Gacha games are a dime a dozen in today’s market, but a select few make it past year three. Even fewer get anime adaptations that fans and the uninitiated pay attention to. If they do get an anime, they may be released past their prime, or even after their servers have shut down.
Fortunately, some standout gacha games make it out of their infancy with an anime to boot. Titles made by too-big-to-fail entertainment companies often make the cut, but that’s not always the case. Studios that started small, or had less successful titles, have also grown with their game as they expanded their reach into animation. Here are some anime that have ongoing gacha games.
10 Granblue Fantasy
- Game Release Date: March 10, 2014
- Anime Release Date: April 2, 2017
- Available On: Android, iOS, Web Browser
- Game Language(s): Japanese, English (web browser)
Granblue Fantasy (GBF) is the turn-based mobile RPG developed by Cygames that possibly spawned the pity system nearly ubiquitous to every popular gacha game. Putting aside its defining, $6,065-worth of pulls in one night incident, GBF initially drew interest due to former Square Enix, then Squaresoft, helming the game’s art style, character design, and soundtrack.
Upon launch, its classic turn-based battle system, soaring, fantasy plotline, and cute animal-eared girls netted it praise and favorable comparisons to early Final Fantasy games. Granblue’s anime adaptation sticks closely to its source art style and dutifully follows the game’s main quest. As a result, viewers were able to feel the grand scale of the world Granblue has crafted in just three years of its adaptation.
9 Uma Musume
- Game Release Date: February 24, 2021 (Android, iOS); March 10, 2021 (Windows)
- Anime Release Date: April 2, 2018
- Available On: Android, iOS, Windows
- Game Language(s): Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese
Uma Musume is the wildly popular game with girls often named and plotted after real Japanese racehorses. Players manage and train horse girls through a series of RNG-driven events to prepare for races. They may also engage in PVP, which players often use to show off the spoils of their gacha draws.
The anime, Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, has passion, drama, witty humor, and pretty good animation. It also has some surprising depth, as some girls mirror the tragic trajectory of their horse origins.
8 Ensemble Stars!
- Game Release Date: April 28, 2015 (Android); May 1, 2015 (iOS); March 16th, 2020 (idol-raising card game & rhythm game)
- Anime Release Date: July 7, 2019
- Available On: Android, iOS
- Game Language(s): English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean
To say that the plot of Ensemble Stars! is complicated is downplaying it. There are substantial reasons why this game and both versions of its sequel were the third most tweeted games mid-way through 2022.
The franchise juggles idol rearing, the politics and economic reality of the Japanese idol complex, severe mental health issues, bullying, cults, child soldiers, cannibalism, harassment, stalking, and more. Suffice it to say, it’s deeper than its playful appearance lets on.
Ensemble Stars!’s first anime season managed to cover the entirety of the first game’s main scenario, where a new idol group challenges the hegemonic, all-powerful student council for their right to exist. Its sequel will likely cover the story of Ensemble Stars!!, the sequel that split ES! into a rhythm game and an idol-raising sim.
7 The iDOLM@STER Franchise
- Game Release Date: September 3rd, 2015 (Android); September 10th, 2015 (iOS); September 3rd, 2021 (PC)
- Anime Release Date: January 10, 2015
- Available On: Android, iOS, PC
- Game Language(s): Japanese, Korean, and Chinese
The 2015 entry is a rhythm game with mind-blowing song charts. Numerous videos exist of players hammering their devices to get a full combo on Master. Some play the five-panel like a piano, others rock it like Drum Mania, while a few experts play it upside down before doing tricks.
A-1 Pictures’ anime adaptation eschews tapping in favor of highlighting the girls and their struggles as a group. Though it had a troubled production, the series managed to finish its story. Despite this, its unaired 26th episode was released as an extra on Blu-ray and DVD.
6 Shadowverse
- Game Release Date: June 17, 2016 (Android, iOS); October 28, 2016 (Windows, macOS)
- Anime Release Date: April 7, 2020
- Available On: Android, iOS, Windows
- Game Language(s): Japanese, Chinese (Traditional, Simplified), Korean, Thai
Gamers and anime lovers can be forgiven for not connecting Shadowverse the game with its anime in a glance. Cygames’ entry into digital collectible card games after Rage of Bahamut features meticulous artwork and an involved fantasy plot.
Shadowverse’s anime, on the other hand, looks like a Saturday morning anime and posits the game as the medium through which middle schoolers to bond over card games and eventually save the world. But despite their disparity, both have unique charm points and active, and generous, fan bases.
5 Azur Lane
- Game Release Date: May 25, 2017 (Original Japanese Release)
- Anime Release Date: October 3, 2019
- Available On: Android, iOS
- Game Language(s): English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean
Anthropomorphic ship girls based on warships from World War II fight aliens in an alternate universe, side-scrolling shoot ‘em up for mobile.
As overwhelming as the plot may seem, Azur Lane’s gameplay is quite straightforward. Players organize up to six ships in a 3x2 grid and use these fleets to clear maps or fight in PvP in a combat format reminiscent of Gradius. The anime adaptation portrays the combat in fun action scenes, but problems behind the scenes contributed to its strange handling of plot and characters.
4 D4DJ Groovy Mix
- Game Release Date: October 25, 2020 (Original Japanese release)
- Anime Release Date: October 30, 2020
- Available On: Android, iOS
- Game Language(s): English, Japanese, Chinese
Launched days apart, D4DJ Groovy Mix and its anime are tied together by plot, characterization, and blend of DJ sets and Bushiroad’s flavor of idol song-and-dance.
Bushiroad enthusiasts could handily recognize the company’s signature art style, difficult, but rewarding charts, and catchy songs. Fans can also appreciate the life D4DJ’s anime breathes into its story. As the game is restricted to Live2D and static backgrounds for charts, SANZIGEN’s well-produced 3D is a welcome alternative. The anime’s second season is currently airing on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
3 Last Period: The Story Of An Endless Spiral
- Game Release Date: May 10, 2016
- Anime Release Date: April 12, 2018
- Available On: Android, iOS
- Game Language(s): Japanese
Whereas Happy Elements’ Ensemble Stars! features tall, handsome, and infinitely troubled teenagers, Last Period is all about cute and cool art elements that leave a definite impression. It’s also less known internationally than its idol brethren, as Last Period remains a Japan-exclusive game. Still, it’s popular enough to merit a television series and millions of dollars.
Last Period’s anime and game revolve around the concept of “Periods” or magic users defeating “Spirals” or monsters, and a Period who wants to become a legend. What sets the two apart is the anime’s willingness to poke at its silly premise, gacha tropes, and lighthearted gags.
2 Arknights
- Game Release Date: May 1, 2019
- Anime Release Date: October 29, 2022
- Available On: Android, iOS, Windows
- Game Language(s): English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean
Arknights is the rare gacha where some lower star units can perform better than higher star units. It’s also quite generous to free-to-play gamers who don’t want to shell out money. This in of itself is a rarity among gacha games, but its art and overarching plot gives more added value to this long-term mobile game.
Its anime adaptation, Prelude to Dawn, may not duplicate its action, but it does justice to its world building. In eight episodes, viewers are intrigued about the world of Terra and the conflict and disease brought about by the mineral Originium.
1 Girls' Frontline
- Game Release Date: May 20, 2016
- Anime Release Date: October 5, 2019 (First Series)
- Available On: Android, iOS
- Game Language(s): English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean
If Azur Lane and Kantai Collection have anthropomorphic warships, Girls’ Frontline has girl-shaped guns. Called tactical dolls or T-dolls, girls named ST AR-15, M4 SOPMOD II, and other high-end guns are sent out to defend the last living humans in 2062 against rogue AI.
In-game, players or commanders lead T-Dolls obtained through events or gacha through turn-based strategy missions with specific end requirements. None of this tactical prowess was in the original 2019 anime, which was primarily full of gags. But the 2022 adaptation, named after its Japanese name of Dolls Frontline, follows the source more closely.