Strangest premise for an anime

[MiskWisk]

Yondemsu yo Azazel-san is definitely the most insane thing I've watched. Pretty much everything comes out of left field and the animators really make use of the fact that a demon getting hurt is funny whereas a person getting hurt in the same way would be down right disturbing. Not to mention the World of Gonk [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Gonk] the characters live in.
I think this sums it up.

EDIT: Also helps if I don't misinterpret things that I'm not sure how I misinterpreted. Basically, a nice girl gets a job working at a private eye type place. The owner is also a demon summoner who gets quite psychotic when dealing out punishment to the demons to the point that they are terrified of him to the point where he is able to get a cow demon to eat beef curry by staring at it.

 

[Ultress]

Some one said Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei and I'd have to agree when your premise is a suicidal teacher and his class of girls with neuroses take societal ills to there logical extremes. Most things Studio Shaft do end up doing just end up being weird.

Seikon no Qwaser is up there though with the idea of the people getting their powers by nursing on their partners breasts. My friend tells me it isn't that bad a show.

Oh man, this stuff is my JAM!
I just wrote about a page worth of text on each of the kinds of strange I've encountered, to then backspace it all because I figured I can get the same result by just telling you one thing.
Ben-to is the best and strangest anime I've ever seen.
It put's anything along the lines of Kill Me Baby, Saint Oniisan, Pani Poni Dash to shame.
Why? Because it's mother fucking fight club for half priced dinner!

That's a pretty good one but for some reason never came of as weird to me. It's the shonen thing of everything being serious business.

 

[Angie7F]

Not sure of what show was called, but I remember hearing it was a show entirely about bread making and the overreactions people had to it.

Yakitate Japan!!

Great show and greater manga, it's what inspired me to make bread baking a hobby!

Also Ben-to.
All those cooking shows are weird and fun to watch.

 

[Bluelaughter]

I'm amazed how many people chose Yakitate Japan as well! They truely transformed the most mundane of activities and turned it into something watchable.

 

[FoxKitsune]

YES! Akikan does not appear to have been mentioned. Looks like I'm about to win this thread!
*ahem*

The story of Akikan is a time honored, classical tale. A company that makes soft drinks is trying to determine which cans, aluminum or tin (or some match up like that) are the superior choice, and will be used to move their company forwards. Now, in any sensible meeting about this, it'd be what's cost effective, etc, but... this is Anime.

Hence, it is decided that they will give their cans of flavored juice the ability to morph into magical girls that will be the PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION of that juice flavor (I know, the aluminum v tin thing got forgotten a tad there)who will be released when a person drinks from one and binding them to that person as their `owner`.

It's honestly one of the funniest Animes I've ever watched. Recommended. VERY recommended. I think it only ran for one season, but that's really all you need to die laughing.

 

[Fat Hippo]

The craziest thing I've watched is probably Steins;Gate, where a couple of college students make a time machine... out of their microwave... by accident.

And spend half of the show putting bananas in the time machine. Ugh, god that show started slowly.

 

[WindKnight]

http://www.muramasaindustries.com/punditry/farwest/whatweretheythinking/whatweretheythinking.html

I'm tempted to to just let that speak for itself, but to pick a few from the article -

Cyborg detective who recharges by smoking radioactive cigarettes

Giant robot disguises himself as a boys cigarette lighter

Pupils try to strip their schoolteacher

Blind footballers who play with a sound emitting football

Alice in Wonderland as softcore lesbian porn (created by a girls manga studio)

Rugby team themed giant robot show (which actually made it to the west as vehicle team Voltron)

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Yondemsu yo Azazel-san or Date a live.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Haven't gotten around to watching it yet but man... Ben-To is both an insane and brilliant premise, a secret war for cheap bento boxes? Played utterly straight faced? That's pretty hilarious and super strange at the same time.

But personally... Speed Grapher, that is some seriously wtf stuff there...

Takes place in a Semi-Futuristic Tokyo where "The 1%" are essentially super decadent hedonists driving Japan into the ground with their greed.

Starts with a former War Correspondent turned Tabloid Photographer who can only "Get Off" by photographing death infiltrating a secret club frequented by the Super Rich of Japan where they indulge all of there darkest fantasies. There he meets a 15 year old girl who can "activate" Super Powers based around peoples fetishes.

Yup, fetish based super powers...

Our main character gains the ability to destroy whatever he photographs and ends up battling a guy with a Stretchy Power Gimp Suit, a woman who eats diamonds (and can now turn into one), a sadistic dentist who gets off by operating without Novocaine etc. It is one messed up show and for me it's hard to get stranger than a series based around Fetish Super Powers, Class Struggle and Economics.

Also... FLCL... that is some bonkers stuff there...

A 12 year old boy who lives in a town with a strange factory that looks like a Clothes Iron, is attacked by a Space Cop who creates a portal in his forehead (by whacking him with a Base Guitar) that spawns giant robots allegedly from the Clothes Iron Factory. One of these robots becomes his "friend" and together with the Space Cop they fight the evil corporation that owns the Factory. Also the Factory looks like a Giant Clothes Iron because its purpose is to "Smooth The Wrinkles of Reality"... also there's a pirate king... and the 12 year old can spawn a massive guitar out of his forehead because of his manliness... it's also a coming of age story... and it parodies everything from Mecha Shows to Sports Anime... there are Manga bits...

Yeah... FLCL FOLKS!

 

[Talaris]

Probably for me has to be my most hated anime, Popotan. A group of four sisters (I think they are sisters) give up normal life to go on a quest as far as I'm aware they are not told the goal of, by means of a huge time-travelling mansion. And their reason form all this? Because the older green haired sister can hear daffodil flowers (called Popotan) talk to her when she puts her ears close, and they basically tell her what to do (which isn't really anything at all) during these different time periods. None of the characters really understand anything aside from that it's their "destiny" or some shit. For reasons either I forget, or aren't explained, a man who is a spiritual entity tries to stop them, and I think the flowers end up forming a semi-nude female spirit as well.

Nonsensical plot aside, you feel like you're watching a little kids show, until the heavy needless use of nudity rear's it's head. Oh and one of the sisters who pretty much encourages all the nudity and is topless herself is about 5 years old.



Second place goes to Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai: Under the Innocent Sky, also know in the English version as We Without Wings (somehow there is a currently airing dub of this crap). Reading discussions on this anime, i think it was unanimous that nothing makes any sense until midway, and then a bait and switch twist in the very final episodes (which asks more questions than it answers). No explaining, aside from the fact that it's still just an ecchi harem, can really do it justice, you'll have to watch it for yourself.

 

[themilo504]

It's not really an Anime originally but it's anime style so I'd say Persona 3 counts.
Japanese high-schoolers shoot themselves in the head to use their emotions to summon gods and demons in order to fight monsters to stop the world becoming zombies. Also your party members feature a 10 year old kid, a realistic android, and a dog.

Honestly not to strange by anime standards. It's just pokemon, but you encourage them to fight by faking suicide.

OT: Hyperdimension neptunia counts now that the anime is coming out/came out. Seriously, as far as anthropomorphic interpretations of things as high school girls goes, the console wars is up there in strangeness.

Actually shin megami tensei came first, so Pokemon is shin megami tensei without mythological creatures.

Going by anime I actually saw, I?m going to have to go with pokemon and the Kirby anime(which I liked), admittedly there the only anime I ever watched but there still really weird.

 

[sextus the crazy]

It's not really an Anime originally but it's anime style so I'd say Persona 3 counts.
Japanese high-schoolers shoot themselves in the head to use their emotions to summon gods and demons in order to fight monsters to stop the world becoming zombies. Also your party members feature a 10 year old kid, a realistic android, and a dog.

Honestly not to strange by anime standards. It's just pokemon, but you encourage them to fight by faking suicide.

OT: Hyperdimension neptunia counts now that the anime is coming out/came out. Seriously, as far as anthropomorphic interpretations of things as high school girls goes, the console wars is up there in strangeness.

Actually shin megami tensei came first, so Pokemon is shin megami tensei without mythological creatures.

Going by anime I actually saw, I?m going to have to go with pokemon and the Kirby anime(which I liked), admittedly there the only anime I ever watched but there still really weird.

I'm quite aware. However, Pokemon is more present in the cultural zeitgeist than SMT is, as SMT has been more of a cult presense until the recent Persona releases.

Honestly, SMT is weirder than Pokemon or Kirby.

 

[Raioken18]

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere is pretty odd... I'm not exactly sure I could explain the story and I've seen the whole series twice.

Heaven's Lost Property? Angels fall from heaven and hang out with a pervert.

Actually... determining weird in anime is quite hard.

I don't remember what it's called but there was one anime based on a sort of underground demon based stock market... and you fought to earn money to get rich but if you went bankrupt you died. Errr... "Control"?

Then again one of my favs is Eureka Seven a mech anime about... attacking fungal based aliens and love. Whilst that is pretty standard it does seem to be... weirder... than usual.

 

[themilo504]

It's not really an Anime originally but it's anime style so I'd say Persona 3 counts.
Japanese high-schoolers shoot themselves in the head to use their emotions to summon gods and demons in order to fight monsters to stop the world becoming zombies. Also your party members feature a 10 year old kid, a realistic android, and a dog.

Honestly not to strange by anime standards. It's just pokemon, but you encourage them to fight by faking suicide.

OT: Hyperdimension neptunia counts now that the anime is coming out/came out. Seriously, as far as anthropomorphic interpretations of things as high school girls goes, the console wars is up there in strangeness.

Actually shin megami tensei came first, so Pokemon is shin megami tensei without mythological creatures.

Going by anime I actually saw, I?m going to have to go with pokemon and the Kirby anime(which I liked), admittedly there the only anime I ever watched but there still really weird.

I'm quite aware. However, Pokemon is more present in the cultural zeitgeist than SMT is, as SMT has been more of a cult presense until the recent Persona releases.

Honestly, SMT is weirder than Pokemon or Kirby.

Theres a shin megami tensei anime? If so it?s my pick, the first shin megami tensei game alone features thor disguising himself as a America ambassador called thorman in order to start a nuclear war so that the thousand year kingdom can be built, even the more saner devil survivor games feature magic gameboys that allow you to fight satan if you grind enough, a auction website(sort off) where you can bid on demons, and in the first one the final boss is a tower.

That?s not even getting into the demon designs, yust look up mara or tiamat, or don?t if you want to sleep tonight.

 

[Palademon]

Mysterious Girlfriend X

A series where the main character is addicted to a girl's drool.
How did he get addicted? She was sleeping at her desk, drooled, and he thought "Ima try that shit".

When my friend watched it he had this video on constant repeat.

 

[chellpresidente]

Really? No one mentions the one where jesus and buddah live together in an apartment in tokyo???

 

[ItouKaiji]

I'm going to go with Funny Pets. Here's a description:

One day an armada of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) came out of nowhere under the full moon.
One of them mistakenly fell to the Earth.

The two Extra-Terrestrials, Crescent and Corona, who were on board the falling UFO, happened to be saved and picked up by an Earth girl Funny. In reality Crescent and Corona were forced to live as pet with that selfish and moody girl Funny...
From AniDB

But words can't describe how weird this shit is. You just need to watch it.

And here's the first episode


Or try Popee the Performer


About an insane man in a bunny suit and his wolf/thing friend running the world's worst circus in the middle of the desert.....they constantly murder and mutilate each other...

 

[Paragon Fury]

Top 2 I've seen?

Seikon No Qwaser and Manyuu Hikenchou.

One is about guys who get super powers from drinking breast milk. Straight from the tap. And the bigger the breasts, the more power they bestow. The other is about an alternate Japan where women's breast size determines their status in society. In order to keep the balance of power from randomly changing every generation, a clan of ninja is tasked with making sure only the wealthy and powerful keep their bust sizes. They can "steal" the busts of women and transfer them to other women or keep them locked up.

They're both as nuts as they sound.

 

[Shinsei-J]

That's a pretty good one but for some reason never came of as weird to me. It's the shonen thing of everything being serious business.

I was thinking the same thing for awhile, the show just plays it so straight and heroic, with our main character accepting it so easily so did we. It wasn't really until I just about got done with writing my original comment that I noticed, some of these really strange setting aren't all that strange within the context of their worlds, only slightly odd at best. After realising this I came to the conclusion.
Strange is subjective, so for something to be strange it needs to have a contrast of expectations and truth.

Ben-to is an average earth and set in an average city, with average people, the only difference?
Fight club for a half price dinner.
Just, what...
So after thinking it over I feel that Ben-to is the perfect example for an anime with a strange premises.
[sub][sub]Also it's a fucking master piece.[/sub][/sub]

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Urotsukidōji. That one gets a mention for the quote "I have your blood, now i have your cum" said by a character that has to digest all the liquids of another character to increase his power. Plus add demon sex and demons with multiple 30 feet long penises attacking people. That whole movie is so weird.