Your most favorite anime of 2021?

Hello, anime viewers in Giant Bomb forums!

My personal favorite anime that came out in 2021 is 86 - Eighty Six -, it's about a sci-fi war that occurs in the future where the warriors drive their spider-tanks to battle while being commended by Vladilena Milize (the main female protagonist).

If you want to know the plot, please watch and find out.

This year felt like it was a whole bunch of adaptations for manga that I had already read (which is very much a me problem) so I've only watched 5 shows all year.

Odd Taxi and Vivy are definite standouts that I would wholeheartedly recommend but at the end of the day I'd probably still say Yuru Camp 2 was my favourite because I'm still a gigantic sucker for comfy slice of life and it felt extremely needed at the time the season was running.

I think the Star Wars Visions stuff was the only anime I watched this year. I'm not a big Star Wars guy, but it's interesting to see that stuff filtered through a Japanese take on Star Wars, by way of anime, as opposed to George Lucas' take on Japan and samurai films.

Oh right it is almost that time of year isn't it.

I'll probably have a more in-depth Top 10 list later on but here's my current, non-final ranking of shows where I've watched at least 3 episodes:

1. Odd Taxi
2. Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song
3. Otherside Picnic
4. 86
5. Megalobox 2: Nomad
6. Wonder Egg Priority
7. To Your Eternity
8. Back Arrow
9. Sk8 the Infinity
10. Farewell, My Dear Cramer
11. Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood
12. SSSS.Dynazenon
13. Fena: Pirate Princess
14. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S
15. The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!
16. Combatants Will Be Dispatched!
17. I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
18. Night Head 2041
19. Yasuke
20. Uma Musume S2
21. Tatoeba Last Dungeon
22. Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter
23. Bright: Samurai Soul

Ranking of Kings: Only a few episodes out so far, but I expect this one to be at the top of a lot of people's list by the end of the year. Great animation, cool fights, interesting characters, a protagonist I'd die for. Anyone who doesn't like this show has no heart.

Kageki shoujo: About girls trying to make it at a prestigious acting school. Isn't afraid to get into some deep topics, and overall very moving.

Shadow House: Starts off very mysterious with some cool horror vibes it loses in later episodes, but still intriguing to the end. Top tier

@dochaus: Nice. Thou not merited at you more of my own rant after seeing the list. Im not a big watcher just take in the popular stuff or anything really gettting a buzz that interest me (lately nothing lol) Are we not including Attack on titan and stuff like my hero or demon slayer, Jujutsu kaisen, i know their mainstream but their seasons havent or are atleast better than say fena...which started off strong but just had good animation and seems they gave up half way plotting wise. Thou to each their own. I know people now hate Attack on titan due to the 40 page ending they didnt try understand given the whole series was about not celebrating war and saying no one wins when you fight instead of negotiating. But eh...really hard to like the hotness, much like the hate for squid games now that it blew up lol. Also we still have jojo part 6, chainsaw man, etc. Thou im more action fanatic so those are the only things im looking into.

Super Cub, easily

@topcyclist: oh right Jujutsu Kaisen's second half came out this year didn't it? That was pretty good. I thought we were focusing more on new stuff that came out this year but if you're into ongoing series that's fine.

I haven't watched any anime this year

@stamosx6:

Started watching Super Cub off Pat Bear's recommendation and Yo that turn towards the end was wild

but also I wanna ride one in a small town

@burritocreases: I watched it because I needed something to fill the void that Non Non Biyori left. I'm glad I did, the ending was wild. "Don't thank me, thank the Super Cub."

Pokemon Journeys!

Fruits basket: amazing concluision.one of fav anime

AOT: best season of aot so far, cgi wasn't even bad

Odd Taxi: best standalone anime this season, it passed my expectations by far

Re zero; don't have much to say about it, not a huge fan of re zero but i liked the part 1 more

I can only ever do stuff that is "new to me" because 99% of anime and manga is just that to me, having been a very casual fan for most of my life. I didn't watch Oddtaxi until a few weeks ago, and for me it's that one, although I did watch all of Death Note and Steins:Gate and really loved both of those (although the latter kind of messed me up for a bit).

I also finally watched the somewhat well received Berserk Golden Age series finally and it was fine (much better than the new series that actually moves beyond that arc) and it was fine. The 3D animation though, at times? Woof.

I loved the plot of Tokyo Revengers. This anime is stylishly drawn and describes social issues. And also, I have always been attracted to stories about crime and the restoration of justice. And, of course, the cute main characters! This anime gives me a lot of options to order my next Dakimakura pillows, haha. I can't do anything about my addiction. I measure the success of each anime by how close the main character has become to me and whether I would like to hug a pillow with his image at night...