# The 14 Greatest Anime Soundtracks of All Time

> Scores that outlived the shows they were written for: orchestral, lo-fi, choral, synth. Pick the one you still put on.

*By YPB Team · Published August 16, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-14-greatest-anime-soundtracks-of-all-time*

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## Current results (0 votes)

1. **Attack on Titan**
   Hiroyuki Sawano's choral, German-titled battle music, later joined by Kohta Yamamoto for the final season.
2. **Cowboy Bebop**
   Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts built a jazz and blues score that the show is now inseparable from.
3. **Naruto: Shippuden**
   A long-running score built on taiko drums and shakuhachi that defined a generation's idea of ninja music.
4. **Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood**
   Akira Senju's orchestral score carries the series' grief as much as its action.
5. **Neon Genesis Evangelion**
   Shiro Sagisu mixed orchestral bombast with lounge jazz and a Beethoven finale.
6. **Princess Mononoke**
   Joe Hisaishi's score for Miyazaki's forest-war epic, written for full orchestra and solo voice.
7. **Spirited Away**
   Joe Hisaishi's piano-led score, including the widely covered closing theme.
8. **Samurai Champloo**
   Nujabes and Fat Jon set Edo-period swordplay to lo-fi hip hop, and invented a whole aesthetic.
9. **Made in Abyss**
   Kevin Penkin's score swings from music-box wonder to full choral dread as the descent gets worse.
10. **Demon Slayer**
   Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina combine traditional Japanese instrumentation with orchestral swells.
11. **Death Note**
   Hideki Taniuchi and Yoshihisa Hirano wrote choral, operatic cues for what is mostly two people thinking.
12. **Ghost in the Shell**
   Kenji Kawai's wedding-chant main theme is one of the most recognisable pieces of anime music ever written.
13. **Steins;Gate**
   Takeshi Abo's synth-and-piano score holds the tension across a time-travel story that mostly happens in one flat.
14. **Your Name**
   RADWIMPS wrote the songs and the score together, so the music drives the edit rather than following it.

Tags: music, animation, japan, soundtracks