Science may not be the sexiest topic, even biology, but there have been a few anime creators that have dared to use their medium in order to try to change that. Whether you have an interest towards science yourself or just want to put off doing your science homework, these series explore science while being varying degrees of educational and interesting.
Best Anime About Science
Steins;Gate
Steins;Gate explores the science behind and repercussions of time travel from the perspective of not some random guy, but from a scientist that created time travel accidentally. While it takes a few creative liberties with it, many of the theories are sound and everything is framed in a mystery that keeps it interesting.
Dr. Stone
Dr. Stone is perhaps the most daring science anime ever created. They made a shounen-type adventure comedy, but it is stuffed full of scientific innovation. This means there is a plot about the main character trying to revive the world and fighting against a guy that only wants to revive certain people. The battle is not necessarily through fighting, but rather a race towards the next scientific innovation that will give them an edge. It is like watching the history of civilization, but sped up.
Cells at Work
This is the most notable science anime in recent memory. Cells at Work follows the cells in the human body. They are personified as people, given personalities, made lovable, then shown doing their job. You primarily follow a red blood cell as she delivers oxygen around the body. She is constantly saved by a white blood cell and along the way they meet a number of other cells in the body, including ones that do more harm than good. It is the only show in the world that ever made a cancer cell sympathetic.
Beautiful Bones
Beautiful Bones is, as you would expect, about the study of bones. It follows a high school boy that takes up with an eccentric, reclusive osteologist that is obsessed with bones as she goes about her work. It isn’t the whole range of forensic science, but the series does explore all the ways that bones can tell a story beyond just death.
Space Brothers
There are tons of anime series set in space, and none of them are particularly informative about space travel. Space Brothers takes a different route. It is a character drama about two brothers that want to go to space, one of them succeeds in being an astronaut, and the other has to settle for ground control. It provides not only an interesting character drama anime, but one that provides a realistic look at current day space travel. Of course, it isn’t the most informative anime on this list, but it has its moments.
Moyashimon
This series takes the unseen – microscopic organisms – chibifies their design, and frames it all in a main character that can see them. It explores everything from germs to fermentation in a lightly informative slice of life types of show.
Comical Psychosomatic Medicine
This is one of the more on the nose scientific anime. It is basically just explaining a number of mental disorders, but done with a bunch of puns and jokes. As it only has 5-minute episodes, all it needed to be was informative jokes, and it succeeds greatly.
Heaven’s Design Team
There are plenty of shows about animals, or at least the personification of animals. However, this is the only show that explores the science behind animals. It is a comedy show, but the information on why animals evolved in certain and why certain mythical animals cannot exist is pretty sound. It’s animal biology cleverly disguised behind jokes and workplace comedy.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
This one I considered leaving off, but while it may be a romantic comedy, there is an awful lot of quantum physics talk in it to ignore. There is a phenomenon in the show that manifests at puberty, and part of the show is exploring the science behind how that is possible. Since it is not possible in real world, things are kept purely theoretical.
Science Fell In Love, and I Tried to Prove It
This is the science anime version of the Big Bang Theory. It is a romantic comedy about science types where they attempt to discover if the main couple is indeed in love with each other. The real difference is that it is actually good, or at least, a fun way to pass the time. The entire plot is forming hypothesis surrounding romance and conducting experiments from a logical standpoint. You even have Rikimaru the Science Bear that explains the concepts behind certain parts of the experiments.
A Certain Scientific Railgun
There are two sister series in A Certain Universe. There is A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun. They take place at around the same time, but follow different characters. Both can be science-oriented series, but more so Railgun. What is interesting about the world of these two series is that it explores a world where both magic and science exist. Usually in a world of magic, science falls to the wayside, but in this world, they coexist and often unhappily.
Do you have more science-based anime? Let fans know in the comments section below.
