Set in World War II, a time when tensions are high, the value of intelligence has reached an all-time high. With such an important commodity in play, Japan establishes an agency known as the D Agency to obtain such. Under the purview of Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki, a group of agents infiltrates the upper echelons of the opposing country. In order to do so, they have trained their minds and bodies to the absolute limit. But their greatest strength is their ability to manipulate people to get the information they need. Joker Game represents the seedier underbelly of war. War isn’t just about which country can get the highest body count or how many lands it can conquer, but the upper hand it can gain with the most simplistic of information. Imagine the power a country can obtain by absconding with the nuclear launch codes of another. The purpose of the D Agency is just that; to give Japan this sort of power. It takes not an army to destabilise the world, but a handful of individuals.

During the Warring States Period of China, in a time when men of the same country would clash against each other for nothing but the sovereignty of their rulers, two slaves, Xin Li and Piao, get inspired from a nearby skirmish to become the Great General of the Heavens. They train together to achieve such a feat but are soon separated from one another. Years later, Xin joins the kingdom under the king Zheng Ying, and his story unfolds from there. As expected of an anime based on the warring states period, it showcases very well the conflict of a no holds barred civil war. Countrymen fighting against countrymen, divided by their ideals and the whims of their rulers. But amidst such violence, some can show the chivalry that all humans are capable of. It isn’t just about survival, but the fight to prove that they deserve to survive.

Ryner Lute bears the eyes of the Alpha Stigma that are capable of analysing all types of magic. Because of his talent, he is tasked by his king alongside Ferris Eris to search for the relic that can bring an end to the war. He agrees to do so, despite his inherent laziness, because of the tragedy he has witnessed. Many of his classmates, only students at the time, dead at the hands of conflict between kingdoms. Join Ryner as he goes on a journey for the relics, and to discover the secret behind his eyes. Despite its extremely bombastic title, Densetsu does a good job of showing war from the perspective of someone not actually participating in the conflict itself, but trying to end it. Many a times, humans crave conflict with one another for a multitude of reasons but rarely do we work towards ending these conflicts. From the eyes of someone who wants to stop it, the story changes completely, and that is the story of Ryner Lute and Ferris Eris.

Vampires have emerged from nowhere and enslaved the human race with a deadly virus that the vampires are immune to. All of humanity is subjugated by the vampires with a simple premise, protection for blood. Two young boys, Yuuichirou and Mikaela are under the yoke of the vampires with a bunch of other kids under their protection. Mikaela hatches a plot to escape, but the only one who succeeds is Yuuchirou. He is picked up by a resistance unit known as the Moon Demon Company, and he joins them with the hope that he gets to kill as many vampires as possible. Owari no Seraph is the best at showcasing that no side is ultimately right, that there are two sides to the same coin. While the vampires are tyrannical over lords who have enslaved humanity, they have their reasons for doing so. And just as they have their own side, humanity obviously does not like the enslavement they are under. War is always inevitable in this scenario, and you get plenty of it from this anime.

Two heirs of the current shogun are represented by separate ninja clans. Each wants the heir they represent to become the next shogun. They want this result because the one who gets their heir to the throne will get the support of the government for 1000 years and be able to destroy the opposing clan. To decide the winner, they each send 10 of their clan members to fight to the death over the possession of a scroll. Basilisk is one of the best if not the best ninja anime there ever is. There are no flashy attacks or shouting at each other, there is just blood, gore and sudden deaths. It shows everything that a ninja should be, or what we imagine them to be. While there aren’t thousands of soldiers hacking and slashing at each other, this is a silent war. It is one that will determine the fate of a kingdom and the survival of their clan.

The Vers Empire, one that transcended the stars ages ago, uses their advanced technology known as Aldnoah to declare war against those living on earth. With the assassination of their princess at the hands of those on Earth, the Vers Empire sends everything they have to take back the planet and to show them who is the sovereign rulers once and for all. Aldnoah.Zero is affectionately coined by the fandom on the internet as the reverse Gundam anime. It showcases humanity as the losing side against a superior force that possesses robots that far surpasses that of our own. Humans get robots with rifles while the aliens have robots that bend the very rules of gravity itself. This is a scenario where war is not equal, but they fight on regardless.

The Holy Empire of Britannia has conquered Japan and many other countries with their revolutionary new machine, the Knightmare Frames; a mobile humanoid vehicle. Each country has lost their identities, rights and privileges and essentially its citizens have become indentured servants in the process. Japan, now renamed Area 11, is where Lelouch resides. He is an exiled prince posing as a student who has high ambitions of vengeance. Through a chance encounter, he gains the power of the kings and uses it to lead the rebellion against Britannia. Code Geass shows us best that there are no winners in war. Even if one side triumphs over the other, the losers will still bite back eventually. No matter who wins, conflict won’t end till everything is dead. Under the cool stratagems and the clever speeches by Lelouch, there lies the countless dead in the wake of an unending conflict.

Arslan is the price of the kingdom of Pars. Under the rule of their king, they have been enjoying a time of prosperity. However, the king is betrayed and the Parsian army is decimated. Their capital city gets taken by rival forces and Arslan is forced to flee his own country. With the aid of the general Daryun, Arslan must gather allies to retake his home country. War takes many things from us, and it has taken Arslan’s home from him. We get shown his struggle to cope with his losses and his desperate bid to retake his country. Through war, his character matures and changes into what is eventually needed to lead his forces into battle. But he should never have been forced to mature in such a way. That is the very nature of the cruel and unbending nature of war.

In the fictitious world of Valkyria Chronicles, there is a precious resource known as ragnite, that powers many of the contraptions such as vehicles to weapons of war. It is highly sought over by the many countries that struggle endlessly against one another. The story is centred on the country of Gallia, a neutral state that has an abundance of ragnite that gets invaded by an empire for that very resource. Welkin Gunther and Alicia Melcott must join the militia to save their country from the invading forces and to protect their homeland. Valkyria Chronicles is based on the strategy game of the same name. There is plenty of fighting that goes on, and much of it has its clever moments and strategies executed by Squad Leader Welkin Gunther. It generally comes across as somewhat light-hearted, but it does not shy away from showing the many tragedies of war and the losses that one can suffer from it.

The war between demons and humans have raged on for countless of years. The Hero and his party set out to slay the Demon King in order to bring an end to the war. Dissatisfied with his progress, he abandons his companions and goes on by himself to the castle of the Demon King. However, he finds out that the Demon King isn’t a malevolent demon of evil but a beautiful woman who asks for his aid. Her plea is simple, to help her end the war. Maouyuu is one of those anime that makes us think hard and long about the state of our world. It shows us that ending the war is not so simple as to simply defeat the demon king and grant everyone a happy ever after. There are many issues in the world such as famine, poverty and slavery that coexist alongside war and each and every one of them must be tackled with care. War is a complex issue that we cannot solve simply with guns and blades, but with hearts and kind words.