Bright neon lights. Futuristic technologies and AR as daily tools. The cyber world melding with our own. The future of technology is not just limiting itself to the online world but being integrated within the real world seems like it’ll be full of promising potential, right? Not for these dystopias. Corrupt systems, gritty undergrounds, robots, power suits, and shattering the divide between the real world and advanced technological capabilities are common themes in the cyberpunk genre, with anime having a strong catalog for this genre. When these underdog punks find themselves at the short end of the USB stick, a time for change in these shiny, corrupt societies makes them rise to the challenge.
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Whether the main character is a nobody taking the brunt of society’s faults or a high-tech robot or cyborg slowly questioning the system it contributes to, many cyberpunk shows can have close ties with the dystopian genre. But it doesn’t have to be all bleak and bad. Although there are many depictions of technology getting out of hand, there’s also plenty of legitimately cool content that keeps fans wanting more. Floating monitor-less screens, access to the internet without the use of hardware, personal vehicles that could break the barrier of space, and impressive tech that, while in practice may have its downsides, would genuinely make life more interesting. But which cyberpunk anime can set the scene for these simultaneously bright and bleak backdrops? Here are some of our top picks!
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
To those who can afford it, the future looks as bright as the neon lights of the Californian metropolis, Night City. But to David Martinez, life as a teenager living in the slums comes with struggles that seem to stack up beyond feasibly achievable. His mother, struggling to give her son the best life possible at a prestigious school with hopes of rising in the ranks of esteemed big corpo, ultimately ends up losing her life to the concrete jungle. With nothing left to lose, David decides to implant a device that had been among his mother’s belongings: Sandevistan cyberware, an apparatus that allows the user to achieve remarkable speed.
Noticing David’s newfound abilities and drive to exact revenge on the corrupt system, Lucyna “Lucy” Kushinada, a data thief, plunges David into the world of the Edgerunners. Though losing one’s life is expected to come with the territory of being a cyborg criminal, losing their sanity is just as likely from all of the upgrades they endure. But to David, the chance to fight the system that left him with nothing is worth everything. With a name befitting the first entry, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners definitely understood the assignment. Cybernetics that grant superhuman capabilities, the core theme of defying an imposing, corrupt authority and system, and amazing techno-driven city scenery — based on the video game Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red, this series has it all.
Ergo Proxy
Thousands of years have passed since a global catastrophe made the Earth virtually uninhabitable in Ergo Proxy. Now, the domed city of Romdeau is one of the last frontiers for mankind’s survival. Alongside the Proxy Project created to regenerate humanity, androids, referred to as “AutoReivs”, were also created to assist the populace. But when a strange disease, the Cogito Virus, begins to infect the AutoReivs and causes them to become self-aware, Re-L Mayer and her AutoReiv partner Iggy are sent to investigate it. But what she discovers is more than what she bargained for — a conspiracy deeper reaching than a simple computer virus defect. Working alongside AutoReiv specialist Vincent law and the child AutoReiv Pino, the four journey to uncover the truth behind the conspiracies and the mysterious race known as the Proxies.
This technologically advanced city should, by all means, be considered an oasis for humankind amidst the wasteland the rest of the world has become. Not so with both its dark and gritty scenery and themes. Ergo Proxy is sure to scratch your itch for the murkier cyberpunk dystopias.
Serial Experiments Lain
At school or at home, Lain Iwakura isn’t the most social. When her father introduces her to the many uses of the internet, here called the “Wired” she begins noticing its prominence in society from email to video games to drugs, learning that its influences go beyond the hardware. As she searches for answers within the Wired as to why so many strange happenings seem to be occurring around her, Lain becomes more connected with people than she ever anticipated.
This series has more of a slow burn as society itself at first seems pretty normal, if a bit seedy. Even so, the realizations Lain comes to about the Wired go deeper than what an onion router could dig up. Serial Experiments Lain is a great pick if you’re looking for a side of existentialism to go with your slice of cyberpunk pie.
Ghost in the Shell
In the technologically advanced near-future world of Ghost in the Shell’s franchise, humans have become capable of melding their bodies with machines. Major Motoko Kusanagi of the New Port City’s Public Security force, Section 9, is a police officer with her own cyborg capabilities. While protecting the city by investigating cyber crimes, she not only begins to question what it means to be truly human in a world where the lines between man and machine blur, but begins to question her own being as a “ghost” in a highly advanced mechanical shell.
As a franchise with several TV and film adaptations, Ghost in the Shell ponders philosophical questions when it comes to the prospect of humans becoming so attached to technology that they become the cyborg equivalent of Theseus’s Ship. From the original film to the latest Science SARU project, Ghost in the Shell has decades of worthwhile content for cyberpunk anime connoisseurs.
Akudama Drive
The technologically advanced city of Kansaiin Akudama Drive seems well-regulated at first glance, but a group of criminal fugitives, known as the Akudama, reign terror on its citizens. As the police announce the forthcoming execution of Cutthroat, an Akudama who had killed 999 people, the rest of the gang receives a mysterious message from an unknown client calling for them to free the captured criminal. In return, a large sum of money would be rewarded for doing the deed.
Unfortunately for someone who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, a girl originally arrested on a minor charge becomes roped into becoming an Akudama herself. After convincing them not to kill her and that she’s one of them, she dubs herself with the Akudama moniker “Swindler”. Being recruited for several heists with the police hot on their tails, Swindler just wants to keep from being thrown in Kansai Police jail. Akudama Drive depicts several characters just as colorful as the crimes they commit, each with a name simple yet apt for their role. Action-packed and brightly lit, this series is sure to keep you on your toes.
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Cowboy Bebop
In 2071, though humanity is no longer constrained to the bounds of Earth, neither is criminal activity. Spike Spiegel and his associate Jet Black pilot their ship, the Bebop, throughout space to hunt bounties on intergalactic outlaws. It doesn’t pay much, but it’s a living for them. They meet many interesting characters, including a few who decide to join them on their adventures: Faye Valentine, a con artist; Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, or just Ed, a spry, eccentric teenage girl with a knack for hacking; and Ein, a bioengineered corgi. Through their bounty-hunting escapades, something else seeks to hunt them — Spike’s past.
With a tight-knit family of characters and wild capers, Cowboy Bebop is a classic for good reasons. This sepia-toned atmosphere will have you agreeing that it’s out of this world. However, its contrasting tones and Western genre infusions keep this from being tied down solely as a cyberpunk anime.
Bubblegum Crisis
In 2032, MegaTokyo, a city built from the labor of cybernetic droids known as “Boomers”, would seem as though its progress is also booming. Unfortunately, the military has a funny way of turning tools for the betterment of civilization into weapons of mass destruction. Transforming the Boomers that were meant to help humanity into weapons that can be disguised as humans, Genom, the mysterious military corporation behind the manufacturing, has created a new problem for MegaTokyo that even the police can’t seem to control.
Lucky for the citizens, a vigilante group known as the Knight Sabers is here to save the day. Using their technologically advanced power suits, Sylia Stingray, Priscilla “Priss” Asagiri, Nene Romanova, and Linna Yamazaki are on patrol to police any Boomer crime. With rocking music and girl power, Bubblegum Crisis absolutely exudes the zeitgeist of 80’s cyberpunk, with a killer soundtrack to boot.
Dimension W
When a new dimension, Dimension W, is discovered to have an infinite source of energy, of course, humanity endeavors to claim it. Creating devices called “coils” to harness such energy, the New Tesla Energy corporation becomes the leading monopoly of the energy industry by 2071. But where there is a corporate overlord bent on monopolizing an industry, there is always piracy to flood the black market. In order to crack down on illegal coils, Collectors are hired to hunt them for cash rewards. After all, you wouldn’t download a coil. One such Collector, Kyouma Mabuchi, an ex-soldier so paranoid of coils he prefers to drive a gas-powered car, sure wouldn’t.
When Kyouma goes about his business on the hunt for more coils, he happens upon an android girl, Mira Yurizaki, the “daughter” of the New Tesla Energy corp, with the ability to tap into Dimension W’s energy. This leads Kyouma on a journey to uncover the secrets of New Tesla Energy and Dimension W. Are you looking for an anime with strong depictions of monopolistic giant corporations? A nation plundering a foreign domain when it discovers it has energy resources ripe for the taking? People driven to alternative measures under an authority laden with conspiracy? Perhaps the cyberpunk dystopian plot devices in Dimension W may be a bit too relatable…
Id: Invaded
Specialized police squad Kura has a unique way of investigating murders using a machine called the Mizuhanome System, a device that allows someone to enter a person’s unconscious mind. Using “cognition particles” left behind at the scene of the crime by the culprit, the detectives are able to virtually traverse the disorganized, fragmented landscape of the offender’s stream of thoughts, or the “id well”. The investigators are then tasked with revealing the identity of the killer using this method. However, there’s one caveat in order to properly use this device: the person traveling into the mindscape must have previously killed someone themselves. For former detective Akihito Narihisago, this requirement is unfortunately fulfilled. Though he was once an esteemed investigator for the police force, he now assists in investigating a string of murder cases as a criminal himself after exacting revenge for the death of his own family.
As much as Psycho-Pass would’ve also fit this list, Id: Invaded takes investigating criminal intent to the next level by not just utilizing a system made to identify such, but taking a deep dive into the culprit’s unconscious mind. Technology in the cyberpunk genre already brings into question where the line is drawn between the world within machines and reality, but this series makes the prospect feel all the more vulnerable.
Metropolis
The plutocratic city of Metropolis is a place where humans and robots coexist together. But with so many robots to maintain the city and its labor force, a divide between man and machine arises. With prejudice and discrimination driving increased unrest and crime, humans blame robots for unemployment and being forced to live in slums. Detective Shunsaku Ban and his nephew Kenichi Shikishima arrive in the city in search of one Dr. Laughton, a rogue scientist. Wanted for human organ trafficking and human rights violations, Dr. Laughton was hired by Duke Red, Metropolis’s wealthiest citizen, to secretly build a uniquely advanced android; an android modeled and named after Red’s deceased daughter, Tima.
Duke Red’s adopted son Rock, tasked with destroying malfunctioning, rogue, or escaped robots under the Marduk organization, shoots Laughton and sets the lab ablaze upon discovering Tima’s existence. Amidst the fire, Shunsaku retrieves Laughton’s research notebook and Kenichi is separated from his uncle, plummeting to the sewers with the newly awakened Tima. As Kenichi and Tima are hunted, the city is plunged into revolution as Shunsaku unravels the dark secrets of Metropolis’s corrupt class system that’s pushed its citizens to the tipping point. Loosely based on Osamu Tezuka’s 1949 manga of the same name, 2001’s Metropolis film hits a bit close to home with its core themes. With AI becoming more of an issue for employment and the wealthy becoming an ever-looming influence on authority, Metropolis provides a commentary of caution.
The world of cyberpunk anime is as vast as it is technologically advanced — let us know your favorite down in the comments!
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Star Wars. Courtesy of Disney
