An alternate ending to Steins;Gate, set in the visual novel’s Beta World Timeline. Okabe has given up on saving Kurisu and returned to his everyday life, but is suffering from flashbacks of the events that happened in the world lines he crossed, and of Kurisu’s death. He has sunk into despair, and starting with Mayuri, who encourages him to visit a mental health clinic, the labmen are worried for him. Before long, even ‘Kyouma Hououin’ has been sealed away… That’s when Okabe meets Kurisu’s former acquaintances and volunteers to become a test subject for Amadeus, a computer system in which Kurisu’s memories have been saved. Using an exclusive application, he can communicate with ‘Kurisu.’ Then one day, a girl comes to the lab for advice - a girl with a striking resemblance to Kurisu.

Satou Matsusaka has someone that she likes. Whenever she comes into contact with then, she is set into titillation. Surely, this has to be ‘Love’. That is what Satou thought. She will forgive anything if it is for the sake of protecting this feeling. Satou thinks it’s okay to deceive, commit crimes, rob, and even kill, to protect this feeling.

Late night at Kikka University when all the students have gone home for summer break. However, five girls who are members of the Occult Research Club have not gone home. Calling it ‘the first cool of the evening quest’, the girls have decided to investigate a rumor about the Tokugawa buried treasure and sneak into the university’s data warehouse. What they find is not the rumored treasure, but rather, two extremely well-preserved mummies of two young girls. Sayaka Kamoshida, who is the one to originally get her friends to sneak with her into the warehouse, secretly steals the mysterious ‘stone of life’ that was placed inside both of these mummies. Disappointed in the outcome of not being able to find the hidden treasure, they leave the data warehouse. The theft of the ‘stones of life’ is actually the trigger to resurrect these two mummies. One of the resurrected girls was the daughter of a former Baron, who, due to an unexpected incident, became an undead being via magic. Her name is Euphorsyne Studion. The other is Euphorsyne’s maid Alma V, who was created from a homunculus. Now, the two girls attack the members of the Occult Research Club in order to get the stolen stones back. Can the members of the Occult Research Club survive this development? Also, why were the stones of life stolen? A bloody tragedy of the late-night student dormitory attacks…

Rachel opens her eyes and finds herself in the lowest underground level of a building. She has no memories and no idea why she is here. She tries to get above ground, but the cutthroat Zack, who wanders throughout the building with a head covered in bandages and carries a sickle that looks like it belongs to a Shinigami (Death God), appears before her. 'I have a request… Please, kill me.' 'Help me get out of here and I will kill you.' The strange bond that these two have, their 'oath', becomes stronger. What is waiting for them at the end? Why were they both locked up in here exactly? What is the fate that these two bear? While being fully prepared to die, both of them set out to escape this locked building.

The Imperial Capital, 1930. A strange group of people carrying musical instrument cases landed on Tokyo Station. They are called the ‘Jaegers’, and they are people who have come to hunt vampires. Amongst them, there stands a young man with striking serenity and an unusual aura. His name is Yuliy, and he is a werewolf whose home villages was destroyed by vampires. Yuliy and the Jaegers engage in a deadly battle over a mysterious holy arc only known as ‘The Arc of Sirius’. What truth awaits them at the end. With eternal affinity and the spirals of conspiracy entwined, this highly anticipated action-thriller anime begins!

Standing alone in the Teramachi Sanjou shopping district in Kyoto, there is an antique store called ‘Kura.’ By coincidence, high school female student Aoi Mashiro gets to know the son of the owner of Kura, Kiyotaka, and ends up working there part-time. Kiyotaka has a soft demeanor with a frightfully sharp intuition. In fact, people refer to him as ‘Holmes’. Together, they undertake various requests concerning antiques that customers bring to them.

The Layton Detective Agency motto is “No matter what the mystery is, we solve all.” The daughter of Professor Layton, Katrielle Layton, along with her talking dog Sheri, and her assistant Ernest Greeves, run the Layton Detective Agency. Daily, they solve strange happenings that occur in London. Originally, she began working at the Agency as a means to help her find her father, Hershel Layton, who up and disappeared one day. Due to her incredible way of thinking, her skill for solving mysteries has gradually become a hot topic, and eventually, more and more requests come fluttering in.

The 6th season of Yami Shibai. This is a horror short story anime, that depicts various strange urban legends that happen all around us. Using a now-rarely-seen “paper picture show” style, this Showa-esque is sure to be a thriller! ‘Please be careful, it’s there. Right next to you in the darkness.’

The 3rd Season of Overlord. The year is 2138. The online game Yggdrasil, which was once popular, is about to be cancelled. Player Momonga, his comrades, and their prosperous guild have silently been waiting for this moment. However, even once the servers have shut down, the game doesn’t log them out, and the NPCs seem to have suddenly developed wills of their own. Outside of the guild, a whole new world is developing.

In the MMORPG Cross Reverie, Takuma Sakamoto boasted of such an overwhelming amount of power that other players referred to him as the Demon King. Then one day, he is summoned to another world in the form of his character from Cross Reverie. There, two girls insist “I am the one who summoned you.” The two girls attempt to cast enslavement magic upon him in order to make him into a slave. But! Takuma’s passive ability (Reflect Magic) activates! Now the girls are the ones who are enslaved to Takuma…!? The curtain rises now on the story of a (pretend) Demon King who plunges forward on an adventure in another world with his absolute power!

Yuuto Suou is a boy from our everyday reality who has wandered into another world at the dawn of war called Yggdrasil. Here in this world, countless nobles are fighting for dominance and it's survival of the fittest. For sixteen-year-old Hayato though, all he had to do was call on his knowledge from our world as his weapon. This leads to him rising to command a few thousand troops as their suzerain (patriarch). The story now follows this boy who became King in another world and is surrounded by beautiful Einherjar who swear their allegiance to him.

What happens when you mess up really really bad at your job? You get endless meetings with your boss and HR? You get a very stern talking to by your supervisor? Worst case: You get fired. What happens when you do that and you’re a Yakuza? It’s bad. Usually a finger suffices, but for our three main characters, it’s much more dire than that. So, they get two choices, commit seppuku and spill their guts on the floor, or go to Thailand, get gender reassignment surgery, and become cute idols. Which would you do? Spend a lifetime trapped in another gender that isn’t yours–sounds like a living hell–or die right then and there? The three men choose the latter choice and become female idols. Three rough looking men are now changed into cute, adorable idols. The funny thing though, is that they still are the same person which means that they maintain all of their bad habits and quirks. We get to laugh hysterically as they snap into their old yakuza ways while trying to keep up a cute persona. They are popular too which is funny because they’re singing about yazuka rules and methods with a cute idol spin on them. It’s not going to end well for anyone though if they are caught, so they are forced to work under the boss while hiding their true identities and reflecting on where they are now. Originally I thought this was going to be super problematic, but it takes the idea of gender and throws it out the window in a comical manner. I can’t wait to watch this show weekly. If I had to say that the series has a downfall, it would be that this is clearly a ~budget~ anime as the characters do not move much and the voice acting is just superimposed over still scenes. I guess we can’t get everything that we want. But sure hope there is a dating episode!

Well, Island has started and when it comes to first impressions, it falls in the same category as anime like Hundred, and by that we mean, it just starts off so cliche. Let’s just go over the first episode which features an amnesic main character who is drawn to a single thing: the island. Does this sound at all special yet? Then he claims he’s a time traveler, but can’t remember anything else but his name, however he does get brief glimpses of what we are to assume is the future. Oh, and let’s end the episode with Rinne saying if she goes out in the sunlight, she’ll die. Oh yeah, those are the makings for a generic anime that tries too hard to be suspenseful. Oh, and did we mention that apparently Rinne sings and we have to go full on autotune and edit the voice? What does it have to do with anything, I will never know. All the same, this is not a great way to start off Island. I suspect many people are dropping this anime and fast, which is such a shame because the writers are trying so hard on this anime.

Hataraku Saibou’s first episode was something I was looking forward since I’ve read the synopsis. Basically, it’s a weird and funny show that puts our insides like a world full of “people” working to function at perfection while avoiding unwanted agents, like germs or bacteria. Our main characters are a red blood cell called AE3803 and a white blood cell called U-1146. So yeah, now there’s more anime cells than the villain in Dragon Ball Z... If you hate biology classes and always underestimate your own body functions, Hataraku Saibou is a great way to learn about some basic and advanced stuff. Who would say a soon-to-be love story could teach you about body parts with complex names or diseases? At least with it’s first episode this anime can teach you about pneumococcus and some of the reasons why this bacteria is bad, or that red blood cells transport oxygen to your lungs, among other things they do. Haemoglobin for the win! But, let’s not forget the important things: is there a love story between the hero white cell and the naive red cell? And there are cute “kids” as platelets reconstructing the body! At least for me, Hataraku Saibou is one of the nice surprises this season. I wish this had existed back when I hated biology at school...

After finding out that the Mage Academy is the dark force pulling the strings behind the ongoing war between kingdoms and lords, Lady Marrine’s fears are confirmed when a mage announces through their wands that the Mage Academy is purging all the mages who support the lords. And in a very Mission Impossible style, he tells all who are listening to destroy their wands, as they can be spied on and located that way. The Mage Academy and the Lords are officially at war and the academy is taking no prisoners. The birth of the Grancrest is officially a reality and the academy deems the new Emperor and the Lords a threat. The plan is now to unite the Treaty, Union, and Alliance and fight the Mage Academy in Eram. Theo and Siluca’s allies destroy their wands, pledging allegiance to their lords and assuring they are not being spied on, save a few who decide to stay true to the academy and are allowed to just walk away. (Not sure why they didn’t imprison them or something…). Siluca and her father have a sweet moment talking about how they are getting to work together and when Aishela walks into the tent, we find out that she and Siluca are sisters and Aishela is not a big fan of Aubeste. Aubeste, however, thanks Aishela for taking care of Siluca this whole time and calls them both his precious daughters. During this conversation, Aishela mutters that she is not a Meletes anymore… odd… Everyone goes to sleep, including Siluca, who passes out at her desk. Siluca is soon woken up by Aishela, who is asking her to come out. As soon as Siluca steps out… holy crap! An expressionless Aishela takes a literal stab at her chest! WTF!? Oh no! Are we losing our main heroine!? No. Luckily, Irvin stops Aishela right on time and she admits to attempting to murder Siluca and that Theo was her next target. Theo wakes up and they bring Aishela inside, where they strap her down after she admits to being sent by a secret agency from the academy. What a twist! The academy has been watching Siluca all along and it turns out Aishela “tried” to kill her because otherwise, if she didn’t, the academy had placed a spell on her that would kill her. She still loves her sister and did a poor job on purpose. However, the spell or “geas” they placed on Aishela’s chest is activated and is seemingly being murdered through it by the academy’s secret organization. But just as the moment is getting intense and emotional and we think Aishela’s a goner, the sweet Priscilla says “She’s not destined to die here” and pulls out her Holy Grail Crest to free Aishela from the magical shackles of the academy. I knew that girl would come in handy! It was a very exciting episode full of surprises and twists! We didn’t lose any of our favorite girls and things are heating up by the minute! What’s happening next!?

Sugisaki Ken attends a school where entry into the student council can be guaranteed if one scores the highest on the exams. However, he has always had below average grades, so we worked hard to improve them so he can enter the council and live out his dream – to be fawned over by a harem of beautiful girls! Unfortunately for Ken, his achievement isn’t enough to get their attention and they reject his advances, choosing to do their jobs instead of entertain him. Be that as it may, Ken is a simple man with a simple wish and won’t stop working hard to grant them himself! While most anime tend to exaggerate the power that a student council can exercise over the student body, Seitokai no Ichizon plays around with the interactions within the student council like it would a regular club at school. In this way, the focus isn’t necessarily on what the student council is capable of, but more on Ken’s dreams to have a harem and his use of the student council as the yellow brick road to his dreams.

Arikawa Hime finds himself in a terrible situation when loan sharks come for him in order to settle the debt his parents left him . When the Shimoshina High School student council steps in to settle his debt, they do it under one condition: that Hime join the student council… as a girl! Their timing couldn’t have been more unfortunate for Hime as they found him wearing a French maid outfit and now they won’t allow him to wear anything else as he serves them as their dog for the rest of his high school years. As inconvenient as things may be, Hime is surrounded by pretty girls who dote on him – but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t wish to be free, and of all people, his crossdressing little brother is the only one trying to get him out! Himegoto does what many anime with student councils do, which is to give the student council incredible amounts of affluence and influence. Being able to settle Hime’s debt and effectively own his entire existence as a human being is the kind of hyperbolic representation of the student council as a concept. That aside, the show has a fair amount of humour which is carried through the absurd antics Hime is subject to as a result of the student council at Shimoshina High.

Izumi Hayato is a straight-laced and studious individual running for Student Council President; however he is completely outmatched by his rival, Wakana Ui after she promises sex-ed and free condoms among other reforms. Disappointed, Hayato settles into his role as Vice-President. Next thing Hayato knows, Ui has moved in with him in order to honour a promise that their parents made a long time ago – that their children would marry each other. Now Hayato and Ui are forced to balance their personal life with their student council roles, but is it really that simple? Throwing romance straight into the student council-centred plot, Okusama ga Seitokaichou! makes use of a formula we’re quite familiar within the anime medium. Each episode is short and covers a bit of the relationship between Hayato and his wife, Ui, who he soon learns has more to her than the persona he’s used to seeing at school. Still somewhat bitter about losing the running for student council president while balancing a clear attraction to her – the conflicting emotions and angst make for quite the entertaining student council anime.

Rikkyouin High School is a prestigious school which makes use of chance to select every year’s student council. They do this by means of a lottery and on the first day of school, Enomoto Chihiro wins the presidency, with his childhood friend, Akiyama Tokino stepping up as vice-president. However, their ascension isn’t without difficulty as they must first complete a one year apprenticeship under the current student council and should they fail at any point, it means immediate expulsion! Kujibiki♥Unbalance is a unique title given the fact that it began as an anime within the anime Genshiken, which followed the activities of a university anime and gaming society. Again we’re faced with anime’s hyperbole: the intensely influential student council; however, the unique aspect is the way in which both student council president and vice-president are selected via lottery. The show is meant to cram as many anime tropes as possible and as such, is wildly entertaining for those who recognise them.

Otonashi wakes up to find out that he’s actually dead and has no memories apart from his last name. A girl named Yuri, armed with a rifle, explains to him that they’re in the afterlife and she leads a faction known as the Shinda Sekai Sensen (Afterlife Battlefront), waging war against a girl named Angel. Seeing Angel for himself, Otonashi refuses to believe that she’s evil and tries to talk to her. It doesn’t end well. After the encounter, he decides to join the Afterlife Battlefront in their war against Angel while fighting off a strange attraction to her. Death, emotions and regrets are rife in Angel Beats!, which aren’t usually the themes you’d find in a student council anime. In fact, the idea that Angel Beats! is a student council anime takes a backseat until one considers the role Angel plays in their afterlife environment, which is a high school. Angel is the student council president whose role is to ensure that students at the Afterlife School can cope with their personal problems.

When Japan introduces strict morality laws which police everything considered obscene and impure, it becomes a chaste society. People are monitored via special collars which ensure that not a vulgar thing is uttered or done. In this world of chastity, Okuma Tanukichi, the son of a notorious terrorist who opposed the laws, has just entered high school. He decides to help the student council in order to get closer to his childhood crush, Nishikinomiya Anna – the student council president. However, when Kajou Ayame, the vice-president, reveals her secret identity as a criminal dedicated to opposing the chastity laws, she drags Tanukichi into her terrorist organisation, SOX, where he too will spread obscene material all in the name of freedom. In the name of all things lewd, Shimoneta plays with anime’s tendency to have all-powerful student councils. The absurdity of it all compounds the humour of the premise – trust Shimoneta to put together a band of eccentric and wacky characters to deliver puns, jokes and wild adventures! The student council president, Nishikinomiya Anna, is an overzealous defender of the law – but also a total pervert in her own right, which creates the some of the strangest, yet somehow acceptable development of a character in the show. However, you don’t watch Shimoneta for character development – you watch it for the banter!

When her father is murdered, Matoi Ryuuko searches for his killer, with nothing to go on but the half of the Scissor Blade used in the crime. She arrives at Honnouji Academy, a prestigious school with an all-powerful student council led by the cold-hearted Kiryuuin Satsuki and her powerful allies, the Elite Four. Honnouji’s hierarchical dynamic gives Satsuki the space to bestow the higher-ups special “Goku Uniforms”, which grant their wearer superhuman abilities. After suffering a crushing defeat from a student in a Goku uniform, Ryuuko heads home and finds Senketsu, a sentient set of clothing called Kamui, which provides her with incredible power when in contact with her blood. Now dressed for the occasion, Ryuuko stands against the Elite Four and Satsuki in order to find her father’s killer and put them to justice. Fast-paced and exciting, KILL la KILL is one title on this list which reflects several different anime tropes in the same setting, while having a hand firm on its action and comedic elements. KILL la KILL feels like a shounen anime with slapstick humour thrown in for effect. The student council in this show is like that of many other anime: powerful. Intensely powerful in both status and physical prowess, the student council in KILL la KILL is one which quickly comes to mind when the subject is student councils.

Hachimitsu Private Academy is a prestigious all-girls boarding school located on the outskirts of Tokyo, known for its impeccable education and discipline. However, a change in policy opens the school’s doors to male students for the first time, so Kiyoshi, Gakuto, Shingo, Andre and Jo are the first male students, making the female to male ratio in the school a whopping 200:1. Finding themselves unable to talk to any girls, the five boys decide to do something more daring than mere communication: peeping into the girls’ bath. Their plan is quickly foiled by the Underground Student Council, who then send them into the school’s prison for a month as their punishment. They now have to stick together to get through a gruelling struggle which will test the strength of their friendship. Controversial given the state of the main characters and their antics, Prison School is an anime one takes with a grain of salt. Be that as it may, their student council is terrifying and their overall hold on the school is extensive – their word is absolute. Their running of Hachimitsu Private Academy is thorough and with an iron fist – the harsh prison that the five boys in which the five boys end up doing time is yet another aspect of their iron-fisted rule.

Seika High School is a school under transition. Going from being an all-boys to a co-ed, Seika’s student council president, Ayuzawa Misaki, uses any means necessary to ensure that the girls can settle into their new environment, earning her the nickname “Demon President”. However, the seemingly perfect student council president has an embarrassing secret – she works part-time at a maid café in order to help her struggling family. Her job remains hidden until Usui Takumi, the most popular boy in school, strolls into the maid café. Misaki fears that he could ruin her reputation with what he now knows, but perhaps Usui has other plans for the secret they now both share. Given that the protagonist is the student council president, much of the events in the show surround Misaki’s heavy involvement in school affairs which parallel her maid café duties. Naturally, the show treads into the territory of romance as Misaki’s relationship with Usui develops around their shared protection of the state of Misaki’s home situation and her working life.

Ousai Private Academy is a former all-girls school now opening its door to male students. On his first day, Tsuda Takatoshi is called out for his messy uniform by the eccentric student council president, Amakusa Shino. As a result, Tsuda is late for his first class. In apology for keeping him too long, Shino offers Tsuda the position of vice-president and he is forced into the role even before he sets foot into the school building. Tsuda soon realises how strange the members of the student council truly are – despite their serious appearances, Shino and the secretary, Shichijou Aria, are huge perverts and crack lewd jokes at every opportunity. Their treasurer, Hagimura Suzu, is fairly normal but is highly self-conscious of her height, which often has her mistaken for an elementary school kid. Surrounded by his new colleagues at his new school, Tsuda must perform his student council duties. The main characters of this series are all student council members and thus most of their activities happen within the bounds of their school. Tsuda’s student council affiliations begin as a result of the sheer amount of power the student council has at Ousai Private Academy, with their activities seemingly overshadowing students’ obligations to attend class. This is of course proven in the initial interaction between Tsuda and Shino.

Akira’s relationship with his friend Ryo Asuka changes over time from close friendship to bitter rivalry and betrayal. But throughout all of this, there’s a sense of forgiveness and even love between the two that keeps them together at their very core. It may seem like a common trope now, but this complicated feud was revolutionary at the time and went on to inspire some of anime’s greatest duos. The most obvious counterparts to Akira and Ryo are Guts and Griffith from Berserk. Both Devilman and its spiritual successor Violence Jack were heavy influences on the entire manga, but it’s easiest to see in the dynamic between the gruff, evil-looking hero who suffers and his angelic, feminine friend who betrays him. For another variation on this relationship, take a look at Madoka and Homura from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Parasyte, another classic manga that only recently got a full adaptation, took story inspiration from how the demons in Devilman seamlessly integrated into human society without anyone noticing. By changing the demons into morally ambiguous aliens who depend on humans for survival, author Hitoshi Iwaaki was able to explore how two wildly different species could co-exist with one another.

Perhaps the most iconic image from the entire Devilman mythos is Devilman’s ferocious head, with its leathery bat wings and glowing eyes. Morrigan from Darkstalkers clearly takes inspiration from Akira’s counterpart Jun from Devilman Lady, and Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune has stated that Zero’s helmet is a deliberate reference to Go Nagai’s work. The design of the demon Sirene, with a set of white bird wings adorning her head, has also influenced the likes of Ragyo Kiryuin from Kill la Kill and Zephyrmon from Digimon Frontier. On a more broad scale, the destruction of the world as seen in the manga’s ending has had its share of homages. The Eclipse from Berserk bears a striking resemblance to the carnage and senseless betrayal found in Akira’s war against Satan, and the End of Evangelion uses similar Christian imagery and psychedelic visuals to portray a lone pair of humans left on an utterly destroyed planet. Hideaki Anno has even said that he wanted Neon Genesis Evangelion to have an ending similar to Devilman, which he finally was able to create once the movie was released.

Devilman: Crybaby, the most recent adaptation of the manga, is thoroughly steeped in the modern era of smartphones and social media. If Crybaby was your introduction to the Devilman franchise, it may be hard to believe that its source material dates back to the early ‘70s. But the changes made to this otherwise very faithful adaptation serve two different purposes – to make the story more relatable to a 2010s audience, and to prevent itself from seeming retrospectively clichéd. Even though Devilman was the first to popularize the Akira/Ryo-style relationship of friends to enemies to lovers (maybe), today’s anime fans would be bored with something that they’ve already seen in Berserk and Madoka. The hellish demonic war would seem like an End of Evangelion retread, and so on and so on. By updating the setting and making a few tweaks to the characters (like toning down Ryo’s yandere behavior and incorporating the time loop plot point from one of the spin-offs), the showrunners were able to create a complete adaptation of Devilman that could also stand on its own as a modern anime.