Anime Like SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table
If you loved SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table's Animation and Action & Adventure storytelling, these anime deliver a similar experience — selected for art style, narrative depth, and emotional impact. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Scarlet Nexus
Saved by the Other Suppression Force as a child, psychokinetic Yuito enlists in this elite team formed to fight Earth’s enemy. Meanwhile, prodigy Kasane was scouted for her abilities. Kasane’s dreams tell her strange things, dragging the two into an unavoidable fate.
BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.
Kaede Honjou is invited by her friend Risa Shiramine to play a virtual reality MMO game with her. While Kaede doesn't dislike games, what she really, truly dislikes is being in pain. She creates a character named Maple, and decides to put all her points in VIT to minimize pain. As a result, she moves slowly, can't use magic, and even a rabbit can get the best of her. But as it turns out, she acquires a skill known as "Absolute Defense" as a result of her pumping points into VIT, as well as a "Counter Skill" that works against special moves. Now, with her ability to nullify all damage, she goes on adventures.
I'm Standing on a Million Lives
Ninth grader Yotsuya Yuusuke is practical, friendless, and not active in any clubs. Then one day, he and two female classmates are suddenly sent to another world where they must work together to battle for their lives. Yotsuya is a lone wolf and has always lived his life according to his wants, but how will that work out now that he’s supposed to be a hero?!
Alice in Borderland
With his two friends, a video-game-obsessed young man finds himself in a strange version of Tokyo where they must compete in dangerous games to win.
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
Mafia is rife in America where assassinations are a regular occurrence on the streets. Inferno, a mysterious company, is behind most of these dealings through the use of their near-invincible human weapon, "Phantom." One day, a Japanese tourist accidentally witnesses Phantom's latest murder. Desperate to escape, the tourist hides in a secluded building. However, Phantom, revealed to be a young woman named Ein, and the leader of Inferno "Scythe Master" captures the tourist and brainwashes him. Given the name "Zwei," this once peaceful tourist is now a puppet of Inferno with no memories. Drawn into a world of lies, deceit, and violence, Zwei must fight to survive, hopefully to one day regain his memories and escape from this world where he is constantly on the brink of death.
Tomodachi Game
After his class' school trip fund is stolen, Yuichi and his best friends are abducted to play a debt repayment game; there is more than money on the line, as their bonds are tested with dark secrets and a lingering question of who is behind it all.
The Fruit of Grisaia
Mihama Academy—on the surface, a closed learning environment established to nurture students who find themselves at odds with the world around them; in actuality, an orchard-cum-prison built to preserve fruit that has fallen too far from its tree. Yet with the arrival of the institute's first male student, the nearly preposterously opaque Kazami Yuuji, the students at Mihama begin to fall out of step with their predetermined rhythms. Will Yuuji prove to be the element the girls around him needed to take hold of their lives once more, or will the weight of their pasts prove too steep a wall to overcome?
Angels of Death
Most girls waking up without any memory and meeting a serial killer would panic, but not Rachel. In fact, far from being her biggest problem, killer Zack might just prove a convenient resource when it comes to finding a way out of the building in which they're both trapped!
More Anime Like SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table
Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend
Tomoya Aki is an otaku who has a dream. His dream is to create the best visual novel game ever. The main heroine for this game and the inspiration for this dream is a background character named Megumi Kato who somehow stumbles into main character-esque traits in his eyes. To complete the game in time he has to call upon the aid of his anime loving professional friends who aren't so keen on the choice of his main heroine.
RESIDENT EVIL: Infinite Darkness
Years after the horrors of Raccoon City, Leon and Claire find themselves consumed by a dark conspiracy when a viral attack ravages the White House.
Battle Game in 5 Seconds
A new kind of battle of abilities for a new generation is about to begin! It all started on a regular morning like any other. Akira Shiroyanagi is a high school kid who loves nothing more than konpeito candy and games. One day, he ends up in a fight due to a mysterious girl named Mion. Mion then tells the people she had gathered that they no longer officially exist in any records. They were given powers and were about to be test subjects. Akira makes up his mind to use his powers to climb up the ranks and then crush this organization.
The Future Diary
Reality quickly unravels when antisocial Yukiteru is called into a death match against 11 other mentally scarred individuals. Each player has a prophetic device tuned to their personality, giving them control over their future—and the fate of their foes.
Rage of Bahamut
Two thousand years ago, the black-and-silver-winged dragon, Bahamut, terrorized the magical land of Mistarcia. The humans, god, and demons that inhabited the land united forces against the fiend and sealed its power into a key which was split in two, one half protected by gods and the other protected by demons. Now, Mistarcia is a peaceful realm – until a human woman steals the god’s half of the key. Based on the immensely popular digital card game, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is an exciting blend of action and fantasy.
Kanon
Yuichi hasn’t seen his cousin Nayuki in years. Now that he’s back, all knowledge of ever visiting has vanished. He tries to adjust to the vaguely familiar surroundings, but the gaps in his memory haunt him as time grows short. The pieces of the puzzle have appeared – an eerily silent beauty with blazing tresses, the mysterious girl with the winged backpack, and the sword-wielding demon slayer – but it’s up to Yuichi to discover how they fit together.
Solo Leveling
They say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but that’s not the case for the world’s weakest hunter Sung Jinwoo. After being brutally slaughtered by monsters in a high-ranking dungeon, Jinwoo came back with the System, a program only he could see, that’s leveling him up in every way. Now, he’s inspired to discover the secrets behind his powers and the dungeon that spawned them.
Darwin's Game
Sudou Kaname, an ordinary high school student, receives an invitation email to try a mysterious app called "Darwin's Game." Kaname, upon launching the app, is drawn into a game where players fight one another using superpowers called Sigils. Without knowing the reason for all this, can Kaname survive furious battles against the powerful players who attack him?
Btooom!
Sakamoto, an unemployed young man, is one of the world's top players of an online fighting game called Btooom! One day, he wakes up on what appears to be a tropical island, although he doesn't remember how or why he got there.
Sword Art Online
In the near future, a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online has been released where players control their avatars with their bodies using a piece of technology called Nerve Gear. One day, players discover they cannot log out, as the game creator is holding them captive unless they reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if they die in the game, they die in real life. Their struggle for survival starts now...
Maison Ikkoku
Godai is a ronin (someone who has failed university entrance exams) living in a run down apartment house called Maison Ikkoku. Among the other residents are the nosy Ichinose, the sexy Akemi Roppongi, and the mysterious Yotsuya. The others are given to having wild parties which makes it difficult for Godai to study. Into this mayhem comes the recently widowed Kyoko as the new live-in manager. Godai falls for her, but doesn't have the nerve to tell her. As time passes, their relationship slowly develops amid life at Maison Ikkoku, despite all sorts of romantic hurdles.
She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man
Kagami Sakamori was one of the top players in the VRMMO Ark Earth Online as Danblf, a veteran summoner with the gravitas to match his elite status. When he falls asleep playing one day, he's transported to a world where the game is reality—but instead of his all-powerful avatar, he's stuck in the body of a cute young girl! He can't let anyone know that this little cutie is really Danblf, so he takes the name “Mira” and claims to be Danblf's disciple. If this gets out, he'll never live it down!
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table (2026): Animation and Action & Adventure themes, comparable animation style, and similar narrative pacing. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface anime most likely to resonate with fans of SHIBOYUGI: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table.
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