Anime Top 11-20:

My top 10 anime just wasn't large enough to include all the good anime series that have come out across the years.  Maybe I can include some more in my next sweep, numbers 11 through 20.  The problem with this is quality follows a latka curve, not a bell curve -- (IE, the best of any category isn't just slightly better than the 2nd best, but easily twice as good as second best, which is itself twice as good as the series that comes in third.)  This means that once you get down to 11-20, the quality is far more even and harder to distinguish than the rarefied atmosphere of the top 10.  I also worry that there might be some extremely good anime series I've never seen or even heard about that deserves a place in this listing, but if that occurs, so be it.  I only know what I know.  Out of the remaining series, my tentative ranking would be like so:

11.  Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
12.  Kanon
13.  Cowboy Bebop
14.  Fairy Tail
15.  Inuyasha
16.  Katanagatari
17.  Angel Beats
18.  Record of Lodoss War
19.  Index/Railgun
20.  Sailor Moon

Many of these stories are the 'best in their genre,' only limited by the quality of the genre itself.  Many others are really good, but outshone by others that are just like them and thus ranked above them.  Most are tear jerkers, most have something philosophically important to say, but a few are just extremely entertaining.  For instance, Record of Lodoss War is listed at 18th almost exclusively due to its soundtrack, still the best anime soundtrack ever recorded.  The music is unbelievably good.  At that level, it doesn't need anything else to earn the position it does.  Likewise, Katanagatari doesn't need to be sad or deep, it just has such amazing action sequences and such unique aesthetic creativity that it makes up for all the rest.

Sailor Moon is a surprisingly deep, surprisingly moving, surprisingly beautiful series that no one should underestimate.  Even so, it only barely managed to squeeze in to 20th place.  At this stage, the competition is still very fierce.  Many anime fans would choose one of these ten as their #1 favorite of all time.

The average age of these series is a little older than the top ten.  The only ongoing series out of this list are Index/Railgun, Katanagatari, Angel Beats, and Fairy Tail.  Still, the trend of 'youth' still holds.  All but Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, and Record of Lodoss War were made within the last five years.