Kyoto Animation is a beloved anime studio in Japan that has consistently churned out not only some of the most visually stunning animation in existence, but also anime that has a lot of substance to it. Most of its anime are slice-of-life in nature, where the there is less focus on the surroundings and more on the bonding that happens between all the main characters in any given show.
That's not to say that these shows and movie's can't be entertaining and absorbing in their own unique ways, which is what helped propel Kyoto Animation to dizzying heights. So without further ado, here's our list of the most popular KyoAni anime out there. Do keep in mind that this list is not in any order.
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10 Beyond the Boundary (2013)
Mirai Kuriyama is your average dorky and clumsy teenage girl who lives a very ordinary life. However, she hides a secret: She is part of the Spirit World clan that has been tasked with finding and killing youmu (creatures that are made up of negative human emotions).
She bears the burden of her secret alone, till she bumps into Akihito Kanbara, who is half human and half youmu. The two instantly bond and Mirai keeps finding new ways to kill her new friend. Beyond the Boundary lasted one season but has multiple spin-offs, including two feature-length movies.
9 K-On! (2009-2010)
This anime is the epitome of the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things sub-genre. A young and carefree Hirasawa Yui joins her school’s Light Music Club, despite not knowing how to play any instrument.
However, the club members greet her with open arms and convince her to become a permanent member, because otherwise their club would be disbanded by the school. Yui strives hard to become a guitarist, and soon enough she has something even bigger to worry about – her club’s debut at her school’s festival.
8 Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! (2012-2014)
Young children often dream of being the main characters in fantasy lands that exist only in their minds. When they grow older, they overgrow such childish tendencies, dubbed as chunibyou. Yuuta Togashi is one such school boy, who wants nothing to do with his embarrassing younger self’s Dark Flame Master.
However, his new classmate is Rikka Takanashi, a girl with a wildly overactive imagination. She calls herself the vessel of the Wicked Eye, and to Yuuta’s constant dismay, he is often pulled into her imaginary life as an unwilling participant. Watch this underrated anime for a relaxed night at home.
7 A Silent Voice (2016)
When he was in elementary school, Shouya Ishida and his classmates mercilessly bullied the new deaf girl in class, Shouko Nishimiya. The bullying reaches a point where Shouko is forced to transfer to another school. When the principal takes matters into his own hands, everyone passes on the blame to Shouya, who is eventually ostracized by all his classmates, including his friends.
Years later, the bully meets his victim and he tries his best to become her friend, in order to atone for his sins and be free from the past that has constantly tortured him. This anime movie has garnered praise for its realistic and relatable depictions of bullying's effects on both the victim and the bully.
6 Hyouka (2012)
This is a lighthearted mystery series that revolves around the lives of four young school children with extremely different personalities. A perennially bored and energy saving Oreki is forced to take on various mysteries (to solve), thanks to his bubbly club mate Chitanda who always refuses to give up on everything in her life.
The mysteries are nothing out of the ordinary, but they do exactly what they are supposed to do – keep the audiences riveted till the end. Due to the lack of deaths and violence, this anime has been given a PG-13 rating, which mean it's an extremely safe watch, even for kids.
5 Clannad (2007-2009)
Tomoya Okazaki wants to drop out of his school because he’s a delinquent. One day, he finds a weird girl called Nagisa Furukawa who clings to him the moment he gives her the smallest of his attention. Not wanting any trouble, he ignores her but from that day onward, he notices Nagisa popping up more and more in his life.
He eventually gives in and finds out her dream is revive her school’s drama club. Tomoya decides to help her and slowly, he gets pulled in more and more into the lives of all the girls from the drama club.
4 Violet Evergarden (2018)
Set in an alternate futuristic world, this is one of those rare non-shoujo anime with a strong female lead in it. We witness a world that is slowly getting back on its feet, where Violet Evergarden is still a product of violence. She was raised from her childhood to be a merciless human killing machine, but as luck would have it, she found her way in a hospital after losing one of her limbs in the war.
While she recovers from her wounds, she starts working as an Auto Memory Doll. These Dolls transcribe people’s feelings and thoughts into letters, and while Violet fails spectacularly in the beginning, she slowly finds the path to her self-discovery.
The highly acclaimed anime has a movie set to open later this year.
3 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006-2009)
The young and pragmatic Kyon finds his match in the insanely imaginative Haruhi Suzumiya, a girl who believes in everything supernatural. Encouraged by Kyon, Haruki creates the SOS Brigade Club, which is of course about everything supernatural.
As expected, the club attracts a few weirdos, turning Kyon’s peaceful life upside down. Much like Hyouka, the anime focuses on the adventures these children go on and how they bond as friends.
2 Free! (2013-2018)
This one was (and still is) a massive fan favorite among anime’s huge female fanbase. This anime about shirtless and totally hot anime boys swimming, bonding and looking exceptionally fabulous while doing so, became such a huge success that it churned out a few sequels and movies as well.
As is the case with other KyoAni anime, the biggest strength of this show is how it brings together five boys with different personalities and dreams, and how they end up becoming the best of friends with each other.
1 Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (2017)
This slice-of-life comedy anime is about a human bonding with a dragon. On a rare night when Kobayashia was drunk, she offered the outcast dragon Tooru her place to stay at, if she ever needed a roof over her head. The next day, Tooru appears in human form in front of a very confused Kobayashia, who remembers nothing of what happened the night before.
To repay Kobayashi’s kindness, Tooru becomes her live-in maid, and she slowly learns her way around the human world. Things take an unexpected turn when other creatures from Tooru’s world end up following her, creating more chaos in Kobayashi’s already shaken life.
A second season has been confirmed to be in the works.