This list is pretty easy for me to fill out, because my personal top ten has not really changed over the last twenty-five years. It’s mostly denoted on my MAL with tens, which I fully admit were bias on my part and probably not objective to the shows themselves. So I will adjust those scores more evenly for this guide.
Kidou Senkan Nadesico
Aired: Oct 1, 1996 to Mar 25, 1997
Episodes: 26
Studio: XEBEC
Tenkawa Akito is a refugee from Mars who came to Earth to realize a dream of becoming a chef. But before he could realize his dream, he is thrust aboard a privately-chartered battleship heading back to Mars, with his childhood friend in the Captain’s seat. With a motley crew of weird and eccentric nobodies, they must embark on a dangerous journey to determine the fate of the universe.
I am first and foremost a science fiction nerd. I am second and utmost a giant robot nerd. So when I first watched this show back in 2001, having downloaded fansubs for it off IRC XDCC in Realmedia format, I stayed up almost all night watching every episode until I passed out at nearly 4AM and was almost late to school later in the morning. Not only was it such an amazing parody of other mecha series of the time, but it morphed into its own plot and character stories. I was also irrationally attached to Hoshino Ruri as a character, in what I would later find out to be me gravitating towards introverted and autistically-coded characters in media. This show has never budged from my top ten, even with how bad The Prince of Darkness movie was for doing my boy Akito dirty.
Score: 9/10
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Pluto TV, Apple TV
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha
Aired: Oct 3, 2004 to Jun 19, 2015
Seasons: 4
Episodes: 64
Studio: Seven Arcs, A-1 Pictures
Takamachi Nanoha was just a third-grader going about her daily life when an injured ferret appears both before her dreams and then her, thrusting her into a fantastical and magical tale that has her defending her hometown, family, and friends, befriending her enemies, and ultimately crossing entire worlds and universes in pursuit of justice.
Rather than rate each series separately, I decided to put them all together as a franchise and make it my number two choice, despite the performance of Nanoha StrikerS. The charm of Nanoha is that it leads you to believe it is a traditional shoujo magical girl show, but turns very dark towards the end of the first season, and even darker the second. StrikerS is by far the most heavy-handed and expands the universe substantially, before reeling it back in a bit for Vivid. As of yet, no anime adaptation has been made of the Force manga, which is a goddamn shame because that has some real good use of our hero, and more Vita. Stupid Sexy IT’S HAMMER TIME Vita.
Unfortunately, this show does not seem to be on any streaming services. So if you’re truly interested, I suggest sailing the high seas or buying it on DVD somewhere.
Score: 8/10 (StrikerS and Vivid unfortunately pull the average down on this one)
Where to Watch: No streaming services have this title.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear
Aired: Jan 6, 2012 to Sep 29, 2019
Seasons: 5
Episodes: 65
Studio: Satelight
Amou Kanade, one-half of the famous idol duo “Zwei Wing”, uses her extraordinary power to save a girl at their concert from an alien attack, at the cost of her life. Two years later that girl, Tachibana Hibiki, sees that same power awaken in her, and must come to terms with how to use it in order to defend everyone from further alien attacks alongside the other half of the duo, Kazanari Tsubasa, and others.
What I might have dismissed as just another show to promote the careers of Yuuki Aoi, Takagaki Ayahi, and Mizuki Nana, ended up being a five-season incredible fighting humanoid-mecha experience that I enjoyed the fuck out of a lot. It channeled that successive spirit of Nanoha and gave it a sort of Karate Kid-esque experience. The songs were catchy, the transformation sequences were the goddamn greatest part of the show hands-down. Example from XV:
Simply put, Symphogear is just pure unaltered action meant to energize all of your senses and get you standing up and shouting FUCK YEAH HIBIKI FUCKING CLOBBER THEM FOOLS or stare at Stupid Sexy Chris all day. The only downside is that the writers kind of lost the plot going into AXZ, so while they did their best to pump up XV with amazing transformation scenes and good music, by the end not even I knew what the hell was going on.
Score: 8.5/10
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer
Aired: Apr 1, 2001 to Sep 23, 2001
Episodes: 26
Studio: Bones
In a game called Angelic Layer, contestants battle each other with dolls controlled by their mind. Suzuhara Misaki moves to the city and witnesses its top player reign on national television, and embarks on her own quest to battle with her own Angel, Hikaru.
The very first fansub I ever downloaded of a first-run anime series in 2001 was Studio GAINAX’s Mahoromatic. The second series I began downloading that year was Angelic Layer. Now, at the risk of people telling me what my sexual preferences were, or are, for liking this show, I still think it’s an amazing and cute series combining a teenage girl’s coming-of-age slice-of-life with that of a highly-competitive, do-everything-it-takes-to-win sports series. It’s also futuristic in its premise, and Mihara “Icchan” Ichirou is such an adorable autist, which is probably another cue for me as to my preferences in characters.
That said, it’s a CLAMP series, though one of their more less-abstract, more streamlined plots. No noodle people or weird shit, and Hikaru is obviously a homage to Magic Knight Rayearth. Also being fairly old and niche, it’s not on any streaming service I could find. This will be another sea voyage, and even then I’d be impressed if you find it. I have the first-run ADV DVDs, the manga in both English and Japanese, and maybe a few wall scrolls left. Listen man, I make no apologies for my high school and post-high school cringe. It was a bad time for me.
Score: 7.5/10
Where to Watch: No streaming services have this title.