Top 50 Anime – 30 through 21

30. Gamers

Some of these it’s been a while since I watched them, but I remember liking them. Gamers is one of those. It’s about a high school game club, not this time it’s video games. But it’s about the characters, really, who go from being a unique group to actually be a group and working together. They learn what the others are best at, and they grow together. There’s some romance sprinkled in as well, because, well, that’s a good enough reason for one of the kids to join the club that the person he likes is in it.

29. Little Witch Academia

Next up is Little Witch Academia, another one that I watched a while ago, but one that is again a lot of fun. What would you do if you really want to be a witch, but you aren’t that good of one. That’s the struggle of the main character as she tries to make it in magic school. The story is cute, it has some fairly classic anime feel to it. The character who is overcoming everything, the typical bad guy groups, but it’s a really enjoyable show. Mainly because the main character is do endearing.

28. A Couple of Cuckoos

A newer watch on the list is A Couple of Cuckoos. And I enjoyed it a lot, though how it ends season one, I feel like it was a bit disappointing. It has some of the typical harem anime style story to it, all the girls fall for the main guy, kind of. But the big hook is the two main characters find out they are arranged to be married. But they don’t know that’s the case to start the show. It is a fun premise and made even better by some of their interactions before they find out.

Now, why it is likely to drop is because of the harem aspect. I wish it just focused on the two main characters getting to know each other and how both of them are weird in their own ways, but also why they like that about each other, that’d be fun. But now it mixes in a bit more, and where it ends, I won’t spoil that, just feels lazy and like the writer didn’t have a good plan on how to stretch out the story. So they went with the most simplistic and harem focused approach.

27. Beast Tamer

A fantasy story, this one is not an isekai like a lot of the fantasy ones that I watch are. But it does have the harem elements mentioned above, but it’s less romantic in nature. The main characters “beasts” that he tames are all legendary creatures with female forms, that’s the main thing. And they protect him versus being damsels in distress almost all the time.

The plot is fun as well. The main character is kicked out of the heroes party because he’s just a beast tamer. That’s not that big a deal or that important. Turns out, he’s the best beast tamer that there is, and not just by a little bit, but by a ton. So no the question is, is he maybe the hero instead. But it’s not something that he really wants nor is it the title the other hero wants to give up. So the story has some standard things to it, but I like the beast tamer powers and how they play that out.

26. Restaurant to Another World

This is one that I’ve watched a couple of times. I like the food in this anime and the story is pretty simple but it works. There are doorways in another world that appear once a month. And those doorways open up to a restaurant in another world. Mainly, it’s a restaurant on Earth in Japan that is open to creatures and characters from this other world. You get their stories as you go through and you get to see lot of different foods. It’s a cute one that has some solid feel good elements to it which I really enjoy. I find it to be a nice relaxing anime to watch.

25. Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy

In standard isekai the main character appears from another world. But the goddess who summons him, well, she thinks that he’s disgusting and worthless. So instead of making him one of her heroes in the wars against the demons, she drops him off on the far side of the world.

Turns out that he is way less useless than she had thought and he starts to develop his own way in the world. It has a lot of Reincarnated as a Slime to it. There is city and society building, but really it’s about the character and how he’s navigating the world. I enjoy that sort of story. And this one doesn’t get bogged down into some kind of weird side stories or long stories that Slime does.

24. My Roommate is a Cat

Do you want an anime that is all about a lot of heart and a cat, this is the one for you. And it’s actually surprisingly emotional for just having a few characters and not that many settings. A novelist who just likes to stay by himself is adopted and adopts a cat. Well, that cat leads him into some new relationships and helps him through some tough times and some meaningful growth. But it’s also saving the cat as well, which is just adorable.

What really drives home this anime is that you get the episode played back, most of the time much more quickly, from the cats perspective. Of times that fills in some really meaningful and cute pieces to the story.

23. Cowboy Bebop

We’re going a bit more serious here with Cowboy Bebop. I say a bit because Cowboy Bebop does have a lot of light moments to it as well. But the story is much heavier in terms of the overall plot. But it works so well. Cowboy Bebop is a classic masterpiece of an anime that has some of the best music if not the best music for an anime ever. Each episode has it’s own well crafted score and that really drives the feel for that episode. It just works. I don’t know what more to say than that this is an anime that every anime fan should watch.

22. My Love Story with Yamada-Kun Lv999

Another romance and this one I watched just recently. Lv999 as I’ll be referring to it as, is the story of a girl who is dumped by her gamer boyfriend. She swears of gamers as all being horrible. Turns out, they aren’t as horrible as she thought when her life bumps her into Yamada. It’s a will they – won’t they – can they admit their feelings for each other sort of story. Neither of them really wanting to, or knowing how to as their relationship grows and starts to mean more to both of them, obviously. It’s really cute and the stakes are never that high, so it’s relaxing and enjoyable to watch as well.

21. Dagashi Kashi

And wrapping up this section we have Dagashi Kashi. Another one that I haven’t seen a bit, but it’s a cute story about a dagashi store being run by basically a kid. If you’re not familiar with dagashi, it’s basically cheap candies and snacks. They are one of a few of these stores that is still family run and owned. And it’s about that, but it’s also about the history and story of the food.

The cast of characters is fun, there’s a bit of romance to it, and overall just another one of those relaxing and enjoyable watches. It’ll make you want to try all of the foods as well, which is good and bad all at the same time.

Final Thoughts

I really love so many of these. Little Witch Academia is one where I feel like I want to watch again. And this time it’s a little bit less funny and more cute or heartfelt anime on the list. Is there one that stands out to you as a favorite? Or is there one that you’d want to watch?

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10 – My Roommate is a Cat

This is just a really fun anime, slice of life story about a writer who has a cat adopt him. The writers life is hard, his parents have passed away and he’s living in the house he grew up in. But with the help of the cat, he’s able to start to reach back out into the world, though not always because he wanted to. The story does a great job with it being focused on what the human is doing, but then the second part of each episode gives you the cats perspective on everything that happened and what the cat is worried about with the human. It’s very adorable and just one of those anime that is relaxing to watch.

9 – Space Dandy

He’s a dandy guy in space. This anime is just a completely silly romp as you follow around crew of the Aloha Oe as they travel space looking for exotic and new monsters to bring back to the central processing agency in order to get a reward. Now, it would work better if he was even remotely competent at his job, but he’s not and his crew is even less competent than he is, possibly? All the while, well doing this, they are being chased by Dr. Gel who is out to get them. The whole thing is just absurd but such a good time.

8 – Dagashi Kashi

Another sillier and lighter anime, this one delves into the world of dagashi, cheap candy and snacks. The main character works at his families dagashi shop, Shikada Dagashi but doesn’t want to take it over. When someone from the Shidare corporation comes to try and get Shikada Dagashi to join them, the owner agrees but only if they can convince his son, the main character to take over the shop. The story is just little vignettes for the most part and stories about how certain dagashi came to be. It’s a lot of fun and has more energy than the previous two, but is still very relaxing to watch.

7 – The Devil is a Part-Timer

Another slice of life anime, I do like them quite well and they tend to run less into fan service, though, this one has it’s fair share, The Devil is a Part-Timer focuses on what happens to the devil when he ends up on Earth with no way to get back to his realm. That means that he has to take on a part time job and a lot of weird adventures ensue has he starts to figure out how to deal with the mortal world and maybe, it turns out, the Devil isn’t such a bad guy after all. Very much a slice of life, but has more of a full through storyline running along in the background than some others.

6 – The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Saiki K has special powers. He can teleport objects, read minds, and do many amazing crazy things. But for the most part, he just wants to be left alone. Of course, he can’t be, and it’s even a bigger issue because he doesn’t notice the pretty girl who everyone notices, so she wants him to notice her, he can’t read the mind of an idiot so he can sneak up on him and wants to be Saiki’s friend, and of course, there are the evil forces of Dark Reunion, a completely made up organization. It’s completely absurd and just little vignettes into Saiki’s life but very much worth checking out.

5 – Sword Art Online

SAO, one of those classic anime that really isn’t that old but has gotten a huge following and even a spin off show, which I didn’t like. Sword Art Online is the story of what happens when full dive MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games) go wrong and everyone becomes stuck on it. The only way to get out of the game is to clear the game and if you die in the game you die in real life. This could have been a massive hack and slash adventure type of game, but instead we get an interesting look into the minds of those trapped in there, those who want to survive, and those who have something to fight for, and those who let them game twist them.

4 – Assassination Classroom

An alien has landed on earth after destroying half the moon, and what he really wants is to die. But he won’t go easily and he won’t let just anyone kill him, because most normal methods of death, he can avoid. Instead, he wants to teach a class, and those students, through training, will be the ones who will be creative enough how to kill them, plus, they just might learn something along the way. A completely absurd premise, but they do a really good job with the anime and with the students. It’s less about assassination and more about how he ends up helping all the students in some way. Also, he’s a human size yellow tentacle monster, so there’s that weirdness going on as well.

3 – Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon

It’s a long title and one that seems like it should just be a dumb fantasy anime, and in some ways it is, but it is really entertaining. There’s some fan service in it and falls into the trope known as a harem anime, but it feels different, probably because the main character never puts together that hes the person the harem is forming around, he is too innocent and pure. All he cares about is becoming strong enough to be worthy of the girl, Aiz Wallenstein who saved him from a Minotaur in the dungeon. It’s a lot of fun, and it takes something that you see a lot in anime, leveling up, and codifies it into the story so that while it is silly that it’s in the world, it makes a lot of sense. A light hearted fantasy anime that’s definitely worth checking out.

2 – Cowboy Bebop

Now if we’re talking revered anime, Cowboy Bebop has to be up there. This space opera follows a group of bounty hunters as they travel around to different planets, meet different people and tell their story. However, what really makes this anime work is the music. The music is just amazing and it’s a new for each episode. And each episode has it’s one distinct style and feel to it because of the music, the story was woven into the music, not the music put around the story. It’s just so well done and while it might not tell some massively epic tale throughout everything, it creates a mood that just works so well and you care about the characters.

1 – Steins;Gate

I don’t thin there will be many surprises with my #1, I’m pretty sure every time I do a top five, it’s my number one as well. But Steins;Gate is just so good. It’s a time travel story, which generally I’m a sucker for, and it tells it really well. The characters are so sympathetic and what seems like just a silly quirk early on ends up revealing way more about the character than you’d think later in the show. The time travel aspect is well done and while there are some completely implausible things, overall, I think it works really well. There’s just a sense of the conspiracy around it and the story just speaks so much into the characters and the world. Clearly I highly recommend this one, it can be intense and times, but so very good.

There are a few that just missed the list that I wanted to mention as well. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I need to finish watching it, but I did enjoy it. Ghost Story, just a really enjoyable anime and something different in how it told it’s stories. After School Dice Club which is about board game. There’s so much out there that’s good that I probably could have done a top twenty, also a lot that is pretty crappy, so hopefully this’ll give you some new shows to checkout.

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5 – Sword Art Online
#5 was actually the hardest spot to fill, because I have a number of anime that I want to put here after a definite few that are some of my top ones. But Sword Art Online (SAO) is just a solid anime that has had multiple stories through it, regular SAO, Gun Gale Online, Ordinal Scale, and they are all solid. It tells an interesting story in the first season as well, where you have the main character (and a lot more people) who are going into a full immersion video game, like they’ve done before, but the creator of the game is making his masterpiece and legacy and traps them all in the game. And, if you die in the game, you die in real life, but if you can beat the final boss of the game, you can escape the game and free everyone from it. But that means clearing a lot of levels. SAO isn’t a show about clearing levels, though, it’s about how people adjust to living in this digital world and the problems that arise from it. Then the other seasons deal with more virtual reality or augmented reality, but not in the same way as the first season. There’s definitely fan service in this show, but not a ton, and the story can be simplistic at times, but the premise was interesting to me.

4 – Assassination Classroom
A silly anime, it actually ended up having more heart to it than I expected, which I enjoyed. Assassination Classroom is an insane premise, which most anime area, and from the sounds of it should be about a classroom full of assassins, instead, it’s about a class of middle school (maybe junior high) age kids who have been tasked by the government to kill their teacher, a weird yellow tentacle monster. That is an insane premise, but what you get is a classroom of misfits who eventually have to start working together and growing after getting in trouble previously, all of this being led by their weird yellow tentacle monster teacher. I don’t think this anime is for everyone, but I think it did a good job of doing what it was trying to do and tell a compelling story of the growth of the kids.

3 – Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
Long title, good fantasy anime. This is one of the things that really got me checking out LitRPG on Audible, for better or worse (fairly often they were worse), but in Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeons (IIWTPUGIAD (not catchy)), it does a good job of creating an interesting world and an interesting story. And it does a trope that I enjoy, the clueless hero, he’s very earnest, and he wants to do the best possible after being rescued from this magical resetting dungeon by Aiz Wallenstein, this extremely talent female dungeon delver. Then there are a bunch of other characters who may or may not be interested in the main character. It has some of the harem anime feel to it, which isn’t a genre that I care about, but the main character is so earnest and caring that it doesn’t feel as gazy as some of them, but it does still have fan service in it. I also like how it ties in real world pantheons in an interesting way, so it’s not just a generic fantasy setting.

2 – Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop is a very immersive space opera that pulls you in not just through the story telling, which is well done, but so much through the music. The music of each episode helps inform the story that is being told and draws you further into what you are watching. It also is really well done and the variety of music throughout the show, because each episode has it’s own feel, is really impressive. This is an anime that has good character depth as well, even with being thrown into the middle of their story, you start to get an idea of who the characters are, and what they have gone through in their lives.

1 – Steins;Gate
This has been #1 for me for a while, this time travel anime is just well put together with a good cast of characters. I really feel like they do a good job of developing those characters as well. And while there are definitely characters that can fall into various anime tropes, they do a really good job of keeping most characters out of them and even the tropy characters end up having more depth than it seems. The time travel is also really well done. Time travel is one of those things that I generally like in concept, but too many shows and movies end up having time travel become so convoluted that it doesn’t work, or too simple that you can poke holes in how they are doing things. Steins;Gate does a good job of making something simple enough that you can generally understand the concept of it, but complicated enough that it doesn’t feel like time travel can be easily solved.

As always there are some honorable mentions that I need to add in as well.

Honorable Mention:
Ghost Story
Fruits Basket
The Devil is a Part-Timer
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K
My Hero Academia
My Roommate is a Cat
Dagashi Kashi

There are a lot of anime out there that I want to watch more of that I either can’t easily find on Funimation or just haven’t had the time for yet. But Ancient Magus Bride, Fairie Gone, and Afterschool Dice Club are all that I’ve watched a chunk of and want to watch more that could make it to my list eventually.

What are some of your favorite anime? Do any of the ones I’ve listed here sound interesting to you?

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