TOP 10 ANIMATED TV SERIES

 

I’ll be blunt – my favorite TV series are always animated TV series. It was that way when I was a child, watching animated series for children, and now it is that way as an adult, watching animated series for adults.

Hence, my top animated TV series would also tend to be my top TV series in general – as well as ones that I can (and do) watch repeatedly. I look forward to new series or seasons of my favorite series. And whatever the animated series, whether for children or adults, I’ll usually enjoy checking it out, at least for an episode or so.

That said, my Top 10 Animated TV list is more fluid than most of my top ten lists. The top one or two entries may be set in stone, at least for the foreseeable future, but there tends to be a high turnover of entries below them as I tend to turn older series (or series that have run past my enduring interest in them) into special mentions and replace them with newer series at a high rate.

Note also that while I dabble in anime on occasion, it’s nowhere near the extent to which I watch ‘western’ animation on TV – so I keep anime TV series in their own separate lists.

 

 

 

 

(10) HAUNTED HOTEL

(NETFLIX 2025: SEASON 1)

 

 

“This hotel has a dark history, Ms. Freeling. Murders, suicides, disappearances. Before it was a hotel, this was an asylum. Before that, a prison. Before that, a different asylum! Evil is drawn to this place, and legends say these grounds hold one of the six gates to hell.”

I usually reserve my tenth place in my top ten lists as a wildcard entry for the best entry from the present or previous year – that is, in the case of TV series, a series with its first season in the present or previous year.

There were a couple of contenders for animated TV series with its first season in 2025. I considered Creature Commandos for this entry but as at this time I’ve only seen the first three episodes – in the limited time that they were available free on Youtube, so the wildcard winner was this series which premiered on Netflix in 2025.

I mean, the horror genre just screams out for comedic parody or satire skewering its tropes and I’ve always had a soft spot for the latter, such as the Halloween specials on The Simpsons – still arguably the best and most enduring episodes of that series (which features in my special mentions). Sometimes the genre even does it to itself but more usually it’s done by animated TV series like this.

Although I’d never quite thought about how many ghost or horror stories are set in, well, haunted hotels, before I was prompted by this series. Of course, the most famous or archetypal is Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining – the most obvious source of inspiration and reference for this series, not least in the name of the hotel as The Undervale mirroring that of The Overlook in the Shining.

Indeed, haunted hotels tend to be fantasy kitchen sinks for horror – that is, the trope in TV Tropes as a punning quip on throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. In the case of haunted hotels, the whole hotel seems to be a hellmouth for haunting or evil supernatural forces, and not just a haunted single room or so.

And that’s pretty much the premise of Haunted Hotel, but with the comedic twist that the ghosts can’t actually do anything threatening being, you know, ghosts – except financially, as the female protagonist struggles to make a business out of the hotel she inherited from her deceased brother, who is foremost among the hotel’s ghosts and in fairness tries to be helpful. You’d think that an actual haunted hotel would be a thriving attraction, particularly when the ghosts can’t hurt you – although there are some supernatural entities other than ghosts that can be threatening.

As per the precis on TV Tropes (without the voice cast names) – “The series follows Katherine, a single mother who inherited a hotel called the Undervale in upstate New York from her late brother Nathan, and is now stuck trying to turn a profit from a hotel filled with ghosts, demons, poltergeists, and pretty much any spooky weirdos you can imagine. Thankfully (or not) Nathan’s ghost has been added to the hauntings of the hotel, providing some dubious assistance. Meanwhile, Katherine’s hormone-addled 13-year old son Ben and scheming, magically savvy daughter Esther adjust to living in the hotel, along with Abaddon, an ancient demon possessing a little boy from the 18th century.”

 

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

 

(9) BLUE EYE SAMURAI
(NETFLIX 2023 – PRESENT: SEASON 1+)

 

Who doesn’t like a roaring rampage of revenge?

I liked it as film with Kill Bill. I liked it as (live action) TV series with My Name. And I like it here as animated TV series with Blue Eye Samurai.

So now I have a holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge. Well, those and John Wick, but John Wick is more my Hail Mary (or Ave Maria) of roaring rampages of revenge. (And yes – that’s a somewhat lapsed Catholic joke about squeezing in a fourth person when you already have three people in a trinity, particularly when that fourth person has their own complicated mythos going on).

Kill Bill even used the phrase – its protagonist Bride stating that she “went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a roaring rampage of revenge” (which Tarantino characteristically borrowed from the tagline to a 1972 film Bury Me an Angel).

Interestingly, all my holy trinity are either east Asian (My Name is Korean) or a fusion of east Asian and Western popular culture. Japanese and Korean film or TV are growing influences in Western popular culture – and they certainly do roaring rampages of revenge well.

This animated series is set in the seventeenth century Japanese shogunate that had isolated itself from the world, in what is called the Edo period, albeit a somewhat alternate historical version given some of the plot details or events.

That makes life even more difficult for our protagonist, the titular blue eye samurai – whose blue eyes immediately mark mixed-race ancestry. That’s on top of another problem for the protagonist in sixteenth century Japanese society, which is something of a spoiler, albeit one easy to guess by the voice (and voice actor) and soon revealed in any event.

Which makes for yet another interesting characteristic of my holy trinity of roaring rampages of revenge – the sex of their protagonist. It’s also interesting to compare the different sources for the roaring rampage of revenge in each case – the Bride is seeking to avenge herself on her ex-lover, the protagonist in My Name is seeking to avenge her father, and the Blue Eye Samurai is seeking to avenge herself on her father.

Its standout feature – consistently noted by reviewers – is “its breathtaking animation quality” and never more so than for its exquisitely crafted fight scenes. Our Blue Eye Samurai is almost supernaturally skilled with a blade (consistent with just a hint of fantasy to the series) but does take a beating from time to time. It’s not just the fight scenes – it’s the visual attention to detail with character and background design.

It’s also not just the visual quality, as important as that is to animation. It has a compelling storyline, with twists and turns, as well as immersion into its setting. And it’s not just the Blue Eye Samurai whose story is engaging – almost every other character, major and minor, including the adversaries or antagonists, are also engaging or intriguing, boosted by the stellar voice cast.

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

(8) THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA
(PRIME 2022 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

 

“We’re Vox Machina – we f**k sh*t up!”

Yes – it’s Dungeons & Dragons, the animated adaptation of the first campaign of Critical Role, a weekly web video of voice actors playing the game. And it would seem surprisingly effective condensing the story out of what is presumably much messier game play. Let’s just say the alignments tend towards chaotic

So yes – it features its ensemble cast as a classic D & D adventuring party: ax-crazy goliath barbarian Grog, insecure half-elf druid Keyleth, aristocratic human gunslinger Percy, brash gnome cleric Pike, snarky half-elf twins ranger Vex and rogue Vax, and of course everyone’s favorite lecherous comic relief, gnome bard Scanlon.

Because everyone loves bards! Does anyone not play bards as lovable sex maniacs? I’m pretty sure it’s a class feature

The first season also featured a superb antagonist necromancer-vampire duo in Sylas and Delilah Blackwood, the latter voiced by Grey DeLisle, who always does good villainess voice.

And again – Rings of Power take note this is how you do it…

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(7) SOLAR OPPOSITES

(2020-2025: SEASONS 1-6)

 

“Planet Shlorp was a perfect utopia… until the asteroid hit. 100 adults and their replicants were given a pupa and escaped into space, searching for new and uninhabited worlds. We crash landed on Earth stranding us on an already overpopulated planet. That’s right, I’ve been talking the whole time, I’m the one holding the Pupa, my name’s Korvo. This is my show. Bollocks! I just dropped the Pupa! Ugh, this is ridiculous! I hate Earth, it’s a horrible home! People are stupid and confusing…”

I’ve been able to catch this series now it’s on Netflix (except for the final sixth season) – essentially Rick & Morty crossed with Third Rock from the Sun, with epic fantasy drama thrown in the segments involving “the Wall”. That’s particularly so as voice actor Justin Roiland essentially replayed Rick as the leading alien Korvo, although he was replaced by Dan Steven as voice actor for…reasons. I’m a fan of Dan Stevens so I didn’t mind, particularly as they explain it in series by their recurring gag of “SF stuff””.

 

RATING:

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(6) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
(NETFLIX 2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-4)

 

“Heavy Metal for millennials”

Love, Death, and Robots is an adult – very adult (or perhaps adolescent) – experimental animated SF and fantasy anthology series on Netflix produced by Tim Miller and David Fincher.

And it is very much an anthology series – consisting of stand-alone or self-contained episodes, usually 10-20 minutes (with the occasional shorter episodes) and produced by different casts and crews in different styles. It’s genre-bending (and blending) between science fiction, fantasy and horror, although leaning towards science fiction (particularly cyberpunk) – hence the robots of the title. Episodes tend toward the themes of – well – love, death and robots, albeit the former two are very broad (and often leaning more towards sex and violence). Most of them are adaptions of short stories from notable SF (or fantasy) writers – including Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Alastair Reynolds and Joe Lansdale.

And the tagline comes from its – ah – heavy influence or inspiration from the comic / magazine Heavy Metal, which highlighted original science fiction stories and art, mixed in with erotica, and the “raunchy, absurd 1981 film of the same name which took viewers a step beyond science fiction.”

As an anthology, it’s something of a mixed bag, but there’s bound to be something you like by way of “a striking or exciting style of animation” or “a genuinely shocking twist”.

 

RATING:
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

(5) PRIMAL
(2019 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3)

 

Spear and Fang – a Neanderthal and his tyrannosaur. Or is that a tyrannosaur and her Neanderthal?

Those names – Spear and Fang – are never given in the episodes themselves, which are a marvel of mute mood, only in the titles or credits. Mute in that Spear, our Neanderthal protagonist, does not speak any language as such – although he can be very vocal in grunts or bellows and is otherwise extremely expressive in face and body language. Fang, the tyrannosaur is no slouch in expression either. Primal’s creator, Genndy Tartakovksy, is famous for being light on dialog in his work, but in Primal he has achieved an animated masterpiece with no dialog.

The unlikely but powerful bond between Spear and Fang is the beating heart of the series – unlikely in that it arises in very particular circumstances and endures beyond them, but of course in the context of our world where they are tens of million years apart. It soon becomes apparent that, while the creatures of Primal seem drawn (heh) from models in our own, that this is not our world as we knew it – as the waning age of dinosaurs seemingly overlaps much more with the rising age of mammals. And oh boy – how they are drawn, with lush beautiful animation particularly for its creatures and their landscapes, as well as evocative music or sound.

The world of Primal diverges even more from our own as it becomes an increasingly fantastic setting, dramatically so from episode 4 Terror Under the Blood Red Moon or episode 5 Rage of the Ape Men (with its heartbreaking cliffhanger climax).

In my opinion, this leads to the three episodes that are my personal highlights of the first season – with Spear and Fang facing off against, and typically having little choice but to flee from, their most dangerous and fantastic opponents in sequences of genuine horror or terror. A plague zombie dinosaur in episode 7 Plague of Madness, dark magic in episode 8 Coven of the Damned, and a mysterious invisible creature that seemingly kills for sport in episode 9 The Night Feeder.

However, the most dramatic change of all occurs in its final episode of the first season, when the world of Primal changes radically again to something very different from all preceding episodes – as we see in the second season.

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(4) HARLEY QUINN
(2019-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-5+)

 

“No way! It’s got comedy, action, incredibly gratuitous violence, and unlike that Deadpool cartoon, it’s actually coming out!”

Now this is how you do Harley Quinn! (Well that and The Suicide Squad film – the one by James Gunn in 2021, not the other one).

Harley Quinn has split off from the Joker and aspires to become the criminal queenpin of Gotham with best friend Poison Ivy and a motley crew of henchmen – Doctor Psycho, Clayface and King Shark. Of course, setting out to become queenpin isn’t going to be easy – but it does make for a fun f-bomb-dropping adult animated series that is by turns “crude, raunchy, violent and completely shameless about all of it”, not to mention a blackly comic parody of the DC comics and cinematic universes.

Add in a stellar voice cast (led by Kaley Cuoco, who voices Harley Quinn to perfection matched only by Margot Robbie in hot pants) and you’ve got a winning formula, particularly in its “grasp of what makes its titular antiheroine so beloved”. As per Caroline Framke of Variety – “Most importantly, Harley gets to be an entire person all her own, as heartbreakingly naive as she is wickedly strange and funny”. It also demonstrates that she’s more than just eye candy – although she plays that to her advantage – but also surprisingly effective in combat and crime with her gymnastic ability, as well as smart and indeed insightful into her own state of mind (when she chooses to be).

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(3) INVINCIBLE
(PRIME 2021 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3+)

 

“Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power!”

Beware the Superman!

It often seems that the deconstruction of superheroes – particularly along the lines of the trope beware the superman – is more popular these days than the more straightforward narratives of them as heroic figures.

Certainly that seems to be the case for two of the most popular series on Amazon Prime – live-action series The Boys, and this animated series, each adapted from a comic of the same name. In the case of Invincible, it was adapted from a comic series that ran from 2003 to 2018, by none other than Robert Kirkman of The Walking Dead fame – although I prefer Invincible, both for the comic and its adaptation. For that matter, I tend to prefer Invincible to The Boys for the breadth and depth of its superhero universe, which features a more DC or Marvel style universe with aliens, parallel dimensions and supernatural beings – although usually with a twist in the tropes.

We are introduced to the titular superhero as Mark Grayson, pretty much your typical high school student, except that he is the son of Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet – and just maturing into his own superhero powers, inherited from his father.

And that’s where things start to get complicated, as he quickly learns there is much more to this world than meets the eye – with some jaw-dropping twists and turns along the way, particularly concerning his own father – including a season finale montage which indicates things are just starting to heat up for Invincible.

The animated adaptation has an all-star voice cast, most notably with J.K. Simmons as its Superman character, Omni-Man (or Nolan Grayson as he is in his everyday suburban life).

 

RATING:
A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(2) RICK AND MORTY
(2013 – PRESENT: SEASONS 1-8+)

 

“SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!! It’s fine! Everything is fine! There’s an infinite number of realities, Morty! And a few dozen of those, I got lucky and turned everything back to normal! I just had to find one of those realities in which we also happen to both die around this time. Now we can just slip into the place of our dead selves in this reality, and everything’ll be fine. We’re not skipping a beat, Morty. Now help me with these bodies”.

As its second place entry indicates, Rick & Morty is the best animated series bar one, ever since its premiere in 2013 – “If you haven’t watched Rick and Morty, a cartoon about the adventures of a mad scientist and his hapless grandson, teleport to the nearest screen and shove every episode into your eyes as soon as possible.”

Rick and Morty was inspired by Back to the Future, if Doc Brown was a caustic alcoholic sociopath and Marty his ever more progressively traumatized grandson – and instead of travelling through time, they hop dimensions throughout the multiverse. It plays with, parodies, satirizes, subverts and deconstructs tropes across the range of popular science fiction and fantasy.

The focus is of course on the titular characters (both of whom voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland) and their bizarre misadventures – as mad scientist (and maternal grandfather) Rick Sanchez constantly pulls Morty Smith, a hapless high school student (whom Roiland voices with the perfect distressed wail), and increasingly, Morty’s older sister Summer, out of their normal lives to go on abstract trips across the multiverse for purposes that are never usually expressed. However, the rest of the Smith family is also comedy gold – particularly Morty’s harried and insecure father Jerry (perfectly voiced by Chris Parnell), who is also increasingly (and often unwillingly) dragged into the duo’s adventures. As such, the general formula consists of the juxtaposition of two conflicting scenarios – the intergalactic or interdimensional adventures of the eponymous duo, intercut with family drama. (Co-creator Dan Harmon has referred to it as a cross between The Simpsons and Futurama, balancing family life with heavy science fiction). At the center of it all is Rick, who drinks and behaves like a jerk most of the time – although he has saved the Earth at least once by getting schwifty.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

(1) ARCHER
(2009 – 2023: SEASONS 1-14)

 

“Every single noun and verb in that sentence totally arouses me!”

Indeed, as does every episode of my favorite animated TV series Archer, still running strong from its debut in 2009. Although perhaps a more descriptive tagline might be that used by TV Tropes from this exchange between the titular character, Sterling Mallory Archer (codenamed Duchess) and his mother:

“Most secret agents don’t tell every harlot from here to Hanoi that they are a secret agent!”

“Then why be one?”

Aptly described as James Bond meets Arrested Development, the series is about the title protagonist, a dysfunctional spy, working for a dysfunctional spy agency headed by his mother, in which virtually everyone and everything is dysfunctional. Even the time setting of the series is dysfunctional – it is “comically anachronistic, deliberately mixing technology, clothing styles and historical backdrops of different decades”, not to mention the Soviet Union. (“How are you a superpower?”):

“What year is this?”
“I know, right?”

Archer has a reputation, certainly in his own mind, as the world’s most dangerous spy – and he might well be, but for his negligence or incompetence fuelled by one of his many vices and his tendency to remain oblivious to everything but himself. “His primary interest in the job is the opportunity to enjoy a jet-setting lifestyle full of sex, alcohol, thrills, lacrosse, fast cars, designer clothing, and spy gadgets” – hence, my adoption of him as my spirit animal. (After all, who doesn’t want to go on a cobra whiskey bender in Thailand?)

However, he is proficient in field work or stereotypical spy skills – weapons (including an uncanny ability to keep track of every shot fired), combat and driving – although in large part this is driven by the complete lack of any sense of his own mortality or ability to take situations seriously (accompanied by a childlike or adolescent delight in them).

Archer is one of the few (or perhaps only) animated series I recommend to people who are not otherwise a fan of animated series, because in style (including its realistic art style) resembles a live action series – indeed, with a few cosmetic changes, it could be a live-action series. (Well, if only H. Jon Benjamin resembled the appearance of Archer as well as providing his voice – man, I love his voice!). It certainly is a series that improves with watching it (in sequence) over time – as TV Tropes notes, the series’ humor “relies heavily on call backs and running gags alongside a large ensemble cast”, many of whom are recurring and as much a source of character humor as Archer himself.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

 

 

 

TV – ANIMATION: TOP 10 (TIER LIST)

 

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

(1) ARCHER
(2) RICK & MORTY

If Archer is my Old Testament of TV animation, Rick and Morty is my New Testament.

And as an exception to the rule of the highly fluid nature of my TV top tens, Archer has good prospects of enduring in top spot (and my interest) beyond its peak quality and final Season 14, particularly as it’s a series I rewatch with pleasure. After all, Archer is my spirit animal!

 

A-TIER (TOP-TIER)

 

(3) INVINCIBLE
(4) HARLEY QUINN
(5) PRIMAL

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(6) LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS
(7) SOLAR OPPOSITES
(8) THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA
(9) BLUE EYE SAMURAI

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER – BEST OF 2025)

 

(10) HAUNTED HOTEL