Our 5 Favorite Anime of 2015: Staff Picks

Looking back at 2015, there were a ton of great anime across all different genres. That’s evident more than ever here, with our staff picks for favorite anime of 2015 covering a wide range; from shounen cooking battles to space operas to slice of life, 2015 seemed to have a high quality anime for every type of anime fan. With that said, take a look at what we thought were the shows that caught our interest the most — and maybe you’ll find something that catches yours too.

Andrew’s Pick: Kekkai Sensen

Kekkai Sensen is about a wacky group of crime fighters known as Libra, who keep the peace in a version of New York City where aliens came and settled via a dimensional gate. While humans and aliens have (mostly) managed to co-exist together, the tension between worlds gets out of control at times, and that’s where Libra jumps into action — often with hilarious results. From shounen-esque special powers to impressive visual spectacles, the anime is packed with fun right to the very end.

If you’ve ever seen Yasuhiro Nightow‘s other famous work, Trigun, then you probably have an idea of what to expect with Kekkai Sensen. The characters are oozing with personality and style, and each episode is filled with non-stop quick cuts of ridiculous explosions and physical gags, interspersed with some somber moments to change up the pace. Somehow, like the melting pot of its own setting, the anime’s mixed themes blend well together, knowing when to be restrained and when to just blast away full throttle. And surprisingly, there’s some genuine heart in it too; the episode “Don’t Forget to Don’t Forget Me” in particular has stayed with me long after watching. For me, Kekkai Sensen condensed everything that I like about anime into an easily-bingeable 12-episode package: great action, unexpected humor, and some lasting feelings.

Sam’s Pick: Aldnoah.Zero

Aldnoah.Zero takes place in an alternate history where mankind discovers advanced alien technology on Mars. During a great war between Earth and those humans who inhabit Mars as the “Vers Empire,” the moon literally shatters and devastates the planet with falling debris in an event known as the “Heaven’s Fall.” The events of the anime take place several years after Heaven’s Fall, as another conflict is sparked after the apparent assassination of Vers Princess Asseylum during a peacekeeping mission to Earth’s surface. As the story and its various conspiracies and plot twists unravel, we follow the exploits of Inaho Kaizuka and his friends as they defend Earth from the Vers Empire’s overwhelming power.

Many will probably find this pick odd, as it’s definitely not the “best” anime of the year by any objective measure. What can I say? I have a soft spot for space operas. But Aldnoah.Zero definitely left an indelible mark on me and even after acknowledging its various flaws, of which there are many, I still find myself daydreaming about this series. The action is downright awe-inspiring, its characters are complex enough to not easily fit in one anime trope or another, its animation is stunning, and its emotional moments are incredibly moving. By virtue of its soundtrack alone (a favorite workout playlist of mine), the anime easily earns its place here. And while the second season is by far the weaker of the two, the series’ conclusion is brave enough to tell its audience that stories don’t always end with “happily ever after”.

Liam’s Pick: Shirobako

Shirobako is, simply put, an anime about making anime. At the base level Shirobako deeply honors and respects the difficult craft of the collaborative process of anime production, but more importantly Shirobako honors and respects the craft of creativity itself. In particular, it empathizes with the struggle of pursuing a creative career, of finding your place and learning to be confident in your own abilities, of coming to terms with the fact that it’s a job. Shirobako doesn’t mince words. Careers in the arts are seriously risky, and the collaborative craft of making anime is filled with people who are incredibly difficult or even downright impossible to work with. But in spite of all the baggage, Shirobako remembers what it’s like to truly love your craft. It remembers that moment where you decided you wanted to pursue that passion, no matter how much self-doubt and stress and anxiety it caused.

To that end, Shirobako deals with its sometimes bleak and confronting subject matter with an explosive optimism. Its ensemble cast of characters overflow with genuine warmth and humor and endearment, and the individual character journeys that comprise the series and give numerous mirrored reflections on creative identity all reach the same conclusion: to keep pushing on, no matter how utterly ridiculously hopeless it seems — because that’s what a life of creative passion means. Shirobako remembers that creativity isn’t just the effort you put in. It’s the reward itself.

Adeline’s Pick: Shokugeki no Soma

My favorite anime of the year was definitely Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars) because at its core, it’s an anime about cooking. Set in a very prestigious and highly competitive elite cooking school, the protagonist Souma has to fight his way to stay. Beyond the fact that there was seriously tasty-looking food in every episode, I enjoyed Shokugeki no Soma because it took an everyday aspect of life that is not usually the focus of an anime, and turned it into a shounen anime where the students fight for survival based on tasting competitions and cooking challenges. While cooking itself may not seem like an interesting subject to make an anime about, Shokugeki no Soma constantly engages the audience with recipes that you want to try out yourself and an intense shounen battle atmosphere due to the highly competitive nature of the school.

Another interesting fact about the series is that even though over-the-top reactions are shown when the dishes are tasted, all the recipes in the anime can still most likely be recreated with similar effects in real life. This is because the original manga was written in collaboration with a famous Japanese chef who knows his stuff when it comes to cooking. Personally, I feel that Shokugeki no Soma does such a good job because it was able to appeal to a wide audience without neglecting other details such as animation quality, which started off good and only got better as it continued.

Miguel’s Pick: One Punch Man

Exactly what it says on the tin, yet somehow a little more. That’s a way that I’d describe One Punch Man. Almost everyone has talked about the gorgeous animation and the beautiful and awesome soundtrack that backs this work, with its main character that has produced numerous comparisons between him and others from different series. Many place Saitama alongside the likes of Superman and Goku, with the most common question being “who’s the strongest?” But, in a way, I think Saitama is not just “the One Punch Man,” a man that has achieved such strength that can liquefy most of his enemies with a single strike. Unlike the heroes he’s more usually contrasted with, he used to be just a guy trying to make ends meet, and honestly he didn’t develop much further than that even after becoming a professional hero — which somehow grounds him as something different than a dude with the strength of a hellbeast.

How the plot develops around him not only reminds me a lot of Archer’s dilemma from Fate/Stay Night — a man that managed to become a hero only to regret it even after his death — but also of how the manga Kannagi is written, where the author, Eri Takenashi, tries to subvert the genre by being funny when things were pointing to something serious and vice versa. This is what made One Punch Man stand out from its shounen peers, but it also landed in a place that it’s hard to get out of with how its season ended. In the final fight you get to see Saitama’s strongest opponent yet represent his possible future, a bored monster that devastates everything on its path in search for something that makes him feel alive again. Wanting to see how this plays out is what made it stand out the most, which could in the future be one hell of a second season to watch. Or maybe not. Maybe it is just a very funny gag story and nothing more.

What Do You Think?

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