Anime has nothing resembling a Rotten Tomatoes that collates what critics thought of each anime. A separate ranking for critics that complement the user ratings of something like MAL’s top anime list. So I made one myself. I took the MAL scores from 82 different anime bloggers and reviewers and collected them into one big table to see which came out on top.
Notes:
- The ‘seen’ column is for how many of the 82 bloggers have seen and rated the anime. The ‘score’ column is the average score between those that rated it.
- Because this comes from MAL, it uses MAL’s dumb Japanese naming scheme. Sennen Joyuu is Millennium Actress and so on.
- There are 2141 entries here. I discounted titles that had less than 5 people who had seen them.
- This post is split into 3 pages. You can jump to the second and third pages at the bottom of the post.
- This is no more or less a ‘correct’ score than that of the general user score. It’s still all subjective. This is just a different metric.
Anime | Count | Score | ||
1 | Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu | 21 | 9.33 | |
2 | Touch | 6 | 9.33 | |
3 | Gintama’ | 10 | 9.1 | |
4 | Aria the Origination | 27 | 8.96 | |
5 | Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann | 68 | 8.88 | |
6 | Planetes | 29 | 8.79 | |
7 | Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood | 48 | 8.79 | |
8 | Cowboy Bebop | 65 | 8.78 | |
9 | Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger | 8 | 8.75 | |
10 | Shoujo Kakumei Utena | 35 | 8.74 | |
11 | Cross Game | 27 | 8.74 | |
12 | Monster | 30 | 8.7 | |
13 | Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance | 54 | 8.69 | |
14 | Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World | 38 | 8.68 | |
15 | Kara no Kyoukai 5: Mujun Rasen | 42 | 8.67 | |
16 | Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei | 49 | 8.65 | |
17 | Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan – Tsuiokuhen | 33 | 8.64 | |
18 | Sennen Joyuu | 45 | 8.6 | |
19 | Mushishi | 42 | 8.6 | |
20 | Gankutsuou | 35 | 8.57 | |
21 | Gintama’: Enchousen | 7 | 8.57 | |
22 | Rose of Versailles | 20 | 8.55 | |
23 | Baccano! | 69 | 8.54 | |
24 | Hachimitsu to Clover | 37 | 8.51 | |
25 | Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | 67 | 8.51 | |
26 | Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu | 60 | 8.5 | |
27 | Redline | 54 | 8.5 | |
28 | Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Movie: Lagann-hen | 30 | 8.5 | |
29 | Tsumiki no Ie | 22 | 8.5 | |
30 | Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki | 34 | 8.47 | |
31 | Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo | 62 | 8.47 | |
32 | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG | 33 | 8.45 | |
33 | Potemayo Specials | 7 | 8.43 | |
34 | Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer | 7 | 8.43 | |
35 | Giant Robo the Animation: Chikyuu ga Seishi Suru Hi | 19 | 8.42 | |
36 | Tokyo Godfathers | 39 | 8.41 | |
37 | Seikai no Monshou | 23 | 8.39 | |
38 | Haibane Renmei | 39 | 8.38 | |
39 | Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage | 42 | 8.38 | |
40 | Nana | 19 | 8.37 | |
41 | Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket | 22 | 8.36 | |
42 | Dennou Coil | 45 | 8.36 | |
43 | Summer Wars | 57 | 8.35 | |
44 | Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica | 76 | 8.34 | |
45 | Mononoke Hime | 62 | 8.34 | |
46 | Perfect Blue | 36 | 8.33 | |
47 | Berserk | 24 | 8.33 | |
48 | Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Arata Naru Tatakai no Overture | 9 | 8.33 | |
49 | Yuusha-Ou GaoGaiGar Final | 6 | 8.33 | |
50 | Turn A Gundam | 16 | 8.31 | |
51 | Eve no Jikan | 43 | 8.3 | |
52 | Eve no Jikan (Movie) | 30 | 8.3 | |
53 | Hajime no Ippo: Mashiba vs. Kimura | 7 | 8.29 | |
54 | Hikaru no Go | 18 | 8.28 | |
55 | Macross: Do You Remember Love? | 29 | 8.28 | |
56 | Steins;Gate | 62 | 8.27 | |
57 | Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa | 52 | 8.27 | |
58 | Nodame Cantabile | 34 | 8.26 | |
59 | Tonari no Totoro | 53 | 8.26 | |
60 | Kara no Kyoukai 7: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 2) | 39 | 8.26 | |
61 | Gintama | 24 | 8.25 | |
62 | Hachimitsu to Clover II | 30 | 8.23 | |
63 | Usagi Drop | 57 | 8.23 | |
64 | Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa | 45 | 8.22 | |
65 | Kemono no Souja Erin | 9 | 8.22 | |
66 | On Your Mark | 9 | 8.22 | |
67 | Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space | 20 | 8.2 | |
68 | Taiyou no Ko Esteban | 5 | 8.2 | |
69 | Nasu: Andalusia no Natsu | 5 | 8.2 | |
70 | Macross Plus | 26 | 8.19 | |
71 | JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012) | 47 | 8.19 | |
72 | Samurai Champloo | 54 | 8.19 | |
73 | Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Waga Yuku wa Hoshi no Taikai | 11 | 8.18 | |
74 | Kaiba | 39 | 8.18 | |
75 | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex | 45 | 8.18 | |
76 | Tentai Senshi Sunred | 18 | 8.17 | |
77 | Daicon Opening Animations | 12 | 8.17 | |
78 | Ookiku Furikabutte: Natsu no Taikai Hen | 12 | 8.17 | |
79 | Bakemonogatari | 73 | 8.16 | |
80 | Cardcaptor Sakura | 37 | 8.16 | |
81 | Gungrave | 19 | 8.16 | |
82 | Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu | 51 | 8.16 | |
83 | Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu | 71 | 8.15 | |
84 | Hajime no Ippo | 13 | 8.15 | |
85 | FLCL | 67 | 8.15 | |
86 | Mawaru Penguindrum | 63 | 8.14 | |
87 | Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor | 28 | 8.14 | |
88 | Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 | 7 | 8.14 | |
89 | Baccano! Specials | 52 | 8.13 | |
90 | Hotaru no Haka | 45 | 8.13 | |
91 | Mobile Police Patlabor 2: The Movie | 16 | 8.13 | |
92 | Maison Ikkoku | 8 | 8.13 | |
93 | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society | 19 | 8.11 | |
94 | NHK ni Youkoso! | 50 | 8.1 | |
95 | Aria the Natural | 32 | 8.09 | |
96 | Azumanga Daioh | 57 | 8.09 | |
97 | Black Lagoon | 48 | 8.08 | |
98 | Aria the OVA: Arietta | 25 | 8.08 | |
99 | Kurenai no Buta | 40 | 8.08 | |
100 | Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion | 56 | 8.07 | |
101 | Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch | 71 | 8.07 | |
102 | Princess Tutu | 29 | 8.07 | |
103 | Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira | 49 | 8.06 | |
104 | Majo no Takkyuubin | 40 | 8.03 | |
105 | Mimi wo Sumaseba | 34 | 8 | |
106 | Hotarubi no Mori e | 33 | 8 | |
107 | Mononoke | 27 | 8 | |
108 | Natsume Yuujinchou Shi | 27 | 8 | |
109 | Lupin III: Cagliostro no Shiro | 26 | 8 | |
110 | Heartcatch Precure! | 19 | 8 | |
111 | Seikai no Senki | 19 | 8 | |
112 | Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen | 14 | 8 | |
113 | Tentai Senshi Sunred 2 | 13 | 8 | |
114 | Maria-sama ga Miteru Specials | 9 | 8 | |
115 | Hajime no Ippo: Champion Road | 7 | 8 | |
116 | Gekiganger 3: The Movie | 7 | 8 | |
117 | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – The Laughing Man | 7 | 8 | |
118 | One Piece: Omatsuri Danshaku to Himitsu no Shima | 7 | 8 | |
119 | Gintama: Jump Anime Tour 2008 Special | 5 | 8 | |
120 | Fullmetal Alchemist | 52 | 7.98 | |
121 | Fate/Zero 2nd Season | 50 | 7.98 | |
122 | Eureka Seven | 49 | 7.98 | |
123 | Ghost in the Shell | 48 | 7.98 | |
124 | Chihayafuru 2 | 33 | 7.97 | |
125 | Great Teacher Onizuka | 25 | 7.96 | |
126 | Ouritsu Uchuugun: Honneamise no Tsubasa | 22 | 7.95 | |
127 | Durarara!! | 63 | 7.95 | |
128 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team | 21 | 7.95 | |
129 | Detroit Metal City | 40 | 7.95 | |
130 | Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster! | 39 | 7.95 | |
131 | Neon Genesis Evangelion | 69 | 7.94 | |
132 | Aria the Origination Special | 17 | 7.94 | |
133 | Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 1: Hajimari no Monogatari | 16 | 7.94 | |
134 | Ookiku Furikabutte | 15 | 7.93 | |
135 | Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn | 15 | 7.93 | |
136 | Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 2: Eien no Monogatari | 14 | 7.93 | |
137 | Clannad: After Story | 54 | 7.93 | |
138 | One Piece: Strong World | 13 | 7.92 | |
139 | Macross | 25 | 7.92 | |
140 | Memories | 24 | 7.92 | |
141 | Hunter x Hunter OVA | 12 | 7.92 | |
142 | Bokurano | 23 | 7.91 | |
143 | Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou | 34 | 7.91 | |
144 | Shiki | 45 | 7.91 | |
145 | Kara no Kyoukai 3: Tsuukaku Zanryuu | 44 | 7.91 | |
146 | Kidou Senkan Nadesico | 22 | 7.91 | |
147 | Slayers Next | 11 | 7.91 | |
148 | Ookami to Koushinryou II | 43 | 7.91 | |
149 | Katanagatari | 43 | 7.91 | |
150 | Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Hakairoku Hen | 20 | 7.9 | |
151 | Kaleido Star | 10 | 7.9 | |
152 | Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha | 49 | 7.9 | |
153 | Karigurashi no Arrietty | 38 | 7.89 | |
154 | Shiki Specials | 19 | 7.89 | |
155 | Toradora! | 63 | 7.89 | |
156 | Tsubasa: Shunraiki | 9 | 7.89 | |
157 | Higashi no Eden | 62 | 7.89 | |
158 | Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai | 44 | 7.89 | |
159 | Seirei no Moribito | 32 | 7.88 | |
160 | Kyousou Giga (TV) | 8 | 7.88 | |
161 | Maria-sama ga Miteru: Haru Specials | 8 | 7.88 | |
162 | xxxHOLiC Rou | 8 | 7.88 | |
163 | Little Witch Academia | 54 | 7.87 | |
164 | Fate/Zero | 60 | 7.87 | |
165 | Tamayura: More Aggressive | 7 | 7.86 | |
166 | Dirty Pair | 7 | 7.86 | |
167 | Aoi Bungaku Series | 27 | 7.85 | |
168 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam | 20 | 7.85 | |
169 | Natsume Yuujinchou San | 33 | 7.85 | |
170 | Death Note | 58 | 7.84 | |
171 | Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster | 32 | 7.84 | |
172 | Mousou Dairinin | 44 | 7.84 | |
173 | Beck | 31 | 7.84 | |
174 | Paprika | 49 | 7.84 | |
175 | Kamichu! Specials | 12 | 7.83 | |
176 | Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Gaiden: Rasen Meikyuu | 6 | 7.83 | |
177 | Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Gaiden: Senoku no Hoshi, Senoku no Hikari | 6 | 7.83 | |
178 | Figure 17: Tsubasa & Hikaru | 6 | 7.83 | |
179 | Inaka Isha | 6 | 7.83 | |
180 | Freedom | 6 | 7.83 | |
181 | Tetsuwan Birdy Decode:02 | 17 | 7.82 | |
182 | Kamichu! | 22 | 7.82 | |
183 | Berserk: Ougon Jidaihen III – Kourin | 11 | 7.82 | |
184 | They Were 11 | 11 | 7.82 | |
185 | Fantastic Children | 11 | 7.82 | |
186 | Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku | 27 | 7.81 | |
187 | Natsume Yuujinchou | 46 | 7.8 | |
188 | Genshiken | 46 | 7.8 | |
189 | Ouran Koukou Host Club | 55 | 7.8 | |
190 | One Outs | 20 | 7.8 | |
191 | Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG – Individual Eleven | 5 | 7.8 | |
192 | Chi’s New Address | 5 | 7.8 | |
193 | Soukou Kihei Votoms | 5 | 7.8 | |
194 | Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone | 63 | 7.79 | |
195 | Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World – Tou no Kuni | 14 | 7.79 | |
196 | Mugen no Ryvius | 23 | 7.78 | |
197 | Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail | 27 | 7.78 | |
198 | Seikai no Senki II | 18 | 7.78 | |
199 | Maria-sama ga Miteru 3rd Specials | 9 | 7.78 | |
200 | Hidamari Sketch x 365 Specials | 17 | 7.76 |
More on Page 2
Haha, of course Diabolik Lovers is in the bottom three. Well-deserved.
Cool idea, Scamp.
I’m personally kinda shocked. It’s below stuff like Apocalypse Zero and Boku no Pico!
Well, Apocalypse Zero is actually kind of fun to watch and Boku no Pico somehow manages to be less creepy, so… :p
I do wish certain things would be bumped to page one (like my beloved Lupin III, Second Raid, and Kill la Kill) but this is much more respectable than the real MAL popularity contest IMO. I can only imagine how long it took you to compile this. That Excel document made my eyeballs fall out.
I think expecting Kill la Kill to fare too well at this point, after only 4 episodes, is really too much. Also, the series is highly controversial. It generated the opposite fields screaming “AWESOME OH MAH GAD GIMME MORE” and “I CALL BULLSHIT ON THE FANSERVICE/MISOGYNY/RAPE”. I think the latter is a bit exaggerated (I think that there are WAY more misogynous shows, for me feeding otakus the twisted model of the untainted and subservient waifu/imouto is much worse than showing some naked skin & underboobs), but it’s there, and it’s going to lower the average. Give it time. I’m ready to bet it’s going to top those rankings in a few months.
Then again, I currently am the proud holder of the second to last place in MAL’s Fantasy Anime League, so it’s not like my predictions are worth much, is it?
(Damn Kyousougiga, getting licensed by Crunchyroll at this point of the season and giving me unplanned points. You will be my ruin)
Indeedy-doo do I understand why it’s not on page 1 – I just saw Kyousougiga on there, so I figured why not bring it up? 😉 KLK is a niche show erroneously propped up by Tumblr and such pre-release as mainstream-friendly. As much as I’m loving it, I honestly never expect it to crack the top 200.
I would probably be doing pretty badly in FAL as well, but my gotdamn MAL PM inbox is STILL broken, so I was never able to properly enter. ;_;
Actually someone calculated its theoretical score on the first week only, and it was a whoppin’ 100,000+. So, unless it didn’t hold up, you’re actually wrong. In fact, I think that if the series pulls off some epic, by-the-books-yet-original ending á la TTGL, it can shut the haters up and skyrocket it in the heaven of anime legends. If instead it pulls off a troll ending like Panty and Stocking, it won’t be forgiven easily.
(I loved P&S too, ending included, but it’s one of the details that makes it not exactly mainstream)
Mmm, it feels good to be wrong sometimes! Though I didn’t mean that a lot of people didn’t watch it or enjoy it, I just think its intended audience is inherently a bit limited due to how off the wall it is. (Niche entertainment can still become popular, after all.) However, since Kill la Kill was so hyped, a lot of people who expected something completely different probably watched it and hated it. I’ve seen a lot of folks who feel that way.
It leans more towards PSG than it does to TTGL in my opinion, though I don’t think this one will have a troll ending. So maybe it will skyrocket near the end. Who knows! (I really didn’t mean to start a discussion about Kill la Kill’s popularity by the way, I was just making an observation since I was so surprised by other currently airing shows already being in the top 200.)
Yeah from the hype I expected more when I started watching. But I don’t hate it, I just find it boring.
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, why am I not surprised?
Also I little surprised Death Note didn’t even get on the top 100. I wonder how it would’ve done if this was compiled in 07 or 08
Pah, that’s not that surprising, and it still made the top 200. Here’s a real surprise: Find where Attack on Ti-sorry, I mean Shingeki no Kyoujin is
I found it, ranked just ahead of stuff like Space Bros and Ergo Proxy 😦
Nice to see Terribad representin’
Did you take all the ratings regardless of progress? I would’ve filtered out the 1- and 2-episode dropped accounts. I don’t think they hold equal weight to an opinion formed after seeing all or most of a series.
It was a little beyond my willpower to figure out how to filter them. Also most people don’t rate after 1-2 episode drops so it wasn’t really an issue
This just makes me a bit more depressed about how not a lot of people have watched Colorful.
Personal feelings aside, this really does feel like AniMetacritic, with the usual popular choices being knocked down a point or two while others stubbornly remain at the top. Then again, all of this still comes down to opinion, and what seems to matter is that the anibloggers whose data you’ve pulled from are, collectively, shown as such.
It was also helpful to see which series get the most attention vs. series that remain unknown due to not many people watching them. Adds quite a bit of nuance when put alongside each average.
How long did this take? I can’t imagine this being a simple task.
I dunno, 17 people is a decent amount for a relatively obscure movie. Compare that to the measly 8 people who have seen Barefoot Gen, a much more famous movie.
Not sure how long this took. 8-ish hours? I started it because I wanted some practice in Excel which I’m not particularly experienced in. Hence most of the time was just wrestling with Excel.
Consider sharing the excel, or uploading it to Google Drive, would be easier to search than having to run a search on 3 separate pages :3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5wnEFNoPL4iZFJGdERoeUJpOGc/edit?usp=sharing
The link to the spreadsheet for those interested
Dammit Touch! Why do you torture me so! I’ll get to you someday, I swear!
The thing that makes me the most happy is that Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer is ranked so high. Far better than Mamoru Oshii’s other stuff or the series, and this is coming from a guy who gave the series a 10/10. 🙂
BTW, are you going to link this list somewhere on the blog for easy access like you did with your “franchises” post?
And I just noticed Maison Ikkoku’s ranking. Who dares to rank it below a 9 on MAL? I demand names!
Probably not, mostly just because we’re running out of room. Shinmaru’s terribad list needs a spot first
So, do you have some script to update it every so often with what changes each user make or have an easier time to refactor them?
Also, one day you’ll all rue that Gatchaman Crowds score :p
Nope, I can’t script or code. Someone else can take up the torch if they want
Myanimelist blocks scripts trying to scrape data (it serves you a CAPTCHA if the server suspects you might not be human). It would be a pretty annoying effort to circumvent that.
Yeah I’ve heard people bitch about that before. Their servers have loads of problems as it is so I suppose it’s understandable
Hmm a script can mostly pretend to be an user, they probably react to the speed with which a script opens several different pages. The data amount in this case isn’t that big so a data collector with inbuilt delays might work.
Well I don’t have time to try doing that, I should finish my current scripting projects before adding new ones^^
Mr. Anon, I thought MyAnimeList provides API to be used by programmer?
http://mal.oko.im/ uses it.
And I am pretty sure I have read the documentation on how to use this API somewhere.
@Eternia: MAL does have a REST API (docs are at http://myanimelist.net/modules.php?go=api ) but it only supports adding and removing things from your anime/manga lists, so looks like retrieving data still needs to go through the regular website, with some HTML scraping to get at the stuff you want.
I didn’t know about MALgraph, so thanks for sharing. I took 5 minutes to browse their source code a bit, and it looks like they’re using a white listed user agent HTTP header. Did some more searching and apparently you can message the MAL admin if you’d like to be added to the white list: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=682709
So that’s pretty good news, at least if the MAL admin would be okay with whitelisting this project.
MALgraph only scrapes data 8 times a minute apparently. I assume that’s because MAL temporarily blocks you otherwise. Shouldn’t be a problem for a hypothetical animetacritic server though, even if it would just update once a day that would still be okay.
Surprised to see an airing show, Kyousogiga, within the top 200.
Considering I can always use more anime to watch, will definitely be adding most, if not all, of the anime in the Top 100. Just by that alone this is a pretty useful list. Good job Scamp!
Same here! It’s a pretty nice list to look for shows that I need/want to watch 🙂
What a great idea, thanks a lot for your hard work.
This might be a silly request, but could you post a list of those 82 anime bloggers?
I didn’t want to list that because…well, my approach to gathering this information was a little slapdash and I didn’t keep great track of who I had taken from. There’s a reason I stopped at the odd number of 82: I lost a bunch of the names of people whose lists I had taken from and didn’t want to accidentally put in repeats so just said “fuck it, this will do”.
For the ones I do have (bare in mind the spelling might not be accurate):
5camp bateszi marow frog-kun yerocha inushinde bokusatchii yumeka kyokai kadian deadlightainime adaywithoutme sdsshamshel emperorj kevo foshizzel draggle landon hanners caraniel ajthefourth thebign lerxst shinmaru hisuirt lvlln vamptvo bobduh sorrow-kun sorrows_neptune myna lostty ghostlightning cellie marina27 clicking -redux executiveotaku aeroblip rabbitpoets zzeroparticle psgels calaggie narutaki marthaurion joshspeagle baka-raptor stilts gaguri totali reika kimagurasen akatsukigirl imperialx jpmeyer avvesione donkangoljones glenforder kaminomi iwicsyi azerizaz afkeroge overcooled reikaku sumarii anaaga vanikawa toastcrust splitter archaeon vensito 8thsin usny davethezombie weirdy8 maehara stark700 fang-tan
How did you get scores from Baka-Raptor?
Scamp’s credibility DESTROYED!
I just converted Baka-Raptors $$$ ~~~ scale into numbers. Simple find+replace
It speaks volumes about the accuracy of the list when the second highest rated show has only been seen by six of the eighty-two bloggers and the list contains shows of which only three or four episodes have aired.
Otherwise, seems like a pretty handy list for finding recommendations.
Yeah, I wondered about deleting stuff that was airing, but that would remove a bunch of ongoing stuff. Plus I figured it was interesting to leave them in anyway.
How did you pick out the 82 bloggers/reviewers?
Jumped through friendlists on MAL. Most bloggers are friends with other bloggers, so it’s not that difficult a task
Oh right. Did you include some MAL reviewers too?
It was. A bunch of bloggers are friends with MAL reviewers, and they are friends with each other.
Thank you for compiling and posting this. It’s really quite interesting. It’ll probably take me forever to scroll through and really think about some of these but the biggest surprise just towards the top is Cross Game at 11. It’s a charming, wonderful series, I’ll give you that, but that is really high for a show that spends 20 of the final 25 episodes asking “I wonder if ghosts age” over and over and over again.
Wow Scamp, how long have you been working on this?
I’m surprised Evangelion only barely scratched the top 100.
I’m shocked at that too. I had two versions of this list. The original was only 50 people but I felt that was a little too in-club and people I knew, so I went off and added a whole bunch of other random bloggers and some MAL reviewers. Evangelion dropped a lot when I added them.
Evangelion has a lot of haters.
And while MAL has a much larger pool of anime, the vast majority of those not already on this list wouldn’t have done very well even if you got 5+ people to watch them. 131st here is probably at least as good as 187th at MAL.
I’ve got to applaud you for taking the time and putting in the effort to do all that. It’s a remarkable data set to look at for 82 bloggers/reviewers that really highlights the diversity in our rather small community. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Also, wow, my favorite anime came in at 1269th. I knew it wasn’t popular but damn…
Wow, Divergence EVE is so shitty, isn’t even on this list.
I did a quick check of my spreadsheet. 3 people had seen it for a score of 4.67. So yup, not exactly great.
I’m curious to know the count and average score for Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, if anyone watched it.
3 people seen it, score of 5.67. I’ve never even heard of that one before.
Oddly enough, Ronin Warriors (as it was called here) was my very first exposure to anime, when I was a wee lad.
I have nothing but vaguely good memories of it, so I’m terrified to rewatch it.
Shinsekai Yori is not #1?
Where’s my shotgun?
Huh. The top two shows were subbed by the same group.
Saint Seiya Omega being the only part of that franchise represented here is the biggest hole I’ve noticed so far.
Saint Seiya is huge in spanish speaking countries but never caught on in english speaking ones. Since these are all english reviewers, I’m going to set that as the reason
Wow, cheers for that. That looks like it took a lot of effort to make.
This list makes me want to watch Abunai Sisters. I want to see what it was that made it go below the worst of the worst.
Oh and Touch too since it seems to be the only one that I haven’t heard of in the top animes of this list.
Touch, from what I heard from the people who’ve seen it, is the exact same as Cross Game except maybe a teeny bit better. Same author writing the same story.
With the same character designs.
Thanks for taking the time to do this. There’s always more anime to enjoy!
I think this is almost a response to one of your pervious articles. You say to not get set in your ways and branch out for other material.
Things Popee the Performer is Objectively Better Than:
Clannad movie
Kimi to Boku.
Hatsukoi Limited
Macross 7
Naruto
Gantz
Occult Academy
Majestic Prince
Polar Bear Cafe
InuYasha
OreImo
C
Kokoro Connect
Zero no Tsukaima
Teekyuu
Minami-ke
Nanoha
Nichijou
Fate/zero
Squid Girl
Pokemon
Slayers
Code Geass
KyoAni
True Tears
Pokemon
Digimon
Fairy Tail
Cutey Honey
Highschool of the Dead
Denpa Onna
Elfen Lied
Eureka Seven
K-On!
Love Hina
Magi
Ah! My Goddess
Shakugan no Shana
Saki
Gundam SEED
Yozakura Quartet
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Fullmetal Alchemist
Tales of the Abyss
Moyashimon
Final Fantasy VII
Video Girl Ai
Aquarion
Giant Robo
Valvrave
One Piece
Yu Yu Hakusho
The Idolmaster
Higurashi
A Certain Magical Index
AKB0048
Strike Witches
Halo
Yu-Gi-Oh!
School Days
K
Air Master
Crying Freeman
Phi Brain
Precure
Toradora!
Prince of Tennis
Chrono Trigger
A Certain Scientific Railgun
Hayate no Gotoku!
Final Fantasy in general
Laser cannons
Oxygen
Glasses
Sword Art Online
I’m surprised you didn’t copy/paste in the whole list.
I went for complete and total accuracy regarding placement of anime on this list and their position below Popee the Performer.
If you think that Popee is better than Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure in any conceivable way then you’re as deranged as the show you admire.
Popee the Performer
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2000)
It’s right there on the list.
You think you and your facts are better than me? Huh?
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012)
Popee the Performer
Boom.
Even having one entry below Popee makes the whole franchise worse. QED.
Final Fantasy VII AND Final Fantasy in general? Talk about overkill. With cartoon bombs.
Also, there’s something I find funny about the Clannad movie being first and SAO being last.
Thought you could sneak Phi Brain in without me knowing, you sonovabitch! This list is rendered void.
Although actually, I’d probably rank them as equally fantastic.
Never thought I’d see you say Popee is better than Giant Robo. You sure you want to stand by that?
Popee the Performer
Giant Robo Ginrei Gaiden
It’s right there on the list.
And if you remove a few (Nonoha, Clannad Movie…), you have Yama no Susume’s score (1151) It is as good as Gantz, and have the same score than Naruto.
It’s on the list so it must be true.
The violent misadventures of a deranged CGI clown and his mask loving purple werewolf friend is good enough to kill most anime related childhood memories and modern favorites of mine I suppose.
Practically all of Gintama is on the first page. Is it really the best thing since sliced bread?
I know right? Gintama seems to be a pretty high roller among pretty much every list. I’m thinkin maybe we aught to check this out?
Gintama is really good. Except when the jokes are all shit (literally, you know, that crap that comes out of the ass) so it’s recommended
Someone else out there loathes Evangelion 2.0? I can’t possibly be alone here. When I finished watching it I immediately went to check what others thought about it, convinced that everyone would hate it. I’m still perplexed at how highly people rate it. 13 and with 54 scores, wow.
Shinji stopped being such a massive pussy for once, that’s probably why.
…
Also someone got ripped apart to a lovely musical number.
I hope this will encourage Scamp to watch NANA. Especially since he enjoyed Paradise Kiss.
Been meaning to watch it for years now. Should probably get to that sometime…
Yay!
Who got the great idea of reviewing Boku no Pico?
Seriously Scamp, you do the real work: drudging through blogs and delving through lists. I mean, I’m not going to read all of it, because…you know, there’s SO fucking much – but it’s really a commendable amount of work that you’ve put into this.
I – and probably everyone else – will definitely be returning to this for future suggestions. Maybe it’ll become A Thing.
I am the bloggomeister
It’s fun to think of interesting ways of interpreting this data. I’m trying to find a good way to sort things on a scale of overrated to underrated.
If I do this again (which I might do in a year or two) I’ll do a better job of collecting the data in a way that makes for more interesting reading. Problem is this should be the job of people who can code and write scripts, which I can’t.
When you do this again, I’d be willing to help out.
The best I could do sorting overwatched to underwatched is to sort by:
(average rating) ^ sqrt(number of ratings)
where “average rating” is in on the scale of 0 to 1 rather than 0 to 10 (so just divide your numbers by 10).
I think that does a rather good job, though it’s much harder to gauge which shows are underwatched because it contains things that didn’t have enough exposure, while the overwatched ones are a lot more obvious.
A MangaMetacritic would be interesting, especially since I’m diving in to that wonderful world now.
Gotta find prolific manga bloggers that actually have updated manga lists, which appears to be barely any of them.
So many manga readers, so few of them do manga blogging. Quite ironic to think since there are so many treasure under the heap of trash waiting to be found, but there are none who do the job uncovering it.
That does sound like an injustice which should be corrected…
I’m just very happy to see Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei pretty high on the list and that’s all that matters for me. A lot of anime high on the list, I’m not so fan of but that’s just how it is.
Anime bloggers are pretty harsh on some stuff. Nunnally in wonderland was amazing, no budget sure, but a lot of love poured into it.
Dude yes! Nunnally in Wonderland is amazing. On the other hand, Code Geass still ranked 101 which is pretty good, so still plenty of Geass love lying around.
I’m quite surprised a quarter of your sample has watched LoGH. The stellar rating is to be expected (insert triumphant Wagnerian score here), but that’s only a slightly smaller percentage than have watched Berserk or Gintama, which one would think are much more accessible…
The other one I looked for was Mononoke. Woo, #107!
If you want to be a good elitist reviewer at this point, you kind of need to see LotGH!
Berserk having that low of a watch rate surprised me too. Though I guess it never got a TV spot in America for obvious reasons and I kind of get the sense that no 90’s TV series except for Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion have really remained in the fandom’s nebulous “SHOWS YOU MUST WATCH” category.
LOGH has been built up so much by People In The Know that more people are getting to it. Which is great, because LOGH is great, but so is Berserk.
I’m so happy that Aria ranked that high! Now that Non non biyori has failed it’s ishikei setup I was longing for and just went to another slice of life gag show which makes me disappointed.
Anyways one thing that bothers me with the list is that they are averaged, but the averages taken from differs greatly. For example Gurren lagann could have scored higher but was pulled down by the low scores. I think it would have been more accurate if you use an average from the number of people who have seen the same show like let’s say out of those 82 sources, 5 people seen everything on the list then use the score only from these people as an average. Though I bet if you do that, a lot of animes on the list will be excluded and that would mean you will require a larger sample and would be more difficult to do than it already is
But hey the effort here is good enough to get a rough basis of ratings, especially for shows I haven’t seen/heard that got high scores. I might check out some of these sometime
Wow Scamp. I just found out that you posted the link on Reddit and… Wow those are pretty harsh comments
There are over 2000 anime on this list. Nobody has seen 2000 anime. I had 3 different people who had seen, between watching and dropped, over 1500 but that it’s. Restricting to anime everyone has watched isn’t feasible.
That’s too bad then since my previous suggestion to omit animes would be against your other purpose of suggesting obscure titles.
Still if ever one wants to use this data, I guess my only suggestion to reduce the biases would be to group the shows that have been watched by a certain number of the sample, for example group animes watched by 50+ people then ranked their score from that, then animes watched by 40-49 people and so forth. At least that would give whoever interpreting the data an indicator of some sort that these are the ranking given based on the number of people who rated it
Nice list. Glad to see a few of my favourites there and data is always fun to play with. Madoka Magica is the most watched show, in case anyone was curious (like me).
I was also curious which shows received high ratings but weren’t included because not enough people had seen them (the forgotten gems, so to speak). Looking through, it’s a lot of OVAs for series and spin-offs, but there are a few actual series there as well. A few worth noting:
Agake no Anne (and a few others from world masterpiece theatre)
Saint Seiya
City Hunter
Ie Naki Ko
Plus a lot of series I haven’t heard of before that seem to be more targeted at younger kids.
OK, maybe not so useful… (though more people should watch Akage no Anne!)
Going back to the number of views, I was surprised there weren’t more series that nearly everyone had seen. The highest was 76/82 and only 24 series had been seen by more than 75% of the subjects. In fact, the average viewership of the titles here (those with more than 5 views) is 17.3 or 21%. The average viewership of the top 100 is 34.7 or 42%.
While that does mean the data is not as precise since a lot of it comes from a small sample size, what it also says is that this group of people have very diverse anime experiences and watch a lot of different things, take that as you will.
The list has weird blank spots thanks to things like people dropping anime and not giving it a rating, so their score wasn’t counted. Or their MAL is abandoned so haven’t added stuff in a while. Mostly because the people I took the data from are so varied, from crusty old timer to bright eyed newer blogger, that there’s always going to be weird gaps.
Such an outstanding effort to build all of this Scamp! How long did it take to complete? I could said that this is far better than Metacritics for video games really.
About 8-ish hours? Wasn’t really keeping track.
Aria the Origination right there at number 4. Glorious.
AM I THE ONLY ONE AROUND HERE…..
WHO THINKS GINTAMA IS OVERRATED AS HELL
Otherwise, I pretty great list
It’s good, but I agree it shouldn’t be that high. Though I guess managed to draw laugh from different people across the globe is quite a feat.
LoL @ MD Geist
well guess I need a MAL account to qualify for the animetacritic. also this should totally be a full fledged site, with links to reviews and stuff. Im sure someone can handle that.
Gundam 0080 is the highest ranked Gundam entry on the list, followed by Turn-A.
Huh, looks like these people do have some taste after all.
I agree this this statement
Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer number 34? Maison Ikkoku in the top 100?
FUCK .YES.
A really interesting list. Anime reviewers are a diverse bunch when it comes to tastes, so seeing how different shows stack up based on a “general” opinion was cool to see. That said, a lot of the rankings did confuse me (at least none of my super favorites were too low, but shows/things I didn’t like ranking above some of them did kinda disappoint me), so I guess there are a couple of opinions I don’t really agree with when it comes to the general consensus among the anime fan community,. Then again, Beautiful Dreamer is really high on there, so I’m not going to complain much. 😉
I’m looking through the last page and find some stuff I’m surprised is rated quite so low
1569. Mirai Nikki 5.33
1850. Deadman Wonderland 4.65
I think Mirai Nikki is a good show and while Deadman Wonderland isn’t great it’s not that terrible either, yet they’re both below Highschool DxD, School Days and wayyy below Tsukihime, I mean worse than tsukihime, really??
Mirai Nikki is actually at 500 under Mirai Nikki (TV). Not a great score, but well into the top half of the table and respectable all things considered. The one you’re looking at is that pilot episode because MAL counted that as something different.
Deadman Wonderland is terrible though. I’m surprised it’s not lower myself.
Wait a minute. Bobobo got like a 4.7 and is in the bottom 250? FUCK NO. It should have a least been a 6.5 and been in the middle. >:/
God I seriously need to watch LOGH…..I am definitely going to get on that before the end of the year – DEFINITELY!
Great work Scamp, makes for interesting reading – good to see the terribad faithful dominating the bottom of the table XD
Shiki should be rated higher though people!
Touch shouldn’t be that high. Someone please replaced it with either Mushishi or Gankutsuou or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Pray to the opinion gods and perhaps they’ll answer your plea.
…Or you could systematically murder all the people who rated Touch so highly. Or time travel. Or both :I
Gun X Sword is #1207? Glad to see one-of-my-favorites-which-I-need-to-do-a-second-watch-and-determine-if-it-really-was-as-good-as-I-remember-it isn’t TOO low now.
What else now… Rose of Versailles at #22, #44 Madoka Magica, #82 FMP Fumoffu, Kenichi #714, Slayers-whatever all over the pla- auuuuuugh too much to go through! I’ve said it before here but I’m really surprised at how big Hajime no Ippo has gotten. What is it that has it succeed so so much more compared to it’s genre buddies?
Oh. My. God… this is amazing!
This may be the closest the anime fandom will ever get to a consensual separation of good and bad animes. Considering that it is an excel excercise after all, this is not the Ultimate Guide to Worthy Anime, but still, pretty close. The exclusion rules or the selection of critics may be tweaked, but this is not the point I guess.
What I like is that there is hardly any title to cast a grumpy review at in the first 101 on this list, and I can’t think any other way to distill this many actually good animes from the sea of opinions. (yes, I did choose that number deliberately so that End of Evangelion and Code Geass would be in. :D)
The basic thought I have is that the opinion of people who actually evaluate what they watch worth more then what the “crowd” says. Good job!
Why thank you~! I probably need a bigger pool if I were to do this again. Most of the complaints are of the “nyerrr margin of error too large nyerrr” variety.
Why is Kingdom ranked so low? 😦
I FREAKING HATE HUNTER X HUNTER!! I don’t watch the anime but the advertisements on Animax about it is the most disgusting. The drawing is bad as well.
I also hate Space Dandy and City Hunter puke