As we move into the new anime season, now’s the perfect time to look back and talk about the anime from the just-completed Winter 2019 season you absolutely should not miss out on.
Oh, and a little disclaimer. If your pick didn’t make this list, that doesn’t mean it’s bad in any way. It just means that, as I decided arbitrarily that I would highlight just five anime, the ones below are the ones that made my personal cut.
Image source: TVアニメ『ブギーポップは笑わない』公式 on Twitter
Boogiepop and Others (Boogiepop wa Warawanai)
Genre: Murder Mystery, Superhero
Studio: Madhouse
Number of episodes: 18
Premiere date: January 4, 2019
Non-spoiler plot summary: There’s an urban legend popular among high schoolers. They say if you are too pretty, “Boogiepop,” the angel of death, will come for you and kill you before your beauty fades. And as with many rumors, at its core, there is a kernel of truth: Boogiepop is real and girls are going missing. But is it Boogiepop behind it all or is something far more sinister lurking behind the scenes?
Why you should watch it: Rather than centering around a small group of characters central to the action, Boogiepop often tells its story by highlighting moments in the lives of people only tangentially connected to the overall plot. It’s only after seeing the majority of these vignettes that the greater story becomes clear. This unique method of storytelling makes each episode a mystery in-and-of-itself while also introducing any number of characters who deal with many of the problems we all face in modern society.
This is also a heavily psychological anime. While there are physical threats, most are far more existential in nature–affecting what it means to be human in various, potentially catastrophic ways. In other words, you might learn a bit about yourself by watching this one.
Watch it if you like: Boopgiepop Phantom, Serial Experiments Lain, Paranoia Agent
Where to watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Aniplus (Asia)
Image source: TVアニメ『かぐや様は告らせたい』公式＠BD&DVD第1巻発売中！ on Twitter
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen)
Genre: Rom-Com
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Number of episodes: 12
Premiere date: January 12, 2019
Non-spoiler plot summary: While coming from a poor family, young Shirogane has clawed his way to the top of one of Japan’s most elite high schools–even being elected school president his freshman year. Shinomiya, his vice president, is an heiress to one of Japan’s richest conglomerates. Everyone can see that they would make a perfect couple–including the two of them. However, as the saying goes, “love is war” and to these two prideful teens, the person to confess their feelings first is the loser. Thus, each has no choice but to trick the other into confessing first.
Why you should watch it: On the surface level, Kaguya-sama is a witty situational comedy. Each vignette is a different scene where either through chance or prior planning, Shirogane or Shinomiya is cornered into potentially having to do or say something that would make their feelings clear to the other. Then we get to see how one tries to escape this situation while the other works to close off all avenues of escape. A large portion of the show is inside each character’s head, showing their respective fears of the future and plans to escape their terrible fate (…of a happy high school romance).
On a deeper level, it is about the downside of excessive pride and how it is a wall, protecting each of the two from their fears of potential rejection. Because, despite the mind games and arrogance, on the inside, the two are just scared kids. Neither knows a thing about love and thus is trying to treat it like they treat everything else in their lives–and it kills both of them that this strategy doesn’t seem to be working. Helplessness in the pursuit of love is something I think everyone can relate to.
Watch it if you like: Toradora, Masamune-kun’s Revenge, Death Note
Where to watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Wakanim (EU), AnimeLab (AU/NZ)
Image source: TVアニメ「賭ケグルイ××」公式 on Twitter
Kakegurui××
Genre: Gambling, Psychological
Studio: MAPPA
Number of episodes: 12
Premiere date: January 9, 2019
Non-spoiler plot summary: In a school where your proficiency in gambling decides everything from your social standing to your future post-graduation, transfer student Yumeko has upset the status quo. She is driven to gamble by a madness that even those closest to her fail to truly understand. Her immediate goal is a final, ultimate gamble against the school’s unquestioned dictator: student council president Kirari. But to do that, Yumeko will need to beat the other members of Kiari’s extended family who are all trying to usurp Kirari via the gamble-centric student council election.
Why you should watch it: Yumeko’s insanity is the central aspect of the series. While others fear what they could lose–and are broken by that fear–Yumeko revels in it. It’s only when the chips are down, the stakes are impossibly high, and everything comes down to luck that she truly feels alive. The need to experience this feeling, plus her naturally kind personality, form together to create something terrifying. She is incapable of understanding that other people don’t want to end up in a wager where their lives or futures are on the line. Thus, she does everything in her power to give her friends and rivals both a share of the joy she finds on the edge of ruin–whether they want it or not.
The strong point of this season specifically is that it’s not afraid to make major changes from the manga to make this anime adaptation flow better overall. One major story arc cut from the previous season is added back into this one. Likewise, an original villain has been unobtrusively added to the story so that the season can have a new, satisfying climax instead of ending abruptly partway through the election story arc.
Watch it if you like: Kakegurui, No Game No Life, Death Parade
Where to watch: Netflix (Kakegurui×× will be released on non-Japanese Netflix on June 13, 2019.)
Image source: モブサイコ100 on Twitter
Mob Psycho 100 II
Genre: Superpower Comedy
Studio: Bones
Number of episodes: 13
Premiere date: January 7, 2019
Non-spoiler plot summary: Middle schooler “Mob” is one of the most powerful psychics on the planet, but to him, his powers are meaningless. He’d much rather have muscles and be able to impress the girl of his dreams. When not in school he serves as apprentice to fake psychic and conman Reigen as the two get hired to fix various supernatural problems. And while the two have bested everything from powerful spirits to evil psychics, nothing can prepare Mob for what is coming next.
Why you should watch it: Mob Psycho 100 is one of those rare stories that, while ostensibly being a “comedy,” readily crosses genres at will–only concerned with telling the story it wants to tell in the best possible way. Because of this, we get three types of episodes: light stories like Mob and Reigen investigating bogus urban legends around town; personal tales like when Mob gets his first ever girlfriend; and epic adventures like when an evil army of psychics invades Tokyo. But even within each type of episode are elements of the other two–making for an anime with endless amounts of comedy and heart.
…Oh, and it is one of the most visually stunning anime I have ever seen.
Watch it if you like: Mob Psycho 100, One Punch Man
Where to watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Animax Asia (Asia)
Image source: TVアニメ『盾の勇者の成り上がり』 on Twitter
The Rising of the Shield Hero (Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari)
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Studio: Kinema Citrus
Number of episodes: 13 (of 25)
Premiere date: January 9, 2019
Non-spoiler plot summary: After opening a mysterious book, young Naofumi is transported to a fantasy world and is told he is one of four legendary heroes: the Shield Hero, specifically. At first, everything more or less goes how you’d expect from such a setup but then he is dragged before the king and is summarily convicted of crimes he didn’t commit. Now a social pariah but expected to nonetheless defeat the evil threatening the world if he wishes to return home, he buys a slave and prepares to fight for a world that hates him–a world that he hates equally in return.
Why you should watch it: While there is a fair amount of controversy around Shield Hero, it is a show of pure catharsis for anyone ever picked on unfairly. With nearly the entire world turned against him, Naofumi pushes on, doing the right thing even as it causes him more pain to do so. And though there are setbacks, there are also victories as his actions prove far more than words about what kind of man he truly is.
But that’s not to say he isn’t without flaws. Naofumi has been broken by the false accusations; his innocence completely shattered. He has become a creature unable to trust in anything–anything other than the worst that humanity has to offer. Yet through his relationship with the companions he picks up along the way, he is slowly but surely able to come to trust individuals again, even if he still harbors a massive hatred for the kingdom that betrayed him and the other heroes who abandoned him to his fate.
Watch it if you like: Overlord, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Where to watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Aniplus (Asia)
Top image source: TVアニメ『盾の勇者の成り上がり』 on Twitter
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