Welcome back to my Top 20 Anime of 2020. We had a fun little first set of five that I’m sure some have made it to your lists or came close. I know I am also missing some that I haven’t seen but then again, all the wrestling and covid shift, I was unable to watch everything. This was where it got a little more difficult in terms of placement since a lot of these animes I’ve enjoyed a lot, even one from a series I dislike.

Anyway, let’s get onto the next five.

Previous List

20-16

15. Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun

– This was one of the first ones that I’ve followed for the winter season and what drew me in was the art style that this anime had. Once I watched it, however, I couldn’t help but enjoy the depth of it in terms of character and the environment surrounding it. A different twist from the Japanese urban legend, “Hanako-san of the Toilet”, you find out in the anime that Hanako is a boy ghost that is in the girl’s bathroom and befriends a girl named Nene Yashiro who is desperate to find a boy to fall in love with. She kept failing and would eventually become cursed after eating a mermaid scale, causing Hanako to eat one as well so the two would bond with Hanako taking her in as his assistant. I watched this one in both sub and dub, mostly due to Hanako being voiced by Midoriya from MHA and it worked quite well for the dubbed version of it.

During the series, we get colorful characters such as Kou Minamoto, Miysuba, and then the antagonists are fun to see…except for one person. We also see some of the seven realms in which these spirits rule the domain of their respective sections, and while some evil, you get some that are either good or misguided. The really interesting part is while it seems comical and kid-friendly, there’s also a bit of something dark in this series and it starts with Hanako’s twin brother, Tsukasa. He looks exactly like him and you find out Hanako killed him when they were both alive but you don’t know the reason why it is but if you read between the lines of how they act towards one another or even in the OP, heavy hints that Tsukasa sexually assaults and abused his brother while Hanako tries to hide it. Just seeing the expression of fear on his face whenever he appears, afraid to look at him, nearly crying every time he sees him just shows the power his twin brother has over him. Despite all that, good comical fun, stellar art designs, a creative world, and fun characters all around to make this enjoyable.

14. Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

– Of course, our favorite traveling witch would find her way into my list, how can you deny that pretty face of hers? Anyway, the story of Elaina would embark when she travels around the world like one of her favorite witches, Nike. While exploring the world, she meets a lot of various characters and goes to these new places. One of the more fun pairings in this series is the interactions between Elaina and Saya, who is the apprentice of the traveling witch but as the show grows, it slowly starts to become something else. With how fun and whimsical this anime is, what could go wrong, right?

It would turn out something does happen and it happens during the 9th episode of the series where you see a dark twisted turn in the series. This is something I won’t go too much into detail or spoil since this is just something you would need to see for yourself. The episode was too graphic that you get a warning before the episode even starts, and they’re not even kidding with that warning since it’s disturbing. This showed that the show was more than some light-hearted fantasy series, it can also become deep in terms of character trauma, just the drama of it to give it that balance that is needed to make it even more memorable. A thrilling adventure, a story told for the ages, fun times for everyone, and was considered one of the best for the fall season and with good reason.

13. Sword Art Online: Alicization War of Underworld Part 2

– Let me make one thing clear before I start my reasonings here, I have a great dislike for Sword Art Online. This is one of those that has such an interesting concept but gets ruined with poor execution and poor writing. Even SAO Abridged does a better job at producing the show than the actual thing, even pointing the flaws people have but I know a lot of people praise it as the greatest of our generation. So you’re probably asking yourselves “If you hate this anime so much, why is it on here?” And I’m glad you asked because I wasn’t going to put it on here or bother watching it but few of my friends convinced me that this was better than the previous seasons while having problems with it prior as well and that I was able to follow it fine even if I didn’t watch it all. I took their word for it and needed to see for myself. I will admit that despite my distaste for the series…this one is actually done well. So with that, I will give credit where credit is due as if Alicization was like the rest of the series, I probably wouldn’t have given it that much harp.

One of the main things that I thought was a huge upgrade was the change in character with Kirito despite being a vegetable for most of it but we see a different side of him at the same time, the pain he has been hiding with everything that has been transpired during this season and then some. One thing I will praise the series for is the music they provide as those are usually better than the show itself, and this was no different. One of the bigger takeaways that it felt rushed near the end in terms of story with a struggle with a certain problem for various episodes, gets solved quickly in the next like no problem. With that aside, another thing to praise is the animation and just the action that came with it to give us a thrilling conclusion to the season, if only it was the series finale but that doesn’t appear to be the case. While still heavily flawed, there was still enough there to make me tolerate it than disliking it, so progress on my end, right? Watching this made me see why people do love it so much and why it gets all this praise but for me personally, not my cup of tea but don’t like that ruin your time of enjoying it. It made me appreciate the potential that it does have to be great but still finds ways to make it slip through their fingers, so close.

12. Adachi and Shimamura

– Now, I do enjoy yaoi/yuri animes when they’re done right, I like when they are light-hearted or have a deep story, like given which is one of my favorites. So with this topic, this would turn out to be my favorite of the yuri genre this year as we look into the friendship between Adachi and Shimamura. The same person who created this series was the same person who made Bloom Into You, which is also another great yuri, so that was enough to get me interested and seeing how this one plays out. You get the story of two delinquents that start to befriend one another by skipping school to play in a secret area in the gym room. You didn’t know what to make of this friendship and at first, it seems like they were just friends but as the story goes on, Adachi is slowly building feelings for Shimamura. While you have them together, you see more characters like Shimamura’s friends, Hino and Nagafuji, Shimamura’s mother and sister, sometimes Adachi’s mother, and an alien. Yes…you heard me right, we have an alien character in this show named Yashiro Chikama. Why is there an alien in this show you might ask? Nobody knows why but here we are and they don’t seem to question it either, so why should we?

Anyway, the main focus is Adachi and Shimamura and while it progresses, Adachi seems to not know the right words to say to try and confess her love to her and whenever she tries to, she falls short or says the wrong thing. At the same time, we find out all about Adachi’s feelings but we never truly know if Shimamura feels the same way for her or her personality is just her being distant, feeling like she’s destined to be alone as people come and go from her life. Each episode leaves you guessing and you also have tender moments that make you think that they actually do have something there and maybe Shimamura is waiting for her to have the confidence to say how she really feels. In the later episodes, they grow distant during their second year of school, Shimamura gaining new friends from the class while Adachi is still unable to have the courage to even talk to her as she has been feeling more lonely and sometimes jealous since she went from spending a lot of time with her to hardly seeing her except in class. During the last episode, we see Shimamura whispering something to her when Adachi slept over but you don’t hear what she had to say, leaving you guessing and it could be that she has returned her feelings towards her. It seems to be the case with how Shimamura talks about her at the end of the episode and will there be a season two? Doubtful but it would be nice to have a satisfying conclusion. Great soundtrack, one of the best pairings this year in terms of character development, can tug at your heartstrings at this, it was worthy of being here.

11. Uzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out!

– Ah yes, Twitter’s natural enemy, Uzaki-Chan! The ‘controversy’ over Uzaki on Twitter was really head-scratching since she was considered unrealistic due to her small height and large breasts that these people tried to redraw her horribly mind you. This is why it’s not on here, even though I love to piss off these types of people but it’s on here that this is one of the funniest animes I’ve seen this year. The story is very simple, Uzaki and Sakurai are college students and Uzaki wishes to hang out with Sakurai but you find out that he’s a shut-in who goes to work, goes to school, and plays video games while not enjoying life around him, making himself anti-social. Uzaki hated that, so she does what she does best, annoys the shit out of him to make him more social while they hang out. The chemistry they have with one another is some of the best on this show, going back and forth with little banters, getting on each other’s nerves while also having moments where they slowly develop feelings for one another. It even gets to the point where his own boss, Akihiko Asai, and his daughter, Ami get involved in the mix due to Asai loving their dynamic that he tires to pair Sakurai and Uzaki without them know, even his daughter is in on it despite having a crush on Sakurai before meeting Uzaki.

Every single episode has been a delight with none of them boring me, always doing something new and exciting. There are times you see Sakurai growing out of his shell to be more open while at the same time, still has part of his old self where he does want some quiet time but with Uzaki around, he ain’t getting any of that any time soon. I know people have criticized Uzaki’s voice and found it to be extremely annoying but to me, it just fits the character much better and it’s not something over the top either. Looking at you, Asta. These little nitpicks about the character are all taken out of context and when you look past that, she is an enjoyable character and even has moments that she really is a caring person deep down, and is just someone full of life. So she wants to share that with her senpai. Thankfully, they did get renewed for a second season, so god knows what type of antics will ensue during the new season and how much of this will develop. One of my favorite comedies/slices of life of the year and if it weren’t for these other animes listed above it, this would’ve been much high but still a fantastic series if you want a good laugh.

That concludes another five for the countdown and starting tomorrow, we look at our Top 10, isn’t that exciting!? No? Well, alright then. Stay tuned anyway!