[Music]
when I started doing my seasonal
recommendation list at the end of 2017
my initial intent was to cap off 2018
with a top 10 list of my favorite anime
as well as a report card of sorts
running through the 40 anime that I
initially recommended and seeing which
of them I wouldn't recommend anymore
because I think it's necessary to temper
first impressions based recommendations
with some sort of retrospective review
down the line but as it turns out
there's not much content that I would
put on the latter list just darling in
the Franks and Death March to the
parallel world Rhapsody and as for the
former list well I've got the opposite
problem there are three close contenders
for my anime of the year for therefore
Counting sequels and over 20 anime that
I am seriously considering for my top 10
if you put a gun to my head right now my
top list would be from ten to one hina
matsuri Zombieland saga oda koi a Gretz
KO grid man devil man crybaby bunny girl
senpai my hero season 3 planet within a
place further than the universe but hold
me up again in like five minutes and my
top four will have shuffled around and
I'll probably have replaced half that
bottom five with runners up like I'm
already thinking oh man maybe a gret
schoo should be higher maybe Castlevania
or violet ever garden or review
starlight or mega lo box deserves it /
hina matsuri and zombie land saga I
don't even really feel confident giving
that top 10 as a hypothetical no matter
what I do I end up denying some great
cult shows much deserved exposure and
ignoring a few anime that were broadly
loved by the community and that I loved
myself and I've fallen behind on a few
great shows namely hakama and Miko chi
grand blue yoru camp steins gate zero
and banana fish that I'm sure will only
make building a concrete list harder
once I get around to them the problem in
both these cases which isn't really a
problem at all is that 2018 was just way
too good a year for anime so good that
most of the series I'd list as
runners-up this year would easily have
made my top 5 back in 2016 or 2017 and
every show that I see fitting into my
top 10 could have been an anime of
the Year contender most other years and
while this state of affairs has
frustrated my efforts to make the
end-of-year content that I really wanted
to make and turn this last month into
more of a headache than you guys can
imagine obviously I'm not exactly upset
about it having more great anime come
out in a year than I can reasonably
watch let alone satisfyingly cover is
the best kind of problem I could
possibly have and from the start of this
year as all of that great anime has
continued to pile up one thought has
kept cycling through the back of my mind
the same one that you probably read in
some seo-friendly variation before
clicking on this video could 2018 be the
best year in anime history this isn't
exactly the first time I've tried to
answer that question
going by scripts I've started and
scrapped which date back to early summer
it's the fourth and those initial
scripts suffered because I mean I was
jumping the gun in trying to predict how
the year would shake out based on what
had come before and what had already
been announced but mostly they suffered
because I didn't know how to answer this
question in a satisfactory manner and
honestly I still don't I can't exactly
watch every anime in existence or even
every anime from the widely agreed upon
previous contenders for best year 2006
2007 and 2011 not while keeping up with
what I have - for work and even if I did
I'd only ever figure out which year had
the most shows suited to my tastes
tastes that would inevitably change over
the course of watching hundreds upon
hundreds of TV shows and experiencing
life and between that so at the end of
it I'd probably need to start over
anyway
I'd also run into a lot of trouble if I
tried to base a conclusion on aggregate
ratings from communities like my anime
list or reddit because while that might
seem like a more objective approach on
the surface that would really only
reflect what the kind of people who join
those communities enjoy and it only gets
more complicated if you consider how
arbitrary this question inherently is do
we really have to start counting the
best 365 contiguous days of anime at the
start of each calendar year couldn't we
start in like a really good spring or
summer season and go from there
the answer is I'm not gonna try thinking
about that trying to reach anything
resembling an objective answer to this
question is as far as I'm concerned a
mug's game and I say that as someone who
has foolishly tried to do so thrice so
why am I still here asking it then
partly it's because I just don't have it
in me to make that top-10 list on top of
all the other stuff that I'm working on
for the new year but I still want to
look back at the great anime that came
out in 2018 but mostly it's because with
it all over I still can't shake that
question from my mind I've got this
feeling in my gut that we just went
through a landmark banner year for anime
that will be talked about for years to
come though maybe not in the same way as
great years of the past and mostly to
get it all off my chest I want to make
my case as to why I think that is it's
not just that I personally enjoyed a lot
of shows this year or that I saw a lot
of positive buzz from you guys online
about it that is part of it though
because what made 2018 so great in my
eyes isn't that the shows were good per
se but that they were wildly varied in
how they were good everyone has
different tastes so the best year for
anime in my opinion at least would be
the anime where the widest range of
people had the best chance of falling in
love with at least one new series and I
really think 2018 was that year action
fans of all stripes were spoiled for
choice between Devilman planet with grid
man megalo box review starlight slime
incarnation how not to summon a demon
lord released the spice Sirius Cara
curry circus angle moi Hakata tonkotsu
ramen z' goblin slayer banana fish and
double-decker just to name some of the
options i think both those looking for
fun over-the-top action and grittier
fare were well served even if you hated
some of those shows others were probably
right up your alley
likewise if you're a fan of romance o
dacoit Otakon bloom into you after the
rain as miss beelzebub likes it
you know zoo coup boarding school juliet
high school girl bunny girl senpai and
Takagi son all had the potential to make
your heart flutter and I think all of
them did a really good job of exploring
different kinds of
relationships with very different tones
fans of more adult humor could find
plenty to laugh at in Ossipee Ossabaw
say grande blue and pop team epoch while
those looking for something in the
painfully relatable vein were well
served by a gret schoo tonegawa
honda-san and oda coy again and for
jokes on the goofier end of the spectrum
last period heesu mas o sells at work
Zombieland saga and hina matsuri were
all phenomenal in their own ways and I
could go on because no matter what you
were looking for in 2018 s anime mo a
slice-of-life drama horror fantasy e
sekai sci-fi sports food porn regular
porn music art gaming edutainment
yaoi yuri mecha kaiju idols zombies you
name it i all but guarantee there was at
least one new show this year that
executed on it really well
that meant that no matter what taste
they might have or what subject-matter
they might be interested in just about
anyone looking to get into anime this
year had a good chance of finding
something that was right up their alley
likewise just about every existing anime
fan probably found at least one new show
a season to keep them happy and that's
before we even consider all of the great
franchises that continued this year 2018
brought with it a lot of high-profile
sequels and spin-offs for popular recent
anime a few more obscure shows like psy
Kiku Solo and Hazuki no r8 Tetsu and a
decent number of old-school classics
like Cardcaptor Sakura steins gate Full
Metal Panic and fooly cooly that were
long thought dead also Lupin still going
strong so even on the off chance that
none of those new show spoke to you I'd
say the odds were pretty good that you'd
be happy with a follow up to something
you already liked unless you were
exclusively a Tokyo ghoul fan in which
case this year was only cause for more
sadness looking back at past years with
lots of exciting new series like 2006
and 7 they're generally wasn't as much
to keep fans of all but the biggest
existing franchises engaged in those
years where we did get to enjoy a lot of
good sequels tended to be lacking in big
jumping on points for newer anime
viewers in my opinion 2018 struck the
best balance between those extremes of
just a
any year on record so I think I'm pretty
safe and assuming that just about
everyone who likes anime was happy with
some segment of the industry's output
this year I don't want to put words in
anyone's mouth so if you thought 2018
sucked by all means let me know in the
comments but in all of the communities
that I'm part of online a general sense
of satisfaction seems to be the
consensus but beyond 2018 having a lot
of good anime I was impressed by just
how many felt great to me I'd be willing
to bet that a lot of you watching this
walked away from this year with two or
three new all-time favorites at least as
for me planet width is now my second or
third favorite mecha anime a place for
them in the universe has definitely
become my favorite cute girls doing cute
things anime of all time a gret schoo
hina matsuri and ASSA biasa ba se are
all now in my top 20 comedies oda koi
and bunny girls senpai are both in my
top 5 romance anime my hero academia is
like third on my list of Shonen battle
fare after f MA and YuYu Hakusho
and while i don't have a box that i can
easily throw Devilman crybaby mega lo
box or violet ever garden into damn I
love those shows to also part 5 might
become my favorite Jojo and run with the
wind and slime incarnation are inching
their way up my Sports and ISA kite top
lists respectively but those are all
less than halfway done so I'll have to
wait to see where they go from here and
even without counting those I loved more
shows this year than I liked in many
others you may not agree with me on some
or all of those shows just like I won't
agree with you on your favorites but I'm
willing to bet that you had a few
favorites from this year regardless of
your taste I'm not gonna be giving any
awards to goblin Slayer but I know a lot
of you are holding it up is one of the
best things you've ever seen I have
people constantly telling me that I've
got a cover golden calmly or Cara curry
circus because they're amazing even
though in my opinion they're both just
pretty good for me who'sa maids Lalique
on pandering is gross and off-putting in
a way that I just can't get past but I
can't appreciate that the show itself
has impeccable comedic direction and
production values and I've seen people
who aren't bothered by those aspects or
who even enjoy them touting it as
right incredible conversely the subject
matter in writing a planet with are
absolutely gripping for me and I love it
storyboarding and sound design but I can
acknowledge that other aspects of its
production especially its animation
aren't up to par with other shows this
year and I can absolutely see how other
people would find it to be underwhelming
if they place more importance on those
aspects or they just don't enjoy how
it's written or well those are kind of
apples to oranges so for a closer point
of comparison Gunn Gale alternative is
the first time in a long time that I've
really enjoyed Sao well aside from some
fun and fleeting fantasy elements
Alice's ation has been a cavalcade of
disappointment for me but I know that a
lot of Sao fans feel the exact opposite
way toward the two series just like
everybody has certain genres and subject
matter that interests them more than
others
everybody values different things in
what they watch when the anime community
was smaller and releases were more
targeted toward the small niche of
people who already like Danna may it was
easier for people to reach a consensus
on what the best stuff was nowadays with
so many different kinds of people
watching anime and so many more options
to watch the conversation has many more
variables and the topic of conversation
changes much more quickly as well I've
argued before that it's harder for shows
to be enshrined as classics within the
communities ever-changing simulcast diet
than it was in the days of slow imports
and limited fansubs now you might
disagree with me on that point but just
think about it this way aside from this
video when's the last time that you
heard someone in your anime circle
talking about maiden abyss or Yuri ah
nice now when's the last time someone
brought up gurren lagaan
to me it's evident that there's been a
change in how we watch and discuss anime
and in light of that if I'm being
perfectly honest I don't think that the
historical record will fully vindicate
what I'm arguing in this video you can
look back to 2006 2007 or 2011 and say
damn look at all those shows that
everyone's still talking about and it
feels as close to a factual fair
objective metric for answering the
question of which year was the best year
for anime as I think you can get we
probably won't be able to look back at
there any year following it in quite the
same way but what I think we will be
able to do individually is look back at
this year and say damn so many of my
favorite anime came out that year and
while the exact anime that each of us
pictures while we do that will vary
wildly I expect that more otaku will be
thinking that about this year than just
about anyone before it of course as a
metric for judging the validity of my
argument that is completely impossible
to quantify or prove but in my defense I
did say at the start of this video that
I don't have a truly satisfactory answer
to the question I'm posing I really did
just make this video mostly for the sake
of getting it off my chest and to start
a conversation I am really curious what
all of you think do you agree that 2018
was the best year for anime to date or
at least a strong contender for the
title or do you think that I'm totally
off-base here if you do think I'm wrong
what year would you hold up as animes
best and if you agree with me or if you
don't
what were your favorite anime this year
I'm especially curious to hear what my
fellow NE tubers think sorry I know
that's a lot of questions but 2018 has
given me a lot to unpack if you're
wondering when the best opiez list will
be out that is coming very soon and I'm
also working on a look back at some of
the less good parts of last year as well
as a look at a few of the most exciting
shows on the horizon so please hit the
subscribe button to make sure that you
stay tuned for all of that and more
because regardless of what you think of
2018 I'm gonna be working hard to make
2019 mothers basements best year yet
I'm Jeff through professional
wishing you a Happy New Year