The fourth wall – it is what separates characters from reality. To an anime character, their reality should be the world that is created. However, it can often be fun when they become a bit self aware that they are, in fact, an anime character. Whether it is talking shit about what is going on around them or even how they are animated or written, fourth wall breaking can be fun if used sparingly. However, if you are looking for particularly meta anime series, there are quite a few.
Best Meta Anime
Gintama
Likely the most famous fourth wall breaker, or at least the series most well know for it, Gintama knows how to do it without taking away from the show. As a primarily comedy-oriented series, being meta works really well in Gintama. They do a lot of parodies so having a character jump through the TV and murder the author for making a gorilla that is more well-liked doesn’t seem out of place.
FLCL
Because of the sheer insanity and the rapid fire pace it moves at, FLCL is hard to understand. It’s alright, though. The characters don’t understand it either. They say so themselves to the audience at several points.
Osomatsu-San
Similar to Gintama, Osomatsu loves to break the fourth wall. Furthermore, as a parody comedy, it works quite well. However, even Gintama didn’t start off its second season with a whole episode about how successful their first season was.
Ghost Stories
If you watch the legendary comedy dub of Ghost Stories, it rips the fourth wall to shreds. Often the characters make references to how dumb the stuff they are doing is or how badly they are animated at that particular moment. The subbed version is a serious kids story, but that meta dub is so much better.
Okami-San and Her Seven Companions
A lot of anime narrators will break the fourth wall, and that is very true in this series. However, as the characters can actually hear the narrator, you often find them getting offended at what they say. It makes for some pretty great points of comedy with little effort.
Good Luck Girl
One of the longer running jokes in this series is the main character constantly proclaiming she is the main character, and thus embracing her main character powers!
Etotama
Etotama is the finest harem show you have probably never watched. It is a superb comedy that is widely carried by Nyaa who uses her cuteness to regularly avoid the fourth wall, particularly when it comes to censoring all the jiggly bits from the rest of the zodiac girls.
Senyuu
This series parodies shounen and fantasy shows, so it likes to play with those tropes by smashing them. They also regularly break the fourth wall in order to do this such as being shocked when someone actually attacks during their monologue.
Shirobako
It’s an anime about making anime as shown through anime characters. It doesn’t get any more meta than that, guys.
Do you have any more good fourth wall breaking anime series? Let fans know in the comments section below.
I’d say Ouran High School Host Club should be added.
The mc in saiki k literally tells the Viewers to read the Manga, and has conversations with the Mangaka.
Also when deciding on what play to act for a achool event, they say:”Nisekoi did Romeo and Juliet for their cultural festival, so we can’t do this play”
Hayate the Combat Butler
Sgt Frog should be on here too
JOSHIRAKU
Re: Creator and Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend. Was watching Ghost Stories and Leo mentions not breaking a “3rd wall” right after a comment about “this episode”. That’s what brought me here. What did that refer to, a wall between episodes?
I would say assassination classroom fits here too