Watch New Anime
'Akudama Drive' | Pierrot
'Akudama Drive' | Pierrot
The 2010s were good to long-fourth dimension anime enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Over the course of the past decade, simulcasting and online streaming services such as Netflix, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime, and Hulu reshaped the nature of the medium in both subtle and awesome ways, transforming how anime fans discovered, shared, and historic the shows and movies they loved. Japanese blitheness is a stronger medium now than at any other time in its beingness, and 2020's slate of shows proved equally much. These were our 20 favorite shows from a weird yr.
Want even More than anime? Don't sleep on our new favorites from 2021, the Best Anime of 2019, and our favorites from the whole decade.
20. Darwin's Game
Release date: Jan three
Director: Yoshinobu Tokumoto
Animation production: Nexus
If yous were to cantankerous Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's adrenaline-charged social thriller Nervus with the mystery-driven ultra-violence of Hiroya Oku's Gantz, it'd probably await something like Darwin's Game. Based on artist "Ginko" and writer Yuki Takahata's manga of the aforementioned proper name, the anime centers on 17-year-former Kaname Sudō, who, after accepting an mysterious invite from a recently deceased friend, is thrust into a mortiferous supernatural bloodsport known only as Darwin's Game. Pitted against a core of sociopaths and with no way to seek aid from the outside earth, Kaname must rely on his wits and volition to survive while searching for a ways to escape this living nightmare. Produced past studio Nexus, the 11-episode series is penned entirely past serial writer Yuki Takahata, resulting in an adaptation that'south a nigh one-to-i match with the source textile. If you're looking for a taut activeness series with serious mystery drama, Darwin's Game is a solid choice.
Available on:Crunchyroll, Funimation
19. Pet
Release appointment: January 6
Managing director: Takahiro Omori
Blitheness production: Geno Studio
Pet is a real mindscrew, in more than ways than ane. Based on Ranjō Miyake'due south manga of the same name, the serial follows Tsukasa and Hitomi, 2 empaths with the ability to delve within the minds of others and dispense their memories and perceptions. Employed by a shadowy organisation known simply as "The Company," the pair are tasked with using their abilities to cover up crimes, assassinations, and commit all sorts of unsavory acts, more than often than not at the expense of innocent lives and their ain fractured psyches. The dialogue can be frustratingly obtuse at times, with crucial terms similar "peaks" and "valleys" thrown out of left field with little if whatsoever formal explanation, and the initial episodes tin exist a bit hard to follow with regard to what is being seen or perceived by whom at whatsoever given moment. Hang in at that place, though—it'due south a story that gradually makes more than sense the longer it goes on and rewards the closer you pay attending. And barring even that, information technology's still worth a watch for the psychedelic visuals lone. Call up of information technology equally a more freakish accept on Christopher Nolan's Inception by style of Philip K. Dick'south Ubik.
Bachelor on:Amazon Prime
eighteen.Somali and the Woods Spirit
Release date: January 9
Manager: Kenji Yasuda
Blitheness production: Satelight
If your tastes veer more towards the whimsical fare of Studio Ghibli than explicitly activity-oriented titles, Somali and the Wood Spirit is a perfect choice. Set in a world of magic and sorcery populated by spirits, goblins, and all sorts of creatures, the serial follows the journey of a forest-protecting golem and their companion, a precocious child named Somali. Together, the 2 commence on a search for a abode for Somali amid the last of the humans, a race of beings previously thought to have been persecuted and hunted to the brink of extinction ages ago. Think Alphonse and Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, but instead of ii brothers in search of the philosopher's stone to restore their bodies, it'southward a father figure and their adoptive ward searching for safety and security in a world of dangers at every turn. With exquisite backgrounds, disarming humour, and a story with genuine emotional pull, Somali and the Forest Spirit is a spirited legend of parenthood and honey found in the almost unlikely of circumstances.
Available on:Crunchyroll
17. In/Spectre
Release date: January 11
Director: Keiji Gotoh
Animation production: Brain's Base of operations
Supernatural mystery series are a dime a dozen when it comes to anime, and then information technology's refreshing when ane comes along that has equally intriguing a premise and personality every bit In/Spectre. Based on Kyo Shirodaira's novel series, In/Spectre follows 15-year-quondam Iwanaga Kotoko, a university student who four years prior to the serial'southward start was all-powerful as the "Goddess of Wisdom" of the spirit world at the toll of her left leg and right center. Acting every bit an intermediary between the homo and spirit world, Kotoko is tasked with solving disputes and discrepancies between the 2. In that location's just one problem: Kuro Sakuragawa, Kotoko's fast-made companion and beau, is a surprisingly fearsome entity with mysterious powers that strike fear in the spirits who Kotoko is charged with protecting. A serial mystery crossed with an odd-couple rom-com that occasionally pokes at the fourth wall, In/Spectre is a gorgeously blithe series with fun twists, delightful characters, and engrossing cases that'll keep you hooked to the end.
Available on: Crunchyroll, HBO Max
16. Food Wars! The Fifth Plate
Premiere date: April eleven
Managing director: Yoshitomo Yonetai
Production studio: J.C.Staff
The horniest cooking anime to ever be comes to an end in its 5th season as Yukihira Soma and his band of globe-course talented teenaged chefs compete and spectate in the most prestigious cooking competition for chefs under 25 during the Totsuki culinary university's summertime break. Though Food Wars!, aka Shokugeki No Soma, has turned into more of shōnen battle manga with food, taking on the seedy chefs of Noir, than the groundbreaking technique explainer of its past, it's no less celebratory of the fine art and joy of cooking in all its trial and error, failure and success.
Available on:Crunchyroll, HBO Max
15. BNA: Brand New Animal
Release date: June xxx
Director: Yoh Yoshinari
Animation production: Studio Trigger
In the future, the centuries-quondam existence of a race of animal-human hybrids known as "beastmen" has been made known to humanity. Faced with the threat of social unrest and undue persecution by the humans, the beastmen are granted "separate simply equal" coexistence within an autonomous zone of Japan where they established Anima City, the sole sanctuary for beastmen in the human earth. Michiru Kagemori, a teenage daughter who has been mysteriously transformed into a beastman, comes to Anima City in search of answers and a cure to her curious condition, and is thrown headfirst into a world of adventure, intrigue, and conspiracy. You Yoshinari'south latest series has everything yous'd come to expect from the legendary animator-director behind FLCL, Gurren Lagann, and Little Witch Academia: dazzling animation, whimsically rubberband physical comedy, slap-up music, and Caprine animal-tier background and character design, courtesy of up-and-coming animator-illustrator Genice Chan. BNA: Brand New Fauna is all the same another splendid addition in Trigger's body of work, a visual evolution of the studio work on 2019'south feature filmPromare, and ane of the twelvemonth's most enjoyable anime to watch.
Available on:Netflix
13.Tower of God
Release engagement: April 1
Director: Takashi Sano
Animation product: Telecom Animation Moving-picture show
Tower of God has been i of the most talked-about new series of 2020, and for adept reason. A collaboration betwixt Crunchyroll and digital comic publisher Webtoon, the series is an anime accommodation of the online 'manhwa' (Korean for 'comic') by artist South.I.U. and the latest in Crunchyroll's recent push into producing its own original anime content. The series follows Bam, an amnesiac youth who is mysteriously teleported into the eponymous Belfry of God, a metaphysical structure that seemingly encompasses the entire world and is designed to bequeath immense powers upon those capable of reaching its heights. On his journey to reach the tower'due south acme in search of his dearest friend Rachel, Bam must surround himself with allies in order to overcome the Tower's deadly trials and even deadlier adversaries. A gorgeous fantasy-take chances with rich characters, dumbo mythology, and beautiful animation, Tower of God will satisfy anyone hungry for a new shonen series to binge.
Available on:Crunchyroll
12. Haikyuu!! To the Top
Premiere date: January 11
Managing director: Masako Satō
Production studio: Production I.G.
The men'southward loftier schoolhouse volleyball anime Haikyuu!! has gained an obsessive fandom over its four seasons, and it's a no brainer why: While the prove is, of form, about high-level volleyball, where ane evidence-stopping match could take up practically an entire season'due south arc, the real depict are each of the teams that make up the ongoing rivalries. But nosotros're forever rooting for Karasuno High School, and the setter-hitter dynamic of all-star Tobio Kageyama and rise star Shouyou Hinata, set for and compete in the national tournament. With every ace, diving save, big block, and perfect spike, Haikyuu!! volition make you intendance deeply about volleyball fifty-fifty if yous don't know the showtime thing about the sport.
Bachelor on:Crunchyroll
xi. Japan Sinks: 2020
Release engagement: July ix
Manager: Pyeon-Gang Ho, Masaaki Yuasa
Animation product: Science SARU
Pyeon-Gang Ho and Masaaki Yuasa's adaptation of Sakyo Komatsu'southward 1973 disaster novel takes the original premise and updates it for the modern era. When Japan is rocked by a major earthquake, the Mutō family is forced to band together to weather the cascade of subsequent disasters and perils that follow in its wake. Japan Sinks: 2020 is a harrowing survivalist spotter, particularly in a post-Fukushima disaster, post-COVID-19 world. As they journeying across the land in search of refuge and safety among an onslaught of environmental dangers and malicious opportunists, death comes swiftly and indiscriminately for both loved ones and strangers alike. With a gorgeous theme song composed by the inimitable Ryuichi Sakamoto and a pulse-pounding score by composer Kensuke Ushio, Nippon Sinks: 2020 is a attestation to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unfathomable adversity and unprecedented environmental horror.
Available on: Netflix
10. Aggretsuko (Season three)
Release engagement: August 27
Director: Rarecho
Animation production: Fanworks
Rarecho and studio Fanworks' Aggretsuko comes roaring back for another exciting flavor of drama, dearest, and guttural expiry metal. Retsuko and co.'s journey through young adulthood takes some sharp turns as they navigate the pressures of predatory microtransactions, budding function romances, idol groups and sinister fanboys, the death march of a debt-driven society under the iron dominion of capitalism, and the tough but necessary choices that come with growing as both a professional and as a person. As harrowing and full of centre as the series has e'er been, Aggretsuko Season 3 is wild enough to requite Bojack Horseman's emotional rollercoaster a ride for its coin and without a doubt a must-sentry.
Available on:Netflix
ix. Kaguya-sama: Dearest is War (Season 2)
Release date: Apr 11
Director: Mamoru Hatakeyama
Animation production: A-1 Pictures
Educatee council president Miyuki Shirogane and vice president Kaguya Shinomiya return for another flavour of machiavellian shenanigans and romantic hijinks! The first season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War was i of last yr'southward standout new serial, a devious and hilarious twist on the classic 'volition-they-won't-they' formula of high school rom-com anime. Season ii has even more in the way of lovestruck mishaps between Miyuki and Kaguya, as well every bit more time spotlighting old and new breakout favorites such as the Kaguya's hyper-capable assistant Ai Hayasaki and Miyuki'southward icy cool sister Kei. And meliorate, the 2d flavor is but self-contained enough that viewers new to the serial could pop in to lookout man this one without missing a beat. Kaguya-sama: Love is War is uproariously hilarious, stylistically inventive, and hands i of the best anime rom-coms to come out this yr.
Available on:Funimation
8.Attack on Titan (Flavor 4)
Release date: December 7
Manager: Jun Shishido, Yūichirō Hayashi
Blitheness production: MAPPA
The highly celebrated and fiercely debated anime Attack on Titan returns for its fourth and concluding flavor with new horrors, greater perils, and a new studio behind the scenes. With the true nature of the Titans finally revealed, the rightful heir to the throne of the Walled City properly seated, and the serial' truthful antagonists unveiled in the form of the mysterious mainland country of Marley, the concluding season of the pop night fantasy action series subverts expectations once over again past shifting its perspectives to that of the Marley military as they mount ane last desperate campaign to take Paradis Island and the power of the Founding Titan from Eren Yeager. With long-fourth dimension AoT studio Wit having moved on post-obit their work on Flavor three, MAPPA and co-directors Jun Shishido and Yūichirō Hayashi have stepped upward to bring the series' finale to fruition. While it may exist too soon to say how it compares to that of the series' preceding flavor, what's abundantly clear is that Attack on Titan Season 4 is 1 of this twelvemonth's biggest releases and certainly not one to exist missed.
Bachelor on: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu
7. Great Pretender
Release date: August xx
Director: Hiro Kaburagi
Blitheness production: Studio Wit
Makoto Edamura is Nihon's greatest con-man. Or at to the lowest degree, that's what he thinks until he'due south bested by Laurent Thierry, a suave and masterful gentleman thief who eyes up the young Edamura to join his drifting crew as his apprentice. Traveling the world from San Francisco to Singapore, London and beyond, Edamura learns the tricks of the merchandise as he cons the criminal elite'southward most dastardly plutocrats while growing upwards along the way, all tinged with the same sense of humor that you'd find in any of the Body of water'due south movies. Directed by Hiro Kaburagi (91 Days, Speed Grapher) and written by screenwriter Ryota Kosawa, Great Pretender is a death-defying, high-wire heist drama packed with a dazzling art blueprint, beautiful vistas, and an infectiously jazzy score that easily catapults information technology amid the ranks of very best, well-nigh memorable, and exciting new anime to come up out in 2020.
Available on:Netflix
6. Akudama Bulldoze
Release date: Oct 8
Managing director: Tomohisa Taguchi
Animation production: Pierrot
Ever wondered what an anime version of Suicide Team from the writer of Danganronpa and the studio behind Tokyo Ghoul would wait like? That's Akudama Drive in a nutshell. Set in an outlandish dystopian sci-fi world where the Japanese region of Kansai has been transformed into a vassal state under the rule of Kanto, the series follows an ordinary young woman who, after a take a chance meet with a group of hardened criminals known as Akudama (literally Japanese for "bad guys"), is fitted with an explosive collar and tasked with performing a seemingly incommunicable heist at the behest of a mysterious benefactor in the guise of a robotic true cat. What starts out wild only intensifies into an engrossingly over-the-elevation, visually abrasive, and unapologetically hyper-violent action testify that lives and dies by the Rule of Cool. If y'all're looking for a show that throws caution to the air current and acts like subtext is for cowards, Akudama Drive was made for you.
Available on:Hulu, Funimation
five. Dorohedoro
Release date: May 28
Director: Yuichiro Hayashi
Animation production: MAPPA
Based on Q Hayashida's cult dark fantasy sci-fi manga of the same name, Dorohedoro is set in the Hole, a harsh derelict metropolis populated past humans and an always-increasing number of unfortunate souls transformed into chimeric monstrosities by malicious sorcerers from another dimension. The series follows Caiman, an amnesiac bounty hunter and his best friend Nikaido as they scour the depths of the Hole in search of the sorcerer who cursed him with a lizard's caput. Oh yeah, he'due south also got a sentient human head at the back of his throat that pops upwardly Xenomorph-style whenever Caiman swallows his prey to search for the culprit. Information technology only gets weirder from there. Packed to the skirt with gnarly violence, leather-clad weirdos, pitch-blackness humor, and more than a few moments of light-hearted levity, Dorohedoro is a dark and impressive hybrid-CG anime that combines dystopian body-horror and piece-of-life comedy to brand for i of the nigh heady and unique new series to come out in 2020.
Bachelor on:Netflix
4. Jujutsu Kaisen
Release engagement: Oct three
Director: Sunghoo Park
Animation production: MAPPA
End me if you've heard this one earlier. An athletically-gifted high schooler (Itadori Yuuri) with tremendous physical strength and the ability to converse with spirits is whisked away from his ordinary life to get a highly specialized supernatural warrior (Jujutsu Sorcerer) under the careful tutelage of an eccentric masked mentor (Satoru Gojō) after he inadvertently becomes the vessel of an immensely powerful and evil entity (Ryoumen Sukuna). No, this isn't Naruto or Bleach or Yu Yu Hakusho; it'south Jujutsu Kaisen, and it's awesome. Adapted from Gege Akutami's ongoing Shonen Jump manga and helmed by an exemplary host of animators, including series director Sunghoo Park (Garo: Vanishing Line), primal animator Shingo Yamashita (Birdy the Mighty Decode), and animation director Tadashi Hiramatsu (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Jujutsu Kaisen is perfect for any fan of deftly animated activity anime searching for a new favorite serial while patiently waiting for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba to render. With an exhilarating blend of supernatural horror-activeness, boundless fight scenes, oddball characters, and charming piece-of-life sense of humour, Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the well-nigh promising new anime to premiere this year.
Bachelor on:Crunchyroll, HBO Max
3. Beastars
Release date: March 13
Director: Shinichi Matsumi
Animation production: Orange
Fix in a world of anthropomorphic animals, Beastars is the story of Legoshi, a chivalrous if dour young lupine who crosses paths with Haru, an emotionally aloof and promiscuous dwarf rabbit, through serendipitous circumstances and begins to develop complicated feelings for her. Legoshi's central and emotional awakening is exacerbated by his status as a carnivore, forcing him to confront the terrifying question of whether what he feels for Haru is simply his instinctual urge to hunt and impale, or something more. From a technical and creative standpoint, everything about Beastars is masterful. From its sincerely nuanced delineation of a club frayed between unlike competing castes of carnivores and herbivores, to its inspired sense of limerick and lighting, Beastars is an absurd, terrifying, horny, and heartfelt anime that stands head and shoulders above the pack.
Bachelor on: Netflix
ii. Deca-Dence
Release date: July 8
Director: Yuzuru Tachikawa
Animation production: Nut
Is it actually any surprise that managing director Yuzuru Tachikawa (Death Parade, Mob Psycho 100) and screenwriter Hiroshi Seko (Set on on Titan, Assistant Fish, Vinland Saga) are behind not only 1 of the best anime of 2020, but one of the biggest anime twists of the year? Deca-Dence follows the story of Natsume, a young girl living aboard a massive mobile fortress in a post-apocalyptic world who dreams of becoming ane of its defenders, and Kaburagi, her taciturn mentor figure whose past and nature conceals an unfathomable secret about the nature of their earth and Natsume's very existence. What starts out as an impressively executed, if boiler-plate, mash-up of Assail on Titan by way of Mortal Engines apace transforms into a cerebral sci-fi drama resembling a cocktail of Westworld, Monster Hunter, and mutant hybrid of Pixar's Wall-East meets Disney's Wreck-It Ralph. With dazzling action, cute animation, and a deliriously high-concept premise that'll leave your head spinning, Deca-Dence is an unquestionable must-watch for any anime fan in 2020.
Available on:Hulu, Funimation
1. Keep Your Easily off Eizouken!
Release engagement: January 5
Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Animation production: Science Saru
Based on Sumito Ōwara's manga series of the same proper noun, Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! follows loftier schooler Midori and her friends Sayaka and Tsubame as they attempt to establish an anime club on their school'southward campus and produce their own blithe film. What follows is a wild odyssey of the highs and lows of trying to suspension into animation, the blazon of comedic and disarmingly hostage portrayal of youthful ambition in the face of opposition, and inexperience that reaffirms why you vicious in beloved with anime in the first place. Brimming with meticulous nods to some of the medium's finest creators and a mischievously meta sense of creativity that'll have fifty-fifty the most rock-faced of viewers smiling ear to ear, it's the kind of show yous could but look from the likes of Masaaki Yuasa (Devilman Crybaby, Ping Pong the Animation, etc.) and the team behind Science Saru. Meridian that with an infectiously trippy championship theme and score courtesy of rap duo chelmico and experimental producer Oorutaichi and you've got 1 of the most memorable and hilarious anime of the yr.
Bachelor on: Crunchyroll, HBO Max
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Toussaint Egan (@TheSaintOfTous) is a contributor to Thrillist.
Leanne Butkovic (@leanbutk) as well contributed to this list.
Source: https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/best-anime-2020
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