In the 22nd century, the justice system has changed.
The Sibyl System now determines the threat level of each citizen by examining their mental state for criminal intent. This has become known as their Psycho-Pass.
Once criminal intent has been identified, Inspectors like Akane Tsunemori are in charge of subjugating them. However, this tough job is not without dangers. This is why Inspectors are paired with Enforcers, like Shinya Kougami, latent criminals with just the right amount of psychopathy to keep other criminals in their place.
While there is some debate as to the quality of the show after the first season, Psycho-Pass does something that is pretty rare in anime – plays out interesting and engaging crime drama. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Psycho-Pass, head on down below.
Anime Like Psycho-Pass
For Fans of Crime Mysteries
Id – Invaded
In this world, crimes are able to be solved by piecing together a criminal’s unconscious mind in ID-wells. However, in order to enter these ID-wells, you must be a killer yourself.
Enter brilliant detective Akihito Narihisago. After his daughter was murdered, he sought vengeance on the killer and is currently serving his sentence.
However, under the name Sakaido, he enters the ID-wells in order to help his fellow detectives piece together crimes.
If there is one anime most like Psycho-Pass, it is Id: Invaded.
Both series follow detectives in a special section of the police who have access to advanced technology that they use to solve crimes.
In Psycho-Pass, they examine latent criminality while Id: Invaded invades the criminal psyche from the crime scene to try and discover the identity of the criminal. In both series, to utilize the system, you have to have a partner that is a criminal or killer themselves. Those partners also just happen to be former police officers who became criminals.
Tokyo 24th Ward
On an artificial island in Tokyo Bay labeled as the Tokyo 24th Ward, a fire at a middle school changed the lives many, including three childhood friends, Ran, Kouki, and Shuuta.
Having drifted apart after the incident, they are brought together on the first anniversary of the fire when their phones ring simultaneously and they receive a call from Asumi, a girl that died in that fire, showing them a tragedy that will come to pass and asking them to choose the future.
Both Psycho-Pass and Tokyo 24th Ward invite you to think on the question about what you would do if you knew something was going to happen before it actually does.
However, while Psycho-Pass muses on the morality of dealing with criminals before they even commit crimes, Tokyo 24th Ward is more your standard teenagers using their ability to save lives.
Both anime series take place in more technologically advanced cities and unravel the reason behind their ability to see these future events in a larger intrigue.
Terror in Resonance
After a terrorist attack on a Japanese nuclear facility, the country was paralyzed to act. After six months of searching for the perpetrators, the public is shown a video of two boys known as Sphinx who take credit for a recent bomb attack. The pair are soon linked to the terrorist attack on the nuclear facility by police.
Threatening more mayhem to come, it is up to the police to catch these terrorists. However, Sphinx has been very careful to never kill anyone with their attacks. Instead, they hope to use them to expose a secret government experiment and its cruelty.
While Terror in Resonance has moments showing detectives investigating acts of terrorism, the main characters are instead the terrorists.
Like Psycho-Pass examines the morality of of the Sibyl System, Terror in Resonance encourages you to ponder the morality of what the main characters are trying to accomplish with their acts of non-fatal terrorism.
While Terror in Resonance doesn’t take place in a highly technologically advanced world, it does build the same air of unfolding mystery and intrigue that Psycho-Pass can so often master.
Monster
Dr Kenzou Tenma has the perfect life as one of the world’s most renowned brain surgeons. However, one night he is presented with a doctor’s most painful choice – to save an injured child or the mayor, both mortally wounded.
Against his colleague’s advice, he saves the kid. However, when a series of crimes start happening around him, all evidence points to the child he saved.
Anime doesn’t always do crime thrillers so well. Psycho-Pass is one the better options at capturing that while also having a cyberpunk-esque dystopian setting. However, if you want your more standard crime thriller, Monster is a classic because of it.
While Monster features police investigation of a series of murders, the main character is instead the man being framed by the serial killer. As such, you watch him stay ahead of the police while also trying to hunt down the killer.
Psycho-Pass often keeps things feeling fresh with new detectives and a variety of mysteries, but Monster manages to keep just one mystery always evolving and always exciting.
B – The Beginning
On the islands of Cremona, a vigilante named Killer B is running rampant taking justice into his own hands with seemingly superhuman abilities.
After being unsuccessful in their attempts to capture Killer B, the Royal Investigation Service brings in Keith Flick, an eccentric detective that was exiled to the archives department after a personal trauma effected his work.
However, as the crimes of Killer B begin to escalate, it becomes abundantly clear more than one person is responsible.
Both Psycho-Pass and B:The Beginning follow detective investigating mysteries until it becomes abundantly clear something much larger is happening in the city.
Both are the type of mystery shows where to explain it would spoil it and you often don’t fully realize what is happening until all at once when everything becomes clear.
If nothing else, both are detective anime about detectives hunting killers.
Devils’ Line
In this world, vampires, or devils as they are often called, live among humans. The majority of humanity isn’t aware of them as they do not differ much from normal humans.
A vampire does not even need to drink human blood, but once they taste it or sometimes even just see it, they experience such lust and pleasure that they are driven crazy with desire.
Anzai, a half-vampire, is part of a secret sub-section of the police force that deals with these rogue vampires that transform and go on a rampage. One day, he saves college student Tsukasa from a vampire and their fates become intertwined.
As Devils’ Line is about vampires and a romance anime at some moments, it is innately different from Psycho-Pass.
However, what Devils’ Line and Psycho-Pass have in common that they are both also police investigation series that follow a special division of police staffed by the undesirables of society. In Psycho-Pass, it is latent killers, in Devils’ Line, it is government-controlled vampires. Both units are highly supervised and end up involved in deeper conspiracy.
For Fans of Dystopian Future
No. 6
After a series of bloody wars, humanity retreated into six city-states. However, while everything seemed peaceful and perfect to the elite of these cities, the poor suffered.
One day, Shion, a resident of the elite, encountered Nezumi, a fugitive from outside the utopia. After taking him in, Shion and his family were forced from their home and now learn the ugly side of their society.
In both worlds, you have a society that is seen as perfect, like in No. 6, or seeks to be perfect, like in Psycho-Pass. However, of course, things are not what they seem and there is actually a series of dark secrets buried underneath the surface.
While both Psycho-Pass and No. 6 shine a light on the darker sides of their perfect society, the society in No. 6 isn’t quite as advances as Psycho-Pass.
Heat Guy J
In the city of Judoh, the Bureau of Urban Safety created the Special Services Division to keep the ever-busy crime syndicates suppressed.
Consisting of Daisuke Aurora and an android named J, they both give crime in their city little room to breathe.
Psycho-Pass and Heat Guy J are about police officers foiling crime in a city that has gone bad. However, while crime is suppressed because of the system in Psycho-Pass, in Heat Guy J, the detectives are put in place because crime is so rampant.
Both anime also deal with somewhat augmented humans, but Heat Guy J more so because J is an actual android.
Witch Hunter Robin
The world is filled with witches living low key among the population. With powers like ESP, mind control, and telekinesis, they are fiercely powerful.
While many go undetected, the STN-J is responsible for capturing witches alive and turning them in for study in order to learn why they become witches in the first place.
In order to aid in their investigation and replace the member they just lost, a witch named Robin from Italy is sent to aid them, much to the chagrin on the normal humans on the squad.
Witch Hunter Robin may seem like a slightly strange choice to compare with Psycho-Pass, but both series are about a group of people that are in charge of subjugating a group of people that are deemed different.
While Witch Hunter Robin doesn’t show much advanced technology until the end, it does also have that semi-cyberpunk feel to the otherwise similarly dark world.
From The New World
After a small portion of humanity suddenly developed psychokinetic powers, the world underwent a rapid transformation.
After 1,000 years of turbulent history where regular humans struggled against those with powers, we focus in on Kamisu 66, a small town where 12-year-old Saki Watanabe finally awakened her powers. This awakening means she is finally able to join her friends at the Sage Academy.
However, things in Saki’s life do not remain as simple as those precious days. With missing children in the village, rebellious rumblings, and a world steeped in myth and mystery, Saki and her friends are about to face the shocking truths of their peaceful society.
Both Psycho-Pass and From the New World take place far in the future of our world, but they are futures that look wildly different.
In Psycho-Pass, we progressed in technology while From the New World shows a significant decline in technology. However, what both anime series have in common is that they examine the morality behind what it takes to maintain a peaceful society.
It means oppressing and sacrificing others to keep the bulk safe and both anime series encourage you to think on if that is right or not.
For Fans of Cyberpunk
Ergo Proxy
After the explosion of the methane hydrate layer, humanity was forced into a select few domed cities where society is strictly controlled. To assist humanity, autonomous robots called AutoReivs were spread throughout the cities.
Enter Re-L Mayer, granddaughter of the regent, and charged with investigating a series of cases in which the AutoReivs have gone haywire.
In her investigation she comes in contact with a mysterious monster called Proxy. After meeting a man called Vincent Law that was blamed for several of the incidents, the pair strike out across the wasteland to unravel the mysteries of the Cogito Virus.
In both worlds, you have a cyberpunk setting where humanity is overly reliant on technology in their daily lives and use it to further push the boundaries.
However, amidst this, Ergo Proxy and Psycho-Pass are about two main characters that develop an increasing sense of self-awareness that alienates them from their otherwise oblivious peers.
Perhaps what Ergo Proxy and Psycho-Pass most has in common is what starts as a smaller murder mystery becomes a society-wide mystery that unravels.
Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex
In the not so distant future, mankind has advanced to a state where the transplant of the complete body from flesh to machine is possible. This has blurred the lines between physical and technological worlds.
Unfortunately, criminals can also make use of this technology, which led to the rise of Sector 9, a government agency that operates independently and deals with this new kind of cybercrime.
Section 9, led by Daisuke Aramaki and Motoko Kusanagi, deals with these crimes typically with success, until they find themselves faced with the rise of a new hacker who goes by the nickname The Laughing Man.
Both Psycho-Pass and Ghost in the Shell follow the cases of a specific section of police that use specialized individuals to deal with specialized criminals.
Along the way, you not only get clues towards a larger mystery, but the both anime series invite you to ponder the morality of the cases and the technology.
Texhnolyze
As an orphan that made his name as a street fighter, Ichise finds his way of life crushed when an angry promoter takes an arm and a leg.
Before he dies, he is rescued by a scientist that uses him as a test subject.
With new limbs at his disposal and a new mysterious girl that can tell the future at his side, he realizes the city is on the brink of destruction, and only he can save it.
The world is dark and full of cruelty – that’s the simplest way to put what Texhnolyze and Psycho-Pass in common.
You get a vaguely futuristic city that has the advance technology, but it has only served to make things more terrible.
However, both shows also come with some superb plot twists and engaging characters.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Scraping by a living in the rough technologically augmented society of Night City, David’s mother managed to send him to a prestigious school in hopes he could become a Corpo and climb the ladder of the business world.
However, after his mother dies suddenly in a car accident and due to lack of appropriate care, David embraces a cybernetic implant for power and that decision intersects him with a crew of Edgerunners, a group of mercenaries filled with cybernetic implants that do any job and every job to make a living.
Both Psycho-Pass and Cyberpunk Edgerunners are considered the pinnacle of cyberpunk-set anime.
That said, they explore cyberpunk in different ways. Cyberpunk Edgerunners explores what you need to give up to survive in a brutal and violent city awash with crime and controlled by mega-corporations. As such, the characters turn to augmentation, giving up pieces of their humanity for power.
Alternatively, Psycho-Pass examines a society where utopia was achieved by being able to examine a person’s mental state and be proactive with subduing them. However, the cost of this is a series of oppression and neuroticism in the populace.
Akudama Drive
The region of Kansai is overrun by powerful criminals known as Akudama.
One night, after picking up 500 yen dropped by an Akudama, an Ordinary Girl finds herself wrapped up in a huge plot to foil a public execution.
Now with a bomb collar around her neck, she and other Akudama must complete tasks given by a mysterious Black Cat.
If you liked the technological dystopian world that Psycho-Pass presented where crime was supposedly rare, Akudama Drive is actually quite similar despite taking place in a more neon cyberpunk world.
In Psycho-Pass, it follows detectives which makes crime seem more prevalent. In Akudama Drive, it follows a group of criminals, which makes crime seem more prevalent.
Akudama Drive is a little more wild and goes “big” with its destruction while Psycho-Pass keeps things more realistic.
As both series goes on, it explores the abundant flaws with their society which, in Akudama Drive, also includes their police force. Both shows are built upon a “lower crime by executing criminals” doctrine.
Vivy – Fluorite Eye’s Song
In a theme park ran by AI, there is a lonely stage where the first-ever autonomous humanoid sings in order to fulfill her mission of making everyone happy with her songs.
This AI, named Diva but given the nickname of Vivy by a young fan, has an encounter with an AI named Matsumoto who explains he traveled from 100 years in the future where AI have advanced so far that they rebelled and started exterminating humanity.
Together, he guides her to singularity points on a hundred-year journey in order to change the course of history.
Both series examine a society that has progressed great leaps in technology and shows what has become of humanity.
While Psycho-Pass is a detective anime and Vivy is a unique spin on a time traveling mystery, they both are some of the best sci-fi anime that meld mystery and technology. They use it to create engaging story arcs every few episodes that all build up to a grand revelation of the overall mystery.
However, Vivy isn’t a long running series so it approaches a more concrete resolution to Psycho-Pass’ “there will always be more crime” approach.
Do you have any more anime recommendations like Psycho-Pass? Head on down to the comments section below.
