When a movie or a TV series becomes extremely popular, cheap knockoffs are a simple "When?" away. The characters might look different, the setup might be “unique,” but at the end of the day, the premise is an identical copy of the more popular movie/series.

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Attack on Titan too has its fair shares of copycats, who’ve used (and overused) the formula of “humanity at the brink of extinction and it’s only up to a handful of teenagers to save the world”. Of course, none have seen the same level of popularity as Attack on Titan, and chances are, they never will.

7 Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress

In the middle of the Industrial revolution, humanity sees the birth of zombies called called Kabane. The people who are bit by them become Kabane themselves and the only way to kill any of them is to destroy their steel hearts.

On the Hinomoto island, humanity survives behind a massive wall. Young Ikoma believes he’s created a weapon that could be a massive solution to this problem. The day his island faces a mysterious Kabane outbreak, is the day he realizes he can save his people by getting to use his weapon on actual zombies.

6 Guilty Crown

Taking place in a dystopian alternate world, humanity suffers from a unique form of infection dubbed as the "Apocalypse Virus.” GHQ is a military organization that has taken control of the people living there, and humanity offers a small chance of resistance in the name of Gai Tsutsugami (a famous guerilla leader).

A shy Shuu Ouma becomes an unwitting participant in this war, thanks to a newfound power of his. This action anime follows the life and heroics of young Shuu, whose power can help him restore balance in his broken world.

5 Seraph Of The End

A virus suddenly kills everyone over the age of 13. Humans are enslaved by vampires, who take advantage of the weakened state of humans and make them their very own personal cattle. Those who refuse to be enslaved are thrown in the wild with no form of protection to help them survive the harsh world.

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When he grows up, young Yuuichirou becomes part of a small group of humans who have vowed to annihilate the vampires. On his first battle with them, he comes across his long lost friend Mikaela, who is now shockingly a vampire himself. If this plot sounds all too familiar, it is because this post-apocalyptic supernatural shounen anime is from the same studio as Attack on Titan – WIT.

4 God Eater

God Eater Poster

In the year 2071, humanity is all but extinct because of Aragami, man-made creatures that cannot be destroyed easily. An organization called Fenrir is humanity’s last effort against these ravaging machines. It creates humans who are infused with Oracle cells, which lets them wield the only weapon that can kill Aragami – God Arc.

Young Lenka Utsugi is a new recruit who suddenly finds himself in a surprise battle with said creatures, which is where is realizes that life isn’t as easy as he had hoped it to be.

3 Ajin

Ajin Demi-human Kei

Demi-humans look like humans on the outside, but they are immortal beings who can summon Invisible Black Matter as a form of weaponry. Nagai Kei is one such demi-human who has to hide who he really is, in order to save himself from the mass slaughter ordered by his government on the demi-humans.

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He is always on the run, trying new ways to hide and fend for himself. Over the course of time, Kei realizes that humans and demi-humans aren’t all that different, and that perhaps he might become the bridge between these two warring species.

2 Tokyo Ghoul

In both Tokyo Ghoul and Attack on Titan, humans are left to fend for themselves when they realize they’ve become the prey of an enemy that is not only everywhere, but also next-to-impossible to fight.

Even though people go about their regular lives in Tokyo Ghoul, the main protagonists from both the shows undergo an abnormally high amount of mental and physical trauma, witness their loved ones die in front of them and pledge to save humanity (and themselves) by accepting the inhuman part of themselves.

1 Black Bullet

Black Bullet anime characters with guns

Sometime in the future, because of a viral infection on a mass scale, humanity lives sealed off behind anti-viral walls.

A special breed of super children (with small amounts of the virus in them) pledges their support to humanity by serving the Tendo Civil Security. Their aim is to fight the creatures created by the virus, and this story revolves around young Satomi Rentaro and Enju Aihara, who have a grim and bloody future ahead of them.

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