12 Days of Anime, Day 1: So You Thought ’21 Was Gonna Be A Good Year?
Last year, to put it bluntly, sucked. The state of anime was no exception. This year has been… well, slightly better. On the one hand, we got multiple COVID vaccines rolling out, fewer anime series straight-up delayed, and people getting back to work. On the other hand, we’ve got new COVID variants popping up, and we’re still dealing with the anime aftermath of pushing things off.
Welcome to “12 Days of Anime 2021”, a writing challenge in which I look to have an article a day for 12 days leading up to Christmas, all centered in some way on anime or anime-related topics. You can find last year’s stories at this link over on Anitay, as well as re-posts of my 2018 and 2019 series here on Medium. Big, big thanks to Stanlick for creating the header image outline template.
As with the end of last year, 2021 saw a mostly steady output of shows every season. Some shows have still seen the occasional delay, some may still be being juggled due to the shifting of shows from last year, but we’ve managed to avoid (so far) a major set of delays like the spring/summer 2020 season(s). In fact, this year saw the return of Kyoto Animation after the devastating 2019 arson attack with the second season of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. (I will look to cover this series more in a later article, but spoiler alert: HUGE SUCCESS.)
While a number of anime conventions, especially early on this year, were online-only, or still canceled, a number of others have already begun this year, or are planning for next year, on a return to in-person con attendance. Fingers crossed that these plans can be achieved in most to all cases while keeping all the con-goers safe and healthy.
In the Western anime world, possibly the biggest business news of the year was the announcement in August that Sony, already owners of Funimation, was purchasing Crunchyroll. As of now, the services are still mostly separate (although catalogs and back-catalogs seem to be bleeding over between the two services), and it remains to be seen if the two streaming platforms are to be united in to one, or what. The bigger questions are, whether the Funi+CR combination will lead to fewer shows subbed/dubbed for Western audiences (as they presumably won’t be competing with each other for exclusives to get subscribers), what having this new streaming super-power means for Sentai’s ability to hang in there, and whether Netflix may step up more in trying to get exclusive rights to more shows, or even if a new player, such as Disney, might step in, on their own, or to prop up/partner with/purchase Sentai, or whatever.
On the personal front, my anime viewing stayed “down” this year from years past. After experiencing last year just how much easier it felt to only have a smaller number of shows to watch, I continued this year in being pickier with what I’ve been following. I’ve also continued watching more of those shows with my wife (although our son seems to be less interested, and often takes off into his bedroom with his tablet). While I still miss getting together with friends once a week or so to watch the new shows, it’s still nice to be able to take things in our own time, without feeling like I need to worry about “okay, we’ve got to watch this, this, and that, and that other one, and that one” every Friday evening.
Countering that smaller amount of watching, however, is the fact that I’ve written more for this site this year (or will have, by the time this series completes) than ever before. I’ve mostly been working in the “Early Impressions” series, where I’m looking to continue improving the content we bring to you regarding the different shows available.
I hope you’ll stick with me in the coming days, as I look to review the shows I’ve watched this year, follow up on all my Early Impressions series in particular, and discuss some other topics nearer and dearer to me, and just maybe have some fun along the way.
