Studio Madhouse is a name that holds serious weight in the anime world. Known for genre-defining hits like Death Note, One Punch Man, and Hunter x Hunter (2011), Madhouse has long earned its reputation as one of the mostvisually ambitiousand creatively fearless studios in the industry. But for every blockbuster title that became a global sensation, there’s a lesser-known series quietly waiting in its shadow, just as powerful, just as thoughtful, and often, just as unforgettable.
10 Most Underrated Anime That Deserves More Recognition
With so many anime out there, many gems go unnoticed. Here are some underrated anime that deserve more recognition.
This list is for the ones that slipped under the radar.
These are the shows that didn’t break the internet or dominatestreamingcharts, but still carry the unmistakable mark of Madhouse’s craft
7ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.
Bureaucracy Has Never Looked This Cool
ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.
You don’t expect a slow-burn political drama with zero explosions to be this engaging, but ACCA pulls it off with remarkable precision. Released in early 2017 and animated by Madhouse, this12-episode seriesadapts Natsume Ono’s manga into a visually subdued yet richly stylized tale of surveillance, power, and quiet rebellion.
At the heart of the story is Jean Otus, a seemingly unmotivated inspector who works for ACCA, a government agency overseeing the peace in 13 semi-autonomous districts of the Dowa Kingdom. What starts as an ordinary routine job gradually unravels into a nation-spanning conspiracy with Jean caught in the middle.
The anime’s muted color palette and calculated pacing may have turned off action-hungry viewers, but it’s exactly this deliberate restraint that makes ACCA so captivating. The world-building is dense but subtle, each district feels unique, and the political intrigue, layered with tobacco metaphors and coded conversations, unfolds like a chess match.
Though it aired in prime time on Tokyo MX and even had a dub produced by Funimation, ACCA barely made a dent in anime conversations online. That’s a shame, considering how rare it is to find an anime that trusts the viewer to pay attention and rewards them for doing so.
6Neuro: Supernatural Detective
From Hell to the Crime Scene, With Laughs
Long before Demon Slayer made demons look good, Neuro Nōgami was already here, eating mysteries for breakfast. Literally. Aired in 2007 and adapted from Yusei Matsui’s (Assassination Classroom) manga, this early Madhouse project brought something wildly unpredictable to the detective genre.
Neuro is a demon who feeds on riddles and unsolved mysteries. Having grown bored of the demon world, he descends into the human realm and forces a high school girl, Yako Katsuragi, to become his front-facing detective partner. She plays the public role, but he’s the one doing the dirty work, usually with spine-snapping violence and darkly comedic flair.
The show blends slapstick humor with some genuinely twisted cases, making it hard to categorize and harder still to forget. While the manga had a longer arc and deeper development, the anime leaned heavily into the absurdity of Neuro’s personality and the brutality of his methods.
Despite its unique premise and Matsui’s later fame, the anime remains largely forgotten, partly due to its early-2000s art style and the fact it never received an official English dub
A Story Too Harsh For Primetime
There are some stories that hit so hard, people avoid them. That’s what happened with Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin, a Madhouse production that aired in 2010. Set in post-WWII Japan, the series follows seven juvenile delinquents sent to a reformatory, where abuse, despair, and corrupt authority figures threaten to crush their humanity.
But Rainbow isn’t about breaking, it’s about surviving.
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Led by the older inmate Sakuragi, the boys form a brotherhood forged through shared suffering. The series doesn’t pull punches. From police brutality to sexual assault, the anime doesn’t censor its realism, a creative decision that likely contributed to its underexposure.
With music by Yuki Hayashi and a script that emotionally fidelity adapts the manga, Rainbow packs more gut-wrenching character arcs into 26 episodes than most shows do in 100. The animation, though not flashy, focuses on facial expressions and body language, conveying each character’s trauma and resilience with brutal clarity.
Funimation streamed it briefly, but Rainbow never got a dub. And despite its critical acclaim in Japan, it faded from Western conversations, perhaps because its themes were just too real.
When Battle Royale Goes Digital
Back when “battle royale” was just a genre and not a video game trend, Btooom! offered a terrifyingly real look at its consequences. Airing in 2012, Madhouse adapted Junya Inoue’s manga into a tight 12-episode survival thriller that saw ordinary people thrown into a death game, all based on a real-life video game.
Ryouta Sakamoto is a NEET who ranks among the top players of Btooom!, an online game that uses bombs instead of bullets. One day, he wakes up on a deserted island with nothing but a supply of BIMs, and a kill-or-be-killed mandate.
What sets this anime apart from similar titles is its bomb mechanics. Every contestant gets a different type of explosive, from timers to remote-detonated traps, which creates clever psychological warfare. It’s not just action, it’s strategy.
The anime ends just before the manga’s big third-act revelations, which turned off some viewers. But what’s worse is how overlooked it became.
3Beck! Mongolian Chop Squad
Your Favorite Band You Never Heard Of
There’s something raw and personal about Beck that makes it feel like a garage band you stumbled on before they got big. Directed by Osamu Kobayashi and animated by Madhouse in 2004, this coming-of-age rock drama follows Koyuki, a 14-year-old nobody who learns guitar and finds his identity in a struggling indie band named BECK.
What makes Beck special is that it actually understands music. It captures the awkward jam sessions, the tension before live gigs, the feeling of finding your voice, all of it wrapped in a plot about chasing authenticity in a commercial world.
While the art isn’t particularly flashy, the animation during performances is fluid, with guitar fingerings that match the real notes. The anime uses a mix of Japanese and English lyrics, especially in the dub, which Funimation produced. Many fans consider the dub the definitive version, especially since most of the songs are in English anyway.
Despite being a cult classic, Beck never caught mainstream fire. Maybe the grounded storytelling and slow pacing didn’t hook the action-focused anime crowd.
2Sonny Boy
An Existential Fever Dream You Can’t Wake Up From
To say Sonny Boy is confusing is an understatement, but if you stick with it, it becomes unforgettable. Released in 2021, this original Madhouse project was written and directed by One Punch Man’s Shingo Natsume, and it shows. The story begins with a group of students floating in an empty void after their school is suddenly transported to another dimension. No explanation. No rules.
What unfolds is part sci-fi, part philosophy, and part cosmic metaphor. Each student gains strange powers, some destructive, some useless. But there’s no central villain or goal. The characters are left to create meaning in an empty universe, leading to episodes that feel like stand-alone allegories on isolation, rebellion, and human connection.
The anime’s minimalist visuals and lack of exposition left many viewers lost. But that’s also what made Sonny Boy so distinctive. It doesn’t just ask questions, it forces you to sit with them.
Despite critical acclaim and discussions in anime circles, Sonny Boy never trended the way it should have. It didn’t help that it aired on Funimation during a time when it was competing with Tokyo Revengers and My Hero Academia
1Boogiepop and Others
The Original Urban Legend of Anime
Boogiepop and Others
Long before Monogatari or Paranoia Agent, there was Boogiepop, and even now, most anime fans don’t know what they missed. The 2019 Madhouse adaptation of Boogiepop and Others, based on Kouhei Kadono’s 1998 light novel, quietly delivered one of the most surreal and thought-provoking anime of the decade.
The story isn’t told in order. Events are fragmented, perspectives change constantly, and viewers are expected to piece things together. At the center is Boogiepop, a mysterious entity that appears when supernatural threats arise, threats that feed on despair, obsession, and apathy in the hearts of teenagers.
Unlike typical horror, this isn’t about jump scares. It’s psychological, atmospheric. Each arc examines the mental and emotional disintegration of different students as they encounter things beyond comprehension. Themes of identity, trauma, and entropy run deep.
Though a short-lived adaptation aired in 2000, the 2019 version by Madhouse is the definitive take. It’s faithful to the novels, incorporates more of the universe’s complex lore, and has a haunting soundtrack that elevates every scene.
It aired on Crunchyroll with a dub by Funimation, but never got the recognition it deserved, even among horror fans. Perhaps its non-linear storytelling was too demanding, or maybe it just arrived two decades too late.
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