The region of Kansai is overrun by powerful criminals known as Akudama. One night, after picking up 500 yen dropped by an Akudama, an Ordinary Girl finds herself wrapped up in a huge plot to foil a public execution. Now with a bomb collar around her neck, she and other Akudama must complete tasks given by a mysterious Black Cat.
Like, Akudama looks wacked out, and it sounds wacked out, but it comes together all so wonderfully. The wonderfully weird and interesting characters as well as the fantastic future world all draw you in so deep. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Akudama Drive, then head on down below.
Anime Like Akudama Drive
For Fans of the Thug Life
Gangsta
Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo work as handymen, mercenaries that will do anything for the right price. Working for the mob and police alike, they delve into the underbelly of the city, a place that was once haven for Twilights, people who were augmented by a special drug.
Both series tell the story of gritty cities and the gritty criminals within. Gangsta is more just modern grunge compared to the futuristic lawlessness that is in Akudama Drive. Furthermore, the two main characters in Gangsta are just tough guys more akin to Brawler.
Black Lagoon
Average business man Rokurou Okajima found his life turned upside down when he was captured and held hostage by a mercenary group in Thailand called Black Lagoon. After learning how disposable his life was to his company, he decides to quit the salaryman life and join the very group of mercenaries that held him hostage. While he finds himself unexpectedly good at their various work, his ideals about the world vastly clash with those of his companions.
Both series follow a group of criminals bound together by different goals. Both groups don’t necessarily get along with each other, but there is a sort of mutual respect there. As for plots, well, there is lots of violence and a little intrigue. They both also have a certain episodic nature to them, but Akudama Drive does have an overall plot controlling it.
Jormungand
After being raised in a conflict area and living as a child soldier Jonah hates weapons, but when he takes a job as a bodyguard to the arms dealer Koko, he is left with no choice in the matter. Alongside a number of other skilled bodyguards, Jonah must protect Koko and her idealistic goal of world peace in a vicious world.
Both series follow tough people in a tough world. What most draws them together isn’t so much the setting or story, but the fact that every character is pretty interesting, or at least, not boring.
For Fans of Unique Characters
Danganronpa
Hope’s Peak Academy is an elite high school where those accepted are given special titles that showcase their skills. This year, only fifteen were accepted, and one of them was the completely normal Makoto Naegi who got in on sheer luck. The students are thrilled to be in such a prestigious school. That is, until they are trapped inside the school by principal and bear Monokuma who tasks them with killing one of their peers and not getting caught by the others in order to escape. However, if they are caught and found guilty in a trial, they will be executed instead.
Both of these series were created by the same person, so you can expect a certain juxtaposition of oddness and ferocity to everything going on as well as a psychedelic color palate. If you enjoyed the extremeness of every character in Akudama Drive, then Danganronpa is for you.
Dorohedoro
Hole is a disorderly district where death and mutilation are common. The residents of Hole are the dregs of society and the test subjects of the magic users that live separate from it. Residents are constantly tested on or just murdered by these mages. In Hole is Kaiman, a man with a head cursed to be that of a lizard, but with an immunity to magic. He spends his time set on hunting down these magic users in one small bit of justice for the people that live in Hole.
Both shows display grungy, yet futuristic cities where everyone seems vaguely criminal. However, while the setting and plots in both are actually pretty equally intriguing, what carries both of these shows are the fantastically insane characters.
Durarara
Tokyo’s downtown district of Ikebukuro is awash in strange rumors, everything from colorless color gangs to a headless rider roaming town populate the rumors. For Mikado Ryuugamine who just moved there from the countryside, he is but one witness to the district’s slew of strange events.
Both Akudama Drive and Durarara show the inner workings of a seedy city. While Durarara makes the city seem more interconnected through the characters and the various supernatural and criminal occurrences, Akudama Drive plucks out a few random criminals and sets them on a greater purpose.
For Fans of Intricate Crime
Great Pretender
After life turned him down the path of crime, Makoto Edamura cockily thinks himself the best swindler in Japan. However, after trying to swindle a tourist only for the tourist to swap it back, he finds the police on his trail. Making his escape, he runs into this tourist again, a move that would take him all the way across the sea to Los Angeles. There, he learns that this tourist was in fact a man called Laurent Thierry, a successful confidence man, who wants to recruit him onto his team.
Both shows go above and beyond when it comes to being colorful and exciting with what is going on. However, as Great Pretender is about heists, it also adds clever and manipulative into that mix. If Ordinary Girl really was a Swindler, she would want to be like these swindlers.
Bungou Stray Dogs
The orphanage that Atsushi Nakajima has been living at has been recently plagued by a tiger that only he can see. Blaming him for the incident, they kick him out. Now homeless, he wanders the streets until he meets the eccentric Osamu Dazai and saves him from drowning. As it turns out, Dazai is a supernatural detective and agrees to help him solve the mystery.
While Akudama Drive doesn’t necessarily have people with supernatural powers like Bungou Stray Dogs, it does have misfits that are sort of bound together by circumstance. Furthermore, as Akudama Drive goes on, it does present a pretty interesting mystery to unravel.
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Vampires, fishmen, supersonic monkeys – They are all normal residents living alongside humans in Hellsalem’s Lot, formerly known as New York City. When a gate between Earth and the Beyond popped up there three years ago, old NYC became dominated by monsters, and now Libra, a secret organization, is tasked with keeping it in order. After hobbyist photographer Leonardo Watch obtains the All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods, he finds himself recruited into Libra.
Do you like wild chaos and a constant barrage of oddities? Well, Blood Blockade Battlefront, while being more about the “good guys,” does indeed offer that.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Akudama Drive? Let fans know in the comments section below.
