Which One-season Animes Deserve Another Season?

Anime streaming service CrunchyRoll announced in early March that The Devil is a Part-Timer is getting a second season after eight years. This anime is a comedy-fantasy, and follows the lives of the Devil and others as they escape to modern-day Japan during a huge war in their world, Entre Isla. However, instead of being commanding and frightening, the Devil, or Sadao Maou, gets a part-time job at “MgRonald’s.”

The continuation of this anime, although not unwelcome, prompts a question; which one-season animes deserve another season the most? This is a large topic of debate in the community as each person defends why their 2000s or 2010s anime needs more. Some anime fans question why The Devil is a Part-Timer was able to attain another season instead of their favorites, so here’s a collection of other one-season animes that I think also deserve to get a second season.

Ouran High School Host Club

26 episodes

Hulu, Tubi, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video

Comedy-romance

Most infamous for this topic would be Ouran High School Host Club. Netflix took Ouran off the platform in late March/early April, which caused a large uproar. Dedicated fans of this anime rave about how they continue to hope for another season even as 14 years have passed, and other anime fans love to make fun of them for it. 

Ouran High School Host Club begins with Haruhi Fujioka, a scholarship student at Ouran Academy. When she accidentally stumbles into the Host Club and breaks a very expensive vase, she’s forced to work as a host, essentially an entertainer for the female students, to repay her debt. Initially, everyone in the host club assumes she’s a boy because of her androgenous appearance, which makes future shenanigans ensue in an attempt to hide her identity. 

Ouran is listed as a comedy-romance, although the actual amount of romance that happens in the anime is debatable. Regardless of who you thought Haruhi should have ended up with, she was never able to “kiss kiss fall in love” like the opening suggests. Although we get a lot of short, generally romantic scenes with Haruhi and the host club, the romantic plot line between Haruhi and Tamaki (the host club’s president) doesn’t take off in the anime. Hence, the overwhelming want for a second season. The manga has finished, so the content is out there, but a lot of people enjoyed the animated version that truly brought the characters to life.

Wotakoi

11 Episodes + 2 OVAs (Original Video Animations, essentially extra episodes)

Amazon Prime Video

Comedy-romance, also considered a slice-of-life

Wotakoi follows Narumi Momose, a young woman who adjusts to her new job after being outed as an “otaku” (someone obsessed with manga, anime, video games, etc.). She quickly finds her childhood friend, Hirotaka Nifuji, works at the same place, and the two begin a relationship early on in the series. Wotakoi shows the different activities that Narumi, Hirotaka, and their two coworkers end up doing together as “otaku,” and it shows how that affects how their relationships develop.

Wotakoi was a well-received anime, but it was short. Two characters, Naoya and Ko, were introduced in the last few episodes, but their relationships weren’t able to be fully developed and it left the viewers wanting more of them. The second OVA includes the progression of their relationship, which came out this February. Ultimately, there was just not a lot of content for the show to feel like a fully fleshed-out anime. The anime ended around three quarters of the way through the manga series, which meant that viewers weren’t really able to see the ending of Narumi and Hirotaka’s story.

Stars Align

12 episodes

Hulu, Youtube, Amazon Prime Video

Sports-drama

Stars Align at first glance is about a group of boys in their school’s soft tennis club, trying to improve enough so their club doesn’t get disbanded. Although that is the running plot, it also focuses a lot on all of the kid’s lives at their homes. The main character, Maki Katsuragi, has a deadbeat and violent dad, who only shows up to take money from Maki and his mom. The show really highlights how teen’s lives at home affect their actions and relationships.

Stars Align was an excellent show for many reasons; it had LGBTQ representation, showed different types of pressure put on teens from their parents, and developed all of the characters really well. The show was unfortunately rushed at the end, as it was meant to be 24 episodes long but, unfortunately, was cancelled early. People really want more from Stars Align because it was an original anime—  meaning there’s no manga with a continuation of the plot for people who want to know what happens next. The show also was left on an enormous cliffhanger, which obviously will leave people wanting more.

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If, for some reason, some older animes are able to be picked up again, these would likely be my top choices for getting another season. I still recommend watching them too, even if they feel unfinished, because they’re all very entertaining shows. There’s definitely some anime that flopped after one season, and these aren’t those shows, so why not give them a watch?