Anime, how I’ve missed thee. Covid really slowed everything down to a halt, and while things are not normal now, they are getting better. The winter anime season has come and graced us with many anticipated shows and many new seasons. Some great, some not so great and some coming in hot with controversy.

First off, let us get out the elephant in the room: Attack on Titan. The excitement for Attack on Titan was immense. Every season of Attack on Titan has always been met with much passion and excitement for fans since the first season was shot into popularity in 2013. Season three was released in 2018, and after two years of waiting, the fourth season has come in with a bang. Magnified by the manga readers singing its praises endlessly before the release, Attack on Titan has become what seems to be an instant classic. On IMDB’s episode rankings, episodes six and seven both scored 9.9 out of 10, with around 30,000 reviews for each, while episode ten boasts a perfect score of ten out of ten with over forty thousand reviews. That’s not all, it is also ranked as the number two best anime on My Anime List, beat only by FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood. That’s not to say that things are all jolly. For one, spoilers are ripe everywhere the second episodes come out as well as manga readers having their fun. Complaints have also been raised about the use of CGI, though the viewing community is split on whether it is worth complaining about. All of this is tied in with the tired old criticism that the show is fascist because the antagonists of the series are a fascist nation. 

For the action fans, Attack on Titan has been a blessing bestowed by the heavens. However this season has also brought out some nice contenders for the romantics and slice of life enthusiasts. One romance anime that has been received really well is Horimiya. The anime and its characters have topped many of the Animetrendz.com’s polls as of late. With the two main male and female characters getting ranked number one on the basis of best male character, best female character, best nonsequel male character, best nonsequel female character and best couple in the third week of the anime season (an anime season is twelve weeks long), the anime itself has also been ranked as number one in terms of popularity for two weeks since airing for nonsequel anime. Though they have gone down as the season continues, they remain in the top five. This is in addition to the second season of The Quintessential Quintuplets, a harem romance comedy. Even the extremely dedicated and loyal fanbase of Yuru Camp has received a second season for their anime.

That is not to say that this season has not brought some tears to the eyes of the viewers. Another heavily anticipated season two was that of the Promised Neverland. Promised Neverland was extremely popular when it came out for its dark, survivalist type story of kids finding out their entire lives are a lie and having to escape their orphanage before they all die. Season two, however, dropped the ball almost immediately. They cut the second best arc of the story from the anime. Additionally, around fifty chapters worth of manga were not animated. Important plot threads, over ten characters, and many emotional developments were just left out. The manga readers obviously weren’t happy and the anime-onlys noticed the pacing of the season changed and things were developing really quickly for some reason. The reaction was mixed with some enjoying the season anyway while others simply dropped it or picked up the manga. 

What is every season without its controversies, though? There have been dozens of anime controversies over the last few years in the anime community simply because more people have started watching anime, and new people add new feelings, new perspectives, etc. Every season has its controversial anime. To name a few, there was Goblin Slayer in 2018, Rising of the Shield Hero in 2019, and Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out last year. This season is a show called Re-do of Healer. Re-do of Healer is an anime that was made to offend people. In the first two episodes there’s torture, sexual assult, drug addiction and many other triggering subjects. With those types of subjects, it’s clear why people would have a problem with it. The interesting thing, however, is that unlike past controversial shows, this anime is pretty terrible. Past controversial shows weren’t trying to offend, they were trying to tell good stories and because of that there was conflict between fans of the shows and those who felt the subjects covered were too taboo. No one likes Re-do of Healer. The story is bad, animation is standard, the world is copy paste, none of the characters are likeable and it’s frankly just uncomfortable to watch. Due to the lack of quality, this controversy is very one-sided, with no one really defending the show. 

This season has its hiccups as all seasons do, but overall Winter 2021 anime is a glimmer of hope for the future. Last year’s anime was underwhelming, it didn’t get much attention because of that. This season though is probably the best starting point for 2021 anime and I am excited to see where it goes next.