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Cast the first vote in 1 tap — pick #1 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood or #2 Attack on Titan to reveal the live split:
Ask ten anime fans to name the greatest television series ever made and an argument breaks out before anyone hits #3. Some swear by Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood because every subplot lands cleanly in sixty-four episodes, while others…
back Attack on Titan's decade-defining plot twists or Frieren: Beyond Journey's End's quiet emotional power. We ranked these ten landmark series across story payoff, animation consistency, character depth, and ending satisfaction so you can see where each contender wins—and cast your vote below. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood holds #1 for sticking its complete ending without a wasted arc, edging out Attack on Titan's larger cultural shockwaves at #2 and Frieren's reflective fantasy craft at #3. Prefer Hunter x Hunter's tactical Nen battles, Steins;Gate's tight twenty-four-episode thriller loop, or Cowboy Bebop's jazz noir? Vote up your pick to reshape the live community order.
WiNG (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Starting order. Vote up or down to reorder this list.
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Bones · 2009
Brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric pay a devastating bodily price after a forbidden transmutation fails, setting off a sixty-four-episode quest to restore their bodies. Studio Bones adapts Hiromu Arakawa's complete manga without filler, balancing political intrigue, alchemy rules, and earned emotional payoffs.
Pros
Cons
Wit Studio / MAPPA · 2013
What begins as humanity's desperate stand behind three concentric walls mutates halfway through into a morally fraught war drama across oceans and generations. Across ninety-four episodes, Wit Studio and MAPPA turn Hajime Isayama's mystery boxes into television events fueled by Hiroyuki Sawano's orchestral score.
Pros
Cons
Madhouse · 2023
Starting right where standard role-playing epics end, elven mage Frieren outlives her human comrades and retraces their ten-year quest alongside apprentice Fern and warrior Stark. Director Keiichiro Saito and Madhouse pair quiet campfire melancholy with explosive burst animation whenever demons or First-Class Mage trials interrupt the road.
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White Fox · 2011
Self-styled mad scientist Rintaro Okabe accidentally turns a modified microwave in a cramped Akihabara apartment into a device capable of sending text messages backward in time. White Fox converts the 5pb. and Nitroplus visual novel into a taut twenty-four-episode thriller where every small timeline edit tightens an inescapable butterfly-effect trap.
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Madhouse · 2011
Twelve-year-old Gon Freecss leaves Whale Island to pass the grueling Hunter Exam and track down his absentee father, forging a fiercely loyal friendship with ex-assassin Killua Zoldyck. Over 148 episodes, Madhouse subverts every battle-shonen expectation through the intricate Nen combat system and the psychologically devastating Chimera Ant arc.
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Madhouse · 2006
High-school prodigy Light Yagami picks up a shinigami notebook that kills anyone whose name and face are written inside, launching a global vigilante crusade as Kira. Director Tetsuro Araki and Madhouse turn courtroom-style deductions between Light and eccentric detective L into operatic psychological warfare across thirty-seven episodes.
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Sunrise · 1998
In 2071, broke bounty hunters Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, radical hacker Ed, and data dog Ein drift across colonized planets chasing fugitives while outrunning their own ghosts. Director Shinichiro Watanabe and composer Yoko Kanno fuse jazz, Hong Kong gunplay, and classic noir into twenty-six standalone-yet-haunting sessions.
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Madhouse · 2004
Brilliant Japanese neurosurgeon Dr. Kenzo Tenma defies Düsseldorf hospital politics to save a wounded boy over a town mayor, only to learn nine years later that the child grew into charismatic serial manipulator Johan Liebert.
Madhouse adapts Naoki Urasawa's thriller panel-for-panel across post-Cold War Germany and Prague.
Pros
Cons
Wit Studio / MAPPA · 2019
Set during the eleventh-century Danish invasion of England, young Thorfinn joins his father's killer Askeladd's mercenary band solely to earn a duel of vengeance. Director Shuhei Yabuta guides both Wit Studio and MAPPA seamlessly from Season 1's brutal Viking raids into Season 2's deeply moving farmland redemption arc.
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Gainax / Tatsunoko · 1995
Summoned to fortified Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo, fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari is forced inside towering bio-mechanical Eva Unit-01 to fight enigmatic beings called Angels. Director Hideaki Anno strips away giant-robot escapism to lay bare depression, Hedgehog's Dilemma isolation, and apocalyptic spectacle.
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Create a list with AI →Debating whether #1 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood holds the top spot against #2 Attack on Titan.
The published order is the starting point; item votes can help reshape it.
Ranked across story payoff, animation consistency, character agency, and long-term replay value.
Does Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood's airtight 64-episode landing beat Attack on Titan's higher mid-series peaks—or has Frieren already passed both?
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