Anime Top 21-30:

There are still too many good series to just leave out in the cold, though.  Let's see if we can extend these rankings a little further:

21.  Kobato
22.  Rurouni Kenshin
23.  Vandread
24.  Full Metal Panic!
25.  Hayate no Gotoku
26.  Toradora!
27.  Card Captor Sakura
28.  Samurai Champloo
29.  Sora no Woto
30.  Twelve Kingdoms

Again, longer series automatically win out over shorter series because more output will obviously derive from more input.  This doesn't mean that movie length features aren't better, on a minute by minute basis, than the series listed above.  It just means it is hard to beat a series that is twice to ten times as long as a movie with just one movie.

Some of these stories are the best of their genre, but their genre just isn't good enough.  Some of these stories do have a lot to say, some are tear jerkers, but many are just funny, action-packed, or pretty and thus forced themselves onto the list.  Even reaching down to 30th place, all of these series are extremely good.  Twelve Kingdoms is amazing, the depth of the world-building, the music, the action, and the gritty realism of how hard it is to be a good ruler all contribute to this fantasy epic.

Sora no Woto is still coming out, and there may someday still be more Full Metal Panic or Hayate no Gotoku anime, since the stories aren't nearly done, but generally these are again older series that have run their course.