I did my first formal top 10 a year ago today, but I’ve been keeping a mental note of my favorites for years. There has never been this much turnover in such a short amount of time. I spent my 2021 indulging in a lot of anime. I can’t say for certain, but I’m fairly sure I watched more anime in 2021 than any other calendar year. The lovely thing about that is, not only did I watch a lot of anime, I watched a ton of phenomenal anime. Unfortunately, that means some stuff that I haven’t seen in a while either got bumped down or bumped off the list entirely. Although I will try to rewatch a few anime on each year’s list before I do the next one. I also looked back at my list last year and kind of didn’t agree with some of the placements on it. So even for shows, I didn’t get around to rewatching, I changed the order around a bit. So happy 21st birthday to me, and here’s to another year of great anime.
#10 – Cowboy Bebop
Kicking everything off is one of the first anime I watched last year. After many attempts to watch this in the past, I finally made it all the way through and man was it beyond worth it. The style, music, characters, animation, everything about Cowboy Bebop is amazing and it’s clear why it stood the test of time decades later.
#9 – Neon Genisis Evangelion
I need to get around to rewatching this plus all the rebuild movies but as it stands Evangelion has such a special place in my heart and had such an impact on me at the time of watching it years ago that it just couldn’t be left off this list.
#8 – Tatami Galaxy
In some ways, I feel like my Tatami Galaxy review didn’t quite do this anime justice. I didn’t really touch on the things I wanted to touch on in a way that I wanted to. Cause this anime is very special. And while everything on this list touched me in a different way as I consumed it at a different time in my life. This one hit when it needed to, I watched this at the perfect time in my life for it to really impact me. The lessons this anime preaches are universal, something that everyone should take to heart, but that goes double for people around my age who feel lost in life and/or like they’re failing to make the best out of what a lot of people view as their “prime years.” This message is wrapped in a beautiful package. The unique animation, the cool plot progression, amazing characters, phenomenal voice acting. Tatami Galaxy is special.
#7 – Shinsekai Yori
So I aspire to be an author/writer in some capacity. There are a lot of things that inspire how I write and how my plots unfold. Everything on this list and even beyond inspire me in some way. There are three on here though that taught me a great lesson in storytelling and foreshadowing. This is the first of those three and dare I say maybe the best of those three when it comes to foreshadowing. Attack on Titan and One Piece have brilliant foreshadowing that has been built up for years and years that leads into the amazing payoff. I know for a fact with the current AoT arc there’s some brilliant payoff going on right now. Shinsekai Yori is a lot shorter than those two series but it manages to make every detail matter. In this coming-of-age story, the moments that stick with me aren’t said, they aren’t shown. It’s the subtle implication based on something that was shown or revealed way earlier. It’s the subtle implication that triggers the imagination and lets it paint the picture. It’s nothing shy of brilliant. Of course, I love the other aspects of this show as well, but that’s what will forever stick with me. I can’t wait to rewatch this.
#6 – JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
It’s JoJo’s, what else can I say? Every single part somehow gets better and better and surpasses my expectations and that’s on top of the fact that I thought from the jump part 1 was really damn good and I have high expectations for every single part that comes out. Stone Ocean dropped some episodes last December, I’ll wait until the full thing is released before I watch it but I’m as hype as always.
#5 – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
At the time of writing this, I have two episodes left in my rewatch. At the time this releases I’ll be done and the review and stuff will be out. Anybody reading this who personally knows me, or has known me for years, would know this held the mantle as my favorite anime ever for some years. At this point in the list, any of these top 5 could really be #1. This current rewatch has reopened my eyes as to why that was. Talk about a rich and complete story with a great ending.
#4 – Attack on Titan
Season 4 Part 2 is airing right now to critical and fan praise. I’m not currently watching every Sunday despite my urges but I tuned into two of the episodes that covered my favorite chapters in manga history and among my favorite moments ever. MAPPA is coming through majorly adapting everything right now. Attack on Titan is just a masterpiece, it just is. The plot, themes, foreshadowing, characters, and their progression. It’s all a masterclass, credit to Isayama where it’s due. Take all of that greatness and hand it over to two of the top three anime studios over the past decade in WIT then MAPPA. Now you start to add in phenomenal animation, music, and voice acting to something that was already a masterpiece and you have one of if not the, greatest piece of media ever created. And I know that’s very high praise for a show that I put at #4, but I could pretty much say similar things for 5-1 here. Subjectively AoT has a few things going for it over these next three, specifically on the animation side, but while I love this anime and will forever sing its praises. These next three have been a lot more impactful to me in a multitude of ways. Attack on Titan is amazing though.
#3 – One Piece
The fact that a few years ago I sat down and watched over 800 episodes of one single series, I haven’t watched an episode since the early days of Wano a few years ago, yet I’ve been itching to sit down and do it all again, should tell you how much I love one piece. It’s a romance in its purest form of the word in regards to literature. It’s truly been a journey that has spanned longer than I’ve been alive and one that I’ve been on for about 8-9 years and that I can’t wait to continue. The journey of the Straw-hat Pirates is special.
#2 – Fruits Basket Remake
This is the odd man out on my list and really my whole anime discography in general. I had never watched anything in this genre before and while this anime really opened my eyes to how great it can be. I’m almost kind of turned off from watching anything else in this genre cause what can get better than this? This anime made me experience a rollercoaster of emotions. Constant intrigue that led to sadness, happiness, bleakness, mournfulness, I could go on and on. This anime is deceptive in its looks because not only are the themes here heavy and hard to swallow but they’re really real. Things depicted here are stuff that we may have all experienced in some way shape or form. I love how Fruits Basket shows the varying degrees of all the issues that it talks about. Some abuse and trauma are way more subtle than others and hell it may not even be intentional. At the end of the day, it’s still what it is, abuse and trauma. I loved the way Fruits Basket tackled that and a lot more.
I like to connect to whatever piece of media I’m consuming. It just makes the experience better. So I’ve felt a wide range of emotions watching various anime. Never have I really felt proud. I felt genuine pride in watching these characters grow and work through their issues and that’s amazing. I’ve yet to even mention how stunning this anime is visually and the amazing soundtrack that I still regularly listen to. The phenomenal dub voice acting is up there with the best of the best. And on a list that features Spike, all the JoJo’s, Ed, Eren, Gintoki, etc. Tohru Honda is the best protagonist, not just on this list, but ever *drops mic*.
#1 – Gintama
I dedicated two and a half, almost three months, of my life to watching all of Gintama, and immediately after I was done I wanted to do it all over again. There’s the age-old question of if you could only watch one thing for the rest of your life and nothing else. What would it be? To that my answer would be Gintama without a doubt. I have never watched, played, or read anything that was as much of a roller coaster as Gintama. Nothing has come close to being able to seamlessly switch tones from a goofy, parody-filled, self-indulgent & depreciating comedy to a serious heartfelt deep story while never losing the plot. Gintama does it all. It made me laugh until I cried and made me cry and then a few scenes later made me laugh. Easily the best cast in anything I’ve watched. Easily the funniest thing I’ve ever watched. Easily one of the most heartfelt and soulful stories ever. The only blemish you can out on Gintama is its animation at some points, yet on the flip side of that, it also has some of the most beautifully animated moments I’ve ever seen. There’s no such thing as perfect but Gintama is the closest thing to that. I have so many memories with Gintama and that just brings confidence that it will probably never be dethroned as my favorite anime ever.
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