Anime Walls

Remember a few years ago a certain American President wanted to build a wall across his southern nation to prevent certain groups of Latino people from crossing over? And make them pay for it?! So how is that wall construction coming along, huh?! Anyway… This made me had an idea of coming up with a list of Anime Walls. Yup, it’s an old topic that I never got around too since you know, well, feeling lazy and kept procrastinating because of the excuse of lacking materials. But eventually I have to start somewhere or nothing gets done. Laying the first brick is always the toughest…

1) Shingeki No Kyojin

     

Probably the most famous wall of them all when you talk about this topic. The holy trinity walls of Wall Maria, Wall Rose and Wall Sina has kept humanity protected from becoming Titan chowder. And as it was later came to reveal, there are Titans in those walls too. So uhm, fight fire with fire, it takes Titans to keep out Titans?

2) Back Arrow

The most recent entry about anime featuring a wall. The world of Lingalind is surrounded by this wall and everyone who lives in this world believes nothing lies beyond it. Like frogs in a well, huh? That is of course, somebody from the outside came crashing in and challenged those beliefs. Spoiler alert! There are many other such walled worlds too and their existence is to provide nourishment for God. I don’t know which is worse, being devoured alive by Titans or die and get your soul absorbed by God.

3) Princess Principal

In reality, Germany was divided by the Berlin Wall until it fell at the end of 1989. But in anime, London has been split in half by this giant London Wall between the Kingdom of Albion and the Commonwealth of Albion after the revolutionary find of a resource known as Cavorite. Lots of espionage and spy games happen in between. Especially a small group of cute girls, Totally Spies steampunk style!

4) Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front – Babylonia

When demonic beasts run amok and wild to devour humans, what do you do to counter them? Why, you build the world’s greatest wall AKA Babylonia! Mind you, this takes place way back in 2655 BC in Mesopotamia when human civilization wasn’t exactly at its peak yet. Thanks to this wall, it helps humanity reduce the number of its casualties despite the constant bombarding of demonic beasts 24/7. Delaying the inevitable of extinction?

5) Haibane Renmei

This is a very old anime that I do not remember much. Probably it was my very early days of anime and I was still new and confused by a lot of things. Anyway, there is a wall that surrounds Glie that no one except authorities must touch, approach or even go beyond. I think there’s lots of drama and mystery surrounding the idea of leaving beyond the wall but I don’t really remember. I guess that makes me a perfect denizen of Glie who don’t question the wall’s existence…

6) Yurikuma Arashi

I didn’t see this anime and from what I know, humans created the Wall of Severance to separate themselves from violent bears who attacked then after their home planet of Kumaria exploded. The series follows 2 of those bears as they disguise themselves as humans and infiltrate a human school and befriend a human who hates bears because you know, one killed and ate her mother. Now where have I heard this… Oh, kill all Titans!!!

7) Bleach

There are even walls in Soul Society, a place where the souls of the dead go to live for eternity. And with all the similar hierarchy and discrimination just like in real life, and so there is also a wall around the capital of Seireitei known as Seireiheki. It is made of a special stone that protects the city from all sides, left to right, top to bottom. He walls are usually held up and only closed when there is an emergency like intruder breaching the perimeter.

8) Darker Than Black

Did not see this anime either. From what I know, a huge double wall was built around the area when Hell’s Gate popped up. Obviously to keep curious people from accidentally or purposely entering the area because inside Hell’s Gate, all your science and physics you learn in school do not apply.

9) Majo No Tabitabi

Uhm, can this count? Just making a cameo in one small episode, one of Nike’s journeys brings her to a country divided by a wall because both sides hate each other. But both sides wanted to brag to each other and started carving stuffs and their thoughts on it. All that caused the wall to collapse and when they realize they didn’t hate each other that bad, the rest of the wall was demolished and the country reunited with the people living in peace altogether. Wow. First time a wall got such a good ending…

10) Kino No Tabi: The Beautiful World – The Animation Series

I guess this would count too? This wall also makes a short cameo in a small episode as a country created long walls for its borders to extort money from those who seek to pass through. Well, not if a giant fortress blasts a hole right through!

11) Yakusoku No Neverland

Another anime that I didn’t see. When you see a happy orphanage living together, you bet there is something more than meets the eye. So when something isn’t right, the orphans try to escape. But escaping through the forest, before them is a high concrete wall. And even if you manage to climb atop it, there’s a deep ravine awaiting them. And what’s this if you manage to cross it, that lies the demon’s domain?

12) 22/7

Can this one count too? Yup, didn’t see this series either. Unlike other walls, this one talks! This mysterious grey coloured stone wall gives printed orders to a group of idols on what to do. It is revealed that behind it lies a room with tables, monitors and pictures of the idols. Yikes. Not sure if how blurred the line between experimenting and stalking has become…

Off The Wall…
Ugh… Honestly, I didn’t really have a lot of fun compiling this as there were just too many unknown factors and uncertainties. It felt tiring and arduous. Firstly, I wasn’t really precise and clear with my definition of what constitutes a wall or the likes. Hence I left out animes like Black Bullet because those monoliths are just huge barriers protecting the city. So, is that a wall or not? Confused, I left it out. And then there’s the Red Line in One Piece. Does that huge natural continent border constitute to be a wall? Well, I not manmade so, left it out. Same case for Yuuki Yuuna Wa Yuusha De Aru. Didn’t see this anime so my lazy research has me conclude that the ‘walls’ are just barriers made out of tree roots and branches to protect the Shikoku island from the rest of the hellish world outside. Also left out is the Great Wall from Overlord (no, not from China) because this wall that protects a certain holy kingdom has not been animated yet! Damn loophole. Same case for a heavily fortified mountain city of Lilias in Akagami No Shirayuki-hime.

What about walled cities like those featured in DanMachi or Koutetsujou No Kabaneri? Well, I decided that since those walls didn’t play some sort of important role to the story or the series itself (at least not being prominent or noticeably obvious – which is still ambiguous if you think about it), I left it out. Otherwise this list would be flooded with a lot of such walled cities as seen in so many other animes. Figurative walls like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Angel Beats, Island, RahXephon, Valvrave The Liberator and Shin Sekai Yori are left out because an enclosed world doesn’t fit the physical wall criteria otherwise another massive flood of animes to list. So yeah, this list isn’t meant to be exhaustive as there are so many other anime walls out there and those that I’m not pretty sure. I’m a bit bummed out that this topic didn’t turn out as good as I hoped it would be. But better than nothing, right? Time to end with some wall sayings and thoughts: Build bridges and not walls; Walls are sometimes put up not to keep people out but to see who cares enough to knock them down. Huh? Hey, I didn’t say it was going to be a good one!