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What's the number one anime? Examining the Metrics
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I believe all anime is very good. Just as there's a lid for every pot, there's an anime that appeals to everyone. That's why I write anime recommendations, even for minimally popular shows. However, from a quality and narrative standpoint, some anime are admittedly slightly better than others.
While this entire blog is opinion-based, I thought I'd try something different—cold, hard, and hard-to-dispute facts based on a variety of rankings from various anime authority sites. I can tell you what I consider the number one anime until the cows come home, but this time, let's see what the anime community thinks.
The number one anime according to MyAnimeList
As the largest and oldest anime database, MyAnimeList has attracted a number of users who rely on its extensive repository of series for ratings, reviews, and recommendations. However, the site has had some issues with rating manipulation in the past.
Currently, the number one anime of all time based on its ratings on MAL is Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War.
However, historically, it's usually Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
As Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War is quite new, be MAL recent commitment to eliminate electoral manipulation is it working or the FMA blood clan hasn't noticed yet.
While MyAnimeList is the largest database, it also houses the largest collective of anime fans who take anime rankings personally. When the final season of Attack on Titan, the third season of Kaguya-sama, several seasons of Gintama, and the final season of the Fruits Basket remake knocked Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood from its top spot, each series was review-bombed by FMA fanboys and their bots.
While it's natural for excitement to build up over a new anime experience and then cool off as the magic wears off, MAL's long history of user-based review bombing makes its early ratings an unreliable opinion.
MAL also provides data on most popular, such as the animes most people have watched, and most favorites, which are the animes that are placed most on your limited list of slot favorites.
The most popular based on users watched is Attack on Titan
Most favorite anime is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The number one anime according to Anilist
Anilist is an alternative to MAL, and a more popular alternative, as it addresses aspects that many dislike about MAL. One of the ways Anlist stands out is that it doesn't seem to have a large number of users and bots personally invested in rating an anime. It also helps that the site allows users to rate anime in a decimal system, so they provide more accurate anime ratings, since users of non-decimal systems tend to round.
THE number one anime on Anilist according to its ratings it is the last season of Gintama.
Anilist also allows sorting based on popularity and favorites like MyAnimeList. However, unlike MAL, Anilist has an unlimited favorites list, allowing users to favorite more series.
The most popular based on users watched is Attack on Titan
Most favorite anime is Hunter X Hunter (2011)
The number one anime according to Anime-Planet
Anime-Planet is the former bronze medalist in terms of anime databases, but occasionally preferred by some over the other two due to its more visually pleasing design and much more extensive tag system.
Unlike MAL, Anime-Planet is more limited in its ranking of the best anime, relying solely on user ratings. Furthermore, it also lacks transparency, as I don't know if this ranking is based solely on user ratings.
THE number one anime on Anime-Planet is the last season of Fruits Basket.
The number one anime according to Anime News Network
Before there was MAL, before there was Anilist, before there was Anime-Planet—there was The Anime News Network. It's been covering anime industry news since before I was storing fansubs on dial-up.
While people trust it more for anime news than opinions, editors and users still have a very transparent rating system.
THE number one anime according to Anime New Network based on the ratings is Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood using a weighted and Bayesian system. (I refer to Bayesian as the default.)
Full Metal Alchemist (non-Brotherhood) also dominates its rankings based on popularity and users watched, an occurrence that is interesting if nothing else.
The number one anime according to Anikore
Anikore is often called the "Japanese version of MyAnimeList," but it's a little less robust. Still, I thought it would be best to include some Japanese opinions on the number one anime of all time, since, well, the medium is Japanese.
However, Japanese websites tend to lean more toward weekly or, at best, seasonal rankings. Therefore, finding the overall ranking of anime is a difficult task.
Anikore gives us our best insight, using a comprehensive classification, which likely weighs in other factors I haven't been able to address.
THE number one anime according to Japanese anime fans on Anikore It's Kaguya-sama: Love is War
What is the number one anime according to the Goo rankings?
Goo Ranking is a Japanese website, this time dedicated exclusively to user-voted rankings. It's a type of website TendrilsAgain, they usually run seasonal rankings, but they published this list of the best anime of all time in 2020, with voting open ever since.
THE number one anime of all time according to Goo Ranking It's Attack on Titan
What is the number one anime based on average rating across all sites?
There are some clear front-runners for the number one anime of all time according to each site, but now it's time to calculate the best anime of all time according to the average rating on each site I examined.
For this, I'm just choosing the highest-rated season of the multi-season series.
Kaguya-sama Love is War
- MAL Rating: 3
- Anilist Classification: 5
- Anime Planet Rating: 9
- Anime News Network: 343
- Anikore Rating: 1
- Goo Rating: Not Rated
Attack on Titan
- MAL Rating: 6
- Anilist Classification: 6
- Anime Planet Rating: 6
- Anime News Network: 192
- Anikore Rating: 19
- Goo Rating: 1
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- MAL Rating: 2
- Anilist Classification: 4
- Anime Planet Rating: 4
- Anime News Network: 1
- Anikore Rank: 24
- Goo Rating: 6
Fruits Basket (Remake)
- MAL Rating: 10
- Anilist Classification: 3
- Anime Planet Rating: 1
- Anime News Network: 43
- Anikore Classification: Not Classified
- Goo Rating: Not Rated
Gintama
- MAL Rating: 5
- Anilist Classification: 1
- Planet Anime Rating: 24
- Anime News Network: 28
- Anikore Classification: Not Classified
- Goo Rating: 3
And the number one most popular anime by average rating is…
It's probably no surprise that it is Full Metal Alchemist: Britherhood.
There's no doubt that Full Metal Alchemist is a high-quality anime in every aspect, but who knows if that's something the anime community vehemently agrees with or if it's the work of the far-reaching hand of the Illuminati's FMA ratings manipulation.
As a bonus, I think if I had included Steins;Gate In the averages, he would have had a great chance of winning, or at least easily taking second place. He was never number one in any ranking, but consistently in the top ten of all of them. Not even the FMA can say that.
Anyway, this was all just a numbers experiment, and the numbers will certainly change. Which anime would you rank as the number one anime of all time? Let everyone know in the comments section below.
