Common themes include the hegemony of corporations, cyber crimes, and the online world. One of the most cited cyberpunk shows is Akira, which we won’t cite in this listicle.
The reason is that it doesn’t fit in the cyberpunk framework as many think, since the setting and the themes aren’t really related.
What’s in this ranking is based on our experience and knowledge, it’s a highly subjective article.
Table of Contents
25. Accel World
An action show within the classic virtual world, with the addition of sentimental elements.
It’s 2046, and Haruyuki is a middle school boy who is constantly bullied because he is overweight. One day he meets Kuroyukihime, the most beautiful girl in school, who changes his life by introducing him to a virtual world called Accel World.
The main cyberpunk feature of this anime is the Neuro-Linker, a device that gives the possibility to communicate with the user’s brain, and it’s used to enter the virtual world.
24. Cybernetic Guardians
This OVA was released in 1989 and is set in the city of Cyber-wood in a dystopian future version of Japan. The main character is John Stalker, who was born in an area known as the Cancer Slums, riddled with urban crime.
The Central Guard Company has to find a solution so they design a Guard Suit, a cybernetic armor with special psychic powers.
John Stalker, who is a researcher for the Central Guard Company, should pilot the Suit but something obviously goes wrong and he turns into a cyber-beast fueled by hate and evil.
The show is a product of its time and has been influenced by many other works. The cyberpunk elements are all over the place, from the futuristic setting of a metropolis in ruins to the main character being trapped in a cyborg suit.
23. Dimension W
A 12-episode anime with a distinct cyberpunk atmosphere.
2071, humanity’s energy needs are met through a system of infra-dimensional electrical inductors called coils. But as a result, there are energy smugglers who use the coils for destructive purposes.
Mabuchi Kyouma is wary of the new technology and has good reason to find out what damage these devices can cause. Kyouma accepts, on assignment from a certain Marie, several missions where he will be joined by Mira, a unique android coil.
If you are looking for the android-cyberpunk and futuristic science fiction combo it is one of the best choices without a doubt.
22. Ai City
This movie from 1986 is set in a dystopian universe where the world is populated by so-called Headmeters, people who have psychic powers and whose strength is shown on their forehead when they fight.
Kei and Ai are on the run because Ai is hunted down as she holds a secret that many Headmeters want. Kei is helping her with his abilities because he was an experimental Headmeter subject so he holds some powers.
Ai is of course captured eventually and Kei must find her and save her using his abilities and recruiting other characters along the way.
The dystopian setting and the character of Ai give a cyberpunk vibe to the show because the Headmeters are obviously an enhanced form of the human race.
21. Bubblegum Crisis
An 8-episode anime released in the winter of 1987, with strong science fiction and mecha backgrounds.
The year is 2025 and an earthquake destroyed Tokyo only to be rebuilt with the help of androids called Boomers. These robots are increasingly developed and are becoming a threat due to certain experiments.
The presence of the Boomers itself would be enough to make this a cyberpunk show but there are also many other elements like a modern metropolis that has been destroyed by a natural disaster.
Sylia Stingray, the billionaire daughter of the scientist who invented the Boomers, continued her father’s research on Hard Suit mechanized armor.
She recruited three girls who, together with her, form the Knight Sabers mercenary group.
The group, together with Sylia’s brother, will become a band of vigilantes each night who rid the city of the Boomers’ menace.
20. Appleseed
Appleseed is a movie set in a dystopian future after a Global War wipes out a huge chunk of the population. The utopian city of Olympus is found to avoid another disaster and shelter the survivors.
The protagonist Deunan, a survivor of the Global War, manages to find her lover Briareos. He’s turned into a cyborg because of all the injuries and the pain he had to undertake during the war.
They discover that there are lots of tensions between the human military and the new race of the Bioroids and the two are engaged in a silent war.
Deunan is going to be tasked to unravel the mysteries hiding beneath the peaceful and utopian surface of the city of Olympus.
The presence of an entire race of bio-machines is the tell-tale sign of a cyberpunk setting that will characterize the whole run of the series.
19. Genocyber
This anime from the 90s is mostly famous for its high rate of gore and violence.
The plot has a very cyberpunk vibe and tells a story in which large private corporations threaten the newly found peace among the nations of the world.
The Genocyber is a terrifying war machine that combines cybernetics and physic potential.
It’s going to be used by the Kuryu Group to gain more power over what remains of the world but it turns out that the horrifying creature is not easy to control.
This series is particularly known to all admirers of splatter and gore, as it is constantly portraying bloody scenes with gratuitous violence.
18. Mardok Scramble
Rune Balot is a teen prostitute in Mardok City who one day is picked up by a guy named Shell, a casino manager who gives her everything she could want and saves her from the street.
Despite being grateful, she can’t help but question Shell’s motives. Rune starts doing research about Shell’s past but as soon as he finds out he will kill her by blowing her up inside her car.
The new law called Scramble 09 allows the Mardok police to bring back Rune from the brink of death and replace almost her entire body with a mechanical prosthesis.
She will wake up confused but with only revenge as her final goal. Rune is the perfect protagonist for a cyberpunk anime like this.
17. Cyber City Oedo 808
A three-episode crime series set in the future and with a cyberpunk setting.
It’s the story of three inmates who have a chance to have their sentences lessened by cooperating with the police.
With a strongly dystopian slant, the series depicts the protagonists’ desperate attempts to gain freedom, resulting in outbursts of violence.
16. Gunslinger Girls
This anime set in Italy is based on the premise that a Social Welfare Agency rescues young girls from the hospital and on the brink of death, giving them a second chance at life.
This comes at the cost of having their bodies artificially enhanced by drugs and cybernetic advancements. The girls will also be brainwashed and used to do the Government’s dirty work.
These traits make for a textbook cyberpunk plot that won’t let down fans of the genre.
The abused main characters will have to struggle to understand who they really are and try to discern their true feelings from the ones manufactured by the Government that controls them.
15. Akudama Drive
This anime is set in a futuristic metropolis called Kansai. The city can be described as a technological utopia full of screens and bright lights that give it a cyberpunk aesthetic.
Kansai is plagued with high crime levels, and the fugitives are called Akudama. The plot begins when the police are about to execute one of these infamous high-level criminals, who allegedly killed almost a thousand people.
At that point a mysterious message is sent to several elite Akudama, instructing them to go release the criminal in exchange for a huge amount of money.
This could very well be a trap designed to neutralize many Akudama in one single blow…
14. Paprika
This movie came out in 2006 and became a worldwide success. It’s a famous movie by master Satoshi Kon, famous for his masterful direction and a deep focus on psychology.
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.
She 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.
The cyberpunk elements are visible from the interaction with technology and the cyber crime theme.
13. Battle Angel Alita
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the story is set in a decaying slum.
Scientist Daisuke Ido, rummaging through garbage, finds the remains of a female-featured exoskeleton equipped with a still fully functioning cybernetic brain that retains no memory of itself.
Daisuke affectionately renames the cyborg Alita and takes care of her artificial body with the intention of forming a pure and pristine creature. However, she’s oblivious to her past, which is destined to resurface.
Alita’s cybernetic brain and her relationship with her creator are some details that make this show worth a shot.
12. No Guns Life
This anime is set in a dystopian world where the so-called Berühren Corporation creates powerful cyborg soldiers known as the Extended.
Our main character Juuzou Inui is one of them and has no memories of his former life before his transformation. Now he runs a business that takes care of Extended-related incidents around the city.
He keeps hearing about a renegade Extended that kidnapped a child when one day he finally meets him and is surprised to see him asking for help.
From this point on Juuzou will try to unveil the mystery behind the aforementioned child and how all of this ties in with the shady Berühren Corporation.
The main character is a cyborg who has its memories wiped out by an evil corporation so this can’t be anything other than a cyberpunk anime.
11. Deca-Dence
This anime is pretty recent, having premiered in Summer 2020.
The plot is set in a dystopian future where humanity is struggling to survive and is threatened by a new lifeform called Gadoll.
The remnants of the human race are living in the mobile fortress called Deca Dance and are divided primarily into two categories.
The Gears are living on the upper floors and are soldier-types figures who can take on the enemies in battle. The Tankers are civilians who indirectly help the fight by providing support in the lower areas of the fortress.
The protagonist Natsume is part of the latter category but she’s determined to join the Gears and fight for humanity. She’ll meet a mentor who will help her and train her to fight alongside him.
The cyberpunk vibe of the show is given by the dystopian nature of the setting and also by the fact that the main character has a prosthetic limb, which is a hallmark of most anime in the genre.
10. Blame!
This movie from 2017 stars a girl named Zuru who’s hunting for food in a post-apocalyptic city controlled by machines.
Her team accidentally triggers the city’s AI defense program Safeguard which begins hunting down every last member of it.
They are on the verge of destruction when they are saved by a mysterious figure called Killy.
Zuru doesn’t trust him right away but the mysterious man explains that he comes from below the city and is trying to find humans possessing the Net Terminal Genes.
This is a trait that, according to his story, could allow humans to regain control of their civilization and shut down the Safeguard for good.
A renegade AI who threatens to wipe out every last remnant of humanity is a enough to qualify this show as cyberpunk.
9. Megalo Box
Megalo Box is a 2018 cyberpunk anime consisting of 13 episodes.
The series is celebratory of an unreleased work created to celebrate 50 years of the Rocky Joe manga.
The anime tells the story of Junk Dog, nicknamed JD, a boy who participates in Megalo Box matches, a futuristic variant of classic boxing to earn a living.
The story takes place in a futuristic city where there’s a deep separation between social classes and people live either in wealth or are plagued by abject poverty.
This huge social disparity set in a futuristic environment is a very obvious cyberpunk element.
8. Trigun
Trigun is an anime from 1998 that stars Vash the Stampede, also known by the dreaded title Humanoid Typhoon. He is a wanted man throughout the wasteland of Gunsmoke, the planet where the events are set.
Vash is far from a criminal and is instead a huge weirdo with a doughnut obsession that uses violence only if it’s strictly necessary.
His life will turn when a group of legendary assassins is brought to his track, putting him in a constant life-or-death situation.
The bleak future imagined in 1998 gives a cyberpunk vibe to the whole plot.
7. Texhnolize
This is an anime tv show aired in 2003 and is produced by Madhouse Studio.
The story takes place in the crumbling underground city of Lux, marked by a harsh conflict between 3 factions.
The conflict revolves around raffia, a rare substance that can only be found in this dreaded city and it allows for the texhnolyze transplant of any limb with a prosthetic and more powerful one
The protagonist Ichise is an orphan boy who has become a bounty hunter by circumstances. He was mutilated and left without a leg and arm, for them to be replaced by advanced inhuman, yet powerful technological prosthetics.
The technological enhancements endured by Ichise and the whole setting of the show make for a perfect cyberpunk anime.
6. Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song is an anime with a science-fiction-driven story set in 2056.
In this version of the future, humanity has invented androids, and the protagonist, Vivy, is one of them.
Her rather peaceful life will be disrupted by the meeting with another android who claims to be from the future.
He will ask her to help him stop a war that is destroying the world so Vivy will find herself in the future trying to stop a war that is hundreds of years in the making.
The plot has many cyberpunk features, the androids as the main characters are the most important one.
5. Serial Experiments Lain
Serial Experiments Lain is a 13-episode anime from 1998 and a true cult of Sci-Fi and Psychological Horror.
The anime begins with the suicide of a girl, Chisa Tomoda. After this event, some girls receive a strange e-mail from the victim. One of them is Lain Iwakura, who becomes particularly intrigued by all of this.
The girl gets the Navi, an advanced PC, to navigate the Wired. this is the beginning of a series of unexplained events that disrupt her life.
The cyberpunk elements are plentiful when Lain enters the Wired, a virtual world that is basically a representation of the Internet.
4. Ergo Proxy
Ergo Proxy 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 is a classic cyberpunk trait displayed in this show.
3. Cowboy Bebop
In a future where interspatial travel is now the norm, there can be no shortage of space criminals and pirates.
To address this problem there are bounty hunters assigned to capture these criminals, who go by the name of Cowboy. Among them, we find Spike and his space crew, the protagonists of the events.
This anime is a mixture of genres but it surely displays many cyberpunk features like the futuristic setting and the advanced technology, both very central to the events of the plot.
2. Psycho-Pass
Psycho-Pass is set in a futuristic society where it is possible to monitor and control an individual’s mental state and personality.
It’s then possible to assess the probability of a person committing a crime or not with the so-called Crime Coefficient.
This setting where the human mind can be read in an attempt of social to pursue social engineering gives a cyberpunk vibe to the show
The plot is filled with anxiety-inducing moments where the boundaries between right and wrong are blurred.
It is a very deep and impactful story that is not afraid to ask its audience very powerful questions that may lead you to reconsider your outlook on the world.
1. 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.
Human characters trying to enhance their abilities with technology in a somewhat dystopian setting are the foundation of a cyberpunk anime.
One of these is Motoko Kusanagi, part of the police’s Section 9. It will be up to her to solve the case concerning a particular terrorist called the Puppeteer, who operates through cyborgs themselves.
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