Highlights
- Sci-fi anime often showcases technology gone wrong, from androids committing crimes to virtual reality blurring with actual reality.
- Shows like “Bubblegum Crisis,” “Steins;Gate,” and “Dennō Coil” explore the complex and dangerous consequences of technological advancements.
- Whether it’s androids running amok or brain hacking, these anime series demonstrate that not everything can go right in a tech-filled world.
Not everything can go right in a story. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story. From the simplest kids’ books to the longest epics, there’s something that eventually needs fixing. They just tend to get more complex and difficult, like when technology runs amok, and anime loves its technology.
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Anime has seen technology go awry almost since its inception. Whether fans got their start through Astro Boy, Robotech, Akira, or newer series, they’ve featured one hi-tech problem or another. Movies get a feature-length runtime to sort them out, but these series either feature an ongoing problem or multiple little issues where technology goes horribly wrong.
1 Bubblegum Crisis
Androids Run Amok And Require Advanced Police Intervention
- Produced by Artmic & AIC.
- Cyberpunk Sci-Fi Action.
- 8 Episodes across 1 Season.
- Available on Peacock, Roku, Viewster, Pluto, RetroCrush and Plex.
Thanks to Akira’s success, the late 1980s and early 1990s saw a swell of anime movies, TV shows, and OVAs hit the market. As obscure, violent, and/or plain nuts as they could be, many of them would become cult classics, like Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, and Bubblegum Crisis. The latter would even get spin-offs like AD Police Files, Bubblegum Crash, and its expanded reboot, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040.
The original OVA series took place in 2032, where Japan, now annexed by the US, suffers from a range of issues. Between rising poverty and wealth inequality, lifelike androids or “Boomers” are being used to commit a range of crimes, which their megacorporation manufacturers, Genom, have washed their hands of. It’s up to the Advanced (AD) Police to deal with Boomer-related crimes and the corruption at the heart of their system.
2 Steins;Gate
Strange Invention Threatens The Past, Present, And Future
Steins;Gate
- Release Date
- April 6, 2011
- Genres
- Thriller, Sci-Fi
- Seasons
- 1
- Number of Episodes
- 24
- Studio
- White Fox
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Hulu
If things went right for “mad scientist” Rintaro in Steins;Gate, he’d still be messing around with his friends in his “Future Gadget Laboratory.” His “PhoneWave” would be exactly what he planned it to be: a microwave that could be controlled remotely with a mobile phone. The banana he used to test it with would’ve been cooked at the general level instead of turned to gel at the molecular level.
It also would’ve sent ordinary emails instead of D-Mails: text messages that can be sent back into the past to change the present. These D-Mails did save the life of Kurisu, a neuroscience researcher. But it would result in the attention of the shadowy SERN organization, the death of his friend Mayuri, and a time-traveling tech arms race that leads into World War 3. As if risking ripping apart the fabric of time and space wasn’t risky enough…
3 Dennō Coil
Augmented Reality Blends In With Actual Reality
- Produced by Madhouse.
- Mystery Adventure Drama.
- 26 Episodes across 1 Season.
- Available on Netflix.
Dennō Coil appears rather innocent on the surface, as it’s about a bunch of kids running their own detective bureau to investigate urban legends. However, they’re not investigating any ordinary schoolyard scrape. In their world, nearly everyone and anyone uses Dennō Megane, special glasses that allow people to interact with the Dennō World, a realm of augmented reality where they can keep AR pets, use AR tools, and other features.
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They also control self-driving cars, virtual money, and wearable computers a la Fitbits. But they all come with issues. Their self-driving cars can run over people, hackers can mess with the Dennō space, and then there are the Nulls. They’re black, humanoid figures that can cause the Coil Phenomenon, where a person’s consciousness can separate from their body and get trapped in the AR realm. So, it’s not as cuddly as it appears to be.
4 Serial Experiments Lain
Technological Revolution Goes Out Of Control
- Produced by Triangle Staff.
- Supernatural Sci-Fi Drama.
- 13 Episodes across 1 Season.
- Available on Funimation.
Dennō Coil saw the line between reality and augmented reality get blurred, but it offered a way back for those who got lost in the Dennō space. Serial Experiments Lain’s journey into the virtual world ended up being a one-way journey that got Lain more than she bargained for. When she got an email from a dead classmate who claimed she “discarded” her physical self to find “God” on the Wired, Lain decided to investigate.
The Wired is an expanded form of the internet that essentially runs all communication services. Its next step was to enable unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interfaces. The result thinned the barrier between the Wired’s virtual reality and actual reality, and Lain could control both if she also uploaded her mind to it. Though whether this meant the shy, real-world Lain, cocky online Lain, or a different Lain, or if they were all the same Lain is another matter.
5 Psycho-Pass
Broken Method Of Evaluating Criminality
Psycho-Pass
- Release Date
- October 12, 2012
- Genres
- Action, Thriller, Sci-Fi
- Seasons
- 3
- Number of Episodes
- 41
- Studio
- Production I.G, Tatsunoko Production
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Hulu, Tubi
Made as a successor to Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass was Production I.G’s next stab at cyberpunk crime drama. Only instead of being about cyborgs, it focused on a futuristic Japan finding a new way to regulate crime. Its Sibyl System scans its citizens’ brains and provides an assessment called a Psycho-Pass. It rates their criminal activity (or potential to do so) via a Criminal Coefficient Index. If the number’s low, they’re fine. If it’s high, they’re in trouble.
Once the CCI exceeds the maximum limit of 100, the Public Security Bureau (PSB) can apprehend them, or even “decompose” them if pushed. Their “Dominator” Guns can only fire when the Sibyl System determines their target is worth the shot. So, how can an obvious criminal like Makishima keep his CCI low, while others get treated as “latent criminals” for minor acts? The Sibyl System isn’t as efficient as it seems.
6 Cowboy Bebop
Junky Spaceships, Flawed Equipment, Oversights
Cowboy Bebop
- Release Date
- April 3, 1998
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Seasons
- 1
- Number of Episodes
- 26
- Studio
- Sunrise
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix, Tubi
The problem with futuristic series is that the little details can throw people off. Audiences can buy humanity colonizing the Solar System at the cost of Earth itself, but their old-school tech like CRT TVs and VHS tapes somehow breaks the suspension of disbelief. In the end, they often embrace their anachronisms wholeheartedly, like Red Dwarf (people went back to VHS because people are too stupid to look after DVDs) and Blade Runner 2049 (the USSR and Atari are still around) did.
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Although Cowboy Bebop’s tenure was short, these interesting side characters made lasting impressions.
Besides, both they and Cowboy Bebop still retain rather realistic views of their tech. Faye Valentine survived cryogenic preservation, but her memories didn’t. The Bebop ship itself is a hunk of junk barely kept serviceable by Spike and Jet’s digital woolongs. Space flights to Mars, Venus, and the like are as mundane as a ride to Oshkosh. Every fanciful sci-fi thing has some drawback that ironically makes them more believable than their more optimistic counterparts.
7 Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Cyber-Bureaucracy, Brain Hacking, And Self-Aware AIs
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Release Date
- October 1, 2002
- Genres
- Action, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Mecha
- Seasons
- 2
- Number of Episodes
- 52
- Studio
- Production I.G
- Available on Spectrum and Adult Swim.
Still, Cowboy Bebop’s view on VR in the episode “Brain Scratch” was more conventional, as a cult leader tries to trap other people’s consciousnesses on the web. What was masterful was how it ended in a way that made all parties rather sympathetic. Not everyone turns out quite so angelic in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. They take place in a world where people don’t have to be dragged into VR to get their brains hacked.
They can either be tapped into directly via their cybernetic implants, or they can find their minds uploaded into other cyborg or robot bodies. Artificial minds that develop self-awareness, like the Tachikomas, risk getting scrapped to prevent security risks. That’s without getting into Major Kusanagi’s issues as a cyborg cop whose body is essentially owned by her bosses. With Ghost in the Shell, it may be easier to list the tech that goes right.
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