peacefully. Until one day, a hacker calling himself Frontier Setter infiltrates the DEVA system and begins spreading a message trying to gather followers. Angela Balzac is an agent of DEVA's law enforcement and she is sent to the surface in an organic body to stop the hacker. Along with her partner Dingo, she discovers who Frontier Setter is, as well as the truth behind those still left on the wasteland and DEVA's utopian world.

This one is a very high-tech post-apocalyptic scenario and some of the ideas are similar to Ergo Proxy. Expelled from Paradise shows us what humanity could be like without the limitations that come with a human body, but like other anime in this genre, there's usually a high price to pay for such a paradisiac life after the apocalypse and many are left behind and forgotten.

Casshern Sins takes place after an event known as the Ruin, in which a war almost annihilated all cyborgs and humans and left the world barren. Casshern is a robot warrior that awakens with no memories of his past and nothing but anger within him. Everybody hates him and blames him for the demise of humans and robots alike. He wonders around trying to piece his memories together and trying to figure out his role in the wasteland and atone for his sins.

Imagine waking up in a barren world where all you meet hate you and hope is non-existant. This is Casshern's reality and the only world he knows. Most people have lost all sense of justice and morality. And it's up to the cyborg who caused it all to find a way to restore humanity to the way it was meant to be. This one is a bit trippy but has a strong message.

After a virus breaks out that wipes out all humans over 13 years of age, vampires enslave the ones left and use them as cattle. Yuuichiro and Mikaela Hyakuya are two boys from an orphanage who are taken captive along with their orphan friends. Mikaela plans an escape to get them all out of the clutches of the vampires but the plan fails and the only survivor is Yuuichiro, who manages to get away. Years later, Yuuichiro is part of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, whose sole purpose is to eradicate vampires and take back Japan. Yuuichiro does everything to take revenge on the vampires who slayed his family.

Owari no Seraph has a familiar apocalypse setting, a virus spreads and most of humanity dies. But then, vampires enter the scene! This post-apocalyptic reality is a veritable war zone full of deceit, supernatural creatures and a thirst for revenge, not only from Yuuichiro, everybody fighting on the humans' side has lost their families and/or friends and it's time to get even.

One day, regular Japanese school-boy Shuuzou Matsutani (Shu) comes across a mysterious girl, Lala-Ru, on his way home from school. Through this encounter, he is transported to a desolate world suffering from drought and engaged in an unforgiving war for water and survival. Lala-Ru is taken captive and Shu must endure the horrors of war if he intends to find her and help change the reality of that post-apocalyptic world.

Now and Then, Here and There takes place when a boy is suddenly transported to a post-apocalyptic world that isn't his own. (or is it?) The apocalypse for this world came in the form of a murderous drought that resulted in a violent war which turns children into soldiers and women into slaves. Sometimes, the fight for survival can bring humanity together, but other times it just tears people apart even more. In Ima, Soko, ni Iru Boku, it is the latter. This one's certainly a classic.

Thousands of years after an ecological catastrophe, what is left of mankind is forced to live inside the domed city of Romdo. AutoReivs are humanoid robots that assist people with their every-day needs. However, suddenly, these robotic assistants start contracting a virus that gives them self-awareness. Re-L Mayer, an investigator for the Intelligence Bureau and her AutoReiv partner Iggy are in charge of looking into the case and the murders related to it. Throughout the investigation, they unravel the true past and present of the world they live in.

The cause of this apocalypse is an ecological disaster brought on by rapid global warming. It happened so long ago that the people living in this world, don't truly know why or how it all happened or how they got to where they are. But they are fine and don't question it. Except for Re-L. This one is full of twists and turns that I can't really mention because I'd hate to spoil it for you!

The appearance of giant, humanoid creatures known as Titans, who take pleasure in devouring people, marked the near-extinction of humanity. That was centuries ago and now the survivors of the apocalypse have erected walls that have kept them safe over the last one hundred years. That is until a colossal Titan, bigger than any ever seen before, shatters the outer wall along with the residents' false sense of security. Eren Yeager witnesses and experiences painful losses during the attack which motivates him to join the Survey Corps military unit and swears to kill all Titans. Along with his childhood friends, Mikasa and Armin, they fight with everything they've got to stop the second coming of the Titan apocalypse.

This apocalyptic scenario is terrifying mainly for two reasons. Number one, nobody knows where these monsters came from. They just showed up one day and started eating people. There are so many questions! Why are they humanoid? How did it happen? Why do they eat people!? Number two, they are gigantic human-looking creatures, which is creepy on its own, but they also eat smaller humans! The first time I watched Shingeki no Kyojin I seriously got goosebumps when I saw the titans. It has to be one of the best post-apocalyptic anime out there.

Humanity has been terrorized by an army of “Beastmen” and their mechas and forced to live underground. The small communities can't communicate with each other or go out to the surface.This has been going on for so long, that the remnants of humanity have never seen the world above. Kamina, a young delinquent with big dreams, decides he will break out from underground and invites Simon who considers him his older brother. With the help of Yoko, a badass girl who wanders the surface battling Beastmen, they set out to fight for humanity's right to the Earth's surface.

In Gurren Lagann, the apocalypse came in the form of an outside enemy who divided humanity and conquered with violence, technology and fear. But while most of humanity has given up on the possibility of ever returning to what life once was, there is a man who fights because he is full of hope and faith that it can be done. And he's willing to do anything to that end.

For many reasons that I can't mention, Gurren Lagann earns its place in number one because it's full of surprises, has an amazing story and may even get you to tear up here and there. You really must watch it if you haven't already!