Squid Game went from being a blockbuster web series to a global phenomenon. The second season of the hit K-drama has become a sensation. Fans have been comparing it with other similar shows. However, there are some anime like Squid Game you can watch in your free time. These anime feature brutality and high-stakes survival games while depicting the true nature of the human psyche, just like Squid Game.
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5. Btooom!
- MAL Rating: 7.27
- Episodes: 12
- Where to Watch: Apple TV
An unemployed Ryouta takes pride in being Japan’s best player in a popular video game, Btooom. One day, he finds himself stranded on an island with a green crystal embedded in his left hand. The only way back home is to kill fellow participants and collect seven green crystals. Although he is hesitant at first, Ryouta decides to level the playing field and reveal the perpetrator behind the recreation of his favorite game.
Btooom has the secrecy surrounding its mastermind’s identity and players who are trying to uncover it, just like in Squid Game. It’s all about survival of the fittest.
4. Death Parade
- MAL Rating: 8.14
- Episodes: 12
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Apple TV
Participants in the Squid Game die either from failing to complete tasks or game or betrayals. In Death Parade, the participants take part in a high-stakes game after their death. That said, unlike Squid Games, where there are many game supervisors, Death Parade has only one.
In Death Parade, two people who died at the same time come to a bar where Decim, the bartender, awaits. The dead are given a choice to play a game, which will decide if they’ll reincarnate or perish into the void forever. Darts, billiards, bowling, fighting games – there is something for everyone. This anime is a Squid Game alternative you never knew you wanted.
3. Darwin’s Game
- MAL Rating: 7.21
- Episodes: 11
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Hulu
Just like Squid Game, in Darwin’s Game, Kaname Sudou gets an invitation to play a game, a mobile game, to be specific. Upon opening, he gets bitten by a snake out of the screen and falls unconscious. After waking up, he’s puzzled and asked to rest. When his curiosity gets the better of him, he opens the application, and just when he starts playing, a real-life player appears in front of him and tries to kill him with a knife.
Kaname realizes it’s a do-or-die game. While in Squid Game, losing a game or betrayals result in death, in Darwin’s Game, it’s simply kill or be killed.
2. Tomodachi Game
- MAL Rating: 7.72
- Episodes: 12
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Prime Video
Remember when seemingly innocent characters backstabbed their friends, i.e., the sacrificial lambs in Squid Game? Well, Tomodachi Game (tomodachi means friend in Japanese) focuses more on the theme of betrayal. It exposes the true nature of friendships, or humanity in general, through a game.
Even amidst a financial crisis, Yuuichi collects funds for an expensive school trip just to join his friends. But when the trip fund worth 20 million yen gets stolen, they get distanced as two of his friends were in charge of it. One night, five of them get trapped in a room and are greeted by a gaming character. It is revealed that one of them has gathered everyone here to pay off a 20 million yen debt by playing a high-stakes survival game.
Friends over money or money over friends? The answer will shock you.
1. Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor
- MAL Rating: 8.26
- Episodes: 52 (2 seasons)
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, Netflix
Squid Game’s scriptwriter, Hwang Dong Hyuk, acknowledged that the series was heavily inspired by Kaiji besides other works, something which is evident when you watch this anime.
Kaiji, the protagonist, gets tricked into co-signing a loan for a colleague, who later runs away. With the entire debt on his shoulder and the loan sharks at his neck, Kaiji boards a ship that promises to clear his debt in a single night if he keeps winning. Upon boarding, he finds out that if he loses, lifelong slavery awaits, and there’s no looking back. If you enjoyed the betrayals, strategies, and psychological affairs in Squid Game, you’re in for a treat with Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor.
