NoBadPicks

Anime Like The First

If you loved The First's Drama and Sci-Fi & Fantasy 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 Expanse
8.1

The Expanse

2015

A thriller set two hundred years in the future following the case of a missing young woman who brings a hardened detective and a rogue ship's captain together in a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.

Raised by Wolves
7.5

Raised by Wolves

2020

After Earth is ravaged by a great religious war, an atheistic android architect sends two of his creations, Mother and Father, to start a peaceful, godless colony on the planet Kepler-22b. Their treacherous task is jeopardized by the arrival of the Mithraic, a deeply devout religious order of surviving humans.

Away
6.6

Away

2020

American astronaut Emma Green must leave her husband and teenage daughter behind to command an international space crew embarking upon a treacherous mission. A series about hope, humanity and how we need one another if we are to achieve impossible things.

Defying Gravity
6.7

Defying Gravity

2009

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.

Star Trek: Discovery
7.0

Star Trek: Discovery

2017

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.

Stargate Universe
7.4

Stargate Universe

2009

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.

Ascension
6.6

Ascension

2014

In 1963, the U.S. government launched a covert space mission sending hundreds of men, women and children on a century-long voyage aboard the starship Ascension to populate a new world. Nearly 50 years into the journey, as they approach the point of no return, a mysterious murder of a young woman causes the ship’s population to question the true nature of their mission.

Star Trek: Picard
7.3

Star Trek: Picard

2020

Set twenty years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, we follow the now-retired Admiral Picard into the next chapter of his life.

More Anime Like The First

Lost in Space
7.5

Lost in Space

2018

After crash-landing on an alien planet, the Robinson family fights against all odds to survive and escape. But they're surrounded by hidden dangers.

Lost in Space
7.1

Lost in Space

1965

The space family Robinson is sent on a five-year mission to find a new planet to colonise. The voyage is sabotaged time and again by an inept stowaway, Dr. Zachary Smith. The family's spaceship, Jupiter II, also carries a friendly robot who endures an endless stream of abuse from Dr. Smith, but is a trusted companion of young Will Robinson

Outcasts
6.3

Outcasts

2011

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.

Another Life
6.1

Another Life

2019

After a massive alien artifact lands on Earth, Niko Breckinridge leads an interstellar mission to track down its source and make first contact.

Invasion
7.1

Invasion

2021

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.

Falling Skies
7.1

Falling Skies

2011

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.

The Ark
6.3

The Ark

2023

100 years in the future, planetary colonization missions have begun as a necessity to help secure the survival of the human race. The first of these missions on a spacecraft known as Ark One encounters a catastrophic event causing massive destruction and loss of life. With more than a year left to go before reaching their target planet, a lack of life-sustaining supplies and loss of leadership, the remaining crew must become the best versions of themselves to stay on course and survive.

Star Trek: Lower Decks
7.6

Star Trek: Lower Decks

2020

The lives of the support crew serving on one of Starfleet's least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.

Debris
7.1

Debris

2021

Two federal agents from two different continents, and two different mindsets, must work together to investigate when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind.

The 100
7.9

The 100

2014

100 years in the future, when the Earth has been abandoned due to radioactivity, the last surviving humans live on an ark orbiting the planet — but the ark won't last forever. So the repressive regime picks 100 expendable juvenile delinquents to send down to Earth to see if the planet is still habitable.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
7.9

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

1993

At Deep Space Nine, a space station located next to a wormhole in the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, Commander Sisko and crew welcome alien visitors, root out evildoers and solve all types of unexpected problems that come their way.

The Orville
7.6

The Orville

2017

Follow the crew of the not-so-functional exploratory ship in the Earth's interstellar fleet, 400 years in the future.

Why These Anime Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with The First (2018): Drama and Sci-Fi & Fantasy 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 First.

See full details for The First (2018)

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