Looking for anime like Lycoris Recoil? You are at the right place. Girls with Gun, a sub-genre when it comes to animation is a genre where the lead protagonist is female in a strong role with a modern setting or, one might even say, context. As the name suggests, these types of animes involve action, gunplay, along with strong scenes. Lycoris Recoil is one such anime that has not only girls with guns but also a great storyline.
Lycoris Recoil follows the story of a syndicate called Direct Attack (DA), an organization that raises orphan girls as assassins. Among all these assassins, Takina Inoue is one of their best Lycoris, who has a strong sense of perfection.
But, due to some circumstances, she gets transferred out of DA, where she meets Chisato Nishikigi, with who she ends up spending every day. At the new base, she finds out how things work for them.
Here are 43 best anime like Lycoris Recoil
This slice-of-life thriller, action-packed yet comedy anime will definitely have you intrigued enough to check it out. Some might say that this anime was too short, so we have compiled some animes that you must watch if you liked Lycoris Recoil.
1. Spy X Family
This recent anime is about Loid Forger, a spy who spends his life-fighting crime so everyone can live peacefully. He receives a mission for which he has to depend on others to fulfill it. A mission where he has to stop a school principal who is a criminal in reality, for which he needs a child to make them enter the prestigious school.
He adopts Anya, who can read minds, from an orphanage and makes a contract with Yor, who is an assassin, to be his wife. These three mysterious people live together and realize what it’s like to be a real family. Spy X Family hasn’t been aired for too long, and its increasing popularity only means this show will go to higher places.
- IMDb ranking: 8.5/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
2. Ranma ½
This classic anime is not something you would have expected on this list. Ranma ½ is pretty hilarious, with its main theme being a story about our protagonist, Ranma, a man who is cursed into becoming a woman whenever he touches cold water. It is a pretty funny story when you watch and see how Ranma exchanges between being a woman and a man while the story moves forward.
This anime is one of the most talked about anime from that time that gets talked about even to this day, for its unique storyline and strong relationship between the main characters of the story.
- IMDb ranking: 7.9/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Hulu.
3. Tokyo Ghoul
A story about a teenage boy called “Kaneki” who ends up becoming a human-ghoul hybrid after a date with a woman who revealed herself being a ghoul, a powerful human who feeds on human flesh to survive. Kaneki comes to know that he was saved after this incident because the said ghoul date, Rize Kamishiro, ends up saving his life by giving her ghoul body organs to save his life; it was why he became the hybrid.
We follow along with his story as he deals with becoming a human-ghoul hybrid and decides never to eat flesh among all his struggles to stay connected with his humanity as he sees the government hunt these new monsters.
- IMDb ranking: 7.8/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
4. Princess Principal
This action-packed anime is similar to Lycoris Recoil, too, with cute girls who are working for organizations undercover. We follow along with the main characters who attend this prestigious school called Queen’s Mayfaire school and go undercover under the disguise of schoolgirls while they work as spies for the commonwealth of Albion.
This anime was set in the 19th century, and our main characters are tasked to complete their mission while London is at war as it has been divided into East and West via a wall.
- IMDb ranking: 7.3/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
5. Log Horizon
This isekai genre anime is about a world where people are taken away from their world into this game called Elder Tale, where after the latest update of the game, players are unable to log out. Among all the people is our protagonist, Shiroe, who is confused for a while before he understands where he actually is as he is a veteran player of the said game.
Amidst exploring the game, or one would rather say his new reality, he realizes that he must learn to live in this world now that they are stuck here and that he needs to start working around with the “natives” of the game. We follow along with his story to see how he works around this new world and everything that comes after it.
- IMDb ranking: 7.6/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
6. Prima Doll
Just like Lycoris Recoil, Prima Doll too has cute girls in it, but the only difference between both of those anime is the fact Lycoris Recoil focuses more on the spy theme of the anime, whereas Prima: Doll focuses more on war and its aftermaths.
In this anime, we follow along the story where after the war, mechanical dolls named automata which were used for the war, are now considered useless. The few dolls left are working in cafes to still preserve their purpose.
Our main character, Haizakura, is an Automata, too but what’s shocking is that she sings. Now, we continue watching to see if she ends up finding her life’s purpose and remembering her identity or not.
- IMDb ranking: 6.6/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on HiDive.
7. Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Although the anime has cute girls, it is a dark anime that follow the stories of these two high school girls who are faced with this weird creature who offers to grant any wish of these girls, Madoka and Sayaka, if they accept to become magical girls.
Thankfully, they refuse this offer of being tipped by other girls. Not long after, these girls get a tour of this magical world where they realize and get to know how horrible and scary the world really is.
- IMDb ranking: 8.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
8. Assault Lily Bouquet
Unlike Lycoris Recoil, there is no secret organization in this anime, but we do follow along the story of cute girls who fight the monsters named “huge” with the help of their special tools called Charms. This teenage girl who fights these monsters is called “Lilies.” If cute girls killing monsters is your type of thing, Assault Lily is just for you.
- IMDb ranking: 6.3/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
9. Jujutsu Kaisen
If you are an anime lover, you most definitely have heard of Jujutsu Kaisen or JJK for short. This is an anime about this average high school boy, naked Itadori, who wants to find meaning in his life and ends up fighting and getting attacked by this ghost when he goes to save his club-mates. Itadori ends up getting saved by another boy his age named Megumi, who is a jujutsu sorcerer.
Amidst this fight, there many complicated things happen, due to which Itadori gets recruited to become a Jujutsu sorcerer. We follow along his story and how he deals with everything that happens and will happen in his life that suddenly got turned around.
- IMDb ranking: 8.6/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
10. The Millionaire Detective-Balance: Unlimited
Have you ever wondered what you would do if you suddenly had a lot of money? If not, maybe try watching this anime and get some ideas. We follow the story of our main character, Daisuke, who gets a job of being a detective at Modern Crime Prevention Headquarters.
Here we see Daisuke and Haru, his colleague, who ends up partnering together to solve crimes together. Just like Lycoris Recoil, two characters whose views, Daisuke, who solves cases via money, and Haru, who does it using his brain, do not match, are paired together and need to work together.
- IMDb ranking: 7.3/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
11. Warlords of Sigrdrifa
What can we even say about this anime, Warlords of Sigrdrifa is similar to Lycoris Recoil. Want to see trained and skilled female characters on adventures? Watch this. This slice-of-life genre anime is about a world where Valkyries are in a battle with aliens called Pillars, and when their top fighter is killed in the fight, Claudia, Europe’s top fighter, is sent in to help them in Tokyo.
Things get more complicated when it is noticed that only Claudia returns from every mission and every fight. But we see throughout this anime how Claudia changes everyone’s thoughts in regard to her. Just like Lycoris Recoil, this is about cute girls fighting to save the world from problems and disasters.
- IMDb ranking: 6.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
12. Cowboy Bebop
This 90s anime is about a group of bounty hunters with skilled comrades who are on an adventure all across the solar system to capture all types of criminals as the human race here has spread all over the solar system. This story is set in a faraway future. Throughout the story, many comrades join them in this mission, and we follow along with them. This anime was one of the first series that introduced anime to the world.
- IMDb ranking: 8.9/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Netflix.
13. Engage Kiss
This recent anime is just like Lycoris Recoil, following the story of Shuu and Kisara, the main characters of this anime, who work undercover to defeat every demon and protect everyone from them. This anime is just like Lycoris Recoil, with cute main female characters who are just fighting monsters throughout this anime.
- IMDb ranking: 6.4/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
14. Release the Spyce
Momo Minamoto, the main character of this anime, is an aspiring police officer who wants to follow in her father’s footsteps. But something is different about Momo, who can tell what a person is feeling with just one lick, her unique ability.
The interesting part of this anime begins when Momo gets recruited to become a spy for a secret agency by Yuki Hanzoumom to keep her city safe and fight all the bad people. If you are also a music enjoyer, you may like the opening song of this anime as that is a banger if I say so myself.
- IMDb ranking: 6.6/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on HiDive.
15. Under the Dog
This anime is set in the year 2025, 5 years since the terrorist attack that took place in 2020 at the Tokyo Olympics Games. Teenagers under this organization that is formed by United Nation have special abilities and are known as Flowers.
Seven of these teenagers are present at the former Olympic site and are sent to assassin other teenagers who have the same abilities as them. Flowers have no choice but to follow whatever they are asked to do if they want to make sure their family survives, as the United Nations has taken hostage of their said families.
Hana Togetsu is one of the seven teenagers who are sent in to retrieve Shunichi Nanase. Just before Hana can complete her mission, the American military arrives to look for another man who ends up disrupting her mission, and soon things turn south and bloody.
- IMDb ranking: 5.7/10
16. Gunslinger Girl
This psychological anime doesn’t just feature cute girls who work as assassins but also technologies that are used to enhance these said girls’ bodies. They are said to be recruited for a second chance, but that doesn’t end up being the case as these girls are brainwashed and forced by the Social Welfare Agencies to carry out all their dirty work in their country.
However, our protagonist, Henrietta, an elite girl who kills without any care, is suddenly torn between her love for her partner and her love for her work.
- IMDb ranking: 7.4/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
17. Canaan
This action-packed anime with a female lead is similar to Lycoris Recoil. Girls with guns, filled with action featuring girl’s love too. This mysterious yet action anime centers around our skilled, more solid named Canaan, who can use all of her five senses at the same time, which makes her quite powerful. We follow along to see her get through various obstacles like terrorism, a killer virus, and violent groups, along with people from her past.
- IMDb ranking: 6.8/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on HiDive.
18. Date a Bullet: Dead or Bullet
Our main character, Kurumi Tokisaki, suddenly falls into a new unknown world where he takes an interest in this one white cat, but to his disappointment, they end up parting ways.
Later we see him meeting Hibiki Higoromo, a white-haired spirit who tells him that they are in between a killing game and only the survivor of that match will end up getting their wish granted. This makes both Kurumi and Hibiki team up, a temporary alliance one might even say to win.
- IMDb ranking: 7.6/10
19. Psycho-Pass
This dystopic anime features our protagonist, Akane Tsunemori, who begins her career as a police officer in a world where all the job fields are based on aptitude tests. Akane is a specialized officer that focuses on stopping criminals before they even happen.
But the difference here is that not all of the criminals are executed or jailed away, as there is a possibility of them joining police forces to work as reading the minds of other criminals. We follow along with her story to see how things work out for Akane as she starts questioning the good and evil of her world.
- IMDb ranking: 8.3/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
20. Riddle Story of Devil
Just like in Lycoris Recoil, the theme of our protagonist being a girl who knows how to fight is present here too. The only difference here is that Tokaku Azuma, the protagonist, along with 11 more girls, are transferred to this boarding school, where they are asked to kill our second main character, Haru Ichinose.
Whoever kills Haru will get any one of their desire or wishes fulfilled, but the tricky complication is that you get only one chance to do so, and if you fail to do so, you will be expelled. However, Tokaku ends up getting drawn towards Haru, the girl she is technically supposed to kill, and ends up vowing not to let her friend die and promises that she will protect Haru from this.
- IMDb ranking: 6.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
21. The Executioner and Her Way of Life
We can connect this anime with Lycoris Recoil for its dark themes along with the great chemistry among the protagonists. The main character of this anime, Menou, is assigned to kill Akari, one of the lost ones when she realizes that Akari just cannot be killed.
But since Menou is assigned the task, she starts finding a way to kill Akari and end her immortality. We follow along with this anime to find out what exactly happens. Does Menou end up killing Akari or not?
- IMDb ranking: 6.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on HiDive.
22. Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
Our main character, Tsunayoshi Sawada, is just another boy who is clumsy and not very talented. He is also in love with his school idol Kyouko Sasagawa, a girl who is way out of his league. But one day, his uninteresting life takes an unexpected twist when he finds a Reborn who is a hitman, shockingly a baby.
This Reborn is sent from the Mafia family in Italy for a mission where the Reborn has to prepare a middle schooler to become the ninth boss of the mafia as the current one is on the brink of retirement. And maybe, this clumsy boy can maybe achieve greatness too.
IMDb ranking: 7.7/10
Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
23. A Certain Scientific Railgun
In this entire world, there are only seven espers, a special group of people who learn how the Academy City works. This city is a place where science and technological innovations are very common. There are only 5 Esper titles and people who are powerful enough to bear that level 5 title.
One of those people is our protagonist Mikoto Misaka who is a middle schooler with control over the electricity. We follow along to see a group of cute young girls fighting with these powers.
- IMDb ranking: 7.5/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
24. Aria of The Scarlet Ammo
The main character of this show, Aria, is insanely skilled with guns and works under an organization that defends the population, just like in Lycoris Recoil. Aria ends up working together with her partner Kinji who she saves when the boy becomes Butei Killer’s next victim.
Kinji uses his special power, which flares up when he gets aroused despite not wanting to do it as he only wants to live a simple peaceful life, but things turn for him, and he now has to work with Aria.
- IMDb ranking: 6.5/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
25. The Detective Is Already Dead
Our protagonist, Kimizuka Kimihiko, is always found at the crime scenes. He never stops getting caught up in bad events, and this time he had to carry a package on a flight by criminals; he is forced to do this, and he ends up encountering the legendary detective, Siesta.
When he gets to know that she is hunting this mysterious organization on her telling him, he joins her and becomes her assistant. Years later, when Siesta dies, Kimizuka thinks he has lost his purpose, but then he meets the girl who ends up getting Siesta’s heart which ends up leading him back to his mystery-solving days.
- IMDb ranking: 5.9/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
26. Terror in Resonance
After this one terrorist attack, the Japanese nuclear facility is paralyzed. After a while of searching for the people who were responsible for the same, two boys in a video are caught known as Sphinx, who also takes the credit for being responsible for the same, but they plead that they never willingly killed anyone and beg to be let go.
This anime talks about a different perspective than what we may be used to, and it talks about terrorists’ perspective with its own slice-of-life moments.
- IMDb ranking: 7.8/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
27. Eden of The East
Japan was hit with numerous series of missiles under a terrorist attack that thankfully did not end up harming anymore. But months later, people forget about this, but our protagonist, Saki Morimi, goes on this trip to America where she ends up getting into trouble with this man called Akira, that appears naked in front of her, and this ends up changing her life.
This anime is both cute and mysterious. It will get you all intrigued to know what exactly is happening in the show and will make you want to watch the next episode instantly.
- IMDb ranking: 7.5/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
28. Steins; Gate
Both of these series, Lycoris Recoil and Steins Gate, start off with their characters being silly. In this anime, there is a mad scientist who, with his assistants, is working on some weird so-called future gadgets that can do various things.
One of their most successful inventions is a phone microwave that turns bananas into a gel. Despite all this silly stuff, we notice how the story gets complex as things start getting revealed, and soon enough, you will be in your conspiracy mode.
- IMDb ranking: 8.8/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
29. Mai-Hime
This anime is more supernatural-themed, with magical elements in it. We follow along with our main character, Mai Tokiha, who somehow ends up getting entangled in this battle between two other girls with supernatural abilities when she gets a scholarship with her brother to the Fuuka Academy. As we continue to watch this anime, we see what follows after.
- IMDb ranking: 7.4/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
30. Flip Flappers
Just like Lycoris Recoil, we have cute girls as our protagonists who work for mysterious organizations. Here, our main character Cocona, an average middle schooler, meets a strange girl, Papika, who invites her to join this organization called Flip Flap.
We follow these girls solving missions together as they fight dangerous creatures using their crystals to further transform into magical girls. But one day, people from other organizations come and slay their creatures, and these girls realize that they need to learn to work together if they want to defeat all these dangerous creatures as well as stand a chance against their rivals.
- IMDb ranking: 7.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on HiDive.
31. A Place Further Than the Universe
Mari, a second-year high school student, has decided that she will not let her youth go to waste anymore. But, her fears still consume her and prevent her from letting her take the step forward she wants to. One day, she encounters a girl who has big dreams, just like Mari does.
Shirase Kobuchizawa has been working hard to be able to gather money for her trip to Antarctica after the disappearance of her mother. She decides not to stop checking and searching for her mother in a place further than the universe and meets Mari, who instantly agrees to help her. Together, these girls go on their adventure.
- IMDb ranking: 8.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
32. Maid Sama
Though this anime does not have the mysterious action-packed theme of Lycoris Recoil, it does have the cute girls working in a café theme. Our anime, Maid Sama, is about the main character, Misaki Ayuzawa, who is the demon president of Seika High and of Takumi Usui, who somehow finds out that she works at a maid café.
Misaki was the first girl president in the previously all-boy school, where she ended up becoming the demon president with a stone heart along with her iron fist to not let the girls be bullied.
But what people did not know is that she worked at a maid café with her cheerful and sweet alter ego. Soon, Takumi finds out, and she must decide how to deal with this, to let her reputation that she worked hard for be destroyed or to spend time with the boy.
- IMDb ranking: 7.8/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
33. Sound of The Sky
Our protagonist, 15-year-old Kanata Sorami, enlisted in the 1121st Platoon of the Helvetians army in the hope of becoming a great bugle player, she accepts the tutelage of Sergent Major, who also happens to be a skilled trumpeter, and as she works alongside them, she realizes the beauty of life in Seize and the joy of community while the world around them is crumbling.
- IMDb ranking: 7/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
34. Is the Order A Rabbit?
This anime which is yet again similar to Lycoris Recoil is about cute girls who work in a café and their everyday challenges. But unlike Lycoris Recoil, this anime does not have any action or dangerous organizations. Our main character, Cocoa Hoto, is just a simple high school freshman who is looking for a boarding school and somehow stumbles upon this café called Rabbit House.
Unlike what one might expect from this café, which is rabbits, she finds out that this café is a boarding house where she could stay for the next semester, and instead of paying for her rent, she could work at the coffee shop. We follow along to see how Cocoa figures things out and makes new friends, and meets people she may even be able to call her family.
- IMDb ranking: 7/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
35. Little Witch Academia
When our main character, Akko, goes to her new school, Luna Nova Magical Academy, despite being from a non-magical background, the trip there is anything but as easy like one might expect. While on her way, she ends up befriending Lotte and Sucy. Akko also finds a chariot wand that she ends up taking as her own.
We follow along with her story as we see how Akko realizes that her time here at this academy is anything but easy and that she would need to work very hard if she does not want to stay interior with the rest of her magical background friends. Here, we also see how Akko and her friends learn what the true meaning of being a witch really is.
- IMDb ranking: 7.3/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Netflix.
36. Yuuki Yuuna Wa Yuusha De Aru
Have you heard of the saying of some people are heroes without any powers who help people out without any special abilities? This anime is a prime example of the very saying. Our protagonist, Yuuna Yuki, is a person just like that; she is a hero that does her best to make everyone smile and is also part of the hero club of her school.
But what happens when one day she is actually offered to be a hero and to fight against monsters who are soon becoming a great threat to the safety of everyone? We follow along to see how she helps people and how she accepts her new reality while also dealing with the dark side of it. Just like Lycoris Recoil, this anime has cute girls living a double life while also fighting mysterious evil monsters.
- IMDb ranking: 6.8/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
37. Blend S
Our protagonist, Maika Sakuranomiya, a 16-year-old girl, just wants to be independent and starts applying for jobs so she can save money to be able to afford to study abroad. But the problem is that her applications keep getting rejected due to the vast difference between her pictures and when she smiles.
She somehow finds a coffee shop called Café Stile, whose store manager, Dino, becomes infatuated with her cuteness and offers her a job as a sadistic waitress, where Maika, despite her clumsiness, finds her first pair of masochist customers. We follow along the story of our tsundere protagonist as she moves forward with her position at the café.
- IMDb ranking: 6.9/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
38. The Journey of Elaina
Ever since Elaina was young, she had been interested in reading about witches that travel all around her. Eliana, too wanted to experience that very adventure and become a witch. After many trials, she finally succeeds and goes on her own adventure.
Eliana meets many people along the way and learns a lot of new things that she never knew. There are many happy yet dark moments in her journey, and we follow the story to see all about it.
- IMDb ranking: 6.9/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Hulu.
39. Mitsuboshi Colors
Our protagonists, Sacchan, Yui, and Kotoha, are three cute girls who are here to solve all the mysteries while they battle away all the enemies with help from their friends. But their life is not all sunshine and rainbow as they fight; their arch-nemesis, Saitou, the violent police officer, meets them at every turn of their life as they solve all these cases.
- IMDb ranking: 7.4/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on HiDive
40. The Fruit of Grisaia
Secret organizations, teenage girls fighting crimes, and terrorism? Count us in. Grisaia, just like Lycoris Recoil, is an anime that talks about secret organizations that only care about working in favor of the country rather than the people working.
It’s a story about girls who are put in dangerous situations to complete missions that will benefit the company, where these girls cannot trust anyone but their own selves. This action-packed anime will keep you on the edge of your seat and make you want to watch the next episode instantly.
- IMDb ranking: 7/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
41. Dolls’ Frontline
In the world after the 3rd world war, various military people started using combat android dolls known as the “T Dolls” that are used to maintain peace, and due to them being robots, they are superior in physical combat as well.
But these dolls are incapable of making decisions as they are only used to following orders. Here, Sangvis Ferri was the leading T Doll manufacturer, but one day these AI declared war against the remaining mankind, and suddenly we were in a robot invasion.
In this world where all these female androids are weapons, a squad is now tasked to hunt down all these dolls who have decided to rebel and turn against humanity. Griffin, the rookie commander, is now given her first mission to track down this and get the data before the manufacturer can get it again.
- IMDb ranking: 6.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
42. Noir
This anime is similar to Lycoris Recoil, with two cute girls who work under this secret organization and are amazing at what they do. One might even say that Noir is a classic anime in this genre of girls with guns.
This anime talks about our two protagonists Mireille Bouquet, from Paris, and Kirika Yuumura, from Japan, who are friends from the past that end up meeting to catch up, but things turn south when they are attacked by men who have weapons.
They both realize that Kirika actually doesn’t remember her past or how she learned to fight. During this whole anime, we follow along as Mireille and Kirika come together to remember her past and their connection under their joined code name, Noir.
- IMDb ranking: 7.2/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
43. Akiba Meido Sensou
Nagomi Wahira, our protagonist, had always admired all the cute maids that worked at the maid cafes, and she had always wanted to become one too. So to fulfill her dream of being one herself, she moved to Akihabara to work at the maid cafe present there.
Although her first day seemed normal, she had to run errands with her fellow recruit, and she soon realized the dark reality of the violent maid wars when she saw her recruiter, Ranko Mannen, battle away with a gun. Nagomi realizes that this is very different from what she had expected, and now that she is stuck in it, Nagomi finds ways to survive in the harsh reality.
- IMDb ranking: 7.4/10
- Where to watch: You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
Also read: 45 Best Anime Series Where The Protagonist Is Female
