So as we near the end of this decade, lists like these are pretty fun. A lot of junk trends started in the past few years, but nonetheless there are some real anime gems in these 10 years.

My picks for the five best anime of the decade, simply for how unique, well concieved, and well executed they are, are:

Twelve Kingdoms
Mushishi
Haibane Renmei
PlanetES
Honey and Clover

All fantastic, cut-above-the-rest, wouldn't-hesitate-to-reccomend type anime. Now, if I were to include stuff that I personally liked, Natsume Yuujinchou and Banner 2 would be up there as well.

I'm excluding films, but if they were included certainly Spirited Away would be on there.

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I'd say Mushishi hands down, but you know, there are literally thousands of anime this decade when compared to the previous one. Hard to judge.

I mean, I can easily vote for Cardcaptor Sakura since it's from 2000 (and yes, I like that show, so sue me). Onegai Teacher! would also be in my list of top 20 for sure.

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Originally posted by fenkashi
Screw your opinions, they are not relevant ^^.

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Id agree with Mushishi for sure, but how about the emergence of directors Makoto Shinkai and Mamoru Hosoda? I would have to say that The Place Promised in Our Early Days and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time have to be some of the best films to come out in the past 10 years if not longer. Directors with ideas and the budgets to get it done show that with the proper application of talent and money that anime can be much stronger than h-game adaptations and high school romances. I would really have to shove those to the forefront, if I had to recommend someone an anime who has never watched anything like it before and is skeptical, I would probably rate those two at the top of my list with 5cm per Second a close third.

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My personal opinion of those directors/films: There were several moments in "Girl/Leapt" where I felt like I was watching something brilliant, but I don't feel like everything came together well enough to be considered exceptional (mostly due to the second half). As for Shinkai, I don't feel like he is a well-rounded director yet. His films, or at least the ones I've seen, excel at certain things (creating "snapshots" of moods, the monologues) but are lacking in others (for example, I think B5CM had some problems with characterization). So I guess my issue with these directors/works compared to those of say, Studio Ghibli, is that they just don't come together and feel like "classics" made to perfection.

Just my opinions, of course. I know they have many fans.

Those are well-founded opinions, cant I say disagree entirely, but given the state of much of the anime industry at the moment, ill take the gorgeous backgrounds and snapshot moods of Shinkai and ignore some of the character problems and ill take Hosoda's decent story and creative power over his lackluster organization. Im not too sure how many other non-ghibli movies that came out this decade that were really even approaching the Akiras and GITS'. It has been pretty slow, although the first half of the Evangelion rebuild is looking pretty solid.

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Satoshi Kon had a few films this decade (Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika) that I think are very good. I think he is an excellent director, and a more even one than Shinkai (who seems to get a lot more press).

According to me
Naruto
Bleach
Honey and Clover
Mushishi.

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I think for its originality in presentation, production values and vibrant style, Haruhi should be in the top ten of 2000-2009.

I agree with Haibane Renmei and Mushishi being there.

Honey and Clover is a possible - while the story was very very good and the characterisation excellent I'm not sure it was unique enough in design and content to be truly great.

I might add Paranoia Agent into the list for sheer balls and weirdness. Unless we are including movies, in which case it would be Millenium Actress for Satoshi Kon.

And yep, Spirited Away should be in there if only for it's impact on the rest of the animation world, especially in the west.

I think Bakemonogatari took a fairly standard theme and presented it in a fresh way; though really it was just Mushishi in a high school modern city setting.

Spice and Wolf should be in there possibly.

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