Revisiting My Top 100 Anime List in 2024!
Back in 2019, I was still grinding out my undergrad and staying with my parents when Kinksy and I decided to do one of our podcasts discussing our top 100 anime. For someone like him, it was probably far more difficult to parse through thousands of anime to choose from than my list at the time. Reading back, I feel a cozy seeing how many 6 and 7’s were on my list just because of the lower number of anime I had watched to that point- maybe roughly 300 or so.
So when Kinksy made another beautiful spreadsheet with his top 100 video games shared in a chat with me, I got thinking about the activity we did a few summers ago- I wondered where my top 100 anime would be now. In an effort to stay awake to make a social engagement, I decided to try to sort a loose 100 below!
As a quick note, there are a few anime I am waiting to see how I feel about them once we get more content from them. Mushoku Tensei stands out as the biggest one in this category. I feel like my opinion about it ranges from “top 15” to “top 50” any given reflection I’ve had on it and I’d like to take some more time to marinate on it. Maybe next time I will have a clear ranking.
I think something that stands out to me right away with with this first set is that even from the “bottom” there are genuinely great anime here. The only one I felt like I stretched a bit to get on the list was Shikimori. I don’t know how to explain it better than I did in my romcom article last year- this is an important anime to me because I think it is the “median” and baseline comparison for the genre. Is your romcom good? Weigh it against Shikimori. If yes, congrats! If not, we probably need to talk about whether or not it is actually good!
This group has some of the biggest fallers when compared to last time I did this list. Your Lie in April, Little Busters, and The Promised Neverland have not really stood the test of time to me. Your Lie in April in particular used to be this all-timer drama for me when I was new to anime, but it feels remarkably “eh it is good” now. A name on here you might not recognize is Josee, the Tiger and the Fish which I found to be super underrated. It is worth taking a look at if you enjoy romdrams.
While Horimiya didn’t click as much for me as my friends, I respect the hell out of it. There are quite a few endearing action series here, and wonderful comedies as well.
We’re getting into the area where these anime really start to mean something deep for me. I started to struggle at where I was going to put these- they all have sentimental value to me so I had to weigh sentiment versus my enjoyment and memory of the anime. I feel like I could write whole articles about all ten of these, for instance.
It’s nice to look at the finished product here and see how much variety is represented, which is wonderful.
Action, moving writing, and one of my favorite romcoms. Wait, come back!
The SECOND BEST sports anime, beautiful newer entries, and legendary character writing all nicely fit here. I always feel a little surprised when I do the comparison of “this one versus that one” ranking system because it creates surprising results like Rascal falling to the 30s for me. I still really, really love it.
This is the heavyweight class for romdrams, for sure. Some of the more thoughtful, soulful, and downright fun action-dramas, too. I haven’t really written about it yet, but The Eminence in Shadow is everything I love about anime to no hyperbole.
This part of the list is where sentiment and respect intersect in a way that cannot be ignored. Non Non Biyori remains my hope for this world, Fate/Apocrypha helped form my aspirations as an adult (and arguably more importantly mended my relationship with my father), and the REAL ultimate romcom taking up the helm.
While I was trying to practice brevity with sharing my list, the top ten deserves a one-by-one reflection. Monogatari Second Season feels like everything the series did best without the awkwardness that is the more risque decisions. Its funny because, reflecting on Monogatari, I find the “high highs and low lows” present in anime I mentioned prior like Mushoku Tensei. The biggest differences, however, are that Monogatari is mostly completed, and Hanamonogatari happened, which remains one of the most impactful works of fiction for me.
Fruits Basket is a masterpiece. Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say aside from that- I cried nearly every episode, and when this song hits, you’re gonna cry. LETS TALK HORSES. Uma Musume is the best sports anime to me because it nails running in a way no other anime has to this point. There are so many characters, and they all feel unique. Also, the outfits are all amazing and make me want to go bankrupt getting cosplay.
Cowboy Bebop remains one of the GOATs, and my respect for it and the masterpiece film will make it hard to fall out of my top ten. Promare feels like one of the most important anime of all time because of all it has to say about co-existence and loving one another (yes I thought about the CPR scene when I wrote this, lets move on). I have exhausted the discussion about why The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya has the sentimental value it does for me- I haven’t watched it annually like I used to, but it does remain important to me. Violet Evergarden and The Garden of Sinners remain where they are for their own sentimental reasons, too.
The biggest addition on this list, obviously, is DanMachi. Surprisingly, I have only ever written about the series twice. I am in the process of writing a rather emotional analysis of the second half of season four (if you know, you know) and honestly, there was a reason I chose to have this anime be represented in my first tattoo. Bell and the impact he has on everyone in easily my favorite fantasy world remains infinitely rewatchable. I feel bad for Requiem because when he logs on to his HIDIVE, he has to see DanMachi on the recently watched…again. And, of course, Gurren Lagann is number one. The indomitable human spirit represented as a drill was equally as important to me as it is at the bottom of my tattoo sleeve.
Not the most well thought out list, I know, but I found the journey fun to do and wanted to try to share with you.
