Oh boy here it is, the long awaited list where I recap all of the anime shit that I watched this past year. Overall the quality of shows this year is pretty solid but of course tons of sequels and long standing shows which quite frankly I can’t keep up with. This is especially the case with My Hero Academia, it’s just too much man, after All Might, one of the few dudes I watch the show for had his last stand and it was glorious, I kinda lost interest since he won’t be fighting anytime soon, too bad, it’s a great show, it’s just that I don’t have the time to watch every week, who knows, maybe one day I’ll catch up, shonen so easy to catch up anyways. In terms of volume, I watched a lot less anime that last year, probably due to the disruptions in my life about being laid off, having to find a new job and getting my own place, yea, I had to be very selective in what I watched, time was more valuable this year than ever for me.
This year I’m going to be doing things a bit differently and do an honorable mentions kind of thing to recognize shows that I started watching and totally would have continued watching had i more time or due to weird release schedule, kinda forgot about but might get back to. I’m also going to list the mini-shows here as well in this post, I normally create a separate post for them but seeing how I never actually got around to finishing 2018’s mini show round-up (fuck, it’s still in draft), I’ll do it here.
Because I failed last year for 2018’s Top Mini Show list, here is what that post would have contained:
7. Akkun to Kanojo
6. THE iDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS Theater
5. Dagashi Kashi S2
4. Kaijuu Girls S2
3. Takunomi
2. Gaikotsu Shoten’in Honda-san
1. Uchuu Senkan Tiramisu
Shit, Tiramisu was a good show, so was Honda-san. Damn a year late for recognition ;_;
Anyways, here are the shows that deserve honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions:
Kemono Friends S2 – The first season of Kemono Friends was a weird smash hit a few years ago and I watched that 3d bullshit and enjoyed it. In 2019 they tried to re-capture the goodness of the original in a sequel without the blessings and direction of the original director, which the studio/publishing company fired for unknown reasons. It started kinda shaky without the main “Kaban” or bag main character and another traveling animal friend which in my opinion was too many. Things got better as the show went on with legacy characters appearing again and some of the mysterious lore somewhat deciphered but in the end I wasn’t able to maintain interest and soft dropped it for other things/time probably mobile game time. Will I pick it up again? Maybe, but highly unlikely since I haven’t heard any other good things about the show, meaning that it might have ended shit.
Re Stage! Dream Days – A super generic school idol show that I watched halfway because I felt like there were no idol shows for that season, I think summer maybe, which normally has tons of shit like idol stuff. The characters were pretty templatey and same face-ish but then again what anime isn’t? Especially idol anime like love live and such this is prevalent, which is fine and necessary. Maybe pick it up again when I feel like something very positive with energy, nothing deep, just fun idol bullshit. I like that, just don’t have enough time for it.
UchiMusume – This was a cute show with a little demon girl that was adopted by some hero guy and tried to raise her and such as his daughter. It’s not bad and the girl is cute and lots of slice of life moments and whatnot but the show occasionally gets very serious, which is pretty unexpected with themes such as discrimination, belonging, being an orphan and whatnot, it seems overly serious and drama for what I was expecting from this show and kinda soft dropped it, probably for more mobile gaming time and more chill/jokes shows. I dunno, maybe pick up again if they ever announce S2 which means the show was good, we’ll see but probably not.
Boku no Hero Academia – Regrettably, I watched Hero halfway through the year and fully enjoyed it with the climax of All Might’s final battle. I was eager to see what happens next, then the cour ended. It skipped a season, then came back for Fall Season 2019 and I haven’t been able to get back into it because of moving and all that stuff takes priority. Would I try to get back to this show, maybe, but we’ll see if I have stuff to watch.
Vinland Saga – Man, just like Heroes, I totally would have watched this show, still might but because of the weird original release schedule, I kinda forgot about it. They released the first few episodes then for like 2-3 weeks there was nothing. Having weekly releases really does help you maintain interest in a show but for such a badass show with a cool introduction, I haven’t been able to keep up, so soft drop again. I still download the show in the hopes I will get back to it but we’ll see. Maybe a marathon of it one day.
Babylon – This is an amazing show and will continue to watch granted I remember an episode came out. Just like Vinland Saga, they released like 3 episodes and then nothing for like 2-3 weeks. What the fuck, why are you guys doing this? Even stranger still is that while all shows are ending around now as of writing, this shit is only at episode 8? What the fuck, is this shit going to end in January? What a weird time for a show to end. Anyways, the quality, tone and storytelling of this crime/mystery/psychological drama is top tier this year, would be among top 10 shows if it fucking finished and released on time like every other show. Maybe I’ll put it in for 2020 list if I remember and finish it.
Once again, because I failed last year, below are mai top mini-shows of 2019.
Mai Top mini-shows of 2019:
5.Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma
Shit mini show that has nothing going for it except fan service and even then it’s shitty at providing. Only thing cool about this show was the hype opening sequence, other than that the quality degraded dramatically and the premise became a parody of itself, just too dumb and mind nummingly stupid.
4. Nande Koko ni Sensei ga
This was a good fan service show done right, lots of cute teachers with tons of boobs, ass and uncomfortable situations between student and sexy teacher. Lots of censorship however with light rays, chibi stamps covering ass, nipples and what not. I’m sure if you get the blu-rays they will be pure and uncensored but whatever. This was an enjoyable show and higher quality than most mini shows.
3. Joshikausei
Really short show about a bunch of highschool girls doing shit but they are all silent. Nice. Quality is kinda choppy but whatever, not much to say but it was enjoyable and fun.
2. Isekai Quartet
Fun show that has alot of isekai franchises and characters such as overlord, konosuba, re:zero and whatnot in chibi forms at school doing stupid shit. I was entertained at this filler/side spin off project and I believe they are continuing it with even more shows/material under the same publishing company with a S2.
1. Sounan desu ka
A wonderfully good mini show about a bunch of highschool girls stranded on a deserted tropical island where they have to survive the elements and build shelter, hunt and so on. It’s basically anime jokes cast away or Man vs. Wild with Bear Gryllis with one of the girls acting as the tough survival hardened expert guide who is super pro and carries the team. Of course you get the princess girl who can’t do shit and is also the most girly which serves as comic relief. Being anime, of course all the girls are well bodied and relatively big to normal sized boobs, there is no flat chest here. Nice song and joke premise, you know a mini show is good when you think that this should be a full show. Good shit. Best mini show of 2019.
Alright then, now that we got mini shows out of the way, here’s the real list, tada!!11:
Mai Top Anime of 2019:
23. Okaa-san Online
This show promised me some okaa-san fan-service and the first 2 episodes indeed did but after that it was a boring uninspiring drab. The concept of having your “hot” mom follow you around in your isekai virtual game where she is grossly overpowered because that’s how the game is designed sounds good on paper but with shit ass animation, bland character designs and one of the most whatever plots that amounts to nothing, this show was a pure waste of time. My only regret is that I committed to finishing this show because I wanted to shit on it, even then it was hardly worth my time or patience. Probably the worst show that I watched this year, what a struggle to finish it.
22. Machikado Mazoku
This is a cute magical girl comedy show featuring “shadow mistress yuuko” or something like that, an ordinary high school girl who awakens to her demon powers that have long been sleeping in her family only to find that her powers are really weak because they were sealed and her demon lineage was cursed. As a demon girl her job is to defeat magical girls but in the end can’t do shit as the one in her class is super strong and chill/indifferent and becomes friends, and so on, you get the idea. Once again, while this sounds good on paper I find the pacing and humor of the show way to slow and monotone, just one note; the majority of the humor comes from yuuko being so weak and pathetic, which gets old quick and the gags which inherently weren’t that funny to begin with, drag on and drag. The character designs and animation of the show are actually pretty good if not the only reason you would watch this, which is primarily why I did, but in the end it wasn’t really worth it.
21. Go-toubun no Hanayome
To be honest I can’t remember the name of this show translated, something along the lines of quintuplets sisters can’t study or something. In any regards this show was better than I expected, featuring a cast of 4 red haired quintuplets that are all bad at school and some smart protag guy trying to help them because their father pays him well and he is poor with a family and needs money. You get the idea. A pretty solid harem comedy with pretty good girls, all attractive in their own way and most importantly the main guy is not that faggy, he’s kinda cool chill. Of course this kind of show ends with main guy picking noone and everyone because of course but the best girl straight off the bat is probably Miku, fight me on this. A decently entertaining experience since I haven’t watched a harem a show like this in awhile.
20. Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san
This show can be summed up as chilling with fox girl goddess for those who have lots of sadness and stress/pressure in their daily lives. Uh ok, yea that’s about it. Senko is a fox goddess and she decided to come down from magical land wherever goddess land and help nanny/maid help this one poor guy who has alot of sadness/depression coming from him. Senko is cool, she cleans and keeps him company, which he loves because he loves fluffy tails and shit. Other fox girls come around and befriend the neighbors and such, which is jokes and chill. The overall show is chill with mild comedy but it gets a bit heavy at times, especially near the end. In the end this was a pleasant experience but I feel like it was missing something, maybe more jokes and hi jinks? It’s ok.
19. One Punch Man S2
This. This is so sad. After being crowned one of the best shows in previous years and years of hype leading towards S2, one punch man has fallen so far from what made the original show so great for a variety of reasons. The show itself and I’m sure the original manga source material has gone into a sort of filler mode where saitama actually doesn’t do shit and or stupid side shit while all the rest of the heroes fight monsters and slowly progress the plot and conspiracy story which honestly, it’s not that important with the introduction of more characters and villains which probably have no relevance to saitama whatsoever. Paired with questionable storytelling methods, animation, while still good, is several notches below the original show and plot points which add nothing, what you end up with is a half baked product like one punch man season 2. The weakest part is the fact that saitama doesn’t really do anything in regards to the main story, he just does his own shit and has become a sort of ex-machina for all the other hero characters; when there are problems, you can count on saitama to fuck em up when needed but other than that, he doesn’t do shit. Disappointing. If they ever make a S3, hopefully it’s better.
18. Kakegurui XX
Kakugurui was a pretty good show, especially since it was funded partly by netflix and got some of that sweet streaming money by going semi mainstream. It did so well that is spawned a live action japanese drama of the same name re-creating the exact same story as the anime/manga for those who do not like anime, cause people are snobs and don’t like to say they watched anime and netflix has money. With all that said, from what I understand, the ending of the original show was an original ending, considering that the manga is still ongoing, but what’s even more puzzling is this S2 or “XX” series, which is a 100% original anime story not based off the manga. So then, how was this original anime production? It was well…underwhelming, it started off good with high tension and gambling but as the show progresses you slowly realize that each game played is weak and the stakes not that high, the level of hyperbole, metaphors and intensity scaled down significantly from the first season and result in minimal or no changes to the school dynamic. At the end of the show, it’s basically a soft reset with everyone kinda staying where they were before the show even started. Fun, but a little disappointing.
17. Azur Lane
Oh god, what happened. I was looking forward to Azur Lane, as a daily player of the mobile game with most the boats and owner of several Azur Lane collectable merchandise, this show went off the rails slowly but very evidently as each episode progressed. The start of the show was great, good animation, character designs, promising story and whatnot, good opening, cute moe moments, interesting battle sequences..then it slowly got worse, and worse and worse, accumulating into what I call one of the most what the fuck episode transitions I’ve ever seen. Episode 6 was a good episode, it was a chill slice of life episode filled with cute moe moments and the mandatory bath scene with lots of steam and censors, jolly good time..cool cool..then Episode 7 started. Oh my god what the fuck is going on. Out of nowhere, the episode starts with all the boat fractions heading to war with each other, with no real indication of what is going on. Nowhere did you see in the previous episode even a remote hint that an emergency or sortie was called. Episode 7 just starts and battle has begun. WUT. No explanation of how we went from bath episode to High boat war drama? Fuck. The next 4 episodes are continuations of this wannabe war drama story, the tone and flow of the show has drastically changed from “fun” to “dread” with set pieces which make no sense with 0 explanation of where these boats actually are with animation that is no better than a power point slide show full of derp and still shots with characters talking and not moving at all. At the end of one of the later episodes it’s night and in some other weird dimension, the next episode they are in the day with icebergs? Wut the fuck. This show is not done. After the train wreck of episode 10, Yostar and the production company decided to delay the final two episodes until March to fix their shit. I read that they are going to go back and re-animate the majority of the later episodes and rebroadcast the anime in January with what I hope are fixed/re-done episodes because damn son you done fucked up badly. Hopefully this will turn out better in the end, but we’ll see. Because of pure bias, this show despite even not being done yet, makes it higher that the former shows.
16. Lord El-Melloi II Case Files
Would anyone know that this shit is related to Fate franchise? Probably not. It doesn’t have a blue saber or faggot with red hair as main protag. No, but it does feature some dude called Waver and he is Lord-El-Melloi II, some Bs magical title in the world which I am not sure about in the place of some cute girl Reins that is blue and he has a girl helper with white hair in a hoodie which is kinda a servant but not really that uses a sickle to fight with. Ok. I am aware that you are technically supposed to watch Fate/Zero before having any of this shit make any sense but no, I went Mad Lad into this not knowing jack shit except that Waver is in FGO and his servant was Iskander. But thanks to that knowledge and having watched this show, I now know that Waver is pretty gay for Iskander, which is fine and that the Fate world of magic is pretty bullshit and makes no sense. I thought that this show was a mystery show, yes in some regards it was, but the problem I find is that the explanations Waver uses to solve these magical “mysteries” is so convoluted and cryptic he might as well say some shit like, “because it’s magic” which really means he didn’t explain anything at all. It just sounds like he’s making shit up on the fly, there is no basis for the logic or reasoning, it’s just one magical thing trumping another magical thing because it’s magic until he reaches the conclusion of “who dun it” and the truth is revealed. Wut. Make no mistake, the animation quality for this show is pretty good considering what it is and some decent action/battle with his sickle servant girl and the music is pretty good, with an interesting non-vocal opening song. Should I have watched Fate/Zero before this? probably, do I have regrets watching this now? Not really, it was moderately entertaining and informing on the ways of the Waver gay.
15. Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue
This is a pretty chill cute show about a cat and her master which is a novelist. The show is cool because it takes the perspective of both the cat, Haru with voice overs and inner thoughts, I suppose like Garfield and the main guy. The guy is pretty sad, lives in his family home with his mom and dad dead, no siblings, hardly has any friends, doesn’t go out much, stays home most the time, guess he needs a cat. He ends up coming across one on the streets or something and yea, that’s what happens, kinda reluctant at first but ends up loving his cat. Solid animation, good storytelling and heart warming moments make this a solid choice to watch if you are feeling like you want a cat and or need a cat, cause if you watch this show, it’ll probably make you want a cat. Haru’s voice is nice and the ending is good, no loose ends. A warm cute show for cat people.
14. Houkago Saikoro Club
For a guy who is only moderately interested in European style board games I found this show better than expected, despite the fact that about half the time I don’t understand what’s going on when they explain the board game rules to me. That’s ok, i’m here for hardship and friendship and that’s what this show provided me. Friendship life struggles and so forth in a nice slice of life chill show with mild drama and self reflection. Yes, there’s nothing quite like this show which is so specific about board games and board game creators but it works, the girls were nice and the animation very crisp and smooth without skipping a beat. The conclusion of the show was suitable and not a bullshit cliffhanger, this show had no illusions of a S2, it wrapped it up nicely and if you want to continue the story, you can probably, via the source manga. Solid shit, but not for everybody.
13. Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
This is a pretty jokes slice of life dumb show featuring a girl which has a mental disability, probably some hardcore social anxiety or something but whatever the case her entire existence is that she has to make as many friends as possible in her new highschool or else her single friend from middle school won’t be friends with her that is going to another school. Yea, ok, sure what a bitch friend but i see what you are doing, trying to help your friend out. The majority of the show is dumb skits involving the main girl, Boccochi and her small collection of other friends that she makes with varying degrees of being more interesting than she is, which is fine. The quality of the show is sharp, like lines so sharp you can cut some cheese or something and the colors very solid with simple shapes for the most part. I liked this show because it was a perfect time filler without too much commitment, a solid moe slice of life dumb show, but not for everyone as some may find the pacing a bit slow.
12. Hataage! Kemono Michi
Joke ass show about swole pro wrestling guy who gets transported to another world with fantasy and isekai shit that loves animals and wants to create a pet store filled with monsters. Pretty self explanatory all the while getting a bunch of humanoid animal girls like a dragon girl, wolf girl, vampire and whatnot to spent joke ass days with and hi-jinks ensues. The show starts off pretty high and jokes but about midway it begins to drag on a bit and becomes somewhat tedious with reused jokes and the same premise repeated day after day. It gets better in the end and it wraps up in typical light novel fashion, “our journey/adventure is just beginning” kind of fare. Animation is solid and the character designs are appropriate, main guy is jokes and leaves much more story open if they want to continue this shit. Overall a fairly enjoyable experience although not without it’s issues.
11. No Guns Life
This is a pretty good show, very original in the world building and very rich in atmosphere and tone/pacing. So we got this guy, his head is a giant revolver and he is a detective of some sort in a world after the great war people got bionic implants and such because it was easier to maintain or whatever. I tried to explain the world in better detail in my initial summary review of the show so I don’t want to get into it further but yea, this is a good show. Everything about it is here if you are looking for a action/grundgy/hip sci-fi-ish show that is pretty unique and original. Animation is pretty top notch and the character designs are good too. It suffers the same kind of ending that reads “hey boi, if you wanna know more, read the manga” but then again, that’s the purpose of most of these anime shows, for you to get interested and read the original material. Good shit.
10. Watashi ni Tenshi ga Maiorita!
Oh boi, unofficial fgo anime featuring mashuu and a small gudako slice of life chill comedy show. Yea boi, this is the way. I remember this being a show that aired early in January 2019, a time which can only be described as a time of great peril and turmoil, so this show greatly provided me an outlet of chill and jokes funny in such trying economic and mentally straining days. Myaa-nee is da bomb, aka mashuu clone and is super chill about her life going to school as a fashion designer and chilling with her little sister and her friends, which she is super gay for since they are so cute. Joke shit. Not without some dumb mismatched moments but overall a very good slice of life comedy. Great animation, character designs and good voice acting/premise. Good shit.
9. Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari
Well now, looks like last year and the coming year are all about shields and things, man, this show is pretty solid for an iseaki and brings a spin on the genre that I greatly approve of: namely the main character not being a wuss and basically an anti-hero, quite literally. It has all the good points of a solid isekai show with none of the flaws, mainly faggy main character. I approve of Naofumi and his hardship life living in the fantasy world and his chosen slave animal girl/turned wife basically. The villain characters, mainly the bitch princess girl that set him up for failure in the beginning are great because you hate them, that’s why they are good bitches, you hate them, as you should. The story is a bit drawn out, somewhat formulaic but it does it with just enough edge-lord and cynicism in the main character to make it not cringe worthy, which is quite a feat really. The only thing I think his show is missing is more girl characters in his party but that’s ok, since his slave animal girl is his best girl anyways. Decently solid animation, decent character designs, worthy show to but put into Isekai Quartet, which it was indeed. Good shit, suffers read the manga syndrome but what do you expect.
8. Fate Grand Order – Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia
Well here it is, after a number of years since being announced in JP, the FGO Babylonia anime is here and it’s pretty darn good at that. From a purely biased perspective of one who already experienced the story in the mobile game, it’s really nice and cool to see it in action as anime and a good refresher of what actually happened because let’s be honest, sometimes shit didn’t make sense in the game and or you kinda skimmed it at times because you just wanted to continue onto the next battle quicker and finish the story for gems/rewards. With that said, the anime perfectly captures the feel of the game and in terms of character designs, is much better than the game since they had to standardize the designs, which is a godsend really. Animation is top notch with action scenes with fluid very detailed movement and choreography; you can tell they spent a lot of money on animation quality and key frames. Music is good, just straight from the game, voices and voice actors perfect and on point. The only thing I don’t really like is the opening song, it’s shit in my opinion and doesn’t really match the show at all, but whatever. This show is only for FGO fans and players, it’s not for anyone cause if you watch this shit with no knowledge, it totally doesn’t make any sense. In any regards, good shit for the continued growth of Type-Moon’s money making machine, FGO.
7. Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai
This is a pretty fantastic love comedy show involving two student council members, main dude coming from a poor background but is the president and the vice president, a girl who is from a rich wealthy family. Broken into sketches, each episode provides an abundance of joke moments and comedic times which revolve around the two basically trying in a passive-aggressive way tell each other that they like one another, or at least trying to and failing spectacularly. The premise set out in the start of the show is basically in a relationship, the first one to confess their love to the other is the weaker/lower of the pair as a couple at least in status because well, japan or something culture whatever saving face etc. So yea, both very obviously like each other but bait one another to confess but the results are always jokes. Aided with a cast of excellent side characters that only make the show more enjoyable, some are probably more popular than even the title girl, Kaguya, such as Chika; which famously had her one time only “Chika Dance” ending sequence and character song, which was quite frankly, amazing good. With good premise, characters, quality animation, pacing and joke moments and at times dramatic heartfelt moments, namely the last few episodes, Kaguya-sama is probably the best romantic comedy anime of this year.
6. Joshikousei no Mudazukai
This show is pretty jokes, it’s so chill and whatever everyday life, slice of life in fact that it’s perfect, capturing the everyday lives of high school girls and the stupid shit they do and think of, which is quite literally the name of the show; “Wasteful Days of High School Girls”. Indeed, this anime hits it just right, not too weird, not to boring and chill, just right and enough stupid, character development and artsy moments that make for a perfect slice of life show with comedic elements and mild drama/spirit of youth? moments? if you can call it that. With a core cast of three girls that are nicknamed, Ota, Robo and Baka, you kinda get the idea of where they fit in the show with Ota being a typical anime fujoshi fan girl, Robo being a cold scientific and logical girl to the point of absurdness, and Baka which, well, it just a pure dumb ass girl. The three main friends are supplemented with several other girls in their school, which range from beautiful foreign lesbian girl, tomboy-ish prince girl, insane glasses student council president, loli girl which looks and behaves like a little girl but is in highschool, occult girl and of course your token blonde twin tailed chuunibuu dark flame master girl, which is one of my personal favorites because her commitment to the ✝Cr@ft✝ is so weak and easily broken when shit gets real. Joke shit. Solid excellent opening song and introduction, good skits, good animation, unique pacing, funny jokes, memorable characters. Good shit. Probably the best show of it’s kind this year.
5. Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru
This show or “How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?” is probably one of the most unique full shows that I have seen in awhile that focuses of weight lifting, exercise and general fitness all packaged and easily accessible via cute anime girls and supported with comedy and joke moments. Indeed, “Dumbell” as I call it is a great show for a variety of reasons, obviously for the fitness and weight lifting subject matter but mainly because the characters are so likeable; from the main girl Hibiki, the tanned fashionable gyaru high school girl who’s motivation to get fit and lift weights is to just lose weight cause she eats too much, to the insane class president who is already fit but wants to get swole because she has a muscle fetish to even their teacher, which secretly moonlights as a popular cosplayer and wants to get fits for comiket events and the like. All of the characters are good, even their friend who is a boxing girl and foreign russian girl, voiced by Nao Toyama all contribute to the jokes fitness story. Their personal trainer, a swole ass man, is jokes too. Everything about this show from start to finish I thoroughly enjoyed, premise, character designs, voice acting was amazing, Hibiki’s voice actor; Ai Fairouz was her first major anime role and is of Egyptian–Japanese heritage, which is quite a unique background and did an outstanding job, animation, education, joke story plot lines, characters themselves, opening and ending song, all were good shit. One of my personal favorites that I always took the effort to watch when a new episode came out on a weekly basis, it was just so easy and fun to watch. Good shit.
4. Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken
This, this is a good isekai show done right. Got some cool gimmick, check, likeable main character, check, is he OP? check, world building? check, cast of likeable other characters and other species in a fantasy world? check. Everything about “Slime” as I call it is great, making it the best overall isekai that I watched this year, and man, there was alot of isekai shit this year, some good but I ignored and others so bad such as Okaa-san Online but I ended up watching anyways because I’m retarded. Perhaps it’s a little unfair to have this show so high up considering that it was also on 2018’s ranking at #11 but it just goes to say that this show got better as time went on and the story progressed. What else is there to say, the show started strong and maintained that way all the way till the end, with exciting battles, hype intimidation, fun characters and a story that will continue. While the anime ended and of course the story will continue via manga, if they ever decide to make another anime I’ll be sure to check it out. Good shit.
3. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Golden Wind
It’s been a long road for Jojo and this story arc, Golden Wind finally wraps up and all I can say is that it was a suitable ending and a enjoyable journey, way better than the bullshit story arc of Diamond is Unbreakable, fuck, that was so bad. I wouldn’t say that it’s better overall than Stardust Crusaders but in some aspects it is better, namely the lack of stupid dumb ass filler episodes which were very apparent in Stardust Crusaders and it’s fresh departure in storytelling from being exclusively Joestar family lineage. Like come on, the main charter is Dio’s son and he wants to be a GangStar in Italy, how far removed from that can you be from previous story arcs? Pretty far, but it works, very well in fact and for that it gets massive originality points. The quality of animation is top notch, the oh shit moments are there, not quite Za Warudo Dio level of oh shit moments but it tries, likeable and laughable characters, joke ass segments, expansion of the Stand lore and world in general, it’s a good JoJo show. From what I understand, the next story arc features a girl Joestar, so we’ll see how that will come about but as far as I am concerned, this is probably the second or third best story arc out of the 5 that have been animated so far and it fully deserves it. Good shit, looking forward to what’s next.
2. Dr. Stone
Wow, this show. Dr. Stone from the very start of the show I knew this one was going to be different, going to be special, going to be epic and fun, a story about a genius leek haired scientist high school guy named Senku, who for mysterious and unknown reasons, along with the rest of humanity are petrified in stone for 3700 years until he and several others are awoken through natural chemical/environmental means to a world without technology or civilization, a world reset literally to primitive means. Everything about Dr Stone is top notch, animation is top notch, character designs are unique and memorable top notch, story and pacing top tier, subject matter unique, educational and inspiring, top tier motivations and tension, good shit. Dr. Stone is amazing because it combines all the elements of a typical shonen battle story but does it with science with minimal battle, in fact, the most entertaining aspects of the show is when Senku and his friends/allies need to build something in order to achieve a goal or objective; that’s where the science shines and you can actually learn about stuff through clever metaphors, hyperbole, illustrations and diagrams that the show conveniently presents to the viewer in easily accessible segments. It’s like that part in Iron Man 1 when Tony Stark is building his first suit in the cave and then later refines it and makes it better once he gets back, Dr. Stone is like that sometimes, which is exciting and makes you wonder whats net. In fact, I think every episode was great, not a dull moment. Even better still is when they begin to elaborate on Senku’s father and his legacy and how it impacts Senku’s growth as a scientist is when you really begin to appreciate the level of detail and masterful storytelling that this show conducts on a per episode basis. Yes, it is very evident however that they do skip some filler content from the original manga, which would be great as anime nevertheless but I can understand the director’s and studio choice for only focusing on story plot matter. Plus they got a joke ass catchy opening song, not so much the second cour but yea, after 24 episodes I can say that Dr. Stone is one of the best show’s of 2019 and looking forward to the second season which was announced at the end. Unfortunately, despite it receiving my high praise, it’s not the top show of 2019, which has to go to..
1. Kimetsu no Yaiba
Yes, you knew that this was going to be up there but did you think that this would take the top spot for best show of 2019? Maybe? Maybe not. Regardless of what has been said about Dr. Stone, one cannot ignore the masterclass storytelling of Kimetsu no Yaiba or “Yaiba” as I call it in the eyes for most anime viewers. Yaiba is a show that in my opinion, much like Dr. Stone, kinda came out of nowhere and to the surprise of many, was an amazing experience both visually and thematically. A simple story of a boy whose family was killed by demons with him and his little sister being the only survivors but with the tragic side effect being that his sister was bitten thus turned into a demon herself. This story is about his commitment to protect his sister, his only family left and his struggle to find a cure and gain the battle skills necessary to fight demons and at the same time, protect his sister, which is also a demon; insanity boi. Animated by UFOtable, top tier animation studio responsible for many of the recent high quality Fate and Type-Moon anime adaptations, many were kinda skeptical if they would put in the same amount of effort and quality that they do for a non-fate story/material. Well the answer is pretty obvious, they do, they put a fuckton amount of effort, care, detail and work into this show and it’s paid off. From the opening sequence and song, you get an idea of the journey ahead and it matches perfectly the entirely of the show. The animation is fluid, smooth and matches perfectly the sword action battles that goes on and lightens up considerable in times of chill and jokes. The music is perfect and matches each segment or scene, no awkward moments or weird derp faces, every scene is crafted with the upmost of attention and care, I can understand why that from what I have heard, after a certain dramatic episode late in the series, the author of Kimetsu no Yaiba cried because it was so perfect when she watched it and went to personally thank the director/studio staff for animating so well what she had originally envisioned. Unique character designs, top notch voice acting, it’s all there for the perfect period Japanese anime shonen action drama. Good shit. Slated for a movie, a continuation of the story at the end of the series, I am sure that we will be seeing more Yaiba in a future S2 or so. Good shit, congratulation Kimetsu no Yaiba, you are mai top anime of 2019.