2021 may very likely go down as one of the best years ever for anime. The year was flooded with many highly acclaimed series and highly anticipated adaptations. Even when it looked like the fall season was going to be skippable, it birthed out some original titles that greatly shook viewers. Netflix started to break the chains off of their "jail" policy in order to experiment while also delivering several titles that had fans cheering up and down for. Even the movies side came in spades, from the American box office success of Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train to global fans finally able to say goodbye to Evangelion and allow Hideki Anno some much needed rest.
However, I purposefully said one of the best years ever for anime, not perfect. Because oh man were there some mammoth lowlights. Let's start by talking about the elephant in the room: the disaster that was the second/last season of The Promised Neverland. A catastrophe so monumental that some fans now more willingly than jokingly believe it never existed. Then you have the other "holy shit" collapses of the year, namely Wonder Egg Priority, The Detective Is Already Dead, Peach Boy Riverside and (depending on who you ask) Fena: Pirate Princess. These failures were so big and dreadful that they literally made everyone forgot all about the controversy surrounding Redo of Healer. And though the fall season had some surprises, the worst of them was the universal rejection of Netflix's live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, a bomb so bad that Netflix had to announce its cancellation mere weeks after it dropped.
As for myself in 2021, I continued my journey through anime series I missed while also partaking on newer ones that caught my eye. I kicked off the year re-upping my annual subscriptions to Funimation and Crunchyroll, though I still greatly wish that I could get a discount on them now that the two streaming platforms are both owned by Sony. I pretty much predicted myself not to pig out on anime as much as I did in 2020 but I expected to have a big enough haul. Things were going fine for the most part until I reached the end of September. At that point, I just flat out stopped watching. From then to New Year's Eve, I didn't watch anything save for one show on Netflix, not even a rewatch of an episode. After theorizing and doing some research, it appears that I've underestimated how greatly the sudden death of a beloved family member to COVID affected me. Instead of finding some comfort in anime, I went to movies, video games, YouTube, and Twitch. I do feel bad about leaving anime in the dust during this period, as I was counting on myself to finally make time for Horimiya after richly enjoying its first manga volumes, support Banished From The Hero's Party after reading its first two light novel volumes, continue my trek through rom-com with My Senpai Is Annoying, check out the highly anticipated (but stupidly delayed in America) adaptation of Edens Zero, partake in the sports insanity of Sk8 The Infinity, return to Cell At Work!! with its new brief season and its spinoff title Code Black, and/or see what all the hubbub was about ODDTAXI. Hell, I also didn't make time to finish up shows I liked in 2020, such as Fire Force and Black Clover. Regardless, I ended the year with a watch count of 39 series.
Since I like to capture my thoughts and feelings, I once again decided to create a list of my watched shows, starting from what I dubbed were the best and traveling all the way down to the ones that left me angry and/or stupefied. The rules of the list are as follows: The overall quality of the show and my personal response to it are the major factors towards their rank. However, other additional factors such as replayability, voice talent, and lasting impact can help sway their placing. Only new shows/new viewings count; rewatches are immediately disqualified and if I watch a show that I already started, only the continuing unwatched episodes will be reviewed. I treat and grade all series fairly, even ones that I haven't actually finished or may not choose to finish. If you see a * next to the title, that means I had a limited sampling of the show or didn't complete the series/franchise fully. However, to shake up things from the 2020 edition, I have included shows I watched on Netflix to the list, thus giving a more fuller view of my anime habits in 2021.
(NOTE: Like last year, I wanted to have the full list made live as soon as possible. I will be continuing to edit and include more thoughts and screenshots until fully satisfied.)
1. Komi Can’t Communicate
2. Welcome To Demon School! Iruma-kun (Season 2)
3. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki
4. Oresuki: Are You The Only One Who Loves Me?
5. Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro
6. My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom! X* [eps. 1-5]
7. Pui Pui Molcar
8. Haganai
9. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
10. Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You
11. The Devil Is A Part-Timer!
12. Suppose A Kid From The Last Dungeon Boonies Moved To A Starter Town
13. How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom
14. How Not To Summon A Demon Lord
15. Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?
16. Toradora!
17. The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.* (Season 1)
18. Jujutsu Kaisen* [eps. 1-3]
19. Kuroko’s Basketball* [eps. 1-14]
20. The Misfit Of Demon King Academy* [eps. 1-4]
21. I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years And Maxed Out My Level* [eps. 1-3]
22. The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter* [eps. 1-6]
23. Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy-* [eps. 1-4]
24. Black Clover* [ep. 170]
25. Hundred
26. Lovely Complex* [ep. 1]
27. Kyo Kara Maoh!* [eps. 1-3]
28. Hortensia Saga* [eps. 1-4]
29. High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World* [eps. 1-2]
30. The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent* [ep. 1]
31. Rainbow Days* [eps. 1-8]
32. My Hero Academia* [S5 eps. 89-90]
33. Tenchi Muyo! War On Geminar* [ep. 7]
34. Death March To The Parallel World Rhapsody
35. Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier Than Real Life!* [ep. 1]
36. Record of Ragnarok* [eps. 1-8]
37. Masamune-kun’s Revenge
38. The Way of the Househusband* [eps. 1-2]
39. Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen* [S1, Flips The Script, S2 eps. 1-7]
So where do I go from here? For 2022, I hope to watch and finish more series so I don't suffer a huge crash in my watch count. I least get to enjoy the second season/part two of Komi Can't Communicate and How a Realist. Plus, My Dress-Up Darling premieres in two days and the hugely anticipated Spy x Family comes out in April. As for older titles, I would like to finally sink my teeth into Classroom of the Elite and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Hopefully you get to hear my thoughts on those and more titles next January.
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