Anime1: the anime season list from 2004 to 2018, and where to watch it

Why a season list

Anime is made for the season. A studio usually plans a series as one or two cours, blocks of twelve or thirteen weekly episodes, timed to begin with a new broadcast season. That rhythm shapes the way fans watch: a new season brings a wave of first episodes, a few weeks of sampling, and then a shortlist of favourites followed to the final week.

A season list captures that rhythm. Instead of a gallery of posters, it gives you rows: the name, the number of episodes, the year, the season and the date of the latest episode. You can see at a glance how long a series runs, when it began and how recently new episodes arrived. It is a quiet, practical way to browse, and it suits a collection like this one, where many series are easier to recognise by name than by picture.

The table also makes comparison easy. Sort the rows in your head by season and you can see which series shared a broadcast slot; read down the Year column and you can watch the art of TV anime change across fifteen years. For anyone who grew up with these seasons, the list is a memory lane; for newcomers, it is a map.

The Anime1 design

Anime1 has a clean, bright look. A white header carries a large bold name on the left, a short tagline and a row of menu links on the right, closed by a thin grey rule. Below it, a pale grey page holds two columns: the content on the left and a sidebar on the right.

The content column opens with a short introduction and a row of quick links to the four seasons and the four eras. Then comes the heart of the site, the anime list: one long table with a light blue heading row and white rows divided by thin grey lines. Each row shows the anime name, the number of episodes, the year, the season and the date of the latest episode, and the list is sorted so the series with the newest episode comes first. Below the table, a second table lists the shelves with their sizes, then come the help pages and this guide.

The sidebar holds a search box with a bright green button and three short lists: Popular now, with the episode count of each series in brackets, the shelves and the main help pages. On a phone, the header folds into a menu button, the sidebar moves below the content and the table keeps the name and episode columns, so it stays easy to read with one thumb. A dark grey footer with green links closes every page.

How to use Anime1

The simplest way to use Anime1 is to read the table. Scroll down, and when a name catches your eye, open it. The series page gives you the story, the studio, the main voice cast, the full episode list with air dates and the Watch now button.

To jump straight to a series, use the search box at the top of the sidebar, or in the menu on a phone. Type an English title or a Japanese title in Latin letters, or even a part of either; results appear as you type. Add a season and an episode, such as Baka and Test S2E3, to go directly to that episode. The Browse page lists every series from A to Z if you prefer to scan.

For a theme, use the shelves. The four season shelves gather series by the month they began, the four era shelves gather them by year, and the genre shelves gather action, comedy, fantasy and drama. There are also shelves for game adaptations, series with short episodes and the best-rated titles. Save anything you like with Add to My List, and My List keeps your place episode by episode.

The Watch now button is the last step. Choose your country, press the button and JustWatch opens with the official services for that country: subscriptions, rentals, purchases and free services with adverts. Catalogues shift as licences renew and expire, so a series that sits on one service this month may move to another later; the button always shows the current list for the country you pick.

How an anime season works

The Japanese broadcast year has four seasons, each named after the month in which it begins. The winter season starts in January, spring in April, summer in July and fall in October. New series usually premiere in the first weeks of the season, one episode a week, and most finish twelve or thirteen weeks later. A series that continues for a second block of episodes is called a two-cour series and runs for about six months.

Many of the series in this list were shown late at night. From the late 1990s, Japanese channels used the hours after midnight for anime aimed at older teenagers and adults. These slots were cheaper, which let smaller studios and new creators take risks. Production committees, groups of companies that share the cost of a series, often included publishers, music labels, toy makers and game companies, and each brought ideas about what the series should be.

Other series in the list were made for early evening or weekend mornings, when families watch together. MÄR: Märchen Awakens Romance, Idaten Jump, Majin Bone and The Beast Player Erin ran for a year or more in family slots. Still others were made in very short formats: a few minutes an episode, perfect for a late-night gap or a phone screen. The Short episodes shelf gathers thirty of these.

The seasons on Anime1

Every row in the anime list shows the season in which the series began. The four season shelves split the collection by that same rule: the Winter seasons shelf gathers series that began from January to March, Spring seasons from April to June, Summer seasons from July to September and Fall seasons from October to December.

The spring and fall seasons are traditionally the largest, since they line up with the start of the Japanese school year and the busy autumn schedule, and that pattern shows on Anime1 too: the spring and fall shelves are the biggest. Winter and summer seasons are often a little smaller, with more experiments and short series. Browsing one season shelf from top to bottom is a fine way to sample the variety of a single broadcast window across fifteen years.

The late-night boom, 2004 to 2009

The middle of the 2000s was a time of rapid growth. Digital production had replaced painted cels, DVD sales were strong and the number of new TV series each year climbed to record levels. Studios such as Bee Train, Satelight, Xebec, Gonzo, Shaft and BONES produced original series alongside manga and novel adaptations, and many of the most interesting titles were completely new stories.

Bee Train's MADLAX, directed by Koichi Mashimo, follows a mercenary in a war-torn country and a young woman in Europe whose lives are linked by a mysterious book; with its haunting music by Yuki Kajiura, it belongs to a celebrated trio of stylish action dramas. Satelight's Noein: To Your Other Self is a science fiction story about a girl in Hakodate caught between parallel worlds, built on ideas from quantum physics, with energetic animation and a warm summer feeling. Xebec's Fafner, short for Fafner in the Azure, defends a peaceful island with giant robots against a mysterious enemy.

Sunrise's My-Hime gave schoolgirls powers to summon guardian beasts and became so popular that it was followed by My-Otome, set in a fantasy world centuries later, and the short sequel My-Otome Zwei. BONES made Kurau Phantom Memory, about a girl who shares her body with an energy being, and Studio Deen made Simoun, a thoughtful fantasy about young priestesses who fly sacred aircraft.

The decade also brought long fantasy epics. Madhouse's Kiba ran for fifty-one episodes, following a young man who travels to a world of warring nations and spirit summoning. Gonzo's Pumpkin Scissors follows an army unit helping a nation rebuild after a long war, and its Red Garden sends four girls in New York into a strange battle against monsters. Toward the Terra, from Keiko Takemiya's classic manga, imagines a future where humanity is ruled by a computer and a new people with psychic powers search for Earth.

Gentle series of the 2000s

The 2000s were also rich in quiet, charming series. Manabi Straight!, made by ufotable, is a bright story about a student council president who brings new life to a school with dwindling numbers. Tweeny Witches follows a girl who dreams of magic and falls into a world of witches, warlocks and fairies. Pani Poni Dash!, made by Shaft, is a wild school comedy led by an eleven-year-old genius teacher, packed with visual jokes in every corner of the screen.

At the Mercy of the Sky follows a high school astronomy club, Umi Monogatari is a sea-themed magical girl story and GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class takes place in an art high school. Looking Up at the Half-Moon is a moving story about a boy in hospital and a girl who loves books. Each of these is a fine choice for a relaxed evening.

The streaming decade, 2010 to 2018

The 2010s changed how the world watched anime. Legal streaming services began to offer new episodes with subtitles within hours of their broadcast in Japan, and fans everywhere could follow a season as it aired. Studios responded with ever larger line-ups, and new players arrived: Chinese co-producers such as Haoliners, global platforms such as Netflix and mobile game companies with large budgets.

The decade opens on Anime1 with Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts, made by Silver Link, a school comedy in which students summon little avatars whose strength depends on their test scores; it has two seasons, and the second keeps the same madcap spirit. Stray Cats Overrun!, Okami-san and Her Seven Companions and Dream Eater Merry continue the lighter side of the early decade, while A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives and Sacred Seven bring fantasy and action.

From 2012, the list gathers some of the most imaginative series of the decade. Satelight's Bodacious Space Pirates makes a high school girl the captain of a licensed pirate ship, and its careful attention to how spaceflight works wins over science fiction fans. The Ambition of Oda Nobuna retells the life of the warlord Oda Nobunaga with a playful twist. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou follows a group of young artists, programmers and writers in a school dormitory, and is a heartfelt story about talent and hard work. Sanzigen's Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova uses full computer animation for a sea battle against a fleet of mysterious warships.

The middle of the decade adds fantasy adventures such as Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, in which a group of young people wake in a fantasy world with only memories of their names and must learn to survive as a party of adventurers; its soft watercolour backgrounds and slow, thoughtful pace make it a favourite of many viewers. Yuuki Yuuna Is a Hero begins as a cheerful story about a club that helps people and turns into a moving tale of courage and friendship.

The final years of the list are among its strongest. Izetta: The Last Witch sets a young witch in a small European country at war, in an alternate version of the 1940s. Altair: A Record of Battles, made by MAPPA, follows a young general and diplomat in an empire inspired by the Ottoman world. Fate/Apocrypha stages a great war between two teams of legendary heroes. B: The Beginning, made by Production I.G for Netflix, is a stylish detective thriller in an island city, and Mr. TONEGAWA Middle Management Blues turns the villain of a famous gambling saga into the hero of an office comedy.

Year by year

The 2004 to 2007 shelf gathers the first boom years: MADLAX, Noein, My-Hime, Tweeny Witches, Kiba, Simoun, Pumpkin Scissors and Toward the Terra. The 2008 to 2011 shelf follows with The Tower of Druaga, Blassreiter, Tales of the Abyss, The Beast Player Erin, Valkyria Chronicles, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Baka and Test and the Marvel series.

The 2012 to 2015 shelf holds Bodacious Space Pirates, Black Rock Shooter, Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Yuuki Yuuna Is a Hero, KanColle and Young Black Jack, and the 2016 to 2018 shelf, the largest, holds Grimgar, Thunderbolt Fantasy, Izetta, Fate/Apocrypha, Altair, B: The Beginning and many more. Each shelf is sorted by popularity, so the best-known titles of each era come first.

Science fiction

Science fiction is one of the great strengths of the list. Beyond Noein, Fafner and Toward the Terra, there is Starship Operators, in which the cadets of a training ship declare war against an invading empire and pay for their campaign by selling the broadcast rights to a television network. Appleseed XIII adapts Masamune Shirow's story of a future city where humans and bioengineered people live side by side. Blassreiter, from Gonzo, pits motorcycle-riding heroes against mysterious creatures in a near-future Germany.

Space adventure appears in Bodacious Space Pirates, The Girl Who Leapt Through Space, about a girl who befriends a sentient space colony, and Ozma, a sea-of-sand adventure designed by the great Leiji Matsumoto. Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova and Leviathan: The Last Defense take to the seas and the skies. Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: Gravity Front tells three short stories of ordinary soldiers in the One Year War of the Gundam saga, using computer animation.

The near future is also well represented. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, made by BONES and Kinema Citrus, follows a teenage girl and her little brother trying to get home after a great earthquake strikes Tokyo during a summer trip; it is a gripping, tender series about family and courage, and it is often recommended to viewers who rarely watch anime. Psychic Squad and its spin-off Unlimited Psychic Squad imagine a world where children with psychic powers work for the government, with plenty of comedy along the way.

Fantasy

The Fantasy and science fiction shelf is the largest genre shelf on Anime1. Its fantasy side ranges from fairy tales to epic adventures. The Beast Player Erin, made by Production I.G from Nahoko Uehashi's novels, follows a girl who grows up to care for the great beasts of her kingdom, the war serpents and the flying royal beasts. Across fifty episodes it becomes a rich story about nature, politics and the bond between people and animals, and it suits viewers of every age.

The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk is based on the 1984 Namco arcade game and follows a party of adventurers climbing a great tower; it mixes comedy and adventure with clever references to role-playing games. The Sacred Blacksmith follows a young knight and a swordsmith in a city still recovering from war. The Book of Bantorra is set in a world where the dead turn into stone books that hold their memories, guarded by armed librarians. MÄR: Märchen Awakens Romance sends a boy into a fairy-tale world where magical items called ÄRMs decide every battle.

Later fantasy series include Witch Craft Works, a fast and funny story about a schoolboy protected by a powerful witch; Matoi the Sacred Slayer, a gentle magical girl story about a shrine family; Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars, with giant guardian robots in a small kingdom; and HAKYU HOSHIN ENGI, an adaptation of a classic manga based on the Chinese novel Investiture of the Gods.

Game adaptations

Video games have inspired anime since the 1980s, and the Game adaptations shelf gathers forty series from console, arcade, mobile, card and visual novel games. Some follow the game closely; others use its world as a stage for new stories.

The console classics include Valkyria Chronicles, made by A-1 Pictures from Sega's strategy game, a war story in a painterly European setting about a young tank commander and a volunteer militia defending their small country; Tales of the Abyss, from Namco's role-playing series, about a sheltered young noble who learns hard lessons on a long journey; Disgaea, a comic tale of a demon prince and his unlikely allies; and Viewtiful Joe, Capcom's stylish action hero who jumps into a film world to rescue his girlfriend.

Online and mobile games account for many more. Ragnarok The Animation adapts the Korean online role-playing game, Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation follows a school club that discovers Sega's online game, and Seven Senses of the Re'Union is set among the players of a once-popular online game. Monster Strike and Monster Strike The Animation come from one of the most played mobile games in Japan, and KanColle: Kantai Collection comes from a browser game in which warships are imagined as girls.

Arcade and card games add Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation, a time-travel action story from Square Enix; Lord of Vermilion: The Crimson King, from another Square Enix arcade card game; Luck & Logic and its spin-off Hina Logic: From Luck & Logic; and Lostorage incited WIXOSS, a tense card-battle drama. Visual novels, the interactive story games popular in Japan, inspired Ef: A Tale Of Memories & Melodies, White Album, Myself; Yourself and Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom.

Visual novel dramas

The visual novel adaptations deserve a special word. Shaft's Ef: A Tale Of Memories & Melodies tells two linked love stories in a city that mixes Japanese and European architecture, with bold visual experiments in every episode. White Album, from Leaf's game, follows a university student whose girlfriend becomes a rising pop idol in the 1980s, and its songs became famous in their own right. Myself; Yourself follows a boy who returns to his hometown and reconnects with childhood friends.

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, made by Bee Train from Nitroplus's game written by Gen Urobuchi, is a darker story: a young Japanese tourist in Los Angeles loses his memory and is trained as an assassin for a crime syndicate. It is a gripping thriller about identity and freedom, and it shows how much the visual novel form could add to TV anime.

Marvel in Japan

In 2010 and 2011, Marvel and the studio Madhouse made four anime series that bring American superheroes to Japan, with scripts supervised by Warren Ellis. Iron Man follows Tony Stark as he comes to Japan to launch a new power plant and a new suit; Wolverine sends Logan to Tokyo to rescue the woman he loves from a crime family; X-Men brings the team to Japan to investigate a mutant crisis; and Blade, the fourth series, completes the set. In 2017, Madhouse returned with Marvel's Future Avengers, a lively series for younger viewers in which a group of children train with the Avengers.

These series are a fascinating meeting of two traditions: the familiar Marvel characters drawn in the style of Japanese TV anime, with Japanese voice actors and Japanese settings. They are also a good introduction to anime for comic fans, and the Superheroes in anime help page gathers them together with other heroes.

Comedy

The Comedy shelf is one of the liveliest on Anime1. School comedies lead the way: Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts, Pani Poni Dash!, AHO-GIRL, about a cheerful girl whose love of bananas is matched only by her energy, and Anime-Gataris, about a high school anime club that turns into a surprising adventure. Girlish Number is a sharp, funny look behind the scenes of the voice acting world, and Cheating Craft follows students who treat cheating on exams as a competitive sport.

Parody has its own corner. Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! gives a group of lazy schoolboys magical-girl powers, complete with costumes and transformation scenes. Magical Girl Ore turns a girl into a muscular male magical warrior whenever she transforms. Gakuen Handsome and Gakuen Basara: Samurai High School play with the habits of romance games and samurai epics. World War Blue is a cheeky retelling of the console wars between Sega and Nintendo, with the companies imagined as rival kingdoms.

Some of the funniest series are also the shortest. Astro Fighter Sunred follows a superhero in the suburbs of Kawasaki who spends more time doing the shopping than fighting, while the villains of the evil organization Florsheim turn out to be thoughtful neighbours. Sekko Boys turns four classical plaster busts into an idol group, Space Patrol Luluco, from the studio Trigger, is a bright, fast-moving space comedy in eight-minute episodes, and Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life follows a lazy little creature with big dreams.

Drama and romance

The Drama shelf gathers stories of the heart. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, The Beast Player Erin and The Pet Girl of Sakurasou are among its finest, joined by Waiting in the Summer, a summer story of a group of friends making a film, and Rec, a sweet romance between a young office worker and an aspiring voice actress.

Sola is a gentle, melancholy fantasy about a boy who loves photographing the sky, Uta~Kata follows a girl who meets a mysterious being in a mirror during her summer holidays, and The Girl in Twilight follows a group of school friends whose radio club experiment opens doors to other worlds. Between the Sky and Sea imagines a future where fishing has moved to space, and Seven Senses of the Re'Union is a tender story about friendship and loss in an online game.

Action and adventure

The Action and adventure shelf gathers eighty series of battles, quests and chases. Buso Renkin, from Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin, follows a boy brought back to life with an alchemical weapon in place of his heart. Stigma of the Wind is a stylish urban fantasy about a wind master and a fire-wielding family. KUROKAMI The Animation and Elemental Gelade follow young heroes bound to mysterious partners.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens is a crime comedy about hitmen, detectives and a baseball team in Fukuoka, a city where a surprising share of the population seems to be professional killers. Tiger Mask W revives the masked wrestler of the 1960s, made together with a real Japanese pro-wrestling promotion. GARO -VANISHING LINE- and Garo: Crimson Moon follow the knights who hunt demons called Horrors, one in a modern American city and the other in Heian-period Kyoto.

Thunderbolt Fantasy and Taiwanese puppetry

One series on Anime1 has a special link to Taiwan, home of the list sites that inspired this one. Thunderbolt Fantasy is a co-production between the Japanese writer Gen Urobuchi and Pili International Multimedia, the Taiwanese company famous for its glove puppet dramas. Instead of drawings, it uses beautifully crafted puppets, filmed with live-action techniques and digital effects, to tell a wuxia story of swordsmen, a stolen sacred sword and a mysterious wanderer.

Taiwanese glove puppetry, known as budaixi, began as a street theatre art in southern China and Taiwan and grew into a television phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s. Pili's productions brought it into the age of special effects, and Thunderbolt Fantasy introduced it to Japanese anime fans with Japanese voice acting and music by Hiroyuki Sawano. With fifty-one episodes across its seasons, it is one of the most unusual and rewarding series in the whole list.

Chinese co-productions

The late 2010s also saw Chinese and Japanese studios working together. Spirit Blade Mountain, made by Studio Deen from a Chinese web novel, is a light fantasy comedy about a young man who joins a mountain sect of spiritual cultivators. Haoliners Animation, based in Shanghai, co-produced Cheating Craft, and THE REFLECTION is a superhero story created with Stan Lee and the director Hiroshi Nagahama, set in a world where a mysterious event has given some people strange powers. These titles show how anime grew into an international art in this period.

Studios to know

Many studios appear again and again in the list. Gonzo, one of the busiest studios of the 2000s, made Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, Stigma of the Wind, Blassreiter, My Bride is a Mermaid and Ozma. Satelight, known for its musical mecha series, made Noein, Bodacious Space Pirates, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens and Caligula. Bee Train made MADLAX and Phantom, and Shaft made Pani Poni Dash!, Rec, Ef and Sasami-san@Ganbaranai with its typical bold, graphic style.

J.C.Staff contributed Okami-san, Dream Eater Merry, Waiting in the Summer, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Witch Craft Works and Sword Oratoria. A-1 Pictures made Valkyria Chronicles, Grimgar and Fate/Apocrypha, while Madhouse made Kiba, the Marvel series, The Ambition of Oda Nobuna and Mr. TONEGAWA. Production I.G made The Beast Player Erin, Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Appleseed XIII and B: The Beginning, and MAPPA, a rising studio of the late 2010s, made Altair and GARO -VANISHING LINE-. Following a favourite studio is a fine way to discover new series.

Creators and source works

Behind many series stand famous authors. Nahoko Uehashi, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, wrote the novels behind The Beast Player Erin. Keiko Takemiya, one of the pioneers of girls' manga, created Toward the Terra. Leiji Matsumoto, creator of Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999, designed Ozma. Osamu Tezuka's legacy appears in Young Black Jack, which imagines the student years of his famous unlicensed surgeon, and in Ray the Animation, a spin-off about a surgeon with X-ray vision.

Writers from games and light novels shaped the decade too. Gen Urobuchi wrote Phantom's original game and Thunderbolt Fantasy, Takahiro wrote Yuuki Yuuna Is a Hero, and Ken Akamatsu's manga inspired UQ Holder!, a fantasy adventure about an immortal boy. Kazuya Minekura, creator of the Saiyuki saga, is represented by Saiyuki Reload: Burial, Saiyuki Gaiden and Bus Gamer. Go Nagai's robot hero returns in Shin Jeeg, and the Ultra monsters of Tsuburaya Productions appear as girls in Kaijuu Girls.

Japan Animator Expo

In 2014 and 2015, the studio Khara, famous for Evangelion, and the video site Dwango presented Japan Animator Expo, a series of thirty-six short films by different directors, each in its own style. It was a showcase for the creativity of Japanese animators, and several shorts grew into larger projects. The most celebrated of them, The Dragon Dentist, was expanded into a two-part television special in 2017: a young girl joins the dentists who protect the teeth of a giant dragon from decay, in a world of wars, faith and fate. It is one of the most beautiful productions in the list.

Short-episode series

Short-episode series became a lively part of every season in the 2010s. Running from three to fifteen minutes, they suit late-night slots, mobile phones and quick breaks. The Short episodes shelf gathers thirty of them, from comedies to music videos and exercise programmes.

Muromi-san follows a cheerful mermaid who visits a boy fishing at a pier in Fukuoka. Hakone-chan celebrates its hot-spring hometown with friendly mascots, and Onara Gorou is a cheeky comedy for children. Anime de Training! Ex turns exercise into a song-and-dance routine with idol characters, perfect to watch while stretching. Hacka Doll follows three app assistants who help people in daily life, and Miss Bernard Said. is a book-lover's comedy full of literary references.

Some shorts are pure artistry. Tabi Machi Late Show, from CoMix Wave Films, the studio of Makoto Shinkai, tells four short stories of people at the start of a journey. Tokyo Marble Chocolate is a two-part romance about a nervous young couple at Christmas, told first from his side and then from hers. Patema Inverted: Beginning of the Day is the short prequel series to Yasuhiro Yoshiura's film about a girl from an underground world where gravity runs the other way.

Series for families

Families have plenty to choose from. MÄR: Märchen Awakens Romance, Idaten Jump, about mountain biking battles, Majin Bone, about heroes in bone armour, and Monster Strike are action series made for younger viewers. Tweeny Witches, Chibi Devi!, a sweet story about a girl who looks after a baby devil, and Marvel's Future Avengers are lovely for children, and The Beast Player Erin and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 suit older children and parents watching together.

Several series are tied to everyday Japanese life and make a gentle introduction to the country: Hakone-chan for local culture, Umi Monogatari for the seaside, At the Mercy of the Sky for astronomy and Manabi Straight! for school life.

Music and voices

Music is a big part of the anime season. Opening and closing songs become hits, composers build careers on a single memorable score, and voice actors become stars. On Anime1 you can hear Yuki Kajiura's choral themes in MADLAX, Hiroyuki Sawano's thunderous score in Thunderbolt Fantasy and the pop songs of White Album, which were written as part of the story.

Girlish Number gives a witty view of the people behind the voices, following a young voice actress who expects instant fame and learns how the industry really works. Black Rock Shooter began as an illustration by the artist huke and a song by the music group supercell before growing into a television series. When you watch a series with its original Japanese audio, you hear the performances the creators had in mind; many services also offer English dubs for those who prefer them.

Learning Japanese with anime

Anime is a popular way to practise Japanese. Slice-of-life series with clear, everyday conversation are a fine place to start: Manabi Straight!, At the Mercy of the Sky, Umi Monogatari and The Royal Tutor use friendly, polite speech. Comedies use more slang and fast jokes, so they are better for later.

A useful method is to watch an episode with subtitles in your own language, then again with Japanese subtitles if the service offers them, and finally with Japanese audio alone. The Japanese titles on each series page, written in Latin letters, are good vocabulary too: a title such as Kure-nai or Saki is often a single, meaningful word.

Routes through the list

If you are new to the period, try one of these routes. For a weekend of science fiction, watch Noein: To Your Other Self, Bodacious Space Pirates and Toward the Terra. For fantasy, choose The Beast Player Erin, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash and Altair: A Record of Battles. For a week of laughter, pick Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts, Pani Poni Dash! and Astro Fighter Sunred.

For drama, try Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou and Izetta: The Last Witch. For action, pick MADLAX, Fate/Apocrypha and B: The Beginning. For something completely different, watch Thunderbolt Fantasy and The Dragon Dentist. Each route mixes early and late seasons, so you will see how much the art changed in fifteen years.

An anime evening

The season format makes anime perfect for a regular evening ritual. Pick one series, watch two or three episodes each week and follow it to the end, just as fans did when it first aired. Or invite friends for a marathon: a twelve-episode series fills an afternoon and an evening with breaks for food.

Short-episode series make good openers, and a two-part special such as The Dragon Dentist or Tokyo Marble Chocolate can be the main event. Keep a list of what everyone wants to watch next in My List, and use the season shelves to choose a theme for each evening.

Sports, games and hobbies

Hobby series were a small delight of almost every season. Saki, and its companion Saki Episode of Side A, turn the table game mahjong into a tournament drama full of rivalries, tactics and friendship, and they helped introduce the game to a new generation. Two Car follows pairs of girls racing motorcycle sidecars on Miyake Island, where the driver and the passenger must move as one. Idaten Jump mixes mountain biking with fantasy, and Tiger Mask W brings pro-wrestling to life with real wrestlers among its inspirations.

Model kits and toys have their own series. Frame Arms Girl follows a girl who receives a talking model robot and joins her in tiny battles on the desk, and Busou Shinki: Armored War Goddess imagines a world where small robot companions live with their owners. Crane Game Girls follows a group of friends who become champions of the claw machines in game centres. These series are fun to watch with a hobby in mind, and they capture the playful side of Japanese everyday life.

History and period settings

Many series in the list travel back in time. The Ambition of Oda Nobuna and Gakuen Basara: Samurai High School play with the warlords of the Sengoku period, the great age of castles and samurai. Garo: Crimson Moon is set in the Heian period, when the imperial court ruled from Kyoto and poets were as admired as warriors. Libra of Nil Admirari takes place in the Taisho era of the early twentieth century, when Japan mixed kimono and Western dress, gas lamps and trams, and its heroine joins a bureau that guards mysterious books.

European history inspires other series. The Royal Tutor follows a small, strict tutor who teaches four very different princes in a kingdom inspired by central Europe, and is a warm comedy about learning to understand each other. Izetta: The Last Witch reimagines the 1940s in a small Alpine country, and Pumpkin Scissors takes place in a nation rebuilding after a long war, with the look of early twentieth-century Europe. Altair: A Record of Battles draws on the Ottoman Empire and the trading cities of the Mediterranean, and Princess Princess and Poor Sisters Story bring the charm of school life and family stories to the same lists.

For viewers who love history, these series are an inviting way to explore distant times and places, and many of them encourage a trip to the library afterwards to read more about the real events behind the stories.

All the shelves

Anime1 has sixteen shelves. The Anime list holds every series, and four season shelves and four era shelves split it by date. Four genre shelves gather Action and adventure, Comedy, Fantasy and science fiction and Drama; a series can sit on more than one. Game adaptations, Short episodes and Top rated complete the set.

Each shelf page uses the same table as the home page, with the anime name, the episodes, the year, the season and the latest episode date, so moving between shelves feels familiar. The shelves table on the home page shows how many series each one holds.

The help pages

Fifteen help pages answer the common questions. How to watch explains the steps from the table to the screen. The anime seasons, The seasons of 2004 to 2009, The seasons of 2010 to 2018, Game adaptations and Superheroes in anime introduce the list. Languages and dubs, Finding a series and My List cover everyday use, while Apps and devices, Free anime, Where Anime1 series stream, Streaming safely, Is Anime1 working? and The official Anime1 site handle the practical side.

How the list is chosen

Every series on Anime1 was picked by hand from the Japanese TV anime that began between 2004 and 2018. The editors read the story and the audience of each candidate and keep the list focused on adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction and family series that a wide audience can enjoy. The list is also designed to complement the other guides in the same family, so it gathers the wider season line-ups rather than repeating the most famous hits.

Series information comes from TMDB, the community database of film and television, and it grows with that database: new episode details, posters and cast lists arrive as contributors add them. The latest episode date in the table comes from the same source, so the order of the list always reflects the newest information available.

Watching today

Series from these seasons reach viewers through many routes. Anime-focused subscription services hold large back catalogues with subtitles and dubs; general streaming platforms carry a changing selection; digital stores sell complete seasons; and services with adverts offer some series for free. In Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, regional services and official video channels carry many titles with Chinese subtitles.

Licences are agreed region by region, so the services in Taiwan may differ from those in the United States, Germany or Brazil. The Watch now button keeps this simple: pick your country and JustWatch shows the current offers there. Watching on official services supports the studios and creators who make each season possible, and gives you the best picture and subtitles.

Welcome

Thank you for visiting Anime1. Whether you are looking for a series you half remember from years ago or exploring these seasons for the first time, the season list is here to help. Read the table, follow a shelf, save your finds in My List and come back whenever you want a new series to follow. Fifteen years of anime seasons are waiting.

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