Post-apocalyptic worlds are a common backdrop for gritty sci-fi and fantasy anime. Normally, the world’s population is reduced to a small number of people, sometimes accompanied by mutants or aliens, depending on the event that led to the end of the world. Most often, the events that trigger the end of days are war, a sickness that sweeps through the populace, or an intergalactic threat, like a comet colliding with the planet.
Post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories are more known for their philosophical messages and melancholic tone than for any happy endings. But there are some with surprisingly hopeful endings, and if they don’t have a straightforward happily-ever-after conclusion, they sometimes have at least a happy-for-now ending.
10 Patema Inverted
A science experiment gone wrong changes the world in Patema Inverted, reversing the laws of gravity. People en masse literally drop off the face of the Earth. One day, when Patema crosses into a gravity danger zone, she nearly floats away but is saved by a boy, Eiji, whose gravity inverts her own.
Patema Inverted is one of the few post-apocalyptic pieces that has room for joy and sweet romance. It shows how two people can save each other, even when the world has turned upside down.
9 Donyatsu
Donyatsu is a surrealist and whimsical series of shorts about cats shaped like donuts. The world is desolate and empty of humans and animals but for the donut-cats. The cause of the catastrophe is unexplained, as the main cat awakens from a coma to find the world very changed.
The post-apocalyptic world is merely incidental in terms of the donut-cats’ lives; the tone is remarkably goofy and lighthearted. The premise is simple: a group of dessert-shaped cats frolic and play together in an otherwise empty world.
8 From The New World
From the New World is set in a world far into the future that calls itself a utopia when in reality, it’s anything but. The series is a dystopia meets coming-of-age meets magic school story. Instead of waving wands and muttering spells, the students learn to master their psychic abilities.
The psychic abilities the students have are actually part of what broke society. Psychic powers, much like any power a person can wield, has the propensity to ruin the world when in the hands of selfish and violent people. Order is restored when psychics take responsibility for what has happened and control their powers.
7 Appleseed
The 2004 version of Appleseed follows Deunan, an ex-soldier and one of the few people left after the Global War, and the man she once loved, Briareos, who’s now a cyborg. The rest who survived the war are half-clones who can’t reproduce as humans would, and their world is overseen by an AI.
Deunan accesses the Appleseed data, which can solve the half-clones’ reproduction issue. Though Appleseed has no neat happily ever after, it does end on a hopeful note. The film acknowledges the repeated mistakes of human selfishness, as well as the power of the next generation’s ability to learn from the mistakes of the past.
6 Doomsday With My Dog
A young girl is the only person left alive after a mass extinction event in Doomsday with My Dog. There is one other living being left to keep her company, her shiba inu, Haru. Luckily, this dog is special — it can converse. As a true good boy would, Haru does his best to cheer up his master when the desolation of their world starts to get to her.
Doomsday with My Dog has moments of melancholy, philosophical musings, humor, and joy. Though the protagonist is the only human left, she is not lonely or bored. She has man’s best friend at her side.
5 Future Boy Conan
The vintage steampunk Future Boy Conan is an early work of Hayao Miyazaki. Weapons of mass destruction decimate the Earth and upset its gravitational pull. As if rebelling against such a misuse of power and ingenuity, the Earth shakes to its foundations, and the sea rises with devastating tsunamis.
People take to the stars to escape their ruined planet, but their efforts fail. Conan believes that he’s the last child born on Earth until he finds Lana, a girl his age. The theme of Future Boy Conan is that the old ways that brought about the Earth’s ruin must die away entirely, replaced by completely new ideals that embrace nature and peace.
4 Heroic Age
In Heroic Age, humanity is run off the face of the Earth and faces extinction. The princess Dhianeila is determined to find a savior to help them. She sees that savior in a boy called Age, who can transform into a giant.
Heroic Age balances action and extremely high stakes with a satisfying and well-earned happy ending. Part mecha anime and part space opera, the series is both sweet and bizarre. Though a bit clunky in its execution, there is a general theme of peace through negotiation.
3 A Wind Named Amnesia
A Wind Named Amnesia imagines the end of the world in a creative way; it is based on the novel of the same name by renowned author and illustrator duo Hideyuki Kikuchi and Yoshitaka Amano. Just before the dawn of the next millennium, a strange windstorm blows through the planet, laying waste to the minds of nearly every living thing.
The wind wipes away memories from people so that they forget everything they’ve learned; they even forget how to speak with each other. The theme stresses the importance of stories, finding ways to relate to one another, and learning from the lessons of the past. If a people forgets their past, they have no future.
2 Wolf’s Rain
Wolf’s Rain does have an arguably happy, or at least hopeful, ending, but it’s earned through a lot of pain and loss for the characters. When the end of the world is nigh, only wolves can find Paradise. The problem is that wolves are extinct by the time the end of days comes.
The few wolves that have survived extinction wear disguises so that they can walk around as humans. Wolf’s Rain explores the idea of birth and rebirth and how a small group of people with clear intentions can change the world.
1 Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind
Studio Ghibli has many worthy heroines, but the princess protagonist in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is by far the most stalwart, kind, and admirable. When everyone around her degrades into conflict, Nausicaä finds a way to broker peace and find common ground.
Nausicaä seeks understanding and union, and that is why she is the one who discovers the key to saving her world over a thousand years after it’s been destroyed. Her story is a beautiful one of eternal hope and resilience.
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