Better Than It Sounds/Anime and Manga L-O

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Please sort new titles alphabetically by the English release name to avoid doubled entries.

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L

• [[Kiniro no Corda|La Corda d'Oro Primo Passo]]: A girl meets a fairy who tells her she is special and gives her a magic violin. She is very upset about this. Meanwhile, there are a lot of pretty boys who play instruments.
• Last Exile: A pair of fast-flying couriers get dragged into a war against their will.
  • Or: Separating Church from State, with blue Unobtainium, steam-powered muskets, and shortage of water.
• The Law of Ueki: Young boy who can turn trash into trees he can control gets into a Tournament Arc chock full of What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?.
• Le Chevalier d'Eon: A man who randomly transforms into his sister tries to prevent the French Revolution. He is resisted by zombies, catholic rune magic, and lethal poetry. Meanwhile, Japanese writers fail French history to a truly spectacular degree.
• Legend of Galactic Heroes: Two bishounen wage war against each other for 110 episodes.
  • Alternatively: People do things that people generally do... in space. This takes 110 episodes.
• The Legend of Koizumi: Former Japanese PM plays tile games with world leaders. Nazis ensue.
• Let's Bible: Guy tries to rape Jesus.
• LetterBee: The mail is delivered.
  • Or: Gun wielding Mailmen deliver peoples "heartfelt" letters across barren wastelands. They also fight giant armored insects. The main character cries a lot.
  • Two words: Supercharged Mailmen.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: The Manga.
• Liar Game: An honest girl and a genius con-artist get caught up in a high-stakes game and save everyone through the use of social psychology.
• Library War: A girl falls in love with a man who once bought her a book.
• Little House With an Orange Roof: Two broken families are brought together by real estate fraud.
• Little Jumper: A girl goes back in time to save her mom, forgets everything about her and develops a crush on her now younger dad. Squicky implications ensues.
• A Little Snow Fairy Sugar: Fairies control the weather by playing musical instruments and are invisible and inaudible to normals except to an 11-year-old girl that always abides to a rigid schedule. Said 11-year-old girl isn't amused whenever one such fairy that is in-training enters her life and is eventually forced to live with her. May induce diabetes.
• Lone Wolf and Cub: Single father raises child and travels around feudal Japan, gradually losing enemies.
• Love Hina: A man wants to marry someone, but he has no idea who. He also gets punched. A lot.
• Loveless: A Kid Hero and a Bishonen team up to fight battles with words. Meanwhile, kid's dead brother plots against them.
  • Or: A 20-something Bishounen university student and a grade school boy who have the same name engage in Will They or Won't They?. They will.
• Love Lucky: Average joe gets married to a pop idol. Unfortunately for him, no one can know about it.
• The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer: Psychics with animal mentors work to protect the world from getting smashed, but the person they are protecting wants to smash it as well. Primary viewpoint comes from the one psychic who knows this and agreed to help with the smashing.
• Lucky Star: Four girls talk about nothing.
  • Or: Shout-Out: The Anime.
• Lupin III: An internationally wanted felon and his gang who, when not committing relatively non-violent crimes, spend so much time stopping dangerous criminals that the pursuing cops are half conflicted on whether their quarry should be arrested or recruited.
  • The Castle of Cagliostro: The felon and his gang rob a casino, only to discover that the money is fake. The felon decides to complete a job he failed almost a decade earlier, all the while trying to save a girl from having to marry her cousin who wants the family treasure.

M

• Macross: Humanity battles aliens with Transforming Mecha, The Power of Love and/or The Power of Rock and Lots and Lots of Missiles.
  • Macross Plus: Top Gun IN SPACE!
• Madlax: An Extraordinarily Empowered Action Girl and an Ordinary High School Student live completely separate lives. When they meet, half of the cast dies. Existentialism ensues.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: Two nine-year-old girls fight over jewels.
  • Or: a little girl makes friends in a rather unorthodox way.
  • Alternatively: A giant robot anime with magical girls instead of giant robots.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's: Little girls battle German terrorist group commanded by an oblivious, lovable cripple.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S: A special forces instructor adopts a female clone of Jesus, and then is forced to shoot her.
  • StrikerS Sound Stage X: An emergency worker and her friends are the only ones that can stop an invasion of exploding zombies.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vi Vid: Two members of separate royal dynasties become friends with each other through hand to hand combat.
  • Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force: A boy goes on the run from the police for the sake of a girl he just met.
• Magic Knight Rayearth: Magical Girls, Mecha, and several other genres that should not meet, do. It somehow works. (Hint: not Vision of Escaflowne.)
  • Alternately: Girls get magic and armor that gets stronger, once it gets strong enough they ditch it for Gundams to fight an evil sorcerer in a Gundam, to save a girl from a horrible power great enough that she could have used it to save herself from it.
  • Spoiler version: Lolibait princess commits suicide by proxy by forcing some clueless teenaged girls to murder her.
• Magic Users Club: Secret world-saving club gets pushed around by the anime club next door.
• Mahou Sensei Negima: A child's late father, a famous war veteran, may yet be alive.
  • Or: A 10-year old wizard acquires a 31-girl harem. They're his students.
  • Or: One of the few times someone can say "Want some candy, little boy?" with her teacher around.
  • Or: 10-year-old junior high school teacher drags his all-girl class along on his crazy adventures.
  • Or: Manga author--er, Magical teacher turns his harem series into an action manga.
• Mahoraba: Heartful Days: An art student moves into an apartment run by a teenage schizo. Hilarity Ensues.
• My-HiME (anime): High School girl and her two ambiguously lesbian friends save the world from the (dis)comfort of their own school.
  • Alternatively: Magical Girl show where the girls summon Mons that are literally powered by their feelings for their most beloved one. Sounds sickeningly sweet and cute, doesn't it?
  • My-HiME (manga): New kid on the block walks into a Magical Girl fight. Neither wants to share him.
  • Mai-Otome (anime): Girl enrolls in an all-female Magical Girl Warrior academy and makes a spoiled princess her pact-partner. Characters from the above series appear in abundance.
    • Mai-Otome (manga): Same girl and two of her friends are called upon to protect a princess who's more than meets the eye.
  • Mai-HiME Destiny (light novel): Not-so-ambiguously gay magical girl is handcuffed and shipped off to a school for espers.
• Maison Ikkoku: Loser in run-down apartment house full of crazies has a crush on the new apartment manager, a widow.
• Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro: An omnivorous schoolgirl and a hungry Lord of Change solve mysteries.
• Manabi Straight: Future freeter revives ridiculously weak student council as president. Hilarity ensues.
• MAR: Marchen Awakens Romance: Teenage otaku is summoned to another world to fight evil chess pieces armed with jewelry.
• Maria Holic: A lesbian meets the girl of her dreams. She's a he.
• Mariasama ga Miteru: A Catholic all-girl high school is filled with students who spend most of their time trying to seduce each other, only to end up quarreling over how to organize the next School Festival.
• Martian Successor Nadesico: The crew of a civilian-owned warship fight both sides in a war, become Otaku, make up their own side spontaneously, and never solve the main problem of the show (on-screen, anyway).
• Mazinger Z: Humongous Mecha has joysticks for the first time ever. Actually, a lot of things happen for the first time ever.
  • Great Mazinger: 50% more angst and 300% more swords.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer: Now with aliens! Also flying saucers.
  • Mazinkaiser: Radical teen with attitude finds a robot straight out of a video game.
  • Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen: Radical teen with attitude inspires a god to throw his fist at another god. Robot turns into a giant fist in return.
• Medaka Box: A Mary Sue is elected Student Council President and uses a suggestion box to better the lives of her classmates. Undergoes major change in style and tone.
• Memories: Three part movie from the guy who brought you post-apocalyptic nuke psychics and creepy, elderly, albino kids.
  • Magnetic Rose: Woman kills her fiance on Earth. Results in the deaths of a salvage crew on her private space station decades after her death.
  • Stink Bomb: A flu shot and fever medicine give a man horrible BO before setting out on the road, ruining the day for millions. Severe military ineptitude allows him to continue. NASA space marines save the day.
  • Cannon Fodder: Slacker kid aspires to fire cannons instead of loading them when he grows up.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Busty, slightly brainless klutz founds a group of idol singers. They search the town to add more members to their band. The Grand Finale is a sing-off with Gackt.
  • Or: Sailor Moon with MERMAIDS!
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure: Girl group loses half its members and tries to enlist a little girl. An Ill Girl tries to steal the lead singer's boyfriend. When she fails, she starts hearing voices in her head.
• Metal Fighter Miku: Hot girls in cool outfits wrestle each other in front of large crowds. A drunk thinks it would be better if their outfits came off. He's right.
• Midori no Hibi: A lonely young man has a romantic relationship with his right hand.
• The Mikos Words and The Witches Incantations: A Cute Witch seduces an enshrined Miko and elopes with her.
• Minami-ke: Three sisters (representing beauty, brains and BOSS) share an apartment together. Stuff happens.
• Mirai Nikki (manga): A loser gets help from a nutcase in order to win a Serious Business game, which is played with their cellphones. Also, the winner becomes God.
• Mirage of Blaze: Reincarnated Samurai A does not want to be groped by Reincarnated Samurai B, except for the part where he totally does.
• Mnemosyne: Vodka is water in Russian. Mind Screw ensues.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: An immature computer Geek gains possession of a giant steel samurai, and uses it to fight off Space Nazis.
  • Or: A few kids drive big robots, meet several inexperienced soldiers, and proceed to bicker among themselves. Sometimes people die.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket: War-loving young boy meets an ineffectual sympathetic soldier. Reality Ensues.
  • Gundam 08th MS Team: What if Romeo and Juliet had giant robots?
  • Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory: A Space Nazi hijacks a giant robot armed with a nuke.
  • Zeta Gundam: Enraged teen becomes a terrorist after government agents call him a girl.
  • Gundam ZZ: A gang of teenage lowlifes and a psychic loli fight off Neo-Space-Nazis. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Chars Counterattack: Space military tries to stop Neo-Space Nazis from dropping asteroids on Earth.
    • Or: Two grown men argue over who would have made a better surrogate son to a dead teenage girl. Death happens.
  • Gundam F91: An attempt to rekindle a popular franchise by ripping off the Imperial March.
    • Crossbone Gundam: Pirates fight the aristocracy ... In Space
  • Victory Gundam: A thirteen year-old boy must face several charges of sexual harassment from beautiful older women while waging war against religious fanatics... In Space.
  • G Gundam: The only thing stopping Giant Robot Cthulhu from turning us all into cyborg zombies is one martial artist with No Social Skills and his shining fingers.
    • Alternately: OK, who introduced mecha into the Tenkaichi Budokai?
    • Or: At first, the key to awesomeness is a) shout, b) with your own robot, squeezing opponent robot's head till it explodes. Eventually, that's boring too.
  • Gundam Wing: A girl decides that the perfect man for her is the guy who wants to kill her. Yaoi Fangirls flood mecha fansites.
    • Alternately: A man plays chess by himself.
  • After War Gundam X: Everyone dies in the first episode. Cute girl goes on to skinny-dip alongside a psychic dolphin.
  • Turn a Gundam: Crossdressing chauffeur/spy awakens a white mustached god to bring peace to humanity and moon people.
  • Gundam Seed: Angsty teens fight each other in a tale of Fantastic Racism.
    • Gundam Seed Astray: Mechanic and his computer-in-a-suitcase have adventures with their giant robot.
  • Gundam Seed Destiny: Angsty teens fight each other in a theme-park version of its predecessors. The characters spend a lot of time recalling past events.
  • Gundam 00: Heroic terrorists try to create World Peace Through Superior Firepower. Many plot twists are revealed, and lots of people die, while fans of both genders ogle the male leads.
    • 00F (manga): Another team of heroic terrorists has four giant robots but only one power supply for them. They decided to give all those to a Jerk Stu whose love interest is a spherical cat robot.
    • A Wakening Of The Trailblazer: Humans and aliens try to speak to each other.
• Mokke: Two sisters encounter the most boring ghosts Japanese folklore has to offer.
• Monster: Japanese doctor sacrifices his career to save the life of a young boy. Said boy decides to thank him. Painfully.
  • Or: Man stalks other man around Europe with a handgun. Other man teases him about it occasionally, while pursuing his twin sister. Blood and mayhem ensue.
  • Or: Fairy tales are read to a twin. A bunch of people die because of this.
  • Or: After shooting his own lawyer, escaped prisoner stalks a child abuse victim.
• Mononoke: An unnamed albino with Pointy Ears, Facial Markings and a Situational Sword dredges up the guilty pasts of an inn, a ship, a mask, a stick, and a train. His Literal Split Personality then uses this to kill Japanese Cthulu.
  • Or: An unremarkably bizarre-looking salesman walks the technicolor earth because inanimate objects are killing people who are sometimes already dead.
• Moonphase: A twenty-something photographer falls in love with a prepubescent girl who wants him to call her Mistress. They Fight Vampires.
• Morita-San Wa Mukuchi: A girl doesn't talk; her friend does. Boys stalk them.
• Mouse: Gentleman Thief pulls off increasingly ridiculous heists while getting raped by his three slaves.
• Moyashimon: A boy who talks to germs goes to college.
• Mujin Wakusei Survive: Gilligan's Island IN SPACE WITH KIDS!
• Murder Princess: Princess and bounty hunter swap bodies and surprise the hell out of an army of invading robo-assassins.
• Mushishi: A traveler helps people cope with invisible magic bugs.
• My Balls: A young man is given a good reason to refrain from self-abuse.
  • Or: Refuge in Audacity: The Hentai.
  • Or: Abstinence: The Porno.
  • Or: If man has sex the world ends. He does so anyway.
• My Lovely Ghost Kana: A guy moves into a new apartment and has sex with a dead girl.
  • A Slice of Life, Magical Girlfriend, Porn with Plot, Romantic Comedy; the main character is killed on the first page.
• Myself Yourself: An Ordinary High School Student hangs out with a Brother-Sister Incest couple, the world's slowest composer, and a massive-breasted girl who talks like a chipmunk.
• Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok: Norse gods are made into teenagers (and younger); one of them solves strange mysteries with a pink-haired high schooler.
• My Neighbor Totoro: Two sisters meet up with several forest spirits, the largest of which becomes a partial Replacement Goldfish for their sick mother.
• Mysterious Girlfriend X: Boy meets girl. Boy eats girl's drool.

N

• Nabari no Ou: A traumatized English teacher tries to be a good person. Everyone ignores him - with the exception of his student, God, who mocks him and then ignores him.
  • Or: Modern day Ninjas
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water: Castle in The Sky UNDER THE SEA WITH CAPTAIN NEMO!!!
  • Or: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea WITH ALIENS... AND ORPHANS!!!
• Najica Blitz Tactics: A secret agent begins to fall for her robot companion while they battle an evil organization. Panties ensue.
• Nana to Kaoru: Childhood friends find an activity they enjoy doing together.
• Nanaka 6/17: An accident forces a studious girl to relive her childhood...while still in high school.
• Narutaru: A cute girl finds an adorable star-shaped friend during summer vacation. Things go downhill... fast.
• Naruto: Title character continually gets screwed over by his "best friend", an emo with an utter lack of sense and commitment. The Big Bad looks like a mix between Voldemort and Michael Jackson. China invades.
  • Or: (Supposedly) Stealthy assassins fight one another in increasingly showy battles.
  • Naruto Shippuden: Title character comes home after three years of training with a perverted master. Big Bad is revealed to be a guy with weird eyes and a really overused Freudian Excuse, and then the personification of the curse from Uzumaki.
    • Or: Child soldiers with hand-jive magic get embroiled in a "world war" made up of everyone vs. one old masked guy who wants to hypnotize the world with the moon and his creepy snake doctor.
  • Or: Societies raise their children to be sociopaths and are surprised when the sociopaths turn on them. Ninja Jesus tries to show everyone the error of their ways.
• Natsume Yuujinchou: A MacGuffin carrying boy who sees strange beings goes on a quest of name-calling with his animal sidekick.
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: The people of the future have a big bug and weed problem. The heroine's trousers make it look as if her legs are bare.
• NEEDLESS: A boy who's lost his big sister joins a girl crazy Badass and his Stripperiffic female partner in order to fight a bunch of girls in school uniforms who work for a pharmaceutical company.
  • Or in other words, It's S-Cry-ed with Lolis!
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Superweapons are given to mentally unstable children while the mentally unstable adults plot to destroy the world.
  • Kids ride giant-robot-thingies with power cords. Creator despairs that people missed the point he was trying for but continues to (re)make movies out of it.
  • The End of Evangelion: Disturbed teenager works with his dead mother to turn humanity into goo.
    • Indecisive boy masturbates on comatose friend. Then things get dark.
    • Possible alternate title: "The other ending was too dark and confusing? How's THIS?!"
  • Boy rides his mom for father's approval.
    • Win.
    • Congratulations!
  • Or: A loser, an asshole, and a White-Haired Pretty Girl pilot giant robots under the command of a man who never moves, a Hot Scientist that speaks in mostly Techno Babble, and a chronic alcoholic.
  • To sum it all up: The most Freudian guts-covered roller coaster you will ever ride.
• Nerima Daikon Brothers: Three perpetually poor farmers want to become blues singers. They Fight Crime.
• Nichijou: Two high-school girls pretend that boring things are epic while a third girl trolls them. Meanwhile, a shark-loving 8-year-old professor fills an exploding robot with pastries.
• Night on the Galactic Railroad: Two kittens go on a metaphysical journey aboard a magical galactic train.
• Nightwalker: A private eye and his female partners fight demons. The private eye's ex wants him back.
• Ninin ga Shinobuden: A high school girl hangs out with the most incompetent group of Ninja ever, and is constantly harassed by a perverted yellow ball.
• No. 6: A White-Haired Pretty Boy Naive Newcomer and a crossdressing actor fight bees. Subtext ensues.
• Noblesse: A vampire awakens in Korea, then proceeds to kick evil scientists' butts. He indeed does sparkle, but does not suck.
• Nodame Cantabile: Semi-incompetent pianist abuses the personal space of her classmate. Sometimes the episodes consist almost entirely of an orchestra performing classical pieces.
• Noein: The title character doesn't exist and the main character defines reality.
• Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: A high school girl is secretly an otaku. The boy dates her but keeps telling everyone that She's Not My Girlfriend; nobody believes him.
• Noir: A cynical veteran assassin and a young amnesiac savant team up to thwart an Ancient Conspiracy. Flashbacks ensue.
• Nononono: The Olympic Gold Medal is Serious Business. There are also tons of angst. Considered to be Lighter and Softer compared to Elfen Lied.
• Now and Then, Here and There: Kendo Boy meets Water Girl and gets thrown into another dimension where children are turned into soldiers and serve an insane dictator.
• Nyan Koi: A guy tries to have a regular high school life and get together with his crush. Cats interfere in both endeavors.
• Nyotai-ka: After encounter with a goddess, a young salaryman stops experiencing morning wood.

O

• Ojamajo Doremi: An alcoholic, gambling old woman forces three 8-year old girls to work for free in her shop every day because one of them called her "witch". She insults and berates them every day, too.
  • Ojamajo Doremi Sharp: Three young girls and their ex-rival take care of a baby to get their powers back.
  • Motto! Ojamajo Doremi: Five young girls make baked goods to impress the witches that voted against them.
  • Ojamajo Doremi Dokkan!: Five young girls have to make trinkets to awaken a former Witch Queen in order to stop her from putting the world to sleep...And the baby they were raising turns herself into a girl their age just to be with them.
  • Ojamajo Doremi Naisho: Various secrets that the girls and other characters and some that never made it into the series proper have.
• Omamori Himari: Large-breasted Catgirl unexpectedly moves in with an Ordinary High School Student who is allergic to cats. When not trying to seduce him she beats the crap out of demons.
• Onani Master Kurosawa: An ordinary student finds an unconventional way to dish out justice: masturbating.
  • Or: Death Note parody overcomes itself to become one long Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
• One Piece: Small people with random skills go on a road trip and fight large people with government connections.
  • Or: In a World where having a dream makes you Badass, Mr. Fantastic is actually entertaining, and his friends are really weird.
  • Also Or: Stretch Armstrong the Oblivious Pirate Captain and his crew of misfits fight government conspiracies and a marine corps that employs, among other things, large men with superpowers. Meanwhile, old villains who survived have their own mini-stories on the chapter covers.
  • Also Or II: It's about a pirate made of rubber.
  • Also Or II Part II, Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Rubber Gilligan collects freak menagerie for world-spanning pleasure cruise much to the irritation of his slingshot-carrying, liar friend.
• One Pound Gospel: A nun helps a struggling boxer stick to his diet.
• Onidere: A meek high schooler is in a physically abusive relationship with an emotionally unstable girl who is living a double life.
• Oniichan Control: Guy has a huge crush on his Yandere sister. She's okay with that. He's not.
• Oniisama E: On her first day of school, a girl falls in love with a drug addict who grabs her on the bus.
• Ookami-san: Fairy tale characters attend high school. They Fight Crime.
• Ookiku Furikabutte: Sexually ambiguous High School boys play baseball.
• Ore No Imouto: A High School Student and his fourteen year old tsundere sister bond over Eroge.
• Orochuban Ebichu: A woman regrets buying a hamster.
• Otakuno Video: A analysis of the Otaku culture in 1980's-90's Japan, which includes the story of a star college student as he slowly descends into the realm of otaku. Also included are interviews of real otaku of different varieties. Considered the "bible of Otaku".
• Othello: Excruciatingly shy schoolgirl attracts very abusive friends and completely subverts Karma Houdini when her split-personality attacks people for doing wrong.
• Otogi Juushi Akazukin: The Three Musketeers are a trio of fourteen year old girls from another world who must protect a boy, who can talk to flowers, from evil.
• Otogi no Machi no Rena (Manga): High school girl starts raising baby sex-demons on accident. Hilarity Ensues. It's clean!
• Otogi Zoshi: Historical Fiction about a girl who crossdresses in order to find a magic bead. Halfway through, this premise is abandoned, so her modern day Reincarnation investigates Urban Legends.
• Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru: A trap becomes a role model for a school full of princess-types. Male audience members find themselves questioning their sexuality.
• Ouran High School Host Club: A poor girl is forced to pretend she's a boy and hang out with obnoxiously rich Bishonen as punishment for destroying private property.
  • At the very end, the Bishonen's fathers fight amongst themselves to have her marry their son. There is no season 2.
• Outlaw Star: A Badass Longcoat and his Adorably Precocious Child sidekick inherit a MacGuffin Girl and a snarky spaceship from a dead client. Together, along with a lady samurai and a spazzy Catgirl, they find God.
• Overman King Gainer: Moving is Serious Business. A one-night stand nearly dooms the world. Giant robots dance the Monkey.

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