Fullmetal Alchemist defeats Bleach and regains 1st place on MyAnimeList

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the ever-controversial ratings on the MyAnimeList platform, where users rate episodes of a season and rate them on a scale of 1-10 based on their liking or what they think after watching. Or at least it should be. Unfortunately, MyAnimeList’s system allows fans to rate it from day one, which has resulted in some of the often highly anticipated season premieres hitting the top of the charts, ahead of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a perennial #1 on MyAnimeList, not only because it’s a great anime series, but also because of its fan base, which generally doesn’t let another series fall with low scores above it. However, there was a series that managed to break the paradigm, at least temporarily: Bleach: A Thousand Years of Blood.

Bleach’s return has been a long-awaited surprise for fans for over a decade, so it’s clear they’ll start hailing it as “the best of the season.” This propelled Bleach: A Thousand Years of Blood to the top spot on MyAnimeList, where it stayed for a few days until Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood finally returned to the top spot.

Currently in first place is Kaguya-sama: Love is War – Ultra Romance (Season 3) with a rating of 9.10, followed by Gintama Season 4 with a rating of 9.08, STEINS; GOAL with a rating of 9.08; Final Bleach: Millennium Blood War arriving on 9.07. Of course, MyAnimeList ratings are by no means “reliable” as everyone has “their own ratings”, but it is still a guide to judge whether an anime series is “worthy”.