Hello all, and welcome to the end of another year in anime. This has been an undeniably difficult year, both in the world at large, and within our smaller sphere of Japanese animation. The Kyoto Animation arson stole dozens of lives, leaving a studio that embodied all the brightest hopes of this industry in ruins. From its artist training programs to its full-time employment opportunities to its gorgeous and moving productions, Kyoto Animation is a shining star in anime, and I can only find solace in the massive groundswell of support its employees have received, and its leaders’ commitment to maintaining their irreplaceable vision and place in the industry. This has been a year of tragedy, but I pray that we can end it with hope, and seek to right some of these terrible wrongs in the coming months.

This has also been a year of anime, and that’s what I’m actually here to share with you. My tastes have changed to some extent over the last year, but I still tend to value the same basic things in art: rich characters, engaging thematic arguments, inventive, expressive art design, and a sturdy narrative center. Not all of my top ten shows this year embodied all those qualities, and some of them were frankly just a really fun time, but I enjoyed all of them, and I hope you find something to enjoy among them too. I tried to at least check out every show I thought had a chance of making it into this list, but as usual, a couple fell through the cracks – in particular, I still need to catch up on O Maidens in Your Savage Season, burn through Symphogear’s final seasons, and get started on Beastars. Those aside, I at least checked out nearly all of this year’s shows, and have plenty of thoughts to share with you all. Without further ado, here’s Wrong Every Time’s Top Ten Anime of 2019!

#10: The Magnificent Kotobuki

Tsutomu Mizushima is a fairly distinct talent in modern anime – or perhaps I should say, he’s unusual in how non-distinct he can feel. Unlike the clear visual touchstones of creators like Kunihiko Ikuhara or Masaaki Yuasa, Mizushima’s work has few consistent aesthetic signifiers, and his stories tend to be more workmanly and episodic than ambitious and thematically resonant. Mizushima is a sculptor of just-plain-fun experiences, with a keen understanding of punchy drama, a playful reverence for adventure cinema, and a tendency to fill his shows with instantly charming ensemble casts.

The Magnificent Kotobuki embodies all those qualities, as he takes the general concept of his earlier Girls und Panzer skyward, and focuses on a crew of endearing and kinda stupid aerial bounty hunters. Kotobuki is gleeful, unabashed popcorn cinema, full of dazzling aerial dogfights, and elevated by sound design that consistently captures the rattling, edge-of-your-seat terror of early combat plane design. It’s a sky-high, swashbuckling good time.

#9: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

JoJo has undergone a variety of transformations over its winding arcs, but the shifts from Diamond is Unbreakable feel more incremental than all-encompassing, and the resulting arc demonstrates all that Hirohiko Araki has internalized over his sprawling epic. Like Battle Tendency and Stardust Crusaders, Golden Wind focuses on a continuous journey, as the young Giorno and his new companions engage in a race against time across all of Italy. Like Diamond is Unbreakable, it centers on a strong crew of likable ne’er-do-wells, and embraces a wild flexibility of Stand designs that really force its cast to think outside the box. Drawing on the series’ growing mythology and presenting a more focused conflict than ever before, Golden Wind embodies most of JoJo’s best qualities, and though I personally preferred Diamond is Unbreakable’s cast and art design, I can’t deny that Golden Wind is still high quality shonen action. Golden Wind is still a bullshit power, though.

#8: Kemurikusa

Tatsuki and his compatriots at Yaoyorozu broke out in a big way back in 2017, when tossed-off phone game tie-in Kemono Friends turned out to be one of the unexpected hits of the year. Having been ousted from the franchise he revitalized due to the clumsy meddling of parent company Kadokawa (no I’m not bitter), he returned in 2019 with Kemurikusa, a full-length expansion of an earlier project that embodied all of Kemono Friends’ strange whimsy, post-apocalyptic worldbuilding, and profound charm. I’ve become a massive fan of the post-apocalyptic travelogue subgenre (Girls’ Last Tour, Planetarian, etc), and Tatsuki is an absolute master of the form. Counterbalancing evocative, apocalyptic imagery with a story of families coming together to survive the harshest times, Kemurikusa is one of 2019’s hidden gems.

#7: Chihayafuru Season 3

Though it’s only halfway done so far, Chihayafuru’s third season has been firing on all cylinders from day one, and I can’t imagine it’s stopping any time soon. Chihayafuru’s mix of karuta-focused sports drama and ensemble storytelling has been imbuing it with that rare and precious “can’t-put-down” quality ever since its first season. The show has illustrated the tactical mechanics of professional karuta with such clarity that for every single match, the stakes, relative strengths of each competitor, and potential trump cards always feel coherent and engaging, making it a sports drama where you can truly follow the momentum of the action. And here in season three, around fifty episodes worth of professional development and personal drama are all coming to a head, as Chihayafuru’s heroes weather tournament after tournament in their quest for glory, love, or whatever else moves them. It’s been an incredible ride.

#6: Run with the Wind

This has actually been a remarkably strong year for sports anime, and Run with the Wind counts among the best of them. Following a group of twelve college students as they attempt to take on a famous (and famously punishing) relay race, Run with the Wind succeeds not just in capturing the thrill of racing, but also the human texture of the college experience. A brilliant soundtrack by Yuuki Hayashi compliments scenes of characters divvying up chores, bickering about group meals, and stressing about career opportunities – little human moments that all feed back into their communal struggle, and make each race feel like a battle we’re sharing with old friends. Run with the Winds succeeds as a racing drama, slice of life, and character story, and is easily one of the best shows of the year.

#5: Given

Benefitting from little prerelease buzz, and helmed by a largely untested director, Given is one of those rare and wonderful anime that completely snuck up on me. Centered on Ritsuka, a talented young guitarist, and Mafuyu, the singer he invites into his band, Given tackles the teenage experience with uncommon grace, and frankly explores topics like social isolation and depression, suicide, and coming to terms with your sexual identity.

Intimate direction and beautiful layouts elevate frank conversations that reveal layers upon layers within all of Given’s stars, its drama striking with a sharpness and acuity few anime can match. And all of this searing dialogue and sympathetic character work pulls together beautifully, culminating in a performance sequence that embodies all the joy and suffering of youth. If you like music-centered stories, or character dramas whatsoever, Given is a must-see.

#4: Stars Align

Continuing along with this year’s unflinching, sympathetic portraits of unhappy youth (I might have a type), Stars Align is the latest production by veteran director Kazuki Akane, who helmed such diverse favorites as The Vision of Escaflowne and Noein. Stars Align is his most grounded work, focusing on a group of middle schoolers in a tennis club, but its narrative and execution are anything but ordinary. 

Stars Align’s various heroes are beset by all manner of personal problems, from abusive parents to anger issues to uncertainty regarding their gender, and Stars Align is happy to let the messiness of these contrasting issues play themselves out through painfully sincere, beautifully animated confrontations. Stars Align hits much harder than most adolescent dramas, and yet at the same time, it also succeeds consistently as a sports drama, with its nuanced, expressive character animation elevating both its personal stories and match sequences. I’m not sure any cast felt quite so real to me this year as Stars Align’s angry, mixed-up, and profoundly sympathetic heroes.

#3: Vinland Saga

Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga is, like his earlier Planetes, a work of both intimate humanity and staggering political scope. Chronicling the lives of a few warriors in the time of seafaring vikings, Vinland is both character drama and war epic, but its gaze is always ultimately cast towards the horizon – towards a better future, or at least the hope of it, where the chains and cycles that promote violence and misery are far behind us.

Just as Planetes explored both the hopeful and practical consequences of space-age capitalism, so does Vinland Saga grapple with the impossibility of seeking true freedom within a feudal, war-oriented society. Its vibrant characters and thoughtful thematic inquiry give Vinland Saga a dramatic range far outstripping most action anime – yet at the same time, it’s also stuffed with plenty of vivid action scenes (director Shuuhei Yabuta was also a key contributor to Attack on Titan), and overflowing with beautiful shots of medieval Europe. Vinland Saga is simultaneously one of the year’s most beautiful, exciting, and thought-provoking productions.

#2: Mob Psycho 100 Season 2

The first season of Mob Psycho 100 was an absolute wonder, proving director Yuzuru Tachikawa was one of the industry’s top emerging talents, and simultaneously benefiting from an almost absurd bounty of top-tier animation talent. Mob’s followup season manages to somehow be even more visually impressive, while simultaneously diving even more deeply into the show’s sympathetic cast and larger thoughts on human nature.

If I had to pick my top three most visually impressive episodes of the season, Mob Psycho would undoubtedly claim at least two of them – the show’s animation and art design are just that good, that fluid and creative and absolutely gorgeous. That a show as visually impressive as Mob exists in the first place is impressive; that all this artistic talent is being channeled into a story full of characters who grow and change so convincingly, and who collectively attest to our capacity for self-love and redemption, is basically a miracle.

#1: Carole & Tuesday

While Mob Psycho 100’s second season was likely the most “perfect” anime of the year, when choosing my own personal favorite, I have to give it to Carole & Tuesday. In a year defined by tragedy and disappointment, Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Kids on the Slope)’s latest production was a jolt of unmitigated optimism and hope, chronicling the journey of two girls on Mars, hoping to make it as musicians. Carole & Tuesday is unabashedly sappy and idealistic, colorful and beautifully animated, full of charming adventure vignettes, and absolutely brimming with terrific original songs. 

Seriously, you will not believe how many songs this show contains, or how fully it articulates the felt experience of each new performance. From Carole and Tuesday’s first barroom appearance, to their anxious participation in a tacky game show, to their confident performances all through the second half, nearly every single episode features its own captivating musical setpieces. And though it’s mostly a light, upbeat experience, it also possesses no shortage of angry fire – the show’s greatest antagonist is essentially a Trump analogue, whose merciless immigration policies inform many of the show’s most incendiary moments. But though it’s willing to directly highlight the evils of our modern world, Carole & Tuesday is neither cynical nor grim; it’s an idealistic expression of solidarity, a prayer that the best of the next generation can overcome the worst of the last. Carole & Tuesday was exactly the hopeful, beautiful, generous anime I needed this year, and I’m happy to crown it my favorite anime of 2019.