Here are five of the best Dystopian anime:
5. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is set in a world that is beginning to experience an apocalypse related to deadly zombies. The story revolves around a 24-year-old office worker named Akira Tendo, who feels as if he is living the life of a zombie himself due to his financial and mental exhaustion. One day, Tendo wakes up to find that zombies have overrun his city.
Instead of feeling fear, Tendo feels as if he is truly alive for the first time in years. He then writes a “100 Things to Do Before I Turn into a Zombie” list.
Throughout the series, we see Akira balancing the need to complete his bucket list with the challenges and struggles of living in a world full of the undead, all while trying to do things he never could as a stressed-out office worker.
4. Danganronpa
A group of 15 elite high school students gathers at a prestigious academy called Kibougamine. Graduating from the academy means a bright future ahead, but graduating is anything but easy.
The academy is run by a bear named Monokuma, and the only way to graduate is to kill a classmate without getting caught. If discovered, the murderer will be executed. However, if the remaining students fail to identify the murderer, the murderer will graduate while all others will be executed.
As the story unfolds, viewers realize that the murders within the Kibougamine Academy are not the only issue; the world itself is in a state of terrible despair.
3. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners takes viewers to the year 2076, showcasing a troubling futuristic technological reality where humanity faces a dark age.
In this anime, the city of Night City is plagued by addiction. The residents, especially those from certain social classes, are addicted to technological implants. Some have the money to buy them, while others choose to steal them. This leads to gang violence across the city’s poorest and most dangerous districts. Worse still, massive corporations that build, sell, or install this technology exacerbate or engage in the violence caused by their products.
Edgerunners tells the story of David Martinez, a poor young man living a tumultuous life. After losing everything in a shooting, he chooses to survive on the other side of the law as a “runner”: a high-tech mercenary involved in the black market, also known as a “cyberpunk.”
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is often affectionately regarded as one of the best and saddest anime ever made. It is no surprise that it is referred to as such due to the struggles the main characters endure. After all, the conditions in the anime’s world create both powerful and painful conflicts.
In this classic 90s anime, only fifteen years have passed since a catastrophic event that nearly destroyed the world; The Second Impact. This event occurred after Adam, a powerful entity from a group of mythical beings known as Angels, awakened, causing a massive explosion in Antarctica. This explosion affected the Earth’s axis. Today, special children are tasked with piloting a series of machines called EVA, considered among the few capable of dealing with the threat posed by the Angels.
1. Attack On Titan
In Attack On Titan, humanity must live confined behind walls if they wish to survive. They inhabit a land where most people have never ventured far enough to see the ocean. The people there, known as the Eldians, believe that over a hundred years ago, humanity was pushed to the brink of extinction by the emergence of human-shaped giants known as Titans.
In their world, at any moment, these Titan giants can appear, breaking through the walls and turning human towns into ruins while claiming lives.
The story follows Eren Yeager, the protagonist, who vows to eliminate all Titans in the world after witnessing them destroy the walls, ravage his homeland, and devour his mother.
