Once again it’s time for a favourite anime of the year post. I have a bit of a tradition with these posts! It’s a pretty straight up tradition, I write them and have a lot of fun doing it!
The premise of these posts is pretty simple. I look back on the anime I have personally watched over the year, regardless of when that anime actually aired and then I pick my favourites. After that I seek out what pother bloggers had to say about it and share it with you.
That way I get to relive anime I have loved and promote some great blogs all in one post. Now that’s both fun AND efficient! Although sometimes I’m the only one’s whose enjoyed a certain anime and it makes me a bit sad but that’s ok. You only need one true love! Good on you if you have more!
Wow this year has been bountiful. Ok so I’ve put them in the order in which I watched them:
Kyousougiga
Kyousougiga haunts me. I’m pretty sure most of it went over my head and yet I still cling onto the meaning I managed to carve out. Discovering this anime was like finding a buried treasure. I would say I would watch more but I think it was just right as it is. Besides a show like this is lightening in a bottle, you can’t make it work twice…can you?
Unfortunately not that many bloggers have written about this show. At least not many that I could find through the reader app. This isn’t very surprising, it’s an older show and rather odd. It’s difficult to write about. Nevertheless, Voyager on Galvanic gave their take and you can read it here:
Also Pinkie reviewed it a bit after me and stooopid reader didn’t find it when I searched. But that’s ok cause I’m going to fix that now (thanks for reminding me Pinkie):
SSSS.GRIDMAN
I coincidentally watched this show just in time for Mecha March and it blew me away. I know that this is not everyone’s favourite Mecha and I understand why. It’s a bit disjointed and falls short in a few ways. Still, I fell deeply in love with the characters and resonated with this story in a way I hadn’t in a long time.
Scott and TakamakiJoker did not share my enthusiasm
Comic geek had an interesting spiritual take
jmeek8 though seems to have seen what I did in this series
And Matt was cautiously optimistic
BEASTARS
Beastars sure was divisive. I’ve seen as many people call it wonderful as a piece of trash. I’m in the former camp. I know many people saw it as a tone def commentary on race that ended up racist. I saw it as a commentary on class personally. In my head, it really works perfectly that way and the race angle hadn’t occurred to me until I read others’ reviews. I’m a bit slow. I say that but when looking through reader I only found positive reviews… I swear I read some really negative ones.
Land of the Lustrous
This anime was a trip. With a beauty as multifaceted and fragile as a glimmering gem and a narrative as sharp and elusive as a diamond point. It left me introspective and oddly dreamy. An experience I would love to reproduce.
Crow is currently reviewing this anime on an episode basis so you can watch along!
Pretty much everyone loved this show and it seems some were much better at using it to fuel their own introspection than I was:
Sweet Blue Flowers and Wandering Son
I discovered Takako Shimura this year and both anime I watched based on her works made it to my favourites list. They are calm, gentle stories bursting with hope but still realistically cautious. They felt like hugs and were just downright stunning to watch. I hope to see more soon.
Searching for posts Sweet Blue Flowers got me a huge deluge of flower posts but I was able to find a few on Wandering Son. The series was chosen for ANiTwit watches so that created a few great posts.
The World God Only Knows
In the summer I stumbled into a classic harem anime and I fell in love with it. Deeply in love. Turns out I like harems when they happen to be really fun and surprisingly respectful. Actually, I like harems when they’re a bit cheeky as well. I guess I’m not that picky.
One again Galvanic shared my love for the series and more specifically for one of the characters
And for some contrast, Roger was not a fan
Dorohedoro
How can I describe Dorohedoro. No I’m asking. This show completely defies explanation. And by refusing to adhere to any semblance of tropes or sense it brought with it a breath of fresh air.n This is my second Netflix Original on this list and the show made me solidify my .confidence in Netflix’s ability when it comes to anime projects. I can’t wait for season 2.
Actually a lot of these post titles are a great description of the show…
Penguindrum
Penguindrum is a masterpiece. It changed both me and my love of anime.
There aren’t a ton of posts on the series but what there are… Well, you should really go and read them!
Planet With
Finally, I watched Planet With so late in the year that the review is not even out yet. Spoilers, I really liked it. It gave me shades of Gurren Lagann which, to be clear, is a huge compliment. The story was a bit constrained by its low episode count but it made the most of what it had. I enjoyed it to bits. It also made me realize that I just plain like mecha shows and I should seek them out more.
It was a random series Scott really liked as well
2020 was a pretty awful year in general but it was a great year in anime for me. Now let’s get a new season of Natsume out in 2021 so that it can beat it! Would it be cheating if I rewatched Natsume and put it as my favourite of the year again? There aren’t any rules to this post so I’m not sure what that means.
