Most casual fans may not know this, but a vast majority of anime that they see being adapted on screen actually originates from manga or light novels. Manga are Japanese comics that are always published in black and white. Light novels are basically books, which are also published in Japanese. Both are extremely popular among Japanese fans.

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Often, popular manga are the ones that get adapted into anime. However, sometimes Japanese studios stray away from popular notions and create original anime, aka shows with no manga. Here’s a look at 10 such anime.

10 Violet Evergarden

Violet Evergarden

Violet is a teenage girl, an orphan trained from her childhood to be a child soldier. Always treated as an expendable weapon, Violet has never known what kindness and love are. After the war ends, she finds herself working at the CH Postal Services.

Here, she decides to work as an Auto Memory Doll. Violet finally can make new friends, help people find the words to express themselves, and is also able to get in touch with her emotions.

9 Promare

Promare burnish fire

In Promepolis (which is set in an alternate reality), its citizens are terrorized by a group of terrorists who call themselves the Mad Burnish. Galo Thymos is part of the Burning Rescue squad, whose only aim is to capture as many terrorists as possible.

One day, Galo can capture the leader of the Mad Burnish group, Lio Fotia. Thus begins his journey of discovering a side of the "truth" he had never known before.

8 Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop (1998)

Set a few decades in the future, this sci-fi action anime occurs in a world where the Earth is uninhabitable. Cowboys are bounty hunters who sometimes evade the law and sometimes help it to survive.

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Aboard the Bebop spaceship is the carefree Spike Spiegel and his older partner Jet Black. Their space travels always land them in some trouble or the other, and sometimes results in the boarding of some very troublesome passengers as well!

7 Death Parade

Decim with a blank expression In Death Parade

When people die, their souls go to a concrete bar named Quindecim. Their actions there decide whether they will be reincarnated or be sent to the void. Forced to play games where they literally bet their lives on the outcome, people often bring out the worst in themselves.

Observing everything quietly are Decim and his group of supernatural friends. Every action, reaction (or lack thereof) of each soul is judged, and then he gives his final verdict.

6 Code Geass

Code Geass lelouch

The Empire of Britannia rules over Japan, treating the natives as second class citizens in their own nation. Young Lelouch loathes the Britannian Empire and promises his friend Suzaku that he would find a way to obliterate the empire.

Help comes in the form of a supernatural ability called Geass, which helps Lelouch make people do anything he wishes. So he dons the identity of a vigilante named Zero and vows Japan's independence from the clutches of the Britannian empire.

5 Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Madoka Kaname had a terrible dream, which she instantly dismisses as she wakes up. However, when she sees the girl from her dream (Homura) in her high school and receives a mysterious warning from her, she becomes worried.

Then appears a supernatural creature that introduces them to the world of magical girls, where the girls can become magical girls themselves! There is a catch: they must fight and kill all witches that harm the human world.

4 Tiger & Bunny

Tiger & Bunny Kotetsu T. Kaburagi barnaby

In an alternate reality in a city named Stern Bild City, superheroes are as normal as regular humans. Called NEXT, these heroes often make appearances on TV to boost their rankings in the world of superheroes.

The old but carefree Kotetsu T. Kaburagi is paired with the younger but very serious Barnaby Brooks Jr. Their sponsors force them to work together to earn better ratings, but can the duo make their pairing last?

3 Durarara!!

Durarara Anime

Tokyo’s district of Ikebukuro might seem calm and peaceful on the surface, but there’s a war brewing beneath that very surface. For starters, literal gang wars are happening, which also involve teenage boys in them!

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Then there are rumors of a headless black shadow that has allegedly been seen riding a bike. Of course, none of this would be complete without humans' existence with supernatural strength and the inability to feel any pain. So, what exactly is this city?

2 Kyousou Giga

Kyousou Giga

Myoue had the ability to bring his drawings to life, which caused him and his family a lot of trouble. They escaped to one of his own worlds, called Looking Glass City. One day, his children wake up to find their parents disappear off the face of the earth.

The arrival of a mysterious girl named Koto only adds to their woes since she insists on meeting the now disappeared Myoue and refuses to leave till she meets him.

1 Aldnoah.Zero

Aldnoah.Zero

Humanity now lives on two planets – Earth and Mars. There is an uneasy peace alliance between the inhabitants of both the planets. 15 years after the peace treaty was signed, Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia of Mars was saved from an assassination attempt by Earthling Inaho Kaizuka.

Since the attempted assassination took place on Earth, the peace treaty between the two worlds is now shattered. It is now up to Inaho and Princess Allusia to stop both planets from destroying each other.

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