Summary
- Ghost in the Shell elevated the cyberpunk genre and adult animation to a mainstream level.
- Love, Death + Robots is an anthology show featuring diverse styles and genres, making it a perfect Ghost in the Shell fans.
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Plastic Memories offer intriguing futuristic stories with unique twists.
When the original Ghost in the Shell movie was first released in 1995, the manga it was based on already had a solid fan base and had been a presence in pop culture since 1989. Now, the franchise includes video games, TV shows, and a live-action adaptation, in addition to the profound influence it has had on other artists and their creations.
6 Best Villains In The Ghost In The Shell Franchise, Ranked
Several great villains have been featured throughout the Ghost in the Shell franchise. These examples tend to stand out.
Ghost in the Shell didn't just take mecha and dystopian movies to a whole new level; it also created the cyberpunk genre and made animation for adults less niche and more mainstream. There are several television shows, both animated and live-action, that are similar to Ghost in the Shell, all of which fans of the 1995 movie or its sequels and adaptations should check out.
6 Love Death + Robots
Animated Tech Anthologies
Love, Death & Robots
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- March 15, 2019
- Cast
- Bruce Thomas, Jane Leeves, john oliver, Nika Futterman, Rhys Darby, Scott Whyte, Sumalee Montano, Feodor Chin, Rahul Kohli, Ronny Chieng, Josh Brener, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Topher Grace, Helen Sadler, Hayley McLaughlin, Omid Abtahi, Christine Adams, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Anastasia Foster, Neil Kaplan, G.K. Bowes, Courtenay Taylor, Tudi Roche, Michael Benyaer, Matthew Yang King
- Seasons
- 4
- Creator(s)
- Tim Miller
Love Death + Robots isn't about a single character, nor does it have a single overarching story. It's an anthology of short, animated episodes that all have a common theme: robots. For those who like Heavy Metal, this show was created by David Fincher and Tim Miller, who have been trying to produce a reboot of that classic anthology film for decades.
The show utilizes several different animation studios and directors for its various episodes, which is why each episode has a distinct style, tone, and genre. Some episodes are multi-parters and have sequels, but for the most part, each episode is a standalone story that speaks for itself.
5 Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
From Prep School To Street Rat
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- 2022 - 2022
- Network
- Netflix
- Cast
- Aoi Yuki, Kenichiro Ohashi, Kenjiro Tsuda, Kazuhiko Inoue, Tomoyo Kurosawa
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- Trigger
- Number of Episodes
- 10
Inspired by the popular video game Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners shares the same lore and setting, also taking place in the shattered metropolis of Night City. The main character is a prep school star named David Martinez, and when personal tragedy strikes, he leaves his prestigious school behind, ultimately ending up on the streets.
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Cyberpunk 2077 is filled with characters just trying to survive a harsh dystopian city, and some of them can be saved by V to live another day.
This is where he meets Lucyna Kushinada, also known as Lucy, a type of Hacker called a Netrunner, one of the playstyles that exist in the game. David takes on the title of Edgerunner, a high-tech mercenary who works in the Black Market, and joins a team that works outside of the law. These are people that the Major from Ghost in the Shell would be either hunting down or working with to find someone else.
4 Plastic Memories
The Future Of Androids
Plastic Memories
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- 2015 - 2015
- Directors
- Yoshiyuki Fujiwara
- Writers
- Naotaka Hayashi
- Cast
- Yasuaki Takumi, Sora Amamiya, Chinatsu Akasaki, Sayuri Yahagi, Megumi Toyoguchi, Satoshi Hino
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- Doga Kobo
- Creator(s)
- Naotaka Hayashi
- Number of Episodes
- 13
Set in a not-too-distant future Singapore, Plastic Memories is about an android named Isla who is nearing the end of her limited lifespan. She's what's known as a Giftia, the most advanced type of robot produced by the SAI Corp. Despite their remarkable realism, they only live for nine years and a few months, or 81,920 hours, to be exact. Those who do not deactivate voluntarily are hunted down and retired by the forces of Terminal Service One.
If a Giftia isn't deactivated before its expiration date, it degrades in chilling ways, including violent outbursts and the loss of its personality and memory. Isla, the protagonist, is one such Giftia, and she's nearing the end of her life. However, she and her work partner, Tsukasa, have fallen in love, and they have only a limited time together.
3 Terminator Zero
No Fate But What We Make
Terminator Zero
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WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Timothy Olyphant, Rosario Dawson, Andre Holland, Sonoya Mizuno, Ann Dowd
- Showrunner
- Mattson Tomlin
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator(s)
- Mattson Tomlin
The only animated offering in the vast Terminator franchise so far, Terminator Zero takes place in the same timeline created by James Cameron for the original movie. This story is set in Tokyo instead of California, and focuses on a character named Malcolm Lee, who is developing an AI program called Kokoro to compete with Skynet.
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The series jumps between the human resistance fighters of 2022 and Lee and his family in 1997, on the run from a killer cyborg on the day before Judgment Day, which is supposed to take place on August 27th. Not only is the Terminator targeting Lee, but also Kokoro, which is more inclined to help preserve humanity and presents a threat to Skynet's apocalyptic intentions.
2 Lazarus
One Month To Live
Lazarus
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- April 5, 2025
- Network
- Adult Swim
- Directors
- Shinichirô Watanabe
- Cast
- Mamoru Miyano, Makoto Furukawa, Maaya Uchida, Yuma Uchida, Manaka Iwami, Megumi Hayashibara, Koichi Yamadera, Shinya Takahashi, Volcano Ota, Yuki Anando
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- MAPPA, Sola Entertainment
- Creator(s)
- Shinichirô Watanabe
Lazarus begins in 2049, where a brilliant neurosurgeon, Dr. Skinner, has produced a miraculous analgesic before disappearing completely from society. The name of the drug is Hapna, and it's one of the most effective painkillers that humanity has ever developed, so naturally, it skyrockets in popularity, and almost everyone takes it for everything.
In 2052, however, Dr. Skinner emerges in an online video and announces the drug is deadly, and has a timed release of three years, which means anyone who took it only has weeks to live. A task force of experts, adventurers, and computer techs—codenamed Lazarus—is assembled to find the doctor and stop the deadly drug from killing half the planet.
1 Altered Carbon
Altered Carbon
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- 2018 - 2020-00-00
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Anthony Mackie, Joel Kinnaman, Simone Missick, Martha Higareda, James Purefoy, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Chris Conner, Dichen Lachman, Kristin Lehman, Trieu Tran, Ato Essandoh, Waleed Zuaiter, Lisa Chandler, Antonio Marziale, Marlene Forte, Fiona Vroom, Adam Busch, Hayley Law, Hiro Kanagawa, Lela Loren, Torben Liebrecht, Dina Shihabi, Will Yun Lee, Olga Fonda, Paul Lazenby
- Showrunner
- Anthony Mackie
- Seasons
- 2
- Story By
- laeta kalogridis
The only selection here that's live-action, as opposed to animated, Altered Carbon utilizes a lot of special effects and a grotesque art style that overlaps into both mecha and body horror, so it still feels strangely cartoonish. Its plot is based on the notion that humans can transfer their consciousness and memories into a device called a Cortical Stack, which can be transferred to anyone else's body, effectively allowing them to live forever.
The setting is a shining modern metropolis known as Bay City in the year 2384, and not everyone can afford the luxury of immortality. The best and most secure transfers and new bodies, or "sleeves," are only available to the wealthy, known as Meths because of the long-living biblical figure Methuselah, and this is where the story begins. A Meth named Laurens Bancroft revives an Envoy, Takeshi Kovacs, a soldier of the old world, to help solve a murder, and in return, maybe he'll get to live again.
- Release Date
- December 8, 1995
- Runtime
- 83 Minutes
- Director
- Mizuho Nishikubo, Mamoru Oshii
- Writers
- Shirow Masamune, Kazunori Itô
- Franchise(s)
- Ghost in the Shell
Cast
-
Atsuko Tanaka -
Akio Otsuka
-
Iemasa Kayumi
-
Koichi Yamadera
WHERE TO WATCH
- Studio
- Production I.G