The Fall anime season of 2019 caused the year to go out with a whimper, if I’m being completely honest. There were a sparse few standouts in a season awash in second seasons for vastly more popular shows. Perhaps it was like this because creators don’t want to compete with My Hero Academia, Seven Deadly Sins, or the ever-burning tire fire that is Sword Art Online. (Yes, I agree it did get better this season.)
Regardless, while I can find a lot of nice things to say about many of the shows, even the five different yet same-ish isekai series, I only picked the series that were truly enjoyable. This made for a short list.
Best Fall 2019 Anime
Beastars
This is a world of anthropomorphic animals where carnivores and herbivores live side by side with each other. At Cherryton Academy, young wolf Legoshi is a member of the drama club. While he is often called menacing due to his appearance, he wouldn’t hurt a fly. When one herbivore classmate is killed and devoured, Legoshi finds himself as the primary suspect.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – You look at this series and it is just so easy to pass on it or even hate it. Admittedly, the animation is a little awkward at times, but the story here is a spot on and unexpectedly dark for something that is so brightly animated. The most precious treasure within, however, is that the animal characters are more human that most human characters in anime.
Stars Align
Out-performed by the girls’ club and facing disbandment, team captain of the soft tennis club Toma Shinjou is desperate to recruit members. He immediately targets new transfer student Maki Katsuragi for his solid reflexes. After a few rejections, Maki joins and quickly shines. This causes complicated feelings among the rest of the team who feel outperformed, but also propelled forward by Maki.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – This was one of the last on my watch list for the season because sports anime has a formula and clings to it much of the time. Yet, I wish I had watched it first. Stars Align, by synopsis alone, appears to follow the standard sports formula. However, this is a series that shows more struggles than sports victories. It focuses on the stress and often non-sports related struggles of its well-written characters. It doesn’t gloss over that emotional dark side that comes with playing sports competitively, even on a middle school level.
Babylon
In the Shiniki district of Tokyo, Zen works as a prosecutor. Initially, he is assigned a case for false advertisement, but while looking into the pharmaceutical company that may have faked their clinical trials, he gets sucked down the rabbit hole of investigation, leading him to a whirlwind of corruption and conspiracy.
Why It Is Worth Watching? – There were very few serious series this season, so Babylon got refreshing points for being just that. However, it also proved to be a really good mystery and psychological thriller. As it went on, it had some nice dark moments and a plot that continues to twist as you really want from a good mystery. Interesting that this airs in the same season as Psycho-Pass season 3 because it feels a lot like that without the dystopian elements.
Do you have more anime you would recommend from the Fall season? Let potential new fans of it know in the comments section below.
