2021 – An Anime Year in Review

Happy New Year! Or, at least, I hope that this new year has the potential to be happier than the last couple have been. As many… critiques as I may have about the world in general, at the very least I think I’m pretty safe in saying that the world of anime has been extremely bountiful throughout 2021.

While many writers and bloggers have been posting their ranked lists of the best (or least-best) anime from 2021, because I’m not and probably never will be particularly keen on trying to rank apples against oranges I thought I’d try to tackle this from a different angle. So instead of attempting to arbitrarily cram things into a numerical list I’d like to instead look back at some of my strongest anime memories from 2021 by general subject matter and/or category. Thus, I can continue to be wishy-washy while also managing to put together some kind of content. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

With that said, below the cut are some various memories I’ve put together from 2021, some related to seasonal anime in general, and others more closely related to my own experiences as an anime consumer within that time frame. If you’d like to share your own thoughts in the comments, I’d love to hear them!

In Memoriam

I think that many people would agree that 2021 was a year of loss – not only in general as we continued to try to manage the realities of the world around us, but also within this fandom we all call home. Many of these I experienced from an emotional distance, able to appreciate how those who were lost were able to contribute to and enrich the world of anime and manga. But there were others whose passing felt more personal.

I don’t really watch anime dubs; as I’ve stated in the past I’m a former student of the Japanese language so watching anime in Japanese just feels more natural to me. But as someone who staffs a mid-sized midwestern anime convention, I’m familiar with some of the people who work within the anime dubbing sphere since they’re often invited as guests of the convention. Chris Ayres was an mainstay of Anime Detour for many years, until his health declined and he was unable to travel. While I never had direct interactions with him, he was friends with several of my own friends and the image of him carrying around his “big gulp” water cup is indelibly burned into my mind from many years of passing by him in hotel hallways. He was known to be kind and friendly – the type of person who not only builds wonderful working relationships, but also makes conventions fun and memorable events that they can be at their best. I know the Anime Detour community, as well as many other anime fandom communities, will miss him greatly.

On a more personal note, perhaps one of the more shocking losses to me this year was of Osamu Kobayashi, one of anime’s most unique voices. Kobayashi was always one of those animators/directors who I felt passionate about, primarily because his style was so difficult to stomach for so many anime fans. I’m the type of person who seeks after very oddball auteur stuff, and Kobayashi’s animation is nothing if not that very thing. Occasionally on the receiving end of some anime fandom hate – the two instances I remember the most being his Gurren Lagann episode 4 and Dororo Episode 15 contributions – I always looked forward to his solo episode efforts when I knew they were coming. I may never be successful in convincing people of the artfulness in his limited animation style, but I’ll always appreciate the weird sort of beauty he was able to lend to various series. I didn’t realize until recently that he’d contributed to the anthology series Rinshi!! Ekoda-chan, so when I get some time I’d like to sit down with the series and meditate on his work some more.

Goodbye, Osamu Kobayashi at S1E1
Eternally 23: Remembering the Creative Works of Osamu Kobayashi by Dawn H. at ANN

But perhaps the loss I’ve come to feel most deeply over the past several months is that of Berserk author/artist Kentarou Miura. I was awake past midnight in mid-May, scrolling Twitter as I tend to do when I can’t sleep, and happened to encounter a translation of publisher Hakusensha’s press release regarding Miura’s death earlier that month. I gasped, spent a few seconds in shock, and then just cried. Berserk is one of those media properties that have marked important moments in my life. My ex introduced me to the 1997 anime series in the early 2000’s, just as I was beginning to explore anime outside of what was easily available to me. I struggled to reconcile the violence (and sexual violence) of the story with what I felt toward the humanity of the characters. The ill-received CG anime series was released just as I was going through some big upheavals and transformations in my own life. And Miura’s death came at a time where I was once again trying to navigate my identity as a person and as a writer. Berserk is a story that is many things to many people; I not only personally marvel at the artistry of the manga, which I feel is truly unmatched, but also feel deeply connected to several of the character arcs. Now we’re all left to imagine how the story could have ended, and there’s both a beauty and a deep sadness in that fact.

Berserk: More than Blood and Guts – video essay by Beyond Ghibli on YouTube
The Many Adaptations of Berserk – video essay by Lady Emily on YouTube

Once and Again: Sequels

2021 was a year that presented us with several anime sequels. Sequel series, especially in cases where an initial season was especially well-regarded, can sometimes be a gamble. In some cases the content is even so different (and so mangled) that the sequel series almost serves to erase the regard and goodwill of its predecessor (hello, The Promised Neverland Season 2…). But rather than dwell on the bad stuff, I’d much rather talk about a few sequel series that really impressed me from 2021.

For all the controversy over some of its material (something I won’t attempt to minimize, but will simply say that I recognize the issues that others have stated and have chosen to accept them as problematic and forge ahead) I simply can’t deny that Season 4 of Attack on Titan has been a trip. Handed over from Wit Studio to the perennially-troubled Studio MAPPA, I was on pins and needles hoping that the production of the series wouldn’t simply collapse under the weight of its short turnaround time and other technicalities of anime production. While the look, tone, and pacing of this season are all very different than the first three, I found season 4 to be successful at presenting the elements that make Attack on Titan such an intriguing story. While I won’t delve into specifics – if you think you might enjoy Attack on Titan I encourage you start from the beginning and discover it all for yourself – I think its ability to present deception, governmental corruption – and specifically the sort of tragic personal corruption that comes from injecting power and influence into a situation containing untreated emotional issues – and the deep flaws of blind militarism are second to almost none. It’s a very complicated story and I can’t wait to watch the conclusion this Winter.

What I’m Watching: Attack on Titan Episodes 50-55 at S1E1
My Fave is Problematic: Attack on Titan – by Hannah Collins at Anime Feminist
Breaking Down Attack on Titan’s (All Seasons) Incredible Animation and The Two Sides of Studio MAPPA | Anime Studio Spotlight at The Canipa Effect on YouTube

On the other side of the “bonkers” coin is the second season of Beastars. As a person with latent furry tendencies, I really enjoyed the first season of the show. Its combination of world-building, cultural extrapolation, and sexuality really spoke to me in a way that I found interesting. Though the second season was released much earlier in 2021, I didn’t get the chance to sit down and watch it until this Autumn, and I’m kind of glad that I waited; the “WTF?” sort of reactions that the show brought with it as it was was released had time to cool and it gave me the opportunity to watch it more on its own terms. The plot of season 2 takes a bit of a left turn and the story’s relationship to real life begins to disintegrate – and that’s what I appreciate about it. It freed me from trying to link its plot points 1:1 with big topics like real-life racism or sexual exploration, and helped me to see that, while its themes were similar, its specifics were, well, quite specific to the world it had created. And that’s intriguing in-and-of itself. I can’t wait to see Studio Orange’s third and final season of the series, whenever that happens to drop.

Affection that Devours: Beastars and Relationships – at The Afictionado
This Week in Anime: Is Beastars the Best Anime on Netflix? – at ANN

The Spring Season brought with it an overabundance of great anime this year (seriously – there are still series from Spring that I want to get around to watching before the 2022 convention season ramps up again) and among those were some other great sequels.

SSSS.Dynazenon may not be a direct sequel to its predecessor SSSS.Gridman, but thematically it managed to build on that very predecessor’s penchant for excellent character study via retro-styled animated tokusatsu action. Its use of visual callbacks (seriously, check out some of the amazing side-by-sides to be found online, linked via the Sakuga Blog articles below) speak to its playful echoing of various elements of Gridman, while its ensemble cast’s various personal and emotional struggles cut to the heart of what I believe are the true strengths of reimagined sequels and reboots – their ability to use familiar frameworks in service of new and more complex story elements. Textual analysis aside, Dynazenon is just a really fun, cool series that doesn’t necessarily require familiarity with its predecessor, but which greatly benefits from it. I highly recommend both.

Spring 2021 First Impressions – SSSS.Dynazenon – at S1E1
SSSS.Dynazenon – Production Notes 11-12 and Final Impressions – by kViN at Sakuga Blog (previous episodes/articles are linked at the bottom of this one)
Gridman, Dynazenon, and the Hasegawa Nexus – by Adam Wescott at ANN

And finally, the last sequel I want to devote a lot of time toward is Nomad, the sequel to 2018’s Megalobox. Megalobox told the story of Joe, a boxer and undocumented immigrant, who experienced a meteoric rise to fame as not only a sports star, but as an inspirational figure to the economically and legally downtrodden people living on the fringes of society. It was a seemingly self-contained story which drew from Ashita no Joe, the famous 1970’s boxing anime whose 50th anniversary was being celebrated by this reimagining. When Nomad was announced, I was wary; while I knew that there were criticisms of Megalobox from other fans, I found it to be a near-perfect series on its own. Once I got the opportunity to sit down with Nomad, however, it truly blew me out of the water.

Picking the story back up after several years, we rejoin Joe whose life has reached rock-bottom. Not only is this Joe’s story of working through drug addiction and the loss of his found family, it’s also a story of immigrants struggling with systemic racism and with a powerful woman navigating a huge (and very topical) financial and ethical quandary. Saying much more would spoil the journey, one which I’d encourage everyone to take even if the subject matter of the series sounds ill-suited to your own tastes. As good as Megalobox was to me, however, Nomad is somehow leaps and bounds better.

Spring 2021 – A Couple of Sequels – at S1E1
Tomorrow’s Joe, Today: Megalobox Updates a Classic – by Daryl Surat At ANN
Discussing the Socio-Politics of Megalobox 2: Nomad with Yo Moriyama, Katsuhiko Manabe, and Kensaku Kojima – by Lynzee Loveridge with translation by Kim Morrissey at ANN

There were a few more honorable mentions that I don’t necessarily feel compelled to write about at length, but which I also enjoyed. Laid-Back Camp season 2 was a definite light in the darkness last winter, providing some much-needed coziness content. Both sequels to Cells at Work!, its main series as well as Code Black were a lot of (educational) fun despite a few flaws. Zombie Land Saga: Revenge was also a ton of fun, with an absolutely bonkers final scene that truly fits with the ridiculous tone of the series overall. There are also some sequels I’ve yet to get around to yet; this year was truly a bountiful one!

Some Overlooked(?) Gems

There are plenty of series that I suspect will get all the press they deserve and more from other writers’ end-of-year lists, so rather than dwell further on things that are already known by the fandom at large, I’d rather use my time to shine a light on some series from this year that didn’t receive as much coverage. Hopefully I’ll help you find some buried treasure to to warm up your winter (or, to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere, something that will let you stay inside in the AC this Summer).

The first series I’d like to mention is Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House, a cozy little slice-of-life series about two friends who travel to Kyoto to become Maiko (Geisha-in-training). Although one of them, Sumire, turns out to have a natural gift of the type of grace and ability required to shine in that line of work, Kiyo does not. Instead, she becomes the live-in cook at the maiko house, where she and Sumire continue their friendship from within their parallel careers. The series is charming in a few different ways. It’s educational in that it provides a glimpse into one of Japan’s cultural art forms that’s often very misunderstood outside of the country. It’s also filled to the brim with delicious, seasonal foods (one of my many anime weak points), so there’s a lot to learn. Finally, it’s simply an approachable, chill (mostly) slice-of-life friendship story that warms the heart.

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House at S1E1

On a much more flamboyant note, who here watched and enjoyed Pretty Boy Detective Club? I feel like if it had aired in almost any other season than Spring 2021 it probably would have gotten some more coverage, but alas I feel as though it got a little bit lost in the shuffle. I truly enjoyed the show, both for its very luscious production style and dialog, as well as for its messages about the liminality of adolescence and youth. Nisioisin’s style of banter may be a lot to take in for some, but I enjoy its spritely, verbose playfulness. This series is just a really enjoyable, self-contained set of stories that I hope more people will take a chance on.

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Pretty Boy Detective Club at S1E1
The Fleeting Beauty of Youth and the Persistent Beauty of Youthfulness: Pretty Boy Detective Club at S1E1
Interview with Nisioisin and Maaya Sakamoto – at Edomonogatari

While I don’t tend to seek out romantic anime specifically, when I find one that’s unique and unusual it generally catches my interest. Despite having a bit of a large hurdle to overcome with its fairly constant onslaught of fanservice and its… idiosyncratic animation style, The Duke of Death and His Maid managed to charm me anyway. This story of a nobleman cursed to kill any living thing he touches and the maid who loves him becomes more and more skewed toward the supernatural as the story unfolds. It also occasionally manages to be a fairly effective musical at times, and has an entertaining holiday episode to boot. It’s an odd duck, for sure, but I really enjoyed it and I’m now currently looking forward to the second season.

Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Duke of Death and His Maid at S1E1

Favorites

“Let’s talk about something/someone we like” has been a refrain among my friends and I for years, usually said during moments where we find ourselves becoming too angry or gossiping about something too fiercely. While I think it’s important to speak critically about things, I also think it’s useful (and results in more happiness) to spend some time talking about things we like. So in this final section I’d like to talk about a few of my favorite anime from the past year. These opinions may or may not align with collective critical consensus, but that’s fine; I deeply enjoy reading these kinds of lists written by other people even if I don’t entirely agree, so I hope the same is true for anyone reading my list now. I haven’t had the chance to watch or finish most of the Autumn 2021 series at this point, so I’ll mostly be talking about things from earlier in the year that haven’t already been mentioned (one can assume that anything written about previously could just as easily be on this list as well).

If I had to choose an anime that made my heart sing this year, a good choice would be Horimiya. Its tale of two high school kids leading (very tame) double lives isn’t unique in the slightest, but its ability to provide important glimpses into the characters’ lives really set it apart from the crowd. I became quickly invested in the lives of the two leads, as well as the members of their friend group. But put most simply, I think what I fell in love with was the intense, funny, poignant relationship between the two lead characters.

Winter 2021 First Impressions – Horimiya at S1E1
Horimiya – Snapshots of a Relationship at S1E1

If I were to name an anime that’s managed to remain very front-and-center on my radar all year, it would definitely be SK8: The Infinity. Not only was I personally taken-in by the attractive characters, entertaining action, and emotional drama that the series presents, it’s also managed to maintain a fairly healthy online fandom after-the-fact. I found Reki’s personal journey to be particularly resonant, reminding me both of what I see as a personal struggle in my life as well as ways in which I can face those struggles head-on. Not even a recap episode could keep this series down, and I really, really enjoyed it.

Winter 2021 First Impressions – SK8: The Infinity at S1E1
Maybe It’s Unreachable for Me: Inadequacy in “SK8: The Infinity” at S1E1

It would be difficult to overlook the impact that Odd Taxi had on me this year. I just completed a 4th watch-through of the series recently, which for me is absolutely ridiculous; there are series out there that I’d love to watch at some point and yet I may never have or make the time to do so. Yet there’s just something about this story of a walrus and the trouble he encounters that has absolutely fascinated me. It’s a series that feels very little like most other anime, telling a story that feels more aligned with a live-action drama. And yet, I’m not sure all its elements would work in live-action, the most obvious being its use of animal characters. Yes, Odd Taxi truly is everything I could want in an anime – humor, uniqueness, a willingness to comment on modern culture – and now that there’s a movie in the works, I kind of want to watch it all over again.

Odd Taxi Episode 13: Truth at S1E1 (previous episode reviews are linked from this post)
This Week in Anime: Why ODDTAXI is Must-Watch TV at ANN

Once the second season of Laid-Back Camp ended, I was on the lookout for something to replace it in the warm fuzzies department. Enter Super Cub, a quiet tale of a girl and her motorbike that hits many of the same notes and yet stands out as its own unique entity. What sets Super Cub apart is its treatment of depression and loneliness, two things that might seem counterintuitive to its status as a soothing hobbyist anime. And yet, though main character Koguma has no family and begins the series with no friends, her world literally brightens when she sits astride her bike and we share in her joy at her newfound freedom.

Spring 2021 First Impressions – Super Cub at S1E1
The Sound of Depression: Liminal Spaces, Sound Design, and Super Cub by Mercedez Clewis at Anime Feminist

Finally, I want to talk about one of the most confounding, poignant, obtuse, and emotionally moving series I’ve seen within recent memory, Sonny Boy. To attempt to summarize the plot of this series is folly, but at its most basic level it’s the story of a high school class who’s transported to an alternate dimension where circumstances dictate that they detach from their former lives and find a way to live in this strange new place. To try to explain much further than that would probably be futile; it’s not exactly that the series itself is necessarily confusing, but more that it feels so completely personal as an expression of writer/director Shingo Natsume’s philosophy and outlook that it would almost seem presumptuous and perhaps even rude to try to define that on his behalf. I’ll simply say that the series moved me in ways that I still struggle to explain, and I hope that in saying so it will inspire others to follow after me.

Summer 2021 First Impressions – Sonny Boy at S1E1
A Masterclass in Illustrating a Singular Worldview: Sonny Boy and Shingo Natsume by kViN at Sakuga Blog

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There are probably many other things I could write about here, and I’m a little bit disappointed in myself that I haven’t finished more of the Autumn 2021 series so that I’d be able to feature them here. All the same, I think this was a truly excellent year for anime and I hope that this post was able to express that sentiment properly.

What were some of your most prominent memories from anime fandom this year? Be sure to let me know in the comments!

Other Year-End Round Ups

Anime News Network’s “The Best Anime of 2021”
Sakugabooru Animation Awards 2021