This anime season has blessed us with a cornucopia of fantastic male characters, ranging from good boys to bad boys to maybe even some boys' love. We’re highlighting five of our favorites today, so please come join us as we praise them to the high heavens!
Tensions are at an all-time high in the world of Beastars, thanks to an incident in the drama club where Tao the panther accidentally rips off Kibi the anteater’s arm during practice. Since the still-unsolved devouring incident also happened in the drama club, this sends Cherryton School into high alert and it’s decided that carnivores and herbivores will be in different classes starting next year and all mixed clubs will be suspended indefinitely. This causes an uproar among the students, with many strong opinions on both sides of the issue. Let’s examine the reality of the situation and see which side has the stronger case – can carnivores and herbivores really live together in peace?
The first season of The Promised Neverland was lauded as an instant classic back when it came out in Winter 2019 – its blend of psychological horror and Death Note-style thriller elements made it a joy to watch week to week and the intriguing setting had viewers wondering what could possibly be lurking outside of Grace Field House. Now that the second season is well underway, though, some fans are wishing that the outside world had remained a mystery. Let’s examine The Promised Neverland Season 2 from the perspective of an anime-only viewer. Is this season really as terrible as manga readers say it is?
Higurashi: When They Cry - Gou (Higurashi: When They Cry - NEW), the newest entry in the Higurashi franchise, initially appeared to be a remake of the first season with better animation, but slowly revealed itself to be a completely new timeline with more than one twist up its sleeve. It subverts the hard-earned happy ending of When They Cry: Kai by showing that when Rika attends the fancy private school St. Lucia a few years later, she makes Satoko’s life miserable by dragging her along and then ignoring her once her friend doesn’t fit in. Begging for some way out of this hell, Satoko meets with a mysterious goddess (?) who allows her to “live in loops” just like Rika. Only this time, Satoko’s goal isn’t to save her friends from horrific deaths – it’s to keep Rika for herself forever. Let’s reexamine Gou with this in mind and try to figure out what kind of insane ending this could possibly be leading to!
Even though the cast of the mainline Cells at Work series has to contend with some scary scenarios like cancer and heat stroke, the body itself is in good shape and everything seems to work out in the end. In Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, however, the body’s biggest enemy is its own host – constant drinking, smoking, sleep deprivation, stress, and more have been pushing the cells to their absolute limit for years now, in the same manner that a Japanese “black company” exploits its workers. And in episode 10, our plucky protagonist Red Blood Cell experiences something so devastating that he finally just breaks. How did this happen, and where can he possibly go from here?
Kemono Jihen takes a serious, gritty approach to Japanese yokai and the urban fantasy genre – our half-monster protagonists may be young, but the problems they face would be daunting even to an adult. So, if you can’t bear to wait a full week to find out what supernatural horror the Inugami Strangeness Consultancy Office detectives will face next, here are six other fantastic anime that remind us of Kemono Jihen!
We chose shows that feature supernatural elements in a modern setting, usually with a darker tone and/or mature subject matter mixed in with traditional action-adventure elements. Let’s get started!
