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The isekai genre grew into one of the most widely consumed genres of anime as production in this category steadily skyrocketed over the last decade. The success isekai anime led to the development of sub-genres made distinct by specific tropes and world-building narrative choices that set them apart. Isekai adventure anime is a popular isekai sub-genre often defined by vast fantastical realms that encourage a colorful cast of characters on quests, some of which have become beloved by anime fans around the world.

While isekai adventure anime may feel too small a niche, many isekai anime follow the same formula but still stand out with their own unique stories. The best of these stories in the isekai adventure anime genre offer in-depth explorations of interesting alternate realities while delivering entertaining characters and heartfelt storytelling.

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From Naruto to One Piece, some of...

European feature development programme Less Is More (Lim) has selected 16 feature projects for its 2025 edition, including Naomi Waring’s UK title Drifters.

The project follows a 19-year-old in Belfast’s underground community of drifters, who finds healing through a group of other young fathers.

Scroll down for the full list of participants

Waring is a graduate of the London Film School, who has made shorts including this year’s Milk.

Also on the Lim selection is Scraps, a thriller from French writer-director Quentin Nozet set in a deserted village where a stranger arrives looking for a job.

18 writers have been selected across the 16 projects,...

Isekai series are some of the most popular and diverse in anime. Some isekai series send their characters to a new dark world without any good powers to rely on, like Re:Zero. Others, like Campfire Cooking, take a more absurd route and send their characters to fun worlds filled with jokes and adventures. Humor in isekai gets to be different from other genres of anime because the main character is in an entirely new environment. They usually have their memories from their old life too, making their reactions to their new world hilarious.

The funniest isekai series all have their own unique style. The humor found in a series like Drifters is totally different from the jokes in KonoSuba, and that's perfect. Each funny isekai series does their own thing, bringing a fun theme to the table in their own way.

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill Animated By Mappa,...

Dark fantasy anime offers mature and cynical stories with tragic events that affect the characters. Shows like Drifters, Claymore, and Hellsing Ultimate explore cruel and brutal worlds filled with supernatural elements. The Promised Neverland, Overlord, and Castlevania offer subversions, comedic relief, and intricate stories in their dark fantasy settings.

While the fantasy genre may be quite common, given the medium's ability to immerse and transport viewers to any world, no matter how mythical, dark fantasy anime are not nearly as widespread. Most fans know the best fantasy anime, but few of these could be said to be truly dark, leaving viewers who prefer a more cynical and mature story dissatisfied.

While some fans may look to the fantasy genre hoping to find interesting worlds that they would like to live in, others prefer the intricate and depressing worlds of dark fantasy, wherein survival is seldom guaranteed and the worst horrors of humanity are revealed.

Synduality: Noir's second half brings new threats and challenges for Kanata and his friends, promising exciting mech action for fans. The new trailer reveals a major shift in circumstances for Kanata and introduces the powerful Mystere as Noir's replacement. The upcoming episodes will feature a showdown between Kanata and Macht, answering the questions and plot points set up in the first half.

Mecha anime Synduality: Noir, currently streaming on Disney+, received a new trailer showcasing the contents of its second half, which premieres next January. After an easygoing beginning, Kanata and his friends look ready to tackle overarching threats that are coming to the fore. The footage also reveals the new theme songs that will accompany the anime when it returns to the screen.

Synduality: Noir ended its first cours with a major shift in circumstances for Kanata and his team. With audiences now more than familiar with the cast,...

This is our last filmmaking books column in 2023, and it’s a good one. Plus, you can watch for even more gems from recent months in our companion column running next month. As always, thanks for reading and supporting so many great authors and artists.

Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

As an adolescent in the early 1990s, one of my Sunday night rituals was recording that week’s episode of “Siskel & Ebert”––it aired late-night in Buffalo, NY––and watching it the following day. The internet was in its infancy, so the reviews of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were both a lifeline to what was happening in film and a cinematic education. It is no exaggeration to say that I learned how to discuss movies thanks to Gene and Roger. For my generation, then, the release of...

Aisling Bea And Matthew Lewis Join Romesh Ranganathan Comedy ‘Avoidance’

Aisling Bea and Matthew Lewis are among the cast who have joined the upcoming season of Romesh Ranganathan’s BBC comedy Avoidance. Filming started this week, and the returning cast includes Jessica Knappett (Drifters), Kieran Logendra, Mandeep Dhillon (Afterlife), Lisa McGrillis (Mum), and Bruce Mackinnon (The Catherine Tate Show). Also joining the show are Louise Ford (The Windsors), Olive Tennant (Belfast), Alex Ranganathan, Jessica Ransom (Horrible Histories), Paula Wilcox (Upstart Crow), Philip Jackson (Brassed Off), Ed Kear (Here We Go), Colin Hoult (Murder in Successville), Michael Spicer (The Room Next Door) and Brona C Titley (The Outlaws). “I’m delighted to be back on set with this amazing cast, so much so it almost makes up for the crushing agony of my recent spandex-filled wardrobe fitting,” said Ranganathan.

Afua Hirsch And Peter Frankopan To Lead History Podcast

Afua Hirsch and...

Dark fantasy is a sub-genre that takes traditional fantasy and ups the stakes. It can have a quiet contemplative or morose tone, or it can be full-on ultra violence and filled with cruel tyrants. Dark fantasy tends to revolve around creatures like vampires, demons, and fallen angels. The magic is often eldritch and horrific with creatures that could be described as "nightmare fuel."

There are rarely happy endings in dark fantasy anime, but that's part of the appeal. It dives into the lows of the human spirit and leans into edgier folkloric tropes. Dark fantasy often asks the audience difficult, philosophical questions about humanity and good versus evil.

Related: 15 Best Gothic Anime, Ranked

Vampire Hunter D

Vampire Hunter D takes the concept of vampires and Dracula, and turns up the volume. It combines fantasy horror with post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Though the landscapes are austere and dangerous, they're still designed with beauty...

The Japanese anime industry has invented a few subgenres of its own, including the ever-popular isekai subgenre. In broad terms, isekai is all about an ordinary, real-life person finding themselves in a brand-new world to explore, like the anime version of The Wizard of Oz or The Chronicles of Narnia. Isekai, despite being notoriously formulaic and predictable, has become hugely popular, especially when reincarnation is involved.

Isekai anime, manga, and web novel series will thrust their hero into a new world either through magical teleportation or reincarnation. The main difference is that a teleported hero will retain their own name and appearance from their Earth life, while a reincarnated isekai hero has a new body, a new name, and likely some new powers, too. Both routes make for great isekai, but reincarnation is clearly the audiences' preferred model, and there are clear reasons why.

Related: Why Drifters is a Perfect...

Every anime fan dreams of seeing their favorite ongoing series come to a cathartic conclusion. Even if it takes decades for seasonal shows to finish their run, or even longer if the source material is incomplete, an outstanding anime finale is always worth the wait. However, not every series even receives a proper conclusion, either shut down after the first season or wrapped up hastily while the manga is still serializing.

These heartbreaking cases of anime getting canceled abruptly are the most devastating when the story starts on a particularly strong note. After adapting only a fraction of a grand narrative with limitless potential, these series disappear from radars, leaving fans futilely yearning for more. No matter how captivating of a beginning these shows had, fans might never see them concluded.

Related: 20 Anime Endings That Ruined The Entire Series

Pandora Hearts

Pandora Hearts begins with a plethora of compelling intrigues and mysteries.

The isekai genre of anime has more entries than most people can count, but almost every anime fan has seen at least one example. From Sword Art Online to Fushigi Yugi to Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious, the number of isekai anime grows and grows, and the titles get longer and longer. The formula of the genre has also become extremely well known to the point of parody. The protagonist meets some unfortunate end/ends up in a coma/etc. and wakes to find themselves in a world very much unlike their own and is forced into some position of heroism that they didn't experience in their own life. From there, the plot tends to diverge depending on whether the main character wants to return to their own world. After a while, they all begin to run together.

Drifters is a very different isekai. Originally published...

Hellsing is the tale of a secretive organization that works to wipe the world clean off of vampires. The series is iconic within the anime community, due in large part to its two fantastic leads: Alucard and Seras Victoria. Alucard is a powerful vampire whose favorite weapon is a handgun, while Seras Victoria runs Hellsing, which was previously her father's organization.

Related: 15 Modern Horror Manga That Need Anime Adaptations

The Hellsing franchise is arguably the most well-known anime in the entire vampire genre, so it's only natural for fans to use it as a springboard to find similar series. Whether they be part of the horror, action, or thriller genres, there are plenty of anime shows for fans of Hellsing to sink their teeth into.

Updated on June 8, 2023 by Kennedy King: The Hellsing franchise has been dormant for over a decade, but with each passing year, new anime emerge as worthy spiritual successors.

Isekai is a complex and controversial genre. It has as many fans as it has haters, with plenty of anime viewers arguing that the genre has run its course and become stale due to the sheer number of isekai shows released in the last few years. However, one overlooked isekai freshened up the genre by combining it with alternative history, and this is something that many more series should emulate.

Based on the manga written and illustrated by Hellsing writer Kouta Hirano, Drifters arrived on screens in 2016 and was animated by Hoods Drifters Studio, with Kenichi Suzuki taking the director's chair. Drifters follows real-life samurai Shimazu Toyohisa, who is badly wounded during the Battle of Sekigahara.

Related: How the New KonoSuba Explosion Anime Explores Isekai Through a Native's Eyes

The Plot of Drifters

Shimazu does his best to limp away from the battlefield. However, as he does, he's teleported to...

Miranda Lambert sets her new single “Dark Bars” to stark images of Nashville’s shuttered nightlife, an industry that has been struggling since both a deadly tornado tore through portions of the city in March and the onset of the coronavirus.

Filmed on location at bars that had closed for the night — or were still shut down because of storm damage or the ongoing pandemic — the lyric video underscores how much the nightlife culture relies on human connection. Without people jostling for space at the bar or holding court on a stool,...