20 Best Anime series like Maria Watches Over Us (2004)

After graduating high school, Suzukaze Aoba joins Eagle Jump, the game company that developed Fairies Story, the game she obsessed over as a kid. On her first day as a working member of society, Aoba heads to work swaying in a packed, morning rush hour train. She manages to get to the office building all right but hesitates, wondering if it was really okay for her to take that last step and go inside. That's when a senior member of staff, Toyama Rin, shows up at work and safely leads Aoba inside the offices of Eagle Jump.

In a futuristic society, Japan has implemented a complex system referred to as "The Red Threads of Science" to encourage successful marriages and combat increasingly low birthrates. Based on a compatibility calculation, young people at the age of 16 are assigned marriage partners by the government, with severe repercussions awaiting those who disobey the arrangement. For Yukari Nejima, a teen that considers himself average in every way, this system might be his best shot at living a fulfilling life.However, spurred by his infatuation for his classmate and long-time crush, Misaki Takasaki, Yukari defies the system and confesses his love. After some initial reluctance, Misaki reciprocates his feelings in a moment of passion. Unfortunately, before the two can further their relationship, Yukari receives his marriage notice. He is then thrown into a confusing web of love and lies when his less-than-thrilled assigned partner, Ririna Sanada, becomes fascinated with his illicit romance.

On a continent ruled by chaos, the Lords have the power of a holy seal that can calm the chaos and protect the people. However, before anyone realizes it, the rulers cast aside their creed of purifying the chaos, and instead start to fight each other for each other's holy seals to gain dominion over one another. Siluca, an isolated mage who scorns the Lords for abandoning their creed, and a wandering knight named Theo, who is on a journey to train to one day liberate his hometown, make an everlasting oath to work together to reform this continent dominated by wars and chaos.

Tatsu, a notorious and feared yakuza leader nicknamed "The Immortal Dragon," withdraws from the criminal syndicate and becomes a housekeeper to help his wife, Miku. The series features a variety of comedic settings, typically showing Tatsu's domestic activities and intimidating inequality with his looks, as well as multiple encounters with his former colleagues and rivals in the Japanese Criminal Syndicate.

Once upon a time, there was a witch named Elaina. Inspired by her favorite book, Elaina ventures out to see the world she's read so much about. Like a leaf on the wind, she travels from one country to another, looking to sate her inquisitiveness and searching for new experiences. Exploration and curiosity drive her journey. She's confronted by humanity in all its forms, whether strange, bizarre, or emotional and with each meeting, Elaina would become a small part of their story, and her own world would get a little bit bigger.

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.

Three years ago, the world learned that harpies, centaurs, catgirls, and all manners of fabulous creatures are not merely fiction; they are flesh and blood - not to mention scale, feather, horn, and fang. Thanks to the "Cultural Exchange Between Species Act," these once-mythical creatures have assimilated into society, or at least, they're trying. When a hapless human teenager named Kurusu Kimihito is inducted as a "volunteer" into the government exchange program, his world is turned upside down. A snake-like lamia named Miia comes to live with him, and it is Kurusu's job to take care of her and make sure she integrates into his everyday life.

Ronja is the only daughter of Mattis, a bandit leader who lives in a castle in the middle of a large forest. When Ronja grows old enough, she ventures into the forest to interact the strange and magical creatures that live there. She learns to live in the forest through her own strength, with the occasional rescue from her parents. Ronja's life begins to change, however, when she happens upon a boy her own age named Birk.

Kazuma Hoshino moves to the beautiful countryside to take care of his little brother, Ayumu Hoshino. They ended up they getting lost on their way to the Japanese Inn.

First comes marriage, then comes an earthbound love that is out of this world!From the day his parents named him, Nasa Yuzaki has been destined for outer space...or so he believes. But while trying to join the space program, he is thrown for a loop when an accident introduces him to Tsukasa, a mysterious girl with strange powers. Is she an alien, a moon goddess or something else? Since she insists on marrying him, Nasa has plenty of chances to find out!

After failing his college entrance exams, 18 year-old Tsukasa Mizugaki is offered a position at the renowned SAI Corporation, known for its production and management of Giftia, androids that possess human emotions. Tsukasa’s position is in the terminal service department where the main job is to recover Giftias that are close to their expiration, a graveyard department in every sense. To make matters worse, Tsukasa is ordered to work with Isla, a female Giftia who is never given any responsibility other than serving tea to co-workers.

Saichi Sugimoto is a tough soldier who participates in the Russo-Japanese War and who earned the nickname "Sugimoto the Immortal." Honors in combat are of little use to him when he is expelled from the army for a certain incident, but he has a goal to fulfill, a promise to keep, and for that he will need money. His first idea to get it will be to join the recent Hokkaido gold rush and try his luck, but destiny prepared him a more interesting challenge and at the same time, more profitable. When a strange man tells the story of how a thief stole a large amount of gold from a group of Ainu to later hide his booty, his eyes light up. Is it a false story? The man tells him that the only way to find the stolen gold is to locate a number of men who were in prison with the thief and who carry the tracks tattooed on their own bodies. But Hokkaido is a tough region and its relentless nature, so when you're still deciding if such a story is more than a Chinese tale, you'll have to fight to protect your life from a huge bear ... and who will come to your rescue is a Ainu girl who seems to know something about the story told by the old man.

Takayama enters the training program of JNR with the ambition of becoming one of the venerable train company's engineers. As a trainee he is teamed up with fight-ready Sakurai and stolid Iwaizumi and fellow Haruka Kōmi who has encyclopedic knowledge of trains. Together they learn how security officers for the train line work and get involved in more than one tricky situation.

In the mysterious future, crystalline organisms called Gems inhabit a world that has been destroyed by six meteors. Each Gem is assigned a role in order to fight against the Lunarians, a species who attacks them in order to shatter their bodies and use them as decorations.Phosphophyllite, also known as Phos, is a young and fragile Gem who dreams of helping their friends in the war effort. Instead, they are told to compile an encyclopedia because of their delicate condition. After begrudgingly embarking on this task, Phos meets Cinnabar, an intelligent gem who has been relegated to patrolling the isolated island at night because of the corrosive poison their body creates. After seeing how unhappy Cinnabar is, Phos decides to find a role that both of the rejected Gems can enjoy. Can Phos's seemingly mundane assignment lead both Phos and Cinnabar to the fulfillment they desire?

Ayano Hanesaki, a first-year student at Kanagawa Prefectural Kitakomachi High School, has a badminton ability able to surpass others effortlessly yet avoids playing the sport. She meets Nagisa Aragaki, a third-year student who practices day and night aiming to become the best player in Japan. Encouraged by coach Tachibana Kentarou, supported by club colleagues, and fired up by various rivals, the two engage in their youth and adored sport so thrilling like a shuttle flown at high speed!

20-year-old Michiru Amatsuki moved to Tokyo due to a change of career. She decided to live in a woman-only share house Stella House Haruno with people of different age and occupations. It's always fun when there's delicious alcohol and meal!!

The story begins with Izumi Hayato running to be student body president. But when a beautiful girl swings in promising the liberalization of love while flinging condoms into the audience, he ends up losing to her and becoming the vice president. At the student council meeting, the newly-elected president invites herself over to Izumi's house, where she promptly announces she is to become Izumi's wife thanks to an agreement that their parents had made, a drunken promise decades ago that their children would one day become husband and wife. Naturally Hayato is against this, but Ui has the complete opposite reaction, and even wants to live with him!Will the upset Hayato and the overenthusiastic Ui be able to manage their school and marital life while keeping it a secret from the other students? Or will the two never come to understand each other's feelings?

By 2039, global warming had caused sea levels to rise and large amount of territory to be lost. As though in response, a mysterious group of warships clad in mist, “the Fleet of Mist,” appeared in every corner of the ocean, and began attacking human ships. In spite of humanity mustering all their strength, they were utterly defeated by the Mist's overwhelming force. All of humanity's trade routes were blockaded by the Fleet of Mist, their political economy was destroyed, and the human race was steadily beaten down. Seven years later, the Fleet of Mist's submarine I-401 appears before cadet Gunzo Chihaya. The humanoid life form that pilots the sub, who should be their enemy, is instead offering her services to mankind.

Chise Hatori, 15 years old. Lost, without hope, and without family, she is bought for money – not by another person, but by a non-human sorcerer named Elias. Though she hesitates, she begins life anew as his apprentice and future wife.

All thanks to the special ability that he developed, Yuu was able to cheat his way into a very prestigious high school. With his power, he thought nothing was going to stand in his way, until he met a mysterious girl named Nao Tomori and other students with special abilities just like him. It was the beginning to a new life.

Since the Edo periods of Japan, gladiator arenas exist in certain areas. In these arenas, wealthy business owners and merchants hire gladiators to fight in unarmed combat where winner takes all. Toki Taouma, nicknamed "Ashura," joins these arenas and devastates his opponents. His spectacular ability to crush his enemies catches the attention of the big business owners, including the Nogi Group chairman, Nogi Hideki.

Based on a visual novel of the same name by Rejet and Otomate, for the female market.Komori Yui is a positive-thinking girl who nevertheless is troubled by seeing spirits and experiencing poltergeist phenomena. In her second year in high school, she transfers to a new school — a night school for entertainers and celebrities — due to her father's work. There are rumours that vampires exist among the student body, and Yui ends up living with the six sadistic Sakamaki vampire brothers.

The famous "Seven Wonders" that every school seems to have are a staple of Japanese urban legends. One of the most well-known of these tales is that of Hanako-san: the ghost of a young girl who haunts the school's bathrooms.Kamome Academy has its own version of Hanako-san's legend. Rumors claim that if one successfully manages to summon Hanako-san, she will grant her summoner any wish. Lured by the gossip, many people have tried to call upon her, yet every attempt has failed. However, when Nene Yashiro, a girl hoping for romantic fortune, dares to summon Hanako-san, she discovers that the rumored "girl" is actually a boy!After a series of unfortunate events involving Nene's romantic desires, she is unwillingly entangled in the world of the supernatural, becoming Hanako-kun's assistant. Soon, she finds out about Hanako-kun's lesser-known duty: maintaining the fragile balance between mortals and apparitions.

Yuki Sanada has always felt like a fish out of water. Socially awkward and anxious, he struggles to fit in with his surroundings and moves from town to town with his grandma. As he and his grandma settle into the charming seaside town of Enoshima, Yuki hopes for a fresh start. However, his reputation at school is jeopardized by the arrival of fellow transfer student Haru. The eccentric Haru immediately makes a splash, wildly claiming to be an alien and declaring that Yuki is his friend. Pairing the reluctant Yuki with their classmate and fishing talent, Natsuki Usami, he tasks both of them with the absurd mission of saving the world from a mysterious threat in the ocean. Mischief and hijinks ensue, as these three embark on a whimsical adventure filled with laughs, heart, and self-discovery!

At the young age of 11, Kotoko Iwanaga was abducted by youkai for two weeks and asked to become their "God of Wisdom," a mediator between the spirit and human worlds, to which the girl quickly agreed but at the cost of her right eye and left leg. Now, six years later, whenever youkai wish for their problems to be solved, they make their way to Kotoko for consultation.Meanwhile, Kurou Sakuragawa, a 22-year-old university student, has just broken up with his girlfriend after he fled alone when the two encountered a kappa. Seeing this as her chance to become closer with him, Kotoko immediately makes her move, hoping to get married to Kurou one day. However, she quickly realizes there is something more to Kurou. With this knowledge, she asks for his help in solving the various issues presented by the supernatural, all the while wishing her newfound partner will eventually reciprocate her feelings.

The Hidden Leaf Village has entered an era of peace and modernity. Tall buildings line the streets, giant screens flash with images, and the Thunder Rail runs through the village, connecting each district together. Though it's still a ninja village, the number of civilians has increased and the life of the shinobi is beginning to change. Boruto Uzumaki, son of Seventh Hokage Naruto Uzumaki, has enrolled in the Ninja Academy to learn the ways of the ninja. The other students are ready to dismiss him as "just the son of the Hokage,” but Boruto’s heart and character blow all their assumptions away. As a series of mysterious events begins to unfold, it’s up to Boruto and his new friends to handle them. Like a gale-force wind, Boruto makes his own way into everyone's hearts; his story is about to begin!!

Sotobamura is a small village with around 1300 residents; so small the village isn't even connected to a single highway. An isolated village in which old customs, such as the burial of the dead, are still practiced. One day, the bodies of three people are found dead. Although Ozaki Toshio, the village's lone doctor, feels uncertain, he treats the deaths as a normal occurrence. However, in the days following, the villagers start to die one after the other.

Just an ordinary teenager, Kobeni Yonomori receives quite the surprise on her 16th birthday—a fiancé and a sister-in-law she never even knew she had. As a result of an arrangement that her late grandfather made, Hakuya Mitsumine and his younger sister Mashiro have moved from their countryside home to the Yonomori household in order to deepen their relationship with their new family members.This story follows Kobeni's "love life" with Hakuya as she tries her best to adjust to the abrupt changes forced upon her. However, as some extraordinary secrets regarding the siblings come to light, Kobeni will find her life changed forever.