2020 was a rough year for the world, but at least we had anime. Maybe we didn't have every anime we wanted or expected at any given time (the pandemic resulted in many delays and hiatuses), but animation by its very nature has been the part of the entertainment to most easily adapt to working from home. Even if some seasons were lighter than usual, there was still a lot of anime to watch, and a lot of it was very good.
The following nine series and one movie, decided by CBR's Anime/Manga editorial team, gave anime fans reasons to laugh, cry, cheer and escape into amazing fantasy worlds during a time we all needed to escape more than ever. (Note that Attack on Titan Season 4 was taken out of consideration due to premiering at the tail end of the year; it will be eligible for next year's list.)
10. BNA: Brand New Animal
One of two furry-themed Netflix Originals to make this list, BNA: Brand New Animal is set in a world where humans and beastmen have long been in conflict. The series follows Michiru, a human girl mysteriously transformed into a tanuki beastman, as she sets out to start a new life in the beastman metropolis of Anima City. This supposed refuge for beastmen is plagued with serious problems... and an old friend of Michiru's might be a pawn in a conspiracy to destroy it all.
Directed by Little Witch Academia's Yoh Yoshinari and written by Promare's Kazuki Nakashima, BNA has all the vibrant style fans expect from Studio TRIGGER and a heavy dose of political substance. Its ambitious metaphors have their flaws, but the overall messages of coexistence and self-acceptance are powerful, and the series is so entertaining that it never feels preachy.
9. Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen was this year's big hyped-up Shonen Jump action blockbuster that actually managed to live up to the hype. It was also director Sunghoo Park and animation studio MAPPA's immediate follow-up to The God of High School, one of the year's most disappointing anime, but that disappointment had everything to do with the narrative and not the directing or animation. Give the same team much more solid material in the form of Gege Akutami's manga and you have a hit.
The story of Yuji Itadori, an athletically-gifted teen who gets possessed after eating the finger of the legendary Curse Sukuna, is only getting started; the first season will continue through Winter 2021, and it's practically guaranteed to get many more seasons after that. It's not the most original series in the world, but its compelling characters, gruesome horror and amazingly animated action make it a winner.
8. Moriarty the Patriot
The catastrophes of 2020 have placed issues of social and economic inequality into full focus. If this year got you screaming "Eat the rich," then Moriarty the Patriot is the anime for you. A lower profile shonen series, based on the manga by Ryosuke Takeuchi and Hikaru Myoshi, Moriarty the Patriot takes the classic Sherlock Holmes stories and shifts the perspective to Holmes' nemesis.
In this telling, William James Moriarty was an orphan adopted into an abusive noble family. Now, he uses his wits to stage "perfect crimes" to get revenge on the British upper class. The bishonen character designs and gothic stylings make this perfect for fans of Black Butler, and Sherlockians will appreciate how it integrates Doyle's characters and mysteries. But really, the entire 99% should vibe with this compelling anti-hero series.
7. Great Pretender
Surprisingly, the original anime Great Pretender's creative team does not share any major overlap with the team behind Cowboy Bebop. The jazzy score, the cast of misfit criminals and the diverse multicultural influences all scream Bebop, and it's clear the show had a similar audience in mind. Nonetheless, the series stands out on its own merits as a delightful con artist comedy.
All four of the series' globe-trotting capers offer both thrills and laughs while also shedding light on the personal tragedies that made the members of Team Confidence who they are today. The color design is unbeatable, and the musical taste superb. The way the series plays with language could have made it hard to translate, but the English dub happens to be a winner.
6. Deca-Dence
Every year, there's always one anime that comes along and takes everyone by surprise. Deca-Dence had some hype going in, being the original brainchild of Mob Psycho 100's director Yuzuru Tachikawa and writer Hiroshi Seko. The basic Attack on Titan-meets-Mortal Engines set-up of a war between giant mechanical cities and monsters was appealing, and the first episode fulfilled the basic thrills of this premise. And then the second episode dropped a bombshell twist that blew everything up.
Well, not everything. The central emotions of the mentor-apprentice relationship between Kaburagi and Natsume weren't actually changed all that much by knowing the twist. However, knowing what Kaburagi actually was certainly added a level of humor and adorability that wasn't there before, and knowing the nature of the setting turned the whole series into a sharp commentary on capitalism.
5. Beastars
Beastars, Studio Orange's adaptation of the manga by Paru Itagaki, is technically a Fall 2019 show in Japan, but Netflix's still-annoying refusal to simulcast its licensed anime meant international fans wouldn't get to see it until March 2020. Effectively, the adventures of repressed wolf Legoshi, hypersexual rabbit Haru and stuck-up deer Louis became one of the first collective quarantine binges for the anime and furry fandoms.
What makes Beastars so compelling is how effective it defies categorization. Is it a murder mystery? A romance? R-rated Zootopia? A high school soap opera? A disturbing crime drama? At any given moment, the show could any one of those things. Alongside our #1 pick, Beastars proved anime stylings and 3D animation could mesh beautifully. Season 2 begins in Japan next January, so this could very well be on next year's Best of the Year list as well.
4. Ride Your Wave
Another 2019 release in Japan, Ride Your Wave made it into American theaters just weeks before they were shuttered by the pandemic. In a relatively weak year for anime movies (at least stateside), this story of a surfer girl dealing with love, loss and a little bit of magic was the only feature film in discussion for this list.
Ride Your Wave sees director Masaaki Yuasa playing in his most mainstream-friendly mode. You can imagine just how many times Your Name must have been mentioned in the pitch meeting, but of all the semi-musical YA romantic weepies to have followed Your Name's lead, Ride Your Wave is possibly the best. On the visual level alone, this is some of Yuasa's most realistic and fluid animation ever, and the story balances a wacky sense of humor with heartfelt emotions.
3. Fruits Basket (Season 2)
Season 2 of the Fruits Basket remake justified all the fans' excitement. Season 1 was great, but aside from better animation, backstories for Tohru's friends and a somewhat more serious tone, it wasn't all that different from the 2001 anime. Season 2 continues the story beyond where the first anime left off, animating the middle volumes of Natsuki Takaya's manga for the first time.
Without sacrificing any of the series' good-natured optimism and sense of humor (the "Cinderella-ish" play was a comedic highlight), Season 2 was unafraid to get dark. From Kyo and Yuki's struggles with abusive parents to the heartbreaking stories of new characters Rin and Kureno to multiple big reveals about the twisted family leader Akito, Season 2 upped the drama and the tears.
2. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
Sometimes a show premieres in January and you instantly know it's going to end up high on your "best of the year" list, even though the year's barely begun. Seemingly, this was the case for a lot of people who watched Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Masaaki Yuasa's adaptation of Sumito Ōwara's manga about three high school girls making their own anime proved irresistible. Even The New York Times and The New Yorker, not exactly otaku publications, listed it as one of the best shows of the year!
There's a lot to love about Eizouken. All three leads (hyperactive director Asakusa, penny-pinching producer Kanamori and obsessive animator Mizusaki) are lovable each in their own unique ways. The way the show illustrates their imaginations is visually stunning, and its take on the creative process is insightful. This might just be the best anime Yuasa's directed, and that's saying something.
1. Dorohedoro
The one consensus favorite to make all three CBR editors' lists, Dorohedoro sounds completely ridiculous when you describe it. A show about a gyoza addict with a lizard head who bites wizards' heads to solve the mysteries of his place in a post-apocalyptic hellscape? It is ridiculous... and it's the exact right level of ridiculousness, with such excellent execution, that makes this CBR's top anime of 2020!
Q. Hayashida's punky manga art is brought to beautiful life by MAPPA's computer animation, some of the best CGI in all of anime. The series works delightfully as trippy violent absurdity, but there's also extensive depth and thought put into the workings of the setting and its morally ambiguous characters. It's easy to find yourself just as (if not more) involved in the plight of the "antagonists" Shin and Noi as in the anti-hero Caiman and his chef BFF Nikado. It feels like anything can happen in Dorohedoro, and that sheer audaciousness is why many of us became anime fans in the first place!
All entries written by Reuben Baron.
