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Welcome to the first entry of my Top 100. I hope you understand that being in these positions isn't actually something bad. As of today, I've seen 597 series, and that's without counting those that are a series o movies or OVAs. So to be in the Top 100, it's actually something really good. There's a lot of series that didn't make it into the top 100, others that have left the top 100 with different updates and others that will leave the Top in the future... so, again, I loved absolutely everything in this top (though, of course, the reasons of why I loved something or another can be completely different)

But I won't bore you any longer and proceed with the top:



100. Ping Pong The Animation



This took me a bit by surprise. I didn't expect much from this series, as I'm not really a fan of Ping Pong, while I won't run from a series because of animation style, Ping Pong definitely didn't appeal to me and the premise wasn't really that interesting, but somehow, the series managed to become one of the best sports anime, and with just 11 episodes.

Ping Pong ended up being so much more than just sports, it was about the characters, about their individual development, and the development of their friendship. Ping Pong might be one of the best series I've seen when talking about character development, at least for what you can accomplish with 11 episodes.

Going past the artwork of the series, which I didn't like, but worked well with the series, was defintely the correct choice for me, as I managed to discover a series that I might have never seen. This time, I have to thank MAL for regarding it so high, which was what made me decide to give it a chance.


99. Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru



Wow, who’d have thought Oregairu was going to make a comeback into the ranking, considering it went out after the very first udate of top 100. That is thanks to a very strong sequel, a series that brought Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru to a new level (I’m not writing the full name in this text again, though)

What makes Oregairu a special series is definitely the characters and the narrative by Hikigaya (main character). Yes, this is one of the tens of thousands of school romances, but characters are so much better than you avarage show. There's a lot of use of irony in the series, and Hikigaya's view of the world might be very uncommon for an anime main character, but actually might be very common for a real teenager who’s a bit apart from the rest of the group (and there’s a lot of those in the world).

This is a very dialogue-heavy series, especially considering its genre, and if there weren't it probably wouldn't be in this top. Conversations between the characters are interesting, they're things I enjoy listening to, and not the kind that enters through one ear and goes out from the other one.

Now, while the first season served as a nice introduction to the characters, their personalities and helped for letting the characters get to know each other, it’s in Zoku (season 2) when things really start happening in the series. That’s when the plot begins to move forward showing it won’t just be your everyday school anime where romantic stuff never actually get resolved. It’s here when some of those repressed emotions start leaking into the surface, when Hikigaya stops living a false life and starts being more honest to himself, and this even more true to Yukinoshita. On the other side, the already honest Yuigahama is probably the most improved character between seasons (Yukinoshita and Hikigaya were already very good characters), and she is probably the main fuel for the three of them to progress. She’s the only one who, while may try to hide the situation, is not in denial, and knows everything, and suffers because she obviously loves Hikigaya, but also loves Yukinoshita as a very dear friend.

The series keeps working as a big critic to society, like, for example, when people in a meeting start talking with very eloquently using a very extensive vocabulary, but in the end, they’re saying nothing at all, they’re solving nothing. At the same time though, contrary to the first season, the series also criticizes people who try to solve everything on their own by making themselves the scapegoat. Actually, this is a big point of emphasis here, as Hikigaya is the one who tends to do this. In Yuki, the series goes and criticizes people who tend to look like “perfect”, but are actually an empty shell, that while they can be great in solving different matters, they can be like a character without personality, not being actually able to decide what they want, and just going with the path other people put to them, or what is usually considered as good. Finally, Yui is used as the character that keeps a social façade, though admittedly she actually grows a lot from it.

Oregairu gives you a lesson: You don’t need to be the center of attention of the world, but against what a lot of anime seem to make, being the lone guy in the last (or second to last) seat next to the windows who’s always serious and never talks to anyone is not good at all. Humans live in society, and people have to know how to interact in societies. You don’t need to go to parties or stuff like that even, but it’s important to actually have some social interaction, even if it’s a little, even if you really do like to be alone (I am not a very social guy because I simply love to use my free time watching anime by myself or playing videogames, but sometimes you have to keep contact with your friends. That will probably help you in the future).

The only real shame with this series is that it’s still not finished, though pretty close to it (I’m guessing there’s a movie or some OVA(s) left. That ending will be the final judge on how Oregairu ends up faring in this ranking.

Oh, and you can pretty much consider this light novel school romance anime as a critic to all the light novel school romances out there. I think even the title is a critic.


98. One Piece



If Dragon Ball was one of the bigger parts of my childhood, you could say One Piece has been the same for my youth.

The seemingly never ending story of Luffy and the Strawhat Pirates keeps taking 30 minutes of my life every week; 30 minutes I never regret spending that way.

As a manga, One Piece might just be the most successful manga of all-time, and that's because it has something that really appeals. Oda did a wonderful job creating an impressive, enormous world full of adventures in the hundreds of islands, and that came along with one of the most likeable cast of characters in a fighting shounen anime.

What's great about One Piece is how every arc can be so different from one another, while our characters remain constant. Every island they visit is a different adventure, and even though the series has been running for over 800 episodes, the feeling of creativity with each island hasn't diminished one bit as the story progresses, which speaks volumes of Oda's creativity. Of course, some arcs can be clearly better than others, but even for the ones I don't hold in such a high regard, there's a ton of things I can rescue from them. I always want to know what the next island will be, and what kind of story we'll see on that island.

With One Piece, "Nakama" became a thing, not something to laugh about, but something to follow, something to make friendship something even bigger, a real friend, with real bonds of trust. One Piece can go through many things, but there is absolutely no doubt that the main theme in this series is friendship. The main topic in this series is the bond created by the crew, a bond of absolute trust, and an absolute ideal friendship. They can fight between them sometimes, but the unbreakable bond among the crew always prevail, and that's the message the series gives above all else.

The characters will mostly use their goofy side, act a bit like idiots and such, but when the going gets tough, you get to see the serious side of them, and watching them get serious from time to time, even to this day, feels me with excitement, and are usually the better spots of the series.

Oda is now probably author to the biggest world out there ever created, maybe as a whole in any story-telling medium. The world in One Piece is now so vast, and so full of microclimates, that I can't even think about something getting close to the level One Piece has achieved.

As an anime coming from the best selling manga of all-time, you can expect mostly good production values, which have evolved through time. Animation can have its ups and dows, but it's mostly quite solid, while the soundtrack is what actually stands out the most for me when comparing the anime to the manga. One Piece has a great soundtrack and that adds a lot to my enjoyment, making me enjoy the anime even more than the manga (I know, not a popular opinion). It also helps that, while the anime can be very slow paced, it almost has no fillers, even though it's a long running anime from a long running manga. You know the clasical contemporary comparisons. Not having fillers is a huge things, but that was obtained with a slow pace. I'm all in for this formula, which I find much better than Naruto's or Bleach's.

It'll be a really sad day for me when One Piece actually finishes.


97. Blood+



Let me start by saying this: Without Blood+, I might've not even been here writing this today.

For me, Blood+ marks the start of a new life, it marks the moment I began watching subbed anime, the moment I began investigating about anime and the moment anime really became a hobby by itself. I used to follow Blood+ on TV, but I missed the final 3 episodes and any chance of rewatching them on TV, so I went to Youtube, where I found said episodes in japanese subbed. I loved it. Loved the acting, and of course, loved the series. Because of that, Blood+ will always be special for me.

Now, my love for Blood+ is not purely nostalgic. Blood+, I legitimately think Blood+ is a great anime, and probably the best vampire anime out there, along with Hellsing. But you don't watch this just for vampires. Blood+ is a fairly long series which follows Saya Otonashi, who will have to fight chiroptera (beasts that feed with blood). The series follows Saya's travels along Haji, and it's mostly a story of Saya's growth as a character because of the various circumstances she'll find, including the truth about those beasts, about herself and about the past.

Blood+ is an action packed series, but that's always drived by its story and characters, having some sad moments, some happy moments, tense moments, etc. There is a noticeable progress through the series, and different elements just keep adding layers to the plot, until it reaches its climax and starts resolving everything, to end with a very satisfying ending.

As a small trivia, Tarantino actually used Blood+ as an inspiration to create Kill Bill, though I'd rather watch this than Kill Bill, even though I actually like Kill Bill.

Lots of things happen in this 50 episode adventure, but not even for one second I thought this was boring.

Oh, and don't even think about judging it from the movie "Blood: The Last Vampire"... this is so much better.


96. Slam Dunk



When talking about sports anime, it is very easy to notice that, because of the japanese culture, baseball easily trumps over any other sport. While football soccer can also be big in Japan, baseball is part of the culture of the country. The average MAL user will probably, at the very least, hear about "Koushien". So yes, there is a ton of baseball anime to choose from. But that leaves an iffy spot here for those sports that don't really have a big culture in Japan, where there is not that much to choose from. One of those cases is basketball, which also happens to be my favorite sport. Luckily for me, an extremely talented mangaka happened to be a big basketball fan, and he actually increased the sport popularity during the 90s thanks to Slam Dunk. He was also a big reason of why I started playing basketball and moved me from being a fan of the sport to being a big fan of it.

Slam Dunk follows a classic formula of sports anime: High School student joins one of the smaller clubs in the region, that clubs just happens to form a pretty talented team that year and then their dream of reaching the national tournament. Slam Dunk is no different to other in that regard, but Slam Dunk starts shining thanks to a fantastic main character in Hanamichi Sakuragi, and an excellent cast overall. Shohoku, the main team in this series, gets a great roster, but almost every played in the roster is pretty much a delinquent (especially Sakuragi), they get in fights, are horrible students, get in all kinds of trouble, etc. At the beginning, Sakuragi doesn't even know how to play basketball nor he really cares about it. But as the series progresses, his love for the sport will start to grow, and his great physical qualities will start to shine little by little. He starts awful, and we can see a lot of him being awful, but through a lot of effort he will start becoming a key member of team.

The series has a very good sense of humor, the comedy tends to be very well placed, and at the same time the games can be very exciting. In fact, I've actually rewatched some them. Luckily youtube has videos of just the games, which make for a good 30 minutes or so watch. If you happen to be a basketball fan like me, you'll definitely appreciate the NBA references. This is a manga of the 90s, so it's pretty easy to notice how Shohoku is based on the Chicago Bulls (and using Dennis Rodman as a main character), but it doesn't stop there, as you can see how other teams like Shoyo or Kainan are references to the Celtics and Lakers.

But again, gowing back to how Hanamichi improves as a basketball player, this also improves as a person. One of the bigger factors in Slam Dunk, and probably the one that helps it stand out above other sports series, is the character development present in the series. I've seen a couple of other "national tournament" series from other sports, and a lot of them can bring exciting game action for whatever sport they're playing, they can bring some funny comedy and charismatic characters, but what I see lacking a lot in lots of them is precisely the character development, and I mean, development over their ability in the sport in question. Sakuragi improves as a basketball person, but through basketball, we see this delinquent slowly reforming himself by finding a passion in basketball. The growth of Sakuragi is done in a subtle way that doesn't feel forced, and just naturally flows through the series, partly thanks to the fact that he never stops being himself.

The one big problem with Slam Dunk is the ending though, a problem that's unique to the anime. For some reason I don't know, even though they managed to make this a 100 episodes series, they actually stopped right after the final arc, which is probably the best arc in the series, and obviously the conclusion to it. Through the whole series the characters have a main goal, and right when they're going to collect the main reward, the series suddenly finishes, and since then, we never even got some OVAs, movies or whatever to finish the series. I'd still really recommend this series to pretty much anyone, as I have a hard time imagining someone not enjoying Slam Dunk (of course, nothing written in taste, so I'm sure there are cases). If you enjoy the series at least half as me though, you'll want to get to the manga to read the final arc of it, at the very least.

Now, I will say Slam Dunk is not the best basketball manga out there for me. That title actually goes for Real, of the very same Takehiko Inoue, but that doesn't have an anime adaption, and if you think Hunter X Hunter or Berserk are slow, then you have no idea about Real. Makes Berserk look like One Piece in terms of publishing speed.



95. Seirei no Moribito



When I first got to MAL (in 2014, my account might be from 2010, but I really didn't use MAL until 2014), I began searching for new good anime I might not know and asked for a couple recommendations here and there. Seirei no Moribito, an anime I didn't know it even existed, came up quite frequently, so it was little after joining MAL that I gave this series an opportunity. I can only thank those who recommendated it, because while it was clearly fairly known in the site, for me this was a completely hidden gem. There's a lot to love in this anime, from content, to characters to world building and to production values. The series does a lot of stuff right.

The first and most important thing this series does right is creating a memorable main character. Balsa is one badass woman, and one of the best female leads I've seen in anime. She's strong in both mind and body, has a great character thanks to her sense of responsibility and shows a lot of kindness to those she hold dear. Balsa is one fantastic character, and she alone makes the series worthwile, but she's far from all the series has to offer.

Fights are a staple in the anime world. There's a ton of action anime, and battle choreographies play a huge part in those of course. While Seirei no Moribito's focus in battles is actually not that big, the job done in them is outstanding, to the point that one has to consider a particular battle of this series among the best fights in the anime world. The animation quality flows naturally and the whole choreography is incredibly fun. I don't have many memories of enjoying battles as much as I did with this anime which, again, wasn't really even about fights.

Seirei no Moribito is mostly about the journey of Balsa and Chagum and the relationship they form. Not quite mother-child, and I'm not sure I could call it a big sister-young brother relationship, but it was something that felt as close as a family bond. This bond that was created was very well done, didn't feel forced, but had enough push to make it a central point in the series. Both characters have a continuous growth while being with one another. The series has various different moments that range from heavy action to slice of life moments, but the main focus is always around these two characters and their relationship.

Finally, it's hard for me to talk about Seirei no Moribito without giving a special mention to its production quality. It's simply outstanding all over the place. Very nice character designs, some incredible backgrounds and very good detail drawings in the scenery that goes along with a fantastic animation quality and a soundtrack that's one of those you want to get after watching the series, with some very memorable tracks.


94. Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai



Life is just a shitty game with awesome graphics.

When talking about the thousands of romantic comedy harems out there, TWGOK easily, very easily, takes the cake over all in comedy, romance and even harem (talking about harem development, not fav girls, that's another debate... where it might also win).

Kami Nomi starts like a hilarious comedy with an excellent main character (first thing harem anime usually lacks). There's been a few characters of the "otaku type", but Keima is easily the best of them. He's funny, but also extremely intelligent. The series really does start as a "make your harem bigger" type... but on a very literal way, as Keima's mission is to conquer girls, because if he doesn't, he loses his head and well... it'd be hard playing games without a head!

But TWGOK isn't just that. The series develops into much more, and eventually comes the Goddess Arc series, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Megami hen. Things begin getting much more serious here, the funny reasons because Keima was doing this become a little more serious, and the thing about pretty much playing with the girls emotion does become an issue and things develop into an interesting romantic drama; and more interestinly enough, this works without forgetting about the comedy, which still keeps making wonders. Megami-hen makes TWGOK, which was already a good show, into something much better. Before it was just a great comedy, while after the Goddess Arc you can really call it a good show.

There is nothing more animated beyond Megami-hen, but the manga continues, and as a reader, I can say that the series got to its highest point in Megami-hen, and it went downhill afterwards. It wasn't actually bad or anything like that, but they did forget a bit about the great sense of humor the series had, and the serious things just weren't as good as they were during the Goddess Arc.


93. Koi Kaze



After many years in which I’ve watched hundreds of anime with an incest theme that, without exception, brought my hands to my head in disbelief at how a theme that’s so serious in society was always treated as something normal or funny. I even enjoyed some of those, but I was always wondering to myself how there’s so much, and the theme is never actually taken seriously. Well, that is, until I crossed paths with Koi Kaze, an incest romance that actually creates a more believable situation in which to siblings could fall in love and doesn’t really focuses on the romance itself, it focuses in the fact on how this is such a wrong relationship, how this is not really accepted by society, and even how even the siblings try to deny the truth, as they know that’s just wrong, they know nobody will accept it.

Even more, we’re talking about a 15 years old girl and a 27 years old man (I believe, if not, something close), which only makes this relationship seem even more wrong.

Koi Kaze is just a one cour series, so it really doesn’t waste time and goes immediately to the point, focusing a lot on the psychological aspects of both characters, mostly about the acceptance of the fact that they love each other, and the intent to actually ignore such love, to no avail. There’s a lot of internal suffering, especially from the point of view of the main character (the man), who’s older and knows quite well how messed up is all of this.

This is a controversial series because between all that, it actually creates some likeable characters. Both of the siblings are nice people, and you almost want to wish them well, because even as a romance, this series is much better written than most, but at the same time you can’t, again, because you know that that relationship is just wrong.

Spoilers of the ending inside:


There’s a quote from one of the characters in the series that perfectly resumes the feelings created by this series:

“I can't wish you luck, but I hope you can be happy.”


92. Katanagatari



Ah, Katanagatari, I remember it was awful to wait for each episode, but at least the reward was a 50 minutes episode instead of the typical 25 minutes.

Katanagatari was great, a story based on two characters, Shichika and Togame, and their journey to collect swords. While it was an episodic series, the plot was always progressing, and both of the main characters definitely developed a lot throughout the series.

The story was written by Nisio, known for Monogatari, though while Katanagatari had some eccentricities, it was much "normal". Dialogues between the characters were really entertaining, and the fights of each episode were all very good. The idea of the swordsman without a sword actually worked pretty well.

It's always important for a series to end on a good note, and Katanagatari did that perfectly. The final episode was simply impressive, some incredible plot twist, and some great reactions for a very good conclusion to the story.


91. Chihayafuru



This is my single favorite sports anime ever, hands down, even if sports is actually kinda secondary to the plot (I've yet to watch some that are supposed to be really good, though). EDIT: Since I wrote this, I've watched a lot of sports anime I rank higher than Chihayafuru, though my high opinion on this series hasn't gone down a bit.

Chihayafuru is a story about the sport Karuta... sport Karuta? What the fuck is that? Well, it's a sport just like chess can be one. I've seen the real thing, and it's really boring to watch, but Chihayafuru makes it look like a very exciting series. Stuff anime can do, but real life can't I guess.

Character development is huge in this series. Every character gets their time, and changes a lot for good throughout the series, in many different ways. They're all extremely likeable characters, guys that are giving their all for their goals, and that create unbreakable bonds between them.

There's a great friendship/romantic triangle between Chihaya, Arata and Taichi, all three of them outstanding characters in their own really different way.

Something I really loved about this series is how I could relate to the characters during the karuta tournaments. I mentioned chess before, right? Well, I used to play chess at the level they play karuta, and tournaments were basically the same. You had singles and team tournament, the system worked just like in karuta, the way the people were ordered in team matches, how teams could rearrange that for strategy purposes, the waits between matches... everything. I felt like back in those old days, from which I can say that they were extremely well written, the author really knew how those things work.

A karuta match doesn't sound like much, and it really isn't, but by delving into the characters mind, it really made every single match really interesting, even if you have no idea about karuta (that would be my case, by the way). It was honestly very, very fun.

I admit I'm rooting for Taichi, I think he really deserves to be with Chihaya. He's probably the character with the biggest growth through the series so far. It's been really a great watch, and Mamoru Miyano's work voicing him was superb. He's not a perfect guy, he seems more human than any other character, but he is a great guy, and he does care a lot about Chihaya.

Hopefully, one day we get a season 3, as this series really deserves one.



And that'd be it for my first entry on this Top 100, hopefully, if someone reads this, he comes back to see how the top develops. There's still a long way to number 1.

Feel free to leave a comment in my profile or in this entry, it would actually be appreciated, as it's always nice to see that someone's reading what you write (at least when you put some effort in it).


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