Summary

Despite its inherent variety,animeoften revolves around modern problems or fantastical scenarios. Few shows tackle historical settings, and even fewer do so without diving into alternative histories. Nonetheless, with some digging, you may find an anime for anything.

There’s such a thing as anime for history buffs. These shows strive to tell stories of bygone eras, tackling problems that may no longer be relevant to modern audiences. While some have become historical works with age, others are modern, retrospective creations.

Mugen has messy black hair and wears a red kimono.

10Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo may not be a perfectly accurate reflection of Japan’s past, but its setting and premise are sufficiently plausible. The one-season anime is directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, creator ofCowboy Bebop, and comes with all the appeal you’d expect.

Its bright colors, stunning fight scenes, and unforgettable cast effortlessly draw you into mid-17th century Japan — the early Edo period.

Hyakkimaru wears a black and white kimono. Dororo, a young child, walks behind him.

The plot is similarly compelling, following the traditions of Akira Kurosawa’s classic samurai films. Don’t let the pop appeal fool you, though! Samurai Champloo is rooted in Japanese tradition. Its setting is more than a painted backdrop; it informs and shapes the show’s essence.

9Dororo

The first animated adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s fanciful samurai tale aired in 1969, but an updated version of Dororo — complete with more modernized character designs — was released in 2019. Both adaptations are faithful to the source material and tell the same story. Like most samurai media, Tezuka’s Dororo is set during the Sengoku Era.

Its primary characters are Hyakkimaru, a skilled ronin, and Dororo, an orphaned thief. Notably, Tezuka takes many liberties with the Sengoku setting. Hyakkimaru battles literal demons and sports advanced prosthetics. Nonetheless, the setting is an engaging — albeit whimsical — view of Japan’s rich cultural heritage.

Black Jack has a white streak in his hair and a pronounced scar running diagonally across his face. In Young Black Jack, his chin is thinner than the classic source material.

8Young Black Jack

Young Black Jack has massive shoes to fill. It is a prequel toOsamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, a sometimes fanciful medical drama. Like its famed predecessor, Young Black Jack takes some medical liberties, although it never progresses to performing surgery on a ghost, as the original manga covered twice.

However, unlike its source material, which often strayed into fanciful futurism, Young Black Jack is set against the tumult of the 1960s. The titular protagonist, Black Jack, must complete medical school and contend with a surprising amount of political drama. The Vietnam War isn’t the only historical event Black Jack witnesses; he also finds himself embroiled in the American civil rights movement.

Furuta Sasuke drinks tea. He wears a forest green kimono and has an official topknot. His small mustache is parted far to either side of his face.

7Hyouge Mono

Set against the war-torn backdrop of Japan’s Sengoku Period, Hyouge Mono follows Furuta Sasuke, a vassal of Oda Nobunaga. Notably, despite his ties to Japan’s first great unifying ruler, Furuta prefers art and exercise over war.

While the strife of the Sengoku period is a consistent thematic element, Hyouge Mono emphasizes the period’s thriving culture. Through Furuta, the series explores the period’s many artistic movements and architectural trends. In many ways, it’s an interactive art history lesson, complete with gorgeous visuals.

Jiro Horikoshi, wearing a white boater hat and light blue suit, clings to a railcar during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

6The Wind Rises

The Wind Rises was one of Hayao Miyazaki’s many “retirement” films, although it’s the only entry on the list with a grounded, historical premise.Studio Ghibli’s pastel-hued period drama is set against the backdrop of World War II.

However, rather than basking in the grit and adrenaline of a battlefield, it focuses on a romanticized version of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of Japan’s 1MF10 “Zero” fighter planes. The Wind Rises boasts all the eye candy you’d expect from a Ghibli film, and it uses those visuals to draw you into interwar Japan.

The updated design of Himura for 2023’s Rurouni Kenshin. Himura has mid-length red hair and holds a sword.

5Rurouni Kenshin

Most recently revived as a 2023 anime, Rurouni Kenshin is a vision of the opening years of Japan’s Meiji Era. While many of the show’s characters are fictional, the setting is refreshingly accurate. No demons, ghosts, monsters, or overpowered samurai run amok in Rurouni Kenshin.

The main character, Himura Kenshin, is a pacifistic roving swordsman and former assassin. Kanshin’s story is inspired by Kawakami Gensai, a famously skilled assassin of the late Edo Period. However, Kenshin’s commitment to pacifism adds a unique and thought-provoking twist to an otherwisestraightforward samurai tale.

Seita, a teenager in an Imperial Japanese army uniform, helps his younger sister, Seita, prepare for an air raid.

4Grave of the Fireflies

WhileGrave of the Firefliesis part of the Studio Ghibli lineup, it’s often omitted from many fans’ watch parties. Unlike many Ghibli films, it emphasizes realism in its plot and visual design. Its production prohibited the style’s usual exaggerated expressions, opting to use more photorealistic emotional displays instead.

Set against the backdrop of the final months of World War 2, Grave of the Fireflies tells a wholly human story of loss and grief. No magic or grit can save its characters from unrelenting fate. The film also holds the distinction of being a (mostly) faithful reproduction of Akiyuki Nosaka’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.

Thorfinn, a blond man, holds a sword.

3Barefoot Gen

Despite its outdated style, Barefoot Gen remains a harrowing work ofantiwar historical fiction. The 1983 film is a faithful retelling of Keiji Nakazawa’s manga series of the same name, which presents a slightly fictionalized account of the author’s firsthand experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Barefoot Gen doesn’t shy away from graphic violence. The bombing scene is infamous for a reason.

In more recent years, the film’s graphic, scientifically-backed renderings of the bomb’s effects have gone viral. However, the atomic bomb scene is a small slice of the film’s runtime; most of Barefoot Gen is an honest examination of Japan’s interwar imperialism and its effects on the domestic population.

2Vinland Saga

Vinland Saga, Makoto Yukimura’s epic adventure tale, has a unique setting for an anime. Instead of basing his works on Japanese history, Yukimura tackled the bloody Viking Age of Europe. The tale begins in 1013 CE England and draws from multiple contemporary accounts, including The Saga of Erik the Red.

Don’t be intimidated by the tale’s epic scale, though. Vinland Saga manages its depth by focusing on Thorfinn, a young warrior with a vengeful streak. His journey crosses paths with many historical figures and traverses countless iconic locales, including the Faroe Islands and Odense.

1In This Corner of the World

The soft pastel palette may seem strange, but it works perfectly for In This Corner of the World, a slice-of-life examination of Japan during the second world war. The period drama film spans three years — 1942–1945 — and uses a surprisingly mundane lens. The main character isn’t a soldier or orphan; she’s an aspiring artist in a (seemingly) safe location.

This relaxed premise is the cornerstone of the film, allowing you to fully engage with Kure prefecture as it was in the 1940s. The production team further emphasized the grounded premise by drawing from an extensive library of archival photos.