FEATURE: Anime to Watch if You Like The Last of Us
Are you folks enjoying the ongoing The Last of Us adaptation? The show’s mix of intimate horror, apocalyptic drama and found family charm have unsurprisingly made for a winning combination, to say nothing of the intensity provided by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. But I imagine a weekly drip feed of The Last of Us is insufficient to fully sate your ravenous hunger, and that’s precisely where I come in.
Today I’ve assembled a list of anime that all touch on at least some portion of the show’s appeal, in the hopes of either tiding you over or providing further avenues of inquiry as we hone in on whatever element of the prestige drama you like best. Let’s highlight some of the best The Last of Us-adjacent anime available now!
First off, if we’re looking for shows that offer the full The Last of Us package, the guidelines would be something like “horror-tinged post-apocalyptic travelog starring a compelling found family.” That might seem too specific to offer many results, but given anime’s vast preponderance of both apocalypses and found families, it’s actually a pretty well-represented combination. To pick just one example, Claymore is always a fun watch, centering on a warrior woman and the young boy she adopts as they roam the wasteland, seeking some answer to the plague of demons corrupting the land. If you’re in the mood for consistent action alongside the doom and gloom, it’s an easy recommendation.
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For a more melancholy, atmospheric post-apocalyptic journey, I highly recommend Casshern Sins. Though it’s technically a reboot of a much earlier franchise, Casshern Sins is entirely self-contained and offers a portrait of a dying world that’s like little else in fiction. Directed by the legendary Shigeyasu Yamauchi, the show follows the last potential savior of a world where humans were overwhelmed by robots, and robots in turn began a process of inevitable decay. In this world, Casshern is the only robot not falling to pieces, making him an object of both hope and fear to the survivors he meets. Casshern Sins is a work of staggering beauty and poignancy, a story that fully embodies the spirit of rallying against the apocalypse.
If we surrender the need for a cast in perpetual motion, we unlock a new bounty of The Last of Us-adjacent media. Found families rallying against the end of the human race can be found across anime, with some recent examples including the globally renowned Attack on Titan and the propulsive 86 EIGHTY-SIX. In both of these shows, the remnants of humanity have been pushed to the brink by some implacable, seemingly monstrous aggressor, whether in the form of Attack on Titan’s giants or 86 EIGHTY-SIX’s robot killing machines. Both also mine the fertile intersection of found family intimacy and violent horror, reveling in that mean trick of making us come to love characters just before the hammer falls. Both are fine selections if you’d rather humanity go out with a battle cry than a whimper.
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Or perhaps it is the world of The Last of Us that most allures you and you’re looking for more inventive takes on what a post-apocalypse might look like? In that case, I’d be the first to recommend Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World), which takes place in a future long after our present moment, wherein the emergence of psychic powers among human beings has necessitated the emergence of a fearful, superstitious new society, one which sees its own children as ticking time bombs. And leaning even more in the horror direction, you might also try The Promised Neverland, wherein an orphanage of children begin to suspect they’re not being adopted into loving families after all.
These recommendations have frankly been a fairly bleak selection so far, which makes sense for The Last of Us, but leaves me hankering for a little optimism to finish off the list. So let’s add some shows that celebrate the nice things in The Last of Us, like the charming relationship between its two leads. If you’re looking for more endearing quasi-father-daughter drama, your choices range from fantasy (Somali and the Forest Spirit) to adventure (Golden Kamuy) to slice of life (sweetness & lightning), with an extra helping of comedy (SPY x FAMILY) to spare. Shake off the gloom of those earlier recommendations with one of these endearing family productions and then let me know all your own favorites in the comments!
Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time or follow him on Twitter.
