Top 21 Best Cool Anime [2024]

Some of the coolest anime series are the most popular in the community. Some of these are the best anime of the ’90s that shaped the modern anime below as well.

These anime shows are unquestionably cool whether it’s fighting monsters, watching epic animation, or experiencing the creative stories and fleshed-out characters, these anime shows are unquestionably cool!

Best Cool Anime

21. Deadman Wonderland

It was supposed to be fun. Ganta Igarashi and his class were going on a field trip to Deadman Wonderland, an amusement park of convicts.

Ganta was going to kick back and watch prisoners entertain his class with dangerous, sometimes deadly acts. Unfortunately, the fun ends at the door when a mysterious man dressed in red slaughters Ganta’s entire class.

Ganta is framed for their murders and ends up on the opposite side of Deadman Wonderland.

With a fatal collar locked around his neck, Ganta must survive all the deadly and sadistic games while trying to hunt down the “Red Man” who killed his class and prove himself innocent.

20. Blue Exorcist

Twins Rin and Yukio Okumura never knew their parents but are raised by a kind yet a strict priest. Other than that, the two have always been pretty normal.

One day, Rin gets attacked by demons. That wasn’t normal.

It turns out, neither are he or Yukio. They are both the sons of Satan. Their father wants Rin’s help to conquer the Human World, Rin wants no part of it.

He decides to become an exorcist to protect his world against his father and side-by-side with his brother.

19. Bleach

Ichigo Kurosaki’s simple high school life is disturbed when his family is attacked by an evil spirit known as a Hollow.

Luckily, Ichigo and his family are saved by Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper. Not so lucky, Rukia gets injured and, to protect her and his family, Ichigo takes her powers and becomes a Soul Reaper himself.

Losing her powers, Ichigo must now take on her duties as a Soul Reaper by destroying the remaining Hollows in his town.

Alongside new teammates, Ichigo faces the evil of the world and threats that go beyond just the Hollows.

18. Inuyasha

15-year-old Kagome Higurashi’s family owns an old shrine with a cursed well inside. Kagome was always somewhat nervous about the well, but she never expected a demon to pop out of the well and drag her down it!

When Kagome manages to climb out, she’s not back at home—she’s 500 years in the past!

Upon her arrival, Kagome quickly becomes the target of demons after a powerful jewel known as the Shikon Jewel that dwells into her body.

In pure desperation, Kagome frees a half-demon, half-human called Inuyasha from an ancient tree to save her and protect the jewel.

The Shikon Jewel shatters to pieces, and the two together set out to collect the scattered pieces and find a way to get Kagome home.

17. Soul Eater

Maka Albarn is the meister of Soul Evans, a Demon Scythe at Death Weapon Meister Academy. Soul can transform into a weapon which Maka uses to fight evil creatures and witches to collect their souls to grow stronger.

Other ambitious students surround Maka and Soul like the hotheaded assassin, Black☆Star, and the symmetry-obsessed Death the Kid—son of the school’s headmaster, Lord Death.

Alongside their eccentric friends, they work together as a team to fight the evils of the world and uncover the wicked plans of a certain witch by the name of Medusa.

16. Beastars

A world of anthropomorphic animals, carnivores, and herbivores struggle to coexist with each other.

So when an alpaca, Tem, is murdered at Cherryton Academy, no one knows who to trust.

One that almost everyone suspects are a grey wolf named Legoshi. But Legoshi is a gentle and kind wolf who only wants to find his friend’s killer.

In the midst of this tragedy, Legoshi’s life crosses paths with a white dwarf rabbit named Haru.

Despite being a harmless herbivore, she is relentlessly bullied and belittled by her classmates.

Legoshi finds himself falling for the feisty bunny but fights against his predatory instincts to harm her.

Legoshi must face his new nature if he and Haru are ever going to survive the cruel society ahead of them.

15. Noragami

16-year-old Hiyori Iki saves a boy from being hit by a car. Or, at least, she thought she did. She was dead. At least, she was supposed to be.

Apparently, she’s become half-phantom, and the boy she saved is actually a god. Well, a minor god.

Yato is the “Delivery God” who dreams of heaving his own shrine with millions of worshippers. For now, he’ll have to settle for going odd jobs for ¥5.

Maybe fortune will change for both Hiyori and Yato as he helps Hiyori return to normal, and she helps Yato find a new partner to help her and him realize his dream.

14. Kill la Kill

With a broken pair of her Scissor Blade in hand, 17-year-old Ryuko Matoi transfers to the elite and equally bizarre Honnoji Academy to find her father’s murderer who will have the missing side of her Scissor Blade.

The only thing getting in Ryuko’s way from tearing up the school is the striking and ruthless student council president Satsuki Kiryuin and her student council member known as the Elite Four (not Pokémon).

Nothing can stop them and their “Goku Uniforms” that give them superhuman abilities. Going back to her father’s lab, Ryuko finds something that can even the odds.

13. Durarara!!

16-year-old Mikado Ryuugamine has always wanted to live in the big life and finally finds himself moving to Tokyo, Ikebukuro.

Although stories of gangs and dangerous people surround the city, Mikado feels like he’s living the dream—especially when he sees the urban legend, the headless “Black Rider.”

Mikado has no idea what he’s getting into, and the supernatural hidden in the city starts to show its colors and blends Mikado and other normal people with the unusual that throws the city into disorder.

12. Death Parade

This series provides the answer to what happens after death. No heaven, no hell. There is a single bar called Quindecim sitting on the border of reincarnation and oblivion.

It’s here that Decim hosts game from darts to bowling to air hockey to pairs who have just died.

Their true nature will be revealed in these games, and fates will be determined—either reincarnation or an empty void.

Decim continues his rulings and judgment until a newcomer with amnesia makes him begins to question everything.

11. Tokyo Revengers

26-year-old Takemichi Hanagaki was once a respectful member of a gang and a loving girlfriend, Hinata Tachibana.

Now, he’s a nobody, and his now ex-girlfriend Hinata and her brother are killed by the Tokyo Manji Gang. Takemichi’s time is coming to an end too by a train.

Inches from his own death, Takemichi discovers that he can travel back in time. In the past, Takemichi is able to talk to Hinata’s brother and tells him about his future death and to protect his sister.

When Takemichi returns to his present, he expects to be dead, but Takemichi managed to change the future.

Now, he decides to do whatever it takes to save Hinata from being killer by the Tokyo Manji Gang.

10. Trigun

Vash the Stampede is a heartless villain, a man who destroys cities and kills for the fun of it! He is the “Humanoid Typhoon,” the man with the $$60,000,000,000 bounty.

Vash is the softie, the harmless, donut-obsessed…what? Maybe the rumors are just that.

Vash travels across Gunsmoke while being pursued by Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, two insurance agents trying to lessen his destructive ways.

Neither of the girls knows what they’re getting themselves into, as Vash’s past put all of their lives in danger—especially when they get targeted by elite assassins.

9. Dr. Stone

High schooler Taiju Ooki picked the worst time to confess his love to his long-time crush Yuzuriha Ogawa. Then again, how could he have known a bright green light was going to petrify the whole Earth and turn everyone to stone!

Too many thousands of years later, Taiju finally awakes, and the once modern world he knew is overgrown by nature.

Eventually, Taiju finds another human that has managed to awaken, and it so happens to be his best friend and scientific genius, Senku Ishigami. Senku has big plans to rebuild the world—with science!

8. Psycho-pass

Taking place in the dystopian world of Japan in the 22^nd century, justice is upheld by the Sibyl System.

It is able to study its citizen’s mental state and determine threat levels of crime called Psycho-Pass.

To enforce the system, Inspectors dispose of anyone who possesses an ounce of malice or hostility.

They work alongside Enforcers, criminals whose only sliver of freedom is cleaning up the Inspectors’ messes.

Rookie Inspector Akane Tsunemori hopes to continue the support of the flawless Sibyl System.

As she begins to work with veteran Enforcer Shinya Kougami, she starts to see the cracks in her justice and the system that makes Akane begin to question everything.

7. Baccano!

In the 1930s of Chicago, several different people with their own stories come to ahead on the train, Flying Pussyfoot, with the ending being full of gunfire and bloodshed. Deaths?

Not so much, especially when there are a couple of immortals on the train.

A war between the mafia groups, a scientist looking for missing bottles of the immortality elixir, and a wannabe thief couple that has bizarre connections with each other and somehow finds themselves on the same train with their own different agendas that will connect them all together immortality on the Flying Pussyfoot’s train tracks.

6. Yu☆Yu☆Hakusho

14-year-old delinquent Yusuke Urameshi is the protagonist of this story—oh—never mind, he just got hit by a car trying to save a boy. The show’s over.

As a spirit, Yusuke is greeted by the grim reaper, Botan, a blue-haired girl in a pink kimono.

Apparently, the young boy was going to dodge the car, and Yusuke died for no reason! Cool. However, Yusuke is given another chance at life and becomes the Earth’s Spirit Detective.

5. Mob Psycho 100

Reigen Arataka is “the Greatest Psychic of the 21^st Century”, but he’s just a below-average con artist.

His assistant, 14-year-old Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama, is a real psychic and an extremely powerful one at that. So much so that he always has to keep his emotions under control.

As Mob goes from exorcising evil spirits to crush on his childhood friend Tsubomi from afar, things get a bit more complicated as he and Reigen uncover a terrorist organization of psychics known as Claw.

Will they push Mob to use his psychic power at 100%?

4. Haikyu!!

Inspired by the volleyball ace “Little Giant,” the short orange-haired Shoyo Hinata starts playing volleyball at his middle school and gets to play at his first tournament.

It’s here that Hinata meets the “King of the Court,” Tobio Kageyama, and a fierce rivalry was born!

After middle school, Hinata enrolls at Karasuno High School and signs up to join the volleyball team. One problem: his rival, Kageyama, is on the team!

Surrounded by talented and eccentric teammates, Hinata tries to find a place on the team as they make their way to nationals and then the best volleyball team in all of Japan!

3. Samurai Champloo

Fuu Kasumi is just a simple but clumsy girl who lives a peaceful life and works as a waitress at a humble teahouse. She didn’t mean to spill a drink on a customer or get harassed by their group, but here we are.

Fuu asks for help from a samurai named Mugen, who easily defeats them with his strange samurai-breakdancing technique.

Mugen classes with a stronger ronin named Jin, and they end up destroying the store and accidentally kill the magistrate’s son. Oops.

The two samurai are planned to be executed, but Fuu manages to save them. Fuu has one request, for both Mugen and Jin to accompany her in her search to find a samurai who smells like sunflowers.

The three begin this adventure, and Fuu tries to keep the peace between Mugen and Jin. She didn’t think this through.

2. Jujutsu Kaisen

High schooler Yuji Itadori simply spends his time going from his friends’ Occult Club to the hospital to see his aging grandfather. Who knew all of this would change by just eating a finger? Well, not just any finger.

With his life on the line, Yuji swallows the finger of a demon known as the “King of Curses,” Sukuna Ryoumen.

Yuji discovers the world of Curses and the damage they do to the world. To watch over him and the resurrected power of Sukuna, Yuji transfers to Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Tech High School and starts his new life as a Jujutsu sorcerer!

1. Hunter X Hunter (2011)

Hunters capture criminals and search for treasure, but 12-year-old Gon Freecss wants to become a Hunter to find his father. Easier said than done. Luckily, Gon isn’t alone on his journey and finds a friend in Killua Zoldyck who ran away from his family of assassins.

Together, they find more friends to join them. Leorio Paradinight, a narcissistic medical student, and Kurapika, the solo survive of his clan and on the path of vengeance. 

The group goes through the fatal Hunter Exam and the hardships of facing monsters, enemies, and other bizarre and deadly creatures.