There are some people who think 2020 is a shit year for anime. Let’s indulge them for a bit.
I’m not going to lie guys, my opinion on whether 2020 is a bad year for anime means jack shit given how I’m one of those people who think the majority of anime are bad to begin with. But I will concede that there is a lack of memorable anime this year. In terms of the crap shows so far, only Rent-A-Girlfriend and Japan Sinks: 2020 are standing out to me at the moment, which is part of the reason why my last few posts have been about them and I haven’t written about any other anime at the moment. Sure In/Spectre was popular for a little bit and Listeners was just plain incompetent, but if you were to ask me to remember what actually happened in those shows, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you at the moment because there was nothing worth retaining about them.
And I have liked some anime this year. They don’t measure up to when I saw both Weathering With You and Ride Your Wave in theaters, but in terms of what’s given me a similar experience, there have been some. And I’m sure whenever I get around to watching The Great Pretender, it’s going to be at least a solid show. However, I think when people say that 2020 isn’t a great year for anime, they’re talking about how few “big” anime it had compared to previous years. 2019 had Mob Psycho 100 II, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan S4, and Vinland Saga. Go a bit more cult and you’ll run into Dororo, Carole & Tuesday, that Mari Okada sex comedy that I don’t remember the name of, Fruits Basket, and such.
2020’s big anime have been Tower of God, God of Highschool, Re: Zero S2, Haikyuu S4, My Hero Academia S4, and maybe Kaguya-sama S2. Go a little more cult and you’ll run into Oregairu Climax, Fruits Basket S2, Fire Force S2, Railgun T, Dorohedoro, The Great Pretender, maybe Brand New Animal, and some others if you discount their low critical reception like Rent-A-Girlfriend or Gleipnir. Of the ones I listed, Re: Zero S2 and Kaguya-sama S2 have huge fanbases that really enjoy them (in contrast to Hero Academia’s latest season, which got a more mixed reaction). But as some people have pointed out, they’re sequels and don’t really count because a lot of their success comes from the original show. If we go back and apply that restriction to 2019, we’re still left with Vinland Saga and Demon Slayer. If we apply the same restriction to 2020, we’re left with Tower of God and God of Highschool, which aren’t popular in Japan, and the reaction to the adaptations have been a bit mixed in the West, especially since both anime adaptations speed through the original source material to a distracting degree.
Given how I don’t find either of the big webtoon adaptations as anything more than action junk food and I’m the kind of person who doesn’t put a lot of stock into anime junk food, even when they are visual masterpieces like this, I have to agree that 2020 is disappointing in that way. And it doesn’t help that of the cult shows, there’s a lot of things to be underwhelmed with too. I’m going to spare you guys the details and say that so far, the only anime I’ve found solid this summer has been that Millionaire Detective show with “Daisuke aka Japanese Batman” in it. I know some people are trying to sell me on Deca-Dence and I can see why, but none of the characters in that show even come close to standing out like Daisuke has. Or even Haru for that matter. Hell, the characters in Rent-A-Girlfriend stand out more if only because of how awful they are – and incidentally, the people trying to sell me on that show are so bad at it.
Again, I don’t mind because solid anime are few and the amount of amazing anime out there are about equal to the number of Youtubers I’m actually subscribed to (not even fifty). Yeah overall this year’s anime selection isn’t as exciting as 2019, but who cares? Weak years happen all the time. I wasn’t exactly big on 2018’s anime selection despite a good amount of people saying it was one of the best years in recent times. And there have been plenty of years beforehand that have been pretty disappointing. If anything, I’m kind of glad that the amount of anime worth paying attention to has decreased so I can focus on other stuff like playing video games or hanging out with my friends.
Because let’s be honest, you don’t need to watch a lot of anime to be an anime fan. Hell you don’t need to watch a lot of anime to be a big figurehead in the anime community, especially not today. Look at Nux Taku, who gets loads of views from videos that dunk on other communities or trolling other Youtubers, some of whom are barely anime-related, and almost never talks about actual anime. Hell, he barely watches anime these days, mostly looking at other people’s reviews to get an overall opinion on them.
And that’s not even getting into the popular shonen Youtubers who only talk about big shonen anime because that’s the only anime that matters to most people on the Internet. RDCWorld1 is probably my favorite anime-related channel at the moment, but all they highlight in their anime-related videos are the long-running Shonen Jump stuff that’s popular in the West and a few big shows that most people in the West would know even if they’re not anime fans. That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t watch other stuff. But given how much of their time has to go into production in addition to hanging out with their girlfriends, playing video games for their other channels, and whatnot, they can’t be watching that much anime outside of what they highlight in their videos (reminder: making videos is a time-consuming effort).
Of course, there are the number of people who do love the webtoon adaptations. The popular light novel adaptations like Bofuri and My Life As a Villainess. The ones who will count sequels as an indicator of the year’s quality. The ones who are hoping for Jujutsu Kaisen and Haikyuu and the new Higurashi and such to save the year. So they disagree that 2020 is a weak year overall. Not much to say about that crowd. It is what it is.
It’s no secret that anime has not been spared from 2020’s wrath and I don’t doubt there will be some other shit coming our way before the year ends. All I can say is that I’ve been coping by watching some old Shonen Jump series that I never got around to on the streaming sites. What have you been doing?
Standing On My Neck 
I don’t know or really care to compare the quality of shows from this year to the more expansive crop, or about whether or not any year is or was any good to start with. But the sharp decrease in overall quantity is something I’ve come to appreciate. In no other year I don’t think I’d be able to have rewatched the entirety of Bleach like I did. I would be fine with keeping each season’s output limited down to what we’ve been getting as of late so long as the new stuff has at least one thing to look forward to each season.
Yeah I’ve been watching old Shonen Jump anime like Cat’s Eye, Saiki K, City Hunter, and the first season of Food Wars, along with a few other non-SJ things in my off-time. Need to find time to sit through Toradora now that it’s on Netflix as well. Of course, I’m prioritizing Shonen Jump stuff because of how much that magazine’s output has evolved over the years in both content and fandom discussion to the point that I find talking about it much more fascinating now than a few years ago. Hell, I’d love to someday watch the 1999 adaptation of Hunter x Hunter so I can compare it to the 2011 adaptation.
And I hear you on the decrease in overall quantity. Remember back in 2010 when only like 16 shows aired a season? Even if you discount shorts, 40 freaking shows a season is just too much, and it doesn’t help that the average person won’t like more than 3-5 shows no matter how many anime series you try to cram in a three-month period.