Anime and games are two hobbies that go hand in hand. In fact, it might be difficult to find someone with experience in one that doesn’t have at least some toe-dipping in the other. However, surprisingly, gaming isn’t always a big focus in anime. Certainly getting stuck in a virtual reality MMO is pretty in fashion now, but gaming anime that is just about playing games is a bit of a more reclusive beast. If you’re in the mood to watch anime characters play around then give these gaming anime recommendations a try.
Because there are so darn many of them and they tend to drift away from actual gaming pretty quickly, I won’t be including trapped in a VRMMO isekai anime for they are so prevalent that they are rounded up elsewhere.
Best Video Gaming Anime
High Score Girl
In terms of gaming anime stuffed full of interesting game history and the characters actually playing games, the unassuming High Score Girl is the very best. It has a major focus on fighting games like Street Fighter, but it also covers the history of Japanese arcade culture as the characters in the show grow up. While it becomes more a romance anime later, it certainly stuffs tons of fighting game history and strategy in there in the meantime.
As for the plot of the anime itself, it follows a boy whose only good trait is being good at gaming. He is then humbled by a silent rich girl who is even better at games. You then follow their blossoming relationship from elementary school all the way through their high school life as they overcome individual troubles while always being bonded by a love of games.
Bofuri – I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense
While this may be about a VRMMO, no one is stuck inside of it. Bofuri follows a girl who is new to MMOs but starts one in order to play with her friend. However, she puts every stat point into vitality and becomes unkillable. While that makes grinding XP quite slow, eventually she gets a shield with the counter skill that makes her incredibly broken in the game. You then essentially follow this girl dripping with liquid cuteness as she absolutely stomps the sweaty MMO players.
And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online?
This series takes a common MNO joke about no girl characters ever actually being women in real life and turns it into a bit of a rom-com. In it, the main character once proposed in-game marriage to a girl character in the past only to be rejected and told that the character was actually a man. He then assumes that every other player is as well, but after accepting a proposal from a cute girl character thinking that gender doesn’t matter, he finds out that she is actually a cute girl in their offline meeting. What’s more, he finds out that she and many of his other guildmates are actually classmates.
From there, it becomes a more school life-oriented series that is chocked full of MMO references and occasionally them playing the game.
Gamers
You’d think a show called “Gamers” would really heap on the concept of gamers, but you’d be wrong. While Gamers is about a guy forced to join the game club and stuffs in tons of references to video games, the characters do profoundly little actuall gaming. Instead, it is a pretty fun school romance series.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie
While there are many MMO anime series, this one has the refreshing take of having an office lady quit her job to be a shut-in and has her getting back into an MMO in her newfound free time. She then meets a character online that she becomes close with, but doesn’t know that she has actually met him in real life.
When it comes to romantic progression, this series can be frustrating, but it does shine a big bright light on the social aspect of online games.
New Game
New Game takes a look at things from a different angle – the angle of the game developer. It follows a girl who loves a game series so much that she ends up working for the company after high school. It follows a passionate group of individuals who make the vision come to life.
However, as a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things series, this show kind of sugar coats the game development process, but that’s not a bad thing if you just like watching passionate nerds.
Accel World
If you don’t necessarily need real life game references in your gaming anime, Accel World is an absolutely fun ride. The series focuses on a world where you can use a device to slip away from reality and play games using a network cyberspace. For the frequently bullied main character, this is his only reprieve. However, the cute student council vice president offers him a way to improve his life by playing a different sort of game that allows for accelerated abilities in real life by winning in an underground augmented reality MMO fighting game.
The whole series is a wildly interesting concept and is carried by its occasionally innovative and fun to watch games. It can be a pretty intense action-packed romp.
Remake Our Life
This is another series that zooms in on the game development process, but with a twist. It follows a character that is a failure as an adult who is sent back to his college years in order to make different decisions. In it, he ends up going to the same school as those who would become a legendary game development team in the future and intertwines his fate with theirs.
This series shows a bit more of the struggles that come with game development, but will widely be more focused on the dramatic character relationships.
The King’s Avatar
While a Chinese anime, The King’s Avatar is still a pretty quality show when it comes to gaming. Essentially, it follows a pro-gamer that gets kicked off his e-sports team. He then essentially creates a smurf account and re-discovers his love for the ultra-competitive game that he excels at.
While it is about a fictional game, if you want your series to be intensely about a character playing their games and not so much all the other character relationship business that these other shows may focus in on, it is a good watch.
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki-kun
There are plenty of series about gamers experiencing the feelings we human call “love,” this series focuses in on a socially inept one. Tomozaki is a top-tier player at a fictional game “similar to, but being legally distinct from” Super Smash Bros who meets his greatest competitor offline. She is a cute and popular girl from his class, but is super disappointed that he is an IRL loser. As such, she attempts to rehabilitate him.
Anyone with experience in that sort of set up in anime knows how the plot will progress from the girl being slightly mean but helpful to falling in love with him. Unfortunately, when it comes to gaming, it only keeps some light dashes.
The World God Only Knows
This series is a bit different from the rest. It follows a man who has no interest in us 3D humans, but excels at wooing girls in 2D dating sims. So much so, he is considered a god at them. As such, he is challenged by actual gods to play dating sims in real life with real girls.
Do you want to watch a cold misanthrope calculatingly manipulate real women with dating sim logic? Yes? Well, good, because that’s what you get.
D-Frag
If you are in the mood to laugh, D-Frag can get you there quickly. The entire series follows a guy that is forced to join a gaming club against his will by a group of girls. Those girls then tend to either torture him or play games with him.
While D-Frag is admittedly a little light on the gaming, even though they are all in the gaming club, it merits a mention simply for being one of the best comedy series that few ever bothered to watch.
Do you have more gaming anime recommendations? Let fans know in the comments section below.
