2018 has been such a fantastic year for anime that it can be really difficult to sort through all of the available series to find the best of the best. It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone, delivering so many fantastic anime series along the way.
We already know that the anime streaming landscape will look very different in 2019, with Funimation and Crunchyroll going their separate ways while Netflix and Amazon attempt to expand into the market. We’ll likely be seeing a lot more original series produced by the various streaming platforms in the coming years. While that might be less ideal for people who only want to stick to one streaming service for their anime needs, it’s pretty great for the quality series we’ve been receiving – at least so far.
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To help you with your anime viewing needs, we’ve compiled a list of the top ten anime series of 2018. Strap in, and get ready to unwrap this lovely pile of anime gifts.
10. Double Decker! Doug & Kirill
Before My Hero Academia, there was another superpowered anime that, while popular, never quite became widely known enough to support a long-term run. Tiger & Bunny stood out as an original project that worked as a typical crime-fighting superhero show while also having interesting things to say. It dealt with the issues surrounding getting older, what it means to do the right thing, and the extreme end of capitalism’s march to commodify everything – even superheroes themselves. While that series has been inactive for several years, the show’s creators stepped up to produce Double Decker! Doug & Kirill, a new series that keeps Tiger & Bunny’s ethos while introducing us to a world of drugs, fantasy gadgets, and a cast of loveable dorks.
Double Decker! Doug & Kirill tells the story of Kirill a low-level police officer who dreams of becoming famous. Through a series of events, he winds up being reassigned to the special Double Decker unit that specifically tracks down those who use and distribute the illegal drug known as Anthem. Each member of the unit has a partner, and Kirill teams up with Doug, a veteran officer with big dreams of his own. As the two get to know one another, they must also track down the major Anthem distributor in the city.
From that description alone, Double Decker! Doug & Kirill might sound like it has tired premise, but that would be misleading. The character designs all have a fantastic stylized flair to them the keeps episodes visually fresh and interesting. The rookie cop teamed up with an old-timer cliché gets shaken up by both Kirill and Doug having very disparate goals when it comes down to why they became officers in the first place. Their differing priorities and methods mix poorly and often subvert audience expectations for comedic effect. Beyond Kirill and Doug, the plethora of strange quirks each supporting character in the series possesses make the show a ride worth taking.
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9. Banana Fish
A popular manga released in the 80s, Banana Fish stands as a major piece of LGBTQ+ media representation. The anime series, produced by Amazon, tells the story of Ash Lynx, a 17-year-old boy from New York City who managed to rise through a life of crime to become a successful gang leader. A chance encounter entwines his fate with Eiji Okumura, a visiting 19-year-old student from Japan. Between all of the shootouts, gangster warfare, and the ever-growing danger posed by the mysterious “Banana Fish,” Ash and Eiji develop a romantic relationship that makes up the heart of the series.
Banana Fish has a lot of interesting things to say about male relationships, both platonic and romantic. It spends a large part of its runtime building up friendships and rivalries between the characters. How exactly those are built and how men connect with one another for better or worse stands as the central theme of the show. Around the edges, there’s a compelling crime drama about gang warfare and a mystery about who or what Banana Fish might be, but often those feel shunted to the side in favor of spending more time connecting the characters together so that they can be ripped apart for maximum emotional trauma during a later part of the story.
The best way to describe Banana Fish might be to say it stands as a work of flawed genius. The repeated use of and overreliance on rape as the only depiction of sexual intimacy really hold the series back from being the thorough examination of masculinity it seems to desperately want to be. The complete lack of meaningful women in the series except as props to be abused or killed also presents a pretty uncomfortable aspect. While Amazon's adaptation of Banana Fish does a lot of things right and manages to be an interesting adventure, it’s less savory qualities stand out and hold the series back from rising higher on this list. It certainly isn’t for everyone.
Next Page: Holmes of Kyoto and Sword Art Online
8. Holmes of Kyoto
Changing gears, Holmes of Kyoto stands out as a fantastic little anime series about Kiyotaka Yagashira, a genius appraiser of rare and valuable goods who gets roped into various mysteries surrounding a number of intriguing historical trinkets. Kiyotaka happens to be so good at identifying and determining the value of antiques that his customers have come to refer to him as “the Holmes of Kyoto.” However, our protagonist is Aoi Mashiro, a high school student who takes a part-time job at Kura, a reputable antique shop run by Kiyotaka. Aoi serves as a Watson to Kiyotaka’s Holmes, assisting him in solving a variety of antique mysteries.
Part of the attraction of Holmes of Kyoto relates to the laidback atmosphere of the show. It’s a welcome break from the life-or-death drama of almost every other anime series on this list. That isn’t to say Holmes of Kyoto totally eschews drama. The rivalry between Kiyotaka and Ensho, the series’ analogue to Holmes’ archnemesis Moriarty, grows in its dramatic depth over the course of the series alongside Aoi and Kiyotaka’s relationship.
Perhaps the biggest flaw with Holmes of Kyoto stems from the blandness of it visual compositions when tackling anything other than the actual antiques themselves. As seen in later entries on this list, mundane scenes can be given all kinds of emotional weight and depth with interesting compositions. Much of Holmes of Kyoto can feel flat and lifeless, but the series manages to overcome that through the strength of its central character dynamic and the mysteries themselves. With a bigger budget or cleverer direction, Holmes of Kyoto could have secured a higher place on this list. As it is, it’s definitely worth checking out if you are craving some solid mysteries.
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7. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
The world of Gun Gale Online proved to be particularly popular in the core Sword Art Online series, so this spin-off revisits the setting with an entirely different cast of characters. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online's story focuses on LLENN, a young woman who finds herself feeling disaffected and different from those around her due to her unusual height. Seeking an escape, one of her friends recommends Gun Gale Online, a full-dive gun-oriented game. While playing, LLENN encounters and befriends Pitohui, a seemingly kindred spirit who involves LLENN in a twisted game of survival.
One of the strengths of the Sword Art Online series has always been its ability to contextualize the reasons people play games in extreme and interesting ways. Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online continues this tradition with a story arc that follows someone who finally finds a sense of belonging in an online gaming community, forming connections with those she fights against. Despite the heightened reality of the game world, the interactions, drama, and emotions the show puts its viewers through all ring true to how playing a competitive game feels in the moment.
The main slip-up of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online boils down to a compelling villain revealed in the final episodes to have no real motivation. This letdown returns the series to a pleasant equilibrium that, while not exactly bad, certainly strikes viewers as disappointing. With that in mind, the core strength of the show lies in wrapping viewers up in the moment-to-moment drama of conflict. It does that so well that it claws out its place on this list.
Next Page: The Ancient Magus Bride and Megalo Box
6. The Ancient Magus Bride
Though the first season of The Ancient Magus Bride technically began airing in 2017, the second half of season 1 released during the first part of 2018. The series follows the adventures of Chise, a young girl with a dark past who sells herself on the black market only to find herself bought by Elias, an ancient, incredibly powerful mage with a deer-like skull for a face. He reveals that she possesses a rare gift for talking with and attracting spirits and that he will train her to become a mage – and one day marry her. Having established the basic characters and relationships in the first half of the show’s run in 2017, the second half was able to go a bit crazier with its plotting and concepts.
Since the first episode, The Ancient Magus Bride has been able to succeed in making magic feel, well, magical. The esoteric spell casting, the unique solutions to magical problems, and the empathy it shows all of its characters really do a lot to elevate the series over comparable shows. The Studio Ghibli-like attention to detail in the backgrounds and animations do their part to sell the magical world Chise begins to explore alongside Elias. Chise’s humanity and compassion allow her to really spread her winds as a mage’s apprentice in the 2018 season and solve some truly daunting problems. Done, of course, with all of the heart viewers have come to expect from the series.
The main dynamic between Elias and Chise still feels pretty strange; after all, he’s a creature thousands of years old with a skull for a head and she’s a 15-year-old girl. The show manages to sidestep the uncomfortable ramifications of their relationship while painting it as a wholesome, platonic love that is occasionally framed romantically. Ultimately, The Ancient Magus Bride builds up to a climax it doesn’t completely earn with villains and characters from the previous parts of the season showing up almost at random. The rush to the end also feels like it rushes the slow character building the audience has experienced with Chise up until the last few episodes, cramming in a full season’s worth of growth into a very short amount of time. Nonetheless, the rush manages to send off the series with a feeling of catharsis.
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5. Megalo Box
If you’re a fan of Rocky or Creed and in anyway interested in animation, Megalo Box has to be on your list of anime to watch. Created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Champion Joe, one of the most popular and well known boxing tales of all-time, Megalo Box has the best kinetic style of all the anime released in 2018. You can practically feel the impact of the punches from how the muscles contract and connect on screen.
Set in the near future where the land has been parched and blighted, humanity rallies around the mechanically augmented sport of Megalo Boxing. Combatants enter the ring to fight using mechanical exoskeletons to increase the power of their punches and movements. In the underground fighting rings, no one loses as well as Junk Dog - thanks to his manager who rigs them. A chance encounter with one of the best fighters in the world inspires Junk Dog to use his underworld connections to enter Megalonia, the biggest fighting tournament in the world. What follows stands out as some of the best fighting animations in years with characters really telling their stories through the way they fight - similar to the ethos of the upcoming Netflix series Baki.
If you’re interested in anything beyond the drama of training and fighting, you won’t find Megalo Box willing to deliver. To provide a sense of variety, there’s a dash of gangster violence thrown in for good measure. However, Megalo Box really wants viewers to focus on the fights and the reasons people fight. Each episode spends an equal amount of time showing why Junk Dog’s opponents fight; why they have to win. It makes every fight have a do-or-die sense of gravitas for not just Junk Dog, but also his opponent. In the world of Megalo Box, nothing is as important as "The Fight" and if you can get wrapped up in that conflict, this anime will deliver.
Next Page: Zombie Land Saga and Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
4. Zombie Land Saga
The premise of Zombie Land Saga definitely threw many for a loop when it launched during the Fall 2018 season. The anime series follows the exploits of an idol team composed of reanimated women from across Japanese history. The team’s manager keeps them in the dark about their true nature as he signs them up for gigs seemingly at random. As they regain their memories, the story of each character comes into sharper relief, allowing the show to take some time-related liberties with its stories that present a really cool twist on the conventions of the idol subgenre.
While the animation can sometimes get a bit rocky, especially when it switches into a 3D style, the character work stands as such a strong bedrock for all of the other antics that it makes the rough moments bearable. The songs aren’t necessarily great, but Zombie Land Saga’s strength in that regard is the variety it presents. One episode might be a death metal concert and another might force the group to try their hand at hip-hop. The way the show manages to keep things fresh makes it worth your time.
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3. Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
This series was one that manages to combine the world of assassinations, baseball, and delicious ramen. With a sense of style and a cast of truly memorable characters, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens tells the story of Lin Xianming, a crossdressing hitman on a quest for vengeance. Lin meets Banba Zenji, a detective with a knack for showing up to assassinations and the two slowly form a friendship. Oh, and a bunch of the assassin’s all play baseball together.
The 12-episode series bares a great deal of resemblance to the John Wick action films where shadowy organizations of assassins and corporations all mingle together, but all undertaken with a great deal more levity. The show takes time to establish its cast, allowing them to grow beyond the stock stereotypes they almost certainly would have become if handled in a more mainstream way.
The lack of baseball and clarity on Banba and Lin’s relationship stand as the biggest sins committed by Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens. While baseball does play a large role in the anime, it doesn’t receive nearly enough screen time. On top of that, the anime clearly hints at Banba and Lin having some kind of romantic relationship, but never really goes into the exact nature of that relationship. That’s not a huge problem for the series, however; it mostly boils down to wanting more episodes of the series. And leaving an audience wanting more is never a bad thing.
Next Page: The Top 2 Anime of 2018!
2. Violet Evergarden
Anime that deals with war often focuses on the action, the fighting, the in-the-moment drama of direct conflict. Violet Evergarden instead uses its 13 episodes to explore life after war and the process of recovering and discovering individuality. Our protagonist is Violet Evergarden, a former child soldier who has only known the battlefield before losing both of her arms and her commanding officer in the final battle of a brutal war. Her hospital equips her with two prosthetic arms and discharges her into the care of one of her commanding officer’s friends, a former military man who has started an auto memories doll business. In the setting of Violet Evergarden, auto memories dolls are skilled typists who can capture and communicate the essence of a letter sender’s feelings. This ingenious setup allows the series to explore numerous facets of recovery by having Violet regain her connection with emotions and self-determination through writing letters for other people who have been ripped apart in various ways by life.
How Netflix manages to fund all of its original series will remain a mystery to those outside of its inner circles. Whatever dark magic they employed to summon the funds for Violet Evergarden worked wonders. Every cent involved in the production feels like it appears on screen. It stands as the most visually stunning anime series of the year with a staggering attention to detail that doesn’t go to waste. Each scene uses every second of runtime to convey story elements in the backgrounds, character movements, or facial expressions. Being able to show a character’s discomfort with a quick shot of toes curling into the ground enables the show to turn even its quietest moments into a visually arresting feast for the eyes.
Pacing stands out as the only fault of Violet Evergarden. The series begins with Violet basically being a machine, but within a few short episodes she begins taking on jobs that have sweeping ramifications for international politics. A slower burn as she learns her craft and works up to that point would have been appreciated. It also leaves Violet with a large number of unexplored facets which should make future seasons very interesting while they build upon season 1’s solid foundations.
1. Aggretsuko
The biggest surprise of 2018 has to be Aggretsuko. Based on a series of 100 1-minute shorts produced by Sanrio, the company that created Hello Kitty and leading force behind all things cute, Aggretsuko manages to transcend the short-form comedy of its origins. Behind the adorable character designs and welcoming cut-out style, Aggretsuko hides a frank look at the existential dread of a generation.
Aggretsuko stars Retsuko, an adorable anthropomorphic red panda who has been ground down by five years of working the same entry-level accounting job. Her dreams of progressing through life have become ash, she possesses little social life beyond work, and she constantly dreams of an escape. Numerous episodes revolve around her trying to quit or finding a husband or buddying up with her prickly misogynist of a boss. Ultimately, none of it works – except for escaping to a karaoke booth after work to scream her feelings of rage and desperation away as death metal songs.
Aggretsuko is not a series about triumphing over adversity or climbing a corporate ladder. Instead, it is about the quiet and glamorless struggle to persist and exist. Coping with irritating coworkers, dreaming of an escape in romance, checking out and not caring, these are the things that should be relatable to almost every working person in the world. Aggretsuko makes the case that, while perhaps there might not be a way to truly triumph in such a world, it can be enough to embrace the things that make us unique and weird, the activities that bring us some amount of peace. For Retsuko, often that’s screaming “Choke on my rage” over and over again in a karaoke bar at the end of a long work day. That leaves viewers with a blistering satire of the corporate workplace with an existential darkness constantly threatening to close in on our cast of characters. This tone and subject matter mix with the crisp, adorable visuals to create a disarming program that can speak to pretty much everyone.