Mohsin Lag Updated September 2026: fully rewritten, expanded to 16 picks, and re-watched so you don’t have to. The class of 2018 deserved better than a Top 10.
Everybody argues about 2017 and 2019, but quietly? 2018 might be the year the last decade peaked. Devilman Crybaby opened it by setting anime Twitter on fire, Violet Evergarden made half of us cry at a typewriter, and then Attack on Titan Season 3 and Steins;Gate 0 showed up halfway through just to twist the knife. A Place Further Than the Universe went to Antarctica and came back a classic.
So instead of another flat countdown, I did what the year deserves: a proper yearbook. Sixteen series, sixteen superlatives, ranked from honorable mentions to valedictorian. You will disagree with the order. That’s the point — argue with me in the comments.
The Superlatives: Every Pick, Ranked
16. Weirdest Concept That Actually Worked: Zombie Land Saga
Studio: MAPPA · Fall 2018
Dead idol girls resurrected to save Saga prefecture as a regional idol group. On paper, that’s a fever dream. In practice, it’s one of the funniest and most sincere shows of the year — the truck scene in episode one alone earned MAPPA the right to do whatever they want forever. Legendary Yamada Tae remains the greatest background gag in idol anime history.
15. Class Comedian: Grand Blue
Studio: Zero-G · Summer 2018
The diving anime where nobody dives for entire episodes at a time, and you will not care even once. A college freshman joins a diving club full of gloriously unhinged seniors and discovers the true meaning of friendship: being peer-pressed into drinking naked. The funniest “this should not work” adaptation of the year.
14. Best Time Capsule: High Score Girl
Studio: J.C.Staff · Summer 2018
A love story told entirely through 90s arcade cabinets, between a loud delinquent and a girl who never speaks. The CG looks odd for exactly one episode before the charm takes over completely. If you ever pumped coins into a Street Fighter II cabinet, this show is secretly about your childhood.
13. Most Underrated: Run with the Wind
Studio: Production I.G · Fall 2018
Ten broken college guys chase a marathon qualifying time, and somehow it becomes one of the most emotionally complete stories of the decade. Nobody watched it while it aired. Everyone who did ranks it in their personal top ten. Production I.G at the height of their powers — watch it before you argue with me about 2018.
12. Most Notorious: Goblin Slayer
Studio: White Fox · Fall 2018
Episode one made it the most controversial premiere of the decade, and the conversation swallowed the show whole. Which is a shame, because underneath the shock opening is a stubbornly practical fantasy about a man who treats adventuring like pest control. The rock. The gate. The cow. If you dropped it after week one, the revenge arc is worth a second look.
11. Biggest Surprise: Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Studio: CloverWorks · Fall 2018
Everyone judged it by the title. Everyone was wrong. What looks like a fansuit romcom is actually a sharp Monogatari-style riff on social invisibility and adolescent weirdness, carried by dialogue that actually sounds like teenagers. Mai Sakurajima walked into 2018 and became an icon in a bunny outfit nobody expected to respect.
10. Most Educational: Cells at Work
Studio: David Production · Summer 2018
Your immune system, but it’s an action workplace anime. The platelets alone became 2018’s unofficial mascots, and somewhere a generation of students accidentally learned what neutrophils do while watching a red blood cell deliver packages. Legitimately fun enough that biology teachers started showing it in class.
9. Loudest: Hinamatsuri
Studio: feel. · Spring 2018
A psychic child soldier crashes into a yakuza lieutenant’s apartment and turns his life into a single-dad comedy. Every episode swings from gut-busting to genuinely touching without warning, and Nitta’s arc from reluctant guardian to actual dad is sneakily one of the year’s best. The bar scene. You know the one.
8. Coolest Style: Megalo Box
Studio: TMS Entertainment · Spring 2018
A 50th-anniversary homage to Ashita no Joe that refuses to feel like nostalgia bait. Junk Dog fighting without gear in a world where everyone wears hydraulic exoskeletons is still one of the decade’s great underdog setups, and the lo-fi hip-hop score plus grainy art direction give every frame attitude. The ending theme alone deserves an award.
7. Most Devastating Slow Burn: Banana Fish
Studio: MAPPA · Summer 2018
Twenty-three episodes of New York crime, trauma, and the most painful friendship MAPPA ever animated. Ash Lynx remains one of the best characters of the decade — a broken prodigy who learns to want a normal life right as the story makes that impossible. Do not start this one on a work night. You will not be okay at the office.
6. The Heavyweight: Attack on Titan Season 3
Studio: Wit Studio · Summer 2018
The season that turned Attack on Titan from a monster hit into an all-timer. The Uprising arc’s political thriller pivot, then the Return to Shiganshina — the basement reveal is still one of the biggest narrative detonations in modern anime. And with 2026 turning September 9 into official Attack on Titan Day, the franchise’s grip clearly hasn’t loosened.
5. Biggest Spectacle: My Hero Academia Season 3
Studio: Bones · Spring 2018
The training camp arc, All Might versus All For One, and the moment an entire fandom held its breath at once. Season 3 is still the peak of MHA’s mainstream moment — the show was everywhere in 2018, and this is the stretch of episodes that put it there. “Now go, my boy” broke people in the best way.
4. Darkest Timeline: Steins;Gate 0
Studio: White Fox · Spring 2018
The sequel nobody knew they needed: Okabe broken, AMADUS humming in the background, and a slow crawl toward a timeline that keeps rejecting him. It’s heavier and sadder than the original on purpose, and the payoff hits differently when you already know what he’s trying to earn back. The year’s best argument that despair is a genre.
3. Class President: A Place Further Than the Universe
Studio: Madhouse · Winter 2018
Four girls skip toward Antarctica and accidentally make the most life-affirming anime of the decade. Every critic who saw it in 2018 still brings it up. It’s about grief, friendship, and doing the terrifying thing while you can — and it lands its emotional payload without a single manipulative note. If you haven’t seen it, this is the one I’d hand you first.
2. Most Beautiful Crier: Violet Evergarden
Studio: Kyoto Animation · Winter 2018
The show Netflix used to sell 4K TVs, and for once the flex was justified — KyoAni’s craft here is genuinely absurd. A child soldier learning what feelings are by writing other people’s letters sounds like a slog and is actually a weapon. Episodes 7 and 10 did more emotional damage in 2018 than entire genres manage. If you need a proper cry, our 20 emotional anime list has more where this came from.
1. Most Likely to Break You: Devilman Crybaby — Valedictorian
Studio: Science SARU · Winter 2018
Masaaki Yuasa took a 70s manga, threw 2018’s entire toolkit at it, and delivered the most fearless series of the year in one ten-episode Netflix drop. Rap battles, apocalypse imagery, an actually devastating ending — Devilman Crybaby is messy, horny, horrifying, and utterly itself in a way almost nothing manages to be. The track record speaks for itself: five years later, people are still posting “the moon scene” with a single crying emoji. Valedictorian, no debate.
Miss 2018? Where the Class Went Next
The class of 2018 graduated, but their DNA is all over what’s airing now. If you want the modern equivalents:
- Loved Devilman Crybaby’s unhinged monster energy? Dandadan (2024) is the closest thing to that fearless anything-goes chaos running today.
- Violet Evergarden broke you? Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is the new gold standard for quiet, devastating craft.
- Steins;Gate 0 wrecked your timeline? Lord of Mysteries (2025) plays the same dense, mind-bending game with Victorian horror rules.
- Megalo Box got your blood up? Gachiakuta (2025) is the new gritty underdog with something to prove.
- Want the 2026 version of this exact list? Our 2026 anime tracker has every confirmed season and sequel.
And if you’d rather let the database do the work: type Devilman Crybaby (or any 2018 favorite) into our Anime Finder and pick what you loved about it — it ranks matches from the same hand-scored taste data behind this list.
FAQ
What is the best anime of 2018?
By influence and ambition, Devilman Crybaby. By emotional craft, Violet Evergarden or A Place Further Than the Universe. By pure popular impact, Attack on Titan Season 3. That’s why this list is a yearbook and not a trophy — 2018 had multiple valid valedictorians.
Was 2018 a good year for anime?
Arguably the best of the 2017–2019 stretch. It had prestige originals (Devilman, SoraYori), franchise peaks (AoT S3, Steins;Gate 0, MHA S3), and a deep bench of comedies (Grand Blue, Hinamatsuri, Asobi Asobase, Zombie Land Saga) that people still quote today.
Where can I watch these 2018 anime?
Most stream on Crunchyroll or Netflix depending on your region — Devilman Crybaby and Aggretsuko are Netflix originals, while the rest rotate between the usual platforms. Check your local service for current availability.
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