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The Best and Worst of Summer 2021

by Daniel DeLorme,

Our team of reviewers are following 24 anime series of the Summer 2021 season and readers are rating each episode as the reviews go up. So let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season.

Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated individual episodes of the current season, not on the overall quality or popularity of the series. Only the titles legally streaming in North America and popular enough to be reviewed are being ranked, so the bottom of the list might represent 'watchable' rather than 'bad'. See the notes for further details.

The week of Sep 23-30 is a special 8-day week (with two Thursdays) to close off this 92-day season. And there were 2 shows with an episode on each of the two Thursdays: Higurashi and Sonny Boy. Episodes 10-12 of Love Live Superstar!! actually aired in October, so they've been squashed into the last week together with episode 9.

For the last week we're doing a little something different

With the week of September 23-30, the Summer 2021 season is now over. But many of the series already ended the previous week, so we're adding an extra "final" week where all the last episodes are ranked against each other. With this we can see which series ended on a strong note and which ones ended more weakly. That means the "final ep." column is a repeat of the last episode from Sep 16-22 or Sep 23-30. And the "prev week change" is the difference in position between the "final ep." column and the penultimate episode.

Episode Rankings for the final episodes

Along the actual ranking for this week's episodes, this graph chronicles the change in position from week to week. While some series are stable, others swing wildly in the rankings depending on the strength of each episode. When a series has no episode for a given week, the previous week's episode is used instead as a placeholder. The first episode of each series is considered as part of the first week, even if it really aired during the second week. Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.
ranking change from week to week
(episode numbers as labels; clickable)
prev
week
change
this
week
rank
anime series
11 #1. To Your Eternity
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
20
1 #2. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
2 #3. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
48
4 #4. Kageki Shoujo!!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
2 #5. The aquatope on white sand
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
3 #6. Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
21
2 #7. Sonny Boy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #8. One Piece
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
993
1 #9. Love Live! Superstar!!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9-12
12
2 #10. Tokyo Revengers
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
3 #11. The Case Study of Vanitas
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #12. My Next Life as a Villainess X
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
6 #13. Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy-
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
3 #14. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
5 #15. Remake Our Life!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
2 #16. Girlfriend, Girlfriend
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
13 #17. My Hero Academia
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
113
2 #18. I'm Standing on 1,000,000 Lives
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
2 #19. Seirei Gensouki - Spirit Chronicles
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
3 #20. Battle Game in 5 Seconds
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
5 #21. Peach Boy Riverside
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#22. Higurashi: When They Cry – SOTSU
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
4 #23. The Honor Student at Magic High School
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
#24. Detective Is Already Dead
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12

Series Cumulative Ranking for Summer 2021

Each week's ranking takes into account the scores given to previous weeks' episodes. With the last episode duplicated in the "final ep." column, it means that the votes for the last episode of each series are counted twice, which intentionally gives a boost to series that ended strongly. This somewhat compensates for the fact that the first episode of each series has more votes, which favors series that started strongly.

So this is it, the final ranking, the winners and losers of the Summer 2021 season. Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.

ranking change from week to week
(episode numbers as labels; clickable)
prev
week
change
this
week
rank
anime series
#1. Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#2. Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
21
1 #3. Kageki Shoujo!!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
2 #4. The aquatope on white sand
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #5. Love Live! Superstar!!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9-12
12
1 #6. The Case Study of Vanitas
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
6 #7. To Your Eternity
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
20
#8. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
48
1 #9. Sonny Boy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
1 #10. One Piece
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
993
4 #11. My Hero Academia
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
113
1 #12. Remake Our Life!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#13. Tokyo Revengers
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
#14. My Next Life as a Villainess X
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#15. Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy-
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#16. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
#17. The Honor Student at Magic High School
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
13
#18. I'm Standing on 1,000,000 Lives
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
24
#19. Higurashi: When They Cry – SOTSU
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
#20. Seirei Gensouki - Spirit Chronicles
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#21. Peach Boy Riverside
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#22. Girlfriend, Girlfriend
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#23. Battle Game in 5 Seconds
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12
#24. Detective Is Already Dead
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
12

Notes

Disclaimer: the rankings are just an average of opinions, published for entertainment and information purposes. ANN makes no claims regarding statistical significance or invulnerability to spam.

The rankings are computed using the Schulze method, with the variation that unrated titles are considered as abstentions instead of lower than the rated titles. This roughly means that if, out of all people who rated both A and B, 60% preferred A, it will be ranked higher than B.

The rankings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad). While the titles are ranked from 'best' to 'worst', sometimes the difference between #1 and #10 can be very thin. So if your favorite is near the bottom of the list, don't take it personally. It doesn't mean it's a bad show, it just means that ANN readers, on average, have preferred the ones above.

If a series has no episode for a given week, we use the rating data for the previous week's episode in order to compute the weekly ranking. This is not officially counted as a position in the ranking (it has no impact on the cumulative ranking), but it makes it easier to compare weeks if they each have the same number of series ranked.

It should be noted that long-running series (and sequels) have an advantage in the sense that only people who like the series are still watching it, and they are likely to give each episode a high rating. But if such a series is going through a low-quality filler arc, the season will get low rankings that are not indicative of the true overall quality of the series.


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