Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Series Similar to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

If you enjoyed Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. 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.)

2. Serial Experiments Lain

   1998 · Anime, Science-Fiction, Thriller · ended

   Recommended for similar Anime / Science-Fiction profile.

   Close the World. Open the Next. Decades before the internet was something people carried around in their pockets, these words introduced anime fans to a surreal existence where computer monitors served as portals to brave new worlds. Serial Experiments: Lain and its deceptively "ordinary" title character redefined an entire generation's concept of the world wide web, prompting us all to suspiciously take note of humming power lines and central processing units. Follow along as fourteen year old Lain – driven by the abrupt suicide of a classmate – logs on to the Wired and promptly loses herself in a twisted mass of hallucinations, memories, and interconnected-psyches. Close the World. Open the Next. It's as simple as the flip of a switch.

3. Terminator Zero

   2024 · Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

   A single-minded cyborg sent from the future, known as the Terminator, has been programmed to assassinate Sarah Connor and her unborn son, John, who will one day thwart the malevolent artificial intelligence known as Skynet.

4. 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.

5. Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

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

   Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile.

   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?

6. 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.

7. 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!

8. Ergo Proxy

   2006 · Anime, Crime, Science-Fiction, Mystery · ended

   Recommended for similar Anime / Science-Fiction profile.

   In the utopian city, Romdeau, where humans and their android servants live, the landscape is broken by a series of murders. Real Mayar, a female inspector from the Citizen Information Bureau, along with her android partner Iggy, are tasked to solve the cases. Mayar is soon attacked by a creature which is neither human nor android, and learns about the mysterious phenomena called "Awakening".

9. 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.

10. The Big O

    2001 · Action, Anime, Science-Fiction · ended

    Recommended for similar Action / Anime profile, hidden gem.

    Paradigm City is a place without a past. 40 years ago, something happened that wiped the memories of everyone in it. Unfortunately, the people of Paradigm City were very busy before then, making Megadueses(giant robots) and monsters. People who were born after the memory wipe are gaining/recovering memories of the past and using them to build newer threats. Roger Smith keeps Paradigm City safe with the help of The Big O (a faithful giant robot), his butler Norman and the android Dorothy, Roger keeps Paradigm City safe. As problems mount and more memories surface, Roger's past and Paradigm's future begin to become suspect...