This year is proving excellent for anime fans of all tastes, with the likes of Chainsaw Man and Mob Psycho 100 among the heavy hitters still poised to close out the year. There's an anime series for fans of just about every subgenre, and crime dramas have collectively made for some of the strongest serialized stories.
That's also partly thanks to other subgenres like sci-fi and upbeat heists that can complement the series' premises. From gritty crime-noir like Monster and 91 Days to the sci-fi dystopia of the recent Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, crime anime impressively and consistently flexes its depth.
Great Pretender (2020)
Stream On Netflix
Animated by fan-favorite studio Wit (of Attack on Titan seasons 1-3 and Vinland Saga season 1 fame), the Netflix-exclusive Great Pretender is something of an underrated crime heist anime. It's also an anime-original story, revolving around a Japanese con man named Makoto Edamura who inadvertently finds himself recruited into an international, elite heist group.
Blending colorfully vibrant visuals, stylish character designs, and comedy, Great Pretender tells a thrilling series of swashbuckling Oceans-style story arcs separated into heist cases. The series might seem carefree at first glance, but Great Pretender gets impressively intimate by having each arc explore individual team members' backstories with nuance.
Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002-2005)
Stream On Adult Swim
The original 1995 cult-classic Ghost in the Shell movie was an acclaimed anime that compelled global audiences to pay attention to what the anime genre can be capable of, and it paved the way for several spinoffs and sequels. Mileage may vary (as the live-action movie and recent CG Netflix anime both floundered), but Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is perhaps the best to come from the franchise outside its progenitor.
It stands as one of the finest examples of cyberpunk-themed anime while combining elements of serialized crime drama and neo-noir subgenres. Stand Alone Complex follows Major and the rest of her team in Section 9 through a series of episodic cases while being underscored by the grander mystery of "The Laughing Man" hacker.
Monster (2004-2005)
Buy DVD On Amazon
On a more grounded and darker note, Madhouse's adaptation of writer Naoki Urasawa's Monster is just as riveting as the seinen manga source material. The series has an intoxicatingly brooding atmosphere and superb storytelling approach that's similar in quality to what audiences might see in HBO's True Detective, telling an engrossing crime drama with a cerebral psychological-thriller flavor.
Monster revolves around a Japanese former doctor working in Germany named Kenzo Tenma, as he sees his professional and social life fall apart after refusing to operate on a high-ranking politician in favor of tending to a critically injured young boy. Things take a philosophically and psychologically harrowing turn when that boy returns as an elusive full-grown serial killer. Monster has an enthralling air of grit to it that will satisfy any fan of crime noir.
Cowboy Bebop (1998-1999)
Stream On Netflix
Cowboy Bebop is a milestone TV series for the anime genre, regardless of subgenre niches. It's a masterclass of an anime series on any available platform, creatively blending sci-fi, crime noir, and western genre elements to make for an addictive serialized story. The show is also famous for its impeccable and unique sense of style, using acid jazz to influence its score, atmosphere, and even character designs.
Bebop centers around the unlikely crew of intergalactic bounty hunters Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and the dog Ein as they stumble to get by in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity colonized space after greedily rendering Earth almost inhospitable. Its stories are mostly episodic, but they're still punctuated by an enticing overarching storyline that explores engaging existential themes.
Baccano! (2007)
Buy Blu-ray On Amazon
Originally adapted from a series of light novels, animation studio Brain's Base's anime for Baccano! is one of the more inventive crime series in the genre. It incorporates some elements of film noir that audiences would find in classic theatrical movies in terms of plot structure.
Baccano! takes place in 1930s America and tells the interweaving stories of a wide cast of characters scattered in various places and times, whose paths are indirectly connected. On top of escalating gang wars in the city streets on end, the series also adds a supernatural twist to its setting with the tale of alchemists toying with immortality.
Death Note (2006-2007)
Stream On Netflix
One of the most beginner-friendly anime series of the 2000s is also one of the most influential to date, as Death Note is a dark amalgamation of everything that makes a crime show gripping. Light Yagami, a genius of his class, has grown cynical over the callousness found within humanity and resolves to become the world's new god "Kira" after stumbling upon the shinigami Ryuk's titular Death Note.
Following a string of terrifyingly sudden deaths, the eccentric detective L is brought onto the case to help uncover Kira's identity. Death Note is an expert combination of dark eastern fantasy with a modern-day setting, as well as a genuinely compelling psychological and detective thriller. The series is solid throughout, but seeing Light and L square off in a meticulous battle of wits is among the most engrossing, tense story arcs in an anime.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
Stream On Netflix
The most recent anime sensation, Netflix's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime -- spinning off of developer CD Projekt Red's game -- has taken the community by storm. It's been emphatically acclaimed on all fronts as an anime and video game adaptation, from the visual feast for the eyes to the equal parts relentlessly violent and genuinely emotional story.
Edgerunners follows the standalone story of David Martinez, a young man who drops out of school to become a titular mercenary in a sci-fi corporate dystopia that makes organized crime a feature of the status quo, rather than a bug. Even fans of Studio Trigger's previous series should still come away floored by the production value, color palette, art direction, and animation in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on top of the diverse cast of characters.
91 Days (2016)
Stream On HBO Max
While somewhat under the radar compared to other anime of its subgenre, 91 Days is an excellent showcase for how well crime dramas can be executed in anime. 91 Days is a pure gangster drama wrapped in a layer of crime noir, set in 1930s America during Prohibition when the Italian mob ruled towns through their black market liquor trade.
Young Angelo Lagusa sees his family murdered during a mafia dispute, and he spends his adolescence biding his time to carry out a bloody vendetta. Animated by studio Shuka, 91 Days is a stylish and gloomy period piece that'll satisfy fans of grounded gangster stories.
Black Lagoon (2006)
Stream On Crunchyroll
It's perhaps one of the most bombastic crime anime in terms of action, but Black Lagoon is no less exciting as a story for it. The series opens with a young Japanese corporate employee who ends up as a pawn in what turns out to be his bosses' weapons deal in Thailand.
Shockingly, he decides to join the mercenaries on the other side who kidnapped him rather than crawl back to his greedy employers. Black Lagoon's violence is certainly high-octane, and its story tackles bleak, outright nihilistic themes of the scope of organized crime and world governments' roles in society -- and how they're often one and the same -- but it manages to do so in a tantalizing way.
Psycho-Pass (2012-Present)
Stream On Crunchyroll, & Amazon Prime Video
Sci-fi and crime thrillers seem to often go hand-in-hand in the anime sphere, with Psycho-Pass being an example of a great original series. The series takes place in a dark, Minority Report-like future where the Japanese government forcibly outfits citizens with technology to monitor their propensity for criminal activity.
The Enforcers tasked with carrying out the government's orders and have grown cynical in their years doing so until a new Inspector with lofty ambitions for justice joins the ranks. Psycho-Pass has been praised for its inspired use of tech noir and influences from the likes of Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner to stand on its own merits in exploring themes of free will in an aggressively digital age.