Why Is Frieren Ranked Number One?
It ended a decade-long reign, and then its own sequel season briefly took the crown from it.
When Frieren's first season finished airing in March 2024, it sat at number one on MyAnimeList's all-time anime rankings, displacing Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which had held the top for roughly a decade. Frieren's score settled around 9.25 out of 10 across more than a million member ratings, and it held the position for an extended run.
The strangest detail came later: in January 2026, season two's premiere briefly scored even higher than season one, so for a time the franchise occupied the ranking's top two positions at once, a thing no series had done.
THE RECORD
As documented across 2024 to 2026The dethroning
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) was the ranking's fixture at about 9.1. Frieren passed it during its first season and stayed above it through 2026 listings.
The score
Season one is listed at 9.25 in the July 2026 top-ten tables; season two debuted near 9.3 before settling, with both seasons above 9.0.
Number one elsewhere too
The series also tops AniList's all-time table, per the same period's coverage, making the verdict a two-platform one rather than a single site's quirk.
WHY REVIEWERS POINT TO
The consensus, kept honestThe premise lands
Critics from Anime News Network onward single out the same thing: a fantasy about the survivor's side of the story, patience as a subject rather than a flaw.
The craft is visible
Madhouse's restrained direction and Evan Call's score are named in review after review; the production looks expensive because it spends on stillness.
The counter-view exists
Not every reviewer agrees the ranking is earned; some call the series slow to the point of thinness. The Library records the ranking as a documented fact of reception, not as a verdict of its own.