BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense — the title says it all. A show featuring a young girl’s first trip into a virtual MMO she knows nothing about. Since getting hurt sounds bad, she just puts all of her stat points into defense, quickly breaking the game and becoming the most powerful player on the server.
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It’s an absurd comedy that uses its premise for hijinks and comfy slice-of-life adventures just as much as it focuses on fighting dragons or battling other players. The show borrows tropes from isekai, overpowered protagonist stories, and high school comedies to produce a unique viewing experience.
10My Next Life As A Villainess
Catarina Claes may not be especially powerful in combat (in fact, she’s pretty terrible at magic), but her strength comes from knowledge. She’s been reincarnated into her favorite otome game as the villain, and so she knows all the flags that trigger her death or exile.
In working on trying and avoiding those flags, she accidentally and unknowingly becomes the romantic lead for pretty much every named character of any gender. While it occasionally introduces some element of danger, Catarina’s cluelessness is too strong for the show to get serious for long.
9Infinite Dendrogram
The year is 2043, and the first-ever full-dive virtual reality MMO has just been released. Infinite Dendrogram promises to perfectly replicate the experience of living in a fantasy world.
New player Reiji Mukudori enters the game and, receiving help from his more experienced older brother Shuu, sets out to explore the world and learn more about how to master the game and understand himself. It’s a show that celebrates the joy and escapism of video games as well as the fun of exploration and mystery.
8The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious
New goddess Ristarte has been tasked with saving an extremely dangerous world from a Demon Lord. She makes sure to summon a hero who is strong enough for the challenge. While Seiya Ryuuguuin more than meets those criteria, he has a crippling flaw of being cautious to the point of inaction.
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Seiya even refuses to enter this new world’s safe zones until he has over-leveled to the point of removing any challenge. It’s a goofball isekai comedy that pokes fun at overpowered hero tropes.
7I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years And Maxed Out My Level
Similarly explanatory in its title, this show is more isekai than VRMMO but still functions on similar RPG mechanics. Azusa Aizawa died from exhaustion in the real world and has been reincarnated as an immortal, unaging witch who just wants to live a relaxing life.
She lives a simple life killing slimes to get by, but after doing so for 300 years, she has inadvertently become one of the most powerful beings in the world. Her power will soon shake the world and allow Azusa to make some new friends.
6Solo Leveling
In a world where strange portals regularly appear that lead to monster-filled dungeons, people blessed with special powers must enter those dungeons and kill the boss before the portal fully opens and the monsters enter the real world.
Still scheduled to release later this year,Solo Levelingis an upcoming anime adaptation based on the hit Korean webcomic. It focuses on Sung Jin-Woo, a low-ranked hunter who, through a tragic accident, will be granted the ability to raise his level — something no other hunter can do. With seemingly no limit on this growth, just how strong will he get, and what effect will that have on the world?
5Sword Art Online
The godfather of VRMMO anime,Sword Art Online, may not have been the first show to place its heroes in a video game, but it grabbed the public consciousness like no other. When players enter Sword Art Online on launch day, they soon discover that they have been trapped in the game by its developer Akihiko Kayaba.
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If you die in the game, you die in real life. Fortunately for Kirito, he was a beta tester and uses his knowledge to gain unimaginable power.
4Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online
Set in the VRMMO world of one of Sword Art Online’s sequel series, GGO focuses on a more standard virtual world fantasy experience. Karen Kohiruimaki has always had an issue with her height.
Being so much taller than other girls, she struggled to make connections in school. When she decides to try out Gun Gale Online, she is thrilled to find out that her avatar is the adorable short girl she’s always wanted to be.
Ainz Ooal Gown is the most powerful evil guild in the Dive MMO YGGDRASIL. On the day the game’s servers will be shut down, guildmaster Momonga sits in the guild hall waiting to be forcibly logged out. When the time comes, nothing happens.
Then, hediscovers that he cannot log out, and the NPCs that served his guild are now moving autonomously and seem to have developed personalities and desires of their own. Momonga will have to now lead Ainz Ooal Gown for real without revealing he was just a nerdy gamer the whole time.
2That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime
As far as overpowered RPG-style abilities go,That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime’sprotagonist Rimiru Tempest may have the best one. Reincarnated after being stabbed to death in the real world, Rimiru’s last thoughts turn into commands that grant him incredible durability and unique skills in his new life.
The greatest of these is Predator, which allows him to devour any being and claim its abilities. After devouring a dragon (it’s okay, they wanted to), Rimiru suddenly has access to an incredible wealth of magical power and will use that strength to build up a home for monsters like himself.
1Rising Of The Shield Hero
Rising of the Shield Herotakes a more earnest approach to the protagonist, who’s all about defense. Naofumi Iwatani has been summoned to a fantasy world as one of the four Cardinal Heroes. He is charged with building a party and gaining strength to defend the world from strange monsters.
Unfortunately, while the other three heroes get cool weapons, Naofumi just gets a shield, and this world thinks the Shield Hero is kind of lame. Alone and ostracized, Naofumi will have to figure out how to survive in this new world and prove that the shield has strength, unlike the other heroes.
