The 20 Best Anime Of 2021, Ranked

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is a controversial series that deals with a lot of tough topics. After leading a miserable life as a shut-in, Rudeus Greyrat is reincarnated into a magical world. While this sounds like the standard isekai harem formula, it manages to be totally unique. 

We're including this show because it's a highly rated, complex story with excellent world building and characterization. That said, we don't recommend it to everyone. Rudeus has some genuinely terrifying thoughts about children, and the narrative goes back and forth about how well it handles that sensitive content. 

A war without casualties sounds great - unfortunately, it's not exactly realistic, and it sure isn't what's going on in 86. While most of the Republic of San Magnolia believes that the war against the Giadian Empire is being fought solely by machines, few realize that someone has to risk their lives controlling those machines - that is, the people of the 86th district. 

Vladilena Milizé gets the opportunity to supervise this squadron. Everyone expects her to treat the people of 86 as disposable, but she sees their humanity and can't bring herself to do that. But her attempts at kindness don't necessarily result in trust. Shinei Nouzen has been to hell and back, and he doesn't immediately believe in her good intentions. 

If you're tired of romance anime where the couple spends the whole time getting together and you never get to see the relationship in action, you should watch Horimiya. 

Kyouko Hori and Izumi Miyamura don't seem like they have much in common - Hori is a bubbly, cheerful girl, while Miyamura is on the quiet side. But they do have something in common - both of them are hiding their true selves from the rest of the world. Hori is actually an extremely responsible person who has to spend most of her time taking care of her younger brother, while Miya is secretly tattooed and pierced. Though the contents of their secrets are dissimilar, the fact that neither person is who they seem brings them together. 

Want to watch an anime that's thoughtful about the meaning of human nature but will also make you cry buckets? Try To Your Eternity. An orb that can transform into the life forms it encounters after those life forms pass away lands on earth. Eventually, the orb begins to develop an identity and a name - Fushi. He meets human beings and begins to form bonds with them, all while a mysterious being is watching his every move.

But all is not peaceful for Fushi. From conflicts with other humans to attacks from the Nokkers, it's all Fushi can do to keep the people around him alive. 

It's no surprise that the first cour of the final season of one of the hottest anime in history was wildly popular. Though some people were concerned about the switch from Wit Studio to MAPPA, the new season proved to be just as compelling as previous ones.

Viewers got to learn a lot more about the secrets of the Titans and the world beyond the walls, and got to see a side of Eren Jaeger that they may not have been prepared for. 

Dr. Stone is a 2019 anime about what happens when the entire planet is encased in stone. Thousands of years after this event, Senku Ishigami wakes up in the wilderness. It's a struggle just to survive, but Senku has big goals - bringing back all the technology that he once enjoyed, and bringing everyone else out of stasis. 

But he has a major opponant - Tsukasa and his empire. That's the focus of the 2021 season, Stone Wars. Tsukasa doesn't want to revive society as it was - he wants to build a new society, reviving only those he deems worthy, and he wants to stop Senku and his allies.