10) Aggretsuko
This season was an emotional rollercoaster, and out of the three, the one I personally find most relatable (which is more a testament to how weird my life is than a comment on how realistic these situations actually are.) The heightened scenarios give us a chance to see new sides of the characters, even if they rely on some pretty unlikely coincidences to get there.
9) Konosuba
I had heard of Konosuba being good because it parodies isekai, and I do think it manages to accomplish that well.
8) Ascendance of a Bookworm
Since it’s not very action-packed, and also focused primarily on a group of children, it doesn’t fit the isekai model. It might not be appealing to the more traditional isekai viewer, who usually tends to like fighting stories, or at least stories with a more concrete conflict. Since this is rather slow paced, it might be hard for most isekai viewers to get into. However, it has an extremely unique presence and is quite clever, unfurling the world depending on what Mine needs or wants, and offering a reason for its limited point of view. It’s a simple premise, but one that’s quite charming. It might not be a knock it out of the park kind of anime, but it’s worth trying in its uniqueness, and is overall, a smart but gentle story.
7) Tower of God
There are a lot of shounen anime at this point. In fact, there are too many, but the popular genre is clearly not going away. The glut of this kind of content can give some audience’s reservations when yet another shounen anime series comes along, but it also means a whole lot more when one of these series can defy expectations and genuinely do something different. Tower of God is an anime that revolves around a mysterious and magical Tower that presents itself as one thing, only for it to be vastly different in reality. Brilliantly, Tower of God the anime pulls off the same kind of magic trick where it begins and acts like a basic shounen dungeon series, only for the show to pull the rug out from under the viewer as it steadily changes into more of a nihilistic character study that has a lot to say about society, human nature, and the desire to be seen.
6) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures
To be perfectly honest I was very apprehensive going into this Jojo storyline as the idea of a mob syndicate with Stand Powers didn’t appeal to me at first or felt consistent with the previous Jojo storylines as the focus was primarily the son of an infamous Jojo supervillain that through unusual means made Giorno also related to the Joestar family, but as I got further into the show, thanks to Araki’s writing, those worries were put to rest.
5) Jujutsu Kaisen
Half-way through the first English dubbed season, Jujutsu Kaisen is on track to being 2021’s best international series.
4) The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Reawakened
Japanese gag is very hit or miss for me; I loved Pop Team Epic, but sometimes really absurdist gag goes over my head. This one I found myself enjoying a lot; the jokes are very rapid-fire so there’s never really time to rest, but the comedic timing does work. Even though the plots are not particularly nuanced or surprising, I had a really good time sitting through them. It’s fun to see just what wild things will happen next, because something wild always happens. Or to see how exactly Saki will solve the situation, because even though he has incredible power, that’s not always enough to full fix things.
3) Tonari no Seki-kun
It may seem like Seki-kun is a longer series, but each episode is quite short in comparison to regular more 23~25 minute episodes. This is okay since each episode has a pretty simple premise and doesn’t require a lot of time, each time dedicated to some antics that happen in the classroom.
2) Somali and the Forest Spirit
Considering that the backdrop is on a former war, you’d think there would be a lot of action going on, but there isn’t. It’s mostly Golem and Somali’s travels, and the people they encounter. It remains sweet and gentle, even as it discusses the issues behind why the war broke out. But the thing is, we don’t want any of those troubles to reach Golem or Somali. We want them to remain happy together, and that means keeping them away from the action, which is a different feeling than what most anime wants you to feel.
1) Beastars
I kept hearing going in that Beastars is Zootopia but much darker, and I will say, yes, it is. While Zootopia’s conflict between predator and prey felt very surface level (it focused more on the buddy cop dynamic, which was fun but still took center stage), Beastars delves very deeply into a world where animals are expected to coexist– even animals that are supposed to eat each other.