Highlights:
* Here are the five best anime for Sherlock Holmes fans that feature the same detective trope albeit with some fascinating changes in the plot and perspective.
* Moriarty the Patriot is an animated take on the Moriarty family and the legendary fictional rivalry between the King of Crime and Sherlock Holmes.
Over the years, thriller and mystery genre mangas have been adapted to bring fans some of the best anime to watch on the screen. They carry the same intensity, clue hunts, and battles of genius as characterized by Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective series, Sherlock Holmes. There are several best anime for Sherlock Holmes fans to indulge but we will keep the list short, picking only the classics.
- Also Read: Top 5 Anime In 2024, Reviewed
5 Best Anime To Watch If You Like Sherlock Holmes’ Detective Action
Listed below are the five best animes for Sherlock Holmes fans:-
Cased Closed aka Detective Conan
| Anime Release Date | January 8, 1996 |
| Writer | Gosho Aoyama |
| Where To Watch | Amazon Prime Video (in selected regions) |
Detective Conan is one of the longest mystery/thriller animes. The story is about a high school detective Jimmy Kudo, who often helps the police to solve cases. While Sherlock Holmes has Inspector Lestrade, Kudo has Juzo Megure, Wataru Takagi, Miwako Sato, and some other officers for assistance.
Kudo begins the anime as a hotshot adult detective but turns into a child due to being drugged by the mafia. The entire story revolves around his attempt to regain his adult self. Sherlock Holmes fans will adore piecing together the clues behind several murders alongside the little detective while watching him struggle in Elementary School.
Monster
| Anime Release Date | April 7, 2004 |
| Writer | Naoki Urasawa |
| Where To Watch | Netflix, Amazon Prime Video |
Dr. Kenzou Tenma was a renowned brain surgeon who lost the support of his peers after choosing to save the life of a young boy who got shot in the head instead of the Mayor. Due to politics, Tenma lost his job and thereby, his fiance. The sad story takes a sudden turn to a thriller when Tenma becomes the prime suspect in a series of murders.
One of the best anime to watch, Tenma realizes that the boy he saved, Johan Liebert, had more to him than he knew. What follows is a Sherlock Holmes-style clue hunt with Tenma gathering evidence about Johan. The pacing of the 74-episode series and gripping action keeps viewers on the edge as the anime highlights the binaries of human mentality.
The File of Young Kindaichi
| Anime Release Date | April 7, 1997 |
| Writer | Yōzaburō Kanari |
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll |
Hajime Kindaichi may not look as smart as Jimmy Kudo from Detective Conan. However, he has deductive powers similar to Sherlock Holmes, being the grandson of who was known to be Japan’s greatest detective. The File of Young Kindaichi features a series of whodunit mysteries. Adding to the thrill of Kindaichi’s goose chase are a few supernatural elements that don’t appear overly dramatic.
Yōzaburō Kanari’s magnum opus even got a live-action adaptation for Disney Hotstar. Compared to other classics, the murders are more gruesome and the killers are cold and calculated, just like Culverton Smith in Arthur Conan Doyle’s work. This makes it one of the best anime for Sherlock Holmes fans.
Death Note
| Anime Release Date | October 4, 2006 |
| Writer | Tsugumi Ohba |
| Where To Watch | Netflix, Crunchyroll |
Widely regarded as the best anime to watch for fans of the thriller/detective genre, Death Note is a 37-episode masterpiece. Light Yagami finds a notebook that allows him to kill criminals by just remembering their faces and writing their names. He attempts to cleanse the world of all evil but has the best detective in Japan hot on his trail.
Death Note features a duel of wits between Ryuzaki (aka L) and Light Yagami that reminds one of Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. Both try to be one step ahead of each other. Light tries to clear his name and he fools everyone except L, whose suspicions grow stronger with every episode. Tsugumi Ohba’s work puts the viewer in the shoes of the villain and presents the “rotting world” from his eyes.
Moriarty the Patriot
| Anime Release Date | October 11, 2020 |
| Writer | Hikaru Miyoshi and Ryosuke Takeuchi |
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll |
When it comes to the best anime for Sherlock Holmes fans, nothing beats Moriarty the Patriot. The 24 episodes in the series offer a new perspective of Moriarty and his family. Yet, the unnamed Moriarty that the anime features remains his villainous self. He frames Sherlock Holmes for a murder and what follows is a battle of two geniuses that have multiple throwbacks to Arthur Conan Doyle’s works.
This concludes the list of the best anime to watch for Sherlock Holmes fans. If you wish for something less serious, Netflix is reportedly working on a Sakamoto Days Anime, which blends mafia action with comedy.
