7 Most Perfect Anime of the Last 15 Years, Ranked

Published Sep 23, 2026, 11:01 PM EDT

Dyah (pronounced Dee-yah) is a Senior Author at Collider, responsible for both writing and transcription duties. She joined the website in 2022 as a Resource Writer before stepping into her current role in April 2023. As a Senior Author, she writes Features and Lists covering TV, music, and movies, making her a true Jill of all trades. In addition to her writing, Dyah also serves as an interview transcriber, primarily for events such as San Diego Comic-Con, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival.

Dyah graduated from Satya Wacana Christian University in October 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, concentrating on Creative Writing. On March 2026, Dyah graduated with Master's degree in English Literature Studies, with a thesis on intersectionality in postcolonial-feminist studies in Asian literary works.

Born and raised between Indonesia and Singapore, Dyah is no stranger to different cultures. She now resides in the small town of Kendal with her husband and four cats, where she spends her free time cooking or cycling.

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Somewhere between current ongoing anime like Dandadan and old-time classics like One Piece, there are a couple of anime that reflect the transition from the 2010s to the 2020s. During this period, stronger internet fandom culture and increased translation efforts helped connect audiences around the world, allowing anime to reach more people than ever before.

As the medium continued to grow globally, some series managed to stand out among fans of different genres and leave a lasting impression. Whether it's a story about being in touch with your feelings in a new reality that doesn't require you to hurt someone else, or a fan-favorite revenge story that doesn't mind shedding more blood than it needs to, here are the most perfect anime of the last 15 years, ranked.

7 'Kaguya-sama: Love Is War' (2019–2023)

Image via A-1 Pictures

Love should be simple, but Miyuki Shirogane (Makoto Furukawa) and Kaguya Shinomiya (Aoi Koga) are determined to make it anything but in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. As the top students at the elite Shuchiin Academy, the student council president and vice president are practically perfect for each other. There's just one problem: neither is willing to confess first. Instead of admitting how they feel, they turn romance into an epic battlefield.

There's petty, and then there's Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. The anime takes the “will they, won't they” scenario to an almost ridiculous extreme. What keeps it fresh is the borderline psychological warfare Miyuki and Kaguya wage against each other, from switching each other's coffee to decaf to having one of them enter the student council covered in fake blood and wielding a knife. Yet for all their nonsensical pranks, they genuinely understand the pressures and insecurities the other carries.

6 'Haikyu!!' (2014–2020)

Image via Production I.G

Shoyo Hinata (Ayumu Murase) may be short, but that has never stopped him from dreaming big. Haikyu!! follows Shoyo as he sets his sights on becoming a great athlete. His first step toward that dream, however, ends in disaster when he suffers a humiliating defeat against Tobio Kageyama (Kaito Ishikawa), a volleyball prodigy who seems to have everything Hinata lacks. Determined to get his revenge, Hinata enters Karasuno High, only to discover that Kageyama is now his teammate.

But apart from the over-the-top theatrics of the sport itself, Haikyu!! is a story about what true athleticism looks like. It's about a group of underdogs who share the same dream, even when their backgrounds, personalities, and abilities couldn't be more different. Before they can become a team, they have to learn how to trust one another, face their weaknesses, and keep going after defeat. They can throw as many serves as they like, but to be a champ, one must think like one.

5 'Violet Evergarden' (2018)

Image via Kyoto Animation

Peace is supposed to mean a new beginning, but Violet Evergarden (Yui Ishikawa) has no idea what to do with it. After spending her childhood as a soldier, Violet rises from the Great War physically scarred and emotionally adrift, carrying only the memory of the final words spoken to her: "I love you." Unable to understand their meaning, she takes a job as an Auto Memory Doll at CH Postal Company, where writing letters for others slowly exposes her to emotions.

Violet Evergarden is the calm after the storm. In a world that no longer needs her to handle firearms or engage in combat, she must find a new purpose for herself. Not everyone has experienced war, but Violet's struggle is still profoundly relatable. Humans tend to build walls around ourselves for protection, yet tearing them down takes even more courage, especially when doing so means making room for something unfamiliar, vulnerable, and scarily beautiful.

4 'Steins;Gate' (2011)

Image via White Fox

Rintarou Okabe (Mamoru Miyano) from Steins;Gate has plenty of eccentricities, but calling himself a "mad scientist" might be his most harmless one. While experimenting with a modified microwave, Okabe and his friends accidentally discover they can send messages back in time. His silly, goofy experiment quickly becomes a nightmare when their meddling with history attracts the attention of SERN, a shadowy organization researching time travel. Worse, every change they make can reshape the present.

Steins;Gate treats time-traveling with the utmost seriousness, drawing on hard sci-fi concepts like the butterfly effect, black hole theory, and the many-worlds interpretation to make its time travel feel surprisingly grounded. Send one message into the past, and the future could look completely different. Every time Okabe tries to fix one problem, he risks creating another, trapping him in a cycle of self-torture as he struggles to accept that he can't solve everything. And that's precisely the point of the anime.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky

Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🏜️Paul Atreides

🖖Capt. Kirk

✊Princess Leia

🔦Ellen Ripley

🔥Max Rockatansky

FIND YOUR HERO →

01

How do you lead when the stakes couldn't be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.

AI absorb everything — every variable, every pattern — and move only when I know the path forward. BI read the room, make the call, and own the consequences. Hesitation costs more than mistakes. CI rally people. A cause needs a voice, and I refuse to let fear be louder than conviction. DI assess the threat, establish what needs doing, and get it done without waiting for permission. EI don't lead. I act. Others can follow or not — I'm already moving.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.

APrescience — the ability to see further ahead than anyone else and plan accordingly. BImprovisation — I'm at my best when the plan falls apart and I have to invent a new one. CConviction — I know what I'm fighting for, and that certainty doesn't waver under fire. DComposure — I stay functional when everyone around me is falling apart. Panic is a luxury. EEndurance — I outlast things. I take the hit and keep moving long after others have stopped.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What is the thing you'd sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.

AThe survival and dignity of my people — even if I have to become something frightening to ensure it. BThe safety of my crew — every single one of them. No one gets left behind. CFreedom — for my people, for every world still crushed under the weight of an empire. DThe truth — what actually happened, what's actually out there, whether anyone believes me or not. EThe one person — or the one memory — that still makes any of this worth surviving for.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.

AWith intensity and distance — I care deeply, but the weight I carry makes closeness complicated. BWith warmth and irreverence — I take the mission seriously, not myself. CWith directness and trust — I say what I mean, and I expect the people I work with to rise to it. DWith professional care but clear limits — I'll protect you, but I won't pretend we're family. EWith wariness that slowly becomes loyalty — I don't trust easily, but when I do, it holds.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

You're facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you're the only one who sees it defines everything.

APrepare in silence. If they won't listen, I'll be ready when they finally have to. BKeep pushing until someone listens — and if no one does, handle it myself. CBuild the case, find the allies, and make the threat impossible to ignore. DDocument everything. The truth matters even if no one believes it yet. EStop trying to convince anyone. Survive it. That's the only argument that counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they'd pay it again.

AMy innocence — I've seen what I'm capable of, and I can't unsee it. BPeople I loved — the command chair has a view, but it's a lonely one. CA normal life — I gave up everything ordinary the moment I chose the cause. DMy sense of safety — I know exactly what's out there now, and I can't pretend otherwise. EAlmost everything — and I'm still not sure what I'm carrying it all for. But I keep going.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

How do you feel about the rules of the world you're in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What's yours?

AI understand them deeply — and I know exactly which ones must be broken, and why. BI respect the spirit of them and bend the letter when the situation demands it. CThe system is the problem. I'm not here to work within it — I'm here to dismantle it. DI follow protocol until protocol stops being useful. Then I make the call myself. EThe rules collapsed a long time ago. What's left is instinct, and mine are reliable.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.

ADestiny — or something that feels so much like it that the difference no longer matters. BThe people on my ship — their faces, their trust, the fact that they're counting on me. CThe belief that what we're fighting for is worth every sacrifice, including this one. DSheer refusal to let it win — whatever it is. I don't stop. That's just who I am. EI'm not sure anymore. But the road is still there, and I'm still on it.

REVEAL MY HERO →

Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…

Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.

Paul Atreides

You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

• You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
• You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn't ask for but can't escape.
• Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
• That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won't, is exactly you.

Captain Kirk

You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you've always believed there's a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

• You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
• Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you've earned it.
• Kirk's genius isn't tactical — it's human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
• That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.

Princess Leia

You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you're fearless, but because giving up simply isn't something you're capable of.

• You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
• You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you've never looked back.
• Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
• That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.

Ellen Ripley

You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

• You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
• Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
• You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn't there.
• When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything.

Max Rockatansky

You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

• You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
• Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it's earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
• Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
• That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

3 'Mob Psycho 100' (2016–2022)

Image via Bones

Being one of the most powerful psychics alive is hardly useful in Mob Psycho 100. All Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama (Shigeo Kageyama) wants is to fit in. The quiet middle schooler spends his days trying to get through school, friendships, and the pressures of growing up, all while secretly using his supernatural abilities to deal with troublesome spirits and other psychics. But Mob's biggest worry isn't his enemies; it's his growing emotions that fuel the extremity of his powers.

Mob Psycho 100 reverses the predictable "pursuit of power" plot by giving its protagonist more power than he could ever want. Mob isn't interested in becoming the strongest person around; he simply wants to become a decent—and, if he's lucky, likable—human being. New audiences may be hooked by the anime's bizarre supernatural encounters, but they'll stay for Mob's coming-of-age story as he gradually learns that true strength isn't measured by psychic abilities.

2 'Hunter x Hunter' (2011–2014)

Image via Madhouse

Hunter x Hunter innocently begins with a classic adventure story about a boy chasing after an absent father. Twelve-year-old Gon Freecss (Megumi Han) leaves Whale Island after discovering that his father, Ging (Rikiya Koyama), is not only alive but one of the world's most accomplished Hunters. Determined to follow in his footsteps, Gon enters the notoriously perilous Hunter Examination, setting off on a journey that will take him far beyond the simple goal of finding his father.

There's a reason why Michael B. Jordan is a Hunter x Hunter fan. Rather than following the familiar shonen formula of an inexperienced underdog chasing an impossible goal, the anime puts its heroes through genuinely psychologically grueling ordeals. Much of this comes down to its Nen power system, which rewards characters for understanding their abilities and exploiting their opponents' weaknesses instead of simply overpowering them. As a result, even the most lopsided fights can become unpredictable.

1 'Attack on Titan' (2013–2023)

In Attack on Titan, humanity has spent generations hiding behind massive walls, terrified of the Titans that roam outside. After the Colossal Titan destroys Wall Maria and Eren Yeager (Yuki Kaji) witnesses his mother’s death, he dedicates his life to destroying every Titan. Joined by childhood friends Mikasa (Yui Ishikawa) and Armin (Marina Inoue), Eren enters the Survey Corps, where their fight for humanity's survival takes them far beyond what they ever imagined.

When it was released, Attack on Titan caught the attention of both anime fans and newcomers to the genre with the sheer gruesomeness of its violence. While the brutality can be horrendous to watch, it also leaves viewers wondering just how far the series is willing to go. Combined with its roughly $150,000-per-episode budget, the graphic violence contributes to the show's unmistakable visual quality, complementing an unforgiving story in which one character's pursuit of justice gradually takes a much darker turn.

Attack On Titan

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  Matthew Mercer

• Josh Grelle