Darker Than Black

Series Similar to Darker Than Black

If you enjoyed Darker Than Black, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

   2006 · Drama, Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile, also on MBS.

   The year is 2017 of the Imperial calendar and parts of the world are under the control of the Holy Britannian Empire. Lelouch Lamperouge, an exiled Britannian prince, encounters a strange girl known as C.C., who gifts him with a great and terrible power. The Geass. With this powerful ability, Lelouch can get anyone to do as he wills. But the power of Geass: is it a blessing…or a curse?

2. Deadman Wonderland

   2011 · Drama, Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

   A massive earthquake ravaged Japan's mainland and destroyed most of Tokyo, sinking three-quarters of it into the ocean. Ten years later, the story starts with Igarashi Ganta, a seemingly ordinary, unassuming middle school student attending Nagano Prefecture's middle school. An escapee, a survivor of the great earthquake, Ganta has no memories of the tragedy and has lived a simple, normal life. This all changes one day when a strange man covered in blood and crimson armour appears, floating, out of his classroom windows. Smirking madly, this Red Man massacres Ganta's entire class and, instead of killing him, embeds a red crystal shard in his chest. Within days of the massacre, Ganta is declared the sole suspect and, following a suspiciously quick trial, is sentenced to life imprisonment in Deadman Wonderland, a massive theme-park-like prison.

3. 86

   2021 · Drama, Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

   The Republic of San Magnolia. For a long time, this country has been besieged by its neighbor, the Empire, which created a series of unmanned military vehicles called the Legion. In response to the threat, the Republic successfully completes the development of similar technology and fights off the enemy's attack, having managed to do so without casualties. But this is the official version. In fact, there were victims. Outside of 85 districts of the Republic, there was actually another one—"the non-existent 86th district." It was there that day and night continued the battles in which young men and women, known as Eighty-Sixers, participated—they fought in drones... Shinn directs the actions of a detachment of young Eighty-Sixers while on the battlefield. Lena is a "handler" who commands the detachment from the remote rear with the help of special communication. The tragic struggle of these two begins!

4. Neon Genesis Evangelion

   1995 · Drama, Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

   The year is 2015, and half of the Earth's population is dead, victims of the disaster called Second Impact! Answering a summons from his enigmatic father, 14-year-old Shinji Ikari arrives in the rebuilt city of New Tokyo-3 just as a gigantic creature identified as an "Angel" attacks! Forced into the cockpit of a giant bio-mechanical construct known as an Evangelion, Shinji must defend the city from the rampaging Angel or die trying!

5. Steins;Gate

   2011 · Drama, Anime, Fantasy, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Anime / Science-Fiction profile, highly rated (8.3).

   The microwave is a time machine. Okarin proved it. The self-anointed mad scientist nuked bananas into some gelatinous version of the future. Or maybe it was the past. Doesn't matter. No one thought he could do it, but he did it anyway. He sent text messages through time to people he knew. To his friends. Some of them female. Pretty. He should have been more careful. He should have stopped. Tampering with the time-space continuum attracts unwelcome attention. Clandestine organizations of nefarious origins take notice. SERN. Always watching. Okarin knows; he can feel their eyes. That s why he started the top secret Future Gadget Lab. To stop them. You should join. We get to wear lab coats, and it's dangerous. Danger is exciting because it's deadly. The microwave is a time machine. Steins;Gate is a surreal viewing experience that s an absolute must watch for all fans of sci-fi.

6. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

   2002 · Action, Anime, Science-Fiction, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile, highly rated (8).

   Major Motoko Kusanagi is a beautiful but deadly cyborg that is squad leader of Section 9-the Japanese government's clandestine unit assigned to battle terrorism and cyber warfare. Surrounded by an expertly trained team, Motoko faces her ultimate challenge- the Laughing Man- a terrorist who orchestrated a kidnapping and extortion plot many years ago and has suddenly reappeared. In order to discover the identity of this enigmatic criminal, Motoko and Section 9 are drawn into a deadly labyrinth and they ll have to use all their expertise to survive.

7. Cowboy Bebop

   1998 · Action, Adventure, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile, highly rated (8.3).

   In the year 2071, the crew of the spaceship Bebop travel the solar system trying to apprehend bounties. In the slang of the era, "Cowboys" are bounty hunters. Most episodes revolve around a specific bounty, but the show often shares its focus with the pasts of one of each of the four main characters and of more general past events, which are revealed and brought together as the series progresses. (The show originally aired on TV Tokyo, but due to what the network considered "excessive violence", only a few episodes, out of order, were ever shown. The channel WOWOW later picked up the series and aired the entire 26 episode run, in order.)

8. Steins;Gate 0

   2018 · Drama, Anime, Science-Fiction, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Anime / Science-Fiction profile, hidden gem.

   The dark untold story of Steins;Gate that leads with the eccentric mad scientist Okabe, struggling to recover from a failed attempt at rescuing Kurisu. He decides to give up and abandons his lively scientist alter ego, in pursuit to forget the past. When all seems to be normal, he is seemingly pulled back into the past by meeting an acquaintance of Kurisu, who tells him that they have begun testing a device that stores the memory of a human and creates a simulation of them with their characteristics and personalities. Okabe begins testing and finds out that the simulation of Kurisu has brought back anguish and some new unexpected tragedies. Zero is a side story that explores events from the Beta Attractor Field's future that contribute in making the end of the original story possible.

9. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

   2022 · Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

   Set in Cyberpunk 2077 universe, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners tells a standalone, 10-episode story about a street kid trying to survive in a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he chooses to stay alive by becoming an edgerunner—a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk.

10. Blade Runner: Black Lotus

    2021 · Drama, Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

    Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

    Los Angeles 2032. A young woman wakes up with no memories, and possessing deadly skills. The only clues to her mystery are a locked data device and a tattoo of a black lotus. Putting together the pieces, she must hunt down the people responsible for her brutal and bloody past to find the truth of her lost identity.