Which Was the Best 2021 Winter Anime? “Jujutsu Kaisen” at 3rd Place and Two Titles Shared the Top Position!

With March halfway through, many new one-cour-long TV anime from winter 2021 have reached its final episode.

This year’s winter anime had a rich variety of titles, decorating the beginning of the year, as every year does. Among them, which was the anime that grabbed Anime!Anime! readers’ hearts the most?

We at Anime!Anime! conducted a readers’ survey asking “Which Was the Best 2021 Winter Anime? (January cour)” and received 291 votes during the survey period from March 12 to 19.
There were more female voters with a gender ratio of 35% male to 65% female, and the age range was on the younger side with 45% under 20 and 30% in their 20s.

■”Horimiya” and “Mo Dao Zu Shi” share the top position!
1st Place
Topping the list was “Horimiya” and “Mo Dao Zu Shi” with roughly 9% of the votes each.

“Horimiya” is based on the school rom-com serialized in “Monthly G Fantasy”. The characters’ interactions were popular and the title received comments such as, “Finally, an anime adaptation! I’ve always been looking forward to it, and the heartwarming, slice-of-life story soothes me,” “The youthful lives of the characters is just amazing and makes me root for Hori-san and Miyamura-kun’s relation,” and “I love the dialogue between characters like Hori-san and Miyamura-kun.”

“Mo Dao Zu Shi” is based on a Chinese fantasy BL novel. It received votes such as, “It was refreshing to see a foreign fantasy among the many Isekai anime. The background and lighting is beautiful, and the smooth movement of the characters make me watch it over and over again,” and “The story is unpredictable and I enjoyed the suspense every week.” The anime hasn’t reached its final episode yet, so there were also many voices saying, “I’ll continue watching in April too!”

3rd Place
Coming in 3rd was “Jujutsu Kaisen” with roughly 8% of the votes.

This anime is a popular action manga serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump”. The 1st cour was broadcast from October 2020, and the title received passionate comments like, “It was already amazing in the 1st cour, and it became even better in the 2nd. The battle scenes are super intense and overwhelming. The story is carefully plotted, yet proceeds at a good pace, and the unpredictable development is very interesting. The Jujutsu Sorcerers fighting with their lives at risk are so cool!”

By the way, when looking at only the male votes, “Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation” topped the list, followed by “The Quintessential Quintuplets” at 2nd, and “Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 2”, “Horimiya”, and “Laid-Back Camp Season 2” sharing the 3rd place. For female votes, the most popular anime was “Mo Dao Zu Shi”, followed by “Jujutsu Kaisen” at 2nd and “Mr. Osomatsu” at 3rd.

For “Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation”, “The adventures to unknown territory and the unpredictable development got me so excited! I love how the main character makes mistakes and changes his way of thinking through his experiences. The heroines are cute too!”
For “The Quintessential Quintuplets ∬”, “The quintuplets are so adorable,” and “The turn of events in the second season made me look forward to the new episode every week.”

For “Uma Musume Pretty Derby”, “I think they did a great job in dramatizing the story based on actual thoroughbreds.”
For “Mr. Osomatsu”, a serialized franchise, “I’m delighted to be able to watch the interaction of the sextuplets for such a long time. I enjoyed watching the six of them being even trashier than before.”

■Here are some comments for other titles!
For “SK8 the Infinity”, “I enjoyed the speed and excitement of skateboarding!” and “I never was into skateboarding, but this anime changed my image of the sport.”

For “Kemono Jihen”, “The unique characters and the well-designed plots make the anime very interesting. The images are amazing, and the story is well organized without leaving out episodes from the original manga, keeping the story progression at a good pace.”

For “Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World 2nd season”, “Each episode was dramatic as if it were the climax, letting me enjoy the series without even getting a chance to take a breath.”

A school rom-com and a foreign fantasy topped the list for this survey. Several two-cour anime that started in autumn 2020 also ranked high on the list.

■Top 20
[Which Was the Best 2021 Winter Anime? (January cour)]
1. “Horimiya”
2. “Mo Dao Zu Shi”
3. “Jujutsu Kaisen (2nd cour)”
4. “Mr. Osomatsu Season 3 (2nd cour)”
5. “Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation”
6. “Kemono Jihen”
7. “Dr. Stone 2nd Season”
7. “Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World 2nd season (2nd cour)”
9. “The Quintessential Quintuplets ∬”
10. “SK8 the Infinity”
11. “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 (Part 1)”
11. “World Trigger 2nd season”
13. “Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 2”
13. “Laid-Back Camp Season 2”
15. “Cells at Work!! Season 2”
15. “Pui Pui Molcar”
17. “Attack on Titan: The Final Season”
17. “Skate-Leading Stars”
19. “Wonder Egg Priority”
20. “The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter”
20. “Cells at Work! Code Black”

(Survey Period: March 12-19, 2021)

※This survey was held to investigate the readers’ “interests and attention towards current anime titles and characters”. The results should not be used to determine the supremacy of characters and titles. We hope this article will help you find new anime/characters and deepen your understanding of them.