Fall 2019

Fall 2019 wound up being one of those seasons where smaller bets paid off. Violet Evergarden Side Story condensed what made the original resonate — the quiet, letter-driven emotional beats — into a tidy spinoff that actually enhanced the franchise’s themes. Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia went big with clear stakes and cinematic set pieces that reminded viewers why large-scale adaptations still mattered. Stars Align quietly stood out as a sports drama that treated its teen characters like people, not plot machines, so its emotional beats hit harder than you might've expected.

On the original-content side, Hello World showed off gorgeous CG-forward direction and an intriguing time-travel hook, even if the script didn't always match the ambition. No Guns Life leaned into cyberpunk with distinctive character design and a grim atmosphere that set it apart from other noir-ish shows. Notable studios like J.C.Staff, Production I.G, White Fox, Arvo Animation, and Silver were all doing interesting work, and with nearly 80 new series that season there was a real sense of creative risk-taking.