The apocalypse has always provided fodder for drama. Whether it’s religious fanatics foretelling doom or authors writing cautionary tales, the apocalypse has featured in the popular zeitgeist for thousands of o years. Granted this, it’s no surprise that science-fiction and fantasy have run far and wide with stories that take place during or after everything ends.
The most interesting apocalypse-driven stories tend to be post-apocalyptic—what happens to the world in the wake of decimation? Luckily, anime takes the backdrop of an apocalyptic world and makes it way more interesting than real life.
10 Ergo Proxy Believes In A Cybergoth Apocalypse
It’s not surprising that Ergo Proxy‘s lead character R-El Mayer was constantly compared to Amy Lee of Evanescence, given her decidedly “goffick” aesthetic. But while Ergo Proxy is undeniably a product of its time, with its brooding color palette and a morose soundtrack that features a Radiohead song, the slightly convoluted show seems to have stood the test of time among sci-fi fans.
The apocalypse in Ergo Proxy is nothing new: the wealthy thrive in walled cities because the outside world is uninhabitable. Ostensibly a utopia for those within the city, this world’s reality is anything but, and the story combines bizarre existential mythology with cyberpunk themes about artificial intelligence, crime, and humanity.
9 Shinsekai Yori Jumps Centuries Beyond The Apocalypse
From The New World is at times a frustrating series, but an infinitely rewarding one by the end. In a post-apocalyptic world 1000 years ahead of the present, the series focuses on a portion of the population with developed psychic powers, a la Tetsuo in Akira.
But there are self-imposed restrictions on these abilities that can lead to organ failure and define these characters by subconsciously oppressing them. An eerie coming-of-age story captured within this unique setting, Shinsekai is full of revelations and not to be missed.
8 Girls’ Last Tour Questions What Becomes Of Children
There have been parallels drawn between Grave of the Fireflies and Girls’ Last Tour, and a good reason. Both the classic Ghibli film and the 2017 anime series have children coping with wartime in common. The audience doesn’t know what happened to humanity, exactly, but it’s clear it was apocalyptic.
Viewers watch as two young girls dressed as soldiers make their way across a decimated snowy landscape. The series feels both mundane and otherworldly, curiously bleak but spotted with unexpected moments of joy.
7 The Promised Neverland Doesn’t Really Exist
The Promised Neverland is full of twists and turns, but the central conceit remains the most twisted. Society has been split in two by an agreement between humans and demons. In exchange for leaving the bulk of humanity alone, the agreement allows demons to breed children for consumption within the demon world’s orphanages.
While the bulk of humanity seems pleased with the arrangement, the children trapped in these orphanages obviously aren’t, and the story centers on some justifiably furious, clever rebels. In Peter Pan, Neverland is a place where children never grow up. Well, they certainly don’t grow up in the demon world either, for altogether more sinister reasons.
6 Gargantia Features City-Ships And Vast Oceans
At times post-apocalyptic settings can feel oppressively bleak. It can be hard to feel invested in a universe that feels doomed, and sometimes a gray color palette can be really unpleasant for viewers to experience on repeat. Gargantia has a brighter outlook on the future, though the future remains fraught.
On a Waterworld-esque Earth, civilization persists in the form of city-ships containing mostly-thriving populations. Gargantia believes in humanity’s tenacity, and its beach-vibes make it a refreshing standout among more pessimistic visions of the future.
5 Desert Punk’s Creators Definitely Watched Mad Max
Desert Punk had something of a cult-fandom when it aired in 2004, and it’s a shame that the show is so rarely spoken of now. Set in a Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic future in the years after a nuclear holocaust has transformed Japan into a desolate desert expanse. The series follows the travels of a wandering mercenary named Kanta Mizuno.
While many aspects of the series haven’t aged well — lewd humor and sexism especially — it’s not hard to believe that humanity might revert to this kind of grit and grime in the wake of such a pivotal disaster. Fans of The Mandalorian might find much to enjoy in this miserable oddball landscape.
4 Sunday Without God Asks What Happens When The Deceased Stop Dying
Sunday Without God certainly deserves more attention and fans than it has so far received. While the art-style is certainly misleading, the story itself is apocalyptic gold. In a world in which no one can give birth or die properly after society is mysteriously abandoned by “God,” grave keepers like our protagonist, Ai, travel the world putting immortal corpses to rest.
Much of the show is preoccupied with Ai’s quest to discover what has happened to the world. Unlike most apocalypse-centric series, the show takes place less than two decades after the apocalypse in question. Whatever happened to the world happened recently, and even as the world is decaying, Ai manages to discover beauty.
3 Dorohedoro Suggests We’re All Almost Monsters Anyhow
There’s very little that can be said about Dorohedoro that does the series any justice. Bizarre to the utmost and unlike virtually anything else, the 2020 series is set in an apocalyptic underbelly-esque world called the Hole. In the universe of Dorohedoro, humans and sorcerers are different species, and those whom the sorcerers have cursed are forced to live in squalor in a separate dimension.
The show is rife with humor and pulpy violence, and fans of retro sci-fi classics like Robocop and Total Recall are likely to weep tears of joy at the sight of Dorohedoro’s disgustingly excellent world-building.
2 Nausicaa Is Optimistic About A World With Fewer People In It
Miyazaki has tackled most fantasy and sci-fi subgenres over the course of his work with Ghibli. So it’s unsurprising that he’s also tried his hand at telling a post-apocalyptic story or two. Nausicaa is considered one of Miyazaki’s best works, and the future it envisions is far from doomed. Set a thousand years after an apocalyptic event referred to as The Seven Days of Fire destroyed civilization, Nausicaa’s tribe exists alongside a toxic jungle populated by giant insects.
While a larger city seeks to destroy these insects, Nausicaa tries to find a way to coexist with them. Like most Miyazaki films, Nausicaa preaches cooperation and coexistence.
1 Evangelion Takes Place Between Failed Apocalypses
Shinji Ikari has a lot of problems, but he’s far from the only one. All of Japan is locked in a constant state of desperation from the very start of the iconic mecha series, set in a futuristic Tokyo recovering from a cataclysmic event known as the Second Impact. Society has become accustomed to being beset by monstrous beings known as angels that descend from the sky to wreak havoc on humanity.
Human weariness is evident in every aspect of this setting, from the adults’ cold disregard to the sad resignation of the children utilized as weapons. And it’s this facet of the series that has made it timeless: the show’s trauma isn’t the second or third impact, but the impact those events have had on humanity’s psyche. More than anything, this is a series about mental illness and a collective zeitgeist of unease. Shinji, like the rest of humanity, wants to make it stop.
About The Author
