High School is often said to be the best time of one’s lifetime. It is filled with many incredible memories like meeting your first love, getting along with people, and the excitement before the school trips and the nights spent cramming for your final exams.
Everyone has their iteration of high school times, whether good, bad, or neutral. Anime is no different when it comes to such tropes and it is no wonder that so many anime are based in HS. So we at MyAnimeGuru bring you the 14+ Best High School Anime To Watch (Ranked) for you to relive your youth.
We included all kinds of titles to make this list enjoyable.
List of Best High School Anime
This list will be based on the overall popularity of the series as well as how good the story is along with the likeability of the characters. So with that in mind, let’s start with our list of the best high school anime.
16. Daily Lives of High School Boys
Episodes – 12 | Year – 2012
If you really wanna see the mundane daily struggles of high school, then go no further. This right here is a comedic powerhouse that is gonna be next-level relatable and also is funny as well and tells us that the life of high school ain’t as glamorous as pop culture makes it to be.
Telling the lives of Tadakuni, Hidenori, and Yoshitake and their boring regular days spent lazing around and doing nothing is as regular life as it gets and there is no romance or sports. It’s simply the daily lives of high school boys and one of the best high school anime.
15. Angel Beats
Episode – 13 | Year – 2010
An emotional car wreck of an anime, it shows a high school in the afterlife where everyone is each day trying to play hooky and avoid attending classes and our protag Otonashi finds himself here and is now helping the SSS, a group who challenges Angel the prefect of this heavenly high school.
As the story progresses we come to know the bitter backstories of all the cast and we see how their lives in the afterlife are simply attempts for them to live the kind of lives they couldn’t live while they were alive and the mundane afterlife is in reality a limbo.
One of the most emotional anime out there, it tells us about how hard regrets in life hurts. One of the best high school anime.
14. Toradora
Episodes – 25 | Year – 2008
A classic romantic comedy, it is at times a slow-burn and at others hilarious as hell. Ryuuji is a homely and kind high schooler who is thought of as a delinquent cause of his looks while the cute and doll-like Taiga has a fierce personality and a temper that can blow any time.
Things get interesting when they found out that they each have a crush on each other’s best friends. And thus starts this unlikely friendship with the end goal of helping each other to win their love. But things start changing when they both start feeling something more than just friendship for each other.
The ending is one of the best in rom-com and was borderline torturing to see but we got to see a happy ending. So for that it is one of the best high school anime.
13. Clannad
Episodes – 47 | Year – 2007
One of the most emotional anime, it tells the bittersweet tale of how two high school students, each suffering from their share of troubles come to meet each other and help each other get over the troubles that plaques each of them. It is the tale of troubled people getting solace through friendships.
It is the tale of Tomoya, who is still reeling from the loss of his mother and has to deal with his abusive dad, and of Nagisa, who suffers from an illness that caused her much suffering. It is the story of how two people can make each other’s daily lives better—one of the best high school anime.
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12. Orange
Episodes – 13 + 1 Movie | Year – 2016
One of my favorite anime mixes high school life with a time travel trope and is all about correcting mistakes and ensuring that life is not lost. When Kakeru comes as a transfer student, Nao and her group quickly make friends with him and Nao falls in love.
But tragedy strikes when Kakeru ends up dying. This leads to a line of events that culminates in an alternate timeline where the group tries to make sure that no matter what, they save Kakeru this time and relieve him of his guilt over his mother’s suicide. It is also about self-sacrificing for the greater good.
Suwa’s sacrificing his own love for the happiness of his crush is still probably the most one can do for love. All in all one of the best high school anime.
11. Ao Haru Ride
Episodes – 12 + 2 OVA | Year – 2014
A tale of guilt and finding lost love, it is perhaps a great telling of how fragile friendships in school might be, and if you lost them once, just how hard it is to get them back. This is exactly what happens to Kou and Futaba when they lose contact with each other in middle school.
Kou is stricken by the guilt of his mother dying and Futaba trying to make sure that she doesn’t lose the one she likes once more. It also does a great job of portraying the struggles and happiness of the side cast and their quest for love too. Overall one of the best high school anime.
10. Great Teacher Onizuka
Episodes – 42 | Year – 1999
One of the greatest manga series ever, it tells the story of former delinquent and bike gang leader Eikichi Onizuka who suddenly had a change of heart and now wants to become a teacher and how his journey leads him to a prestigious school where he is given the responsibility of a troublesome class.
It is a manga that tells us truly how important the role of a teacher is while at the same time giving us all the laughs possible. It shows that no kid is a bad kid and Onizuka teaches the values of life to his ill-mannered students all while giving us the laughs. One of the best high school anime.
9. Kono Oto Tomare: Sounds of Life
Episodes – 26 | Year – 2019
One of my favs is about troubled teenager Kudo Chika who carries the guilt of being the reason his deceased grandpa’s music store was ransacked, and Takezou, the only member of the Koto Club due to all his seniors graduating. It tells how these two meet each other.
Their meeting eventually saves the club from disbanding and they also meet many new friends and rivals as they explore the world of music and form friendships and overcome t own weaknesses as they try to win the national championships.
Exploring themes of redemption, love, second chances, and music, it is one of the best high school anime.
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8. Kimi No Todoke: From Me to You
Episodes – 38 | Year – 2009
A sweet tale about longing for friendships throughout life and finally getting them in high school, it is simply one of the best high school anime. It tells the story of Sawako who because of her timid nature is often thought of as malicious by her peers.
This all changes when the popular guy in the class, Kazehaya starts showing an interest in her. This one spark leads to many other sparks being lit which makes Sawako achieve what she longed for so many years, friends that she could share her time with and maybe even a little bit of romance with Kazehaya.
7. ReLife
Episodes – 17 | Year – 2016
A very good story, it captures the essence of getting a second chance in life and how important the formative years of high school are for people. It is about forming bonds and making friends and not letting the flow of time change your core.
We see how Kaizaki Arata, a 27-year-old unemployed man who can’t get a job anywhere after leaving his first company gets a second chance to relive his high school final year and in the process get over all his trauma and correct all his mistakes while making friendships and bonds which he lacked before.
It really shows the importance of friends in one’s life. One of the best high school anime.
6. The Melacnhcoly of Haruhi Suzumiya
Episodes – 28 + 1 Movie | Year – (2006-2010)
Kyon never really believed in the supernatural but one day he meets up with Haruhi, a girl in his class who is only interested in the supernatural and out-of-ordinary things like aliens, psychics, and time travelers.
When Haruhi says there is nothing interesting around the school, he suggests that Haruhi should open her own club to find the myths. This inspires her to start the club while also dragging Kyon into the fray. They form the SOS Brigade and are joined by further odd characters.
What will Kyon’s future with Haruhi be like? Find out in one of the best high school anime.
5. Hyouka
Episodes – 22 | Year – 2012
Some people simply don’t want to expend any energy on typical HS activities like finding love and winning sports tournaments. They want to laze around and do the minimum expectations required from them. Hortaru Oreki is one such person.But things change when he enters the classics club at HS
At the behest of his sister, he joins and here he meets Chitanda whose curious eyes force Oreki to help her uncover the various mysteries of regular lifeThere goes Oreki’s wish for a simple life, and now he has to waste his energy. It is one of the best high school anime.
4. Horimiya
Episodes – 13 | Year – 2021
Chance meetings can change many things and when the loner of the class Miyamura and the cool beauty of the class, Hori meet each other in unknown circumstances, it seems they have much more in common than they previously thought and thus begins their time together.
A wonderful story that gives much time to the side cast and shows the day-to-day fun life of our main cast of Hori and Miyamura along with the rest of the gang and shows their problems and their fun times together in their last year of high school. Its best quality is it gives every character their deserved time.
A personal favorite, I recommend you watch it if you want to watch the best high school anime.
3. Ouran High School Host Club
Episodes – 26 | Year – 2006
One of the best shoujo series, it tells the story of scholarship student Haruhi who by mistake breaks a vase valued at millions belonging to the frivolous boys of the host club, a group of handsome boys who entertain the uber-rich girls of the famous Ouran Academy.
Now in order to reimburse them she has to pretend to be a guy and has to work as a host. This cross-dressing anime will surely give you lots of great moments, making for both comedic genius and great storylines. It is one of the best high school anime.
2. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
Episodes – 40 | Year – 2019
A fun and interesting watch, both the male and female leads as well as the side cast have depth and good character development. While initially starting as just a game between the student prefects Kaguya and Shirogane over who will make the other confess, they fall in love in the end.
While Kaguya is the daughter of a global conglomerate who is perfect at everything, Shirogane is the best at studies, their attempts to make the other confess are really funny. The background characters and side cast also make the school quite great. It is easily one of the best high school anime.
1. Fruits Basket
Episodes – 63 + 1 Movie | Year – 2019
Perhaps one of the best shoujo anime ever, this anime captured the essence of a perfect school life-based anime while also showing all kinds of other developments such as the supernatural aspect of the zodiac spirits and also having plenty of emotional and comedic moments.
It shows the story of orphan Tohru Honda who starts living with the mysterious Sohma Family, Yuki and Kyo who are both insanely beautiful but have a dark secret about them. They turn into animals when touched by people of the opposite gender, as Tohru found firsthand.
See how Tohru deals with her new roommates in the best high school anime.
Final Words
We hope you like this list of the best high school anime. We took a lot of different genres from many different years to make sure that when you think about watching the best high school anime, you’ll get a wide variety of shows to binge through.
If you wanna see further articles like this please keep supporting us and in the meantime watch some of the best high school anime this summer to enjoy your holidays and relive your youth. Till next time.
Source – Anilist
FAQ Section
Why is most anime set in high school?
Several anime across genres feature high school settings, and it all has to do with being relatable to kids and adults while offering escapism.Â
Best High school anime according to MyAnimeList?
Fruits Basket Final Season is the best high school anime on both Mal and Anilist.
