5 anime and manga begging for more game adaptation love

It’s been a while since licensed IP in gaming has really been kicking off but with the recent success of games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, things seem to be on the uptick again. However, during what felt like a licensed IP drought in games, anime adaptations have been thriving. There’s the good, the bad, and the oh-my-god-how-many-titles-are-they-going-to-keep-making-off-this-anime? However, with anime bigger and more popular than ever, there are still a lot of beloved and more niche franchises desperately in need of some adaptation love. Move out of the way, One Piece, Naruto and Spy x Family, here are 5 anime and manga properties begging for more game releases.

Haikyu!!

Despite some of the main cast appearing in other video game properties, there is currently only one Haikyu!! video game: a lacklustre mobile game that hasn’t been released outside of Japan and South Korea. Serving as one of the biggest sports anime in the world, the untapped potential is appalling to me, largely because there are so many directions they could go with the franchise.

Beastieball has shown us you can make a meaningful volleyball RPG with exciting turn-based combat. This could be one direction taken for the series. Other avenues that could be taken are the obvious arcadey spin that sees the proposed developer adapting the over-the-top plays in the anime and manga and translating it to an NBA Jam-esque affair. Hell, you could even go weird with it and do Football Manager only you’re managing and trying to wrangle a rapscallion crew of teen volleyball players. No matter what direction it takes, if anything is right on this Earth they’ll make a sufficient game based on this beloved IP already.

Code Geass

I’ll make this one quick. Yes, this franchise has about three portable games and two mobile ones, but none are the exciting foray the series deserves. A Mario Party-like and a gacha game? I want better for Lelouch and the gang. Controlling the Japanese front and working to liberate the country against Britannia would make for an enticing venture if you make it a tactics-based affair. Think Into the Breach, where your units and allies could fall at any given time. Intense and tough decisions where you have to risk the life of one to pull victory into your grasp. I need it to exist yesterday.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Perhaps one of the lesser known on this list, it’s also the most fitting for the more zen and minimal stress sub-genre of games. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou follows an android who works in a coffee shop following society’s collapse. Brewing and giving warm cups of joe at the end of the world, idly chatting with patrons… it’s a hell of a hook for a game. It helps that games of its ilk already exist with the likes of Coffee Talk. Simple visual novel, slightly more tense cafe management sim… the world is this android’s oyster for potential games. If all else, I’m dying to see more games in the visual style of Kikou, sporting that trademark striking pen-and-ink drawing style.

Ouran High School Host Club

Ouran High School Host Club was a beloved anime and manga of its era. It was a peak 2000’s piece of IP where you’re relishing in a cast of pretty boys to fawn over. The series has only had one game, a Visual Novel that was released on both the PS2 and DS, strictly in Japan. It borrowed dating sim elements which makes a lot of sense, but I’ve another idea in store for the franchise.

Ouran High School Host Club would make for an incredible and extremely stressful host management sim. The blueprint of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon Cabaret management simulator minigames is right there to implement too. Just how do you best manage your finances, employ the boys to converse with the right type of patron and so on… that is entirely up to you. I’m begging for this kind of idea to happen and thus for the Ouran High School Host Club name to return in a big way.

Ranking of Kings

Ranking of Kings is an extravagant and exciting adventure series that has seen love across both manga and anime despite its still relatively recent inception. A movie is in the works, bolstering the IP despite the anime now being concluded. What better way to take the franchise that little bit further than by making a gorgeously picturesque adventure RPG with its world?

Whimsy, wonder and nobility are all key parts of the series and they’re the sort of thing you already see in many JRPGs to date. Already sharing a visual likeness to Ni No Kuni, there’s a lot to work with here. There is no shortage of medieval RPGs. What’s one more?

So there’s our top 5 anime and manga begging for more game adaptation love. Do you have any IP you’re pining to get the game treatment? Let us know!