#1 – Golden Kamuy 3rd Season

Please head on over to YouTube for this year’s #1 series video “write-up”!

 

 

#2 – Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

It occurs to me that for any reader who follows my anime coverage during the year, this post effectively doubles as the #1 series reveal.  So be it, and that’s both unavoidable and fine.  The thing is though, that tomorrow is all about the AoTY, and this post really should be all about the #2 series of the year.  Because even in a down year that always amounts to a really, really good show, and 2020 is no exception.

As it my habit I re-read my series review post before I wrote this entry, and one line especially struck me as relevant to my feelings today – great anime are their own reward.  That’s important to remember because more so than with any series on this year’s Top 10 list, it’s hard for me to feel positively about Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun.  Not because of the series itself, which I obviously consider to be great.  But that this wonderful series should not have received a second season even as manifestly mediocre and worse anime do seems a real travesty.  But I’m used to that – what really rankles is just how inexplicable that is.

If you follow manga sales (not as easy as it used to be with ANN abandoning reporting them, but still possible with Oricon’s help) you know Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun is immensely popular.  As in, the franchise consistently ranks in the top 10 for total volumes sold.  And if you live in Japan you know Hanako-kun has a presence beyond that – merchandising, lavish and prominent promotional displays in bookshops, mainstream cultural penetration.  It seems to check all the boxes but it remains a one and done, even as production committees vomit up multiple seasons of seemingly less popular franchises.  It almost feels as if the medium is perversely refusing to produce material simply because it’s high-quality, though I know that’s an emotional reaction which makes little practical sense.

I know this ship hasn’t sailed, and all hope isn’t lost – a sequel could still happen.  Even if it does I’ll be resentful at having to wait for no good reason (there was plenty of source material), but ultimately I’ll be ecstatic.  Because, of course, Toilet Bound Hanako-kun is a great anime.  Director Andou Masami and Lerche had a real challenge on their hands here, for many reasons.  Hanako-kun is not episodic in the way anime is, and its visual style is strange and difficult to recreate.  The plot and character development is a slow build (and that’s anathema to producers and publishers these days), and it’s a series that guards its secrets very well.

This worked, in the end, because the director chose to embrace the uniqueness of the source material and not try and sanitize it (in much the way Dagashi Kashi worked in its first season and not in its second, with a new director who did).  Andou tweaked the story order a fair bit but I think he did so without compromising the integrity of the series.  He let Hanako-kun (the character, though the series as well) be Hanako-kun, in all his dark and sometimes abrasive glory.  And he presented the series as a kind of moving storybook, a glorious modern rendition of a creepy and unsettling fairy tale from days gone by.

Series like Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun are why I love anime and manga, really, because they don’t turn up anywhere else.  It’s a study in contrasts, dreams and nightmares, a collection of cute characters who draw you in even as their darkness pushes you away.  To a certain extent the series’ popularity surprises me given just how quirky and difficult it is, but that it is popular cannot be denied.  The fact that its current status so painfully highlights what’s broken in the anime industry today should not detract in any way from the greatness of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun, and this is a good opportunity to remind myself of that.

#3 – Major 2nd Season 2

I suppose the first logical questions when any sequel appears on the Top 10 list are, where does it rank compared to the prequel(s) – and why?  For the record Major 2nd ranked 9th on the 2018 list, which makes this season’s jump a very substantial one.  And as is most often the case, the difference is a combination of the two obvious factors – 2020 was weaker than 2018 (which was itself a mediocre year), and this season of Major 2nd was better.  Especially upon reflection.

It took a lot longer than it should have thanks to the pandemic, but this was a season that would have rewarded patience anyway.  Major took its time expositing the story, and in the end was very much the better for it.  As I’ve noted in comparing Mitsuda Takuya and Adachi Mitsuru, the two biggest titans in baseball manga, Mitsuda’s series are about baseball in a more profound way than Adachi’s.  And that’s true of Major 2nd as well, in the sense that baseball is at the heart of the character development in a way it almost never is with Adachi.  But make no mistake, Major 2nd is the most character-driven work Mitsuda-sensei has ever done.

Mitsuda was certainly wise to make a sequel to his magnum opus a radical twist on the original premise, which he did by giving us a protagonist so unlike his father.  He also took on some rather complicated issues this time, one of them being the rather rotten parenting skills of his original hero.  And Mitsuda doesn’t shy away from showing us how lacking Goro is as a father, though I’m never sure of the extent to which we’re supposed to believe that.  He also tackles the issue of girls trying to compete with the boys in middle school baseball and baseball generally, and again doesn’t shy away from confronting it (even if it’s not clear how he tends to resolve it for his story).

In short, then, the ingredients are all here for something really, really good.  A master mangaka working in his chosen genre but taking it in new directions, and a master director in Watanabe Ayumu who clearly loves and understands baseball.  I don’t know you’d expect the result to be anything less than stellar, and it is.  Major 2nd is a complex story (I spent 1455 words on the finale) but the formula for its success couldn’t be simpler.  A great genre, a great mangaka, a great director, and a great protagonist.  Major 2nd is very much the superb sum of its superb parts.

In particular, there’s a quality to great sports anime about younger kids (Ginga e Kickoff is a stellar example) where you care deeply about what happens to them both in competition and life.  Daigo is such a sweet kid, and his formula for success in life is a unicorn in manga and anime – servant leadership.  He strives to succeed by empowering his friends, all the while trying to bear the responsibilities of an adult and think about his own dreams for the future.  All the while dealing with the self-doubt and insecurity that’s part of his sensitive nature and exacerbated by comparisons (his own, and others) to his father.  The rest of the story is excellent too, especially the way it approaches girls in the boys club of competitive baseball, but Daigo is this series’ heart and soul.

As to what the future holds for Major 2nd, I sincerely hope more anime is a part of it.  And I think there’s a realistic chance of that happening, given that no part of Major has ever gone unadapted (and anime has offered original material on top of that).  In many ways it seems as if anime in general and sports anime in particular has changed to the point where Major is a relic, but somehow it remains vital and relevant – and Mitsuda’s evolution as a writer is part of that.  I love this series dearly, and I hope it continues to be a part of the anime landscape for a long time to come.

#4 – Great Pretender

There’s a strong element of glass half-full/glass half-empty with Great Pretender.  Without a question this was one of 2020’s best anime, just for starters.  I’m also pretty sure this is the first Netflix-funded anime ever to grace one of these LiA Top 10 lists, and that’s a real sign of progress.  No question it’s my favorite Netflix anime so far, and gives one cause for optimism that the platform can be a positive creative influence on anime going forward.

But (and with that intro paragraph, a “but” was inevitable – and likely to be whopper) Great Pretender also exemplifies an unfortunate trend in this year’s list – good series that flubbed the ending.  Kaburago Hiro and Kosawa Ryota don’t have the excuse of too short a timeslot or an ongoing source material, either – GP was wholly original.  No, this was an unforced error, and to me a pretty serious one because as I’ve noted ad nauseam, endings are important.

Without any question I considered Great Pretender a legit candidate for this year’s top spot while it was airing, and later into the run than Yesterday o Utatte as well.  That’s how good it was for its first three arcs, which were remarkably consistent and stylistically diverse at the same time.  Kaburagi has directed shows like 91 Days, and has displayed an unerring eye for Hollywood genre tropes.  Great Pretender nails the sting genre beautifully, starting with its 70’s caper flick OP and never letting up.  The first arc is in fact set in Los Angeles, but that’s not necessary for the series to feel so authentic when it pays homage to American movies.

This excellence continues through the first three arcs – if forced to choose I think I’d pick “Snow of London” as my favorite, but they’re all on a very high level.  The villains are interesting, the heroes have a real dark side, the visual style is wonderful and so is the music.  I won’t say it all comes crashing down in “Wizard of Far East”, the final arc – there are very good individual episodes in there.  But “Wizard” feels rushed in a way the first three arcs don’t despite being the longest, and more damagingly it invalidates much of the character development of the first three arcs with some dodgy decision-making (this too is a recurring theme in 2020, unfortunately).

Despite all that (and a distressingly misguided epilogue) Great Pretender seems like a natural for a second season, and I wouldn’t mind seeing one.  I suppose the lack of real resolution on any of the major character questions leaves a desire to see that rectified, and a caper story like this obviously lends itself to a continuation.  And despite the sour taste “Wizard of “Far East” leaves in the mouth I suspect Kaburagi and Kosawa would come up with another round of entertaining and engaging stories.  I just hope that if given the chance, they do a better job of tying everything together in the end.

#5 – Boku no Hero Academia Season 4

Boku no Hero Academia has become a fixture of these year-end Top 10 lists, and with Season 5 due in spring I suspect next year will be no different.  It kind of straddles the eligibility rules I set up for them, especially in a case like this, where S5 was announced at the time S4 completed.  But it wasn’t a split-cour and it will continue long past next season, so I include it (and the overall thinness of this year’s list doesn’t weaken my resolve to do so, either).

Season 4 does break the streak of BnHA’s ascension – it went from #9 to #4 to #2 over its first three year-end lists.  Part of that was contextual but I do think the seasons got better overall, irrespective of the competition.  And I do think Season 4 was a step down, if for no other reason than Season 3 was the best of the franchise (and likely will never relinquish that title).  Its first cour was in fact probably the best season of anime in 2018, though the second – while still excellent – wasn’t quite at that level.

Still, I do think I sold this season’s material short when thinking back on the manga.  It was better than I remembered, especially the “School Festival” arc, especially because of Gentle Criminal and La Brava.  They’re villains quite unlike any HeroAca has offered, and possibly the most comprehensively challenging since Stain (who I suspect will never be equalled on the whole).  Partly I think this material benefitted from simply coming alive on-screen, with legends Yamadera Kouichi and Horie Yui predictably knocking it out of the park.  But the writing itself was better than I credited.

The rest of the season wasn’t as strong for me.  Most of it was taken up with the “Shie Hassakai” arc, which is among the weaker of Horikoshi’s major story arcs despite introducing some rather charismatic supporting characters like Mirio.  The last couple of episodes of the season were excellent teasers for what’s to come, though, as the fascinating odd couple of Endeavor and Hawks slid into the gaping void on both sides of the fourth wall left by All Might’s exit from the hero scene.  The HeroAca mythology post-All Might was the recurring theme for the season, and it became clear just how crucial a figure he was in that mythology.

The other interesting element of BnHA S4 is that it, like Haikyuu, met resistance from fans over a change in staff and visual style.  I would argue that this series fared the better of the two, with the changes being more stylistic and less qualitative.  We know a third Boku no Hero Academia movie is in the works, and that production on the last one was a major reason for the staff changes at Bones for this past season.  Since the staff for Season 5 is still unannounced, whether we’ll see a return to Nagasaki Kenji’s more cinematic approach or a continuation of the quite stylized look of Season 4 will be an interesting question.

#6 – Chihayafuru 3

As with everything – and I do mean everything – Chihayafuru-related, deciding where to rank this series in this year’s list was not easy. To be honest my initial instinct was to place it lower – indeed, possibly outside the top 10 altogether, though my earliest deliberations on anime 2020’s body of work quickly disabused me of that notion. But I realized I was conflating my feelings about the third season with my feelings about the manga. That’s not difficult to understand, but it’s not fair to the material at-hand. And truth be told, the third season was pretty damn good. Better than the second, which I ranked #10 in a stronger year than this one.

Like it or not I’ll probably have to deal with those feelings but the time will be when Season 4 comes around, if it does (forcing some very hard decisions on me).  As for Season 3, in point of fact it contained some exceptionally strong material – including one of my very favorite arcs in the entire series, Harada-sensei’s pursuit of the Meijin title.  One of the problems with the second season of Chihayafuru was that the balance was tipped too heavily in favor or tournament episodes rather than character-driven ones.  But more than that they weren’t especially riveting for the most part.  S3 was only marginally better in terms of balance, but the competitions themselves were much more engaging.

One of the fascinating elements about this season of Chihayafuru is that while the problems Suetsugu-sensei was sowing with her writing of the three leads worsened, the series itself actually ticked upwards.  The reason, of course, was that supporting characters shone – Harada most obviously, but also Suou-meijin and to a lesser extent Shinobu-san, Sakurazawa-sensei, and Inokuma-san .  Suou is a fascinating man, and as we explored his background and motivations what had been largely a plot driver of a character became one of the series’ most complex and interesting individuals.  Unfortunately the supporting members of the Mizusawa karuta club weren’t treated as well, and seem to have became largely vestigial to the story.

Of course, as wonderful as the Harada arc and the focus on he and Suou were, with Chihayafuru things will always come back to Chihaya, Taichi and Arata.  And that means the series can never escape its problems, which are like a rot in the foundations – you can’t see it, but sooner or later it’s going to bring the whole building crashing down.  There were some nice isolated moments with the main trio in Season 3, but for the most part things with them just got more and more vexing.  It was already clear to me by the stage of the story covered this season that the series had lost its way where the trio was concerned, but its brilliance in other respects managed to forestall disaster.  I fear we won’t be so lucky when and if a fourth season arrives, but again, that’s something to worry about when it happens.

#7 – Yesterday o Utatte

If one is looking for trends with the first four series on this list, there’s an obvious place to start.  All of them are series that were forced to cut their adaptation short.  And I would say that only Tonikaku Cawaii managed to do it really artfully, thought Nami yo Kiite Kure didn’t suffer too badly.  Runway de Waratte wasn’t so lucky, but Yesterday o Utatte took the biggest hit of the lot.

It’s a testament to how much I loved this show when it was good that it manages to place seventh on this list even in a weak year, because I really hated the ending.  There was a time (and not just one or two episodes in, either) when I thought Yesterday might be a legit contender for the top spot.  It was so brilliant for so long – a really sensitive and smart study of young adults from the lost generation in Japan struggling to grow up and find themselves.  It was also one of the loveliest series of the year to look at despite a modest budget – in part due, no doubt, to a generous production schedule that insulated it from the pandemic despite airing in spring.

The really sad thing is, Yesterday o Utatte didn’t have to fall victim to this.  The manga was long finished, and it could have received a complete telling in about 18 episodes (which for most of its run it was reported to be getting).  The odd thing is that rather than pace it for twelve, it almost seemed like it received a full treatment for eleven episodes and then had the rest of the manga inelegantly crammed into the last one.  The result is that the ending, while is very broad terms faithful to the manga, makes absolutely no sense in the anime’s narrative context.  I’m not nuts for the manga ending either, but at least it receives a bit of build-up (if not entirely convincingly).  Not so in the anime.

Ah, well – it’s here, and that’s because for most its run Yesterday was legitimately superb.  I’m still not sure why a thoroughly uncommercial and modestly  popular seinen manga received an anime, or why that anime got a halfway decent budget and a progressive production schedule.  I don’t know why a director with a relatively drab resume at a mid-tier studio managed to make one of the most visually striking series in years.  The ending sours the experience a little, but on balance Yesterday o Utatte is mostly kind of miraculous – which applies to a lot of really good series that somehow manage to get produced in the current anime climate.

#8 – Tonikaku Cawaii

Now, we finally come to the series that might possibly (or would certainly) have been in my Top 10 in most years.  As is my wont when I include a show I’ve just done a series review for, I’ll be brief in talking about Tonikaku Cawaii – you can read my thoughts in Saturday’s write-up for more details.  Short answer – I love this series to bits.

ToniCawa isn’t the most groundbreaking series out there to be sure, but groundbreaking isn’t really what Hata Kenjirou does.  His bailiwick is putting a little twist on the familiar and making it appealing.  There’s more to the plot of course, but mostly this series is about the joys of being in love and what’s more, being married.  It’s the product of a mature mangaka who’s learned a few things about life, clearly.  Even the supporting cast (some of them anyway) sort of worked for me in anime form.

Make no mistake, Tonikaku Cawaii is deeper than it seems.  Observational material this perceptive doesn’t grow on trees, and as cute and relaxing as this show is, it’s thoughtful and smart too.  A winner on every front, and hopefully a series we haven’t seen the last of in anime form.

#9 – Nami yo Kiite Kure

Nami yo Kiite Kure is another series that probably wouldn’t have cracked my Top 10 in any prior year (or this one, if everything scheduled to air had aired).  But in contrast to Runway de Waratte, this was a series that managed to admirably navigate the problem of telling a satisfying self-contained story in 12 episodes despite the manga being ongoing.  It even managed a pretty good ending, albeit one that didn’t offer much closure (or attempt to, which is a valid choice in this sort of adaptation).

What stands out about Nami yo Kiite Kure for me is that it was a show that unapologetically told an adult story about adult problems.  It so happens that I am somewhat of a fan of radio (though I haven’t listened to terrestrial radio outside of a car in probably ten years or more), which helps.  But the big draw here is the cast, a quirky and interesting group of working adults of varying ages dealing with the concerns working adults deal with.  While there was a pleasant degree of absurdism here (I think that’s Samura Hiroaki’s DNA showing through) these folks’ lives were recognizable and real.  I especially enjoyed the interaction between protagonist Minare and her radio boss, Matou, but the entire cast is pretty strong.

Nami yo Kiite Kure arrived amidst the full chaos caused by the first wave of the pandemic, which laid waste to anime’s Spring 2020 season.  But somehow its production was advanced enough that it managed to air in full (it strikes me that Sunrise had an extremely quiet year production-wise, which may have helped), and thank goodness it did.  It was an oasis of amusement in a desert of stress and anxiety, both grounded in reality and a welcome escape.  It may not be a masterpiece and it may in the end be mostly an advertisement for the manga, but this was still a thoroughly accomplished series and one of 2020’s best.

#10 – Runway de Waratte

An unfortunate theme running through 2020 anime is very good series flubbing the ending.  Endings are hard, and shows not sticking the landing is hardly a new thing.  But it seemed more prevalent this year, especially the winter season.  And it certainly applied to Runway de Waratte, which for about 9-10 episodes was really excellent but fell victim mostly (I think) to a forced rush job at the end.  This series was never going to get two cours or a second season, so it faced the challenge many manga adaptations do of trying to fit a long and ongoing story into 12 or 13 episodes.  And 12 in this case clearly wasn’t enough.

Unfortunately one consequence of that (as is often the case) is that the characters behaved in inauthentic ways in order to facilitate the plot resolution.  Nevertheless I have a lot of affection for Runway.  The relationship between Chiyuki and Ikuto was one of the most winning of the year – I loved the way they supported each other so honestly and directly, with romance never complicating the picture.  I’m not especially (well, even minimally) interested in fashion, but Runway de Waratte did make it sort of interesting.  A very good show on the whole, though the final couple of episodes let it down in a big way.

Often the #10 spot in these lists is the hardest one to settle on, because I’m leaving off a show or two that really feels like it deserves to be in the Top 10.  Not in 2020 – if I’m honest, Runway probably wouldn’t have made my Top 10 any other year.  But it still does this year by a comfortable enough margin that I was never seriously in doubt about which 10 shows would make up this list.

Honorable Mention – GOTCHA

As you know, I like to start the countdown with a “Hors Catégorie” show – something that wouldn’t or couldn’t make the actual list but which I want to recognize.  This time around it’s not even a series, but a music video – a mere 3:15 video.  But what a three minutes it is.

This year, as noted above, sucked.  But it had Bones animating Pokemon with a Stand by Me theme, so I guess we can call it even.  GOTCHA, for those who don’t know, is Bones’ getting back together with old friends BUMP OF CHICKEN to pay homage to Pokemon – and of course, Stand by Me.  Modern legends Matsumoto Rie (she’s the SbM fan) and Hayashi Yuki are the creative force behind GOTCHA, and it packs an astonishing amount of gloriousness into its short length.  It’s 195 seconds of pure, unadulterated coolness and joy – and it provided a wonderful escape from a less than wonderful reality.

 

 

 

It’s that time of year again – though this year’s Top 10 promises to be a different challenge than any that has come before.  Frankly it’s been an awful year, not just for anime but the world (may ’21 be better for all of us).  While its importance in the greater scheme of things should be taken in context, it was an awful year for anime.  There are shows which I’m certain would have made this list (or at least the #11-20 one) which were delayed in part or in total to 2021.  And to be brutally honest, it was looking like a pretty weak year to begin with.

But we play the cards we’re dealt, as ever.  And there were certainly some gems in 2020, which I’m looking forward to celebrating over the next couple of weeks.  I’d also like to note that for the first time, I’ll be revealing the #1 series via an “Anime of the Year” video on the LiA YouTube channel (a video which I will of course link here).

A Refresher on Eligibility:

I’m going by the same eligibility standard I used for the 2012-2019 lists – that is, shows that finished airing during the year or split-cours that finished in 2020 are eligible. Split-cour series which finish in 2021 are not eligible for this list, but series that ended this year and weren’t officially confirmed as split cour when they did are eligible.  Shows that aired for the entire year (there weren’t any in consideration for me this year) are also eligible.

This means that in effect, the only shows not eligible for this list are the multi-cour series that began airing from Spring 2020 onwards and are still airing into Winter 2021, or true split cours that will finish in 2021 (Yuukoku no Moriarty, for example).

As you know I always like to do a little contest, so here we go… The winner will be anyone that guesses my Top 10, in order (whether the unique nature of this anime year will make that easier or more difficult I’m not sure). If no one does that, I’ll go with the closest guess. Guesses made by 1700 JST 12/22/20 will be eligible. Here’s the prize: I’ll do a “Top 5” list on any anime theme or topic you choose. Dealer’s choice – you make the call.  Please post your guesses in the comments below!