Anime isn't afraid to get weird. From the characters to the plots to even the art style, there are some real oddities out there that fans just find delightful. Some anime truly push the limits of what's possible on TV, going to places that even the boldest western cartoons wouldn't.
The most bizarre and creative anime redefined the medium's potential, exploring off-beat ideas in unusual ways – which always makes for a memorable viewing experience. From newer titles like Spy x Family to cult classics like Kill la Kill, there's no shortage of amazingly weird anime to watch.
Update on June 2nd, 2023 by Louis Kemner: This list has been updated with even more weird anime fans can enjoy.
19 The Promised Neverland
The Promised Neverland may not have particularly exotic or unusual visuals, but it does have a grimly unusual premise that'll really drew anime fans in. In the near-future, the human children in the Grace Field House have no idea they're being raised as food for demonic overlords. The Promised Neverland takes its strange premise to dark places, so the anime isn't for the faint of heart.
18 Saga Of Tanya The Evil
Saga of Tanya the Evil is one of the least cliche Isekai anime out there. The protagonist is a selfish and cold-blooded Japanese businessman who is reincarnated as a young blonde girl named Tenya Degurechaff in a parallel world.
Tanya is expected to fight and survive in a magical World War I setting, while the non-religious Tanya aims to prove the divine Being X wrong about everything. It's bizarre to see a little girl make such evil expressions and slaughter people in war, but Tanya loves every minute of it, all with the mysterious Being X watching.
17 Spy X Family
Spy x Family, based on author Tatsuya Endo's ongoing manga of the same name, is one of the biggest hits of the 2020s so far. The anime takes place in a fictional setting, with the nations Westalis and Ostania feuding in a bitter cold war.
The Westalis spy Twilight, now going by Loid Forger, must form a found family to spy on Ostania's leaders, which means recruiting the goofy telepath Anya and asssassin Yor Briar for the job. Now they're anime's weirdest but most lovable found family and a future-seeing dog is soon thrown in for good measure.
16 Nichijou
Nichijou's title can be translated as "my ordinary life," but new fans will soon realize there's nothing ordinary about this anime. Yuuko and her friends are always up to something, and it just gets weirder and weirder as the series goes on.
Nichijou's supporting characters are even stranger, but they're all lovable. Hakase is a young professor who loves snacks and sharks, and Nano is a robot girl who has a wind-up key sticking out of her back. There's also the black cat Sakamoto, who can talk as long as he wears a certain red bandana.
15 Cells At Work!
Anyone who enjoyed Osmosis Jones is sure to have a blast with Cells at Work! as well. This wacky edutainment anime follows the adventures of a white blood cell and a red blood cell. Following the same concept as Osmosis Jones, all characters are humanized parts of a human body. They fight off germs depicted as monsters, some of them being almost like kaiju.
Imagining the human body as an enclosed city populated by uniformed cell-people is pretty exotic even by anime's standards, but it works. Despite the wacky premise, Cells at Work! is highly entertaining and fairly educational, and the microscopic heroes are remarkably sympathetic, too.
14 Kill La Kill
The Studio Trigger anime Kill La Kill's visual sense of style, action, aesthetic, and premise are pretty out there even for an anime, and goes to even stranger places than its sister-series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Kill la Kill is filled with a ton of fan service, excellently choreographed action, and a truly bizarre storyline where clothes are actually aliens (and leave most of the cast half-nude on the regular).
13 Saint Young Men
Saint Young Men has one major focus: Buddha and Jesus Christ hanging out together as friends. In fact, they're even roommates in Tokyo. While the manga is still running, having originally started in 2006, the anime is pretty short and makes for a nice bingable watch.
Despite the religious figures involved, there's relatively little controversy about Saint Young Men. It helps that Jesis and Buddha are both depicted as likable, charismatic people exploring daily life together in wholesome ways, without any particular criticism leveled at their respective faith systems.
12 Mawaru Penguindrum
It's not every day a terminally ill girl gets possessed by a penguin hat, but that's what happens in Mawaru Penguindrum. The spirit in the hat asks her brothers Kanba and Shoma to seek out a treasure called a Penguindrum in exchange for the spirit saving their sister's life. They also get three penguins to help them on this particular quest.
11 Gyo
Gyo is an anime movie based on the original Junji Ito horror manga of the same name. Gyo takes place in Okinawa, which is about to become a smelly, fishy nightmare. Inexplicably, hundreds of sea creatures such as fish and sharks march right out of the sea and stomp around the place on mechanical legs, all while giving off a horrific odor.
There is no escaping this amphibious assault, and scariest of all, Gyo is supposed to be dark commentary about the Empire of Japan's brutal experients in the 20th century, lending the weird premise considerable weight.
10 Odd Taxi
Odd Taxi is indeed an odd anime that's not for everyone, but it's smarter and deeper than it looks. Odd Taxi stars anthropomorphic walrus Hiroshi Odokawa, a taxi driver who meets a variety of animal-people on the job.
The plot thickens when a missing girl case is traced back to Hiroshi the walrus. The yakuza and two corrupt cops go after him, turning Hiroshi's ordinary taxi cab life upside down almost overnight – and he must find a way out of this prediament quickly.
9 Punch Line
The protagonist of Punch Line is a spirit who has to protect four girls, but if he sees panties twice in a row, the world will be destroyed by a meteor. One of the show's creators is Kotaro Uchikoshi, the man behind the Zero Escape games, so there are some quality plot twists throughout.
The Punch Line anime had mixed reviews when it was released and might be too weird for anime fans who prefer more mainstream titles. This is a series that needs to be taken at face value, or it falls apart completely.
8 Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom is almost a slice-of-life junior high school anime, but the central premise ensures that this is one of industry's strangest anime series of all. A perpetually smiling yellow alien has arrived, and he's threatening to destroy the Earth.
First, however, the alien will teach a class of third-year junior high students at a secluded campus, assuming the name Koro-sensei. The students are all told to use specialized weapons to kill the seemingly invincible Koro-sensei, but they also value him as their teacher and mentor, leading to some interesting conflict.
7 FLCL
Despite only being six episodes long, FLCL is one of the more well-known and popular anime of its time. FLCL is a very symbolic and surreal coming-of-age story. In FLCL, a boy gets hit in the head by a very strange woman with a guitar and is left with an odd bump on his head that gets larger and larger. FLCL has a passionate fanbase who love the series' unique story, excellent visuals, and iconic soundtrack.
6 Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt
Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt's main characters are angels who were kicked out of heaven for bad behavior. The duo defeat monsters and earn coins that they plan to use to buy their way back to heaven. They often get sidetracked though, as Panty loves men and Stocking is obsessed with sweets. The innocent animation style along with the very mature tone is jarring, but that's the main reason fans love Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt so much.
5 Midori Days
Midori Days focuses on a boy whose own right hand turns into a girl. The protagonist, Seiji Sawamura, is a tough kid who gets into a lot of fights and cannot get a girlfriend. So, he laments that it will just be him and his right hand as companions.
The next morning, Seiji's wish comes true in a weird way and his right hand has become an actual girl. Seiji tries to hide her from everyone by disguising her as an injured arm by covering her in bandages
4 Makura No Danshi
Makura no Danshi still ranks among the strangest anime out there. Any anime fan who craves something totally unique and weird should give the series a try, but only if they're ready to look past its flaws.
Makura no Danshi is a very short anime with mini-episodes, each featuring a different boy with a unique personality. These boys do their best to comfort the viewer with their therapeutic words and warm feelings, almost making the series a strange take on the ASMR concept.
3 Sekko Boys
Sekko Boys is a truly bizarre anime that could have begun as an ordinary idol anime, but protatgonist Miki Ishimoto's new life at college soon takes a very different turn. Miki starts college and hopes to realize her dream of managing an idol group, but to her shock, her department is responsible for statues instead.
Those four statues are alive, forming a musical band known as the Sekkou Boys, or Sekko Boys. St. George, Mars, Hermes, and Medici all want to make it big in the music industry, and it's up to Miki to help them find success – or else.
2 Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is almost pure absurdism. Bobobo is a man who can control his nose-hairs like whips and he fights against a group who wants to turn the entire world bald. Despite there being a plot, the characters often get sidetracked and the series on a whole is more a parody of shonen anime than anything else. Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is set in a world goverened by silliness, leading to some very strange gags and encounters.
1 Pop Team Epic
Pop Team Epic is pure surrealist comedy from beginning to end. Sense does not exist here. Popuko and Pipimi often make fun of anime and its tropes, and use all kinds of silly references for irreverent humor. Any anime fan who wants to laugh out loud and lose themselves in surreal, cartoony nonsense is urged to try Pop Team Epic and save serious anime like Attack on Titan and Oshi no Ko for another day.
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