When the pandemic first struck, all business shut down. Not only the local restaurants, but production on movies and shows also came to a brief halt. With the pandemic came quarantine, which put a lot of free time on a lot of people’s hands. This resulted in the growing popularity of anime, a thing that had been considered “weird” by the majority just years previously.
Like I said before, the production of movies and shows slowed down, which meant that new seasons of popular animes were delayed. Now that production has sped up, new groundbreaking seasons of great anime have been set to come out very soon, if not already.
One of my personal favorite anime, Attack on Titan (or Shingeki no Kyojin), premiered the fourth and final season on December 7. Attack on Titan is an action-packed fighting anime. It’s about a post-apocalyptic world where the last of humanity lives inside three walls that stretch over 50 meters tall, Wall Sina, Wall Rose and Wall Maria (Wall Sina being the innermost wall and Wall Maria being the outermost). Outside of these walls are giant humanoid creatures, anywhere from 7 to 15 meters tall. These creatures, called titans, eat humans.
In the first episode, a new titan is introduced. A 60 meter giant with no skin, emitting steam. Taller than the wall, the titan breaks through and allows the smaller titans to get inside to eat everybody. Eren Jaeger, the protagonist and only 10 years old when this is taking place, witnesses his mother getting eaten. Hannes, a family friend, rescues him and his step-sister Mikasa Ackerman before the titan could get to them. They flee to Wall Rose, as does the rest of the population living inside Wall Maria. Fueled with rage, Eren vows to kill every last titan. The story follows Eren in discovering the secrets of titans.
Another popular anime that’s getting a new season is My Hero Academia (or Boku No Hero Academia). I haven’t been caught up on the series recently, but season 5 is premiering spring of 2021. There is no set date yet, but fans are excited to see it. The anime follows young Izuku Midoriya, a 15 year old boy who has no superpowers (called quirks) in a world filled with people who do. He desperately wants to be a hero like his role model who goes by All Might, but he can’t without a quirk. After Midoriya gets saved by the hero, All Might reveals a secret: that his quirk can be passed on, unlike others. All Might passes his quirk onto Midoriya, who gets into the prestigious hero academy and journeys his way to becoming the number one hero.
My Hero Academia is far from being over, as season four ends at chapter 191 of the manga (word for Japanese comic books/graphic novels). Kohei Horikoshi, the creator, stated that the manga is only about 10% out, which means that it will be about 800 chapters in total. Fans should be on the lookout for much more after this.
My favorite anime, Yuri!!! On ICE, will finally be getting a second season. After the first season came out on October 5, 2016, fans really wanted more. There isn’t a set date for season two, but it’s estimated to come out in the winter of 2021.
The anime follows a 23 year old figure skater, Yuri Katsuki. After getting last place in the Sochi Grand Prix Final, Yuri returns to his hometown Hasetsu. He goes to his old skating rink, run by his good friend Yuuko Nishigori, to practice. As Yuri runs through a routine he copied from his idol and figure skater, 27 year old Victor Nikiforov, Yuuko’s children record him and post the video online. He goes viral and Victor ends up seeing it. Inspired, he travels from Russia to Hasetsu to personally coach Yuri. The story follows Yuri and Victor on their way to gold in the Barcelona Grand Prix. As they interact, romance ensues.
Three years ago, there was an announcement for a Yuri!!! On ICE movie called Ice Adolescence. No one has heard about an update until recently. It was announced that the movie is still in the works, though they can’t say a release date yet. As the anime is only 12 episodes long with a special two and a half minute long blu-ray feature called Welcome To The Madness, fans are ecstatic for the movie and the second season.
An anime that’s been growing in popularity lately, The Promised Neverland, will also be getting a new season. Season two is set to come out in January of 2021, though they haven’t released a set date. The fans have been waiting four years, as the anime originally came out August 1, 2016.
The Promised Neverland is a 12 episode anime about an orphanage with one rule: never go near the gate. These kids get adopted from ages 6-12, from lowest IQ to highest IQ. After 6 year old Connie gets adopted, she leaves with Isabella, the “mom” of the orphanage. Then, the two 11 year old protagonists Emma and Norman realize that Connie left her favorite stuffed bunny at the orphanage. Deeming that Connie’s happiness was more important than the rule, they ran to the gate to drop off the bunny before she left.
Instead of finding Connie with her new parents, they saw her corpse hanging out of a wagon. As Emma and Norman heard footsteps, they scurried under the wagon and hid. They saw Isabella talking to two demons. Overhearing their conversation, Emma and Norman figured out they were buying the kids from the orphanage to eat.
Emma and Norman manage to get back to the orphanage unnoticed and they devise a plan to get the kids out of there to save them. The story follows them discovering the secrets of the “orphanage” and trying to escape.
An anime that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention but is one of my favorites is also getting a season 2. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a sweet and fluffy anime. The protagonist, Miss Kobayashi, was stumbling in the forest drunk one day when she came across a dragon. After saving the dragon, the dragon turns into a human and becomes Miss Kobayashi’s live-in maid. The story follows Miss Kobayashi and her dragon maid, Tohru, in many different adventures. The anime is very cute and wholesome, something that I can leave on for background noise while I’m doing other things.
Season 1 of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid aired on April 24th, 2018. The second season is said to come out in 2021, though they haven’t released a specific date yet.
As anime has grown in popularity, more anime is being produced and many new seasons will be coming out soon. If you haven’t tried to watch anime or you have a biased opinion about it for some reason, I’d highly recommend trying to watch it. There are many different kinds and genres of anime so it’s not hard to find one you’ll like. Any of the anime I’ve talked about are great starter shows. I highly recommend all of them, so give anime a try!