My Favourite Anime of the Last Four Years 2019 - 2022 Part 2

In the first part of this article, My Favourite Anime of the Last Four Years 2019 - 2022 Part 1, I covered eight shows that I really enjoyed in the last four years of anime viewing.  I'm now going to cover the remaining ten shows that stood out for me. My criteria for what I considered really good is usually a combination of good storytelling that isn't usually too cliched, or something that is just fun to watch.  A couple of the shows featured here in the second half are just relaxing to watch too.

In the first half of my favourites, I said I left a whole pile of isekai shows out. I did, but this half seems to showcase the best of the isekai shows of the last four years.  Isekai stories are about a protagonist being transported/reincarnated into another fantasy world, usually with special powers.  They are pretty much a power-trip, dream fantasy in most cases with overpowered protagonists and no real threats, so they can be entertaining, but dull and unoriginal.  I have to say that I'm a little isekai'd out right now as it seems like a good percentage of new shows are set in this genre, but there's still shows in the production pipeline so they're going to stay popular for awhile.  Not all isekai shows are mediocre, and many of them have some unique twists such as The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat "Rods from God" scene (see kinetic bombardment).

Anyhow, lets get on with the listing of the last ten of my favourite shows.

Laid Back Camp

This series is all about some teen girls camping and sightseeing in Japan on the southern half of the main island of Honshu.  Nadeshiko Kagamihara meets Rin Shima, a veteran camper, and they begin their solo and all friends camping adventures.  The show is pleasantly animated, features many views of Mount Fuji and other gorgeous scenery.  The biggest conflict in the show is how to pay for their camping adventures, is it better to solo camp or camp with friends, and what to cook for dinner!  They also visit many scenic places, shrines, hot springs resorts, and eat regional food specialties.  Who wouldn't like to tag along on these outings?

This is one of my favourite anime of all time and the only one which I have bought all the manga it is based on.  It is like My Neighbour Totoro where it is just charming, relaxing, has no bad guys, is about the outdoors, and cooking tasty food (not Totoro in this case).  I like Curry Cup Noodle, and seeing it featured in episode 1 pretty much guaranteed I'd like it.  One of the best things about this show is that there is a second season of camping and the movie that was just released in Japan.

I would watch this show again anytime I felt like unwinding or camping and can't.

Yuru Camp and Yama No Susume Outdoors Anime and Figures

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom

Other than Konosuba, this is one of the funnier comedy isekai anime which nicely twisted the typical storyline.  The protagonist is reincarnated as Catarina Claes, a villainess in an dating-sim video game.  She realizes that she must change the flow of the game to avoid all of the bad endings for the villain and she begins a charm campaign to do this.  Catarina also does not have any special powers other than her love of desserts and her clumsy charm.  My Next Life is a delightfully funny show that played with the tropes and was a lot of fun to watch.  The second season wasn't as good as the first season, but it was still fun.  Catarina is kind of dense when it comes to the affections of all the charming male and female leads.  This was fun in the first season, but was getting overdone in the second season.

The show is worth a rewatch of the first season as it is a fun romp through a dating sim.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai

Rascal is the heir to Haruhi Suzumiya for science fiction/supernatural high school type storytelling, without Haruhi who is a god.  If you like Haruhi, you will like Rascal which also has a main character/narrator named Sakuta who is very much like Kyon in Haruhi.  There is a bit of romance, bunny girl Mai, time loops galore, psychological trauma, and quantum physics in this show. The movie actually wraps up the series nicely too.  Great story telling in this show with plenty of twists.

I can't get over how Haruhi and this show are different, yet have very common DNA about their story telling in solving a mystery and the reaction to science fiction scenarios.  Rascal does have longer story arcs that span many more episodes though.  Rewatching this show even after knowing the twists would still not be boring as there is more than plot twists keeping the show going.  The characters are well done and they just bring the stories to life.

Re:Zero - Starting Life In Another World

I think this is likely one of the best isekai series out there, if not the best.  Our hero, Subaru Natsuki suddenly transitions to a fantasy world and discovers he has no superpowers except for being able to restart at a checkpoint after dying.  He befriends Emilia, an ice witch/sorceror who is a candidate to be the next ruler of the kingdom, and ends up falling in love with her.  Subaru dies a lot trying to help her and his friends, even though dying is a very painful event each time.  The story grows more complex as the series runs, with Subaru and the other characters evolving their personalities and viewpoints as time goes on.

This is a very enjoyable show and it is basically up to the will and intelligence of the protagonist to prevent terrible endings, of which there are many.  Good animation, solid story telling, and a very interesting premise make re-watches of this show possible.  Waiting now for the next season.

Restaurant to Another World

The action in this anime takes place in Western Restaurant Nekoya which straddles the boundary between modern Tokyo and a fantasy world.  It specializes in Japanese takes on western dishes, many of which are totally deliciously rendered.  The chef and the waitresses are the constant characters in this restaurant that opens one day a week to the fantasy realm.  A number of fantasy realm characters are regulars in the restaurant who order a favourite dish and have arguments with each other over which dish is the best.  It is a fun little show about the stories of the customers and their favourite dishes.

The first season introduces a number of the fantasy characters like a samurai, a powerful wizard, some halflings, an human adventurer, a half-elf, and lizardman.  The second season introduces a few new characters and the politics of the fantasy world.  How Nekoya came to be is also explained.

I really like this show as it is about tasty food, has an interesting cast of characters, including Master, the chef, and Aletta, the down on her luck demon girl waitress.  This is a relaxing show to watch and a half hour passes quickly as each episode is usually two mini-episodes.  In a way it is most similar to the live action Midnight Diner series, and superficially similar to food anime like Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, but with more interesting characters and stories.  Another restaurant in another world anime is Isekai Izakaya Nobu, which is a good watch, but not as charming as Restaurant to Another World.

Rising of the Shield Hero

Naofumi Iwatani becomes a Cardinal Hero after being summoned to a fantasy world. Each hero has a special weapon, but he starts out as the underdog as he only has a defensive shield.  He is treated as an outcast after being setup, and basically has to become a full hero on his own without assistance like the other heroes.  Naofumi is very much the underdog who is very bitter about his situation, but begins to mellow and grow as a person as he gathers followers / slaves to help him save the world from the Waves of monsters that will attack.  There are a number of shows right now that seem to treat slavery lightly as a plot device; in this case the slaves are his precious friends too, but the story telling is good.

There are several seasons of this show now and it is one of the better isekai shows simply because it does show real trials and issues for the hero to overcome and grow from.  The scale of the show goes from small to epic as it is about saving the world from massive enemy attack in both the first and second seasons.  Worth watching twice to see what you missed the first time.

Saga of Tanya the Evil

A salaryman in modern Tokyo is murdered and meets Being X whom he refuses to acknowledge as God. Being X reincarnates him as an orphaned baby, Tanya Degurechaff, in an alternate world with magic and 1920s technology.  This world is busy having a WWI style conflict between a country that is like Imperial Germany (the Empire), and the rest of continent.  Tanya is powerful in magic, talented in tactics / management, and ends up rising in the Empire's Mage Corps ranks to be a high ranking officer of an elite mage unit.  Being X puts her through a number of trials to bring about her faith in God even though she only wants to live a comfortable life.

This is a pretty unique show.  Tanya, the main character, is both sympathetic, selfish, and nasty at times.  She does develop "more" empathy towards her subordinates, something that even as a salaryman she did not have much of.  There's plenty of good animation, action scenes, and story going in this series as it is about war and even the vengeance of a god.  Plenty of depth to this show to have a second viewing to get more out of it.

So I'm A Spider, So What? 

Most of the isekai series that I've talked about so far have the main character stay human if they are reborn / reincarnated. In this one, the protagonist changes from a girl to a weak, female spider monster.  She has to learn how to survive in a nasty dungeon filled with monsters that will eat her and learns to eat monsters to stay alive.  Spider eventually levels up, gains powerful magic, and evolves into a powerful monster on her own to take on increasingly powerful challenges to escape the dungeon.

The fantasy world of Spider is locked in an epic cycle of battle between the Hero and the Demon Lord.  Spider will eventually get involved, but much of the show is also about her classmates who were also all killed in the same cosmic accident and reborn as humans into the same world.

I found this anime to be uniquely engaging, with the best parts of the show being about Spider.  She is charming in her increasingly spider-like way, and I do wonder how her personality will change as she is a monster with less attachment to humans.  There is the whole Hero and Demon Lord plot too and I hope a concluding season resolves this. A very entertaining show from the viewpoint of a monster in a dungeon for much of it.

Sword Art Alicization

Kiroto is separated from Asuna once again so he can meet another girl who falls for him.  You also need to have seen the previous Sword Art series to get full enjoyment of this show.  I would not recommend it if this was all there was to Alicization,  Fortunately, this is probably the best Sword Art in terms of world building, story telling and character development - even better than the first series.

An assassin from a previous series almost kills Kirito in the real world.  Kirito suffers brain damage that can be repaired by immersing him in a new experimental, full dive machine that does full AI and world simulation.  Kirito has no memories of his previous life while his brain is being repaired and begins to live a life with Alice and Eugeo in an idyllic fantasy setting.  The other characters in this world are virtual, but fully human AIs.  Alice is eventually taken away by the Integrity Knights as she is caught violating a taboo and this triggers a years long quest for Kirito and Eugeo to save their friend.  

The characters from previous Sword Art series show up in the real and virtual world when real world threats emerge to threatan Kirito's recovery and the virtual world in which he lives.  There's plenty of great sword fights, magic, characters you care about, and deep world building in this series.  A rewatch is recommended to get the full value out of this show.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

I mentioned So I'm A Spider, So What? as a show where the protagonist is a monster.  That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime also has a protagonist who becomes a monster. Satoru Mikami, our hero, dies and is reincarnated as a lowly slime in a dungeon.  Slimes are low level fodder for leveling up in RPGs, and Satoru levels up fast in the dungeon by killing other monsters and gaining their abilities.  Kind of similar to Spider in some ways, but Satoru retains much more of his human personality. Reincarnated as a Slime is much more like a conventional isekai series of the overpowered hero, but it has a unique charm to the character and the setting that makes it more "friendly and fun."  The challenges in the show range from making monster friends, building a monster kingdom, establishing friendly relations with neighbouring countries, child raising, and large scale evil threats from Demonlords.

There are some similarities between this show and Overlord which also has relationships/war with neighbouring kingdoms.  Both have a mega-death event where tens of thousands of soldiers are butchered by the protagonist.  I have a bit of a problem with these events in both series as this is a very dehumanizing event - whether it is justified or not.  Slime handles it better than Overlord, but the justification of being attacked by a powerful enemies is still hard to justify in these cases.

Reincarnated as a slime is still charming and funny enough to to enjoy and I look forward to rewatches at some point and the next season too.

*****

That's pretty much the recap of my favourite anime of the last four years.  Hope you enjoyed it and if you haven't seen some of these, maybe you'll end up watching a few and liking them too.

To My Favourite Anime of the Last Four Years 2019 - 2022 Part 1

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