Top 80 most must watch anime

Imagine if 1,000 alternative versions of youself met up in the after life and started voting on which anime they thought was the best. I think most versions of myself would overwhelmingly have either Texhnolyze or Evangelion as their favourite, but it’s possible that some of them hadn’t gotten the chance to see either of those series and as a result have a different favourite. For all I know, I could be a version of myself that has not seen my true favourite.

To find this “true favourite” is a daunting task: at least 10,000 anime have been produced, and few people are willing to put in the necessary time to watch every single one of them, so they have to use heuristics like aesthetics, first impressions, recommendations, popularity, reviews, prestige, and genres to identify anime that they are likely to like. Now that I’ve watched over 200 anime, it is easy to predict which anime I will and will not enjoy, but in the beginning I was clueless and wasted a lot of time watching stuff that just was not good.

For that reason, I’ve decided to make this top X must watch list that will help people maximize the likelihood they find their true favourite.

Without further ado:

1. Evangelion: it is a personal favourite of mine, and I would consider it to be one of the best of all time. But this is not why I put it first; I did so because it has a high mean and standard deviation in terms of ratings — a lot of people really like it, and a lot of people really hate it, in comparison to something like FMA which is more universally liked but not as intensely.

2. Death Note: along with Evangelion, FMA, Berserk, and Steins;Gate, I would consider it to be one of the 5 GOAT contenders. Drops off a bit at the end, but the beginning is absolute cinema.

3. Fullmetal Alchemist

4. Perfect Blue: probably the best anime movie, directed by the inimitable Satoshi Kon.

5. One Piece: it’s not one of the best, and not that much of a favourite among the community, but I put it high on the list because of the raw number of anime that aped it; if somebody does not like One Piece, they wont like the hundreds of other anime that copied it. Though the reverse is not true; people who like One Piece might not like the imitations because they just are not as good.

6. Princess Mononoke: Miyazaki is a controversial director in elitist anime circles, some people think he’s too repetitive and saccharine while others think he is an artistic genius. Debate aside, as a director his movies must be watched, and I consider this one to be his magnum opus — it’s political but not preachy like his previous works and showcases his ability to write more mature and violent works.

7. Cowboy Bebop: it’s better than Samurai Champloo. It’s a bit overrated but it would be a snub to not to have it as a must watch

8. Steins;Gate

9. Fate/Zero: the first season is too dialogue heavy and full of plot conveniences, but the 2nd season is easily a 10/10. A good introduction to the nasuverse.

10. Berserk

11. Paprika

12. Spirited Away

13. Code Geass: it came, it conquered, and stood the test of time. Haters have gotten quieter over the years.

14. Attack on Titan

15. Tatami Galaxy: no, it’s not pretentious. Reviewers are braindead.

16. Shinsekai Yori: this should have been the GOAT anime; unfortunately A1P griefed the production.

17. Legend of the Galactic Heroes: not my thing, but needed to be on the list given how many people have it as a personal favourite.

18. Serial Experiments Lain: didn’t find this enjoyable, but is a must watch by virtue of its artistic and cultural value.

19. Hunter x Hunter

20. Monogatari Series

21. Texhnolyze

22. Welcome to the NHK!

23. JoJo: my hot take is that the only good JoJo parts are 1, 2, and 4; it dropped off.

24. Nana

25. Great Teacher Onizuka: like every comedy, it falls off, but GTO had the decency of ending before things got too sloppy.

26. Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro: one of Miyazaki’s best films, but most have not even heard of it.

27. Mushishi: I hate this anime.

28. Samurai Champloo

29. Akira

30. 5cm per second: one of the most powerful endings I’ve ever seen.

31. School Days: very underrated, even without considering the ending.

32. Ergo Proxy

33. Garden of Sinners

34. Mushoku Tensei

35. Dragon Ball: aged poorly and has snail pacing.

36. Darker than Black

37. Ouran High School Host Club

38. Planetes

39. Vampire Hunter D

40. Your Name

41. Madoka Magicka: never got into this.

42. Gurren Lagann

43. FLCL

44. Baccano!

45. Kaiba

46. Ghost in the Shell (film)

47. Aggretsuko

48. Hellsing

49. A Silent Voice

50. Angel’s Egg

51. Ghost in the Shell (Stand Alone Complex): great, but can’t help but notice few people have it as an all-time favourite.

52. Fate/Stay Night

53. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

54. Naruto: for the first 60 episodes that were good and its cultural influence.

55. Re:Zero

56. Clannad: I thought it was childish and unfunny.

57. Milennium Actress

58. Blue Gender

59. Panty & Stocking

60. Mawaru Penguindrum

61. Mobile Suit Gundam

62. Aria the Animation: paint drying, the anime. But people who like to watch paint dry seem to really love it.

63. Mirai Nikki

64. Vinland Saga

65. Sword Art Online: for cultural reasons alone. Very few people who watched every anime on this list would come out having SAO as their favourite anime.

66. Monster

67. Kill la Kill: couldn’t get into this.

68. Revolutionary Girl Utena: was good, but rather repetitive and failed to make meaningful progress in its first 10 episodes.

69. Ninja Scroll

70. Gintama: hasn’t aged well.

71. Kino no Tabi: From the little that I saw, I thought it was overly intellectual.

72. Soul Eater

73. Terror in Resonance

74. Haibane Renmei

75. March Comes Like a Lion: I thought this anime was unengaging and lacked direction.

76. Made in Abyss

77. Spy X Family

78. Kaiji: hot take — it’s mid and will only be remembered for its art and being what Squid Game copied.

79. Death Parade

80. Cyberpunk Edgerunners: I didn’t think this was good, but something has to occupy the 80th slot.

I would guess that if somebody independently watched every single anime series on the planet, there is a 95% chance their favourite anime would be in this top 80 list. This is also not a top 80 best anime ever list — it’s just a list of the top 80 series that need to be watched the most, though placing and perceived quality highly correlate.

There are certainly some notable entries I excluded from the list. If there was a culturally prominent anime that I didn’t like, or had doubts about the degree to which the acclaim it got was legitimate, I shoved it into the must watch list anyway — not without calling it out, of course. There are, however, some popular or well liked anime that would be unlikely to be the favourites of anybody who had watched the top 80 anime that I listed:

1. Bleach: not terrible, but it’s the worst of the big 3, and somebody who has watched every single battle shounen is unlikely to have this as their favourite anime.

2. Mob Psycho 100: surprised this got popular at all. The art is mid, it lacks flair, and is not original.

3. One Punch Man: it’s literally the same joke over and over again. It is a “deconstruction”, but it’s still repetitive. And even as a deconstruction it’s not even that good, everybody and their mom knows that battle shounen are kind of ridiculous so the message does not resonate with more experienced viewers.

4. Boku No Hero Academia: I think it started out fine, but over time, the author’s lack of competence showed itself.

5. Yuri on Ice: mid, and only became prominent because of the gay stuff.

6. Psycho Pass: back in the day I thought people were out of their minds for thinking this was mid. Now that I’ve rewatched it, I hate to say that I agree.

7. Demon Slayer: it’s better than maybe a fourth of the entries on the top 80 list but it’s too generic to be a must watch.

8. Eden of the East: fine, but not top 80 must watch material.

9. Trigun: good, but outclassed by Cowboy Bebop.

10. Nausicaa: mid.

11. Kaguyasama: mid.

12. No Game No Life: slop.

13. ERASED: overly maligned, but not good.

14. Jujutsu Kaisen: Naruto ripoff.

15. Noragami!: never watched it, but based on vibes I doubt it’s anything worth caring about.

16. Chainsaw Man: what’s the appeal?

17. Jin Rou: extraordinarily slow paced and soulless.

18. Overlord: just sucked.

19. Log Horizon: boring as hell. Zero stakes.

20. Laputa’s Castle: I can see why adults like Spirited Away, but I found this movie too childish.

21. Grand Blue: was funny… sometimes? Otherwise it was just mid.

There are a few anime that look like they could be in the top 80 list but that I have not watched, which I present in order of importance:

1. Yu Yu Hakusho

2. Ping Pong Animation

3. Usagi Drop

4. Zetsubo Sensei

5. Fullmetal Panic

6. Katanagatari

7. KON!

8. Hajime no Ippo

9. Ashita no Joe

10. Nadia

11. Kare Kano

12. Frieren

13. Toradora!

14. Violet Evergarden

15. Lucky Star

16. Ghost Hunt

17. Mononoke

18. Scientific Railgun

19. Konosuba

20. Tiger & Bunny

21. Golden Kamuy

22. Fruits Basket

23. Angel Beats!

24. Eve no Jikan

25. To Your Eternity

Although not technically anime, RWBY would rank somewhere in the 20-40 range, ATLA would rank somewhere in the 15-30 range, and Arcane would rank somewhere in the 50-80 range.

Top 100 will be out sometime around the end of next year with School Days in a higher position, Elfen Lied/Gankutsuo on the list, and with some entries from the list of anime I thought could be good but never watched.