The 10 Best 2000s Anime, Ranked
The decade of Toonami, torrents and late nights, and the shows that turned a hobby into a lifelong thing.
In the 2000s anime went digital, went global and went online. Fans watched on TV after school, then on tiny streams and fansubs at three in the morning, and the shows of this decade are the ones a lot of people still call their first love.
These ten are the ones that still deliver: the plot twists, the rivalries and the endings people argue about on forums to this day.
1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009)
2009 · TV series · 64 episodes · bones
Two brothers, one terrible mistake, and sixty-four episodes that keep every promise they make.
Edward and Alphonse Elric tried to bring their mother back with alchemy. It cost Ed an arm and a leg and Al his whole body, and now his soul lives in a suit of armour. Their search for a way to fix it uncovers a conspiracy that runs all the way to the top of their country.
It has everything: a big cast you care about, villains with real reasons, comedy that never undercuts the drama and an ending that pays off every thread. It sits at the top of almost every fan ranking for a reason.
Shop the Fullmetal Alchemist collection
2. Spirited Away (2001)
2001 · Film · Studio Ghibli
A sulky ten-year-old, a bathhouse for the gods, and the courage to remember your own name.
Chihiro's parents turn into pigs at an abandoned theme park, and to save them she has to work in a bathhouse run by the witch Yubaba. Haku, No-Face, Kamaji and the soot balls carrying coal: every corner of the place is a world of its own.
It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and it is still the film people use to show someone what anime can be. The train across the flooded sea is one of the most peaceful scenes ever animated.
Shop the Studio Ghibli collection
3. Death Note (2006)
2006 · TV series · 37 episodes · MADHOUSE
A genius finds a notebook that kills, and a stranger genius sets out to catch him.
Light Yagami picks up a notebook dropped by a bored god of death: write a name in it, and that person dies. He decides to clean up the world. The detective L decides to stop him. Every episode is another move in a chess game between two people who never stop thinking.
It is the most bingeable thriller anime ever made, and Ryuk eating apples in the corner is the best running gag in the genre.
Shop the Death Note collection
4. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (2006)
2006 · TV series · 25 episodes · Sunrise
An exiled prince gets the power to command anyone, once, and uses it to start a war against his own father.
Lelouch vi Britannia was abandoned in occupied Japan as a child. Now a student by day, he becomes the masked rebel Zero by night, playing strategy, giant robots and his best friend Suzaku against an empire.
Every episode ends on a cliffhanger and the ending is one of the most talked about in anime history. Go in knowing nothing.
Shop the Code Geass collection
5. Gurren Lagann (2007)
2007 · TV series · 27 episodes · Gainax
Believe in the you who believes in yourself, then drill through the heavens.
Simon digs tunnels in an underground village. His big brother figure Kamina dreams of the surface. They find a tiny robot head and a girl named Yoko with a sniper rifle, and from there the show escalates until the robots are the size of galaxies.
It is the loudest, most sincere thing anime has ever made, and the moment it gets serious halfway through is a gut punch. You will cry about drills. That is fine.
Shop the Gurren Lagann collection
6. Monster (2004)
2004 · TV series · 74 episodes · Madhouse
A surgeon saves a boy's life, and the boy grows up to be a killer.
Dr. Kenzo Tenma chooses to operate on a child instead of the mayor and loses his career for it. Years later, people around him start dying, and he realises the boy he saved is behind it. He crosses Germany to find him.
It is a slow, quiet thriller about whether every life is worth the same, and Johan is one of the most frightening villains in fiction precisely because he never raises his voice.
7. Naruto (2002)
2002 · TV series · 220 episodes · Studio Pierrot
The loudest kid in the village wants everyone to see him. He gets his wish the hard way.
Naruto Uzumaki carries the demon fox that nearly destroyed his village, and everyone treats him like it. He becomes a ninja anyway, on a team with his rival Sasuke and Sakura, under the lazy genius Kakashi.
There is filler, a lot of it. But the Zabuza arc, the Chunin exams and the Valley of the End are why a whole generation ran with their arms behind them. It is about loneliness, and that is why it stuck.
8. Samurai Champloo (2004)
2004 · TV series · 26 episodes · Manglobe
Two swordsmen who hate each other, one girl searching for a samurai who smells of sunflowers.
Mugen fights like breakdance, Jin fights like a classical master, and Fuu talks them into escorting her across Edo-period Japan. Shinichiro Watanabe, who made Cowboy Bebop, scores it with hip-hop and Nujabes beats.
It is a road trip made of episodes, each one a little story about a town, a debt or a lost friend, and the ending is perfect.
Shop the Samurai Champloo collection
9. Gintama (2006)
2006 · TV series · 201 episodes · Sunrise
The funniest anime ever made, until it suddenly makes you sob.
Aliens have conquered Edo-era Japan and banned swords. Gintoki Sakata, a lazy ex-samurai who lives on strawberry milk, runs an odd-jobs business with Shinpachi and Kagura. Most episodes are parody, toilet jokes and fourth-wall breaks.
Then the serious arcs arrive, and the same goofy characters fight for each other with everything they have. That swing is the whole magic of Gintama.
10. NANA (2006)
2006 · TV series · 47 episodes · MADHOUSE
Two girls with the same name, one tiny Tokyo apartment, and the friendship of a lifetime.
Nana Komatsu moves to Tokyo for love. Nana Osaki moves to Tokyo to make it with her punk band. They meet on a train in the snow and end up sharing flat 707, and the show follows their dreams, boyfriends and mistakes with honesty most romance anime never reaches.
It is about growing up and drifting apart, and it is written for adults. The music is great and the feelings are real.
If you want a complete story that sticks the landing, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. If you want a cat-and-mouse game you will not be able to stop, Death Note. And if you need to remember why you love this medium at all, Gurren Lagann will do it in about three episodes.
How we ranked: titles are drawn from the anime fans name most often across the major community rankings of the decade, then ordered by Anime Crush on how well each one plays today. Year and studio are from the original Japanese release.