When every anime season has 30 or more shows, it's unrealistic to expect fans to watch every single one. It even becomes unreasonable to try and watch all the good shows. People start watching the shows they really love and let others slip through the cracks.
Last year was a strong year for anime regardless of which genres fans enjoy, which meant someone could lose themselves in their own favorites. Nonetheless, 2021 was an excellent year for anime. And even though people might have missed some smaller series in favor of the big ones, that doesn't mean they can't go back and check out 2021's anime hits.
10 Suppose A Kid From The Last Dungeon Boonies Moved To A Starter Town Is A Neat Twist On A Worn Idea
Last Dungeon Boonies takes the classic idea of an overpowered character and comes up with a unique twist. The protagonist, Lloyd Belladonna, has spent his entire life growing up around the descendants of adventurers who saved the world.
Lloyd is a weakling compared to other adventures, but when he leaves the village to join the army, his monstrous strength is noticed by everyone except him. Lloyd is a kind kid who wants nothing more than to help, but his incredible powers cause trouble for everyone he meets.
9 Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Revives A Classic Anime Fantasy Series
The original Orphen anime aired back in the early 2000s and was an example of a breakout fantasy anime from before the isekai era. The series was a huge success, resulting in multiple spin-off manga and even video games.
For the 25th anniversary, the anime was rebooted by Studio DEEN and split into two seasons. The first season aired in 2020, while the second season, The Battle of Kimluck, aired in 2021. For people looking for a throwback to a different yet familiar era of anime, this series is a must-watch.
8 Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- Featured Some Of The Most Beautiful Art Of The Year
In the far future, AIs have developed into malevolent beings that have nearly wiped out all humanity. There's only one chance at hope: a scientist sending a "pure" AI to the past named Matsumoto. A hundred years prior, the first advanced AI, Diva, is just a singer whose life mission is to make people happy.
But when she meets Matsumoto, she's given a daunting task: prevent the war between humanity and AI from breaking out. Choosing to use her biggest fan's nickname for her, Vivy rises to the challenge. Vivy was beautiful to look at and featured one of the best fight scenes of 2021. At only 13 episodes, Vivy is a low-investment anime from a time perspective.
7 Eden's Zero Is The Latest Series From Hiro Mashima
It's going to take some time for people to adjust to, but Eden's Zero is better than Fairy Tail. Eden's Zero definitely looks like Fairy Tail with Mashima reusing a bunch of Fairy Tail designs, but unlike Fairy Tail, Eden's Zero has a focused plot from the very start.
Eden's Zero isn't drowning in dozens and dozens of characters, and Mashima uses being in space as an excuse to throw out as many weird ideas as possible. Mashima not making things up as he goes along made for a fun sci-fi series, and it's a shame that Netflix owning the rights means it can't be part of anime's weekly discourse.
6 SSSS.Dynazenon Continues The Revival Of An Old '90s Property
When Studio Trigger decided to revive the relatively unknown 1993 tokusatsu Gridman the Hyper Agent, few could've guessed it would go this well. The first season, SSSS.Gridman, was a big enough hit that it was worth doing a sequel series. In this new series, yet another city is mysteriously under attack by kaiju.
This time, the city is under protection from Gauma, a so-called "kaiju user" who pilots the giant Dynazenon — but Gauma is not alone. He recruits a collection of high schoolers to help him pilot the mech and find who's behind the kaiju attacks.
5 How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom Showed There Are Other Ways To Do Isekai
By now, everyone's used to specific, predictable formulas for isekai. The key aspect is characters being brought to another world and changing things through violence. With Realist Hero, the protagonist is doing everything in his power to avoid fighting.
Souma is summoned by a country who can't afford to keep paying taxes to the country protecting their continent from demons and plan to send Souma to fight for them. Rather than do that, Souma puts his own skills as a public servant to use to bring them out of bankruptcy. Every episode is about his plans to improve the country, and the series feels like a break from typical isekai stories.
4 Tsukimichi Provides An Isekai Protagonist Rejected By His New World
Tsukimichi feels like the typical isekai series on the first watch, as the protagonist attains almost godlike powers and builds his own society in the world. But the difference in Tsukimichi is how everyone else in the world treats the protagonist. Makoto is forcibly brought from his world to the new world only to be rejected by the goddess of that world because of his appearance.
Believing Makoto is too ugly to be among her perfect humans, Makoto is left making friends with the monsters of society and giving them a safe haven. With hilarious writing and one of the better fight scenes of 2021, Tsukimichi acquired quite a few fans who are eagerly awaiting season 2.
3 The Case Study Of Vanitas Provided A Dark Fantasy Series For Vampire Fans
The Case Study of Vanitas is set in an alternate universe in 19th century Paris, where vampires are commonplace. The protagonist is Vanitas, a human who has developed a method of healing vampires from a curse that causes them to lose control of themselves.
Vanitas takes in Noe, a vampire who's meant to be an archivist, to help him on his quest to heal vampires with his Book of Vanitas. While they work, the duo runs into what might be the threat responsible for cursing vampires in the first place. Animated by BONES, Vanitas is a gorgeous series that'll speak to any steampunk or vampire fans.
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Banished From The Hero's Party Presents A Slice Of Life Fantasy Series
Banished From The Hero's Party is another fantasy series with video game RPG rules. The lead character is Red, a man who was once part of a group of adventurers meant to save the world. But Red's weakness was he could only become so powerful before he hit his level cap, like the pre-promoted units from the Fire Emblem games.
After one of his teammates rejects him for being too "weak," Red decides to travel to the countryside and live a peaceful life starting a pharmacy. Banished From The Hero's Party is literally just a slice-of-life with heavy romance elements, particularly after a former friend of his seeks him out and the two begin living together.
1 Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut Is About A Vampire With Dreams Of Traveling Into Space
In an alternate history, the space race happens between the Republic of Zirnitra and the United Kingdom of Arnak. Both sides are willing to do anything to reach space first, but the Republic has something the other side doesn't: a vampire girl. Irina Luminesk is used by the Republic as a test subject to make sure the Zirnitra get into space first.
Though most of the scientists treat her impartially, Irina meets Lev Leps, who becomes fascinated with Irina, and they bond over their shared dream of wanting to go into space. This show is worth watching if only because it features the return of legendary anime voice actress, Megumi Hayashibara, but Irina as a series is also a great science-fantasy series anyone can enjoy.