Rascal
Gold Supporter
Fixed to put Vanitas in last place, now that I'm finishing it up. It's funny, I guess this year has given my my new favorite and least favorite anime of all time. Interesting year :PAw yeah, end of year ranking time. Just like last year there will be a little list of recommended shows at the end for a TL;DR. Just on the off chance that you don't want to read 54 different mini anime reviews from some random guy. But differently from last year, I'm not going to overcrowd the post with a million images. I'll just put images with the shows I really loved.
This year, I took my own screenshots for all the shows I watched this year, so I'll be using those for my favorite ones on this list.
Worst to Best: Anime of 2021
[Personal Opinion]
54. The Case Study of Vanitas
In a steampunk world, one guy named Vanitas has a magical book and wants to save all vampires. I really don't like the, you know, rapey element of vampires. This anime had it in spades. Specifically the main character. Even worse, it portrays sexual assault and sexual blackmail as comedy. If you need proof go see my comments on the thread. Most disgusting and revolting anime I have ever seen.
1/10
53: Horimiya
An emo dude and a girl get together, and the rest of the show goes on from there exploring their relationship and the different people they know. Unsurprisingly, I hated this. There wasn't a single thing about this anime I liked, and I regret every second I spent watching it. I have had enough of watching Hori being a possessive manipulative asshole to last a lifetime.
1/10
52. Mother of the Goddess Dormitory
In a word, gross. It's like ten episodes of grown women sometimes "accidentally", sometimes purposefully sexually assaulting a little boy.
1/10
51. Tesla Note
You know how it is, just your typically horribly animated CGI anime. The only reason this isn't a 1/10, is because the story is actually strangely... well, it isn't good or anything, but it's oddly competent. I suspect if it had better animation it would make it to at least a 5/10 or something.
2/10
50. Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose
That was the one with the two really manipulative girls who are joined by an unspecified other number of girls, all fighting over this one guy who used to be a child actor, and the animation is really bad, right? Or was this the one with the one manipulative girl and the main dude who was like, just acting like he was normal but was actually a douchebag. Was that last year? All of these extremely terrible romcoms really blend together after a while.
3/10
49. The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat
It was made by the same guy as Redo of Healer. I don't think I need to say anything other than that, although, I will add that if the show was about the dude's life BEFORE he was reincarnated, it may have ended up higher on this list. I would love a show about an old assassin fighting against his former employers... oh wait, john wick.
3/10
48. Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun 2
I don't know if I'm just super jaded, but I found this to be completely miserable. Even more miserable than the first season. I only picked it up because I thought the whole Evil Iruma storyline would be like, him ACTUALLY being evil, but it turned out to just be him acting like a stereotypical anime "bad boy" for a few episodes and it went back to the same old stuff that just isn't for me.
4/10
47. Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway
This thought it had something to say about taking advantage of women, especially young girls, and how that's a bad thing. But it turned out very melodramatic as well as morally questionable, especially how they handled the actual rapist in this show, treating him like just a guy who's a little wacky.
4/10
46. Platinum End
A guy attempts suicide but is saved by a guardian angel, who signs him up for a battle royale involving other people with angels. On one hand, it's disappointing that this is by the Death Note writers, but on the other hand, it sure is hilarious how edgy and terrible it is. It holds the same level of brooding mixed with over the top junk as a lot of stuff we all used to rag on back in like 2017.
4/10
45. My Hero Academia Season 5
It was at least better than the last slog of a season this show had, but only by a little bit, by virtue of expanding on the show's best villain, turns out. Though it did have a lot of, you know... training, and ... another tournament arc... and more training. Really going nowhere, but at least it wasn't as dumb as season 4.
4/10
44. Moriarty the Patriot 2nd Season
The first season of this show was a little weird, but it had the spirit of a good mystery/revenge crime show and a neat twist on the character of moriarty, despite some bad character designs. This second season however, took everything bad about the show and exacerbated it, playing out like a bad crossover fanfiction.
5/10
43. Fena: Pirate Princess
Yikes, what a load. Sometimes Anime originals can be really good, and sometimes they just have a meltdown in the writing department. This was one of those times. It almost seemed like they had a different kind of story set up, and then made the title and retroactively tied it in, because, my main problems with this show can be summed up in four short words: there are no pirates. Seriously. There are hardly any pirates at all. It's basically a ninja anime, with pirates in the background of two of the episodes. How does this happen?
5/10
42. Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro
Just not for me. I could see how this would be relatable to... total wimps that want to get pushed around by women? Or... appealing to people with a sense of humor that makes jokes at the expense of those people? Yeah, I actually don't even understand who this was for. but for me, I didn't really get it at all. I didn't absolutely hate it, but I couldn't find anything to like about it either.
5/10
41. Peach Boy Riverside
This... is a weird one. The director for some reason decided to put the episodes out of order, and scramble around the events of the story, for reasons that are a mystery to even god himself. But that's not the core problem with this anime, that would be the general story and aesthetics. The artstyle is super generic, and the character designs don't fit the setting nearly at all, not to mention the message is extremely contrived and also doesn't fit anything. It's like... don't be racist? Or do? Or something? I don't know.
5/10
40. The Promised Neverland Second Season
I think everyone knows why this is in this place, I probably don't need to explain much, but since I never read the manga, I really felt this show's problems in how absolutely rushed and crazy the last few episodes were, with such an abrupt ending. Clearly mistakes were made.
5/10
39. Blue Period.
Dude learns the wonders of art. But why does a show about art have such dull and crappy animation?
5/10
38. Edens Zero
Despite the obvious problems of the author not able to write anything that isn't fairy tail/rave master/the same exact thing with the same exact characters again, this also has the problem of being waaay too contemporary to be enjoyable. For some reason the characters are youtubers? Social media influencers? Fighting people in space? I just don't get the appeal at all.
5/10
37. SSSS.Dynazenon
I wish, man. I wish I could say this was a great follow up to Gridman, and was an innovative and different sequel to it while retaining the same charm, but I can't. They took that vibe that Gridman had, and instead of building on it, decided to really tame it down, because apparently there was just too much going on in gridman, they had to really dumb it down and make it more slow paced, as well as cutting production values to the point where a lot of the action parts looked super rushed. Man. Super disappointing.
5/10
36. Komi Can't Communicate
So far, it's just not getting to me. I don't really buy it, especially with how over the top dramatic and emotional they made the first episode, it feels like they REALLY want me to feel something about this, and I just don't see it.
5/10
35. Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town
I know it isn't technically isekai, but it feels like one, you know? Besides that, it was harmless. Just a regular old... gah, right, I can't say it's isekai. Um... show that has literally every same trait as an isekai, but isn't one. You know. Those. Power fantasy with an RPG world.
6/10
34. SAKUGAN
Oh how disappointing this one was, right? They set up a great character dynamic between father and daughter in an interesting world of mechs and kaiju on a made in abyss style adventure... and had it devolve slowly until it lost all charm and became an obnoxious waste of time. Oh well, for those first couple episodes of promise, and the jazzy soundtrack, I'm going to keep it at this score.
6/10
33. Mushoku Tensei
It had some promise, good animation, an interesting world to explore, but then suddenly you realize that it's been an isekai from the beginning, and the main character is a disgusting pedophile, thus ruining anything good about the show that it had going on in the first place. Le sigh.
6/10
32. Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc
It's demon slayer. Tanjiro is a mary sue, nezuko doesn't do anything until she pulls out an asspul powerup, zenitsu is pathetic and inosuke is loud. They all try their best to keep you from enjoying the great animation and setting. Moving on.
6/10
31. Super Crooks
If you've seen Invincible or The Boys, then just skip this, and if you haven't... just go watch those instead. And watch Great Pretender while you're at it. Seriously, this is the most skin deep take on superheroes being not so great I've ever seen, combined with a truly middle of the road heist action thriller.
6/10
30. Tokyo Revengers
I retain that this anime would have been a lot more fun if the whole gang plot was playing out in real time, rather than just being "the past" for a time travel story. Also, almost every character in this is autistic. It's actually amazing.
6/10
29. Cells at Work!!
Somehow a bit better than the first season. I don't know why, it just is. Wait, I'm getting deja vu...
7/10
28. Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 2
It focused on completely different characters than the first one, and brought a new emotional element into the story. I liked it well enough but I just couldn't take it seriously, much like the first season.
7/10
27. Re:ZERO Season 2 Part II
It's okay. I just wish they would get out of the god damn sanctuary already. It's not exciting.
7/10
26. Odd Taxi [RECOMMENDED]
I didn't love this as much as everybody else, mostly because I just value different things in anime, such as emotional elements and visuals, and this just didn't have much of that, even though it was brilliant as a noir, and had plenty of great dialogue and twists.
7/10
25. Thunderbolt Fantasy 3
This show is ever so slowly losing steam. It was a neat novelty back when the first season came out, made a good sequel, and now, the story feels like it's continuing just for the sake of continuing. Still some great action though.
7/10
24. Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
A depressed children's show host tries to deal with everyday life. Funny and relatable, as well as a bit nihilistic and jaded, but had a few jokes that would have been unacceptable even ten years ago.
7/10
23. Zombie Land Saga Revenge
I don't even care if it's an idol anime, this season had some hilarious episodes.
8/10
22. The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon's Judgement
Don't get me wrong, I don't think this anime is actually great. But it's nice to turn off my brain and enjoy it, kind of like dragon ball. I just think of it as basically medieval fantasy dragon ball. As the last season, it was a good wrap-up, but should have ended a couple episodes early. That last arc was... yeah. Not good.
8/10
21. Pretty Boy Detective Club
This anime is exactly what it says on the tin in the best way, exploring the meaning of its own existence with panache, and Shafty Shinbo style. It's all aesthetics, and that's the point. Not many complaints here, except that... well it wasn't exactly deep.
8/10
20. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song
Wheatley from portal goes back in time to help robot hatsune miku try to stop the robopocalypse. Wit studio is definitely my favorite anime studio now, so you just know I'm gonna be fully on board with anything they put out, and this was no different. As it drew to a close, there were definitely some missed chances to make this all it could be, but otherwise it was highly enjoyable and touching.
8/10
19. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2
I could easily watch countless seasons of this and never hate it, no matter how little progress was made in the story. I do not care. I just like its vibes. So stuff it, everybody ever. IT'S ENJOYABLE.
8/10
18. The Faraway Paladin
A warrior priest raised by undead tries to spread his doctrine throughout a dark fantasy world. I'm just going to completely ignore that this is technically an isekai, and pretend it's just a fully good original fantasy anime. Just... just let me pretend. I mean, it might as well be! The isekai stuff hardly EVER gets brought up!
8/10
17. Beastars 2
A good continuation to a good anime, with some fantastic characters introduced and good side plots. The only problem is how it wraps up in a completely ridiculous and shonen-y way.
8/10
16. 86: Eighty Six
For some reason, I was reluctant to admit I liked this show when it first aired earlier this year, and I think the reason was the character designs. So now, I can fully admit that I do love this show. It's like a more melancholic, contemplative, and purposeful version of Attack on Titan, but with crawly spider mechs. Very cool, and very week-to-week anticipation kind of anime, with some surprisingly artistic presentation to it.
9/10
15. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean
Only the first twelve episodes of this show are out, but having read the manga, I already know where this ends up in my rankings. Though the anime has improved a lot of the show so far, so who knows? Also, my god that OP and theme song are kickass!
9/10
14. Kemono Jihen [RECOMMENDED]
Such great designs, and supremely dark stories to tell, just like a good shounen with horror elements should be. I appreciated this show more than most shounen I've seen in the past couple of years, just for being so god damn interesting and portraying Japanese monsters so excellently.
9/10
13. Sk8 the Infinity
I usually am not one for sports anime, but I don't know if this really counts. It's one part skateboarding, and one part CRAZY skateboarding, with a JoJo esque villain and amazing animation. What's not to love? There's even some real passion for longboarding and the effort that goes into it.
9/10
12. Shadows House [RECOMMENDED]
CloverWorks may be messing up a lot recently production-wise, but this show ended up remarkably unscathed, and that wasn't the most remarkable thing about it. No, that would be this anime's excellent sense of atmosphere, worldbuilding, mystery, and character. It's both charming and gripping, and super unique to nearly everything I've seen. I loved it.
9/10
11. Mieruko-chan [RECOMMENDED]
The biggest surprise of its season. This was such a sleeper hit, that it even started like, you know, a trashy crappy show would, with tons of ecchi shots and low effort story going on, but slowly, gradually, it came into itself. The ecchi stopped, the story expounded upon itself, and I found myself looking forward to watching it each week just to see what happened and how all the interesting story threads would converge. It made excellent use of the idea of a girl who can see spiritual action going on around her, but not interact with it, or else she might die. As a horror, it wasn't very scary, and as a comedy, it wasn't very funny, but goddamn was it cool as all hell to watch.
9/10
10. Laid-Back Camp 2nd Season
More laid-back camp! This season puts the girls in situations outside their comfort zone to bring us even more comfort, and focuses on the side characters on their own endeavours. There's never any complaint from me for this anime, it's just perfect in every way I can think of, I just can't bring it to a 10/10 because that's reserved for stuff that REALLY makes me feel deeply.
9/10
9. Fruits Basket Final Season
God knew that the second this show started focusing more on the romance, it would lose me, so he sent me Akito. God, yes Akito. Thanks to them, this show retained the dignity it had as a great character study and drama amidst some of the worst content the show had to offer, like Yuki's story being full of obnoxious characters and going nowhere, ect. I was completely satisfied with this season despite that, though it wasn't as good as the first season.
9/10
8. Backflip!!
It's just a sports shounen, but pretty much polished to perfection. It focused on both a unique sport for anime, and some of the struggles those athletes face, like all the pressure being on them, sharing responsibility, injury, and all the nuances of gaining skill at the sport itself. IDK man, I just loved everything about this show, it even almost made me cry, the level of character progression and development was outstanding. Not to mention how incredible the gymnastics sequences were, especially for being CGI. It was a masterclass in CG action in anime. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it technically didn't do much new.
10/10
7. Wonder Egg Priority
This hit very close to home for me. As someone who has family members who struggled with being suicidal, self harm, ect... this hit hard in every way. It's kind of a magical girl flip flappers thing, but with very serious well-handled themes, and downright ambitious animation. It's too bad it never really ended though, and there was never a last special episode to end it all off. Nope. Not at all. And you can't convince me otherwise.
10/10
6. Dr. Stone: Stone Wars
Dr. Stone has everything I like in a shounen. Uniqueness, hilarious comedy, well developed characters, expanding the premise in new and interesting ways with every episode, and strong intentional audience outreach with something real and substansial to say about science, all while being some of the most fun and wacky shit I've ever seen. And the second season takes it a step further, throwing you for a loop with the writing of its flawed yet fascinating characters. I think I can finally consider this an shounen in the spirit of Assassination Classroom. One that might not be for everybody, but for the people it wants to reach, it REALLY reaches, and that's what makes it special.
10/10
5. The Heike Story
This anime is breathtaking, heartwarming, tear-jerking, beautiful, cultural, educational, original, just everything good an anime should be. The only problem for me is that it's better experienced than talked about, it just speaks for itself so much as a work of art, and a history lesson that I just can't fully describe to you exactly why I love it so much. Science SARU really kicks ass when they want to though, I'll say that.
10/10
4. Ranking of Kings [RECOMMENDED]
Not often does an anime come by that picks the previously set bar for storytelling up off the floor, and puts it up on the rung where feels like it should have been all along. The way this show messes with your preconceived biases about archetypes and story flow is staggering, and it's all completely genuine, not a single tongue in cheek element inside. It's just a great story, one that you will never, ever be able to predict and every episode will be unexpected, and in today's hyper saturated culture of hype, that's a rare gift indeed. Also, wit studio. Baller.
10/10
3. Sonny Boy [RECOMMENDED]
Jesus. What can I say about this one. I'm always going to have a tough time reviewing it, because like, I can only be so straightforward in my thoughts with it. It's so unbelievably beautiful and a visionary work, that encapsulates a lot of social aspects and themes of loss, the meaning of relationships between people and why they matter, just, all this stuff that you can feel while watching it. And the presentation is so unique. Hardly any insert OST, so that when a song DOES happen it feels super special, abstract backgrounds and imaginative worlds... and...
Oh, did I forget to mention its an isekai technically? Yeah. But you've never seen one like this. Seriously. It's just hard to boil this one down into a few words, so I won't try anymore. It's just amazing. Watch it.
10/10
2. Megalo Box 2: Nomad
I didn't think a sequel to Megalo Box would be that good. I don't consider myself to be a pessimistic person by any means, I just felt like the first one wrapped it up just fine and nothing more could be done with the characters or setting. Boy was I wrong. This sequel was so full of love and care, raw unfiltered emotions of grief, family, ect. It surpasses not only the original, but most anime I've seen, and brings megalo box to an entirely new level of special. It redefined what an anime sequel could be, exploring avenues you never would have expected after the first season, retreading no old ground, and leaving no stone unturned, taking on a completely different feel and type of story from the original. I adored every second of this masterpiece.
10/10
1. To Your Eternity [RECOMMENDED]
I don't think any anime that is considered to be lesser than this one should be ashamed. In fact Megalo Box did amazingly, to even be a runner up to this one, because this was the year I found my new favorite anime/manga. Yep. Better than Assassination Classroom. Better than One Piece. This right here perfectly represents in every way the art that I want to create in my real life, it's so inspiring. The epic scale and scope of this anime is something all on its own, taking place over a long period of time to follow the life and experiences of an immortal being, with plenty of time to add personality, diversity, and comedy into the world and characters. The themes are just amazing, as this is essentially a great experiment to explore the meaning of life, mortality, ect. So basically, to me, this anime is everything. It's a pure expression of what it means to live, and to die, and the meaning and value each life has, in the form of an epic fantasy tale exploring the vastness, loneliness, endlessness, and at times, depression of immortality and how generous and warm yet cruel and cold the world can be, and that the experience of living is what life really is about. Consider me well and truly moved. I've never seen an anime better than this in any regard. Well done. Can't wait for more seasons.
10/10
[RECOMMENDED ANIME]
)
