Nothing is more traditional or well used (perhaps over used?) than the Classic Anime Beach Episode. We’ve all seen this episode before, the band of main characters and friends head to the beach during their Summer vacation. The girls all show off their frilly new bikini style swimsuits with the hopes of catching the eye of their secret crush. The boys goof off splashing water at each other and are usually painfully oblivious to the girls wiles. They play volley ball, they eat a picnic/barbecue, they bust open a watermelon with a bat, and if they stay until evening they might light some firecrackers (usually sparklers) on the beach too. It’s cute fluff, but nothing really ever happens in these episodes. If you’ve seen one from any series, than you’ve seen them all, right? Well, maybe not! Though there are plenty of anime that follow this classic episode formula, there are some that leave a different trail in the sand. So if you’re looking for an interesting twist on the standard bikinis and fluffy, check out these anime!

Kamisama Kiss

As a quick refresher, Kamisama Kiss aka Kamisama Hajimemashita is an anime about Nanami, an average everyday high school girl with very bad luck! One day Nanami comes home after school to find a note on the table and that her dad has run away from home and his debt collectors, leaving her with all the bills and no money. It doesn’t take long before she’s thrown out of the apartment and is homeless. While sitting on a park bench bemoaning her bad luck, she spots a man in a tree being harassed by a small dog. She shoo’s the dog away and chats with the man telling him her whole sad story. As thanks he says that she can stay at his home and gives her a peck on the forehead. When she finds the house, it’s actually a haunted shrine and that little kiss has turned her into the local demi god!

Kamisama Kiss’s beach episode certainly starts out as any other fluffy Summer episode. Nanami is headed to the seaside with her school friends Ami and Kei in tow. Of course her yokai butlers Tomoe and Mizuki have to come too. As expected Nanami and gals pals show off their new swimsuits, splash in the ocean, float on inner tubes, and enjoy all the standard fun, but oddly enough Tomoe refuses to get close to the water. Though he’s a tsundere, it doesn’t seem to be a case of Tomoe being contrary. Well, one thing leads to another and poor Ami (who isn’t a strong swimmer) has gone under the water and isn’t coming back up! Nanami is frantic, she can’t dive deep enough to save her friend. The new kami needs some supernatural help. Tomoe reluctantly dives in and saves the high schooler. Unfortunately, there was a good reason Tomoe was avoiding the water. The moment Tomoe touched the sea, the Sea King was alerted. It didn’t take long for the underwater demi god to show up and seek justice against the yokai that stole his eye!

Ouran High School Host Club

Much like with Kamisama Kiss, Ouran High School Host Club’s beach episode starts out like most other beach episodes, though certainly with a Host Club twist. The entire host club is spending the day at a private beach and of course all the customers are invited too. The boys of the club are goofing off, splashing each other, Tamaki is gracefully lounging by the sea, and the club customers are just enjoying the view. Haruhi, being her laid back self is strolling about with bucket in hand looking for crabs and clams to eat. One thing leads to another and someone spots a giant centipede. Everybody nearby freaks out at seeing such a huge bug, including most of the boys. Not being deterred in the least, Haruhi walks over, picks it up, and yeets it out of scene. This gets the other club members thinking, what is (if anything) Haruhi afraid of? Unsurprisingly, this becomes a competition between the boys of the host club to try to scare Haruhi!

Love After World Domination

Love After World Domination is an adorable anime about a very strong villainess and the pure hearted Power Rangers-esque hero that loves her! Fudo is the leader and number one hero of the super hero group the Gelato 5, and there is only one thing he loves more than lifting weights, it’s Desumi! Desumi is the villainess Grim Reaper Princess from Gekko, an evil organization bent on world domination, but she’s not a bad person. In fact, she’s quite sweet and kind to her friends, is very out going, and cheerful, and just the kind of sweet girl-next-door type that gets Fudo’s heart a pitter patting. But how will a relationship between a villainess and a super hero work? It’s certainly not easy!

For Love After World Domination’s beach episode, Desumi and Fudo have been hoping that their two organizations would have training at the beach for a while, and at last their wish has come true! At least in the form of Professor Big Gelato testing out a new secret weapon at the beach and Gekko deciding to try and attack the Gelato group while they are there. It doesn’t take long for Desumi to sneak away from her Gekko co-workers and join Gelato’s beach barbecue, and through a hilarious turn of events she even looks more villainous to her fellow evil princesses!