An Anime and Manga Retrospective

Alright, this will probably be my last post for a while, given that I'm now through with the retrospective and this will catch me up to the current season. If people are interested in discussing series/movies/OVAs/etc., we can absolutely do so, but given the lack of activity in general on this, it will probably end here. Still, I enjoyed posting my thoughts and I hope other people gleaned something meaningful from my ramblings.

Most of the shows this season are finally done and I'm finally caught up on the year's worth of anime, of which there was quite a lot. There are exceptions for series that are ongoing, and, in the case of the second season of 86, production issues led to delays and now the last two episodes won't air until mid-March. Frustrating, since it’s still a contender for best of the season. 
 
Before I get into my watch list from the fall, here are a couple of series from this year (specifically, this past winter and spring) that I finally got around to watching. There was quite a bit of solid material this season that was very much worth watching, just wish I'd gotten more ahead on watching them.
 
Megalo Box: Nomad (8/10)
 
This season exceeded the original in almost every way. Whereas the original had a narrative that was largely what you would expect for an underdog story in a given sport (with a few twists and turns thrown in), this is what happens after all is said and done. What truly sets it apart is the tone of the whole season. There’s a melancholy to this one, but one with a continuous undertone of hope. The arcs are beautifully done and the lessons learned are hard-fought. It doesn’t have fights quite as great as some in S1 and its big emotional peaks are a bit muted by comparison, but that’s part of the point here and I think it works very well.
 
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song (8/10)
 
A story of a humanoid AI who is tasked with making everyone happy by singing who finds herself conscripted by a future AI to prevent a coming AI apocalypse. The animation in this series, especially during fight scenes and with Vivy’s eyes in particular, is top notch. The narrative is gripping, though it does stumble in a couple of places. Part of what makes this interesting is that she’s conscripted at various points over a 100 year period, which means she’s only doing this “save the world” business at specific inflection points that lead to the coming apocalypse. It’s intriguing to see how the world around her changes over that time and how Vivy changes. The fight scenes feature spectacular choreography, particularly in the 1v1 fights. I can’t say it was always on point, but it was often enough and was unique enough to be a strong entry.
 
Log Horizon S3 (5/10)
 
Log Horizon was my first brush with good isekai. This was similar to Sword Art Online, but without the threat of imminent death, which gave the series plenty of opportunities to explore the gameplay and build out the world in fun and interesting ways. The series follows an enchanter who is pretty great at the game, but is best known for his strategizing and quick thinking, making him incredibly effective at managing the environment after a whole bunch of people become trapped in the game. Season 1 was really good. Season 2 retained some of the fun but had some major pacing issues and the latter half of the season was just plain boring. Season 3 takes all the worst parts of Season 2 and expands them to a full and very boring series. Its only saving grace is that these are still fun characters and it’s still a well-defined world, even if that’s becoming less true by the season. Very disappointed by this one.
 
Mushoku Tensei S1 (7.5/10)
 
A modern isekai, and one that stands out. A shut-in is killed by truck-kun and is reborn in a fantasy world. Yes, all of this is very tropey, but considering that the written material for this series is among the very first isekai light novels (it started back in 2014), it arguably started these tropes. More importantly, the series doesn’t live and die based on its tropes. The characters and world are far more fleshed out than your bog-standard isekai, and its lead struggles to deal with the baggage of his past life in a way that feels genuine. This also has some of the best animation of recent series with an almost storybook appeal to it, as well as a solid soundtrack. This season drags a bit in the story department, though it does a more than serviceable job building out its characters in the process. The narrative is also dragged down a bit by its lead character who, being a 44-year-old man in a child’s body, ends up being more cringey and frustrating to watch than I’d like. He improves as the series goes on, but he and many of the characters around him behave in ways that I’ve unfortunately become used to from other isekai, even if they’re careful never to go too far. It’s a good start to the series, but aside from its animation, I can’t say that this one really stands out yet.
 
Scissor 7 (S3) (8.5/10)
 
I’ve already discussed this series and what I love about it, but this season is distinct from the rest. Our lead character and many of his compatriots leave their island on separate missions, and while I thought that might take away from their character interactions in ways that would diminish the comedy and/or drama of the series, this one really ratcheted up the tension and focuses much more closely on our MC in ways I very much appreciated. It’s the least funny of the seasons, but it more than makes up for it in other departments. If anyone is uncertain about this series because they don’t know where it will go, this season should give you hope that it can only go up from here.

Fall 2021
 
Star Wars: Visions (7/10)
 
This is a series of episodes created by different anime studios (some studios did two, but the staffs for each were distinct) that depict elements of the Star Wars universe that are non-canonical, i.e. they do not involve the central cast of the Star Wars movies, though occasionally side characters appear. This allows for a number of different styles to be tried, and I think that is this series’ greatest strength. It’s just a very diverse experience with a lot of creativity on display. That does simultaneously make it difficult to become invested in any of these stories, as they start and end within a single episode. That being said, several episodes of Visions are true standouts. To my mind, the story of The Ninth Jedi and Akakiri (episodes 5 and 9, respectively) are more than good enough to warrant extensions into full series, and The Duel (episode 1) is just the coolest piece of Star Wars media I’ve ever seen. The Twins and T0-B1 (episodes 3 and 6) have some amazing animation and feature so much of what makes anime anime. The rest of the episodes, unfortunately, fall short in my estimation, which leaves the series feeling a bit average on the whole.
 
Hanma Baki: Son of Ogre (6.5/10)
 
More Baki and a slightly higher 6.5. This series still has some bonkers fights, and I actually appreciated that this season was largely contained to a single setting, giving more opportunity to get to know the characters there and establish the main brawl. The fights are as ridiculously over-the-top as ever, and everything still just seems like an excuse to get two incredibly well-sculpted men to fight just to see who’s better (that’s basically the whole series), but at least this season is more focused.
 
Aggretsuko (S4) (7.5/10)
 
Unfortunately, this season was a big step down from the previous one. I can’t say why, specifically, without getting into spoilers. However, to be vague about it, the focus on Haida is appropriate, but was rather narrow and disappointing in the end. Same great characters and interactions, and at least when it comes to company politics, there's a lot to appreciate here (most of which is erased in the end, for better or worse), but the character growth is incredibly minimal compared with the last three seasons.
 
Sakugan (7/10)
 
I liked this series more than I thought I would. It evokes amazing series like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Made in Abyss, as well as the less amazing but still solid Deca-Dence, involving a father and his brilliant daughter journeying into a labyrinth together to find a place that keeps coming to her in her dreams. Adventure stories like this are pretty intriguing in general, and the aspect of having a father and daughter traveling together is distinct, providing opportunities for some really emotional moments between our lead pair. It helps that the secondary cast is pretty colorful and fun in their own right, including some antagonists who aren’t villains for a change. Nonetheless, this very much feels like the start of a story throughout, and though it ends strong, much of the journey seems like it wastes precious time. It never reaches the heights of the series it evokes, though I remain hopeful that it has promise should a season 2 drop for this.
 
Takt op.Destiny (6/10)
 
The series follows a musician whose adoptive sister is transformed into a Musicart, a humanoid weapon that he can direct and facilitate to fight alien creatures who originate from black stones meteors. These aliens are drawn to destroy and, in particular, are drawn to anything musical. This sounds like a great premise: colorful waifus directed by music to kill black crystal aliens, and especially with the production values on this, it should have been a slam dunk. However, the narrative drags often, the lead character and his motivations remain frustrating throughout, the villain (won’t spoil who that is, but it’s not hard to figure out) is never really understood or explored enough to make them compelling, and even the basic premise of this world (how did the humans come up with Musicarts? Does it relate to the black crystals? Why music, specifically, rather than any other form of weaponry?) remain unaddressed. It feels like this series takes a strong premise and just does next to nothing with it.
 
Komi Can’t Communicate (7/10)
 
This one was overhyped. Based on a very popular manga, it’s the story about a high school girl who is extraordinarily beautiful and also extraordinarily inept when it comes to socializing, to the point that she can hardly even speak to someone. Her status as the untouchable goddess in her classroom has ensured that most other students interpret the lack of speech as disdain, when in reality Komi really just wants to make a lot of friends. She finds someone early in the series (our MC) who understands her struggle and begins to build a social life with him as an intermediary. The story is at its best when it just allows for cute moments with Komi, which are adorable, but it loses some steam as it adds more supporting characters to the roster, some of whom had more cringey or even psychotic vibes to the show that I found unwelcome. The humor is very hit and miss for me, though it might be more your style than mine. Overall, a sweet experience capped off well, even if it leaves me feeling a little empty in the end.
 
Heike Monogatari (8/10)
 
This one spoke to my interests pretty well. I've always been a history nerd and a series that depicted that with a small fantasy twist was always going to keep me interested throughout. This one, though, exceeded my expectations. The story follows Biwa, a young girl who can see the future of a person she looks at with her blue eye (she's heterochromatic). Taken in by the Heike, a powerful clan in Japan at the time, she prophesizes their downfall and lives with them from then on, seeing them to their inevitable fate. A lot of this series is a slow burn, taking its time to bring you the interactions of its characters within the mesh of the world's history. I can't say I was too enthralled with just that in its early phases. However, as it progresses and its characters (whether by choice or by force) make decisions that either help or harm their clan and/or themselves, it becomes much more interesting to watch that snowball pick up steam. In its last several episodes, particularly its finale, this series really comes together in a beautiful way that I loved.

Mushoku Tensei S2 (8.5/10)
 
I’d been told ahead of time that S2 was where this series really gets going and that’s certainly true. Much of what makes this story interesting – its worldbuilding and character development – happens here. I won’t spoil how that initiate or where things go, but the emotional moments really get cranked up in this series and the action goes to a whole other level. It doesn’t quite match the incredible heights of Re:Zero, partially because the lead character is still, in many ways, the same person he was upon arrival, though to be fair, he’s learned quite a few lessons. This season still leaves me excited for the future of the series, especially given how much source material there is to draw from.

Anime of the Year: Odd Taxi, which quickly joined my top 10 list of all time. The only other new series that was in contention was Ousama Ranking, which is stellar, but it's only about halfway done at this point so I'll wait to review it. Re:Zero, despite already being on my top 10, didn't have its best work this year. Still, Re:Zero S2, Pt. 2 and Scissor Seven S3 are in a dead heat for my favorite sequel series of the year, with Mushoku Tensei S2 close behind.