Anime/Manga Best Of

Everyone's got their favorites, and every year there are award shows held for the best shows of that period. But, sometimes we're left thinking 'well if x had aired this year it would have won' or 'yeah y was good but there's still nothing that can beat z'. For that, we're going to do an 'overall best from each of your points of view. I'll provide a short list of categories for you, but feel free to add in any others that you feel deserve recognition!

Best Action show:
Best romance:
Best comedy:
Best sports:
Best sakuga:
Best studio:
Best movie:
Best adaptation of a light novel:
Best adaptation of a manga/manhwa:

Best Action show: Re:Zero
Not only are the action sequences impressive, but they always carry narrative significance and weight which makes it even better. Throw in some surprisingly complex themes, characters and the like and some overall great writing and you have a show that definitely stands out from the crowd among the numerous other isekai series.

Best romance: Looking Up at the Half-Moon
Old series that needs more love. The relationship between the main characters develops very naturally and the drama never feels forced. It deals with some very heavy themes (mortality chief among them) but does so very well. Short and beautiful series.

Best sports: Haikyuu
Haikyuu has a huge cast of well-developed or well-written characters, great music and animation and more importantly it does a fantastic job of capturing the world of high level competitions. You feel what the characters feel watching it and if you've been in similar environments yourself it only hits harder.

Best studio: A-1 Pictures
I'm not super familiar with specific studios and did quick research for this one. In the end it came down to A-1, Kyoto Animation and Production I.G. which all had a good number of shows I really liked under their belts - stuff that had story, characters, music, art style and animation all that I liked. In the end, I think A-1 had just a bit more content that I've ranked really highly so I gave it to A-1.

Best movie: Your Name
Gorgeous animation, solid music and a well-crafted story that continues to stick with me as one of my favourite movies, period. This is one of those movies that was so good it sparked a movement of people trying to imitate its look and narrative vibes and as of yet nothing has quite gotten there.

Best Horror: Higurashi
I'm not going to do one of these and not find an excuse to include my favourite franchise of all time. The atmosphere, the story, the characters, the music, the lore, the worldbuilding... the writing again. It's all just too damn good.

I'll come back to do some more I've thought of later. Will do best comedy and the adaptations then too. The former because I tend to like a lot of comedy's more for their dramatic elements than their humour so it feels disingenuous to put a lot of them in as favourite comedy without giving some thought. The adaptation ones I need to think on too because I'm floundering a bit there given how little of the source material I've consumed for a lot of adaptations.

I don't think I've ever put together my personal TOP list of anime, so this should be interesting. After checking up the categories, I found out I have really limited scope, when it comes to anime. So, here's my small list:

Best action show: Noragami
Looking back, Noragami is solid show from start to the end. I like the concept of god that's basically just poor teenager with no particular skill, but with superpowers.

Best romance: Kimi no Iru Machi
There are not many series that I would finish in one sitting. Kimi no Iru Machi is one of them. It's a slow series that takes time to explore the unexpected nature of human love.

Best comedy: Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
My favourite series. I wasn't sure, where to put it, since it would fit well into romance and slice of life, and in the end decided to put it here. I adore this series. I love the over-the-top plans Keima comes up with to seduces his targets. It also takes time to properly set up everything (which was pretty much the downfall of the anime in the end, because it took 2 seasons and a huge content skip, to get to the "main" arc). I'm also fan of Keima's slow character development and his struggle to maintain his old ways.

Best slice of life: Kokoro Connect
Five students and weird phenomena happening to them. Much like Kimi no Iru Machi, this is character driven series that dives deep into main characters relationships with each other.

Best studio: Studio Ghibli
This is like one of two studios I know and I'm familiar with their work. So, I'm not sure if I can't really say if it's the best, but it is the best for me.

Best movie: Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo
Great movie that perfectly captures the late summer boredom and the desire to get the most time of stuff we love and help as much as possible to people we love. And how easily can it backfire.

Best Horror: Parasyte
I'm not fan of anime gore horror and for a while, it seems like every "horror" anime is just full of gore and unpleasant scenary. Parasyte keeps gore at minimum and (as you might guess based on my previous entries) focuses on the main character's journey as they find themself in the middle of alien invasion. It also has awesome soundtrack.

Janp said:

Best slice of life: Kokoro Connect
Five students and weird phenomena happening to them. Much like Kimi no Iru Machi, this is character driven series that dives deep into main characters relationships with each other.

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You deserve some acknowledgement for this mention alone tbh. Great series.