Millions of votes later, crowd rankings still manage to put titles side by side that would never share a shelf in a careful personal top ten. That tension is exactly why this list is useful — and why it should never be treated as gospel.
What follows is a TOP 238 ranking of the best anime of all time drawn from a large Ranker survey. A big share of those votes comes from a U.S.-heavy audience, so the order will clash with plenty of local tastes. I personally do not agree with most of the TOP 10 — only Code Geass and Death Note feel solid there. For my own shortlist, I keep my ranking of favorite anime.
Use this page as a discovery map, not a verdict. Scroll for titles you skipped, note the bias of the source, then build your own order.
Contents 4
How this ranking was built
The backbone is a Ranker crowd ranking: users vote titles up and down until a popular order emerges. That method rewards visibility and mass appeal as much as craft. Long-running shonen, viral hits, and shows with huge English-speaking fandoms tend to climb; quieter classics can sink even when critics adore them.
Because the poll is not a critic jury and not a single-score database, treat positions as popularity signals. The same title can sit near the top on Ranker and much lower — or higher — on score-driven charts such as MyAnimeList.
How to use this TOP list
- Scan the upper third for widely known gateways if you are new to anime.
- Hunt the middle and lower ranks for series that rarely appear in “top 10” thinkpieces — those are often the best discovery finds.
- Compare seasons and remakes carefully: a franchise may appear more than once under different titles.
- Cross-check anything you plan to binge with a scored list or a critic compilation when you care about quality consensus rather than crowd heat.
TOP 238 anime of all time
Names only, in Ranker order after cleaning exact duplicates and clear alias repeats. Some titles use English localization; others keep the original romanization. Detailing every synopsis here would turn this into a book — other lists on the site go deeper by genre and theme.
- Death Note
- Attack on Titan
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Naruto Shippuden
- Naruto
- Dragon Ball Z
- Sword Art Online
- Code Geass
- Hunter x Hunter
- Bleach
- Fairy Tail
- One Piece
- Tokyo Ghoul
- Cowboy Bebop
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- The Seven Deadly Sins
- Steins;Gate
- Blue Exorcist
- Soul Eater
- Akame Ga Kill
- No Game No Life
- Pokémon
- My Hero Academia
- Parasyte
- Dragon Ball
- Assassination Classroom
- One-Punch Man
- InuYasha
- Samurai Champloo
- Noragami
- Sword Art Online II
- Yu Yu Hakusho
- Fate/Zero
- Psycho-Pass
- Trigun
- Rurouni Kenshin
- Angel Beats!
- High School of the Dead
- Elfen Lied
- The Future Diary
- Magi
- Black Butler
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Gurren Lagann
- Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma
- Ouran High School Host Club
- Berserk
- The Devil is a Part-timer
- High School DxD
- Hellsing
- Kill La Kill
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Your Lie in April
- Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
- Hellsing Ultimate
- Toradora!
- Owari No Seraph
- Black Clover
- Death Parade
- Haikyuu!
- Another
- Kuroko's Basketball
- Fate/stay night
- Overlord
- Charlotte
- Deadman Wonderland
- Mob Psycho 100
- Durarara!!
- Dragon Ball Super
- Sailor Moon
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
- Fairy Tail Zero
- The Irregular at Magic High School
- Darker Than Black
- Clannad: After Story
- Gin Tama
- Black Lagoon
- D.Gray-man
- Maid Sama
- Guilty Crown
- Claymore
- Log Horizon
- Fruits Basket
- Rosario + Vampire
- K
- Re:ZERO - Starting Life in Another World
- Spice and Wolf
- Free!
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
- Akatsuki No Yona
- Nisekoi
- Case Closed
- Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
- Clannad
- Magi: the Adventures of Sinbad
- Blood Lad
- Trinity Seven
- Snow White with the Red Hair
- Monster
- Beelzebub
- Baccano!
- Mushishi
- Btooom!
- Vampire Knight
- Kamisama Kiss
- Reborn!
- Ranma ½
- Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Aren't They?
- Afro Samurai
- Blood+
- Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
- Full Metal Panic!
- Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple
- Kaze no Stigma
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
- Heaven's Lost Property
- Golden Time
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
- Black Bullet
- Cardcaptor Sakura
- Hajime no Ippo
- Accel World
- Dragon Ball GT
- Hyouka
- Great Teacher Onizuka
- Shaman King
- Danganronpa The Animation
- Strike the Blood
- Vampire Hunter D
- A Certain Magical Index
- Eureka 7
- Wolf's Rain
- Chobits
- Beyond the Boundary
- Kimi ni Todoke
- Special A
- Zero no Tsukaima
- KonoSuba
- K-On!
- Aldnoah Zero
- Baka and Test
- Absolute Duo
- The Pet Girl of Sakurasou
- Outlaw Star
- Sekirei
- Say I Love You
- Tokyo Ravens
- Beyblade
- A Certain Scientific Railgun
- Devil May Cry: The Animated Series
- Slam Dunk
- Freezing
- Samurai 7
- Bakemonogatari
- Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
- Infinite Stratos
- Ergo Proxy
- Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal
- Space Dandy
- Is This a Zombie?
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00
- Gantz
- Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
- Gangsta
- Terror in Resonance
- Tenchi Muyo
- Black Cat
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- The Promised Neverland
- Voltron
- Ghost in the Shell: Arise
- Saint Seiya
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!
- Junjo Romantica: Pure Romance
- Code:Breaker
- Violet Evergarden
- My Love Story!!
- Lupin III
- Doraemon
- Nana
- Diabolik Lovers
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- When They Cry - Higurashi
- xxxHOLiC
- Bakuman
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
- Knights of Sidonia
- Rakudai Kishi No Cavalry
- .hack//Sign
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
- Pandora Hearts
- Slayers
- Welcome to the N.H.K.
- Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan
- Durarara!!x2
- Oh My Goddess!
- Lucky Star
- The Big O
- The Vision of Escaflowne
- Watamote!
- The Heroic Legend of Arslan
- 49 Days
- Prince of Tennis
- Freezing Vibration
- The World Is Still Beautiful
- The Rising of the Shield Hero
- Ghost Hunt
- Shakugan no Shana
- B Gata H Kei
- Amnesia
- Basilisk
- Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
- To Love Ru
- Date A Live
- Karneval
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam
- Initial D
- Robotech
- Witch Hunter Robin
- Oregairu
- Barakamon
- School Rumble
- Ninja Scroll: The Series
- Shiki
- Hetalia - Axis Powers
- Gunslinger Girl
- Eyeshield 21
- Last Exile
- Skip Beat!
- Paranoia Agent
- Spirited Away
- Speed Racer
Other ways people rank “the best”
Crowd votes are only one lens. Score boards like MyAnimeList surface different leaders because members rate after watching, not only after voting in a popularity poll. Editorial rankings (Collider, long-form “best of” essays, retrospective lists) weight writing, influence, and craft more than pure buzz. Personal tops — including mine — accept bias on purpose: they explain taste instead of pretending neutrality.
If a title here feels overrated, underwatched, or simply wrong for you, that is expected. The list’s job is to put hundreds of names in one place so you can argue, sample, and rebuild the order in your own head.
Enjoy the scroll. Steal a few titles you had forgotten, ignore the ones that never clicked, and keep your own ranking honest.
Community
Comments
0 comments
There are no published comments in this language yet.
Send comment