Every season has a dark horse, an anime that people didn't expect to be popular, or on some occasions, groundbreaking. Unfortunately, it's impossible to watch every single anime that exists, or even hear about them all, nor is there even enough time in a day to do so.
These four titles have somehow slipped under the radar, or conversations about them have dried up with the passage of time, but they are so well put together that the lack of attention is simply unfair. One thing about these four is that they're undoubtedly excellent shows and a perk is that they all run for 11 episodes.
C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (referred to as simply [C] for short) is about 19-year-old Kimimaro Yoga, who is a second year Economics student who lives a much simpler life than his classmates, but his luck changes one night when a strange man in a top-hat appears in his room. The stranger, Masakaki, invites Kimimaro to the Eastern Financial District, a place where people can attain incredible amounts of money if they offer up their "futures" as collateral. Kimimaro reluctantly accepts, before coming to the realization that the Financial District is actually an alternate realm where participants are forced to face off in weekly battles called "Deals" with their collateral on the line. To keep himself from losing everything, Kimimaro must learn the nature of this new realm and do so very quickly.
Eden of the East
Eden of the East is a romantic 2011 sci-fi mystery about the events surrounding a terrorist attack in which several missiles all hit Japan without a single casualty. The event, later known as "Careless Monday" quickly left the collective memories of the public. Three months later, university graduate Saki Morimi arrives in Washington and is saved from a misunderstanding by the enigmatic Takizawa Akira, a man suffering from amnesia.
When they met, Takizawa was stark naked and in possession of a strange cellphone loaded with 8.2 billion yen, which they later realize is part of an elaborate survival game involving money with the future of Japan, maybe even the world at stake. While it aired for 11 TV episodes, Eden of the East also has three movies that supplement the plot of the original series.
Terror in Resonance
Two teenage terrorists codenamed Nine and Twelve have a vendetta against society. Dubbing themselves "Sphinx", the two hack into various information systems and distribute cryptic videos of themselves in masks challenging the authorities with intricate riddles. Six months prior to the distribution of their first video, the pair launched a well-coordinated terrorist attack on a nuclear facility Their plans are forced to change when 15-year-old Lisa Mishima catches wind of their plans, voicing her own displeasure and lamenting her own powerlessness in making a change in her own life. Nine and Twelve initiate a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with the authorities, especially police Detective Kenjiro Shibazaki, who wants nothing more than to get to the bottom of Nine and Twelve's terrorism. In the process, the cold and dark pasts of the pair slowly rise to the surface, a world separate from the one Lisa lived in for a long time before meeting them.
UN-GO
Set in a dystopian futuristic Tokyo, UN-GO is a mystery that follows Shinjuurou Yuuki, a man known as the "Defeated Detective" as he attempts to solve various cases around the city. Aided by his strange partner Inga, Shinjuurou has a penchant for solving difficult cases, particularly homicides, but there is something sinister about Inga, whose identity and motives are a complete mystery. The series is based on Ango Sakaguchi's novel Meiji Kaika Ango Torimonocho, hence the title "UN-GO", which is also an interesting Romanization of "Ango", which can be understood as "cryptograph" – a decoded message.
All four titles have in common the fact that they ran on TV for only eleven episodes each. In the case of three of the titles, UN-GO, Eden of the East and [C] interestingly have either opening or ending themes performed by the same now-defunct band, School Food Punishment, and each of them consists of themes regarding the crumbling of the status quo, displeasure in the nature of society, or people coming into contact with an incredible power of some kind. Each of these titles has gone severely underrated, either during their airing period or in the time afterwards, but all of them boast very interesting plots, memorable characters and are definitely worthy of more acclaim.