Best 80s Anime

9009 duels later, Dragon Ball Z is still #1 in the 80s Anime ranking, with Saint Seiya close behind.

Dragon Ball Z wins 83% of its duels and sits at 1549 ELO points, while Saint Seiya follows at 1425 points. The sharpest drop occurs between City Hunter at #3 and Sherlock Holmes at #4: 130 ELO points separate them, showing a clear divide in voter preference. The podium confirms the dominance of action-driven titles from the decade, with City Hunter claiming the third spot at 1395 points and 66% of duels won. Ranma 1/2 rounds out the top 5 with 1254 points after 815 duels. At the bottom, Little Women sits at 987 points and wins 30% of its duels, alongside Marmalade Boy at 993 points with a 35% win rate. Maison Ikkoku completes the lower ranks at 1058 points. The contrast between the rankings reveals a community that favors battle-heavy narratives over slice-of-life and romance titles, with the gap between top and bottom stretching across 562 ELO points.

This ranking draws on 9009 duels cast by 123 players across 22 contenders, last updated on 12 October 2026. Each duel asks voters to pick their favorite between two randomly paired anime, gradually refining the standings through head-to-head comparisons. Whether you grew up with these series or discovered them later, you can shape the ranking by voting at VAINKEURZ.

Updated on October 12, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →