Best animated shows of all time

Avatar: The Last Airbender▲ Rising

A kids' cartoon that ended up staging one of TV's great morality plays, culminating in Zuko's redemption arc and Aang's refusal to kill Ozai — a climax that trusted children with genuine philosophical weight. It proved Western animation could sustain serialized, novelistic storytelling with the emotional stakes of prestige drama, reshaping what a 'cartoon' was allowed to be.

Year Debuted: 2005IMDb Rating: 9.2/10Episode Count: 61Seasons: 3Still Running: —Origin Country: USAGenre: Fantasy Adventure

added by IJRin 6 rankings

Rick and Morty▲ Rising

The interdimensional cable and Pickle Rick episodes turned nihilistic sci-fi comedy into a cultural obsession, mixing hard science-fiction concepts with genuine domestic tragedy. It redefined adult animation for the 2010s, spawning a fandom so intense it briefly broke McDonald's supply chains over a fictional sauce.

Year Debuted: 2013IMDb Rating: 9.1/10Episode Count: 71Seasons: 7Still Running: ✓Origin Country: USAGenre: Sci-Fi Comedy

added by IJRin 6 rankings

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood▲ Rising

Ed sacrificing his alchemy to save Al's soul closes a story that spent its runtime earning every tear, balancing military conspiracy, philosophical inquiry into equivalent exchange, and genuine sibling love without ever cheating its audience. It's frequently cited as the most complete shonen narrative ever made, a rare adaptation that fixed its predecessor's compromises and delivered a flawless ending.

Year Debuted: 2009IMDb Rating: 9.1/10Episode Count: 64Seasons: 1Still Running: —Origin Country: JapanGenre: Fantasy Adventure

added by IJRin 5 rankings

Attack on Titan▲ Rising

The wall falling in episode one announced that no character, no matter how central, was safe, and by the time the Rumbling scorches the earth the show has transformed from monster-horror into a devastating meditation on cyclical violence and freedom. It's the anime that made global audiences binge subtitles, proving animation could deliver blockbuster-scale dread and moral complexity in equal measure.

Year Debuted: 2013IMDb Rating: 9/10Episode Count: 94Seasons: 4Still Running: —Origin Country: JapanGenre: Dark Fantasy/Action

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Batman: The Animated Series▲ Rising

Mr. Freeze's tragic backstory in 'Heart of Ice' single-handedly proved superhero cartoons could carry Shakespearean pathos, and the show's noir-drenched Art Deco Gotham became the visual template every Batman adaptation since has chased. It's the series that convinced a generation animation wasn't just for kids, laying groundwork for the entire DC Animated Universe.

Year Debuted: 1992IMDb Rating: 9/10Episode Count: 85Seasons: 4Still Running: —Origin Country: USAGenre: Superhero

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Cowboy Bebop

Spike's final walk toward Vicious, and the line 'bang,' closed a genre-blending jazz-noir space western that never got a second season and never needed one. Its melancholic cool and genre-mixing soundtrack by Yoko Kanno made it the anime that convinced Western critics the medium could be art-house cinema.

Year Debuted: 1998IMDb Rating: 8.9/10Episode Count: 26Seasons: 1Still Running: —Origin Country: JapanGenre: Space Western

added by IJRin 6 rankings

South Park▲ Rising

Cartman's 'Scott Tenorman Must Die' scheme and the show's ability to turn around topical satire within a week reinvented crude animation as rapid-fire political commentary with real teeth. Trey Parker and Matt Stone proved shock comedy could also be some of the sharpest, fastest satire on television, offending everyone with remarkable equal-opportunity precision.

Year Debuted: 1997IMDb Rating: 8.7/10Episode Count: 327Seasons: 26Still Running: ✓Origin Country: USAGenre: Satire/Adult Comedy

added by IJRin 7 rankings

BoJack Horseman▲ Rising

The unbroken six-minute underwater dive in 'Fish Out of Water' and the devastating 'Time's Arrow' flashback into Beatrice's trauma turned a talking-horse sitcom into the most unflinching portrait of depression and self-sabotage TV animation has produced. It weaponized the absurdist Hollywoo premise to sneak brutal honesty about addiction and abuse past viewers expecting punchlines.

Year Debuted: 2014IMDb Rating: 8.7/10Episode Count: 77Seasons: 6Still Running: —Origin Country: USAGenre: Dark Comedy/Drama

added by IJRin 8 rankings

One Piece▼ Falling

Ace's death at Marineford broke a generation of fans and proved Oda was willing to let his decades-long adventure carry real, permanent stakes beneath the goofy pirate hijinks. Now the best-selling manga in history and still airing, it's less a show than a two-decade-long argument that a story about friendship and freedom can be endless without going hollow.

Year Debuted: 1999IMDb Rating: 8.7/10Episode Count: 1,100Seasons: 21Still Running: ✓Origin Country: JapanGenre: Adventure/Shonen

added by IJRin 6 rankings

Death Note

The cat-and-mouse chess match between Light and L, especially the Kira investigation's midpoint gut-punch, turned a supernatural premise into pure psychological thriller, all sweat and internal monologue rendered as high drama. It became a gateway anime for millions precisely because it needed no magic-powered fistfights — just two geniuses destroying each other with logic.

Year Debuted: 2006IMDb Rating: 9/10Episode Count: 37Seasons: 1Still Running: —Origin Country: JapanGenre: Psychological Thriller

added by IJRin 4 rankings

The Simpsons▼ Falling

'Do the Bartman' becoming a global hit and Homer strangling Bart into pop-culture ubiquity marked the moment animated sitcoms became the dominant American comedy export, and thirty-plus seasons later it's still rewriting the rules it invented. Every adult cartoon on this list, in some way, is standing on Springfield's shoulders.

Year Debuted: 1989IMDb Rating: 8.7/10Episode Count: 770Seasons: 35Still Running: ✓Origin Country: USAGenre: Satire/Sitcom

added by IJRin 12 rankings