Goro Ono is an apathetic teenager who spends his days goofing off with his best friend, Akitsu. One day, he receives a notification on his smartphone that declared that he had been chosen and asked him to make a wish. Thinking it was just pointless spam, he thoughtlessly wishes to do naughty things with his crush and classmate, Honoka.
The next day, he is invited by Honoka to an abandoned arcade and told to pull his pants down. The pair are interrupted when a small fairy named Lall manifests and tells Goro of his new fate. He was one of several chosen to be a god candidate. These users are told to kill each other until the last one standing becomes the new god. Unfortunately for him, Goro is already in the room with another god candidate – Honoka.
Because of its animation style, this series got raked over the coals, but its just another survival game that really doesn’t deserve to get tossed around among the ranks of things like Ex-arm. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like KamiErabi God.App, head on down below.
Anime Like KamiErabi God.App
For Fans of Killing to Become God
Future Diary
Yukiteru Amano likes to imagine himself as an observer. He spends his days keeping a diary on his cell phone, but not about himself, about everything that goes on around him.
At home, he spends his time conversing with his two imaginary friends, Deus Ex Machina, the God of space and time, and Murmur, his assistant.
However, one day he discovers his friends are not so imaginary when they imbue him with the power of a diary that tells the future and force him into a bloody survival game with godhood on the line.
For a decently large chunk of God.App, it appeared it wanted to be Future Diary, but with less vicious death. Of course, it continues to move away from that comparison as it moves into some higher minded concepts.
Both God.App and Future Diary are about contestants who are playing a game with godhood on the line. Each contestant has a unique power, their cellphones are crucial to the game, and in order to become a god, they have to kill the rest.
Both series follow main characters who are a bit hesitant to kill others, but while that stops people from dying in God.App given his Fool’s Sutra, it sure doesn’t stop the frequent death in Future Diary.
Platinum End
After his parents died, Mirai Kakehashi was left in the care of abusive relatives. On the day he graduated from middle school, he decided to end his life.
As he jumps off a building, he is saved by Nasse, an angel that wishes to give him happiness and has chosen him as her candidate to become the next God.
However, there are twelve other candidates and some among them wish to take the power of a God by force.
Both God.App and Platinum End tell stories that revolve around contestants chosen to become god. While God.App is meant to be about killing the other contestants to win, Platinum End has a more vague route towards winning, so of course some other contestants choose to kill the others.
Both God.App and Platinum End feature main characters who are nicer, more normal guys that get pulled into the intrigue of the god game and are advised by an entity on what they should be doing. Unlike standard survival games that focus on the death, both God.App and Platinum End focus more on intrigue and building relationships with other characters.
For Fans of Survival Games
Juuni Taisen – Zodiac War
In a world where warfare is constant – and great for business – there are twelve individuals that thrive on the battlefield. These individuals each bear traits that coincide to one animal from the Chinese Zodiac.
Those who are born into the right zodiac families or chosen to be the successor to that line are all invited to a competition that takes place every twelve years. In this competition, they will fight to the death. The last one standing will have their any wish granted.
Both God.App and Juuni Taisen tell stories surrounding a battle royale between a group of people. While God.App is about teens and a specific main character that doesn’t really want to kill others, Juuni Taisen has a shifting main character role and follows a bunch of mercenaries who often kill for a living.
What these two series share most is that each character has a specific ability that is unique to them. It is also strongly to their benefit to keep the specifics surrounding that ability a secret so they can use the element of surprise to their advantage.
Battle Game in 5 Seconds
It was just a normal day for avid gamer Akira Shiroyanagi who, while playing a game on his phone, was suddenly dragged onto a battlefield by a being named Mion.
He and the other participants are told that they have been erased from society in order to participate in an experiment.
They are each granted a special ability and told to use this power in order to win a series of games.
Like God.App, Battle Game in 5 Seconds is a survival game, but more gamified in structure compared to the battle royale style that God.App presents.
Both series feature main characters with unique and uniquely overpowered special abilities that dominate most conflicts. However, Battle Game in 5 Seconds is more oriented towards strategy and the main character is distinctly more cunning than Goro.
Both series end up with the main character making a series of allies that help him take on stronger opponents, and yet, only one can win either game.
Darwin’s Game
After receiving an invitation, Kaname starts playing a mysterious new mobile game called Darwin’s Game. Unfortunately, when his opponent attacks him in real life, he must fight to survive.
After narrowly winning his first fight, he discovers a hidden world of players that kill in order to win points.
Both God.App and Darwin’s Game present a survival game that is played using cellphones as a crucial device in finding opponents. However, unlike God.App where each players has specific abilities, Darwin’s Game is more grounded in reality in that you just have to beat whatever opponent you are fighting in whatever way you can.
Both series end up with the main character being surprisingly good at the game and gathering himself allies who also play it in order to take on tougher foes.
For Fans of Powers With a Price
Big Order
Ten years ago, a fairy appeared and asked Eiji Hoshimiya what his only wish was. Whatever that wish was, the results were catastrophic – everything in the world collapsed.
Fast forward to the present and Eiji’s only concern is his sick sister and the other people that are trying to kill him.
Similar to Goro in God.App whose power is wildly, brokenly overpowered, but comes with a unpredictable and high price per use, Big Order features a main character with a wildly, brokenly, overpowered ability that he is afraid to use because the last time he did, it caused calamity.
While Big Order isn’t a survival game like God.App, it does feature a (much larger) group of people who manifest powers that all come after the main character. Instead of seeking godhood like in God.App, in Big Order, those coming after the main character are mostly seeking revenge.
Chainsaw Man
After his father’s death left him with a pile of debt, Denji and his pet devil Pochita struggle to pay it off. However, after the yakuza kills him, Pochita fuses himself with Denji’s corpse and he awakens as a Chainsaw Devil.
Found by government devil hunters, Denji is brought in to hunt other devils on an experimental squad where he is finally able to pursue his simple teenage dreams of eating good food and spending time with a cute girl.
Unlike God.App that is a survival game with godhood on the line, Chainsaw Man is more aligned with your standard shounen battler where an agency dispatches agents to fights devils that threaten humanity.
However, what these two series have in common, aside from acknowledging the shitty bits of humanity frequently, is that in order to use powers for most individuals, they need to pay a price, not unlike Goro’s Fool’s Sutra.
In Chainsaw Man, the price is less karma-based, and more physical. Some lose body parts, some lose lifespan, and the bigger price you pay, the more power you get.
Darker Than Black
After the appearance of the Heaven and Hell Gates, then rose the Contractors, individuals that gave up their humanity for supernatural powers.
In Section 4 of Japan around the Hell Gate, Chief Misaki finds herself constantly at odds with a Contractor named Hei, a man who takes missions from the ruthless underground Syndicate that slowly peel away the layers covering a threat to all Contractors.
While Darker Than Black is an action anime with more of a focus detailed battles and a plot full of underworld intrigue compared to the survival game that is God.App, it features a similar power system to Goro’s Fool’s Sutra, but less overpowered.
Like each Fool’s Sutra use accrues Goro some negative karma and can re-write his reality, each time a Contractor in Darker Than Black uses their powers, they pay a price. For some, it is something simple like having to break some fingers. For others, it is something a little more inconvenient like aging forwards or backwards.
C – Control – The Money and Soul of Possibility
In a country that is economically struggling and being surrounded by wealthy peers, Economics student Kimimaro Yoga is learning that money is power.
One day, he is told of a place called the Eastern Financial District where money flows like water, but only if visitors offer their future as collateral.
Greed triumphs this day as Yoga enters this alternative realm.
Unlike God.App where Goro’s power has a cost per use, C Control presents itself as a game where you pay a price to enter. In this case, the players are paying with their “future,” which can be everything from job prospects and future earnings to their actual life.
While C Control definitely has more of a focus on money, it presents its story very much as a survival game like you enjoyed in God.App. Furthermore, like Goro has Lall to assist him unlike any other contestant, the main character in C Control also has a mysterious assistant who is not quite like the rest.
Do you have more anime recommendations like KamiErabi God.App? Let fans know in the comments section below.
