Fall 2021

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Mieruko-chan - This was the series I looked forward to the most each week, and it has by far one of the best OPs all year (Kageki Shoujo still holds best ED for the year). A horror-comedy that is fundamentally about not judging things immediately from the way they look, or how you are interpreting their actions. Led by a top-tier performance from Amamiya Sora, take a very normal, but perhaps extraordinarily composed, high school girl and expose her the worst kind of supernatural horrors with absolutely no explanations on how to deal with it. It's sweet, it's touching, and it's funny. A number of people were thrown off by the ecchiness of the first few episodes, but that dies down rather quickly (and was faithfully representing the source material which started the same way before the author realized it was selling just fine without that).

Isekai Shokudou S2 - For what's essentially a foodgasm show, the fantasy world here is more fleshed out than the majority of fantasy isekai series out there. We know about all sorts of continents, cultures, politics, and a substantial amount of history of a world when we really only see minimal exposure to their daily lives outside of the restaurant. While you do have to mentally piece together all the tidbits we get of the Other World's layout and lore across the two seasons, the small inclusions that explain the other world is one of the things I love about the series. There are many "mainstay" isekai and fantasy series out that don't even have a 1/10th of the consistent worldbuilding that Isekai Shokudou has. It isn't a static one either, the geopolitics of the other world move in real time. The huge cast grows and changes along with every visit to the restaurant. But Aletta (demongirl part-time waitress) will always be my favorite.

Mushoku Tensei S2 - One that does come close to Isekai Shokudou's worldbuilding is this one! This season seemed more like a set up season for bigger events to come, and though it didn't quite have the depth of character development that the prior season had, the secondary and tertiary characters got their time to shine this season. The animation was top-tier and the performances were all stellar. The direction and pacing was a bit worse than the previous season, but that still puts it significantly higher in that regard than the majority of anime out there. It left me wanting more.