In Ars, humanity and the beast tribes are threatened by giant monster attacks. To combat this, champions of physical prowess form pacts with partners of magical ability to merge and wield magnificent destructive power.
Jiiro is one such champion who is still mourning the loss of his former partner. One day, he meets Kuumi, a young girl who has just awakened her magical abilities. He soon discovers that she escaped and is on the run from an experimental laboratory and helps her flee.
Giant Beasts of Ars is a story with a lot of potential that ended up just being okay. That was a shame, but it was nice to see the beast tribes, even if they weren’t really explored. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Giant Beasts of Ars, head on down below.
Anime Like Giant Beasts of Ars
For Fans of Big Monster Fighting
God Eater
In the year 2071, humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by man-eating monsters called Aragami. Immune to traditional weapons, they roam the land, but an organization called Fenrir with it’s human-hybrid God Eaters are the only ones capable of killing these Aragami.
Lenka is a new God Eater who must master his powers in order to have any hope of fulfilling his wish to wipe out the Aragami once and for all.
While Giant Beasts of Ars is often about other things than fighting those aforementioned giant beasts, both God Eater and Giant Beasts of Ars do take place in a world where humanity is constantly under threat from them, and special warriors are in charge of going to take them out.
While the sci-fi fantasy blended setting in Giant Beast of Ars differs from the post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting of God Eater, they both follow warriors who hunt big monsters, but also get pulled into the intrigue of their world.
Orient
After their descent 150 years ago, the demons demanded reverence from humanity as gods. Standing up against these new overlords were the Bushi, who still battle to this day, but the demons preach that they are enemies.
Hinamoto, freed from Bushi rule many years ago, lives peacefully and reveres demons. The residents mine rocks for the demons to consume, but for Musashi, a miner in training, he craves freedom.
Together with his childhood friend Koujiro, a boy outcasted for being a descendants of a Bushi, they start a fight against the demons for freedom, only to be saved by an actual Bushi band. Seeing them fight and destroy the demons, the pair decide they will form a Bushi band of their own!
Orient is distinctly different in that it is a shounen battler, but it does take place in a world where humans are separated into different settlements of a specific theme, similar to how all the beast tribes in Giant Beasts of Ars live in specific, separated areas.
Furthermore, both series follow the main characters who travel around and most often get involved in events that end in battle with either other people or giant monsters.
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 Deca-Dence and Giant Beasts of Ars are about humanity (and other beings) that are under threat of constant attack by larger, dangerous creatures. As such, the worlds both created a specific order of warriors that go and fight these creatures.
While Giant Beasts of Ars builds out some intrigue in the world for the plot as the characters journey, Deca-Dence uncovers the mystery of its world and why it is the way it is.
It is also worth noting that they both also have a similar main character dynamic of a gruff man with a mysterious past meeting a mysterious, special girl that they come to protect.
For Fans of A Mysterious Girl on The Run
Fena – Pirate Princess
After tragedy at sea left her stranded and orphaned on an island, Fena was raised to be pleasure slave for soldiers of the British Empire.
However, after being broken from her chains by members from her past, she sets out to the sea in order find a place she can be free and unravel the mystery behind a strange stone left behind by her father involving a place called Eden.
Both Giant Beasts of Ars and Fena follow young, white-haired girls that have a mystery to uncover about themselves that even they don’t understand. A special destiny, if you will.
On their journey to discover that, they end up with a group of companions, primary among them, a guy that is protective yet seemingly constantly annoyed by them.
However, while Giant Beasts of Ars is a sci-fi fantasy setting, Fena often seems more historically inspired in world and the people that inhabit it, but with mystical elements thrown in.
Granblue Fantasy
This is a world of skies where islands are adrift in a sea of clouds. Gran, a young boy, lives on the island of Zinkenstill. One day, he happens across Lyria, a girl that had escaped the militarily powerful Erste Empire.
When they come after her, Gran gets pulled into the middle of it and they both flee the empire by taking to the skies with one destination in mind, the Island of the Stars.
Both Giant Beasts of Ars and Granblue Fantasy follow girls on the run that end up journey with a whole crew of unique individuals in an airship across a fantasy land.
While unraveling the mystery surrounding the girl, they also commonly fight large creatures that threaten the world.
It is worth noting that Granblue Fantasy is based off a mobile game, and it often shows. Expect interesting and well designed characters, but a general lack of depth in plot.
Rage of Bahamut – Genesis
Thousands of years ago, ancient dragon Bahamut terrorized the world. However, when gods and demons allied themselves to prevent the world’s destruction, they sealed him away, splitting the key among them so he would be eternally imprisoned.
After the dragon was sealed, humanity returned to normal. However, things are about to get very abnormal for bounty hunter Favaro when he meets a mysterious women that holds half the key to Bahamut’s seal.
Both Giant Beasts of Ars and Rage of Bahamut take place in fantasy-inspired worlds, but with their own lore that keeps them feeling unique.
In these fantasy worlds inhabited by more humanoids than just humans, you have the unattached male main characters have their paths cross with a mysterious girl on the run. They end up accompanying her and this leads them on a quest that ultimately may save the world.
Both series really try to give a particular depth to their world-building, and succeed at it. However, Rage of Bahamut is better at making likable and unique characters.
Chaika -The Coffin Princess
Chaika Trabant is on a quest. Carrying a coffin on her back, with no memory of her past, and highly adept at casting spells, she is hunting down the scattered remains of the Emperor Gaz who once held the world in an iron grip.
One day, she meets Toru Akari in the woods, a warrior who is having trouble finding a job to support himself. Together along with Toru’s sister, they start their journey.
Like Giant Beasts of Ars, Chaika The Coffin Princess has a main character that is a warrior by trade have his paths cross with a mysterious white-haired girl that doesn’t have all her memories, but does have some unique quirks. Although she is a likable girl to her companions, both series also unravel that she is a potential danger to the world.
Both series create unique fantasy worlds, though Giant Beasts of Ars is distinctly more varied in the races that live there.
For Fans of Beast People and Humanity Living in a Fantasy World
WorldEnd – What Would You Do At The End of The World?
It has been five hundred years since humanity went extinct at the hands of the mysterious beasts that roam the land. Now the surviving races have retreated to floating islands in the sky out of reach of most of the beasts. However, there are ones nimble enough to put these people in danger.
A small group of young girls, a race called the Leprechauns, are now raised as the only ones that can wield ancient weapons to fend off invasion by the beasts, but it often requires them to sacrifice themselves and they don’t often live to see adulthood.
Enter Willem, the last surviving human woken from his slumber and sent to watch over these girls, still feeling the sting from the final battle where he lost everything five hundred years ago.
In Giant Beasts of Ars, humanity is causing problems for the beast tribes of their world. In WorldEnd, humanity caused problems for the beast tribes, and that promptly destroyed the human race and almost destroyed the world.
WorldEnd picks up after that event where giant beasts now threaten the beast tribes, and one of the best ways of fighting them is – like in Giant Beasts of Ars – cute sacrificial pawns with special powers.
However, WorldEnd likes to hurt you by making you more emotionally invested in those sacrificial pawns.
The Fire Hunter
After repeated wars, human biology changed. Now when humans get too close to natural fire, they combust. However, society has not completely collapsed without fire. Instead it has been replaced by a special material harvested by Fire Hunters from giant monsters that stalk the forests.
Touko, a girl from a rural village, is saved by a wandering Fire Hunter who gave his life to save her. As is tradition, she must now return his hunting dog and his weapon to his family in the capital.
Elsewhere, the Fire Hunter’s son Koushi, thinking his father abandoned him and his sister, are adopted by a wealthy family. However, while looking into a special fire stone in his research, he learns some troubling truths.
Both Giant Beasts of Ars and The Fire Hunter take place in a world where humanity exist unhappily with the other fantasy races that are present in it.
However, while Giant Beasts of Ars is more of a standard fantasy world melded with sci-fi elements, The Fire Hunter is a lore-rich world that is more mysterious and less obviously inspired from other media. It is generally a more originally crafted world.
Both series also follow the journey of a young girl who ends up traveling with a group of friends. However, the journey in The Fire Hunter is definitely a lot more rough for the characters.
Grimoire of Zero
While witches exist, very little is understood about magic, so their kind is ostracized. Half-beast men like Yohei are also shunned, causing him to make his living as a mercenary and wish he was human.
One day, he meets a witch called Zero who offers to grant the wish to turn him human, but only if he agrees to be her escort.
While Grimoire of Zero is a more traditional fantasy series, like Giant Beasts of Ars, it creates a world where humanity and beast people live together – and live unhappily.
However, while humanity is upset with their lack of supremacy in Giant Beast of Ars, Grimoire of Zero has beast people as a minority and widely discriminated against.
Aside from humans living with and disliking beast people, both series also follow mysterious white-haired girls who travel with a older male mercenary that they sort of strong-armed into helping them.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Giant Beasts of Ars? Let fans know in the comments section below.
