Summary
- Madhouse has been producing high-quality anime for over 50 years and has a reputation for creating some of the most iconic series in the medium.
- From romance to action-adventure to psychological thrillers, Madhouse has tackled a wide range of genres and has left a lasting impact on anime history.
- Some of Madhouse's standout series include Cardcaptor Sakura, One-Punch Man, Monster, Parasyte: The Maxim, Trigun, Hunter x Hunter, and Death Note, all of which showcase the studio's exceptional animation and storytelling abilities.
Madhouse is an anime studio that was founded in 1972, and for over 50 years has been putting out some of the best stories ever put to animation. Madhouse was fairly active from 1972 to 2000, but seemed to hit a renaissance in the new millennium, greatly increasing its output without sacrificing much in the way of quality.
The best Madhouse anime run the gamut from romance series to action-adventure to psychological thrillers and horror, and just about everything in between. The names of many of these series have been etched into anime history, becoming some of the biggest names that the medium has ever known. It would be difficult to find an anime fan that doesn't count at least one Madhouse series among their favorites, and if that's not a testament to their success, nothing is.
10 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
Stream on Crunchyroll
Frieren is one of Madhouse's newest series, having only started airing in September 2023, but already it's leaving its mark on the long-lived company's reputation. Frieren tells the story of Frieren, an Elf who once journeyed for 10 years with a party of adventurers to defeat an evil demon lord. After succeeding and parting ways, Frieren meets up with the group 50 years later, and comes to realize how long of a time that is for humans. Frieren adopts an orphan child who was being looked after by one of her party members, Fern, and sets off on a new quest to give her lost friends a fitting farewell.
9 Cardcaptor Sakura
Stream on Crunchyroll
Cardcaptor Sakura is a classic of the Magical Girl genre, one of the series which helped to codify the tropes that would come to define it. It follows young Sakura Kinomoto, who discovers a book of magical cards and accidentally releases them. As the spirits in these cards cause havoc around town, Sakura is recruited by the book's guardian, Kero, to collect the cards and seal them away once again. Sakura eventually encounters Syaoran, a descendant of the magician who originally created the cards and who competes with her to obtain them. The anime greatly expanded on the original manga, and is considered to be one case where the new material really added to the experience.
8 Chobits
Stream on Crunchyroll
Chobits is an anime series based on a manga by CLAMP, who also created Cardcaptor Sakura. Chobits is a very different kind of series, however. In a world where humanoid computers known as Persocoms are commonplace, young cram school student Hideki Motosuwa comes into possession of a seemingly abandoned computer, which he names Chii after the only thing it can initially say. Hideki comes to discover that Chii isn't a run-of-the-mill Persocom, as he slowly learns about the relationships that people have with their machines. Will Chii's origins change how Hideki feels about her, or is it really possible for love to blossom between man and machine?
7 Paranoia Agent
Stream on Crunchyroll
A classic, anime-original TV series by the legendary director Satoshi Kon, Paranoia Agent is one of the most interesting and unique projects that Madhouse has ever worked on. Paranoia Agent follows several characters involved in different plots, such as the detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa, who are investigating a series of attacks by a young boy with a bat known as "Lil Slugger", and designer Tsukiko Sagi, who develops the popular character known as Maromi. The series is almost experimental in design, with each episode very different from the last, often focusing on a unique character, each of whom is plagued by a problem... the kind of problem which only Lil Slugger can solve.
6 One-Punch Man
Stream on Hulu
What's it like to be a superhero who can win any fight with just one punch? Pretty boring, as it turns out. One-Punch Man follows Saitama, a hero for fun whose strength is so great that he can defeat any enemy that he faces without putting in much effort. Saitama craves a challenge, having grown bored from winning every fight so easily, and much of the story revolves around how Saitama deals with his boredom with life. Hilarious at its best and with excellent animation, Madhouse only produced the first season of One-Punch Man, with the second season handled by a different studio due to Madhouse being so busy with other series. Fans agree that the first season is the best, however, due to Madhouse's insane animation quality.
5 Monster
Stream on Netflix
Monster is a psychological horror series about a doctor, Kenzo Tenma, who is placed in a difficult situation where he must choose between saving the Mayor's life or that of a child. At cost of his social standing, Tenma saves the child, but he would come to regret that decision as the kid in question, Johann Liebert, grows up to become a serial killer who ruins Tenma's life. Tenma learns what a monster Johann Liebert truly is, and vows to right the mistake he made all those years ago in saving the kid's life. Monster is a dark and terrifying series, one that could keep even the toughest of viewers up at night.
4 Parasyte: The Maxim
Stream on Crunchyroll
Parasyte is a body horror series about alien spores which rain down upon the earth, and grow into creatures with monstrous abilities that can take over a person's entire body. Shinichi Izumi "lucks out" in that only his right hand has been taken over by the creature, and it was unable to take his whole body before he awoke. Naming the creature Migi, Shinichi must learn to get along with the alien parasyte in his body, as well as battle against those who've been more fully possessed as he tries to learn the mystery of the parasitic aliens. The series is well known for gruesome body horror that's excellently animated by Madhouse, and has a surprisingly deep message to it.
3 Trigun
Stream on Crunchyroll
The original 1998 version of Trigun is a classic responsible for introducing many a sci-fi fan to anime for the first time. Set on a desert planet with a Wild West-like culture, Trigun follows Meryl and Millie, two girls working for an insurance company who are after the legendary Vash the Stampede, a person said to be a one-man natural disaster. While initially attempting to minimize the damage he causes, Meryl and Millie learn that Vash isn't quite the person they thought he was. While the series only adapts the very beginning of the Trigun manga, as that's all there was at the time, the spirit of the series is perfectly captured in its 26 episodes.
2 Hunter x Hunter
Stream on Crunchyroll
Hunter x Hunter is a classic manga that had been adapted once before, but Madhouse decided to tackle it from the beginning, giving the series a modern adaptation that covers far more of the manga. Despite the manga being unfinished, the Madhouse version of the anime ends with surprising finality, while leaving the door open for more (should it ever be produced). The Chimera Ant arc of Hunter x Hunter is often considered one of the best Shonen anime story arcs of all time, and the anime handled it beautifully, despite the pacing problems that the manga itself had.