Human experimentation has been a crude reality throughout history, especially after the horrors of World War 2. Some anime use this theme to show how harsh the world can be and where the human mind can get at its lowest.
Experiments are usually secreted and include the replacement of body parts or exposure to special substances to develop powers or abilities. Famous examples include Akira and Elfen Lied, where they play a vital role in the plot.
This listicle includes the best anime with human experiments according to our knowledge, we will add more as soon as there are new ones.
Table of Contents
13. Charlotte
The setting of Charlotte is that of a world in which a small percentage of the teenage population can develop special powers.
Among them is Yuu Otosaka, a high school student, who keeps his mind-control power hidden.
A character called Kazuki can control sound vibrations and because of that is captured by a group of scientists. He is subjected to many painful off-screen experiments made to exploit his ability and this experience leaves him scarred.
He becomes a shell of his former self and his sister Nao Tomori will dedicate herself to making sure that people don’t use their powers irresponsibly because of that.
12. Ray the Animation
This is a Science-Fiction anime that premiered in 2006.
The main character is a young girl called Ray. She grew up in an illegal site in charge of breeding living organ donors.
Because of this, she is deprived of her eyes which, however, are restored thanks to the intervention of the mysterious doctor B.J.
What she does not know is that those eyes will now allow her to see in x-rays, an ability she will use in the future as a nurse.
11. A.I.C.O.: Incarnation
The plot is set in a near-future where an accident called The Burst breaks out in a Japanese facility, originating a rapidly expanding substance called Matter.
This Matter is hostile and is kept under control by military forces who are trying to prevent it from reaching the ocean.
The main character is a girl called Aiko Tachibana, who was rescued from the matter and now is slowly recovering. A new guy at her school named Yuuya Kanzaki starts pointing out to her many inconsistencies about her body, such as her ability to never get injured.
He believes that there is more to her existence than she has been led to believe and that she alone would be able to put an end to The Burst.
The couple will try to get to the bottom of things while all the authorities are actively hunting them down.
10. Kiznaiver
This anime is set in the fictional city of Sugomori, which has seen its population dwindling for years.
High school student Katsuhira Agata is invited by mysterious classmate Noriko Sonosaki into the Kizuna System. It’s an incomplete system for the realization of world peace that allows connected people called Kiznaivers to share their hurts and pain with others like them.
The plot doesn’t feature actual experiments on human bodies but it is more focused on a social experiment. The Kizuna System is made to find a way to reduce conflicts by trying to put people in a condition where they can understand the struggles of others.
The main goal is to achieve world peace because nobody will inflict pain on others if they can feel it themselves.
9. Killing Bites
This is a 12-episode anime aired in 2018. Nomoto Yuuya is a high schooler who, one night, is forced by some boys to drive someplace and pick up a female student.
This soon turns out to be a mistake because the girl, Hitomi Uzaki, is a hybrid who slaughters everyone except Nomoto.
Turns out Hitomi is been experimented on and her DNA fused with one of an animal to make her one of the most powerful creatures alive.
Nomoto will be forced to host her because she represents one of the most important corporations in the country. Hitomi will have to participate in a battle-royal tournament against different beasts representing other companies.
8. ReLIFE
ReLIFE is an incredibly underrated anime released in 2016 in 13 episodes with Sci-Fi and drama themes and an excellent school setting.
Arata Kaizaki is a 27-year-old unemployed man whose life is slowly falling apart.
However, one day, he encounters Ryou Yoake, a researcher who offers him a special developing drug that can turn back time to when he was 17 years old, as a part of a human experiment. This opportunity changes Arata’s life instantly.
Arata relives the best years of his life and rediscovers the joy of life and love, mainly thanks to Chizuru Hishiro, his high school crush.
ReLIFE is an excellent anime, which manages to combine several different themes incredibly well.
It is a story of revenge, with a clear message: it’s never too late to take control of your life and start anew.
7. Gunslinger Girl
This anime set in Italy is based on the premise that a Social Welfare Agency rescues young girls from the hospital and on the brink of death, giving them a second chance at life.
This however comes at the cost of having their bodies artificially enhanced by drugs and cybernetic advancements. The girls will also be brainwashed and used to do the Government’s dirty work.
The abused main characters will have to struggle to understand who they really are and try to discern their true feelings from the ones manufactured by the Government that controls them.
6. The Promised Neverland
The setup for this series is as simple as it is frightening, and indeed we consider it as one of the best anime that only gets darker. Humans and Demons ended a long war by coming to an agreement named The Promise.
According to this agreement, humans and demons won’t invade each other worlds but demons will have to be granted a steady supply of food in the form of human flesh.
The humans will be bred in these fake orphanages. A human Mother would make sure that the children would grow up and then be adopted, meaning they will be fed to high-ranking demons.
We are told this story from the point of view of three children who are living in one of these orphanages, the Grace Field House. They will slowly unravel the chilling mystery of the place where they grew up in.
In the demon world, there are other types of establishments where they are performing experiments on the kids. The final goal is to create higher quality human livestock in a faster and more efficient way.
5. Akira
Akira is a 1988 Japanese movie set in a dystopian 2019.
In the ’80s the city of Tokyo has been destroyed by a boy with mysterious psychic powers and the government is forced to take him into custody as World War III rages on.
In 2019 the Japanese capital has been rebuilt into a new city called Neo-Tokyo and it is riddled with crime, violence, and acts of terrorism.
Tetsuo Shima, a member of a criminal gang is starting to develop weird abilities after a mysterious encounter. The government seeks to capture him to prevent another destructive accident like the one that destroyed the original city of Tokyo.
The Project was an experiment to help humans develop psychic abilities. One of those test subjects will have prominent importance in the plot of Akira and you will see why.
4. Saikano
Saikano is an anime aired in the summer of 2002.
The main characters are seemly two regular high school students named Chise and Suuji. They live in a small town in the Hokkaido region and enjoy their time together.
One day Suuji went to Sapporo with his friend and at that moment he witnesses a huge raid on the city that marks the beginning of a war.
He tries to flee from the city when he bumps into Chise who now has got steel wings and a massive gun in place of her right arm.
Turns out she has been transformed into a cyborg and is now basically a living weapon. This will put her relationship with Suuji under pressure.
They both will have to figure out how to survive this condition and how to protect the humanity still inside her.
3. Elfen Lied
Elfen Lied is a very popular anime from the early 2000s.
The story begins in a base where experiments are conducted on beings called Diclonius. They are capable of creating weapons that resemble arms capable of destroying a human being’s body from the inside.
The main character named Lucy is a Diclonius and she manages to escape from one of the labs by exploiting the incompetence of the guards. Just as she is about to leave the base for good, she receives a violent blow to the head, causing her to fall from a cliff into the sea.
The injury will cause her to develop a split personality which will be very important for the plot and for the way Lucy is perceived by the other characters of the show.
2. Ajin
Aijin is an anime aired between 2016 and 2019. It’s set in a world where mysterious immortal humans known as Ajin are considered a threat to society and are hunted down by authorities all around the world.
The protagonist Kei Nagai is a high school boy who survives a near-death experience and finds out to be an Ajin himself. He is forced to radically change his life and survive on the run from the entire world.
The frightening bit about this anime is the black ghosts, very dangerous entities that can be summoned by other Aijins. These creatures are resistant to physical injury, have extraordinary physical strength, and display sharp teeth and claws.
At some point, Kei will be captured by the government and he will be the subject of studies and human experiments. The goal is to understand what made him turn into a supernatural creature and what are his powers.
1. Terror in Resonance
This short anime was released in 2014 and stands out for being one of the best thriller anime ever made.
Tokyo is under attack, and a group calling itself Sphinx has begun planting explosive devices around the city. To prevent the bombs from exploding they pose riddles via the Internet and challenge the police to solve them.
Nobody knows who these so-called Sphinx are and why they act in such a way. Will the police be able to keep them at bay? The plot will answer this very question.
The protagonists are two orphan children called Nine and Twelve and are the survivors of human experiments done to turn them into literal human weapons.
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