Let’s keep this intro short baby. I’m here to share my final impressions of the anime I watched this season and whether or not I recommend them to anyone still deciding, and you guys are here to see my opinions and attack them vigorously because I’m a random person on the Internet. Let’s do this shit.
The Promised Neverland Season 2
Uh oh. Uhhh… it was bad. Like damn. For a more in depth look you can check out my full article on the subject here, but to summarize season 1 of this anime was fucking amazing and that makes every poor decision done in season 2 stick out like a sore thumb. You go from godly Death Note levels of mind games in the first season to “bitch I used my big brain to outsmart the enemy offscreen” in season 2. Weird pacing, poorly executed timeskips, the good guys being handed victory on a silver platter and other problems made this season feel like it was what my dumbass would write after viewing the first season and thinking “aye I could write this, hop me in the writer’s room”. At this point there’s no reason for you to watch this unless you’re like me and watched season 1 and don’t read manga. Even then, you could simply use the ending of season 1 and say the kids escaped and started a new life and call it there and that’d be good enough. This was a let down and a half.
Beastars Season 2
Man oh man. In my humble opinion, Beastars season one was a really solid set of episodes. Would I force my eldest son to become a furry and watch it based on its sheer quality alone? Perhaps not. Now season two on the other hand? We’re all furries today baby god DAMN. This season felt like what Beastars was always meant to be about but they needed to spend a good portion of season one setting up characters first so the pay off would be significant. Season 2 said enough with the happy time shit, it’s time to solve the original murder mystery and end this chase once and for all. The anime ended in a solid enough spot where if they decide to never continue it again the viewers should still be satisfied as the major plot points were wrapped up. With that in mind I can easily recommend this one and I’d say it’s worth going back to check out if you missed it.
Horimiya
The romantic comedy was invented in 2004 when gangster Big Smoke proclaimed “Same things make us laugh, make us cry”. Since then everyone and their mother has taken to try and follow his wisdom by fusing these two genres. Now the problem is that many anime mix poor comedy and poor romance and you’re left with one of the worst fucking types of anime: an unfunny romcom with no messages or themes. See Rent-A-Girlfriend for a great example of a waste of animation that falls into this trap. It’s very rare that an anime really buckles down to try and deliver GOOD romance and GOOD comedy, but oh boy when they do? You’re left with a god damn banger like Horimiya. I’m not saying it will have you rolling on the floor laughing or crying into your waifu pillow every episode, but damn it might be close. This is easily my favorite romcom in YEARS because man I’ve suffered through some shitty attempts at the genre. If you’ve always wanted to try out the genre but have heard the horror stories, rest assured that this is finally what happens when the formula is executed correctly. (Someone even had the amazing idea to have MORE than one couple be interesting! What a concept!)
Project Scard
Listen I only skipped through this one for the fight scenes, I have no clue what the plot was. All I know is they killed off my favorite character in the first fucking episode. Not recommended.
Mushoku Tensei
I didn’t know what to expect going into this anime, though the hype was reaching my ear at the time. Some were saying it’s a cornerstone must-watch isekai. After the first season? Yeah kinda. Be warned, this is not your typical isekai in that it feels VERY slice of life for the early episodes. For a good while it’s merely a slice of life in a fantasy world. However, that eventually changes and the real journey begins. I didn’t mind the slower portion of the season, but man the second half has its own magic going on. The most polarizing aspect of this anime will be the MC, Rudeus, and his pervy nature. Rudeus is a reincarnated 30 something year old loser, and while he is working to improve various portions of his character, his perviness is not one of them. After a while it didn’t bother me though as he’s not being pervy in serious scenes. The fights and conflicts are rare albeit animated beautifully. If you enjoy isekai or want a journey with more emphasis on the characters then this is likely a must see. I know I’ll be first in line to watch season two.
EX-Arm
Masterpiece. What can I say about this that hasn’t already been said? This anime will go down in history. Perhaps on the wrong side of it, but history nonetheless. This redefined what it meant to truly produce poor animation.
Redo of Healer
My shield? On. My opinion? Controversial. My dick? Shriveled. Guys, I don’t think it was that bad. First of all, people were hyping this up like “DUDE you’ve never even SEEN torture unless you read Redo of Healer, I can’t believe his dick was chopped up and THEN put in the blender” when in reality I think the most brutal aspect of this anime was the MC breaking a girl’s fingers in one of the early episodes. After that most of the truly brutal stuff (like someone beating eaten alive) wasn’t shown that much if at all. Another big point is that people mistakenly label this as EDGELORD 5000 THE HD REMAKE. Is the show edgy? Fuck yes. But the MC still has some super vulnerable, human moments. Toward the end of the season our boy Healer makes a friend with a local shopkeep and they bond a bit. Later on the shopkeep gets fucked up and dies and my man Healer actually starts crying over his friend’s death. I’ve seen some reviews where people claim the Healer is a revenge-crazed incel who wants to kill everyone and rule the world and that’s simply not the case in this anime. He even EXPLICITLY states he doesn’t want to hurt anyone that hasn’t wronged him. Now does all that mean I recommend this? Nah. It was merely a dumb fun anime for the season and not something I think you can’t miss. But if the only reason keeping you from watching it WAS because you thought he’s some psycho edgelord with no human emotions left, that’s not the case.
Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Gou Second Half
Holy. Fucking. Shit. What the fuck did I just watch? The first half of this anime earned my praise for trying something new with the Higurashi formula (at least to my petty non-source material reading ass) where they introduced the idea of the characters being able to succeed and avoid tragedy. The second half expanded upon this concept and then shit got weird. The last few episodes started feeling like a fever dream. Three different plot points were explained and mushed together to the point where you’re not sure which one to focus one. This anime immediately announced another season and it clearly needs one. My problem is they could of simply focused on ONE huge big plot twist and thoroughly explained it rather than try to go fast as fuck and throw a bunch of twists at you, only to then say “and now watch season 2 fuckos”. Disjointed and messy are the immediate words that come to mind. Any semblance of horror was pretty much abandoned too by the end of it in case that’s what you really wanted to find by watching Higurashi. To conclude, I’m happy that the series tried out some new shit to spice things up, but I wish they would have spiced it up at a slower rate. A dash of garlic, not the whole damn jar at once so to speak. I’ll be watching the next season with Kinky to meme on it though.
Dr. Stone: Stone Wars
Senku and his pals once again have to use their gigabrains to outsmart Tsukasa. I’ll admit, as we neared the end of this season I was getting scared that the huge conflict of Tsukasa and Senku finally fighting again (albeit not fisticuffs) wasn’t going to have a big enough payoff. You see, this is basically what the series has been building up to since the early episodes of the first season and it was a bit weird to have the final conflict resolved in like two episodes this season. That being said it turns out that Dr. Stone is a much longer series than I had anticipated and we’re actually going to do more shit after season two has ended. With that in mind I can forgive the somewhat short resolution to the Stone Wars, even if other watchers may not be so generous. I still recommended the anime because the hype moments still got me on edge and damn the soundtrack makes knowing about science sound so cool.
Jujutsu Kaisen
And there it is. Here we are again. You know what I’m about to say, don’t you? I honestly hate how much I like this anime. Everytime I think “okay THAT was it, that’s as hype as it gets” then it tells me to fuck myself because we’re merely getting started. At this point this anime isn’t contending for the top stop on my seasonal anime list, it’s fighting for my all time favorite anime list. How do they animate so many episodes so well? MAPPA I know you have some slaves somewhere in that studio. Don’t lie to me. Intriguing story, unique atmosphere, banging OST, fleshed out characters blah blah blah it’s godlike. If you still haven’t tried this anime don’t bother watching anything else on this list until you do. The only criticism I’ve heard is that some people think it follows the shonen formula too closely. Rest assured as soon as they say that some manga reader appears out of thin air to yell “STFU GUYS in the next arc Jujutsu Kaisen REDEFINES what it means to be a shonen!” and that next arc will soon be upon us. Man I didn’t even go into the waifu material! Fuck this you know I reccommend it, I’m out of here.
Whew boy now we’re starting to put some length on these articles. Unfortunately as always I can’t watch everything and I missed some anime that caused a stir this season like Sk8: The Infinity and Wonder Egg Priority. I’m pretty salty about missing Wonder Egg too. Sadly time marches on as the next season of anime have already started dropping. What was your favorite anime this season? Which ones do YOU recommend? Say goodbye to winter anime 2021 in the comments below!
