The year is 1983. The Cold War is in full effect, and humanity is under attack. Strange aliens, given the name "BETA," have descended to Earth with the goal of destroying all life. Soldiers have been tasked with piloting large combat suits called Tactical Surface Fighters (TSF) to repel the alien invaders, but the front line is slowly being pushed back towards the surviving cities. Schwarzesmarken follows the story of Second Lieutenant Theodor Eberbach and the other members of the 666th TSF squadron, a ruthless unit that values a mission's completion over human life. Stationed in East Germany and led by war hero Captain Irisdina Bernhard, the unit specializes in counterassault attacks on laser-class BETA. But the 666th squadron finds itself with more enemies than just the alien forces when optimistic rookie Katia Waldheim joins the squadron, drawing the attention of East Germany's secret police, the Stasi. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Born to the royal family, Pacifica Casull has earned the nickname "Scrapped Princess" after an apocalyptic prophecy foretells her destroying the world on her 16th birthday. Rescued from certain death by a kindly family, she takes shelter with her adoptive older brother and sister, Shannon and Raquel Casull. When news of her survival reaches the ears of the God Mauser's worshippers, they issue her death at all costs, forcing Pacifica to flee for her life. Plagued by threats from the church, the nobility and even the common people, the three siblings attempt to outrun the fate Pacifica is destined to bring, all the while questioning if one girl's life is worth the world's demise. The true nature of the Scrapped Princess, along with the harrowing revelations of the world itself, becomes more and more apparent as the princess' 16th birthday fast approaches. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

To the outside world, Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya are the perfect couple. But in reality, they just share the same secret pain: they are both in love with other people they cannot be with. Hanabi has loved her childhood friend and neighbor Narumi Kanai for as long as she can remember, so she is elated to discover that he is her new homeroom teacher. However, Narumi is soon noticed by the music teacher, Akane Minagawa, and a relationship begins to blossom between them, much to Hanabi's dismay. Mugi was tutored by Akane in middle school, and has been in love with her since then. Through a chance meeting in the hallway, he encounters Hanabi. As these two lonely souls spend more time together, they decide to use each other as a substitute for the one they truly love, sharing physical intimacy with one another in order to stave off their loneliness. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lain Iwakura, an awkward and introverted fourteen-year-old, is one of the many girls from her school to receive a disturbing email from her classmate Chisa Yomoda—the very same Chisa who recently committed suicide. Lain has neither the desire nor the experience to handle even basic technology; yet, when the technophobe opens the email, it leads her straight into the Wired, a virtual world of communication networks similar to what we know as the internet. Lain's life is turned upside down as she begins to encounter cryptic mysteries one after another. Strange men called the Men in Black begin to appear wherever she goes, asking her questions and somehow knowing more about her than even she herself knows. With the boundaries between reality and cyberspace rapidly blurring, Lain is plunged into more surreal and bizarre events where identity, consciousness, and perception are concepts that take on new meanings. Written by Chiaki J. Konaka, whose other works include Texhnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain is a psychological avant-garde mystery series that follows Lain as she makes crucial choices that will affect both the real world and the Wired. In closing one world and opening another, only Lain will realize the significance of their presence. [Written by MAL Rewrite]