17 Best Anime By Madhouse, Ranked

Highlights

• Madhouse is known for daring and trend-setting anime adaptations with meticulous attention to detail and consistent quality.
• Memorable series like Perfect Blue and Redline showcase Madhouse’s animation prowess and design philosophies.
• Recent hits like Frieren demonstrate that Madhouse is still capable of producing masterpieces amid the fantasy anime boom.

One of Japan’s most venerable and oldest animation studios is the legendary Madhouse. This company is responsible for some of the most daring off-beat anime which, while deviating from the usual formula, still manage to set its own trends. Madhouse chooses its adaptations well and pours its hearts and souls into animating them.

Beyond its impressive choice of manga or projects to adapt into films or shows, Madhouse is also famous for its consistent quality. The studio’s anime has always held a reputation for having meticulous attention to detail. Films like Perfect Blue and Redline perfectly illustrate their animation prowess. Meanwhile, Madhouse’s TV shows also reflect its design philosophies.

Updated February 19, 2024, by Mark Sammut: Although shows like The Gene of AI were not great, Madhouse has been on a roll in the last few months thanks to one particular series: Frieren. This Madhouse anime represents the studio at its best, and the upcoming Orb: On the Movements of the Earth also has potential for greatness.

17 Black Lagoon

MyAnimeList: 8.03 (Season 1)

A classic action series, Black Lagoon is all thrills and very little filler. Split into two seasons and an OVA series, the anime follows a group of merchants as they take on an eclectic range of cases, each one different from the last and most of them being very high quality.

Although largely remembered for its intense action sequences and mature protagonists, Black Lagoon also throws out the occasional philosophical musings, and they are surprisingly effective and nuanced. Except for season 2’s final arc that threatens to overstay its welcome, the anime barely sets a foot wrong throughout its entire run, delivering top-quality animation every step of the way.

16 Chihayafuru

MyAnimeList: 8.18 (Season 1)

At first, Chihayafuru seems like another plain competitive obscure sport or board game anime since it’s about Karuta. It’s a Japanese card game introduced to them by Portuguese traders. The anime explores this notion through its protagonist, Chihaya.

But through Chihaya’s quirks and an upbeat attitude — as well as the anime’s unique premise of a shoujo/josei protagonist playing a card game, the title quickly becomes a novel hit. As it turns out, a card game centered around poetry and memorization can be fun.

15 One Outs

MyAnimeList: 8.33

Here, we have another sports anime, but this time around, it’s about something more popular, baseball. One Outs follows the tale of baseball prodigy, Toua Tokuchi but the catch is that he’s also a gambler who’s only out to make money and sees baseball as nothing but a means to an end.

Viewers can immediately tell what the protagonist’s dynamics with acquaintances and colleagues will be based on his arrogant attitude. Sure enough, he gets scouted for a baseball team and the team’s owner, as well as his newfound friend, set out to give him a humbling but exciting experience as a professional baseball player.

14 Beck

MyAnimeList: 8.29

Beck offers a dramatic spin on the “lost, directionless youth” trope as it sees its protagonist, Yukio Tanaka on a journey of self-realization. He initially had no goals in life (like a lot of young people these days both in and out of Japan). But all that changed after he saved a dog named Beck.

By chance, Beck’s owner happened to be a semi-popular guitarist and member of a budding rock band. Since then, Yukio was introduced to the world of Western rock and was enamored with music. Together with his newfound friends and a shining ambition to make it big worldwide, Yukio will set out to give his viewers a look into how rockers succeed.

13 Trigun

MyAnimeList: 8.22

One of the sci-fi cult classics of the 1990s, Trigun is about a conflicted bandit who doesn’t actually want to kill people. His name is Vash the Stampede, and he has a dizzyingly huge bounty on his head. The kicker is that he loathes violence due to his troubled past as an experimental weapon; he was manipulated into killing too many innocents for his psyche to handle.

It’s similar in tone to other classics of its era, such as Rurouni Kenshin. Heck, both Vash and Kenshin Himura even share the same red motif in their clothing, signifying the guilt and innocent blood stains they’re carrying. Trigun highlights Madhouse’s fantastic animation along with the studio’s deft handling of comedy since the anime is regularly hilarious.

12 Parasyte -The Maxim

MyAnimeList: 8.33

When it comes to action-oriented anime, Madhouse is no stranger to calling dibs on reluctantly violent protagonists. Parasyte – The Maxim is another one of their titles that dabbles with this trope. This time around, the trope involves Shinichi Izumi who was accidentally chosen by Migi, an alien parasite who failed to take over his brain and granted him some nifty but disturbing powers.

Shinichi, being the upstanding member of society he is, decides to use his newfound powers for good all the while wrestling with Migi for control of his body and morals. The two entities slowly begin to influence each other’s personalities as they become a single being.

11 Hellsing Ultimate

MyAnimeList: 8.35

Hellsing Ultimate is an OVA or mini-series that ran surprisingly for six years despite having only ten episodes. That’s an indication of how careful the creators were in animating the most definitive anime adaptation of Hellsing. It’s not just Madhouse who worked here but also other big-name studios.

In any case, Hellsing Ultimate retells the story of the titular organization created solely to fight supernatural threats. Their greatest weapon is Alucard — a vampire lord who has committed to fighting and exterminating his own kind for Hellsing. With his newly recruited vampire assistant, Alucard faces new dangers in Hellsing Ultimate, nothing he can’t handle, of course.

10 Rainbow

MyAnimeList: 8.47

Rainbow is a mature anime intended for the seinen demographic or young men. Thus, one can expect its themes and iconographies to be less apologetic or welcoming especially when compared to shonen anime. This goes to show how Madhouse prefers its audience.

Rainbow follows the story of a group of delinquent youth who were forced to transfer to a literal prison school called Shounan Special Reform School. There, they fight for survival while serving their time. This prison drama is no walk in the park though as the wardens and the prison guards themselves are depraved and twisted human beings.

9 Nana

MyAnimeList: 8.55

Nana weaves a complex adult tale of romance, betrayal, and loss. These themes are more commonly associated with josei rather than shoujo anime, but Nana (and Madhouse) does an admirable job of tackling weighty concepts in a way that feels suitable for a younger audience.

Nana is thus a story about two women who share the same titular name. One of them is a province girl who risks it all to find her true calling in the big city while the other is a punk rocker and vocalist with big dreams. Somehow, they end up becoming friends and forming a close bond which is then tested by their respective romantic relationships and other adult circumstances.

8 One-Punch Man

MyAnimeList: 8.50

Madhouse did the honors of helping to establish the One-Punch Man manga as a household name and one of the biggest parodies in the anime world. They were responsible for the subversive show’s first season, which is a tall order. One-Punch Man notably goes against the grain and pokes fun at shonen anime heroes while also having its own inspiring shonen hero.

The anime is about Saitama who was once an unimpressive salaryman. After having a bit of an epiphany, Saitama decided to train for three years straight until he lost all his hair and was finally able to defeat any opponent with just one punch. This unmatchable strength came at a cost since the bald hero suddenly found himself bored with life as no one could hope to present a challenge.

7 A Place Further Than The Universe

MyAnimeList: 8.52

A Place Further Than The Universe explores a premise similar to Nana. It’s about three girls who embrace the unknown and uncertainty in a bid to find what’s beyond their world’s known universe. Each of the four girls has her own reason for taking the path.

One of them is looking for her mother. The other travels out of curiosity. Another does it out of leisure, and the last one just sort of tags along. All of them are drawn to one goal in this dramedy adventure about ambitious yet foolish pursuits.

6 The Tatami Galaxy

MyAnimeList: 8.56

For those looking for a solid arthouse anime with visuals that resemble an acid trip or what one usually sees when intoxicated, then The Tatami Galaxy is Madhouse at its most experimental. The anime utilizes a style that makes it look like a psychedelic rock music video, albeit with a singular visual presentation.

What’s it all about? It’s complicated. But in a nutshell, The Tatami Galaxy is one lonely college student’s second chance to fix his life after wasting two years being toxic and unsociable. It was thanks to a man with an eggplant-shaped head who deems himself a god and grants the lonely student a chance to start again. Pretty trippy.

5 Death Note

MyAnimeList: 8.62

Death Note is the Madhouse anime that defined a generation and its impact on anime culture still reverberates to this day. For one, it’s an anime where the protagonist is also the antagonist. That would be Light Yagami. Unlike most shonen protagonists, he’s also frighteningly intelligent to the point of villainy.

This all happens because a bored shinigami or death god drops their Death Note in the human world. Light happens to find it and discovers that he can use it to kill people just by writing their names. Thus began a series of intricately-planned murders which Light justifies as necessary and correct since the people he kills are all criminals.

4 Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

MyAnimeList: 9.14

An argument could be made that Madhouse’s output is not as consistent nowadays as it was in the late 2000s; however, the studio is still more than capable of producing a masterpiece. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End was the best anime of 2023, and it might repeat that feat in 2024 due to being a two-cour show. Although always popular, fantasy anime have become inescapable since the turn of the decade, with each season seemingly producing about 15 additions to the genre. Frieren is about as close to a “perfect” fantasy series as fiction is likely to produce, one that blends history, adventure, humor, and character development to create a holistic and immersive experience.

Primarily set decades after the hero’s party defeated the Demon King, the story follows Frieren, the group’s long-living elf, on a new journey that retraces the old one. Due to having a different perspective on time, Frieren tends to struggle to connect with other people, but she wants to change that while remnants of her former colleagues still exist in the world. She is accompanied by a few likable characters who are also seeking self-validation, and they bounce off each other extremely well. Frieren features gorgeous animation that brings to life a familiar but detailed medieval-style world, and it tells an adventurous story that leaves room for introspection. While not the main focus, the action scenes are very good as well, especially in the second half of the season.

3 Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit

MyAnimeList: 8.77

A sports anime about boxing hasn’t been done successfully until Hajime no Ippo arrived. After that, it will likely never be done in that magnitude and success again after such a knockout of a series. It was action-packed and raw as far as the characters and the story go.

Hajime no Ippo portrays the plight of Makunouchi Ippo who aspired to be a champion boxer despite being bullied for most of his childhood and teenage life. This was after a pro boxer saved him from a bullying attempt. The rest, as they say, is history for Ippo’s climb into the championship.

2 Monster

MyAnimeList: 8.87

Monster is one of Madhouse’s most universally-acclaimed anime but it doesn’t exactly sell itself well as a morsel for the masses. Instead, it’s a serious drama and thriller about a surgeon and his moral dilemmas which led to a far more sinister plot.

It begins when Dr. Kenzou Tenma gets morally upset after being compelled to save a wealthier person and let a poorer patient die. Thus, he did right by another poorer patient by choosing to operate on him instead of a mayor in his succeeding dilemma. Little did he know, he cultivated a murderer who went after his peers and that same patient is now haunting him several years afterward.

1 Hunter x Hunter (2011)

MyAnimeList: 9.04

Rightfully hailed as a battle shonen masterpiece, Hunter x Hunter‘s manga has been adapted into two anime, once in 1999 and another time in 2011. While the former has its charm, the latter is undoubtedly the superior project, and it highlights Madhouse at its peak. Looking to follow in his father’s footsteps, Gon sets out to become a hunter, a journey that starts fairly typical for the genre and demographic but eventually transforms into something with precious few peers.

Lasting nearly 150 episodes, Hunter x Hunter‘s consistency is ridiculous considering Madhouse did not take any breaks along the way. Despite such a stiff schedule, the company produced a visually impressive series that captures the depth and appeal of the source material.