This year’s presentation is not only one but two new ones by Masaaki Yuasa, the expected release of western Orange’s Beastars Project, the long-awaited premiere of Junji Ito’s nightmarish Uzumaki’s adaptation by Toonami, and a CG launch in Ghost in Shell: Netflix’ Stand Alone Complicated story. Otaku and anime newbies have much to be looking forward to this year. Not to mention a whole host of the latest seasons of Fire Power, Fruits Basket, Promised Neverland, and Titan on the horizon during the final season. But so far, our favorites of the year are here before that moment.
1. Re: Zero − Starting Life in Another World Season 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtGVOCXo6gI
Re: Zero − Starting Life in Another World, isekai anime is back in its second season this 2020 and the fans look forward to the anime being finished. This is one of the better isekai in recent years and the better of this season can easily be said. Subaru Natsuki is a “Return-by-Death” Slacker. He is allowed to change the time by dying. He is Margrave Roswaal’s butler, who uses him for Subaru’s recommendation as a butler. After Subaru dies again suddenly, he continues to analyze and reconstruct these events and the actions that lead to his death. He finds out that a curse was put on him, and it comes from a village he never been to previously. The peasants must rescue Subaru, Rem, and Ram from a monster-like creature.
2. Japan Sinks: 2020
The adaptation of Sakyo Komatsu’s 1973 disaster book, Pyeon-Gang Ho and Masaaki Yuasa, takes the original premise and updates it for the new age. When Japan is struck by a massive earthquake, the Mutō family is forced to join together to weather the ensuing crises and perils that result. When they move around the world to seek shelter and protection in the face of an assault of natural threats and cynical opportunists, death arrives easily and indiscriminately for both loved ones and strangers alike. With a splendid theme song written by the inimitable Ryuichi Sakamoto and a pulse-pounding score by composer Kensuke Ushio, Japan Sinks: 2020 is a testimony to the strength of the human spirit in the face of unfathomable hardship and unparalleled environmental horror.
3. Darwin’s Game
17-year-old Kaname Sudō plays Darwin’s Challenge, an online challenge that involves the fight for life and death. Many players are given the Sigil, which varies between players.. Kaname chooses to do away with the game and to search and defeat the Game Master. Created by the studio Nexus, this 11-episode development is exclusively produced by the author of the story Yuki Takahata, resulting in an adaptation that matches almost one-to-one source material. If you’re looking for a smart action anime TV show with a serious mystery plot, Darwin’s Game is a good 2020 pick.
4. Jujutsu Kaisen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MltDhYeBXb4
The series follows Itadori Yuji, who is very average as a high school boy, except that he is incredibly athletic. So much so that he doesn’t want to take part in athletics. One day, his classmates unintentionally unseal a finger that attracts evil spirits called Curses to their kindergarten. Unable to fend off the curses, Yuji eats the finger in an effort to pull them out, but ultimately becomes a vessel for the strong Curse that the finger belonged to. He is then kidnapped by a group of sorcerers who struggle against Curses and suggest, as Yuji would not lose control of his body by the spell, that he eat the other fingers of the Spell in order to rid the world of strong Curses once and for all. The scheme entails murdering him, too. And it seems that there are high expectations for the series, especially with the pretty impressive team working on it. The series is being animated by MAPPA (Dorohedoro, Zombie Land Saga, Yuri on Ice).
5. Great Pretender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wbksh0CfWw
Makoto Edamura is Japan’s best con-manOr at least, that’s what Laurent Thierry, a sweet and masterful gentleman thief who looks to young Edamura to join his globetrotting gang as his apprentice traveling the globe from San Francisco to Singapore, London, and beyond, Edamura discovers the tricks of the industry while he contends with the most ruthless plutocrats of the criminal class when growing up along the way, all tinged with the same sense of humor that you will see in some of the Ocean’s movies. Directed by Hiro Kaburagi (91 Days, Pace Grapher) and written by screenwriter Ryota Kosawa, Great Pretender is a death-defying, high-wire heist drama filled with stunning art direction, breathtaking views, and an infectiously jazzy score that instantly catapults it into the ranks of the best, most unforgettable, and thrilling new anime to come out in 2020.
6. Kingdom Season 3
The second highest anime on this chart is a shocking one. The kingdom is a manga-based anime series that tells the tale of the rise of the Qin dynasty in ancient China. The tale tells of the rise of a Qin warrior named Xin, raised from a fighting orphan to the greatest general in the kingdom. With this season adapting, as manga readers consider, the best manga arc means that this season is at a higher pace than the previous two. That’s not just in Kingdom Season 3’s favor, since it’s a rare anime to see his animation get better after moving the studios between the seven-year break between seasons. Along with this better animation, there’s a better score at the hands of well-known composer Hiroyuki Sawano of Assault on Titan fame.
7. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! is an isekai anime that shows a character joining a game or another environment. It is based on a series of light novels written by Satoru Yamaguchi and illustrated by Nami Hidaka. Catarina Claes is the heroine of this isekai anime, a young daughter of a noble family who finds herself stuck on her head. Later, she was reborn in the world of the otome game Fortune Lover, reborn as a simulation of villainy. Catarina is trying to take counter-measures to try to stop things from heading in the same direction as the original game. But it ends up with unintended consequences for her relationship with the other characters.
8. Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2
What if you’re a bookworm and you died while reading books, and then you’re reincarnated as a kid, where you can read as many books as you can, then you’re fortunate. This isekai anime of 2020 follows a post-secondary who is also a bookworm, but the irony is that this child dies and is reincarnated in a world where she can read books forever. She wakes up as a 5-year-old girl in this book-loving universe where books are rare and available only to noble class people. Myne, retaining her memories from her previous life, is attempting to build and write her original books so that she can read them again
9. Deca Dence
Is it really shocking that director Yuzuru Tachikawa (Death Parade, Gang Psycho 100) and screenwriter Hiroshi Seko (Attack on Titan, Banana Fish, Vinland Saga) are behind not only one of the best anime of 2020, but one of the greatest anime surprises of the year? Deca-Dence follows the story of Natsume, a young girl living onboard a giant mobile fortress in a post-apocalyptic universe who dreams of being one of its guardians, and Kaburagi, a taciturn tutor whose history and personality mask an unfathomable mystery about the personality of their universe and the very life of Natsume. What begins as an impressively performed, if boiler-plate, mash-up of Assault on Titan by Mortal Engines soon evolves into a cerebral science-fiction drama resembling a Westworld drink, Monster Killer, and a mutated Pixar’s Wall-E hybrid meets Disney’s, Wreck-It Ralph. With stunning action, gorgeous graphics, and a deliriously high-concept premise that leaves your mind spinning,
10. Dorohedoro
Since its debut in 2000, Dorohedoro has been held in high regard by manga fans. A post-apocalyptic tale of crime, sorcery, and unexpected relationships, its hero is Caiman, a man robbed of his memory and left with a reptile head after a run-in with a sorcerer. His universe is divided into two: the Hole, the bleak house of mankind, and the universe of sorcerers. Those of the latter camp visit the Hole to exercise their skill on their helpless denizens, Caiman being one of those unlucky ones. This cruel dichotomy is broken as Caiman sets off to locate the wizard that disfigured him — and finds newfound powers that can help level the odds between him and others who have sorcery at their hands.
11. Tower Of God
Tower of God is the adaptation of the South Korean manwha made famous in the West by Webtoon’s interactive comic service. Like a manhwa, and anime drives audiences into its universe without explaining much of it. Yet character interactions and action sequences are enough to carry it, as it steadily tricks out details about the universe. It follows a teenager with a particular target in mind who needs to tackle harrowing challenges and become stronger to reach them head-on. It’s rife with power battles, special weapons, cool tactics, mystical abilities, and more shone staples. The idea is indeed out-of-this-world: the occupants of “The Tower” are attempting to ascend it by completing intense obstacles on each landing. They could be challenged to pick the right door in a room full of them or to catch a ball from under a giant sea monster.
12. Brand New Animal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcHQKAGBsDU
BNA has no romance. What it does have is snappy, beautifully spectacular action scenes – as expected from Studio Trigger, the team behind the critically lauded Kill la Kill and Promare. BNA is a rare treat for the eyes, and even the ears – I can’t keep the soundtrack out of my head. His narrative holds up extremely well, however. In the BNA universe, Beastman once hid from the human race, but now it’s a persecuted race, whether it’s a mink or a migratory bird. In order to overcome racism, Anima City was set up to encourage the beastman to live without fear of human judgment. This is where the lead character, Michiru, flies as she inexplicably switches from a human high school to a raccoon/tanuki Beastman (he says it’s up for debate). Cue the mystery of when and how she changed, and who the legendary Silver Wolf, the guardian of the Beast, truly is
13. Drifting Dragons
Drifting Dragons follows this tradition with a twist — a dragon looking for food. Focusing on the perspective of the crew of the Quin Zaza, a huge “drawing” airship devoted to bringing down these behemoths of the skies, the anime would be a cross between Cowboy Bebop and Attack on Titan. The crew, a ragtag bunch of all walks of life, live from hunting to hunting, using all their creativity to overcome the beasts hundreds of times their size and to make sure they are full of bellies and coffers. The anime’s use of CG promises to preserve the lush detail of the manga while putting its own take on the cloudy universe of Quin Zaza — early footage is positively sweeping. By air or ground, Drifting Dragons are ready to impress with a whole new form of dragon-slaying.
14. Fire Force Season 2
In this world, much of the world has been devastated by the Great Tragedy, and fires now consume every survivor. As time goes by, some of the survivors can control the fire, while others sadly become beings known as “Infernals” who are engulfed by flames. The main character, Shinra, has a lot to do about himself in the first season as he starts in the Fire Department. The second season has its own series of challenges, with various powers seeking to cause another tragedy to Shinra attempting to discover a solution that can make the Infernals human again.
15. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
Science SARU continues its popular brand with excellent off-beat manga series adaptations. This year, it’s the Manga Keep Your Paws Off Eizouken! This is followed by three high school girls attempting to set up their animation studio. The series is well-respected for a lot of reasons, ranging from its distinctive art style to the shockingly informative way animation is performed and created. The series also stands out because it takes place in a simultaneously familiar and futuristic Japan.
Memes of the Day
[Shadman] Step Siblings
