Follow TV Tropes

Following

Better Than It Sounds / Anime and Manga H to K
aka: Anime And Manga H-K

Go To

Please sort new titles alphabetically to avoid double-entries.


  • Haganai: Several students with social issues team up to find friends.
  • Haibane Renmei: Dead children are trained to be angels in a walled city.
    • Haruki Murakami crossover fic with winged little girls hatched from cocoons and a train.
  • Haikyuu!!: A Fiery Redhead with Height Angst joins the boys volleyball team, but as it turns out, his mortal enemy is his best teammate. The sport is also taken very seriously.
  • Hajime no Ippo: A young man gets famous for getting hit in the face a lot.
  • Hal: Guy thinks he's a robot because his girlfriend died.
  • Hamtaro: A rodent shows off his mad skills.
  • Hana-Kimi: A girl cross-dresses and enters an all-boys boarding school on the other side of the world in order to hang out with a guy she's seen on TV but never met. She doesn't do a very good job of keeping her gender a secret, accidentally makes another boy think he's gay, and somehow ends up sleeping in the same bed as said idol an improbable number of times. UST ensues.
  • Hanamaru Kindergarten: It's like Kodomo no Jikan but the girls are going to kindergarten.
  • Hands Off!: Pretty boy moves in with Grandfather and seemingly germaphobe cousin. Finds out he has psychic powers. Uke and cousin, along with boisterous friend, become impromptu detectives. Labeled as comedic drama. Should be labeled incestuous boy-love.
  • Happiness: A show about magical schoolgirls, where the most popular character is a crossdresser.
  • Haré+Guu: A boy gets eaten by a monster. An alcoholic young woman adopts a cute little girl. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Haruka Nogizaka's Secret: A high school girl is secretly an otaku. The boy dates her but keeps telling everyone that She's Not My Girlfriend; nobody believes him.
  • Hataraki Man: The story of a workaholic.
  • Haunted Junction: The Student Council President of a haunted high school wants to quit and can't.
  • Hayate × Blade: Hyperactive skirt-chasing sword-mistress collects stars for a living.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler: A young bum works for a bitchy but cute midget. He's very good at his job.
    • Or: Rich girl falls for attempted kidnapper.
  • Heaven's Design Team: An office gofer who was literally born yesterday learns about zoology from an old man obsessed with horses, a goth girl with a weird idea of what constitutes "cute", a flamboyant trans woman, a Gentle Giant, a pragmatic nerd, a gourmet, and a hot-headed lady engineer.
  • Hellsing: Vampire Nazis decide to reenact World War II, and the Catholic Church decides to give the Crusades another go. Dracula objects sternly. Most of the cast are expies of hentai characters.
  • Hell Girl: The path to hell is paved with the internet.
  • Hello Kitty: Apple Forest and the Parallel Town: A cat and a fairy end up in an alternate universe where everybody is an elf. A bad guy captures the cat's sister and makes her lick magic lollipops. He ends up defeated because apples contained the power to defeat him all along.
  • Heroic Age: 3 warring groups which are in no way reminiscent of Starcraft pay way too much attention to the rule-book.
  • Heroman: American teenage boy (probably) repairs a broken toy robot and uses it to fight against 7ft tall alien Cockroaches.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers: Flamboyant gourmand gains powerful friends and proves himself useless.
    • Alternately: History in manga form.
    • Alternately: Walking ethnic stereotypes and their relations with one another play out the course of human history from the Ancient Roman Empire to World War II to present time. With extra gay.
  • Hidamari Sketch: Daily happenings at an art school.
    • OR: Four cute high-school girls who live in the same apartment building.
  • High School D×D: A guy dies in the first episode and is reborn as a devil. He wants a harem but doesn't know he already has one.
  • Highschool of the Dead: Improbable Jiggle Physics ensue as high school students survive a Zombie Apocalypse.
    • Or, High School Students try to survive Zombie Apocalypse. Instead, they are too busy being High School students with overly complicated love lives.
    • Or, a lovesick young man, his girlfriend, a lady samurai, a rich genius, her hapless chubby boyfriend, the school nurse, and a Tagalong Kid fight the living dead.
    • Alternately, The Walking Dead the Fanservice-laden anime.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry: A ragtag bunch of True Companions are broken horribly and put themselves back together with The Power of Friendship.
    • Or: Bunch of gamers kill their friends in increasingly horrific ways. Fanservice tropes ensue.
    • Or: Harem comedy anime (supposedly) about a guy who wears a dress a lot. Then the series decides it wants to be horror.
    • Or: Little girl with a drinking problem and one week to live who thinks that a god talks to her travels between towns in the countryside trying to fix things, usually failing horribly.
    • Or: Killer girls and time warps.
    • Or: A bunch of girls of various ages are in a club with a guy where everyone plays games and wears fan service-y outfits. Everyone dies repeatedly, and then they are saved by The Power of Friendship.
    • Or: Viewers get Mind Screwed while the writers show that lying is bad.
    • Spirited Away Chapter: Boy thinks his potential love interests are trying to kill him, so he kills them.
    • Eye Opening Arc: A girl kills almost everyone important to her because her twin sister wasn't given a doll.
    • The Grand Finale: A bunch of murderers, a Yakuza princess, a pedophile, a suspicious guy, a kungfu master, and the villain from the sequel (sorta) go up against a nurse. She loses.
    • Embarrassment Chapter: A bunch of girls run around a pool trying to pants the local bishi. Come to think of it, is there any more to it than that?
    • Penalty Loving Chapter: Boy dreams he's a pervert. Inception ensues.
    • Umineko: When They Cry: Three years later, a filthy rich family with no relation to the previous cast gathers on an island to decide how to split their inheritance.
      • Or: Guy tries to prove that magic doesn't exist while playing a dangerous game with his family.
      • Or: People argue over the genre of the work. Then they die. Then they argue some more. Then the fans start yelling at each other in rather colorful language.
      • Or: Guy tries to prove to a witch that she doesn't exist.
      • Or: Try and solve this murder mystery. In the meantime, enjoy this documentary on the mating rituals and dominance hierarchies of the common troll.
  • Hikaru no Go: Boy becomes possessed, then plays a board game.
  • Hime-chan's Ribbon: A girl gets to borrow a ribbon for a year. Romance ensues.
  • His and Her Circumstances: Over-achieving girl meets over-achieving boy. Together, they learn how to under-achieve.
  • Homunculus: A head injury causes a man to hallucinate. For Science!!
  • Honey and Clover: Young male goes to University and fails to get laid.
  • Horus: Prince of the Sun: A boy and his pet bear get roped into killing the devil. Meanwhile, a girl who said boy acts kindly to, tries to turn his whole village against him several times. They're still friends at the end.
  • Hoshin Engi: An evil fox seduces the emperor of China, lazy guy with a bunny hat is sent to stop her along with his flying hippo.
  • Hotarubi no Mori e: A little girl gets lost in a forest and is repeatedly hit on the head by a mask wearing boy she can't touch. Romance ensues.
  • Hot Gimmick: Jerk with glasses blackmails a girl into becoming his slave. Not in that way, you pervert.
  • Houkago Play: A gamer and his abusive girlfriend bum around in his room making obscure game references and fueling their UST.
  • Howl's Moving Castle: An old woman breaks into a con man's house. Romance ensues.
  • How to Keep a Mummy: A man sends a horror movie monster to his son in this cute story.
  • Hozuki-san Chi no Aneki: A high-school student is really, really, really in love with his step-sister. This becomes the source of her constant amusement.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure: A Corrupt Corporate Executive is trying to cause The End of the World as We Know It. He is opposed by a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits; a cheerleader, a would-be actress, a washed-up ice skater, a talking hamster, and a magical baby.
  • Hunter × Hunter: Boy passes the world's most grueling license exam, then uses a fishing pole to fight an evil clown, a band of shady mercenaries, and other maniacs.
    • Or maybe this: Two boys take an exam; one flunks it and the other barely passes. Then, they go beat up some handicapped people, hang out with gangsters, play an ultra-violent video game, and stomp on an ant colony.
  • Hybrid × Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia: Boy helps fight against extra-dimensional invasion by getting to third base with his female teammates.
  • I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying: Married couple discusses their differing hobbies.
  • IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix: Giant robot racing league.
    • IGPX microseries: War-games involving cat brain.
  • Ikki Tousen: Ancient Chinese military leaders reincarnated as modern Japanese high school girls. Nudity ensues.
  • I'll (Generation Basket): Japanese guys play basketball. Then they play some more.
  • Immortal Rain: Howl's Moving shoujo Trigun.
  • I My Me! Strawberry Eggs: A Gym teacher crossdresses to prevent his dog from being shot.
  • Infinite Stratos: Boy gets no respect from female peers, even when he can pilot mechasuits that only females can use
  • Initial D: Sleep-deprived tofu delivery boy in a 20-year-old Toyota compact outdrives pro racers in much more expensive machines. Police are... nowhere to be found.
  • Interspecies Reviewers: A man, an elf and an angel tag along to review brothels themed around certain species of monster girls.
    • Alternatively: Top Gear (UK) but with brothels instead of cars.
  • Interstella 5555: The most popular band in the world opposes their manager without talking.
    • Or: It’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” in reverse!
    • Or: It's what happens when a Widget Series and a WTF series are collided at high velocity.
  • Inumimi: A guy's Unwanted Harem consists of his dogs. This is in no way creepy.
  • Inuyasha: Teenage girl collects jewelry with her boyfriend, whose late dad is a real son of a bitch.
    • Or: Girl breaks a giant pearl. 70% of what follows is filler, and another 5% is flashbacks.
  • Iono the Fanatics: A European queen goes to Japan to recruit a lesbian harem.
  • IRIA: Zeiram the Animation: A young woman adjusts to a stressful new career and pursues a vendetta against a man with a really big hat.
  • Irresponsible Captain Tylor: Military officials assign a man to share a ship with crazy people (including Jason Voorhees) in hopes that he'll get killed. Hilarity Ensues.
  • I"s: Guy takes three years to tell his high school crush how he feels. She says she's felt the same way the whole time. Then he dumps her. They get back together after he's beaten into a coma.
  • Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Young adventurer tries to form a harem. Then he decides that he'd rather be a hero when girls start falling for him. It's best known for an article of clothing.
  • Is This A Zombie?: Male zombie becomes a Magical Girl and shares his house with three females: A Cute Mute Necromancer, a Magical Girl, and a Vampire Ninja.
  • Jewelpet: Annoyingly bright and colorful kids' franchise about animals who suck at magic and whose eyes are rocks.
    • Jewelpet (2009): A magical rabbit arrives late at an important event. This makes her a chosen hero. She has to room with a loser, catch potentially lethal tiny creatures who have jewels for eyes and save humans from becoming stoned by a chibi Maine Coon cat.
    • Jewelpet Twinkle☆: In this often misspelled anime, the same magical rabbit needs to find a girl that'll attend school with her. Her immediate choice is another loser. They spend their time growing balls for a high-competition school tournament and stopping a literally raging crossdresser from reading a book.
    • Jewelpet Sunshine: Strange things happen in an already Extranormal Institute on a daily basis. Incest and bestiality are important plot points.
    • Jewelpet Kira☆Deco!: Small furry decorators are caught in the crossfire between a typical but innerly screwed up Five-Man Band and their nerdy archnemesis.
    • Jewelpet the Movie: Sweets Dance Princess: Small animals stop a giant angsty dessert from destroying the world.
    • Jewelpet Happiness: Child labor gets you friends.
    • Lady Jewelpet: A girl is kidnapped and forced to conform to an outdated ideal of femininity.
    • Jewelpet: Magical Change: There's a giant, leaning castle of jewels in the middle of Japan. The heroes ignore it, then complain when it almost falls over.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Life is hard for people with similar-sounding names.
    • Phantom Blood - A young man gets help from a well-dressed Italian gentleman to beat up his adopted brother, using wine and breathing techniques.
      • Kid has a horrible childhood. When he grows up he solves everything by punching.
      • A rivalry between brothers as they grow up escalates into the death of one-third of a town they ultimately take the feud to.
    • Battle Tendency - A young man and his friend face old men, using oil, soap bubbles and balls as their weapons. The Nazis lend a hand.
      • Street smart kid and a Nazi kill scientists.
      • Two muscular young men travel across the globe to fight against a gay couple and their adopted son.
      • A street punk who beats up cops using cola gathers a bunch of people who have nothing in common with each other to prevent Aztec male strippers from having dinner.
    • Stardust Crusaders - A man in a new suit prevents mamas boy's mother from boring suburban life. Boy retaliates angrily.
      • Or: To prevent his mother from dying of an illness, a teenager, his grandfather, their dog, a school classmate, and two random people travel across two continents to find a cure. They ultimately save her life but leave dozens, if not hundreds, dead in their wake. For some reason, the teenager's father is completely uninvolved in this incident despite being alive, and very little mention is made of him.
    • Diamond is Unbreakable - A group of teenagers kinkshame a man who wants to lead a quiet life.
      • A group of delinquents try to stop David Bowie or The Daily Lives of High School Boys, Guest Starring David Bowie.
    • Golden Wind - Effeminate mobsters plan to kill their boss.
      • A gang tries to kill a homeless schizophrenic who wants to be left alone.
    • Stone Ocean - A marine biologist's rebellious daughter adjusts to her new home. The Miami Dolphins make a guest appearance.
      • Alternatively: A bunch of people in Florida are given superpowers. Florida being Florida, the universe is destroyed as a result.
    • Steel Ball Run - A horse race results in people finding Jesus.
      • Alternatively: "Jesus has been kidnapped by the President of the United States. Are you bad enough dudes to kill the President?"
      • Alternatively: The US president sets up a horse race so he can go graverobbing for Jesus, but gets thwarted by a cynical paraplegic man.
    • Jojolion - A young man has an identity crisis.
      • Alternatively: "After 'In the Navy' became a hit disco song, the sailor of The Village People goes on a journey of self discovery."
    • The JOJOlands - A bored teenager wants to "make it rain" metaphorically and is instead given the power to "make it rain" literally.
  • Jormungand: A young single billionaire mother with Albinism shows her adopted son the family business. She then decides to enact her evil plot to secure world peace by murdering a few hundred thousand people.
  • Joshiraku: Five girls sit around having pointless chats and ignoring the fourth wall.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: A teenage boy is forced to share bodies with an evil spirit after eating some finger food.
    • Alternatively, young man gets possesed by the Big Bad. He joins a school of exorsists to learn how to fight and possibly sacrifice himself after the big bad gets at full power. A lot of people die.
  • Junjou Romantica: An 18 year old is forced to live with his brother's perverted author of a best friend. 18 year old is creeped out for 5 seconds.
    • Or: three gay couples display their enormous libidos and complete inability to communicate.
  • Jyu-Oh-Sei: A set of twins fight for survival on a planet comprising only of plants. One twin dies in the first episode.
    • Two twins exiled for a crime they didn't commit fight for survival on a planet of killer vegetables over who owns a space elevator. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
  • K: A lot of Bishōnen fight over who gets to kill the most Moe one of the whole cast, who killed someone but doesn't remember it. If you don't understand what's going on, just watch the pretty colors.
  • Kagerou Project: A boy and his cybernetic girl join a group of strange, antisocial teens with super powers after thwarting cyber terrorists using a phone receiver, some TVs and a cellphone charger. Hilarity and, every two days or so, heartbreak, ensues.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Two teenagers Cannot Spit It Out, so they each try to make the other do it through any means necessary.
    • Or: Love Confessions are Serious Business.
    • Or: Death Note: The Rom Com.
    • Or: The most romantic game of Say Uncle ever.
    • Or: Oops All tsunderes!
    • We Want to Talk About Kaguya: A nature documentary regarding the daily life of the common fangirl.
    • Kaguya-sama: Love is War Official Doujin: Hentai author decides they want to write fanservicy spin-off of chaste romance series. Spends most of their time writing AU fanfiction instead.
    • Or "Series/Jackass'' as a Rom Com anime
  • Kaiji: A guy is forced to pay off a debt through gambling. The first gamble is a simplified version of a very, very common game.
  • Kakurenbo: A kid tries to find his little sister by playing a really weird version of hide-and-seek.
  • Kaleido Star: Spunky Japanese acrobat gets put through hell in order to make it big with American knockoff of Cirque du Soleil.
  • Kamen no Maid Guy: Crossdresser takes up job as bodyguard.
  • Kamen Rider Spirits: Crisis Crossover featuring bug-themed superheroes.
  • Kamichama Karin: A mostly-talentless, extremely unfortunate girl who is depressed because her only friend (her cat) recently died becomes a god. She isn't very good at that, either.
  • Kamichu!: Middle school girl wakes up one morning as a goddess, and doesn't let it go to her head.
  • Kämpfer: Guy becomes a girl and realizes he's suddenly much more popular with women, much to his dismay.
  • Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens: Nature Spirit lives with boy who carved a statue of her, while going around cleaning up the mess he inadvertently made.
  • Kanamemo: Young orphan girl works at a tiny newspaper delivery company with other zany girls. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Kanon: Amnesia of varying degrees strikes multiple young people in a small city where coming Back from the Dead is secretly dirt common.
  • Karakuri Circus: The only ones who can stop a 200-year-old cycle of hatred are a circus troupe. They fight with puppets.
  • Karakuridouji Ultimo: Stan Lee creates two robot boys to fight each other.
  • Karas: Starts off with a mid-air sword-fight between two jet planes.
    • Nobody is entirely sure what is happening afterwards, but it is well animated.
  • Karin: Oddball day-walker accidentally falls in love with a human boy with really small eyes. She is very embarrassed.
    • Alternatively: Teenage girl has a problem, she bleeds every four weeks. Her parents get a boy to help her with that problem. She is very embarrassed.
  • Karneval: Boy joins a psuedo-military organization because a human-shaped rodent...thing wants to return some jewelry.
    • Alternatively: Small animal looks for his previous human companion with the help of a boy and people from a government agency.
  • Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~: Boy is killed in a UFO accident and is brought back to life as a girl, and becomes the center of attention in a lesbian Love Triangle.
  • Katana: A high school student talks to swords.
  • Keijo!!!!!!!!: Young ladies train for a sport where Ass Kicks You!
  • Kekkaishi: Two kids who are neighbors hang around their school at night and fight demons using boxes.
    • Baking nut is forced into tedious family job of fighting monsters instead of getting a good education.
  • Kekko Kamen: Woman fights crime by running through a city almost completely naked.
  • Kemono Friends: Wildcat-girl finds indeterminate-species girl and travels with her to discover what kind of animal she is. A giant algae monster also gets involved.
    • Kemono Friends 2: Wildcat-girl and her best friend find another indeterminate-species person and help them find their way home. The first indeterminate-species girl has grown up and now maintains a lab with the help of some owl girls.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: A wussy high schooler with no friends wants to learn self-defense; ends up becoming the focal point of the battle between good and evil.
  • Kiddy Grade: A two-girl team of cyborgs restores order to the galaxy using raw strength, techno-wizardry, and... lipstick?
  • Kill Me Baby: A girl annoys her violent classmate and gets beaten up by her.
  • Kill la Kill: A girl and her sentient piece of clothing fight the school council.
    • Alternatively: A girl fights for the middle ground between fascism and nudism in the battle against evil string.
    • A girl's journey to fit properly in her school uniform before going out on a date.
    • Aliens try to turn the Earth into a cosmic dandelion.
    • Girl tries to find out who killed her father. Then she teams up with her sister to kill her mother.
    • A mother forces her two daughters to wear clothing they dislike.
    • Students of an elite private school are literally dressed to kill.
    • A girl fights with her estranged sister and mother over clothing.
    • The coming-of-age story of a clothes-minded troublemaker.
  • Kimagure Orange Road: A teenage boy from a family of espers ends up in a love triangle with a sexy, kick-ass capricious girl and her tomboyish, hug-happy best friend.
  • Kimba the White Lion: An effeminate prince protects his kingdom while trying to make peace with the race that killed his parents.
  • Kimi ni Todoke: Awkward high school romance is awkward. Especially when everyone thinks you've climbed out of a well to curse them.
  • King of Bandit Jing: Teenage boy with horny, wisecracking crow sidekick (that doubles as a Wave-Motion Gun) travels psychedelic world, steals things, imparts Aesops.
  • Kinnikuman: A bungling, garlic-powered alien superhero becomes Earth's greatest professional wrestler.
  • Kino's Journey: A heavily armed traveler and a talking motorcycle roam the earth and Try Not to Die.
    • Or: Every country in the world is going straight to Hell. An androgynous motorcyclist pretends not to notice.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: A baby soldier from space hangs out with a pair of kids and eats everything in a world where almost nobody has legs. A knight goes behind the back of the king to teach the space-baby how to properly be a copycat. Meanwhile, said king orders a new Monster of the Week from a company he continually fails to realize belongs to the embodiment of all evil.
    • Or: A penguin(?) and a snail buy dangerous products to kill a baby. They fail every time.
  • Kobato.: A Magical Girl without magic powers goes on a mission to collect candy. She is accompanied by a demonic stuffed toy dog who knows kung-fu and can breathe fire.
  • Kodocha: A perpetual motion machine in the shape of an 11-year-old TV star talks really fast and occasionally says really outrageous things.
  • Koe de Oshigoto!: A 16-year old high-school girl is forced by her older sister to do voice acting for an adult game company. She finds herself enjoying it and even displays a knack for it. No, it is not a porno.
  • Koi Kaze: A guy in his mid-twenties who still lives with his dad goes on a date with a girl 12 years younger than him. Gradually they fall in love. They're siblings.
  • Koihime†Musou: Ikkitousen with little girls, lesbian sex and pubic hair jokes.
  • Kokoro Connect: God/alien/whatever is, like, super bored, so five teens start switching bodies at random. Hilarity Ensues, followed by angst.
  • Komori-san Can't Decline!: Huge Schoolgirl helps people.
  • K-On!: Schoolgirls stay after school intending to practice their music, but instead eat cake and talk.
  • KonoSuba: A Hikikomori who died a humiliating death is sent to a fantasy JRPG-like world alongside an annoying goddess who cries a lot. Together, with a Chuunibiyou witch who loves to blow stuff up and a really masochist knight, they are dicking around while trying to stop a powerful demon king. Probably.
    • Or: A Rogue, a divine cleric, a wizard, and a Paladin walk into a bar. The first three say "ow" and the Paladin squeals in delight.
  • Kotoura-san: A little girl is abandoned by her friends, her parents divorce and dump her on her creepy grandfather, and her cat dies. She gives up on other people and lives a dull, depressed life for years. Romantic Comedy!
    • A broken mind-reader starts healing from years of trauma after she encounters a pervert.
  • Kujibiki♡Unbalance: A spin-off show about a bunch of teams that may or may not be students, who may or may not be trying to become the next student council.
  • Kunisaki Izumo no Jijou: A high school boy who aspires to be a man among men keeps on finding himself playing female roles in his family kabuki troupe against his wishes because he is just too attractive. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Kure-nai: A poor high school boy takes care of a seven-year-old girl whose goal is to learn to fall in love. Make the mistake of calling this a Lolicon show, and you will bring the wrath of its fans down upon your head.
  • Kurohime: A gunslinger decides to kill God because God Is Evil. So's she but at least she's got an excuse.
  • The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service: A band of misfits barely make a living off dead people.
  • Kuroshitsuji: An effeminate boy sells his soul for a highly skilled butler.
  • Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: A family consisting of a supernatural cop, a catgirl, a little girl, a lion, a biological weapon, a gay man and a jellyfish attempt to teach each other the love of family to not destroy the world.
  • Kyo Kara Maoh!: Bullying sends victim to another dimension to become the most powerful king of all worlds. There are also demons who may or may not be gay.
    • Or: Teenage Japanese boy falls through a toilet into another world. He thinks he's in a classic medieval shonen series, but what no one's telling him is that he's really a magical girl.

Top