# What is the best Shinichiro Watanabe anime?

> One director, eight very different shows: jazz bounty hunters, hip-hop samurai, Martian pop duos and a 2025 drug-hunt thriller. Pick the one that still holds up best.

*By YPB Team · Published October 21, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-shinichiro-watanabe-anime*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Cowboy Bebop** — score 1000/1000
   Watanabe's 1998 space-western about a crew of broke bounty hunters, scored by Yoko Kanno.
2. **Carole & Tuesday** — score 590/1000
   A 2019 music drama about two young songwriters on a terraformed Mars.
3. **Samurai Champloo** — score 500/1000
   A 2004 Edo-period road trip that sets sword fights to hip-hop beats by Nujabes and Fat Jon.
4. **Kids on the Slope** — score 389/1000
   A 2012 drama about two teenagers in 1960s Kyushu who bond over jazz.
5. **Terror in Resonance** — score 389/1000
   A 2014 thriller about two teenage bombers leaving riddles for the Tokyo police.
6. **Lazarus** — score 389/1000
   Watanabe's 2025 action series about a team hunting the creator of a deadly miracle drug, with action by the John Wick team.
7. **Macross Plus** — score 0/1000
   A 1994 OVA about two rival test pilots and a virtual idol, co-directed by Watanabe and Shoji Kawamori.
8. **Space Dandy** — score 0/1000
   A 2014 episodic sci-fi comedy about an alien hunter with a pompadour, which premiered on Toonami before Japan.

Tags: tv shows, animation, japan, shinichiro watanabe