Hacking is a practice that inevitably ends up being interesting and, let’s face it when in a tense action scene the hacker character saves the day, the excitement comes.
Or even when, from the comfort of his chair, they pull out by quickly moving their fingers across the keyboard to solve the case or damage the enemy.
To let you experience these priceless sensations, we have collected the best anime that contain a hacker at their core, to let you experience these thrills.
Rankings are based on our experience and personal taste. There may be spoilers throughout the article too, so be careful.
Table of Contents
11. Battle Programmer Shirase
A 2000s comedy consisting of 12 episodes with computers and programming at its core.
Akira Shirase is a very talented computer programmer who, because of his incredible skills, is approached by various people to implement hacks, ethical or otherwise.
The story revolves around his performing tasks and some parodies around the profession of the programmer.
A light and funny anime with ecchi scenes that manage to be just average. Recommended if you want to clear your mind and don’t want to watch something heavy, but surely not a deep viewing.
10. Roujin Z
An OAV consisting of a single episode released in 1991. The plot blends the nursing element with distinct science-fiction elements.
A new disabled elderly man offers himself as a guinea pig for an experiment involving artificial intelligence that is supposed to enable him to walk again. Not everything goes as hoped, however, and some bad-intentioned hacker is ready to ruin everything.
A one-episode anime that given even its short length is worthwhile, with an exquisite vintage atmosphere that is very appealing.
Expect comical situations and a lot of fun, with a few sad moments toward the end. Roujin Z is one of those vintage gems you want to watch once in your life, after all, it’s super short.
9. Psycho-Pass
Psycho-Pass, one of the best police anime, is set in a dystopian future where it is possible to measure the mental health of the Japanese people, governed by the Sybil System.
In this version of Japan, every citizen is analyzed and given a so-called Crime Coefficient, which reveals the likelihood to commit a crime. This is included in the personal Psycho-Pass that is assigned to everyone.
When someone’s Crime Coefficient exceeds the threshold he is pursued, arrested, or killed by the Crime Investigation Department of the Ministry of Welfare’s Public Safety Bureau.
The plot revolves around Akane Tsunemori, an Enforcer that works for the Sybil System and who is tasked to manage crime in this peculiar version of Japan.
But soon doubts about the morality of this questionable yardstick will begin to surface, sparking the rebellion against cyberattacks and hacker attacks.
8. Paprika
The last movie by Satoshi Kon, released in 2006 and acclaimed as a worldwide success and one of the best thriller anime.
The story gravitates around the so-called DC Mini, an innovative tool that allows entering people’s dreams.
Atsuko Chiba, the head researcher of the project, starts using this tool to help patients affected by psychiatric problems, even though this would break the rules.
Atsuko takes on the form of Paprika, her virtual alter ego to enter the dreams. The plot then thickens as more mysteries appear and dreams and reality merge.
But if there were to be malicious hacks while using this delicate program, what would be the consequences?
This movie is all about the subtle distinction between dream and reality, as Satoshi Kon claims they are homogeneous.
7. Denno Coil
Another 2000s anime with the classic graphic style of those times, Dennou Coil is an original 26-episode story.
The story takes place in Japan in 2026, eleven years after an extraordinary development in augmented reality, which can be used through special visors, and cyber glasses.
Yiko Okonogi, an elementary school student, moves with her family to the small town of Daikoku, where there is a massive presence of cyber technology.
She will befriend Yuko, and the two will become involved in several technology-themed mysteries, including hacking and other deep tech things.
Dennou Coil because of the tender age of its cast could be mistaken for a disengaged and light-hearted work. But it turns out to be very well constructed and with a certain degree of complexity and maturity in the themes it deals with.
6. .hack//Sign
.hack//Sign is an anime belonging to a large multimedia project, namely the .hack project. It belongs to the Isekai genre, with the characters ending up in a video game-like world of the MMORPG genre.
The videogame world is rendered in a truly realistic way that is recognizable to the viewer, thanks to the frequent use of videogame jargon terminologies such as bugs, servers, pg, or skills.
It stars Tsukasa, a mage-class character controlled by a boy of the same name in the real world. However, one day, for unknown causes, he fails to log out of the game, raising doubts about its true reality of it.
And as if that were not enough, a mysterious monster will appear around Tsukasa that apparently doesn’t belong to the game code and only responds to the protagonist’s commands, making one doubt that he is using hacks.
But we say no more to avoid falling into spoilers. If you are handy and familiar with the MMORPG world and you love isekai anime, it will be a must-watch.
5. Summer Wars
From director Mamoru Osoda, Summer Wars is a 2009 movie. You may already be familiar with Hosoda from his previous work in Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!, with which the similarities are very pronounced.
The story revolves around Kenji Koiso, a math genius boy with social problems who spends most of his time in Oz, a virtual world.
At the beginning of the summer Natsuki, the most popular girl in school offers him an unusual job, which is to play the part of his future spouse in front of his grandmother.
Unfortunately, a mishap caused by Kenji himself will unleash a powerful hack virus called the Love Machine, which attacks Oz and makes a series of disasters all over the globe.
It will then be up to Kenji to stop the threat and restore peace within the network.
The country setting will be the main focus of this movie, which has as its pivotal theme the risks that technological advancement can bring to our world if left unchecked.
Ergo Proxy, one of the most famous cyberpunk anime ever, is set in a post-apocalyptic future where survivors live under a dome city called Romdo, to get shelter from the lethal and toxic climate.
To help with mankind’s recovery, AutoReivs, humanoid-like robots, have been created to assist people in their day-to-day lives.
However, these automatons have begun contracting an enigmatic disease called the Cogito Virus which grants them self-awareness.
Re-l Mayer, with the help of his AutoReiv named Iggy, will be tasked to investigate this phenomenon and prove himself to his grandfather, the ruler of Romdo.
The future apocalypse, combined with humankind relying on technology and hacking is a classic cyberpunk trait displayed in this show.
3. Ghost in the Shell
Based on the manga by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell is the apotheosis of the thriller genre, examining themes like existentialism and the breakdown of the self.
Technological singularity and the role of innovation are some of the core elements of the philosophy of the show.
It’s 2029 and the world is almost completely automated. Much of the population consists of individuals who have cybernetic grafts that can enhance their senses and faculties.
Coupled with this, it’s possible to find completely artificial people, cyborgs.
Ghost in the Shell is one of the greatest exponents of the cyberpunk genre, with all the relevant features taken to the height of iconicity. These include cyborgs, technological upgrades, and hacking.
If you are a fan of the genre you will surely have seen it already, if not, remedy now.
2. Steins;Gate
Steins; Gate is an animated adaptation of the visual novel that premiered in the spring of 2011.
The plot follows Rintaro Okabe, a boy who with his two childhood friends runs the so-called Futuristic Gadget Laboratory. The only notable gadget the trio has created is a microwave that has the mystifying power to turn bananas into green goo.
Okabe, who is also a big fan of time travel, happens to be at a conference on it one day. It is here that he will find the dead body of Makise Kurisu, and from which everything will begin.
The group will discover that the microwave is more powerful than it seems. Apparently, it can send text messages in the past.
Steins: Gate is quite dramatic and heartbreaking but deals very well with Computer Science, hacking included, and Physics.
The hacker Daru is a great example of why this series will be enjoyed by fellow programmers for its stereotypical behavior.
1. Serial Experiments Lain
Series Experiments Lain has 13 episodes and is an original story dating back to 1998, and is one of the most famous short original works due to its fairly deep meaning and plot complexity.
The plot tells the story of Lain Iwakura, a rather peculiar little girl partly because of a less-than-ideal family situation. Lain comes into contact with Wired, a global network very reminiscent of our Internet, where she will learn a lot of information regarding this mysterious virtual network. But the Wired hides more horrific things than expected.
In this case, you will have well understood that the overwhelming threat is precisely due to Wired, but there is more behind that.
Indeed, the message of this anime lies in the warning to keep an eye on technology, computers, and all things related, for all the threats they can bring with them.
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