Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Death Note, One Punch Man, Nana, Trigun, Kaiji, Chihayafuru, No Game No Life, Paranoia Agent, Hellsing Ultimate, The Tatami Galaxy, Parasyte: The Maxim — Whether you realize it or not, Madhouse may just be the studio behind some of your favorite animated works, even contributing their skills to Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle and Adult Swim’s adaptation of The Boondocks. Founded in 1972 by former Mushi Production animators Masao Maruyama, Osamu Dezaki, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri, has since had a long filmography of making some absolute masterpieces.
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Whether for their series or films, Madhouse is renowned for their animation prowess. So much so, collectively, their films have won a total of two Japan Academy Prizes, two Gertie Awards, six Mainichi Film Awards, three Ōfuji Noburō Awards, and three Animation Grand Awards, two Tokyo Anime Awards for Animation of the Year, and five Animation Kobe Feature Film Awards. As such, it can be pretty difficult to pinpoint exactly which ones could be considered the studio’s finest. Even so, here’s our picks for some of their best that no fan should ever miss!
1) Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
While ten years is a huge amount of time for others, its but a drop in the bucket in Frieren’s extremely long lifespan of over a thousand. Upon disbanding after a decade-long quest to defeat the Demon King and returning to her everlasting hobby of traveling to collect spells, outliving two of her former companions, Frieren realizes how the time spent with them truly impacted her and regrets having taken the bonds and precious memories for granted. So, she journeys beyond what was once a task completed to forge stronger bonds with people and strive to create and understand personal connections.
From the beautiful animation, to the atmospheric music, to complex characters the audience can really get familiarized with along their journey, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is not just one of the absolute best, most renowned works of Madhouse, but one of the absolute best, most renowned anime ever.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End can be streamed on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, or Crunchyroll where available.
2) Monster
When renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Kenzou Tenma is faced with the moral dilemma of either saving a child’s life or following orders to perform surgery on the town’s mayor, he manages to save the life of the young boy, Johan Liebert. Unfortunately, Tenma’s good intentions come with their own consequences. Years later, beyond losing his job and fiancée, deaths mysteriously begin cropping up, with suspicions pointing a finger at Tenma himself, forcing him to face the consequences of his choices and the monster he allowed to live.
If you want a great mystery to binge, Tenma’s pursuit that leads him to travel on a lengthy, years-long journey spanning 74 episodes full of psychological suspense and thought-provoking questions of morality is an absolute classic series by Madhouse.
Monster can be streamed on Netflix.
3) Death Note
As Ryuk can’t stand the mundanity of the Shinigami Realm, he finally decides to shake things up in his boring, immortal life. When he drops his Death Note into the human world, it’s none other than bright 17-year-old student Light Yagami who stumbles upon it. Questioning whether the macabre rules of writing names to end lives is an elaborate prank, Light decides to put it to the test by writing a felon’s name, which proves the Death Note’s authenticity as Light inadvertently enacts his first murder. Adopting the alias “Kira”, Light justifies his continued use of the Death Note by taking the lives of those he deems evil. But with an enigmatic serial killer gaining notoriety, the mysterious genius detective known as L is hot on Kira’s trail, the chase becoming a battle of wits.
Death Note is a well-known, beloved classic anime by Madhouse that has been a sort of beginner, more mature anime for many coming of age. So much so that it’s been referenced by many other types of media as a familiar anime in general.
Death Note can be streamed on Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Peacock, Pluto, or Tubi where available.
4) Sonny Boy
Though 36 students and their school becoming lost in a void-like dimension is already strange, their situation becomes even stranger when some students gain supernatural abilities. Although the student council attempts to impose order, a sense of detachment begins to divide the group as the students possessing special abilities rebel against the only sense of authority the student body has. Eventually, the conflict actually brings the students to discover the strange world’s set of rules necessary for survival. And after one student decides to take a chance and the school yet again swaps dimensions, they soon learn that each world has its own unique set of challenges that the students must decipher in hopes of finding their way back home.
If you’re looking for a severely underrated, enigmatic anime, Sonny Boy is for you. While this title isn’t as renowned as others by Madhouse, this series is definitely a gem of a pick for anyone interested in a strange new world that the audience can puzzle out alongside the variety of unique characters.
Sonny Boy can be streamed on Crunchyroll or Hulu where available.
5) Death Parade
Though most people expect to be sorted into either Heaven or Hell directly after death, to the special few who die in pairs, they make a pit stop in Quindecim, a sort of purgatory-like bar. With a mysterious man named Decim acting as bartender and arbiter, it is he who is in charge of the judgment that directs the mortals’ fates via games. Whether it’s darts, bowling, or an arcade fighter, these games determine who earns reincarnation and who’s to be sent to the void. Along with the guests’ souls being wagered, their true natures also come to light during these revealing, lethal trials.
While typically death tends to be a scary, intimidating prospect for what horrors lie beyond, it’s not Decim that is the scariest part of death regarding judgment, but the people themselves. As 2015 was a pretty decent year for anime, Madhouse’s Death Parade was one of the best.
Death Parade can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
6) My Love Story!!
Takeo Gouda, a tall and intimidating but kind and pure high school freshman, may be renowned among his fellow male peers for his courage and chivalry, but he’s not exactly popular with the ladies. Unlike his cool and handsome best friend Makoto Sunakawa, who’s constantly having girls confess their love to him, Takeo feels he can only dream of having the kind of luck with the ladies Sunakawa does. But one day, when he saves a cute girl from being groped by a creep on the train, it’s love at first sight for Takeo. Despite his suspicion that the girl would be more likely to catch feelings for Sunakawa, Takeo resolves to protect Rinko Yamato at all costs, totally ignorant to the fact that the infatuation is mutual.
But when the two finally get together, their love for each other makes for the most wholesome romance. While many anime tend to feature handsome, pretty, and moe main characters, Madhouse flips the shoujo tropes on their heads with My Love Story!! by giving a kindhearted character who wouldn’t necessarily be considered “traditionally attractive” a chance at love and the limelight.
My Love Story!! can be streamed on Crunchyroll and Hulu where available.
7) Paranoia Agent
Beating people with a golden baseball bat with unknown motives and impossible to catch by fleeing on rollerblades, a mysterious boy known as Lil’ Slugger terrorizes Musashino City. His first victim: renowned timid character designer Tsukiko Sagi. Suspected of orchestrating the attacks herself, and only Maromi, the anthropomorphic pink stuffed animal she created the character for, believes her innocence. As detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa investigate the Lil’ Slugger cases, paranoia starts to set in as the chilling rumors spread.
Paranoia Agent is a great pick for those looking for a psychological horror. While a bit more on the suspenseful side, this series is a classic for any fan looking for a good mind-bending mystery from Madhouse.
Paranoia Agent can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
8) Tokyo Godfathers
On a cold Christmas Eve night, Hana, Gin, and Miyuki, a ragtag trio living on the streets, find an abandoned baby whilst rummaging through the trash. Naming the baby Kiyoko and upon Hana’s insistence, they begin their search for the baby’s mother to demand an explanation. With nothing but a mysterious key and a single note, the little ramshackle found family begins their search for more clues, getting caught up in a series of strange events along the way.
Madhouse isn’t just renowned for its archive of masterful animated works, but for creating arguably one of the best Christmas films of all time. If you haven’t heard of nor seen Tokyo Godfathers, it’s an animated film definitely worth adding to your Christmas movie watchlist.
Tokyo Godfathers can be streamed on Tubi where available.
9) Paprika
Although lab techs Atsuko Chiba and Kosaku Tokita have developed a certain device, the DC Mini, to dive into others’ dreams in the hopes that the technology could be used to help cure patients of psychological disorders, of course, such powerful technology is bound to have its drawbacks, especially if left in the hands of those who would put it to misuse. Which inevitably happens. After all, with the advanced ability to unearth people’s deepest desires, aspirations, and repressed memories deep within their psyche, people begin to act strangely and cause mental breakdowns when the technology is stolen and psychological terrorism ensues. With the help of one such patient, Officer Konakawa, who’d received the experimental therapy, Atsuko and Kosaku search to retrieve the stolen DC Mini and stop the mental attacks.
Paprika is Madhouse’s interesting take on a psychological sci-fi mystery as, while the development of such technology that can explore the dream and mental world to a deep level seems like it could have both fun and beneficial uses, the prospect also seems just as terrifying as the chaos that inevitably ensues.
Paprika can be streamed on Tubi where available.
10) The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
In her last year of high school, Makoto Konno spends her time struggling in class and goofing off with her friends, unsure of how to even begin planning for an unknown future her family and teachers try to pressure her to think of. But one day, Makoto discovers she’s capable of literally leaping through time. Although she finds her newfound power to be both useful for avoiding daily nuisances and for entertainment purposes at first, Makoto soon finds that time waits for no one and that actions always have consequences.
If you’re a fan of works by Studio Ghibli, Madhouse may just win you over with this pick. As Mamoru Hosoda’s works are absolute masterpieces in themselves, Madhouse manages to bring to life The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as one of the best.
What’s your favorite anime by Studio Madhouse? Let us know in the comments!
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