Anime and gamers have a weird connection. For the general population, the only thing these two worlds have in common is that they both cater to 30-year-old bearded, basement-dwelling men. For everyone else, it’s that and a few other things.
Both video games and anime create worlds in which impossible things can become an active part of the world created, which allows the person playing/watching to immerse themselves in a world detached from the real one. And let’s be honest – who doesn’t want to detach themselves from this horrible world every once in a while?
And since the Japanese are brilliant bastards, anime started catering to gamers more directly by including game-related plots. Here is some anime that every gamer needs to watch, because they’re directly linked to gaming – unless that gamer isn’t into anime, in which case it’s probably best not to watch it. Don’t let me tell you what to do!
No Game No Life
If you guessed this was the title to my autobiography, you’d only be half wrong. It’s also an anime series about a brother and sister that are top-tier gamers. In fact, they’re so good that the God of Games (which would be this anime’s version of Hideo Kojima) teleports them to his realm to mix things up a bit.
Btooom!
Because sometimes you run out of original ideas for a series title. The series is named after a combat game, and – who knew – the main protagonist gets thrown into a real life version of that game. Btooom!
Sword Art Online
Imagine being an MMO player and trying out a virtual reality MMO, only to find out that taking off your headset will fry your brain and you’re pretty much stuck in the game world. Nothing to do but beat the boss, I guess!
Log Horizon
Staying in the MMO setting – 30,000 something gamers find themselves becoming their in-game MMO avatars. Guess we gotta fight some raid bosses now!
Hack//Sign
Another anime that takes place in an MMORPG, this one is about a player having short term memory loss and trying to figure out what his condition is, and how he can log out. I’m not sure if this entire series is a reference to people having Alzheimers and opting for euthanasia. It sure as hell sounds like it.
Accel World
A short, fat kid gets picked on at school, but is apparently good at gaming. While this might sound like the first sentence of my biography, it’s not. In this anime, the kid gets let into a super secret augmented, reality fighting game. And like any true gamer, he wants to reach max level.
Summer Wars
A math genius gets accused of unleashing a dangerous AI on a virtual world! Sounds like something the real world should be thoroughly bothered by!
