Vivy: Flourite Eye’s Song
The premise doesn’t quite live up to its ambitious ideas but it never crashes and burns as could have happened but this sci-fi adventure taking place over the course of 100 years is largely satisfying. I think a lot of the adventures end up being traditional in probing ideas about AI, it has some great cliffhangers and plot turns, my favourite being turning the end theme into something much more sinister. Very pretty animation and some decent enough plot turns made it compete pretty hard for my number 10 spot.
Zombieland Saga Revenge
I feel like this season didn’t make as big a mark as season one but it might be the better season overall? I think I’d have to watch them back-to-back to be sure but I really liked it and appreciated it’s willingness to do things like a surprisingly grounded 2-parter that ends up playing a big role in the show’s mythology and also ending on a new-level silly cliffhanger.
Sk8 the Infinity
Some shows have gorgeous animation, fresh unique characters and genre subverting ideas. And some are just solid mid-tier shows with no greater ambition than just make an entertaining show. And Sk8 the Infinity succeeds, in large part thanks to the likability to the two leads, a brash skateboarding enthusiast and an aloof but sweet amateur with a gift for the sport. It’s silly as heck but remained consistently fun throughout.
Jujustu Kaisen
Jujustu Kaisen’s second half of it’s first season nearly made my list because after a very grim story arc, we get a fun competition arc with great new characters, some expanding on the ones we had and more humour that works. I like that the main character constantly gets caught up in his new “best friend’s” energy, both building an elaborate fictive backstory for their friendship. It’s also beautifully animated and though the final fight didn’t lead to any big reveals, it managed to be a satisfying and well-animated actioner.
10.
Shadows House
The fact that Shadows House is an eternal optimistic girl just happy to help made me worry that Shadows House might be a show that romanticizes indentured servitude with a gothic veneer. I mean, this isn’t unthinkable in anime. And early on, it takes us a while to get to the fact that this is about our protagonists involved in a horrible system with dark aims that they must work together to defeat. The series kind of weakens in the last couple episodes, which I’m given to understand was made for the show to give a convenient stopping point but all the same, it is a series where the underlying mysteries and plotting make for a fun surprise.
It’s not subtle about being a series about duality but we get to see the “dolls” grow during the testing arc in ways that are interesting. I’m definitely looking forward to more in this series that feels like a somewhat lighter (and admittedly not quite as clever) version of the Promised Neverland with a slight fairy tale sheen and while it’s attitude isn’t completely “fuck the man” (our heroine is still a “happy maid” archetype that her “owner” indulges) but I am looking forward to digging into it’s murky world of shadows.
9.
Kageki Shoujo!!
In the early 2000s, I used to go to an anime club were they would lend out videos and CDs of anime episodes. This allowed me to find some older, good stuff like Touch and Glass Mask. Glass Mask, a long running shojo about an actress, was a favourite of mine and I was chasing a similar high of a shoujo acting drama. Though a lot lighter, Kageki Shoujo!! hits that spot. It’s not without problems. After a harrowing episode about child abuse and growing up not being believed, it followed it with a well-intentioned but misguided episode where said character his helped by her stalker’s stalking skills. Then there’s an episode about body image and eating disorders that mostly lands but while it comments on the fact that it is the result of the demands of a teacher and the very school’s system, it kind of sidesteps addressing this area of the problem.
But overall, it is the kind of show I like, as it explores why the women in this school want to become actresses and what kind of skills need to be developed. The main character is likable and begins as a character we often see both in shoujo and shounen series, the kind of hero who happily faces any challenge with unwavering optimism and kindness. But as the series continues, we also see that even she gets to have more depth and complications when her following her dreams and the fact that she in fact has had her share of heartbreak and that she actually has put more thought into her path than we may have suspected and that it might be related to dreams she couldn’t follow. There’s a lot going on here and I hope we get to see these girls continue to find their creative voices.
8.
Dr. Stone: Stone Wars
I remember when Dr. Stone came out, it never made it in my list but part of me regrets that a bit. There are shows that are funnier or more touching or have more well-realized characters or clever plots. But Dr. Stone is a show about a process and it is addicting to watch these plans come to fruition and there’s nothing wrong with that. I do feel like the big emotional climax is more effective than the last one. I always feel like in theory all of them are actually strong but it never quite gets to me as much as it should. Nonetheless, this silly edutainment show is constantly entertaining and I can’t look away.
This season is also the culmination of what was being built to since the series began and the show manages to stick to its guns, mostly, when it promises a deathless end to war on Earth. I think it’s easy to think of Senku as a science bully a lot of the time but I think the show does a decent job hammering the point that this is a man who cares and that science is a method to make life better for people. At first blush, he’s the archetypical “science for the sake of science” but we see he is a man who believes and honors it because of the good it does. Looking forward to what is sure to be a wild new season when it finally happens.
7.
Sonny Boy
It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve seen a show that really does feel like it wants to experiment in it’s storytelling. Visual, I don’t think it is but it is a nonetheless gorgeous magical realist journey through a multiverse that is both almost too freeing and yet to some, terrifyingly restrictive. I’d be lying to say if I could follow everything that was going on from episode to episode but I feel like as non-handholdy as this show is, its episodic nature makes it not to hard to understand the major show and every episode almost allows for a reset where you can try again.
When I saw the first episode, I was a little disappointed, finding the story a little too heavy handed but it quickly won me over by being a show constantly rejecting a status quo because that’s sort of what it is about. Yeah, scene to scene isn’t always easy to follow but what it is about in the macro-sense feels very clear to me; that it is about the anxiety of what happens after school, finding a new place in a strange world where all of the old rules only roughly prepare characters for life. Things don’t culminate in a battle against a villain or overcoming a crisis but choosing to find direction in life, even if it is harder to attain than equally valid choices such as… becoming a tree? Its an odd show. But it does have monkey baseball.
6.
Blue Period
If there’s one kind of show I like, it is one about a process. I love to see the creation of something, which much of the appeal of a show like Dr. Stone, but more than that, I do love to see the relationship between the process and the mindset of the person behind it. It doesn’t always work (the disappointing Those Snow White Notes) but when it does, it makes for some compelling television. And Blue Period very much hits the button in my brain while remaining a rather sweet hearted look at a people pleaser who used to walk the line to make all people happy who finds himself encouraged to leave his comfort zone when he learns he wants to be an artist.
What Yatora finds isn’t just that art is fun, which he finds it can be, but that it goes beyond fun and that being able to communicate through an artistic medium is worth the pain and struggling and wrestling with composition and message. He learns and relearns how big and complex the art world is and it expands his own understanding of himself. He learns not just to make people happy but to really put himself out there and communicate with them. Sometimes that means risk and hurt but the rewards have much more depth than simply keeping the peace and enriches is work and friendships. And that can be healthier than simply trying to be a selfless good guy, even if his new career will make him fraught with anxiety.
5.
The Heike Story
While I’m sure there’s lots more to get out of The Hieke Story if you are familiar with the source material but even if you don’t know it and find the specifics intimidating, the series isn’t hard to follow in the broader sense, even if the smaller details might lose you. Because it is a show about history, a history written in stone, but also a reminder that the people who make up history aren’t just figures, they are people. In fact, the failure to recognize people as such is the failing of many in the Taira clan, the protagonists and sort of tragic “villains” of the tale. In fact, the family is also made up of good people caught in the political machinations of the clans leaders, which eventually leads to war.
But while the war itself is important, it primarily keeps itself focused on the human element, making the tragedy far more palpable rather than scholarly. I think it is also about our desire as the audience to want to be able to avert tragedies we are familiar with in our stories and history. There’s no “time travel/history changes” element, but the show does allow us to have small measures of hope and that tragedy will have an important place in the minds of the people. In a half-decade marked by corruption, suffering and grief, it’s nice to see a show that doesn’t say “it’s all going to work out” but does allow us a measure of hope not based on blind faith and a belief what we take with us can help us in our human journeys.
4.
Nomad: Megalobox 2
Nomad had a lot to live up to. Megalobox was a strong series and there was little that DEMANDED a sequel, as it came to an incredibly satisfying conclusion. Does this wonderful little re-imagining of Ashita no Joe even need a sequel? What is there left to say. It turns out it actually had quite a bit to say and also got to do an about-face on its attitude without feeling like a betrayal of the hungry, scrappy little series that began it. Here, Joe’s never say die attitude is replaced with a calmness and understanding there are things not worth destroying your body over.
Nomad is a much quieter and sadder show but also extremely hopeful, as Joe returns to a world he felt he betrayed and tries to make amends. Wiser and gentler, but still strong and flawed in his way, it isn’t the tale of the comeback of a broken fighter into the ring but into other people’s lives. Yes, there is a fight and a big antagonist but the final battle isn’t “go for broke and destroy my body in the process to save day”, but something a little more mature. Maturity is really what the series is about. Joe matures and we don’t rebuke the character from the first series but instead see his journey to self-improvement and winning back the things he loves and helping those who are threatening to throw away those things. It also has a surprisingly strong subplot dealing with immigrants, which I didn’t expect.
3.
To Your Eternity
To Your Eternity could have easily settled into a tiresome formula. After all, in a very loose sense, all of the arc in this series follow the same one. I won’t spoil it for you in the event that you start watching the series, which you really should, but it won’t take you long to catch on either. Heck, as much as I love the intro, it also isn’t shy about hinting at where things are going (though it has some misdirects). But it is a testament to how great the show is that it never does because it makes sure that even when the cycle is starting over, we are going to invest in everything so that by the end of the story, it is just as powerful as the other times. Granted, in this regards, the arc on the prison island is a bit weaker than the others but all of them have their merits.
I also feel it is ambitious in the way that I felt Vivy, while I did enjoy it, didn’t quite live up to. In 20 episodes, To Your Eternity manages to feel like a epic that spans years and you can slowly feel the weight of those years in the series. The main character starts out as… not exactly being that, instead a barely sentient sponge and by the end manages to feel like a real character without taking narrative short cuts on the journey, even if there are some time jumps. There are several mysteries in the series I am invested in but I feel the series first and foremost is interested in the emotional stakes of the story, even more than the evil tentacle monsters that our hero is tasked to save the world from. It sells us that we’d rather have that take a back seat to the friends that our hero values and makes the world worth saving.
2.
Ranking of Kings
You know it is a good year when a show like Ranking of Kings isn’t the best show. I love the shounen genre and Ranking of Kings feels very much in that area. There are power ups, hugely outsized characters (literally and figuratively), a protagonist on a journey towards strength which he faces with a hopeful attitude, and deep mythos. But if you go in expecting Shaman King or Dragon Quest: Adventures of Dai, you might be in for a surprise, because Ranking of Kings is a much richer show, populated with characters you find yourself caring for. Despite the shounen/fairy tale sheen, this turns out to be a more empathetic/cartoony Game of Thrones (when it was good), which our alliances turning as we learn more about characters. Except for Bojji and Kage, who remain the goodest of boys in a world that turns out to be much murkier than they expect.
If anything, it is quite a gamble to spend so much time away from the show’s most loveable characters, but it’s one that pays off, making the show something closer to ensemble where the characters who seem like also-rans and stock archetypes find themselves in complex situations and reveal themselves to have depth. Even one of the show’s more villainous characters turns out to have a surprising level of integrity and I’m excited for when they get a chance to redeem themselves. The show might not take you to the fireworks factory right away but the journey is so rewarding, your thankful for the scenic view.
Ranking of Kings is a show about what it means to have power, retain it and what it does to you. We are presented to characters who despite their best intentions turn into monsters while the powerless Bojji is finally getting his own tastes after a lifetime of being powerless. And while that’s usually a recipe for disaster, Bojji and Kage seem primed to overcome any temptations of corruption through their purity. They aren’t chosen ones, they are the ones destiny seemed to cast aside or downright damn, but with compassion and empathy, they’ll avoid the pitfalls of those they love, if they can help it. Because unlike many of the characters, even those who love them, they are learning to accept themselves as on their own terms rather than the standards expected of them
1.
Odd Taxi
It feels like it has been a long time since I’ve seen a done-in-one (season) series that is so perfectly crafted with absolutely no excess fat. You might think that something like that means it moves at light speed but quite the obvious, it’s a real slow burn, albeit one where everything pays off perfectly. It also risks being a little heavy handed about our relationship with social media, as it is key to the arcs of many flawed and naïve characters in the series but in fact it is a series about human failings, wants and desires and how what we need isn’t as easy to figure out. These are characters who would find ways to mess themselves up even without it, to be sure. But I also don’t think the show is looking down on these characters, as pathetic as they are, and instead is a bit optimistic people can turn their lives around if given a chance.
It also helps that the series confident plotting sells it’s casual first act through the main character, Odokawa, a large taxi-driving walrus, is, despite his aloof, wry attitude is a good conversationalist and a people person. He knows how to get people to talk to make his job go better and adding to some push and pull to the conversation, doesn’t do a lot of judging and is curious. And this is a show that is curious people, wondering how they fall into their own personal traps and what their wants really are. Things slowly tighten over the course of the series as it gradually turns into a tight, tense thriller that manages to take control of all of its threads.
The series makes a bold choice for it’s last act and one that risks its hopeful humanist attitude but I really do think it works. Apparently, there’s going to be a film “retelling” of the series with a fleshed out ending but I REALLY think we don’t need it, as the ending it gives us is a perfect punctuation to the series. I think there’s been some great series this year but my love of Odd Taxi goes beyond mere consistency to a sense that the creators know exactly when and how to steer the series that takes the more rewarding path to get to its destination.