Anime is currently one of the most popular media in the world, but not many can be attested as works that are peak from start to finish. There are several anime releasing every season, so it’s hard to skim through all of them and pick one that would become the next favorite for someone.
But that is exactly why we have taken up the job to list down some of the shows across various decades and genres that are absolutely peak.
Anime That Are Peak Till The End
Monster
Naoki Urasawa’s works can almost be considered second to Osamu Tezuka’s when it comes to how incredible they are. But despite that fact, it’s a shame that not many present-day anime fans know much about his works.
Especially a series such as Monster, which is a peak from start to finish, and can go toe to toe with some of the greatest works of fiction in today’s time. The show follows a talented neurosurgeon who saves the life of a boy, but it costs him everything because of what the child turns out to be later in life.
Pluto
We aren’t done with Naoki Urasawa yet, and this one is special becuase Pluto was a manga created by him and Nagasaki based on an important story arc from Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. So you have to realize the gravity of this work.
Everyone finally got to experience this when the manga was adapted for animation in 2023, and even though it was only a few episodes, Pluto was at its peak from start to finish. The show centers around Gesicht, a robot detective who is on the path of investigating a string of puzzling murders. It eventually culminates in something incredible.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Cyberpunk anime is something that the medium had left behind in the 90s. Modern sci-fi shows could barely live up to the aesthetics and storytelling of classics such as Ghost in the Shell. But in 2022 all of that changed with the release of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
Based on the incredibly popular video game franchise, Cyberpunk 2077, Edgrunners was a spinoff show that could have gone horribly wrong. But it made out as one of the best anime this decade, from start to finish.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was animated by the legendary Studio Trigger and follows the story of David Martinez, who, after losing his mother, goes down a path where he joins a gang of incredible characters, including Lucy.
Samurai Champloo
Shinchiro Watanabe’s name may not be that well-known among modern anime fans, but once upon a time, he was known even beyond pop culture for directing some of the best shows of all time. One of them is Samurai Champloo.
An incredible Edo period anime about three misfits blended into hip-hop culture, which sounds absurd. This is because traditionally, historically Japanese culture and society have nothing to do with hip-hop, but this show makes it work, and it’s peak from start to finish.
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Shounen anime is something that is super mainstream and, in turn, is very hard to create a show in this demographic that is going to be peak till the end. But one show made it possible, and that was Hiromu Arakawa’s Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
This is a show that has topped anime charts ever since it aired way back in the early 2000s. The plot is set in a steampunk fantasy universe where two brothers use alchemy to revive their dead mother, but it is forbidden and requires equivalent exchange. What ensues afterwards is an incredible journey.
Mob Psycho 100
We may have gotten a bit ahead of ourselves because there is another shounen anime that is pretty peak from start to finish. But it’s not the fact that it caters to that specific demography is why it’s so good. It’s because it blends action and comedy so well.
Mob Psycho 100 is one of the most peculiar and hilarious manga written by One, the legendary creator of the One Punch Man webcomic. It was kicked into mainstream popularity thanks to its beautiful adaptation by Studio Bones.
The anime follows the high schooler Mob, who is a very timid kid, but the further we follow his life, the more we start to understand that he is one of the greatest psychics in the world.
Death Note
Everyone has that one anime which helped them kick start their addiction for the media, becuase it was peak for them from start to finish. For most, we believe that series would definitely be Death Note.
A generational work that has been adapted into live action multiple times and is a pop culture phenomenon. What happens when one of the most intelligent people on earth gets their hands on the notebook that can kill people according to the way they want?
Author Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata created one of the greatest pieces of early 2000s fiction, which was accentuated further because it was animated by studio Madhouse. If you are someone who wants to get into anime, then Death Note is a great place to start.
Baccano
The list is filled with shows that are already common knowledge and have been watched by many. So if you are looking for an anime that is peak through and through and you have not watched it yet, then we present to you: Baccano.
Based on the light novels written by Ryohgo Narita, this show packs more depth in fewer than 20 episodes in a far better manner than most anime can today. Set in the 1930s, the show spans across a colorful cast of characters and stitches together a compelling tale of mystery and thrill that the audience experiences through different perspectives.
Devilman Crybaby
Sometimes, the most popular anime are just out there waiting to be adapted from an already established source material. With a little bit of liberty from another artist and director, that work gets elevated to new heights. We are, of course, talking about Devilman Crybaby.
This is an anime which is not family-friendly at all, as it adapts one of the legendary manga artist, Go Nagai’s, magnum opus. But compresses everything into a small and digestible show that retains every bit of the influential nature the original work had in the greater landscape of anime and manga.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
It’s a shame that most anime fans nowadays just shrug off shows that involve heavy political world-building, and that’s also a reason why in the current decade, we don’t get to see a single fan of the masterpiece that is Code Geass.
This anime might lure you into watching it because of the mechs, but you will stay seated throughout the journey because it is peak. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is set in a fictional world where the authoritarian Holy Britannian regime rules.
A young boy named Lelouch earns the power of absolute obedience from a mysterious woman and vows to use it to bring down the empire through his rebellion.
