The Best Anime Like Digimon, Ranked By Fans

Those who watched Digimon when they were kids might remember Monster Rancher, another anime about kids getting involved in monster-based conflicts in a digital world. One day, an ordinary boy named Genki is transported into the world of Monster Rancher. There, he meets a girl named Holly and a wide variety of monsters. Together, the group sets out of save the world of Monster Rancher by reviving the Phoenix, the only creature capable of taking on the evil Moo.

Pokémon and Digimon are compared so frequently that it's not uncommon to see anime fans claiming that one ripped off of the other. While they're different enough to render that judgment unfair, they do have some major things in common. Both series revolve around super-powered creatures who team up with humans in order to win battles. Their reasons for fighting, as well as the process, do differ, but if you like one of these shows, chances are high that you'll like the other one too.

Like Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh! was a starter anime for many millennials. If these shows were part of your childhood, Yu-Gi-Oh! is worth taking a look at for the sake of nostalgia alone. Out of all of the Yu-Gi-Oh! seasons, GX is the one with the most in common with Digimon. Though it begins with a group of students attending a high school dedicated to turning kids into pro duelists, the cards they're using turn out to be actual spirits who they can interact with. Some attach themselves to specific people, and some of them speak and have distinct personalities. What's more, there's another realm where they all live, which humans can travel to. In fact, they must if they want to save the world.

Zatch Bell! is kind of like Digimon in reverse. Rather than human children traveling to another world to find destined non-human partners, the partners come to them. These partners are miniature demons known as Mamodo who need a human's help in order to participate in a tournament that will decide the leader of the Mamodo realm. Though their tournament battles are far more regimented than what can be found in the free-for-all fights in Digimon, the bonds between humans and their Mamodo have a lot in common with the bonds between humans and Digimon.

In the 22nd century, Earth has become completely uninhabitable, so humans live in colonies on neighboring planets instead. One day, Luna, six classmates, and a pet robot get caught in a gravity storm and transported to a new world that looks like a wasteland. They'll soon find that there's more to their new world than they could have imagined. While their story of survival and adventure is darker and more realistic than what can be found in Digimon, the two series share a general vibe.

Summer Wars was actually directed by Mamoru Hosoda, the man behind one of the Digimon movies, Bokura no War Game. These movies are similar not just in their premise - teenagers trying to stop a digital threat from invading the real world - but in their execution. In fact, there are so many shot-for-shot similarities that some have accused Hosoda of plagiarizing himself through Summer Wars - though others argue that he is simply continuing to work with a theme that interests him. Regardless of where you stand on that particular issue, Summer Wars is still worth watching - especially if you loved the second Digmon movie.

Angel Beats may not have any magical talking monsters, but it's still a great choice for Digimon fans. That's because both series follow young characters into new worlds that they can't escape. There, they'll have some epic battles, but they'll also have to face some hard truths about their families, their emotional lives, and their pasts before they can truly move on. In Digimon, the characters' emotions dictate whether or not their Digimon partners will be able to evolve, while in Angel Beats the characters must accept their former lives before they can leave the purgatory they've found themselves in - because they are actually in the afterlife. Angel Beats is aimed at a slightly older audience and is, therefore, darker and more adult in its content, so if you've outgrown Digimon, try Angel Beats.

Just like Digimon, Sword Art Online is an isekai anime in which the characters are trapped in a virtual world. At the beginning of each series, the main characters' primary goals lie in returning home - but they'll have to do a whole lot of fighting to make that happen. In later seasons, they aren't trapped in the virtual world, but come and go as they please. If you're looking for a show that's aimed at a slightly older audience that doesn't rely on magical monsters, but does utilize many of the same themes, Sword Art Online may be worth checking out.

If you're a Digimon fan, then the start of Bokurano will strike you as quite familiar. Both series begin with a group of kids attending summer camp, whose lives are irrevocably changed after a strange encounter. While the Digi-Destined get transported into the Digital World and are given the responsibility for saving it, the Bokurano kids agree to what they think will be a fun adventure, but which turns out to be a heady responsibility for piloting mecha. Bokurano gets a lot darker than Digimon ever does, so if you're looking for a more grown-up version of the premise, this might be right up your alley.

In 2029, the Earth loses many key elements, including oxygen, carbon, gold, molybdenum, and cobalt. This destroys 90% of the Earth's population, and those who are left must figure out how to survive in a damaged world. As it turns out, all of these elements have been sucked into a planet called Nega Earth, which exists in an alternate dimension. This dimension can only be accessed by children, but it's an incredibly dangerous place filled with monsters who need to be defeated in order to get ahold of the elements. Just like in Digimon, what happens in the alternate world has a huge impact on the real one - and the only people who can save the world are children.

Accel World follows a middle school student named Haruyuki Arita who has a hard time existing in the real world due to the bullying he experiences. As a result, he spends most of his time playing video games. His life changes dramatically when he's introduced to Accel World, a program that allows users to dramatically increase their brain power for a short period of time. In order to use it, though, he'll have to help his classmate Kuroyukihime discover its secrets - a process that leads him on a path of adventure and discovery. Like Digimon, Accel World focuses on the real world and the digital world crashing up against each other.

When five elementary-aged children help out what they think is a dog in trouble, they discover that actually, the dog is a sentient alien. To reward them for their assistance, he gives them a chance to travel anywhere they want - and that place ends up being the moon. While theirs is more of a Spirited Away style adventure focused less on fighting enemies and more on taking in a challenging new landscape, it still resembles Digimon in its portrayal of a group of children dealing with strange new creatures and customs.

One of the cool things about Digimon is the technology that the kids use. In order to get their digital partners to evolve, they have Digivices, crests, and other items that activate under certain conditions. If you're looking for a show that utilizes similar tech, you should try out Heroman, an anime based on a manga by the late great Stan Lee. In order to protect the world from a race of invading aliens, Joey uses his companion robot Heroman - and controls him with a handheld device. Also, while this isn't enough to make a comparison on its own, there's a character in Heroman who looks surprisingly similar to Tai.