*** 29 SERIES, 36 YEARS OF ANIMATION *** SORTED OLDEST TO NEWEST *** SCROLL DOWN, THIS PAGE IS A LONG ONE ***
How To Read This Page
Each entry lists the English title, the original Japanese title where one exists, year of first release, genre, and the studio behind it, followed by a short synopsis and a note on why the series matters. Entries run oldest to newest.
Astro Boy 鉄腕アトム (Tetsuwan Atomu)
1963 --- Sci-Fi / Adventure --- Mushi Production
Osamu Tezuka's atomic-powered robot boy fights for justice in a future Tokyo, in the story that gave the world its first serialized weekly TV anime.
Why it matters: The template-setter: its limited-frame-rate, cost-saving production style became the technical backbone of the entire TV anime industry, and its "big eyes" character design defined the medium's look for generations.
Speed Racer マッハGoGoGo (Mach GoGoGo)
1967 --- Action / Racing --- Tatsunoko Production
Teenage racer Go Mifune pilots the gadget-laden Mach Five against rivals and saboteurs on tracks around the world.
Why it matters: One of the first anime widely exported and dubbed for American television, it gave a huge slice of the West its first-ever taste of Japanese animation.
Lupin III ルパン三世 (Rupan Sansei)
1971 --- Heist / Action-Comedy --- Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Master thief Arsene Lupin III, his gunslinger partner Jigen, samurai swordsman Goemon, and femme fatale Fujiko pull off outrageous international heists.
Why it matters: Directed in part by a then-unknown Hayao Miyazaki, its stylish caper tone and ensemble-cast chemistry shaped decades of action-comedy anime that followed.
Space Battleship Yamato 宇宙戦艦ヤマト (Uchū Senkan Yamato)
1974 --- Space Opera / Mecha --- Academy Productions / Toei
Earth's last warship, rebuilt from the sunken WWII battleship Yamato, launches on a desperate journey across the galaxy to save a dying humanity.
Why it matters: Its serialized, continuous storyline and war-weary tone pulled anime's audience up from small children to teenagers and adults, kickstarting Japan's late-70s anime boom.
Galaxy Express 999 銀河鉄道999 (Ginga Tetsudō 999)
1978 --- Sci-Fi / Adventure --- Toei Animation
Orphaned Tetsuro boards a literal steam train that runs between the stars, chasing a promise of a free mechanical body and a mysterious woman named Maetel.
Why it matters: Leiji Matsumoto's melancholic, painterly vision of space travel became one of the most visually influential sci-fi anime of its era.
Mobile Suit Gundam 機動戦士ガンダム (Kidō Senshi Gundam)
1979 --- Mecha / War --- Sunrise
Civilian teenager Amuro Ray is thrust into the cockpit of the prototype RX-78-2 Gundam during a brutal war of independence between Earth and space colonists.
Why it matters: Yoshiyuki Tomino treated giant robots as real war machines flown by traumatized conscripts rather than heroic super-robots, founding the "real robot" mecha subgenre and one of anime's biggest media franchises ever.
Urusei Yatsura うる星やつら
1981 --- Romantic Comedy / Sci-Fi --- Studio Pierrot
Unlucky teenager Ataru accidentally gets engaged to Lum, a tiger-striped-bikini alien princess with a habit of electrocuting him when jealous.
Why it matters: Rumiko Takahashi's slapstick alien rom-com set the template for the harem-comedy genre that anime is still running variations on today.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross 超時空要塞マクロス (Chōjikū Yōsai Macross)
1982 --- Mecha / Music / Romance --- Tatsunoko / Studio Nue
A crashed alien superstructure rebuilt as Earth's flagship gets caught between a love triangle and a war with giant humanoid aliens who don't understand pop music --- or love songs.
Why it matters: Its transforming Valkyrie fighters and "idol song as weapon" climax made it a mecha landmark, and its footage became the basis for the US Robotech localization.
Fist of the North Star 北斗の拳 (Hokuto no Ken)
1984 --- Post-Apocalyptic / Martial Arts --- Toei Animation
In a nuclear wasteland ruled by gangs, Kenshiro, the successor to a deadly pressure-point martial art, makes bodies explode on his way to avenging the people he loves.
Why it matters: Its over-the-top, blood-soaked violence and thunderous catchphrases ("You are already dead") defined the hyper-macho action shonen aesthetic of the 1980s.
Saint Seiya 聖闘士星矢 (Seinto Seiya)
1986 --- Shonen / Fantasy Action --- Toei Animation
Orphaned bronze-armored warriors called Saints, each channeling a constellation's power, fight to protect the reincarnation of the goddess Athena.
Why it matters: A juggernaut across Latin America, Europe, and Asia, it cemented the shonen formula of named special moves shouted mid-punch that countless later series would copy.
Dragon Ball ドラゴンボール
1986 --- Shonen / Martial Arts Adventure --- Toei Animation
Monkey-tailed boy Son Goku travels the world with a ragtag crew, hunting seven magic orbs that summon a wish-granting dragon, while training into its greatest fighter.
Why it matters: Akira Toriyama's globe-trotting adventure-turned-tournament-fighter is one of the most influential shonen manga/anime of all time, directly setting up Dragon Ball Z.
Akira AKIRA
1988 --- Cyberpunk / Sci-Fi (Film) --- Tokyo Movie Shinsha
In neon-lit Neo-Tokyo, biker gang member Tetsuo's psychic powers spiral out of control, threatening to unleash the same catastrophe that destroyed the city decades earlier.
Why it matters: Katsuhiro Otomo's meticulously animated dystopian epic is the film most credited with introducing mature, cinematic anime to audiences outside Japan.
Ranma ½ らんま½
1989 --- Comedy / Martial Arts --- Studio Deen
Martial artist Ranma Saotome falls into a cursed spring and now turns into a girl every time he's splashed with cold water --- just in time to move in with his fiancee's family.
Why it matters: Rumiko Takahashi's gender-bending, curse-of-the-week comedy became one of the best-selling and most enduring martial-arts sitcoms in anime history.
Dragon Ball Z ドラゴンボールZ
1989 --- Shonen / Action --- Toei Animation
Grown-up Goku discovers he's an alien Saiyan warrior as Earth is invaded by ever-stronger foes, from his own murderous brother to gods of destruction.
Why it matters: Its globally syndicated 90s TV run made it, alongside Pokemon, one of the anime titles most responsible for anime's mainstream breakthrough in the West.
Yu Yu Hakusho 幽☆遊☆白書
1992 --- Shonen / Supernatural --- Studio Pierrot
Delinquent Yusuke Urameshi dies saving a child, and is given a second chance as a spirit detective policing demons that slip into the human world.
Why it matters: Yoshihiro Togashi's tightly plotted tournament arcs and morally complex villains raised the bar for shonen storytelling ahead of his later Hunter x Hunter.
Sailor Moon 美少女戦士セーラームーン (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon)
1992 --- Magical Girl --- Toei Animation
Clumsy schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino discovers she's the reincarnated Sailor Moon, and recruits a team of guardian-planet heroines to fight for love and justice.
Why it matters: Naoko Takeuchi's series turned the magical-girl genre into a global phenomenon and reshaped Western animation's idea of what a female-led action franchise could be.
Slam Dunk スラムダンク
1993 --- Sports / Shonen --- Toei Animation
Delinquent Hanamichi Sakuragi joins his high school basketball team to impress a girl, and ends up falling for the game itself.
Why it matters: Takehiko Inoue's series is widely credited with a real-life basketball boom in Japan and remains the genre's definitive sports anime.
Ghost in the Shell 攻殻機動隊 (Kōkaku Kidōtai)
1995 --- Cyberpunk (Film) --- Production I.G
Cyborg security officer Major Motoko Kusanagi hunts a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master, and finds her own sense of self unraveling along the way.
Why it matters: Mamoru Oshii's philosophical thriller about consciousness and networks directly influenced Western cyberpunk cinema, including The Matrix.
Neon Genesis Evangelion 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン (Shinseiki Evangelion)
1995 --- Mecha / Psychological --- Gainax
Withdrawn teenager Shinji Ikari is drafted to pilot a biomechanical Evangelion against monstrous Angels attacking Tokyo-3, while unraveling a conspiracy far larger than the battles themselves.
Why it matters: Hideaki Anno turned the giant-robot show inside out into a study of trauma, depression, and isolation, reshaping the entire medium's ambitions in the process.
Rurouni Kenshin るろうに剣心
1996 --- Historical / Samurai --- Studio Gallop / Studio Deen
Former assassin Kenshin Himura wanders Meiji-era Japan with a reversed blade, vowing never to kill again even as his bloody past keeps catching up with him.
Why it matters: Its blend of real Meiji-era history with shonen swordplay made it one of the most internationally successful samurai anime of the decade.
Revolutionary Girl Utena 少女革命ウテナ (Shōjo Kakumei Utena)
1997 --- Shojo / Surrealism --- J.C.Staff
Sword-wielding Utena Tenjou duels for the hand of the mysterious Rose Bride inside a school built on fairy-tale rules that hide something much darker.
Why it matters: Its subversive, queer-coded take on fairy-tale romance is a landmark of avant-garde shojo storytelling that still influences art-house anime today.
Berserk ベルセルク
1997 --- Dark Fantasy --- OLM, Inc.
Lone mercenary swordsman Guts, scarred by betrayal and cursed by a demonic mark, carries a blade taller than himself through a brutal medieval world.
Why it matters: Kentaro Miura's unflinchingly brutal saga defined "grimdark" fantasy anime years before the term existed in the West.
Pokémon ポケットモンスター (Pocket Monsters)
1997 --- Adventure / Fantasy --- OLM, Inc.
Ten-year-old Ash Ketchum sets off with his electric partner Pikachu to travel the region, catch creatures called Pokemon, and become a Pokemon Master.
Why it matters: Built on the Game Boy games, it became one of anime's single biggest worldwide exports and a defining piece of many childhoods everywhere.
Trigun トライガン
1998 --- Sci-Fi Western --- Madhouse
Vash the Stampede, a $$60,000,000,000 bounty with a goofy grin and a strict no-killing code, drifts across a desert planet leaving chaos and kindness in equal measure.
Why it matters: Its mix of slapstick comedy with a quietly devastating pacifist backstory made it a beloved standout of the late-90s space-western anime wave.
Outlaw Star 星方武侠アウトロースター (Seihō Bukyō Autorō Sutā)
1998 --- Space Opera / Adventure --- Sunrise
Ex-outlaw Gene Starwind and his scrappy crew take command of the experimental ship Outlaw Star, chasing treasure, bounties, and the galaxy's ultimate weapon.
Why it matters: A cult favorite of the same late-90s space-anime wave as Cowboy Bebop, prized for its scrappy found-family crew and inventive space-battle choreography.
Cowboy Bebop カウボイビバップ
1998 --- Space Western / Noir --- Sunrise
Bounty hunters Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and the dog Ein drift between jobs on the spaceship Bebop, unable to outrun the pasts they all refuse to talk about.
Why it matters: Shinichiro Watanabe's jazz-scored blend of noir, western, and science fiction is routinely named one of the greatest anime ever made, and its Adult Swim run introduced huge numbers of Western viewers to the medium.
Serial Experiments Lain シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン
1998 --- Cyberpunk / Psychological --- Triangle Staff
After a classmate's suicide, withdrawn schoolgirl Lain Iwakura receives an email from her --- and is drawn into the Wired, a network that starts to blur where she ends and it begins.
Why it matters: Its eerie, fragmented meditation on identity and the internet feels unsettlingly prescient about the online world we ended up building.
Cardcaptor Sakura カードキャプターさくら
1998 --- Magical Girl --- Madhouse
Ten-year-old Sakura Kinomoto accidentally scatters a deck of magical Clow Cards across her town, and must recapture them one by one with the help of a small winged guardian.
Why it matters: CLAMP's warm, gentle art and storytelling made it a genre high point that stands alongside Sailor Moon as one of the most beloved magical-girl series ever made.
Digimon Adventure デジモンアドベンチャー
1999 --- Adventure / Fantasy --- Toei Animation
Seven kids at summer camp are pulled into the Digital World, where they team up with partner Digimon that digivolve into ever-stronger forms to get back home.
Why it matters: Toei's answer to the Pokemon boom carved its own identity with darker themes and a more serialized, character-driven story arc.