Netflix has quietly built one of the most impressive anime libraries of any streaming platform, but with new series dropping constantly, finding the best ones is harder than it should be. Whether you’re a longtime fan or just getting started, this list cuts through the noise and gives you the 10 best anime series on Netflix right now.
Editorial note: This list was reworked on February 26, 2026, to reflect updates in the Netflix library, new anime releases, and changes in viewer popularity.
1. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Two brothers try to bring their dead mother back to life using alchemy, and when it goes horribly wrong, Edward loses an arm and a leg while his younger brother Alphonse loses his entire body, his soul trapped inside a hollow suit of armor. That single moment sets off a 64-episode journey across a richly built world of military politics, ancient conspiracies, and some genuinely gut-wrenching twists that will catch you completely off guard.
Studio Bones produced this 2009 adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa’s manga, and the result became one of the most decorated anime ever made. The show holds a 9.1 on IMDb and sat at number one on MyAnimeList as the highest rated anime of all time for years, though it has since been outranked by Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Seasons 1 and 2. For total beginners, it’s the single safest recommendation in the entire medium, and for longtime fans, it’s basically required viewing.
2. Death Note
Nearly 20 years after its debut, Death Note still serves as a gateway for newcomers into the world of anime, which says everything about how well it holds up. The series scores 8.9 on IMDb, holds a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and even snagged Notable Entry at the 2007 Tokyo Anime Awards. Fair warning, though, the second half dips in quality once the main rivalry shifts, and most fans will tell you that upfront.
In this anime, a high school kid finds a notebook that kills anyone whose name gets written in it, and instead of panicking, he decides to use it to rid the world of criminals. That premise alone should tell you exactly what kind of show this is. Madhouse’s 2006 adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s manga isn’t really about supernatural powers, though; it’s a 37-episode psychological chess match between two of the most brilliant characters ever put in an anime, and you genuinely can’t predict who’s going to win.
3. Hunter x Hunter
Yoshihiro Togashi, the creator of this series, draws his manga panels lying down because of chronic back problems, goes on hiatus for years at a time, and still has one of the most devoted fanbases in anime history. That alone tells you something about how good Hunter x Hunter actually is. The last officially published chapter was Chapter 410 in late 2024, with no new chapters published in 2025 or yet in 2026.
Madhouse adapted it in 2011 across 148 episodes, following Gon, a cheerful kid who discovers his absent father is actually a legendary Hunter and sets off to find him. What starts feeling like a classic shonen adventure gradually shifts into something much darker and more complex, with each new arc completely changing the tone and stakes. The Chimera Ant arc alone is considered one of the greatest stretches of storytelling in the entire medium.
4. Attack on Titan
Humanity lives behind three massive walls, hiding from giant humanoids called Titans that eat people for no apparent reason. That premise alone is enough to hook you, but then Hajime Isayama starts pulling the rug out from under you every few episodes, and suddenly you realize the show you thought you were watching is something else entirely.
Wit Studio handled the first three seasons before MAPPA took over for the explosive finale, and together they brought one of the best-selling manga of all time to life across a decade-long run. With 140 million copies in circulation and a 9.1 on IMDb, it consistently ranks among the greatest anime ever made. Just don’t get attached to anyone.
5. Cowboy Bebop
Shinichirō Watanabe walked into his first director job at Sunrise and poured every unused idea he’d been saving for years into a single show. The result was a 1998 neo-noir space Western that blended jazz, blues, film noir, and Hong Kong action movies into something so distinct it still hasn’t been replicated. It was also the first anime ever aired on Adult Swim, which basically kick-started Western interest in the medium.
The story follows a crew of misfit bounty hunters drifting through space in 2071, each haunted by pasts they can’t escape. Only 26 episodes, and yet it holds an 8.9 on IMDb after 27 years. That’s not nostalgia talking, that’s just a genuinely great show.
6. One Punch Man
The entire premise of One Punch Man is a joke about superhero anime, and yet somehow it became one of the greatest superhero anime ever made. Saitama trained so hard that he went bald and became so powerful that every single fight ends in one punch. No tension, no dramatic comebacks, just instant victory followed by complete emptiness. That existential boredom is where the real story actually lives.
Madhouse’s 2015 Season 1 is genuinely one of the most visually stunning action anime ever produced, with episode 12 rated 9.5 on IMDb, still the show’s all-time high. Unfortunately, Season 2 switched to J.C.Staff and the animation quality dropped noticeably, and Season 3 in late 2025 was met with serious fan backlash over the same issues, receiving some of the lowest scores in the IMDb database, with some episodes receiving ratings as low as 2.7/10.
7. Naruto
Before anime became a global phenomenon, there was a loud, orange-jumpsuit-wearing kid who wanted nothing more than for his village to acknowledge him. Masashi Kishimoto launched the Naruto manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, and when Studio Pierrot adapted it in 2002, it became one of the defining cultural forces of an entire generation. The franchise is now worth over $10 billion, and in 2024, it became the single most-watched anime on Netflix with 330 million hours viewed.
The story follows Naruto Uzumaki, an orphaned ninja outcast who carries a monstrous nine-tailed fox sealed inside him and grows up completely alone. What starts as an underdog story about wanting to be noticed gradually becomes something much bigger, about war, sacrifice, and what it actually means to never give up on the people around you.
8. One Piece
Eiichiro Oda has been writing this story every single week since 1997, sleeps only three hours a night according to his editors, and has sold over 580 million copies of the manga, making him the highest-selling single-series author in human history. That obsession shows in every arc. Toei Animation brought it to screens in 1999, and over 1,000 episodes later, it was named IMDb’s highest-rated TV show of the first half of 2024, beating out every live-action series on the planet.
The story follows Monkey D. Luffy, a rubber-bodied kid who wants to become King of the Pirates by finding a legendary treasure called the One Piece. What sounds simple on paper gradually expands into one of the most ambitious, emotionally complex worlds ever built in fiction. The length scares people off, but those who commit almost never regret it.
9. Demon Slayer
Studio Ufotable set the bar so high with their 2019 adaptation of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga that the anime industry is still trying to catch up. The Mugen Train arc alone became the highest-grossing Japanese film in history, overtaking Studio Ghibli, and the franchise has over 220 million manga copies in circulation worldwide.
The story follows Tanjiro, a kind-hearted boy whose family gets slaughtered by demons, leaving only his sister Nezuko, who gets turned into one herself. What follows is a quest to find a cure while surviving a world full of things that want them both dead. Brutal premise, gorgeous animation, and characters that genuinely make you care.
10. Jujutsu Kaisen
Guinness World Records officially named Jujutsu Kaisen the most in-demand anime on the planet, not once but twice in a row, with global demand sitting at 71.2 times higher than the average TV show. That’s the kind of number that stops being a statistic and starts being a cultural event.
MAPPA’s 2020 adaptation of Gege Akutami’s manga follows Yuji Itadori, a regular high school kid who swallows an ancient cursed finger and becomes the host of Ryomen Sukuna, the most powerful evil spirit in existence. From that point forward, his only options are to collect every remaining finger and then die or fight. Over 150 million manga copies in circulation, a third season that premiered in January 2026, and fight sequences that set a new standard for what anime animation could look like.
11. Sword Art Online
Ten thousand players log into a VR game and can’t log out, and dying in-game means dying in real life. Reki Kawahara wrote this premise in 2002, posted it online after a writing contest rejection, and eventually built a fanbase big enough for A-1 Pictures to turn it into one of the most successful anime franchises ever.
Season 1 is genuinely gripping, particularly its first half, and the romance between Kirito and Asuna became one of anime’s most iconic relationships. Unfortunately, after the first 14 episodes, the anime’s quality starts to dip and draw mixed reactions from fans and critics. That said, Sword Art Online grew into a massive anime franchise. It went to win Best Original Story at the 2013 Tokyo Anime Awards, has over 30 official entries across anime, films, games, and manga, and its light novels have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
12. Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Studio Trigger, the people behind Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill, teamed up with CD Projekt Red to make an anime set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, and somehow it ended up better than the game it was based on. Ten episodes, a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it actually boosted sales for a game that launched as one of the most disastrous releases in gaming history. That’s the kind of impact very few shows ever pull off.
David Martinez is a broke street kid in Night City who loses everything in a drive-by shooting and decides the only way forward is to become a mercenary outlaw called an Edgerunner. The city is designed to chew people like him up, and the show never lets you forget that, even while the action is absolutely stunning and the romance between David and Lucy is genuinely heartbreaking. A sequel, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, was announced in July 2025 with most of the original team returning.
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