AniList vs Waifu.im

AniList's public GraphQL endpoint at graphql.anilist.co answers anime, manga, and character queries with no authentication at all — confirmed live with an unauthenticated POST that returned a normal GraphQL error payload alongside a wide-open Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * header. OAuth only comes into play for account-scoped actions like updating a user's list; browsing the catalog is free and unmetered beyond a per-minute rate limit.

Waifu.im serves a curated, moderator-reviewed archive of over 4,000 anime-style illustrations through a REST API, with AND/OR tag filtering across dozens of character and franchise tags (confirmed live via a plain GET against api.waifu.im/tags), NSFW toggling, and artist attribution on every image. Basic browsing needs no authentication; an X-Api-Key or JWT unlocks per-user favorites, albums, and reports.