In order to protect the country’s culture, the Japanese governmental agency known as the SSC started hunting down people that identify as otaku and confiscating all otaku memorabilia.
From the ashes of repression rose one passionate otaku who took up the name of Otaku Hero. He created a resistance army of displaced otaku and firmly believes that you should let people like what they like.
Three years after Otaku Hero’s rebellion, the otaku forces seem to be floundering, but in their darkest hour, a trio of magical girls came to Otaku Hero’s aid.
Magical Destroyers is about as underground and underrated as the otaku forces it portrays. While not the strongest story, it is a fun romp for those that have a passion for anime and other otaku hobbies more than the average nerd. If you are looking for more anime like Magical Destroyers, head on down below.
Anime Like Magical Destroyers
For Fans of Otaku on The Battlefield
Rumble Garanndoll
After a portal to a parallel universe opened, Japan was invaded by those from a parallel Japan and conquered. One of their first acts as new overlords was to completely ban the manga, anime, idols, and any other otaku hobbies.
Demonizing and censoring these activities, Akihabara, once a hub for otaku, has suffered. In one of the underground stores that still deals in otaku merchandise, Hosomichi joins a group of female freedom fighters and mecha pilots who seek to fight back.
While both Magical Destroyers and Rumble Garanndoll are both about a military takeover of Japan that outlaws and demonizes otaku interests with restrictions and propaganda, Rumble Garanndoll doesn’t leaving you guessing as much.
The reason behind the restrictions in Magical Destroyers is kept a little more vague, which adds a bit of mystery to the series. Rumble Garanndoll, however, goes big and makes the series a high energy mecha comedy.
While they have a similar premise and a similar love for the melodramatic made comical, Rumble Garanndoll lacks the same more serious moments that Magical Destroyers tried to include.
Akiba’s Trip
Tamotsu and Niwaka Denkigai are sibling otaku who decide to go shopping in Akihabara. However, unlike any normal otaku outing, this time they are attacked by vampiric cosplaying monsters know as Bugged Ones. These creatures can possess anyone with just a bite and soon the mayhem they cause spreads across the city.
Just as Tamotsu is about to fall prey, he is saved by the bat-wielding Matome Mayonaka. While they survive a few more battles together, Tamotsu is fatally wounded, forcing Matome to revive him as a high level Bugged One, just like herself.
Now, Tamotsu, Matome, and the excitable cosplayer Arisa Ahokainen form the group Electric Mayonnaise and begin dispatching the Bugged Ones using the most effective method – ripping off their clothes and exposing them to the sunlight.
Weird violent things are afoot in Akihabara. Unlike in Magical Destroyers which turned otakuism illegal and turned Akihabara into a war zone, Akiba’s Trip has Akihabara overrun by vampiric cosplayers.
Both series wield ridiculous action in the best way. However, while Magical Destroyers switches off silly for some serious moments, Akiba’s Trip is all silliness and goes quite over-the-top with it.
Akiba Maid War
Wahira has always admired the cute girls who work in maid cafes, and as such, she has decided to move to Akihabara to become a maid!
While she gets a job at the Ton Tokoton maid cafe, she discovers that after one normal day with her more mature and also newly employed co-worker Ranko Mannen that things are not what they seem.
She and Ranko are sent to run an errand to a rival maid cafe, and it ends up as a complete blood bath as they get caught up in the violent maid wars of Akihabara.
Although Akiba Maid War is about maids that work in the maid cafes of Akihabara and not otaku fighting a brutal war for their interests, it has the same “vibe” about it.
What that means is that like the war for otaku interests, Akiba Maid War is about maid cafes that – instead of being cute and cheerful – go about competition with other maid cafes like they were yakuza clans. It is super intense and plays out like the best yakuza story in anime, but with maids instead.
For Fans of This Thing You Like is Banned
Shimoneta – A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist
While Japan was once the pit of sexual depravity, new morality laws and the Peace-Making System used to monitor the populace have seen Japan rise to the peaks of public morality.
With all lewdness censored to the point that children do not know how babies are made, an infamous erotic terrorist named Blue Snow has risen.
One day, average high schooler and the son of another infamous erotic terrorist, Tanukichi Okuma, is saved by Blue Snow on his way to his new high morality high school, only to be drawn into her new erotic terrorist organization, SOX, instead.
What Magical Destroyers does to otakuism, Shimoneta does to lewdness. Both series are built on ridiculous plots where the government has restricted something that people love. They then also follow outlaws who try to bring that thing to the people and wake them up.
While Magical Destroyers is a love letter to the dramatic and comical anime of an older age, Shimoneta is impressive in a different way – in just how many dirty jokes it can wedge into every scene.
Library Wars
In future Japan, the Media Enhancement Law has set to work censoring all books and media. To combat this, the Library Defense Force was created to protect books from censorship.
This is the tale of Kasahara Iku, the first woman to join the force and her motivation to protect the books she loves.
Like Magical Destroyers outlawed otaku hobbies, Library Wars built its series around – not banning all books – but removing “problematic” ones, which could be any book. Like Magical Destroyers, Library Wars focuses in on a military group that is fighting back to protect the thing they love.
While Magical Destroyers is prone to a bit of silliness, Library Wars takes it plot more seriously and displays a more organized military force.
AKB0048
After interplanetary war, Earth is in ruins. As such, humanity has fled looking for new planets. Somewhere on this journey, it was deemed that music was the source of evil.
After banning music, this gave rise to those who gave secret performances, such as the AKB0048, an idol group based on the original AKB48 of old Earth.
Like Magical Destroyers is built on the silly foundation of banning otaku hobbies, AKB0048 is built on the silly foundation of banning all music. The response to these restrictions in both series is to do at anyway as an outlaw.
While Magical Destroyers is about waging war and enjoying otaku hobbies underground, AKB0048 is about holding underground idol performances throughout the universe.
They both feature silly premises, but play them out quite seriously for the most part. Although, you could say that AKB0048 was made to build more hype for the real life idol group AKB48.
For Fans of Unique Magical Girls
Kill la Kill
Ryuuko Matoi is on the hunt for her father’s killer, and her only lead is the missing half of his invention, the Scissor Blade.
On her quest, she arrives at the prestigious Honnouji Academy, a school that is ruled over by the super powerful Satsuki Kiryuuin and her Elite Four. Believing Satsuki knows who killed her father, Ryuuko challenges one of the elite, but gets beaten due to their special uniforms.
After receiving a special uniform of her own, Ryuuko sets plans into motion to dominate the school and find out what happened to her father.
While both Kill la Kill and Magical Destroyers feel a bit like parody of long-standing anime tropes and plots, they also, in their own right, are magnificent anime.
Both series take parody, but bring it around enough so that it actually works with the plot given to make it more than just a comedy anime. It has its own plot and its own message, and it brings that across in high-energy fights.
However, while Magical Destroyers is high energy, by comparison, Kill la Kill is on cocaine and red bull.
Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt
Panty and Stocking are two foul-mouth rebel angels that got booted out of heaven for being themselves.
Panty likes sex, Stocking likes sweets, and their afro’d man companion Garterbelt has some pretty twisted fetishes.
Together, the three travel the mean streets of Daten City getting into any and every bit of trouble they can find.
Not only does Magical Destroyers and Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt share being atypical magical girl anime, they also share being particularly weird and high energy anime in general.
However, while Magical Destroyers is just over-the-top, Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt is over-the-top and rather raunchy with its comedy.
Both series are colorful adventures that have an interesting mix of unique comedy, but also know when to be a bit serious too.
Symphogear
Under constant assault by an alien race called Noise, society doesn’t know that the idol duo Zwei Wing use their songs to charge powerful weapons known as Symphogear to fight back.
After an attack at a concert, part of the duo sacrifices themselves to save a young girl, implanting a fragment of her Symphogear in that girl in her last moments.
Years later, that same girl awakens the power to defend humanity with the power of the Symphogear within her.
Both Magical Destroyers and Symphogear are magical girl anime that don’t really feel like magical girl series. They distract you with their more original premises, but don’t let you down when it comes to big, exciting action.
Unlike magical girls fighting for otaku in Magical Destroyers, Symphogear features girls using the power of music to transform and fight alien enemies of Earth. Both series seem like they should be ridiculous, but play their stories magnificently straightforward.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Magical Destroyers? Let fans know in the comments section below.
