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.