If you’re a real manga/anime fan, you absolutely must read the current list! Based on the title, you know what this article is about… the TOP Anime shows! You will now have an idea of the most popular mangas in the fandom! That you’ve seen them before or that you’re curious about your weeb level, this is a must! Enjoy!

All of them were ranked at least 8.5/10 by anime fans!

Top Anime Shows:

Attack on Titan

It is set in a world where mankind lives inside cities and towns surrounded by 3 gigantic walls that protect them from Titans, which are gigantic man-eating humanoids. The main character Eren Yeager vows to exterminate all the Titans after a Titan brings about the destruction of his hometown and unfortunately the death of his beloved mother. AoT was ranked #1 among the top anime shows in 2013.

Berserk

Set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world, the story centers on, a lone mercenary and Griffith, named Guts, the leader of a mercenary band called the “Band of the Hawk”. Guts, is a baby found beneath his dead hanging mother, is adopted by the mercenary Gambino. Raised as a mercenary, Guts eventually kills Gambino and flees as his adoptive father becomes cruel.

Code Geass

The story is set within an alternate timeline, it follows the exiled prince named Lelouch vi Britannia, who obtained the “power of absolute obedience” from a mysterious woman called C.C. Using this supernatural power, known as Geass, Lelouch leads a rebellion against the rule of the Holy Britannian Empire, commanding a series of Mecha battles.

Cowboy Bebop

The unfolding of the story is in 2071, and it follows the lives of a bounty hunter crew traveling in their spaceship called the Bebop. Although, it covers a wide range of genres throughout its run, the story draws most heavily from science fiction, western and noir films. Its most recurring thematic focal points mainly include adult existential ennui, loneliness and the various difficulties of trying to escape one’s past.

Death Note

The story follows the young Light Yagami, a teen genius who discovers a mysterious notebook named the “Death Note”, which belonged to the Shinigami Ryuk, and grants the user the special ability to kill anyone whose name is written within it pages. The series centers around Light’s subsequent attempts to use the Death Note to carry out a worldwide massacre of individuals whom he deems immoral and to create a crime-free society, using the alias of a god-like vigilante named “Kira” and the subsequent efforts of an elite Japanese police task force, led by enigmatic detective L, his biggest rival, to defeat him. Death Note was ranked #1 among the top anime shows in 2006.

Dragon Ball

Son Goku spends his childhood far from civilization until he meets a teen girl named Bulma, she encourages him to join her quest in exploring the world in search of the 7 Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several other friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage, and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls.

Dragon Ball Z

One of the top anime shows, The adventures follows Son Goku, who, along with his companions, defend the planet against villains ranging from aliens, androids and other magical creatures. While the original Dragon Ball anime followed Goku from childhood to early adulthood, Dragon Ball Z is a continuation of his adult life, but at the same time parallels the life of his son, Gohan, as well as the development of his rivals.

Fullmetal Alchemist

One of the top anime show ever created, the steampunk world of Fullmetal Alchemist is primarily designed after the European Industrial Revolution. Set in a fictional universe in which alchemy is a widely practiced science, the story follows the journey of 2 alchemist brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who search for the Philosopher’s Stone to restore their bodies after an unsuccessful attempt to bring their mother back to the life using alchemy.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric are raised by their mother Trisha Elric in the remote village of Resembool in Amestris country. Their father named Hohenheim, a renowned and very gifted alchemist, abandoned his family when the boys were still young, and in Trisha’s care they began to show an affinity for alchemy and became curious about its secrets. However, when Trisha passed away from a persistent illness, they were taken in by their best friend Winry Rockbell and her grandmother Pinako. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is ranked #1 among top anime shows on MyAnimeList.

Hunter x Hunter

The story follows the young boy named Gon Freecss, who has been told all his life that both of his parents are dead. However, when he learns from Kite, an apprentice of his father Ging Freecss, that he is actually still alive and has since become an accomplished & famous hunter across nations, Gon leaves his home on Whale Island to become a hunter like him with the hope to eventually meet him. Multiple HxH characters were ranked among the most popular among the top anime shows.

Kôkaku kidôtai: Stand Alone Complex

The series is set in 2030, where many people have become cyborgs with prosthetic bodies. Set primarily in the fictional Japanese town of Niihama, Niihama Prefecture, the series follows members of Public Security Section 9, an operations task force specials composed of former military officers and police detectives. As the group investigates various crimes, both seasons feature ongoing investigations into two incidents that lead the group into corruption within other branches of the Japanese government.

Monster

The story revolves around Kenzo Tenma, a Japanese surgeon living in Germany whose life goes into turmoil after becoming involved with Johan Liebert, one of his former patients, who turns out to be a dangerous serial killer. Dr Kenzo Tenma is a young Japanese brain surgeon working at the Eisler Memorial Hospital in Düsseldorf, West Germany. Tenma is unhappy with the hospital’s political bias in treating patients and seizes the opportunity to turn things around after a massacre brings twin brothers Johan and Anna Liebert to the hospital.

Mushi-Shi

Mushishi takes place in an imaginary time between the Edo and Meiji periods, featuring 19th century technology, but with Japan still as a “closed country”. The story features ubiquitous creatures called Mushi who often display what appears to be supernatural powers. It is implied that there are many more more primitive life forms than “normal” living things such as animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria, and Mushi is the most primitive of all. 

Naruto Shippuden

After 3 years of training with his master, Naruto Uzumaki comes back to his village stronger than ever, ready to save his best friend Sasuke Uchiha who’s left Konoha to join his worst enemy named Orochimaru. Meanwhile, the criminal organization named the Akatsuki also persue the 9 demon hosts living on Earth, such as Naruto himself to gain unprecedented power. Naruto now has multiple challenges and enemies to face while trying to persue his dream of becoming the Leader of his village and strongest ninja of all time. Naruto Shippuden still ranks among the top anime shows in Japan.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelion takes place fifteen years after a global cataclysm, particularly in the futuristic walled city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist is Shinji, a teenage boy who was recruited by his father Gendo into the dark organization Nerv to pilot a giant bio-machine mecha named “Evangelion” in battle against beings called “Angels”, The series explores the experiences and emotions of Evangelion pilots and members of Nerv as they attempt to stop the angels from causing more cataclysms. In the process, they are called upon to understand the ultimate causes of events and the motives for human action. 

One Piece

The story follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a boy whose body acquired the properties of rubber after unwittingly eating devil fruit. Along with his pirate crew, named the Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy explores the Grand Line in search of the world’s ultimate treasure known as “One Piece” in order to become the next Pirate King.  OP still ranks among the top anime shows after airing for more than 20 years.

One Punch Man

On a supercontinent Earth, powerful monsters and villains have been wreaking havoc in the cities. Because of that, the millionaire Agoni creates the Hero Association, which employs superheroes to fight evil to fight them back. The main character, Saitama, an unassociated hero performs heroic deeds for his own enjoyment. He’s trained himself to the point of being able to defeat any enemy with only a single punch, but his unmatched strength has left him with an overwhelming sense of boredom.

Parasyte: The Maxim

Parasyte focuses on a 17-year-old high school student named Shinichi Izumi, who lives with his mother and father in a quiet area of Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan. One night, tiny worm-like aliens with drill-shaped heads called Parasites arrive on Earth, taking control of their hosts’ brains by entering through their ears or noses. A parasite attempts to crawl into Shinichi’s nose while he is sleeping, but fails as Shinichi wakes up and enters his body, burying himself in his arm instead. 

Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal

As a bandit raid kills a group of travelers, a young boy named Shinta is saved from death by a passing swordsman. The swordsman, known as Hiko Seijūrō, is a master of the Hiten Mitsurugi, the strongest of all sword forms. After seeing the boy bury the bodies of not only travelers but also bandits, Hiko is impressed and takes on Shinta as an apprentice, renaming him “Kenshin”, a name he deemed more appropriate for a swordsman.

Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champurû is set in an alternate version of Edo-era Japan (1603–1868) with an anachronistic, predominantly hip-hop setting. He follows Mugen, a brazen, freedom-loving wandering swordsman; Jin, a compound and stoic rōnin; and Fuu, a brave girl who asks them to accompany her on her quest across Japan to find the “sunflower-smelling samurai”. 

Samurai X

In the early Meiji era, after participating in the Bakumatsu War as the “Hitokiri Battōsai” assassin, Himura Kenshin wanders the Japanese countryside with an inverted blade katana, offering protection and assistance to those in the dark. need as atonement for the murders he once committed. Arriving in Tokyo in Meiji’s 11th grade (1878), he meets a young woman named Kamiya Kaoru, who is in the middle of a fight with a murderer – who claims to be the Hitokiri Battōsai –  tarnishing the name of the swordsmanship school that she teaches . Kenshin decides to help her and defeats the fake Battōsai. 

Steins;Gate

Steins; Gate is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name. It takes place in 2010 in Akihabara, Tokyo, and follows Rintaro Okabe, a self-proclaimed “mad scientist”, who runs the “Future Gadget Laboratory” in an apartment with his friends Mayuri Shiina and Itaru “Daru” Hashida. While attending a conference on time travel, Okabe finds the corpse of Kurisu Makise, a neuroscientist; he sends a text message about it to Daru, and later finds out that Kurisu is alive and that the message arrived before he sends it.

Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files

The series tells the story of Yusuke Urameshi, a delinquent teenager hit and killed by a car while trying to save the life of a child. After a number of tests presented to him by Koenma, the son of the ruler of the afterlife Underworld, Yusuke is revived and named “Underworld Detective”, with which he is to investigate various cases involving demons and appearances in the human world. The manga focuses more on martial arts battles and tournaments as it progresses.

Where to read/them? Here’s a list.