Mokoto Kusanagi works with section 9, a government organization that has free reign–for the most part–to investigate crimes, handle hostage situations, and more. As the leader, Motoko has the most freedom in this futuristic society which is overflowing with technology and that includes being able to transfer your consciousness, or ghost, from one cybernetic body to another. When a strange incident takes them further and further down the rabbit hole, a name appears: The Puppetmaster. As they investigate this hacker, Motoko and her team learn that they had no idea what they were up against. In fact, is The Puppetmaster even human?

Ghost in the Shell and Mardock Scramble go hand in hand, especially with both being on an extremely grey side of the law. Motoko freely moves her ghost around into different cyberized bodies and Rune is put into one in order to not only keep her alive, but get her testimony as well. Both movies boast an incredibly futuristic society teeming with every sort of sin imaginable while also showing the more gritty sides of life through the characters. Both also eventually question what it means to be human, but whether or not the viewer is moved is up to them. Finally, both movies also feature a powerful, hard to catch villain. If you love sci-fi, then this is a movie that you need to be watching asap.

Rin is immortal. No really, she ate time fruit from the tree Yggdrasil and now she cannot die. In fact, she has been killed. Multiple times. However, because of the curse, or blessing depending on how you look at it, she cannot die and always comes back to life. She works at a detective agency that investigates dangerous cases. When she notices that fellow Mnemosyne like her are somehow being killed, it piques her interest. A fateful encounter with someone named Koki Maeno is going to not only change her fate, but push her towards her own judgement day.

If you liked Murdock Scramble for the action and violence, then you will love Mnemosyne. The gritty reality crashing down all around Rune and Rin will definitely keep your attention while drawing a very dark curtain over the story. The world has advanced, but that does not only mean in good ways in both worlds. Both Rune and Rin suffer from immortality as well. Do not be worried about these movies being the same though! Rin is a headstrong individual who has lived for decades while Rune needs time to figure out who she is and is very timid for a while.

Touko Aozaki is the head of a detective agency. When a string of back to back suicides occurs, they dispatch Mikiya Kokutou and Shiki Ryougi to investigate. While the public view these murders as unconnected, the detective agency can discern that all girls have jumped from the same building meaning that it is not a coincidence. Mikiya is cool and calm while Shiki has an ability that allows her to not only see many things, but also she can bring the end about for many things. Their digging only reveals something that is much darker than they were expecting.

Right off the bat, you do swap sci-fi for supernatural when going from Mardock Scramble to Kara no Kyoukai, however, you do not lose a gritty, dark reality that is staring our main characters down. Oddly, the villains between the two movies act and think similarly and both female leads have many issues. If you are a fate fan, then you need to see this one!

Humanity has advanced enough that corpses can be brought back to life. One never needs to be sad again over the loss of a loved one! Or so humanity thought. There is one problem… These corpses cannot and do not possess a soul. Thus, they have to be programmed by humanity. Ideally, they make a great labor force. A rumor floats in the shadows that a Doctor Victor Frankenstein was able to bring back a corpse with a soul. John Watson now aims to do the same thing but with his recently deceased partner, Friday. John works for the government doing research for them and pouring over the now disappeared Doctor Frankenstein’s notes. He has to make a choice to pay the price to continue his research or give up trying to put a soul back into Friday.

Just in case you like puns, Shisha no Teikoku is all about western literature references while Mardock Scramble is about egg ones. The character names are all connected and it is quite obvious at points who some are supposed to be. Violence abounds in these cities where greed ultimately will bring about your destruction. Again, with both movies, you have that fine line of what being human means as a theme and whether or not it is really worth looking into something like bringing someone back from the dead. Mardock Scramble is a bit more advanced than the world of Shisha no Teikoku, but nonetheless, both are excellent watches.

The Sibyl System is working so well now, that Japan has started letting other countries as well explore using it and thus, they lend it out to a country that is suffering greatly from all sorts of crimes. Nothing goes that easily though as a group of terrorists arrive in Japan. Wanting to make sure that they are stopped, Akane Tsunemori is dispatched, but she then finds out that there is credible belief that Shinya Kougami is helping them. Nothing is going to be easy for Akane ever.

If you are a fan of the gritty, dark story that is in Mardock Scramble, then the Psycho-Pass movie will be right up your alley. Both movies sport the question of what is justice and is it an absolute while also showing that revenge is a dirty game. Naturally, too, both movies sport a great amount of futuristic sci-fi settings.

This is a bit of a different version of Appleseed where Briareos is a cyborg and he is still with Deunan. In Alpha, the two are working to search for the city of Olympus. Hired by an organization, they need to wipe out machines that run rampant in this ruined, desolate city. They ultimately need to stop a cyborg from activating a death machine, but when one of their new allies is the key to starting it up, Duenan and Briareos have their work cut out for them.

The final entry on this list takes us to a different world. Now we are in the world of two soldiers on a mission and one is a full cyborg. While he doesn’t look like Rune, the two are more or less the same, a human consciousness transported into a mechanical body. The violent fights that break out almost always lead to death, but while Briareos and Deunan do it for the money, Rune does it for the revenge and satisfaction. Both also do not brood too much on the story at hard; rather, they let the action do the storytelling and both feature a strong female lead!