Although winter is typically a pretty great season to watch anime, not everyone has the time to lounge around on the couch and give each anime of the season its fair shake, especially when there are so many established shows out there to tempt you away. However, if you want to know what anime series from the winter 2019 season was worth your time, look no further. *Note: As always, this covers original series. So any second seasons won’t be counted. The Rising of the Shield Hero The stories tell of four heroes summoned from another world – the sword, spear, bow, and shield heroes who will prevent calamity. With darkness bearing down on them, the Kingdom of Melromarc summons these heroes from modern day Japan. For otaku Naofumi Iwatani, unfortunately he is labeled the shield hero, the weakest of the group. Worse yet, betrayal sees him labeled as a criminal and oucasted. With hatred and vengeance consuming him, he sets forth to grow strong. Why I

Unemployed and living with his mother, Ryouta Sakamoto’s only real achievement is being the top player in Japan of a video game called Btooom! However, one day he wakes upon on an island with nothing but a small green crystal embedded in his hand. He soon finds out that someone wants him and others players to play Btooom! for real. Before characters getting stuck inside games was all the rage, Btooom saw characters playing their favorite violent video game for real. If you want more anime recommendations like Btooom, then your hunt is over. For Fans of Life or Death Games Sword Art Online With the aid of NerveGear technology, video game players can now experience their playable worlds like never before – in virtual reality. For Kazuto Kirigaya, his game of choice is Sword Art Online. After beta testing the game, he logs into the launch and finds himself, as well as ten thousand other players, trapped in the game world. While Sword Art

When we die, what happens? It is one of those big questions in life. For some, it consumes them so much that, oops, they forgot to live. As one of those big questions, naturally you can expect more than a few anime series that try to tackle that question. So, according to anime, what can we expect after life? Angel Beats – We Go Back to High School If you believe Angel Beats, you are sent to high school in the afterlife where you can live out the best of times in your youth. However, the catch is, this isn’t for everyone. It is just for those that didn’t get to experience their best years in their youth. Maybe they died young. Maybe they underwent a huge trauma. Maybe weren’t physically able to live a normal life. It is a kind deity to let them experience this. Bleach – Hang Out Until You Reincarnate In Bleach, the souls of the living go to soul society where you basically hang out in Feudal Japan until it is your turn to reincarnate.

A certain selection of people, known as Blazers, are able to manifest their souls as weapons. To harness these powers, a number of schools have been established to teach these people how to use them. Ikki Kurogane is an aspiring Mage-Knight, but unfortunately is also one of the lowest ranked Blazers around. However, there may be more to his powers than meets the eye. Although it is a harem, it doesn’t have as bad of a story line as some harem shows, if you want more anime series like Chivalry of a Failed Knight, we got you. For Fans of The Weakest (But Not Really) The Irregular at Magic High School After magic, once thought to be folklore, was turned into a technical skill, schools to teach it opened all over. At one such school are siblings Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba. While Miyuki excels, her brother is placed in a lower class due to his seemingly magical ineptitude. However, he has rather unique abilities that make him quite irregular.

We don’t do manga series in our recommendations here, just anime. However, that doesn’t mean that anime fans don’t want to lie in bed and read a few good chapters quietly before bed. Instead of branching out into manga recommendations, we’re going to give you a few good ones that you can look into. So if you want to read some good comedy manga or are just some sort of anime hipster that wants to be all “I read the manga before it was cool and animated,” then check out these comedy manga recommendations below. Yotsubato Yotsuba is a five year old that is fully of energy, thirsty for adventure, and unforgettably odd. Even ordinary experiences for her become an adventure and this spirit is contagious to those around her. Happy Cafe Short and often mistaken for an elementary student, Uru ends up working at a cafe with two men who are also different than how they look or act. Oresama Teacher After threatening to disown her

Chiyo Sakura has fallen head over heels for the handsome and oblivious Umetarou Nozaki. However, when she confesses her love, he gives her an autograph. It turns out this stoic boy is actually a respected shoujo manga artist. After a series of misunderstandings, Chiyo winds up not as his girlfriend, but as his manga assistant. A romantic comedy can be all jokes and hollow romantic feeling, but then you have shows like Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun that has meaningful character developments and is a true joy to watch. If you are looking for something similar, then be drawn in down below. For Fans of Making Manga Bakuman As a child, Moritaka Mashiro wanted to be a manga artist like his uncle. However, after certain events transpired, he refocused his efforts towards studying in middle school. One day, aspiring writer Akito Takagi notices some detailed drawings in Moritaka’s notebook and approaches him to propose they become a mangaka together. Rea

I grew up on Dragon Ball, and as such, I always thought the watch order was pretty straight forward. However, recently it has occurred to me that…Well, if you know nothing about Dragon Ball, it is not straight forward at all. Do you watch original Z or should you choose Kai? Do you need to watch ten tons of movies or no? GT before Super or at all? Yeah, okay, so it has gotten unexpectedly complex and there are newer anime fans that are just now getting into it. So, the question is, how do you watch the Dragon Ball series in order? On the Subject of Canon – Should I Watch Dragon Ball GT? Much of Dragon Ball can be separated into canon or not canon. By canon, fans mean that the particular series or movie primarily followed the original manga series and was made with input from the creator – Akira Toriyama. For the most part, the Dragon Ball anime series is of a canon nature. There are some important exceptions, however. First, Dragon Ball GT

When Tooru Honda finds herself homeless, she decides to live in a tent in the wilderness. However, one day she is discovered by a classmate, Yuki Souma, and invited to come live in his house. From there she gets to know many members of the Souma family, not realizing that they all are inflicted by a curse: when they hug the opposite gender, they turn into an animal from the Chinese zodiac. Whether you’re an old school fan or hyped from the remake, if you are looking for other series like Fruits Baskets, we got them in our anime basket below. For Fans of Man Harems Ouran High School Host Club In Ouran High School, the typical student is a member of the wealthy elite, but not Haruhi Fujioka. Accepted on a scholarship, Haruhi wants to avoid all the glitz and glamour in order to study hard and become a lawyer. While looking for a rare quiet place to do so, Haruhi stumbles upon a host club. Frantic to get away from these weird boys, Haruhi breaks a val

We have been conditioned to mostly know the right response to situations, or at least grow up to learn them. For example, you don’t come dressed up as Naruto, complete with headband, to school. It’s embarrassing. It makes you want to cover your face and not think about it. There are anime series that take advantage of this. They put their characters into embarrassing and uncomfortable situations purely for the cringe of their audience. Some will laugh at that embarrassment, and some will cringe because they relate too closely to it. If you are looking for these sort of cringe comedy anime shows, we got you. Watamote This anime, to almost all who watch it, is almost physically painful to watch. The main character makes an effort to improve her popularity, but no matter what she does, she bungles it in such a way that makes her just seem more strange to her peers. It doesn’t get better. Every episode hurts a bit worse. Love, Chuunibyou, and Oth

Third year Junior High student Ueno is in love with the concept of falling in love. As such, she is driven to create love inventions and tests them out on her kohai. This show is fetish comedy at its finest, but it is certainly not for everyone. If you are degenerate enough to love this, then perhaps these other anime recommendations are for you. For Fans of Degenerate Humor Shimoneta While Japan was once the pit of sexual depravity, new morality laws and the Peace Making system used to monitor the populace has seen Japan rise to the peaks of public morality. With all lewdness censored to the point that children do not know how babies are made, an infamous erotic terrorist named Blue Snow has risen. One day, average high schooler and son of an infamous erotic terrorist himself, Tanukichi Okuma, is saved by Blue Snow on his way to his new high morality high school, only to be drawn into her new erotic terrorist organization, SOX. Ueno-San is sexua

Ah, the ol’ rooster in the hen house. Nowhere is there an easier to work harem trope than having a singular man go to an all-girl’s school. Maybe it is recently co-ed, perhaps there is some other circumstance. Regardless, this bare bones plot gives creators free reign to create dozens of beautiful girls that are, I guess, just insanely thirsty? Shomin Sample In an effort to teach fancy rich girls more about the world outside their fancy rich bubble so they don’t end up completely shutting down after they graduate, this series basically kidnaps a common teen boy to serve as a sample of “commoners” outside. They are meant to ask him questions, but instead use him for all sorts of strange shenanigans. It ends up as a pretty good comedy series as it tries to be nothing else. SYD After finding himself in trouble before even going into the school building, it is decided by the student council that the main character will be the vice presiden

There is an urban legend of an angel of death that releases people from their suffering – Boogiepop. The legends are true and when people start disappearing at a local school, the police think the kids are just runaways. However, the students at the school believe something more is happening. Dark, mysterious, and reviving a series that most anime fans have forgotten about. If you want more anime recommendations like Boogiepop, then investigate below. For Fans of Non-Linear Stories Serial Experiments Lain Introverted Lain Iwakura finds herself one of many girls to receive an e-mail from classmate Chisa Yomoda, even though Chisa Yomoda recently committed suicide. Averse to technology, Lain soon finds herself able to enter the Wired, a network system similar to the internet. From there, her life gets turned upside down as she finds herself the target of mysterious men and mixed up in a series of cryptic mysteries. Take your eyes off the subtitles

There are some epic first kisses in anime. The kind you wait for. The kind the series built up the entire time. And then, well, there are some bad ones. From accidental and awkward to “oops, I accidentally ate your face,” anime has some pretty amazingly bad first kiss scenes. Naruto and Sasuke in Naruto Perhaps the most famous worst first kiss should be the first on the list, right? Every Naruto fan remembers the time early on in the series where Naruto and Sasuke kissed. It is the foundation on which their entire problematic bromance was built, and now that the series is over, a source of memes. Hidenori and Yoshitake in The Daily Lives of High School Boys This series is full of fun gags, but no one expected this “r/suddenly gay” moment when Hidenori attempted to crush a hornet on Yoshitake’s face with…his own face. Hana and Kiyoshi in Prison School There is no finer way to best an opponent then to demean them in u

Natsuo is in love with his teacher Hina. In order to try and forget his feelings, he goes to a mixer and meets a girl named Rui. Oddly enough, she asks him to do her a favor – to have sex with her. He does so, but soon he is faced with a unique problem. His father has remarried and he now has two new stepsisters that he knows too well – Rui and Hin Following in the footsteps of a lot of recent romance series, Domestic Girlfriend is a more realistic and darker look at romance. If you crave more, we got you some anime recommendations. <3 For Fans of Love Triangles Scum’s Wish To the outside world, Mugi and Hanabi look like the perfect couple, but the truth is that they are only dating each other because they can’t be with the people they actually want to be with. For Hanabi, it is her childhood friend-turned-homeroom-teacher and for Mugi it is his older tutor that has been teaching him since middle school. In order to stave off the loneline

In anime, when two great warriors start fighting, you can expect certain things. They will start by testing each other out, using techniques, and then adapting their style to come out on top. These are the exciting fights. However, there is also something extremely fun about the fights where you just know it is going to be a slaughter. Let’s talk about those! Frieza V. Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z In Vegeta’s mind, he was always working for Frieza by choice and never because he was actually stronger than him. This is what makes this fight in the Namek Saga so absolutely brutal. Frieza just wails on him so hard you can see anguish dripping from Vegeta’s eyes. Of course, this is par for the course with Frieza as if every fight isn’t one-sided in his favor, he powers up again. Alucard V. Luke Valentine in Hellsing This fight, happening rather early in Hellsing, serves an important purpose. Up until now, we saw Alucard fight and win, but had no

In order to become indomitable on the battlefield, a samurai lord barters his son’s organs away to 48 demons and then abandons him. However, his son doesn’t die. Instead, a medicine man saves him with primitive, but lethal prosthetics that allow him to hunt down the demons and regain his organs for an eventual battle with his father. A remake of a particularly old anime, the story Dororo tells is one that thrives with better animation. If you are looking for similar anime, then look no further. For Fans of Journeying Samurai Blade of the Immortal Manji is a swordsman who was cursed with eternal life. Growing upset with all the death he has created, he tries to get his mortality back by killing 100 evil men for every good person he had struck down. On this journey, he meets a girl named Rin who seeks her own vengeance against a sword school that killed her family. Together they journey, both trying to find their peace and prevent being consumed b

Listen guys, I love My Hero Academia as much as anyone else, but sometimes you want something that feels a little more real in your anime. Naruto or Dragonball Z has some great fights, but let’s face it, real humans would be straight-up dead. If you want a more grounded action anime experience showcasing more realistic stories or at least more believable action, then let us hook you up. Black Lagoon There is plenty of room for super powers in an anime about mercenaries, but not this one. Black Lagoon, while unbelievable at times, has its action firmly steeped in more realistic mercenary activities. Lots of guns and lots of violence rules here, and if you die, you are staying dead. Samurai Champloo If you want realistic action, there is almost no finer choice than Samurai Champloo. The swordplay is fluid and it accents different styles really well. Unlike other swordplay shows like Rurouni Kenshin, there are no “special techniques” that

Considered a genius, Miyuki Shirogane leads the student council in his prestigious school. Alongside his beautiful and wealth vice president, Kaguya Shinomiya, the two are regarded as the perfect couple despite no romantic relationship. The truth is, however, they both have feelings for each other, but neither can confess. This is the battle of two people trying to get the other to confess first! If you enjoyed this romantic battle of wits, but you are desperate for more, why not try some of these anime recommendations? For Fans of a Battle of Wits Death Note Light Yagami is a high school prodigy and genius. However, he has an ever-increasing boredom and disdain for the rotten violent world. One day, he happens upon a notebook, called a Death Note, which states that if you write a name in it, the person will die. To his surprise, the notebook’s claims turn out to be true. This Death Note, the property of the Shinigami gods of death, gives Light th

We don’t do manga series in our recommendations here, just anime. However, that doesn’t mean that anime fans don’t want to lie in bed and read a few good chapters quietly before bed. Instead of branching out into manga recommendations, we’re going to give you a few good ones that you can look into. So if you want to read some good mecha manga or are just some sort of anime hipster that wants to be all “I read the manga before it was cool and animated,” then check out these mecha manga recommendations below. Mobile Suit Gundam F90 Renegade Zeon members steal a newly developed mobile suit in its testing phase, the Gundam F90 with phantom-like abilities. The Federation gives hasty pursuit for to those that are about to being a huge assault. (There are a lot of good Gundam manga that haven’t been animated. This one, however, leads to Cross Bones, which is the best one.) Verdant Lord Fighting back against humanity, the Earth ha

As his family is in some serious debt, Fuutaro Uesugi is a serious penny pincher. However, his great grades have landed him a higher than normal paying tutor job. The problem is that his five wards, all sisters, are dumb as door nails and think he is a complete idiot. However, to get his pay, he has to think of a way to get these five unique girls to study and learn. The Quintessential Quintuplets makes no attempt to hide its harem nature, but rest assured, this is comedy at its finest and not all bare skin. If you are looking for similar anime recommendations, we got you covered times five! For Fans of Sisters Domestic Girlfriend Natsuo is in love with his teacher Hina. In order to try and forget his feelings, he goes to a mixer and meets a girl named Rui. Oddly enough, she asks him to do her a favor – to have sex with her. He does so, but soon he is faced with a unique problem. His father has remarried and he now has two new stepsisters that he