Choosing the best anime of all time seems to be easy. But we tried to choose the really most popular ones.
Don't Miss: The 30 Best Anime Series of All Time. Part 1
13. Tokyo Ghoul
The Tokyo Ghoul anime series has generated a lot of controversy among anime and manga fans around the world. Many of them agree that the original manga that the series is based on is much better than the TV adaptation. This is mainly because the entire dark manga series, written by Sui Ishida and loved by millions, was turned into just 12 episodes. This means there is no in-depth exploration of the characters that anime fans have come to expect.
Despite that title, Tokyo Ghoul is an excellent dark anime series that's pretty awful, especially if you choose to watch the uncensored version.
This is about a serious college student, Ken Kaneki, who befriended another avid reader named Rize Kamishiro and as a result is drawn into the dark depths of the inhuman world of ghouls. Ghouls are scary creatures that eat human flesh. During the attack on him, Kaneki's ghouls are nearly killed. He manages to survive, but he turns into half human and half ghoul. This forces him to change and adapt to this new way of life so that he is integrated into both societies.
The series is set in Tokyo, which has become a city full of vicious bloodthirsty ghouls that can transform to look normal and thus merge with people, thus finding more victims.
12 episodes of the anime series aired in 2014. This was followed by a feature film and sequel titled Tokyo Ghoul, followed by Tokyo Ghoul: Jack and Tokyo Ghoul: Pinto. "
There is a video game for Android smartphones called Tokyo Ghoul and a video game for the PlayStation Vita, inspired by the popular manga and anime series.
14. Cowboy Bebop
Many call cowboy bebop a masterpiece, and many consider it an anime series that has ushered in a new wave of Western anime fans. He has many anime awards and absolutely deserves them.
The series begins in 2072, when humans colonized a number of different planets and moons in the solar system and left the Earth uninhabited. The body responsible for keeping the peace in the galaxy is called the Solar System Police. The police are assisted by desperate bounty hunters called "Cowboys". The crew on the spaceship Bebop are part of these Cowboys.
In a way, this incredibly interesting anime series is a western space in space. It combines several great comedies, as well as darkness, action, romance, science, espionage, tragedy, and philosophy.
The partnership between the lighthearted and rather gentle Cowboy Spike Spiegel and the pragmatic and rather rowdy Jet Black, and the highly intelligent gel engineer Welsh Corgi Vin plus Faye Valentine and Edward Wong is absolutely breathtaking. The team moves from one adventure to another, and along with this, the past of all the characters is revealed to the audience.
The 26 episodes aired in 1998 and 1999 and premiered in 2001 as an adult swimmer in the United States, drawing a slew of new fans thanks to the series' strong western note.
Cowboy Bebop is probably the anime for which there are so many people outside of Japan showing an interest and interest in anime, so it's an absolute must for newcomers to Japanese animation.
15. Fullmetal Alchemist
The touching story of Fullmetal Alchemist is the main reason for the popularity of this anime series in both Japan and the United States. This is the story of the brilliant young alchemist Edward Elric, who lost his mother and, while trying to resurrect her with the help of his brother, Alphonse loses him and two limbs.
Thanks to his alchemy skills, Edward manages to transform the soul of his dead brother into powerful armor.
Later, he goes in search of the Philosopher's Stone, which should enhance the abilities of the alchemists. On this journey, Edward takes his brother in armor form to retrieve the mythical stone and try to transform both of them into their normal bodies.
This journey becomes dark for the brothers as they face obstacles and adversaries they never imagined.
Directed by Seiji Mizushima, this dramatic and beautiful anime series consists of 51 episodes and ran from October 2003 to October 2004. In 2004, the Fullmetal Alchemist received an award for television features in the Kobe Animation Awards competition and was one of the recommended jury titles 2004 Japan Media Arts
The original series was followed by a sequel to the 2005 film The Conqueror of Shambhala. In 2009, the second anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, aired. The second episode is a much closer adaptation of the original manga chapters.
This is one of the defining manga series you must watch if you want to see one of the most beloved TV series in the genre.
16. Steins; Gate
Steins; Gateway is part of the Science Adventure franchise, which also includes, Robotics, Notes and Chaos, Chapter. The anime series, produced by the anime studio White Fox, aired in 2011 and consists of 24 episodes.
This is a thriller and sci-fi anime about Rintaro Okaba, the mad scientist who, together with his friends Maayuri Shiina and Hashida Itaru (Daru), invented the randomly time-traveling Microwave Oven telephone, which allows them to send text messages and emails to the past. which will ultimately change the course of history and the present.
It is based on the hugely successful visual novel 5pb and Nitroplus, Steins (producers' names); Anime Gateway is still considered one of the best sci-fi series for anime fans around the world.
The licensor of the series is Funimation, which has released Blur-ray and full-episode DVDs in North America. A series directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki and Takuya Sato, written by Jukki Hanada, and characters developed by Jyuto Sakai.
If you're into time travel stories and adventure, this anime will absolutely amaze you with its perfect storyline that doesn't have the absurd and sometimes illogical plot holes that many other animated or non-animated time travel movies have.
In fact, Steins; Gate is likely to be the best anime series ever.
17. Blue Exorcist
Blue Exorcist is an action-packed anime series based on the original Kazu Kato manga series from 2009. The story of a teenager named Rin Okimura, who learns that he and his twin brother Yukio are children of Satan, born to a human woman. As a result, Rin realizes that he has inherited the powers of Satan. The story follows Rin's ambition to become an exorcist under the leadership of his brother to defeat and destroy their father, who kills the boys' adoptive father, a priest and exorcist, and who wants to conquer their world of Assia.
Blue Exorcist consists of 25 episodes of 24 minutes each, which originally aired in 2011 in Japan. The licensor for the DVD and Blue-ray series offered in North America is Aniplex America.
The series is a fun and engaging story filled with action, fantasy, demons and Shounen, all presented in beautiful works of art.
In 2017, the second season of the series, Blue Exorcist: The Kyoto Saga, aired.
18. Seven Deadly Sins
If you love adventure and fantasy, you will be in awe of the Seven Deadly Sins anime series.The story is set in the region of Britain, which is very similar to the European Middle Ages.
These are about seven knights that represent the seven deadly sins. The group of knights originally planned to overthrow the lion kingdom, but failed due to the holy knights and disintegrated.
But after 10 years, the Holy Knights manage to capture the king and become tyrannical rulers. As a result, Princess Elizabeth begins her journey to the Seven Deadly Sins, trying to reclaim her lost kingdom and find long-lost justice in the world.
The hugely popular bestselling manga series was adapted into an anime series that aired from 2014 to 2015 and consists of 24 episodes and 2 OVAs. Directed by Tensai Okamura and written by Suga, Shotaro from A-1 Pictures.
A second season was filmed and aired from January to June 2018, followed by a successful anime film released in August 2018. There is also a light novel and games based on The Seven Deadly Sins.
Today Netflix has exclusive streaming rights for the English-language version, while Funimation has rights to home videos.
Overall, The Seven Deadly Sins is a strong recommendation for anyone looking to watch an addictive and fairly light Shounen anime show with all the action, fun, and great music.
19. Soul Eater
Soul Eater is a very interesting anime series about a group of students attending a school of weapons and craftsmen - Shibusen in Death City, a fictional city in the state of Nevada. The main characters are accompanied by partners who can turn into weapons. Students strive to collect souls to protect the city.
Soul Eaters can only turn into weapons after they have absorbed 99 evil souls and 1 witch.
Maka is the partner of the Soul, which turns into a scythe. Death the Kid has a pair of partners named Patty and Liz who transform into pistols, while Black Star is accompanied by his partner Tsubaki, who can transform himself into a wide variety of weapons.
Together, the students continue to fight various witches and demons who want to destroy Shibuzen and conquer the world.
There is a lot of fun, adventure, beautiful fighting scenes and great style in this episode, making it an unforgettable viewing experience.
The series ran from April 2008 to March 2009
Many anime fans prefer the first 26 episodes of the 51 episodes of the series because they are more fun and engaging than the second half, which gets a little more serious. Overall, this is a beautifully done, fun and stylish anime series that you are sure to enjoy.
20. Akame ga Kill!
Although it starts off quite slowly, it can get boring during the first few episodes, Akame Killer is on a grand adventure with this incredible anime series.
The plot revolves around a young boy named Tatsumi who comes from the countryside and travels to the capital with two friends, Sayo and Leyasu. The journey includes numerous adventures with a group of Night Raid's dangerous assassins who recruit a young boy to help them fight the Empire's corruption. All participants in the night raid specialize in various types of combat and assassination. They are all armed with Teigu, an Imperial weapon made from extremely rare materials. They are also accompanied by dangerous animals.
Overall, this series is known for its graphically dark and gory content and is highly sought after by fans of Japanese animated series.
The series was directed by Tomoki Kobayashi, written by Makoto Uezu and produced by Sukuea Enikkusu. It includes 24 episodes that aired from July to December 2014.
The series is an adaptation of Takahiro's original manga and premiered on Nippon BS Broadcasting and Tokyo MX Mainichi (television studios).
21. No Game No Life
Every anime fan will agree that No Game, No Life is one of the brightest anime series of all time. The series follows two siblings named Sora and Shiro, who are transported to another world ruled by the games. The two main characters must adapt to this new world in order to survive in these less innocent or cool games.
The show is truly addictive, especially for gamers, thanks to a unique concept and storyline that includes a fantasy world in which everything is done according to special rules that must always be followed.
No Game, No Life: Zero is a film adapted from the 6th volume of the series. On air in 2017.
The series is highly recommended for all anime fans. As soon as you see superintelligent siblings who prefer to play video games rather than living in a boring real world, you will surely get hooked and want to watch more and more of their amazing adventures and achievements in the strange fantasy world they embark on.
The animation is bright and beautiful, but it has nudity that some young viewers may find out of place.
12 episodes of the series aired from April to June 2014.
22. Pokemon
Most of us grew up with Pokémon and watched the adventures of Pikachu and Ash Ketchum for hours, or played one of the many Pokémon games, right?
Years after release, the original Pokémon anime series is still among the top 3 anime series of all time.
The reason is not that it is the best or greatest anime of them all, but rather because of the immense influence and fame it has gained globally.
Pokemon is an abbreviation for Pocket Monsters, which was the Japanese name. The series has been broadcast in more than 98 countries around the world, as it was based on the famous Nintendo Pokemon game.
Pokémon are funny creatures, each of which has its own talents, abilities and appearance. Satoshi has always dreamed of training his own Pokémon and becoming a master, but when he finally gets the chance to get a Pokémon, all that remains is Pikachu, who is a rebellious Pokémon. The rest is, of course, history - as the adventures of both develop and unfold.
This series is suitable and safe for the youngest kids, so if you want to feel the nostalgia of being a kid again and at the same time introduce your kids to the beauty and art of anime, the original Pokémon series is the perfect way to start.
You have a huge selection from all 276 episodes that aired between 1997 and 2002 to watch the epic adventures of Pokémon, which was the first manga series to reach such a wide Western audience.
The animated series Pokemon is divided into six chronological episodes in Japan, and all six episodes span 20 different seasons.
23. Samurai Champloo
This is a great anime series featuring three main characters - a clumsy teahouse waitress named Fuu Kasumi and two samurai Mugen and Jin.
After accidentally spilling a drink on a client, Fuu is pursued by a group of samurai, which causes her to seek help from Mugen, a samurai who defeats the attackers with some wild fighting techniques. He proceeds to attack another Rhonin named Jin, who nevertheless turns out to be a strong opponent as he is a better sword fighter than Mugen. During the battle, they accidentally kill the son of the local magistrate, for which they were captured and sentenced to death.
Fu continues to rescue them and hires them as his personal bodyguards. They join her in search of a special samurai who smells like sunflowers. The series follows the three characters on their quest, and it's a real trip given the fact that the two bodyguards are constantly trying to kill each other.
26 episodes aired from May 2004 to March 2005. The series inspired the popular video game Samurai Champloo for the PlayStation 2.
The Samurai Champloo series is a great treat for all anime lovers.The plot is set during the Edo period in Japan and is full of comedy, action, sword fighting, filled with a surprisingly good hip-hop soundtrack.
24. InuYasha
This anime series is also known as Inuyasha: A Feudal Tale, which aired on Japanese television from fall 2000 to September 2004. This is the story of a teenage girl Kagome Higurashi being dragged into a cursed well next to her family's Shinto shrine. demon on her 15th birthday. This is when her normal life ends and she ends up living in time during the Sengoku period in Japan 500 years ago.
In it, she carries a magical gem that grants wishes, known as the Shikon gem. It is this particular reborn gem that the demon really stands behind.
During the battle with the demon, a special gem is accidentally broken, and Kagome seeks help from a demon dog and a human hybrid named Inuyasha to remove all the fragments from the gem and thus prevent the demon from laying hands on one.
Along with Inuyasha, the 15-year-old girl is joined by the demon fox Shippo, a deadly demon slayer named Sango and an intelligent monk named Miroku.
Together, they take on all the shards of the Shikon gem that were common throughout Japan. During their adventure, new allies must sort out their differences and learn to work and act together to reach every lost shard of Shikon's gem before it falls into the wrong hands.
The series lasted 4 years and consists of 167 adventure and action episodes.
Inuyasha is based on a manga series illustrated and written by Rumiko Takahashi, which ran from 1996 to 2008 and is compiled in 56 volumes by Shogakukan.
25. Parasite
Parasite is an anime series from Madhouse that will keep you glued to the screen even though it only has one season. 24 episodes tell the story of the sci-fi adventure of a boy named Shinichi Izumi who becomes infected with a parasite that attacks and destroys humans by killing and consuming them. But a 17-year-old boy escapes with his headphones and the parasite enters his body through his right hand. Over time, Shinichi Izumi and a monster named Migi learn to coexist together in order to survive. So now he's half boy, half monster in search of survival.
The story of this uneasy coexistence will keep you on the edge of your seat for all 24 episodes.
It originally aired in 2014-2015 in Japan and a year later in North America via the Toonami block for Adult Swim. It's the perfect blend of horror, psychological thriller, drama, action and seinen.
It may have taken over 20 years to turn this bestselling manga series into an anime, but it's definitely worth the wait.
The change in the boy's personality as a result of the influence of Miga, as well as the internal battle that Shinichi faces to define himself as a human or a monster, is so interesting to watch that you will find yourself completely immersed in the storyline from the very beginning to the very end.
26. Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball is the first in a series that has led to amazing growth for the Dragon Ball franchise over the years.
Millions of fans around the world are crazy about the young boy Gokuu, who is unusually strong and lives alone in the forest. There he meets a girl named Bulma, who takes him with her in search of seven dragon balls, which, when combined, can fulfill any wish in the world. He already has one of the dragon balls, so Bulma asks him to join her so she can use the dragon ball as soon as she finds the others.
On the way, they meet two other friends who join them in their search - Muten-Roshi and Kuririn, with whom Gokuu prepares for the World Martial Arts Tournament.
The series includes some loud laughing moments as well as amazing action scenes that are really enjoyable to watch. While it's pretty funny at the beginning, the tone gets a little more serious towards the end of the episode.
Gokuu is one of the first hero archetypes, but he is not only a fighter, but also smart and funny and sometimes wise.
The series consists of 153 episodes that aired from 1986 to 1989, so it's pretty old, but this anime classic is definitely not out of date and will be loved by young and old anime fans for years to come.
27. Assassination Classroom
Assassin Classroom is a 22-episode series that first aired in 2015 but remains one of the most addictive school anime of all time.
The story revolves around 3rd grade students from Kunugigaoka Middle School who are all failures and get a new teacher in the class who is soon named Koro-sensei (unkillable teacher). The problem with the new teacher is that he is a strange tentacle creature that ends up on the government's most wanted list because he destroyed nearly two-thirds of the moon, leaving it permanently in the shape of a crescent moon. A strange creature teaches students in regular classes with the class about methods of murder.
The students get together and try to kill their teacher. This turns out to be a seemingly impossible task because Koro Sensei is capable of flying at Mach 20 and also turns out to be the best teacher a group of high school losers has ever had.
Murder in the classroom has loads of fun combined with a lot of action and is definitely among the most popular sci-fi manga series with over 20 million copies sold in Japan. It is illustrated and written by Yusei Matsui and was first shown in 2013 as the only original animation video, but was then adapted as an anime series by Lershe, and all 22 episodes aired in 2015 on Fuji TV. The series was licensed by Funimation for North American release.
Later, in 2015, a live-action film based on the manga was filmed, followed by a sequel, Assassin's Class: Prom 2016.
28. Noragami (Homeless God)
Noragami is an action-packed adventure comedy animated series that was released in 2014. The first season has 12 episodes, followed by a second season called Homeless God, with 13 more episodes, which aired in the fall of 2015 in Japan.
The story of the underage god Yato, who accidentally encounters high school student Hioka Iki, and their meeting changes both their fates.
Hioki Ili is an ordinary schoolgirl who once gets into a bus accident when she jumps to protect a complete stranger. The stranger turns out to be Yato, whose only goal and dream is to have millions of fans, and he is ready to do any odd job for 5 yen.
After an accident, the soul of a young girl begins to fall out of her body and ends up in a parallel world called the Near Coast, where all kinds of people and creatures are located, as well as on the Far Coast, where human souls and demons stay. ,
When her soul floats across parallel worlds, the girl meets Yato, who offers to solve the problem with her physical body. The two, accompanied by weapons, embark on numerous adventures together, resulting in a captivating, sometimes exciting adventure, as well as an intriguing story of how their relationship unfolds over time as they question and struggle with their identity, their past, and their friendship.
The manga was written by Adatitoka and was first released in 2011. Since then, the series has spanned over 20 tankobon volumes and continues to be one of the most popular Shonen manga series in Japan.
29. Report of Spirit Rampage (Yu Yu Hakusho)
The Spirit Rampage Report is a 112-episode television series that ran from October 1992 to January 1995.
It tells the story of a 14-year-old delinquent named Yuusuke Urameshi, who one day decides to do the right thing and do something completely altruistic, and jumps in front of a moving car to save a young boy's life.
Due to this turn of events in his attitude and the final sacrifice that he was ready to make, the authorities of the spiritual realm, led by Coenma, who is the heir to the throne, decided to give Yuusuka a chance to regain his real physical life by completing the number of tasks given to him.
With the help of Botna, the god of death, the boy is sent back as a detective of the spirit underworld to fight evil creatures.
On his side are ex-rival Kazuma Kuwabara and Hiei and Kurama - two demons with a criminal past.
They all learn martial arts together and move on to fight enemies that threaten all human existence.
The anime is based on the manga series illustrated and written by Yoshihiro Togashi, which consists of 175 chapters in 19 tankobon volumes. The manga series has sold over 50 million copies in Japan.
It was licensed by Funimation in 2001 for North America and was broadcast on Cartoon Network for adult swimmers and Tunami.
The Spirit Rampage report is still very popular with anime fans who appreciate the breathtaking action, martial arts, and comedic and supernatural aspects of the series.
