And so here it is, just under a month past the end of 2020 I finally finished writing this shit, this summary of what the hell did I watch for animu this past year. Despite the ruin, downs and downs of our past year in 2020, you would think that I would watch more anime. But no, that was not really the case, mainly due to other things like mobile games and constantly watching the news in constant anxiety and fear of the outside. Anime should have been a outlet to forget about the would of ruin at large but when even anime season gets delayed or postponed due to COVID, you cannot help but wonder and get shook as well. Will I ever get to go to Japan again? I hope so. At least anime transcends the need for a physical location and can ease the mind, to some degree, but even then when you watch these seemingly normal animes, slice of life shit, people having fun, no masks, shopping and living their lives all I could think of is “So, this anime is pre-covid good times I guess.” Man.
Either way as per tradition, I’d like to recognize a few shows that I had every intention of watching but for some reason just fell off, due to interest, too much shit to watch in a season or whatever and include shows such as Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (Bear girl), Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai (Not Idol enough Idols), Maoujou de Oyasumi (Sleepy Princess), Munou na Nana (School Hero Genocide Killer), Senyoku no Sigrdrifa (Cute girls in planes), Deca-Dence (Conceptual game Neo-Isekai), Oshi ga Budoukan Ittekuretara Shinu (Idol fan anime), Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei shitemita (Science romance anime), Shadowverse (Joke ass baller cardgame). Yea, I regret not being able to watch these shows because I think some of them would be great but at the same time, most of them I don’t see that much buzz or merchandise made at least not yet so we’ll see. If anything, I’ll probably try to finish the new Love Live as it’s really different, not necessarily in a good way but because I want to see if they make something out of it, considering that it’s a show about a bunch of idols that don’t want to go to the love live competition, which is kind of like, what’s the point then, the show is called love live and…you guys are not going to enter? Yea, we’ll see.
In total I watched about 25 shows, which is not bad, more or less the same as last year where I watched 23, cool. Guess pandemic doesn’t effect my viewing habits after all.
Well, more like all my time shifted and went to Hololive and ytubers. Oh. Yeah. Boi.
First things first tho, before we get into the meat of things, here are the Mini shows that I watched, the whole full 3 fucking mini shows. Wow, guess mini shows were not really in this past year I guess.
Mai Top Mini Anime of 2020:
3.Rail Romanesque
This is a mini-show spin off of the famed VN Maitetsu except with other train girls from various regions of japan and all of it’s glory. Still don’t know if any of the girls appearing in this thing ever appeared in the visual novel but regardless it’s just a cute mini show basically showcasing regional specialties and promoting tourism within japan, something which is not encouraged because of COVID this past year, but no matter. Not bad, cute design cute girls, watched it.
2. Heya Camp
This is a mini show spin-off show of Yuru Camp which is scheduled to have a sequel in Winter 2021 so I suppose to tide people over they made this thing, which as you guessed…is about promoting regional tourism and locations within japan to camp in the winter via a stamp collecting trip. Yea, nothing much to think about here except that it was nice and comfy. Looking forward to S2 of the real show, should be good shit.
1. Isekai Quartet S2
Season 2 of the mash up featuring popular franchises under kadowaka such as ReZero, KonoSuba, Overlord and many others. It was nice and jokes, although mostly forgettable except for the new additions of the heroes of Rising of the Shield Hero and “Cautious Isekai Hero”. I am sure they will continue this spin off series into infinity as long as they have stuff to sell.
Congrats Isekai Quartet S2, you are the best mini show of 2020 because there was literally not much else mini shows that interested me.
Well then, without further ado, it looks, here’s the real ranking of shows.
Mai Top Anime of 2020:
25. Babylon
Oh my god. Why did this happen. Whyyyyy. What the fuck happened. Shittttt. In 2019 I had high praise for this series and I quote myself: “This is an amazing show and will continue to watch… 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.” God damn. I have huge regrets about ever writing that. Yes, I did remember to finish watching this show when the remaining half of the show aired at the beginning of 2020 and oh my god what a fucking train wreck. I have not seen a show gradually go so meteorically off the rails from it’s original intent/concept and finish so badly and poorly in a long time…probably since Kado: The Right Answer in 2017. Oh my god … I should have known. Both are written by the same motherfucker, Mado Nozaki, the man who couldn’t finish a story properly if his life depended on it. FUCKKKKKK. I should have known better than to watch an anime based off this bitch’s work. Oh my god. I can’t believe it. When I started watching this show it was amazing, it has a good tone, good story, great pacing and great themes…but they were utterly and gradually ruined, just like 2020. Unlike the 1-2 episode ending of Kado, which literally ruined the entire show, Babylon took a bit more time to fuck everything up, like 4-5 episodes before finally providing us one of the most unsatisfying endings that I have ever experienced, down there, probably only second to Kado. Fuck. To summarize the entire show fucking Mado basically tries to answer the philosophical question: What does “Good” mean? And comes to the conclusion that “Good” means “To Continue”. This revelation is told though the perspective and inner thoughts of the President of the United States of America; yes, the President of the United States; a fictional president tho. Yes. A show that was originally about detectives solving a case of mysterious suicides and murders in Japan somehow pivots and now the main focus becomes the President of the United States doing presidential big brain thinking stuff in a metaphorical galaxy in his mind. WHAT THE FUCK. What a way to lose focus from your original concept. No question one of the biggest disappointments in 2020 and down there with one of the worst anime endings I have ever seen.
24. Azur Lane
The Azur Lane anime was put on hold last year before concluding at like the last few episodes because the quality had dropped dramatically to basically power point or flash level animations (Flash is officially dead in 2021 BTW). So yea, they finished up the show in early 2020 and while it was an improvement from the train wreck of mid late episodes, the show still didn’t’ fucking make any sense. Sure, a bit better animation and movement but it did what you can reasonably expect from a anime based off a mobile game: kinda soft reset everything so that the bad guys are no longer bad and whatnot, so yea, basically no plot or story progression of any real significance. It’s funny really because Azurlane recently had a huge update which funny enough kind of builds a bit off what happened in the anime, which honestly might have made more sense to wait a bit and have the anime this year. Ahwell, whats done is done, they tried to do the Kancolle anime thing and the results were equally mediocre bad. They plan to have a mini show for Azurlane, Slow Ahead! with new designs this year that is a slice of life comedy based off a official 4-koma manga which hopefully will be good. Still like boats nevertheless.
23. Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!
Uzaki-chan has been something of a disappointment this year. It has been hyped a little bit because her infamous iconic shirt that reads “Sugoi Dekai” on her huge boobs for years when it existed as a manga for several years prior. While I don’t think it was a horrible show, it wasn’t that good honestly due to pacing and source material quirks. The primary joke of the show is that the main protag and Uzaki like each other, but both are essentially tsundere for each other but pretend they are just pals, even though both don’t truly think that and put on the act for the public and their friends/family and are hopeless in actually being honest to each other. Pretty same formula I would say but the problem comes from the source material, that’s literally the primary focus of this show and it suffers from it as the gags and reactions get old and repetitive. There are other characters in the show but they just serve as narrative tools to show the couple from another point of view, there is no other real character development or depth other than protag and Uzaki and even then the progress of backstory is so slow and drawn out it gets very tedious to watch. I admit that I am a little biased because I think Uzaki’s “Sugoi Dekai” shirt is jokes and I like kinda short girls with big boobs; yea. Either way, I feel Uzaki would have done much better if it was a mini show, maybe 5-10 minutes instead of the full 23minutes for each episode. The animation is nothing to get excited about but I do think the voice actor for Uzaki was great, as it’s the same one that did Satanichia from Gabriel Dropout. Not great, but not horrible either.
22. Ochikobore Fruit Tart
This show started off strong but for some reason it just kind of went nowhere and ended, well, nowhere as well. As a comedy parody of a house filled with wannabe idols trying to survive in the competitive idol market in Japan, you would think that it would be a formula for easy success, well; that’s unfortunately not the case. Filled with characters with nice background profiles, the show doesn’t do anything to go deeper other that that, leaving each episode very superficial with gags and jokes that don’t develop further than their profile description. Like for instance, one of the girls was once a child star that did commercials on tv selling broccoli, she wants to be a real idol now that she is in her teens but the problem is that she still looks like a child and underdeveloped flat for her age and can’t get away from her child star days (where she reached her peak popularity); this character description is basically her entire existence; from episode 1 to episode 12 every joke is more or less poking fun of her looks, size, past fame and her getting depressed because of it. Another girl is just a former model, she has huge boobs, that’s it; and you can bet your ass that all they ever use her for in gags to offset the difference with broccoli girl and her boob size. Like, this is another show I feel was a 4-koma and would have benefited greatly from a shorter show length as a mini show. That’s not really a good excuse tho cause full ass amazing animes have been made from 4-koma mangas, most notably at the top of my head, Nichijou and New Game!! With less than decent animation, this show was a bit of a let down, not that I was expecting that much, just more.
21. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou
For a variety of reasons they decided to make a Higurashi remake/sequel still not entirely sure which one it is. For far the first 13 episodes of the show have loosely followed the same plot-line of the original anime from back in the day with some differences and of course new character designs and whatnot. In some respects it is better than the original show but in others it’s just not the same and in my opinion inferior to the original. One of the main points is that is lacks more of the intense murderous distorted faces from the original and or have been greatly downplayed or changed although, opting to not even show girls faces while raging, which honestly is one of the main points for watching Higurashi to begin with. Add to the fact that the original anime opening was fucking amazing compared to this newer song, which while still passable, is no where near as iconic and memorable as it’s predecessor. I’ll probably continue watching this to the end as there is still another cour to go so we’ll see if they change things up or ends up being like the original.
20. Kyokou Suiri
This show started off good but ran into some serious pacing issues and honestly a problem that uniquely has come into the forefront in recent times for anime, that being sticking to close and literal to the source material, and in this case a novel series, not a light novel, a novel series (more bigger brain words, no pictures I guess). The basic premise of this show is that there is a girl that has one eye and one leg but has prosthetics, she gained magical power to see magical creatures and paranormal stuff once she lost her eye and leg in an accident. There is a boy that is kind of a monster that is undying, no matter what he cannot die, even if you cut off his head or crush his body into pulp, he will always reform back into normal. Girl and boy meet due to strange circumstances and end up kinda helping each other solve mysteries of the paranormal and myth in the town and get into all sorts of trouble while loosely trying to date and have a relationship and flirt at the same time. Yes, that was what was sold, that is kinda what I got but god damn the show is extremely slow moving. For a show that pitches itself as a paranormal mystery show, at the end they have literally solved just a handful of character backstory mysteries and 1 main story arc mystery which takes up no joke, 80% of the show to resolve and even then, it’s not 100% as the main villain is still out there and whatnot. The show does get points for having a main heroine that essentially is handicapped and it’s text heavy somewhat big brain solutions relying on logic/media/perception and “truth” of narratives in society and online but honestly it’s almost TOO IN DEPTH to the point where it starts to feel like DBZ, like seriously get with the point of your plan in 1 episode, not 3; which actually happened. The characters themselves are fine and interesting and the animation and design are fine but the flow and pacing of the show is really something else, there are some episodes where it starts with the main heroes talking about something in a hotel room and literally that’s the entire episode, they end the ep hinting at what they are going to talk about next for their plan or theory, and guess what, the next episode starts off in the same hotel room and the same conversation continues. lol. Like this would have a been a great episodic mystery show but at last is was logic big brain shonen instead. While I enjoyed the show, it’s not exactly what I had in mind and I am not sure if I will continue if there is ever a S2.
19. Tower of God
Lol, I kinda can’t believe this shit is not last on my list of animes that I have watched in 2020 but with all things considered, honestly it was better than what I expected going into when I first started watching. Based off a Korean Webtoon comic of the same name, Tower of God can be basically summed up as TOWER OF SIMP, yes, SIMP. The main character of the story Bam, follows this girl Rachel into some magical tower which is basically implied is in the afterlife, although they never say anything of the sort, so as far as I am concerned, they are all alive in the real world, I dunno. Either way, Bam basically meets up with a bunch of side characters along the way and lackeys that help him reach his goal, to meet up with Rachel because for some reason he has dedicated his life to her for some unknown reasons although at the very start of the show she clearly does not want to associate herself with him anymore and abandons him, leaving her for dead basically. What a SIMP holy shit. This man has a undying, fanatical belief in Rachel, that she could do no harm, commit no evil; Rachel is the pure saintly girl in his life that he must protect and follow for all eternity even at the cost of his own life. Holy shit. What a SIMP. Can’t believe. Rachel is so shit I can’t believe why anyone except a fool like Bam would go to such lengths. So yea, you know where this is going right? After long trials and almost shonen like battle school arcs fighting other groups trying to get to the top of the tower, he finally saves Rachel and together both get a free pass to automatically to the top. Nice right? Nope, that bitch, Rachel, pushes our Korean Good Boy off the stairs while they are ascending and basically betrays him, sending him falling all the way down to the bottom into the depths of hell. Of course our Good Boy is still alive and has a new reason to climb the tower again: To ask Rachel at the top, “Why?” Oh my god what the fuck. Had I not read into this absurd ending and explanations of what this show actually was, this would have been maybe tied for second or third worst of the year. But no, I read into this and apparent this entire fucking show, is just a prologue to the actual story. A PROLOGUE. The real story hasn’t even really begun yet. What the hell. Ok then. I see where this is going. Alright then, you get a pass for being a madlad and not rushing this but still, without context, Tower of Simp would be totally wtf. It also gets a huge bonus for having one of the most youth sounding, Korean boy band songs as it’s opening, which I can not deny, is pretty good. I like the gay high voice boi singing at 0:32 lol, makes me gay for a bit, i’m sure all the women love it. The show’s animation is better than average and the character designs are bland and boring as fuck, with jaggy almost sketchy lines with limited shading or highlights but I suppose that’s the style of the Webtoon comic, kinda shit. Ok Tower of God, you get a pass because maybe you’ll be alright; in the future. Welcome to the future. Top tier shit posting material tho.
18. Iwa Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls
There’s not a whole lot to be said about this show, it is a show about cute anime girls doing bouldering climbing for sport, and yea for the most part it does a really good job although there are a few slight missteps along the way and questionable story/flow decisions. The story, like many other sports related anime shows follows a main girl who is not athletic at all and spent most of her time playing mobile puzzle games but decides to try climbing. After an initial tough session, she comes to realize that her skills playing puzzle games is almost no different than solving the puzzles of the wall climb, where to put your leg, arm, position, route to take up the wall of stones and etc. Turns out she is really good at solving the technical aspect of the sport, just not so much the physical part of strength and muscles grip. Once she joins the club, filled with a few other typical sport archetype girls, they help her get better and before you know it, they are entering in a tournament; quite literally only after like 3 episodes they are already at a tournament lol wow, super fast progression I guess. They compete with other schools all filled with interesting rivals and archetypes like the catgirl, sporty girl, princess girl, normal girl, tough girl etc you get the idea. One of the more interesting characters of the show was Jun, one of the girls that gave the main girl a hard time at the beginning of the show because she believed the main girl wasn’t taking climbing seriously in the club, and was only doing it for fun/jokes. For Jun climbing was everything, she sacrificed most of her time in school and made no real friends, choosing instead of focus on being the best at the sport, shunning everyone that even attempted to try and be her friend, even those who tried climbing in the interest of trying to befriend her; she rejected and shunned them all even if their intentions meant well. When Jun ends up getting totally schooled by the main girl in the tournament, she basically gets ruined and begins to question her existence and past life choices, resulting in her to basically quit the sport for like half a year. Consequently, the show does a time skip of half a year to the next big tournament and the show resumes, with an episode or 2 with Jun and the main girl talking it out and resolving each other’s insecurities and Jun gets motivated to get back into it. Tournament starts again and you know the usual, by at the end of the last episode it literally ends with the main girls school winning but is so rushed you don’t even see it, like a rewards ceremony or reflecting, you literally just see the last climb of the main girl succeeding and rolling captions saying the rankings of the tournament and the other characters. Holy shit, super rushed no budget, lol haven’t seen an ending like this in a while. Aside from the poor ending execution, I enjoyed this show quite a bit, as the girls were cute and the animations pretty good and the story better than average although the amount of time skip this show uses is somewhat questionable, I’ll allow it, not bad at all. Fun sport cute girl shit.
17. No Guns Life S2
No Guns Life S2 literally takes place right after the end of the first series and at least for me that’s a bad thing, not because the first season was bad, but because I fucking couldn’t remember what was going on before at the end of the first season. Yea, we got gun head boi, yea he’s a machine, he’s a tool for war, yea I like the cyberpunk grunge atmosphere. Do I like the story? wellllll, once you get back into it it takes a while the remember all the bullshit terminology, world building concepts, organizations, relationships between characters, names of people and whatnot, then yea, it’s a alright story. Convoluted as fuck yes, but yea it’s alright. I found myself saying while watching this S2, “who was this again?”, “what organization is this?”. “who are the bad guys again?”, “why is he doing this again?”, “is he good?” yea, you kinda get the idea. The names for all of the stuff in this world is not kind to the mind as they all sound germanish or european but at the same time, inherently don’t mean anything in real life at least to my knowledge. The storytelling pieces are very good when they get it right, usually about flashbacks or the past history of characters but gets very confusing when action is in the present, which begin my list of questions again when someone decides to fight gun boi: “who was this again?”, “what organization is this?”. “who are the bad guys again?”, “why is he doing this again?”, “is he good?”. Yeah. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the show, I did, I just didn’t give it the amount of attention that I probably should have since it’s easy to get lost and confused about the story or even where it is going. Like, I can’t really give you a summary of the story cause it’s hard to explain, maybe First Blood (Rambo I) draws some parallels and similar themes?. Great animation and concept, but overall a weaker impression than the S1 cause yea, high threshold of entry into this franchise. Hopefully if they ever do a S3 I’ll be able to continue and not forget everything.
16. Fate Grand Order – Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia
While I did write about the FGO Babylonia anime last year and ranked it pretty good, it continues onto into 2020 so yea, it gets a good mention here since it ended very good overall. The second half of the anime finishes up to the end of the singularity and basically does a pretty good job of everything. To be honest, I can’t really think of a single aspect that I can shit on, everything met or exceeded my expectations for a fate anime based off a FGO story arc with great animation, pacing, battles and voice acting from the cast. One of the best things about anime is to see a story that you have read/know already and see how the people in charge interpret it and see the characters talk and move and shit. Very satisfying. At the end of the series they already announced that they are going to do another follow up anime of the last story arc of the original FGO story arc, Solomon: Grand Tempe of Time which would be very interesting to be honest because it was one of the shortest story arcs with basically just pure battle and cameos from all the servants from the previous singularities, but I suppose that’s already good enough as it is. Good shit.
15. Itai no wa Iya nano de Bougyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu
This at a surface level is basically a game fantasy not-isekai world anime featuring a couple of girls who decide to try playing this hot new virtual reality mmo type game and end up becoming super pro at it, namely the main girl which has never played a mmo. Known as “BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense” is pretty true to it’s name. The main girl’s in game name is Maple and having not much experience decides to play the game in a very unorthodox manner, instead of killing monsters and gaining experience, she just tanks their blows and gradually gains resistance to everything and super defense, since this game for some reason has a non-linear skill/job/level up experience progression structure, which actually allows this. Essentially, this is FGO Mashuu the anime if it was a game. It’s like creating a new game character and putting all your stat points into health, defense and resistance but instead of being crippled to be unable to do anything, Maple is actually rewarded with rare skills and tech that has never been discovered/unlocked by other players and basically becomes a tank god and general OP player. The show is basically conducted in this manner where Maple and her friend go about doing game quest stuff and they meet new friends and eventually create a guild and stuff all the while amazing her peers with the amazing power and skills she ends up acquiring because of her round-about-way of playing the game. The shows pacing can get slow at times and it’s not entirely certain how long they have been playing in game, like for a few weeks/months? They rarely ever interact outside or show them in the outside real world, but Maple still goes to school and whatnot so yea, this isn’t SAO or whatever. The character designs are fairly plain to be honest so the main draw of this show is the absurdity of watching this shield girl play the game, not how your supposed to and still ending up being super powerful to the point where the developers have to re-balance and nerf certain things in the game as an indirect nerf to Maple herself unknowingly lol. Not bad, I was entertained and look forward to more adventures of Maple/Mashuu in her S2 this is airing right now in Winter 2021 season.
14. Ishuzoku Reviewers
This show is a unique show that deserves praise not because it is a show with any significant amount of depth but because how mad lad it is for even existing and pushing the limits of broadcast public anime on national television in japan. The show itself without much fanfare loosely translate as “Interspecies Reviewers”, review what you say? Well then, for a lack of a better term they have been known as the world’s oldest profession, yes, that’s right; prostitutes, whores, hoes, brothel workers, whatever you want to call them the show is about a bunch of dudes reviewing various monster girl/fantasy themed sex workers. Wow. To think this show even exists and was made into a normal anime is incredible. The main characters of the show follow a seemingly normal but extremely horny band of adventurers that spend their days chilling at the local tavern, while normally doing quests and fighting evil, they have grown fond of visiting the local red light district and writing about their sexual experiences with a variety of monster girls like harpies, elves, cow-girls, octopus girls, cat-girls and everything else in-between. They decide to publish their reviews in the pub and they end up getting paid for it because it was a hit, thus they end up continue doing it; cause apparently everyone is curious about how good it is to fuck a blob monster girl or how disgusting to have sex with a 700 year old ageless elf is (apparently all non-humans find their old “mana” disgusting) or how sex with a fairy girls is physically impossible if your dick is too big and give caution to other species with huge dongs. Each episode is conducted in a somewhat episodic manner with maybe 2 species/girls reviewed per episode with mild world-building and story elements passed on to the next episode. So yea, this show is incredible since for all intensive purposes, it could have very will been made into full blown hentai/ero-anime and no one would bat an eye but these mad lads thought that the concept and source material were jokes and comedic enough for it to be made into a normal broadcast anime, wow. Incredible. But with that said, when this show aired, I think by the second or third episode there was huge complaints to broadcast stations in japan for even airing this, even if heavily censored due to it’s inherent nature and most stations in japan ended up dropping it which is a shame. Luckily, online distrubtion was fine on tv networks thus the show continued to be aired and in some platforms was able to be broadcast in it’s uncensored form. For all intensive purposes, I watched the uncensored version of this show and I must say, it’s pretty damn good with full on boobage and nipples visible bouncing when the sex recap review occurs although there is never any genitalia intended to be shown, thus no mosaics of the sort. The inherent sexual and comedic nature is this shows main charm and honestly it’s production quality is alot higher than what you would expect it to be, they fucking put effort and money into this thing so it looks and is animated well for the sex. When all is said and done, I actually really enjoyed this show, not because it’s basically low level comedic softcore porn, but they did it so well without going off the rails and somehow managing to retain story and decent narratieve. Good shit.
13. Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka Bloom
It has been quite some time. Quite some time indeed since the order is a rabbit first ever aired, all the way back in 2014. It has also been quite a few years since it’s S2, 2015 aired so I was a little bit surprised that this S3 came out FIVE years later as it did because normally S3 is usually in the realm of shonen bait or long running bullshit that I can’t remember about like, Titan, Overlord and whatnot. To my pleasant surprise that one of the top slice of life chill shows featuring cute girls doing cute things was to get a third season. Wow. Kind of amazing. Which I suppose goes to show the power of this show/manga/franchise in general which could also mean that it is a signal for the end of this series which while sad, is somewhat inevitable. The main focus of this season is Chino, our blue light haired poster girl for this series and what high school she is going to go to, being in the last year of middle school, she needs to make a choice, a hard one since all of her senpai elder friends go to separate schools and she can’t really decide which one. The bulk of the show then is Chino basically checking out all of her senpai’s schools and having fun at the same time with her classmate friends, which to my surprise, have been promoted from side character friends to basically a main characters due to the nature of how this show is conducted. Without going into further describing cute stuff, this show delivers in it, to a wholesome and pretty moe package for all to consume. Great character designs still, good funny/cute stories and an actual thesis or underlying story about Chino’s future school. Good shit. Not sure if there will ever be a S4, but who knows, the manga is still technically running and has been since 2011 so maybe more is yet to come.
12. Houkago Teibou Nisshi
This was a nice new chill show about a bunch of girls fishing, yea boi chill is good. This show was also one of the main animes that comes to my mind when I think about how the pandemic effected the anime industry as it started in like spring and got out like 2-3 episodes before it had to be delayed due to covid production issues. It returned next season in the summer which is good but yea, just another thing to remind me of the ruin. But unlike the world that is ruined, this show is pretty damn good, it satisfies one of the eternal categories of “there will be an anime about x hobby or sport one day”, and it delivers it pretty well. The starting premise is nothing spectacular, just a normal girlie girl that wants to do arts and craft shit but gets lured into a fishing school club due to not having enough members and so forth by her old childhood friend. She ends up liking fishing despite hating to touch fish and bugs for bait and cleaning/butchering them as well, getting over her fears by mentally blocking her actions in her mind with something else, which is kind of jokes. The show also features a cast of likeable side character girls in the club, competent but lazy club leader, shy but pro glasses girl, hype friend, lazy teacher that is a bad drunk, a tried and true formula for a solid slice of life comedy hobby show. Well worth the watch if you are interested in fishing and to some degree cooking and cleaning fish I guess. Decent character designs, voice acting, pacing and story. Solid all round slice of life, a much needed chill show in our covid times to remind ourselves that people used to go outside and do things.
11. Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai S2
Oh boi, Kaguya-sama and the president returns in this S2 which feels like it didn’t air all that long ago but here it is. More or less leaving where it left off at the end of the first season, the main driving story for this season is that fact that the president isn’t going to be the president of the student counsel anymore, as it’s generally customary that the president only serve for 1 year and let another student/new students take up the role as it is highly prestigious and looks good on the resume once they graduate, gotta share the wealth i suppose. So yea, the early episodes are basically that, the crew basically coming to terms that next year, pres won’t be the pres. After some mild drama and romantic begging/drunkenness from Kaguya, she convinces the pres to run again for pres because she wants him too. So yea, pres does end up running again and wins for the second time, all the while collecting a couple of new student council members, most notably one of the girls that ran against him, iino miko; for pres which has some social problems/stickler for the rules and ends up befriending them eventually with the help of the pres, so yea, rival turned friend. Yay. Aside from more of good ol same hi-jinks, we get some very unexpected serious character development/background with one of the side characters, Yu Ishigami, the long haired treasury gamer guy that is kind of a loner. They spent a good 3-4 episodes dedicated to explaining the origins of his supposed “bad reputation” among girls at his school as a “stalker” and the history behind that that goes back when he was in middle school, which is fair to say that, he wasn’t a stalker at all, just a victim of character assassination and misunderstanding, a victim of believing in justice and doing what’s right, at the expense of his own reputation and everyone including his old crush think he is a weirdo. His backstory and resolution of his past was very well done and honestly it was one of the more memorable aspects out of this show, even tho this is supposed to be a comedy romance gag anime between the pres and kaguya. Great animation, char designs although the entire flow of the show was a bit off since they focused on the rival pres girl and Ishigami. Overall, Kaguya-sama S2 is more of the same but it’s a good same that I welcome, I did not expect such in-depth backstory for what I consider side characters, but I guess they are just main characters now? Either way, good shit.
10. Kamisama ni Natta Hi
Written by one of the main writers from Key, famed visual novel company famous for creating very sad sentimental stories where the main girl usually ends up dying or with a terrible tragic sad fate (Kanon, Air, Clannad etc), I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when i started to watch this original anime production. The title of this show “The Day I Became a God” could have been interpreted in a variety of ways all of which were plausible. Who became the god? is the initial main question of this show but as it progresses, it evidently becomes clear near the end what the show really means by that. The basic premise is that a mysterious pink haired little nun girl (think Angelica from Epic Seven), Hina; shows up and tells the main boy protag that she is a god and has powers to basically predict the future, of course the boy doesn’t believe that but after a series of events, which basically proves her power of clairvoyance, he is forced to admit she is the real deal and ends up living with the main boy which for some reason his family is super fine with. The next 7-8 following episodes in general are jokes comedy heartfelt good times, with a general template along the lines of Hina being like, “so, what can I help you with with my god powers boy?” and range from shit like, I want to get to know the girl I like better, or I want to help my little sister or I want to meet the TV reporter cause she is hot, kind of fare. All through these episodes they cut in occasionally with increased frequency some strange business/conspiracy speak with unknown characters and shadowy figures which until later in the show, makes no sense whatever, they seem completely disconnected with what’s happening in Hina’s life and the main boy. Now that I think back and reflect, fucking Air did something similar as well with this kind of storytelling, jumping back and forth between vastly different perspectives/parties, and in Air’s case, time periods. Fuck. Oh no. Yeaaa you guessed it, shit hits the fan and the story goes into full on sad dramatic tail spin downwards unfortunately for Hina, our pink haired princess and without getting into details unless someone else decides to watch this, let’s just say that she gets ruined; I suppose a suitable path to match our current day in age but yes, essentially she gets ruined; still alive yes but barely. Lest to say, that our boy upon this tragedy, full on decides to dedicate his life to the “new/original” Hina as his Sister/Daughter/Wife and yea, that’s the end of the show. No redemption, no justice, or reason, no revenge, no miracles or ex machinas happy ending here, just ruin. To say that his was a sad ending is an understatement, it’s basically like the Notebook or Titanic ending, except an order of magnitude worse because at least in those movies the boy and girl eventually dies, in this shit, they don’t; which makes it much worse because you have to then imagine Hina and the boy living their life together, which in itself a pretty tragic and in my opinion, sad co-existence. But I’m not gonna lie, I was invested into the story once Hina got ruined and the show changed it’s tone for drama. I give it good points for that, what I dont’ like is how they delivered the method and means of ruin, via the storytelling and perpective of a few other characters which you dont’ know about and live in the shadows. Even at the end, I was never provided any resolution or good cause and effect reason of why Hina had to be ruined, with Hina ruined, the world didnt’ change, and that’s probably the thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth; Hina got ruined for basically nothing. No savior or sacrifice moment. Just ruin. On a technical level the show had pretty good animation and decent character designs, the only good one honestly being Hina what matters most and fairly good voice acting. Did I enjoy this show? Yes I generally did, but I didn’t like how it ended, it wasn’t enough for me and felt hollow. Should you watch this show? Maybe, if you want to watch the embodiment of 2020 in anime form, then yes, embrace the ruin, for Hina’s sake.
9. Kakushigoto
Ah yes, this is a good show, the author of one of my favorite anime/manga series Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’s latest work gets an anime. The story and premise is pretty simple, the main guy is a single parent manga author, Goto that draws joke ass gag manga but doesn’t want his elementary school daughter, Hime (Yes, for real) to know what he does for his job because he is ashamed/embarrassed of his work and profession. He pretends to go to the office in a suit when he leaves his house for work to trick his daughter and when he gets to his manga studio, just changes back to t shirt and shorts and vice versa when going back home. He does this everyday for years and essentially succeeds in deceiving Hime until she is a high school student. The show is largely comedic and jokes, with a lot of the same Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei observational humor at work but toned down a few levels and with a much more sentimental spin on stories which I suppose is a result of probably the author basically writing about himself I assume, in an semi-autobiographical manner. The entire show is presented as a flashback from the perspective of Hime as a teenager trying to uncover the truth/secret of her father that had gone missing all the while reminiscence of the old days with all of her friends and people in her past making appearances in some shape or form in the present, usually at the end of the episode before the credits. While not as quick witted and rapid fire train of thought as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was; Kakushigoto has a certain different kind of charm that puts the father daughter wholesome time at the forefront of the show, which is pretty comfy to be honest although at times me personally wish the pacing was a bit faster since god damn it Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was so great. But this isn’t Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, it’s Kakushigoto and i’d say that at the end of this show I was pretty satisfied, the show actually ended cleanly, Hime found out the truth of her dad and Goto wasn’t dead after all, a joyous reunion. Style wise, they fucking hired the same voice actor as that did Setsubou Sensei to play Goto so yea shit is good and the art is nice and thin lined pastely. Good shit, well rounded wholesome funny good clean end. Good shit.
8. Hamefura
This is probably one of the more creative shows this year that puts a very different yet familiar spin on the iseaki genre as a whole, which honestly is a welcome refreshing change. The main girl of the story is a girl who has died in the modern world and happens to be reborn/mind-shifted into the world of her favorite princess-Victorian era otome game, except as the main female villain of the world, Catarina Claes. The full name of this show, not it’s shortened nickname is literally “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!” which pretty accurately describes what this show is about. Our new isekai’ed girl then, finding herself reborn 5-10 years younger before the start of events of the game makes it her duty then to change her destiny, to change Catarina from being a villian and to become liked by all the future prospective male husbandos in order to prevent herself from being ruined, as she knows almost all the outcomes of her character based on the game. With this future knowledge of her fate, she befriends the boys and cultivates a reputation contrary to her evil character from the game and basically writes a new history for herself and essentially becomes loved and admired by all, including the otome game’s protagonist girl when she does show up several years later with a time jump. Filled with jokes, comedy and mild big brain moments, this is a very entertaining show for just about anyone despite it very obviously being focused for a female audience. One of the best parts of this show is that from a spectators point of view/third party perspective, is that some of Catarina’s friends when she was alive, were also isekai (died I guess) and ended up becoming friends again even after they were reborn, although with new faces and personalities/roles, unknown to Catarina of course. It’s a kind of thing that fucking Overlord and other Iseaki’s couldn’t even dream of doing; two people from the old world, meeting again in the new world. Holy shit is that too hard to ask from just about almost every Iseaki show ever? Fuck. I needed to watch a girl’s Isekai show for this to happen? Fuck. Ahwell, while this show is not going to be on everyone’s radar due to it’s inherent target demographic, it has solid animation, decent character designs and top notch story execution and flow. Recommended if you looking for a fun iseaki show that is not about battle, gaining skills/power or revenge but just living happily.
7. Strike Witches – Road to Berlin
I have been watching strike witches for a long time, a very long time. I have always been a fan of the alternate universe WWII world that has flying witches wearing essentially plane propellers on their legs in order to fight in aerial combat against some unknown alien invader force, all the way back to 2008 when this franchise first started. Twelve years later I am honestly pleasantly surprised that this franchise is still alive, at least for those who still care after 2 seasons of anime, 1 movie, 1 spin off-anime, several OVAs and a shitty mini-recap comedy show. Wow. Road to Berlin marks the third/fourth season of the long running media/anime franchise depending on if you count the spin-off and finally actually makes world progress, they actually re-capture and reclaim territory from the Neroui alien invaders, they take back and reclaim Berlin and the large part of Germany/Karlsland. Wow. Without going into particularities, this season is the culmination of all the previous anime series with the exception of the shitty recap comedy and largely can be watched after the strike witches movie, with Brave Witches, the spin off anime being a nice addition but not fully mandatory. Filled with excellent dynamic air battles and copious amounts of pantie/ass-shots while the witches are in the air, this show has stayed true to itself and it’s core themes/storytelling and comedic interjection when needed. When there is a serious battle episode you see it, when there is a joke ass gag episode about all the girls growing huge boobs because of some ancient artifact curse, you got it, need a heartfelt sad episode? you got it. Every aspect of this show is meant for the fans of the series and I think if there were never to be another strike witches anime, this would be a good way to end it, with victory. Twelve years is a long time, I doubt very few new anime fans would be really willing to go back that far to watch the first season but I dunno, maybe at this point Strike witches has reached the realm of Gundam and Evangelion, timeless? Not entirely sure about that but the fact that it’s still rolling and pumping out media every few years I guess means that it’s still alive and still demand. Either way, this show was great and I couldn’t ask for more from a strike witches anime, good shit.
6. Kanojo, Okarishimasu
I wasn’t initially going to watch this show, but being the band wagoner that I am and lover of everything that’s what’s hot, I had a change of heart after seeing countless memes, pop-culture meta develop and merchandise created about this anime, I couldn’t ignore it, I had to see what it was about. First and foremost, this show is basically named “Rent a Girlfriend” which from my seasonal anime review I quote myself: “I do suppose “Rent a Girlfriend” does sound softer than potential other names to describe it such as “Rent-a-Hoe”, “Rent-a-Bitch” or “My girlfriend is a bitch, but I pay her for it!!”” Yeaa. In essence this show is a harem drama anime with comedy moments with one of the most unlikable and hateable male protagonists that I have ever seen in a long time but despite this huge handicap, still manages to be an entertaining and might I say it, “heartfelt” story focusing on the various girls that arise in this idiot’s life. Without summarizing the entire fucking thing, the show basically makes out that the main girl, Chizuru, is the all mighty “best girl” without question, with all the other girls significantly behind in favorability in the eyes of the main fool. I don’t personally feel that way, as the blue haired ribbon girl, Ruka is the one that I would pick; but then again that’s probably just me and my bias caused she is voiced by Nao Tōyama. Yea. The other big thing that came out of this show is the character of Mami, the bitch ex-girlfriend of the protag fool. Oh my god, she is the worse bitch ever, manipulative with a strong popular girl facade at every step of the way plotting to ruin and expose that Chizuru is a rent-a-girlfriend to main fools family and friends, one of the worst. But because she is the worse, means that she is also the best, at least in the Internet’s eyes and has been voted consistently in a troll manner as the best girl from this show in a number of online polls and rankings. lol. I dunno, maybe the fact that they haven’t elaborated upon any of her history or backstory is a huge question mark which may be the redemption she greatly needs to turn her character around and actual feel sorry for her in some manner for acting like a bitch, but until that day comes, wtf internet lol. This show funnily enough was also given a huge retroactive popularity boost when the author of the manga, Reiji Miyajima was featured in a popular Japan culture/travel/tourism youtuber’s Paolo’s “Day in the Life of a Japanese Manga Creator” video series which aired over a year ago in 2019, which shows him and his assistants working on the manga in his studio. Funny how shit works. The show itself is filled with annoy bitch moments from the protag and lots of “that does it, Chizuru is the best girl” and “main boi doesn’t deserve her, he’s the worse” which to some viewers, would be a turn off, but due to the nature of what this show is, has achieved it’s primary goal in you wanting you to watch it, either to continue the hate on the protag or to see and learn more about each of the girl’s backstories and why they became rent-a-girlfriends to begin with. This show succeeds in making me angry and to that I need to give it credit and acknowledge it’s existence in anime meta culture. With great character designs and cute girls that are animated wonderfully this is the new generation harem for the youth. Bitch.
5. Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha
I didn’t expect this show to be so well done and entertaining with a title like “The Misfit of Demon King Academy”. A fantasy magic school? Reborn reincarnated demon lord from the past 2000 years ago goes to school with his demon descendants? Trying to reclaim his authority since no one believes who he is? Sounds pretty generic as it could get but the show does it so well without compromise in all of the parts that matter that you can’t help but enjoy and witness it’s glory. Let’s get some shit down first, the main guy, Anos Voldigoad, reborn demon king, is not a wuss, he’s badass and he knows it, he knows that he’s the most powerful being living with no close rival except for the “Yuusha” from back in the day which killed him, or rather, let him kill him but he’s long dead so he’s #1 by a long shot. Most shows in this manner take a very slow approach to introducing the world and lore/mechanics, this show however throws you into the fire running at full speed with guns blazing. Dude fucks up and owns so many guys so easily on the first episode it’s so satisfying, no training or learning back skills or memories, no, fuckin our demon lord boi is already starting off with full stats and memory intact. Anos’s power: absolute. It’s the kind of shit that Vergil from Devil May Cry dreams about when having “More Power”, cause Anos already got that shit covered. And because of this lack of training arc, the show can focus on the world building and lore, the characters and the history that is rapidly revealed as the show progresses. The character designs are excellent and the two main heroines are very cute and attractive, very good. The uniform designs, both female and male are excellent for the school. The character designer for the original light novel series was done by lord Yoshinori Shizuma, fucking god of kancolle boat designs such as Shimakaze, Iowa, Yamato etc. Hell yea. I understand why I like the designs now, shit’s my thing. The ending reveal of the true villain of the show was also a bit of a surprise, a cool surprise that I did not see coming to be honest and that’s what good. I didn’t see it coming. Overall the show was a great watch because it was so fast paced and quick moving, the action was cool and Anos’s power was absolute, he never struggled and never lost, unless he wanted to loose on purpose; fucking baller. Good girls, cool guy, this show is how all magic academy show’s should be, the anti-hero’s journey,the anti-shonen story. Good shit.
4. Nekopara
This is a great show about cats, no no, not cat girls, just cats as the show proclaims. Despite it’s jokingly self-aware statement that the girls in the show are “cats” and not some hybrid cat-girl creatures is pretty comical but serves it’s purpose and sets the tone for what would be a landmark new anime franchise that is proud and firmly rooted in it’s visual novel/erogame origins. The Nekopara anime follows the daily slice of life hijinks of two “cats” Cocoa and Vanilla, appropriately named after the popular flavors as their owner is a baker/pastry chef of some sorts that owns a cafe where the two work at as maids. Their daily life taken for a ride when Cocoa picks up a green haired stray cat(girl) that she meets and they end up basically adopting her, naming her Cacao. The show basically conducts itself in a largely episodic nature and follows the two main girls and the several other cats that work at the cafe with of course names reflecting food/flavours such as Maple, Coconut, Cinnamon etc. To say that this show is cute would be the understatement, it’s so fucking cute, pretty much everything about it, from the characters designs, the stories, the lessons learned, just so wholesome and cute that there hasn’t been a show that is so full of sweet pure sugar in a long time and that makes it stand out quite a lot. Either if you are attracted purely by the designs of the cats(girls) or the comfy premise one cannot deny that watching this show just brings a wholesome smile, which is incredible really, considering the source material of this media franchise at it’s core is sexual in nature; sex with the cats(girls) basically is what happens in the visual novels, which of course is omitted from the anime series. Which leads me to give this show/franchise a lot of praise and points since few franchises except for basically Fate/Stay Night and a handful of others are able to gain such widespread mainstream anime culture appeal despite it’s erogame origins. But unlike Fate which kind of tries it’s best not to bring about the fact that in the original PC visual novel games you get to sex all the main girls, Nekopara is kinda like yea, we sex the cats, what do you expect? Which is pretty madlad bold in today’s society when you think about it. The designer of all the characters and main illustrator for the franchise; Sayori is also a women which is also another interesting thing you wouldn’t expect but then again, who doesn’t like cute cats? Cuteness transcends genders I suppose. Even without sex, the story and cuteness of Nekopara can firmly hold its own as an anime, and that’s exactly what it did with this show. Top tier character designs, significant presence in anime culture, slice of life wholesome story, good shit. Probably the best pure slice of life moe anime this year.
3. Golden Kamuy 3rd Season
Oh boi, our pre-WWI Ainu adventure in the great white north of Hokkaido continues on with it’s third season and it’s pretty damn good. For a sequel series to be so high up as third best anime of the year in the ranking really means something and I must say, this show got really good this season for a variety of reasons. The story once again picks up where it lefts off in the second season, with the original main crew divided into other groups combined with both neutral fractions and rival/villain characters and it makes for an interesting dynamic of trying to figure out who is fighting for what and who will betray who. The main story arc this season takes most of the groups into north-east Russia where Aspirpa searches for more information and clues about who her father Wilk really was and the secret to the Ainu Gold, all the while Sugimoto, now separated from Aspirpa after the chaos of the previous prison arc, continues to search for her party because he fears that there is a traitor amidst her group. The show continues it’s signature art style and continues to interject comedic and stupid moments in the main story, despite the somewhat serious business nature that all of the characters are trying to do. Most notably is the first few episodes which have Sugimoto and his group, which for some reason now solely consists of buff ass muscular Japanese dudes end up having to do a naked group russian wrestling match with local Russians to learn more information about the whereabouts of Aspirpa, while after the match, sit around in a hot steam bath broing it up and talking. lol EXTREMELY GAY and laughable to say the least which is understandable since the author of this series is himself a gay faggot; no joke, dude is openly gay in Japan, which is something kind of special really. Just like how most shows have cute girls doing either a summer beach episode, hot spring episode or something of the sort, Golden Kamuy has gay wrestling matches and gay chill time, fucking jokes. Aside from the author indulging in his own gay fan-service, the show delves deeper into characters which from my mind, were just side grunts but elaborates upon them with full length flashback episodes with incredible narrative and storytelling ability which brings to life; once faceless nobodies into complex and interesting characters with backstories and histories that all interconnect with one another. Weird laughable eccentric characters all of sudden have have depth and history and you begin to understand why certain characters act the way they do, such as Lt. Tsurumi. But among all of the characters that have transformed dramatically over the course of this third season is no doubt Ogata, the characteristic silent but deadly sniper that has become a favorite among fans of this series because of his amazingly cool voice and his unpredictable and unknown intentions for following along with the group. No one knows for sure what Ogata is thinking or plotting to do, no one knows if he is actually the ultimate villain of the series or actually a secret good guy helping Aspirpa/Sugimoto for unknown reasons. But despite this lack of clear motivation, his character and design continually get fleshed out depicting his cold and heartless nature in flashback episodes and accumulate to him riding away on a horse laughing while being nearly killed by Sugimoto and Aspirpa. Holy shit I don’t know what he’s going to do or why he is even doing this. Ogata is literally one of the first guys that Sugimoto fights in the first episode of the first season of Golden Kamuy, and for some reason, not only did he not die, which he should have by all accounts; he is slowly elevated from a faceless grunt to being one of the most popular characters with incremental design “upgrades” like longer slick back hair, scars, more unique uniform and sniper story moments. Incredible. As this show is far from being done, for a sequel must be telling of something, either there wasn’t enough good shows I watched this year or that this season was really that good, and I’m inclied to agree with the ladder, this season of Golden Kamuy was really good and entertaining, probably the best season in my opinion.
2. Majo no Tabitabi
This is a very unique show yet follows a very familiar and tried and true formula, a somewhat artsy show but not that artsy, cute but serious sometimes with sociopolitical commentary lurking in the background, what is this show then that you speak of? It’s Majo no Taitabi! or The Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina! Yes, much like I did here, the main girl of this show Elaina, usually opens most episodes with a self monologue speaking about the greatness of herself as a witch and as the primary character of this show; as you would expect, is a journeying and adventure show about her travels around the world; along the lines of Kino’s Journey, Girl’s Last Tour and to some extent, Mushishi (aka best show ever created). A familiar yet all so unique genre that I am greatly biased in favor of liking being largely episodic in nature but not really, as each episode, while telling a self contained unique story, introduces re-appearing characters and backstory that slowly paints a larger picture of the world’s lore and the history of it’s inhabitants, similar to some extent of what was done in Hakumei to Mikochi. Like for instance, Elaina meets a rookie witch in training in one of the first episodes and helps her pass the licensing exam. That rookie witch does pass her exam and becomes a re-occurring character in later episodes of the show. Elaina’s strict teacher that gave her a hard time but mysteriously vanishes, also shows up again in later episodes telling new and interesting interconnected stories that make the world unified and feel cohesive which is great. Then we have my favorite type of episodes, the Ruin episodes; which usually take a darker narrative storytelling style featuring themes about revenge, sacrifice, slavery/freedom, belief/religion, evil/insanity and justice which more often than not, result in Elaina never coming back to the town/place or characters that she meets in these types of episodes because everyone and everything in them is usually ruined. I love it. Which is kinda funny because the earlier episodes were filled with beautiful ruin but as the show progressed had more chill fun episodes with re-occurring characters which is a bit strange in my opinion as it should be the other way around, but nevertheless the distribution of “fun chill” episodes vs “serious, darker themed” episodes is good. Elaina herself is a competent and likable character if not a bit smug, which they make it kind of a self aware personality trait but never to the point where it goes overboard and makes her obnoxious, as she largely remains humble about her pro magical witch abilities in most stories and with other characters she interacts with. The rest of the re-occurring characters introduced later in the show are all equally likeable and help to balance and round out the cast, all well designed and full of personality. The animation and character designs of this show are pretty good, not amazing but very well done and the studio knows when to spend money on during action scenes or drama, making for key moments to look great when they matter most. Majo no Tabitabi is overall a very well rounded and fun entertaining journeying anime experience to watch, up there with Kino’s Journey and would have otherwise be the top show of 2020 had it not been for another journey show; which brings us to number one…
1. Somali to Mori no Kamisama
I have a rather strong affinity towards liking slice of life chill shows and also episodic journeying shows which may or may not involve an adventure or an objective at all to a bigger story. Somali to Mori no Kamisama or “Somali and the Forest Spirit” basically hits all of the aforementioned points to a tee and does an outstanding job in executing it in a well rounded and enjoyable journeying slice of life experience. The basic premise of this show is fairly simple at least at first, there is a little human girl, Somali; that mysteriously is abandoned in an enchanted magical forest which is found by the local forest spirit, a stone golem which has lived for thousands of years destined to guard and watch over things in the forest. This is kind of a big deal, at least in this world, as Humans as a species are extremely rare and almost extinct, Humans are the endangered species of this world, as non-human monster like fantasy creatures and races prevail as the vast majority of the living civilized population, living in relative co-existence and harmony. With that said, our stone golem protag, doesn’t really know what to do with the child but eventually comes to the conclusion that he must leave the forest in order to bring the little human girl back to her own kind, to find more humans as that is what he believed initially to be the best course of action. Thus begins a journey between an ancient stone golem and little girl to find more of her kind with the intent of leaving her with them to raise. As the show quickly establishes, Somali and the golem develop a kind of parent child relationship even though they are not even the same species and while Somali takes a strong attachment towards her golem father, golem initially does not understand such things and reacts in a logical and mechanical manner. The show progresses as the odd pair visits towns and other places searching for clues to where humans are, with various levels of success. All the while concealing Somali’s identity as a human a secret from the rest of the public in fear of being hunted down. Re-occurring characters are introduced and help move the story forward and eventually get to the point where the history of the Humans is revealed to the golem and Somali, that they were basically hunted and captured for food/slaves and basically driven to near extinction. How did this happen? Well, as the show eventually goes on to explain and reveal is that in the distant past, when humans and monster-folk met they initially got along but the Human’s prejudice and fear of the monsters got the better of them and caused them to go to war, to the dismay at the monster-folk who only wanted to live in peaceful co-existence. Unfortunately for the Humans, the monster folk were vastly stronger both in power and numbers and the Human race was driven to the brink of extinction, forcing the Human race to live on the fringes in hiding at the edge of the world and under cloak. With this revelation, Golem is shaken as he begins to question if finding more humans is the right thing to do anymore for Somali. After a few more close encounters with hunters seeking to kill Somali and meeting a diseased and dying adult human who searches for a cure to his disease, Golem basically changes his tune and vows for as long as he lives that he will protect Somali and fully admits his feelings of parental love which he had always denied. A wonderful moment between Golem and Solmali is short lived however as the Golem soon reveals that he was concealing his own state of being; he only has less than a year left to live before he dies and will be unable to see Somali grow up and protect her. Not wanting to give up, Golem’s primary objective changes then from simply finding Humans for Somali to live with but to find a way for himself to continue living in order to protect Somali. A hard pivot in the objective of the journey is declared and prompts the ending of the show. Wow. What a show, so wholesome and packed to the brim with life lessons, social commentary and not so discrete themes such as the meaning of family, racism/discrimination, sacrifice, love all packaged in a engrossing and action-packed/drama filled story that is sure to entertain. The shows visual, character designs and execution of every story aspect is excellent. The world is colorful, vibrant and beautiful; yet enigmatic, mysterious and filled with threat, akin to that of the world in Made in Abyss, except a lot more populous and monster-fantasy-folk around. Golem? He’s a fucking baller bad ass, voiced by the same voice actor as Jotaro Kujo of JoJo fame, Daisuke Ono serves as the perfect man to voice a stoic not-dad and Somali, voiced by Inori Minase, famed voice actor of Re:Zero’s Rem, Chino from order is a rabbit, Itsuki from The Quintessential Quintuplets and countless other lead anime and game roles is a recipe for audio voice acting bliss. When I think about it, this show is very similar in some respects to The Mandalorian, which is a good thing; guess cool dad like figures are all the rage now these days? Unfortunately, there will be no sequel or continuation of this story as the manga was officially cancelled in December 2020 due to the author’s poor health. When you take that into consideration, you can only imagine then that the author; Yako Gureishi more or less self inserted herself as the Golem in this story and you can almost assume that she may be dying herself as well, maybe even leaving a child behind too. When you put that into perspective, it makes this story even more dreadfully tragic and sadder than it really is. Despite it’s abrupt conclusion due to the sad circumstances of the author, one cannot deny the powerful story told in this anime, congratulations; Somali to Mori no Kamisama you are mai top anime of 2020.