The top 10 cyberpunk and sci-fi anime explore the razor-thin border between machine and human soul. From the kinetic tragedy of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to 86 Eighty-Six and Ghost in the Shell, immerse in speculative fiction at its peak.
#1: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
Studio: Studio Trigger | Score: 8.6 / 10
Street kid David Martinez loses everything in Night City and chromes up with a military Sandevistan to survive as an outlaw mercenary edgerunner alongside netrunner Lucy.
Studio Trigger and director Hiroyuki Imaishi delivered a kinetic, neon-soaked tragedy that revitalized the entire Cyberpunk franchise. Edgerunners captures the relentless meat-grinder of Night City with vivid pop-art ultra-violence, visceral cyberware animation, and emotional devastation. David and Lucy’s dream of reaching the Moon set to Rosa Walton’s "I Really Want to Stay at Your House" remains an unforgettable emotional climax.
Where to start manga: Complete standalone anime series created in collaboration with CD Projekt Red.
#2: 86 Eighty-Six (2021)
Studio: A-1 Pictures | Score: 8.7 / 10
The Republic of San Magnolia boasts of a bloodless drone war, concealing the reality that their autonomous Juggernauts are piloted by the dehumanized 86th sector youth.
Toshimasa Ishii’s directorial debut for A-1 Pictures is a masterclass in visual metaphor, split-screen transitions, and match cuts. 86 tackles institutional genocide, military trauma, and white-supremacist societal hypocrisy with unflinching honesty. Hiroyuki Sawano’s emotional compositions and the brotherhood of the Spearhead Squadron make the Season 1 finale one of the most tear-jerking triumphs in recent anime.
Where to start manga: Start Light Novel Volume 4 (United Kingdom of Roa Gracia Arc).
#3: Ghost in the Shell (1995) (1995)
Studio: Production I.G | Score: 8.3 / 10
Cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi leads Section 9 in pursuit of the mysterious Puppet Master hacker, questioning her own human identity in a fully cybernetic body.
Mamoru Oshii’s philosophical sci-fi film fundamentally redefined cinema, directly inspiring The Matrix. Production I.G’s analog hand-drawn compositing, combined with Kenji Kawai’s haunting Bulgarian-choir wedding chants, creates a mesmerizing mood of technological alienation. It remains the definitive cinematic meditation on consciousness, gender, and digital transhumanism.
Where to start manga: Followed by Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series.
#4: Odd Taxi (2021)
Studio: OLM / P.I.C.S. | Score: 8.7 / 10
Middle-aged walrus taxi driver Hiroshi Odokawa navigates Tokyo’s eccentric night world, unintentionally driving across the center of a missing girl conspiracy and yakuza war.
OLM and P.I.C.S. delivered one of the sharpest original screenplays in modern anime. Kazuya Konomoto’s dialogue crackles with Quentin Tarantino-esque wit, weaving social media obsession, idol scandals, lottery addictions, and yakuza debts into an airtight mystery. The animal aesthetic payoff in the final episode is a masterstroke of psychological storytelling.
Where to start manga: Complete original story. Concluded with Odd Taxi: In the Woods film.
#5: Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song (2021)
Studio: Wit Studio | Score: 8.4 / 10
Autonomous songstress AI Vivy is paired with future AI Matsumoto on a century-long mission to prevent a cataclysmic war between androids and humanity.
Wit Studio and Re:Zero creator Tappei Nagatsuki team up for an electrifying sci-fi musical thriller. Vivy explores the nature of the human heart through century-spanning vignettes where Vivy must stop historical AI tipping points. Wit Studio’s martial arts animation and Satoru Kousaki’s breathtaking musical scores create pure emotional and visual magic.
Where to start manga: Complete original anime series.
#6: Cowboy Bebop (1998)
Studio: Sunrise | Score: 8.8 / 10
Bounty hunters Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Radical Edward travel the solar system aboard the Bebop, confronting their inescapable pasts.
Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop is a timeless synthesis of Western jazz, Hong Kong cinema, film noir, and space western. Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts’ big band jazz score drives kinetic dogfights and martial arts homage. Spike Spiegel’s existential melancholy and the immortal line "You’re gonna carry that weight" stand as monumental summits of television art.
Where to start manga: Complete original masterpiece series.
#7: Space Dandy (2014)
Studio: Bones | Score: 7.9 / 10
Dandy is a dandy guy in space who hunts unregistered aliens across the cosmos with his robot QT and feline alien Meow.
Shinichiro Watanabe and Studio Bones assembled the greatest animation showcase of the 2010s. Every episode features different director-animator pairings (Masaaki Yuasa, Shingo Natsume, Eunyoung Choi), resulting in boundless visual experimentation spanning surrealist funk, 70s psychedelic pop art, and cosmic heartbreak.
Where to start manga: Complete original anime series.
#8: Akira (1988)
Studio: Tokyo Movie Shinsha | Score: 8.2 / 10
In post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, biker Kaneda fights to save his friend Tetsuo, whose latent psychic powers are awakened by secret government experiments.
Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is the foundational cornerstone of modern cyberpunk. Hand-drawn at 24 frames per second with pre-scored dialogue and Shoji Yamashiro’s Indonesian Gamelan percussion, its catastrophic destruction sequences and iconic motorcycle slides established Japanese animation as a premier global medium.
Where to start manga: Read Katsuhiro Otomo’s 6-volume manga for the expanded epic story.
#9: Darker than Black (2007)
Studio: Bones | Score: 8.1 / 10
Ten years after the mysterious Hell’s Gate appeared in Tokyo, supernatural Contractors possessing emotionless logic and strange remunerations carry out espionage for syndicates.
Tensai Okamura and Studio Bones craft a sleek urban supernatural thriller starring Hei, the "Black Reaper." The series pairs stylish trench-coat wire combat with a fascinating remuneration system—forcing killers to perform bizarre OCD rituals after using abilities. Yoko Kanno’s jazz-rock score provides an unforgettable midnight mood.
Where to start manga: Original anime series. Season 1 is the definitive classic.
#10: SSSS.GRIDMAN (2018)
Studio: Studio Trigger | Score: 7.8 / 10
Amnesiac high schooler Yuta Hibiki merges with the Hyper Agent Gridman to defend his city from giant kaiju, discovering their reality is trapped in a simulated world.
Akira Amemiya and Studio Trigger pay affectionate homage to Tsuburaya’s tokusatsu classics while crafting a profound psychological story about teenage depression and isolation. The kinetic 3D kaiju clashes contrast beautifully with quiet, naturalistic high school classroom conversations, anchored by Rikka Takarada and Akane Shinjo’s complex emotional dynamic.
Where to start manga: Followed by SSSS.DYNAZENON and the Gridman Universe film.
