Menu
I know I'm not the only one that felt like way too much anime was dumped out this year. We've definitely got this "never-ending" pandemic to blame for that. So many shows that were supposed to come out last year were delayed until this year, and some were pushed to next year. Thanks to that, some seasons in 2020 felt pretty empty and some this year felt a bit overwhelming. Since we got so much content, that made it hard to figure out what my top anime for the year was. But that was mostly because most of what the shows I watched weren't really anything too amazing. Of course there are shows a lot of people liked that I wasn't too crazy about (86 for example), so they won't be included. Anyways, here are my top shows for 2021. 10. Life Lessons with Uramichi OniisanI'm not the craziest about shows that don't really have much of a plot, but this was a show I actually enjoyed. The protagonist is 31 year old gymnast, Uramichi Omota who is a part of a TV Show for children. While on the show, he acts really upbeat and happy but he's not able to keep that up all the time and ends up telling the children about some of the most dreadful parts of adult life. It's not just him, though. Even his co-workers join in on that. Every day, they're showing up to work and doing their best to put up with the demands of their director, which does get to be too much on some days. If you want to watch something comedic, this is something I highly recommend. 9. The Detective Is Already DeadTrouble has a habit of following Kimihiko wherever he goes. One day, he ends up thwarting a plane hijacking with a detective calling herself Siesta. Little did he know, their encounter would end up changing his life. At first, he isn't really happy to have her around but eventually he gets used to it and it leads to years of them solving crimes together until Siesta eventually dies. After she's gone, he goes back to trying to live a normal life. Unfortunately, that wouldn't last too long because a girl named Nagisa Natsunagi would end up dragging him into an all new case connected to an assassin, a world conspiracy, and his dead partner. One complaint I have is while I normally like backstory, I felt like it spent a little too much time in the past. Other than that, it was a solid anime. 8. Bottom-Tier Character TomozakiI'm definitely not the best at communicating with people in real life, nor did I ever really care that much about fitting in. However, the same can't be said about Tomozaki Fumiya. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't really understand the real world that much and sees life as some garbage game because there are no written rules and the "gameplay" seems to work against him. Luckily, he'll be able to receive some help from the very person he keeps winning against in Super Attack Family (shortened as Tack Fam). She keeps giving him goals to accomplish and he's often unsure if he can actually pull them off, occasionally questioning his tasks. Over time, he'll start making more friends and somewhat fit in better. 7. The Aquatope On White SandKukuru Misakino is a girl that really loves fish and her family's aquarium, Gama Gama. Unfortunately, people are losing interest and its at risk of shutting down. Around the same time, Fuuka Miyazawa, a former idol who has lost her place in Tokyo, runs away to Okinawa where she ends up getting a job at the aquarium. Kukuru has a tough time accepting that she might lose that aquarium and does everything in her power to keep it up and running. She'll eventually learn that things don't always go the way you want them to and that you'll just have to deal with whatever happens. Halfway through, there is a time skip where several more characters are introduced and things get more serious and interesting. Kukuru has the most trouble out of everyone adjusting to change. The first half of this show felt a bit slow to me, but the second half was where the show got pretty good. 6. KoikimoThis one's definitely a bit of a controversial pick due to the whole age gap thing. But there's one thing I do like about this anime: it doesn't really sexualize its characters. The story is about a salaryman named Amakusa Ryou, who happens to be a bit of a womanizer. One day, he is saved by a high school girl he doesn't know at the station. He later finds out that her name is Arima Ichika and she happens to be his younger sister's best friend. To repay her for saving him, he suggests a kiss or going on a date. Ichika responds by telling him he's creepy. Ryou wasn't used to having women being that honest with him and ends up falling in love with her. After being told he's creepy, he continues trying to express his feelings to her, constantly sending gifts and checking in on her. Ichika isn't really fond of this and wants him to knock it off, but eventually she starts to like him to and Ryou is willing to wait until she's old enough to officially become a couple. While I can understand the age gap thing making people uncomfortable, at the very least Ryou waits to go out with Ichika for real. Plus, some real life couples are several years apart, including my parents, although they met when they were both adults. 5. Pretty Boy Detective ClubA young girl named Mayumi Doujima has spent years searching for a start that she saw only once when she was a kid. She ends up getting help from her school's Pretty Boy Detective Club, where she meets five guys who are each unique in their own way. Little did she know that her search for that star would be extremely dangerous. It turns out that she has such good vision that allows her to see things that most people can't, including things that she'd be better off not witnessing. Because of this, she ends up wearing glasses. After the search for that star is over, she ends up joining the Pretty Boy Detective Club and wearing the boy's uniform. Together, they end up working on several more mysteries. She doesn't really try to keep her gender secret or anything so her classmates are able to figure it out pretty quickly, most of them not really caring much. However, the mysteries she works on with the club are end up being just as, if not more dangerous than her search for the star. 4. Remake Our LifeWhat surprised me the most about this anime is how the opening was done by Poppin' Party. If you know anything about BanG Dream, then you definitely know who they are. Other than doing some songs, they don't really have anything to do with this show. At 28 years old, Hashiba Kyouya lost his job at a shady game development company. He ends up moving back home with his parents and ends up between jobs. As he's trying to figure things out, he can't hep but wonder what would happened if he had a chance to redo his college years. If he had gone to art school instead, perhaps things would turn out differently? Luckily for him, he'd get that chance. Waking up in the past, he ends up going and ends up moving into a share house with a few people. He soon finds out that these are the very people he had admired in present day and he takes advantage of his opportunity to work with them. Unfortunately, things wouldn't go as he had planned and he'd end up getting to see a future where things don't quite work out for everyone. After a good while, the answer to how he travels through time is partially explained. As for why it happens, we don't know at the moment and the season ended on a cliffhanger. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what happens next. 3. Wonder Egg PriorityThis was a show that everybody was praising when it came out and now most people that said it was the best thing ever will tell you that it became a huge mess in the end. The story follows a girl named Ai, an introverted girl with heterochromia that one day ends up getting her hands on a mysterious "Wonder Egg" from a deserted arcade. When she goes to bed that night, she finds that her dreams blend into reality. It turns out that these eggs are a way to help girls that have previously killed themselves. And to help them, Ai will have to fight all kinds of strange creatures, eventually meeting other girls that are getting their hands on eggs. After meeting them, Ai starts to feel less lonely. Thankfully, they won't be going in blind as there are two living mannequins that will guide all four of them, one of them more laid-back and preferring to be honest, and the other more formal and not as willing to share information. There isn't really much else I can say without spoiling anything. However, I remember getting to the end and wondering the heck it was the made it so bad and then I found out there was actually more episode to go which was mostly a recap, which was lame. Aside from that final recap episode, the ending wasn't really that horrible. 2. Battle Game In 5 SecondsThis anime follows Akira Shiroyanagi, a high school kid who loves kopeito candy and gaming. One day, he ends up in a fight with a mysterious girl named Mion, and then pretty much "dies" in battle. After that, he ends up in some strange place with several other people. Mion tells everyone that officially, they are all dead and don't exist in any records. They all have become test subjects and are given powers to use. They are thrown into a death game with multiple rounds, starting with 1-on-1 combat. All everyone can do is try to survive and kill if they wish to. Akira won't to do everything alone though. After a while, he'll be able to rely on a high school girl named Yuuri Amagake. For the most part, I did enjoy this show but the ending wasn't really anything that impressive and all it tells us is that the death game is still going. 1. HorimiyaRomance and comedy seem to be my top genres according to anime tracking sites, so it's not too surprising that I'd rank a romcom so highly. This anime follows two high school students that most of their classmates would never really see getting together. Kyouko Hori is known to be an smart and attractive girl while Izumi Miyamura seems meek and distant. However, after the two of them meet outside of school by chance, they learn more about sides of each other that they don't really share at school. While Hori is popular at school, she has very little time to socialize with her friends due to housework.
With Miyamura, since no one at school paid much attention to him, none of them knew that he secretly had tattoos and piercings that make him look like somewhat like a delinquent. Despite having different personalities, the two are able to quickly become friends since they do share some similarities and often spend time together at Hori's place. After spending time with each other, they become more interested in becoming a couple. It's not just them though. Other students, like friends of Hori's and mutual acquaintances have their own relationship problems to deal with. Overall, the show was pretty comedic, so if you want to get a few laughs in, this is definitely something you should check out. And these are my top shows for the year. I'm not sure how much I'll watch in 2022 since at present, I don't have too much time to watch and for the last several months, I've been watching anime a bit less. That might change in the future but we'll just have to wait and see. For the most part, I'm satisfied with these picks but I don't feel like most of what came out this year was anywhere near as strong as some stuff from previous years. Maybe having too much come out this year contributed? Having less last year helped different shows feel a bit more "special". I didn't watch everything and I'm sure there are some shows from this year that I won't check out until later. There are several reasons why I might not have gotten to a show originally: waiting on a dub for some, not available to watch on usual streaming services, or I've already got too much going on. Anyways, consider checking these out if you haven't, and if there are some shows you liked that aren't the list, let me know.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2023
Categories |