13/02/2020: Rewind the 2010s

2010: Angel Beats!

Angel Beats takes place in a high school in the afterlife, where people are sent to overcome their struggles before passing on and being reincarnated. It is a series of friendship, laughter and tears, one that will bring you through a rollercoaster of emotions, only to make you wish it lasted it a little longer at the end.

2011: Steins;Gate:

This one is a special little gem that is till this date perhaps my favourite anime series. Steins;Gate is a sci-fi series about a self-proclaimed mad scientist, Okabe Rintarou, who accidentally creates a machine that allows him to send messages to the past, thus changing the present. It is a series that keeps you thinking throughout, and puts characters through hard decisions that they are forced to make.

2012: Psycho-Pass:

“The law doesn’t protect people. People protect the law.” Psycho-Pass is a series that takes place in futuristic Japan, where the Sibyl System, a powerful network of psychometric scanners, actively measures the biometrics of its citizens' minds and mentalities to calculate their likelihood of committing a crime. People are arrested and incarcerated in mental facilities if their crime coefficient is too high, and sometimes eliminated on the spot. This has resulted in Japan becoming a crime-free country. The incredibly thought-provoking story follows Tsunemori Akane, a rookie inspector, as she investigates cases committed by a man who’s crime coefficient just will not rise no matter the crime he commits.

2013: Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan:

Giants. Giants eating humans. Humans cutting down giants. This incredibly popular, perhaps almost overrated, series is undoubtly the most iconic anime of 2013. Nothing much more needs to be said.

2014: Terror in Resonance:

This one is a little dark horse. Set in Tokyo, this story follows 2 teenage boys as they carry out terrorist attacks across the country, in an attempt to “wake up the world”.

2015: One Punch Man:

Everyone knows One-Punch Man. But not everyone knows that the success of the series and its brilliant animation was the fruit of the labour of countless animators who worked overtime just to make this project succeed. With many renown animators coming together to collaborate on this project, it is unsurprising how much of a success One-Punch Man ended up.

2016: Sweetness and Lightning

Extremely cute and extremely heartwarming. This series follows a widowed father, learning to cook for his young daughter who misses the meals her mom used to cook. A story about family and relationships, and a cooking anime at the same time, this series is incredibly wholesome and will make your heart full again after a toxic day of law school.

2017: Made in Abyss:

Extremely dark, yet intriguing and makes you yearn for more. That essentially sums up why Made in Abyss was such a success. While it is definitely not for the faint of heart, and you might not leave it emotionally intact, this series is definitely memorable. If that floats your boat, be sure to pick this one up!

2018: Violet Evergarden:

An incredibly beautiful series animated by KyoAni, that brings you through a journey of self-discovery and learning to let go. Violet Evergarden is about a young female soldier who has retired from the war, and now works as an Auto Memory Doll, a job that requires her to transcribe people’s thoughts and emotions into letters for them. While helping her clients reshape their lives, she learns more about herself as well and learns to come to terms with her past.

2019: The Promised Neverland:

Promised Neverland redefines the mystery and shounen genre of anime. Set in an “orphanage”, 3 friends soon discover that their home is a farm that raises children to be eaten by demons. The story follows them as they plan an escape from the farm, putting them through a game of cat and mouse with their “mama” who runs the farm.

- URUSHIBARA CHAN <3