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Well, time for some more Top 100, now I'll be going into 90-81 entries.

It's not when I see the top 10 when I realize I've seen a lot of anime, it's when I see entries like this one. Series that used to be top 50 (and some even better) are now fighting to stay in the top. Not because I don't like them anymore (in fact, I love them), but because there' so much more compettition.

Now without further ado, let's go with the top:




90. Macross



Macross is very far from being a perfect series. It has a big number of flaws, but at the same time it has a lot of great elements that definitely cover the flaws very well. Macross is rightfully so considered a classic in the anime world, and one of the pioneers of the real robots genre, coming just a couple of years after Mobile Suit Gundam, a series Macross originally intended to parody a bit, but ended up becoming quite unique and a work by itself. Macross was really the first series that sent the mechas to a completely secondary plane in favor of development, something that might’ve actually been born from something as simple as a low budget. Macross didn’t have much of a budget to work with at the beginning, so they were quite limited in what they could do in terms of action.

This way, Macross probably became the first famous series about idols, and also made the “love triangle” thing famous. For good and bad, Macross was so famous that the series was actually forced to extend. It was originally planned as a 22-26 episodes series (don’t remember the exact number, but people who watched the series will clearly recognize the first point where it was intended to finish), but because it ended up being so popular, the series extended to 36 episodes, which probably wasn’t the best idea, as the extension was not handled very well. Animation got a lot worse, characters development regressed for the sake of opening the plot and the new plot was not very well done even though the idea was good. The good thing about the extension was that seeing an aftermath of the main event was nice, particularily a couple of scenes typical of an epilogue (except it wasn’t), and well, at least the ending itself was relatively good and did close small things the original 24 episodes didn’t.

The first thing I’d really like to highlight about Macross is actually the comedy. I think a good sense of comedy is something very difficult to achieve, but the series manages some fantastic humor, at times hilarious, but that it never gets in the way of the plot, character development or -what most series are guilty of- feels forced. The comedy is pretty common here, but it comes very naturally and stays. It’s a thing about culture (this is actually an inside joke for those who have watched Macross).

While the vast majority of the people I know prefer one girl in the triangle (Misa) over the other one (Minmay), Macross’s love triangle is not as predictable as most triangles, which makes the “romantic intrigue” much more interesting than in most love stories were you simply know who’s the “winner” from day 1. Ironically, while Misa is the much more popular girl among fans, the cover girl from the series is Minmay, who’s pretty much a legend in Japan in terms of anime character idol. On the other hand, Hikaru, the main character, can be quite a jerk at times and relatively likeable at others. He’s one of the characters that suffer the most from the forced extension of the series as his characterization regresses a whole lot. Until said extension, Hikaru slowly develops through the series starting as an extremely annoying character, while little by little he starts growing up and becoming a good character.

Also, while the animation might not be good, where Macross did spend every penny was in the OST, where they put the great Kentaro Haneda (RIP) in charge, who’s known for works like Yamato, Ashita no Joe 2 or Onii-sama e. The series has a huge array of vocal themes (though “My Boyfriend is a Pilot” is repeated a bit too much and, in my opinion, is the worst of them) where I think “Silver Moon, Red Moon” and the mythical “Do You Remember Love?” (Exclusive from the movie with the same title) are particularly good. But that’s not all, the BGM is also really good, and so are the opening and ending themes. While Kentarou Haneda was not alive to work on the rest of the Macross franchise, his job was really well covered by one of the most famous composers in the anime industry: Yoko Kanno.

Finally, while I think I’ve put an emphasis on how the series suffered from an extension, the best way to end on a perfect note is the movie Do You Remember Love?, which is an alternative version, but one that’s highly recommended to be watched after finishing the original series. This is because the only thing the movie lacks is basically the development of secondary characters, and of course, even the main characters suffer a bit in comparison to the series as there’s so much you can do with a movie’s length in comparison to a 36 episodes series. But that’s it, because other than that, the movie fixes pretty much every mistake the series did and even improves some of the good things.

First of all, on a complete opposite note to the series, Do You Remember Love has an incredible animation quality; good enough to keep up with today’s standards, even if it’s from 1984. But even more importantly, it’s important to note that the movie is more of an alternative version than just a recap movie. While it shares the main idea with the series, there are a number of elements that were changed. Characters felt improved, with Hikaru growing up faster, Misa didn’t have a number of problems she showed in the second part of the series and Minmay was a much better character through the movie (I actually liked her in the movie, while I felt she was annoying in the series). The resolution of the story felt much improved in the movie, finishing with a very memorable ending. If I have to say something bad about it, I guess it is a bit of a shame that the movie didn’t have time to show much of the great sense of humor we saw in the series, but that’s to be expected considering the length of the medium.

So in the end, while going through the last 10-12 episodes of the series was not that great, thanks to the movie, my final opinion on Macross wasn’t really tarnished, and in the end, my opinion on Macross ended up being very positive.


89. Dragon Ball



Like thousands of others of my age, Dragon Ball represents a HUGE part of my childhood, and to this day, I'm still enjoying the series one way or another. Be it by recently finishing Dragon Ball Super, playing video games of the franchise (which I also enjoy a lot) or by rewatching stuff, like Dragon Ball version I have in spanish subs called "ChibiKai", which is basically Dragon Ball (original series) without fillers.

To be perfectly honest, my love for this series goes mostly with the original series. I was around 6 or 7 years old when I began watching it on TV. And really fell in love with it pretty quickly. I still remember how, for a couple of years, my nights before sleeping consisted in watching Dragon Ball at 8:30pm, Sailor Moon at 9:00pm and then Detective Conan at 9:30pm before going to sleep at 10pm. Dragon Ball has it all for me. The first thing I liked about Dragon Ball is that it really gave a sense of adventure with the gathering of the Dragon Balls or going against the Red Ribbon Army, and well, this is a fighting anime, and some of the battle Dragon Ball gave us are still among my favorite shounen battles ever. Contrary to Z, where powers scaled way too much, Dragon Ball was a bit more grounded, which actually translated in better fights from my point of view. The World Tournaments offered lots of fights where characters displayed a wide arrange of techniques and fighting strategies that you just didn't see much more after Z. The sense of comedy in Dragon Ball is fantastic. While the series could be serious at times, it had a lot of comedy moments where really effective. Finally, I really appreciated how the series could be so different from one arc to another. All the main arcs felt really different from one another, and the series never felt like every arc was the same thing with different decorations, which is a common problem among fighting shounens.

While I prefer the original series, I still loved Z like many others. DBZ takes a more standard shounen approach of pure fighting, overpowering and arcs dictated by one big enemy. Still with all that, I love it. Some fights were awesome, I loved the Super Saiyan transformation, and the villains, while very simple, were pretty cool (especially ( •_•)>⌐■-■ Freezer (⌐■_■)). After so many years, it was impossible for me not to love the characters. There was nothing incredibly groundbreaking in Dragon Ball Z, and the creativity from Dragon Ball was mostly lost, but as a standard shounen, it was very fun and characters were mostly pretty likeable, both enemies and good guys.

I'll even bother talking a bit of Dragon Ball GT... well, yes, put plainly, it sucked. It was like a kick in the balls (you can also make a pun here), but, again, like popular opinion, I do appreciate that ending a lot. Which was much better than Z's. When I watched DBGT ending, I almost felt like it was the ending of a big part of my childhood. If anything, I don't regret watching GT because that ending had me in tears. It's probably good, not brilliant, but for someone who had been watching Dragon Ball for almost all of his life at the time, that ending had a lot of meaning. But yeah, GT kinda sucks as a series.

While very criticized during its run, partially because of a horrid start, even Dragon Ball Super ended up being a very entertaining experience for me. Again, I didn't like the start one bit, starting by having the series animated by monkeys at the beginning, to the mere story, as I didn't really like the fight against Bills that much, and the Freezer return was even worse for me. That said, the series did get a lot better when the alternate universes were presented. The fight against Hit was fun, and finally, the Tournament of Power was a really enjoyable watch for me. For starters, I loved who they kinda revived forgotten characters for it. I loved watching Roshi fighting again (and being pretty good at it), and almost every character had at least a moment to shine a bit. Finally, and this is absolutely personal, Dragon Ball Super delivered Super Saiyans with blue hair. Ok, I admit it, it's not something increidbly creative at this point, but when I was very very young and played "Dragon Ball" with friends or even by myself, I always imagined super saiyans with blue hair, which was a "legendary transformation" in my mind that represented absolute power, or something of the sort (please, understand this is my 7-8 years old self playing). So yeah, seeing that in Dragon Ball Super felt incredibly nostalgic for me. But again, that's obviously something personal. And yes, blue is my favorite color, even though I use the name Akai on the internet.

Goku was really a special, very likeable character. The moments I've spent with this series are very special. In a way, this could easily be a top 10 series also... but I'm not just nostalgia, so that ain't happening, and I've definitely seen better things since then. But still, nostalgia apart, I think I'd still enjoy this series a lot.

PS: My actual favorite DBZ villain is Cell.


88. Great Teacher Onizuka



The, hands down, best teacher in the world makes its appearance in this ranking.

Onizuka is easily one of my favorite characters in anime. He was just that great, a guy that guarantees you saying, sometime during or after watching the show: "Damn, I wished I had him as a teacher".

Onizuka is a comedy that ends up becoming something more serious (without forgetting its comedy), and one of the best comedies at that, Fujisawa Tohru really has a good sense of humor.

Onizuka is definitely a character driven series, and not just because of Onizuka, the students development really is something to watch, how they're really fucked up in one way or another, and how our great teacher ends up saving them in his own unique way. Watching everyone develop in this series is really something, and watching Onizuka help his students is hilarious but really great and thought provoking... Sure, you can't have a guy like him as teacher in real life, but Onizuka does have some of the main qualities a good tutor (teacher, parent or whatever) should have. In a way he really is scum in society, but in other, more important ways, he's one of the most valuable persons you'll ever see.

Great Teacher Onizuka is actually a sequel to Shounan Junai Gumi (a manga that only has a couple OVAs as an adaption), though you don't need the prequel to watch the series. In fact, probably most people here watch GTO first and then some of them learn about the prequel. During the prequel, Onizuka is a delinquent, and one extremely strong, though a nice guy overall who just wants to get a girl (and always fails miserably). After the events of the manga, Onizuka decides to try his luck as a teacher, again as a way to get girls, which is not exactly the most noble of reasons. But somehow, that ends up changing his life. Onizuka is a perverted man, but it doesn't take much for him to start caring about his students in a non-sexual way, and he actually cares for both boys and girls. This whole process is full of some of the best comedy anime has to offer, but it's also has a lot of some real life problems that can be associated to some school students, and Onizuka really does a fantastic job to solve them.

The one big shame is that Pierrot actually did a pretty bad job adapting the manga. While they captured Onizuka very well, thanks to a great job by Wataru Takagi as seiyuu, the anime censors a lot of stuff that I feel it's important (not just boobs and such, but students smoking, for example) and even more importantly, they cut the story short inventing a final arc and completely forgetting about half of the story, which is probably the strongest part of the manga.

That said, what little it brings to life, the anime does it good. While censorship kills some things, for most of the story, the anime is very faithful to the source material and it's an incredibly fun watch. Of course, after being done with the anime, I would highly recommend reading the manga. Or vice-versa, watching the anime after reading the manga to see the characters animated and speaking.


87. Hellsing Ultimate



One of the most badass characters I've seen. One of the most overpowered main characters, and definitely the most awesome vampire ever.

I still remember waiting for each OVA... damn, it was slow (specially the 8th OVA), but it was always definitely worth the wait. Hellsing Ultimate had some great animation, awesome characters, great action and a, while not deep or anything of the sort, very enjoyable plot. I mean... IT'S FREAKING VAMPIRES VS THE CHURCH VS NAZIS!!

While this is mainly about the action, the moment that has stayed the most with me is a speech given by the Major (leader of the Nazis here, could be perfectly called "Totally-Not-Hitler") in the 4th OVA, a speech about war, a speech filled with madness (and Hellsing is all about the madness). "Senzou wa suki da (I love war)". I love that speech (no, I'm not a Nazi nor I agree with it), it was great, and portrayed the madness of the character perfectly well.

Of course, there's those Alucard vs Alexander Anderson, or in terms of seiyuus, Jouji Nakata vs Norio Wakamoto. Yeah, that's awesome.

There is not much to think, cry or whatever with Hellsing, this is a show about action, about watching some awesome stuff, and badass characters (lots of them) do their thing. Hellsing is pretty much that, but its pretty damn good at it. Alucard is the real definition of an anti-hero.


86. Gintama NEW!!



I’ll be honest here: When I delved into Gintama, I was fully expecting disappointment because of how highly regarded it was, but by the time I was finished with Gintama (until the end of Gintama°) I could understand much more why Gintama is so loved by almost everyone who watched the series.

Gintama feels like a fresh experience for a shounen. While it does goes into some typical shounen tropes, especially in the comedy department, which is Gintama's main area, the series also does laugh about said tropes, it parodies some of the most popular anime, but also some others that are not all that common today. Watching Gintama can almost be a bit of a game of “what the heck are they parodying now”. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say they parody 100 series or more… and the thing is, most of the time, the parodies are fun, and on point. It’s not just making a cameo, but playing with it on a very effective way, making Gintama the undisputed king of parodies (maybe taking the crown from Urusei Yatsura). Gintama mocks just about everybody. They mock a lot of series, they mock you as a viewer (they constantly break the fourth wall) and most importantly, the mock themselves more than everyone. The sense of humor in Gintama is great.

The most important tool for them to be effective is the fact that they have an enormous cast where most of the characters are quite likeable, led by the main character Gintoki who has a perfect blend of comedy values and some more serious values, combined with being the awesome guy every now and then the few times Gintama actually gets serious. But it’s the whole cast. Gintama shines in having one of the better casts of characters in a shounen. While they don’t have some impressive development, they’re charismatic characters that somehow manage to never get boring out of repetition.

When the series actually gets serious, it becomes a really fun shounen, with some fun fights and plots that can be engaging, even if not incredibly original, though even if it does get serious, there is always a bit of comedy here and there that’s always well placed and actually meshes well with all the serious stuff going on.

Gintama is a really crazy series, though quite episodic, which is why I actually enjoyed watching it little by little, except for the couple longer arcs which were easily digested in no time, and of course, you’ve got the whole second half of Gintama° which changes everything completely because of certain events that really make the world turn around, which does make me quite curious on how the new Gintama season will work out.


85. Slayers



Considering Slayers was one of the first series I ever watched, it didn't take much for it to become a staple in the fantasy genre for me. For good or bad, since very early, this has been the series I first see when thinking about the genre. The series is, at heart, a classical fantasy story with swords, magic, demons and dragons, among many other common things. Slayers is mostly a very simple series with some action and comedy (mostly comedy) in this classical fantasy world that may look like a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

This is a series about Lina Inverse, one of those characters I consider by themselves part of my imaginary Hall of Fame of characters. While the rest of the cast can be nice and all, you're not watching this series because of Gourry, Amelia or Zelgadis, you're watching Lina Inverse do her thing. Lina is greedy, but extremely powerful black magic user that really stand out as a character. Her lively personality, her greed and her seriousness when it counts make up for a unique character for this fantasy-comedy world. Megumi Hayashibara's work voicing her is outstanding, even more so when you think we're talking about the same seiyuu that did works of the more serious kind of characters like Rei Ayanami and Ai Haibara. As an RPG fan, I can't help but like seeing spells being cast, and the best two examples I can think of spellcasting are Valkyrie Profile 2's Lezard Valeth and Lina Inverse here in Slayers. Watching her casting her different spells (especially the big ones) was a treat for me as and RPG fan and a D&D player.

While Slayers isn't about complex character development or things like that, it does a very good job at building the fantasy setting (adding some modern stuff from time to time for comedy reasons), and manages to keep the characters fresh, with not big, but noticeable growths in their development.

The comedy is all around the place in the series, there's some running gags here and there and some jokes more exclusive to an episode. You'll see a lot of dedication to the comedy, and because of this, it plays a huge part in your enjoyment of the series. This is a series that was mostly written to make the viewers laugh. There's more to it, but that's the first point of this series, though it probably does get a bit more serious after the first season (but without ever forgetting its roots).

If you're a fan of the classical fantasy genre, then Slayers is pretty much a must watch.

84. Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.



I admit it. I went to my list to copy-paste the title, even though I actually do know it by memory.

Anohana is an anime that's probably better known for his ending. Not the first nor the last among the anime that attempt to bring a powerful emotional ending that have the watchers split between being drowned in tears and other calling it a cheap melodrama. I was probably not drowned in tears, but I would never call it a cheap melodrama either. I think Anohana did bring a sad situation, and the whole series is a build up of the whole situation that, from minute 1, it was bound to have the kind of ending it had.

Through eleven episodes, Anohana tells the story of a group of childhood friends that are completely separated in present time. While they were incredibly close in their childhood, one of them lost her life to an accident, an event that would damage the relationship of the group to a point they were almost strangers at the time the series is set, with them now being teenagers. At the beginning of the series the ghost of Menma, the girl that died in the past, appears in front of Jinta, our main character, and starting there, the series will be about trying to make this ghost rest in peace.

The whole series will really revolve about this group of friends getting over the death of Menma 10 years after it happened by looking for ways to help the ghost. This process will slowly bring the group closer together again, and the episodes, from the first minute, will be dedicated to this goal. One of the toughest part about the death of a close person is usually acceptance, so I can appreciate a series that mostly focuses on this more than in the death itself. As the series progress, we'll see that a lot of damage was done to the relationship of the main characters, to the point that without the supernatural element the series has (Menma's ghost), it might've been impossible for them to recover their friendship, but the goal of helping this ghost is what moves the plot forward.

The series uses a lot of small flashbacks to learn about key events about our characters and things that provoked the death of Menma. As a way to show the relationship among the characters, the series tend to use much lighter colors when showing us those flashback, in contrast to the colors presented during the present time. Illumination played a key role in the direction of the series to portray the mood of the series.

While it is true that Anohana is one of those series built to create a strong emotional moment, it's not a series that just throw a sad scene while almost saying "now cry, bitch!". It has a proper build up for its moments, and the progress of events does make sense. While there is a ghost, I'll spoil right now you won't get a miraculous ending with Menma reviving or something of the sort. The series, in a way, portrays things that happen in life, of course, with a flare of dramatics from time to time to make things more interesting.

Anohana is a quick watch that I heavily recommend. With just 11 episodes, there is no room for fillers and the plot is always moving forward. Each episode has some significance for the bigger picture. I was personally enjoying the series quite a lot from start to finish. It was not one of those series that are only meant for the ending.

And of course, I do think the ending is fantastic. It delivered what the series built through all the episodes with a strong emotional moment that did become a memorable scene for me. I did feel it was a nicely written ending.


83. Romeo no Aoi Sora



While I wouldn’t call my first impression of Romeo no Aoi Sora bad, at the beginning I did feel a little bit disappointed, probably because I was expecting a lot out of it for being part of the World Masterpiece Theater and because I had just finished Akage no Anne, a series which I loved and was also part of it. And while Romeo no Aoi Sora definitely wasn’t as good as Akage no Anne, the series definitely picked the pace up, and ended up being thoroughly satisfying, and a really nice story revolving in one of the best friendships you’ll ever see in anime.

Romeo no Aoi Sora had a big problem for me, which was that a lot of the character were or too good people, or way too douchbags, there wasn’t much of a middle ground. But still, the good characters were really likeable, the interactions were fun, and if you add a great setting in a 20th Century Milan, well, you still get something really good.

This is a series that’s obviously meant for kids to watch, but that can be really enjoyed by adults also (like most of the World Masterpiece Theater). Admittedly, the average teenager might not like this kind of series. Romeo no Aoi Sora makes sure to make a point in how important it is to have good friends, how they help you and how you’re supposed to help them. The relationship this series builds between Romeo and Alfredo really becomes quite a touching story, showing us how both of them affect the people that surrounds them.

And then there’s the beautiful ending this series had.

Spoilers of the ending ahead:



While I can’t say these are relatable characters, or even a good depiction of life or anything of the sort, I can say both Alfredo and Romeo are fantastic characters, and an example to follow. While it’s impossible to have the innocence of Romeo (and it wouldn’t work in real life), his attitude is something everyone should try to emulate: giving it all for his friends, being a man of word and a hard worker.


82. Air



While Kanon might be the series I can criticize the less from Key, the "Favorite Akai Shuichi's Visual Arts Key Anime Award " goes to Air. A very unpopular opinion I'm afraid, but I hey, I've never been one to care about that.

I actually can understand Air not being the favorite; character design are really sloppy, it's shorter than the others and it can be more simple than others. But I love it, what can I say. I really enjoyed Air, and I think that when it mattered most, it really was the strongest of all.

As a shorter series, Air didn't really focus on other heroines and just went with the main one, and the alternate supernatural story. Honestly speaking, the other heroines were rushed, but I didn't really care about that because for me it was all about the main heroine, Mizusu, and the "alternate" story about Kanna, and even the last one is just secondary, honestly.

Can an ending make a show? Yes, most definitely yes. Air tought me this as one of the first shows I watched... at least when talking about short series (I don't think just a good ending can save a longer series). Air is all about its final episodes. For me, it's easily the saddest anime made by Key, and one of the saddest anime in general. Also, an absolutely impressive soundtrack helps a lot here, as it creates a great mood for said ending.

Air explores a relationship between a mother and a daughter. Similar to Clannad's relationship between Tomoya and Ushio, but this one was done even better, and definitely finished better.... but let's keep talking in spoilers, DON'T READ THE SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED AIR.



Air had many flaws in the way, but it managed to get to the goal, and did it on a really high note. Also, you might want to check Osamu Dezaki's movie adaption of the visual novel, which is a retelling of the story with noticeable variations from the series, but the format and great direction of Dezaki probably made it an even better work than the series.


81. Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World



This is one of those relaxing type of series. I can definitely understand how I got to this as a recommendation from Mushishi, even if it has some clear differences with it.

What first stands out from Kino no Tabi are the amazing, creative setting the series has to offer. This is an episodic series that shows us a different "country" each episode, each with it's own unique rules, completely different technology and ideologies. Some can look like a paradise and others like hell, but whatever they are, they really are very creative, each and every single scenario presented.

Kino, a girl who travels around this world will always end up involved in some kind of problem with people from these countries, and will usually do something to help, which lets us see the roots of those countries. Kino is not the justice league character who does good deeds and that's it. She can actually be pretty cruel and has her own rules from which she never strays. Little by little her character is developed, especially in a specific episode about her past and a movie (which you could really consider another episode by length). She's an interesting and very likeable character, and the only constant character along her motorad (her motorcycle that talks).

Dialogues are interesting, and the series keeps itself relaxing by never increasing the tension too much, even when there's actually some fights in it.

Only shame is that there isn't more material to watch. It really is a nice series which I would love to see more episodes of. Even if I watched it slowly, by the end, 14 episodes felt like too little material, as it's a series that has a potential to go on and on, pretty much like Mushishi, because there really isn't a plot progression in it.

EDIT FROM MORE THAN 3 YEARS AFTER WRITING THIS TEXT: Eventually a new Kino no Tabi season was announced, but since I haven't been following seasonal anime since the end of 2015, I still haven't seen it, so I guess there is more material now. I'll eventually get back to this once I watch this new series, assuming that, by then, Kino no Tabi is still part of this top 100.





And that's it for the second entry of this top. It's getting harder and harder to lower the ranking of different things.

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