Forum - View topicThe Best and Worst Anime of 2023
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tintor2
 Posts: 2168 |
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Yes! Thorfinn made it!
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Ryuji-Dono
 Posts: 1242 |
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Good to see Pluto getting good press, I really enjoyed watching it with my parents who were fans of the original Astroy Boy.
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1260 |
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From Migi & Dali
Character of the year. Character of the decade. The real MVP. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2617 Location: Germany |
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Just did the poll. I marked all shows I gave at least a "good" or 7/10 on the site and ended up with 11. The one I wouldn´t have liked to give points to is No. 11 anyway so my conscience remains clear. At least in 2023. Anyway, a great year for anime and the winter season looks strong.
1: Pluto 10/10 The best complete 2 cour show since Bebop and in my eyes better. 2: Vinland Saga 10/10 The best of the 4 arcs the manga has to offer but the finale is also quite something. 3: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off 8.5/10 The reboot-quel only works if you experienced at least one prior version so do your homework. 4: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End 8.5/10 Make Isekai no more Japan! Fantasy played straight will always be better. Much better. Madhouse is also back with a vengeance. 5: Ōoku: The Inner Chambers 8/10 Adapt the rest Netflix! 6: NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a 7.5/10 I have to eat my word here. Nearly all gaming anime end up as soulless 4 to 6/10 cliff notes. Nier on the other hand mostly works on its own and offers a new perspective to existing fans. 7: My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999 7.5/10 The story is what it is but Madhouse directed this to perfection. 8: The Dangers in My Heart 7/10 Voice-acting contributes a lot here and the dots are connected much better in the anime. A rare case where the anime is the definitive version despite being 1 to 1 as I would give the 4 adapted volumes a 6/10. S2 will improve a bit. 9: Insomniacs After School 7/10 I liked the manga´s first half more than the second. The story ends perfectly fine here. 10: Skip and Loafer 7/10 The weirdness of the opening chapters should have been pursued further. Oh well. (11: The 19th century one 7/10) Finally, a moment of silence for the poor souls at MAPPA. I wish that a much more interesting manga would have gotten this treatment. If JJK goes on like this, no one is sadly stepping up to stop MAPPA, then it will become the best-adapted action manga of all time. I would never watch an ongoing show I am meh on for the animation but how can you not here? I lastly believe the claim that JJK 0 was done in about 4 months. Lupin: The Castle of Cagliostro was finished in 7 as Miyazaki isn´t too much better to his staff. MAPPA has them doing late Showa era crunch but somehow more extreme! Last edited by residentgrigo on Thu Dec 28, 2023 10:35 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Nyapan
 Posts: 41 |
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This was a pretty good year of anime for me.
My favorites were: -Pluto, I loved the manga when I read it a few years ago but with time I had forgotten most of it. I'm glad I did because rediscovering the story was a wonderful experience! It made me emotional multiple times and I was engaged throughout. The wait was worth it for me! -Tsurune season 2, I enjoyed the 1st season but the sequel was on another level. The animation was amazing, the drama wasn't overdone and the matches were exciting. I didn't expect it to be this good! -Vinland Saga Season 2, I don't have much to add to what has already been said but following Thorfinn's evolution was very satisfying. -The Apothecary Diaries, it's still ongoing but I've been enjoying each episode a ton. Maomao is a very charismatic character and it's rare for me to enjoy a female character this much. -Skip and Loafer, you grow attached to the cast really quickly and the drama is done in a natural way. It's a nice watch. As for my favorite character of the year, I'm picking Gesicht. I love kind characters and Gesicht is one of them. My honorable mentions are Thorfinn and Maomao. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2485 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Oh, Anon. Just when you think you think she's reached the bottom of the barrel, she scrapes through the floor to sink into an entirely new barrel. One of the most amazing moments of the year to me was when the group gets into an argument at the café (probably started by Taki), and a cornered Anon shouts "I'm not running away!"… and then promptly runs away. On the street, she runs into two girls who seem to know her but address her by a different name and ask "hey wait, I thought you were in England" and "is that a Haneoka Girls' School uniform you're wearing?". And you realize in that instant that there is a whole new level of bullshit to Anon that we have previously not been privy to. Well done, Bang Dream.
Last edited by invalidname on Thu Dec 28, 2023 10:56 am; edited 1 time in total |
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residentgrigo
Posts: 2617 Location: Germany |
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Now the categories.
Character of the year: Torfin but I also like Gesicht almost as much. And Dr. Tenma. What a good writer. I will say that the I Have No Enemies speech worked better in the manga for me. Moment of the year: Don´t have one when it comes to anime. Loved how bleak Berserk got this year though. To be Guts is to suffer. The Best Song: The Nier OP and the Frieren ED. No contest! Those. The Movies of 2023: The Boy and the Heron looks great. Will love it in 2024, hopefully. The rest of the 2023 wiki list is a giant pile of nothing. Another shit year for anime films. Best manga of 2023: Had a look at MU´s list of 2023 debuts. The JOJOLands is an easy favorite and Blooming Love by Jump+ of all things also stuck out immediately. Best Game of 2023: Resident Evil 4 (2023), I think. It´s at least Japanese. The original game is better though. I am dying on this hill and I finished the remake on Professional. The worst anime: Who cares? Last edited by residentgrigo on Thu Dec 28, 2023 10:57 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Gnarth
Posts: 175 |
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Frieren is probably my favourite, but it's not yet finished so I'll stick with Vinland Saga for now as my AOTY. Simply an amazing, heartfelt, thematically complex exploration of violence and whether we could ever put a stop to it, and it's one of those rare works that despite being ideologically oriented in a very overt and unsubtle way, it doesn't feel preachy or condescending. Its dedication towards the subject matter and unflinching statements that remain grounded in realism and don't try to build a different world to make them possible deserve nothing but respect.
Second place is definetly Heavenly Delusion, a masterclass in building mystery, bursting with creativity and originality and never afraid to tackle weird, dark or taboo themes. Perfectly merges comedy and drama as two sides of the same coin, assigning weight to both tones without even one meaningless scene or moment. My only complaint is that it's incomplete, and the final episodes explore places that deserve more development; I need to read the manga. The other truly noteworthy anime this year for me are Oshi no Ko and Undead Murder Farce, both really interesting new shows that greatly surprised me, along the returning Ancient Magus Bride and Mushoku Tensei that, while not living up to their first seasons, on both a narrative and technical standpoint, were still very enjoyable and I look forward to more. Overall, a good year, maybe a bit less than the previous one, but I still had a great anime time. Looking forward to 2024! |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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I voted for a couple of shows that aren't dominating the news.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/55153/Yuzuki-san_Chi_no_Yonkyoudai Great characters facing a difficult life ahead. https://myanimelist.net/anime/54301/Overtake Much more about relationships than F4 racing. Episode 9 is a standout. I'm a little surprised https://myanimelist.net/anime/50613/Rurouni_Kenshin__Meiji_Kenkaku_Romantan_2023 hasn't gotten more play. I never saw the original but thought this version was pretty good. Looking forward to the upcoming Kyoto arc. |
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nl_TvdL
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Tsurune (season 2) and Dangers in My Heart were my favorites by a mile.
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1330 |
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Heavenly Delusion, Skip and Loafer, Vinland Saga, and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off were probably my favorites of the year, at least of series I watched.
Jujutsu Kaisen and Gundam Witch From Mercury were almost always enjoyable each week. Getting the end of Attack on Titan was also great. Ancient Magus Bride, Insomniacs After School and Pluto are all series I haven't gotten around to watching, but whose manga I hold in high regard. I think I'm like 5 seasons behind on Yamishibai, but I'll catch up eventually. Last edited by Gem-Bug on Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:15 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4830 |
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Just about the only two anime I've seen from this year were Vinland Saga Season 2 and Pluto, but those two alone made the whole year worth it. The former was a marvel, a razor-sharp deconstruction of the same glorification of violence that most of us actively cheered in the first season. But much more importantly, it was the story of a man who had been reduced to nothing discovering his true purpose and convictions. Thorfinn was one of the finest-realized fictional characters I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and I can't wait to see where his journey takes him in the future.
As for the latter, I still have a couple of episodes left, but what I've seen so far is one of the best pieces of television I've ever seen. I adored the adaptation of Monster back in the day, and I knew the high praise that this manga had received, but seeing the anime staff take Naoki Urasawa's brilliant writing and do right by it has been a delight. I've been glued to the screen for every single moment thus far, and I'm sure the rest of it will blow me away as well. (I guess the other thing I'm watching from this year is the most recent season of Dr. Stone on Toonami, which is as fun as ever.) |
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Neko-sensei
Posts: 286 |
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Seeing a preview image from Skip and Loafer and then discovering that no one picked Mitsumi as their Best Character or the series for Best Show (yet) is like seeing what looks like a chocolate chip cookie, feeling proud of yourself for immediately identifying it as a raisin cookie, and then biting into it only to discover that the black bits are actually chunks of burnt oven crud that flaked off and fell onto the cookie sheet.
No, I'm not mad at all. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18498 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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For Best Character, many of the names mentioned (Frieren, Rentaro, Mia, and Tsugaru) were contenders for me as well, but I have to go with Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries here. She's an adorable little freak, but that doesn't hinder her in the slightest from being both an ace mystery solver and coldly, even forcefully pragmatic when it comes to matters of health.
I haven't worked out the rest of my awards or the exact order of my Top 10, so I'll save those for a later post. |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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For me, it's a close battle between Maomao and Yuzuki Gakuto.
Maomao has the strong advantage of being voiced by the inestimable Aoi Yuuki, whose career I have followed since she starred alongside Sawashiro Miyuki in Kurenai. Though I will nominate Thorfinn for the character who showed the most development this year. |
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