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[00:00] I'm not going to lie. 2045 has actually been a pretty sweet year. It has not been uncommon for me to sit down to do these yearly, what has been my favorite things of an entire year. And I kind of have to massage the back end a bit.

[00:14] And it's not because I want to try and make an argument that a year was necessarily better than it was. I just never like being a part of the statistic that leads to people saying everything is horrible, anime is done, everything is garbage,

[00:27] because there's a lot of doom and gloom people that have existed over the last handful of years, and I don't like to feed into that. So when I do come to a year and I'm legitimately happy that I have to cut things off a top ten list,

[00:40] I think it's pretty good, because, like, last year, my number ten slot ended up going to, like, this weird amalgamation of a whole bunch of things. Not necessarily because I had to cut them, but just so that, like, I didn't think that they were necessarily

[00:52] fully list-worthy in the same respect as everything else on the list, so I just kind of lumped everything together in the tenth slot. We're not doing that this year. In fact, I'm fully expecting to get some heat for some things that, A, are not on this list, even if I might put them in the honorable mentions, and B, you know, for things that I actually put on the list, because at the end of the day, it's my list, and there's at least one, if not two things that we're going to be talking about today that nobody else is going to mention, because obviously, I just have shit taste.

[01:21] So we're going to get right into it, and we're starting with the honorable mentions. And as I do with a lot of my lists, the honorable mentions will include sequels and continuations. Sequels, because as good as they are, I always have this weird problem of trying to judge them compared to the things that came out this year.

[01:39] But doing that in a way that doesn't have previous seasons paint that, if that makes sense. So Dawn to Dawn came out this year, and Dawn to Dawn season two was amazing. It was great, but if I'm trying to compare it with everything else that came out this year,

[01:52] it's hard for me to do that without saying, well, Dawn to Dawn is great, but also because of Season 1, which came out last year. But to then bring that into the comparison, I always find a little bit unfair. You might not agree with me on that, but it is a thing that I have lodged in my brain,

[02:07] and so that's why I end up moving the sequels to honorable mentions. So Dawn to Dawn Season 2, great. Same thing with Apothecary Diaries. Apothecary Diaries also gets my award. Not that I'm giving out awards necessarily.

[02:19] Apothecary Diaries does have one of my favorite OPs of the entire year. The first OP of the season this year that it had was absolutely stellar. It was stuck in my mind for far too long to the point that it is occasionally non-retreat in my brain,

[02:33] even this many, many, many, many months later. There is going to be an OP on the actual list proper that I very much like and also will probably come in, like, tied for best OP? Or maybe not tied, probably a little less.

[02:46] We'll get to that. And also, as far as sequels go on the honorable mentions list, I'm also going to give it to Orb. Not because Orb doesn't deserve to be on the list, and also, if it was on the list, it would probably be somewhere in the top three,

[02:58] if not the number one slot, but also because I put Orb on my list last year, and I don't like doubling up. One of my biggest criticisms of award shows of any kind, anime or no is the times where you have an entry that exists multiple times throughout multiple

[03:13] years that happens at the game awards that happens at the country world anime awards far too often i've just always been of the belief that like if you win a thing in one year you should not then be eligible for the exact same thing the next year and i know that gets a little contentious like

[03:29] when it comes to multiple seasons well season one was really good but like season two was also really good and better than everything else that year so why shouldn't it and i'm like okay well that's kind of like my weird, not an exception, and it's just like, no, I agree with you, but I'm still making the exception to kick it off, because I don't

[03:42] want things to get multiple seasons. For example, we all know that Free Rind is coming out next year, so 12 months from now when I'm sitting down to do my best of 2026 list, Free Rind's not going to be on it, despite

[03:54] how good it probably is going to be, because it already won my best of year back when season one came out. Everyone knows I love Free Rind, so nothing's changed about that. Now, the next problem is that when I get into the honorable mentions,

[04:08] for things that are not sequels, these things that could have been on the list do not fall under my I'm not doing sequels rule, but just, at least in my mind, it's not that they weren't good enough to be on the list. In fact, the reason I even have them in this video at all is because I think they are worth mentioning.

[04:24] But if you're trying to make a top ten list, you can only have ten entries unless you want to have exceptions and little caveats all over the place, and I've learned that I hate those the more and more I do them. But inevitably that leads to some entries that are going to have some people disappointed.

[04:38] So for example, I'm putting in from bureaucrats to villainess, dad's been reincarnated into my honorable mentions list, despite the fact that I enjoy the hell out of it. The villainess subgenre has always been the thing that I've actually, like, surprisingly have never gotten tired of.

[04:51] Any other subgenre that has been like this, where it's just like a set amount of tropes that get repeated ad nauseum endlessly, I always find that I get tired of, except for like a couple of standout entries that show up every couple of seasons and things.

[05:03] But like the villainous subgenre I don think that there been an entry in it that I dislike Some that I might like more than others sure And there are always aspects about the villainous subgenre that I always find a little interesting like the shows that are just like oh my main character totally a villainess but it like you don really fit that title or that

[05:23] label very well, maybe for like 30 seconds on episode one, but we move past that pretty quickly. Regardless, From Bureaucrat to Villainess just sees this, I wouldn't say middle-aged, maybe late-aged. It's hard to tell his actual age, and I can't remember if they give it.

[05:38] this dad who's been reincarnated into his daughter's favorite Otome game. And the thing is, is that this man was a gamer, but he was, like, a gamer of his generation. And so, at least for me, who is unfortunately a bit old,

[05:54] I'm not as old as this man, and he pulls in references that I am astounded even exist. He goes through the experience of a normal Otome game, but then he references things from his generation, which is great, I feel like, for, like, the modern generation,

[06:07] because then you get all of these old, really great classics that you get mentioned that would not be mentioned anywhere else, and maybe you might go and look them up and find them later. Statistically, you won't. But they keep getting brought up in regards to how he is experiencing this world,

[06:21] and of course, because he is stuck in an Atome game, he's literally in an Atome game. It's not like another world or anything, and the game is playing on the television back in his home, and his daughter and his wife are sort of kind of steering him in different directions,

[06:35] which is kind of weird because it's like, well, it's your dad and he's dead? But it's a really fun series and I enjoyed it a lot. Then you have, like, entries for the honorable mentions list that, well, one I feel like I can very easily justify

[06:50] and then one I can't. Or at the very least, my justifications won't be accepted, I'm sure. The Rock and the Lady's Modesty is one that I enjoyed very, very much. You have this girl that comes from, like, a more commoner heritage in this world of necessarily nobility.

[07:05] I'm using these terms and it makes it seem like it's a fantasy series. It's not. It's modern day. But you have this girl who's been flung into the world of high society and she has to basically act like a student council president. She has to be the best. She has to be perfect.

[07:18] Because that is what her family expects of her. Despite the fact that her and her mom were essentially adopted by this family. Her mom remarried into this new family and her father, I think, is dead.

[07:30] And her dad taught her how to play rock music on a guitar. But, you know, rock music and the guitar isn't really what you do in women's high society. And so especially with the first half of this series, you have a main character who is constantly fighting with,

[07:44] well, I have these expectations from the family, but I really love rocking out, though. And she ends up running into another high society lady that is also in the runnings for, like, the best and most grim and proper girl at their school.

[07:56] And she plays the drums. And she loves playing the drums kind of a bit too much. And they end up having their little secret off-club room in the middle of nowhere on campus, and they go and they practice rock, and they find some other people to join them, and so on and so forth.

[08:09] The problem that I had with it is not necessarily its beginning. I feel like its start was one of the strongest of the year. The problem is that I had certain expectations for where it was going to go. There are certain things that I liked about how our main character dealt with society and the conflict that she had.

[08:26] And then, like, by a little past the midpoint of the show, we kind of just forgot all of that. And what we got replaced with didn't really jive with me that well. I didn't feel like it was the same. It felt like a different show. They ended up going to a competition.

[08:39] And it's like the whole balance between the high society life and the expectations and then the rock that she wanted to do kind of got discarded. And we just whole went into, oh, no, this is just a rock series now.

[08:52] And I'm like, it was fine. It was still good. But it wasn't what I really loved about the first half. So I ended up being a little disappointed in it. Then, unhonorable mentions, we have The Summer Hikaru Died.

[09:04] And the reason why it is in the honorable mentions and not in the list proper is because I haven't finished it. That's not to say that should I finish it, it would be in the top ten. But mostly that's because of, ah, this is a weird series wherein I can acknowledge how good it is,

[09:19] because it is really good. I can't point to anything and say that something is bad about it. but also the more I was trying to get into the series the more I found it hard to watch.

[09:31] It leans into particular parts of I don't know if horror is the correct genre but there's a lot of things about it that kind of make me a little squeamish probably in the same vein as Parasite the Maximum.

[09:44] I hated Parasite the Maximum despite the fact that it is a very good series. It just has certain things that set off a weird spencer in the back of my mind that just makes me uncomfortable, and it is not a watch that I found necessarily enjoyable,

[10:00] despite it being good, if that makes sense. And we're going to talk about something later that has a similar vibe, but made it onto the list regardless. But there are only so many things I think I can put on the list that give me that feeling.

[10:14] So it is a really great show, and if you haven't watched it, I would suggest you at least try out a couple of episodes to see if you get a similar feeling to that, and if you don you gonna love it But at least for me that was a problem The last entry in the honorable mentions list is going to be contentious at least for one person right now

[10:32] And that is Apocalypse Hotel. Now, I have an entire video on Apocalypse Hotel and some of the problems that I had with it. And in discussing it with people that really like Apocalypse Hotel, they don't see the same problems that I do.

[10:44] It's not problems to them. And it's very interesting to me having those discussions because it's like, well, these are things that matter to me and things that I had issues with. And if it doesn't bother you, then great. But at least for me, I'm not willing to put aside the problems that I have with the show

[11:00] just because I know that other people don't have those problems. It is still a thing that I have. It is still issues that I have with it. And despite it being an amazing series, and I still heavily recommend Apocalypse Hotel, I've enjoyed a large part of it.

[11:13] There was just parts of it that stopped it from becoming like best of all time for me. Best of all time for me. And so I front-load all of that because I know, and as I said at the very start of this video, there's going to be things in my top ten list that people aren't going to agree with,

[11:27] and I'm sure somebody's going to get in the comments and say, why the hell did you put this in your top ten, but Apocalypse Hotel only got an honorable mention? What the hell is wrong with you? You are just incorrect. Except to that person I say, you forgot that this is my list, which means none of it is incorrect.

[11:41] You are. And so with that, spending a not insignificant time on just honorable mentions, we can get into the top ten proper with number ten. Rudy Rocks! This is a series that, honestly, I think I started because its animation is spectacular.

[11:57] This is from the same animation studio that does Mushoku Tensei, except instead of doing one of the most famous and influential isekai shows of all time that's very fantasy and magic-coded, this is about a bunch of women who go into geology and rocks and mineralogy,

[12:12] and they like digging up rocks, and they like finding rock formations, and pretty stones. And yes, also their body proportions are a mix between extremely generous and the complete opposite of that. But the high energy of the main cast

[12:25] kept me coming back every week. I always enjoy a series that can take a topic that I literally have zero interest in and still make it engaging enough for me to want to come back next week. I don't care about rocks and mineralogy.

[12:37] I still don't. Never did, never have. Yes, rocks are pretty, and I'd like to hold them and look at them and put them up into the light, but like, I would never get as invested into this hobby or this line of work as some of the main characters here do,

[12:50] but damn do I like watching them do it. And so for me, that's an easy one into the 10th slot. Then we get to number nine, and this year my number nine goes to Taco Pea's Original Sin. Now, I haven't talked about Taco Pea on the channel.

[13:04] I was forced to watch Taco Pea, and I say forced very lovingly by my good friends Miles and Jeff over at Quest for the Best Podcast, this podcast that we do trying to find some of the greatest anime of all time,

[13:17] they both watched Takopi and decided that it was so good that I had to watch it. And it's one of those, I don't regret that they told me to do that, but I also did not necessarily enjoy the experience.

[13:29] This is what I meant when I was talking about the summer Hikaru died. If I don't enjoy the experience, why is it in my top ten list? And the answer is, it's just that good. Takopi follows this little alien ball of naivety and innocence

[13:43] who gets thrown into one of, if not the most depressing tales about children in domestic abuse situations that has ever been put to animation.

[13:55] When I watched it and when I discussed it with them, I compared it to like Grave of the Fireflies for just how depressing it can get. And also because, like Grave of the Fireflies, I will never watch this show again.

[14:07] You probably will never be able to make me watch this show again. There are a lot of anime out there that, like I will say, I probably won't ever watch it again, except if I was to make somebody else watch it, and I would gladly watch it with them and, like, re-experience my first watch with them,

[14:23] live vicariously through them. No, Takopi! If you want to go watch Takopi and we know each other IRL, go on! I'm not going to be in the room. Enjoy. It's good, but, man, is it depressing.

[14:35] And that's why it's further down on the list than other things might be, because I can agree that it is extremely good. It is such a well-crafted anime, but just by the nature of its content and how it was not enjoyable for me to watch, despite being good, it's that weird balance there that makes it worth mentioning, worth putting on the list, but my god, do I not like it.

[15:02] It's such a contradiction, and yet here we are. Moving on from that, we get May I Ask for One Final Thing. Now, out of everything on the list, this is the one that, despite it being in the number 8 spot and not the number 10 spot,

[15:14] is probably the closest thing to being kicked off the list, and I only say that because I haven't finished it yet, and me being the guy that constantly says the ending is paramount, perhaps by the time I finally get around to the last couple of episodes, which I haven't been able to get to because December is December,

[15:27] by the time I get to those final episodes, then maybe I would change my mind and kick it off, and maybe then Apocalypse Hotel would be on the list But it a series that I think technically question mark goes into the villainous subgenre in that it follows a lot of the same trumps especially in the early setup where you have a main female character

[15:45] who was betrothed to a guy, and then he decides that he's going to cheat on her with somebody else, but not really cheat because this is nobility, and he's instead going to break off their engagement so that he can go with the other woman who has captured his heart

[15:58] for one reason or another. The thing is that our main character is not the one who will just take things lightly. In fact, she bottles things up extremely, and at the start of the series shows that the way to deal with that bottled up feeling is to just let it all go by putting on some gloves and beating the shit out of people.

[16:15] And it is very cathartic from that mentality. The only thing that would be the downer to it is if it doesn't end well, or it ends in a way that's like, oh, but there will be more. Because I can see, like, past this one season, this particular trope just getting a little tired.

[16:31] As much as I enjoy our main character beating the shit out of people, especially people who deserve it, there are other times where I feel like it could get old, if not for any other reason, than sometimes the characters just go out of their way to say things and do things that just make you want to punch them.

[16:49] It's like they're preempting and justifying why they need to get beat up beforehand, to the point where I'm like, do you really need to say all of that out loud? but I don't think that that would make sense for you in this world and universe to say that out loud,

[17:03] if for no other reason than to bait the main character and to punch you in the face. It's still entertaining when it happens, but there's still that little voice in the back of my head that's just like, I don't know if this is like 24 episode worthy. Definitely 13.

[17:16] I enjoyed it a lot. I'm enjoying it a lot. And it is worth a spot here on the list. But that's why it's here and probably not further up. Number seven is a personal choice of mine. it is what is here on the list when I say that nobody else is going to agree with me,

[17:30] and that's Catcher in the Ballpark. Catcher in the Ballpark is not a series I think I can sell most people on because there's not a lot to it, and yet there is so much in it. Catcher in the Ballpark is not a series about a particular set of characters.

[17:42] It is more about a location, that being a very specific baseball stadium that ostensibly is in Tokyo and is based on a real stadium, but also, you know, for legal reasons, is its own thing. and they have their own baseball team and their whole league that doesn't actually exist,

[17:57] and is in no way connected to any real baseball league that does exist, for legal reasons, probably. And while it does have technically two main characters, the vast majority of the series is more about the experience of going to the ballpark,

[18:12] and the people who live, not live, you don't live in a ballpark, but people who spend their lives at the ballpark, either because they enjoy going, or because they work there, and the various jobs that they do. The main character is, quote, quote, I put in heavy air quotations, the two main characters,

[18:28] the ones that get the most amount of screen time is a young salaryman who ends up very much coming to the ballpark in order to relax after a long day's work. He likes enjoying watching the game and then having a beer.

[18:41] And it just so happens that our other main character is one of the girls who serves beer. And there's a whole interesting culture about the girls who serve beers at baseball stadiums because it's kind of like this weird cross between, like, idol culture and, like, cafe culture within Japan,

[18:55] and, like, how you have serving girls and things like that. And it's very interesting to see it from this perspective. A little romance blooms there. But then also, like, we spend time with so many other characters. We spend a little bit of time with the actual players,

[19:07] but we spend more time with the people who work there, from security guards to the girl who serves food at the food counter to the woman who does the announcing on the PA at every game. We learn all about these characters, and the slice of life aspect from this is just pristine and I love it.

[19:24] And it saddened me when I finished the show and there wasn't an immediate greenlit for a second season because I want to see more about this world. I enjoyed it every single week. I can't convince people to watch it.

[19:36] That's the problem I have with slice of life shows. It's like you either like it or you don't and I know too many people that just don't. I love it. I enjoyed it. I very much wanted it to put it higher up on the list just because I can, but also the rest of the list exists.

[19:53] Which brings us to number six, which for a very long time was very much higher in the list, but it wasn't brought down because of something it did, it was brought down by the fact that everything else exists. And that's Anne Shirley. I will admit that I do have a bit of a Canadian bias towards the story

[20:07] about a young Canadian girl in a Canadian province, because Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables is very much a Prince Edward Island icon, but also Japan really likes Anna Green Gables, to a surprising degree.

[20:21] And I went into this adaptation a little worried, because, if you didn't know, there was a very famous adaptation of Anna Green Gables that happened way, way, way, way, way back in the day by some of the Studio Gid Re-founders.

[20:34] And that's not necessarily a comparison you want to have, but I think that with the advent of time and changes in production quality and style that this adaptation does a lot, not to replace the old adaptation of Anne of Green Gables,

[20:49] but to give it its own spin, and if for whatever reason you just want