Asakusa Midori is a young girl who has always had her attention captivated by the world of animation. Finding solace and adventure in drawing unique and intricate landscapes, Midori is always buried deep within the pages of her sketchbook. When Midori and her childhood friend, Kanamori Sayaka, help model and fellow high school student Misuzaki Tsubame out of an obligation she has, a friendship forms. Midori and Tsubame share a burning passion for animation, with the former’s talent for landscapes and backgrounds being mirrored by the latter’s ability to capture human form in her drawings. Sayaka sees their meeting as an opportunity to get rich, so she suggests that Midori and Tsubame start a covert anime club at their school and get working on creating animation of their own.

Eizouken, an anime that can definitely be considered a 2020 gem. This love letter to animation brings amazing and imaginative uses of the medium to bring this story to life. We can relate to the characters’ love for animation as anime fans; however, Eizouken is beautiful in how it chooses to explore the medium from different perspectives, especially visually. Asakusa Midori’s vivid imagination takes the viewer on visually stimulating adventures that show off the studio Science SARU’s ability.

Sorcerers are individuals who possess inexplicable powers. Their impact is brutally obvious in the rundown district known as Hole. Here, the Sorcerers run amok with their supernatural abilities, which usually results in fatal conclusions for the downtrodden residents of Hole. Despite the halls of Hole’s only hospital teeming with the mutilated bodies of victims of Sorcerers, some of the residents are strong enough to fight back. Lizard-headed Caiman is suffering from amnesia and plagued by nightmares. Accompanied by his friend Nikaidou, owner of Hungry Bug restaurant, Caiman is on a journey to track down the Sorcerer responsible for his strange appearance, as well as find out his true identity.

With a CGI approach to its animation, Dorohedoro stands out for many reasons. The world of Dorohedoro is dark and filled with horror elements, violence, gore, yet all these dark elements are contrasted by a genuine, somewhat ridiculous sense of humour. This is especially apparent with its character designs, designs that are varied and eccentric, with masks for various characters that give them a unique but strikingly macabre appearance.

In a fantasy world where human beings have been driven to extinction by the various other races, a golem given the role of guardian of the forest finds a lone human girl in shackles and rags. In this world, golems live for a maximum of 1000 years, and this one has just over a year before the end, so he plans on finding Somali’s parents before time runs out.

One of the more understated titles of Winter 2020, Somali and the Forest Spirit is a fantasy slice of life that brings uniqueness and cuteness but also a world that is interesting and even a little dark. Story elements aside, Somali and the Forest Spirit boasts really good visuals, from character designs to the best part: backgrounds. Fully immersed in the fantasy setting of the story, the art is elevated by vibrant colours that might speak to a certain childishness found in Somali and the Forest Spirit.

The police have gained possession of an incredible piece of technology. The Mizuhanome System allows people to access the “Id”, a materialisation of a criminal’s unconscious. They use this in the cases of serial murderers in order to use the criminal’s own mind against them, using the brilliant detective Narihisago “Sakaido” Akhito as their proxy in these strange abstract realms. Having killed someone himself, Sakaido is the police’s agent in these matters; however, things aren’t quite as he expects them to be in each case.

Given its premise suspended in the abstract realm that is the human mind, ID:INVADED has stunning visual impact. Strange shapes and colours decorate the scattered inner worlds that Sakaido explores using the Mizuhanome System and this enables the show to explore stellar visual aspects, backdrops and landscapes explored by characters of appealing design.

At Kamone Academy, every student has heard about the “Seven Mysteries”, seven legends about the various parts of the school grounds. Be that as it may, none of these legends are as infamous as that of Hanako-san, a fabled ghost to be haunting the third stall of the second-floor girl’s bathroom in the old school building. Rumour has it if one is able to summon Hanako-san, they will be granted any wish! Desperate to have a wish granted and have her crush notice her, Yashiro Nene heads over to the bathroom. When Hanako appears to her, Nene finds her life changed forever as she is forever embroiled in the world of the supernatural.

We’ve talked about this one before–Hanako-kun is, in the writer’s opinion, “the most beautiful show that’ll come out of 2020”. So far, he’d like to think he’s right. With vibrant colours, great character designs, and an interesting layout that’s reminiscent of motion comics, Hanako-kun’s art and animation find themselves in a league of their own this year. Hanako-kun has brilliant shots at every turn and the nature of the animation allows the audience to take in heavy doses of visual beauty while using minimal movement to still give the show the feeling of living, breathing anime.