This year hosted a lot of seasons for some of the biggest anime -- Attack on Titan, The Devil is a Part-Timer, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, etc. -- out there alongside new releases like Chainsaw Man and Spy x Family. To end the year, though, Japanese outlet AnimeAnime revealed the top anime of the year, with Lycoris Recoil taking the lead.
Polling 8,271 people, the Japanese publication's poll had 55.2% male and 42.5% female. A large chunk of the users who responded to the survey were of a younger demographic, we're talking 44.2% were under the age of 19 while 11.7% were between 20 and 24. Weirdly, 25 to 29-year-olds were only 7.4% of the responses, and the remaining percentage were those 30 and over.
The poll showcases a rather large pool of anime that caught the attention of the Japanese anime community. Some of the entries jump from big shonen names like My Hero Academia's sixth season and Mob Psycho 100 III mixed in with some seinen slice-of-life shows like Bocchi The Rock! and My Dress-Up Darling.
A-1 Pictures, the same studio responsible for Black Butler, Fairy Tail, and Blue Exorcist, produced the Lycoris Recoil anime. It wasn't long before it saw a heap of praise. The fanfare wasn't just from regular anime fans, either, as the Shingo Adachi-directed show stole the heart of beloved game developer, Hideo Kojima, best known for his work on the Metal Gear franchise and as of late, Death Stranding, singing the show's praises. It even got ahead of Spy x Family and the anime season's big slice-of-life release Bocchi The Rock!
Full results:
- 10. Summer Time Rendering
- 9. My Dress-Up Darling
- 8. Mob Psycho 100 III
- 7. My Hero Academia Season 6
- 6. BLUELOCK
- 5. SPY x FAMILY
- 4. Chainsaw Man
- 3. Dropkick on My Devil! X
- 2. BOCCHI THE ROCK!
- 1. Lycoris Recoil