My Top 10 Favorite Anime 📺

Being a millennial, we grew up on a lot of anime. A lot of people my age and younger don’t see anime as anything out of the ordinary to have in our daily lives, and because of that there are so many great options for anime to watch!

Because I grew up with anime it has become a huge influence on my work. I feel like it’s a major reason why I always get compliments on my ensemble cast of characters in my writing—because I grew up with shows that showcased many different types of people in a storyline. And, actually, binging anime is one of mine and my husband’s favorite ways to spend time together. It’s because of him and his usually pretty damn spot on suggestions that I even have a list to share with you at all!

So sit back, relax, and allow me to hold you captive while I totally geek out about my top 10 favorite anime of all time. A list that, I’m sure, I will think of more for after I post. Isn’t that always the way?

The series follows the adventures of the titular protagonist whose name is Usagi Tsukino, a middle school student who is given the power to become a Pretty Soldier. Joined by other Sailor Soldiers, she defends Earth against an assortment of evil villains. The anime also parallels the maturation of Usagi from an emotional middle school girl to a responsible young adult.

Sailor Moon has been, and always will be, my favorite anime / manga series. Not only do I like that we get to watch Usagi and her friends grow up throughout the course of the show, but Usagi is the kind of girly-girl protagonist that I don’t think appears in media enough. I feel like she’s representative of girls who aren’t physically strong, are highly emotional, but can still be strong in their hearts and be able to make a difference.

Am I projecting?

Mayhaps.

Projecting or not, though, I will love Sailor Moon until the day I die. Fun fact for you: Up until the release of the Sailor Moon manga, the genre of magical girl anime only featured storylines in which the magical girl in question was a witch. Sailor Moon was the first magical girl anime to feature girls as super heroes, and subsequently redefined the entire genre.

The story follows Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. Just like the manga, the anime series is divided into two separate parts: the first series retains the original manga's title and is set in Naruto's pre-teen years.

Would you believe that I actually didn’t get very far in this series when I was a kid, but went back and watched the whole thing just this year?

When I first started watching Naruto as a kid, I loved it but could only get my hands on the first six seasons—and if you’ve seen it, you know that’s practically nothing. However, thanks to the magic of the internet and my husband Danny’s behest, I sat down and watched the whole thing from start to finish (including Boruto, which I wanted to include on this list but I feel like it lumps in with Naruto).

Needless to say, I realize now that I missed out on a lot as a kid. This show was so emotionally gripping, and I was in tears at a lot of points throughout. It’s so sweet getting to watch Naruto grow up from this unloved, ignored, and abused kid who always wears a smile even when he’s sad, into an incredibly strong and loved adult. Also, I love the way the artists drew the adults around him as he grew up. The more his powers increased, and the older he got, the more on-level he became with adults who were previously drawn to look like imposing figures towering over him. Soon, they’re his peers both in storyline and in the art.

The series follows three eighth-grade girls who find themselves transported from modern-day Japan into a magical world, where they are tasked with rescuing a princess.

Ah. Nothing hits quite the same way as an 80’s anime.

This one I was a little bit tricked into watching (stick with me through this, then you’ll see why lol) .

Firstly, Danny grew up with this one and had mentioned wanting to watch it with me. Then I saw something on, like, one of my social medias (I can’t remember which one) that was talking about the remake (which this art might be from, now that I really look at it) so I mentioned it to him and we both were like “yeah we could watch that one” so we marathoned it over a couple of days. It was a fun parallel world fantasy anime that brought back the unique nostalgia of finding old 80’s anime at Blockbuster on accident, bringing it home, and realizing that you stumbled across a new facet of your personality.

Now here’s where I was tricked. A little.

It’s a mech anime.

I’ve got nothing against mech anime. I actually like them quite a lot if they’re done in a way thats less sci-fi and more fantasy, which Magic Knight Rayearth definitely is. All I’m saying is that he knew this the whole time and didn’t say anything!

Again, not that it ultimately mattered because I liked it a lot lol.

The story follows a group of middle school girls, led by protagonist Madoka Kaname, who make supernatural contracts to become magical girls. In battling surreal enemies known as "witches", they learn of the anguish and peril associated with their new roles.

This was another one Danny showed me (look I’m just going to be honest here. All but 2 remaining on this list are ones that Danny showed me) and it’s such an interesting premise! Especially when you grow up a fan of other magical girl anime like Sailor Moon, because Madoka Magica takes such a dark turn on the conventional magical girl tropes.

And I mean dark.

It’s like looking at a prism, and seeing the different facets of the same object by turning it different directions—Madoka Magica takes a look at magical girl anime through a perspective that, honestly, I don’t think any of us fans of magical girl anime have ever considered before: the price of becoming a magical girl.

Anyway, highly highly recommend

The story follows Loid Forger, a enigmatic spy who has to "build a family" to execute a mission, not realizing that his adopted daughter is a telepath, and the woman he agrees to marry is a skilled assassin.

This is such a cute, fun show!

There’s a whole lot of comedy in it, and some fun drama, but sometimes it sneaks up behind you and punches you in the back of the neck with such gut-wrenching drama that you end up sitting on your couch sobbing but also glad that you waited long enough to have episodes after the fact to tell you what happened.

Okay. That run-on paragraph of a sentence might have been a true story. Maybe. Perhaps.

We watched this one during my Christmas break . . . twoooo years ago I think? We curled up in our downstairs movie theatre and binged the entire first season (all that was out at the time) and praised it endlessly ever since. I don’t think Danny had ever seen this one either but he heard about it, and he was the one that put it on, but it was new to both of us.

It definitely became one of my favorite comfort anime 💜

Also I think Loid became the hottest anime guy in, like, one of the anime-focused magazines / online polls that year? I think that’s what I heard?

If I’m right, I believe it (lol!)

The story follows Kafka Hibino who, after ingesting a parasitic creature, gains the ability to turn into a kaiju and now must navigate using his power while trying to become part of an organization that eliminates kaiju to fulfill a promise he made with a childhood friend.

This show is for all of us 30-somethings, and for people who liked Attack on Titan.

Kafka (which I will stand my ground in believing he was named that because of Franz Kafka, who wrote the Metamorphosis, which Kafka in the anime undergoes to become a Kaiju) is in his thirties (I forget where in his thirties) who is routinely told by people older and younger than him that he’s too old now to achieve his dream of joining the squad that defeats Kaiju and keeps the city safe. All my thirty-somethings reading this: haven’t you ever felt like, for one reason or another, you’re too old to achieve your dreams?

Kaiju No. 8 hears you.

Anime is starting to have more protagonists that are in their early-t0-mid thirties, following the aging of the demographic that made the entire concept popular in the west (I guess, I don’t actually know lol) and it’s really nice to see ourselves still being represented in the things we loved growing up.

The story centers on Subaru Natsuki, a hikikomori ("pulling inward, being confined" total withdrawal from society and seeking extreme degrees of social isolation and confinement) who suddenly finds himself transported to another world on his way home from the convenience store.

This one was unexpectedly fun and heart wrenching at the same time.

Apparently I really enjoy anime that makes me cry. Huh. Maybe it’s like being on a roller-coaster because you want prescribed terror. I watch anime that punch me right in the heart because I want a good, prescribed cry?

Well whatever the reason is that I like heartbreaking anime, I like this show. It’s so absolutely fucking tragic and definitely one that you might want to look up the trigger warnings for. It’s pretty damn dark, but so worth the watch if the warnings on it aren’t a deal breaker for you.

The series begins with Kagome Higurashi, a fifteen-year-old middle school girl from modern-day Tokyo who is transported to the Sengoku period after falling into a well in her family shrine, where she meets the half-dog demon, half-human Inuyasha. After the sacred Shikon Jewel re-emerges from deep inside Kagome's body, she inadvertently shatters it into dozens of fragments that scatter across Japan. Inuyasha and Kagome set out to recover Jewel's fragments, and through their quest, they are joined by the lecherous monk Miroku, the demon slayer Sango, and the fox demon Shippō. Together, they journey to restore the Shikon Jewel before it falls into the hands of the evil half-demon Naraku.

I feel like if I didn’t like Inuyasha, the powers that be might take away my Millennial Anime Fan card. I might be overselling it a little but I feel like you weren’t a fan of anime back in the early 2000s if you didn’t also love Inuyasha. I mean, c’mon, we all remember it playing late at night on Adult Swim don’t we?

Yes. I’m that old. Respect your elders.

Taking place in a fantasy world, the story follows Frieren, an elven mage, as she embarks on a journey to reach the resting place of souls in order to reunite with her former comrade Himmel, whose Hero Party once slew the Demon King.

This 👏 anime 👏 is 👏 so 👏 fuckin’👏emotional👏👏👏👏👏

So we started watching this, I think, after we got all the way through Boruto. I was in a terrible place mentally and just wanted a nice, soothing, cottagecore-vibe anime. It’s wild to me how slow this anime is, but you’re enthralled the entire time.

It’s also incredibly heartbreaking and bittersweet (not counting this as a spoiler, because you’ll see why right away) and I cannot accurately describe how often this show had me absolutely bawling.

Frieren is such a beautiful, perfect show and it’s going to be one of my “put on something interesting but slow and curl up with blankets and calm down” shows.

It’s also incredibly funny when it wants to be 💜

Set in an alternate timeline, it follows the exiled prince Lelouch Lamperouge, who obtains the "power of absolute obedience" from a mysterious woman named C.C. Using this supernatural power, known as Geass, he leads a rebellion against the rule of the Holy Britannian Empire, commanding a series of mecha battles.

Code Geass was one of those that I stumbled on accidentally when I found the DVD of the first few episodes at an anime convention way back when I was a teenager.

Or I found it at Sun Coast. I actually think it might’ve been Sun Coast.

Either way (I don’t remember, so stop looking at me!) Code Geass was the first mech anime I ever fell in love with because it frames the story in a way I find personally interesting—lots of nobles, kings, lines of succession, and a tale of revenge that I think Shakespeare himself would sit down and watch and go “huh. Yeah okay, that’s fun.”

This one, however, did not make me cry. Not that I can remember anyway. But it’s still a really great anime.

The story follows Ai Ohto, a teenaged hikikomori ("pulling inward, being confined" total withdrawal from society and seeking extreme degrees of social isolation and confinement) girl who has ceased attending school after the apparent suicide of a friend. After finding a "Wonder Egg," Ai finds herself in a dream world where she and three other girls whose friends also fell victim to suicide battle to protect various female suicide victims from the monstrous "Wonder Killers," grotesque representations of individuals involved in their trauma. In so doing, the girls hope to revive their lost friends.

If we all thought Madoka Magica was dark, this show is dark with a capital D.

It’s D-A-R-K DARK.

As if you couldn’t tell that from the summary.

It’s got such a unique story though, and so many emotions that it leaves you reeling by the end of it. Also, Ai is the one in the picture looking up, with the blue hair. Does she look like Coraline to you, or is that just me? Cause the whole time I watched this I was totally thinking “this is probably what Coraline would look like (character design wise) if she was an anime character!”

However, again, I cannot stress enough how dark this show is and if trigger warnings are something you need then I highly recommend looking them up. It’s not as nice and wholesome as the picture here makes it look. Again, though, you could probably surmise that from the summary.

It follows teenage Tanjiro Kamado, who joins the Demon Slayer Corps after his family is slaughtered and the sole survivor, his younger sister Nezuko, is turned into a demon, in the hopes of turning her human again and defeating the demon king Muzan Kibutsuji.

The joke with this one is that I was so disinterested in watching it for the longest time. Danny got all the way to the Mugen Train arc movie before he decided he wasn’t going to watch this show alone. So he turned it off, then one day when we were in-between stuff to watch he just grabbed the remote and turned Demon Slayer on.

I was skeptical, but he’s usually right when he does stuff like that so I figured I might as well give it a shot.

How silly of me to think I wouldn’t fall in love with this show.

Aside from the cast of characters and the hugely epic storylines, one of the things I love best about it is that, in its essence, Demon Slayer is a story about vampire hunters.

That’s right. Vampire hunters.

They don’t frame it like vampires, but lets look at the facts: Demons need to eat humans to get stronger, they will burst into flames if they go out in the sun, one demon can create other demons, and you have to cut off the head for them to die.

Sounds a whole stinkin’ lot like vampires to me—and I love vampire media, especially when it doesn’t frame itself overtly as such.

Phew! That was quite a list!

I hope you guys found some new stuff to watch if you were looking for your next anime binge! Tell me in the comments what anime you like 💜

Okay, you’re free now!

Go on! Git!