If we talk about European settings, Germany may immediately spring to mind, which along with England is certainly one of the most suitable and versatile.
We can easily find, among anime set right there, stories centered on war and conflict given the country’s history.
Fairy settings are common due to the stupendous Bavarian castles, where magic plays the leading role.
So let’s immerse ourselves in these wonderful settings, where we see which are the best anime with German settings.
This list is as always based on our experience and we will update it as soon as we get new information.
Table of Contents
10. Blassreiter
Blassreiter is one of those classic sci-fi mecha anime of the 2000s that is extremely niche, that you either love or hate with no middle ground.
In a fictional, technological Germany, people are attacked by biomechanical creatures called Demoniacs, with the ability to fuse with technology but also human corpses by enhancing themselves.
Stopping them are the XATs, humans with similar abilities to the Demoniacs.
If it may seem from the storyline that this anime is for you, then start it, but if you don’t feel it is in your wheelhouse then it is probably not for you.
The setting is also not so specified. We know it’s in Germany because it’s mentioned in the anime, otherwise, it would be difficult to distinguish it without clues.
So you will understand by adding up the factors why we put it in last place.
9. Swan Lake
Based of course on Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s composition, Swan Lake is a very vintage movie released in 1981.
Set as mentioned in the movie in an alternate Germany in a strong fairy-tale key, we will see the story of the love between Prince Siegfried and Princess Odette, who is afflicted by a curse that turns her into a swan during the day.
If you are a fan of classical music, and especially Tchaikovsky, this movie will enchant you and make you feel at home.
8. The Two Lottes
A very 29-episode vintage anime with bucolic atmospheres given by the gorgeous mountains of Germany.
Luise and Lotte meet at a summer camp in the German mountains and realize that they are identical and then twins separated at birth.
The girls become friends and decide to switch places with each other so that they can each learn about the parent they never knew, and perhaps bring together their broken family.
A story for all intents and purposes from another time, both in terms of setting and character design, but of course also graphic style.
This is one of of the best anime set in the 1990s, and the German settings are also rendered very well, with a very believable result.
7. Schwarzesmarken
Schwarzesmarken is an anime that at first seems pretentious due to the unnecessarily complicated plot, but which manages to maintain consistency.
This is on the premise that you must like the mecha genre with strong political and war themes.
The story is set in an alternate Europe, where an alien race named BETA has conquered much of the land.
The last bastion remains in Germany on the east side of the Berlin Wall, where the Schwarzesmarken squadron is ready to fight on mecha units.
This show is also one of the best anime set in the 1980s that you shouldn’t sleep on.
6. Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy
Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy is a majokko anime that has passed very quietly compared to other titles but it fits perfectly into the German setting.
The main character is Saga Bergman, a little 11-year-old girl living in the fictitious German town of Muhlenberg, based on the real-life town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
One day Saga meets a dying fairy and decides to do what she can to help her, thus beginning their growing relationship.
5. Hetalia Axis Power
An anime that can be perfectly defined by one word: bizarre.
Hetalia Axis Power takes the main European forces of World War I and World War II and turns them into… people.
We will have Italy, portrayed as a clumsy, pasta-loving man, Germany as serious and irascible and Japan as silent but with bizarre interests.
We will see their relationships of love and hate, as they play a key role in the story of Hetalia Axis Powers.
The European settings, including Germany, are rendered very realistically and believably, so there is no complaint about that.
What is a moment revisable is the basic concept, which is perhaps even too bizarre.
4. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa
The direct sequel movie to the first Fullmetal Alchemist series, the one not faithful to the manga that took a path of its own. It was released in 2005.
Two years have passed since the end of the first TV series, and Edward finds himself following the events of the finale in a world similar to ours. More specifically in 1920s Germany, and is trying hard to return to Amestris.
The setting is extremely realistic and well realized, with excellent references to the country at that time, blending the fictional events of the movie with those of real life very well.
To give one example it will turn out that the villains in the movie, intent on opening a portal to Amestris believing it to be the Shambala, a mythical Buddhist realm, do so to seek power to bestow on Adolf Hitler.
This is to help him in his coup that later really happens in our story, known as Munich Putsch.
3. Saga of Tanya the Evil
Saga of Tanya the Evil is a 12-episode anime based on the light novel of the same name written by Carlo Zen. The protagonist of the story is a cynical salaryman who, after firing one of his employees, will be killed by the latter.
Finding himself facing God, not believing in it, the man for punishment will find himself catapulted into a parallel world at war in the guise of Tanya, a young girl.
He will end up in the territory called the Empire, a fictionalized version of the German Empire that existed from 1871 to 1918.
He will have to redeem himself here to have his sins forgiven. Thus begins his military career.
A real breath of fresh air for its genre, Isekai, which offers a whole new vision in a realistic war scenario and with a protagonist who is anything but heroic.
2. Princess Tutu
Princess Tutu is an anime of 26 total episodes created by Jun’ichi Sato and animated by Hal Film Maker.
Drosselmeyer is a bizarre writer who has the power to make the fairy tales he writes come to life.
In one of his fairy tales, he tells the story of Ahiru, a duck who has fallen in love with the reclusive Prince Mithos and whom the writer makes into a human girl.
Thanks to a magical pendant Ahiru can transform into Princess Tutu, a girl who uses her magical powers by dancing.
To save Mithos, who no longer has feelings, the girl-daughter will have to recover the scattered fragments of her destroyed heart using her powers.
Princess Tutu is set in Gold Crown Town, a fairy-tale version of present-day Germany, more specifically in the region of Bavaria, south of the border with Austria.
And the comparison is apt, given the nature with fairy tale elements of the place still in the present day.
Just look at the dense presence of stupendous castles in the place, capable of making anyone feel that they are in a fantasy world.
1. Monster
A 74-episode anime based on Naoki Urasawa’s masterpiece of the same name, it represents a true staple of the investigation and thriller genre.
The work follows the story of Kenzo Tenma, a renowned surgeon.
One day, he decides to rebel against his boss, thus saving a child from a fatal wound instead of the mayor of Düsseldorf, Germany, the city where the hospital is located.
Time will prove Dr. Tenma wrong as he realizes that the child he saved, Johan Liebert, has become over time a serial killer who continues to claim lives.
Nothing is taken for granted, from the twists and turns to the evolution of the characters, all the more reason not to miss this absolute masterpiece. Johan is considered no less than one of the best villains ever.
But in addition to Düsseldorf, other settings in the anime are taken from places or buildings that exist on German soil.
The Eisler Memorial Hospital, where it is set, is inspired by the Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf, an actual existing hospital in the city.
No need to mention that this series is also one of the best anime set in Europe.
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