The Best Anime Series Of All Time, According To IMDb

Much like live-action movies and TV, the question of the single best anime, or the single most popular anime, is a complicated one. For many people, the anime that made them fans of the medium will always have a special place in their heart. That goes double for shows with a high number of episodes, because that kind of commitment must mean the series is good, right? There's also the unfortunate fact that older titles aren't easily accessible and therefore not widely known unless you track down a very expensive physical copy or pirate it. For instance, "Neon Genesis Evangelion" is widely considered one of the best works of anime ever, but it was virtually unwatchable until a few years ago when Netflix licensed it, meaning you were unlikely to find it in many top anime lists.

All this is to say, it's both surprising and expected that the best anime series of all time according to IMDb is "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood." The show is number 16 on the top 250 TV shows of all time on the website, with the only animated series ahead of it being "Bluey" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

"Brotherhood" is actually the second adaptation of the "Fullmetal Alchemist" manga after the 2000s' "Fullmetal Alchemist" TV show. Set in a fictionalized 20th-century European-ish country, "Brotherhood" follows two siblings adept in alchemy. The boys lost their mother when they were little, so they decided to break the biggest taboo in alchemy and try to bring her back via human transmutation. Unsurprisingly, the experiment failed; one boy lost a literal arm and a leg, while the other's body was disintegrated and his soul wound up trapped in a suit of armor. The show then follows their adventures as they try to find the mythical Philosopher's Stone that can make their bodies whole again.

As mentioned, the "Fullmetal Alchemist" manga by Hiromu Arakawa was popular enough to merit multiple anime adaptations, first in 2003 and then again with "Brotherhood" in 2009. Both adaptations are also quite acclaimed and considered juggernauts despite their vastly different approaches to the "Fullmetal Alchemist" manga, with "Brotherhood" taking a more faithful route and delivering a poignant, action-packed shonen story, allowing it to claim the title of best anime ever — at least on one website.

Curiously, "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" was also rated the best anime of all time on the popular anime database MyAnimeList for about a decade, but that only just changed last year when a brand new show with merely a handful of episodes dethroned it. That series is "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End," one of the biggest releases of 2023 and the anime every "Lord of the Rings" fan should be watching. It's also an incredible, poignant, thoughtful, and stunningly animated show about the passage of time, regret, and friendships, as well as an epic fantasy adventure in a world of demons and dragons.

The premise for "Frieren" is simple. It begins with the evil Demon King being slain by a party of heroes, their decade-long journey finally over. But while most members of the party are eternally bound by friendship and love, the party's mage, an immortal elf named Frieren, barely registered their adventure as more than a walk around the block — that is, until one of the others heroes dies of old age decades later and Frieren realizes she never got to properly know her friends, which pushes her to go on a new adventure to reconnect with the memories of her old party.

"Frieren" started airing in September 2023, and is now rated by MyAnimeList users as the best anime series ever, followed by "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood." Interestingly, the spot for third place has also gone to a very recent title — not even a show, but a special standalone episode in the form of "One Piece Fan Letter." It's ranking is well-deserved too, as it's the single best thing "One Piece" has produced outside the original manga (as well as a fantastic ode to the long-running property and the fans that have followed along for decades).

The top five anime of all time on MyAnimeList is then rounded out by the sci-fi thriller "Steins;Gate" and the second part of the third season of the cultural phenomenon "Attack on Titan."

Do these rankings mean anything? Not necessarily, but they do speak to the lasting appeal of shows like "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood." 15 years after its debut, it means something that the show continues to resonate with audiences and be so highly regarded.