It is a common set up in anime. A situation where the nature of a creature clashes with the ideals that have been instilled in them through outside influence. A time when a beast turns their claws against their own kind. Whether the characters were a monster their entire lives or have recently been made some sort of hybrid, anime likes to pit main characters against the world to create a dramatic and usually brutal struggle. If you are looking for anime recommendations about monsters fighting monsters, often of their own kind, then we got you.
Best Anime Where Monsters Fight Their Own Kind
Parasyte
Parasyte follows a sudden and silent alien invasion in which these parasites descended and took over the bodies of their hosts. However, the main character, thanks to sleeping on his arm, trapped one in said arm and it could not take over his brain. Now the parasite, feeling nothing for his own kind, humanity, or even his host sometimes, fights with the main character in order to simply live.
Tokyo Ghoul
Tokyo Ghoul is one of those shows where the main character is a complete wimp before he becomes a monster. As such, when he becomes a ghoul after a brutal incident with one, he initially struggles with the new reality that he is now a flesh-eating monster. While he doesn’t initially fight other ghouls, much of the show is watching him give away more pieces of his previous self and reconciling with the monster he has become.
Knights of Sidonia
While the main character in Knights of Sidonia isn’t a monster, he does become close with a girl who becomes the alien menace that they are fighting against. As she retains some of her mind, she is put to work fighting with the others in an often losing war. The relationship built between her and the main character is particularly interesting, considering she looks like a giant pink penis monster. However, that is one of many things that make Knights of Sidonia a unique trip.
Hellsing Ultimate
In Hellsing, while Alucard is very much the main focus of the show, he is nothing but a weapon in the grand scheme of things. Bound to the Hellsing family and organization, he fights everything from vampires like himself to Nazi cyborgs. A real A to Z gamut there. Still, as the very strongest of vampires, everything is beneath him.
Claymore
The world of Claymore is one where everyone lives in a bleak existence. They are under threat from monsters that eat human flesh, and their only real defense against them is the Claymore organization. These female warriors are infused with the same blood as demons to grant them powers to defeat them. Of course, this means that if they aren’t killed by the demons, they will eventually become one themselves. Much of the series focuses on the often solitary suffering of Claymores who are doomed to live lonely lives as they are shunned by normal humans and fear to bond with other Claymores since they very well may have to put them down later.
Blue Exorcist
You will find that many a shounen main character is often a monster of some kind. In Blue Exorcist, the main character is very much the literal son of Satan. He was bred specifically so that Satan could one day use him to cross over into the human world. However, as he was raised by an exorcist in a loving environment, he chooses to fight against his true father instead.
Attack on Titan
Initially, Attack on Titan starts with the main character becoming a more sentient type of titan and using that to fight against the other titans. However, as you watch Attack on Titan, it quickly becomes much more complex than that. So while this series starts off very much about a monster fighting other monsters, the scope is broadened and it kind of turns the whole thing upside down.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
In a similar vein as Attack on Titan, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress focuses on a main character who thinks he has created a better weapon to fight the flesh-eating, ironclad-hearted zombies that plague humanity. However, while successfully testing it, he is bitten and doomed to become one of them. He stops the infection before it reaches the brain and become a hybrid creature. This means he both has a powerful weapon to fight these creatures and his body has become a powerful weapon as well.
Jujutsu Kaisen
You know what? Jujutsu Kaisen is a good lesson about not eating crispy old fingers that you find sealed up in shrines at your school. But seriously, the unremarkable main character in Jujutsu Kaisen eats a finger that once belonged to a powerful demon in order to save his friends from a demon that was looking to eat that tasty and powerful finger themselves. Instead of killing him, it essentially imbues him with a piece of that demon, making him powerful, but occasionally allowing an evil demon to leak on out onto his body. So naturally, he becomes a demon slayer to eat more tasty demon pieces before being killed in order to remove them from the world.
Kemono Jihen
This series was a bit of a sleeper, but it really is a great story if you do give it that fair shake. It essentially follows a young kid that was abandoned by his parents and discovers that he is actually a half-ghoul by a detective that was investigating occult occurrences in the area. Wanting to know more, he accompanies this detective and starts taking cases alongside other not-quite-normal individuals.
Ajin
Much of Ajin follows a main character who is reluctant to accept that he is actually an Ajin. As this creature is hunted by the government and hated by humanity, it essentially thrusts him out of any sort of society. The neat thing is that he seems to have pretty equal disdain for both humans and Ajin, so he is put at odds with just about everyone he runs into.
Devils’ Line
Like in Hellsing, Devils’ Line features a vampire fighting against his own kind under the thumb of a police force. Unlike Hellsing, the character is dripping with a very Twilight-esque feeling of shame about his strong desire for human blood. The unique thing about Devils’ Line is that its form of vampirism makes human blood as addicting as sex and heroin rolled up in an entire of pizza. So once you pop, you can’t stop sucking blood… and violating your victims sexually.
Devilman Crybaby
After following his friend investigating demon possessions, the main character becomes possessed by a powerful one. He then puts himself to the task killing other demons and saving humans who won their battles against demon possession and became devilmen. While it sounds rather bland, Devilman Crybaby is a brutal tale of struggle and betrayal.
Beyond the Boundary
In Beyond the Boundary, one could say that the main character limelight is shared by an immortal half-yomu and the cute bespectacled demon slayer that occasionally tries to kill him before recruiting him as an ally. The series uniquely combines cute slice of school life aspects with absolutely gorgeous action.
Radiant
While a rather overlooked shounen series based off a French comic, or “mangfra” as I guess it is called, Radiant still hits all your standard shounen plot lines. The main character is a sorcerer, a special group of people who can fight against Nemesis, enemies that threaten mankind. However, because sorcerers share the same curse as Nemesis, they are shunned by humanity as well. It leads to your standard lonely struggle fueled by a strong desire to save the world regardless of what people think about you.
Do you have more anime recommendations about monsters that are fighting against their own kind? Let fans know in the comments section below.
