Anime Like Akudama Drive
If you loved Akudama Drive's Animation and Mystery storytelling, these anime deliver a similar experience — selected for art style, narrative depth, and emotional impact. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks

Bungo Stray Dogs
Stalked by a beastly white tiger, Atsushi Nakajima has no idea that the menace lives inside him—a power that catches the attention of the Armed Detective Agency. Using inhuman abilities to combat crime, this team takes Atsushi under the wing of their most eccentric member, Dazai. Together, they tear through mafia-muddled mysteries while enemies keep an eye on the tiger’s lofty bounty.

Paranoia Agent
Musashino, Tokyo. An elementary schooler repeatedly attacks people in the streets. Known only to the public as "Lil Slugger", none of the victims can recall the young boy's face and only three distinct details are left in their memories: golden inline skates, a baseball cap, and the weapon: a bent golden baseball bat. Detectives Ikari and Maniwa set out to track down the perpetrator and put an end to his crimes.

City Hunter
Ryo Saeba works the streets of Tokyo as the City Hunter. He's a "sweeper" and with his sidekick Kaori Makimura, he keeps the city clean. People hire the City Hunter to solve their dangerous problems, which he does with a Colt Python. When Ryo's not working on a case, he's working on getting the ladies, and Kaori must keep him in check with her trusty 10 kg hammer.

Dimension W
Humanity has found a way to achieve infinite energy by using coils to draw it from the fourth plane: dimension "W". With the production of coils having been monopolized by the New Tesla energy company, freelance collectors are hired to find and remove any illegal, unofficial coils. This is the story of collector Kyōma, who also happens to have a huge hatred towards coils. During one of his missions he stumbles upon a female android that perceives herself as being human, leading the two to enter an unlikely partnership.

Aria the Scarlet Ammo
In response to the worsening crime rate, Japan creates Tokyo Butei High, an elite academy where "Butei" or armed detectives hone their deadly skills in hopes of becoming mercenary-like agents of justice. One particular Butei is Kinji Tooyama, an anti-social and curt sophomore dropout who was once a student of the combat-centric Assault Division. Kinji now lives a life of leisure studying logistics in order to cover up his powerful but embarrassing special ability. However, his peaceful days soon come to an end when he becomes the target of the infamous "Butei Killer," and runs into an emotional hurricane and outspoken prodigy of the highest rank, Aria Holmes Kanzaki, who saves Kinji's life and demands that he become her partner after seeing what he is truly capable of.

Detective Conan
The son of a world famous mystery writer, Jimmy Kudo, has achieved his own notoriety by assisting the local police as a student detective. He has always been able to solve the most difficult of criminal cases using his wits and power of reason.

Tengoku Daimakyo
In the year 2024, the world has collapsed. Grotesque monsters lurk amongst the ruins of Japan, while remaining people scrape together what they can to survive. Kiruko, an odd-job girl in Nakano, accepts a mysterious woman's dying wish to take a boy named Maru to a place called Heaven. Maru is convinced that there will be a boy there who looks exactly like him.

JOKER GAME
Taking place in the year 1937 on the eve of World War II, the story involves a mysterious spy training organization known as the "D Agency." The organization is established by Lieutenant Colonel Yuuki from the Imperial Japanese Army. His ideals lead him to recruit people beyond military academy graduates and personnel, while training them to become skilled agents in arts of manipulation. These agents would become a specialized team to conduct operations. One such antihero agent, under the name Jirou Gamou, goes on a harrowing mission to uncover secret documents titled "Black Notes," while battling forces from within and without his own ranks.
More Anime Like Akudama Drive

Psycho-Pass
In the year 2113, people are given brain scans to determine how likely they are to commit a crime. Those who fail are apprehended, or even killed.

Kindaichi Case Files
Kindaichi Hajime may look dumb, but he is one of the smartest you will ever see. He encounters mysteries after mysteries with his good friend, Miyuki, and he swears to solve them in the name of his grandfather, which was a great detective.

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions
Ron Kamonohashi was once regarded as a genius at the top detective training academy. But after a fatal mistake, he was expelled and forbidden to become a detective. Years later, police officer Totomaru Isshiki knocks on Ron’s door seeking help on a serial murder case. He finds Ron, now a messy-haired recluse, who agrees. Together, this mismatched detective team begins solving their first mystery!

Kemono Jihen
When a series of animal bodies that rot away after a single night begin appearing in a remote mountain village, Inugami, a detective from Tokyo who specializes in the occult, is called to investigate. While working the case, he befriends a strange boy who works in the field every day instead of going to school. Shunned by his peers and nicknamed “Dorotabo” after a yokai that lives in the mud, he helps Inugami uncover the truth behind the killings — but supernatural forces are at work, and while Dorotabo is just a nickname, it might not be the only thing about the boy that isn’t human.

Ikebukuro West Gate Park
The story revolves around 20-year-old Makoto, who frequently gets involved in highly dangerous situations, usually against his own judgment. Along for the ride are his best buddies Shun, Masa, and Takashi, the enigmatic leader of a local gang in Ikebukuro.

Cat's Eye
Cat's Eye is the most notorious group of art thieves in Japan. No one knows their identities, but for most of Tokyo, the mystery only heightens their allure.

Buddy Daddies
Two assassins who never miss their mark must juggle fatherhood with their demanding job when they suddenly find themselves raising a four-year-old girl.

BAKI
While martial arts champion Baki Hanma trains hard to surpass his legendary father, five violent death row inmates descend upon Tokyo to take him on.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse
As a prophecy of doom unfolds on the peaceful land of Britannia, a purehearted boy sets out on a journey of discovery — and revenge.

Banana Fish
A teenaged gang leader in New York City faces his abuser and rival gangs alongside a photojournalist from Japan as they investigate a deadly new drug.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045
In the year 2045, cybernetic mercenary Motoko Kusanagi returns to Section 9 to face a dangerous new threat: the posthumans.

Darker than Black
Ten years ago, a mysterious spatial anomaly now known as "Heaven's Gate" appeared in South America, shortly followed by the opening of "Hell's Gate" in Tokyo altering the sky and wreaking havoc on the landscape. The real stars disappeared, replaced by false stars. During this time, people possessing various special abilities — called "Contractors" — emerged, each capable of different supernatural feats. Following the disastrous Heaven's War, the United States lost its dominant position as a superpower to a mysterious organization named the Syndicate. The story revolves around a Chinese contractor codenamed "Hei" as he undertakes various espionage and assassination missions in Tokyo.
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Akudama Drive (2020): Animation and Mystery themes, comparable animation style, and similar narrative pacing. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface anime most likely to resonate with fans of Akudama Drive.
See full details for Akudama Drive (2020)