20 Best Anime series like Buddy Complex (2013)

Inuyashiki Ichirou is down on his luck. While only 58 years old, his geriatric looks often have him written off as a pathetic old man by the world around him and he’s constantly ignored and disrespected by his family despite all that he’s done to support them. On top of everything else, his doctor has revealed that he has cancer and it appears that he has little time left in this world. But just when it seems things couldn’t get any worse, a blinding light in the night sky strikes the earth where Ichirou stands. He later wakes up to find himself unscathed, but he soon starts to notice that there’s something… different about himself. However, it turns out that these strange, new changes are just what Ichirou needs to take a new lease on life and now it seems like there’s nothing to stop him from being a hero worthy of the respect that he never had before… unless, that is, there was someone else out there with these same changes…

One fateful day, all of humanity was petrified by a blinding flash of light. After several millennia, high schooler Taiju awakens and finds himself lost in a world of statues. However, he's not alone! His science-loving friend Senku's been up and running for a few months and he's got a grand plan in mind, to kickstart civilization with the power of science!

In the early 2050s, unknown life forms called “Oracle cells” begin their uncontrolled consumption of all life on Earth. Their ravenous appetite and remarkable adaptability earn them first dread, then awe, and finally the name “aragami”. In the face of an enemy completely immune to conventional weapons, urban civilization collapses, and each day humanity is driven further and further toward extinction. One single ray of hope remains for humanity. Following the development of “God Arcs”—living weapons which incorporate Oracle cells—their wielders are organized into an elite force.

Many years have passed since humanity was driven to the brink of extinction by the sudden emergence of the unknown life forms Gadoll. Those humans that survived now dwell in a 3000m-high mobile fortress Deca-dence built to protect themselves from the Gadoll threat.Denizens of Deca-dence fall into two categories: Gears, warriors who fight the Gadoll daily, and Tankers, those without the skills to fight. One day, Natsume, a Tanker girl who dreams of becoming a Gear meets surly Kaburagi, an armor repairman of Deca-dence.This chance meeting between the seemingly two opposites, the girl with a positive attitude who never gives up on her dreams and the realist who has given up on his, will eventually shake the future course of this world.

In the year 2063, eight high school students and a kid are flown out to Planet Camp, tasked with surviving on their own for a few days. But shortly after arriving, an ominous glowing orb warps them to an unknown quadrant of space, nearly 5,012 light years away. Now, the only way back home is a slow, dangerous trek across the universe—a journey that’ll test them in ways Planet Camp never could.

One day, New York City as we know it vanished overnight into a mysterious fog. Now known as Hellsalem's Lot, it has become a place where another world beyond imagining is connected to our reality. The balance within this new world is protected by a secret society known as Libra. Leo, a journalist and photographer who arrives in the city, is unexpectedly recruited to join their ranks.

X-Men, still grieving over the death of Phoenix (Jean Grey), are investigating a case of a missing mutant girl in Northern Japan. This leads them to a mysterious virus that turns mutants into monsters. U-Men and the Inner Circle want it.

High-school girl Yuri suddenly finds herself on the rooftop of a high-rise building. She's trapped in a bizarre world surrounded by skyscrapers, where a masked man cracked open a man's head with an axe before her eyes. Finding a way to survive this bizarre world, find her beloved brother, and escape becomes her top priority, but she is beset by danger not just from the mysterious Masks, which possess both inhuman strength and cruelty, but other survivors turned cruel or desparate by the insanity of the high-rise world.

The deep sea fleet has taken control of the world's oceans. The only counter against this adversary are the kanmusu (ship girls) which have the ability to equip weapons in the spirit of their former Japanese warship counterparts. This series revolves around destroyer class as she arrives at the naval base for the start of her training.

Humans that have been physically altered and turned into dangerous weapons are known as the Extended. Juuzou Inui awakens as one of these weapons — with amnesia. But his job as an agent investigating the Extended leads to a mysterious child with Extended ties showing up at his office. Now Inui must keep the child away from street gangs and the megacorporation Berühren, and it won't be easy.

Sōya Kuroi has dreams of people with superpowers fighting a massive dragon in the sky, but his real life is almost as weird. He's had amnesia for about two weeks and been taken in by a maid and an anthropomorphic cat. When a UFO in the shape of a stuffed bear approaches Sorimasaka City and other metros around the world, he's startled to see seven rainbow-sparkling heroes zoom out to confront it – just like in his dream. Even weirder, the maid wants him to leave his shelter to confront these heroes and take the source of their power.

Many years ago, a Great Civil War ravaged Japan, leaving the country fragmented between two regions: Kansai and Kanto. In Kansai, a group of six Akudama carry out missions given to them by a mysterious black cat, while evading the police. But a dangerous journey is about to unfold when a civilian girl becomes twisted into the Akudama's way of life and witnesses their criminal drives.

"Objects" are powerful, massive weapons that change the course of warfare and are manned by Elite Object pilots. An odd Elite girl named Milinda meets Quenser, a student who aims to become a Object mechanic, with the soldier-in-training Heivia on a snowy battlefield.

15 years ago, an unknown hyperspace gate opened over the Pacific. Beyond this gate lies Reto Semaani, a strange alternate world where fairies and monsters live.San Teresa City—a city where over two million immigrants live from both worlds. As a result, there are the haves and the have-nots. Here is the world's newest "city of dreams." But in the shadow of the chaos, crime is rampant: drugs, prostitution, and weapon trafficking. The detectives who stand up to these heinous crimes are in the San Teresa City Police. When the detective Kei Matoba and the alternate-world knight Tirana—two individuals who differ in gender, personality, and even world of origin—meet, an incident erupts. Two worlds. Two justices. From this, the curtain rises on a buddy police action story!

Thirty years after a disease that turns the infected into carnivorous insects emerged, a young exterminator and a teenage girl search for her mother.

A gate to another dimension has burst open, and from it emerge gigantic invincible creatures that threaten all of humanity. Earth's only defense is a mysterious group of warriors who have co-opted the alien technology in order to fight back!

The story centers around two fiercely fighting schoolgirls, Ryuuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuuin. On a campus ruled by force, a transfer student wielding a Basami sword brings about upheaval.

Years after the horrors of Raccoon City, Leon and Claire find themselves consumed by a dark conspiracy when a viral attack ravages the White House.

During the construction of the Kurobe Dam, an ancient artifact was discovered, and so the United Nations Kurobe Research Institute was established. Intellectuals from all over the world gathered to study the object, and the children of those researchers attend Mt. Tate International Senior High School, including the institute head's daughter, Yukina Shirahane. In the summer of 2016, a lone samurai once again awakens.

With the casualties of war still haunting him, young Levius uses his prosthetic arm to take his fight into the brutal world of Mecha Boxing.

A near future, where humans have been defeated by the viral parasites named Gastrea. They have been exiled into a small territory and live in despair, side-by-side in terror.In this world trapped in darkness—Rentaro, a boy living near Tokyo and member of the "Civil Security"—an organization specializing in fighting against the Gastrea—is used to accomplishing dangerous tasks. His partner is Enju, a precocious young girl. They fight thanks to their peculiar powers until one day, when they receive a special assignment from the government. This top secret mission is to prevent the destruction of Tokyo...Set in a near future, this thrilling heroic-action story... starts now!

Rinka Urushiba is a normal high school girl, until she encounters a penguin and shoals of glowing fish swimming through the sky. She looses consciousness only to awaken with the power to move through inanimate objects. At first she thought it was a hallucination if it were not for Kyotaro Azuma who witnessed the event and who, incidentally, has the ability to teleport. They decide to use their powers to combat people who might use their powers for evil.

Btooom!, stylized as BTOOOM!, is a Japanese manga series written by Jun'ya Inoue and serialized in Weekly Comic Bunch and later in Monthly Comic Bunch. An anime adaptation by Madhouse aired in Japan on Tokyo MX and was streamed with English subtitles by Crunchyroll from October 4 to December 20, 2012. It has been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.

Aboard the Edens Zero, a lonely boy with the ability to control gravity embarks on an adventure to meet the fabled space goddess known as Mother.

An isolated city. An unknown enemy. An uncertain past and a prophecy of the future. The children fight the "future" to bring back the "present". No matter what, they're going home...

Angel Beats takes place in the afterlife and focuses on Otonashi, a boy who lost his memories of his life after dying. He is enrolled into the afterlife school and meets a girl named Yuri who invites him to join the Afterlife Battlefront — an organization she leads which fights against God. The Battlefront fight against the student council president Angel, a girl with supernatural powers.

Forty years ago, the minds of Paradigm City's inhabitants were wiped clean of all recollections of the past. Now, ruled by a powerful corporation and cut off from the rest of the world by desolate wastelands, Paradigm has become a virtual police state where Negotiators like Roger Smith keep the wheels of progress, commerce, and society turning.

Based on Sakyo Komatsu's 1973 bestseller sci-fi novel "Japan Sinks." The story is set right after the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and follows the fate of the four members of the Muto family, including the protagonist girl Ayumu and her younger brother Gou.

Fleeing from his own race, Orgun—an alien being with superhuman abilities and unearthly weapons—travels to Earth to find an answer to his origin. There, he bonds with a young man named Tomoru to defend Earth against the Evoluders, who seek nothing but destruction of other civilizations.

With a maintenance robot and a deadly fugitive tagging along, friendship droid S.A.M searches for its best friend, the heir to a kingdom under siege.

In humanity's distant future, two interstellar states—the monarchic Galactic Empire and the democratic Free Planets Alliance—are embroiled in a never-ending war. The story focuses on the exploits of rivals Reinhard von Müsel and Yang Wen Li as they rise to power and fame in the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance.

The story is set in the distant future. The land is ruined, and humanity establishes the mobile fort city Plantation. Pilots produced inside Plantation live in Mistilteinn, also know as the "birdcage." Children live there knowing nothing of the outside world or the freedom of the sky. Their lives consist of battling to carry out missions. Their enemies are mysterious giant lifeforms known as Kyouryuu, and the children pilot robots called Franxx to face off against them. For the children, riding the Franxx proves their existence. A boy named Hiro is called Code:016, and he was once known as a prodigy. However, he has fallen behind, and his existence seems unnecessary. Not piloting a Franxx is the same as ceasing to exist. One day, a mysterious girl known as "Zero Two" appears before him. Two horns grow out of her head.

Alcohol, smoking, and stress—in the body subjected to these irritants, the cells responsible for maintaining life seem to fight a war that never ends. Due to a severe shortage of workers, Red Blood Cell AA2153 has to quickly learn to deliver oxygen and collect carbon dioxide, even in dangerous conditions. Meanwhile, White Blood Cell U-1196 has to do her part by dealing with germs and viruses during life-threatening situations. In the midst of these crises, they have to work together to keep the body healthy, despite not knowing if their sacrifices will be worthwhile. Cells at Work! Code Black takes a different approach by showing the grittier side of the jobs our cells perform.

Eager to follow in the footsteps of his fallen sister, Kazuya enrolls at West Genetics Academy, a training facility for buxom heroes known as Pandoras. These courageous schoolgirls are genetically-enhanced with enough sex appeal to cripple a man – and the superhuman strength to slaughter aliens by the dozen. Kazuya’s role is that of Limiter, a Pandora’s battle partner, and he quickly sets his sights on the most feared beauty in school, Satellizer el Bridget. This full-figured annihilator of aliens is as desirable as she is deadly, but rubbing her the wrong way could lead to gross bodily harm. Can Kazuya forge a bond with his new partner and rise to the top of the ranks at West Genetics? Or will he fall victim to the mysterious bloodlust lurking within Satellizer?

Several hundred years ago, humans were nearly exterminated by Titans. Titans are typically several stories tall, seem to have no intelligence, devour human beings and, worst of all, seem to do it for the pleasure rather than as a food source. A small percentage of humanity survived by walling themselves in a city protected by extremely high walls, even taller than the biggest Titans. Flash forward to the present and the city has not seen a Titan in over 100 years. Teenage boy Eren and his foster sister Mikasa witness something horrific as the city walls are destroyed by a Colossal Titan that appears out of thin air. As the smaller Titans flood the city, the two kids watch in horror as their mother is eaten alive. Eren vows that he will murder every single Titan and take revenge for all of mankind.