Over a Christmas break in 2013, I binged Attack on Titan and became an anime fan. This often surprises the friends that I’ve made since then because, what with how I talk about this industry and my favorite shows therein, one would think I’ve been this way since I was a kid. My high school pals have been watching Dragonball and Naruto since they were kids, but they would likely call me out as the biggest weeb in the group.

A few years ago, I decided that when 2024 struck, I’d have a list of the top ten anime I have watched in those ten years. And then, New Year’s came and went and I realized I’d completely forgotten to write this. Thankfully, I already had the skeleton of a list ready to go and only had to make a few adjustments. I know I haven’t kept up with this blog as much as I would have liked, but I wasn’t about to miss this occasion.

So without further ado, whether you’re a friend or mutual anime blogger with whom I have been blessed to share this platform, here are the best anime I have ever seen.

The Criteria

• The anime need not have come out specifically within the decade that I have been an anime fan. This isn’t a decade in review, but a medium in review through the lens of the decade I have spent with it.
• I want to minimize repeats of certain franchises wherever possible. Meaning, that if I think an entire multi-season TV show is exceptional, the show as an entity will be listed. However, this may not include the franchise as a whole, if a particular series or film is considered to be a separate or standalone entity. For the sake of variety, I will try to pick only the best part of a specific franchise.
• That’s basically it. No need to complicate a universally understood format.

#10 | Redline

Damn…

Honestly, what else needs to be said. This is one of the most impressive animated films of all time. Over seven years, Takeshi Koike and the team at Madhouse constructed something that feels so much bigger than the 102-minute runtime of the final product. The large cast, the expansive universe, the lore – all of these things could have drowned this production under a wave of overambition, and yet, it fucking slaps.

Sure, some plotlines are undercooked, but the story generally knows who and what is most important. In the end, it’s a love story born out of a shared love of the thrill of racing and what it represents. There are few films like Redline, and that’s part of what makes it so special. Because even if you get to the end and think “I wish there was more” or “It could have been better,” I guarantee you will never forget it.

For more on this film and its production, check out this awesome video by STEVEM from two years ago.

#9 | Attack on Titan

Given how this list was introduced, this one shouldn’t have been unexpected. Attack on Titan was my first, but I think it would be unwise to regard its status on the list as merely a reflection of my personal fondness for it. To look back at the first season alone, it is a feat of visual and musical strength as titanic as the name suggests.

As this series was coming to an end, many yearned for the old days when WIT Studio was still in charge, but I think that by the end of the series’ run at WIT, even they struggled to meet the standard they set. The Canipa Effect’s video on Attack on Titan from 2021 illustrates the incredible work of animators like Arifumi Imai who helped define the way the series looked.

The thick black outlines around the characters, the blend of 2D and 3D, and the overall aesthetic are at their strongest during Season 1, but this set a standard that would be very hard to replicate. Each subsequent season struggled to maintain that standard of quality, while over time, the art direction shifted to stay more faithful to the manga, finding a comfortable balance.

But enough about the technical qualities. The reason this show meant so much to me was Tetsurou Araki’s directing, Hiroyuki Sawano’s music, the incredible cast, and a story that evolved in ways I never could have imagined. What began as an inspiring tale about the human spirit morphed into an examination of hatred that made me rethink everything I previously thought about the series.

It was heartbreaking and beautiful – as succinct a summary of the series as could possibly be written. I just wish the ending didn’t leave me feeling so conflicted. Perhaps with time, I’ll warm up to it, but even if I don’t, I will never forget what an incredible journey this series was.

#8 | Psycho-Pass

To be precise with this next series, I’m referring mostly to Season 1, written by Gen Urobuchi, as it is largely agreed to be where this franchise peaked. I’ve watched every other part of this franchise and while I have enjoyed several of them and love getting more out of this world, I can’t say it has ever come close to how it started.

Psycho-Pass could be called the Minority Report of anime, but that doesn’t quite come close to expressing how brilliantly this show builds its world. It’s so much more than “a future where the police can predict who will commit crimes.” The technology at the core of the police drama is only one utility within a system that has made demonstrable improvements to society.

It is an examination of free will, justice, and the spirit of the law. It’s a neo-noir detective story bathed in sci-fi dystopia, that plays with expectations to craft an unpredictable tale of its two leads. In a future where a “perfect” system has changed society, a villain comes along to whom the safety net of the future has no dominion.

He brings about chaos, seeking to destroy this society, and in the process of fighting him, the characters entertain abandoning their ideas of justice to stop him. But the story’s greatest achievement is arguing the merits of that imperfect system, which is to say, holding onto one’s faith in justice.

Shinya Kogami is the character whom many will flock to as the main character; a symbol of the neo-noir detective who is bitter rivals with the villain, Shogo Makisima. However, as the story approaches its climax, it becomes pretty clear that Akane Tsunemori, the rookie in the unity, is the “true” protagonist. Because she is the one who holds onto the belief that there is merit to the story’s futuristic society worth protecting.

If there is any point in watching the sequels to the first season, it is to see how wonderfully Akane is developed and how she grows so much stronger and more confident. She is one of my favorite women in all of anime for a reason and I desperately wish that real-life law enforcement was more like her. Psycho-Pass is an incredible blend of sci-fi, horror, and noir that not even its own creators could top past the first season.

#7 | Blood Blockade Battlefront

Truth be told, Blood Blockade Battlefront – or Kekkai Sensen as I will call it for the remainder of this piece – used to be in my top 3. It still might be if a certain other show didn’t come in, but we’ll get to that later. Kekkai Sensen may have fallen, but surely not far, because I would never forgive myself for not putting it in the top ten.

I should get into the content of these series themselves quicker, but there’s just so much to say and the first thing on my mind whenever I think of Kekkai is thus: WHY has Rie Matsumoto not directed MORE?! She is an incredibly talented director whose vision creates these hyperactive but always wonderfully human stories about family, love, and growing up. And Kekkai Sensen is as good as it is BECAUSE of her.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that Kekkai‘s original author is Yasuhiro Nightow, the guy behind Trigun, but even fans of Kekkai‘s manga agree that it doesn’t have much of a story. Rie came into the board meeting and said “Hey, I’ve got two original characters here and I’m just gonna build the season around them so that there’s a complete story.” And it ended up elevating every other aspect of the series – especially the main character.

Leonardo Watch is a kid who is burdened with a special power at a great cost to his own sister and goes to the most dangerous city in the world to find out how to help her. He’s a fish out of water in a melting pot of monsters and aliens that used to be New York City, working with eclectic superhumans to take on Avengers-level threats on the daily. It’s an exaggerated coming-of-age story wherein Leo finds strength within himself.

Since the manga doesn’t have a real ongoing narrative, Leo never really gets closer to fixing his core problem, but Rie’s story in Season 1 gives him characters he can relate to. Through the self-contained story of William and Mary MacBeth, he’s allowed to be the hero in a story with an actual ending and one that fulfills his thesis while leaving room for more adventures.

The rest of the cast isn’t forgotten either – they become the family that Leo needs to realize his strength. Ultimately, it culminates in one of the greatest finales of any season of television I’ve ever seen. This is one of the best examples of why anime-original content need not be dismissed outright. It’s a masterpiece from a director who is going places (and who I would appreciate the industry letting go to those places sooner rather than later).

#6 | Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster

There was a part of me that just wanted to include both 1988’s Gunbuster and 2004’s Diebuster, but I decided that the latter had just a little more impact on me. Specifically, when I bought the Blu-ray collection of both, I was shocked to remember just how gorgeous Diebuster is. It might be the best of Gainax’s mecha prowess condensed into a single shell, and that’s saying a lot.

Sure, I’m not in love with all of the fanservice and it made it a little awkward to show it to my sister after we had finished watching Gunbuster together. Like, I know Gunbuster had fanservice too but somehow I just feel like it was done better there. Diebuster honestly gets a pass though, because everything else about its storytelling hits so perfectly that each time I watch it, I question the standards of pacing in every other show.

Just like Hideaki Anno’s original Gunbuster, Kazuya Tsurumaki’s Diebuster is a six-episode OVA, and the director of FLCL really makes each episode count. It might be the perfect legacy sequel, and its secrets to success could honestly help Hollywood get it right more often if they took the right notes, much less took notice of this series.

Diebuster is set so long after the original that it being connected in any way feels like an afterthought. Yet, the way it is themed and the way characters fill similar roles creates something that is structurally and thematically familiar, but tonally and stylistically distinct. The story even makes a point of subverting expectations with each plot point; even when characters fill similar roles to Gunbuster, they never go quite the same way.

Nono is a girl who desperately wants to be a Buster Machine Pilot so she can be just like her idol “Nono-Riri.” When she meets one such pilot, Lal’c Melk Mark, a so-called “Topless,” her life changes forever, but mostly because Nono reveals that she’s not a normal girl at all, but rather an android of unknown origin. Already quite the departure from Gunbuster‘s Noriko.

It’s ridiculous, loud, bombastic, cool, weird, funny, and most of all, heartfelt. I’m starting to sense a pattern between a few entries on this list. I adore stories that throw everything at the wall, not out of carelessness, but overwhelming enthusiasm. Like Kekkai, Diebuster also has one of my favorite conclusions ever, and one that hits you with just how much the journey has meant to you, all as it’s about to end.

#5 | Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door)

All right, allow me to address the obvious. “Matt,” you might ask, “Why put the movie and not just ‘Cowboy Bebop‘? Especially when you’ve already specified that a series might include its associated movies.” Well because in the decade that I’ve been an anime fan, I’ve only ever watched Bebop all the way through one time.

Granted I’ve revisited “Ballad of Fallen Angels” and “Jupiter Jazz” countless times, but I’ve never had the yearning to revisit the entire series in one binge. Much like with Shinichiro Watanabe’s other beloved Toonami classic, Samurai Champloo, I have to be in a very particular mood (one that has not come yet). With that said, I can rewatch Cowboy Bebop: The Movie at any time. Just like the first Avengers movie, it is a comfort movie that never fails to make me smile.

Cowboy Bebop‘s movie is also the perfect dose of almost everything the show does well. Even if you’ve never watched the series, you can watch the movie and understand everything you need to know about these characters to be invested. And, like the series, the real driving force of the story is the supporting cast and their complicated lives which the Bebop crew have been pulled into.

When I rewatch the end of the TV series, I’ve come to think of the movie as the essential companion to the finale, whether viewed before or after. There’s something about the way Vincent and his journey to “wake up from his dream” that echoes in Spike’s final stand against the syndicate. In that final scene of the TV series, I like to imagine that Spike is thinking of Vincent, another lost soul like him, searching for an end to the dream.

Best of all, this movie is the best that Cowboy Bebop has ever looked in animation. Unlike the series, it was animated by Studio Bones (Fullmetal Alchemist, My Hero Academia, Mob Psycho 100), the studio that was effectively birthed from Bebop‘s success. With Masahiro Ando as animation director, this also means some of the greatest fights not only in the series but in anime, period.

#4 | Violet Evergarden: The Movie

This is a similar situation to #5, but it’s only because I want to specifically stress just how important this film is to me. For what it’s worth, consider this a recommendation for the TV series and the OVA Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll, but… good lord this movie destroyed me. It is by far the hardest I’ve ever cried, not only in a theater but watching a movie in general.

It was spring 2021 and people were just starting to flock to theaters once again after the worst of the pandemic. Before then, many movies that I loved came out, but I missed their theatrical runs, fearing for my safety – especially after my family had caught COVID. My father ended up in the hospital, and for the first time since he had beaten cancer one year prior, I feared that I would lose him.

Now that I think about it, this experience through the pandemic might have contributed to the emotions I felt during Violet Evergarden: The Movie. It serves as a conclusion to the story that began with the series, with the titular Violet holding out hope that Major Gilbert is still alive and finally discovering the truth about his fate.

This movie is wonderful, not only for how it brings the above story to a close but also for the B-plot running alongside it, which I almost consider more important. In explaining why, I will offer minor spoilers but I will restrain myself as best as possible. See, the whole series, Violet has been writing letters for people as an exercise in getting closer to others – to understand their feelings and convey them to the recipients of those letters.

But the movie presents a seeming obstacle; the invention of the telephone. Like with many technological advancements, it is wonderful but also inconvenient for some. The principal cast is comprised of auto memory dolls, a fancy word for ghostwriters, composing peoples’ letters via typewriter. As one might expect, the phone risks putting them out of business.

This is introduced early on, alongside a wave of post-war advances, but it doesn’t come back in full force until later. Violet takes on a job from a young boy who doesn’t have long to live, to write letters for his parents and infant brother, but the one person he can’t find the words for is his best friend.

During the climax, circumstances prevent Violet from reaching the boy. Suddenly, that technology that seemed like an antagonist comes clutch to connect a dying boy and his best friend. It’s a devastating sequence that began a torrent of tears that didn’t cease for almost 10 minutes. And that’s before the boy’s letters are read aloud.

Violet Evergarden: The Movie completes its message about connection by reminding the viewer of the beauty of any medium that can connect people together. Change can be scary, but it can yield great things for humanity. At the time I saw the film, it made me appreciate what tools I had to not be alone during one of the scariest times of my life.

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To forewarn you, I might not have quite as much to say about the last three on this list. In that case, some might wonder why they are so high, but that’s because I never shut up about them already and I’ve articulated why I love them across this and other websites. This is simply my time to succinctly summarize their quality and why I love them. With that in mind…

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#3 | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Some people have Star Wars. Others have Star Trek. Real ones have Dune. I have Ghost in the Shell. It is my quintessential science fiction series, and Stand Alone Complex is one of the very best entries in that franchise. Across two seasons, it blends all of the elements that make every other film before it special, all while capitalizing on political drama and predictions about the internet that were frighteningly accurate.

Season 1 tackles the Laughing Man case, which explores how the internet spreads and mutates urban legends. It examines how truth can be lost in a sea of data and how one event can reverberate through the cultural consciousness, becoming immortalized without being immediately recognizable. 2nd Gig (Season 2) employs similar themes to tackle a story about a refugee crisis and information manipulation.

This series is a blessing to this franchise because it felt like the writers could explore the depths of this world and characters like no movie could allow before. The entire Section 9 unit feels more fleshed out, which makes it feel more like an ensemble, even if Major, Batou, and Togusa are still the ones we care the most about in the end.

Just as I am a sucker for shows brimming with energy, I am equally a sucker for impactful endings, which kinda feels like a nothing statement at first. Like, obviously the ending is paramount, but there are good endings and then there are great ones, and SAC is very much the latter. The Season 2 finale is what every television drama wishes it could be. So many moving parts, and so many points of tension, and it all ties together brilliantly.

This is one of the most expensive TV anime ever made and it shows, especially in 2nd Gig. With its intelligent script alone, it would feel right at home on HBO. There is no definitive version of Ghost in the Shell, but if you put a gun to my head and told me to pick one, this would be the no-brainer.

#2 | Snow White with the Red Hair

Snow White with the Red Hair brought me and my sister closer together but even before that I loved it. Shirayuki is one of the most inspiring female characters I’ve ever seen and her romance with Prince Zen is one of the most mature, healthy, and gratifying. I haven’t mentioned English Dubs thus far in this top ten and I’m not in the mood to specify which I watched for each entry, but I have to mention it in this case.

Brina Palencia and Jessie James Grelle are two of my favorite voice actors of all time and this show is a big reason why. Their performances are the biggest reason why I am a defender of English dubs and their chemistry is perfection. Were it not for such great performances, I’m not sure my love would be as strong as it is now.

The only thing this show shares with the fairy tale from which it derives its name is the name itself. It is not a love story elevated by fantasy, but a fairy tale elevated by a profoundly human approach to romance that feels nuanced. All of this comes from director Masahiro Ando, the same man who, as you might recall from earlier, worked on the Cowboy Bebop movie. The man truly has range and god bless him for it.

#1 | Bungo Stray Dogs

Bungo Stray Dogs isn’t just my favorite anime of all time. It is the most important story in this chapter of my life. And when I say shit like that, I feel like I’m only making it harder to recommend it to people. Not cause I’m worried my praises will sound corny because fuck that – I love what I love and I’m happy to preach about it. No, my issue is that I’m underselling the journey that this show took me on to make me love it.

At first, this show is just good. Season 1 is entertaining, has great character moments, great action, an immaculate score, and ends leaving me wanting for more. Season 2 made me fall in love and convinced me this series was in my top 10 at least. Season 3 came out while I was studying abroad in Japan and it got me so hyped that it became my #1. And since then, that really has not changed.

In the beginning, it’s just a really well-done action series about superhumans named after authors fighting each other. But at a certain point, the threads started connecting and I became aware of a deeper throughline to the story, one that convinced me that it wasn’t just good, but excellent. Deep beneath the literary allusions and theatrical character drama, there was a story about trauma, belonging, and self-affirmation.

Bungo Stray Dogs isn’t just called that to sound cool. It is a story about orphans searching for a place to belong. More specifically, it is about people so hurt that they’ve convinced themselves they don’t deserve to live, and their journeys to find the strength to tell themselves the simple truth that they do. It’s not exactly a hidden message, but as the story goes on, the passion behind that message only becomes more evident and more beautiful.

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This post has been a long time coming but I wasn’t sure I’d get it done as quickly as I did, which was a great surprise. So much of the energy I have dedicated to writing goes into my work at Game Rant that I don’t always have enough to post more here. This was really fun and hopefully, this won’t be the last time I have a surge of inspiration to write here again.

Until then, thank you all for reading and, as always, I’ll see ya next time.