Since no one asked, here is my ranking of the best soundtracks from all of anime (that I've watched). Order matters.
1. Haikyuu. Coming up at number 1 is the epic, hype, beautiful, relaxing and emotional tracks in the many seasons of Haikyuu that are mostly composed by Yuki Hayashi. This soundtrack is varied, but it's consistently good - so good that I've listened to pretty much all of it's 50+ OSTs many times - some more than others. Examples of good tracks: 1) Frustration, 2) Above 3) 視点 4) Let's Go To Tokyo 5) The Guardians Hero.
2. Ghibli movies. Yeah, I can't really seperate Ghibli movies here since the list then would be full of Ghibli movies - like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. It's pretty much the same composer all over anyway - Joe Hisaishi. So yeah, ghibli jazz, relaxing ghibli music, beautiful, nostalgic and emotional ghibli music. The track "The Path of the Wind" in particular from Totoro is an absolute masterpiece, and probably my favorite track from all anime ever. But in general it's so consistently well composed and relaxing music I tend to listen to hours of ghibli jazz on YouTube all the time.
3. Tokyo Ghoul. Not a very good anime series, but it has a godlike soundtrack. Tracks like Licht und Schatten, Body Pulse, Das zweite Kapitel, Alone, On My Own & Unravel really makes me think the OST was wasted on a pretty mediocre anime series. Definitely one of the strongest soundtracks of all anime, imo.
4. Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. Another consistently good sountrack I listen to whole compliations of all the time is the soundtrack for Your Lie In April, where the sountrack mostly consist of piano and violin music and usually consist of pretty calming, relaxing and beautiful tracks, like my personal favorites Again, Watashi no Uso & Yuujin A kun wo Watashi no Bansousha ni Ninmeishimasu. Don't sleep on the ocassional lit tracks like "Bansou Bansou" though.
5. Sangatsu no Lion. A somehow similar sountrack to Shigatsu wa Kimi no Usos OST as it's also mostly comprised of relaxing, beautiful and emotional piano and string music. Beautiful tracks like On The Way Home, En fermant les yeux, June 8th, Cold Flow and Bridge is the cornerstone of the soundtrack. But just as good is the emotional and somewhat epic tracks like "Don't Come" and "Beast"
6. Death Note. Death Note needs no introductions (well, the book itself did but, yeah). Generally known for the soundtrack consisting of "thinking-music". Obviously L's themes are very good, but also tracks like Solitude and Lights theme is definitely at the same level.
From here on I got lazy and tired of writing, so I just came up with some examples of good defining tracks in the soundtrack.
7. Attack on Titan. Mostly epic and hype music, with occasional more emotional tracks - but unlike e.g., BNHA there is a lot of vocals. Good tracks include Apple Seed, Counter Attack-Mankind and T-KT.
8. Boku No Hero Academia. Mostly epic and hype music again - which it really excels at. Some good tracks are: Hero A, United States of Smash, Red Riot Theme, Trinity, You're my Hero.
9. Shokugeki no Souma. Pretty varied but consistently good soundtrack. Examples of good tracks is Isshikis Theme, Nordic Conflagration and Blizzard, Towards the Horizon of Cuisine.
10. Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru. Some good tracks: e.g., We Must Go, Run With The Wind, 記録会.
Honorable mentions Some honorable mentions is the soundtracks of Violet Evergarden, Made in Abyss, Demon Slayer, K Project, Ping Pong The Animation, Initial D, Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun, Tower of God, Ballroom e Youkoso, Naruto & Baby Steps.
My judgment criteria was the 'very objective' measure of 'overall awesomeness', so I find it 'suprising' if any potential readers disagree with anything on this list.
For individual anime OST composers, top 5 for me in no particular order would probably be: Yuki Hayashi, Hiroyuki Sawano, Yutaka Yamada, Joe Hisaishi & Kevin Penkin.
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