If you lead a sufficient amount of people, eventually your only goal will become to lead all people. Played straight and played for laughs, world domination is a pretty obvious goal for anime series about leaders, organizations, or – in some cases – the wildly overambitious. Whether you are looking for something more serious in nature or a show where conquering the world is a Pinky and the Brain-style running joke, we have anime recommendations for you ne’er-do-well conquering heroes.
Best Anime About Conquering The World
Code Geass
At first, Code Geass is more about an exiled prince trying to stick it to daddy with his eye power of absolute obedience and a rebel force he manipulates. However, as aforementioned “daddy” is the leader of an empire, a young prince can rise high with less effort than you’d think. By that point in Code Geass, world domination is a very real possibility, especially when you can make anyone obey with just a look.
No Game No Life
Innovative in the isekai genre as it has absolutely no fighting while still having that action feel to it, No Game No Life follows siblings stuck in a world where disputes are settled by playing games. Even disputes over matters of land and countries all come down to games. What happens when you transport the best gaming duo on Earth to this land? Well, they decide to conquer it.
World Conquest Zvezda Plot
World conquest – It’s right there in the title. While this series may be a comedy anime about a middle schooler who wants to conquer the world through the organization of misfits she built, it is also an excellent world conquest anime in its own right. Instead of being foiled by their own ineptitude all the time, there are forces working to help the world remain free as well as those who just want to conquer the world by themselves. Are you ready to endure the shenanigans of all those who wish to rule over you?
Overlord
After his MMO is supposed to be shutting down its server, powerful guild leader Momonga suddenly finds himself in the game with all the NPCs acting like living people. This includes the servants he created for his guild. With immense power between him and his servants, it calls a man only to conquer the fantasy land like he never could before! Unfortunately, the series tends to only focus on smaller victories and progression on the conquest front gets pretty slow over time.
Excel Saga
In the same vein as World Conquest Zvezda Plot, but older, Excel Saga takes a more comedic approach to conquering the world. In it, the titular main character isn’t so much focused on conquering, but rather she serves her leader that is. She serves him faithfully, but extremely badly so that even his best laid plan go horribly wrong. That’s it. That’s the show.
Death Note
Death Note starts small with a genius high schooler writing names of criminals in a Shinigami’s notebook, which will kill them in whatever way he describes. A taste of that power progresses over the course of the series and eventually his goal is to become the god of our world and use his notebook to pass judgment on anyone against him. It escalates, to say the least, but while it is an unconventional way of conquering the world, it becomes an unforgettable game of cat and mouse between him and those trying to catch him.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
One wants to unite humanity, another calls for self-governance – It is a tale as old as time and risen high to a galactic scale. Legendary anime series Legend of the Galactic Heroes may be well aged at this point, but it is one of your best bets for serious world conquest anime. The show is all about the ideals of two sides and what they are willing to give up in pursuit of them.
High School Prodigies Have it Easy Even in Another World
Have you ever seen a world conquered accidentally? Do you want to? The goal when seven of the most talented individuals in Japan were sent to another world wasn’t initially to conquer the world. Instead, their goal throughout remains to find a way home. However, using their talents they bring modernity to that medieval land, and that kind of earns them a beloved status with the people.
Drifters
Drifters follows legendary warriors and historical figures that get plucked up upon their death and all crammed into a fantasy-esque world in the afterlife to serve the interests of salaryman-esque looking deities. And well, to be frank, when you put so many people with a talent for battle and/or an unquenchable ambition, conquest can be the only outcome. The main characters even feel as such when they decide to build and army and take over the land.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
This is another case of characters conquering the world accidentally, at least at first. Despite the main character being a slime with the mind of a modern salaryman, he has a fair bit for power due to his diet. He uses it to help an orc village and they end up thriving. Eventually that turns into a flourishing country, and well, things just expand from there.
Squid Girl
She came (comically) from the deep! Squid Girl tells the tale of… A squid girl, who, after noting all the trash in the ocean, vows to punish humanity. While not outright proclaiming herself to be a conqueror, you will find her overall goal is still the same. Unfortunately for her, she gets taken by two humans and put to work as a waitress.
Akame ga Kill
The conquest in Akame Ga Kill is a little different from the usual. The series follows a group of rebels who are fighting against a tyrannical ruler. While they don’t necessarily wish to conquer their world for themselves, the only option is to remove those in power. Unlike other series on here, the road to doing that is a brutal struggle for the heroes.
Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department
If you are in the mood for something more comedic, this series follows a woman working in the Monster Development Department who, as you could expect, develops monster designs. However, he employer is not just some organization, it is in fact an evil organization that wants to take over the world. Join her as she endures workplace crunch and watching her beloved creations get dispatched by world heroes.
Love After World Domination
This one is a bit different. The story follows a man from a Super Sentai-like organization and a girl part of a secret society trying to conquer the world. They secretly fall in love and adorably keep up the guise that they are still mortal enemies. While world domination is a very distant goal, ultimately they both want to live in a world where they can be together out in the open.
The Ambition of Oda Nobuna
Man or women, an Oda will always crave Japan. In The Ambition of Oda Nobuna, a man gets sent to feudal Japan where all those famous warlords and samurai are gender-flipped into cute women. The whole thing is a ploy to make history more cute, watchable, and maybe arousing, but Nobuna is here to conquer.
The Devil is a Part Timer
A demon lord, on the verge of victory in his realm, is sent to our magic-less, boring world. Without his powers, he is forced to get a menial job. They may have taken his powers away, but they did not take his spirit! He vows to take over our world one 10-piece nugget sale at a time. This is a comedy one, of course, but it does actually have serious moments and plot progression, unlike other, sillier ones.
Gate
You can’t open a gate to a whole new world without people wanting to conquer the land beyond, and that’s exactly what happens in Gate when one opens in Japan. It leads to a fantasy world in which they can come and go as they please, so of course they try to either manipulate local leaders to gain trade of their resources or just plain take them over with modern military technology. Mounted cavalry stands no chance against machine gun nests. While conquest is an overarching goal of the government, the focus of the main character is more on him exploring with his manageable troupe of ladies.
Jormungand
This last one is a bit different. Jormungand follows an arms merchant and her bodyguards. They aren’t trying to conquer the world necessarily, but the goal is to unite the world in peace… through selling weapons. Think mutually assured destruction and the plot starts to make perfect sense.
Do you have more anime recommendations about conquering the world? Let fans know in the comments section below.
