Anime Series, Ranked

In March 2024 it dethroned Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood to become the #1 all-time anime on both MyAnimeList and Anime News Network, and it took multiple wins at the 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards including Best Director and Best Drama.

Held the #1 all-time spot on MyAnimeList for over a decade with a ~9.09 weighted score from 2M+ users, only surrendering the top position to Frieren in 2024 — the most durable top ranking in the database's history.

Its Final Season episodes rank among the highest-rated TV episodes ever on IMDb (multiple at 9.9), and it was the most in-demand TV series worldwide across all genres per Parrot Analytics in 2021.

Madhouse's 148-episode adaptation is near-universally cited among the greatest anime ever made. The Chimera Ant arc is a benchmark for long-form storytelling, and its Nen power system remains the gold standard for tactical shonen combat. Belongs at the very top.

The 1998 classic that introduced a generation of Western viewers to anime. Watanabe's neo-noir space Western pairs flawless episodic craft with Yoko Kanno's legendary jazz score. Timeless, endlessly rewatchable, and effortlessly cool.

Anno's mecha deconstruction reshaped the medium, trading giant-robot spectacle for raw psychological interrogation. Its influence on everything that followed is impossible to overstate. A foundational, industry-defining work.

Consistently sits in the MyAnimeList all-time top five with a ~9.07 score and is widely cited by critics as the benchmark time-travel anime.

One of the most globally recognized gateway anime, with the manga selling over 30 million copies and the series a perennial top pick in international 'best anime' polls.

Its film Mugen Train grossed over $500M to become the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time and the first non-Hollywood production to top the annual worldwide box office, cementing record-breaking mainstream reach.

A sublime blend of mecha action and high-stakes political chess, anchored by one of anime's greatest antiheroes in Lelouch. Wild plot twists and an all-time ending keep it firmly in the upper tier just shy of the untouchables.

MAPPA's electrifying animation turned Gege Akutami's dark curse-hunting shonen into a modern phenomenon. Kinetic fights, sharp characters, and genuine stakes make it one of the best of the current generation.

Holds the Guinness World Record for most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author (500M+), though uneven pacing across 1000+ episodes keeps aggregate episode scores below the S-tier titles.

A defining global franchise with 250M+ manga copies sold, but its heavy use of filler (roughly 40% of the run) keeps its MyAnimeList score in the high-7s/low-8s rather than the top tier.

A hugely popular, well-crafted superhero shonen with standout arcs and memorable characters, but a bloated back half and formulaic beats keep it out of the top tiers. Solid rather than essential.

A top-selling light-novel franchise and commercially dominant, yet critically divisive with a MyAnimeList score around 7.2 and frequent citation for weak second-half writing.

Its first season was acclaimed, but later seasons (√A and :re) are widely regarded as adaptation failures, dropping to MyAnimeList scores in the 5-6 range.

The studio change to Studio Deen for later seasons produced infamously poor animation, tanking the season's MyAnimeList score to roughly 6.5 and drawing widespread fan complaints of a quality collapse.

Widely labeled one of the worst anime ever; its jarring CGI, directed by a live-action filmmaker with no anime experience, earned a MyAnimeList score around 2.95, among the lowest of any TV anime on the platform.