Top 10 Anime That Make No Sense

Sometimes it's not the plot itself which can be confusing, but everything around it. At its core, Flip Flappers is a magical girl anime centered around Cocona and Papika, who go on different missions in search of unique fragments. When they are all collected, a wish can be granted. Sounds simple enough on paper, but each visually impressive world is accompanied by a change in art style, so it is really easy to get distracted. With its fast paced and symbolic storytelling, blinking for even a second will guarantee that when you look back you’ll have know idea what the f*ck is going on.

From the twisted mind that gave us Excel Saga, Puni Puni Poemii is an acid trip condensed into a two part OVA. Poemi Watanabe is a 10-year-old girl who dreams of being a voice actress, despite having the most annoying voice of all time. Unfortunately, her parents are killed by a mysterious alien, which in turn leads to Poemi gaining super powers after sucking on a fish. Presented as a parody of the magical girl genre; the story features a precognitive baby, aliens with large balls, more domination scenes than a full blown hentai, and the most random Dragon ball reference ever.

Although it might feel like homework at times, Penguindrum is one the few recent anime which earned the right to be described as revolutionary. The plot centers on Himari, who has an incurable disease, and her twin brothers Shouma and Kanba. After her tragic death, she is revived by a strange being who resides within a penguin hat. Determined to postpone her fate, the brothers go through a series of trials in search of the ‘Penguin drum’. Fate isn’t always logical or fair and neither is this show.

No one ever said that a post-apocalyptic world needs to be dark and grim. Humanity has Declined is a cautionary tale about our inability to learn from our mistakes. Due to the pursuit of continuous growth, humans found themselves on the brink of extinction, with fairies serving as the world’s primary residence. These intelligent small creatures came in many shapes and sizes - including, of all things, bread - and are easily manipulated by sweets. Told from the perspective of the cynical Watashi, this is a universe which went so off the rails that the very concept of strange is now absolute.

How can a show with such a simple premise end up being so insane? More importantly, who can we thank for it? At first glance, Tokisadame seems like a perfectly ordinary and quiet town. Just regular folks living their normal and mundane lives. Really nothing to see he...did that high school principal just suplex a deer? Wait, robots exist and people are perfectly fine with it? Okay, maybe we have a different definition of ordinary. Centered around three high-school students, most of the humor is surreal and random, as characters react to normal situations in the most bizarre ways imaginable.

Someone could write a dissertation on the insane animation alone. Crammed into a quick hour, Dead Leaves sees Retro and Pandy wake up naked on Earth before embarking on an impressive crime spree. After getting caught and sent to an intergalactic prison, they quickly realize it is just a front for genetic experimentation. Ignoring Retro's TV head, since that seems almost normal compared to the rest of the anime, Dead Leaves is a series of extremely violent and sexual sequences loosely connected by a plot.

Considering the internet obsessed world we live in today, this psychological anime ended up before its time. A technophobe, the fourteen-year-old Lain receives an email from Chisa Yomoda, a classmate of hers who recently committed suicide. After opening it, she is drawn into the internet-like Wired, which is presented as a cryptic and mysterious world. As she spends more time in this strange place, reality and cyberspace begin to blur into one. With no internal monologues, Serial Experiments Lain demands the viewer’s full attention as it provides you with a million questions but no straight answers.

Of course, Fooly Cooly is here, it’s practically the poster child for hyperactive anime which make no sense. Naota Nandaba is a sixth grader who’s given up his own life, instead opting to take over from his older brother who recently left for the USA. Right out of left field enters Haruko Haruhara, a guitar wielding psychopathic biker who drags Naota into the middle of a fight which may decide the future of the entire universe. Moving at a blistering pace, FLCL is a thought provoking coming of age story hiding behind a veil of immaturity and noise.

The Chromedome Empire is an oppressive organization who used their strength to shackle a kingdom and its citizens. The free world’s only defense comes in the form of five children who mastered a unique martial arts style; but unfortunately, only one remains. Bo-bobo’s goal is to overthrow the forces of darkness and return peace to the land. Seems like your typical shounen anime, doesn’t it? Well – it's all about hair. The Empire steals people’s freedom by shaving them, and our hero uses his ‘Super fist of the nose hair’ to defeat his enemies. Oh and did we mention Don Patch?

We want whatever Shinichi Watanabe is smoking. Il Palazzo is an evil overlord who created the ACROSS organization in order to take over Earth and save it from itself. Unfortunately, his only employees are the hyperactive Excel and the understated Hyatt, who do not work particularly well together. Excel Saga exists to poke fun at eastern and western pop-culture. Each new episode takes Excel to a new location, and parodies a different genre of anime. The only consistency is the over-the-top tone, as random nonsense is thrown at the audience at every opportunity. Suffice to say, it’s pretty damn awesome.