Konnichiwa, snitches. I’m B, and this is Brotakuza. That was a classic scene for us older kids,and it perfectly captures how I feel about watching anime, especially since I startedworking in Japan. I’m currently trying my best to catch upon Hunter x Hunter…and very slowly at that. But sometimes I want an anime that’s shortand sweet while giving me the same character development and story depth as the Narutosand One Pieces of the world, without having to invest in hundreds and hundreds of episodes,because I simply don’t have time for it. Luckily, there are plenty of anime like this,some of which can be binged through in between 1 and 3 sittings. Many of these are considered classics, withone believed by many to be the best anime of all time. That being said, here are my picks for the top 10 single-season anime of all time…so far.
#10 Parasyte the Maxim When you initially read the synopsis aboutworm-like aliens invading Earth and causing mayhem after taking over humans’ brains,it seems like a straightforward horror story, but what follows is an unlikely friendshipbetween a human host and his parasyte that offers us a great lesson about our relationshipas humans to the Earth as only one in a myriad of species. And it does it in a way that doesn’t comeoff as too preachy, and even throws in some pretty thought-provoking takes on the relativityof morality. At
#9, Kill La Kill Come for the fan service, stay for the subliminalmessaging. Kill La Kill was a highly polarizing animewhen it came out. While many thought this was an overly misogynisticanime, and it is kind of hard to get past all the T&A, others felt it was a bold shotat the ecchi genre. Whichever side you may fall on, I felt thishigh school revenge story of a girl looking for her dad’s killer had plenty of substanceto back up its choice of delivery. And I also enjoyed Kill La Kill’s subtleshots at hierarchal societal structures, which is a hallmark of Japanese culture, but a reallyantiquated way of determining a person’s value in my opinion. If you can get past the overabundance of skin,I think you’ll really enjoy this one.
#8, Ouran High School Host Club So, a short-haired girl named Haruhi stumblesher way into her new high school’s host club, breaks a vase, and now the guys, thinkingthat Haruhi is also a guy, force her to work to pay off the debt. The only thing more ridiculous than this isthe fact that a high school has a host club in the first place. The only thing more ridiculous than THAT,is the fact that host clubs exist in real life. Still a great anime, and one of the very fewthat adapted well to the live-action treatment.
#7, Madoka Magica Madoka Magica is the story of a group of girlswho are granted a wish in exchange for their souls and service as witch fighters. The fine print of their agreement is kepthidden, and they find that their decision has a pretty lofty consequence. The magical girls genre has been done to death,but Madoka Magica throws in a surprising twist element that really cuts to the core and makesyou rethink your stance on some of the key characters. And this is a spoiler, but not really a spoiler,but sort of a spoiler…but pay close attention to the opening theme, as it kind of givesaway the twist, which still has a bit of a sting even if you see it coming.
#6, Samurai Champloo I was fascinated with Japan’s Edo periodwhen I was little, and it wouldn’t be until I was much older before I got into watchinganime. So finding this was like a match made in heavenfor me. This is a great story about a tea shop waitresswho hires two samurai whose lives she saved, to help her find a samurai who smells of sunflowers. This anime was created and directed by ShinichiroWatanabe, who also made another anime you might have heard of that will also make anappearance on this list a little later. But for now, onto
#5, Erased I feel like I say it in almost every video,but I love anything that has to do with time travel, and Erased is no exception. The main character Satoru has the abilityto go a few minutes back in time and stop a disaster from happening, but the murderof his mother sends him way back to his elementary school days where he must undo this terrifyingfuture by solving a sequence of violent events as a 10 year old student. There’s a bit of time hopping involved,but its never overkill, and this results in a masterpiece of an anime that also has aquality Netflix live-action version attached to it. Now at
#4, Eden of the East I honestly don’t remember how I stumbledupon this anime, but it turned out to be one that had me on the edge of my seat. It starts 3 months after a casualty-free missilestrike in Japan with a chance meeting in Washington DC between a Japanese university student namedSaki and a naked Japanese man with the alias “Akira” who has completely lost his memory. A mysterious cell phone is their startingpoint to discovering who he really is and how he’s linked to the apparent attack justa few months prior. Now for our top 3. At
#3, Death Note Obvious classic. if you’re new to anime, this is part ofthe essential viewing curriculum. It’s about Light Yagami, a high school studentwho inherits the power of life and death with a single pen and the Death Note, a notebookthat can terminate a person’s life simply by having their name written in it. If it’s such a classic, then why only #3? Well, what made this anime work so well wasthe intellectual chess match between Light and L, the quirky detective tasked with takingLight down. After L left the picture, the magic of whatmade this such an intense game of cat and mouse died out a little for me, but it’sstill a must-watch nonetheless.
#2, Neon Genesis Evangelion This is about as love-it-or-hate-it as ananime can get, and I fall on the side of love. This mid-90s classic takes place in a post-apocalypticJapan where mankind is fighting for its survival against giant Angel monsters with the useof Evangelion mechas. A super annoying main character and difficult-to-decipherending really left a sour taste in many viewers’ mouths, such to the point that the creatorof the series, Hideaki Anno, received death threats over it, leading to a film releasewith a new ending. But if you notice the tree of life from theKabbalah in the opening theme, that should tip you off that this anime is dealing withsome serious symbolic undertones, and I was definitely in the minority that actually appreciatedthe original ending. Check it out and decide for yourself. Before we get to #1, here are 3 honorablementions that should also be on your single-season watch list. Angel Beats, Steins;Gate, and Trigun. Definitely check those out. And at
#1, no surprise, it’s Cowboy Bebop. Most anime series, no matter how well writtenthey are, no matter how well animated they are, usually have even just the slightestblemish. And that’s why Cowboy Bebop is revered theway that it is. It stands as a bullet-proof artistic standardfor the medium, and no anime has been able to quite recreate or recapture its flawlessness. The future dystopian space setting and soundtrackcreates a wholly unique atmosphere that is second to none.
And the characters from the Bebop bounty huntingcrew are so well fleshed out, that there is a level of authenticity that you just don’tget from many other anime characters, period. Well, those were my picks. As always, if you’ve got an issue with thistop 10, or the order…drop a comment and let me know what your list would look likedown below. I will be back soon, but until then, Sayonara,suckasss!
#10 Parasyte the Maxim When you initially read the synopsis aboutworm-like aliens invading Earth and causing mayhem after taking over humans’ brains,it seems like a straightforward horror story, but what follows is an unlikely friendshipbetween a human host and his parasyte that offers us a great lesson about our relationshipas humans to the Earth as only one in a myriad of species. And it does it in a way that doesn’t comeoff as too preachy, and even throws in some pretty thought-provoking takes on the relativityof morality. At
#9, Kill La Kill Come for the fan service, stay for the subliminalmessaging. Kill La Kill was a highly polarizing animewhen it came out. While many thought this was an overly misogynisticanime, and it is kind of hard to get past all the T&A, others felt it was a bold shotat the ecchi genre. Whichever side you may fall on, I felt thishigh school revenge story of a girl looking for her dad’s killer had plenty of substanceto back up its choice of delivery. And I also enjoyed Kill La Kill’s subtleshots at hierarchal societal structures, which is a hallmark of Japanese culture, but a reallyantiquated way of determining a person’s value in my opinion. If you can get past the overabundance of skin,I think you’ll really enjoy this one.
#8, Ouran High School Host Club So, a short-haired girl named Haruhi stumblesher way into her new high school’s host club, breaks a vase, and now the guys, thinkingthat Haruhi is also a guy, force her to work to pay off the debt. The only thing more ridiculous than this isthe fact that a high school has a host club in the first place. The only thing more ridiculous than THAT,is the fact that host clubs exist in real life. Still a great anime, and one of the very fewthat adapted well to the live-action treatment.
#7, Madoka Magica Madoka Magica is the story of a group of girlswho are granted a wish in exchange for their souls and service as witch fighters. The fine print of their agreement is kepthidden, and they find that their decision has a pretty lofty consequence. The magical girls genre has been done to death,but Madoka Magica throws in a surprising twist element that really cuts to the core and makesyou rethink your stance on some of the key characters. And this is a spoiler, but not really a spoiler,but sort of a spoiler…but pay close attention to the opening theme, as it kind of givesaway the twist, which still has a bit of a sting even if you see it coming.
#6, Samurai Champloo I was fascinated with Japan’s Edo periodwhen I was little, and it wouldn’t be until I was much older before I got into watchinganime. So finding this was like a match made in heavenfor me. This is a great story about a tea shop waitresswho hires two samurai whose lives she saved, to help her find a samurai who smells of sunflowers. This anime was created and directed by ShinichiroWatanabe, who also made another anime you might have heard of that will also make anappearance on this list a little later. But for now, onto
#5, Erased I feel like I say it in almost every video,but I love anything that has to do with time travel, and Erased is no exception. The main character Satoru has the abilityto go a few minutes back in time and stop a disaster from happening, but the murderof his mother sends him way back to his elementary school days where he must undo this terrifyingfuture by solving a sequence of violent events as a 10 year old student. There’s a bit of time hopping involved,but its never overkill, and this results in a masterpiece of an anime that also has aquality Netflix live-action version attached to it. Now at
#4, Eden of the East I honestly don’t remember how I stumbledupon this anime, but it turned out to be one that had me on the edge of my seat. It starts 3 months after a casualty-free missilestrike in Japan with a chance meeting in Washington DC between a Japanese university student namedSaki and a naked Japanese man with the alias “Akira” who has completely lost his memory. A mysterious cell phone is their startingpoint to discovering who he really is and how he’s linked to the apparent attack justa few months prior. Now for our top 3. At
#3, Death Note Obvious classic. if you’re new to anime, this is part ofthe essential viewing curriculum. It’s about Light Yagami, a high school studentwho inherits the power of life and death with a single pen and the Death Note, a notebookthat can terminate a person’s life simply by having their name written in it. If it’s such a classic, then why only #3? Well, what made this anime work so well wasthe intellectual chess match between Light and L, the quirky detective tasked with takingLight down. After L left the picture, the magic of whatmade this such an intense game of cat and mouse died out a little for me, but it’sstill a must-watch nonetheless.
#2, Neon Genesis Evangelion This is about as love-it-or-hate-it as ananime can get, and I fall on the side of love. This mid-90s classic takes place in a post-apocalypticJapan where mankind is fighting for its survival against giant Angel monsters with the useof Evangelion mechas. A super annoying main character and difficult-to-decipherending really left a sour taste in many viewers’ mouths, such to the point that the creatorof the series, Hideaki Anno, received death threats over it, leading to a film releasewith a new ending. But if you notice the tree of life from theKabbalah in the opening theme, that should tip you off that this anime is dealing withsome serious symbolic undertones, and I was definitely in the minority that actually appreciatedthe original ending. Check it out and decide for yourself. Before we get to #1, here are 3 honorablementions that should also be on your single-season watch list. Angel Beats, Steins;Gate, and Trigun. Definitely check those out. And at
#1, no surprise, it’s Cowboy Bebop. Most anime series, no matter how well writtenthey are, no matter how well animated they are, usually have even just the slightestblemish. And that’s why Cowboy Bebop is revered theway that it is. It stands as a bullet-proof artistic standardfor the medium, and no anime has been able to quite recreate or recapture its flawlessness. The future dystopian space setting and soundtrackcreates a wholly unique atmosphere that is second to none.
And the characters from the Bebop bounty huntingcrew are so well fleshed out, that there is a level of authenticity that you just don’tget from many other anime characters, period. Well, those were my picks. As always, if you’ve got an issue with thistop 10, or the order…drop a comment and let me know what your list would look likedown below. I will be back soon, but until then, Sayonara,suckasss!
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