Anime shows are complex productions made up of a variety of factors. These include the bread and butter of animation, but also covers things like the soundtrack, dialogue and production teams that coordinate it all. With all these moving pieces, it's a wonder that any shows manage to get off the ground and onto our television/computer screens.
One company very familiar with this process is the 1996-founded studio Brain's Base, a veteran in the industry space. Since their inception, they have been responsible for breakout hits like Durarara!! and Natsume's Book Of Friends and it doesn't appear that they're slowing down any time soon, with more shows in production. This list will run down the 10 best Brain's Base productions based on MyAnimeList scores.
10 Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou (7.78)
Bokura wa Minna Kawai-sou follows a new high school student Kazunari Usa, who is set to start the new stage of his life while living alone. Of course, he hopes to go through these days without any weird antics but things don't work out quite as easy as that as his new boarding house turns out to be filled with odd characters.
These include a perverted roommate, Shirosaki, and an alcohol-abusing office lady, Mayumi Nishikino. But in the midst of these oddballs is a timid senior student that Kazunari finds himself enchanted with. This romance is laden with witty jokes and satisfying character development.
9 Gakuen Babysitters (7.85)
This cute slice of life show follows a cadre of school babysitters and the various adorable babies that they care for. At its core is orphaned teenager Ryuuichi Kashima and his younger brother Kotarou. After losing their parents, they are offered with room, board, and enrolment at a high-end academy in exchange for joining the school's babysitter's club.
It's at this club that Ryuuichi is introduced to a handful of infants with strong personalities. Ultimately the interactions between them play out towards an overall experience about taking responsibility and caring for others.
8 KenIchi: The Mightiest Disciple OVA (7.97)
This OVA set was bundled with volumes of the manga and differing from its main series was produced by Studio Brain's Base rather than TMS Entertainment. This show continues the story of the original KenIchi: The Mightiest Disciple.
The main character Kenichi Shirahama is a karate student who has gone out of his way to learn fighting techniques from a variety of different dojos and disciplines. While he originally picked up these skills to fight off a delinquent group known as Ragnarok, this time around a whole new cast of bad guys is introduced. This set-up quickly allows for complex and engaging high stakes fights.
7 Mawaru Penguindrum (8.01)
Mawaru Penguindrum is a surreal mystery/psychological drama that follows twin brothers Kanba and Shouma. Their little sister is gravely ill and one day collapses, seemingly on the verge of death. However, the sister, Himari, is revived by unseen forces.
This revival comes with a cost, with that price being that the twins must seek out the mysterious Penguin Drum in order to keep her alive. But they are not the only ones on the lookout for this MacGuffin. This framework allows for the establishment of lots of imagery, allegory, and intricately symbolic detail that makes for a thought-provoking show.
6 My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu (8.09)
This school comedy mixed with dramatic elements stars the apathetic and cynical Hachiman Hikigaya. Hachiman is convinced that the joyful life of youth is nothing more than a shallow lie and he holds various other similarly harsh and blunt views about the world. After he writes an essay deriding modern social relationships, he is forced into the Volunteer Service Club, where he must help other students solve their problems and achieve their goals.
It's here that he meets the beautiful but cold Yukino Yukinoshita, resulting in a meeting that allows for a subtle romance to begin to develop. This show takes a more grounded approach to high school life with Hachiman's jaded perspective making for interesting viewing.
5 Kuragehime (8.16)
Kuragehime stands for Princess Jellyfish, which is the English name of this relatively light-hearted slice of life show. It stars a woman, Tsukimi Kurashita, who is obsessed with jellyfish and dreams of being an illustrator. She lives with five other women all of whom are like her unemployed and equally obsessed with random niche topics.
Her life begins to change when she makes friends with a beautiful trendy looking woman. This woman turns out to be a crossdressing man named Kuranosuke Koibuchi. As the show progresses their bond develops and they face off against various life challenges, all backed up by great art and character development.
4 Durarara!! (8.24)
This show is a great example of a supernatural action mystery done right. It stars newcomer to the city, Mikado Ryuugamine, who moves to Tokyo on an invitation from a childhood friend. When he arrives he immediately glimpses the mysterious black rider and finds himself embroiled in a set of supernatural occurrences that break out in the city.
Along the way, he meets an interesting cast of characters from the Ikebukuro district and it is here where the show really shines. Its varied cast of characters is what drives the majority of the show rather than a strong sense of plot. Along with a funky jazz soundtrack, this too cool anime is a delight to watch.
3 Spice And Wolf (8.40)
This show appears twice in MyAnimeList's top Brain's Base rankings, so it has been placed by its highest-scoring season. Spice And Wolf is quite unlike many other anime out there. The core of the show and a lot of its appeal lies in its depictions of medieval trading. It covers this topic in a nuanced and in-depth way, using the main character Kraft Lawrence as a jumping point for its economic insights.
Lawrence's ultimate goal is to open his own shop. To this end, he teams up with a creature from folklore named Holo and travels the land in search of business opportunities. This slow-paced show holds interest with its focus on bartering but also has the space to develop a slow and genuine feeling romance between the two leads.
2 Baccano! (8.44)
Baccano! is one of Brain's Base's biggest hits. This action-packed romp is absolute pandemonium from the start as it ties together lots of moving pieces and plotlines that all build towards a larger end. It takes place in a world where a mafia war is getting worse, where a train is about to leave on a transcontinental journey and where alchemists are looking for immortality.
It manages to handle all these threads in a non-sequential manner that makes it a bit overwhelming at first. However, once viewers get acclimated there is a lot of unusual and entertaining storytelling to enjoy.
1 Natsume's Book Of Friends (8.70)
This show appears in the top ranks of MyAnimeList again and again so this entry was placed based on its highest-ranking season. Natsume's Book Of Friends stars the eponymous Takashi Natsume a young boy who can see magical spirits. It turns out that his deceased grandmother Reiko is responsible for this affliction as she bound spirits to a Book Of Friends, and these spirits now seek release from servitude by her grandson.
This basic set-up allows for an episodic adventure that follows Takashi as he tries to free the spirits that were trapped by his grandmother. While the story is supernatural, the relationships that it explores are human and thematically deep, making for glimpses of beautiful bittersweet slices of an out of the ordinary life.