The Only Animes Truly Worth Watching (series)

Cream of the crop. Fantastic characters, story, most of the episodic storylines, and animation/art. Watch the movie before the last 4 episodes for the best experience that is chronologically accurate.

Small, spiritual stories that have poetic artfulness. Season 2 is also great.

Still haven't finished this one, but besides overused flashbacks at times, this is incredible stuff. The dub is also solid but not better than Cowboy Bebops. Edit: After finishing the entire thing, I can safely say that I wasn't disappointed. Whenever the show started becoming a little tedious, it would switch characters, sides, or gears, and the new stuff would always be fresh and exciting. The ending leaves a lot of room for thinking, and there are many possible interpretations for the whole story.

Special OVA, people in the 90s really knew how to make an anime. Eternal animation and art quality. The main anime is a joke compared to this.

Great season 1 with an even better season 2. GITS series is almost a match for Oshii's movies.

A crazy, stylized, samurai show with subtleness and cinematic qualities. After finishing, go read the manga.

What can I say about this one? It's still the best rendition of Berserk, just lacking in the animation department. Don't watch the newer adaptations except for the movies.

Not as great as Cowboy Bebop, of course, but still a very unique, picturesque, traditional and urban show with great music and the coolest of characters. This anime probably has the best opening in current anime history.

Best shonen out there, beautifully realized by the MADhouse studio. Old HxH is also worth watching if not better in some aspects.

True GoT of anime that has a trashy sequel, sadly. The most epic show on this list.

I've mentioned above that I heard the old HxH is quite good. Well, it's not just quite good, it's equal to the new one. Not as polished, not as sharp in design, not as animated perhaps, but it's also not as playful, bright, and innocent which is a positive. The music is also, as seems to be the case with older anime, much more atmosphere-centric, and it doesn't beat you over the head with constant leitmotifs that are so repetitive. The 1999 version is a must-watch for admirers of great shonen titles.

This is the type of anime that appears only once in some ten years' time. An almost perfect visual marvel, with absolutely fitting music for the cyberpunk sub-genre and good sympathetic characters that you love to watch. At first glance, it seems like a mindless fun type of show, but later you get an appropriate emotional depth that elevates the entire thing from being something extremely simple. Even if it remained a simple action series, it would have been on this list just for its production value. Anyone who likes synth-wave, go watch this!

Honorable Mention no 1. The Brotherhood version is slightly worse or better but my pick is this. There's a lot of trashy comedy though and the animation starts going down, besides some other problems.

Honorable Mention no 2. Too many angsty teens screaming and illogical plot points, but this anime still hits deep. Very depressing show until the end. Watch The End of Evangelion after finishing this. Don't bother with the rest of the films unless you want a retelling with better overall animation.

Honorable Mention no 3. More of a 7 than a 6 but some CGI moments are show-killing and the main plot and lore are not very interesting.

Honorable Mention no 4. It's the best cat and mouse chase ever until one character dies. Great soundtrack, although a lot of it is stolen material.

Honorable Mention no 5. More of a 6 than a 7. The plot and world-building are great but the characters, not so much. Spectacular show at times and has an incredible soundtrack. I can applaud it for its ambitiousness in these terrible times for anime.

Honorable Mention no 6. OPM has a great season 1 of pure animation brilliance and solid humor. There are some great fights here. S2 is whatever, don't bother. Edit: S2 is not bad, actually. Garou is awesome and the comedy is still pretty fresh.

Honorable Mention no 7. Nice idea and entertaining characters, put it all on a train and you have a trill ride.

Honorable Mention no 8. Still not perfected Watanabe's 2 guys and a girl effort, but still very good.

Honorable Mention no 9. Silly fights, happenings, and characters but also nice colors, designs, and a great adventurous feeling. Season 1 is pretty bad but as the show goes on, it sort of gets better and better. Jojo suffers from many anime sins, but this is one of the few that somehow makes them charming.

Honorable Mention no 10. Original presentation, great soundtrack, and a great ending. But, the tonal shift isn't smooth and some melodrama goes too far.

Honorable Mention no 11. If it was only 2 seasons long with better animation, this could be even better. I put it at the end because it isn't really an anime.

Honorable Mention no 12. I remembered Avatar after typing that Castlevania isn't really an anime, which is also the case here. Avatar is pretty good. Almost an 8. Watch Legend of Kora afterward, it's a solid sequel and has some great fights.

Honorable Mention no 13. More of a 7 than a 6 but thinking back on it, it's not a really memorable show in terms of characters and events except at the end. That doesn't mean they're bad, just your run-of-the-mill type of thing. Looking at the number of votes I strongly think that this show needs to be here as it's pretty underrated and forgotten. Beautiful art and animation with CG blended in well, especially considering the time this appeared.

Honorable Mention no 14. VS has some great moments but the humor and the soundtrack could have been better. 3D bits were also not the best and the language barrier situations were depicted in a pretty bad way. S2 is gorgeous, and a great adaptation of the manga material.

Honorable Mention no 15. Watched 20-something episodes of this show. And although dumbish, like many sports animes, it has so much fighting spirit. The characters are engaging, lovable, and inspirational. I just watched it at the wrong time.

Honorable Mention no 16. I really wish that I could put this one higher, but it's sadly very outdated. Still, this is an absolutely incredible show for all ages that has a great adventurous feel. The anime's Long John Silver might be one of my favorite characters ever.

Honorable Mention no 17. Strange that I forgot this but added OPM. In short, it has pretty good comedy, nice horror bits, excellent fights, and animation, and it's just a super charming and relaxing show.

Honorable Mention no 18. Old Jojo OVA is pretty great. The 2000 one has the best character art style to this day, but it's slow at times, and the action isn't really exciting. All of those bad things change in the 1993 version, which is the best Jojo part 3 iteration. The action is directed in such a tense yet funny way, and the animation is excellent throughout most of the run. The soundtrack is something new as well, leaning much more on setting atmosphere and tone instead of featuring character themes. 2000 OVA - 5; 1993 OVA - 7

Honorable Mention no 19. This one almost made it into the list, but it's not anime in the general sense, but more of an art-house anime. Most people I've ever met wouldn't enjoy or even finish watching this. It's kind of pretentious, definitely artistic, deep for sure, but a very tough watch. Best if you binge in a series of 5 episodes or more. Texhnolyze is as real as the dreams we are all having.

Honorable Mention no 20. I forgot to add my short opinion on this one, so, in short, I'll say that I like my animes to be atmospheric, and this one has that in plenty. The key here is music, which has that spatial, funky, spiritual sound that embellishes every scene and creates a colorful note that goes together with the episode.