While on a cruise ship headed to Cenancle Island, full-body cyborg Nene meets an inventor Uzal and Uzal’s cyborg Clarion. Soon after leaving, Uzal and Nene find themselves in a terrorist attack in which Uzal gives Nene ownership of Clarion before dying. Together the pair find themselves burdened with a sentient laser in the form of a strange bear that they must keep from the hands of evil.
This anime series comes from quite a pedigree of names in the anime industry, one of them being the author of Excel Saga, which makes the nonsensical plot make more sense. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Pandora in the Crimson Shell, then head on down below.
Anime Like Pandora in the Crimson Shell
For Fans of Lackadaisical Future Technology
Mahoromatic
Although once a powerful battle robot, Mahoro is reaching the end of her operating life. If she conserves her energy, she is given just over a year to live. So, she decides to live the rest of her life as a maid for a messy middle schooler named Suguru who lives alone after losing his parents.
While Mahoromatic adopts a more romantic slice of life style plot, it does also feature a battle robot that is dressed as a maid. Slap a set of cat ears on there and give her a more deadpan attitude and its Clarion incarnate.
Chobits
Poor student Hideki Motosuwa can barely afford living expenses, let alone the new fad that is Persocoms. These Persocoms are computers that look exactly like humans. One day on the way home, he finds a a defective Persocom that he takes home, activates, and ends up calling Chii. Unlike normally working models, Chii cannot download information, so Hideki teaches her the old-fashioned way.
Both Chii and Clarion look so similar, it makes you wonder if there was more inspiration to Pandora in the Crimson Shell than just Masamune Shirow’s designs. However, Chobits is a romance rather than an action, but they both share a certain comedy element.
Xenosaga
After abandoning earth, humanity is plagued by hostile aliens known as Gnosis. To fight back, they developed a battle android known as KOS-MOS, but the ship carrying it was destroyed. Shion, an engineer that helped make KOS-MOS, and the android herself manage to escape the ship, but they find themselves in the middle of a conflict with no clear side to take.
While Xenosaga doesn’t share the same high energy comedy as Pandora in the Crimson Shell, it is an action series surrounding the various intrigues of androids, cyborgs, and other such things.
For Fans of Spastic Comedy Gags
Excel Saga
Hyperactive Excel is a faithful servant of her beloved lord Il Palazzo, who aims to take over the world. Throughout her quest to help him achieve his goals, Excel and her partner Hyatt travel all over the world where there adventures often take a turn for the weird.
One cannot watch the pace of Pandora in the Crimson Shell and the comedy within and not think about Excel Saga. I later discovered it is because both share an author.
Azumanga Daioh
Chiyo Mihama fears she will be one of the strangest students in the freshman class. She is, in fact, a ten-year-old genius that has been moved up a few grades. However, she isn’t the only oddball to be found. With a series of strange girls in her homeroom, Chiyo begins to feel right at home dealing with all the strange situations that come about.
While not sci-fi even in the slightest, if it was the comedy in Pandora in the Crimson Shell that you enjoyed, Azumanga Diaoh has a same passion for oddness.
World Conquest Zvezda Plot
A runaway named Jimon is wandering the streets one night when he encounters a collapsed young girl. After offering her some food, she invites him to join her organization. Really just needing a place to stay, he accepts and accepts her nickname of Dva. The girl turns out to be Kate, leader of Zvezda, an organization bent on world conquest.
Both series are high energy, random series in which “some person” gets pulled into a plot that seems vastly larger than themselves. While there is plenty of plot to be found in both, you do occasionally lose what is going on among the chaos.
For Fans of Girl Charmed By Girl
Aria the Scarlet Ammo
In response to Japan’s sky-rocketing crime rate, the Tokyo Butei Academy is established where armed detectives hone their skills to later become mercenary-type agents of justice. Kinji Tooyama is an anti-social and blunt young man that used to be in the Assault Division, but now underachieves in Logistics in order to hide his embarrassing, but powerful ability.
To be honest, aside from an action plot, the similarities to Pandora in the Crimson Shell don’t start until the second season where the series shifts in tone and adopts more shoujo ai elements.
Uza Maid
After losing her mother, Misha lives with with her father. In order to care for his daughter, he hires Kamoi, formerly of the JSDF, who will now work as a housekeeper. So begins Kamoi’s bid for Misha’s affections.
Uza Maid isn’t sci-fi, but it adopts a similar relationship between the characters. A maid is obsessed with a rather cold loli similar to how Nene adores Clarion.
Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood
In Akari’s neighborhood, there are rumors of an ageless girl that only comes out at night and lives in a mansion in the forest. While seeking out this girl, Akari grows lost in the woods and is saved by the girl of rumor. It turns out the girl is a vampire named Sophie. She orders to blood online and avoids attacking humans. Akari is instantly charmed by her doll-like appearance.
Instead of sci-fi, this takes a supernatural route where a girl ends up meeting a bit of a deadpan vampire and becomes a bit obsessed with her. However, it doesn’t really have much of a plot unlike Pandora in the Crimson Shell.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Pandora in the Crimson Shell? Let fans know in the comments section below.
