10 best anime to watch if you like Blade Runner

Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, is considered one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. The neo-noir is set in a dystopian future and explores complex themes such as artificial intelligence, environmental decay, and the existential question of what it means to be human.

The film centers around a former cop named Rick Deckard who is tasked with tracking down and eliminating rogue androids called replicants. As Deckard delves deeper into his investigation, the moral and ethical lines become increasingly blurred.

Fans of Blade Runner's groundbreaking visuals and thought-provoking philosophical undertones will find a lot to appreciate with these 10 anime picks. Like Blade Runner, these anime use sci-fi and cyberpunk elements to explore identity, self-awareness, and what it means to be human in a high-tech future.

10 must-watch anime for fans of Blade Runner

1) Planetes

Focusing on a crew that collects orbital debris above Earth's atmosphere, Planetes confronts the consequences of corporations exploiting workers to cut costs.

Protagonist Hachimaki hopes working for the Debris Section will be his stepping stone to realizing his dream of owning his own spaceship. But the dangers of his low-status job alternatively threaten his life and put the safety of space travel at risk from callous capitalist priorities.

Beyond gorgeous animation rendering Earth's orbit and space travel, Planetes emphasizes interpersonal relationships while exploring ethical issues regarding pollution, class divides, and humanity's responsibilities in an increasingly commercialized final frontier.

2) Memories

Memories (Image via Studio 4°C / Madhouse)

This anime anthology from visionary creator Katsuhiro Otomo presents three short films covering different science fiction genres. But each self-contained story revolves around memory, identity, and humanity in distinct but provocative ways.

The first segment, Magnetic Rose, follows two space salvagers lured to an abandoned station, where haunting memories and illusions blur reality. Stink Bomb is a satirical tale about a chemist who accidentally becomes a human bio-weapon, exposing the absurdity of bureaucracy.

The third segment, Cannon Fodder, portrays a boy’s life in a war-driven city, where routine indoctrination replaces individuality and reshapes purpose. Like Blade Runner, Memories requires some patience, but rewards viewers seeking more contemplative examinations of existence and what makes us human.

3) Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Image via Studio Trigger)

Set in the same universe as video game Cyberpunk 2077 and taking place about a year before the game's events, this Netflix anime focuses on young lowlife David Martinez, who turns to black market cybernetic modifications to try to rise out of Night City's vicious gang culture.

But David's new combat abilities soon attract attention from equally dangerous megacorporations and city elites. As he loses more of his humanity with each chrome addition, David fights to hold onto his identity amid Night City’s inequality and tech-driven chaos.

Like many cyberpunk stories, Edgerunners utilizes heavy body horror and transhumanist themes to examine modern real-world issues of exploitation and inequality through the lens of sci-fi. The constant battles for supremacy echo similar core conflicts between humans and replicants in Blade Runner.

4) Akira

Though made just a few years later, Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira has several connections to Blade Runner fans will recognize. Set in dystopian Neo Tokyo after WWIII, this influential 1988 anime conveys a gritty, lived-in setting and stylish cyberpunk visuals.

The plot focuses on biker gangs and a friend's distress when a gang member abuses his psychic powers after secret government experiments. There are direct links to Blade Runner's plot and worldbuilding regarding oppressive authority figures and forbidden scientific pursuits.

Akira also explores transhumanist themes of lost identity and what it means to be human in a technologically overloaded world. Akira laid groundwork for many sci-fi anime to come and is considered an absolute must-watch.

5) Blame!

Blame! takes place in a bizarre futuristic world shaped by out-of-control organic nano-machines. In this vast, decaying mechanized labyrinth, humans cling to the lowest rungs of a broken civilization.

Protagonist Killy travels these endless technological haunts seeking humans with the "net terminal gene" that could allow regaining control of the automated systems that have gone haywire. But dangers and enemies abound.

Like Blade Runner, Blame! delivers a kind of tech noir aesthetic conveying hopelessness and dread. Strange biomechanical growths and vast expanses of urban decay create an immersive atmosphere ideal for fans seeking more sci-fi dystopias similar to Ridley Scott's film.

6) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Image via Production I.G)

A TV series based more directly on the original manga rather than the 1995 film, Stand Alone Complex dives deeper into questions about technology and individuality. Cyborg protagonist Motoko Kusanagi leads an elite counter-cyberterrorist unit called Section 9.

Set in a futuristic vision of Japan where cybernetic modification is commonplace, the show focuses heavily on infosecurity and hacking technologies. But episodic plots give more time than the films to develop complex characters and examine philosophical issues.

Kusanagi ponders her own humanity after encountering hackers who seem to lack any. Fans fascinated by themes of blurred identity in Blade Runner will find this series satisfying on both smart sci-fi and thrilling action fronts.

7) Serial Experiments Lain

Serial Experiments Lain (Image via Triangle Staff)

One of the trippier anime series you may ever watch, Serial Experiments Lain focuses on a teenage girl drawn into the Wired after receiving a mysterious email from a classmate who just committed suicide.

The show came out in 1998, but somehow feels ahead of its time, exploring loss of identity and perception shifts created by blurring worlds of the organic and digital. As Lain confronts encrypted secrets and hidden layers of network reality, viewers and characters alike question the nature of consciousness itself.

Fans intrigued by parallels between human experience and AI in Blade Runner will sink deep into mysteries in Serial Experiments Lain. Just be prepared for genre-bending weirdness matching the series' avant-garde visual direction as Lain's explorations take ever-stranger turns.

8) Psycho-Pass

Another acclaimed anime delving into technology's ethical limits, Psycho-Pass is set in a future where a network called the Sibyl System actively monitors citizens' "Crime Coefficient" (called their "Psycho-Pass") to identify potential criminals based on their propensity for crime before they act.

Protagonist Akane Tsunemori joins the bureau responsible for dealing judgment to citizens deemed threats. As she investigates a mastermind hacker trying to bring down Sibyl, Akane uncovers darker truths about removing freedom in the name of peace and security.

Like replicants in Blade Runner, those labeled dangerous by unfeeling AI in Psycho-Pass provoke analysis of what truly defines someone as irredeemable. Stylish visuals backing thoughtful narratives about the cost of progress make this a great suggestion for more cerebral sci-fi.

9) Ergo Proxy

In a post-apocalyptic future, humans have retreated into luxurious biodomes protecting them from Earth's ravaged surface, where infected autoreiv androids roam outside. Ergo Proxy follows Re-l Mayer as she investigates infected robots and uncovers secrets that threaten their society.

The series echoes Blade Runner not just in storyline aspects but also in deeper questions about self-awareness, identity, and what conscious experience means between "real" humans and their synthetic creations overtaking the world outside.

Beautiful animation and haunting soundtrack augment the philosophical underpinnings. For fans who appreciated the melancholy moodiness woven into themes about technology and existence in Blade Runner, Ergo Proxy strikes similar chords in an engrossing sci-fi mystery.

10) Texhnolyze

Arguably the darkest anime on this list, Texhnolyze envisions an unsettling future where humanity seems locked into a pattern of continual self-destruction. In the underground city of Lux, factions vie for control as everyone from professional gangsters to fanatical prophets contributes to spreading chaos.

Three primary storylines present different perspectives, hoping to guide Lux's destiny, but authoritarian, nihilistic, and pacifist worldviews keep clashing as violence and despair consume the population. Many residents use 'texhnolyzed' prosthetics as enhancements or status symbols, not just medical replacements.

Like replicants and many Blade Runner characters, key figures in Texhnolyze struggle with existential questions about what future awaits – if any. The mature philosophical themes resonate well for sci-fi fans even as the anime's grim vision of humanity offers little hope or redemption.

Conclusion

From cyberpunk classics to newer series, these anime all explore thought-provoking questions about technology, identity, and the future that will interest Blade Runner fans.

Series like Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass and Ergo Proxy directly probe transhumanist issues regarding enhancement and artificial intelligence that link back to themes Philip K. Dick examined in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", the novel that Blade Runner was directly adapted from.

Other suggestions like Akira, Texhnolyze, or Serial Experiments Lain sync with the dystopian mood, experimental visuals, or abstract philosophizing Ridley Scott conveyed in his seminal sci-fi film. Fans of cerebral, future-focused sci-fi like Blade Runner will find plenty to enjoy on this list.