Anime is a medium that has only grown better with every passing year. As animation techniques were refined and writers learned more from their predecessors, some of the most iconic anime of all time were born in the 2010s. One of the best places to see the popularity of these anime is on MyAnimeList.
The best anime of the 2010s are the series that are not just popular but also consistently highly rated by anime fans (above an 8.0 on MAL), even as the years pass by. These are the anime series that set the trend for the following decade of Japanese animation.
Mob Psycho 100 - 8.48 (1.66 Million MAL Members)
ONE rocked the decade with not just one absolute banger adaptation of his work, but two. While his most popular work is undeniably One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100 is considered by many fans of ONE to be his magnum opus. Unlike One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100 remains surprisingly close to ONE's simplistic art style, and yet, Studio Bones did some amazing things that made for some of the best episodes of not just Mob Psycho 100 but all of anime.
The mundane eighth-grader Shigeo Kageyama (known as Mob to his friends) has a not-so-secret secret. He is one of the strongest psychics in the world, but he doesn't really think much of his powers as they haven't helped him be liked by his peers. A con artist by the name of Reigen recognizes his talents, however, and befriends the boy to perform exorcisms across the region.
Assassination Classroom - 8.10 (1.67 Million MAL Members)
One of the best shounen in a decade littered with iconic shounen, Assassination Classroom is an amazingly funny, heartwarming, and action-packed story about the most extraordinary of circumstances. One wouldn't expect all those things when the entire premise is about teaching a classroom of kids to kill their beloved professor.
When a strange, yellow octopus entity blows up a huge chunk of the moon, he grabs the attention of all the world governments. Once he lands, he says he will destroy the Earth in exactly one year unless his demands are met. His demands are teaching a class of kids to assassinate him before graduation arrives. So begins one of the best shounen of the 2010s, with a class of children opening fire on a giant yellow octopus. Anime is great.
Re:Zero - 8.25 (1.87 Million MAL Members)
Re:Zero represents the absolute monopoly that modern isekai had on the fantasy genre during the 2010s. Re:Zero is considered by many to be the benchmark for modern isekai alongside the likes of Sword Art Online and No Game No Life. The story starts as many a modern isekai does, with a NEET (a term meaning "not in education, employment, or training;" i.e. unemployed) suddenly being transported to another world.
Not long after this sudden visit, he gets attacked and is left to die. However, a beautiful girl named Satella saves his life, and he gratefully offers to help. However, when they uncover dark secrets about the kingdom, they are both brutally murdered. To Subaru's shock (and the audience's), he finds himself back in a familiar scene: with a gang attacking him. It's very similar to Edge of Tomorrow (which was also based on a Japanese light novel, All You Need Is Kill).
Your Lie In April - 8.67 (1.88 Million MAL Members)
One of the premier drama anime of the 2010s, Your Lie In April was responsible for many tears during its airing. Mixing the surprisingly intense world of piano competitions with themes of passion and self-confidence, Your Lie In April is among the best anime about music in the past decade. It didn't tug heartstrings so much as it absolutely shredded them like a violin.
The story is about Kousei Arima, a former pianist who was a prodigy of his craft until his mother suddenly died. After that, Kosei found himself unable to hear the melody that once came so easily to him. However, that all changes when Kaori Miyazono enters his life and inspires him to create music again, but the journey to regain his sound won't be so easy.
No Game No Life - 8.12 (2.11 Million MAL Members)
With the second season that never was, No Game No Life is one of the benchmark isekai alongside Re:Zero and Sword Art Online, but unlike those two shows, No Game No Life somehow didn't spawn into a multi-series franchise. However, it's a testament to the show's quality that it remains one of the series most requested to have a sequel by anime fans all around the world.
No Game No Life is about two siblings who are collectively called "Blank" in the online games they play. Under this guise, they reign over PvP servers in every game they come across. This reputation nets them the attention of the god Tet, a mischievous god who rules over the world of Disboard. He whisks them away to a new world where everything is settled through games, and to the two siblings, this was akin to a paradise.
Steins;Gate - 9.09 (2.17 Million MAL Members)
Working from a rundown apartment, the scientist Okabe spends most of his days inventing random (mostly pointless) gadgetry with the few people who can stand him. Surprisingly, he makes a breakthrough with a machine called the "Phone Microwave" that enables him to send texts to the past. However, a mysterious organization seems hellbent on taking the machine from Okabe, and it's up to him to find a way to keep the machine out of sinister hands.
One of the most ambitious stories of the past decade, Steins;Gate is a series as ominous and mysterious as its name implies. Steins;Gate is a critically acclaimed sci-fi anime that rocked anime fans with its grim portrayal of scientific theory, which contrasts with some of the wildest events that occur with Okabe's story.
Hunter X Hunter - 9.05 (2.28 Million MAL Members)
The second time the series has been adapted, this modern retelling of the shounen classic Hunter x Hunter is considered by many anime fans to be as peak as shounen gets from the pre-2015 era and, possibly, well into the rest of the decade. Despite having fewer episodes than most of its contemporaries at the time (Naruto and One Piece), Hunter x Hunter manages to break the mold.
The story is about Hunters, people tasked with doing various life-threatening tasks, such as exploring uncharted territory or defeating monsters who guard incredibly rare loot. Gon Freecss, a random child from some no-name village, dreams of being a Hunter himself and finding his father, who was also a Hunter. His journey takes him around the world and makes for some of the best stories in shounen anime that viewers will ever see.
Demon Slayer - 8.56 (2.32 Million MAL Members)
Demon Slayer took the world by storm with its debut in 2019, quickly breaking all manner of records as hype for the series reached an all-time high, rivaling the likes of One Punch Man and Attack on Titan. The story is about Tanjiro Kamado, a boy whose entire family (except her sister Nezuko) is murdered by a demon. With a fiery motivation, Tanjiro plans to become a demon slayer himself, avenge his family, and ensure no other child experiences what he did.
Demon Slayer was handily considered by many to be the perfect gateway anime for the new generation of anime fans, and with its gorgeous animation and gripping storylines, it's hard not to see why. While Demon Slayer doesn't break the mold, it certainly carves out its home as one of the modern shounen classics.
One Punch Man - 8.51 (2.71 Million MAL Members)
Saitama was once a salaryman who had no ambitions past living to the next day. When he has a chance encounter with a child being attacked by a crab monster, however, he finds a spark within himself he has never felt before. After miraculously defeating the crab monster, Saitama sets his sights on becoming a hero (for fun). His efforts are so strong, however, that he eventually ends up being able to defeat any enemy with a single punch, thus earning him the iconic title of One Punch Man (at least for audiences).
One Punch Man is a loving parody of shounen and superhero comics that takes the concept of an overpowered hero to the extreme. Despite the hilarity, however, One Punch Man is still an incredibly hype-inducing anime that gets viewers just as pumped for big monster punches as any good action-packed superhero story should. It might be making fun of the genre, but it's not afraid to relish in the ridiculousness of it as well.
Attack on Titan - 8.52 (3.31 Million MAL Members)
In the world of Attack on Titan, humanity has been reduced to a colony of people living inside walls, under constant threat from the giant, human-eating Titans. When the most exterior wall, Wall Maria, was breached by the Colossal Titan, thousands of lives were lost, and humanity was reminded of its fragile existence as prey. Eren Jaeger, along with his friends, joins the Survey Corps to discover a way to defeat the Titan menace and possibly find out how it all started.
Attack on Titan was without a doubt the biggest anime of the 2010s and sparked excitement for the medium of anime that hadn't been seen in a long while at that point. Not only is Attack on Titan the most popular anime of the past decade, but it's also the most popular anime on MyAnimeList of all time with a staggering 3.3 million, overtaking classics such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Death Note.