Strategy and tactics take intellect, smarts, brains, and a lot of thinking to pull off successfully. It’s the type of skill thinkers have, and are able to use to achieve their goals.
If you’re the type of anime fan who likes anime that can:
- Stimulate your mind.
- Make you think about what’s going on.
- Make you curious.
- Cause you to analyze the details.
- Surprise you with its witty writing or clever plots.
Then these strategic, tactically driven anime are for you even if some are partially about strategy and tactics.
Let’s get started.
1. Code Geass
Code Geass is an anime series with legendary status today. It’s one of the main highlights of strategic anime mentioned in debates, conversations, and forums when this topic is brought up.
Lelouch becomes powerful through the ability of geass, handed down to him from C.C., a key female character in the anime. And with it, he can control anyone with one look of his Geass eye powers.
He forms his own army The Black Knights, and the war between Lelouch’s side of the spectrum vs others, and the power struggle is where the best scenes of strategy and tactics come to life.
2. No Game No Life
An
No Game No Life focuses on Sora and Shiro in their new world. They’re gamers and Otaku at heart, and they use their smarts, wit, and intellect to win in the new world they find themselves in.
There are some weird elements in this series (wincest is incest), but strategy and tactics are a definite highlight in this anime.
3. GoSick
Victorique is the main blonde Loli female character and the one who solves complex crimes, mysteries, murders, and more as a key figure in the anime.
Along with her partner, the male character, they both work to solve problems others need solving in the country.
With an obvious European feel and aesthetic to some of the characters and decor, and some lighter moments aside from the odd violence and investigating, strategy and tactics are at the forefront of this series.
It’s only natural, but it’s a different facet of it.
4. Death Note
This anime needs no explanation. It’s a masterpiece all these years later, with some debating on the anime’s quality in the 2nd half. But one thing everyone agrees on is
The suspense, the horror, the crimes, the intellect to pull it off, being under suspicion, the god complex of the main character, and the ever-changing plot –
It’s thought-provoking, makes you think, and you never know what to expect.
5. Monster
Johan Liebert is the main villain of this series. At 10 years old his life is saved by a doctor called Kenzo Tenma, but Tenma realizes Johan is now a serial killer 10 years later.
Johan grew up in the worst way imaginable as a child, which shaped, warped, and messed up his view of the world, making him a serial killer years later.
He alone is the reason this anime is strategic, tactical, mysterious, cunning, and most of all savage.
Johan is especially dangerous because behind the scenes he controls people, is one step ahead, can exploit weakness, is extremely intelligent, and sometimes he even makes sense as a villain.
His “looks” also help him to be deceptive and gain people’s foolish trust in him.
6. Naruto
Naruto might not seem like the most obvious anime but it does have strategic elements and tactical vibes. Like when Naruto fights against one of the Akatsuki, and figures out how to defeat him by changing his Rasengen technique.
Or when Naruto shows up to fight PAIN, etc. Naruto is a lot of things, like comedy, but it does hit right in certain fights with strategy elements that hit the right notes.
Related: 7+ Of The Best Shonen Anime That Are BETTER Than Naruto
7. Ryuugajou Nanana
Ikyuu Tensei is the anime’s main female character besides Nanana. And the main male character is Jugo Yama.
He moves into a new apartment with a dead girl who hasn’t passed on called Nanana. She’s stuck to the room, plays
Turns out Nanana died after being murdered. She was a treasure hunter, and now Jugo, Ikyuu Tensei, and others fill in her role of finding buried treasures (that she has hidden in multiple places) to discover their secrets and special powers.
The anime is strategic as part of its DNA.
8. Golden Kamuy
The mission for almost everyone in this series is to hunt down some gold and get rich off it. Mainly soldiers after a previous war.
Mixed up in the middle are the Ainu, which the anime accurately portrays as far as their culture, history, involvement with Japan, and more.
An Ainu girl called Asirpa joins Saichi Tsugimoto on his journey to find gold for personal reasons, and the two form an unbreakable duo that makes the anime a good laugh and so much more.
Action, violence, bloodshed, strategic battles, and some suspect gay vibes (like Jojo) are also part of the anime.
9. Assassination Classroom
Assassination Classroom has Koro Sensei, the yellow Alien teacher who claims he’ll blow up the moon in 90 days if not destroyed.
He educates a class of failed students to become stronger and learn assassination tactics to eventually kill him. But the anime becomes more
Koro Sensei is also moving at MACH speeds, making him inhuman.
10. Full Metal Panic
Sousuke Sagara works for MYTHRIL, an independent anti terorist group. By
Sousuke’s main mission is to protect a girl called Kaname Chidori, an old-school Tsundere with blue hair, and very clever.
Over the course of the franchise (or seasons) their relationship blossoms as the seriousness of their situation intensifies.
11. Dragon Ball franchise
The first dragon ball series is a lot more about strategy and tactics than any other season (except
The whole franchise has always focused on strategy and tactics with its fights, but none more than season 1.
From Goku using tactics in battle to win with his limited strength, or other characters doing what they can while fighting in the tournament – the first dragon ball has no fancy powers to an extreme, and pure skill is more of a thing.
That’s why it deserves a mention on this list.
12. Higurashi: When They Cry
Higurashi is one big experimental anime from a
Within each arc, strategy and tactics are part of the game. The game to survive that is.
The shock factor, the horror, the smarts, the intellect, the deviousness of certain characters, and the trauma are all super realistic with enough suspense and impact that it may mess with your mind.
Higurashi is almost a masterpiece in its own right.
13. Shiki
Shiki doesn’t seem like the type of anime that is about strategy and tactics, but as you soon find out it is. The anime is a horror at its core, in a small village where a small pandemic starts to occur.
Humans are turning into vampire-like creatures. No one knows why. Except for the only doctor in the village called Toshio.
Once he figures out what’s going on, he finds ways to prepare. And the anime gets progressively darker from that point, with Toshio going to extremes to fight back against the coming threat, and using strategies that are questionably moral.
14. Talentless Nana
Nana Hiiragi is a pinked haired protagonist who’s kind, sweet, and seemingly innocent. Gets along with everyone, is accommodating, generous, and everyone likes her for who she is.
The reality is Nana plays the role of a hero but is really a villain.
She’s the only person on the mysterious island who has no supernatural abilities, but she sells people on the lie that she has the ability to hear thoughts.
She’s a dirty strategist so to speak, and is so smart she leaves very few trails behind after a crime and is a clever tactician.
15. Shadows House
Shadows House has Emilico as the main character. She’s a jolly, cheerful “doll” who doesn’t have a negative bone in her body. And is able to light up any room she goes in.
The anime starts innocent, but it soon turns into a 10X better version of The Promised Neverland where each character is in a massive mansion, forced to live and slave away for the nobles who run shit.
But it goes even deeper than that, and that’s why strategy and tactics in order to survive, keep quiet, and figure things out is necessary.
16. Jormungand
Jormungand is about Koko Hekmatyar, a millionaire with the toughest bodyguards around, and a brother who’s also in the arms dealing business.
She grew up in the business, giving her insights and knowledge most wouldn’t have access to. Making her perspective curious.
As a popular arms dealer, she has enemies, and that is where tactics and strategy comes into the picture out of necessity to survive and thrive in a bloody world where arms dealing is the priority.
17. Zetsuen No Tempest
Zetsuen No Tempest is an anime many might not know about, but others do. It’s a series about a woman called Kusaribe Hakaze, the most powerful mage in the world.
She’s tricked, put to sleep, and shipped off to an unknown faraway island where she now can’t use her powers. She sends out a message through a tiny bottle with the little power she has left, and it washes up on shore with Yoshino and Mahiru finding it.
Communicating through a voodoo doll of sorts, the story starts to unfold, the mysteries get bigger, and the use of strategy and tactics to win the coming battle is almost Code Geass level.
The Genesis tree and another magical tree are key parts of the overarching story.
18. My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is a lot of things for a
Especially those involving the league of villains or later on, the meta liberation army.
From DEKU’S obsessive nature with taking down details in his notebook, and later using that information to survive or get through tough situations, to support characters like MOMO coming up with strategies on the fly.
My Hero Academia deserves the mention.
19. Oda Nobuna
This series goes unnoticed in 2023 and beyond. But it’s worth mentioning here.
Oda Nobuna is a type of historical anime with strategy, tactics, planning, cunning, and battles. That’s because the anime is based on the real history of the legendary Japanese man Nobunaga, with the genders of some characters changed.
In the original story, Nobunaga is trying to reunite Japan, and the same is true in the anime.
Only ONE missing detail exists, and it’s the black Samurai Yasuke who isn’t included in the anime.
