This is a few weeks late, but better late than never. Winter 2021 was filled with mostly fantastic anime that made Anime fans experience quite a few emotions. And there were a few disappointments as well.
But let's start off as usual with the 5 Anime shows I thought were the best of the season and then get to the rest.
Horimiya
Synopsis: At school, Hori Kyouko is known for being smart, attractive, and popular. On the other hand, her classmate, the boring, gloomy Miyamura Izumi tends to get painted as a "loser fanboy." But when a liberally pierced and tattooed (not to mention downright gorgeous) Miyamura appears unexpectedly on the doorstep of secretly plain-Jane homebody Hori, these two similarly dissimilar teenagers discover that there are multiple sides to every story...and person!
Thoughts: From start to finish, this highly anticipated anime adaptation has been a joy to watch, and no I didn't read the manga before hand so no bias here. Honestly Horimiya is a great watch with fun characters, good music and great visuals. And the best bit? No overly forced drama as is usually the case in the romance genre.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Thoughts: It's not everyday, or anime season for that matter, that an battle shounen anime comes around that's actually impressive. I mean sure a lot of them can be entertaining to watch, but not many are really good. Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the few really good ones since Demon Slayer. You won't be disappointed watching this one.
Non Non Biyori Nonstop
Thoughts: The latest Non Non Biyori season was brilliant, as expected. A few new characters were added to the winning formula of slow paced but full of joy events in the countryside. The graduation scene especially was a winner for me. Makes one almost wish the Nyanpasu never ends...
Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (2021)
Synopsis: Champion of monsters Rimuru Tempest ends the orc war and earns the esteemed title as Slime Chancellor.
Now that the Jura Tempest Alliance is growing even further, they will now be meeting the animal kingdom of Eurazania, reuniting with King Gazel, rising tensions between monsters and humans, and Rimuru encountering the strongest enemy he's ever faced.
Thoughts: The first half of the 2 cour season 2 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime was significantly darker than the first Season. But I really enjoyed it, it really kept going strong from the first season, which is more than I can say for shows like Overlord or Promised Neverland...
Yuru Camp Season 2
Thoughts: I'm so glad Yuru Camp season 2 aired on the same day as Higurashi, mostly so I can relax after the horrifying things that kept happening to Rika, that and the second season of Yuru Camp was so goshdarn good. Now I just want to visit japan even more! Also if you haven't seen Yuru Camp yet because you think and anime about camping can't be good. Shame on you, go watch it RIGHTNOW!
That concludes the my Top 5 anime of the Winter 2021 anime season, now it's time to talk about the rest of the season.
Yakusoku no Neverland S2 : As much as I'm glad we finally got more Promised Neverland, I can't help but feel like they rushed the conclusion of this story quite a bit, and the ending was just too convenient for me.
Dr. Stone S2 : The Stone Wars took quite a while to get started, but in the end it was worth it, Got to learn quite a lot about Tsukasa and I'm curious to see how the story progresses.
Shingeki no Kyojin (The Final Season) : It's called the "final season" except, it's not. It's a split cour waste of time with a horrible OP people weirdly seem to enjoy. The only good character in the franchise was killed off. And the plot is still asinine. Shingeko no Kyojin is like a story that one uncle tells you, but he just rambles on and never really gets to the point, when he finally does you realize there was no point.
Uma Musume - Pretty Derby S2 : The second season of Uma Musume focused mainly on Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen, their rivalry to be the strongest horse girl,, and had quite a lot of unfortunate events. I only wish the second season had a bit more balance to character focus like the first season did. But I did enjoy watching it, and it really had some good emotional scenes.
Re Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu s2 Part 2 : The name is a mouthful, but the second part of the second season of ReZero was quite good for me, instead of the depressing loop Subaru was stuck in the first part, we finally get some real progress, and find out the thruth about a lot of the characters in the series. Rem fans might not enjoy this one though ;)
Go-toubun no Hanayome S2 : The Five beautiful but stupid sisters are back, it was good to see that the focus finally switched to them facing their feelings for Futaro, and that he isn't as dense as we think he is ;) looking forward to the movie that ends the anime.
Shin Chuuka Ichiban Season 2 : The ABSOLUTE LAST THING I expected to see in this anime was NTR, and yet it was there...that aside pretty good season, I won't be surprised to see a third season.
SK8 the Infinity : This anime somehow got it right to take something cool and impressive like skateboarding, and turn it into something really silly, it wasn't a bad watch but some parts were really unnecessary.
Tenchi Souzou Design-bu : It was pretty interesting seeing the animals being designed in this Anime and trying to figure out what they were making. some were quite easy to guess. Others though...also it was quite funny how they made hell seem like a themepark.
Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi : Take Rising of the Shield Hero, mix in some hentai elements, and a general plot line of rape is terrible. Then you have this show, later on it felt like the sex scenes were added just to tik a box for every episode.
Majutsushi Orphen Hagure Tabi S2 : It's probably becuase I've been watching quite a long time, but there is something great about watching this old skool anime that doesn't follow most of the modern trends in anime. A Go to show if you are looking for that old Fantasy anime.
Mushoku Tensei : A hugely popular Isekai anime with some inconsistency issues, and also terrible male characters. Some arcs in the anime were mostly fun to watch, others were just meh, especially midway into the season. I'm not a huge fan of the MC still acting like perverted neet that would definitely have been caught for molesting a girl on a train. That aside it is still worth a watch, and most of the time the MC isn't super creepy. Though I do fear things might get worse in the future.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (2020) : Do you want to see horrible things happen to kids? Repeatedly? Then the 5th season of Higurashi is for you! I was quite confused as to why they continued this franchise as the previous anime season finally had the gang surviving for once...but I guess someone just had to punish Rika...
Hortensia Saga : A full on Hard Fantasy Anime featuring an Evil Plot, Betrayal, Confusion and a bunch of guys who can't see an overly obvious girl dressed up as a guy....Those aside it was a decent watch all in all, The pacing was just a bit weird and the end was full on o_0
Ore dake Haireru Kakushi Dungeon : This fantasy harem anime does quite a few things different than the norm, MC kisses his childhood friend in the first episode, actually does things with the girls in his harem and isn't overpowered for no reason. The anime is fairly light hearted with a good mix of comedy and action. The fanservice isn't overbearing either.
Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shounen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari : Definitely takes first place for longest anime title for the Winter 2021 season. And it's pretty fun to watch as well :D I just with our protagonist wasn't so dense, and the belt princess wasn't so overly attached..
Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun : One would EXPECT this anime to turn into a romcom, but it never really gets there. or anywhere else to be precise. At the end our protagonist is only a slightly less nerdy version of himself, making the journey there feel all a bit pointless. Maybe this anime should have been 24 episode instead so it things could get a bit more fleshed out.
Idoly Pride : An Idol anime with decent music, good characters and actually a bittersweet story. I really enjoyed this anime, and yet it went by completely unnoticed by most.
Kemono Jihen : A dark but fun anime about supernatural battles and mysteries surrounding Kemono and the world they live in. One thing I never understood was, how some people thought it was going to be like "Tokyo Ghoul" when it was clearly nothing like that, even from the synopsis and initial trailers...
Soukou Musume Senki : An Isekai anime where the main character gets to use an armoured suit, based on a model she bought be chance while on a shopping trip with a friend of hers. Yes it sounds weird. But even though there is a lot of doom and gloom in the anime. It feels like it was never really intended to be taken too seriously, especially when you meet some of the supporting characters. Yes there is a lot of action, but there is also a lot good gags, and relaxing scenes. And it's also complete. Which is pretty rare these days for isekai anime ;)
Log Horizon S3 : Firstly, lets address the biggest thing, There is no DATABASE OP :( but the new one by Band-Maid is pretty good too so no worries. Season 3 of Log Horizon just goes on where season 2 ended. Without spending a significant amount of time with the usual "this happened in season 2" flashback kind of thing. So it might take a while for details and characters to get remembered by watchers but I generally felt this season was a good watch. I still enjoy the fact that game mechanics are still a big part of the world and story.
Urasekai Picnic : This fantasy anime about two girls traveling between the real world and the "Otherworld" kept my interests up. I really hope to see more of this anime if possible. I quite enjoyed the fact that no matter how many times they go to the Otherworld, they still get freaked out by a lot of stuff. It made the characters feel more real, as real as Anime characters that travel between worlds can be.....
Hataraku Saibou S2 : The second season of Cells at Work was quite an educating watch, though things got surprisingly dark with the reintroduction of an old enemy from Season 1, it's a shame the anime was only 8 episodes though. But~
Hataraku Saibou Black : Luckily there was also more Cells at Work to enjoy, in this adaptation of the spinoff manga, with a significantly worse body/work conditions. It was great to see the contrasting versions of the different cells compared to Cells at Work, instead of dependable guys, the white blood cells were katana wielding big breasted girls. The platelets were more mean spirited than the adorable ones we got to know etc. This one was quite depressing at times though..
And that concludes my VERY LATE but still done, seasonal wrap up write up of the Winter 2021 Anime Season. What were your thoughts on the past season as whole?
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