For those of us unfamiliar with Cowboy Bebop, it follows the adventures of four “cowboys,” also known as bounty hunters. These four basically wander throughout the universe and consistently find themselves on either completely pointless missions or the most philosophical imaginable. Either way, they generally never get paid. Despite its rather free-roaming premise, each character receives a proper arc with Spike Spiegel’s story being the most central. Their stories take on some pretty heavy themes that can easily wander away from us in the vast emptiness that is the universe.

The most striking similarity between the two shows is the feeling of nonchalance that is displayed most heavily through the main characters. Jean Otus and Spike Spiegel are in many ways one and the same. They are both quite distant and tend to put on a lazy façade. However, they are both extremely intelligent characters who can make very difficult tasks look like accidents. They also happen to be caught up in some rather dangerous underground schemes.

There is a pretty big difference though between the shows: the environment. Cowboy Bebop heavily depends on the vastness of its environment to question the significance of our lives. ACCA on the other hand, depends on the environment to show just how interactive and connected everything is.

House of Five Leaves follows the relationship between the ronin Akitsu Masanosuke and his new master, Yaichi, the leader of a gang called "Five Leaves." The story develops as we watch Akitsu become accustomed to the habits, personality, and activities of Yaichi as well as the rest of the gang of Five Leaves. Through Akitsu’s eyes we learn about the underground system that Yaichi has set up as well as Yaichi’s personal story.

House of Five Leaves and ACCA share an uncanny quietness about them. Though it’s a bit early to say that ACCA will fall to a certain niche group that only a few people really care about; its pacing and plot advancement are pushing into the realm of disregarded goodies. This is the realm that House of Five Leaves occupies, because of a rather unassuming plot that blossoms at a very leisurely pace. It would be unfair to say that the show is slow as much as it’s extremely prudent with the information that it reveals. To be honest this leads to great rising action in the later of the season. ACCA promises to develop in such a way.

Nonetheless, the feeling of “slowness” comes from the fact that both shows try to depict entire structures that have been set up as well as the inherent flaws and positives of said structures. This takes time and the shows both decide to reveal without any information dumps. Oh and they also have animation that is slightly different from the normal sharp figures and can easily turn people away since nothing intense is happening.

Angelo Lagusa left his name, home, and wealth after murder of his parents and younger brother. Of course, this was the only course of action he could take if he 1) wanted to survive and 2) wanted to achieve his revenge. Seven years later, he finally has his chance to obtain a sliver of revenge. It won’t be easy though. He must infiltrate and rise up the ladder of a powerful mafia family.

91 Days and and ACCA both share a world that depends on the intrigue of an organization. In 91 Days the focus is the mafia while ACCA focuses on the government. In these systems there are a lot of characters and you really can’t trust anyone. This common territory between the shows creates a lot of mystery and forces the viewer to take note of each character and ponder where their loyalty lies.There is a pretty massive difference between these two anime though. 91 Days has a bloody rampage almost each episode and is quite a bit more graphic. It’s hard to say if ACCA’s animation style will showcase even the slightest bit of blood.

You have died. Now it’s time for a game to decide if you will be reborn or turned into nothing. It must be fun to decide your fate with bloody game of darts with your spouse, right? Well, these are the type of experiences that Death Parade shows as we enter Quindecim, where Decim is our judge.

Death Parade and ACCA both depend heavily on mystery to drive the series forward. On an episodic basis, Death Parade and ACCA present threads of information that the viewer can string together in various ways. It is this skilled storytelling that bit by bit increases the excitement of the plot and grabs the viewer’s attention. However, each episode of Death Parade can be it’s own story, while ACCA’s threads of information are continuous throughout the whole season. Oh, and another small similarity between the two is the fact that Decim and Jean can be quite difficult to read.

Psycho-Pass throws the viewer into a practical utopia where everything is essentially decided for you and happiness is at an all-time high. The idea of this utopia shatters rather quickly the new police recruit, Akame, whose first job includes the death of a rapist, the near-death of a victim, and her shooting a subordinate. Lucky for her, her hue rarely goes bad and it seems like this new line of work might be what she’s always been searching for.

Both of these anime depend on a flawed government structure that is perceived as perfect. In each, we are shown an agency that achieved national unity and peace through information maintenance that monitors all aspects of society. Psycho-Pass and ACCA also showcase rebellious factions towards the government as the main source of conflict. A nice touch that both shows put on this last point is that it can be difficult at times to tell whether or not the rebels are actually trying to help society rather than simply cause chaos.

Despite the general similarities, the execution is vastly different. ACCA has shown zero blood, even during a district rebellion, while Psycho-Pass can be gratuitous with its violence. Furthermore, the amount of physical and psychological monitoring that exists in Psycho-Pass far outweighs the district audits that occur in ACCA.

Makoto Naegi and his fellow survivors escaped Hope’s Peak Academy and set up the Future Foundation in order to prevent such a disaster from happening again. Well, Naegi gets the whole organization on his case for protecting some Remnants of Despair and they hold a trial. Who pops up and captures them all when they are gathered to hold the trial, you ask? Monokuma and thus begins another rounds of murderous games.

Similar to a couple of the other shows on this list, Danganronpa 3 puts the audience in a world where everybody is likely to stab you in the back. Perhaps to your surprise or perhaps not, it is this aspect that makes the show so much fun to watch. This set of characters forces us to explore complicated possibilities and chase down the little details to figure out what is the true motive. Though Danganronpa 3 is a bit bloodier than ACCA, it’s one of the few anime that does its best to alleviate the impact of its gore. In this regard, it’s somewhere between ACCA and shows like 91 Days and Psycho-Pass in regards to how graphic it can be.