It is an age-old question – what is the number one anime? What is the best anime out there? The highest echelon of the art form and the singular anime that everyone – theoretically – should enjoy unless their enjoyment comes from being a contrarian.
I’m of a mind that all anime is pretty good. Like there is a lid for every pot, there is an anime that appeals most to every person. It’s why I write anime recommendations for even minimally popular shows. However, from a quality and storytelling standpoint, some anime are admittedly just little bit better than others.
While this entire blog is opinion based, I thought I’d try something different – Cold, hard, difficult to dispute facts based on a variety of ratings from different anime authority sites. I can tell you what I think is the number one anime is until the cows come home, but this time, let’s see what the anime community thinks.
What is The Number One Anime?
The Number One Anime According to MyAnimeList
As the largest, oldest anime database, MyAnimeList has attracted a number of users that rely on its large repository of series for their ranking, reviews, and recommendations. However, the site has had some issues with ranking manipulation in the past.
Currently, the number one anime of all time based on its ratings on MAL is Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War.
However, historically, it is usually Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
As Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War is rather new, either MAL’s recent commitment to eliminating voter manipulation is working or the FMA blood clan hasn’t noticed yet.
While MyAnimeList is the largest database, it is also home to the largest collective of anime fans who take anime rankings too personally. When The Final Season of Attack on Titan, the third season of Kaguya-sama, multiple seasons of Gintama, and the final season of the Fruits Basket remake all ousted Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood from its top spot, and each and every series was review bombed by FMA fanboys and their bots.
While it is only natural to have new anime experience hype and then settle as the magic wears off, MAL’s long history of user-based review bombing makes its top rankings a rather unreliable opinion.
MAL also provides data on the most popular, as in the anime most people have watched and the most favorited, which is anime most put on their limited slot favorites list.
The most popular based on users watched is Attack on Titan
The most favorited anime is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The Number One Anime According to Anilist
Anilist is the alternative to MAL and a more popular alternative as it addresses things that many do not appreciate about MAL. One of the ways that Anlist excels a little better is that it doesn’t appear to have a large number of users and bots personally invested in an anime’s ranking. It also helps that the site allows users to rate anime on a decimal system so they provide more accurate ratings of anime since non-decimal system users tend to round up.
The number one anime on Anilist according to its ratings is the final season of Gintama.
Anilist also allows for ranking based on popularity and favorites like MyAnimeList. However, unlike MAL, Anilist has an unlimited favorites list, which allows for more series to be favorited by users.
The most popular based on users watched is Attack on Titan
The most favorited anime is Hunter X Hunter (2011)
The Number One Anime According to Anime-Planet
Anime-Planet is the old bronze medal in terms of anime database, but occasionally preferred by some over the other two due to its more visually pleasing design and vastly more extensive tag system.
Unlike MAL, Anime-Planet is more limited in its rankings of top anime, basing it only on user scores. What’s more, it lacks transparency as well since I don’t actually know if that ranking its based solely on user score.
The number one anime on Anime-Planet is the final season of Fruits Basket.
The Number One Anime According to The Anime News Network
Before there was MAL, before there was Anilist, before there was Anime-Planet – there was The Anime News Network. It’s been covering anime industry news since before I was buffering fansubs on dial-up.
While people rely on it more for anime news than its opinions, the editors and users still have a very transparent ranking system.
The number one anime according to the Anime New Network based on ratings is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood using both a weighted and Bayesian system. (I refer to Bayseian as the standard.)
Full Metal Alchemist (non-Brotherhood) also dominates its rankings based on popularity and users watched, an occurrence which is interesting, if nothing else.
The Number One Anime According to Anikore
Anikore is often called a “Japanese version of MyAnimeList,” but it is a little less robust. Still, I thought it would be best to include some Japanese opinions on the subject of number one anime of all time since, well, the medium is from Japan.
However, Japanese sites tend to lean more towards weekly or, at best, seasonal ratings. So finding overall ranking of anime ratings is kind of a task.
Anikore gives us our best look, using a comprehensive ranking, which likely weighs in other factors that I have not been able to sort out.
The number one anime according to Japanese anime fans at Anikore is Kaguya-sama: Love is War
What is the Number One Anime According to Goo Ranking?
Goo Ranking is Japanese site, this time dedicated solely to user-voted ranking. It is a site kind of like Ranker. Again, they more commonly run seasonal rankings, but they did run this best anime of all time list in 2020 with voting that has been open since.
The number one anime off all time according to Goo Ranking is Attack on Titan
What is the Number One Anime Based on Average Ranking Across All Sites?
There are a few clearly top contenders for number one anime of all time according to each site, but now it is time to calculate the best anime of all time according to the average ranking across each site I examined.
For this, I am just choosing the highest rated season of the multi-season series.
Kaguya-sama Love is War
- MAL Ranking: 3
- Anilist Ranking: 5
- Anime-Planet Ranking: 9
- Anime News Network: 343
- Anikore Ranking: 1
- Goo Ranking: Not Ranked
Attack on Titan
- MAL Ranking: 6
- Anilist Ranking: 6
- Anime-Planet Ranking: 6
- Anime News Network: 192
- Anikore Ranking: 19
- Goo Ranking: 1
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- MAL Ranking: 2
- Anilist Ranking: 4
- Anime-Planet Ranking: 4
- Anime News Network: 1
- Anikore Ranking: 24
- Goo Ranking: 6
Fruits Basket (Remake)
- MAL Ranking: 10
- Anilist Ranking: 3
- Anime-Planet Ranking: 1
- Anime News Network: 43
- Anikore Ranking: Not Ranked
- Goo Ranking: Not Ranked
Gintama
- MAL Ranking: 5
- Anilist Ranking: 1
- Anime-Planet Ranking: 24
- Anime News Network: 28
- Anikore Ranking: Not Ranked
- Goo Ranking: 3
And the Number One Most Popular Anime By Average Rating is…
It’s probably not a surprise that it’s Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
There is no question that Full Metal Alchemist is a top tier quality anime in every respect, but who knows if that is something the anime community vehemently agrees on or if it is the work of the far-reaching hand of the FMA ratings manipulation Illuminati.
As a bonus, I think if I would have included Steins;Gate in the averages, it would have had a great shot of winning, or at least easily netted second place. It was never number one on any ranking, but consistently within the top ten of all of them. Not even FMA can say that.
Anyway, this has all just been a by the numbers experiment, and the numbers are sure to change. What anime would you put as the number one anime of all time? Let everyone know in the comments section below.
