🍥 MyAnimeList Scraper — Anime & Manga Data API Alternative (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 OAuth, 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.

🏆 Why this MyAnimeList scraper?

8 modes in one actor · anime + manga charts, search, seasonal, details, characters & recommendations · 30+ fields per title · no API key / no OAuth / no browser · powered by the free Jikan API · export to JSON, CSV & Excel · the practical MyAnimeList API alternative

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✨ What this Actor does

• 📊 Top charts — the highest-rated and most-popular anime and manga, paginated through the full ranking. Filter by airing, upcoming, bypopularity or favorite.
• ⭐ Ratings & rankings — 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, media 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 the 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.
• 🧩 Mix modes in one dataset — every item carries _mode and scrapedAt (ISO 8601) plus a clean MyAnimeList url, so you can run several modes and filter later.
• 📤 Export anywhere — CSV, JSON, Excel (XLSX), HTML, RSS or JSON Lines, with five pre-built dataset views (Overview, Anime, Manga, Characters, Recommendations).

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

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🚀 Quick start (3 steps)

1. Configure — open the actor, pick a Mode, and fill the fields that mode needs (the input form shows which apply). For example, choose topAnime and set maxResults: 100.
2. Run — click Start. The actor paginates the Jikan API, respects its rate limits and streams clean rows into your dataset.
3. Get your data — download the results as CSV, JSON or Excel from the run page, switch between the Anime / Manga / Characters / Recommendations views, or pull them via the Apify API.

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📥 Input

Pick a mode, then set only the fields that mode uses. Here are three ready-to-run scenarios:

Top 100 currently-airing anime by rating

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

Highest-scoring fantasy anime (search + genre + order)

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

Characters & voice actors for a batch of anime IDs

{
  "mode": "characters",
  "animeIds": ["1", "5", "20"]
}

Field	Type	Description
mode	string	Required. Which endpoint to run: topAnime, topManga, searchAnime, searchManga, seasonal, animeDetails, characters or recommendations. Default topAnime.
query	string	Free-text term for searchAnime / searchManga. Leave empty to browse all entries by the chosen filters/order.
genres	array	One or more MyAnimeList genre IDs (e.g. 1=Action, 10=Fantasy, 22=Romance, 24=Sci-Fi). Filters the search modes.
status	string	Airing/publishing status. Anime: airing, complete, upcoming. Manga: publishing, complete, hiatus, discontinued, upcoming.
orderBy	string	Sort field for search, e.g. score, rank, popularity, members, favorites, title, start_date, episodes / chapters.
sort	string	Sort direction for orderBy: desc (highest first) or asc.
filter	string	Chart filter for topAnime / topManga: airing, publishing, upcoming, bypopularity, favorite, or empty for the overall top-rated chart.
type	string	Media type filter. Anime: tv, movie, ova, special, ona, music. Manga: manga, novel, lightnovel, oneshot, doujin, manhwa, manhua.
year	integer	Year for seasonal mode (e.g. 2024). Combine with season.
season	string	Season for seasonal mode: winter, spring, summer or fall. Leave year + season empty for the current season.
animeId	string	Single numeric MyAnimeList anime ID (e.g. 1 = Cowboy Bebop) for animeDetails / characters / recommendations.
animeIds	array	Array of numeric MAL anime IDs for batch animeDetails / characters / recommendations.
maxResults	integer	Upper bound on rows for the paginated modes (topAnime, topManga, searchAnime, searchManga, seasonal). Jikan returns 25 per page, so 100 = 4 pages. Default 100.

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📤 Output

Results stream to the default dataset. Every item carries a _mode field so you can filter or pivot on it. Here is a trimmed anime row (topAnime / searchAnime / seasonal / animeDetails):

{
  "_mode": "topAnime",
  "malId": 5114,
  "title": "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood",
  "titleEnglish": "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood",
  "titleJapanese": "鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST",
  "type": "TV",
  "episodes": 64,
  "status": "Finished Airing",
  "source": "Manga",
  "duration": "24 min per ep",
  "rating": "R - 17+ (violence & profanity)",
  "score": 9.1,
  "scoredBy": 2145678,
  "rank": 1,
  "popularity": 3,
  "members": 3421890,
  "favorites": 225114,
  "year": 2009,
  "season": "spring",
  "genres": ["Action", "Adventure", "Drama", "Fantasy"],
  "themes": ["Military"],
  "demographics": ["Shounen"],
  "studios": ["Bones"],
  "producers": ["Aniplex", "Square Enix"],
  "airedFrom": "2009-04-05",
  "airedTo": "2010-07-04",
  "synopsis": "After a failed attempt to bring their mother back...",
  "imageUrl": "https://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/anime/1208/94745.jpg",
  "trailerUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--IcmZkvL0Q",
  "url": "https://myanimelist.net/anime/5114",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-06T09:00:00.000Z"
}

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💡 Use cases

• 📈 Anime & manga analytics — build an 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.

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👥 Who uses it

Anime & manga data analysts · recommendation-engine & ML developers · streaming and catalog apps · Discord bot builders · fan-wiki and quiz makers · newsletter and "what's airing" sites · AI-agent / RAG builders · researchers studying media trends

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💰 Pricing

This actor runs on Apify's pay-per-result model — you're billed for the rows you collect, with no monthly minimum and no MyAnimeList API fees. Small discovery runs cost pennies; large paginated pulls scale linearly. See the Pricing tab on the actor page for current rates, and use maxResults to cap spend on the paginated modes.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a MyAnimeList API alternative?

Yes — effectively both. 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.

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.

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.

Can I use it without a login or OAuth?

Yes. There is no MyAnimeList login, OAuth handshake, client registration or developer account. You only need an Apify account to run the actor.

How much anime data can I get?

As much as the charts, search and seasonal endpoints expose — maxResults accepts up to 25,000 rows per run for the paginated modes, and you can run many IDs through animeDetails, characters and recommendations in a single batch. Jikan returns 25 items per page and the actor paginates automatically.

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.

How do I scrape anime characters and voice actors?

Pick characters mode and set an animeId (or a batch in animeIds). The actor returns every character with role, favorites, image and the voice-actor cast (name + language) — ideal for building a cast database across many shows.

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.

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.

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

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.

Is it legal to scrape MyAnimeList data?

The actor collects only publicly available anime and manga metadata already served by MyAnimeList through the open Jikan API. You are responsible for complying with MyAnimeList's and Jikan's terms and any applicable laws when you use the data.

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Discogs Scraper	Music releases, artists & marketplace data
Steam Game Reviews Scraper	Player reviews & ratings from Steam
Twitch Scraper	Streams, channels & category data
YouTube Channel Scraper	Channel metadata & videos
YouTube Video Details Scraper	Full video metadata & stats
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👉 Browse all logiover scrapers on Apify Store — 180+ actors across real estate, jobs, crypto, social media & B2B data.

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⏰ Scheduling & integration

• Schedules — open the Schedules tab in the Apify Console and point a daily or weekly run at this actor to keep a fresh seasonal or top-chart dataset without lifting a finger.
• Export — download every run as CSV, JSON, Excel, HTML, RSS or JSON Lines.
• No-code — connect to Make, n8n or Zapier to push new anime data into Google Sheets, Airtable, a database or a Discord/Slack channel.
• API & webhooks — call the actor via the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the JavaScript / Python clients, and fire a webhook when a run finishes.

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⭐ Support & feedback

Found a bug or need another mode or field? Open an issue on the actor's Issues tab — responses are typically within 24 hours. If this actor saves you time, please leave a ★★★★★ review on the Apify Store; it genuinely helps other builders discover it.

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⚖️ Legal

This actor collects only publicly available anime and manga metadata that MyAnimeList already serves through the open, community-run Jikan API. It uses no login, no OAuth and no private data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with MyAnimeList's and Jikan's terms of service, applicable copyright, and data-protection laws such as the GDPR.

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📝 Changelog

2026-07-06

• ✨ README overhaul: richer output sample, ready-to-run example scenarios, cross-promo links, and clearer quick-start.

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.