Anime of Spring 2021, Ranked

Spring 2021 ended two months ago already.  But even though it’s now very late, I still decided to make my usual end-of-season rankings for its anime, especially since I failed to do a “first impressions” post.  Besides, this isn’t the first time I was this late with my seasonal ranking.  Lol.

Anyway, just like Winter 2021, Spring 2021 was an excellent and jam-packed season.  Sadly, I haven’t gotten around to watching some of the most popular titles of the season – namely Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-, and Odd Taxi.  But I really want to catch up with them, especially the last two, which garnered “Anime of the Year” buzz.

But for those I got to watch, here’s how I ranked them from least to best.

Wonder Egg Priority

Note: This ranking concerns only the disappointing finale, the only part of the show that aired within Spring 2021.  Here is my review for the series as a whole. 

Anime of Winter 2021, Ranked

Winter 2021 should be in the running for best anime season ever.  It was so stacked with quality anime.  Sequels to several reputable anime titles simultaneously dropped this season.  On top of that, there were also a good deal of notable new titles to choose from.  I really had my hands full watching anime this season.  In total, I ended up watching 18 shows this season – the most since Fall 2019 (although, I did drop two, so I only finished with 16).  And those aren’t even all the anime I wanted to watch.  I never got around to watching Beastars season 2 (I hope to catch up to this soon) and SK∞, which is supposedly one of the absolute best new anime of Winter 2021.

Same as always, I will be enumerating here all 18 anime I watched, arranged from the worst to the best for me.

The Promised Neverland 2^nd Season

The second season of The Promised Neverland pulled off one of the most shocking twists in anime history: it sucked.

I haven’t read the manga, but I just knew that there was something off with it around episode 3 or 4.  Then, I learned from the Internet that its story had proceeded to dramatically divert from the manga, cutting off many of the things that made the manga special.  This made me lose any motivation to watch beyond episode 5.

Apparently, according to what I heard, it only got worse from there.  The version of the story that the anime opted for is not only radically condensed, but is also plagued by stupid writing – a far cry from the intelligent script of season 1, which was a bona fide masterpiece.

And I think that’s why the second season seems worse than it really is.  It’s because it betrayed one of the greatest single seasons of anime of all time.

The Promised Neverland season 2 will surely go down as one of the most atrocious anime adaptation botches ever.

Anime of Fall 2020, Ranked

I was not able to make a “first impressions” article for the new anime of Fall 2020, so for this I will also mention here the new anime that I ended up dropping after watching just a few episodes.  These are once again arranged from worst to best, per my opinion, and are color coded as follows: purple for the new series I got into; green for old, returning series; red for carryovers from Summer 2020; and orange for the new series that I checked out but eventually dropped.

Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle

Curiosity for this got the better of me because of the whole “shonen + rap” nature of its premise.  But the pilot immediately lost my suspension of disbelief because it failed to sell the aspect where women have taken over the world and banned weapons and physical conflict.  How is that rule enforced?  How come men, especially criminals, somehow consented with it and have continued to adhere faithfully to the rules of the only sanctioned way of resolving conflicts, which is through rap battles?  Further episodes may have answered those questions, but the pilot was so tawdry and boring that I lost every drop of interest in giving another episode a shot.

Anime of Summer 2020, Ranked

This is a bit late already, but here’s the recap of all the anime from summer 2020 that I watched – arranged from what I liked the least to what I liked the most, and their titles color coded for new series, returning series, and carryovers from spring 2020.

Ahiru no Sora

I stuck with it through its 50-episode run only to watch the main characters lose every game they played.  If only the action during basketball games were more hyped and visually striking, I would have been fine with the endless losing.  But the animation and direction during matches were pretty basic.  Thus, following it through four cours was mostly a tedious experience for me.  But as I mentioned a season back, I had decided to go all in with this.  So, yeah, I’ll hate-watch season 2 when it comes.

Anime of Spring 2020, Ranked

Spring 2020 wasn’t necessarily packed with great anime, but I really had fun with this season as a whole.  In addition, many of the OPs have been absolutely terrific – namely those from Kaguya-sama, Kakushigoto, Wave, Listen to Me!, My Next Life as a Villainess, Fruits Basket, and Appare-Ranman! (when it was airing).  Speaking of Appare-Ranman!, while it was my favorite new show at the start of the season, it’s not included here since it got postponed after episode 3 because of the COVID-19 pandemic (it’s returning this summer 2020, starting with episode 1 again).  Also, the color coding of the titles, which I first did for the winter 2020 rankings, will apply: PURPLE for new anime series that premiered this season, RED for leftovers of previous seasons, and GREEN for returning old shows.

So, here are all the spring 2020 anime I watched, arranged per usual in the ascending order of how much I enjoyed them…

Ahiru no Sora

After three cours, Ahiru no Sora has yet to give Kuzuryu High a win.  Moreover, the protagonists can’t catch a break as tragedy after tragedy just keep on befalling them.  Man, not only is this anime a slog, it’s also kinda depressing.  It’s like an NTR sports anime.

I started wondering if this was indeed going to be worth it, so I decided to look ahead of the story by checking out the manga (for the record, I discovered that the manga isn’t that much advanced of the anime).  And, what do you know – they are also going to lose their next game in the anime!  Yep, 150 chapters in, and Kuzuryu High has yet to win in the manga.

It’s frustrating, really.  But I’ve come to like these characters, and my gut is still telling me their arc’s going to pay off eventually.  Thus, I’m going all in.  I plan to see this through till the end – both the manga and the anime.  Hopefully, it won’t be a waste of time.

Anime of Winter 2020, Ranked

I wasn’t able to write a “first impressions” post for winter 2020 anime, because I was busy catching up on my reviews for the anime of fall 2019 (on top of catching up on my reviews for a couple of 2019 movies), and by the time I was done with the task, it was about two-thirds into the season already.   Anyway, I only picked up five – a much lower number than what I had in previous seasons – new anime series from the winter 2020 slate.  Nevertheless, I still watched a total of 13 anime series during the season since there were a couple of carryovers from fall 2019 as well as returning shows.  Here are all of them, ranked from what I liked the least to what I liked the most.  Moreover, their titles are also color coded to identify what type of shows they are.  PURPLE is for new anime series that premiered in winter 2020.  RED is for anime from fall 2019 that continued into the new season.  And GREEN is for returning old shows that had new seasons.

Babylon

Click here for my full review.

Anime of Fall 2019, Ranked

Yeah, yeah.  Fall 2019 has been over for about two months now.  I actually contemplated skipping a “final rankings” post for this season’s anime shows since it would be awfully overdue.  But in the end, I opted writing one.  Better late than never, I guess.

So, I ended up watching all the anime I mentioned I was watching.  That included three carryovers from the summer season and three returning shows.  As for the initial 14 new shows I checked out at the onset of the season, I didn’t drop any of them.  In fact, I actually picked up another new show later in the season.  That would mean I was following a total of 21 (gasp!) anime series during the fall season (a big reason why I fell behind with my movie watching and reviewing).

However, I didn’t necessarily like all of them.  There were shows I eventually found to be unrewarding that I only saw through the end because I got in too deep already.  In relation to that, with me falling behind with my reviews, I didn’t believe all of the 14 new shows merited the effort for individual reviews.  Of the ten that already concluded by the end of fall 2019, I only reviewed seven.  Whatever final thoughts I have for the other three, I will just state them in this article.

Moreover, I’m no longer including My Hero Academia (season 4 started in fall 2019, and is ongoing through winter 2020) and the three summer 2019 carryovers – Dr. Stone, Fire Force, and Vinland Saga – in this list since they made it on my top 10 anime series of the year.  Based on that, it should already be obvious where they would rank.  There’s no need to put them here.

As for the other 17 anime series I followed during the fall 2019 season, here’s how they rank from worst to best…

The Seven Deadly Sins

The drop in quality of One Punch Man’s season 2 (which was actually significant, but unnoticeable to casual fans) has nothing on the nosedive that The Seven Deadly Sins’ third season took.  Wrath of the Gods (the subtitle of season 3) is shockingly bad.  What a dumpster fire!  I managed to stick with it during the fall 2019 season, but I just had to stop watching early this year.

Anime of Summer 2019, Ranked

The summer season has come and gone, and the fall season – the last of the year – is already upon us. But before I get into what fall has to offer, let me first recap how my summer anime watching went. My watchlist was composed of three leftovers from the spring season and 11 of the 15 new shows I gave a try at the start of the summer season – in which, from the five shows I was on the fence about, I ended up watching all but one, increasing the number of shows I dropped to four from the initial three (if they aren’t in this list, it means I dropped them). Here they are, arranged from worst to best:

Hensuki: Are You Willing to Fall in Love with a Pervert, as Long as She’s a Cutie?

Click here for my full review.

Anime of Spring 2019, Ranked

Listed below are all the anime series that aired last spring season – new, returning, and carryovers – that I followed, enumerated in ascending order of how much I enjoyed them.  Obviously, old anime I decided to catch up with during this period don’t count, and I also didn’t include the anime I dropped after watching just their respective pilots.  In addition, with regards to the new shows I picked up, it’s worth noting how their rankings at the end of the season differ from how they were initially ranked based on my first impressions.

Magmel of the Sea Blue

Click here for my full review.

Ranking the Winter 2019 Anime I Watched

Instead of re-ranking just the new ones like last time, I rank here all the anime series I watched during the 2019 winter season – meaning, including the carryovers from fall 2018 and new seasons of old anime.  Here they are, from least to best…

The Magnificent Kotobuki

I stopped watching after four episodes.

Re-Ranking the New Anime Shows of Fall 2018 That I've Watched

This is the same thing I did for the summer 2018 anime.  This is my final rankings of the anime shows that I watched from the 2018 fall season – the six I initially checked out, plus two more I picked up along the way.  And just like what I did for the summer 2018 anime re-ranking, this is arranged from my least to most favorite.  However, unlike with the summer season anime, I actually purely enjoyed every single one in this list.  So, without further ado…

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san

Click here for my full review.

Re-Ranking the New Anime Shows of Summer 2018 That I've Watched

Since I ended up completely watching every new anime series I picked up during the summer season, I thought it would be only appropriate to re-rank them.   For how I felt about them after watching their first few episodes is quite different with how I ultimately felt about them after watching their respective debut seasons in full.

So, here are the final rankings of those ten anime, but this time around, they are arranged from least to best…

Angels of Death

Click here for my full review.