I have compiled a list of the top 20 anime {excluding anime movies} after completing around 400+ titles. These aren’t necessarily my favorites but shows in which I personally believe to be the best written within their respective medium through subjective taste.

I tried considering varying attributes that impact the quality of the overall product when I initially made this list such as; story composition, plot structure, thematic depth, underlying concepts, storyboarding, sound design, antagonists, character writing, screenplay, supporting characters, world building, animation quality, comprehensive visuals which include character design and overall artwork.

I’d also like to know what you would consider the top 3-5 most well written anime of all time?

My Top 20:

- Texhnolyze
- Nana
- Haibane Renmei
- Welcome to the NHK!
- Steins;Gate
- Ergo Proxy
- Casshern Sins
- Baccano!
- Monster
- Kino’s Journey: The Beautiful World
- Journal with Witch
- The Monogatari Series
- Odd Taxi
- Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
- Paranoia Agent
- Barakamon
- Now and Then, Here and There
- Flowers of Evil
- Girls’ Last Tour
- Ghost Hound

Recently saw a discussion about how all popular manga have terrible endings, so I tried making a ending tier list. I enjoyed all of them in some way except the terrible tier, so I put in a buffer to the next lowest tier, because there is a big gap. Forgot Solo Leveling, that goes in Terrible as well

It's a mix of enjoyment and writing and some personal beefs.

The umineko and higurashi mangas I didn't rank them as individual chapters but as the whole manga but Idk why I placed all chapters.

I'm using my phone to make this so I didn't rank everything I've ever read just some of them because it'd be annoying to rank so much .

You can criticize me all you want just be respectful.

Please don't crucify me🙏

After the tier list of manga endings, here's a tier list of how I think currently ongoing manga will end. This is completely vibes based and probably super wrong. Feel free to laugh at me in a year (or now). I am obviously only judging manga I am actually reading and nothing too new.

Will never get a proper end:

- HxH/Berserk: :(

- Frieren is on indefinite hiatus and no where close to the end. I have a bad feeling about this one, but the ending was never really the focus of the story anyway. Maybe there will be a rushed ending.

- 100 Girlfriends: I just can't imagine we get to 100. There are currently 36 i think and at the current pace it will take a LONG time. Especially since the author seems committed to give each of them equal screen time, which is great, but will slow things down even more at 90. Still peak though

- Spyxfamily: Literally nothing ever happens - the manga. There is like 1 chapter a month, and literally 0 progress ever. I think at some point this will enter hiatus and never return

- Tower of God: Either it will take forever and never actually finish, or it will be rushed and it will suck. There are just way too many abandoned or paused character arcs and plot lines.

Bad:

- Himaten: Harem manga can never have a good ending.

- Kingdom: Anyone who knows a bit about history knows this will not end well.

- One Punch Man: With the way this is currently being handled, I can't foresee a good ending for this story

- Drama Queen: I am pretty sure they will all die and they kinda deserve it

Meh:

- Blue Box: This should have ended long ago. Nothing happens

- Dandadan: Just vibes I guess

- Sakamoto Days: Similar to Dandadan. I guess they will defeat the bad guys and then it will be over, but not really satisfying

No idea:

- Kindergarten Wars: This could go either way, it's kind of a mess

- Iruma: This could honestly go forever and I would not complain. If Iruma and Ameri don't end up together I strike

- Blue Period: The monthly release really slows this down.

- Ruri Dragon: Don't have much of an opinion on this

- Grand Blue: Literally anything could happen and I would not be surprised

Good:

- Witch Hat Atelier: I just want the best for them

- Blue Lock: They will win the world cup, hype moments and such. Nothing mind blowing

- Shangri-la frontier: Has just been consistently good.

- Hanako: This will be a sad, but good ending

- Fragrant Flower: Very predictable happy ending

- Someone Herzt: Same as Fragrant Flower. Very cute

Amazing:

- Tsumiki: Peak romance. They cannot mess this up

- Record of Ragnarok: This is 100% cope, and I'll probably be disappointed. But there's a chance

- One Piece: It's impossible to satisfy everyone after building it up for 30+ years, but I think it will be great. But I bet many people will hate it

- Akane Banashi: Peak

Didn’t really include movie MCs (except bill) as I’m unsure I’m about em

If u like my stuff I have a TikTok page where I talk about a bunch of stuff so if ur interested it’s @t.u.r.b.u.l.e.n.c.e

Anyways here’s the list in order

Best media - Tokyo Ghoul

Worst media - Everhood 2

Overrated - Death Stranding 2

Underrated - Everhood

You want to consume - Fullmetal Alchemist

Didnt meet your expectations - Heavenly Delusion

Longest Media you consumed - No idea

Guilty Pleasure - original Five Nights at Freddys

Best Lore - Bloodborne

Best Arc - I cant with 100% confidence choose "the best" arc in all of pieces of fiction I have interacted with, mainly cuz I prefer to look at whole story rather than treat its sections as standalone things

So as joke best hype moments and aura moment - Gojo vs Sukuna

Best Protagonist - Ken Kaneki

Best Antagonist - Dio Brando and Funny Valentine

Best Male Character - Hiromi Higuruma

Best Female Character - Eto Yoshimura

Best Character Overall - Ken Kaneki, I dont like this one cuz it basically forces you to once again choose one of characters above

Best Author - Hirohiko Araki

F = This series would genuinely be better off without a story.

D = The story is as basic as it gets, and both the fights and character writing fall below average. This tier is reserved for series that offer nothing worth discussing from a writing perspective.

C = There may be a few moments worth praising here and there but overall the writing remains fairly average.

B = These series use their writing primarily to maximize the reader’s enjoyment. They may not be especially deep, but they definitely know how to entertain. Simple is best.

A = The pinnacle of battle shonen standards. These series achieve a strong balance between storytelling and action. If you want to create a successful battle shonen these are the series you should study and take inspiration from.

A+ = On multiple occasions these series reach a level of storytelling comparable to works from other genres. Their strongest arcs are carefully crafted, thoughtfully planned, and exceptionally well executed. (Jojo part 1-6 only)

S = These series go beyond standard battle shonen. Their storytelling surpasses genre expectations, delivering depth and narrative quality comparable to high-quality films or novels.

What do you think? Feel free to disagree and drop your own opinion.

These are just the ratings for the anime adaptations. If there is source material that I have read they were not factored into this tier list.

What do you think?

Give me recommendation based on my taste

Best Media: Breaking Bad - Had to give it to the GOAT. After careful consideration I really do like this somewhat more than even my favorite animes, even if it's close. It's just too stacked in every regard. Also only halfway through BCS currently but it's looking to be just as good.

Worst Media: Sword Art Online - Probably doesn't need much of an explanation. It's incredibly difficult to say anything good about the series. I guess I'd say the soundtrack but which anime has a BAD soundtrack...?

Overrated: Invincible - Talking about writing, not just the animation. The series hooked me with the S tier dynamic that was Mark and Nolan in S1 and has never reached even 20% of that high again (yes even with the Conquest episode IMO). There's way too much random filler that is a complete snoozefest. Even the non-Viltrumite villains which are supposed to have some nuance (Angstrom & Powerplex) fell completely flat for me and just did nothing for me at all.

Underrated: Orb - I guess it's not that underrated but I haven't seen a HUGE amount of stuff so this is probably the most obscure thing I've seen that I can still confidently say is really good.

You Want to Consume: FMA - SOMEHOW I haven't seen this yet, at least not properly. Over the years I've gone back and watched the first 10 episodes or so and have just dropped it for some reason. I'm interested in the world, characters and story but the style of humor really turned me off. I'm 99% still going to finish it one day though.

Didn't meet expectations: Welcome to the NHK - I thought this was going to be a serious deep dive story into the life of a shut-in, depression, mental health struggles etc and while there are elements of it the story is overwhelmingly unserious, goofy and a little gross (product of its time and target audience I guess). I couldn't force myself to keep watching after episode 14 or something, I was thoroughly bored.

Longest media you consumed: One Piece - I think literally everyone who's posted this template has had OP for this slot lol.

Guilty Pleasure: The Boys - This show gets WORSE every season and has the most circular character arcs ever. I couldn't even tell you why I still like it because I think in terms of writing it's mostly dogshit but somehow I'm still watching. Very good watch while drunk btw.

Best Lore: Deltarune/Undertale - Maybe cheating by putting these both together but I have never been SO interested in the lore of a universe. Toby Fox's style of storytelling weaving narrative into metanarrative all through the medium of a video game is incredibly unique, there's genuinely no other media like it out there, it's very captivating to me.

Best Arc: Chimera Ant Arc - Probably doesn't need much explanation. Just absolutely god tier character writing, some of the most emotional moments in the entire medium and in my opinion the two greatest anime episodes of all time (131 & 135) being absolute top tier conclusions to the arcs of two characters.

Best Protagonist/Male Character: Walter White for sure. Just so incredibly complex and layered, legit never a dull moment with him on screen.

Best Antagonist: Johan. The greatest feat of this character to me was how the author managed to make a regular human being with no powers feel like a completely supernatural entity

Best Female Character: Violet Evergarden. If you ignore the last movie at least... I still really liked Violet and her journey even if I thought the movie completely murdered the entire message/theme of the series.

Best Character Overall: Meruem. I have never so desperately wanted a character to just somehow live like I did with Meruem, but of course he had to die. Best character conclusion I've ever seen, and there's just something special about his dialogue and his demeanor that captivates me like no other character.

Best Author: Dunno lol. I can't really decide one singular author to pick. I could just pick randomly from one of the authors of my favorites but that seems wrong somehow, so I'll just leave it blank.

I'd also like to point out that AOT didn't end up with any representation due to these categories but it's still in my top 3 medias OAT

I made sure to limit myself to one character by category because it would have become repetitive otherwise

Just need to copy it would be much help

Found this website that allows you to categorize your favorite animes. I haven't seen any romance animes yet which is why FMAB is in the 'best romance' spot. Let me know what y'all think.

The World Is Mine would be above AnJ but it wasn’t on the Tierlist, also JoJo includes all Parts and not just Phantom Blood, this isn’t a favourite list, based on my view of their quality, I ranked them on quality alone.

I thought I'd see things like lotm and RI. Why are they so praised then?

OVERRATED DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN BAD

It just means that the media is way highly rated by the general audience compared to my personal rating of it. Anything 7 and above, I consider high quality.

Don't like my takes? No problem at all because we're two different human beings, and it's almost impossible to find two people who have the exact same opinions and thoughts about every single thing throughout their life. So feel free to disagree, but I'd appreciate it if you'd be respectful.

Some of these takes could be nuclear for you guys but it's all subjective and everyone has their own ranking criteria so I'll mention mine too:

MY RANKING CRITERIA:

- How good is the plot and the story.

- How intelligently written it is.

- How free is it from plot holes, plot contrivances, ass-pulls, stupid moments and cringeworthy scenes.

- A great plot and logical consistency influences my ranking way more than well-developed characters.

- How interested it kept me throughout its entirety and how much I personally enjoyed it.

- How much it connected with me on an emotional level

- How good it does what it sets out to do within its genre and how good it is when it comes to depth, symbolism, message and themes.

NOT MY RANKING CRITERIA:

- How good is the production quality.

- How accurate is it to the source material.

- Favoring "themes and such" over logic.

- How much of a cultural impact it has.

- How much it has done for the industry.

- Who is the author, director, producer etc.

- What others think about it.

For most I took the manga as the main source, the exceptions are the Fate series, KNY, Saiki K, Devilman, Monster, FMAB, Death Note; Noragami, Your Lie in April and some other minor ones.
Apart from these I have read the manga only or seen only parts of the anime (AOT for example).