# The 32 Best Madhouse Anime Adaptations

> Half a century of manga, novels and light novels turned into television and film, with prestige thrillers sitting right next to gambling sagas and rom-coms.

*By YPB Team · Published November 1, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-32-best-madhouse-anime-adaptations*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Death Note** — score 1000/1000
   The 2006 adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's cat-and-mouse thriller about a notebook that kills.
2. **Monster** — score 675/1000
   Naoki Urasawa's slow-burn thriller about a surgeon hunting the boy he once saved, adapted in full in 2004.
3. **Cardcaptor Sakura** — score 598/1000
   CLAMP's magical-girl story about Sakura capturing escaped Clow Cards, adapted from 1998 to 2000.
4. **Shigurui** — score 567/1000
   The 2007 adaptation of Takayuki Yamaguchi's brutal Edo-period swordsman manga.
5. **No Game No Life** — score 533/1000
   The colourful 2014 adaptation of siblings Sora and Shiro conquering a world where games settle everything.
6. **Ace of Diamond** — score 495/1000
   The long-running adaptation of Yuji Terajima's baseball manga about a southpaw pitcher at an elite school.
7. **Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust** — score 495/1000
   Yoshiaki Kawajiri's 2000 gothic film from Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D novels.
8. **Highschool of the Dead** — score 495/1000
   The 2010 zombie-outbreak action series built on Daisuke Sato and Shouji Sato's manga.
9. **Frieren: Beyond Journey's End** — score 453/1000
   The 2023 adaptation of the elf mage's journey after the hero's party has already won.
10. **Black Lagoon** — score 453/1000
   Rei Hiroe's gun-heavy crime saga about a salaryman who joins mercenary smugglers in Southeast Asia.
11. **Paradise Kiss** — score 453/1000
   Ai Yazawa's fashion-school romance, adapted in 2005 with an indie-pop edge.
12. **One-Punch Man** — score 405/1000
   The 2015 first season that turned ONE and Yusuke Murata's hero parody into a sakuga showcase.
13. **My Love Story!!** — score 405/1000
   The 2015 rom-com about a giant, big-hearted high-schooler and his first girlfriend.
14. **Kaiji** — score 405/1000
   Nobuyuki Fukumoto's gambling saga about a debt-ridden drifter staking everything on deadly games.
15. **Perfect Blue** — score 405/1000
   Satoshi Kon's 1997 psychological thriller, loosely based on Yoshikazu Takeuchi's novel about a pop idol.
16. **Akagi** — score 351/1000
   Fukumoto's mahjong thriller about a teenage prodigy who plays the yakuza for life-or-death stakes.
17. **The Tatami Galaxy** — score 351/1000
   Masaaki Yuasa's 2010 take on Tomihiko Morimi's novel about a student reliving his college years.
18. **Parasyte -the maxim-** — score 351/1000
   The 2014 modernised take on Hitoshi Iwaaki's body-horror manga about Shinichi and his parasite hand Migi.
19. **Chihayafuru** — score 289/1000
   Yuki Suetsugu's competitive karuta drama, adapted across three seasons from 2011 to 2022.
20. **Claymore** — score 289/1000
   The 2007 adaptation of Norihiro Yagi's dark fantasy about half-demon swordswomen hunting yoma.
21. **Master Keaton** — score 289/1000
   The 1998 adaptation of Urasawa and Hokusei Katsushika's manga about an archaeologist turned insurance investigator.
22. **Overlord** — score 218/1000
   The light-novel adaptation about a gamer trapped as the undead overlord Ainz Ooal Gown.
23. **Trigun** — score 218/1000
   The 1998 adaptation of Yasuhiro Nightow's space western about Vash the Stampede.
24. **Paprika** — score 218/1000
   Satoshi Kon's 2006 film of Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel about a device that lets therapists enter dreams.
25. **The Girl Who Leapt Through Time** — score 218/1000
   Mamoru Hosoda's 2006 film sequel to Yasutaka Tsutsui's time-travel novel.
26. **Barefoot Gen** — score 218/1000
   The 1983 film of Keiji Nakazawa's semi-autobiographical manga about surviving the Hiroshima bombing.
27. **Hajime no Ippo** — score 135/1000
   George Morikawa's boxing epic about a bullied teen who becomes a featherweight contender.
28. **Rainbow** — score 135/1000
   The 2010 adaptation of a bleak manga about seven boys surviving a brutal postwar reformatory.
29. **Chobits** — score 135/1000
   CLAMP's 2002 story about a student who finds a mysterious humanoid computer in the trash.
30. **Beck** — score 135/1000
   The 2004 adaptation of Harold Sakuishi's rock-band manga about a bored teen who learns guitar.
31. **Hunter x Hunter (2011)** — score 0/1000
   Madhouse's 148-episode remake of Yoshihiro Togashi's manga, from the Hunter Exam to the Chimera Ants.
32. **Nana** — score 0/1000
   Ai Yazawa's story of two young women named Nana sharing a Tokyo apartment, adapted in 2006.

Tags: animation, japan, adaptations, madhouse