MyAnimeList Scraper — Anime & Manga Data API (Ratings, Seasonal, Characters)

An unofficial MyAnimeList scraper and structured anime data API in a single Apify actor. Pull top anime and manga charts, run full-text search, browse any season, and fetch ratings, characters, voice actors and recommendations — powered by the free, open Jikan API (the unofficial MyAnimeList API). No API key, no login, no headless browser — just fast HTTP and clean, flat JSON you can export to CSV, Excel or JSON.

This MyAnimeList API alternative is built for data teams, anime and manga analysts, recommendation-engine developers, machine-learning practitioners, streaming apps, Discord bot builders and AI agents who need reliable, structured anime data on demand. Eight modes share one input form, and every result is tagged with _mode so you can mix modes in a single dataset and filter later.

What you get

• Top charts — the highest-rated and most-popular anime and manga, paginated through the full ranking. Filter by airing, upcoming, bypopularity or favorite.
• Ratings — score, scoredBy, rank, popularity, members and favorites on every anime and manga, straight from MyAnimeList.
• Full-text search — search anime or manga by title and narrow with genre IDs, type, airing/publishing status, and custom ordering (by score, rank, popularity, members, start date and more).
• Seasonal anime — every title in a given winter / spring / summer / fall season for any year, or the current season — a ready-made seasonal anime API.
• Anime details — title, titleEnglish, titleJapanese, type, episodes, status, source, duration, rating, year, season, genres[], themes[], demographics[], studios[], producers[], airedFrom/airedTo, synopsis, poster imageUrl and trailerUrl.
• Manga details — chapters, volumes, publishing status, authors[], serializations[], publishedFrom/publishedTo and full synopsis.
• Characters & voice actors — every character of an anime with role, favorites, image and the voiceActors[] cast (name + language).
• Recommendations — the community recommendation graph: which anime fans of a given title also recommend, with vote counts.
• Universal — clean MyAnimeList url, plus _mode and scrapedAt (ISO 8601) on every item.

Export everything as CSV, JSON, Excel (XLSX), HTML, RSS or JSON Lines. Five pre-built dataset views (Overview, Anime, Manga, Characters, Recommendations) let you slice the data with zero post-processing.

The 8 modes

Mode	What it returns
topAnime	Top / most-popular anime chart, paginated (highest volume, default)
topManga	Top / most-popular manga chart, paginated
searchAnime	Full-text anime search with genre, type, status and ordering filters
searchManga	Full-text manga search
seasonal	Every anime in a season (by year & season, or the current season)
animeDetails	Full details for one or many anime IDs (batch)
characters	Characters + voice actors for one or many anime IDs
recommendations	Community anime recommendations for one or many anime IDs

Use cases

• Anime & manga analytics — build a anime ratings dataset filtered by genre, year and popularity, then chart trends in a BI tool.
• Recommendation engines & ML — bulk-ingest titles, genres, scores, studios and the recommendation graph to train content-based or collaborative recommenders.
• Streaming & catalog apps — enrich your own catalog with MyAnimeList metadata, posters, synopses, episode counts and studios via animeDetails.
• Seasonal tracking — pull every show each season to power a "what's airing now" page, a Discord bot or a newsletter.
• Character & cast databases — collect characters and voice actors across a series list for wikis, quizzes or fan tools.
• AI agents & RAG — wrap the actor as a tool so an LLM can answer "what are the top-rated fantasy anime?" or embed synopses and recommendations.

How to use

1. Open the actor and pick a Mode.
2. Fill the fields that mode needs — the input form shows which apply:
   • topAnime / topManga: optionally set filter and type, plus maxResults.
   • searchAnime / searchManga: set query (and optionally genres, type, status, orderBy, sort).
   • seasonal: set year and season (or leave both empty for the current season).
   • animeDetails / characters / recommendations: set an animeId like 1 (or a batch in animeIds).
3. Optionally set maxResults for the paginated modes.
4. Run the actor and export results as CSV, JSON or Excel — or pull them via the Apify API.

Example — top 100 airing anime by rating:

{
  "mode": "topAnime",
  "filter": "airing",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Example — search fantasy anime by score:

{
  "mode": "searchAnime",
  "query": "",
  "genres": ["10"],
  "orderBy": "score",
  "sort": "desc",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Call it from your stack via the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items), the JavaScript/Python clients, or no-code tools like Make, n8n and Zapier.

FAQ

How do I scrape MyAnimeList without an API key?

Use this actor. It reads publicly available MyAnimeList data through the free, open Jikan API, so you need no MyAnimeList API key, no OAuth and no login — only an Apify account. Pick a mode, run it, and export the data.

Is this a MyAnimeList API or a MyAnimeList API alternative?

Both, effectively. It works as an unofficial MyAnimeList API and a practical MyAnimeList API alternative: you send structured input and get structured JSON back, without the official MAL API's OAuth flow, quotas or client registration.

What is the Jikan API?

Jikan is a free, open-source, unofficial REST API for MyAnimeList. This actor calls Jikan under the hood, adds pagination, retries with backoff, rate-limit handling and clean flattened output, and packages it as a ready-to-run scraper with CSV/JSON/Excel export.

How do I scrape anime ratings and rankings?

Every anime and manga row includes score, scoredBy, rank, popularity and members. Use topAnime/topManga to build a ranked ratings dataset, or searchAnime with orderBy: "score" for a filtered chart.

How do I get a seasonal anime list?

Pick seasonal mode and set year and season (winter, spring, summer, fall) — or leave both empty for the current season. The actor paginates every title in that season, giving you a complete seasonal anime dataset.

Can I export the anime dataset to CSV, JSON or Excel?

Yes. Run any mode and download the dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel (XLSX), HTML, RSS or JSON Lines from the run page, or pull it via the Apify API. This makes it a simple anime dataset export and manga data tool.

How do I get MyAnimeList IDs?

A MAL anime or manga ID is the number in the URL (e.g. myanimelist.net/anime/1 → 1). Use topAnime, searchAnime or seasonal first to discover IDs, then feed them into animeDetails, characters or recommendations.

How do I scrape anime characters and voice actors?

Pick characters mode and set an animeId. The actor returns every character with role, favorites, image and the voice-actor cast (name + language). Pass multiple IDs in animeIds to build a cast database across many shows.

Does it respect Jikan's rate limits?

Yes. The actor sleeps between requests and backs off automatically on HTTP 429, staying within Jikan's ~3 requests/second and 60/minute limits, so large paginated pulls run reliably.

Support

Open an issue on the actor page for bugs, feature requests, or custom modifications. Responses typically within 24 hours.

📝 Changelog

2026-07-01

• Initial release: eight MyAnimeList modes (top anime, top manga, search anime, search manga, seasonal, anime details, characters, recommendations) over the free Jikan API — no key, no browser.