Fall 2021 Anime Awards

Hey guys! The Fall 2021 Anime Season has officially come to a close this week and I have to say that this season absolutely killed with the content we got! So much was so good that I don't even know how I'm going to break it all down!

(Original) Anime Of The Season

Blue Period is my pick for the anime of the season and really it could not be anything else. This show took the action from a shounen and mixed it with the emotion from a shojo making it the perfect mix of everything you could love in an anime. It follows a high school boy who discovers his love for art and we follow him as he applies to the only public art school in Japan. Every art piece he creates is meticulously broken down as if it's a fight in an action series and yet it's the emotional side that rings with you as you emphasize with his fear over whether he's good enough to go to art school or if the fact that he's a hard worker as important as being talented or whether he's started the game too late as he's in his final year of high school when he gets serious! The ending of this show takes place as he gets his results for his college entrance exam and it's a perfect ending to this arc leaving me hoping that we get another season so I can enjoy more!

Runner Up - The Vampire Dies In No Time

Hidden Gem 

The Vampire Dies In No Time is my pick for hidden gem of the season cause I truly haven't heard anyone discuss this hilarious anime. It's first and foremost a comedy and the show definitely doesn't hide it which is interesting cause Japanese comedies don't always work for me but this show made me cackle out loud multiple times including in the pilot. The concept is that we're following a vampire hunter who ends up accidentally destroying an immortal vampire's mansion in the mountains so the vampire has to live with the hunter. The hilarity comes from the episodic vampires the two have to hunt down, the extremely colorful cast of hunters, and the fact that the vampire is the weakest vampire to exist cause even the slightest nudge can turn him to dust! There's a second season coming out soon so it's the perfect time to catch up if you haven't already!

Runner Up - Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In the Countryside

Best Sequel 

86 Eighty-Six Season 2 is definitely the best sequel of this season which wasn't honestly a surprise to me cause as you all know when it first aired back in Spring 2021 it was my favorite original anime of the season so it's only fair it gets the shout for being my favorite sequel as well. I was a bit saddened at how terrible the release schedule was this time around but I don't think it took away from the quality of the show. I loved seeing the 86 find that there was a whole world outside of the Republic and having to watch them discover their new place in it. I loved learning a bit more about the other nations and seeing that despite them condemning the Republic for the way they treated the 86, there were shades of the same behavior in these "good" nations that fascinated me. I did wish that there was a bit more Lena throughout cause I feel like we kinda skipped over much of her character development in order to follow the 86 but also there's no way she's dead so I guess not showing her is supposed to shock us when she does arrive probs to save Shin from himself.

Runner Up - Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2

Greatest Animation/Character Design

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train Arc had the best animation this season cause duh of course it did. I am always fascinated and in awe of how constantly beautiful the show is whether it's showing us a fight or we're watching our heroes sit on a train. I think it's the way everything is outlined in a dark black line and the colors are turned up rather than lowered like most anime.

Runner Up - Blue Period

Best OP 

Dies In No Time by Jun Fukuyama from The Vampire Dies In Time is the best OP of the season. I could never skip it anytime it came on and I definitely downloaded it to listen to!

Runner Up - Dark Seeks Light by Yui Ninomiya from The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated In Another World As An Aristocrat

Protagonist(s) Of The Season

Lugh Tuatha Dé from The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated In Another World As An Aristocrat is actually my protagonist of the season cause I thought that he was a fascinating hero from the very first moment we met him. Unlike most isekai protagonists Lugh was not a loser or a pervert who was isekai-ed into becoming OP cause he was OP before this and it was actually that exact reason that he was picked. I loved that he filled up his harem with woman who he chose cause of what they could give him in terms of support with killing the hero rather than cause they were pretty or he accidentally saved them out of the kindness of his heart. Despite this I also loved that the arc he went through was still so similar to a lot of isekai leads (Rudy comes to mind) where he learns to be more human and accept and cherish his emotions so much so that he ends up finding love for the first time and throws away something important to save her.

Runner Up - Lena and Shin from 86 Eighty-Six Season 2

Antagonist(s) Of The Season

Metropoliman from Platinum End is my antagonist of the season and this was hard not cause there were so many villains to pick from this season but actually cause there were so few. I did decide that Demon Slayer shouldn't count cause the Mugen Train arc was just a repeat of the movie and while the Legion from 86 are formidable they are just mindless robots whereas I prefer my villains to be nuanced so here we are. Now don't get me wrong Metropoliman isn't exactly the most layered villain with his hatred for everyone around him but the fact that he's doing everything he's doing to save his sister gives him points. He's smart enough to outwit our heroes a few times and he's ready to sacrifice pawns at any given notice.

Runner Up - The demons from Mieruko-chan

Ship Of The Season

Lena and Shin from 86 Eighty-Six Season 2 are my ship of the season cause they are perfection. The funniest thing about them is the fact that technically they aren't together yet and honestly I don't even know if the show will go romantic with them and yet in my head canon they are perfect for each other. Lena needs Shin in order to put her naivety aside and fight for what's right no matter what others say while Shin needs Lena to pull him back from the edge of a cliff. He's been spiraling deeper and deeper into madness since he thought he lost her and cause of that he's had nothing to live for but I have a feeling the minute Lena shows up he'll find his reason to live in a way that none of his friends could show him.

Runner Up - Yuzuki and Tamahiko from Taisho Otome Fairy Tale

And with that I'll see you all in the Winter 2022 Season!!

xoxo Allie