#5.1.20

Another year of anime’s over, and before I get my picks for Top X of the decade or whatever, I think 2019 deserves its own wrap up too. It’s worth mentioning that because a certain 2 shows’ last episodes got delayed, my Fall 2019 Season in Review isn’t out yet, but shows from Fall are obviously eligible and you’ll hear perhaps fuller opinions on any of my Fall shows that are in this list if you read that post when it comes out, and also you can read my other Seasons in Review this year for fuller thoughts on the other shit. For now though, we’re talking about this. And semi-coincidentally, today, the 5th of January, is the same date that I posted my Top 10 of 2018 when that happened. So hey, that’s pretty cool. Not only that, but actually coincidentally, I watched 40 shows this year, exactly the same amount as last year, albeit this year I dropped 7 as opposed to 14, so that’s 33 shows that are viable for this list, minus the 2 that haven’t finished for 31, though those 2 definitely weren’t fucking making it lol. So let’s uh, let’s get going.

10. Sarazanmai

Starting off we’ve already got a really weird, unconventional show, but one that really sort of stuck itself in the back of my mind as the year went on. Despite airing a mere 11 episodes way back in Spring I’ve managed to not really forget about this one, the catchy music and jingles, the extremely bizarre presentation of a fairly simple narrative with an interesting overarching theme, and really great character writing all around. The show definitely explores its 3 main leads in great depth and covers their relationships with themselves and the people in their lives in even greater depth, resulting in some surprisingly emotional highs for a show where the first 5 episodes are more or less identical. I don’t want to be the guy that sells a show on “weird” but it for sure has quite a lot more going on than the surface level that I can’t say I fully understood, but that surface level is god damn enjoyable and hey it’s always nice to have more going on than the surface. Good time.

9. Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?

So this year’s a hell of a change of pace from my favourites last year in that this show right here is one of only two cute girls doing cute things shows on this list. Ain’t that fucking weird? But yeah, cute girls do workouts and muscle building at the gym. And it’s a great time! The girls are really adorable, it’s got maybe the best male characters in any cute girl anime I can think of, the humour’s on point for basically the entire show, it’s legitimately educational without being massively distracting, and it’s unabashedly horny because yeah, muscle girls are hot, Doga Kobo aren’t afraid to show that. And it also feels so weird to say it, but main character Sakura Hibiki, yeah her seiyuu’s performance is one of the best of this year, which is so not what you expect to hear about a cute girl gag comedy thing. Fuckin, great time.

8. Re:Stage! Dream Days

I feel like I’m the only person in the world with this in their top 10, my god. I’m sure some people have checked out and dismissed me as an idiot because of this pick alone lol. But it’s a really fun show! It’s a show where I struggle to tell like, how self-aware the writers were, because the show’s often a genuinely stupid dumb idol show with silly stock characters that just get up to cute moeshit, but then the humour’s mostly kind of like, “god these moeshits sure do dumb shit or are smart in really dumb unrealistic ways that impress everyone” and it feels like the writers know what’s up, but not in a way where it’s just like “haha shoulder nudge” type thing. I don’t know what this show is other than adorable and cute and I really like it and I don’t know if it’s an ironic thing because I tend not to enjoy things “ironically” so if it is ironic then like I don’t know how to deal with it? Show’s a great time, best worst idol show I’ve ever seen.

7. Carole & Tuesday

This is a show I know will be topping a lot of people’s lists, and though it didn’t touch me quite like it touched many others, I still really loved it. The titular duo are probably the second or maybe third most enjoyable pair of characters this year, and seeing them go through their story of trying to enter into the music industry because they have something to say, things that tie into their respective backstories, things that have a meaningful impact on the society the story’s set in, it’s great. It’s a 5 minutes in the future type story, and yet with how much of the story is truly about music, more than any other show I’ve ever seen, it feels like a story that’ll be considered timeless. I sure as hell enjoyed it, and I’m not even that into music. I think it does have a problem with its pacing, the second half in particular wastes a lot of time on pointless characters and sideplots that go nowhere meaningful, but it’s a fairly minor thing in an otherwise enjoyable show with mostly memorable and super distinct characters, and a satisfying ending. Love it.

6. Dororo

I didn’t expect to like this show even close to as much as I did. Which is weird, because it sounds so fucking cool. A feudal lord gives up his son’s entire body for the prosperity of his land, resulting in a kingdom built on the sacrifice of one innocent baby, and now the baby, with no eyes, nose, mouth, arms, legs, skin, etc, grows up to be a warrior who wants revenge, and can get his body parts back by slaying demons? Also his arms are swords? That’s fucking badass, and a great lens to talk about utilitarianism and hedonism as concepts. Is it right to sacrifice one for the sake of thousands, or was that one wronged, and has every right to get what was stolen from him at the cost of those same thousands? And with almost every key player in this conflict being part of this one family, including particularly an awesome younger brother whose negative character arc as a result of his pursuit of one answer is, it’s just fucking god tier. Also, despite the visuals faltering quite a lot during the last third of the show (though thankfully the finale still looked awesome) the show has brilliant art design, it’s got a very old Japanese feel to it, and the washed out colours fit the sort of nihilistic feel to the show. It’s a phenomenal show and the fact that it’s not top 5 speaks to the quality of the shows coming up more than anything else.

5. Given

I definitely didn’t expect to like this show as much as I did. A boy’s love show being not just something I love, but in my top 5 for the year? Beating out Dororo and Carole & Tuesday even? Sounds fake honestly. But this show’s just, just brilliant. It’s closer to a slice of life with a male cast than it is anything BL tbh, though there’s still BL, gay kisses on the lips, characters talking about very homosexual feelings, thinking very homosexual things, you know, but by and large it’s like, almost iyashikei? The show’s very, warm. The colour palettes are warm. The characters are comforting, even when it gets pretty heavy with mentions of suicide and characters kind of fighting, there’s still sort of a sense that everything’ll be okay. The show doesn’t even look especially good and yet it feels like something from Kyoto Animation, albeit with less cute girls. Instead, we’ve got cute boys. And I think it’s all really well written, having seen a fair amount of anime where “gay anime boys” just means “overly affectionate anime girls, but with dicks”, I really appreciate that Given feels like it stars a cast of actual boys. And men even, because Given also has 2 college aged characters in it that, although they don’t quite get their resolutions, we’ve got a movie coming up for that though, they’re still nicely developed and feel like comparatively matured personalities that really add to the narrative. Also this is the only show on this list that I’ve rewatched, and it was even better when I did that so. Shockingly fantastic time.

4. Vinland Saga

Yet another show that’ll probably be tons of peoples’ favourites, and like the other show that’s got the second or third most enjoyable duo of characters in the form of Askeladd and Thorfinn, Vinland Saga’s yet another show that, surprise surprise, is fucking brilliant! Also I feel like it might be a solid gateway anime, it’s got that sort of brilliant character writing, longform storytelling and steady plot progression, and of course, badass action, that hooks you in really damn well. Plus in its prime it’s one of the prettiest shows this year, the animation especially is probably top 3, and the voice acting is close to the best this year. I should probably rewatch this since it’s fairly heavy on the politics and watching it week by week, sometimes less frequently than that, I didn’t feel 100% in the know all the time, but that’s just me, show’s great, when it comes to every show I talk about in this post you should probably read my tag for them since I’ve covered like every episode of all of these shows in greater depth so.

3. Dr. Stone

Never thought I’d see the day where a Weekly Shounen Jump title would be in my top 3 of a year, let alone the first 9/10 show for me in this list. But Dr Stone’s just such a fantastic time. I’ve talked about this show a lot, and every time I’m selling the key appeal on the show, I’m saying the main thing. Dr Stone operates on 10 billion % gratification all. The. Time. The characters are always working towards something that takes multiple episodes to achieve and the payoff is always super satisfying, but the steady sense of progression is enhanced by the fact that they’re always making things with multiple purposes. So if they want to make a phone, well they’re gonna need to have light, so they need copper wire for lightbulbs, so they need to be able to string copper wire, so they make a cotton candy machine to refine the stringing process, and in making cotton candy they can basically pay villagers to do labour for them, and try to persuade an enemy spy to maybe shift their allegiance a bit. Every single thing has multiple steps and every single step is a satisfying journey that goes towards solving so many more problems than initially presented. That specific way of providing narrative payoff is unparalleled in just how gratifying it is, the show’s incredible at just letting you have fun with it. Helps that the characters are as fun as they are too, main character Senku is a male genius main character but isn’t a toxic cynical cunt that you just want to kill, he’s got a bit of sass but he’s a genuinely nice person who seriously wants to save everyone and isn’t afraid to work admit that. The fact that this isn’t anime of the year is amazing, that’s how great the next 2 shows are.

2. Beastars

What’s more surprising than Shounen Jump being in my top 3? How about the furry anime being my second favourite of the year? Yeah Beastars is fucking ridiculously good, I really don’t want to say too much because my Season in Review for Fall isn’t out yet and I’ve gone in mad depth to Beastars specifically in there which you should read if you care, but TL;DR the character writing is near unparalleled in any show I’ve seen, let alone this year, and specifically the society that the characters live in and the way it impacts them and they impact it, it’s all ridiculously interesting, and if I had to use one adjective to describe how this show explores every opportunity its story and setting present, I’d choose “thorough”. It’s also crazy unpredictable in the wildest ways because so many things happen that you couldn’t possibly expect and yet every single one of them is so easy to immediately accept because just, fuck, this show’s so believable. This fucking edgy Zootopia is one of the smartest shows I’ve ever seen and I’d recommend it to uhhhh anyone.

1. Mob Psycho 100 II

Is it any wonder that the only show this year I gave a 10/10 is my favourite anime of the year lol

And that’s 2019 in TV anime. Fuck movies lol most of them that I want to watch aren’t even out yet. This year was fucking great, yo. I gave one show a 9/10 last year, everything else was 8 or less, but here we have two 9s and miraculously, even a 10. That’s awesome. This year was fucking great. And it’s such a weird list for me because it’s dominated by like, the type of shows r/anime love, as opposed to overwhelming cute girl bullshit like one might expect of me. Hey this is fine though. No idea how proud I am of this post’s writing since I can’t be bothered proofreading it, really I just wanted to make that January 5th date to match last year’s, but I have talked about all of these shows in other places, or will talk more about in the case of Beastars, so like, whatever. If you’re curious about some other random numbers, this top 10 has 2 shows from Winter, 2 shows from Spring, 1 show from Fall, and all of the remaining 5 are from Summer, so uh, I think it’s an easy guess which season was my favourite overall. That’s basically it, but let’s do like 3 more segments just to cover all bases.

Favourite Movie of the Year – Black Fox

I have a review of this, go read it, but TL;DR really fun action movie from one of my favourite studios, with brilliant animation, great character designs, and a plot that, though extremely simple and predictable, is a ton of fun regardless.

Girl of the Year – Miyako Hoshino

This was ridiculously hard to decide but honestly Mya-nee is such a brilliant meme character that I’ll never forget about that I can’t help but pick her. Yeah she’s uhhhhhhhh absurdly creepy in and out of universe, I don’t wanna say the p word in case Tumblr gets mad at me but she sure as shit seems to be that and uh, nah, but hey it’s all fictional so who cares. Funny, also the show’s got a cute art style so Mya-nee’s legit cute and that’s pretty cool. Also she’s voiced by Reina Ueda which fucks with me hard. Also I joked about kinning her for a while so there’s that. She has a lot of strong competitors from this year, even excluding girls I was already attached to by virtue of being from sequels or spinoffs or stuff, but I think I’ve got to give it to her. Plus it’s an excuse to get funny meme show Wataten in this list somehow

Boy of the Year – Crippled Kirito

nah jk

Boy of the Year – Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama

Fr tho his one was also ridiculously hard, perhaps even harder than best girl, which fucks with me because last year best boy was pretty easy and best girl felt like I was choosing a favourite child, but whatever. But like, argh, as tough as it is, it’s gotta be Mob. My boy matured so much in his second season, made me shed so many tears. The first episode of season 2 alone just shows us how far Mob’s come since his humble beginnings in season 1, and even further since he was a shy little child afraid of everything. Argh, he’s so cute too! Mob is an inspiration to us all, let us all be more like Mob.

“When the condition of affairs was not ripe, when the insurrection was not decidedly acceptable, when the mass disavowed the movement, it was all over with the combatants.” I really hate the argument that ‘people aren’t ready for change’ because it’s never more than an excuse to dismiss entire movements with no reasonable basis. A better (correct) way to say it is ‘some people don’t want things to change’ and why should they since they already have power and money and whatever. “‘What do these people want? They are never contented.’”

“A people does not allow itself to be used.” Don’t they? Because if they aren’t being used to further social justice and wellbeing, then they’re being used to suppress it. Sorry, but that’s just true! You don’t get to pretend there’s a third option, like Hugo so often does. These are the “madmen of moderation.” I’m not at all in the mood to hear Hugo’s platitudes that Progress will always rise again. What I’m waiting for is not Progress, it’s for those people to stop thinking it’s always too soon for change, because they’re the actual opposition. “[Utopia] compromises her heroism by a violence of opportunity and of expediency, contrary to principles, and for which she is fatally punished.” Only, there will never be a right time and opportunity to some people and, if that weren’t the case, it wouldn’t ever take an insurrection to propel change. People die and suffer now and it’s apparently still too soon to change things. If any of this was true, there would be no successful revolutions and all progress would take place peacefully and steadily and never regress. Hugo’s on the right side of things but, as always, his methods leave a lot to be desired in my opinion. I haven’t forgotten his recommendation from 1848 that the wise should actively suppress revolution if they believe it isn’t the right time in order to save the masses from themselves. “No violent remedy is necessary. Study evil lovingly, determine it, then cure it. To that we urge.”

I think this next bit is Hugo trying to make some questionable sweeping claims about art, culture, and…trade? He says, “Art, which is the conqueror, must have its fulcrum in science, which is the mover” and “hieratic and or mercantile absorption diminishes the radiance of a people.” This is a little bit complicated because Hugo is functionally advocating imperialism while not understanding that imperialism is the driving force for the materialism he decries. Carthage is bad because it trades goods, but Athens is okay because it…conquers other peoples for access to their material goods? Art and science as vehicles for imperialism is an uncomfortable thought, but the reality is art and science are neutral concepts, not inherent sources of sublime progress as Hugo seems to indicate, and can be used to glorify and justify any agenda. For every palace of Versailles there’s a Liberty Leading the People. This framework of Hugo’s wades a little too far into undiluted philosophy for my taste; he errs too heavily to the side of art is how I could phrase my reservation with his final thesis.

“On both side equal resolution. Bravery there was almost barbaric, and was mingled with a sort of heroic ferocity which began with sacrifice.” And Marius is doing some stellar heroic sacrifice. I’ve soured a lot on the glorification of sacrifice as a trope very recently, particularly where it’s used as a shorthand to convey heroism without any other consideration for context (thank you to a very specific show for ruining that for me). Marius is being brave and heroic, sure, but he’s also desperately hoping to be killed and this bravery is just the thinnest veneer over wanting his death to at least be in service of something, anything. He isn’t really being brave because he believes the cause is worthy of his bravery. He does want to protect his friends but that was barely a thought in his mind when he joined the barricade to begin with. How heroic is your sacrifice when you’re already suicidal? In the words of Quentin Coldwater, who was recently treated to this trope: “Did I do something brave to save my friends, or did I finally find a way to kill myself?”

The fact that Marius survives is...something, but it also carries a load of other thematic implications that are questionable at best and completely antithetical to the point of this book at worst. Again, the use of heroic sacrifice is highly contextual and needs to be employed thoughtfully.

“There are some people who observe the rules of honor as we observe the stars, from afar off.” I want to do the rhetoric gymnastics to connect this to Javert and stars and rigid lawfulness and resistance to change but I think I just did it right there.