10 forgotten anime that deserve your attention

In every fandom, certain shows become the constant topic of conversation: big names like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, or One Piece. Yet the history of anime is vast, filled with brilliant forgotten anime titles that once gained attention and then faded away.

These forgotten anime titles offer new worlds, strong characters, and unique storytelling that still feel current even after two decades. This binge-friendly list highlights ten overlooked classics: sci-fi art pieces, surreal fairy tales, pulpy capers, and philosophical road trips.

Each forgotten anime on this list ran one or two seasons (or a short run with OVAs) and remains easy to start and finish in a single weekend.

10 forgotten anime you should watch

1. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

This is a bold, glitzy retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ revenge epic, set on a far-future aristocratic planet. Visuals burst with cluttered ornate wallpaper that seems made from neon tubes and liquid chrome, turning every ball gown or spaceship hull into a vibrant display.

Amid the bright colors, the Count wages a chilling revenge against three old friends who once betrayed him. Few series commit so strongly to style; every scene looks like colorful windows speeding by. Beneath that glamour sits a tight thriller about guilt, obsession, and the price of holding grudges for decades.

The soundtrack shifts from loud symphonic waltzes to eerie techno whispers, highlighting the show’s mix of old-world etiquette and future tech paranoia.

2. Kaiba

A tiny chip holds memories in this soft-lined, candy-colored universe where bodies swap like trading cards. Kaiba, our blank-eyed boy with a hole in his chest, awakens without identity and chases the memory of a girl whose thoughts flicker inside borrowed flesh.

The story unfolds like a dream sequence drawn on soft backgrounds, mixing slapstick comedy, family drama, and cosmic tragedy along the way. Director Masaaki Yuasa’s rubbery animation invites a hypnotic pace, shoving viewers through ramen-bar planets and mind-hacking mercenaries with equal ease.

Each episode runs for a tight 20 minutes yet packs in deep thoughts about love, loss, and digital immortality. Kaiba leaves the same eerie warmth as waking from a childhood nap you can’t quite recall, perfect for one-night marathons that feel longer than they are.

3. Haibane Renmei

Pale gray city walls surround a quiet town where beings known as Haibane emerge with small charcoal wings and are given steel halos, marking them as travelers on a mysterious path that may lead to peace before moving on.

Rakka, a newly born Haibane with no memories, wakes up shivering in an abandoned classroom and tries to make sense of the strange rules of this second-chance life. The sky above feels low and confining, matching the soft sound of wind chimes and slow piano notes.

Despite its angelic imagery, Haibane Renmei stays grounded, focusing on small acts of kindness and the burden of regret rather than big battles. The soft visuals and watercolor tones blend with gentle voice acting, creating the feeling of rereading a favorite bedtime story.

4. Baccano!

A nonlinear rollercoaster of mobsters, alchemists, and immortal criminals collides aboard a steam train called the Flying Pussyfoot, racing through Prohibition-era America.

Episodes of Baccano! mix up the timeline like shuffled playing cards, challenging viewers to follow double-crosses, heists, and bloodbaths across 1930s streets and smoky speakeasies. Quirky jazz horns cut through knife fights, and splash blood across white suits in bursts of hard-boiled flair.

Each character brings their own style, from the knife-obsessed Ladd Russo to the scatterbrained duo Isaac and Miria, whose chaotic goodwill accidentally saves the day. Even violent gangsters get likable moments thanks to fast dialogue and rapid pacing.

5. Princess Tutu

Princess Tutu (Image via Hal Film Maker)

What starts as a sweet ballet school comedy turns into a meta fairy tale about fighting fate itself. Duck, a clumsy orange-haired girl, magically transforms into Princess Tutu to restore the heart of a cursed prince who can only express emotion through pre-written ballet steps.

Many episodes feature classical pieces (Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Carmen) that act as magical battles performed through pirouettes and pliés. The series grows darker fast: puppets rebel against authors, villains read their scripts aloud, and the line between story and storyteller falls apart like burnt toast.

Pastel colors and chibi faces slowly shift into moonlit rooftops and cracked theater masks, making the final act feel like a Brothers Grimm fever dream. This forgotten anime proves that magical girl stories can explore big mythologies just as boldly as any mecha or cyberpunk saga.

6. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (Image via Production I.G)

A spear-wielding female bodyguard named Balsa escorts a young prince rumored to carry a dangerous water spirit sealed inside his body. The fantasy setting draws from feudal Japan and Siberian steppe folklore, with sweeping grasslands, misty bamboo forests, and palace politics that smell of wood smoke and damp moss.

Fight scenes focus on realistic spear combat, no flashy magic circles or over-the-top shouting, just the heavy impact of real weapons and sweat. Emotional weight comes from parent-child bonds, cultural duty, and how people fear what they don’t understand.

The soundtrack weaves taiko drums and bamboo flutes into moments of quiet river crossings and sudden ambushes. Moribito wraps up its story in 26 episodes, offering a warm samurai-era road movie that feels like curling up in a thick travel blanket on an autumn evening.

7. The Big O

Neo-noir Batman riffs and giant mecha battles unfold in the rain-soaked, art-deco streets of Paradigm City, where citizens lost all memories “forty years ago.” Roger Smith, a stoic negotiator in a crisp black suit, commands his megadeus named Big O to punch skyscraper-sized robots crashing the skyline each full moon.

Gloomy jazz horns echo over rotary phones and candlelit diners, channeling classic Raymond Chandler energy with robot-sized flair. Plotlines touch on conspiracy, philosophy, and self-aware storytelling while still having fun with rocket launchers hidden in subway stations and dramatic monologues lit by neon.

The second season dives deeper, heading into meta-reality loops worthy of Evangelion, but without the emotional breakdowns. For fans of trench-coat cool and cockpit drama, The Big O remains a slick relic of early-2000s late-night TV, one punchy roar away from cult revival.

8. Last Exile

Brass-trimmed airships clash in endless skies, with floating battleships powered by lower-class grunts who crank turbines like galley slaves. Claus and Lavie, orphaned couriers, must deliver a mysterious girl to enemy fleets, flying their vanship through storm clouds and over oil-slicked megacruisers.

Officers in tricorne hats shout orders through telegraphs, blending WWI-era style with diesel-fueled sci-fi. Digitally rendered skies stretch into twilight, where battles become graceful silhouette duels in flak-filled air.

Themes of class, honor, and war’s absurdity hide inside breathtaking flight scenes, scored by orchestral music that practically lifts off the screen. This forgotten anime ends with both a literal sunrise and a fresh start, wrapping its ten-hour adventure like an aerial symphony under a blanket fort.

9. Mononoke

A wandering medicine peddler armed only with a mystical sword and sharp instincts confronts vengeful spirits born from human sins in Edo-period Japan. Each arc features spirits from woodblock prints—glowing eyes in torn kimonos, babies with dangling cords, and rooms folding into origami nightmares.

Bright pop-art visuals explode over Japanese patterns, creating dreamlike scenes that feel like haunted picture books. The structure plays like a courtroom mystery: spirits testify, lies unravel, and the peddler must uncover the “form, truth, and reason” of each curse before banishing it.

Distorted whispers and sharp shamisen plucks build dread in ways jump scares can’t. Mononoke anime offers locked-room mysteries painted in neon horror rather than gore—perfect for anime fans who like their ghosts clever and cursed.

10. Kino’s Journey

A lone traveler named Kino and a talking motorcycle named Hermes visit one country after another, staying exactly three days in each.

These bleak utopias raise big questions—one town sees books as weapons, another forces citizens to vote on a yearly execution, while a third raises children like livestock to harvest organs. Landscapes shift from snowy villages to broken deserts, where sad cicadas hum over rusty radios.

The quiet pace lets the stories breathe, offering open-ended reflections instead of easy answers. Subtle violins underline Kino’s calm voice, never telling viewers what to think about slavery, violence, or false happiness. Behind the sorrow, this forgotten anime hides quiet hope—a soft reminder to keep going.

Conclusion

The golden age of 2000s anime experimentation left behind jewel boxes of short-form storytelling that still shine. Whether you're in the mood for ghost trials, dieselpunk dogfights, or pastel-winged redemption arcs, the forgotten anime series above reward modern marathons without the weight of 100+ episodes.