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.
Yay! A survival game filled with all sort of survival game tropes. Brutal and violent, if you want more anime recommendations like Darwin’s Game, go on down below.
Anime Like Darwin’s Game
For Fans of Gaming Duos
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.
Both series are survival games with a sort of romance element to it. You discover that the female half of this duo also has some nice little secrets that are uncovered along the way. The difference here is really the male parts, as Kaname is definitely more competent and likable compared to Yukiteru.
Btooom
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.
Both series feature people who play games, playing a game for real. However, Darwin’s Game was never just a normal game like Btooom is. Furthermore, Btooom (the game) is a more action oriented game more akin to an FPS. Both are about killing people to get points in order to get perks and you also follow and boy and a girl that have teamed up.
Eden of the East
On an event known as “Careless Monday,” Japan was hit by a series of missiles in a terrorist act that fortunately did not harm anyone. Months later as the attacks are all but forgotten, Saki Morimi goes on a celebratory trip to America. There she falls into unexpected trouble with a man named Akira Takizawa, a man that appeared before her completely naked. Drawn into the mystery around him, Saki’s life is changed forever.
While not a survival game like Darwin’s Game, Eden of the East surrounds a duo trying to figure out a mystery based on information they have on a cell phone. The more this series goes on, the more similar it becomes, but that would ruin some of the mystery.
For Fans of Virtual World
Accel World
Haruyuki Arita is a loser at school, constantly ridiculed by his peers. Like so many, his only escape is into the virtual world of video games. One day, his ‘leet’ video game skills attract the attention of Kuroyukihime, the school’s popular student council Vice President. She introduces Haru to a new game called Brain Burst that accelerates the human cognitive process to the point at which time appears to stop. However, it is really actually an Augmented Reality Massively Multiplayer Online (ARMMO) Fighting Game where people fight each other in fierce duels in order to obtain Burst Points which can be spent for acceleration abilities in the real world.
If you crave something less violent but still similar to Darwin’s Game, this is it. Accel World is about games played in virtual reality. The main character is introduced to a special system that allows him to augment his skills in real life that results in some intense games.
Caligula
High school student Ritsu was happy with his friends and his life. However, one day, he starts hearing an idol’s voice singing and it is having adverse effects on the world. When his friends and family start turning into berserk monsters with digitally glitching faces, he realizes he is trapped in a virtual world. Gathering others who have also realized the same, they try to escape.
Both series are about people that are constantly in peril, but want nothing more than to escape their circumstances. Over the course of the series, they learn more and more about their current situation that will ultimately help them.
The One’s Within
One day, Akatsuki found hidden content in the game he was playing. Unfortunately, the next day he has been kidnapped along with a number of others and forced to win games if he ever wants to get back to his real life.
Like Darwin’s Game without the violence, both shows are about people trying to escape the game they are forced to play often by actually playing the game. While the games are interesting in One’s Within, the plot is less fleshed out.
For Fans of Survival Games
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.
Both series are about characters forced to play a survival game in which they earn points. When they are playing, they are killing, but they are sort of invisible so when they die, there is no trace of them. Both shows are pretty brutal with their deaths.
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.
Both series are survival games, but the game have different rules. While losing means death in many cases, the deaths are much more gruesome in King’s Game. Darwin’s Game focuses less on the gore and more on the gameplay while King’s Game is just basically degrading people until they die.
Magical Girl Raising Project
There’s a rumor going around about a new game called the Magical Girl Raising Project. The rumor states that one in thousands who play it have a chance to become a magical girl, and the rumors turn out to be true. This chance allows them to have supreme beauty, strength, and other abilities so that they can help humanity. However, when 16 magical girls end up in one district, the administration announces that only half may remain. At first it is a race to get the most magical candy, but as time goes on, the game twists into something much darker.
Both shows are survival game in which the characters have various powers to help them fight. However, the twist in Magical Girl Raising Project is, of course, that they are magical girls. No one expected a magical girl killing game, but it was an interesting twist.
Do you have any more anime similar to Darwin’s Game? Let fans know in the comments section below.
