The 8 Most Criminally Underrated Anime Of The Last 10 Years
Published onSeptember 15, 2026
It’s no secret that anime has exploded in popularity in the past decade. What was once seen as a niche genre on late-night TV that most fans watched in three-part chunks on YouTube has now become one of the most profitable and prevalent forms of entertainment in the world. Last year alone, Japan produced over 200 new anime series, whether for television or as original net animations (ONAs), and that’s not even counting films like Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle(2025) that went on to make hundreds of millions at the box office!
While plenty of anime are extolled and praised to the high heavens, countless other all-time classics are ignored and left in the dust. These are anime that, despite their quality, never developed the fan bases they deserved or received mainstream recognition. Maybe it was because they released on a smaller streaming platform. Maybe they had terrible publicity. Maybe their release schedule was weird. But these eight anime are criminally underrated, and they need appreciation now more than ever, so head over to Crunchyroll, Hulu, and more, to check them out!
Re:Creators is the kind of high-concept fantasy that doesn’t exist anymore. Imagine a world where characters can enter the real world because of how popular they are and attempt to seek out their creators to either give them a happy ending or kill them to end their fictional suffering.
Comparisons to the Fateseries aside, the way that Re:Creatorsblends all kinds of genres is nothing short of incredible. Magical girl heroines cross with giant mechas, serial killer villainesses fight grizzled cyberpunk detectives, each with wildly creative abilities that would put a Stand user to shame. The series is chock-full of great philosophical discussions on the nature of storytelling, destiny, popularity, and the blurring lines between fiction and reality. Nowadays, the series has become lost media, unable to be streamed anywhere, which is a travesty and needs correcting ASAP.
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There was a time when, thanks to anime like Akira (1988) and Ghost in the Shell (1995), cyberpunk was the go-to genre of anime. Now cyberpunk titles are far rarer, but occasionally a gem like Akudama Drive comes along to kick your teeth in and fill you with adrenaline.
Starring a cast of infamous criminals—and one innocent girl who gets roped into their chaotic crime spree—Akudama Drivenever lets up at all during its 12-episode murder spree. Spearheaded by Danganronpa’s Kazutaka Kodaka, the series fills each episode with kinetic violence and isn’t afraid to kill its cast, but unlike Danganronpa, the deaths feel organic and further flesh out each of the show’s demented outlaws. Eventually, like our put-upon lead, you too wish to watch the corrupt cyberpunk society they’re in burn to the ground, with a fist-pumping finale that’s thematically perfect.
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Golf isn’t the most exciting sport, so it says a lot that an anime like Birdie Wing: Golf Girl’s Story not only makes golf interesting, but makes it as thrilling as the best Shonen battle series.
The core of the series is the burgeoning rivalry/friendship/romance between the wealthy and perky Aoi and the gruff but mega-talented Eve. Between shouting out the names of their golf moves and an ongoing subplot involving the mafia, just when you think Birdie Wingcan’t one-up itself in ridiculousness, it somehow manages to do so. There’s also no denying there is a genuine love of golf, with Birdie Wingtaking time to explain the intricacies of the sport and how to best play it, just with a huge helping of anime outrageousness. It does for golf what Haikyu!! (2014) did for volleyball, and that alone makes it a real keeper.
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Western crime dramas are cool, but they have nothing on yakuza crime dramas. Ask any fan of the Like A Dragonseries how melodramatic and masculine they can be, and they’ll go on for days about it. Akiba Maid War boldly asks, “What if we made a yakuza crime drama with cute anime girls?”
It shouldn’t work, and yet its commitment to the bit is legendary. All of the tropes you would expect from a yakuza film are here, but they’re parodied so hard they go back around to being deathly serious. It’s impossible not to laugh when, instead of a maid having her finger sliced off, her ponytails are cut. The comedy is on point, but the drama is just as good, with great character moments that will make you feel for these hardened maids trying to make ends meet. The extreme violence and drama somehow mix wonderfully with the moe aesthetics, making Akiba Maid Warone of the best anime crime dramas in recent years.
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Time travel and multiverses have become tired and worn sci-fi tropes, but leave it to Summer Time Rendering to mix them in with just enough horror to create an anime for people wishing that The Summer Hikaru Died (2025) had just a wee bit more bite to it.
Set on the small summer island of Hitogashima, the series delves into the mystical and scientific nature of mysterious shadow-like creatures that roam the island and their plan to erase the island’s inhabitants from existence. Each episode peels back a little bit more of the mystery, constantly bringing into question who can be trusted and who’s a shadow masquerading as a human, à la The Thing (1982). Not a moment feels wasted in Summer Time Rendering,and it somehow balances drama, horror, action, and even romance without letting a single plate fall. In a lot of ways, Summertime Renderingis a supernatural anime for older anime fans looking for something a bit more cerebral but still action-packed and captivating.
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Murder mysteries are hard to do right. While an author can craft a great mystery, there also needs to be a bit of panache to keep audiences engaged, whether that be a charismatic detective like Sherlock Holmes or a strange premise, as is the case with Undead Girl Murder Farce.
Undead Girl Murder Farcecontains all of the intrigue and deception one would expect from a great mystery series, but making the cast monsters like oni, werewolves, and Jack the Ripper certainly does help the series stand apart from the crowd. The writing of each mystery is tight, and watching the lead detective, a literal head in a birdcage, sardonically solve mysteries is never not entertaining. The fact that this series lasted only for 13 episodes is a crying shame, as each case was more compelling than the last. Supernatural murder-mysteries aren’t exactly common, so seeing one like Undead Girl Murder Farcebecome overlooked is a shame.
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It’s bold for an anime to premiere in media res with its penultimate episode, but leave it to Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction to craft a wonderfully poignant sci-fi anime about adolescence and the end of the world.
At its core, Dead Dead Demonsis a drama about two high school girls trying to live their lives with a literal doomsday weapon hanging over their heads at all times. How do you create a sense of normalcy in a situation like that? Is it even possible to make the abnormal a part of our everyday lives? There is a lot of great commentary on society in the show’s 19-episodes, and the journey Dead Dead Demons takes to explain how everything falls apart is captivating. There’s genuine tragedy mixed in with cute slice-of-life antics, but it still manages to be a powerful and life-affirming anime like Girl’s Last Tour (2017).
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The fact that Zenshu didn’t get the attention it deserved upon release was a crying shame. Here was an anime directly attempting to modernize fantasy anime of the ‘80s like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), and most audiences never gave it the time of day.
Anime original series can be hard to sell, but when you have the staff at MAPPA deliver jaw-dropping visuals week after week, you would think that otaku would have gone gag over its animation alone. It is an isekai, which may explain why people skipped it, but it doesn’t fall into any of the tropes of the genre. It deftly explores people’s relationship with media, nostalgia, pre-destination, and our desire for a happy ending in a way that feels fresh and like an inverse Re:Creators.It’s a fantasy epic that feels both modern and classic, and is perfect for a weekend watch.
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