Why 2018 was the Best Year for Anime(so far)
2018 was a monster year for anime. The sheer amount of anime aired was astronomical. Not only in quantity, 2018 had a huge number of great quality anime with exciting announcements every season. Compared to earlier years 2018 clearly had much more must watch animes for the seasonal fans. 2019 was the closest competitor for 2018 as 2019 also had more anime to offer than previous years but if there was a direct comparison between these two years 2018 had more great shows for everyone. Here I’m mainly going to talk about different categories that impacted the community of 2018 and compare that with other years and see how much 2018 really had to give us. I definitely can’t cover everything but I’ll give it my best. So, what heavy hatters came this year? How many good and trashy anime came? And what awaits for 2020?
First of I gotta give Netflix some credits for starting of the year with ‘Devilman Crybaby’ Directed by Masaaki Yuasa this nextflix original was an absolute banger. With a banger soundtrack and a hinge nature of 90’s anime, Devilman Crybaby is a must-watch. And devilman wasn’t the only anime by Netflix. Aggretsuko, B the Beginning, Castelvania, Sirius the Jaeger, Baki, and some other titles form Netflix which were all good shows with some of the best action scenes to come then. Aside from being a good streaming service, this company now sure offers us a good number of great anime to watch.
Anime is trash and so am I. and 2018 didn’t fail to give us any less amount of isekai and trash. Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Master of Ragnarok, Conception, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord were some of those generic isekai shows that I didn’t even bother to watch. Overlord 3 was also a thing downgraded by bad CGI. But there was that one good isekai somehow which found the way into many people’s hearts. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime was actually quite enjoyable and if you like isekai for some reason and haven’t watched it give it a shot.
And in the trash group of anime(which are not isekai) we had Ryou’s work is never done, Island, My sister My Writer made for degenerate weebs. And for the edge fest we got Happy sugar life, Mahou shoujo site, Killing Bites, Angles of death being just the edgy show for the year. And speaking of edgy stuff, Gobling Slayer was a show about a guy named goblin slayer who slays goblins. The manga had a generous amount of fans but eff-ing up everything it didn’t live up to its fans. Citrus was a yuri anime and let’s face it, we all watched it because “YURI” and nothing else at all. I Want You To Make a Disgusted Face and Show Me Your Underwear was an anime about exactly what the bane says. It defiantly wasn’t trash; it was a treasure. But I’ll just leave it here… But it’s not a story about what train wreaks 2018 had, it’s about what good shit we had. So let’s start for real this time.
2018 had a lot of beautiful anime for the heart. And the 3 names I’m going to mention here are an absolute must-watch. These are just audiovisual soul food which sucks you into its world and connects you with the characters. And I want to start with Violet Evergarden. There’s just something magical about Violet Evergarden. Living in a technologically developed era, I never realized how much of an impact an A4 piece of paper with some ink can have. Violet a girl with mechanical arm and behavior trying to find the meaning of ‘I love you’ had an amazing charm to it. Episode 10 was a masterpiece of itself. It easily became my favorite standalone episode of the year. And you don’t even need to see the rest of the episodes to understand it. With breathtaking visuals, a stunning soundtrack, and charming set of stories it was one of the best of 2018 and one I’ve ever watched.
I’ve always been a sucker for iyashikei(Healing Anime). And Yuru Camp was certainly was one of the best. This year on the list of cute girls doing cute things we had cute girls going camping. That’s all. And boy did it immediately become my favorite anime of the year. Just watching it gives me the comfort of wrapping myself with a blanket with hot chocolate on a chilly winter night. With lovable characters, laid back soundtrack, and warm camping trips it’s a must-watch for slice of life fans.
Another cute girl anime this year was A Place Further Than the Universe. But instead of cute girls doing cute stuff, this time it was cute girls going to Antarctica. This was the anime to ignite a fire inside me to do something out of the ordinary, to find the right group of friends to go on a remarkable adventure. It was silly, it was heartwarming, it was heartbreaking, it was joyous and mostly it was, inspiring.
On to the romance side of things we had some great titles as well. Of which the best was Bloom into You. Bloom into You was one of the most realistic down to earth adolescent romance I’ve ever seen in anime. The expectation versus the actual reality that happens in the relationship was beautifully portraiting in this relation between two anime girls. Other romance animes where Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku a workplace rom-com of a gamer otaku guy and a fujoshi which was quite fun to watch. We had a remake of Fruits Basket but it was the first time I saw it for myself. Teasing Master Takagi-san was also a wholesome anime that you shouldn’t miss out on. But the biggest name would definitely be Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl Senpai. It sounds like a YouTube clickbait but drags you in for plot and makes you sit around for more plot. More like the modern-day Haruhi-Suzumia it surely is a good show with some of the best characters, dialogues, and a catchy opening song and one you don’t want to miss out.
In spite of having a great amount of romance anime I think it wasn’t the best year for romance. 2019 had Kaguya-sama: Love is War, 5-toubun no Hanayome, Tease master Takagi-san 2, Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai!, Ore wo Suki and Hensuki. Although most of these are weird harem shows they are enjoyable to watch Oresuki being the Konosuba of romance anime. And props to Kaguya sama for being the best romance anime I’ve ever watched, making 2019 a better year for romance.
I’m a big fan of comedy and 2018 had it right. Hinamatsuri was hyped out as the comedy of the year in spite of being a really wholesome show about a Yakuza having to play a father figure. The show surely has Yakuza stuff happening in the back but that doesn’t go that direction as it mostly focuses on the wholesome relationship of the characters. Pop Team Epic was a shitpost disguising as an anime. Asobi Asobase was just dank meme posting with a misleading opening. Grand Blue was supposed to be something about diving but ended up being about alcohol consumption. Cells at Work was a cute educational anime about the functions of the human body and the best loli of the year. None of the titles themselves where a masterpiece of its own, but the sheer amount of comedy anime which are actually good make 2018 a great year for comedy anime.
Now let’s talk about action and thrillers. We got many sequels like Attack on Titan 3, My Hero Academia 3, Tokyo Ghoul:re, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, FLCL Alternative, Sword Art Online: Alicization. Tokyo Ghoul was a massive train wreck. But other entries were really good. Like we had Baki to show us the ideal male figure, we already talked about Devilman, Megalo Box bringing back classic boxing action in anime and Banana Fish was the stylish gangster thriller done right with getting the fujoshis wet. And Jojo gave us a new Jojo dance which has no context whatsoever.
But the most action-heavy year to this day has to be 2019. We had the usual BNHA and SAO. Then we had ATTACK ON TITAN Season 3 part 2 half-life 3 expansion DLC with the best TV episode of all time in everything according to IMDb. Furthermore, 2019 gave us Vinland Saga, Demon Slayer, Dororo, Fire Force, Dr. Stone, One Punch Man season2(which was kinda a letdown), and Mob Phycho 100 2. For the action fans, 2019 was definitely a year they’ll worship.
On the sports side, we had Run with the Wind, an underrated anime missed out by many for just being a sports anime. Handebado! Was a badminton anime with the best animation and massive amount of sweat for some reason. But one of the best anime of the year and the best sports anime was Megalo Box. A banger soundtrack, hyped-up fight scenes, and the classic-looking animation sure was one of the best anime has to offer.
I’m not a huge fan of mecha but I have to talk about the catastrophe called Darling in the Franxx. Started off as a good looking 2D mecha show made by Trigger. The show looked interesting with character drama and dino loli. 02 differently best girl. And there’s even someone with a Rem hair cut. huh, guess who gonna get rejected…but wait! Why would you let her kiss you? Why are we in space? Why us 02 a giant space wif? Wtf is going on? Yeah… I watched most of the show trough memes. However, SSSSSSS:Gridman brought back the hype to trigger after Darling in the Franxx killed it with atmospheric direction and epic action scenes. However, none of that mattered because everyone was invested in Rika's THICC juicy thighs!
There weren’t that many music shows. We had some idol shows like Uma Musume with horse idols and Zombieland Saga was the only idol show I liked in the history of idol shows. But the stage performance by bad CG made the impact far less effective. Now, unlike most people, I don’t want you to miss out on Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight. What makes this show stand out here is the masterful use of direction and presentation. It was one of the most polished and aesthetically pleasing shows to come this whole year. With a likable cast of stage lesbians and jazz music, it was definitely one of the best of 2018 that you should watch.
While the music anime wasn’t that impactful with ‘Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight’ being very underrated, 2018 had a really good collection of OSTs. Devilman Crybaby had a banger of a soundtrack and so did Megalobox. Giving you the chills both soundtracks are my absolute favorite. But if you’re looking for something more calm, laid back, and relaxing Violet Evergarden had you covered with the soothing piano music and Yuru Camp with a comfortable soundtrack to relieve all your stress the right way.
Now, let’s talk about 2020. 2020 sucks and we all can agree on that. And on the little side of the world of the anime community, we also didn’t get much so far. Sure we got 2nd season of Kaguya Sama and Tower of God and a sequel to Haikyu!!. But other than that nothing much impactful happened. And shows like Promised Neverland being delayed we really can’t expect much from 2020. So if you’re new to anime and jumped in the seasonal anime train only to get slowed down. Maybe you can check out all the things mentioned here. There’s plenty of names to spend months on. And even if you’re an older fan of anime, no guarantee you watched everything. All the anime mentioned are marked once with Bold letters. If you are still stuck at home quarantine and have nothing to do because let’s face it you’re a filthy weeb, you can surely dive down back to 2018 and have a really fun time.
#AnimeWeek
