The Labyrinth is an expansive space underground where humans live in colonies and many places remain unexplored. Due to the harsh conditions outside the colonies and the presence of large monsters, only brave individuals known as Markers explore the outside areas. Memenpu is a genius child who dreams of becoming a Marker in order to reach a place that constantly plagues her dreams. Unfortunately for her, her father Gagumber is pretty vehemently against it, at least until a giant monster attacks inside the colony jump starts their adventure together.
Big action, big characters, and a genius child character who is the personification of a person high in intelligence and low in wisdom. I am here for it! If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Sakugan, then head on down below.
Anime Like Sakugan
For Fans of Labyrinthine Adventures
Made in Abyss
The Abyss is an enormous cave system and the only unexplored place in the world. No one knows how deep it goes, but generations of bold adventurers have descended into it. In the town at the edge of The Abyss, an orphan named Rico dreams of raiding, as her mother did before her. One day while exploring the murky depths, she meets a boy, who turns out to be a robot, kicking off the start of her epic adventure.
Cute little blonde girl that received a message from someone telling them to go to a place far into a labyrinth that is barely explored. They then do so with their companion that protects them. That’s it. That’s both plots summed up neatly and strangely similarly. Both series also like to punctuate the fun exploration with moments of legitimate threat and fear, too.
Deep Insanity: The Lost Child
A new illness called Randolph Syndrome is slowly infecting humanity. This syndrome that causes an unending sleep and violent madness to the individual is thought to be caused by the Asylum, a labyrinth located in Antarctica. The Asylum is filled with dangerous creatures, but many have staked their lives on exploring it in order to find both wealth and a cure.
Essentially, both series involve characters that want to explore a big, mysterious, and dangerous area. However, their reasons for it are different and Deep Insanity isn’t carried out with the same high energy that you find in Sakugan. However, they both provide decent exploration in unique worlds.
Ultramarine Magmell
When a new continent known as Magmell emerged, it launched a new Age of Discovery among mankind. However, while it is filled with new flora and fauna, danger awaits there. While adventurers scramble to explore it, people like Inyou stay back, ready to rescue people from Magmell at request and for a price.
While Magmell is more shounen and distinctly more action, like Sakugan it follows a mysterious area where only certain individuals are encouraged to go. However, unlike Sakugan where they face some struggles, Inyou in Magmell kind of just man modes it through things by being super powerful. Despite that, there is a good sense of exploration in each series.
For Fans of Old Man, Young Girl Dynamic
Deca-Dence
Driven to the point of extinction by creatures known as the Gadoll, humanity now lives out of a large mobile fortress known as Deca-Dence. Inside, the residents are separated into Gears, warriors that fight the Gadoll, and Tankers who maintain the fortress. Natsume, a Tanker, has dreams of becoming a Gear, but is forced into armor repair where she meets a surly senpai named Kaburagi that has more skills than he lets on.
Both series start off following what are basically mechanics in a colony, but the younger part of the old man-young girl duo dreams of something grander. While the old man hampers them at first, they end up aiding them on their youthful journey.
Drifting Dragons
Dragons rule the skies. While they are a threat to humanity, they are also a source of medicine, meat, and oil. In order to procure these goods, outcasts called Drakers traverse the skies on giant airships. They have no home on land, but they live to hunt dragons as a dangerous and thankless profession. As dragon populations and those who become Drakers dwindle, the airship Quin Zaza and her crew are one of the last teams to bring down these great beasts.
Both Sakugan and Drifting Dragons feature individuals who provide a necessary service to the world. It is just that Sakugan happens underground while Drifting Dragons happens in the sky. Both series end up about characters with a similar age dynamic as well as have them fight giant monsters.
Golden Kamuy
After surviving the brutal Russo-Japanese war, Sugimoto gained the nickname “the immortal”. However, he now seeks the promise of gold to the north in Hokkaido in order to provide for the blind wife and infant son of his comrade who died in the war. Yet, during his hunt, he hears the tale of a hidden stash of gold belonging to criminals with a map made out of human skin. Dismissing it as a tale at first, he soon finds that the man who told him the story has those very same map-like tattoos. Now on a race with a native Ainu girl whose father was murdered for the gold, they try to make it to the stash before the criminals.
While obviously very different in setting and plot, both Sakugan and Golden Kamuy create an adventure series with the same character dynamic. What’s more, they make those characters interesting and likable in their own ways. It goes a long way to enhancing even the boring bits of their adventure.
For Fans of Big Fluid Mech Action
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
While digging around in his underground village, a young boy named Simon uncovers a mysterious object that turns out to be the ignition key to an ancient artifact of war. When their village comes under attack, Simon and his daring adoptive older brother Kamina use this weapon to fend off the invaders, discovering that there is a whole surface world above them in the process. With the sky now in plain view, Kamina and Simon set off on a journey that will take them across the galaxy.
Immediately noticeable in Sakugan is the high energy and occasional craziness that it comes at you with. It is the same sort of energy that pervades Gurren Lagann. It also should be noted that both series also start small with the characters in an underground city before having their world open up dramatically.
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
In the distant future, humanity has abandoned a ruined Earth and now lives in the furthest reaches of space fighting their eternal enemy, the Hideauze. During one of their massive space battles, a young soldier named Ledo and his mecha Chamber are flung through a warp hole into space. He crash lands on a strange planet that is covered completely in water. To his surprise, he finds that other humans also live there aboard massive fleets of boats. Found by the Gargantia fleet, Ledo must navigate this strange new world.
Both series create slick looking mecha series with immediately enjoyable characters, then does the best thing they could do – creates an interesting world that you want the characters to explore. While Gargantia features a water world unlike the underground world in Sakugan, it has its mysteries and each episode is rife with adventure.
Darling in the Franxx
In the distant future, the land is ruined and humanity now lives in the mobile city, Plantation. Inside, they are defended from massive life forms by children raised from birth to pilot robots called Franxx in boy-girl pairs. This story follows Hiro, once a prodigy, and now a failure. However, just as he was about to be cast aside, he meets a mysterious girl with horns that is a Franxx pilot dubbed The Partner Killer.
Both of these series feature mecha action where the mech needs to be, or at least should be, piloted by two people who work well together. However, while both series have a monster of the week sort of action to them, Darling in the Franxx lacks the same sort of overall goal for the characters. It is, however, as similarly stunning in animation like Sakugan.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Sakugan? Let fans know in the comments section below.
