These Are the Top 10 Animated Series Currently Out There

We skipped the Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers and South Park. Even your grandma is familiar with those. We also avoided everything anime related, since that's worth an entire article just on that topic.

Originally we thought we'd compile the top 10 from Netflix series exclusively, but in the end we decided to take into account all accessible streaming platforms aside from Disney + (Star Wars and Marvel series), HBO Max (Boondocks), Paramount + and Hulu (Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall).

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1. Rick and Morty – Netflix, HBO

It's incredible how many people are still unaware of this series. Local TV's do not broadcast it and for some reason it did not manage to break into the evergreen mass animated series realm even 5 seasons deep. At the same time, it's better than the vast majority of them.

The story follows genius scientist Rick Sanchez, who travels through dimensions and time, creates clones, gigantic monsters and is able to do anything you can think of. However, he is not a fearless hero. In his essence, he is an antihero, who refused to accept responsibility for his actions, often causing pain and trauma to millions of people, including his own family.

He plans and executes his crazy adventures for the most part with his grandson Morty, an innocent boy who turns into a mass murderer with perverted desires over the course of the series. Rick and Morty is an excellent sci-fi series with lots of original ideas that are possible to pull through thanks to the animated format. At the same time, it is extremely funny, so it's quite likely that you'll laugh out loud. Especially with every single episode during the first 2-3 seasons.

2. BoJack Horseman – Netflix

We seem to have this rule on Refresher. When talking animated series, or underappreciated series, or anything related to series, it's impossible not to discuss BoJack Horseman. BoJack should be declared cultural heritage of this planet and made mandatory viewing for every adult, no matter their mental state or life situation.

BoJack can heal wounds, and create new ones at the same time. He is incredibly authentic and discusses several stressful aspects of life, human behavior and self-destructive thinking not only about himself but also about the world as a whole. The creators are extremely inventive simply because they're able to flawlessly combine all these depressive themes and social problems with the right dose of humor. One moment you're laughing out loud, next your jaw drops while following the dialogues of the characters, which remind you of your biggest mistakes in life.

Additionally, the creators are full of great and original ideas when creating characters and visual jokes. BoJack takes place in a world where animals live just like humans. They walk on two legs, talk, work and live a normal life. Fish just need water to breathe and birds fly freely around the world (many use it for paparazzi work). We could use a few more paragraphs to describe BoJack to you, but if we haven't convinced you yet, there's no point. It's genius. Period. 

3. Big Mouth – Netflix

Netflix is ​​full of titles that oscillate between comedy and seriousness, especially when it comes to the animated category. Another great example is Big Mouth. The series shows children who are gradually entering into puberty. During this period of their lives, they begin to be influenced by hormones, which the series depicts as hormonal monsters. Eternally horny, perverted and perverse creatures, which seldom give our teenage heroes the right advice.

They usually get into huge trouble for their hormones. In partnerships, whether romantic or friendly, as well as in family situations. Big Mouth has a lot of heart and can truly be touching, but first and foremost: it's a comedy series.

It has great characters that you'll immediately fall in love with and they'll always surprise you with some bizarreness. The animated series also attempts to give the uninformed information about sexuality from every possible angle, so it's also suitable as an educational tool. You just can't take it too literally.

4. Castlevania – Netflix

Castlevania is by far the best action animated series on Netflix. That is, if we don't count Japanese anime series. In general, Castlevania can't compete with a classic anime like One Punch Man. The story begins in 1455, when a young healer goes to Dracula's Castle. She wants to learn everything she can about science in order to use her acquired knowledge in healing and helping people.

20 years later, she gets convicted of witchcraft and burned at the border. When Lord Dracula finds out, all hell breaks loose. The witch Sylpha, the last monster hunter of the Belmont family named Trevor and Dracula's son Alucard stand up against Dracula and the whole world of vampires. The chemistry works really well among the main characters, and their fighting skills also improve with each episode.

The series is a dream come true for fans of the game on which it is based, but you will not miss anything at all if you've never played them. Castlevania benefits from excellent positive characters as well as negative. It incorporates a sophisticated fantasy world and all the actors give top performances in voice acting. And then there's the quality of the animation itself and the amazing fights that are really worth seeing.

5. Archer – Netflix/Hulu

This series is definitely not for children at all. The main reason is that the children would probably not even understand the humor of the creators and wouldn't be able to appreciate the behavior of some characters. Archer is currently starting the 12th season. The protagonist has experienced many things during his career, including family problems, relationships, fatherhood, war, coma, betrayal, and lots of sex.

The humor in the series is difficult to describe. At times it is cynical, sarcastic, parodic, other times the characters behave like pigs and use such verbal expressions that you can't help but belly laugh. Of course, not everyone will enjoy it, but if you are one of the lucky ones, you'll binge this series all at once.

On top of that you've got the spy world, great action and a plethora of funny and interesting characters. Quality fun. Make sure you watch at least a few episodes, to feel perfectly immersed in the atmosphere of the show.

6. The Invincible – Amazon Prime

We could call it an animated surprise of 2021, but the quality of The Invincible did not surprise us. We're not familiar with the original comic, but we've been looking forward to this series ever since 2019. And that it was worth it.

The story takes place on planet Earth (mostly), where superheroes are commonplace. The strongest hero on the planet is Omni-Man (J. K. Simmons), who flew here from another planet to protect the Earth. In addition to him and his son Mark, you'll meet heroes and villains with classic powers, but also a few original surprises (Monster Girl or Robot).

The story follows several storylines, but the main part is played by Omni-Man and especially his son Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead). Mark has been waiting his whole life for the powers to awaken in him. It will happen soon enough and he must learn to control them. Mark faces insidious antagonists just as well as people, problems at school and also in relationships.

The series can be proud of its amazing animation and especially the perfect acting of all the actors who voiced the characters. We must especially highlight J. K. Simmons in the amazing role with an unexpected twist.

His scenes in the last episodes took our breath away, just as did most of the fights. They are extremely brutal, several times more than The Boys series for example. If you like non-traditional concepts of superheroes, quality production and plot twists with great characters, you'll surely become fond of The Invincible. We awarded the first series with 9.5 points out of 10.

7. Harley Quinn – HBO

Harley Quinn began as an obscure series. Although it had popular characters, there was no indication of it being anywhere above average. The opposite became true and Harley became a much more popular character. The creators focused on her character and what makes her interesting, almost completely removing Joker from the story, giving Harley much more space to build her own life and personality.

It is also a surprise how much you start to care about other DC characters, which you might have perceived only as secondary and less important characters until now. Harley is still a villain, so you have to be ready to get familiar with monsters and evil people rather than the heroes. But that's no biggie, because the villains already needed more space anyway.

It's definitely not a children's series due to it's swearing, romantic relationships, and the creators aren't afraid to go hard in action scenes either. Although of course we can't compare it with The Invincible. On the other hand, Harley Quinn is a hilarious and fun ride for every comic book fan.

8. Egzorcysta – Netflix

The story follows Bogdan Boner, a gardener with a side gig - killing monsters, demons, vampires and the like. He is helped by his faithful colleague Marczinek, whom he never pays. In each episode, you get a story about demons or other monsters that kill people.

There are several episodes in the series, during which you won't even smile, but other times you will be rolling on the floor throughout the whole thing. So the humor isn't distributed in the most balanced way, but it does not matter. Each episode has only 10 minutes, so even the most boring ones will pass by quickly. And as soon as you get to the better episodes, you'll have a great time and you'll probably immediately recommend the series to your friends. It takes a while for the series to start, so make sure to watch at least a few episodes.

9. Close Enough – Netflix, HBO

The main characters are a couple in their thirties raising a 5-year-old child. They have huge difficulties with that, and the fact that they are financially broke and live in a house with two other divorced people doesn't help the situation.

They struggle with the middle age crisis, parenthood, poverty and relationship problems, while unexpectedly embarking on sci-fi twists and storylines that will surprise every viewer. The trailer below will reveal the style of humor and animation you can expect.

10. Love, Death & Robots – Netflix

Finally, we have an anthology series by David Fincher and Tim Miller. The ambitious project gives various filmmakers and animators a chance to create short animated films that must be unique or at least reign in their genre. It sounds great on paper, but in fact you will find several animated shorts in both series, which are average at most and you'll quickly forget about them.

However, some of them are fabulous and we still get back to them 2 years after the premiere. Altogether, there are already 24 episodes out on Netflix and at least half of them are excellent. Because it is an anthological format, the animators do not follow each others narratives and the stories are unique. Some episodes have photorealistic animation, others are poetic, brutal in killing people or extremely original due to the story or the concept itself.

Other great animated series: Brickleberry, Ugly Americans, Gravity Falls, F is For Family, The Venture Bros, Samurai Jack, Dragon Prince, The Boondocks, Central Park, Paradise PD, Robot Chicken, Regular Show or Avatar: The Last Airbender.