Anime Like Better
If you loved Better's Drama and Crime 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
Line of Duty
A drama about the investigations of AC-12, a controversial police anticorruption unit.
Shades of Blue
Sexy New York detective and single mother Harlee Santos fell in with a tight-knit group of dirty cops, taking bribes and protection money that she uses to provide the best life for her honest, talented daughter. But when she's trapped by the FBI and forced to inform on her own "brothers," she'll have to walk the fine line between love, loyalty, honor and betrayal, and try to keep it together for her daughter's future.
Murder in a Small Town
Karl Alberg moves to a quiet coastal town to soothe a psyche that has been battered by big-city police work but finds himself needing to call upon all his skills to solve the murders that continue to wash up on his shore.
T. J. Hooker
Sergeant Thomas Jefferson Hooker is a tough-as-nails veteran police officer with the LCPD who turns his back on a gold badge and goes back to patrolling the streets and training recruits. Along with his young partners in blue, Hooker take on Lake City's toughest criminals.
Hill Street Blues
A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.
Baretta
Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma. While popular, Toma received intense criticism at the time for its realistic and frequent depiction of police and criminal violence. When Musante left the series after a single season, the concept was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.
Vega$
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike.
21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street revolves around a group of young cops who would use their youthful appearance to go undercover and solve crimes involving teenagers and young adults.
More Anime Like Better
Bosch: Legacy
Bosch is now making a living as a private investigator two years after he quit the LAPD and finds himself working with one time enemy and top-notch attorney Honey “Money” Chandler. Meanwhile, Bosch's daughter Maddie is venturing into the world of the LAPD.
77 Sunset Strip
Stu Bailey and Jeff Spencer are the wisecracking, womanizing private-detective heroes of this Warner Brothers drama. They work out of an office located at 77 Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California, right next door to a snazzy restaurant where Kookie works as a valet. The finger-snapping, slang-talking Kookie occasionally helps Stu and Jeff with their cases, and eventually becomes a full-fledged member of the detective agency. Rex Randolph and J.R. Hale also join the firm, and Suzanne is their leggy secretary.
Peter Gunn
Peter Gunn is an American private eye television series. Filmed in a film noir atmosphere and featuring Henry Mancini music that could tell you the action with your eyes closed, Peter Gunn worked in style. Known as Pete to his friends and simply as Gunn to his enemies, he did his job in a calm cool way.
The Bay
Family Liaison Officer Lisa Armstrong becomes a little too emotionally involved with a case (to the point where she might compromise it) concerning a pair of missing Morecambe twins to whose distraught parents she is assigned.
Jack Irish
Jack Irish is a man getting his life back together again. A former criminal lawyer whose world imploded, he now spends his days as a part-time investigator, debt collector, apprentice cabinet maker, punter and sometime lover – the complete man really. An expert in finding those who don’t want to be found – dead or alive, Jack helps out his mates while avoiding the past. That is until the past finds him.
City on a Hill
In early 90s Boston, an African-American District Attorney comes in from Brooklyn advocating change and forms an unlikely alliance with a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran invested in maintaining the status quo. Together they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to encompass and eventually upend Boston’s city-wide criminal justice system.
Crime Story
The hard-boiled saga of hair-trigger cop Lieutenant Mike Torello and his obsessive pursuit of ruthless gangster Ray Luca.
The Calling
NYPD Detective Avraham Avraham's belief in mankind is his superpower when it comes to uncovering the truth. Guided by a deep sense of spirituality and religious principles, Avraham is left to question his own humanity when a seemingly routine investigation turns upside down.
In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night is an American television series based on the motion picture and novel of the same name starring Carroll O'Connor as the white police chief William Gillespie, and Howard Rollins as the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. It was broadcast on NBC from 1988 until 1992, and then on CBS until 1995. Its executive producers were Fred Silverman, Juanita Bartlett and Carroll O'Connor. TGG Direct released the first season of the series to DVD on August 28, 2012.
Interrogation
Based on a true story that spanned more than 30 years in which a young man was charged and convicted of brutally murdering his mother. Each episode is structured around an interrogation taken directly from the real police case files, with the goal of turning the viewer into a detective.
Moonlighting
After being duped and going bankrupt, model Maddie is convinced by David to become a partner in a detective agency. Together they solve various cases, while getting comfortable with each other.
True Detective
An American anthology police detective series utilizing multiple timelines in which investigations seem to unearth personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within or outside the law.
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Better (2023): Drama and Crime 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 Better.
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