Part of Polygon’s Best of 2021 The year is almost over, and we’ve seen nearly every new anime series debut, from exciting new shows like Naoko Yamada’s The Heike Story and Platinum End premiering alongside returning favorites like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Lupin III: Part IV, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean!
Full Answer
The 13 best one-season anime to watch in a weekend
... list earlier in the week ranking the most- and least-watched anime shows of Fall 2021. And since it is very comprehensive, they also included other fun rankings, such as “best-rated,” “worst-rated,” and “most abandoned series.” “Every ...
The best anime of 2021, so far
The Japanese-American anime blew critics away by putting an inventive spin ... "Bachelor" fans learned more about the season-23 star on "Coming Out Colton." Summary: After competing on "The Bachelorette" and starring on "The Bachelor," Colton Underwood ...
Beastars tells the story of a wolf who wants to have sex with a rabbit, but worries he will devour said rabbit. I think it’s a metaphor for puberty. Though it could be a cringey, misguided exploration of race. Maybe it’s holding a magnifying glass to sexual violence on campus.
Fruits Basket lures viewers in with the promise of a cute story about a family that turns into animals when they’re hugged, then absolutely disarms with boatloads of generational trauma.
Horimiya, a show whose namesake comes from combining the names of its two central love interests, Kyouko Hori and Izumi Miyamura, is about as darling as you’d expect a show named after its two lovers to be.
Jujutsu Kaisen was the breakout anime success of 2020 and continued strong in 2021. The story follows the young Yuji Itadori, a good-hearted school boy who one day eats an actual finger, which served as a vessel for a powerful demon called Sukuna.
Possibly dubbed the most comfy anime in the last decade, Laid-back Camp ’s second season delivers as a perfect follow up to its first. Rin still loves camping by herself, but she slowly continues to open up to her new gang of friends at her school’s camping club.
The second season of Megalobox is a far darker, somber, and more melancholic underdog story than the devil may care attitude of the first season.
Studio Bones’ breakout superhero action drama returned for its fifth season as the students of UA High school were thrust into ever more precarious danger with greater stakes.
Following 14-year-old Ai Ooto as she fights to protect the souls of dead teenage girls housed within the eponymous "wonder eggs," the high quality of the show’s animation proves immediately striking, full of nuanced character acting and spectacular, high-flying and allegorical action that has earned comparisons to Kunihiko Ikuhara ( Revolutionary Girl Utena) and Naoko Yamada ( A Silent Voice) in equal measure. Even with all that visual flash, the explicit depiction of a tough subject matter will understandably prove an insurmountable hurdle for many—even though for the most part, director Shin Wakabayashi ( Owarimonogatari) and writer Shinji Nojima ( Suki!, Ie naki ko) tackle the most uncomfortable topics through quieter, incidental reveals. Consistently powerful and provocative, Wonder Egg Priority strikes a perfect balance of sensational action with painful subject matter without missing a step (yet, anyway). From its incredible animation to its off-kilter electronic score, it's without a doubt the most exciting new show of the year so far.
The words "magical girl" are never uttered in Wonder Egg Priority, but the loud and colorful markers of the subgenre—transforming objects of power, animal familiars—are presented in contrast with quiet and delicate observation of each of the character’s painful inner struggles.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the best magical girl anime because kids, or at least young teens, can enjoy it, but it's mature enough to appeal to a wider audience. It's solidly rooted in the magical girl genre, but with a darker approach and subversion of many genre tropes.
The reason Fullmetal Alchemist is the best fantasy anime of all time is that it paints a fully realized, unique world with internally consistent rules that have real consequences. Building on that foundation, it delivers a story about two brothers that's as grounded as the setting is fantastic.
Without Dragon Ball, the fighting anime genre as we know it today probably wouldn't exist.
Most anime horror series are referred to as horror because of the monsters, like High School of the Dead. These series tend to be light on what western audiences think of as horror. Still, When They Cry straddles the line.
FLCL gets the nod because it's short, sweet, visually beautiful, and somehow extremely relatable. The series only got six episodes, but that plays to its benefit. Each episode is jam-packed with no sagging in the middle.
Anime has a reputation for being kid stuff, because of the connection between animation and kids cartoons in the West. The truth is that most anime isn't for kids, as evidenced by all the TV-14, TV-MA, and R ratings on this list. If you're looking for a great anime kids movie, the best place to start is Studio Ghibli.
Honorable mentions : Bleach, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Mushishi. A lot of fantasy and supernatural anime incorporates fantastic elements into real-world settings, like shinigami descending on Karakura Town in Bleach. Shin Sekai Yori, or From the New World, takes it to a new level. The series starts off a little slow.