#1 – Seirei no Moribito (2007)

I can’t imagine this pick will remotely surprise anybody who’s followed the website even casually over the past decade.  I’ll go into a bit more detail with my follow-up summary post, but I can say that my top two series off this list are my top two series, period.  As such that makes the 2000’s a pretty tough decade to beat, no matter how the rest of it compares.

I don’t think you can more concisely explain a choice like this than my saying “this is my favorite anime of all time”.  I’ve said it for years, on many occasions.  I’ve dedicated posts to that specific statement.  I’ve blogged the series episodically (early during the pandemic, as I did with TTGL and Baccano!).  I even wrote a massive (82,000 words) fanfic follow-up to the first book.  I’ve already said so much I don’t think I can avoid repeating myself.  Seirei no Moribito is a masterpiece.  The masterpiece in anime terms, as far as I’m concerned.  Kamiyama Kenji took what was already a superb novel by Uehashi Nahoko and vastly improved on it for anime.  Kawai Kenji’s soundtrack is itself a masterpiece.  Production I.G.’s stamp is certainly all over this list, and this is the studio at the apex of its powers – majestic, inspired, powerful.  Moribito stands as a great piece of visual art – by today’s standards, much less 2007’s.

Indeed, the only – and I do mean only – negative to Seirei no Moribito is that it wasn’t successful enough commercially to see Uehashi’s entire series adapted.  There was a (very good) live-action TV drama that adapted the whole series (albeit in condensed fashion), but what a joy it would have been to see Kamiaya and I.G. apply their stamp to the project.  His career has, frankly, been a disappointment in the intervening years but the work he did on this series is for me the finest work by a writer-director in TV anime history.  None of that undermines the anime’s legacy in any way – it’s the best, and anything else is incidental to that.  As to why that is, again, there’s plenty of ink spilled on that by me already.

High fantasy has always been a genre enormously well-suited to anime, but historically speaking great executions of it have been surprisingly rare.  The thing about Moribito of course is that you could take the fantasy element out of it altogether and it frankly wouldn’t miss a beat.  The politics and social commentary are really the foundations of the story, and it’s the characters (Kamiyama’s changes really bolstered this element) who lift it to truly Olympian levels.  I’ve always said that Balsa and Chagum is the greatest non-romantic love story in anime, and Chagum the greatest child character.  But that’s not to downplay the importance of the supporting cast, starting with Tanda (who’s really a co-lead), Toragai, and Shuga.  And Kamiyama’s decision to cast largely screen actors rather than anime seiyuu (including 13 year-old Adachi Naoto as Chagum) paid huge dividends.

There it is – as the best anime ever, Seirei no Moribito was certainly going to be the best of its decade.  And its stature is such that simply by occupying the #1 slot it materially uplifts the entire list.

#2 – FLCL (2000)

Finally we have an OVA crack the list – but what an OVA it is.  I’ve found as I put this list together, even though everything on it aired before I started blogging anime, I have blogged most of these series one way or the other.  I’ve certainly waxed poetical about FLCL over the years (including here and here), and it would be no exaggeration to say it’s among my favorite not just anime, but narrative entertainments in any medium.  That should give you an idea of the sort of quality it took to edge it out of the top spot on this list.

FLCL is six episodes, about 30 minutes each.  It is for all intents and purposes a series, though also emblematic of what OVAs were once upon a time (and likely will never be again).  It’s a co-production between two of anime’s greatest studios, Gainax and Production I.G., though in narrative and stylistic terms it’s basically a Gainax series.  To say that it was influential on me is an understatement – I’ve fond of referring to shows that remind me “not just why I love anime, but why I started loving it in the first place”.  FLCL is one that made me love it in the first place.

But it’s not just me – it’s been astonishingly influential (which often reads as “copied”) on both anime and manga, arguably more than any series (Evangelion would be the only real competition).  Everyone from Ueshsiba Richii to Fujimoto Tatsuki to an an entire generation of animators credit Fooly Cooly for helping shape their worldview as an anime and manga creator.  Just the folks who directly worked on the series itself constitute an anime great generation – they dominated the Gainax of the 2000’s and when it disintegrated (what a sad and ugly story that is) they carried their influence to other studios across the industry.

In sum, then, FLCL is a masterpiece.  It’s incredibly inventive, daring, bold, whip-smart.  The soundtrack (by The Pillows) is for my money the best in anime history.  My take on FLCL is that it’s as close to perfect as any anime has ever been – it has the advantage of only being six eps (closer to eight in TV terms) in that respect, but nevertheless not a single frame is out of place, not a single note off.  And even a cynical, utterly misguided attempt (spearheaded by the U.S. Cartoon Network) to cash in on the enduring influence of and love for the series with hideous sequels could put a dent in its peerless stature.  You can name your decade – FLCL would always be at the top of the list.

#3 – Mushishi (2006)

You know it was going to show up sooner or later (likely later).  Urushibara Yuki’s manga is gold in any form – the original, the first series, the sequel.  That sequel finished 4th in the “Best of the 2010’s” list, and it’s fair to say it was right there with the series that finished above it.  It’s the only franchise on both lists (I guess that’s technically a spoiler), but there could never be any question it would be.  Mushishi is a work of supreme intelligence and ambition – on the page, on the screen, in any decade.

I can honestly say I couldn’t split the original Mushishi and “Zoku Shou”.  They’re absolutely dead-even in my book, and surprisingly seamless in their continuity given that almost a decade separated them.  Artland Studio did almost nothing in-between, and shut down entirely not long after Zoku Shou.  I honestly can’t point to anything else in director Nagahama Hiroshima career that comes anywhere close (and some of that work is frankly pretty awful).  But Mushishi transcends – it’s a perfect synergy of elements, a one-off that would never and could never be repeated.

If Natsume Yuujinchou is manga’s warm in its depiction of Japanese folklore, then Mushishi is its cool.  There’s an intellectual detach to most of the narrative, but that just makes the emotional crescendoes (many involving children) that much devastating when they happen.  Nagahama did many brilliant things here, among them almost entirely avoiding familiar anime seiyuu and casting real children in the child roles.  And Masuda Toshio’s soundtrack is one of anime’s best.  Mushishi is as close to timeless as anime gets, on both sides of the fourth wall.  It’s a masterpiece and easily among the best anime of the past two decades.

#4 – Hikaru no Go (2001-2003)

It’s nice to have two sports anime in the top ten – that reflects what a good decade this was for that genre.  There were a lot more of them to start with, which certainly helps the odds.  Now, whether or not you consider Hikaru no Go a sports anime is another question.  I do, but it’s much more than that.  I don’t think Hikaru is a series that can be categorized by a single genre.

This was one of those series I didn’t watch when it came out.  In fact it was over a decade later that I finally did watch it – I’d judged the book by its cover to an extent, and when I started to look closer I realized that this was a series that might have something special explaining the serious cultural impact it made.  When I did watch it, I ended up marathoning its 75 episodes (plus OVAs) in a few weeks.  I’d never binge watched a long series so quickly and haven’t since, but if you’ve seen Hikaru no Go you understand.  It immediately draws you into its story, and the pacing is among the best of any anime I’ve seen.  The cliffhangers are brutal – I can’t even imagine having to wait a week between episodes.

There’s a lot to praise here – a great premise, Obata Takeshi’s incredible character designs (which the anime really did justice to), the attention to detail.  I knew no more about Go when I started HnG than I did about Karuta with Chihayafuru, but it doesn’t matter – the writing is so good that I was instantly fascinated.  I’m also in awe of the way the characters realistically age up over the course of the series.  It really is an amazing journey, full of thrills and humor and quite a few tears.  Hotta Yumi never wrote another manga apart from a single one-shot, remarkably.   Hikaru no Go one was a huge commercial success and won both the Tezuka Cultural Prize and the Shogakukan Award, but it was a one-off, a lightning bolt.  Its impact is still felt in the massive increase in popularity for Go in Japan, and in the influence it had on young mangaka, inside Jump and out.

#5 – Ghost Hound (2007)

Ghost Hound certainly isn’t obscure on the level of something like Petopeto-san, but considering the names behind it, it’s pretty darn underrated.  Production I.G. (along with Madhouse) owned 2007, and if there was ever a series that defined their sometimes-nebulous aesthetic, it’s Ghost Hound.  Created by Shirow Masamune and directed by Nakamura Ryutarou (who passed away far too soon in 2013) this was I.G.’s 20th Anniversary project.  And that’s just so fitting – it’s cool (in both senses), sinister, intellectual, and ultimately brilliant.  It feels very much a product of a different time in anime, and we rarely see studios attempt anything in a similar style these days (much to anime’s loss).

A story set on the murky border where Jungian theory meets metaphysics – with a big dose of Shinto mysticism thrown in – this is one of the most profoundly disturbing series I’ve ever seen.  It focuses on a young boy still trauamatized by a family tragedy from his childhood, and digs deep into the disturbing world of adolescent (and other) fears and obsessions.  It looks great even by Production I.G. standards, but for me the sound design on Ghost Hound is truly the finest I’ve ever seen in anime.  It’s astonishing (especially if you’re using headphones).

#6 – Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007)

Another one of the noughties that I covered ex post facto, and another representative of the stellar 2007.  I think it might be fair to say that TTGL hasn’t aged as well as some of the series on this list – certainly, the order is a little different than I would have made it at the time.  But that’s not really a criticism, as I still consider it one of the best of the Gainax catalogue (itself arguably the best in TV anime), and a paragon of anime science-fiction.

In many respects, Gurren-Lagann represents an end of an era (which may be a reason my views on it are tinged with bittersweet now).  Gainax did soldier on for a few more series but this was the last show they did that really mattered.  Imaishi Hiroyuki went on to found Trigger and the only shows they’ve done which I liked were ones he wasn’t directly involved in.  Nakashima Kazuki had a huge anime year in 2007 with this show and Oh! Edo Rocket, but none of his several contributions to anime since have come close to that level.  TTGL was both a product of its time and timeless, and as such it feels almost like a museum piece now.

Well, fortunately I like a good museum.  This is certainly one of the most fun series in anime history, with phenomenal visuals (the follow-up movies even more so) and a fantastic soundtrack.  It throws one of the great all-time plot twists at the audience  (as only an original anime can fully exploit), enrages them with a daring divergence in visuals for one episode, and divides them with a rage-inducing ending (I was not a fan of it, for the record).  All in all Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is one of the most “anime” anime ever, whatever that means – and I know what it means to me even if I can’t put it into words.

#7 – True Tears (2008)

I could say so much about True Tears, which for me will always be P.A. Works signature series.  Technically it’s a game adaptation but in truth it’s effectively an original series.  As romance anime goes (there’s really not enough comedy to call it a romcom), True Tears is among my favorites of all-time, for any number of reasons.

Nishimura Junji directed, but it’s writer Okada Mari (remember my old adage, with adaptations the director is the most important staff member, and with originals it’s the writer) who dominates the discussion.  Okada has become something of an unintentional self-parody with some of her recent works, but True Tears was when she really announced to the world that she was the queen of rage-inducing, fan-baiting romantic drama.  I’ve seen few series generate a shipping war as passionate as this one was.  Normally that’s a turn-off for me but this time (maybe because it was early enough in my anime journey) I got totally caught up in it.

True Tears is PAW at its most gorgeous, depicting seaside rural Japan as a sort of faded paradise.  The soundtrack (by Kikuchi Hajime) is among my favorites in anime.  And, for once, I actually chose the winning side – something that almost never happens for me with anime love triangles (I refuse to call this a quad – poor ***-chan never had a chance).  I don’t deny my personal ranking for TT would probably be lower if it had gone the other way – it’s a very personal series.  And for me, personally, one of the very best shows of the 2000’s.

#8 – Major (2004-2010 – Especially Season 1)

This is one of those cumulative awards in a sense, because I’m a big fan of Major generally (and it’s follow-up, Major 2nd).  But truth be told, it wouldn’t have made my Top 10 of the decade if I were starting from S2.  For me, the first season of Major – the one that sets up the entire franchise and chronicles hero Honda (later Shigeno) Goro as a Little Leaguer – is a serious contender for my favorite sports anime of all time.  In order to beat it I think you’d have to loosen the definition a little, but among “pure” sports series, this one might just come out on top.

Goro is one of the most beloved figures in manga, something of a baseball equivalent of Captain Tsubasa.  Japanese kids who grew up on Major and are now professional ballplayers pass the love of the series on to their kids.  And the first two seasons of the anime were directed by Kasai Ken’ichi, one of the foremost anime directors in the noughties (paralleling the first two seasons of Major 2nd being directed by Watanabe Ayumu).  The first season combines character drama and on-field action expertly, layering in plenty of comedy in the process, and pretty much never sets a foot wrong (starting with one of the best OPs in anime history).

#9 – Baccano! (2007)

Anime’s finest year makes its first appearance on the list with Baccano!.  It has the distinction of being one of three 2000’s series I blogged, after the fact of course (along with Seirei no Moribito and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann).  And this  show, like Petopeto-san, is based on a light novel – more proof that LNs sure ain’t what they used to be.  It also stands out that the first two series on the list are Brain’s Base productions directed by Omori Takahiro – something I promise you I didn’t do on purpose.  Needless to say, he and they had one hell of a decade.

Narita Ryohgo (he was just a kid when he started Baccano!, really) is undeniably a gifted writer, even if Durarara did eventually lose me.  But this is one of those series that need what anime brings in order to fully blossom.  It’s a fearless, hilarious, sometimes shocking masterpiece of confusion and sheer adrenaline.  The runaway train metaphor really applies here, as that’s kind of what it feels like to watch it.  You just have to surrender to the experience and watch the scenery whiz by.  There’s nothing quite like Baccano! – often imitated, never equalled.

#10 – Natsume Yuujinchou (2008)

As is so often the case with these lists, the last spot is the hardest.  I will (thanks to Stephen) be talking about some of the near-misses after the countdown is over, but still, deciding who’s #10 is deciding who gets left out.  When you’re talking about an entire decade’s worth of anime that’s no easy task, but in the end I felt like I had to give the nod to Natsume Yuujinchou.

To an extent, this is probably a valedictory award for this series – a recognition of the cumulative body of work Brain’s Base (mostly) and Omori Takahiro did with this franchise.  But I would say the first two seasons were probably the best – though it’s close – and certainly among the best anime I watched in 2008 and 2009.  I often refer to Natsume Yuujinchou as the light to Mushishi’s dark, two angles of perception on more or less the same theme.  This series offered up some of the most impactful anime episodes of any decade, and it’s worth nothing that a few of them were anime-original – a telltale sign of a really great adaptation.

Honorable Mention – Petopeto-san (2005)

This is an obscure series to be sure.  It was obscure even at the time it aired, and it’s certainly little-remembered now.  It’s a light novel adaptation to boot – though LN’s were vastly different twenty years ago than they are now.  A quirky and very anime tale about an alternate Japan where youkai are “welcomed” into society, Petopeto-san is packed with very sharp commentary about Japan’s obsession with homogeneity.  It’s much darker than it lets on, but also extremely cute and often very funny.  It also has one of my favorite ending themes of all time.  I loved this series unreservedly from the first moment I saw it, and never looked back.

 

This is a new sort of commission for LiA.  It’s a very specific twist on a theme I’ve pursued on the website before, a “best of the decade” list”.  Hopefully this can be the start of a productive direction for the site, as there are certainly no end of possibilities in this area.  It was also a highly successful “pay as you go” crowdsourcing campaign.  We didn’t max out the needle, but Tier 4 is a pretty darn good result, and I’m very grateful.  And speaking of grateful, here are the LiA supporters who stepped up and supported this project on Ko-fi – my sincere appreciation to all of you!

• Stephen (who instigated the project, and made the joint-largest contribution)
• Riv
• Nicc
• Darrell
• Red
• Samuel
• Francis
• SeijiSensei
• nickk
• Jo (the other largest contribution)
• Jon
• Adrian

Those folks are getting a one-week special sneak preview of my picks, along with my deepest gratitude.

As to the list itself, needless to say it was brutally hard distilling a decade worth of anime into ten series.  I’m not going to go to twenty on this list but I certainly could have, and more, and I will throw a few names out there which just missed when I reach the end of the countdown.  I didn’t watch as many series in the noughties as I did the 2010’s – especially in the first half of the decade – so some of the omissions will be shows I simply haven’t seen.  Some will be ones where they just didn’t make the cut too, of course  – I look forward to your comments.

I would also note this: this was a decade (again, especially in the first half) that was pretty formative for me as an anime fan.  As such, my judgments on a series’ “objective” quality may be a bit conflated with their impact on me as a fan.  It’s also been a long time since I’ve seen most of these series, so my memories aren’t as fresh as with the 2010’s list.

Finally, let’s do a contest, as those seem to be natural for any top 10 list.  I’ll leave this up for 48 hours before I post #10 – take your best shot just like with the year-end lists.  The winner gets a haiku about any series on the list, their choice.

Now, let’s get started.  And while I know it’s cheating, I am going to throw an honorable mention in there.