Forum - View topicThe Best and Worst Anime of Winter 2023
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TheAncientOne
 Posts: 1893 Location: USA (mid-south) |
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From Monique Thomas' section of the article:
Hulu does offer an ad-free tier. While the $7 additional per month may deter the more budget conscious, I've also been surprised over the years by the number of people that don't appear to realize it is an option. (In one case a person that makes almost as much in a couple of months as I do in a year, but was still talking about ads on Hulu). |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2669 |
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Cheers to the team for all the reviews, specials and conclusion to another season. Winter 2023 may have had less big hits than the season before it, but it sure had a crazy amount of anime shows in total, I do not remember another season being that full.
Anyway, some best and worst for me for the season: Best: Eminence in the shadow - lots of crazy, cringey fun. I was not bored for a single second and one can never tire of Cid's antics. Eminence is just lots of pure fun and proves that is enough for a good series. Handyman Saito - was way better than I expected, the mix of comedic shorts and larger arcs filled with drama and action worked really well. It turned out as one of my favorite isekai. Isekai Ojisan - all the delays sucked, but every episode was fun and filled with stupidity, action and SEGA. Isekai Nonbiri Nouka - as a fan of the novel it delivered in being a combination of relaxation, slowly building up a town and seeing said town attracting all kinds of people. It also had actual farming in it. Nier Automata - manages to capture the cruel/weird/hopeful/horny vibe of the game perfectly. Campfire Cooking - another relaxing one with a fun world, amusing characters and most of all: delicious looking food. Worst: The Fruit of Evolution 2 - all I can say is that the second season makes the first season look good by comparison. By the Grace of the Gods 2 - it feels incredibly stale and lifeless, most of the episodes feeling like nothing happened and the animation being poor do not help either. The Misfit of Demon King Academy Ⅱ - the second season feels like it was made while the story had already reached a proper ending. Everything feels terribly paced and explanations often sound like pure gibberish. Anos is still a fun character, but otherwise it feels more but worse. Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World - the concept is fun, a team of cynical scarred adventurers could make for something unique. The end result fumbles the premise completely. There is no clear direction of where the story is going, the animation is terrible and some of the episodes are plain boring. Special mention to Paisen from Nagatoro-san 2nd Attack for growing a spine and Kotoko from Kyokou Suiri Season 2 for being a super duper horny character. Last edited by smurky turkey on Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2480 |
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My best is Buddy Daddies because Miri. I honestly don't have too much to say about it other than that
My worst is Bofuri 2, but that feels almost like cheating because I knew I shouldn't have even tried, given how I barely even finished the first season. I got tired of its shtick about 5 episodes in, somehow powered through, knew for a fact I wouldn't like the second season unless it was drastically different and... it obviously wasn't. So I dropped it. If I'm not counting dropped anime though it'd be Trigun Stampede. I honestly barely remember the og Trigun anime, and the little I've tried reading of Nightow's manga I just found incredibly confusing, so I didn't really have any specific expectations here, but aside from Wolfwood's focus episodes and the last two, I was just bored watching it |
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Sekaro
Posts: 392 |
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Not even an honorable mention for Iruma-kun S3?... As usual, holding its reputation as one of those "under the radar" shows & it's been that case for 3 straight seasons. Guess I'll have to give it a spot myself. Here's my list for anyone who cares.
Best: BLUELOCK Runner-up: Vinland Saga S2 Honorable mentions: Iruma-kun S3/Record of Ragnarok S2 (last few episodes when??) The rest: |
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redvelvetdoll
 Posts: 65 |
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This may not apply to the famous Spotify/Hulu bundle, but I get Hulu for free through Verizon but there's no way to pay the difference to get rid of ads. I literally never use it as a result unless there's something exclusive there bc I hate ads. In fact, there's Viz Media anime I decided to go ahead and rent the bluray from the public library instead of watching it with ads on Hulu. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2134 |
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I expected some To Your Eternity hate but I guess the return of March might have calmed people.
Still gotta say Vinland Saga season 2 blew my mind. While it still has some violent moves like Thorfinn losing an ear ala Tarantino, it also has a quite unique calm touch that me and several people are comparing to the village arc from Inoue's manga Vagabond. The way Thorfinn redefined himself in the episode "Oath" blew my mind as we saw we literally saw every side of him from being a kid in a farm to the shock of realizing the errors from his way, to search for his own way to become a "true warrior" leading to his new state. The animation and dynamic with Einar really helped to develop the story. Runner up? It's kinda a tie between Bungo Stray Dogs and Blue Lock. The former started with a neat introduction to Ranpo and Fukuzawa and then the Decay of Angel/Hunting Dogs story arc really helped to move a lot of characters at the same time rather than rely only on Thorfinn as previous arcs and the Dead Apple did. Blue Lock kinda felt to me like the Hunter x Hunter Chimera arc of football anime as the animation was pretty good and nearly every character monologues their moves. Disappointed? Maybe with Revenger. The only thing I can really praise is the handling of Raizo's deteriorating life as the character constantly deals with depressing states following how he caused his fiance's suicide but as a group story it kinda failed on the team to the point I barely remember their names or any trait ("hanafuda guy", tattoo leader). EDIT: I forgot about Nier Automata but I'll wait since they did less than a cour. Trigun Stampede is something that kinda confused me too since I didn't see Vash developing until the final episode. Maybe if there is another season about Vash dealing with Plants similar to Boichi's one rather than another cour with Knives, I'll take back every critcism I had. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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I'm really impressed with S2, I barely went into it because while I liked most of S1, a lot disappointed me toward the end. But S2 keeps everything great about S1 and discard most of the bad. It's rare that I like S2 more than S1. I think my number 1 would still have to be vampire dies in no time, there's nothing really to talk about cause its a pure comedy show, so I'll just say I'm glad it stayed as pure comedy and didn't try to do the awkward shift to shonen that so many comedy try. Comedy need more respect in general, its way harder to be consistently funny than it is to have cheap tearjerker scenes. Disappointment would easily be fire hunter, can't comment on the book, but ouch that was a trainwreck slowly unfolding. Except, you know, there's no budget to slowly unfold so its just a powerpoint slide of a trainwreck. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1250 |
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I'm glad I checked Fire Hunter out and stuck with it despite some of the negativity around it, so I would say it's at least worth a peek. It is possibly - probably - generous to say it the stylistic choices get across the desperate state of the world effectively, but what can I say, it worked for me. Interested in where it goes from here.
High Card has a very, very strong first episode, and I was staying on board largely thanks to that. But it was strange how it advertises a team of five, and three of them are just about completely ignored for most of the show. And how everyone has amazing card powers, the most clever of which is episode 1's "turn things into marbles" guy, but the remaining ones are just, like...plants. Electricity. Healing. Gun. The main character's magic gun is just a regular gun. I suppose I'll see how the second season goes. |
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cheshire1501
Posts: 52 |
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Best: To Your Eternity
Even though the manga is clearly the superior of the two, it remains one of the most impatful meditations on mortaility and the preciousness of life out there. Runer up: Vinland Saga S2 I always love when someone goes all in with a specific vision. Having a full season (or 54 chapters in the Manga's case) as the prologue is as bonkers of a choice as it gets, and the crazy thing is that Yukimura could have ended right there as the deserved punchline to Thorfin's tragedy, but then it takes full advantage of said tragedy to show a way out of the depths of despair that doesn't only feels earned, but also relatable for anyone despite the time displaced set out. Third place:....Tokyo Revengers S2 This is an admidetely "IDGAF" position, but to try to watch Tokyo Revengers for the plot is like trying to watch ATLA for the romance (let's be honest, romance writing in the Avatar franchise sucks HARD). I watch this show to see dumb teenagers being spectacularly dumb (Including the protagonist who in typical time traveler fashion can't be considered an adult in terms of maturirty). The plot sucks, but I reached a point where I can look past that. |
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Blortle
Posts: 22 |
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Ippon Again is the best show that nobody watched and it'll stay that way until two or three years from now when some anituber discovers it and makes a video calling it an "underrated gem" and wondering why nobody watched it.
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Glordit
 Posts: 656 |
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I watched too much again (almost everything). I'll just keep it listed to what I didn't enjoy.
Iceblade, I think they meant Cheese Blade, or was it Cheese Maids? Ningen Fushin, started off okay and then they had Maths Boxing, it only got worse. Reborn as the Master Blade, same old tropes with a lack of anything meaningful. I don't mind d a "reborn to be OP" story but this lacked any charm or excitement. Bofuri 2 feels like a highlight reel most of the time. Nagatoro wasn't as fun or exciting or as fun the first season. Nier, I probably need to play the game in oder to get more out of the anime. Its OK at best. Everything else that aired was great fun and enjoyable. Few minor gripes here and there but nothing as bad as the above mentioned. |
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A Mystery
 Posts: 1888 Location: Netherlands |
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The best would be Vinland Saga 2 for me. I really liked The Angel next door spoils me rotten. Near the end of the season the pacing of the central relationship is a bit too slow, but overall their relationship is really sweet. No unnecessary cliches like a love triangle are needed: just two people that respect each other's personality and boundaries. Refreshing. Also to a lesser extent I liked Tomo chan is a girl. It took me a while to care for Tomo and Jun as a couple. The other cast members Carol and Gundo were more interesting characters. And funny.
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ab2143
Posts: 756 |
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Best -
Play it cool, guys. Ok, it aired last season but it's still worth mentioning. Loved every second of it! Nice to see vampire dies in no time s2 get some love too |
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DamianSalazar
Posts: 771 |
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I did not watch anything from this season. I only watched old anime because I wanted to heavily prioritise my backlog. That said I did watch two shows that started last year and continued their runs into this year. My Hero Academia S6 and Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun
Best: MHA's strongest seasons are its even seasons (2, 4, 6). I hope season 7 manages to buck this trend by being a strong season unlike some of its odd counterparts (3 (strong beginning, kinda weak ending), 5 (weak beginning, kinda strong ending), 1 (too short)). Runner-up: The Harvest Festival may have taken up a large chunk of Iruma-kun S3's run, but it was still a swell time. I genuinely loved spoiler[The moment where Iruma regressed to his child form to play with Clara. It was so sweet considering how he was treated in his actual childhood], Lied getting a bigger role and spoiler[Orobas Coco's backstory.] etc. I might slowly eke my way into watching seasonal anime again. I hope to watch Dr. Stone, Hell's Paradise, A Galaxy Next Door or Insomniacs After School[/b] |
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Blatch
 Thread Killer Posts: 348 Location: Northeast U.S. |
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Surprised that no one, not even anyone in this thread yet, has mentioned Onimai. I'm only two episodes in, and I'm liking it very much. If nothing else, you can't argue with the luscious production values. If only I'd watched more simulcasts this season so I could say if it was the best or worst...
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