I agree with both @[email protected] and @[email protected] regarding the definition of a must-watch anime. There’s nothing that can please everyone, and yet there are some things everyone should have at least heard of. Hearing of something may be a low bar, but it is the precursor to attempt watching it.
To put it another way, this question is asking for the greatest (read: most popular) of all time for anime.
I agree with both @[email protected] and @[email protected] regarding the definition of a must-watch anime. There’s nothing that can please everyone, and yet there are some things everyone should have at least heard of. Hearing of something may be a low bar, but it is the precursor to attempt watching it.
To put it another way, this question is asking for the greatest (read: most popular) of all time for anime.
Wikipedia has lists of GOATs for various media:
Some examples to save you some clicks:
Interestingly, even though we’ve got a list of best-selling manga, we don’t have a list of top anime.
However, there are heuristics - we can reference the list of highest-grossing Japanese films and most popular anime on AniList (or myanimelist, etc)
Some picks are:
I suspect Frieren may join the ranks at some point.
Personally, I have not watch Bleach / Naruto / One Piece and dropped Demon Slayer.
I am not a newbie though.
I guess you just want personal recommendations then?
In that case here’s my top 10:
my AniList favourites
Here are more of my top-rated anime that I can’t fit in my top 10:
more favourites
Note that I’m partial to:
Naah I just thought you think I am someone new to anime.