Anime can be famously outlandish, but some series take it to the next level. There’s nothing wrong with a conventional story that takes familiar things to a next level—that’s Black Clover‘s bread and butter, for example. But sometimes, you’re just itching for a story that does more, really pulling something unexpected out of a hat and making something marvelous out of it.
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These creative series represent some of the most inventive anime on offer today. Every last one of them takes its mind-bending foundation and uses it to build out a story that’s truly a force to be reckoned with. Weirdly enough, we found that the genres most packed with conventions (like magical girls or battle shonen) often provide the most room for stories that are innovative, thoughtful, and unexpected. However, our selections don’t stop there: running the gamut from gambling-focused thrillers to raw shonen action all the way to full-on topsy-turvy takes on the idol genre, this list has a little something for everyone who just wants something different.
1) Kill la Kill
Kill la Kill is a series whose reputation precedes it. And while it sounds wild even at face value—the norm for the over-the-top Studio Trigger, no doubt—its reputation also prevents fans from taking a step back and realizing just how hard it is to execute a series like Kill la Kill well. There’s the story itself: a loving riff on the magical girl genre that treats clothing itself as the source of power. Fitting for the deconstruction (or reconstruction, per TV Tropes) of the magical girl genre, the series is built on wordplay: director Imaishi noted the similarity between the Japanese words for “fascism”/”fashion” and the polysemy of the verb “kiru”, which can mean “kill”, “cut”, or “wear”.
On top of these richly creative observations, Studio Trigger gingerly plays with the boundaries of womens’ bodies themselves, carefully treading the line between exploitation and empowerment. Throw in Trigger’s bombastic animation and storytelling, and it’s no surprise that Kill la Kill would be lightning in a bottle for the studio.
2) Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom is a beloved battle shonen series about an alien teacher (Koro-sensei) who has tasked his students with killing him before their graduation—the date he’s set as his own personal Doomsday. Everything about the series is weird, from Koro-sensei’s octopus-like body to the very idea of a classroom full of junior-high would-be assassins. As the series continues and the plot sprawls into personal backstories and relationships, things just become even more bizarre.
Nonetheless, the series has gained a devoted fan base, and it’s one of Shonen Jump‘s most beloved comics of the 2010s. It’s no surprise: its action is thoughtfully written and choreographed, and it rarely ever drags or has an unsatisfying payoff. In fact, the whole series avalanches toward its final, most satisfying (heart-wrenching) payoff of all from its humble beginnings, taking pains at every opportunity to keep audiences invested.
3) Zombie Land Saga
Zombie Land Saga is a bold effort that turns the conventional idol anime on its head by injecting an unlikely genre: zombies. In Zombie Land Saga, a girl who wants to be an idol—Sakura Minamoto—is suddenly killed in an infamous truck accident. She’s resurrected by a manager named Koutarou Tatsumi alongside six others to be in a zombie idol group intended to save the economically struggling Saga Prefecture.
It’s obviously a parody of the idol genre, but that doesn’t stop it from having charm. In fact, it’s incredibly funny while touching on some deeper themes along the way. It’s not an idea that seems like it would work, but it’s cleverly written with an enormously charming cast of characters lifting it up. Add to that MAPPA’s ever-reliable handling of the series and it’s obvious why Zombieland Saga has become countless fans’ favorite.
4) Ya Boy Kongming!
Similar to Zombie Land Saga, Ya Boy Kongming! uses the music industry as the foundation for its totally unique story. In Kongming, a Chinese general is reborn in our own day and age, stumbling into a talented girl and becoming her manager in return for her teaching him about the modern world. A major component of his traversal of the music industry is his execution of military strategy from his previous life.
Many phenomenal stories are built on the idea that only its characters could fill its roles. Solo Leveling could maybe have had another similar character take Jinwoo’s place, but there is no substitute for Kongming‘s leading duo. It depends so heavily on its specific reverse isekai scenario that it could hardly be replicated; it’s truly a one-of-a-kind story that just happens to be super charming, handily acknowledging and squeezing every last drop out of its own potential. You can only really appreciate it by watching it, but you’ll be glad you did: Ya Boy Kongming! is a silly story loaded with heart, and it’s the definition of a weird story that just works.
5) One Outs
Fans of top-notch anime thrillers like Kaiji will absolutely adore One Outs. But while the likes of Kaiji are fundamentally based on a pretty conventional idea—death games specially devised in the name of life-threateningly high stakes—One Outs tries its luck with a more run-of-the-mill sport: baseball. In One Outs, the prodigal Toua Tokuchi gambles on his unbeatable pitches. Things go further off the rails as a legendary batter defeats and recruits him, putting Tokuchi on a struggling team where he’s underpaid.
A pivotal deal with the team’s owner gives him a five million yen reward for every out, but a 50 million yen penalty for every run. This deal makes up the heart of the series. While baseball has a reputation for being the slowest in the trinity of major American sports, One Outs injects every second with anticipation. Part of this is mangaka Shinobu Kaitani’s beloved foundation; the other part can be attributed to Madhouse’s expert adaptation, who by One Outs‘ 2008 release had spent the better part of the 2000s on equally dark, atmospheric works like Death Note and Monster. Dense and suspenseful, One Outs is a masterclass of gambling-focused storytelling.
6) Hinamatsuri
Try to put yourself in the shoes of an up-and-coming yakuza who suddenly has a metallic egg appear in his living room, harboring a strange child with telekinetic powers. You can’t, and that’s the point. Hinamatsuri is a show that capitalizes on the somewhat-established genre of yakuza comedy while taking it an a totally unprecedented direction.
Although it might not sound like the deepest series, you’ll be completely surprised by the heart that Hinamatsuri manages to summon up. Without relying too much on established tropes, it takes a bunch of cool, disjunct ideas and folds them into each other with grace. Hinamatsuri has caught on with many people in no small part due to its great writing, top-notch animation, and memorable voice acting.
7) Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle is a prime example of “what it says on the tin”: it’s about a princess who is abducted by the Demon Lord, but who really doesn’t mind that much; her main priority is getting the best sleep possible. Its absurdity coexists with a weird relatability. On top of that, her levity in the face of a traditional damsel-in-distress scenario deflates the terror of that premise in the funniest way possible.
This deflationary twist on an old trope isn’t anything groundbreaking, by any means, but that doesn’t mean it can’t serve as the fuel for a lovable, funny story. Sleepy Princess‘s cute art and vibrant atmosphere rocket its already-enjoyable writing to new heights, too. It’s a comedy through-and-through, and the thing that makes the difference with this kind of comedy is its execution; Sleepy Princess is marvelously well-executed, to the point that even at the end of the hardest day of your life, it might just leave you as ironically unbothered as the sleepy princess herself.
8) Senki Zesshou Symphogear
Senki Zesshou Symphogear, which everybody just calls Symphogear, is another idol anime. In fact, it might be seen as a progenitor for the “weird idol” genre, coming out years before the likes of Zombie Land Saga, Back Street Girls, and the like. The idol genre provides a fruitful element for an alchemy of contrasts. For example, if you react something cute with something not so cute, it can easily yield pure gold.
It’s these incredible contrasts by which the idol industry can subsist at all. To love idols (and many of us at ComicBook do!), you must suspend disbelief. The dream is a product on a shelf; more importantly, the desires of the masses are a territory to be conquered. In Symphogear, this is taken to its logical conclusion: idols with song-powered weapons fending off alien invaders. It’s a play of contrasts based around idols complemented by the adjacent magical girl genre and contrasting against a more traditional sci-fi/mecha concept, brilliantly cohered. Symphogear is heavy, hard-hitting, and as irresistible as the idol dream itself.
9) Uma Musume Pretty Derby
Uma Musume Pretty Derby has been gaining traction recently, in no small part thanks to its game’s recent release on platforms like Steam in June 2025. Naturally, it got a “streamer boost” afterward, being picked up by major Twitch personalities like Northernlion and Asmongold. Its anime premiered back in 2018, but it now has volleys of new eyes on it, and they’re liking what they see.
Uma Musume is about racehorses reborn as horse girls with the same qualities as before. There’s an astounding depth of real-world knowledge about horse racing packed into this series; take the example of Rice Shower, a real-world racehorse that fell during a race and was euthanized at age six, reborn as a gloomy horsegirl of the same name. This depth is part of the reason the series works: Rice Shower has become a meme, against all odds. It’s fun, it’s goofy, and it’s lovingly created: Uma Musume is in the money now after a long time off the board.
10) Houseki no Kuni
Houseki no Kuni immediately sounds like a fever dream: a world where immortal personified gemstones fend off lunar aliens trying to harvest their bodies and colonize the desolate Earth’s little remaining land. In action, it’s a deeply intriguing series that touches on questions of identity, belonging, and exploitation. That’s not even to mention just how gorgeous Studio Orange’s adaptation is—so good it made many people change their minds on CGI’s place in anime.
To be fair, Houseki no Kuni is a series that thrives in color and motion. It’s debatable, but we land on the side of the argument that Houseki no Kuni shines more as an anime than manga. Regardless of which you enjoy, there’s something to be said for just how well executed this strange premise is; the feverish foundation becomes an unparalleled, action-packed story of discovery.
There’s something to be said for stories that can make magic like this: just a storyteller, their medium of choice, and the weirdest conceptual relationships they can scavenge from the corners of their mind. This list isn’t definitive, of course, and we want to hear from you! If you have some story with a totally off-the-walls premise that we missed, tell us all about it in the comments below.
Finally, if you want to keep your binge going with some more peak, hand-picked anime, click through to our staff picks, linked below.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Studios.
