The Best and Worst of Fall 2021
by Daniel DeLorme,Our team of reviewers are following 28 anime series of the Fall 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.
For the last week we're doing a little something different
With the week of December 24-30, the Fall 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 Dec 17-23 or Dec 24-30. 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 |
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— | #1. | Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation |
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1 | #2. | The Heike Story |
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3 | #3. | Ranking of Kings |
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15 | #4. | One Piece |
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2 | #5. | The aquatope on white sand |
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9 | #6. | 86 Season 2 |
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3 | #7. | Restaurant to Another World |
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— | #8. | Night Beyond the Tricornered Window |
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4 | #9. | Komi Can't Communicate |
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12 12
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5 | #10. | The World's Finest Assassin |
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9 | #11. | Mieruko-chan |
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4 | #12. | Lupin the 3rd Part 6 |
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4 | #13. | Blue Period |
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12 12
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1 | #14. | My Senpai Is Annoying |
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3 | #15. | Yuki Yuna Great Mankai Chapter |
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2 | #16. | The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! |
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— | #17. | Banished From The Heroes' Party |
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5 | #18. | Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut |
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1 | #19. | The Faraway Paladin |
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12 12
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2 | #20. | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba |
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(1) 9
(2) 10
(3) 11
(4) 11
(4) |
1 | #21. | Sakugan |
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— | #22. | Digimon Ghost Game |
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— | #23. | Yashahime - The Second Act |
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— | #24. | AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline |
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2 | #25. | takt op. Destiny |
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1 | #26. | Muv-Luv Alternative |
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1 | #27. | The Fruit of Evolution |
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1 | #28. | Platinum End |
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Series Cumulative Ranking for Fall 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 Fall 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. | Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation |
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
23
|
— | #2. | Ranking of Kings |
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
11
|
— | #3. | The Heike Story |
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
11
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— | #4. | 86 Season 2 |
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
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21
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— | #5. | The aquatope on white sand |
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
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22
23
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24
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— | #6. | One Piece |
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1004
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— | #7. | Lupin the 3rd Part 6 |
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12 12
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— | #8. | Blue Period |
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12 12
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1 | #9. | Mieruko-chan |
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— | #10. | Komi Can't Communicate |
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12 12
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2 | #11. | My Senpai Is Annoying |
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3 | #12. | Restaurant to Another World |
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4 | #13. | Yuki Yuna Great Mankai Chapter |
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4 | #14. | Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut |
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1 | #15. | The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! |
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4 | #16. | The Faraway Paladin |
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12 12
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5 | #17. | Night Beyond the Tricornered Window |
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1 | #18. | The World's Finest Assassin |
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1 | #19. | Banished From The Heroes' Party |
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3 | #20. | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba |
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(1) 9
(2) 10
(3) 11
(4) 11
(4) |
1 | #21. | takt op. Destiny |
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1 | #22. | Sakugan |
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— | #23. | Digimon Ghost Game |
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— | #24. | AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline |
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— | #25. | Yashahime - The Second Act |
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— | #26. | Muv-Luv Alternative |
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1 | #27. | The Fruit of Evolution |
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2
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1 | #28. | Platinum End |
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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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