10 best war anime that you should try

War anime often depicts the tragedy and horrors of armed conflict while also showing themes of honor, duty, and sacrifice. Some of the best war anime are gritty and realistic, while others involve supernatural elements or science fiction.

If you enjoy military fiction across mediums, these anime selections could be worthwhile watches. War anime has seen a boost in popularity in recent years. Classics like Legend of the Galactic Heroes showcase tactical space battles with rich character development.

More recent series like Attack on Titan and 86, demonstrate that the genre continues to thrive with novel stories and captivating animation. The war anime below span decades, settings, and subgenres—but all tell compelling stories of combat and its impacts.

10 unforgettable war anime that showcases combat and strategy

1) Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Image via Studio Bones)

Widely considered one of the best anime series ever made, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood delivers an emotionally charged military fantasy.

Set in a world where alchemy is an advanced science with specific rules and limitations, the show follows two brothers searching for the Philosopher's Stone to restore their bodies after a failed alchemical experiment.

They become deeply embroiled in a secret war against evil mystical forces controlling their government from the shadows. This war anime features alchemy-fueled battles, political intrigue, and war ethics as the heroes fight a corrupt regime. Its wide-spanning story with riveting characters and captivating plots ranks it among the top war anime.

2) Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies (Image via Studio Ghibli)

A devastating anti-war film as much as a war anime, Grave of the Fireflies follows two orphaned children struggling to survive the final months of World War II in Japan.

As Seita and Setsuko lose their home in an air raid and are rejected by indifferent relatives, they flee to an abandoned bomb shelter. Their worsening poverty, starvation, and increasing desperation make for an at-times excruciating viewing experience.

This war anime film brings the raw human trauma of war to the foreground. Its tone poem-like imagery lingers long in the mind as an evocation of war's horrific cost to innocent civilians.

3) Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan (Image via WIT Studio / MAPPA)

Currently ranked the most popular anime worldwide, Attack on Titan takes an original fantastical approach to wartime struggles.

Humankind hides behind enormous ringed walls protecting them from the man-eating Titans outside—gigantic humanoid monsters that devour people seemingly without reason. When the Titans finally break through the outer wall, a dark secret related to their origin comes to light.

The compelling mix of action, world-building, and mystery in Attack on Titan encompasses geopolitical warfare as well as human-on-monster battles. This war anime's later seasons reveal complex political machinations behind the wars of extinction driving the series.

4) Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Legend of the Galactic Heroes (Image via Artland)

This seminal space opera war drama dissects the ideological conflicts underpinning interstellar warfare with philosophical insight and strategic depth.

Within the Galactic Empire and opposing Free Planets Alliance, idealistic factions aim to uphold justice and democracy even amidst growing corruption. Series protagonists Reinhard von Lohengramm and Yang Wen Li are genius commanders who rise through military ranks via very different paths.

Epic fleet battle sequences and palace intrigue meld with ethical dilemmas on war, governance, loyalty, and human nature. The sheer scope of the saga, along with vibrant characterization, makes Legend of the Galactic Heroes a quintessential war anime, intricately crafted within the genre.

5) Naruto

Masashi Kishimoto's hit ninja anime franchise prominently features clan warfare and villages fighting for dominance amid various attempts at an uneasy peace.

While the narrative focus is on coming-of-age themes, the specter of war hangs across generational blood feuds, monster attacks, and attempts to capture the demon fox spirit Kurama. Protagonist Naruto Uzumaki and rival Sasuke Uchiha become embroiled in conspiracies and battles impacting ninja history.

Their character development unfolds against tensions between the major ninja villages, including the Leaf, Stone, Cloud, Mist, and Sand, as they vie for military strength and leverage in this war anime. Naruto Shippuden culminates in the Fourth Great Ninja War, showcasing both large-scale conflicts and more intimate personal combats.

6) Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (Image via Sunrise)

Set in an alternate timeline where the Holy Britannia Empire annexed Japan, now called Area 11, Code Geass follows Lelouch vi Britannia, a prince in hiding believed dead by most of the world.

He happens upon a mysterious girl named C.C. who gifts him Geass, a supernatural power granting absolute obedience to whomever he makes eye contact with. Lelouch uses his Geass through his resistance alter ego Zero to spark a revolution against his family's tyrannical, colonialist regime.

This war anime matches battles of wits with enthralling mecha fights as Lelouch leads Area 11 resistance forces with ruthless tactical brilliance.

7) Joker Game

Spies play vital shadow war roles often overlooked in history. Joker Game illuminates Japan's pre-WWII spy agency training operatives scattered in units across East Asia to gather intelligence affecting the future Axis powers. Its noir tones mirror the intricate tradecraft and psychological manipulation of espionage.

While little prolonged battlefield combat occurs during the series, this war anime nonetheless highlights wartime's moral quagmires regarding the ends justifying means among spies wielding secrets like weapons to indirectly swing campaigns' outcomes to their nation's advantage.

Watching the D Agency covert agents applying their unusual skill sets proves fascinating in itself.

8) Arslan Senki (The Heroic Legend of Arslan)

Arslan Senki (The Heroic Legend of Arslan) (Image via Liden Films)

In this epic fantasy anime, the crown prince Arslan barely escapes capture when an enemy nation overtakes his ruling kingdom of Pars (based on ancient Persia). After fleeing the occupied capital with Daryun, Arslan gathers allies to form a resistance army.

Arslan Senki follows Arslan coming into his own as a leader and warrior amid thrilling battles contrasting the cultures and martial strengths of Pars, which follows a Zoroastrian-inspired religion centered around the god Mitra, and Lusitania (Turkey/Byzantine-inspired).

Though outmatched, Arslan perseveres with courage and compassion—showing personal growth befitting the heroic moniker in this war anime.

9) 86

A chilling mix of sci-fi and anti-war drama, 86 unfolds in a dystopian future nation sending unmanned combat drones to the front lines, representing the marginalized "Colorata" people denied civil rights within society.

Distance drone piloting keeps the privileged uninvolved in the carnage—until we meet Shin, an ace pilot already part of the infantry squadron 86 comprising former Colorata work camp inmates sentenced as expendable grunts on suicide missions.

Both the systemic institutional discrimination driving the branded "Eighty Sixers" to their doom and the extremist militancy Shin's team adopts to strike back are questioned in this war anime. 86 offers no easy answers, only tragic mech battles in a world trapped in endless war.

10) Vinland Saga

Vinland Saga (Image via WIT Studio/MAPPA)

This medieval Nordic epic chronicles the rise of 11th-century Danish conqueror Canute, whose northern raider gangs and eventual hired armies, consolidate control over England following its conquest by his father, the legendary King Sweyn Forkbeard.

Protagonist Thorfinn seeks personal violent retribution upon Askeladd's band for murdering his father. Events soon sweep the revenge-obsessed child soldier into the currents of Scandinavian succession struggles and King Canute's emergence as a complex, visionary leader in this war anime.

With impactful character development set against North Sea raids and pre-Norman England invasions, Vinland Saga shows war's transformational effects on individuals and cultures colliding amid the volatile Viking expansion era that birthed fledgling kingdoms.

Conclusion

War anime continues upholding a compelling niche within the animation medium for its dramatic depictions of combat's physical and moral tolls.

Whether your tastes run more towards action, military tactics, or thought-provoking anti-war themes, series like Attack On Titan, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Naruto, and beyond demonstrate the storytelling potential of war anime.

As animation technology and narrative sophistication advance, fans can expect upcoming war anime selections to break fresh ground.