What makes a seasonal anime the best? Having the highest score? The highest number of watchers? Consistency? Or rising up as an underdog?
What makes a seasonal anime the worst? Having the lowest score at the end? Having the least amount of people watching? The most drops? Or perhaps taking the greatest fall?
In fact, all of these things are important. There are many kinds of criteria available on MAL that can be used to assess the winners and losers of each season, so I’ve gathered them all in one place for the 25 most popular shows of Spring 2019 so you can see for yourself. Everyone has different opinions, but the numbers don’t lie.
Data courtesy of myanimelist.net and anime-stats.net
Glossary – Weekly/final data points were taken a week after the episode aired.
Score Change: This indicates how much the score changed between premiere and finale (or last recorded score) along with its rank among the other entries.
Drop %: Percentage of users who dropped the show out of all Watching, Completed, and Dropped members.
Favorites %: Percentage of users who added the show to their Favorites list out of Watching and Completed members.
Score Rank: Ranking for the highest final score out of the 25 listed shows.
Popularity Rank: Ranking for the most Watching and Completed members upon conclusion.
Best Episode: The episode with the highest average score from episode discussion thread polling (score out of 5).
Completed
Five main girls in a tutoring group harem being “taught” by a destitute protagonist… sounds just like a show from the previous season, doesn’t it? Funnily enough, the similarities don’t stop there. 5-toubun no Hanayome started with just 608 more Watching members than Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai, but pulled in more members every week to finish with a 25% lead (89,708 vs. 66,774). Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai also suffered from a doubled drop rate and a halved favorites rate. So, sadly, Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai didn’t quite live up to its spiritual predecessor. Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai took some heavy hits to its score in the first half, but began a slow climb after episode 7 to finish with a score several points higher than its initial one, and the second-highest first-week completion rate. It’s also no surprise that the best episode award went to the episode featuring the best girl (by popular vote) being a klutz in a maid uniform.
Completed
Sequels have a number of advantages when it comes to these kinds of stats: they’re far less likely to be dropped and tend to score higher due to a more dedicated viewer base—hence the second-lowest drop rate here, behind only Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 Part 2. Bungou Stray Dogs 3rd Season fell just short of its previous season but was still a great success. Bungou Stray Dogs 2nd Season saw a positive Score Change of +0.15, finishing with an 8.38, and the show also had a lower drop rate. However, Bungou Stray Dogs 3rd Season managed to pull in a much higher favorites rate. Even though it was eventually reversed, the suspenseful thrills of episode 8 helped push the score back up to its peak and became the highest-scored episode of the season.
Ongoing
A Netflix-exclusive streaming deal didn’t stop this show from taking off and soaring into the hearts of thousands. Even though it still has another 12 episodes to go, Carole & Tuesday has already achieved the 8th highest favorites rate, edging out Kono Oto Tomare! in 9th by a mere 0.002%. Carole & Tuesday‘s score sadly began to dwindle after its initial success: episode 10, which included Cybelle’s act of sabotage, saw a score change of -0.03 and was the lowest-scored episode by a wide margin—0.27 lower than the next lowest, episode 11. However, Carole and Tuesday are now looking to reach new heights in their second act thanks to their dazzling success at Mars Brightest in episode 12, which became the most well-received episode so far.
Ongoing
After 4 years of waiting, studio Madhouse’s heavy-hitting high school baseball series returns with another yearlong entry. A lot can change over that time, but we’re just going to look at how the first cour went down. It looked like a home run from the get-go with a solid 4.43 episode score and initial score of 8.41 for its first episode, but like the Score graph line, it fell short of the boundary line and slowly bounced its way forward. The wait between seasons helped to pull in a notably higher number of initial viewers compared to Diamond no Ace: Second Season (4325 vs. 5832); by the same point at episode 12, Diamond no Ace: Act II has already earned a considerably higher favorites rate than the previous season (1.21% vs. 0.36%) to come in at #6 overall in Spring 2019.
Completed
What didn’t go wrong with Fairy Gone? Horrendous visuals and a disastrous story blended with bipolar pacing transformed the #8 most popular show (by Plan to Watch members) prior to Spring 2019 into one of the season’s biggest catastrophes: it ranks only one position from the bottom in Score Change and three positions from the worst in Score Rank. The drop rate was so bad that the number of Watching members began decreasing every week starting from episode 5. Even though it was outdone by Gunjou no Magmell in Score Change and Shoumetsu Toshi in Drop %, Fairy Gone had the worst first-week completion rate—a mere 22.23%. Since the final stat collection, Fairy Gone has managed to pull itself back past 6.00 in score, but it still remains as one of Spring 2019’s biggest losers. Here’s hoping its second cour can manage to recover some of P.A. Works’ reputation…
Ongoing
The beloved shoujo series is back with a fresh new look, and it’s already outscoring the original. Despite an overall negative score difference of -0.04, Fruits Basket (2019) was the most consistent show this season, and consistently good, too. This can be seen not only in the mostly straight Score graph line but also in average episode scores. A mere 0.32 separated the highest and lowest scored episodes, and every episode but one (ep. 4) scored above 4.50. In the end, Tooru’s return home, only to be retrieved by Yuki and Kyou, took the top spot. One of the most interesting tidbits is that Fruits Basket (2019) is in close competition with Carole & Tuesday when it comes to stats. Fruits Basket (2019) lost on Score Change, but edged out Carole & Tuesday in Drop % and Favorites %, all by a single rank.
Completed
Let’s address the immediate elephant in the room: with a shocking margin of 0.30 from the next lowest (Fairy Gone), Gunjou no Magmell was the only Spring 2019 show to receive a Score Change number that exceeded an entire point. Since its last score was recorded, it dropped down even further from 6.17 to 6.11. Unlike Fairy Gone‘s episode 5 downturn, Gunjou no Magmell managed to maintain a positive Watching trend up until the penultimate episode, but it was still one of only three shows to not earn a single episode score above 4.00. It wasn’t the most popular show heading into Spring 2019, but its squandered potential left hopeful users feeling disappointed and confused.
Completed
Aside from its spectacular Score Change, Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu took a comfortable middle position in just about everything. It wasn’t the highest-scored comedy of the season, nor was it the most popular… and it wasn’t heavily dropped either. In fact, it took the middle rank of #13 in three different areas: popularity, favorites, and first-week completion. Every episode scored above 4.50 except the premiere at 4.41, and its best episode occurred at the halfway point with the establishment of Bocchi’s gang. Even if Score Change was its only standout quality, Bocchi and her group of friends were definitely among the winners of Spring 2019.
Completed
Isekai Quartet is a stunning achievement through sheer concept: four of the most iconic isekai series of all time blended into one entertaining comedy show. With the combined power of many of MAL’s most popular anime and characters, surely it would take the rankings by storm? Well, it depends on how you look at it. A short anime, and a chibi one at that, snagging a top 5 spot in popularity and top 10 in score is entirely unheard of. It even had the second-lowest drop ratio for a non-sequel, behind Kimetsu no Yaiba. However, short anime tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to favorites. Isekai Quartet achieved a respectable 0.76% in rank #15, while Senryuu Shoujo and Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai only managed 0.46% (#20) and 0.47% (#19) respectively, losing to both Fairy Gone (0.49% / #18) and RobiHachi (0.54% / #17) despite their greatly inferior stats in other areas. So while Isekai Quartet didn’t succeed in everything, a chibi anime still managed to stand up to the greats of Spring 2019 and deliver a highly praised show.
Completed
I was very tempted to simply leave this section blank and let the image do the talking just like Joshikausei, but it’s an interesting enough case that words are required. A poorly executed concept and the aforementioned negative trend against short anime placed it at the very bottom for favorites, behind even the most dropped show of Spring 2019, Shoumetsu Toshi, with a wide margin of 0.23%. Joshikausei had the 8th highest first-week completion rate, but that doesn’t say much for a show with a 3-minute runtime. 5.59 is by no means a good final score, but its sharp recovery and current increased score of 5.79 are to be commended (albeit the only things about it that really can be).
Completed
Kenja no Mago was the trending “trash” isekai™ of the season, and its performance matched its genre to a T. Despite perpetual drops in quality and score, Kenja no Mago climbed in popularity from the 7th most Plan to Watch members at the start of the season to rank #4 in Watching and Completed members (take note, FAL players). The quality didn’t significantly affect the drop rate either, as the show maintained a steady 6.68%, in the middle of the pack at rank #13—not to mention its 3rd place finish in first-week completion. The isekai genre simply isn’t going to die out any time soon if even a show of this quality is pulling such figures.
Ongoing
If you discount sequels, Kimetsu no Yaiba was easily the best anime of Spring 2019 by the numbers, snagging a top 5 finish in every single category. It had a solid positive score change, the lowest drop ratio for a non-sequel, the highest rate of favorites for an ongoing show, the 4th highest best episode score, and only losing to the Shingeki no Kyojin and One Punch Man powerhouses in score and popularity. Similar to other ongoing shows, it suffered a noticeable increase in drops near the end of its Spring record, perhaps due to people wanting to pick up new anime in Summer 2019 without having much time to continue shows from the previous season.
Completed
It feels almost criminal that a show in the bottom half of popularity in Spring 2019 managed to take home the gold medal in Score Change and silver medal in Best Episode score; more users dropped Kono Oto Tomare! than Kenja no Mago by almost an entire percentage point. Yet here we are with one of the biggest success stories of the season, and a shining example of why you should watch more than one episode before deciding to drop. A slow start put a damper on the initial discourse around Kono Oto Tomare!, but a dramatic 5th episode propelled the score up by an immense 0.15 points, and things only continued to accelerate from there. Following its conclusion, Kono Oto Tomare! has climbed even further to a grand score of 7.80. Will the second season this Fall be even better? We’ll have to wait and see.
Ongoing
Like Kono Oto Tomare!, Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO had a weaker start compared to the rest of its run. However, this was to a much higher detriment. Up until episode 5 (coincidentally the same point I dropped it), every episode score was below 4.00. But after the first arc concluded in the show’s highest-rated episode, every successive episode scored above 4.00. After freefalling for this 5-episode period, Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO‘s has been crawling its way back up, but it is still currently bearing the 8th worst Score Change and 5th highest drop rate on its back. But forget all that, this is the most interesting statistic: four out of the six main stats have 19 in it, and the other two both have 06.
Completed
Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t anything special either. Even in the stats and ranks that aren’t displayed on the infographic—it still earned a mid-low position on everything. Episode 6 was its best, thanks to a more interesting and thrilling case involving kidnapped girls. Since the final data collection, Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin has managed to pull itself back up to 6.81, just 0.02 points behind its initial score.
Completed
Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai wasn’t for everyone, but it eventually found its niche audience. It has a relatively high drop rate, but it is the lowest-scored entry out of the 10 anime that earned a positive Score Change, making it one of the few underdogs and most improved series at rank #6. Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai and RobiHachi were the only shows with the finale as their Best Episode, and both series saw a sharp increase in score in the end (no doubt after early droppers were taken out of the scoring algorithm). The show itself may have underperformed, but the opening theme was definitely one of the best of Spring 2019 (it even took first place in Anime Trending’s seasonal awards for best OP).
Completed
If there’s one thing to learn from Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!? last season, it’s to never underestimate the power of ecchi anime. I had to re-evaluate how I approach future FAL contests after this show maintained a top 10 spot in popularity from start to finish and top half for favorites (though who knows how many of those are purely ironic). Among other short anime, it even beat out Isekai Quartet to have the highest favorites rate for Spring 2019 but had the lowest first-week completion at just 39.81%. Despite a continuous decline in score from episode 5, episode 10 delivered the highest-scored episode with the first appearance of the laid-back Tachibana-sensei.
Completed
Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma has one of the straightest trendlines for Score, trailing downwards until it reached second from the bottom in overall score, just shy of Shoumetsu Toshi‘s 5.32. It also managed to keep just above Shoumetsu Toshi‘s abysmal favorites rate by a mere 0.01% (and a wide margin over Joshikausei at the bottom). But see that comparatively steep drop in Watching members after its final episode? That’s because it managed to place #5 for first-week completion despite its low attachment rate. I guess more people wanted to quickly get it over with…
Completed
One Punch Man 2nd Season just wasn’t quite the failure everyone hyped it up to be. Sure, it was a disappointing production that alienated a good portion of its fanbase, but it continued to hold its own where it counted. Episode 3 had only the 16th-highest Best Episode score, falling behind lower-ranked shows such as RobiHachi and Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!?, but Garou’s epic takedown of several S-class heroes helped propel the show’s overall score over the 8.00 mark (as short-lived as it was). Despite the most severe final episode drop-off of any Spring 2019 show, One Punch Man 2nd Season still placed within the top 10 in overall score, had a high favorites rate, and was barely dropped compared to the number of users who continued to watch. However, only 44.95% completed it in the first week after the show concluded, placing it at #12 overall.
Completed
RobiHachi just managed to squeeze into this article over Araiya-san!: Ore to Aitsu ga Onnayu de!? by just 400 members, landing it at #25/25 for Popularity Rank. As a result, it didn’t earn a strong negative reputation like Fairy Gone and Shoumetsu Toshi, but it still copped a higher drop rate than Gunjou no Magmell, Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO, and Joshikausei. Like Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai, the final episode was RobiHachi‘s saving grace with a strong episode score of 4.51. Since then, the show has climbed even further to its current 6.57, 0.22 points higher than its initial score.
Completed
I’ve been looking forward to writing about Sarazanmai since I began preparing this article because it was the biggest underdog story of Spring 2019. A top 10 finish in drop ratio didn’t stop Kunihiko Ikuhara’s latest enigma from having the second-highest favorites rate behind only Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 Part 2, beating out giants like One Punch Man 2nd Season and Kimetsu no Yaiba. That final upturn on the Score graph has just kept on going, reaching its current score of 7.75 at the time of writing, and its best episode score of 4.79 for episode 9 comes in at #5 overall. It fell short of the top 10 in score and was far from it in popularity, but Sarazanmai‘s comeback is undeniably impressive.
Completed
A short anime; one of the most improved shows; but not much to say. Even with a mid-range overall score, every episode still polled above 4.00 and over half polled above 4.50, a testament to Senryuu Shoujo‘s consistent quality that led to the 3rd best Score change of Spring 2019. The classic romance fireworks episode earned the highest score at 4.70, just making it into the top 10 overall. Despite being #6 in first-week completion, assisted by its short length, it placed behind other short anime (Isekai Quartet and Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma).
Completed
Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san was one of the most improved when it came to popularity: it rose from #12 in Plan to Watch members prior to its first episode to #7 in Watching and Completed members at the end, making it a golden pick if you played FAL last season. Although it was popular, there wasn’t a single score increase across its 12-episode run despite high-polling episodes. Funnily enough, it’s currently tied in score with Senryuu Shoujo (7.50) at the time of writing. Every episode except for episode 6 polled above 4.50, a rare achievement. On top of a relatively high favorites rate, Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san was clearly a show greatly appreciated by a niche audience, but not a broad one.
Completed
I’m sure many of you were keenly watching Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 Part 2‘s up-and-down battle with the Top Anime chart throughout its run, and while it may not have overthrown our longtime champion, it has solidified its place as the current #2 anime on MAL of all time. But it’s not just a winner when it comes to score: it won many other categories by incredible margins. A whopping 3.76% of Watching and Completed members have this season in their favorites with a rate just shy of 2 whole points higher than #2 (Sarazanmai with 1.77%), plus the lowest drop rate by another wide margin of 0.88% from the next lowest (Bungou Stray Dogs 3rd Season with 1.19%). It was also the only show to have a first-week completion rate at over half with 54.76%, and it had the highest Best Episode score by 0.07 over Kono Oto Tomare!. It didn’t even come close to One Punch Man 2nd Season‘s popularity numbers, but it’s hard to argue that this wasn’t the hottest show of Spring 2019.
Completed
This is it, the greatest flop of them all—not even Fairy Gone was as ill-conceived and ill-fated as Shoumetsu Toshi. Coming after the behemoth that is Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 Part 2 on this list, this somehow looks even worse than it already does on its own. The drop rate is absolutely appalling, but it gets even worse when you look at it this way: Shoumetsu Toshi, only the #23 most popular show in Watching and Completed members, had more drops than the two most popular shows combined. Not to mention the fact that a negative Watching member trend began from just its third episode. It was saved from the bottom of Favorites % by Joshikausei, but it’s still the clear biggest loser of Spring 2019.
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