Screaming Into the Void: Seven Nitroplus Properties That Are BEGGING for a Full Anime Adaptation
Photo: dark cyberpunk anime city neon rain aesthetic, via images.stockcake.com
Let's be honest with ourselves for a second. If you're reading NITROPLUS.NET, you've probably already played—or at least been emotionally scarred by—more than a few Nitroplus visual novels. You've sat through hours of clicking, reading, and occasionally pausing to stare at the wall and question your life choices. And you've thought, more than once: why doesn't this exist as a full anime?
Sure, we got Steins;Gate (a miracle), Phantom (a deep cut), and a handful of OVAs that felt like corporate apologies. But the deep catalog? The weird stuff? The stuff that made Nitroplus a name whispered reverently in the same breath as Type-Moon and Key? That's still sitting on the shelf, waiting for someone with a budget and a death wish to pick it up.
So today, we're playing fantasy casting director. Seven properties. Seven pitch decks. Zero chance anyone in a suit is listening. Let's ride.
7. Demonbane — For the Mecha Enjoyers Who Also Read Lovecraft
Imagine Gurren Lagann if it took a hard left into the Cthulhu Mythos and never looked back. Demonbane is giant robot versus elder god, and honestly, that sentence alone should get a studio greenlight. The problem is scale—this thing is operatic, cosmic, and gloriously dumb in the best way.
Who does it justice: Trigger, obviously. Studio Trigger takes incomprehensible energy and turns it into box office. Trigger's Demonbane would melt brains and trend on X for a month straight.
6. Kikokugai: The Cyber Slayer — The Wuxia Cyberpunk Nobody Talks About
Written by Gen Urobuchi before he became The Guy Who Kills Your Favorites™, Kikokugai is a revenge story set in a cyberpunk hellscape soaked in martial arts and tragedy. It's John Wick meets Ghost in the Shell with a body count that would make an R-rated Hollywood producer nervous.
Who does it justice: MAPPA. They've got the gritty action chops, and after Jujutsu Kaisen, they clearly aren't afraid of animated violence that makes parents write letters.
5. Zanmataisenki Demonbane... Wait, We Already Did That One — Fine, Axanael
A gun that grants wishes when it kills you. That's the premise of Axanael, and it's a perfect anthology engine—six perspectives, six tragedies, one revolver. In the era of ensemble anime like Odd Taxi finding US cult audiences, this is primed for a discovery.
Who does it justice: Studio Feel's darker cousin... okay, real answer: Science SARU. Their visual experimentation would make each POV chapter feel like a different show.
4. Vampirdzhija Vjedogonia — The Obscure One for the Completionists
Yes, most of you haven't heard of it. That's the point. Nitroplus's early catalog is a treasure chest of gothic weirdness, and Vjedogonia is proof the studio was never afraid of a strange premise. A modern adaptation would be an instant "did you hear about this?" show on every anime subreddit.
Who does it justice: WIT Studio. Give them a gothic property and let them cook.
3. Jashin Senshi Lustmord — When You Want Your Anime to Feel Illegal
Look, this one might need some tasteful adaptation decisions. But the core—a descent into cosmic horror and moral ruin—is exactly the kind of psychological horror Western audiences eat up when it's done with intent (see: the enduring cult status of Serial Experiments Lain and Made in Abyss's deceptive cruelty).
Who does it justice: Madhouse at their unhinged 2010s peak. Or Shaft, if you want the trauma delivered through avant-garde editing.
2. Saya no Uta (Song of Saya) — The One Everyone Already Knows
The crown jewel of Nitroplus horror. A man whose perception of reality is broken, an eldritch girl who looks like salvation, and a story that's been quietly ruining lives since 2003. The 2011 OVA was a teaser trailer at best. The full story deserves the Higurashi treatment: slow burn, unflinching, and impossible to recommend to normal people.
Who does it justice: A24-style sensibility with anime production values—realistically, that means CloverWorks or a collaboration with a Western horror studio. Somebody call Gen Urobuchi's agent.
1. Kikokugai... No — The Real Number One: A Proper Phantom of Inferno Remake
Hear us out. Phantom got an adaptation in 2009, and it was... fine. But the source material—an assassin drama about identity, manipulation, and two killers bound by circumstance—is exactly the kind of prestige thriller that wins awards now. Think Vinland Saga season one's intensity. Think Psycho-Pass without the sci-fi training wheels.
Who does it justice: Ufotable, and we will not be taking questions.
The Bottom Line
Nitroplus built a library on the backs of stories that don't pull punches—stories about obsession, horror, and people who make terrible, beautiful decisions. US audiences have never been hungrier for mature anime that respects their intelligence (and their tolerance for chaos). The catalog is right there.
Somebody, anybody, greenlight one of these. We'll wait.
Agree? Disagree? Think we're cowards for ranking Demonbane at seven? Yell at us in the comments.
