Per MyAnimeList, Kyo Shirodaira — the writer behind Kyokou Suiri — is launching a Vampire Juujikai sequel serial in October 2026. Shirodaira's whole career is built on the same trick: take a supernatural premise and then insist on solving it by argument rather than by punching. That is the mystery genre's core tension in one author, and it is a decent excuse to lay out the whole board.
Quick answer
SenpaiRanks tracks Monster as the highest-rated mystery anime with an adjusted score of 8.86 (Madhouse, 74 episodes, 2004), ahead of Death Note at 8.59 (Madhouse, 37 episodes, 2006) and Boku dake ga Inai Machi / ERASED at 8.17 (A-1 Pictures, 12 episodes, 2016). The genre splits three ways — procedural case-of-the-week, single-case thriller, and supernatural mystery — and the board below marks which is which. Netflix carries Monster and ERASED; Crunchyroll carries most of the rest.
The board, top to bottom
1. Monster — 8.86
Madhouse, 74 episodes, 2004. From Naoki Urasawa's manga. Streaming on Netflix. A Japanese surgeon in post-reunification Germany saves a boy who grows up to be a serial murderer, and spends seventy-four episodes chasing the consequences. No supernatural element, no gimmick, no filler. It is the only anime on this board that reads as a literary novel rather than as a puzzle.
2. Death Note — 8.59
Madhouse, 37 episodes, 2006. Streaming on Netflix and Crunchyroll depending on region. Technically supernatural, functionally a two-hander deduction thriller. The front half is the best cat-and-mouse writing in the medium; the back half is the most argued-about drop in it.
Key visual — Madhouse
Both of those are Madhouse jobs, which is not a coincidence — the studio's wider record is on our best Madhouse anime ranking.
3. Boku dake ga Inai Machi — 8.17
A-1 Pictures, 12 episodes, 2016. Known in English as ERASED. Streaming on Netflix and Crunchyroll. An involuntary time-slip drops a failing manga artist back into 1988 to stop a child abduction. The twelve-episode length is both its strength and the source of the complaints about the ending.
4. Psycho-Pass — 8.04
Production I.G, 22 episodes, 2012. Streaming on Crunchyroll. A system scores your likelihood of committing a crime before you commit it, and the detectives enforce the number. Gen Urobuchi writing procedural science fiction — closer to the psychological anime board than to a whodunnit, but the case structure is real.
5. Yuukoku no Moriarty Part 2 — 7.90
Production I.G, 13 episodes, 2021. Streaming on Crunchyroll. Holmes from the other side of the board. Part 1 sits at 7.73; the sequel cour is where the Sherlock material properly arrives.
6. Hyouka — 7.85
Kyoto Animation, 22 episodes, 2012. Streaming on Crunchyroll. The stakes are microscopic on purpose — a missing library book, a forty-year-old school scandal — and the show is gorgeous about it. The gateway mystery for people who do not like murder.
7. Gosick — 7.81
Bones, 24 episodes, 2011. Interwar European boarding school, a girl who solves cases from an armchair in the library tower. Period-piece atmosphere doing most of the heavy lifting.
8. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo — 7.57
Toei Animation, 148 episodes, 1997. The genre's great locked-room procedural, and the series Detective Conan is constantly compared against. Impossible-crime setups with fair-play solutions; the fact that it holds 7.57 across 148 episodes is the achievement.
9. Kyokou Suiri Season 2 — 7.32
Brain's Base, 12 episodes, 2023. Streaming on Crunchyroll. Shirodaira's own show, and the one the October manga news circles back to. Its premise is the inverse of every other entry here: the heroine does not find the truth, she invents the most convincing lie. Season 1 scores 6.97.
10. Un-Go — 7.14
Bones, 11 episodes, 2011. Post-war near-future Tokyo, a detective with a supernatural partner who can force one true answer per corpse. Under-watched, and the eleven-episode run is tight.
11. Meitantei Conan — 7.04
TMS Entertainment, 1,195 episodes and counting since 1996. The longest-running entry by an order of magnitude, which drags its average down while making it the most-watched detective anime alive. Where to start is its own problem — we solved it in the Detective Conan watch order guide.
How to pick one
If you want a novel, take Monster. If you want an argument, take Death Note. If you have one weekend, take ERASED — twelve episodes, one case, done. If you want the case-a-week rhythm that the genre was actually built on, Kindaichi and Conan are the two real options and Kindaichi is the better-written of them.
The crossover worth knowing about: Monster, Death Note and Psycho-Pass all sit near the top of our seinen board too, which is where most people arrive at this genre from. That list is here.
Frequently asked questions
Q: What is the best mystery anime?
A: Monster leads the SenpaiRanks mystery board at 8.86 adjusted, ahead of Death Note (8.59) and ERASED (8.17).
Q: Where can I watch Monster?
A: Monster streams on Netflix in most regions. All 74 episodes are available; there is no abridged cut.
Q: Is Death Note or Monster better?
A: Our voters put Monster ahead by 0.27. Death Note has the stronger first half; Monster is the more consistent series across its full run, which is what the adjusted score rewards.
Q: What mystery anime is good for beginners?
A: ERASED at twelve episodes, or Hyouka if you want the deduction without the violence. Both are complete stories that do not require any franchise context.
Q: Where do I start with Detective Conan?
A: Not at episode one of 1,195. The canon-arc route is the standard answer and we mapped it in our Detective Conan watch order guide.
Q: Is Kyokou Suiri worth watching?
A: Season 2 scores 7.32 on SenpaiRanks against Season 1's 6.97 — it is the stronger cour. It is a talking-heads show by design, so it works if you like the argument more than the chase. Author Kyo Shirodaira begins a new Vampire Juujikai serial in October 2026.