Vampires have always been a popular subject in pop culture, and anime is no exception. From dark and brooding anti-heroes to tragic and romantic figures, vampire characters can be found in a wide variety of anime series, especially in anime like Devils’ Line. If you’re a fan of vampire romance and intense violence, then you’ll be pleased to know that there are many anime series that feature similar themes and elements to Devils’ Line. From forbidden love between a vampire and a human to vampire politics and power struggles, these anime series offer a wide range of vampire romance stories. In this article, I’ll explore the top 10 anime like Devils’ Line that feature vampire romance and intense violence, from classic favorites to newer anime series like Devils’ Line.
Kekkai Sensen
The anime takes place in New York after a portal from another dimension was opened and populated the city with supernatural fortifications of various types. A few years after the incident, the residents of the city lived with their new neighbors in peace. Leonard Watch is a young man who arrives in the city and joins Libra, an organization whose goal is to maintain the status quo.
Kekkai Sensen is an anime like Devils’ Line with a lot of dark styles. New York is designed in a realistic dark style, except that there are also monsters everywhere. The gray atmosphere gives a special feeling of alienation to the city, and the action is unrestrained: already in the first episode, there is a battle that spreads over entire neighborhoods, a battle that creates a lot of chaos.
It’s just a shame the story doesn’t match up with the action. Well, you can’t get both a decent dose of action and a gripping story in 20 minutes. Later in the series, we will get answers to important questions such as the history of Libra, the history of Leonard Watch, what exactly led to the opening of the portal, and what is the story that the series wants to tell. I don’t know if these answers will improve the plot or not, but if Devil’s Line is not enough for you and you want another weekly dose of quality action – Kekkai Sensen does a great job.
Ajin
Kei, an ordinary high school boy, is run over by a truck one day and comes out unscathed. This makes Kay suspect that he may be immortal. In the universe of the series, this is called Ajin – immortal creations that are persecuted for being so. Kei immediately became the most wanted man in the country and had to deal with two fronts: Yuu Tosaki, an agent of the Ministry of Health who was trusted to capture Kei in any more or less conventional way. it turns out that in Japan the Ministry of Health is as dangerous as the army. And on the other hand Satou – Ajin himself and a psychopath from the land of psychopaths who destroys teams of Police as if they were flies.
Ajin is a top-notch action-horror-mystery-MDB series, and its three seasons provide some of the most intense moments I’ve seen in the past decade. Ajin and Devils’ Line are both anime series that share similar themes and elements, such as the existence of supernatural beings and the exploration of their place in society. Both anime series also feature characters who struggle with their identity and their relationship with their powers. Additionally, both anime series have a similarly dark and serious tone.
Kurozuka
Many, many years ago, in a land far, far away called Japan, lived a regent named Kurou. His brother took over the army and ordered Kurou to be executed. Kurou ran away from his house together with his loyal servant Benkei. While wandering in the woods, Kurou and his servant arrive at a mysterious cabin. In the cabin lived a beautiful young woman, her name was Kuromitsu. Kurou falls in love with Kuromitsu, even though he discovers that she sucks blood from corpses and thus manages to live forever.
Kurou ties his fate to Kuromitsu and gives her his blood, thus turning our hero into a professional (blood) sucker. The end? This is just the beginning: Kurou wakes up after hundreds of years, long after the age of the Internet, and the smartphone, without any memories of his past, and certainly not of Kuromitsu, he sets out to search for his roots and find out who he is.
Watching Kurozuka was not a waste of time. The plot may not have reached its full potential, and it was possible to play with the futuristic world in a different way. Even the ending of the series is a little controversial (Evangelion style), but there is a plot twist of the kind I like. The battles compensate for the unnecessary dialogues, yet the series has a rich and graphically detailed world in a way that is not often seen on the screen. If she had more than 12 more episodes I would recommend thinking twice, but with a small number of episodes, there is no justification for this. This is probably the reason why viewers of the series are divided into 2: those who hate it, and those who love every moment of it. My bottom line recommendation: watch Kurozuka only if you feel it’s right.
Both anime series deal with the theme of immortality and the struggles of living forever, and the difficulties of coexisting with humans.
Bungou Stray Dogs
Atsushi Nakajima ran away from the orphanage and is now starving. When he realizes that his end is near, he meets a drowning man – Osamu Dazai – the most eccentric member of a secret detective agency where all its employees have superpowers.
Bungou Stray Dogs looks great, let’s start with that. Unlike any other anime that came out this season. But the story in Nellie and the characters quickly managed to annoy me. Bungou Stray Dogs is a series about shy men, and that in itself is fine. But why are the heroes of such a superficial nature? We didn’t get to know everyone in depth in the first episode, but Dazai is a Sherlock Holmes type who throws out smart sentences, acts like a fool, and is really handsome and strong. And his partner is a tough guy, angry at everything Dazai does, and yet flowing with his bullshit. Wow, as original as brushing your teeth.
It is aimed at women, but it can be more than that, and there are many series with bishie that I enjoyed. But the default, in this case, are clichéd types, and the first episode made me roll my eyes more than once.
Since it is the only series of its kind, and since it is wonderfully staged, I would not rush to rule it out. But it’s just not my cup of tea. Just keep in mind that it won’t be a short journey: a second season (or technically a continuation of the first) will be released already in the fall.
Mars Red
In the alternate year 1923, there are vampires and their numbers are only increasing. Therefore, the government is setting up a secret military organization to hunt them down – and what is the best way to hunt vampires if not by using vampires?
Listen, I know. “Vampires against vampires”, “Secret organization”. The clichés here write themselves. But Mars Red is – you won’t believe it – a good anime! (and it is based on a play, which is not surprising). In fact, I knew there were vampires here and I came prepared for bloody action with fangs, but I found an anime like devils line that is, first and foremost, a drama, one in which the texture of the relationships between the characters is rich, complex and nuanced. That’s why when there is final action – and again, there isn’t much of it – it’s personal.
Mars Red is probably an allegory for Japan’s attitude towards foreigners and immigrants, I assumed that from the synopsis, but the first episodes confirmed it, and like in ‘Jouran’, you won’t find characters who are purely bad or good who are willing to help the old woman cross the road But I recommend coming to it focused because the anime is built on dialogues – and lots of them, and almost every character in it tries to surpass others in an intellectual aspect. I admit that I even found myself, in the two opening episodes, going back a few seconds to understand what the plot is for all the vampires.
Visually Mars Red looks amazing, main thanks to a screen ratio of 2.35:1 that gives it a cinematic look. Yes, I checked twice that it is not a series by Studio Shaft because the style reminds me of the various Bakemonogari series (is that it? I bought you?). Anyway, Mars Red is a good anime, but know that if you choose to watch it, it will require a lot of patience.
Black Bullet
In the near future, humanity lives inside a large monolithic city that weakens the Gastrea, a type of giant parasite that does such parasitic things that kill humans. In the process, the “cursed children” who carry the Gastrea virus are discovered and are able to control it, which gives them superpowers. For a reason not at all intended to excite male otakus, those cursed children are only girls.
Civilian security organizations are established in order to fight against the Gastrea. Two always enter the arena: an initiator, who is the cursed child, and a promoter, who leads the cursed child. Rentaro Satomi is a high school student who works as a promoter in the organization of his childhood friend Kisara. Together with his entrepreneur, Enzo Aihara, the two embark on a secret mission designed to save the world.
How it is: I had high expectations for “Black Bullet,” the new series from acclaimed director Masayuki Kojima. Although the first episode excels in many areas – in the animation, the design of the characters, the action scenes, the graphics, and the music – the script receives a grade of “barely passing”. The plot basis seems to be taken from a series of fantasy books for young people: there is a bleak futuristic post-war world, children with special powers, and a new threat that only those children are able to stop.
Rentaro (Yuki Kaji in another main role) is an overall tolerable hero, not particularly charismatic, and walks around with a facial expression of “I’m doing you a favor I got up today”. Enju Aihara is a lollipop, by all accounts, and certainly not the stuff heroes who are supposed to save the world are made of. The first episode tries to look like a sophisticated action and comedy series on the one hand, but it’s also full of the usual schtick of comedy series on the other. And when was the last time you saw a 16-year-old girl start a security company?
But if you are looking for an anime like Devils’ Line, Black Bullet deals with the theme of the existence of supernatural beings and their impact on society, with Black Bullet focusing on a world overrun by a mysterious virus that turns people into monsters. Both anime series also feature intense violence and characters who struggle with their identity and their relationship with their powers.
Mirai Nikki (Future Diary)
Apparently, this is a series based on a Death Game-style tournament whose competitors have a diary that can predict things. This death game is similar to the theme of survival of the fittest present in Devils’ Line, where the main characters also have to fight for their survival and the survival of their kind. Cool, right? Now turn the main character into a whiner who has no valve for his tear gland. That’s it, for a moment a cool idea is doomed to failure. Can you imagine Kira from Death Note crying about how bad he was? Does Kiritsugu from Fate/zero shed a tear for every victim he murders? No.
Both anime series also feature intense violence and psychological thriller elements, as the characters are forced to make difficult decisions and face the consequences of their actions. Both anime also deal with the question of morality, as the characters are forced to question what is right and wrong in order to survive.
But Mirai Nikki is an anime like Devil’s Line, at least the entire first half (!) It shows signs of the new cool kid in the neighborhood. Each of the contestants has a tragic backstory of one kind or another that led him to the game. Surpassing everyone is of course Minna Orio, a character who is a kind of reincarnation of Ravi from “Black Lagoon” only with a few fewer morals. Even Gasai Yuno I liked at first – without a doubt she is one of the strongest anime babes characters on screen, at least until her obsession with Yukito crossed that line between a little disturbing’ and ‘really-really-really disturbing’. It seems that the creator of the original manga could not logically explain why she would help Yukito in such an obsessive way, so he decided to go as far as possible with the initial instinct: for no specific reason.
The only consistently good thing about the series is its soundtrack; Dynamic and high in adrenaline. Sometimes the music even convinced me that it was a good series. But then I came to my senses.
Yofukashi no Uta
Kou Yamori is a middle school student who one day decides to stop pretending to be a normal, sociable guy who invests in his studies. He stops going to school and thinks that this will improve his life, but apart from insomnia, he doesn’t gain much from it. On one of his night walks he encounters a strange girl named Nazuna Nanakusa, she tells him that in her opinion the problem is that he is stopping himself from taking full freedom and control over his life, and until he does so – he won’t really be able to sleep properly. She invites him to come sleep at her house, where she bites his neck and he discovers that she is nothing less than a vampire.
Yofukashi no Uta is the late vampire anime from studio LIDENFILMS (Tokyo Revengers, Hanebado!)It is a particularly fun mix of romance and the supernatural. So this series is for those who are looking for anime like River’s Line for the vampire romance element.
Owari no Seraph
A deadly poison one day killed everyone over the age of 13. At the same time, in a miraculous (not really) coincidence, vampires emerge from the shadows and enslave humanity. Yuuichirou Hyakuya is a young boy whose dream is to kill all the vampires (or buy a PlayStation 4. I wasn’t completely focused), but at the orphanage, he and his friends are treated like cattle. Will his life brighten his face?
How it’s like Devil’s line?: It’s Violent. The first episode is not very exciting. The protagonist is a tormented boy, and to be tormented is to be boring, especially when the audience doesn’t know you yet. The plot is incredibly superficial and I was already ready to mark this series with one big X. But then came the last scene. Oh… man, I mean woman, or no gender human, was I wrong! I haven’t seen such a brutal scene in a long time. And the best? It is surprising and it will catch you off guard. Well done Owari no Seraph, a pleasant surprise.
Is a violent scene in a Psychic section enough to recommend it as an anime like Devil’s Line? of course not. But it’s a fun series with Vampires.
Beastars
It’s probably not the most inviting statement to watch the series, especially considering that you are looking for a good anime like Devil’s line, but Beastars is the anime series that feels the least… “anime”(?) I’ve seen it recently.
If you’ve heard of Beastars looking at the pictures and the synopsis will probably make you understand straight away why I say this since the fantasy romance anime has two characteristics that cannot be missed: one, and the most obvious, is that the characters are animals and not humans. The second, which stands out in itself, is the computerized CGI animation. That’s not a bad thing, but I can imagine that there is no shortage of devout fans of the medium that a quick glance will cause them to move on thinking that this isn’t what they’re looking for in their anime series. To these fans, I say – you are making a terrible mistake.
This is a world where there are no humans, and different animals live together in a common way in an advanced and modern environment similar to our own world. But the matter is not so simple, since in nature there are predators and herbivores are preyed upon, which is strictly prohibited here
The protagonist of the story is Lagosi, a young wolf studying at a school where a predation incident recently occurred when an unknown predator ate his friend Tam the alpaca. That mysterious event, which reignited the tension between the carnivores and the herbivores, reinforces Lagosi’s sense of embarrassment at being part of the first group. One night, not long after, Lagosi finds himself in a similar incident himself, when he struggles to overcome his animal instincts and almost preys on a dwarf rabbit from his school named Haru, who finally escapes without knowing who attacked her. That traumatic event makes Lagosi doubt his abilities to control himself as a predator, but when he meets Haru once again he feels that he just wants more and more to be near her. The same obsession Gusi develops towards the little rabbit puts him in a storm of emotions, when he does not understand whether he is attracted to her because of the animal instincts that tell him to devour her, or whether he developed romantic feelings for her at all.
Both anime series deal with the theme of coexistence and how different species try to live together. Beastars is set in a world of anthropomorphic animals where herbivores and carnivores live together. Devils’ Line, on the other hand, is set in a world where vampires coexist with humans.
