In a near-future society, humanity has integrated with intelligent technology so deeply that robots are sometimes indiscernible from people and humans can upgrade themselves into more durable humanoid forms.
Running a small clinic, Dr. Hikaru Sudo, using the alias Moggadeet, performs illegal medical procedures and provides care to those who suffer ailments from illegal procedures. As he handles his various cases, he also pursues his own investigation into those responsible for copying his humanoid mother’s mind and distributing it for illegal activities in the criminal underworld.
While the episodic sci-fi stories are actually pretty great, I wish the series never even acknowledge a higher plot beyond them since it never really explores it. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like The Gene of AI, head on down below.
Anime Like The Gene of AI
For Fans of Intelligent Technology / Humanoids
Plastic Memories
Tsukasa Mizugaki has failed his college entrance exams, but he manages to land a job at the Sion Artificial Intelligence Corporation.
This corporation is responsible for the creation of Giftias, or highly advanced androids which are almost indiscernible from normal humans. However, unlike humans, Giftias have a maximum lifespan of around nine years and four months.
Terminal Service One, the station Tsukasa was assigned to, is responsible for collecting Giftias that have met their expiration date, before they lose their memories and become hostile.
There is an episode in The Gene of AI about a woman having a robot boyfriend that looks and acts human as a comfort companion, but whom she knows isn’t a real human – Plastic Memories is that.
While The Gene of AI is episodic and follows a doctor, Plastic Memories is a linear plot that follows an agency charged with removing these human-like robots before they reach their end-of-life where they can turn violent.
While Plastic Memories embraces the same emotional pain of the interesting concepts within The Gene of AI, the actual plot of Plastic Memories is a romance.
Vivy – The 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 much 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 The Gene of AI and Vivy tell episodic sci-fi plots with a large focus on intelligent technology and their relationship with humanity. However, because Vivy does have a core plot that brings all those short stories together that it actually focuses on, it provides an objectively stronger experience.
While The Gene of AI focuses on an under-the-table doctor who is is supposedly looking for illegal copies of his mother, Vivy is about an artificial intelligence that uses her long lifespan to intervene in points of singularity across a 100-year span to prevent AI from rebelling and killing humanity.
Both Vivy and The Gene of AI do focus more on the emotional and philosophical aspects of technology, but Vivy does have slightly more action as well as much more visual flair.
Time of Eve
In future Japan, androids exist to serve humanity and must obey the Three Laws of Robotics. Humans are encouraged to treat androids much like they would any appliance.
Rikuo Sakisaki was raised to accept this attitude, but one day when he finds an odd message in his housekeeper’s activity logs, it leads him to Eve no Jikan.
This is a cafe for humans and androids and only has one rule – patrons must treat humans and androids as equals.
The Gene of AI is episodic and covers a lot of small tales about intelligent technology and their relationship with humanity. Consider the story of Time of Eve as one of those stories. Essentially, it very much could be, it just doesn’t have the doctor involved.
Both series are interesting, emotional, and thought-provoking sci-fi tales about android and/or humanoids.
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 The Gene of AI and Ghost in The Shell tell stories in a future where the majority of humanity have augmented their minds and bodies with technology. They also happen to tell episodic stories with an overarching plot for the main character.
However, while they are similar sci-fi stories, they differ in both their set up and overall tone. The Gene of AI tells more emotionally-driven stories, but the future setting overall is a pretty normal one, choosing to go “near future” rather than the “far future” experience of Ghost in the Shell. Ghost in the Shell plays out more like a gritty sci-fi cop drama where an officer investigates events that all tie into some larger intrigue. Its view of future society is also particularly bleak.
For Fans of Near-Future Augmentation
Psycho-Pass
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.
Both The Gene of AI and Psycho-Pass focus on a future society where technology has become deeply ingrained in, not just society, but in our bodies to the point where it can effect autonomy. While The Gene of AI focuses on the emotional aspect of that, Psycho-Pass focuses more on the criminal side of that technology.
Unlike The Gene of AI, Psycho-Pass is more based around how technology has taken away basic free will in society by being a cop drama about the technology to arrest criminals before they even commit a crime. Both series present interesting concepts, but Psycho-Pass tells a darker and also more focused story.
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.
The Gene of AI and Id – Invaded have a strong focus on being able to analyze and enter the minds of others through technology. However, Id – Invaded is more of a cop drama where the police can enter the mind of a killer to try to catch them.
Although Id – Invaded is a cop drama with a more linear plot, it also shares a mysterious, not so above-board main character whose mystery is slowly unraveled in the show. It does, however, introduce and explore some interesting sci-fi concepts like The Gene of AI.
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.
What The Gene of AI shows with humanoids, Cyberpunk Edgerunners takes to a bigger extreme. It isn’t just people with human minds stored in robotic bodies, people can and do make all sorts of wild augmentations in Cyberpunk Edgerunners, but also risk losing their own humanity to do so.
Since Cyberpunk Edgerunners takes the similar concept to the extreme, it is also a darker, more violent story. It features a lot more action and takes place in a pretty gritty and dystopian future. That said, it does focus on the similar concept of “humanity” when not actually human, something that The Gene of AI often ponders on.
For Fans of Under The Table, Problem-Solving Doctors
Black Jack
The genius and “unregistered” doctor known as Black Jack has a past shrouded in mystery.
Together with his assistant Pinoko, he takes on cases that are too dangerous, feature obscure medical ailments, or handle ailments that no doctor has ever seen before.
Thanks to his skills, he can save any patient’s life – as long as they have the money for it.
Both The Gene of AI and Black Jack feature main characters that are mysterious doctors that work under-the-table on any patient that needs help. They also happen to work with assistants that have a romantic interest in the doctor.
Both series present episodic tales about the doctor helping people with a variety of issues. Of course, the big difference is that The Gene of AI is a sci-fi tale and Black Jack is focused on actual medical care regardless of a person’s status. Of course, there is more than a bit of sci-fi at play in Black Jack at times as well.
While Black Jack looks a little more silly and youthful, as is common with many of Osamu Tezuka works because of his art style, it actually tells often dark and brutal tales.
Dr. Ramune – Mysterious Diseases Specialist
If something takes root deep enough in someone’s heart, it can attract spirits that will cause mysterious diseases that modern medicine cannot cure.
For those that have these unique ailments, like crying condiments from your eyes, there is Dr. Ramune who helps his patients explore the root cause of the issue in order to rid them of the disease.
What Sudo is to humanoids and robots, Ramune is to people who have supernatural ailments.
Both series have a similar episodic format. A person has a problem, that problem is shown in more depth as the doctor investigates them, and then they prescribe a treatment. Both series delve deep into the emotional aspect of these problems, and often addressing the emotions is the solution.
Of course, the obvious difference is that The Gene of AI is sci-fi and Dr. Ramune is supernatural. Additionally, Dr. Ramune is more of an eccentric character while Sudo is grounded and mysterious.
Mushishi
In this world, there exist Mushi, spirits that often exist with no purpose. However, these Mushi can affect the physical world in countless forms from diseases to more pleasant phenomenon.
Why do these Mushi exist?
That is the question that Ginko the Mushi-shi, a researcher on the phenomenon, asks himself as he travels the land investigating Mushi-related incidents.
Both The Gene of AI and Mushishi present widely episodic experiences about a doctor or researcher solving the problems of various people.
However, while Sudo stays in one place and his patients come to him, Ginko travels and addresses issues caused by mushi as he studies those entities.
Although Mushishi differs from The Gene of AI by being a more supernatural and melancholic series, it does do well to tell a wide range of stories, many of them emotional and ponderous like The Gene of AI.
Do you have more anime recommendations like The Gene of AI? Let fans know in the comments section below.
