Anime News Network’s Confusing Season Ranking

Anime News Network does a “best of” run-down at the end of every anime season. I decided to check out the Winter 2026 season review to see what I should watch in a couple of months after I catch up on the summer and fall 2025 seasons. The staff ranked Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2 as the eighth best show of winter 2026. Kevin Cormack wrote the entry for Frieren S2, stating that “almost no other anime can hope to measure up.” While I am led to believe that these season rankings are a composite staff ranking, it is a bit jarring to read in the commentary for the “8th” best show of the season that “almost no other anime can hope to measure up.” (For whatever it is worth, I am a bit sour on Frieren after the first season concluded with a meandering and ultimately self-refuting arc which took up the last third of the season, but I will watch the second season and see if it redeems itself.)