First-year high schooler Midori Asakusa loves anime so much, she insists that "concept is everything" in animation. While she spends her time doodling endless ideas and settings in her sketchbook, she hasn't taken the first step to creating anime, insisting that she can't do it alone. After Asakusa's money-loving best friend Sayaka Kanamori notices her genius and drive – and when it becomes clear that their classmate and charismatic fashion model Tsubame Mizusaki wants to be an animator – the energetic trio start an animation club. Together, the three aim to realize the "ultimate world" that exists in their minds, as they come to see the power that fiction and imagination have on their lives and the world around them.

The four Johnson brothers have inherited the powers of the Norse gods. Because the gods lived eons ago, however, time has diluted the powers. The unique ability that each brother possesses isn't very strong, and they still have the same desires and faults that mortals do. Their lives include sibling rivalry, trying to get girls, and hanging out; but they also want to be stronger, and so they embark on a quest to fulfill an ancient prophecy in hope of gaining the full strength of their abilities.

Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path