The 20 Best 90s Anime of All Time
Giant robots turned into therapy sessions and a space bounty hunter made us sob to a jazz solo, all in the same golden decade. If you love 90s anime the way we do, you already know this era rewired what animation was even allowed to be!
No decade ever did it quite like the nineties. Maybe you rushed home to catch Toonami, or maybe a friend handed you a burned DVD years later and cracked your brain wide open. Either way, 90s anime hits different. This was the moment the medium grew up, got weird, got emotional, and started swinging for the fences. So we’re ranking the 20 best 90s anime of all time and breaking down exactly why fans still won’t shut up about them decades later.
Grab your snacks. This one is a nostalgia bomb.
What Made 90s Anime So Special
Before we get to the list, it helps to understand why so many people treat this old anime like sacred texts.
The 90s sat in a perfect sweet spot. Studios were still drawing everything by hand, so every frame carried this warm, textured, slightly imperfect glow that modern digital work still can’t fully copy. Budgets had grown fatter than the decade before, and creators suddenly had room to take real risks. That is why so much retro anime from this stretch feels gorgeous and genuinely dangerous at the same time.
It was also the decade anime kicked its way out of Japan in a massive way. Cartoon Network’s Toonami block turned shows like Dragon Ball Z and Gundam into a shared childhood memory for millions of Western kids. Fansubs traded on VHS built an entire underground community out of nothing. The fandom we know today, the one that fuels everything from cosplay to your favorite VTuber, was basically born right here.
Alright, enough history. Let’s get into the best 90s anime.
The Shonen Kings That Ruled 90s Anime
If you were a kid in the 90s, these are probably the shows that got their hooks in you first.
1. Dragon Ball Z (1989 to 1996). Come on, you knew it would top the list. DBZ is the anime that defined the decade for a whole generation. Goku, Vegeta, three straight episodes of screaming to power up, and those transformations that dropped every kid’s jaw. No classic anime has been parodied, quoted, and loved harder. When people picture 90s anime, this is the very first image that flashes in their heads.
2. Yu Yu Hakusho (1992). Yusuke Urameshi dies in episode one, comes back as a spirit detective, and then throws hands with demons for the rest of the run, which aired from 1992 to 1995. The Dark Tournament arc is still one of the greatest fighting tournaments ever animated. Fun fact, it came from Yoshihiro Togashi, the same genius who later gave us Hunter x Hunter.
3. Rurouni Kenshin (1996). A wandering swordsman carrying a reverse-blade sword and a bloody past he is desperate to leave behind. The Kyoto arc alone earns this show a spot on any best 90s anime list. Sweet and goofy one minute, brutal and razor-intense the next.
4. Slam Dunk (1993). A basketball anime that somehow made millions of people care deeply about high school hoops. Hanamichi Sakuragi is a redheaded delinquent who joins the team just to impress a girl and slowly turns into a real player. It is funny, heartfelt, and weirdly inspiring. This one is basically a religion in parts of Asia, and the newer movie proved the hype never faded.
5. Pokemon (1997). Do we even need to explain this one? Ash, Pikachu, and the quest to catch them all launched the biggest media franchise on the planet. Those early Kanto episodes are pure comfort food. “Bye Bye Butterfree” still wrecks grown adults who swear they’re fine.
Mind-Bending Sci-Fi and Mecha in Classic Anime
Here is where 90s anime stopped playing nice and started messing with our heads.
6. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995). Where do we even start. On the surface it is teenagers piloting giant robots against monsters called Angels. Underneath it is a raw, uncomfortable dissection of depression, loneliness, and how terrifying it is to actually connect with another person. Hideaki Anno poured his entire soul into this, and the ending detonated fan discourse before online discourse was really a thing. Essential viewing, full stop.
7. Cowboy Bebop (1998). Ask any fan for the greatest anime ever made and Bebop lands on nearly every list. Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and one absurdly smart dog drifting through space chasing bounties to a killer jazz score by Yoko Kanno. Every episode plays like its own little movie. This is the show you queue up for someone who insists they hate anime, and by the finale they are quietly crying about Spike.
Press play and let that Yoko Kanno jazz wash over you. This is the official Cowboy Bebop opening “Tank!” from Crunchyroll.
8. Ghost in the Shell (1995). Mamoru Oshii’s film asked what makes you human when your entire body is a machine. Slow, moody, and staggeringly beautiful, it went on to inspire The Matrix and pretty much every cyberpunk story since. Major Kusanagi is an all-time icon, no notes.
9. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (1995). For a lot of Western fans, this was the Gundam that hooked them, thanks once again to Toonami. Five pretty-boy pilots, a tangled political war, and mobile suits blowing each other to scrap. It leaned hard into the drama and the fandom went absolutely feral for it.
10. Serial Experiments Lain (1998). The strangest and most prophetic entry here. A quiet girl gets pulled into a digital network called the Wired, and reality starts peeling apart around her. It predicted our always-online lives with genuinely eerie accuracy. This is peak retro anime for people who want their shows to leave a bruise on the brain.
Magical Girls and Shojo That Defined an Era
Some of the best 90s anime came wrapped in sparkles and transformation sequences, and they were every bit as bold as the mecha giants.
11. Sailor Moon (1992). The magical girl blueprint, plain and simple. Usagi is a clumsy crybaby who transforms into a moon-powered warrior, and somehow that made her one of the most beloved heroines ever created. It handled friendship, first love, and even queer characters at a time when almost nobody else dared. Generations of kids owe their whole anime obsession to this show.
12. Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997). If Sailor Moon opened the door, Utena kicked it clean off the hinges. Sword duels, roses, and a dense web of symbolism about power and identity. It is arthouse anime disguised as a fairy tale, and it still sparks essay-length arguments online. Wildly ahead of its time.
13. Cardcaptor Sakura (1998). Pure serotonin in anime form. Sakura races to capture magical Clow Cards while juggling crushes, best friends, and the cutest outfits the medium has ever produced. CLAMP built a show so charming and warm that even people who normally skip magical girl stuff fall hard for it.
14. The Vision of Escaflowne (1996). A girl gets whisked off to a fantasy world of mecha, dragons, and tarot-style destiny. It blends shojo romance with epic mechanical warfare, and yes, that unforgettable soundtrack is Yoko Kanno again. A hidden gem plenty of newer fans have never even heard of.
Dark and Gritty Old Anime for Grown-Up Fans
Not all classic anime was built for Saturday mornings. Some of it will genuinely mess you up.
15. Berserk (1997). Guts, the Black Swordsman, and the single most devastating betrayal in anime history, the Eclipse. This adaptation of Kentaro Miura’s manga is grim, violent, and impossible to forget. That cliffhanger ending haunted fans for literal decades. If you want to understand why the Berserk fandom is so ride-or-die intense, start right here.
16. Trigun (1998). Vash the Stampede is a goofy, donut-obsessed gunslinger with a sixty billion double dollar bounty on his head and a shockingly heavy backstory. The show flips from slapstick comedy to gut-punch tragedy on a dime. It was beloved enough to earn a full modern remake, which tells you everything you need to know.
17. Perfect Blue (1997). Satoshi Kon’s psychological thriller follows a pop idol whose grip on reality unravels as a stalker closes in. Tense, disturbing, and brilliantly edited, it directly influenced directors like Darren Aronofsky. Living proof that anime could do horror and identity terror better than most live-action films ever managed.
18. Outlaw Star (1998). Gene Starwind and his crew tearing across the galaxy in a grappler-arm spaceship hunting for treasure. It carries the swagger of Cowboy Bebop with a pulpier, more adventurous heart. Another Toonami favorite that deserves way more love than it usually gets.
Underrated Retro Anime Gems Worth Digging Up
We could not wrap this up without two more shows that fans quietly worship.
The restoration still looks jaw-dropping decades later. Here is the official Princess Mononoke trailer from GKIDS.
19. Ranma 1/2 (1989 to 1992). Rumiko Takahashi’s chaotic comedy about a martial artist who turns into a girl whenever he gets splashed with cold water. Absurd, fast, and endlessly rewatchable. It basically wrote the rulebook for the gender-swap and harem comedies that flooded in after it.
20. Princess Mononoke (1997). Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli at the absolute peak of their powers. A sweeping epic about the collision between industry and nature, carried by some of the most breathtaking hand-drawn animation ever committed to film. It smashed box office records in Japan and proved animation could shoulder the weight of a serious, adult story. The perfect note to close out our best 90s anime list.
Why 90s Anime Still Matters Today
Here is the wild part. Almost every trend in modern anime traces straight back to something on this list. The character deconstruction everyone gushes over? Evangelion did it first. That cool, cinematic Sunday-night vibe? Cowboy Bebop. The emotional shonen tournaments, the magical girl squads, the cyberpunk aesthetic your favorite streamer riffs on, all of it grew out of this one decade.
That legacy runs right into the VTuber scene too. Tons of your favorite creators, from tiny indies to the huge names over at Hololive, grew up on this old anime and wear that influence proudly in their designs and personalities. When a VTuber cosplays as Sailor Moon or drops an Eva reference mid-stream, they are pulling from the exact same well we just covered.
That is the real power of 90s anime. It never actually left. It just keeps getting passed down to the next generation of obsessed fans.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most popular 90s anime?
Dragon Ball Z is easily the most popular and recognizable 90s anime worldwide. Its run on Toonami turned it into a full-blown cultural phenomenon and introduced anime to millions of Western fans. Sailor Moon and Pokemon sit right behind it as the other giants that defined the decade for a global audience.
What is considered the best 90s anime of all time?
Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion consistently top best 90s anime lists among longtime fans and critics alike. Bebop wins for its flawless style, music, and storytelling, while Evangelion wins for the sheer emotional and psychological depth it dragged into the mecha genre. You honestly can’t go wrong starting with either one.
Is 90s anime worth watching in 2026?
Absolutely. While the hand-drawn animation looks different from today’s polished digital shows, the writing, characters, and atmosphere of this classic anime still hold up incredibly well. Plenty of fans actually prefer the warmer, grittier look of retro anime. Shows like Cowboy Bebop and Princess Mononoke feel timeless no matter what year you press play.
Where can I watch old anime from the 90s?
A ton of 90s anime now streams legally on services like Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu. Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, and Neon Genesis Evangelion have all been widely available, and Studio Ghibli films like Princess Mononoke stream in most regions. Blu-ray box sets stay popular with collectors who want the best possible picture quality.
Why do people say the 90s was the golden age of anime?
The 90s combined big budgets, bold creative freedom, and the last great era of hand-drawn animation all at once. Studios were willing to take huge swings, which gave us wildly original shows like Evangelion, Serial Experiments Lain, and Revolutionary Girl Utena. On top of that, this is the decade anime went truly global, cementing its golden-age status for good.
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Final Thoughts
The 90s gave us the shows that turned casual channel-surfers into lifelong fans, and honestly, nothing has quite topped that magic run since. From the space jazz of Cowboy Bebop to the giant robots of Evangelion to the sparkle of Sailor Moon, this classic anime laid the foundation everything else still stands on.
If you have never watched a single one of these, pick one and start tonight. And if you already have, you know exactly why we keep circling back. That is the beauty of great 90s anime. It only gets better with time.
