The cyberpunk genre has captivated audiences with its gritty fusion of advanced technology and societal decay, creating worlds where digital enhancements blur the line between human and machine.Amazon Prime’s “Lazarus” stands as a recent testament to this tradition, exploring themes of corporate dominance, identity, and resilience in a dystopian future.
For viewers entranced by Lazarus’s neon-drenched aesthetics and morallycomplex narratives, the anime medium offers a treasure trove of similar experiences. Japanese animation has long excelled at depicting cyberpunk futures and philosophical dilemmas that challenge our understanding of humanity in an increasingly technological world.
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These six exceptional anime series share Lazarus’s DNA, exploring transhumanism, corporate exploitation, and what it means to retain humanity in worlds where flesh and circuit board intertwine.
6Ghost In The Shell
Diving Deep Into The Digital Soul
Ghost in the Shell
There’s a reason Ghost in the Shell is often the first anime recommendation for cyberpunk fans. Released in 1995 and directed by Mamoru Oshii, thisfilm(and the franchise it launched) reshaped what people thought anime could do. It was philosophical, atmospheric, and bold, decades ahead of its time.
The story follows Major Motoko Kusanagi, a full-body cyborg working for Section 9, an elite task force handling cyber-crime in a world where the line between machine and human is constantly blurring. It explores deeply unsettling questions: If our memories can be hacked, what makes us “us”? What happens when your physical body is optional?
The film is adapted from Masamune Shirow’s manga, but Oshii turned it into something far more introspective.
While the original movie is slow and meditative, Stand Alone Complex, the later TV series, is more procedural and action-oriented. And yes, it’s dubbed in English, expertly, in fact. Richard Epcar as Batou and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Kusanagi
This is a world where even your soul can be synthetic. If Lazarus hooked you with themes of transhumanism and a sleek, high-tech future, this is the rabbit hole you want to fall down next.
A Murder Mystery Wrapped in Metal and Memory
If Lazarus’s fusion of futuristic dread and philosophical undercurrents fascinated you, Pluto might just feel like finding a forgotten piece of yourself.
Based on a reimagining of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy, Pluto was adapted into anime in 2023 after years of fans clamoring for it. The manga it’s based on was written by Naoki Urasawa, yes, the same mastermind behind Monster and 20th Century Boys. He took a single arc from Astro Boy, “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, and turned it into a noir thriller that questions everything about consciousness, war, grief, and identity.
The protagonist isn’t Astro Boy, but Gesicht, a Europol robot detective investigating the murder of some of the world’s most advanced robots, and the humans who supported robot rights. What makes Pluto so gripping is how uncomfortably close it feels to real-world conflicts. These robots are more empathetic than many of the humans around them. Some have PTSD. Others are artists. One just wants to live peacefully with his adopted child.
The anime aired on Netflix with a solid English dub, featuring an emotionally restrained performance by Jason Vande Brake as Gesicht, which fits perfectly with the character’s internal struggle.
4Banana Fish
No Sci-Fi, But All the Desperation of a World on Fire
Banana Fish
While Banana Fish might not be cyberpunk or sci-fi in the traditional sense, it belongs on this list for one reason: the same existential urgency that pulses through Lazarus runs through every frame of this anime.
Originally a manga from the late 1980s written by Akimi Yoshida, Banana Fish was ahead of its time. The anime adaptation, released in 2018, modernized the setting without losing any of the raw emotion or political weight. Set in New York City, it follows Ash Lynx, a teenage gang leader investigating the mysterious phrase “Banana Fish,” which links to a government cover-up, a secret experiment, and his own traumatic past.
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It’s gritty, brutal, and often difficult to watch, but impossible to look away from. Think Lazarus without the neon and sci-fi tech, but with every bit of its paranoia, violence, and urgency.
The story doesn’t shy away from dark topics: drug trafficking, child exploitation, and the manipulations of power. But at the heart of it is a deeply human relationship, between Ash and Eiji, that quietly becomes the soul of the series. It’s not romance in the traditional sense, but it is love. A kind that gives the story its sharpest emotional edge.
3Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
You Either Burn Bright, Or Burn Out Fast
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
From the first episode, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners wastes no time. It drops you headfirst into a neon-drenched dystopia where survival isn’t a right, it’s something you claw out with bloody fingers.
A spin-off of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, this anime was produced by Studio Trigger (Kill la Kill, Promare) and premiered on Netflix in 2022. It’s short, just 10 episodes, but every second is packed with intensity, desperation, and heartbreak.
The protagonist, David Martinez, is a gifted student from the slums who stumbles upon a piece of military-grade cyberware. That one choice, to install it, triggers a domino effect that changes his life and the city around him. It’s about chasing relevance in a society that doesn’t care if you’re real or chrome. And what happens when your humanity starts to wear thin.
Edgerunners doesn’t just reference the Cyberpunk 2077 game, it expands on it. The show dives deep into Night City’s seedy underbelly, exploring characters and systems that even the game only hinted at.
The English dub is top-notch, with Zach Aguilar voicing David and Emi Lo as Lucy. It’s one of the rare anime where the dub arguably enhances the show’s atmosphere, especially when the slang and banter feel more grounded in Western street culture.
And then there’s the soundtrack. I Really Want to Stay at Your House by Rosa Walton became the unofficial anthem of heartbreak for an entire generation of anime fans.
2Cowboy Bebop
Space Cowboys Carrying Earth’s Melancholy
Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop crafts a future where humanity has colonized the solar system, but civilization still struggles with the same flaws that plagued Earth. The series revolves around a group of bounty hunters aboard the spaceship Bebop, the haunted ex-hitman Spike Spiegel, former police officer Jet Black, the mysterious con artist Faye Valentine, eccentric hacker Edward, and their genetically engineered corgi Ein.
Each episode typically follows the crew’s attempts to capture valuable bounties, often failing spectacularly while barely scraping by. What sets Bebop apart is how it uses its episodic structure to gradually peel back the layers of each character’s past, revealing the traumas that shaped them and the ghosts they can’t escape.
Director Shinichiro Watanabe created a unique visual experience by blending film noir, western, and cyberpunk elements with a jazz-infused soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno that has become legendary in its own right. The music isn’t just background, it’s a character itself, setting the emotional tone for each scene.
Cowboy Bebop’s dub is widely considered one of the best in anime history, with Steve Blum’s portrayal of Spike becoming his signature role. While the series consists of only 26 episodes and a movie, its themes of existentialism, belonging, and the inability to escape one’s past resonate deeply, explaining why it remains essential viewing almost 25 years after its release.
1Samurai Champloo
The Other Side of Lazarus You Didn’t Know You Wanted
Samurai Champloo
If Lazarus made you feel like your pulse was synced to a beat you didn’t want to end, then Samurai Champloo is the next step.
Directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, the same mind behind Cowboy Bebop and also a major force behind Lazarus, Champloo is what happens when Edo-period Japan meets underground hip-hop. It’s a historical samurai road-trip anime scored like a 2000s mixtape, and it works better than it has any right to.
The plot kicks off with three characters, Mugen, Jin, and Fuu, brought together by coincidence and held together by a promise. Their journey across feudal Japan is filled with anachronisms: graffiti, beatboxing monks, baseball-playing Americans, and rap battles. But beneath all that is a slow burn of character development and emotional unraveling.
The late Nujabes handled much of the soundtrack, and it’s no exaggeration to say it changed the game. His work introduced a new generation of anime fans to lo-fi hip-hop, long before it became a genre-defining YouTube trend.
It’s dubbed, of course, with standout performances by Steve Blum as Mugen and Kirk Thornton as Jin. Both bring unique energy to the characters
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