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.

• 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. 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. 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

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.

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.

I just started watching anime in the last 6 months or so, before that I had mostly only seen Ghibli stuff and like DBZ on Toonami when I was 12. Since I started, though, I’ve been making pretty good progress through shows. Here’s my top 10 of what I’ve watched since I started this project:

1. Bocchi The Rock!
2. Dungeon Meshi
3. Sousou no Frieren
4. MakeIne: Too Many Losing Heroines!
5. Dandadan
6. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really Really REALLY Love You
7. K-On!
8. The Quintessential Quintuplets
9. Chainsaw Man
10. Gushing over Magical Girls 👀

I’m in the middle of Blue Box and Roshidere right now and they’re both pretty good, though I don’t think either will supplant anything in this list. I did not expect to like rom-com and slice-of-life stuff as much as I clearly do.

Not in any particular order, but of ~500 completed my top MAL scores are these:

Am autistic, can’t rate favorites in order or other favorites will get jealous, so. In no particular order:

• Ergo Proxy

Knight’s & Magic * Made In Abyss * Eighty Six * Samurai Champloo * To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts * The Ancient Magus’ Bride * Gurren Lagann * Darling in the FRANXX * Rising of the Shield Hero (season 1) * Eureka 7 * Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress * Fire Force * FLCL * Mob Psycho 100 * KonoSuba * Kill La Kill * Overlord * That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

• Ghost in the Shell (literally all of it. Usually I hate 3-D model CGI but)

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

1. Re:Zero
2. Steins;Gate
3. Fate (Everything except Stay Night and UBW)
4. Saiyuki
5. Summer Time Rendering
6. Horimiya
7. Clannad
8. Made in Abyss
9. Josee to Tora to Sakana-tachi
10. Gundam IBO 11.Natsume Yuujinchou
11. Barakamon
12. Re:Creators

I know, that’s more than 10. Love em all anyway.

Some of these I haven’t watched in a while, so the order could be different after rewatching them:

1. March comes in like a lion
2. Spirited Away
3. Hunter x Hunter
4. Kaguya-sama: Love is War
5. Made in Abyss
6. Oshi No Ko
7. Delicious in Dungeon
8. Ascendance of a Bookworm
9. The Dangers in My Heart
10. Your Lie in April

I like drama and slice of life the most.

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.