The Star Wars franchise may provide fans with a rich setting full of exciting worlds and battles, but anime is no slouch in the Space Opera genre, either. In fact, many fans have come to love the exotic ships and characters brought to life with pen and paper. For those wanting something new, anime has no end of unique worlds and battles between good and evil.
Whether one wants expansive empires battling it out with endless fleets or single adventurers exploring new worlds, there are as many stories that have come out of Japan as modern classics as there are tales set in the Star Wars universe.
For those wanting a little variety to their science fiction, these shows can provide all the wonder and sweeping grandeur worthy of the Western franchise.
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10 Best Science Fiction Anime of 2023
From continuations and reboots of iconic franchises to surprising new original titles, 2023 has been a surprisingly great year for sci-fi anime.
10
Astra Lost in Space
A short and sweet adventure combines exploration and a conspiracy thriller
Best described as a fantastic version of a Young Adult “wilderness survival” novel ala Hatchet, Astra follows a group of teenagers who, instead of taking part in a futuristic summer camp, find themselves inexplicably teleported into deep space, forcing the group to work together to pilot a spaceship back home and find out the cause of the incident. Along the way, the children have to navigate a variety of planets with unique ecosystems and dangers all of their own.
The 12-episode adaptation by Lerche that originally ran in 2019 makes for a concise and expertly plotted adventure. While it does not have Star Wars classic imagery of battles between good and evil, Astra does perfectly capture the wonder of seeing new worlds, while saving a hefty subplot for a devious conspiracy brewing on several colonized planets. In a sense, it feels a little like the universe of Star Wars where there no Empire and Rebellion locking horns.
9
Mobile Suit Gundam
The Classic Universal Century timeline gave Japan its own Star Wars
The original 1979 anime spawned a nearly exhaustive series of sequels, spin-offs, and reboots set within the fictional “Universal Century” timeline that is the franchise’s most famous and most comparable to the Star Wars stories. While fans like pointing out Gundam‘s effective anti-war message, it nonetheless also has a pitch-perfect tale of scrappy underdogs facing insurmountable odds, with the battleship White Base forced to engage in guerilla warfare against the Principality of Zeon.
The Star Wars similarities don’t end there, with Char Aznable giving Japan their own Darth Vader, who has as much pop culture resonance in Japan as the beloved Sith lord. Successive sequels also built up the importance of the psychic “Newtypes”, who can be seen as an answer to the Jedi and Sith. With the original series edited into a popular movie trilogy that is currently hosted on Netflix, Star Wars fans should feel right at home in this sprawling war epic.
8
Super Dimension Force Macross
Optimistic war story shows that love can conquer all
Macross can be considered Gundam‘s lighthearted companion. While both share epic space battles, Studio Nue’s vision is much more fantastic and emotive: while Gundam posits that our tiny solar system is tied up with human conflicts, Macross imagines a galaxy where humanity is beset by a tyrannical alien empire, and defeats it with firepower, pop music, and love. The result is a highly bombastic series that manages to find its own identity amid all the space war stories focused on gritty politics.
The best thing about the sprawling franchise is how every entry fulfills a different genre, even when repeating the motifs of music and love triangles. Fans who want a more serious military tale have Macross Plus, while those who want total camp and fantasy have Macross 7. Even better, the majority of the series has been released on Disney+, making swapping between Star Wars and Macross as easy as using a remote.
7
Space Dandy
A comedy series resurrects ray gun sci-fi for laughs
While Shinichiro Watanabe is famous for directing the celebrated space noir Cowboy Bebop, 2013 saw him return to anime with Space Dandy, its exact opposite. Though both series focus on a team of down-on-their-luck bounty hunters, Space Dandy plays everything for laughs, with the eponymous Dandy being a near parody of 1950s space heroes. While he does go in search of new planets and exotic lifeforms, it’s all just to get a quick payday, so he can spend all his time visiting his favorite restaurant full of scantily-clad waitresses.
BONES’ original anime is a far cry from most space operas thanks to its irreverence. Even death is played for laughs, with every character coming back for another shot in the next episode. But where the anime trades in realism, it replaces it with sheer exuberance, with every character hard to forget, and the animation acquiring incredible fluidity at times. It’s almost a shame how underrated the anime has become, which makes it perfect to watch and remember not to take the final frontier so seriously.
6
Crusher Joe
Classic anime provides bite-sized adventures
While the missions of the Crusher Council are ostensibly in the same universe as the more popular Dirty Pair, Crusher Joe has the Star Wars feel down pat, with its band of heroic archetypes – traditional hero Joe, alongside a heroine, a brute, a sarcastic youth, and a robot buddy that flies their ship. The fantastical elements are toned down, however, opting for some political thriller elements that lead to Joe’s team tangling with various conspiracies and engaging in some graphic gunfights that were standard for the 1970s.
The anime exists as a movie and two OVAs, and while this is paltry compared to other long-running franchises, such brevity can also be considered an advantage. The Crushers visit one icey prison, and one jungle world teeming with killer robots, and provide a focused and concise adventure that casual anime fans can get through within a day. For those who still want their taste of outer space without binging themselves sick, Crusher Joe is perfect for the job.
5
Captain Harlock
This interconnected franchise is still Japan’s standard for space pirates
While the Harlock franchise has multiple continuities, they all invariably center on the man himself, who’s the romanticized ideal of piracy – a man who captains a ship beholden to no government and fights against corrupt governments, human or alien. His skull-faced ship, Arcadia, is unmistakable in anime circles, as is the man himself, and the mixture of historical and sci-fi aesthetics helped provide a lasting image of sci-fi pirates for decades.
While Harlock has had adaptations since the original 1978, all of them follow different continuities, allowing fans to pick and choose whether the iconic captain is fighting the alien Mazone, leading a resistance against the Illumidas, or simply sailing the stars in search of a mythical utopia. Either way, for fans who want epic dramas and a focus on grandeur, Leiji Matsumoto’s universe is available to all.
4
Space Adventure Cobra
The Buddy series provides an even campier vision of outer space
Cobra could be considered Japan’s equivalent of Han Solo, albeit one with a robot woman rather than a wookie. Nonetheless, the anime could be considered the perfect blend of mystical Force users and rogueish bounty hunters, as the cigar-chomping ladykiller’s left arm is actually a “Psychogun”, a one-of-a-kind laser weapon that equals a lightsaber in terms of in-universe mystique. Also, unlike Star Wars, Cobra‘s has a James Bond-esque camp to it, with the hero running into beautiful women every other episode.
Cobra has had many iterations over the years, including a feature film, an OVA, and a TV series that is currently hosted for free on YouTube. The series has an undeniable goofy charm that makes it a pleasure to watch. For Star Wars fans wanting a grungier, sillier vision of outer space, with crystalline cyborgs, gladitorial football matches, and exotic beauties in every space station, Cobra is the last word in old-fashioned pulp sci-fi fantasy.
3
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Long-running anime takes a historical approach to war
Galactic Heroes’ popular 1988 adaptation runs over 100 episodes, making it a daunting task. Fans willing to brave the series, which is currently hosted on HiDive, will find themselves in a deeply complex exploration of politics, state making, and strategic warfare. While it follows a familiar set up of “empire” vs “republic”, Galactic Heroes’ twist is adding depth to the Galactic Empire, showing Reinhard’s slow rise to benevolent dictator while the democratic planets fray.
History buffs should appreciate the even-handed narration and omniscient point of view that captures the life and times of every major and minor character. For those who feel that Star Wars could have spent time exploring the politics and logistical difficulties of running an interstellar empire, Galactic Heroes replaces the traditional tale of good vs evil with the rise and fall of people and nations.
2
Space Battleship Yamato
A popular Japanese franchise still going strong with modern-day reboots
Yamato sits in an interesting spot thanks to both its “2199” and “3199” reboots, which do an able job of transferring the venerable 1974 anime to modern sensibilities and tastes. Even without it, the titular Yamato is another famous sci-fi battleship that introduced Japan to the awe-inspiring Wave Motion Gun. While Earth is beset by the Gamilas Empire here, a twist is that humanity is aided by various alien allies, who provided the technology to launch the Yamato in the first place, while the crew have more military discipline than seen in other series.
Both the Gundam and Macross franchises boast hotshot pilots and mavericks equal to any rebellious hero from Star Wars, though if their chafing against procedure gets too much, Yamato provides an alternative, as everyone pulls their weight to ensure their super battleship survives the alien onslaught. With the 2199 reboot successfully reviving the series, Space Battleship Yamato is perfect for audiences wanting to dip their toes in more modern war stories.
1
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
The Super Robot spectacle cleverly hides its interstellar stakes
While this anime starts Earthbound – subterranean, even. As the series progresses, the stakes and the scope of the story grow ever more absurd, until Simon the Digger finds himself fighting for all sentient existence. While it may be easy to miss it with the Saturday Morning Cartoon energy of its giant robots and rock soundtrack, Gurren Lagann is more akin to Star Wars than it seems, with a group of rebels fighting against a dictatorship, while a mystic life-force becomes a vital element to the setting’s background.
Gurren Lagann may be an odd duck, more mecha than space opera, but its epic scope makes it worth seeing on its own merits, not even speaking of science fiction. Gainax’s anime is still beloved for its unsubtle passion, which chooses to make its jokes wackier, and its battles more ridiculous. While not a space opera at first glance, this anime keeps growing until every genre has no choice but to acknowledge its presence.
