Looking for some great anime to watch when taking a break from your favorite game? Here are a few recommendations you might enjoy.

Gaming and Anime are two things that mesh together so well, specifically with their similarities in rich story-telling and lovable, relatable characters. If you're looking for Anime that focuses on gaming, is set in games, or is about gamers, then read on!

.hack//Sign

A classic isekai and the oldest Anime in the list, .hack//Sign is about a boy named Tsukasa who has found himself in a dungeon in the newest MMORPG The World. However, he suffers from amnesia and is unsure how he ended up in the game. Tsukasa embarks on a quest to find the truth– and finds that he is trapped and cannot log out.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Set in a dystopian world overrun by corruption, crime, and cybernetic implants, a talented yet impulsive David Martinez resolves to survive by becoming a high-tech, black market mercenary known as an “edgerunner”.

The show serves as a prequel to the hit 2020 game Cyberpunk 2077.

Hi Score Girl

Revolving around the 90’s arcade games craze, 6th grader Haruo Yaguchi, who sees himself as the best of the best at playing arcade games, is dead set on being a professional gamer; a career that has yet to be proven as a viable dream.

However, a defeat in Street Fighter 2 against his fellow prim and proper classmate, Akira Oono, severely wounds his pride and ego. And thus, a rivalry blooms between the two.

Log Horizon

30,000 Japanese gamers suddenly find themselves transported into the world of the biggest and most successful MMORPG Elder Tale after logging in to play its latest update. Now, an awkward Shiroe, along with friends Naotsugu and Akatsuki, must face their new reality as a team.

If you think Sword Art Online is the standard, then Log Horizon just might prove you wrong.

New Game!

Designing video game characters has always been Aoba Suzukaze’s dream since her youth. And now as a fresh graduate, Suzukaze begins to work as a character designer for the game developer Eagle Jump.

The show focuses on the ins and outs of game development, with a little slice-of-life on the side!

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

After suffering from a minor head injury caused by a fall, the young Katarina Claes regains her memories of her past life as a 17-year old otaku girl. It’s then that she realizes that she reincarnated into the world of the Otome game Fortune Lover…as the ill-fated villainess!

Now, Katarina must do whatever it takes to avoid all her doom flag lest she suffer exile, or even worse-- death.

My Love Story with Yamada-Kun at Level 999

College student Akane Kinoshita faces heartbreak when she finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with a girl he met in an online game. Seeking comfort, she logs into the MMORPG Forest of Savior to cry about her misfortune to fellow guildmate “Yamada” – only to be ignored.

However, this isn’t the last of Akane’s fateful encounters with Yamada. She begins fostering closer relationships with her guild, and in turn, inches ever closer into Yamada’s heart.

NieR: Automata ver 1.1a

Based on Yoko Taro’s enigmatic game, NieR: Automata, the anime retells the ill-fated story of YoRHA androids 2B and 9S in a ravaged post-apocalyptic Earth.

The first season of the anime features the first attainable ending in the game, but with a more fleshed out storyline which includes the tragic past of Lily, a local resistance leader with ties to the Pearl Harbor Descent.

Part 2 will come out on 5 July.

No Game, No Life

Hikikimori siblings Sora and Shino, who are known as the undefeatable gaming group Blank, are challenged to a game of chess by the god of another world named Tet. Upon attaining victory, the duo are summoned into the world of Disboard, an alternate reality where all matters are decided through games.

Taking up the challenge, Sora and Shiro will do whatever it takes to rise up the ranks, and ultimately become the gods of Gaming.

The best anime titles to watch if you’re a gamer