Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you – this is looking to be a pretty light season in the land of anime. Even in the lead-up to this season, it was already clear that most of the larger hits would be long-running sequels, and series like Re:Zero and Food Wars lost my interest years ago. Then, of course, the coronavirus started sweeping the globe, leading to a number of entirely justified and frankly welcome delays for some of the season’s key properties. Between those extenuating factors and the season’s inherently limited number of high-profile productions, this is turning out to be a light season on the whole, and a fine time to dig into your backlog.
That said, most anime being crap hasn’t stopped me before, and it certainly didn’t stop me this time. I have successfully waded through this season’s mountain of garbage with my mouth wide open, and having sampled all of its sweetly molding flavors, I am now prepared to spit out the choicest morsels for your collective enjoyment. My list here will run from the season’s top contenders down to its worst offenders, with handy tiers and links to longer reviews over at ANN’s preview guide. Let’s review some cartoons!
Oh shit, right, I always do some gimmicky naming scheme for the quality tiers. Uh, let’s do… tiers based on… colors? I guess? Fuck it.
Violet, Herald of Dawn, A Color Rich in Pathos and Glory
As a somber, introspective character drama about genuine adults, Sing “Yesterday” For Me is pretty much laser-pointed at my own personal interests. That said, Yesterday’s premiere was also simply excellent on all fronts, from its incredibly fluid character acting and sense of atmosphere, to the pointed specificity of its psychological analysis. It’s already easy to see layers of insecurities and chosen affectations in the show’s main pair, and Yesterday captures the unique anxieties of truly facing adulthood with care, from its protagonist Rikuo’s refusal to genuinely define himself through an occupation, to its heroine Haru’s misguided efforts to seem like a worldly adult already.
Serving as both director and series composer, Yoshiyuki Fujiwara is one of studio Doga Kobo’s key figures, having directed shows like GJ-bu and New Game! In Yesterday, Doga Kobo’s signature strengths in terms of animation and atmosphere are matched with a narrative that unflinchingly observes ordinary people, capturing the cold of winter and the weight of depression with equal grace. If you’re a fan of stories like March comes in like a lion, Yesterday is a must-see.
Originally created by the author of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei and Joshiraku, Kakushigoto maintains Kouji Kumeta’s usual madcap wit, while offering a story that feels significantly more warm and atmospheric than his generally farcical works. Kakushigoto is charming, in fact; starting from the premise of “I can’t let my daughter know I write a manga full of dirty jokes,” the show builds up both father Kakushi and daughter Hime into extremely endearing leads, while complementing them with an engaging variety of coworkers and classmates.
Kumeta’s character designs integrate naturally into Kakushigoto’s beautiful world, which combines gorgeous background art with lots of neat stylistic flourishes and persistently active, engaging direction. Balancing Kumeta’s natural comedic strengths with both strong character bonds and an excellent visual production, Kakushigoto easily stands out as one of the season’s strongest contenders.
Look, Dai Sato was one of the key writers on Eureka Seven the first time, so if anyone has the right to make it again, I think he’s one of the top picks. Listeners’ first episode does indeed bear a striking resemblance to Eureka Seven’s original premiere, offering a boy who lives in squalor but dreams of greatness, a mysterious girl who might just be his ticket out of here, and an overall tone that screams “THE PASSION OF YOUTH” in every manner it can muster. But far more important than novelty is execution, and Listeners presents an altogether polished and extremely energetic premiere, with plenty of strong background design and expression work, as well as an excellent initial rapport between its two leads. Listeners feels a lot like its own protagonist – determined to achieve greatness, and already exhibiting at least the potential to reach it. For my own viewing pleasure’s sake, I sure hope it succeeds.
Sea Green, A Shimmering Hue that Cradles the Horizon
As its nonsensical title might imply, Princess Connect is indeed another show based on a mobage RPG. However, Princess Connect has a secret weapon that helps it soar high above its adapted compatriots: Takaomi Kanasaki, the director of Konosuba, who lends both his keen understanding of comedy and general visual sensibilities to Princess Connect’s farcical nonsense. Princess Connect’s first episode is heavy on the cleverly executed physical comedy and fluid animation style of Konosuba, while also offering a comparatively kindhearted cast that give it a bit of a slice of life appeal, as well. Energetic, funny, and visually impressive from start to finish, Princess Connect is looking to be one of the top comedies of the season.
It can be tricky to write a narrative about a character who’s an unrepentant asshole without making your own story into an obnoxious, aggravating experience. The Millionaire Detective clears that hurdle with ease, presenting a monstrously rich man who buys his way onto the police force, and a tongue-in-cheek tone complete with an “expenses accrued this week” meter at the end of each episode. The Millionaire Detective is playful and stylish in all regards, with its jazzy soundtrack and rapid-fire police banter serving as perfect deadpan counterweights to the plain absurdity of its central character. Any buddy cop drama that opens with one partner letting the other fall off a bridge is probably going to be pretty good.
Gleipnir is a moist, horny, and fundamentally uncomfortable production, bringing the horror-tinged hormonal intimacy of a show like The Flowers of Evil into a sleazy fantasy-action setting. The show is capable of evoking an incredibly sharp and uncomfortable sense of atmosphere, courtesy of its evocative layouts, expressively limp-haired character designs, and effective use of lighting. This atmosphere is put to work on a story that merges crass fanservice, violent action, and an unnerving central relationship, where a boy who transforms into a monster is being blackmailed by a girl who might just be a monster. I’m not actually sure if Gleipnir will try to say anything about adolescence or just be stylish exploitation theater, but it’s certainly some extremely stylish exploitation theater!
Villainess soars high above the usual isekai doldrums on the strength of its distinctive concept and profoundly likable heroine. Rather than centering on the usual Protagonist of Reality, Villainess envisions a girl who soon realizes she’s a villain in an otome game, and must somehow escape all of her destined Bad Ends. Villainess mines plenty of fine jokes out of that concept, but its greatest strength is easily its protagonist Catarina, whose passionate pursuit of salvation and goofy internal voice both make for an energetic and charming premiere. Catarina is a heroine well worth following, and I can genuinely believe she’ll accidentally get both the male harem and even this game’s intended heroine to fall in love with her.
Crimson, Robust Knight of Anger and Love
It’s a credit to this show’s craft that I found it to be an impressive and successful premiere on the whole, in spite of not really finding its sense of humor funny in the slightest. Wave elevates its story of a motor-mouthed amateur radio host through some surprisingly impressive feats of animation, as well as a script that builds its heroine Koda into a relatable yet distinctively opinionated and self-aware heroine. Wave actually felt a great deal like an American sitcom, so if that’s your scene, definitely give this one a shot.
Appare-Ranman!’s unique wacky races premise and beautiful background art make for a strong first impression, and this episode supplements that impression with a propulsive, familiar origin story of two mismatched heroes setting off on adventure. The show’s cast haven’t really come to life yet, and the storytelling is more workmanly than inspired so far, but Ranman’s speedy pacing and general aesthetic polish still make for a relatively enjoyable adventure.
Arte is a story about a young noblewoman in renaissance-era Florence who breaks away from her noble destiny, in order to take an apprenticeship as an artist. I offer this show’s unvarnished premise because Arte is not varnished; it possesses virtually no distinguishing aesthetic or narrative features, and offers pretty much the precise appeal of its premise with nothing added or subtracted. If that premise appeals to you and you don’t mind a bare-bones production, Arte promises to be one of this season’s most rigidly Okay productions.
All of the hype related to this manhwa adaptation seemed to go up in a puff of smoke upon the debut of its dubious first episode. The inherent appeal of its puzzle-solving premise ends up buried in this episode’s barrage of tedious exposition, and the show’s visual elements rarely congeal into something approaching a cohesive visual composition. Though Tower of God possesses both fun narrative and creative visual ideas, its premiere is unfortunately a dull and visually disjointed mess.
Orange, The Color of a Clown Blowing a Horn in Your Ear
The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me!?
Once again, a genuinely likable protagonist can do a great deal to elevate a familiar isekai concept. In 8th Son’s case, the pleasant, inquisitive nature of its protagonist Well is further bolstered by the narrative’s understated yet confident worldbuilding, which quickly established a world with a sense of history and solidity beyond the genre’s standard videogame universe. It’s very likely this show will eventually resolve into the usual “overpowered fantasy protagonist and his harem party” standard, but for now, this premiere offered a decent amount to distinguish it from its genre compatriots.
Tamayomi is a strictly passable blend of slice of life and sports drama, and we’re currently passing the “strictly passable” point of our descent. Check your breathing apparatus and make sure your suit is securely fitted, because it’s only getting darker from here out.
Some decently animated combat and one well-scripted conversation elevate Shironeko Project over the weakest mobage adaptations, but on the whole, this is an extremely “please download the mobage” production.
Diary of our Days at the Breakwater
Breakwater falls somewhere short of passable as slice of life productions go, on account of its generally unimpressive visual execution, as well as its weirdly mean-spirited tone. Laid-Back Camp this is absolutely not.
Chartreuse, Just a Straight-Up Dogshit Color
Shadowverse is a reasonably animated children’s show that answers the question, “what if Yu-Gi-Oh were produced in the mobage era.” The answer? Yu-Gi-Oh would be a mobage. In retrospect, I’m not sure this was actually a question that required an anime production to answer.
Look, there are only so many ways I can say that mobage adaptations tend to be visually unimpressive and narratively embarrassing. They’re adapting stories which barely exist, and are transparently designed as excuses to collect cards or swords or cute boys. Outside of a few shining counterexamples, mobage adaptations are largely terrible by design.
Sakura Wars shows great deference for its videogame origins, presenting CG characters that feel like a magical gateway back to Playstation 2 graphics.
Produced by the same group as Pop Team Epic, Gal & Dino brings that show’s creative design sensibilities to a story about absolutely nothing.
In a season absolutely brimming with creatively barren and cynically promotional mobage adaptations, Shachibato stands as the least inspired and most naked advertisement of them all. Congratulations Shachibato, you sure did tell us Shachibato is also a mobage which exists.
And that is about it for me! As you can likely see, my enthusiasm for this season’s productions flags pretty quickly, and I’m personally planning on working through a whole lot of backlog this spring season. But frankly, our communal obsession with only the newest shows is a sad state of affairs; there’s a massive number of great anime already out there and waiting to be explored, and I’m looking forward to finding new favorites among the highlights of years passed. I hope you’ve found at least one or two new productions to look forward to among my rundown, and look forward to joining you all for another season of exploring media!
How can i know how good these tiers are supposed to be without chaika GIF’s? Does it go from worst to first or first to worst or did you do some weird zig-zag good->bad->good->bad?
Now i’ll never know
Remarkable that you’re ignoring the clearly best show of the season, Kaguya-sama. Any reason for that?
I would guess it’s because it’s a sequel and he didn’t had time to review the first because it was in a very good season.
I agree it is a very good show, both because the source material is good and because the teams behind the anime deliver a proper adaption (they change things to deliver a better experience to the viewer and the pacing is good).