The Best Anime of 2019

2019 has been really difficult year for me. But more difficult year for anime in general. Anime in 2019 has been in some way solid and yet it felt a bit hollow. Following a great year that is 2018, anime companies really trying to capture that euphoria of that year. But what we got is a good year but not a great one. And that can contributed to oversaturation of isekai shows, nonexistant presence of yuri anime, disappointment in shounen genre, and most tragically the arson attacks at KyoAni studio that killed a lot of their staff.

From all of that though there’s some beacon of lights that maybe anime can unite us all and really drives force on how we see media as we knew it. Despite the absence of yuri anime, anime that centers or mentioning LGBT topics are being made each and every seasons and spoilers there’s one on this list. A big surprise boost of Harem anime which again one of them will be on the list, moe or CGDCT anime market is still strong as ever, big return from acclaimed directors and even some good surprises along the way.

Now I wanna make a top 10 like many of you people here. But, after some thinking I decide to make it as an essay on why these anime meant so much for me or why I love anime in the first place. The reason for this is really down to me not watching anime until it ends. Since I’m busy with national exams, getting to college, college stuff and of course watch list of older anime. Don’t worry these anime I will list is one of the kinds and all of them will have some overarching characteristic that will tie into the reason why I love anime so much. Rules are the same as last time I made this list, The anime has to be aired its first episode between Winter 2019 – Falls 2019 so sorry Tensura. Anyways here’s my best anime of the year.

THE BEST ANIME OF 2019

2019 has been a hectic year for your girl here. The constant works I have to put to get into best college that ultimetely meant nothing when you are applying for private uni. In another word it has been rough year for me. So I turned to anime for my relaxation and I just need some light anime that I can watch to heal my soul. And Spring 2019 gave me just that with one of the best CGDCT anime ever.

HITORI BOCCHI MARU-MARU SEIKATSU

Hitoribocchi is one of those anime that seems innocuous enough with the presentation. It’s about Bocchi trying to get friends in middle school to keeping promises of her only friend to get friends of her own. She eventually met some friends along the way and each of the character’s name represent the characteristic based on the Japanese names meaning, kinda like pun in a way. Hitoribocchi which is loneliness, Sunao Nako is like honest child which not matched her appearance. Honshou Aru is “has a hidden character” with her real personality of being clumsy is being buried by her sociability. Sotoka Rakita despite being written in Katakana has a meaning of coming from outside 外から来た. All of these four characters are the backbone to why this anime worked in the first place. The animation is actually pretty solid with taking cues from slapstick animation like Looney Tunes. Very fluid and rightly timed as well.

The anime itself isn’t particularly special but these characters interaction makes up for it. Even though this anime looks cute it has some exquisite moments where you can see how emotional this anime can be. What I love about this anime however is the way this anime represent and the messages behind this. This anime might be a bit tongue and cheek with its humor but the biggest strenght of this anime is the message of “no matter how many times you failed, you have to try it again” and this sentiment echoes throughout episodes. Its accessability combine with witty humor really makes this anime such a gem one of the best of the year.

Even before I’m watching anime regularly I’ve always love comedy genre as a whole and spoiler there’s gonna be more on this list. Now that I’ve talked about one comedy anime setting around Japanese school I might as well talking about this gem of a comedy anime.

JOSHIKOUSEI NO MUDAZUKAI

Joshikousei is probably one of the most underrated anime this year. I has the same vibe as Daily Lives of High-school Boys and highlighted the other trend in anime that are welcome and that is taking inspiration from older anime and recontextualize it and make it your own story. This anime took that same idea of Danshi no Kokosei, flip the gender, and give the characters nickname and basically you got this anime...okay this is more than just rehashing older stuff, isn’t that right Boogiepop? The vibe that I can describe from this anime is chaotic neutral. There’s like a lot happening in this anime but they don’t feel slapdashed or anything like that. Instead the pacing of this anime which is amazing by the way make this already funny anime feels so earned you know especially episode 4 or 9. To be honest I don’t have anything to say but to just watch it for yourself and see if you all like it. One of Passione best anime and added great performance from Toyosaki Aki made this anime so much fun. Definitely visit this whenever you wanna get a laugh. 

But now some honorable mention and anime that’s good but I haven’t finish it. Starting with

DUMBBELL NAN KILO MOTERU

Dumbbell nan Kilo Moteru is this year Hataraku Saibou, and that it’s educational show masked as anime show in this case an ecchi anime. Great animation, character design and the opening is one of the best of the year bar none.

THE PROMISED NEVERLAND

Yeah even though I haven’t finish this anime yet. I have bought the manga for it and wow it blew the anime right out the park. Now that’s not to say the adaptation is bad, far from it. The characters are compelling, the story is some of the best in anime, and the soundtrack is perfect. Definitely worth the acclaim

GO-TOUBUN NO HANAYOME

This is a late entry on this list considering how much I crave this sort of wholesome harem anime that’s also tongue and cheek. But again this anime strength has always been the cast of girls and the fact that Gotoubun has the best idea of making all of the siblings made the stake even higher. Couple with great OP even though it’s a late bloomer but I still welcome it. And now that’s done let’s continue this list

Now like I said before I’ve been craving harem anime since I realized I was lesbian. There’s something about seeing all of these beautiful girls being the tug of war of the protagonist really makes me wonder if there’s one for yuri. But I’ll just stick with the winning formula and this entry is the most basic out of these list. But hey it was worth it in the long run.

WE NEVER LEARN

Now this is probably my most contentious pick out of the entire list and y’all probably going to burn me to the stake for saying BokuBen is better than The Promised Neverland, but I do have my reasoning and that’s likely due to when it was came out. Imagine this scenario. There’s a young girl student who are getting stressed out because of the test she had to go through to get into college. Then suddenly there’s anime about three girls who want to get into the college they want but their interests are the opposite of their talents. Naturally this girl who watches the anime can relate to their struggles and that girl was me. This anime really lifted my spirits when I’m going through my test and it really the best power that anime can gives while other didn’t have.

That’s not really all the reason why I love this anime because the show itself is good in its own right. The character design while kinda basic but it makes all of them look cute even the boys, all of the girls are excellent in their part especially Ogata Rizu who’s my best girl for me because I could relate to her problem. The jokes are great, and the plots are kinda clever and their facial reaction are golden. Now look I know this anime is essentially a junk food but still once in a while you need those junk food and to me that’s enough of a reason why this anime is in this list, great stuff.

Another contentious inclusion on this list...Although I’d argue that it shouldn’t be. Yes this anime released right after one of the worst anime they ever produced and yeah the first impression made people roll their eyes. But let me my case for this one.

WATASHI NI TENSHI GA MAIORITA

Yeah I know that the first episode of Wataten really isn’t everone’s cup of tea especially with the implication that this is yet another anime made by Doga Kobo where pedophilia is being tackled...but couple episode later that didn’t happened. Yeah I’m as shocked as everyone but this anime isn’t really pedo as I would thought it would be. But instead it’s the story of Mya-nee overcoming her social anxiety with her little sister’s friends. Yeah she got some affection towards Hinata and it can get into that uncomfortable territory, but this anime is smarter than that. Instead her affection towards Hinata is what helped her to drive away from her anxiety and it really hit hard especially in the final episode.

Another thing I love about this anime is the sense of acceptance of what Mya-nee or anyone here is doing or what they are representing themselves in the public. Every time Mya-nee is outside she always get helped by our trio. We got the relationship between Kanon and Koyori that are being handled masterfully especially Episode 5 which is my stand out episode because it captured how and what this anime trying to say which is just be who you are and you’ll get the result you really wanted. Oh and the animation here is great, the opening is fantastic, the character design are so moe and it doesn’t dragged too long. Look I get why you get turned off by some of the early episode but please re-consider this. Good stuff. Now let’s get into the last batch of honorable mention before we get into the two last anime starting with...

MY ROOMMATE IS A CAT

This is the best cat in anime ever. This anime didn’t pull any punches on how hard it is to own and take care of their pets and to me it’s enough to get a spot on this list.

ASCENDANCE OF BOOKWORM 

Ascendance of Bookworm is the best isekai series of the year and you can see why. Stunning animation especially the ED, great dialogue, intriguing plot, and one of the best performance from Yuka Iguchi and she has done Tsukihi.

DR STONE

Dr. Stone was in contention for my list for the longest time. But the third part is dull and I wished that they put more into making of stuff in this stone world rather than bankrupt politics stuff and pointless wars. Other than that, the great chemistry (hehe) between Senku and the rest of the gang are fantastic, the science stuff is great and the twist is also great. Definitely the best shounen of the year.

GIVEN

Given is one of the best anime that I couldn’t finish because the story of this anime really hit home especially when I’m still discovering who I was in this society so I left off the list. But what an anime this is. The animation is great, music is impeccible, and the best character design of the year bar none. Definitely revisit this. Great stuff.

Okay that all done now let’s get into what stuff I consider great again.

These two anime really shows how the emotional side of anime that has been beaten to death but I still love it, and that is romance. Romance anime has been a staple of this art form because you can convey so much with this genre. From drama, comedy, thriller or even horror. No genre has this kinds of diversity than romance which is why I love this genre and these two anime is the reason why. We are going to talk about the big one later but for now we are gonna talk about small scale stuff. Now I could choose O Maidens but that’s very much a can of worms I don’t want to visit right now. Then we got the subtlety of Sarazanmai which is saying a lot considering this anime is very over the top. But I think I’ll go with the big forehead.

KARAKAI JOUZU NO TAKAGI-SAN

Small stakes anime usually doesn’t get enough credit that they deserved. While I can appreciate some big high concept anime about existential of the human being can be intriguing. Sometimes you gotta take it back and return to the basic which is why I love Skilled Teaser Takagi-san. I put the first season on my honorable mention of last year because while I’m enjoying it a lot, there’s a ton of romance anime that blew this anime out of the park especially in concept and execution. But this year I decided to put the second season to the list because it represent what anime this small scale can do to become greatness.

There’s a sense of vibe from this anime which is chill. The animation here isn’t top notched by any means but it succeding on what this anime trying to do which is creating the sense of vibe. The soundtrack is miniscule but enhancing the relaxation that the anime is trying to do. The plot is flowing like a calm river current that will give you warm and comfort. All of this together make this anime a delight to watch and the ending is one of the most cathartic ending you will ever seen even if the payoff is small. But again the reason why this work so well is the muted vibes this gives off and in a year as chaotic as 2019 where transphobe being mad and all that, this is what I’ve always wanted to relax me up. Great stuff. (Also Takahashi Rieri is a goddess)

Even though my list isn’t in particular order but this anime is my number one. Because it combined all of the elements of all the anime I’ve talked about prior and doing more with it. The school settings, the ridiculousness of JK no Mudazukai, small stakes romance anime like Takagi-san heck even the mind game of that anime, carefreeness from Wataten, the comedy of Hitoribocchi it has everything that I love...and more. See while most of these anime has flaws that can be overlooked or just being a nuisance, this anime doesn’t have that. It’s one of those 10/10 anime that could rival the legacy or even the hype that some of the best anime ever have. This anime understand the balance between humor and romance that could rival Nozaki-kun and hell you know that it is from the first anime meme of the year...

KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR

A-1 Picture has had some complicated history in anime fandom. When they’re great they’re some of the most inovative and creative studio, when they’re bad they’re so desperate and stink of non effort. But this anime isn’t two of those, instead what we got is meticulously crafted and earnestly made anime that have heart and soul that you wouldn’t seen ever in the mainstream let alone from A-1. The director Omata Shinichi has actually done some great stuff as a storyboard for Madoka Magica, Hidamari Sketch, and maybe you even known him as Mamoru Hatakeyama  aka the director of Showa Genroku series so you know you are in good hand here. And made no mistake about it but this is one of the best directed anime of the year. Every scene from this anime is great especially that ED in third episode which is how the budget are getting abused for something that can cure every known disease.

These elements that are in the anime are so good that I could make five paragraph on how every elements are great but I’ll just make it brief. The animation here are stylish and refined from the manga, The characters are some of the best in anime ever especially how complex they are in terms of characterization and what their background is like, the dilemma here somehow have bigger stakes and made for intense viewing, the jokes are some of the most clever I’ve seen ever, brilliant writing and dialogue, fantastic and well timed soundtracks I mean it has everything and more. But what makes this anime so good is that there’s passion and effort put into this anime which is lacking in this day and age even stuff I love can feel a bit hollow, however this anime has some genuine passion put into it from a great director, star studded cast, and great production team making it. This anime is something really special folks and without a doubt my favorite anime of 2019, let’s hope that the sequel lived up to the hype this anime generates.

So yeah that was my list, let’s see what’s your favorite anime of the year. And also check my other post below and I’m gonna plan on making YouTube video soon so stay tuned for that. Until then see you in 2020.

Anime Advent Calender: Day 2 (Hataraku Saibou)

School sucks is the thing we can agree on okay? I mean you are forced to be in one room with other people who are just as uninterested as you are. You gonna do work for something you don't care about sometime with group which make your social anxiety worse. The bathroom is not gender neutral make transgender students life in school more difficult. And just general toxicity all around as you were grew older and have puberty. But even when school sucks I can say that I love biology class especially when I have great two teachers (shout out to Mr. Mufid and Mr. Gi y'all are awesome). But yeah if there's an anime about it then we would be happy

Enters Hataraku Saibou with all of the anime sets inside someone's body and I love how this anime really makes biology awesome. All of the characters in this anime represent all of the cells in your body and for the most part they got all of the characteristic correct. There's red blood cell, white blood cell, adorable platelets, strong T cells, and many more that I can mention here. From all of the cells I've mentioned you can guess that this anime centers around blood circulation and immune systems which is probably one of the most difficult subjects in biology or anatomy. And they just made that fun and enjoyable to watch.

The quality of this anime really comes down to the animation which was produced by David Production of Jojo's Bizzare Adventures fame. You can tell that just by the style of the animation which is while more cleaner than most of their stuff, it still feels jagged and a bit rough around the edges. There's also elements jacked from Jojo from the fight scenes and the characters design for certain cells. 

But still you all here not because the cute platelets of the "ara-ara" or macrophages, y'all here for some great education about your body. While there's a lot of animation that has been tackle this topic, I can think of Osmosis Jones and that one Magic School Bus episode. None have made this topic more infectious and gripping than this anime. This anime really portrayed how evil bacteries and viruses are to the body especially the one with cancer cells. And it is very gory and I love it because of that. 

Overall this anime succeeded most animation tried to do is that making engaging media but also really educational and very much the perfect way to pass your biology test. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend this anime especially if you are still in high-school

Anime Advent Calendar: Day 1 (Seitokai Yakuindomo)

Hello fellow weebs I'm SPWTO. So December is here and at the end of the year some of you might celebrate Christmas with your family and friends, getting cozy for the harsh winter later on, or just chilling out while waiting for year to over and starts a new one. Now for me I am going to do something to celebrate Christmas. Now if you remember last year I did 12 Days of Anime and failed to make 12 entries on time. So, now I'm gonna up the challenge by making Anime Advent Calendar. Yep from December 1 until Christmas I'm going to talk about my top 25 anime of all time. I know this will be hell for me but since I don't have anything to do because it's end of the semester so let's starts off with rules

1. All anime in this calender are rated 9 or higher in my anime list (Click here)

2. If there's a sequel that is on the first rule I'll pick which one is better

3. This is my opinion and if you wanna complain about it just DM me on twitter @EmaSgiro

Okay got that? Let's kick off this calendar with something really raunchy and that is

Now one thing that I will say before reviewing this is making this hot take...Family Guy sucks and it is the most by the number adult cartoon show with not a single clever humor. Seth McFarlane is a hack and once you have seen any Family Guy episode, you've seen it all. I'm bringing up Family Guy because they are trying to make gag based animation with very much crude 18+ humor. But it miserably failed because the writing is basic and the jokes are either missing any punchline or have a bad punchline. But Seitokai Yakuindomo is really special because how it sets itself above any adult animation. 

Seitokai Yakuindomo is about this guy named Tsuda attending a high-school that used to be an all girls high-school and suddenly he became the member of the student council with Shino, Suzu, and Aria. This anime really has certain unique elements which I am going to analyze in detail. So the humor firstly and wow they really making up the 18+ rating with some of the crudest jokes you will ever seen. But, what I like here is that the jokes are varied and there's Tsuda who works as the role of Kazuma where he corrected them when they're making crude jokes. The animation is half decent for comedic anime like this but when it hits its peaks is whenever Hata is around. She's probably my favorite character because of her thick accent and her shenanigans as a journalist. The great thing about this anime is how clever the writing is. All of the jokes aren't recycled and there's this overarching story which I like.

Another thing I love about this anime is that most of the characters here aren't pervert. They are still in their puberty still and it felt like these teenagers are going through that phase of making lewd humor because that's how they expresses their horniness let's be real people you have made those jokes when you are younger. It felt like I was watching myself during my cis boy era in middle school. 

I do have something to complain about here. Like I said the animation here is kinda subpar. Sure Hata scene is the best and there's so occasional sakuga here and there. But as a whole it's a bit too bright for my taste. Some of the character as well can be one dimensional. But still for an anime that trying to be crude and be clever about it all, This anime succeeded at that and definitely one of my favorite adult animation ever

Anime Report (Winter-Spring 2019)

So....

Yeah I'm sorry if I haven't posted anything in a while because in Indonesia there's a thing called National Test and I was studying the whole time that I don't have any time for anime. Although I got like 9 anime to watch last season and here's my top three anime of the Winter season before we move on to this season. 

3. THE PROMISED NEVERLAND

Even if I haven't finish it, this is one of the most gripping horror anime and the closest thing anime got into being scary without being gross out. 

2. WATASHI TENSHI GA MAYOITA

Easily my biggest guilty pleasure and I said that because the first two episode were trash. But, the anime gotten better and the last episode do made me cried because of the play they staged in

1. KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR

The best anime of the year, there I said it. I'm going to talk about why is that but for now I just say that this is the best A1 anime since...Your Lie In April.

So that's for the Winter, now let's check out this season for anime.

After the test season ended and waiting for my graduation, I'm stuck between two options. 1) Study for SAT and hope to god that I can be in the most progressive university because I want to transition so badly then get scholarship outside this country, or 2) watching a lot of ecchi trash to forget about all of this. Naturally I chose the latter because screw everything where's my trashy shows!

NANDE KOKO NI SENSEI GA?

Reviewing an ecchi anime shows is like is like trying to reviewing a pop album. Both of those doesn't have any concept, boiler plate most of the times, but can produced some of the best experience ever. This anime is certainly one of those cases where the anime is outstandingly trash that it became quite charming?

This is just an example from the first episode of the anime. and I quote:

"Our main character found his teacher in the men's bathroom sitting at the stall where he tried his best not to be horny when he rested on her breast"

Like I said this is absolutely a trash show in the sense of the word. The animation weren't great, character designs are kinda good actually, story didn't made any sense whatsoever, and yet I can't stop myself from watching this car crash of an anime. The amount of things this anime throw to battles the common sense is genuinely hilarious and I can't wait for more travesty from this anime. 

MIDARA NA AO-CHAN WA BENKYOU GA DEKINAI

Speaking of ecchi shows steps forward Horie Ao named after ahegao by her father who's hentai author lived in pervert shrine. Now this anime is actually interesting because Ao seems to have these assumption that all guys are the same since she was raised by hentai author and with her brother does the same she wanted to study hard and ditched her youth to focus on moving as far away from her dad. But you know once you're interested with someone as plain as they come, you're bound to have lewd thoughts. Such case with her and this does reminded me of Anna from Shimoneta but she's not borderline insane with her crush so I'll give this a pass.

FRUITS BASKET (2019)

Ever since I read the manga I'm in love with Fruits Basket. It's the type of romance anime that I really love the most which is the reverse harem type. Tooru Honda I thought was fantastic characters that have a lot of emotional baggage especially with the tragic past she had. So naturally I would've watch the anime but there's one thing that bugs me, is that the anime doesn't really follow the manga. So I'll wait until that happened and it turns out TMS wanna remake or reboot this anime kinda like what happened to Fullmetal Alchemist. So here we are

This anime surprisingly feel so nostalgic. this is due to the amazing animation and the colouring of the anime. I really love how TMS modernized it looks while it has that old school manga vibe with the eyes and the background surrounding it. The music especially the OP really giving us the vibes of innocence which is true to our protagonist. The OP legit sounded like mid 90's RnB with the drums and that production. This is a must watch for those who like romance anime.

ISEKAI QUARTET

This is it, this is the peak Isekai. Isekai equivalent of The Avengers where instead of the help of Nick Fury they got invited by button. This is where our four "beloved" isekai anime (Idk if Youjo Senki was beloved but still) gets transported because of the affirmation button to...yep another world this time they become a high school students...

Yeah this sounds like a shitty anime but idk to me I love assemble or crossover episode especially Avengers. So seeing the characters of Konosuba, Re:Zero, Overlord, and Youjo Senki really puts a smile to my face. So yeah this is my guilty pleasure of the year so far.

SEWAYAKI KITSUNE NO SENKO-SAN

Doga Kobo completes (?) the trifecta of anime that are suspects for FBI. Two seasons ago it was Uzamaid the anime that got worse each episodes, Wataten that's far better than it has any rights to be, and this one about 800 year-old little fox girl which is pretty decent.

This anime is so comfy beside the obvious lolicon undertone. It's the perfect iyashikei anime by definition which is a healing anime. This anime isn't perfect and the lolicon thing in the early episodes are putting me off, but it really has the potential to grew on me. ALSO THAT FLUFFY TAIL AHHHH.

CAROLE & TUESDAY

This anime impressed me so much that after the first episode I knew I would put it on my best list, so I decided to wait until it all ended. The reason is because it's one of those anime that are benefited with watching it at one piece rather than per episode. The scene where Carole and Tuesday jamming and trying their hardest to sync up to each other was already the best scene in the anime this season. I felt the raw emotions these two had and I really can't wait for more of this when I marathon the anime. Shinchiro Watanabe you've done something magical once again and we all glad to have you

....and speaking of influential anime director

SARAZANMAI

You know, being in the queer side of anime community really opened my eyes on a lot of directors, art director and queer mangaka that I've never knew last year. One of the people that has been praised a lot on that community is none other than Kunihiko Ikuhara. Now I've to be honest and say before Sarazanmai I've never seen one of his shows. But a quick look at MAL and seeing what anime he directed like bunch of Sailor Moon stuff, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mawaru Penguindrum, and Yuri Kuma Arashi then I realized that he's one of the most influential person working on the anime industry. Without him we wouldn't have seen the likes of most magical girl shows that took a dark twist to it like Madoka Magica or Steven Universe because Rebecca Sugar has stated her influence of making that show was Utena.

And seeing this anime made me joined the hype train with stellar animation, great coming of age stories, homoeroticism, Japanese culture mixed with modern dystopian Japan with boxes of all people hiding their deepest secrets, and human desires. All of which mixed with great soundtracks, and possibly the best gay representation in anime this year, you've got yourself a recipe for best anime of the season...but it's not my favorite anime of the year.

SENRYUU SHOUJO

You know I could go on about how this anime has a great depictions of someone with communication problems, or how the romance here is cute, or how they integrated various elements of Japanese literature which as a writer I really like, or how this anime is the only short anime that I love ever. I could say all of that and more...

BUT NANAKO IS THE BIGGEST REASON WHY I LOVE THIS ANIME I MEAN JUST LOOK AT HER AHHHHHHH!!!!

HITORIBOCCHI NO MARU MARU SEIKATSU

If you're an avid reader of this serial blog, you know that I have a fondness towards moe anime. I put Yuru Camp as the best anime of the year not for any reason of course. This year we got a fair few of moe anime but it wasn't as groundbreaking as even the average moe slice of life anime of last year. But Hitoribocchi no Maru Maru Seikatsu really steps up becoming the best anime of the Spring.

I'm actually about to make a review of this anime once its done aired but for the time being I  can tell you that it has one of the most relatable characters in anime ever either with our four main casts. Hitori is socially awkward, Nako is tomboy but has a sensitive side, Aru trying and failing to be cute, and Sotoka is just a weeb. The art style and animation is great too and overall a fantastic anime.

So that's it for today. Good to be back to be honest. If you enjoy this blog made sure to share it with anyone that you loves