Top 20 anime series of the past decade!

So 10 years have passed since 2000 and I think it's time to do a top 20 of the best anime, OVAs and movies of said decade

20. How about a drink? - Bartender
Let's start off with the most relaxing anime I can imagine. Joh Araki and Keiji Nagamoto's Bartender is an incredibly relaxing anime about a bartender who heals the souls and eases the worries of his customers by mixing drinks and talking in a calm, soothing voice. I can't really do this series justice since it's not so much about the plot as it is about the atmosphere that calms you the fuck down.

19. I laughed, I laughed - Lucky Star
Kagami Yoshimizu's Lucky Star is pretty much the child of Azumanga Daioh coupled with otaku culture. It's a 4 panel comic strip (yonkoma) that focuses on the everyday life of 4 (arguably, 3) high school girls who spend their time doing nothing important. This is probably the only moe anime I can actually tolerate, since it's funny and has interesting references. My favorite character, who might not really be a Lucky Star character would be the Anime Tenchou, a hotblooded store clerk who's a parody of characters like Domon Kasshu and Guy Shishioh, and when you see him do something, it's fucking incredible, altough he doesn't have enough screentime. Also, Anime Tenchou is voiced by Tomokazu Seki, which makes him automatically awesome.
Also, fuck Hirano Aya.

18. mesmerizingly mundane - Azumanga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh, by Hirohiko Azuma, is another slice of life school anime, but I think it's the definitive one, the definitive slice of life. While I do think Bartender had better atmosphere and Lucky Star had funnier jokes, Azumanga Daioh had already seeped in to my mind, because it created interesting things out of nothing (whereas Bartender is more like taking ritalin or smoking weed to relax and Lucky Star tries hard to impress).
Whereas the characters of Lucky Star tried to appeal to it's otaku audience with it's moe-moe cast that was made for pedoforks to lust after, Azumanga Daioh has more of a cast that is not so much to target demographics (of nerd) as it is just to have interesting characters.
I might have also considered Azuma's other work, Yotsuba&, which is also groovy.

17. I don't know why she hasn't been raped yet - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya
Last of the animu I will mention that's about school life. To be honest I don't know if I really like the anime adaptation as much since it had a gimmick of airing the episodes in mixed order and then releasing a second season which was complete cakadookey.
I won't talk about the plot since it's kind of stupid when you put it vaguely,
But I bought the novels, and I think the novels are fantastic.
The thing that makes the novels so good in my opinion is that it's entirely in first person by the protagonist, Kyon. And he's snarky and sarcastic as fuck, and knows how absurd the things that the titular heroine makes him experience are.
The anime capable of immersing you in to that character, which is why they had to try something else. Also I don't like how people consider it to be more than just another high school drama.
Also, fuck Hirano Aya.

16. Love is not that, derriere isn't love! - Excel Saga
Rikido Koshi's Excel Saga, developed by the super awesome fucking director Shinichi Watanabe, AKA Nabeshin.
Excel Saga is a parody anime to the very core, and it's very lolsorandom, but also witty to some extent. Kotono Mitsuishi makes the character of Excel very memorable by delivering lines in a hyperactive machinegun pace.
There is no real plot to speak of, but each episode is a parody of something with a different theme to every episode. The closest thing to a plot at the very end is the director's ironic yet badass self-insert in to the series, Nabeshin, teaming up with a dead south american imigrant named Pedro and his 8 year old son, Sandora, to do the triple Nabehameha, an attack powered by the power of the afro, to kill a yakuza guy who's given name is That Man.
No, but in general it's just funny, altough it doesn't have any real vulgarity to it, unlike...

15. Kuso fucking bitch tenshi - Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt
Newest anime to make the list. From the man that brought us Gurren Lagann and FLCL. Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt is a parody anime that parodies both american and japanese cartoons and is all about vulgar sex jokes, poop jokes and other obscene shit. And... you know... I think it's awesome.
Panty and Stocking isn't so much graphic compared to anime like Queen's Blade, but the obscenities said or done are much more vulgar. The only other media where I've seen a zombie horde be killed by dildos by someone dressed as a stripper cop would be Dead Rising 2. And I definately have never seen god's giant lower body come down from the clouds and stomp on a giant demonic penis that's been possesed by a bondage-loving homosexual.
It's about slutty fallen angels named Panty and Stocking, who can fold weapons out of their underwear and use them to kill ghosts in a wild, wacky comedy adventure certainly not intended for the whole family.
Also, the soundtrack by Taku Takahashi and Teddyloid? Fucking fantastic.

14. You ran out of FMA? Fine, I'll take D.GM instead - D.Gray-Man
Hoshino Katsura's D.Gray-Man is pretty much the successor to FMA, in my opinion. They both have very similar themes going on and have similar art styles. But calling D.Gray-man a ripoff would be stupid.
D.Gray-Man, like FMA, has a large cast of interesting characters and has a very similar feel to it. To be honest I mostly just picked it up due to needing something to substitute to FMA and it did not dissapoint.
Altough I only read the manga.

13. LET'S GO DRIFT AROUND MOUNTAIN ROADS WHILE LISTENING TO AWESOMELY TERRIBLE MUSIC - Initial D 3rd Stage and Inital D 4th Stage
Shuichi Shigeno's Initial D series is about illegal street racing on mountain roads around Japan. I did not include 1st Stage and 2nd Stage both since they are from the 90s and since I don't think they're as good.
It's the story of Takumi Fujiwara, a street racer who drives the legendary AE86 (toyota sprinter trueno) of Mt. Akina, and his races as he becomes a part of the street racing team Project D. I like 3rd Stage since I like the finale where Takumi is in a car chase, chasing his girlfriend and her abusive ex-boyfriend on a snowy mountain road.
But 4th Stage is my favorite, since that's the one where the training wheels come off and it's time for the real deal, since in all previous seasons (which were based off of very early parts of the manga), Takumi is very much posed no challenge in the races due to just being way better than local competition.
Also, Takumi Fujiwara might be my favorite Shinichiro Miki performance.

12. Look at those fucking noses, goddamn - Kaiji and Akagi
















Nobuyuki Fukumoto is a mangaka who over the course of his life has made 3 mangas with very similar themes, those are Ten, Akagi and Kaiji. Akagi (full title : Mahjong Legend Akagi : The Genius Who Descended From The Dark) is the story of Shigeru Akagi, a genius gambler who knows no fear and proceeds to play mahjong against all kinds of gangsters to earn big money and to engage the ultimate battle of wits. Akagi is set between the 1950s and 1960s, when Japan recovered from the war and was steadily rising from the ruins.
Kaiji (full title : Ultimate Survivor Kaiji : The Suffering Pariah), on the other hand, is the story of Kaiji Ito, an unemployed loser with several million yen in debt during the Asian economic crisis at the end of the 1990s, and how he has the choice of ether doing slave wages for 15 years or to go to a cruise ship called Escoir and gamble like he has never gambled before to make not just his debt money back, but also make a few million so he could escape the hopeless dead end his life is in at that point.
To be honest, I prefer Kaiji to Akagi, both the series and the characters. Akagi as a series is pretty predictable and unchanging, since the only game they play is Mahjong (which I still have no idea how to play) and Akagi is so fucking hardcore he never loses.
Now, Akagi is way more badass than Kaiji (who has been nicknamed Cryji due to how frequently he sheds tears), Akagi is fearless (not fearless brave, but fearless balancing between genius and insane) and doesn't give a fuck about anything besides raping faggots hard at mahjong and destroying their wills.
Kaiji, however, is nowhere near as skilled as Akagi at gambling. But the thing is, I couldn't really understand Akagi's reasoning, I was just as dumbfound at him destroying his oponenets as his oponents and everyone around them was. Kaiji is a much more human character, showing things like fear, doubt, joy, anger and his goals and reasoning were much more understandable. And most importantly, he can fail.
Altough both take place in seperate decades and nether of the main characters appear in the other's series (which makes sense, since in Akagi, Kaiji would be not born or a baby and in Kaiji, Akagi would be a 55 year old man who has so much money he wouldn't need to interact with unemployed people who don't play mahjong).
Also, both Akagi and Kaiji were portrayed by the same voice actor, Masato Higawara.

11. The fuck is a Nonoriri? - DIEBUSTER aka Aim For The Top! 2
The sequel to the classic Gainax OVA Gunbuster, made 20 years later. Diebuster is... well to be honest it's just the prototype to Gurren Lagann.
Diebuster has much more in common with Gurren Lagann than it does with the original Gunbuster. The original Gunbuster was a super robot series, but it had a certain sense of realism, such as the impelentation of time dilapitation as a central plot element and not to mention Gunbuster itself was a super robot that they gave an intricate and complex design to spite toymakers.
Diebuster, on the other hand, is like ''let's see how absurdly over the top we can get''.
But really, Diebuster just has really great animation which makes the battles an absolute joy to watch on a big screen.
But the most interesting part in this series is the way they connect Gunbuster to Diebuster despite there being 13000 (I did not make up that number) years between them, in fact, both series end at the same exact moment. Wrap your mind around that one!
Despite being very different from each other, both series supplement each other, so to get the full experience, you should watch both.

10. Remember when vampires were cool, instead of sparkly boytoys for fat girls who smell like meat lockers? - Hellsing Ultimate (+maybe the 2001 series)
Hellsing is an old favorite of mine. The 2001 Hellsing TV series was kind of cool, Hellsing Ultimate is the definitive version. The 2001 series had incredibly little material to work with, not even knowing who the villains of the manga are.
But then, a few years later, they started the Hellsing Ultimate OVA series, which is a volume by volume adaptation of the manga. As of writing, we are up to episode 7 out of presumably 10.
It's just a joy to watch, because they are literally adapting the manga and maybe adding some extra scenes here and there. It's pretty much a love letter to the fans, since it knows exactly what they want.
Everyone's favorite unkillable vampire in a red coat is back, and he's ready to kill nazis!
Also... Alucard might be the strongest character ever. And Anderson is just fucking awesome.
Only real complaint I have is the gigantic gaps between episode releases. It's been atleast 5 years since this project was started.

9. It's so great not to be depressed anymore! - Rebuild Of Evangelion series
We talked about this one before, but I have to reinstate. Rebuild Of Evangelion is the Evangelion that I think is the best.
I can gush on about the production values and shit, but on a more thematic level, I just like the Rebuild movies since they are not so much about the psychological issues of the characters and how they fuck each one of them over, and more about them getting over these issues and finding the will to carry on.
TV series Shinji Ikari is a little bitch who I could sympathise with, but refuse to, since his constant wallowing in self pity and struggling constantly with even the simplest interaction with other people got on my nerves.
Rebuild's Shinji is also plagued with super-low self-esteem and fear, but I find myself being much more sympathetic to him since he's able to overcome these fears to some extent and actually improve, and by the end of 2.22, he does something really badass, which is something that I would never associate with the TV series one.

8. It's SHOWTIME - The Big O (well, the last episodes of season 1 and the entirety of season 2 was made in the 2000s)
The Big O might be cheating, since the first 13 episodes were made in the 90s, and those said episodes might be the better, but I still want to include this on the list, so there.
The Big O is a tribute to film noir and retro science fiction movies, and Batman. It's about Roger Smith (voiced by Mitsuru Miyamoto), who is like Bruce Wayne if Bruce Wayne had a robot and didn't feel any need to have a superhero identity, and he pilots The Big O, a mysterious mecha from an age noone remembers. Also, Roger is joined by the android, Dorothy, and his butler, Norman. The first 13 episodes had an episodic format with self-contained stories, altough there were some reocurring characters, like Angel, Schwartzwald and my favorite, Jason Beck, a fabulous criminal voiced by Hochu Othsuka, who is awesome.
The other 13 episodes, made in 2002, are a direct sequel to the point of even having the same opening and ending songs. Here the story stops being episodic and becomes a story arc, and the truth behind the mystery of the world of Big O is revealed, or maybe an even bigger, existential mystery is shown but not explained fully.
Also I kind of liked the ending, altough it was one of those Evangelion-style ''everything in existance will never be the same again'' endings with vague explenations. And the twist regarding Roger and Angel kind of reminded me of the twist regarding Tidus's existance in FFX.
The Big O is one of the few Super Robots to actually make sense as a machine. Big O is all about the firepower and hitting hard. Big O moves slowly, with a lot of weight behind it's steps. While the Big O might not be a mecha that they would actually build in real life, I have a feeling that it's still more likely to resemble what a real mecha would work like, as opposed to any AU Gundam. This also makes Big O interesting, since it's design is unique and memorable. Also an interesting thing is that it doesn't have any voice command attacks and they do spend time showing how exactly Big O works, with a fairly plausible and realistic, since it has to change modes and controls to do different things (as opposed to just yelling the name and maybe shining or having some kind of cosmetic change). But the fact that it's very much a machine doesn't lessen the mysteries surrounding it.
But in general, I like the series since it's well made in every aspect, with good production values, good actors, a nice soundtrack, good designs, an interesting plot and an art style that stands out.
Kazuyoshi Katayama and Keichi Sato, I tip my hat to you guys, since you have created the most memorable, original and compitently constructed mecha anime series Sunrise has done in the past 15 years.
Mark can talk shit about this series as much as he wants, but he should just go get raped by Apex Twin. In the bum. And Mark wouldn't even resist, just look away and cry. The pretentious philistine homosexual of incredibly poor taste.

7. How about an INTELLIGENT shounen? - Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 series) and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist was adapted in to a TV series in 2003. The 2003 series was good, but it, like the 2001 Hellsing series, had to have an original plotline and ending due to the fact that the manga was still kind of in it's early stages.
The story, set in what is an alternate universe 1910s Europe, is about Edward Elric and his brother, Alphonse, who have made a horrible mistake by trying to resurrect their mother with alchemy, which resulted in them creating an abomination that they had to kill, and also taking Edward's leg, and Alphonse's entire body, forcing Ed to sacrifice one of his arms to bind Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor.
Edward eventually regains his composure and has outfitted with an automail arm and leg, automail being mechanical prosthetics combining alchemy with medicine and technology. Then, Ed and Alphonse join the state military as government apointed alchemists on a quest to initally find a Phliosopher's Stone to be able to return what they have lost, but as the truth behind the Philosopher's Stone is revealed, and a plot involving the homunculi, artificial, immortal superhumans made by alchemy, named after the Seven Deadly Sins, the country's government, the events that destroyed a civilization 1000 years ago and millions of human lives is uncovered, they start to understand that there are bigger things to worry about than just themselves.
Also a central character is Roy Mustang, Ed and Al's commanding officer, who initially appears as an arrogant dick, but as you learn of what he had to do in the Ishbal war and the true reason why he wants to become the Fuhrer of the country and the things he has to suffer through, you become sympathetic towards him.
The 2003 series was pretty good, and now that I think about it, I liked it's ending, but I also think they shat the bed with the sequel movie, Conqeror Of Shamballa, by having a really shitty ending that might not have been needed.
But in 2009, since the Fullmetal Alchemist manga was nearing it's end, studio BONES decided to make another adaptation that follows the manga plot to the very end, in fact, the anime and the manga ended in the very same month (June 2010).
The 2003 series was kind of dark, it wasn't grimdark, but it was darker than Brotherhood. Brotherhood still had a fair share of dark elements, but the tone was less hopeless. The ending of Brotherhood had a lot of OH SHIT moments, but they weren't quite as OH SHIT as 2003's ending.
In Japan, most of Brotherhood's cast (except for Edward Elric, who will always be voiced by Romi Park) is changed for other, similar sounding voice actors. I like Shinichiro Miki's portrayal of Roy Mustang in Brotherhood better than I liked Toru Okawa's in 2003, but also the fact that 2003's Mustang is much more stern and less likable doesn't help. I'm a bit heartbroken that they didn't have Junichi Suwabe play my favorite FMA character, Greed, and instead have him played by the less awesome Yuichi Nakamura.
I'm not quite sure which one I like better, since I like the serious and dark tone of 2003, I also like the more positive tone of Brotherhood, and they have more or less the same characters with similar characterization. But the thing I like about FMA in general is the fact that it's character interaction and the plot are what moves the series forward, so the fights happen for a reason, and every fight has an impact on the plot, while an average shounen drives it's plot forward so that it could once again get to the ball-numbing, mindless fighting.

6.The best goddamn teacher you could wish for - Great Teacher Onizuka
We've talked about this one before. But I just still like it so much. The perfect combination of comedy, drama, action, philosophy and boobs. The manga is what you're looking for, though.
But in general, Onizuka has taught me more about life than 12 years of Latvian literature classes could ever. As over the top Onizuka might be at times, it's still realistic when it comes to it's characters and the things they experience. Onizuka is also Wataru Takagi's best role.

5.What's this salty stuff coming from my eyes? - Gungrave
Gungrave is an anime based off of a budget video game called Gungrave. The game was a balls to the wall action shooter with character designs by Yasuhiro Nightow (creator of Trigun).
Then it was adapted in to 26 episode anime by the god tier studio Madhouse, oh and they also got my favorite anime composer, Tsuneo Imahori (Trigun and Hajime No Ippo) compose the soundtrack, altough to be honest I think this is his worst work.
But instead of making it just in to like an over the top, absurd gun violence anime (which I would still watch), they made it in to a very serious gangster drama with scifi elements. The game just had something resembling a plot by having basic character relationships between the characters (Brandon and Harry were once best bros, Brandon protects Mika since she is the daughter of his love interest and his boss, who he was loyal to, Bunji is Brandon's rival and equal in terms of capabilities etc etc).
But the anime took these basic elements and made it in to a really compelling story about friendship, loyalty, duty, betrayal, vengance and love spanning across about 20 years from start to finish.
Also the construction of the anime kind of reminds me of the Golden Age arc from Berserk. Both series start in the present, talking about vague things and showing what the characters are like now. But then, you go to the past and show a simpler, happier time when the characters don't deal with the more fukked shit, which helps immerse you by having a realistic world, where they deal with normal things for their line of work (mercenary work, mafia jobs). But after a while, shit gets real when in their past the more fukked shit appears suddenly (Berserk's case : demons. Gungrave's case : dead people revived as superhumans, and the monster-like Orgmen). Then there's a betrayal which results in everyone besides the villain getting fucked over.
A long time after that, the main character returns for vengance.
But the strong point of Gungrave is the dynamic between the characters. The central theme across the series is the relationship between Brandon Heat (later known as Beyond The Grave) and Harry MacDowell, who were best friends, and by that I don't mean no stupid ''Rios and Salem are best bros since they killed a million dudes together and fist bump afterwards and also say no homo since they don't want their 12 year old userbase to think they're gay'' friendship, but an actual friendship that you truly feel. And then comes the betrayal. So because you feel their friendship, that's what makes the finale of the series so fucking emotional and makes it one of my all time favorite endings.
Also another character I really liked was Bunji Kugashira, who thinks of Brandon as both his best friend and the person he wants be killed by. Bunji was just totally badass and the fight between him and Brandon was the best fight in the series.
But really, this series just makes you invested in it's characters and there's a lot of emotional scenes with great direction. I'll always remember (spoilers) Bunji and the stray cat that was the only creature that Bunji ever showed affection for, Bunji's death, both when he thanks Brandon, and as he fades away in the reflection in the cat's eyes.

(oh yeah and also, this image is related to the next entry)

This is my reaction to the scene just remembering it. Originally, I put Gungrave at number 13, but that fucking scene, man... that fucking scene. And that fucking ending. Masterpiece.

4. THIS FIST CREATED EVERYTHING! - Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z-Hen! (Shock! True Mazinger - Z Chapter)
I like Go Nagai and I like Yasuhiro Imagawa, and Yasuhiro Imagawa likes retro super robot series and Go Nagai pretty much created the genre, so this is a match made in heaven. Yasuhiro Imagawa's G Gundam is my personal favorite in the Gundam metafranchise (altough 0079 is the true best).
The story is about Kouji Kabuto, a young man who's grandfather, a scientist, who had built a very powerful mecha called Mazinger Z, which he leaves with Kouji before his death, so he can fight Dr.Hell, a mad scientist who commands an army of ancient mecha. That's the basic premise. But then the story is also about the past sins of Kouji's grandfather, Juuzo, Kouji's father, Kenzo, Tsubasa Nishikiori and their past ties to Dr.Hell. But the story is also about Baron Ashura, a revived superhuman made from the left half and the right half of two mummies of dead lovers who were a part of the ancient Mykene Empire, and what happened to the Mykene Empire and how Zeus had betrayed the empire, and his loyalty to Dr.Hell who had given Ashura new life, but also the loyalty to the Mykene Empire.
So anyway, Shin Mazinger is a reimagining of the definitive classic super robot series, Mazinger Z. but like Imagawa's OVA Giant Robo : The Day The Earth Stood Still, he does a job to tie it in or to atleast reference other Go Nagai works, or to add more to Mazinger's plot itself by adding elements made in other spinoff mangas or remaginings, such as connection to Zeus that Mazinger has, more light shed on what exactly the Mykene empire was or the Kedora biomecha.
But the biggest addition is that they make Tsubasa Nishikiori and the Kurogane House, all characters originally from Violence Jack, which is unrelated to the Mazinger Universe (but spoilers : it is related to the Devilman universe). A lot of fans complain about Tsubasa being a central character when she should maybe not even be in this series, but to be honest I don't mind it since Kouji's motivations and character, as well as they are developed, are quite simple and don't need any expanding, so having a character with more complex motivations that's aware of the past ongoins that she is directly actually related to is welcome.
But the thing that makes Shin Mazinger so fucking fantastic to me is that they make Baron Ashura, who was originally just a crazy, murderous, evil monster with obsessive loyality to Dr.Hell, and they made him (I keep using the word him altough he is half woman) in to a deep character, who's motivations, loyality and inner conflict are truly compelling.
The series had an absolutely fantastic ending that I refuse to spoil, but it makes you feel a whirlwind of emotions, mostly regarding Ashura. And in the end... dat... cliffhanger...
The two complaints some have is the slightly slow pace the series has, such as the inital assult on Atami where Mazinger is revealed, Juuzo dies and the battle is finished takes 3 episodes, when it could probably have been done in 2 or even one episode, but I think the pace is very good, slow - yes, bad - no.
The other complaint is that the fights are kind of bad at times, which I agree on.
This series might not be for everyone, though.
But the series has fucking astounding direction, writing, production and music. I'm sad that there might not be a Shin Mazinger Great Chapter (based off of Great Mazinger, the sequel to Mazinger Z) due to poor ratings and DVD sales.

3. What is a human, anyway? - Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex and Ghost In The Shell SAC 2nd Gig + Solid State Society (plus maybe the unrelated movie Ghost In The Shell 2 : Innocence)
Ghost In The Shell SAC is my favorite form of Ghost in the Shell, having seen both Mamoru Oshii movies and read the mangas.
This is a somewhat recent addition to the list, in fact, I'm still watching the DVDs at the time.
The characters in the manga were fun people, but they weren't serious enough for some of the more philosophical, existential issues present.
The characters in the movies were really serious and mature, but at the same time they were very stoic and didn't have any fun to them.
SAC balances this, by having the characters be more human and fun than the movie ones, but at the same time, be more mature than the manga ones.
Set in a not so far away future, it's the story of Section 9, a black ops devision of the Japanese government, and their work daily work fighting crime involving fighting cyborg, robot or hacker-related terrorism cases.
While I like the anime for it's character presentation, the thing that I like the most about it is that it deals more with minor cases they deal with in one episode, since these one shot stories I find more interesting than the bigger cases spanning across the entire series (altough I really like the Laughing Man case) due to the fact that they reveal more about the universe of GitS, since while I really like Major Kusanagi, Batou and Togusa, and I find the Tachikomas intreguing, and the other members of section 9 are kind of interesting, it's the universe that interests me the most.
The series has the cast from the movies reprise all the characters, and what a cast it is, Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Otsuka, Koichi Yamadera and so on.
The music was composed by Yoko Kanno, who is a god tier music composer.

2. Who the hell do you think I am?! - Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann is epic in the true sense of epic. It's a struggle and a hero story much larger than life, deciding the fate of both the earth and the universe. It's very much about bravery and spirit overcoming the largest odds, but unlike GaoGaiGar it's not corny with the things it does.
Now to be fair, it's not really original, but it at the same time it makes everything it takes work in the new system so wonderfully that it doesn't matter.
It has designs that stand out and memorable mecha, but the thing that makes it so special is the sense of scale it has and makes you care about it.
It has the Gainax money machine behind it, so it has amazing animation and production values. It has a cast of mostly newcomer voice actors who do a great job.
The final fight in the series is so over the top in the sense of scale that it probably has lead many people to despair since they couldn't come up with anything more over the top in that way.
However, at the same time, it has a very unsatisfying ending. So unsatisfying, that I'm considering knocking it down a few places.

1. I'm gonna be strong... be strong and... I... I... - Hajime No Ippo : The Fighting (+ Hajime No Ippo : New Challenger)
Hajime No Ippo : The Fighting I have talked about extensively about, but maybe not exactly why it's good. For one thing, it's inspiring. It has the best goddamn story pacing I have ever seen due to it being at a solid pace that never has inconsistent rises or slumps in speed. It has a very memorable cast of characters that, like the characters in Onizuka, stand out not due to hypercharged character traits or character designs that stick out (both are, however, present in the previous entry), but rather because they feel like real people through subtile character development. To anyone who's watched it, if you look at the first episodes and the last ones, you see how Ippo has changed. But he hasn't changed with a ''BROTHER IS DEAD'' monologue in which he changes drasticly, but he has changed through his experience across the entire series. Ippo is still the same person, but he's changed.
And the cast of other characters is also well developed, my favorite being Takeshi Sendo, who might seem like the typical fight loving HURR MUST BE STRONGER guy, but he has a lot going on. In fact, my favorite moment in the entire series is when Sendo has small flashbacks that show everything you need to know about his past and his motivations with three simple still images, some very simple, yet vague words and a fantastic voice delivery by Masaya Onosaka who plays Sendo. Anyone who has seen this will know the exact moment.
Also notable would be Mamoru Takamura, who is fucking badass. He even beats up a bear, kills it and eats it at one point.
The humor in the series is also great, altough it mostly concerns dicks.
Hajime No Ippo is very much a story of life, not a story of adventure, but a story of life.
The sequel anime, New Challenger is not as good, I mean, there is noone who would prefer it over The Fighting, but it's still pretty cool, altough Ippo isn't the main character and the final fight between Takamura and Bryan Hawk, as fucking amazing as it is, starts to wander a bit in to Namek territory.

ALMOST MADE THE LIST
FLCL
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
Eyeshield 21
Air Master
Fist Of The Blue Sky
Guyver : The Biobooster Armor
Cromartie High School
Detroit Metal City
Mazinkaiser
New Getter Robo
Baccano
Shaman King

DEBATABLE QUALITY BUT I KIND OF LIKED
Claymore
Trinity Blood
True Savior Legend Fist Of The North Star
Legends Of The Dark King : A Fist Of The North Star story
Naruto
One Piece
Yu Gi Oh Duel Monsters

THIS IS TOTALLY FUCKING TERRIBLE BUT ALSO AMAZING
Musashi Gundoh

WOULD HAVE MADE THE LIST IF IT WASN'T MADE IN A DIFFERENT DECADE
Berserk
Trigun
Cowboy Bebop
G Gundam
Gundam 0079
Gunbuster
Dragon Ball Z
Shin Getter Robo - Sekai Saigo No Hi

WOULD NEVER MAKE THE LIST, REGARDLESS OF DECADE
MD Geist
Bleach
Gundam Wing
Tenjou Tenge the anime

WOULD MAKE THE LIST IF IT HAD A GOOD ADAPTATION DURING THE DECADE
JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE
Berserk (chapters beyond the Golden Age arc)
Trigun