Why do your fighting when you can summon a creature – or person – to do your fighting for you? Most popular in shows like Pokemon or Digimon, this is not a concept unfamiliar in anime, but comes in many forms. The characters have ability to summon other creatures via some sort of bond that are able to fight. It allows a series to put in more flash as these familiars can often perform action way above the characters that summon them.

Fate / Stay

An integral part of the Fate/Stay series is that each participant has a sort of battle partner called a servant. They are bound to one person or family to serve them in the Holy Grail Wars. These servants are often based on historical or mythical figures, though usually with some differences, like gender, for example. They all come with incredible abilities, but unfortunately, if they lose their battles, their wielders are often not long for the world afterward.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

After Part 3, the whole world of Jojo starts to change with the introduction of Stands. These are basically the physical manifestation of a person’s soul and allows the series to progress into bigger and more dramatic fights, which is saying something. From Part 3 onward, Stands become such an integral part of the story that the future of the series looks very different from the beginning of it.

Ajin

While the Ajin aren’t as interesting as some other summoned creatures on this list visually, they come with serious powers. Not only can Ajin decimate humans and fight other Ajin, but they also provide serious benefits to their hosts. Superhuman abilities combined with a superhuman companion are a serious recipe.

Fairy Gone

In Fairy Gone, faeries posses animals, and when an organ is taken from that animal and put in a human, the fairies can be summoned as a tool of war. In the series, the war is over and now those with fairy abilities are outcasted and wreaking general havoc. As you would expect, it takes fairy soldiers to fight fairy soldiers.

Shaman King

In a similar vein to Pokemon, Shaman King is about Shamans who can summon spirits to fight for them. These shamans in the series are engaged in a sort of free-for-all tournament that happens every 500 years. The one who wins gets to become the king and can control the Great Spirit, something that holds the power to remake the world as they please.

Devil Survivors 2 The Animation

Based on a video game (the now more overshadowed predecessor to Persona), Devil Survivor 2 is all about summoning creatures to fight. Basically, children form pacts with devils for power in order to fight off invaders threatening to end the world. Packed full of action and tragedy, you will see what you get when you dance with devils.

Persona 5 / Persona 4 / Persona 3 The Animation

On the topic of Shin Megami  Tensai games turned into anime, Persona is probably the more familiar name. Like Devil Survivor, Persona is all about kids summoning creatures to fight for them. These creatures are the inner personification of their soul and come with magnificent power. Persona 4 and Persona 5 are full anime adaptions while Persona 3 is sadly just a movie trilogy.

Baka and Test

This series might have been just your standard school comedy about a class of misfits trying to become the top ranking class, but they added a little spice to the formula. Not only is academics important on this quest, but their academics affect how powerful their summoned avatars are that they use to settle disputes. It adds a little bit of action and strategy to the mix that actually ends up working really well, which has caused this to be quite the well-liked series.

Ga Rei Zero

This series looks pretty generic, but the story about exorcists that summon demons to fight demons is really just a neat wrapper about the deeper character story within. You want to know why these characters fell out and if they can overcome it. That is all showcased through some truly brutal and beautiful summoned creature fighting action.

Kiba

In Kiba, a boy is dragged to another world by a spirit. In this alternate world, some are able to produce shards from their bodies in order to cast elemental attacks. However, they can also produce special shards that can summon spirits to fight. The rarest of these shards summon powerful key spirits and there are those who see to gather them for great power.

Do you have more anime recommendations for those that like summoned creatures? Let fans know in the comments section below.