Between long-awaited greenlit adaptations and surprising sequel announcements, 2020 is already looking like a mighty exciting time to be an anime fan, and while the rest of the world is uh…mostly continuing to be a shitshow, not all of these shows are shit! Kicking off the year in style, Yata and Haru are back with their first impressions on 20 seasonal premieres. Which ones have passed the litmus test all easy breezy? Which ones we did we low-key accidentally not save our writing for? (Asteroid In Love. It’s Asteroid In Love. Haru’s sticking with it, though.) And which ones are getting thrown straight in the fire? Find out below on For Great Justice’s first seasonal rundown of the new decade!
Yata’s 2019 Anime Year in Review / Top 10
This has been a weird week. I’ve been cooped up at home with a nasty, fatiguing cold I can’t seem to shake, one of my “bands” just put out our massive new album, and as I type this, “World War III” has been trending for about 24 hours and I’m sure we won’t hear the last of that soon. But I’m here today to say farewell to something else: 2019. More specifically, the anime it had to offer us. Last year brought the decade to a fair enough close; there wasn’t a ton of close competition for the top spots on this list (especially because my beloved My Hero Academia and Chihayafuru won’t wrap up their current seasons until this spring and are thus ineligible this time around), but I still feel satisfied with the best of the best that we got.
If this ain’t your first rodeo here, you know how this goes. If you are new, here’s how I do this: I’m gonna briefly and remorselessly oversimplify my thoughts on each of the 30-something shows I dropped early from 2019 followed by expanding a bit more on the 30 or so shows (and movies) that I saw to completion. All those entries are clustered in tiers (this year named after quotes from one of my band’s most iconic tracks) until the top 10, which get their own special individual treatment where I do my best to sell you, casual watcher, diehard, or anywhere in between, on my favorites. Sound good enough? Rad. Let’s get crackin’. Here’s my all-in-one reflection on anime in 2019.
Fall 2019 Final Thoughts
It’ll be New Year’s in less than an hour but it’s still technically 2019 here in the U.S. and by golly, if barely squeezing in our final thoughts on seasonals at the last hour isn’t the most On Brand move possible, I don’t know what it is. We’re making it work, though; 2019’s coming to a close and we’ll have some year-in-general posts throughout January, but before that, it’s time to qualitatively rule on what we thought of this fall’s offerings. Buckle up and never mind the inevitable lapses in proofreading.
Fall 2019 Mid-Season Thoughts
Put Sword & Shield down. Block out the fact that the holidays are right around the corner. Anime is still airing and for the next however many minutes, we here at For Great Justice are gonna do our damn best to remind you about that. Thankfully, that shouldn’t be too hard; this fall is full of great titles and slow-burning underdogs that could snowball into best-of-the-year contenders if all goes well. Halfway through the season, here are Yata and Haru with their thoughts.
Fall 2019 First Impressions
October has brought a nor’easter to Yata’s corner of the country and tornadoes to Haru’s neck of the woods, but neither could keep us from the better stuff this month had to offer: a whole new slate of anime to check out. It’s the final season of the year and the decade as well, so we each approached this crop of shows with some contemplation and a secret desire to free up some other time. That turned out to be more difficult than expected, however. It may not be quite as loaded as this winter was, but these fall shows aren’t slouching. Which ones have we thinned out? Which ones are our early favorites? Find out below on this update from For Great Justice!
Summer 2019 Final Thoughts
Summer 2019 was one of the most stuffed anime seasons for the shounen genre in ages. Here at For Great Justice, we…mostly didn’t follow it. But hey, if you want some commentary on awkward high school girls, gay dorks in a band, and The Resistance…I N S P A C E, then we’ve got you thoroughly covered. You know the drill; 2 writers, 13 shows, 1 article. Let’s wrap up this surprisingly diverse season in style!
Summer 2019 Mid-Season Thoughts
It’s week seven of the season, and you know what that means: FGJ update time. All in all, summer is looking like a solid recovery from the doldrums of last season, but we still have a few surprises in store for you: a couple drops, some wishy-washier opinions, and even a…well, you’ll see at the end. We promise it’ll be worth it. As for the rest, you know the drill. Let’s run these seasonals down.
Summer 2019 First Impressions
Right off the heels of one of the weakest overall seasons in recent memory, anime is back and summer is bringing the heat! By the end of this past spring, I think we here at FGJ had finished a combined like…6 shows? In comparison, we’re covering triple that in this loaded round of first impressions. But how many are we sticking with—and which ones? Some obvious choices and some oddball surprises alike made the cut. Let’s run ’em down!
Spring 2019 Final Thoughts
For better or worse this past season will go down as one of the overall weakest since we started FGJ, but there were still a handful of shows Yata and Haru watched to completion and even (*gasp*) enjoyed. Which ones made the cut? Which ones flopped? Is anyone really prepared for next season yet or are we all deluding ourselves? The answers to those first two questions below on this seasonal final thoughts installment of For Great Justice.
Spring 2019 Mid-Season Thoughts
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s an extremely underwhelming mid-season update in terms of quantity. This time around, Yata’s the only one participating and he’s only watching…four seasonals. As such, this rundown will be brief, but it’s better than nothing. Find out what some of this spring’s most renowned titles and an outlier or two have been up to on this short and sweet For Great Justice update.
