Best Animes to Watch in 2026

arda.cogulu
16 hours ago
7 min read

Animes are a traditional Japanese series usually having super powered characters and fantastic worlds. It showcases the life of the protagonist telling the struggles and the pains he/she lived. Animes are watched by a lot of people all over the world. Today we are going to look at some of the yearly Anime Trending Awards winners according to IMDB. I'll also rank them according to my opinions. Your thoughts might be different from mines and feel free to find me and discuss on an anime.

Now, lets start with 2020 ATA (Anime Trending Awards) winner Vinland Saga. This anime sits in my top 5 with a staggering 8.8 IMDB. For instance let's look at Interstellar. This movie is often said to be the best movie ever. Even though these comments it has 8.7 IMDB score. Which means Vinland Saga is technically better. Anyways, for the one who hasn't watched this anime I'll tell about the general topic without any spoiler. So, Thorfinn son of Thors has heard the story of a distant place called Vinland from the old viking stories and ever since then he has seeked that land of reverie and ever lasting peace. The story takes place in an era when vikings rule over the nordic seas and they are constantly at war with the Danish Kingdom. Now, let's come to my rating. Overall, it is an emotional anime which teaches a lot of things and inspires the ones who watch it. So my rating is 9 out of 10.

Next on the list we have 2022 ATA winner Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. Also you may have noticed I am not exactly going based on the years, I try to find the most popular and the best anime throughout the years. Sometimes an anime may have an higher IMDB score and still be in the second or third spot so I'll tell if it is that too. Now lets get back to Mushoku Tensei which is readed as Muşoku Tensei in Turkish. This anime has an incredible 8.2 IMDB score. Although some people dislike it, I like how you get to know all the characters's backgrounds and emphasize with them. The protagonist is named Rudeus Greyrat. This is a story when a 34-year-old underachiever gets run over by a truck. However his story doesn't end there. Reincarnated in a new world as an infant, Rudeus will seizes every opportunity to live the life he's always wanted. Overall this story gave me a lot of lessons so I'll give it a 9.2 out of 10.

Time for an anime which is most people's favorite. Jujutsu Kaisen. This anime has an 8.5 IMDB rating which I think is not enough. This is also the winner of 2023 ATA. The general topic is a little complicated. It varies throughout the seasons. But the story is in a world where curses, which are entities born from the negative emotions of the people, and Jujutsu Sorcerers, the people who can control the cursed energy within them, exist. Our protagonist is Yuji Itadori. He starts Jujutsu High (a place where Jujutsu Sorcerers train and learn) after he eats a cursed object. Ryomen Sukuna's finger. Sukuna, also known as the King of Curses, is an The story includes a lot of plot twists and many emotional moments. All in all, it is an anime which exceeds the viewers expectations. I give it a 9.6 out of 10.

After JJK (Jujutsu Kaisen) the expectations are high and not a lot of anime can pass it. But maybe an 8.5 rated anime can. We are talking about Solo Leveling which is the Anime of the Year award at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards winner. Besides Anime of the Year, the anime won Best Action, Best New Series, Best Main Character, Best Score, and Best Ending Sequence awards too. The protagonist Sung Jin-woo, Song Cinvo in Turkish, is living in a world where awakened people have unique abilities and classified from S rank to E rank (except national ranks which are stronger than the S rank hunters, there are a few national ranks in the world.). There are also gates which lead to dungeons where magical beasts live. The gates are also ranked from S to E. An awakened person living in this world is called a hunter and hunters have the responsibility to hunt the magical beasts such as goblins, dragons, wolfs and many more. Normally a hunter's rank cannot change under any circumstances however as we can understand in the name, Solo Leveling, hunter Sung Jin-woo gains a unique ability after an incident occurred in a dungeon. I think that this anime is a perfect anime for beginners. It has a good plot development and cool visual effects. We cannot know the past of some characters although they have important roles. This may lead to some misunderstanding but I think that it isn't a big of a deal. To me the worst part of the anime is the protagonist being a little overpowered. For example in this chapter the enemies that Hunter Sung faces may be too hard for him, but 5 episodes later Sung could be beating them up like they are nothing. So the power system isn't well thought but all in all I like this anime. It was the first anime that I watched so when ranking I am a little bit biased. Overall, I'll give Solo Leveling a 9.4 out of 10.

Now it is time for one of the best animes which has one of the best visual effects. Yes; I am talking about Kimetsu no Yaiba, Demon Slayer. This anime not only is in my top 3 it is also has the best plot development throughout the arcs (for those who don't know an arc is like a season for normal series). Demon Slayer's Hashira Training arc won the best visual effects award of the year. The story focuses on Tanjiro Kamado (the protagonist) and his journey on revenge after Muzan Kibutsuji (the antagonist) killed mercilessly his parents and brothers. He and his sister Nezuko Kamado survived. The story includes a lot of sad scenes where Tanjiro faces a lot of struggles. Overall I love how the anime is full of sacrefices and struggles making us, the viewers, emphsize with Tanjiro and his friends. I'll give this a 9.7 out of 10 just above Jujutsu Kaisen.

Before I start the last anime lets talk about Interstellar. This movie, as I told before, has a whopping 8.5 IMDB score. It is often said to be the best movie ever made. This anime that we will talk now has a staggering 9.1 IMDB score. Also with the votes this anime got it is officially the best anime that was ever made. This is my favorite anime which also has an incredible fan base reaching out to nearly all countries in the world. This anime is Shingeki no Kyojin, Attack on Titan, often shortened as AoT. If only I hadn't watched this anime before. I wish that this would be the last anime that I watched before I die. This anime literally is the peak. No other anime that has been made and will be made can surpass this anime. So I wish that the last anime that I watched would be the best anime that I watched. AoT is such a magnificent anime that it cannot be recreated. The plot twists are on another level. You literally cannot know what will happen in the next episode. The excitement while watching the episodes is surreal. This anime is in a world (don't worry no spoilers, even if I gave spoiler you still wouldn't guess when that happened or how it happened so it is just that perfect) where humanity exists alongside titan race, a race with no conscience and born to kill humans.

Humanity survives on a place which is surrounded by humongous wall surrounding and

Walls surrounding humanity. At the bottom locates Shiganshina. The place Eren was born. The wall surrounding Shiganshina (read as Şiganşina in Turkish) was attacked that day.

protecting them. Eren Jaeger, the protagonist, was born and raised within these walls. He also met Mikasa Ackermann and Armin Arlelt, his best friends, inside these walls. However humanity was reminded that they were not alone one day a colossal titan attacked wall Maria, one of the three wall protecting humanity.

Shiganshina District after it was attacked.

Eren and his family were living in Shiganshina District, the place which was attacked. The story bases on this event and teaches us about freedom. The world is merciless, and it's also very beautiful. If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. If you don’t fight, you can’t win. A person who cannot give up anything, can change nothing. Give up on your dreams and die. So to make us run from death, life cursed us with fear. The only thing we're allowed to believe is that we won't regret the choice we made. Especially the last quote from the series hits so hard. These aren't just quotes these are the truths of our world. Overall I'll give this superb anime is 9.9 out of 10 for me. I didn't give it a 10 because who knows, maybe another amazing anime may come. I guess not but I hope so.

To sum it up to me starting with Solo Leveling or Demon Slayer to watch as a beginner in 2026 makes more sense. Of course there are other great animes like One Piece, Chainsaw Man or Fullmetal Alchemist but I wanted to showcase the ones that I watched and liked a lot. Of course you can start with an other anime that you've heard but to me starting with an anime which isn't that heavy is better for the rest of your anime journey. If you are not a beginner and haven't watched some of the anime that I recommended, you should start them. Or as I said, you can also try Jojo, TenSura or My Hero Academia. All the animes that I mentioned are awesome and owns at least one important award. And by the way, all of the things that I said about these are general opinions of their fan base. I added my own opinions too but the general quality of the anime is not too exaggerated by me. Beforehand, I hope that you have fun when you watch the animes that I recommended. This is all from me.