16 Anime About Virtual Reality To Daydream

Virtual reality allows us to explore fictitious worlds and imagine a different life where everything is possible.

Some anime capture this feeling very well and VR is quite common across the Isekai genre. The representations of a virtual world enhance and create a contrast with reality, as depicted in many series in the list.

This listicle is based on our personal experience and knowledge and is subjective.

16. Fate/Extra: Last Encore

One of the cores of the huge world of Fate, consisting of numerous series, spin-offs, and more.

Fate/Extra: Last Encore is one of them, and is distinguished from the others by the presence of a virtual world around which the plot revolves.

Waking up in a strange virtual world with no memory of the past, Hakuno finds himself forced to fight for survival in a war that is not his own.

With only an enigmatic Servant by his side, Hakuno must face both friends and foes in deadly battles in order to gain not only possession of a mysterious object he doesn’t know known as the Holy Grail.

A series that remains on the high standards of the other Fate series, bringing back its merits, such as excellent animation, and high-level fighting at a high pace.

15. Expelled From Paradise

A 2014 movie with a strong Sci-Fi and futuristic bent.

In the distant future, Earth has been devastated by the Nanohazard, and most of the surviving human race lives within a cybernetic world, deprived of their bodies and reduced to mere intelligence.

Angela Balzac, an investigator of the cyberworld, decides to go down to Earth to explore.

CGI prevails but without being excessive or intrusive and rather accompanying and giving an extra boost to the distinct action of the scenes.

14. Amatsuki

Amatsuki anime adaptation was born in 2008 from the homonym manga.

Tokidoki is a high school student who, following his failure in the history exam, begins working on a virtual reality set in old Japan.

Everything is reproduced as if it were real and accessible with special glasses. He’s attacked by two mysterious figures in the virtual world, and he will be stuck since his glasses broke.

The perfect blend of the virtual world and traditional Japan of the past along with its legends and myths, featuring spirits, yokai, and the like.

13. Infinite Dendogram

Yet another anime about a virtual video game world, released in 2020 in 13 episodes.

Full Dive VRMMO was released on July 15, 2043, with a unique system called Embryo, which allows each player to follow infinitely differentiated evolutionary paths.

This increases the immersion to unprecedented levels. But with so much realism in a virtual world, will the line between reality and fiction still be distinguishable?

Although the premise is well and truly the same, the message delivered by this anime differs somewhat from the others, dwelling more on the ethicality and boundary between reality and nonreality.

12. Dennou Coil

A 2000s anime with the classic graphic style of those times, Dennou Coil is an original 26-episode story.

The story takes place in Japan in 2026, eleven years after an extraordinary development in augmented reality, which can be used through special visors, and cyber glasses.

Yiko Okonogi, an elementary school student, moves with her family to the small town of Daikoku, where there is a massive presence of cybertechnology.

Here she will befriend Yuko, and the two will become involved in several technology-themed mysteries.

Dennou Coil because of the tender age of its cast could be mistaken for a disengaged and light-hearted work, but it actually turns out to be very well constructed.

There is also a certain degree of complexity and maturity in the themes it deals with.

11. Summer Wars

Summer Wars is one of the most famous products by director Mamoru Hosoda. You may already be familiar with the director from his previous work in Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!, which is very similar.

The story revolves around Kenji Koiso, a math genius boy with social problems who spends most of his time on Oz, a virtual world.

At the beginning of the summer, Natsuki, the most popular girl in school, offers him an unusual job, which is to play the part of his future spouse in front of his grandmother.

Unfortunately, a mishap caused by Kenji himself will unleash a powerful computer virus called the Love Machine, which attacks Oz and makes a series of disasters all over the globe.

It will then be up to Kenji to stop the threat and restore peace within the network.

The countryside setting will be the main focus of this movie, which has as its pivotal theme the risks that technological advancement can bring to our world if left unchecked.

10. Accel World

An Action show within the classic virtual world, with the addition of sentimental elements.

It’s 2046, and Haruyuki is a middle school boy who is constantly bullied by bullies because he is overweight.

During one fall, the protagonist meets Kuroyukihime, the most beautiful girl in school, who changes his life by introducing him to a virtual world called Accel World, where Burst Linker, a particular paladin.

An anime with an excellent technical aspect, which also earned it an award for its ending. While the premise may seem the usual and predictable, this anime makes for very good watching.

9. Sword Art Online

Certainly one of the most talked-about series of recent times, with many series under its belt and the quality of them not exactly consistent.

The events center on Kirito, nicknamed the black swordsman, in different virtual video game worlds, accompanied by as many allies as enemies.

A much-discussed isekai, with certainly many flaws as pointed out by the audience but quite fitting and very relevant to the focus of this listicle.

8. BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense.

An anime definable as parodistic for several elements. BOFURI came out in 2020 with just 12 episodes, so you can watch it in one night.

Kaede Honjou has been invited by her friend Risa Shiromine to play a new virtual reality MMO New World Online. But since she isn’t very experienced and doesn’t like pain, she picks a large shield to defend herself.

But contrary to expectations, this tactic works great, and soon the girl will be the talk of the town.

This is a different and almost parodic take on similar anime classics, with the strong, sword-wielding, and skilled hero.

7. Overlord

Overlord is an anime based on another light novel series written by Kugane Maruyama and illustrated by So-Bin in 2012.

A great Isekai classic, it takes the basics of the genre and reworks them into a dark fantasy atmosphere all its own. Although the initial premise is the same as other anime, the protagonist Momonga is not reincarnated into a weakling, but rather into what is considered the most powerful being in his world.

This will lead him to be in command of a powerless army with which he will slowly conquer everything conquerable, in a series of events that are never predictable or trivial.

The great virtue of Overlord is the rawness of the actions performed by Momonga and the real and tangible weight they have on the people of the world.

6. Hunter x Hunter

If you are a fan of fighting-focused anime, you cannot be unfamiliar with Hunter x Hunter, an early work by master Togashi, whom you may have already heard of for YuYu Hakusho.

Hunter x Hunter follows the story of Gon Freecs, a young boy living in the wilderness. One day he will learn that his father, believed dead, is instead alive and well and is also one of the strongest Hunters in the world.

He will not think twice before undertaking the examination to become a Hunter himself, to reunite with his father.

The anime is not entirely set in or centered on virtual reality, but rather one of its story arcs, being that the anime is structured around them. Fans will have already figured it out, we are talking about the Greed Island saga, one of the most popular ones.

5. Belle

A movie was released just a few months ago in Western theaters. We are talking about Belle, master Hosoda’s latest work.

The plot follows Suzu, a 17-year-old high school student who lives with her father in a small rural village, where she feels like a prisoner.

One day Suzu enters U, a virtual reality of five billion members online, in which she can finally do what she loves: sing.

Suzu becomes Belle, a singer who soon gains worldwide fame, and after meeting a mysterious dragon she embarks with him on a journey filled with love and personal quest.

A bright and colorful film, a real treat for the eyes, with a solid and very empathetic plot that is unlikely to fail to move you.

4. No Game no Life

No Game No Life is a very popular isekai anime released in 2014.

Its great success is undoubtedly due to its focus on the compelling games that set the pace of the episodes but also thanks to its charismatic and engaging characters.

The main characters are siblings Sora and Shiro, two Hikikomori who spend their days in their room together playing video games, and they are true legends considering how strong they are.

That is until they are teleported to the world of Disboard, a realm revolving around various games, gambling, and otherwise, where they can reach their full potential.

A much-loved isekai, a must if you are a fan of games of all kinds, traditional, gambling, and more.

3. .hack//Sign

.hack//Sign, is an anime belonging to a large multimedia project, namely the .hack project. It belongs to the Isekai genre, with the characters ending up in a video game-like world of the MMORPG genre.

The videogame world is rendered in a truly realistic way that is recognizable to the viewer, thanks to the frequent use of videogame jargon terminologies such as bugs, servers, pg, or skills.

It stars Tsukasa, a mage class character controlled by a boy of the same name in the real world. However, one day, for unknown causes, he fails to log out of the game, raising doubts about the true reality of it.

2. Log Horizon

Log Horizon is an anime based on the light novel series of the same name written by Mamare Touno and illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara.

The plot of the series is set in the world of Elder’s Tale, the world’s most popular MMORPG played by thousands of players.

Unfortunately for the protagonists of the series, Shiro, Naotsugu, and Akatsuki, this fantasy world will become their prison, as they mysteriously cannot get out of it.

But what makes this anime truly unique is its more mature approach than the classic isekai where the hero must save the world.

This is also due to its darker world-building and more serious and adult-characterized characters.

1. Serial Experiments Lain

Series Experiments Lain has 13 episodes and is an original story dating back to 1998, and is one of the most famous short original works due to its fairly deep meaning and plot complexity.

The plot tells the story of Lain Iwakura, a rather peculiar little girl partly because of a less-than-ideal family situation. Lain comes into contact with Wired, a global network very reminiscent of our Internet, where she will learn a lot of information regarding this mysterious virtual network.

But the Wired hides more horrific things than expected.

The message of this anime lies in the warning to keep an eye on technology, and the threats it can bring with it.