It has been a pretty busy year for me despite it not looking like it on this blog. Somehow I still manage to get these top ten post out annually, and this year isn't that different. Last year I was talking about missing writing about anime, it is still true this year but I don't think I will have the time to be consistent on posting to a blog. I'm just glad I can still squeeze in these post every year.
As I review the year it seems like there is this influx of anime innovating on a very stable genre, romantic comedies set in a high school. Even with someone as jaded as myself toward these type of anime, I found that my top ten list was sprinkled with a few of them. It felt like this year was a refresh on safe genres and anime companies willing to actually take risks on interesting subjects that haven't been explored or not explored enough. Sure there were a lot less anime I enjoyed overall, but the quality that I got to pick from took me a bit to sort accurately. Which anime might be on such a list, you may ask? Well you'll need to continue reading to find out; and like always I structure the too long didn't read sections first, followed by the explanation for context of each pick.
For the Lazy
Top 10
- Ore Monogatari!!
- Death Parade
- Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku
- Noragami Aragoto
- Working!!!
- One Punch Man
- Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
- Akagami no Shirayuki-hime
- Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata
- Overlord
Honorable Mentions
- Plastic Memories
- Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru
- Young Black Jack
Explanation
Young Black Jack
When presenting a talented protagonist, a lot of anime fall into the trap of creating a "Mary Sue" type where the character literally has no flaws. That ends up being really uninteresting because of the lack of character development, as well as the character just being unrelatable. Fortunately, Hazama doesn't fall into that troupe and Young Black Jack as series covers a wide variety of historical subjects that are intriguing and not many anime would touch. Resulting in a medically educational anime with topics that are engaging if you like tension and a character struggling as a medical student with a debt.
Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru
I'm not usually the biggest fan of mystery, however Sakuranko-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru structured an anime like this in a way that made it feel more like a triller mystery, making it more entertaining to me. Also, because the subject that one of the main characters is interested in is bones, a lot of the focus was on death and the past, making for a interesting way to learn about anatomy and draw parallels with characters that have been struggling with there past. Not only that but there is also a non-stereotypical female character, Sakurako, made for an interesting dive into several different mysteries seemingly separate that end up joining together in a unexpected way.
Plastic Memories
One of my favorite subjects to think about, at least in science fiction, is interactions between human and artificial intelligence, especially romance. Plastic Memories doesn't dive into the science part of the fiction but I felt it did a great job conveying the differences of the two humanoids and despite the variation, they can still connect and care for one another. So even with the ending being pretty predicable because of the man topic being about departing from the people you cherish, it felt like a really good experience to see happen between the two main characters.
Overlord
Some might complain about yet another anime about being stuck in a massively mutliplayer online games, but Overlord does approach the subject differently. Since it is presented as the only player in the game is Momonga, a lot of the interactions are between NPCs and as the title clearly states, the player character is the overlord of a portion of this game world. So rather than being an unimportant PC, as far as the world cares, the main character is someone of importance making the relationship in the world and with NPCs different in interesting ways. With that difference alone, it kept me interested in seeing what would happen and that exploration of the difference was what set it apart from Log Horizon and Sword Art Online, which let Overlord have something to contribute to the subject despite the similarities.
Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata
I watch far too many romantic comedies set in schools that I've become quite jaded about this very cliché anime genre. Well, Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata came as a surprise to me because it felt like it was doing something different while hitting pretty much every troupe within the romcom classification. So what I would say that made it so different was the fact that the male protagonist had something he was working toward, his creation of a dating sim he could be proud of. What make it so different is there are legitimate reasons this many girls are around him, that being to help work on the game. However, with this man girl around him it is the hobby that defines him rather than the girls or romance. And to top it off, the interactions of characters aren't one dimensional and are quite entertaining, resulting in a good comedy however it is light on romance -- and this is pretty surprising with the subject being about dating sims.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime
I was initially brought to this anime because of how similar in design the female protagonist is to the one in Akatsuki no Yona. And with that initial push, I was glad to have found another shoujo anime that I enjoyed. The focus of Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is a lot more on how the characters struggle and grow as they make their way to closer to there goals. The biggest thing that stuck out to me is Shirayuki not being as interested in romance compared to her profession of herbalism. Characters having a hobby they are passionate about really shapes a their personality, and makes them more independent considering there aren't that many characters around Shirayuki interested herb science and medicine. With that display of independence, it felt like the range of characterisation wasn't limited and characters in Akagami no Shirayuki-hime really did make the anime entertaining to watch every week.
Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
I continue to be drawn into magic themed school settings, but this time it has romance and comedy element to round out my wheelhouse of anime interest. I really didn't expect much from this series, but I was happily surprised when something quite fascinating came from it. The majority of the times, when magic is in the world it feels like a fantasy, but in Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo it is more of a mystery. The members of the Supernatural Studies Club try to find these seven different witch within the school and that is the main source of story push in the series. And with this journey, we see a good amount of character development from both the male protagonist, Yamada, along with the seven witches and many other characters involved in the mystery.
One Punch Man
Originally pitched to me as a parody of the shounen battle anime/manga, it quickly became one of my favorites of the season. And since I don't normally have much to say about the action genre, I'm glad to have something to pull from that actually made me think about it in a different way. Simply by having the main character already start at the best, it allow for challenge to be focused on different aspects of the character, like social retribution; for example, city destruction causing civilian to dislike actions from heroes, forgetting the fact that their lives were saved. Additionally, with the majority of side characters being serious in a serious world, it made the silly ones, like our main character Saitama, stand out that much more and created an interesting juxtaposition. All that together created something very entertaining in my book in spite of my lack of interest toward action anime.
Working!!!
As one of the select few anime, that are vaguely romantic, not set in a school I was pretty excited to see Working get a third season. And with this being another season, there is a possibility of the series getting stale, yet Working did something that made the season very compelling to watch if you watched the other two season. The progression of many established relationships was the focal point for this season and I couldn't be happier for these things. With so much of the comedy being drawn from the dynamic of certain relationship, this could of been a risky move for an anime that is focused on the comedy aspects. Fortunately, Working!!! did an excellent job on the moving to the next logic step in the character's relationship, but still keep an air of familiarity to it that made it feel satisfying. Really, this season is the one you want to watch if you are a romance fan, but the other seasons really help with the build up and eventual climax of what you are want to happen in both character and relationship development.
Noragami Aragoto
With most of the first season being focused on characters and establishing the world of Noragami, the second season feel most focused on the gods themselves. For many people that actually believe in some type of god, their view of them is one of perfection and idealism. What Noragami Aragoto does is kick down the pedestal some people put on gods and highlight their flaws and challenge those flaws to create character growth. It really felt like stakes were higher than normal because no one was safe and a lot of the character had something hidden away that got exposed and exploited for their character's progression. Even with this much conflict, I could see both sides to the argument pretty easily, but there was always a right choice if they didn't want their issues to keep coming up multiple times. And those hard choices is what made much of Noragami Aragoto a very fun roller coaster where I connected to many characters that I didn't expect I would.
Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku
The Oregairu series tends to explore things that aren't normally done well, that being the complex nature of human interactions. I explained myself in a moderately spoiler filled post, but I do want to condense it in a more safe way for this post. Like last season, Oregairu Zoku focuses on character relationships via interactions, making it very easy to misinterpret others thoughts based on their actions. And this is intentional considering people tend to try to make them self look as good as possible to others. So with the misinterpretations, and layered relationship within this anime, I would say that is one of the best anime to portray human socialization in a way that is complex enough to be believable, yet clear enough to follow as more conversions get revealed.
Death Parade
Another anime I already covered in a post but Death Parade was probably one of few anime I was excited about that is not a sequel. A lot of the theme it covers is, to no surprise, about death and judging a persons character. The thing that actually made this series that much more interesting is the questioning of objective judgement. Since a lot of afterlife myths are binary like heaven or hell, or in the case of Death Parade reincarnation or void, it feel like there is this strict black and white view of a human life, at least in value. However, the uncertainty of Decim, and the open questioning of standard arbiter methods from his assistant showed there was more to judging a human life than procedures that are essentially robotic. Having that lifted the anime outside of it's own context and made it something worthy of discussion and anime that can do that are always special in my eyes.
Ore Monogatari!!
I seem to usually have one anime every year that is clearly my number one because of the great amount of enjoyment I had watching the series, and Ore Monogatari is no different. I was interested in this anime simply because it had non-standard body type characters who are actually the focus of the story. To my surprise, the dynamic of a character that is usually there for comic relief, like Gouda, and a pretty standard female love interest made for a really cute romance. Ore Monogatari did an excellent job showcasing the funny, cute, and sad moments in a relationship while still poking fun at Gouda and Yamato being an "odd" couple. Since this anime took up multiple season blocks, that being is is 20+ episodes, it cover quite the range of emotional work that are inside of a romantic relationship, all the while keeping the original feeling of series -- that being comically cute. I actually don't think this needs a second season, not because it was bad but because it felt like a complete experience. And this is why Ore Monogatari!! pretty much has to be my number one this year.