Anime Like The Expanse
If you loved The Expanse's Drama 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
The Orville
Follow the crew of the not-so-functional exploratory ship in the Earth's interstellar fleet, 400 years in the future.
Star Trek: Picard
Set twenty years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, we follow the now-retired Admiral Picard into the next chapter of his life.
Halo
Depicting an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant, the series weaves deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.
Firefly
In the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system, follow the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship.
Invasion
Earth is visited by an alien species that threatens humanity's existence. Events unfold in real time through the eyes of five ordinary people across the globe as they struggle to make sense of the chaos unraveling around them.
Stargate Universe
The adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team traveling on the Ancient spaceship Destiny many billions of light years distant from the Milky Way Galaxy. They evacuated there and are now trying to figure out a way to return to Earth, while simultaneously trying to explore and to survive in their unknown area of the universe.
Defying Gravity
In the very near future, a team of eight astronauts embarking on a six-year journey to explore Venus and other planets in the solar system, find their lives and destinies intertwined and carefully directed, not only by Mission Control officials on Earth, but also by an unseen force which is much closer and far more powerful.
More Anime Like The Expanse
Emergence
A police chief takes in a young child she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what has happened. The investigation draws her into a conspiracy larger than she ever imagined, and the child’s identity is at the center of it all.
Outcasts
Seeking the chance to build a better future, a group of courageous pioneers departs Earth for Carpathia, a newly discovered planet in a distant galaxy. Led by President Richard Tate and his core team of Stella, Cass and Fleur, the pioneers settle in the town of Forthaven, creating a society there alongside expeditionaries Mitchell and Jack. Having embraced all the challenges that come with forging a new beginning, the townspeople work hard to preserve what they've built on Carpathia, and even as they long for those left behind, there is optimism about the future. But while they try to learn from mistakes made on Earth, there is no avoiding the human pitfalls of love, greed, lust and loss.
Defiance
In the near future, planet Earth is permanently altered following the sudden—and tumultuous—arrival of seven unique alien races. In the boom-town of Defiance, the newly-formed civilization of humans and aliens must learn to co-exist peacefully.
Taken
The show takes place from 1944 to 2002 and follows the lives of three families: the Crawfords, who seek to cover up the Roswell crash and the existence of aliens; the Keys, who are subject to frequent experimentation by the aliens; and the Clarkes, who sheltered one of the surviving aliens from the crash.
Star Trek: Discovery
Follow the voyages of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new life forms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself.
Andor
In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian Andor will discover the difference he can make in the struggle against the tyrannical Galactic Empire. He embarks on a path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.
Alien: Earth
When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, Wendy and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat.
Falling Skies
Falling Skies opens in the chaotic aftermath of an alien attack that has left most of the world completely incapacitated. In the six months since the initial invasion, the few survivors have banded together outside major cities to begin the difficult task of fighting back. Each day is a test of survival as citizen soldiers work to protect the people in their care while also engaging in an insurgency campaign against the occupying alien force.
Tales from the Loop
The story of the town and people who live above “The Loop,” a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe – making things possible that were previously relegated only to science fiction.
Battlestar Galactica
When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies, the crew of the aged Galactica protect a small civilian fleet - the last of humanity - as they journey toward the fabled 13th colony, Earth.
Lexx
A Time Prophet predicted that Kai would be the one to destroy the divine order in the league of the 20,000 planets, someday that will happen, but not today. Today a cowardly security guard, an undead assassin, a female with a body designed for sex and a robot head madly in love with her all make up the crew of the spaceship Lexx, the most powerful weapon in the two universes.
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with The Expanse (2015): Drama 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 The Expanse.
See full details for The Expanse (2015)