1. Hunter x Hunter (2011)
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion
3. Monogatari Series
4. Welcome to the NHK
5. Mob Psycho 100
6. Fate/Zero
7. Re:Zero
8. Chainsaw Man
9. Frieren
10. Sonny Boy

1. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
2. Neon Genesis Evangelion
3. Psycho-Pass
4. Cowboy Bebop
5. Dirty Pair
6. Sailor Moon
7. Ghost in the Shell: SAC
8. One Piece
9. Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
10. Blood Blockade Battlefront

Special shout outs to DanDaDan, Solo Leveling, Sakamoto Days, and Kaiju #8. They’re all pretty good, but they’re all still ongoing, and I usually gotta rewatch an anime in full once or twice before I’ll consider it a favorite.

1. Hunter X Hunter
2. Ping Pong the Animation
3. Hajime no Ippo
4. Mob Psycho 100
5. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
6. Attack on Titan
7. Samurai Champloo
8. Kill la kill
9. Hinamatsuri
10. Gintama

I considered more recent anime (like Frieren/Dungeon Meshi) but I am resisting the urge to succumb to recency bias.

1. Haibane Renmei, Gurren Lagann, and GitS: SAC share first place. Ghost in the Shell changed how I rate shows, because I can’t rate a show 10/10 if it doesn’t stand up to Ghost in the Shell. Haibane Renmei and Gurren Lagann may lack the technical perfection that earned GitS its place, but they affected me on an emotional level more than any others. The quiet melancholy and ultimately positive resolution of Haibane Renmei puts it in first place for me, and Gurren Lagann’s unabashed bombastic glorification of Humanity and complete denial of despair is irresistible to me.

2. A Certain Scientific Railgun got me into anime, so it has to be up there. Since I started the show nearly four years ago, I’ve maintained a streak of watching anime every single day. The Sisters Arc remains my favorite individual portion of anime I’ve ever seen.

3. Mushishi is one of a very few series I would call a flawless masterpiece.

4. Shinsekai Yori led to a great many discussions with both myself and others about what constitutes a “human,” which is maybe my favorite philosophical topic

5. Last Exile perfectly captures my favorite world building technique of just plopping the viewer in the world and not explaining anything, plus Range Murata’s character design is peak

6. Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is a series focusing on astronomers studying heliocentrism in 14th century Poland. The basic concept was tailor made for me specifically. The actual show is less about astronomy, and more about the anonymous figures throughout history who never had their names or particular contributions recorded, but were nevertheless instrumental to building both the time they lived in and the future that came after it. It has the longest review I’ve ever written for a show—usually I struggle to come up with more words to say. Talking about Orb, I struggle to stop writing.

7. ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department because I really like the deliberate denial of action. A show about a federal government auditor investigating a potential coup, and there isn’t a single action sequence

8. Read or Die (OVA and The TV), because Yomiko Readman is my wife I like the story and all the characters. I’ve never missed characters after finishing a show like I missed the Paper Sisters

9. Ergo Proxy, because it too raises questions about what is “human,” it too sparked a lot of writing from me, and it raises interesting discussions about theology. I struggle to think of any other shows with a decidedly antitheist vibe.

10. Megalo Box, because the whiplash between the first and second seasons was incredible. Never seen a show go from shounen to seinen like that. I found both seasons compelling, but the second season shot it up to 10/10 for me

1. The Dangers in My Heart
2. Frieren
3. The Apothecary Diaries
4. FMA:B
5. Violet Evergarden
6. Princess Mononoke
7. Spy x Family
8. 100 Girlfriends
9. My Hero Academia
10. Skip and Loafer

Dangers is seriously underappreciated by romance enjoyers dissuaded by the premise, but its one of the best coming of age stories I’ve seen. I’m watching and liking Blue Box and Solo Leveling right now.

• Little Witch Academia OVA 1 (2013)
• Kemurikusa
• Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na
• 86
• Sousou no Frieren
• Akudama Drive
• YuruYuri S1
• Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
• ODDTAXI
• Nichijou

…or something like that.

1. Fate Zero
2. Fate Stay Night Unlimited Bladeworks
3. Garden of Sinners
4. Neon Genesis Evangelion
5. Attack On Titan
6. Future Diary
7. Code Geass
8. Death Note
9. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 10: Fullmetal Alchemist

Though it’s hard to say for certain Fate Strange Fake might knock FMA off the list once the full series releases later this year

i don’t watch much so here’s a top 5 instead:

• Serial Experiments Lain
• Revolutionary Girl Utena
• Nichijou
• Bocchi The Rock !!
• Toradora

In no particular order:
Ghost in the Shell. Nausicaa. Samurai Champloo. Cowboy bebop. Neon Genesis Evangelion. Akira. Ninja Scroll. Trigun. One Punch Man. Chainsaw Man. Totoro. Princess Mononoke.

Edgerunners too, but I played cp2020 so it was more of a great realisation of the world than anime for me personally.

It’s hard to pick a top 10. The top 5 on this list are pretty firmly my favorites but after that there are any number of great shows that could’ve filled the latter 5 slots.

1. Redline - This movie showed me that an anime doesn’t need a complex plot to be awesome.
2. LOOK BACK - Really emotional story about two artists.
3. Kaguya-sama: Love is War - So far this is a perfect adaptation of my favorite romance manga, and my favorite comedy manga. I didn’t want to use the term “romcom” simply because I want to emphasize that it excels on both points individually. Here’s hoping they continue on to finish the second half of the story.
4. Gurren Lagann - Much like Redline, this show is just awesome.
5. Skip and Loafer - Extremely charming story about a girl from the countryside getting accustomed to Tokyo life. Season 2 airs later this year so it’s a good time to catch up if you haven’t seen it!
6. Bang Brave Bang Bravern! - Big gay robots.
7. Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Space opera. The worse modern US politics has gotten the more depressing this show has been to watch.
8. Gundam Build Fighters - The most charming Gundam show. Unfortunately some of the jokes and references won’t land unless you’ve watched an ungodly amount of not-quite-as-good older Gundam shows.
9. Eureka Seven - An excellent mech anime held back a little by a slow first several episodes.
10. Mob Psycho 100 - A story about a boy trying to grow up into the best version of himself he can manage.

MOST BASIC LIST EVER

• Trigun
• Spirited Away
• Dandandan
• Solo Leveling
• Cowboy Bebop
• Nausica and the Valley of the Wind
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
• Trigun Stampede
• Bloom into You
• Gurran Lagan

In no particular order (maybe)

1. Ghost in the Shell (all seasons, even if they had different names)
2. Dragonball Z (you either wanted to be Goku or Vegeta, simple as is)
3. Claymore (short, and holy fuck did it go hard at times)
4. Fullmetal Alchemist (even if it went off-trial, I still loved it!)
5. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (a more-true to the manga release - also dope!)
6. Samurai Champloo (they had Dutch-speaking characters! Also made me learn a bunch of Dutch history and how we used to trade with the Japanese since 1609 because of an Englishman called William Adams (Miura Anjin)!)
7. Alfred J. Kwak (Kwak the Duck - あひるのクワック- my childhood favorite)
8. Ox Tales/Boes (a childhood classic)
9. Dommel/Wowser/Bigger and Better: Dommel & Ron (another childhood classic)
10. Moomins (a Finnish classic!)

In no order whatsoever:

1. Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

2. Vinland Saga

3. Jujutsu Kaisen

4. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

5. Apothecary Diaries

6. Summertime Render

7. Oshi no Ko

8. Chainsaw Man

9. My Hero Academia

10. Dr. Stone

11. (because I couldn’t decide what to ditch from the list above) Dungeon Meshi

Mine:

1. Bocchi the Rock!
2. Mushoku Tensei
3. Fullmetal Alchemist
4. Attack on Titan
5. Death note
6. Fate/Zero
7. Steins;Gate
8. Cyberpunk Edgerunners
9. Vinland Saga
10. Sword Art Online

I especially love Bocchi the Rock! I’ve watched it many times.

1. Your Name
2. Spy x Family
3. My next life as a villainess
4. Fruits Basket (2019)
5. Suzume
6. Shangri-la Frontier
7. Ranma ½
8. Zenshu
9. Samurai Champloo
10. So I’m a spider so what

I just started watching anime again recently after not watching much for over a decade, so a lot of mine are newer