Unemployed and living with his mother, Ryouta Sakamoto’s only real achievement is being the top player in Japan of a video game called Btooom! However, one day he wakes up on an island with nothing but a small green crystal embedded in his hand. He soon finds out that someone wants him and others players to play Btooom! for real if they want to live.
Before characters getting stuck inside games was all the rage, Btooom saw characters playing their favorite violent video game for real. If you want more anime recommendations like Btooom, then your hunt is over.
Anime Like Btooom!
For Fans of Life or Death Games
Sword Art Online
With the aid of NerveGear technology, video game players can now experience their playable worlds like never before – in virtual reality. For Kazuto Kirigaya, his game of choice is Sword Art Online. After beta testing the game, he logs into the launch and finds himself, as well as ten thousand other players, trapped in the game world.
While Sword Art Online kind of goes off the rails, initially it promised the same thing Btooom did except with VR instead of reality. Characters would really die if they died playing the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t keep that promise while Btooom remains serious and violent throughout without getting overly caught up in fantasy.
Deadman Wonderland
When Ganta Igarashi got on a bus with his classmates for their class trip, it was gearing up to be an amazing day. They were going to Deadman Wonderland, after all, an amusement park where convicts perform death-defying stunts for their amusement. However, when Ganta’s class gets brutally murdered before his very eyes by a man in red, he finds himself the sole survivor as well as the suspect. Now he’s been sentenced to the same amusement park he was just enjoying.
While there are different reasons for sending the main characters to these places, essentially these series tell the same tale. The main character and others are trapped somewhere and play deadly games for the amusement of others. However, Btooom is not hidden under the guise of being a prison, nor are many of the players violent criminals.
King’s Game
Nobuaki Kanazawa is a new transfer student who has closed his heart to his fellow classmates, determined not to make friends. However, due to their persistence, he begins to open up. Just as he does, his worse fears comes to life, the King’s Game starts on his cell phone. Now his classmates must play a cruel game where all orders must be obeyed. If they don’t, they die.
Although it barely qualifies as a game, like in Btooom, King’s Game does have its characters playing a game. However, unlike Btooom again, that game isn’t very sporting. Instead it is more just a cruel excuse for gratuitous violence which it does share with Btooom.
For Fans of Survival
Gantz
Kei Kurono is an apathetic young man that, while waiting for his train, runs into a childhood friend. When a homeless man falls onto a track, his friend coaxes him into helping save his life. Unfortunately, the train comes in and they both die. However, they both wake up in a strange room with other recently deceased people and a big black ball that tells them to kill aliens in order to gain their freedom.
Kill to survive. That is what Gantz and Btooom have in common. However, in Gantz they are killing aliens rather than other people. However, rest assured that huge numbers of human characters bite the dust as well.
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 forces him into a bloody survival game with godhood on the line.
If you enjoyed Btooom like your typical survival game anime in which you learn about a variety of characters then watch them try to kill each other, Future Diary is a great follow up. It has a bunch of characters, and all of them are memorable and interesting. Furthermore, it has some great violent action.
High School of the Dead
It happened suddenly. The dead rose and threw Japan into chaos. In the high school of Takashi Kimuro, the situation forced him to kill his bitten best friend and protect the man’s girlfriend, Rei. As they narrowly escape the school with a few others, they find the real survival just beginning.
Like Btooom, the violence in High School of the Dead is purely for survival. They do what they have to every day to live. However, be aware that while Btooom has its moments, High School of the Dead goes ecchi at every opportunity.
For Fans of Kidnapping
Uncharted Walker
Seven random and seemingly unrelated people awaken to find themselves trapped on a desolate island. Surrounded by primitive tribes and deadly situations, they must do what they must to survive.
Take out the game element, and Btooom is essentially this. A bunch of strangers, placed on an island with unknown reasons and forced to survive in very hostile circumstances.
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.
What would you do if you woke up suddenly and were trapped somewhere with a bunch of strangers? You probably wouldn’t go right to killing game, but in both series they have their catalysts that make it happen.
Evil or Live
With internet addiction becoming an epidemic, the Elite Reeducation Academy was founded to help those suffering become successful adults. However, the children placed within are more prisoners than students. When Hibiki considers just ending it all, he is stopped by a mysterious man named Shin.
Both series are about NEETS that are sent somewhere for reformation. However, while both are cruel, both aren’t great programs for reeducating.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Btooom! Let fans know in the comments section below.
Darwin’s game is a survival game