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Robot Carnival (1987)
7.0/10on IMDb
Released
Pick this anthology to see how quickly the idea of a robot can change with the person drawing it. One segment follows a man who creates a mechanical companion, while others turn machines into the source of larger spectacles. It’s an easy choice when you want several animation styles without committing to a series.
More about Robot Carnival23
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Batou investigates a set of killings involving humanlike robots sold as companions. The case gives you room to think about what owners and manufacturers expect from a creature purchased for intimacy. It’s dense, somber science fiction, with the investigation as a way into those questions.
More about Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence24
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002)
8.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Choose this series for its Tachikomas, small thinking machines used by a public-security unit. The squad’s jobs put the robots in danger, but the time they spend asking questions makes them feel harder to replace than equipment. You get a workplace where the team has to act on the distinction.
More about Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex25
Appleseed (2004)
6.9/10on IMDb
Released
The 2004 film takes a soldier named Deunan into Olympus, where artificially created people called Bioroids help keep the city stable. Try it if you want an argument over what making a person for a particular social purpose does to a society. There’s a lot of action around the disagreement.
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Android Kikaider (2000)
7.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Jiro is an android built with a conscience circuit that makes obedience and doing the right thing very different problems. Try the 2000 animated series for a robot who has to learn what to do with an ability that his makers could never quite finish. It has the action of an older superhero show and a question that keeps coming back.
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Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007)
7.0/10on IMDb
Released
Olympus is home to humans, cyborgs, and engineered people, and a new partner patterned after Briareos's human self puts that mixture right in Deunan’s working life. Choose it for faster action than the smaller android dramas, with the questions about replaceability brought close through a partner who looks familiar.
More about Appleseed: Ex Machina28
NieR:Automata Ver1.1a (2023)
7.3/10on IMDb
First aired
The androids 2B and 9S meet machines organized around habits and ideas they weren’t told to expect. Start here if you want a story where supposedly obedient creations have to decide what counts as a reason to keep fighting. Discovering how the machines spend their time gives the ruined world part of its character.
More about NieR:Automata Ver1.1a29
Expelled from Paradise (2014)
6.7/10on IMDb
Released
Angela normally lives as data and takes a physical body to investigate someone contacting her world from Earth. The mission brings her into contact with a machine pursuing its own future. Choose it for a story where the person and the robot are both trying to explain what they want from life beyond their original jobs.
More about Expelled from Paradise30
Casshern Sins (2008)
7.0/10on IMDb
First aired
Casshern wanders into a world where formerly immortal robots are breaking down. Pick it if you want bleak science fiction about the ways machines handle knowing their lives can end. The people he meets provide a smaller-scale view of a setting that could easily have become only a war story.
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BLAME! (2017)
6.6/10on IMDb
Released
A village scrapes by in a vast city whose automated systems regard its inhabitants as intruders. A traveler named Killy arrives with a reason to find a person who can speak to the systems again. Pick this for a darker take on the way machines change everyday life when the people who authorized them are long gone.
More about BLAME!32
A.I.C.O. -Incarnation- (2018)
6.3/10on IMDb
First aired
A research disaster leaves a city cut off by a spreading artificial life form. Aiko learns there may be connections between her own body and the experiment. Choose it for a mystery about where to draw the line between building a body and bringing a new person into the world.
More about A.I.C.O. -Incarnation-33
Bubblegum Crisis (1987)
7.3/10on IMDb
First aired
In the original OVA, humanoid machines called Boomers matter to how Mega Tokyo runs, and the Knight Sabers get involved when those machines are used destructively. Try it for industrial and corporate robots rather than a detached invention story, with battles that have the feel of urban emergencies.
More about Bubblegum Crisis34
Armitage III (1995)
6.9/10on IMDb
First aired
A detective arrives on Mars and joins Armitage in a case involving sophisticated androids who can pass for people. Choose it for a cyberpunk mystery where identity affects whether a victim is regarded as a person. The four-part OVA is the version to try when you want more of the case than the reedited feature offers.
More about Armitage III35
Solty Rei (2005)
7.2/10on IMDb
First aired
Roy, a bounty hunter looking for his missing daughter, crosses paths with Solty, whose abilities raise questions about where she came from. Pick it for a story about a machine finding a place in a family amid the jobs and hierarchies of a fantasy city. It takes a while to give answers about her origin.
More about Solty Rei36
Beatless (2018)
5.7/10on IMDb
First aired
Arato takes responsibility for Lacia, one of several highly advanced artificial people whose goals aren’t easy to read. The show gives home life and companies their own reasons to accept lifelike machines. Try it when you want uncertainty about whether a person is being helped or merely persuaded.
More about Beatless37
Key the Metal Idol (1994)
6.9/10on IMDb
First aired
Key is an artificial girl who believes that gaining a large number of friends can make her human. The series sends her toward the world of pop idols, where encouragement and attention aren’t quite the same kind of thing. Try it for an older, increasingly uneasy story about what audiences think they’re seeing.
More about Key the Metal Idol38
Patlabor: The TV Series (1989)
7.6/10on IMDb
First aired
Construction and police units use piloted robots called Labors, which makes the machines part of the city’s jobs instead of a secret project. Try the TV series for the day-to-day life of a police unit assigned to deal with them. It has room for downtime and work problems between the incidents.
More about Patlabor: The TV Series39
Patlabor: The Movie (1989)
7.0/10on IMDb
Released
Tokyo’s construction robots make the movie’s mystery a problem for public safety and for the people who operate them. A string of malfunctions gives the police a whole engineering system to understand. Try this film for a story about what happens when an entire city depends on the same machines.
More about Patlabor: The Movie40
The Big O (1999)
7.5/10on IMDb
First aired
Roger Smith negotiates on behalf of clients in a city cut off from its memories. Dorothy, a sharp-tongued android, becomes part of his household and his work, and Big O is the enormous machine he pilots. Choose it for a noir version of both kinds of robot story in the same place.
More about The Big O41
Robotics;Notes (2012)
6.8/10on IMDb
First aired
A high school robotics club tries to finish its giant machine while secrets in the technology around it start to matter. Try it if you want a robot to be something ordinary people build together in stages, with the smaller choices of the club getting room next to the larger mystery.
More about Robotics;Notes42
Medabots (1999)
6.8/10on IMDb
First aired
Ikki’s robot Metabee argues back and has a mind of his own, which changes a simple battle game into a running problem of teamwork. Try it for a kids’ world where robots are already part of play and finding the right partner has consequences from one competition to the next.
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