Well, 2020 has arrived, and we’re somehow all still here. Along with our own continued existence, it seems the anime industry has also persisted into the new decade, and has already blessed us with an unceasing spray of mostly mediocre productions. Fortunately for all of you, I have found a way to convert my increasing disillusionment regarding this art form into cold hard cash, a process that, as a byproduct, results in a staggering number of premiere reviews. Seriously, I’ve been doing this for over half a decade now, so that’s like… well into the hundreds… hmmm…
Alright, don’t really want to think about that. Instead, let’s get on to the day’s critical business – breaking down the 2020 winter anime season! Having reviewed nearly every single new premiere for ANN’s preview guide, I’m at last prepared to sort the season’s attractions from best to worst, grouping them into handy-dandy categories along the way. I’ll be including brief breakdowns of my thoughts here, and you can also click on any of the titles to be linked to the full ANN review page, where you can find my thoughts under Nick Creamer (which is my name). Without further ado, let’s run down the new anime season!
The Summit of the Pantheon, Highest of the Celestial Spheres
Eizouken being this season’s most noteworthy production was almost a foregone conclusion; Masaaki Yuasa is one of the greatest anime directors of all time, and having built his own Science Saru studio with his closest collaborators, he has established the perfect environment for exploring his dazzling artistic vision. In Eizouken, Yuasa’s beautiful visual experimentation meets with source material that’s just as giddy about anime as he is, as he illustrates a story of three girls determined to make anime themselves.
Eizouken’s characters are dynamic and incredibly expressive, its background design embraces a dazzling union of urban sprawl and fantasy embellishment, and its story works as both a charming underdog tale and a celebration of animation’s ability to inspire us. The show offers an embarrassment of visual splendor and comedic charm from within its first few minutes, and by the end, the dreams of its heroines have carried us into a world beyond imagination, the world where creative partnerships are forged, and moving art is formed. Eizouken is already shaping up to be one of 2020’s very best anime.
Moving on from the highly anticipated Eizouken, my next pick was a total surprise: the mixed-media offshoot 22/7, the anime fragment of a larger idol initiative. In spite of its seemingly promotional origins, 22/7’s premiere actually tells a gripping and genuinely devastating story of a young girl who feels abandoned by the world, and only accepts a job as an idol to help her dependent family. Along with embracing a far sharper brand of character drama than most idol shows, 22/7 just excels on all aesthetic fronts: the character designs are remarkably expressive (the lead was actually designed by K-On character designer Yukiko Horiguchi), the storyboarding is dynamic and beautiful, and the sound design perfectly captures the cold, lonely life of heroine Miu. This premiere succeeded marvelously as a cutting little character story with a fantastical hook, and I can only hope the series follows through on its potential.
BOFURI managed to win even my deeply jaded self over to the creatively anemic VRMMO genre, and that’s truly saying something. Centered on the charmingly stupid Kaede, this premiere was brimming with punchy jokes playing off her newbie obliviousness, as she stumbles blindfolded into an effective character class. BOFURI captures much of the appeal of watching an idiot streamer succeed in spite of themselves, and when you couple its excellent gags with its strong visual execution and exceedingly likable heroine, you end up with one of the most entertaining premieres of the season.
Clocking in as the latest entry in the father-daughter slice of life subgenre, Somali and the Forest Spirit looks to be an excellent example of the form. Somali herself is a charming and believable little girl, and her rapport with her straight-laced “father” is already a delight to see. Beyond the appeal of its central relationship dynamic, Somali also benefits from truly jaw-dropping painted backgrounds. The rich array of colors and inventive visual details help enliven a world whose history already promises tense future conflicts, and likely some heartbreak as well. If you’re a fan of these sorts of stories, Somali is a keeper.
Cradle of the Lesser Gods, Coronet of Our Mortal Mountains
Director Ei Aoki has a clearly predilection for hard-boiled, urban fantasy-adjacent action series, as you can see in his professional trajectory from Fate/Zero through ReCreators. This season’s ID: Invaded fits neatly in his general wheelhouse, as he tries his hand at a police procedural with a mind-invading twist. ID: Invaded looks as polished as any of his shows, moves with solid momentum, and promises to introduce a variety of interesting puzzle box dimensions, falling somewhere between Psycho-Pass, Inception, and The Cell. It’s unlikely to have much emotional or thematic kick, but that’s not Aoki’s thing – he makes sleek, energetic thrillers, and ID: Invaded looks to be a fine one.
Hanako-kun offers a surprisingly pure-hearted comedy experience, as it introduces the titular Hanako and his new assistant Nene. The show’s jokes and characters are charming enough, but where Hanako-kun really excels is its visual design. Director Masaomi Ando (Scum’s Wish, Astra in Space) has been developing his visual sensibilities at a rapid pace the last few years, and Hanako-kun’s distinctive character art, beautiful backgrounds, and effective use of manga-style visual tricks fuse into his most visually striking production yet. Watching Hanako attempt to assist Nene with her romantic struggles would be charming in any case; in Ando’s hands, their misadventures are one of the season’s highlights.
If you’ve seen Blast of Tempest, you might have some idea of what to expect from In/Spectre. Kyou Shirodaira wrote both, and his fingerprint is unmistakable – both stories are headlined by dynamic, opinionated characters who share duels of words like Shakespearean suitors. In/Spectre introduces a young woman who can communicate with spirits, and a young man who seems to naturally terrify them; together, the two develop an endearing and very funny rapport, as they work to exorcise a particularly ill-mannered demon. If you’re a big fan of flavorful dialogue and character chemistry, In/Spectre is one of the season’s top picks.
The original Show by Rock!! was a charming, performance-heavy celebration of music stardom, and Mashumairesh is looking to be a fine inheritor of the title. Between the careful time spent illustrating the life experience of its heroine and its refreshingly well-animated rock performance, Mashumairesh’s debut is full of smart choices and sonic charms. Still a little concerned about the drill density of its main group, though.
The Rocky Peaks, Home of Falcons and Wyverns
Asteroid in Love marks Dogakobo’s triumphant return to slice of life stories that don’t make my skin crawl. Centered on two girls united by a childhood promise and a love of astronomy, the show is a textbook club slice of life in all regards, while consistently demonstrating the character-rich animation and sense of physical space that mark all of Dogakobo’s best productions.
Pet has the unfortunate distinction of being this season’s second best mind-invading procedural drama, after ID: Invaded. That said, Pet actually felt more impressive than ID in terms of its narrative structure, and delivers a fine enough thriller premise and a convincing illustration of a mind collapsing on itself. If you’re a big thriller fan, you should probably check it out.
Though it’s ostensibly about a rugby team, number24’s first episode struck a tone a great deal closer to a male idol drama, and that might actually be for the best. Centered on a young man named Yuzuki whose injury has relegated him to a manager role, number24 teases a great deal of nuance out of Yuzuki’s character, and is filled with thoughtful little conversations about confidence and identity.
The Treacherous Midlands, Where the Old Boundaries Were Drawn
In spite of sharing a universe with the basically flawless Madoka Magica, Magia Record can’t really be considered a direct sequel to its predecessor, and also can’t compare to it in narrative terms. Based on a mobile game, it’d be more accurate to look at Magia Record as Madoka Witch Boss DLC, with all of the aesthetic tricks of the original, but not a whole lot of the narrative substance.
Interspecies Reviewers is one of those rare productions that demonstrate it’s not impossible to make a solid fanservice show, most fanservice shows are just really bad. From its unique premise to its generally upbeat atmosphere, Reviewers is a fairly charming and extremely horny time.
The Case Files of Jeweler Richard
If you’re looking for something soothing, low-key, and relatively mature in its storytelling, Jeweler Richard is looking to be this season’s coffee shop/antique store/etc production, featuring two handsome men solving jewelry-related mysteries. As an admitted old person, Jeweler Richard truly speaks to me.
The Blasted Tundra, Where Dreams are Dim and Hope a Memory
Science Fell in Love, So We Tried to Prove It
While many people have dismissively referred to Science Fell in Love as “like The Big Bang Theory without the jokes,” I’m here to say its truest comparison is “like Kaguya-sama without the art design and direction.” Either way, not the best look.
Darwin’s Game is a relentlessly chuunibyou battle royale, centered on a phone app where if you die, you DIE for REAL. In spite of being terribly overwrought and pretty darn stupid, Darwin’s Game’s production values are actually pretty reasonable. If you’re looking for an action vehicle and don’t mind writing that microwaves your brain, it’s maybe worth a shot.
Look, sometimes you just gotta stab something sorcerously. Confusing title aside, Orphen is mostly noteworthy because it’s based on a light novel series from the ’90s, meaning it’s a mediocre anime awash in the mediocre anime tropes of thirty years ago. If you want to take a magical journey through time to see the mediocrities of seasons past, Orphen’s serves as a fine time capsule.
If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to Budokan, I Would Die
Budokan left me with some mixed feelings in terms of its craft versus its content, in that it’s a beautifully illustrated and often charming production designed to celebrate the parasocial relationships that are killing our ability to connect and communicate as human beings. If celebrating idol fandom doesn’t give you the willies, you might have a better time than I did.
The Lower Wastes, Skulking Grounds of Hungry Ghosts
Hatena Illusion is an utterly indistinct romcom vehicle, that essentially takes the premise of Hayate the Combat Butler and removes all of the actual jokes. There’s a bit of a magician theme, but it’s still essentially magician-flavored water.
A Destructive God Sits Next To Me
“Boilerplate chuunibyou gags are still in, right?” this show asks, to an audience of tumbleweeds and ghosts.
Infinite Dendrogram is like if an anime producer left out a note that said – “to greenlight: new VRMMO show, hash out details later,” and no one ever hashed out the details later. You might consider it a blueprint or template, but it’d be pretty ambitious to call it a story.
Imagining a world where Nobunaga finds himself reincarnated as a shiba inu, Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga possesses no jokes beyond that first idea, leaving me helpless in finding a coherent endpoint for this rambling sentence.
The Stygian Depths of Hell Itself
Seton Academy features a scene where three literal bears attempt to rape a human girl, and yet is still somehow not the most excruciating anime of the season.
Nekopara: What if there were catgirls
Me: Yes, excellent premise
Nekopara: And they were our SLAVES
Me: Wait, why, is that a necessa-
Nekopara: And had to be POTTY TRAINED
Congratulations, Plunderer. From your hack storytelling and incredibly stupid worldbuilding, to your relentless focus on sexual assault as a source of both comedy and drama (often courtesy of the protagonist!), you succeed in being the least watchable show of the winter season. May god have mercy on your soul.
Welp, that covers it for me! All told, this is looking to a pretty average anime season, with Eizouken standing as the clear highlight, and a fair number of reasonable shows in a variety of genres. I hope you’ve gotten some use out of my rundown, and I look forward to sharing another anime season with you all!
obligatory comment about how “the source material is really good, actually, I swear”
But in seriousness, thanks for the reviews! Wouldn’t have considered a couple of these otherwise.
Yuasa hypeeee
Next season tho, that’s where the big boys are at
Ok but dorohedoro tho
Excuse me, the Science anime may best be described as Kaguya-sana without the art design, the direction, AND the jokes.
your category titles are always hilarious