Cyberpunk is a genre of science fiction closely related to dystopia and hard science fiction. It often depicts the near future, with a technologically advanced society (notably for information technologies and cybernetics), usually referred to as “hi-tech, lo-life”. Cyberpunk worlds are steeped in violence and pessimism; they are often gloomy, sometimes ironically grating; the characters are disillusioned, cynical, and greedy antiheroes. Cyberpunk has since spread its themes into many media, including comics, film, music, video games, and role-playing games.
The world of anime was, of course, touched by the cyberpunk genre (so much, in fact, that there is a whole subgenre known as Japanese cyberpunk), and that is what inspired this article. Namely, we wanted to bring you a list of the best cyberpunk anime series of all time. In such a world, it wasn’t easy to locate just several best cyberpunk anime, which is why we have decided to compose a list of 50 titles. So, to avoid stretching this intro too much, here is our list of the 50 best cyberpunk anime:
1. serial experiments lain
Release: July 6, 1998 – September 28, 1998
Number of Episodes: 13
After the suicide of the young Chisa Yomoda, some girls receive e-mails from the girl. The suspicion is that this is a bad joke, but one of them, Lain Iwakura is particularly intrigued. After asking her father for a new NAVI (Navigator, the evolution of the PC), she starts surfing Wired (a computer network similar to the Internet) in search of answers.
From here on, a series of inexplicable events disrupt her life. She learns that another Lain, quite similar to her physically but temperamentally opposite, has made an appearance of her both in the Wired and in the real world and that the Knights (knights – a group of hackers) are particularly interested in her.
2. Akira
Original Release: July 16, 1988
Running Time: 124 minutes
Tokyo was destroyed by a mysterious explosion on December 6, 1982, and this triggered World War III, with many cities destroyed by nuclear weapons. In 2019, Neo-Tokyo is a corrupt megalopolis crisscrossed by gangs of idle and drug-addicted young bikers. One night, one of them, Tetsuo, has a motorcycle accident while trying to avoid a strange boy who is in his way.
Wounded, Tetsuo is captured by the Japanese army. He is the subject of numerous tests as part of an ultra-secret military project aimed at identifying and training beings with predispositions to psychic powers (telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, etc.).
3. Psycho-Pass
Original Run: October 12, 2012 – December 12, 2019
Number of Episodes: 41
In 2112, in Japan, Sibyl, a computer system, transformed society into a “perfect world”, thanks to the ubiquitous cameras, drones, and scanners, Sibyl is able to analyze and quantify the criminal intentions of a person (named “Psycho-Pass “) and determines who is likely to commit a crime. When a citizen exceeds the norm, the inspectors of the Bureau of Public Security accompanied by their executors (person having an abnormally high “Psycho-Pass”), pursue and apprehend these people to make them undergo therapy, lock them up or shoot them down.
4. Ghost in the Shell
Original Run: November 18, 1995 – present
Number of Episodes: Numerous series and movies
Ghost in the Shell is a futuristic, cyberpunk-style manga set around the 2030s. The main character is a female cyborg, Major Motoko Kusanagi. Kusanagi is part of an elite anti-criminal police section, Section 9. The main storyline of the manga, as well as the film adapted from the manga, chronicles the hunt for a cybercriminal known as the “Puppet Master”. This cybercriminal takes control of a human’s “ghost” through the Global Digital Network, the evolution of the Internet in this universe.
5. Cowboy Bebop
Original Run: April 3, 1998 – June 26, 1998
Number of Episodes: 26
In the year 2071, the crew of the spaceship Bebop travels the solar system in search of bounties. In the slang of the time, these bounty hunters were called “cowboys”. Most episodes revolve around a bounty; however, the focus of the story is on each character’s past and more general ancient events, which connect as the series progresses.
6. Ergo Proxy
Original Run: February 25, 2006 – August 12, 2006
Number of Episodes: 23
The story takes place in Romdo, a futuristic city sheltered under a dome, built to protect the community of survivors from a virus raging outside. In this city, humans and robots coexist peacefully. But a series of murders caused by robots contaminated with the Cogito virus is starting to wreak havoc on the fragile balance that governs society.
7. Steins;Gate
Original Run: April 6, 2011 – September 14, 2011
Episodes: 24 + OVA
The story of Steins; Gate takes place in the otaku district of Akihabara, and centers on a group of friends who inadvertently turned their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. In order to understand this phenomenon they carry out different experiments concerning time travel. They are quickly tracked down by the SERN research center, which carries out its own research on time travel.
8. Paprika
Original Release: September 2, 2006
Running Time: 90 minutes
In the near future, psychiatrist Atsuko Chiba uses a revolutionary therapy method, thanks to a corporate project of which she is a part, in which a group of researchers develops a device to consciously navigate through dreams and improve detection, analysis, and the solution of psychological traumas. With the knowledge of the team leader (Dr. Osanai), Dr. Chiba, through her alter-ego (named Paprika), begins working with the device to test it and, in the process, help psychiatric patients outside of the hospital research Center.
9. Mardock Scramble
Original Release: November 6, 2010 – September 29, 2012
Running Times: 70 minutes (each)
This action anime takes place in an uncertain future: in a western metropolis named Kamina City. Although technology is advanced enough to operate anti-gravity vehicles, for example, poverty and lawlessness reign in the city. The city is de facto ruled by corrupt officials and crime syndicates whose crimes, no matter how egregious they are, will always be covered up. One of them is a young oligarch and casino owner named Shell. He finds or kidnaps girls, rapes them, and then kills them. To feel his “innocence”, Shell erases the memories associated with the next murdered girl every time.
10. Metropolis
Original Release: May 26, 2001
Running Time: 113 minutes
In Metropolis, a futuristic city, humans, and robots coexist, but live in well-defined spaces. In an atmosphere bathed in jazz music, this city is the scene of a police investigation led by a Japanese inspector and his young nephew, Kenichi, about a scientist accused of organ trafficking, Doctor Laughton, who serves the most powerful man in town.
11. Genocidal Organ
Original Release: February 3, 2017
Running Time: 114 minutes
Following the attack of September 11, 2001, security pressure was further increased and mass surveillance was seen as a solution. In 2015, after the explosion of a homemade nuclear weapon of terrorist origin that devastated the city of Sarajevo, conflicts and genocides broke out in all four corners of the world. In the United States, all actions are now monitored under a complete crackdown on individual freedoms. Clavis Shepherd, a captain of the special forces investigates the origin of these genocides. In 2020, he is suing a man named John Paul, who is said to be the trigger for all genocides.
12. Battle Angel
Original Run: June 21, 1993 – August 21, 1993
Episodes: 2 (OVA)
The story tells about Gally (Alita in the western version), an amnesiac cyborg who is found by Doctor Daisuke Ido among the junk dumped from Salem, the utopian floating city (renamed in the West as Tiphares). Ido rebuilds Gally and adopts her as her daughter, but as time passes, it becomes clear that Gally hides great and mysterious combat skills.
13. Black Magic M-66
Original Run: June 28, 1987
Episodes: 1 (OVA)
Due to a malfunction, one rainy night, the military aircraft crashes in the forest and its cargo is released: two killer androids in female form. Part-time journalist Sybil manages to listen in on the government frequency in her apartment to hear the secret conversation of the army, which is putting the entire area under its ring and blockade. He quickly travels to the forest with his camera and witnesses how the army manages to eliminate one android, but the other escapes.
14. Expelled from Paradise
Original Release: November 15, 2014
Running Time: 104 minutes
In the year 2400, 98% of humanity lives on the Deva space station, but with a digitized consciousness in a virtual world. One of these is Security Agency agent Angela Balzac, who is chasing the hacker Frontier Setter, who keeps logging into the station’s systems to invite the residents to accompany him on a journey into space. When his traces can be traced back to earth, Angela and other colleagues are given the task of arresting him there. Since the inhabitants of Deva have rid themselves of their bodies, Angela has a body made for the first time, whereby she shortens the process to forestall her colleagues and therefore makes do with a body that corresponds to the one she had at 16 years of age.
15. Psycho-Pass: The Movie
Original Release: January 9, 2015
Running Time: 113 minutes
In the year 2116, the Japanese government begins to export the drones of the “Sybil System” to countries in difficulty and the system spreads all over the world. A state in the middle of a civil war, SEAUn (the Union of South East Asia, pronounced “shian”), agrees to introduce the “Sybil System” as an experiment.
Under the system, the coastal town of Shambala Float achieves internal security and temporary peace. But then the SEAUn government sends a group of terrorists to Japan, who infiltrate the system to attack it from the inside. The shadow of a certain man falls on the accident. As police chief, Tsunemori decides to go to Shambala Float to investigate. The truth behind justice in this new country will soon become clear to her.
16. Roujin Z
Original Release: September 14, 1991
Running Time: 84 minutes
It tells the story of Haruko, a nursing student, and Mr. Takazawa, an old man whom he takes care of in his spare time. In Japan, the Ministry of Health must take care of a large number of elderly people, so it develops a cyborg assistant, a kind of automatic stretcher, to take care of them, and Mr. Takasawa is the first to try it. Haruko becomes restless and begins to investigate.
Actually, the designer of Project Z, the name of the automaton, works for the security departments and agencies of the United States, and develops this device as a military prototype. The bed, which contains Mr. Takazawa, manages to connect with Haruko and takes on the personality of the old man’s deceased wife.
17. Ghost in the Shell
Original Release: November 18, 1995
Running Time: 82 minutes
The story takes place in the year 2029 in a futuristic and dystopian cyberpunk-like world. Major Motoko Kusanagi and her colleague Batou, two cyborgs, work in the government’s special anti-terrorist unit (Section 9) in New Port City, Japan. During one of their investigations, they are tasked with capturing a fearsome, elusive hacker known only by his alias “Puppet Master”.
The hunt takes place against the backdrop of Section 9’s “service war” against Section 6, a rival unit, the latter also interested in the Puppet Master as part of a mysterious project, “Project 2501”.
18. BLAME!
Original Run: October 24, 2003
Number of Volumes: 6 (+ 1 OVA)
Killee is an investigator surveying the Megastructure, a titanic building, searching for a genetic terminal (and a carrier of healthy genes). He works indirectly on behalf of a certain government office, an instance of the resosphere. He meets Shibo, a scientist who offers to accompany him during his quest. Shibo and Killee have to face silicias (augmented humans) and countermeasures, strange creatures pursuing a very specific goal in a technological war where there is neither mercy nor prisoners.
19. Bubblegum Crisis
Original Release: February 25, 1987 – December 21, 1991
Number of Episodes: 11
Mega Tokyo 2032: to counter the mega-corporation Genom and its cyborgs called “boomers”, which often get out of control, a new outlaw defense group is formed to fight crime under the code name Knight Sabers. The members of this team are four ruthless and sensual girls: Priss, Linna, Sylia, and Nene, all armed and equipped with “Hardsuit”, powerful power armor. Obviously, the sentimental stories of the four girls will often intertwine in their “work”, often hindered even by the police.
20. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Original Release: September 1, 2001
Running Time: 115 minutes
It all begins, in 2071, in the crater of Alba City on Mars with the explosion of a tanker truck by terrorists. The government suspects a bioterrorist attack and puts many people under medical surveillance. But no trace of the virus is found, although people are sick. A huge reward is promised for the capture of the evildoers.
The Bebop‘s bounty hunting team takes the opportunity to bail out their finances. They identify the author of the attack: Vincent Volaju, a former soldier who belonged to a special section. The section members had been the subject of a scientific experiment involving nanorobots. Vincent was the only survivor, thanks to anti-nanobots present in his blood.
21. Time of Eve
Original Release: August 1, 2008 – September 18, 2009
Number of Episodes: 6 (ONA)
In the not-too-distant future, androids have become common and have a human appearance with a halo on the head being the only thing that makes the difference. Humans treat them as if they were simple tools, although there are people attracted to them, generally adults, who treat them as if they were human, even preferring them to humans. These people are called Dorikei and are perceived in a negative way.
22. Neo Tokyo
Original Release: September 25, 1987
Running Time: 50 minutes
A little girl, called Shojo Sachi, while playing hide and seek with her cat “Cicero”, passes in the middle of a mirror and finds herself in a parallel world, extremely disturbing and hallucinating. Leaving her house, the little girl runs into a sort of labyrinth populated by strange presences (ghostly masked kids chasing each other, an invisible dog, workers who turn into wooden silhouettes, a tram full of skeletons, members of the bourgeois class jumping carrying clocks, gigantic circus-themed creatures advancing in the night) and, following a clown, she enters a circus tent where the latter shows her and Cicero the following stories.
23. Beatless
Original Release: January 13, 2018 – September 28, 2018
Number of Episodes: 24
In 2105, with the advancement of technology on a large scale, hIEs (Humanoid Interface Elements) are human-like robots invented in the year 2057. hIEs are used as public and personal servants of society. One person, a high school student named Arato Endō, treats hIEs like humans and sees them as equals, and although he wanted to buy one, his financial situation prevents him from doing so. In the middle of the night, while walking home from a grocery store, he is violently attacked by an hIE, seconds from death, Lacia, an abnormal hIE equipped with stop-bullet weaponry, comes to his aid and saves his life.
24. Ninja Slayer From Animation
Original Release: April 16, 2015 – October 8, 2015
Number of Episodes: 26 (ONA)
The story is set in Neo Saitama’s cyberpunk metropolis. After his wife and son are killed in a ninja gang war, businessman Kenji Fujikido is possessed by the mysterious soul of a ninja known as the Naraku Ninja. The union between Naraku’s desire to massacre the ninjas and Kenji’s thirst for revenge, will in fact give life to the Ninja Slayer, a terrifying angel of death who targets the ninja. The more the mental resonance and physical symbiosis of the two increase, the more powerful the Ninja Slayer becomes, and if Kenji surrenders completely to Naraku, he will become practically invincible.
25. Psycho-Pass 3: First Inspector
Original Release: March 27, 2020
Running Time: 137 minutes
Koichi Azusawa of the mysterious Bifrost criminal group plans an assault on the Public Security Bureau, using Chiyo Obata along with a pair of Pathfinders, Jackdaw and Vixen. Meanwhile, Shirogane returns to Bifrost where he prepares to bet against Shizuka Homura on the outcome of the raid. Azusawa locks down the bureau headquarters and with Obata frees the criminals in the cells and arms them to attack the detectives as a distraction.
26. Akudama Drive
Original Release: October 8, 2020 – December 24, 2020
Number of Episodes: 12
After a war that divided the world, the Kansai region became the vassal of the Kanto region. There is only one way to connect the two regions, the Shinkansen, a train revered by the inhabitants of Kansai. As a result of the war, the power of the government and the police declined sharply, and criminals named Akudama appeared. The story follows an ordinary young girl and 6 famous Akudama who is given the mission to steal a piece of merchandise carried by the Shinkansen.
27. Cyber City Oedo 808
Original Release: June 21, 1990 – October 4, 1991
Number of Episodes: 3 (OVA)
Set in futuristic Japan in the year 2808, three heavily convicted cybercriminals (Sengoku, Gogul, and Benten) are imprisoned in a high-security orbital penitentiary. It is then that they are offered a suspension of their incarceration, in exchange for their collaboration with the Cyber Police (CP), a special section of the Oedo police.
28. Viper’s Creed
Original Release: January 6, 2009 – March 24, 2009
Number of Episodes: 12
With most of Earth’s cities underwater due to the onset of global warming followed by a third world war that brought calamity and confusion to the people, several EMPs are one of the few organizations that manage to provide some security and help in the rebuilding of the destroyed cities by the war.
29. Vexille
Original Release: August 18, 2007
Running Time: 111 minutes
Japan 2077, Vexille is a female SWORD agent who investigates in the field of experimental robotics. Public opinion is worried about the excesses of nanotechnology and synthetic life, so the UN prohibits research on robotics. The Daiwa company protests in order to continue the research, subsequently causing the isolation of Japan, which has decided to cut all ties with the rest of the world.
30. Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System
Original Release: January 25, 2019 / February 15, 2019 / February 15, 2019
Running Time: 60 minutes / 60 minutes / 68 minutes
The three movies comprising the series are as follows:
- First Inspector: Enforcer Teppei Sugo is a distinguished former military officer. He acted as close air support for a Navy ground force alongside Itsuki Otomo, another pilot, and a communications officer. Together they formed a close-knit military family, including Rin, Itsuki’s wife, who was the squad’s ground commander.
- Crime and Punishment: Enforcer Nobuchika Ginoza and Inspector Mika Shimotsuki of Unit 1 find a traumatized woman and it quickly becomes clear that a drug has altered her mental state. Akane Tsunemori’s team is ordered to take her back to a special trial prison, which is actually the location where the woman worked as a therapist. Akane sends her colleague, Inspector Shimotsuki, along with two of their Enforcers, Ginoza and Kunizuka, to examine the prison while she and the rest of Unit One go to investigate the case in Tokyo.
- In the Realm Beyond/On the Other Side of Love and Hate: Shinya Kogami travels the region of Tibet and the Himalayas as a freelance mercenary. He saves a bus full of guerrilla fugitives, including a half-Japanese girl, Tenzing Wangchuk. She asks him to teach her martial arts so that she can take revenge on her parents’ murderer. Kogami agrees but warns him not to take the path of revenge like he has done in the past.
31. Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale
Original Release: February 18, 2017
Running Time: 120 minutes
The story is set later between the end of the “Mother’s Rosario” story arc, which is the end of the second season of the anime, and the beginning of the “Alicization” story arc, the beginning of the third season. In 2026, the virtual reality device AmuSphere is joined by a new device, the Augma, which allows the use of augmented reality while the player is conscious and, therefore, which exceeds the FullDive function of the previous one.
Shortly after its launch, virtually every Japanese citizen is in possession of this terminal, thanks to its convenience in carrying out daily activities, and it is also granted free of charge to all students in the SAO Survivor School, including Kirito and Asuna.
32. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Original Release: March 6, 2004
Running Time: 98 minutes
Batou is a cyborg: a human enhanced with mechanical and electronic prostheses. He belongs to the elite unit of section 9 (anti-terrorism) working for the government. He cannot shake the memory of a cyborg woman he once loved, Major Motoko Kusanagi, who disappeared into the matrix, the network of networks. Supported by his human partner Togusa, he will have to thwart a cybernetic plot. Gynoids (humanoid robots of feminine appearance), are used to satisfy human sexual desires, and massacre their buyers before destroying themselves.
33. Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Original Release: May 10, 2017 – September 25, 2019
Number of Episodes: 120
The series takes place in Den City, a city where for about 10 years a large virtual reality platform, called LINK VRAINS, has been built, which allows duelists to separate their daily lives from those of the game, allowing them to take on the likeness of a virtual avatar.
High school student Yusaku Fujiki is a guy who doesn’t really like to stand out, but secretly he’s a very skilled hacker who, thanks to the support of another hacker who owns a van selling hot dogs, Cal Kolter, defends LINK VRAINS from a terrorist group called the Knights of Hanoi, whose purpose is to take over an artificial intelligence named Ignis in order to track down a hidden world in the web, the Cyberse, and destroy it.
34. Goku Midnight Eye
Release: January 27, 1989 – December 22, 1989
Number of Episodes: 2 (OVA)
In Tokyo, in the near future, Goku Furinji is a former cop turned private detective in the most normal way. While investigating the bizarre deaths of his former colleagues, he narrowly escapes certain death, leaving his left eye in it. A mysterious organization is going to graft him a bionic eye, a kind of overpowered computer terminal capable of connecting to any computer or electronic system in the world and taking control of it. This mysterious organization will also provide him with a steel stick with various functions, including that of extending to infinity. Goku will decide to fight organized crime in the city of Tokyo.
35. Star Wars: Visions
Release: September 22
Number of Episodes: 9
Star Wars: Visions is a collection of animated shorts presented “through the lens of the world’s best anime creators” offering “a fresh and diverse cultural perspective on Star Wars.”
36. Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise
Original Release: February 19, 1987
Running Time: 119 minutes
The film takes place in the fictional kingdom of Honneamise, in an alternate world and humanity, resembling the real world and humanity. The army saw the birth within it of an aerospace section with the avowed aim of sending men into space, an undertaking never before carried out and regularly reduced to failure.
37. Genocyber
Original Run: May 24, 1994 – July 21, 1994
Number of Episodes: 5 (OVA)
Professor Morgan has two daughters who have powers of telepathy. He uses them as guinea pigs in his experiments on the interaction between the human brain and the machine. But society is interested in his work. They kidnap the little family and force Morgan to continue his search. The two sisters can become the absolute weapon: one thanks to her immense psychic powers, the other thanks to her mechanical body. Assembled, they form the Genocyber. But no one has taken into account their human sensitivity.
38. Plastic Memories
Original Run: April 5, 2015 – June 28, 2015
Number of Episodes: 13
The anime deals with the themes of meeting and separation. In a futuristic world, androids look more and more like humans. One day, the robotic company SAI Corp produced the Giftia model, capable of understanding and feeling human emotions, but this kind of robot has a limited lifespan. This animated series will focus on the daily life of Tsukasa Mizugaki who integrates the Terminal service of SAI Corp responsible for recovering Giftia at the end of their life, then will team up with Isla who is herself a Giftia.
39. Twilight of the Dark Master
Original Run: November 11, 1997
Number of Episodes: 1 (OVA)
Since the dawn of time, demons and guardians, created by the great Mother, have fought for the Earth. The Guardians have so far succeeded in preventing the demons from destroying humanity and the world itself. In 2019, Neo-Shinjuku, the Last Demons, and Guardians continue to wage a war on which the fate of humanity depends.
When Shizuka’s boyfriend Eiji turns into a demon in front of her, she goes to the slums of the city in search of an explanation. Shizuka meets Tsunami, one of the last guardians, who is looking for the origin of evil. They come across Takamya, the banished demon master who is again trying to regain his strength using Eiji.
40. Real Drive
Original Run: April 8, 2008 – October 1, 2008
Number of Episodes: 26
In 2061 fifty years have passed since humanity developed the Network society. It is envisioned that this new infrastructure would realize a utopia where all people are connected to each other at the level of consciousness. However, new social issues such as the leakage of personal data and the proliferation of manipulated information are beginning to surface. Nevertheless, people remain connected on the network to exchange information and prove incapable of deciding to abandon it.
41. Redline
Original Release: August 14, 2009
Running Time: 102 minutes
In the distant future, “Sweet JP” and other car racers compete to win the underground race that takes place once every 5 years somewhere in the universe: Redline. In this race, everything is allowed and the vehicles are all modified to annihilate the opponents and exceed the speed limits.
42. Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night
Original Release: October 30, 2021
Running Time: 97 minutes
Asuna Yuuki entered this deadly game. Entering the game, she felt very sorry for falling into the trap. She decided to isolate herself from larger groups and guilds, formed to attack each floor boss, as there was a danger of being a solo fighter in a society of guilds made up of increasingly desperate players. Therefore, she swears to fight alone and was a highly skilled player who was popularly known as “Lightning Flash”. Later, she became the vice-commander of the Knights of the Brotherhood of Blood.
43. RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne
Original Release: February 3, 2008 – July 6, 2008
Number of Episodes: 6
A mysterious tree called Yggdrasil has repeatedly appeared in the human world and released many small balls into the human world. A small fraction of the balls, known as “Time Fruits”, is quite special. When fruit of time enters a woman, she becomes immortal. When a fruit enters a male, he becomes a mad winged being known as an “angel”.
44. Sin: The Movie
Original Release: October 24, 2000
Number of Episodes: 1 (OVA)
Ten years ago, in 2027, the city of Freeport was on the verge of collapse. The ineffective and understaffed police forces were losing out in the long and difficult fight against crime. The city needed help, but the government could not cope with maintaining order on the streets. Therefore, a draft law was proposed giving private corporations the right to form their own police force – security forces, and they, in turn, must provide protection to companies and citizens of the city.
45. －KARAS－
Original Release: March 25, 2005 – August 3, 2007
Number of Episodes: 6 (OVA)
The young detective Kure has just been assigned to the “Monster Section” of the Shinjuku police station. Before his first day of work, while at the train station, he witnesses a strange murder in the station toilets. For three years, these murders have been frequent, each time the corpses are emptied of their bodily fluids and only one survivor is found. His teammate, Minoru Sagisaka, is convinced that it is the work of monsters. At the same time, a new “Karas”, protector of Shinjuku (Tōkyō city district), is revealed. Then begins a fight between him and the former Karas, Ekō, determined to destroy the city he has long protected.
46. Parasite Dolls
Original Release: May 22, 2003 – July 24, 2003
Number of Episodes: 3 (OVA)
In the year 2034, many androids, so-called boomers, live in Tokyo in addition to humans. They are confusingly similar to humans on the outside, mainly take on heavy work, and are manufactured by the Genome group. But they are also increasingly involved in prostitution, espionage, and terrorism. Therefore, the city’s A.D. Police formed the Branch unit, which deals with boomer crime.
47. Appleseed
Original Release: 1988
Number of Episodes: Various OVA, ONA, and films
Appleseed takes place in the 22nd century, after the third non-nuclear world war which decimated the human race. While states like Great Britain, France, and China struggle to maintain public order and power, international organizations like the Holy Republic of Mumma and Poseidon have established utopias of their own.
48. Patlabor: The Movie
Original Release: July 15, 1989
Running Time: 98 minutes
In 1999, the city of Tokyo initiated a large-scale policy of redevelopment of the territory by authorizing the construction of a monumental polder extending over Tokyo Bay to fill the gaps in livable space. The so-called “Babylon” project is assisted by the “Labors”, human-operated handling robots which are used for the main part of the project and handled in “the Ark”, an artificial island specially created nearby.
49. Bubble
Original Release: February 10, 2022
Running Time: 100 minutes
The story takes place in the city of Tokyo invaded by strange bubbles floating in the air. One day, Hibiki, a young parkour daredevil in the bubbles, and Uta, a mysterious girl, hear a sound that they are the only ones to perceive.
50. Blade Runner: Black Lotus
Original Run: November 14, 2021 – present
Number of Episodes: 13
Black Lotus takes place in 2032 (13 years after the 1982 film), the day after Black Out, and centers on Ella, a female replicant. The latter wakes up in Los Angeles with no memory and within her possession is an encrypted data device and a tattoo of a blue lotus on her back. She decides to investigate to find her memories and find those responsible for her condition.
