Last year I was over joyed when I heard that a manga I really liked (The Case Study of Vanitas) was getting turned into an anime, and this year so many were excited when the well loved manga SpyXFamily was turned into an anime as well. In fact, I’ve recently noticed that most of my favorite anime weren’t originally anime at all. In a poll done by the Anime News Network, it showed that more than half of the most watched anime in Fall of 2021 were manga adaptations.

There’s no denying that manga and manhwa are a rich fount of inspiration that the anime world can draw from. Especially now, as more and more great series of manga and manhwa are being released so fast readers can’t even keep up. But is the anime world drinking as deeply from this fount as it could? Are there even more great current manga series that need to be turned into anime? My answer of course is yes! Though there is most likely hundreds of wonderful manga out there that could use a good anime-a-fying, that I don’t even know about, here is a select few that really would make great anime.

ReMarried Empress

ReMarried Empress is a manhwa about an Empress that finds happiness in her second marriage. Navier is a young and intelligent Empress with elegance and kindness, and she rules over the Eastern Empire with her husband the Emperor Sovieshu. Though Navier and Sovieshu grew up together and were quite close when they were teens, now as adults their relationship has cooled significantly. Empress Navier didn’t really think this was a problem until one day the Emperor brings a slave girl to the palace to be his mistress. Things go down hill from there. The story has many sad moments when Navier is treated abysmally by people that should care for her, but it is also wonderfully balanced by adorable, playful, and loving moments too. This is a fantasy historical drama, so there isn’t a whole lot of action scenes in this manhwa, but that doesn’t make this saga any less epic. So if you love drama, royal conspiracies, and power struggles, you’ll love this series as an anime!

Otomen

Otomen is a manga about Asuka Masamune, the manliest, most stoic, most kingly boy in his high school. He’s the head of his kendo club. He is someone all the other boys envy and look up to. He is silent and cool throughout most of his day . . . and he secretly loves girly things. At home he spends his time reading shojo manga love stories, cooking, and sewing cute plushy animals. When he sees the girl he likes, his maiden’s heart goes pitter pat!

It might not be such a big deal that he likes girly things in some families, but for Masamune, his mother absolutely will not tolerate any softness or girlishness in her son. Though this is a cute and funny manga, it does at times take a more serious look at gender roles in modern society and the problem of toxic masculinity.

Villains Are Destined to Die

The manhwa Villains Are Destined to Die is an isekai story about a college student that finally is living on her own after being forced to live in a cold and suffocating family environment for years. Like all of her new college friends, she starts really getting into a popular dating sim game and after spending hours on easy mode she decides to try out hard mode. In hard mode of this game, you play as the villainess of the story, Penelope Eckhart.

After spending a whole night trying and failing to beat hard mode, she dozes off to sleep. And wakes up in the game, as the villainess! But this dating sim isn’t as cute and fluffy as it once was, it has some how become much more dark, twisted, and violent. Now she has to avoid maiming, torture, and death at every turn. The game might not be cute and sweet any more, but neither is she, and she’s not about to go down without a fight!

Pochi Kuro

Pochi Kuro is a shonen manga about a high school girl that some how gets transported to the demon realm, directly to the backwater home of a young “yankee” like demon named Kuro. Unfortunately for the girl, demons love eating humans, and humans are seen as a rare delicacy. Luck for her, the first demon she meets is none too bright and kind of smitten on her!

Kuro doesn’t really understand human language or how to say the girl’s name, so he names her Pochi and decides to go with her on a wild journey across the world to get her back to the human realm before she gets eaten by some other demon. And there are a lot of demons that also like the looks of Pochi, in fact they think she looks absolutely delicious!