Yata’s 2023 Anime Year in Review & Top 10

Yata here. You know what time it is! Another year of anime in the books, another massive recap article to compensate for how little we here at For Great Justice post anything these days. In my annual recaps, I usually outline every anime from the past year I bothered to check out, but in 2023, as with 2022, I ended up attempting nearly every new anime that aired a premiere during each season’s standard “first impressions” cycle, making the first chunk of this list—the part where I name-drop every show I let go of after its premiere—intimidatingly long. I’ll still mention them all, but I only have so much bandwidth to spread here, and I’d rather talk about series I watched in their entirety, so an actual list is all you’re getting for the stinkers, nuance be damned. Please forgive the abridged format.

Otherwise, this is business as usual. Tiers named after quotes from a unrelated time-killer that defined my year (in this case, Game Changer and Make Some Noise shorts on YouTube. Oh, the hours I’ve wasted…) will mark our progress, climbing from immediate drops to mid- or late-season drops, then on to completed entries, rising in quality from what I reckon are the weakest titles I finished all the way to the best. My top 10 will be ranked. Which anime from 2023 were my absolute favorites? Read on to find out.


DROPPED SHOWS
WHAT MERCY DO YOU THINK YOU WILL FIND IN MY HEART?

I’m gonna keep it real, folks. I watched all of these shows’ pilot episodes. I took notes on them, researched their staff, posted about them in threads and so on, and yet here we are in late December and save for a half-dozen or so of these titles, I couldn’t tell you a fucking thing about them beyond the fact they involved someone getting reincarnated in another world (or some in-universe variation of that cash cow fantasy premise). Think of all the Sonny Boys we’re losing by making animators labor away on Reborn in Another World From Another World Life The Animation five to fifteen times per season. It’s a rough grind out there.

EVOLUTION DOESN’T HAVE A PLAN. IT MAKES FREQUENT AND CATASTROPHIC MISTAKES.

But hey, it isn’t like isekai have a stranglehold over dismal productions or horrendous concepts. If nothing else, the following series have the distinction of trying something different than the assembly lined titles above, but “different” doesn’t always result in “better”—case in point, these premieres were pretty dire.

THIS MOMENT, LIKE ALL MOMENTS, EXISTS IN A PERPETUAL STATE OF BEING

Whether through fizzling ambition or frank accident, these derivative clunkers escaped my shortlist of the worst premieres of the year. Middling productions like them will stick around forever, tossed out and thrown back together as the seasons change. Cheers to these unfortunate also-rans; it’s not easy being evergreen.

DID EVERYONE LEAVE?

Right, so, the thing about watching anime seasonally is that time is a finite resource, I need to earn money in order to make a living, and I better get some return on what constitutes a hobby, emotionally if not artistically. I can stand by something sketchy as long as I see potential for it to retain or regain my interest. On the other hand, some competent, stable stories simply don’t sway me at all as an individual, even if their foundations suggest sufficient structural integrity. That explanation applies to this next tier of premieres. I gotta pay the bills somehow, and I can’t do it while watching TV for the sake of watching TV. Take it from this aging weeb: you have got to make your minutes count.

I KILLED HIM, YEAH

And finally, even shows that sneak onto my watchlist can fall victim to pernicious pitfalls or lost intrigue after a few rotten or redundant weeks. My good faith led me to give these series enough benefit of the doubt to last 3 or more episodes, but I shed their weight long before reaching the end of their respective tunnels. A round of applause is still in order, though: they lasted longer than most.

COMPLETED MOVIES/OVAs/ETC.
THIS IS…NOT A REAL BIRD


First up, the wild cards! Anything that doesn’t fit the mold of a conventional TV show lands here—it just doesn’t feel right to compare apples to original video animations, you know? These formats could range from Hyakushou Kizoku’s autobiographical, 4-minute edutainment shorts about farming to Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends’ franchise-defining climax, taking the stellar momentum of its second and third seasons and plopping a film-length cherry of an OVA on top. Other series’ codas were less mind-blowing: Sound! Euphonium‘s OVA Ensemble Contest Arc was an hour of inconsequential fluff that robbed itself of any narrative impetus, while Oregairu Climax’s OVA was an episode-length ditty just here to show off how light years ahead of the competition the franchise’s snappy dialogue was in its heyday.

I didn’t get around to seeing too many anime films in 2023—most of the titles I’m curious about dropped too late in the year to receive an English release with such a quick turnaround—but the few I did see were decent enough: Gridman Universe is complementary fanservice for anyone who dug SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon, though the fun overlap between casts stalled out late in the running once it morphed into Gurren Lagann-esque “size matters” action setpieces. Meanwhile, Suzume marked the most fun I’ve had with a Makoto Shinkai film in roughly a decade. Even if the director’s character writing errs on the side of blockbuster sentimentality, framing those hallmarks through a whimsical, inadvertent road trip tugged at my heartstrings and played to the movie’s outwardly jovial tone. Its divergent impulses seem clunky in retrospect, but it’s a swift-footed, decently rewatchable journey to let unfold before you.

And oops, guess who forgot to add an image from The Quintessential Quintuplets’ movie up there in the collage? But that’s just as well—not only did I feel completely detached from the melodrama underpinning the franchise’s marriage endgame, the movie didn’t even function as a very good movie; it was more like an awkwardly sewn-together lump of recycled exposition for routes unchosen. The series had its day, but its peaks sure all hell came early, not late.

COMPLETED SHOWS
WELL, THIS IS A BLOODY BAG OF MONEY


The older I get, the less of a “number out of 10” guy I find myself becoming. On this end of the scale, the “worst” thing I watched isn’t necessarily the most ethically irredeemable, just the biggest waste of my time. There are a few contenders for that title, most of them sequels to series I was iffy on in the first place: Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack was more of the same from a manga that doesn’t lend itself particularly well to animation, The Way of the Househusband Season 2 should lend itself well to animation and simply chooses not to, and Tsurune: The Linking Shot has all the visual polish you’d come to expect from Kyoto Animation, albeit in service of an aimless, superfluous continuation of a series that had long spent the little narrative urgency it had.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby – Road to the Top (that’s the 4-episode ONA from this past spring, not the third season) looked amazing as well, but it too recycled plot beats with a new cast of shallow, disposable characters. Arknights: Perish in Frost frankly never hooked me to begin with, and that was especially problematic through this sequel, which solely feels like it exists to serve preexisting fans of its glorified tower defense game of a story. And I couldn’t begin to tell you why I finished Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero. Was this summer so bleak that I placed my hopes in a milquetoast adventurer comeback story devoid of any likable protagonist or compelling commentary on forgiveness, politics, or…anything? I guess it was. Perhaps I’m not the best judge of character after all.

YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THIS


My selectively discerning eyes saw glimmers of gold with these next six shows, and along the way they continued to give me just that: glimmers, some reflected light, but nothing worth cashing in. Yohane The Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror’s most damning flaw is that it wasn’t committed to its comedy, because as willing as I was to give this offshoot a fair shot, the absolute last thing I wanted from something in the Love Live (non-)canon was one of the franchise’s goofiest characters soberly examining their vices for a full season.

That growth suited Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don’t Believe in Humanity Will Save The World better on paper, but its production unceremoniously shit the bed early on and rolled around in that mud for months, sullying what should’ve made for a relatively thoughtful and empathetic fantasy adventure. The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady set its sights on similar goals, and while far from poorly delivered, the yuri aristocracy’s more fanciful isekai tropes held the show back more than they helped it. By the end I was more attached to the family drama than any of the worldbuilding—the year’s earliest prospective highlight was ultimately little more than seasonal filler.

Dark Gathering, on the other hand, has basically always been filler, but it knows its role and plays it well, tapping into the perennially underwhelming niche of spirit-hunting anime and upping the comedy and horror with a keen grasp on what makes each tonal extreme tick. That it ultimately feels like a kid-friendly monster-of-the-week rescue mission with a few especially macabre highlights is a feature as much as it is a bug; it did enough to keep making me come back for more, but I can’t escape the notion it could’ve been an even bolder adaptation.

The same applies for Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and the Inexperienced Me, which strung together some very insightful (for its genre’s low standards) commentary on gender roles and cliques and whatnot, only to also reinforce those very same standards for cheap twists and forced drama wherever it felt so inclined. Safe to say it came off as amateur, even if its heart was mostly in the right place, and My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 did the same with a more mature cast and a better production, though I’m not sure that salvages its reputation so much as it does make the bigger picture more of a disappointment. Both of these romances’ supporting casts really sucked, detracting from the stronger leads.

THE GAME’S ALREADY STARTED


Caught between a stable foundation and more ambitious aims, the following sequels spawned semi-greatness from established hits, neither elevating the prior material nor shooting it in the foot. I’ll start with what’s likely the most controversial of these nods: FLCL: Shoegaze (a sequel of Alternative, not the OG FLCL) is the only reboot of the series so far to understand that the show’s motifs work best when they don’t try to cram the lightning that is Haruko back in the proverbial bottle. The characters replacing her didn’t get enough focus to sweep me off my feet, but once its three episodes were up, I distinctly thought they needed more time to marinate, not less—apparently, that’s all I can ask for from these misguided reanimations.

On the other hand, Horimiya: The Missing Pieces had the unenviable task of only adapting skits cut from the show’s first season, and they were largely axed for good reason: a few episodes worth of comedy gold came out of this gap-filling addition, but roughly 2/3 of it could have stayed on the cutting room floor. I take more issue with the series comp as a whole than its guiding philosophy, though; it unearthed enough highlights for me to still look forward to each new episode as the weeks passed by.

Marching on, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Season 2 sure did involve some war crimes! I wasn’t super invested in its first season anyway, mostly watching it on behalf of community hype, and the more it went off the rails, the more I enjoyed basking in its cheesy theater extra space opera. The inverse was true for Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story Season 2, which brought back a few of the first season’s most hilarious calling cards, but also frontloaded its most enticing jokes, tallying a more grounded and overbearing stretch of episodes to the final green.

And Golden Kamuy Season 4 sure was more Golden Kamuy, even as it changed hands, suffered delays due to a “key staff member’s death” (eesh), and featured—among other digressions—a character chasing down Jack The Ripper by analyzing his cum in the wild. That actually happened. Four seasons deep, Golden Kamuy is still finding ways to catch me off guard. You don’t have to follow me down its rabbit hole, just take me at my word. Surely, the year wouldn’t get any weirder than tha-

AND YET THE ANSWER IN THIS CASE…WAS YES


Haha, right, uhhhhh what the fuck was Under Ninja? The galaxy-brained game of charades was sooooo close to popping into my top 10 of the year, delivering campy action thriller nonsense from start to finish, chronically keeping me on the edge of my seat, and jumping so many steps ahead of itself that each week I felt like I’d somehow missed the previous episode. If a Mayoiga-fied conspiracy comedy-by-accident sounds up your alley, please give this unholy mess a shot. Alas, there can only be ten finalists, and this one’s concluding arc was slapdash to a fault.

On a less ludicrous note, Insomniacs After School’s starry-eyed romantic comedy gave me the warm fuzzies, though I’ll be the first to admit its direction wasn’t particularly novel. Kaina of the Great Snow Sea was a workable adventure, bolstered by how decidedly unique its window dressing was but stymied by how it regurgitated familiar, boilerplate plot beats. Buddy Daddies gets a pass, too—it swung for the fences and struck out regarding its most pointed commentary about adopted parenthood, but I don’t think it held any ill will towards its subject matter. Besides, oblivious mafia dogs raising a mischievous child just makes for plain ol’ fun television.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 wasn’t my favorite installment of the cult classic franchise, but it followed in expected, safe, and generally pleasant footsteps that sure as hell felt like more of a return to form than Road To The Top. Surprise, surprise: so did Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 3, stepping back up to the plate after an underwhelming second season. Its rekindled spark primarily comes down to the introduction of Mini, Kazuya’s ultimate wingwoman, and [redacted], which cut to the chase on what started the series’ elaborate web of lies in the first place. What of shame? I haven’t known shame in nine years—I host an anime blog. Keep the Rent-a slander to yourself.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and The Apothecary Diaries are both airing two consecutive cours, the first of which each occurred this fall and the second of which will follow in the months ahead. In line with prior procedure here, that makes both of them ineligible for top 10 placements until my 2024 rundown, but I wouldn’t count either of them out of the hunt. Although Frieren bungled a few unfortunate thematic implications during a divisive arc, it’s recovered enough that I’m still fond of the show overall.

The Apothecary Diaries is in a league of its own next to these other honorable mentions, though; it’s a slow-burning, stunning dark horse of pseudo-Chinese court drama whose whodunnits and hot goss is commandeered by Maomao (CV: Aoi Yuuki)’s nasally snark and deviant interest in all things poisonous. If you aren’t caught up on it heading into this upcoming winter, consider this my timely pitch. With any luck, you’ll get a second, permanent recommendation for it out of me this time next year. Now, without further ado…

THE TOP 10
I HAVE BEEN PREPARING FOR THIS DAY

I’ve done my best to keep spoilers for the shows below ambiguous and brief if they’re needed at all. Streaming, licensing, and English dub information should be accurate for U.S. viewers as of late December 2023, though future readers should bear in mind they’re region-dependent and subject to change.

#10 – THE 100 GIRLFRIENDS WHO REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LOVE YOU


Studio: Bibury Animation  |  Director: Hikaru Sato  |  Writer: Takashi Aoshima
Episodes: 12  |  Based on: manga by Rikito Nakamura
Alternate names: Kimi no koto ga Dai Dai Dai Dai Daisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo, Hyakkano |  Legal streaming site: Crunchyroll
Licensing status: Licensed by Crunchyroll  |  Dub status: Dub in progress

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
After storming 100 romantic rejections, the God of Love appears to happy-go-lucky student Rentarou Aijou, informing him that due to clerical errors, he’s destined to accumulate 100 soulmates during his high school years, and choosing one partner isn’t really an option—per divine law, if Rentarou picks any one girl over the other 99, the rest are doomed. Taking his duty extremely seriously, Rentarou quickly adapts to the circumstances. Polyamorous love is a tougher sell to some of his prospective girlfriends, but his earnest rizz keeps winning them over.

WHY I LIKED IT
His rizz won me over, too. Seriously, I don’t know what’s funnier: that this Harem to End All Harems so brilliantly toys with the “rivals in love” dynamic innumerable rom-com anime eventually devolve into, or that it does so while leaving you more smitten with Rentarou himself than any of his catches thus far. A voluptuous ditz and a scrawny hothead kick off the tally, and they’re soon joined by a timid bookworm, an emotion-suppressant study-aholic, and a savant chemist, all struck by love at first sight and adjusting to Rentarou’s conditions sooner than you’d expect. Seeing the “Rentarou family” in action usually does the trick.

It did for me, at least. There’s no pretense here other than a good time: the two hooks are “who’s next?” and “oh my god, these raunchy idiots really do deserve each other.” Slapstick abounds. So do ecchi scenes, each delivered with the gleeful overcomplexity of a Rube Goldberg machine. Everyone’s horny, everyone’s in on the bit, and it’s kind of appalling the conceit presented here has taken decades to eventually manifest. The 100 Girlfriends’ “gotta catch ‘em all” framework promises a long-term payoff, and the short-term one already suffices; I’ve watched much smarter (and leagues less embarrassing) anime in 2023, but this one takes the cake for overt silliness. I’m making that count for something.

#9 – THE DANGERS IN MY HEART


Studio: Shin-Ei Animation  |  Director: Hiroaki Akagi  |  Writer: Jukki Hanada
Episodes: 12  |  Based on: manga by Norio Sakurai
Alternate name: Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu, BokuYaba  |  Legal streaming site: HIDIVE
Licensing status: Licensed by Sentai Filmworks  |  Dub status: Dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Kyoutarou Ichikawa is a middle school loner: he dresses entirely in black, reads gruesome books, and has been fantasizing about killing someone, settling on the popular class model Anna Yamada. But it only takes a few interactions with her for him to get flustered and abandon his destructive impulses completely—she’s disarmingly approachable, a carefree ditz, and doesn’t think negatively of Kyoutarou at all. Those violent daydreams were covering for a more vulnerable longing, and before you know it, the two kids are unlikely lovebirds.

WHY I LIKED IT
Take every red flag you think you just read and throw it out the window; Kyoutarou isn’t an unhinged sadist, Anna isn’t ever in true distress, and The Dangers In My Heart doesn’t promote misogyny, it pokes holes at it. Many character traits that would be alarming in adults are normal in middle schoolers going through the throes of puberty, and this show simultaneously indulges and downplays the cringe comedy of young lovers who don’t know how to fully express themselves yet. Most importantly, the rapport between the two leads feels incredibly natural; even though the brooding, timid boy and the airheaded, cherished beauty raise eyebrows as a pair, the two kids behave like real kids their age, with all the insecurity and naivete you’d expect of tweens inching towards their first romantic fling.

And it’s funny. Pleasant vibes can only get a show so far, but the The Dangers In My Heart really thrives through its patient scriptwriting and exceptional voice acting, nailing each misunderstanding and lapse in foresight to keep the hits coming. A continuation is already slated to air this upcoming winter. If you missed this first season and are in the market for a quick-witted but generally quiet rom-com, this one has the fundamentals down pat.

#8 – SPY x FAMILY SEASON 2


Studios: CloverWorks & Wit  |  Directors: Kazuhiro Furuhashi & Takahiro Harada  |  Writer: Ichiro Okouchi
Episodes: 12  |  Based on: manga by Tatsuya Endo
Alternate name: N/A  |  Legal streaming site: Crunchyroll
Licensing status: Licensed by Crunchyroll  |  Dub status: Dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
In an alternate reality Cold War, the nations of Westalis and Ostania maintain a tenuous peace. A Westalian master of disguise, code-named Twilight, is the main cog of Operation Strix, where he poses as a mild-mannered psychiatrist, Loid Forger, to make connections with his target, using a surrogate young daughter, Anya, and a civilian city clerk wife, Yor, as his cover. Unbeknownst to him, Yor is an assassin and Anya is a bratty telepath who sees through both her adopted parents’ masquerades. Season two continues the gimmick as silly as it’s ever been. Both adults are still none the wiser.

WHY I LIKED IT
Spy x Family comfortably landed in my Top 10 last year thanks in part to its first two cours’ sheer consistency. The series not shaking things up in any irreversible way is deliberate: even as it slowly moves around pawns on the board, the espionage begets antics instead of the other way around. All other ingredients of its addicting popcorn recipe come second to the predication that you can keep eating more of it. In that sense, Spy x Family works on the same logic as trusty Saturday morning kids’ cartoons or long-running comic strips: if the set-up wants to write itself, let it. I, for one, won’t complain about more of the same.

And while it slips a few spots back in the rankings due to familiarity (its split first season was ranked #6 last year), this sequel peaked with an exceptionally strong arc involving the Forgers going on a “luxury” cruise where Yor tried to fend off scores of assassins without running into her hubby or kiddo. In general, Yor has been underutilized so far, primarily serving as a vessel of comic relief for her obliviousness about domestic affairs or not knowing her own strength. Those are good jokes, but nothing beats getting to see her side-job taken seriously, or at least on par with how often Loid’s mission is the center of attention. The balance was a bit better this time around, even if some skits on the bookends of the season were scattershot in value. Of all the direct sequels I watched this year, only Spy x Family’s went blow for blow with the best of its previous output.

#7 – SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF


Studio: Science SARU  |  Director: Abel Góngora  |  Writers: Bryan Lee O’Malley & BenDavid Grabinski
Episodes: 8  |  Based on: graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Alternate name: N/A  |  Legal streaming site: Netflix
Licensing status: Licensed by Netflix  |  Dub status: Dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Scott Pilgrim was dating a high schooler, but he saw a new girl in town (well, in his dreams) and now he wants to date her instead! Just two problems: for starters, he’d have to defeat the new girl’s seven evil exes or they won’t leave the two of them alone. But even harder, he also needs to, you know, break up with his high school girlfriend.

WHY I LIKED IT
The single greatest plot twist in anime this year didn’t occur in any show in the usual sense. No, the best bait and switch was the straight-faced, months-long marketing campaign for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which presented this offshoot as a routine adaptation in every announcement and trailer only to shock viewers at the end of episode one: what if Scott just…went missing after the first evil ex battle? Dead? Kidnapped? Who knows, but the League’s ambitions have always been flimsy, and this time Ramona takes the lead role, embarking on some investigative work to figure out who’s at the bottom of Scott’s disappearance and why.

While this plot synopsis reads about as emotionally paper-thin as any uncharitable parsing of prior Scott Pilgrim media, it retains the snarky, nerdy irreverence of those predecessors, using the established story as a launchpad for wild (see also: gayer) what-if scenarios, fanservice, and dramatic irony. If you have not read or seen anything about Scott Pilgrim before this, don’t start here—a lot of Takes Off’s humor stems from its playful subversiveness to the source material—but if you have, this production’s cheekiness from the top down makes it an impressive if inessential snack. Nearly two decades since its first incarnation and over a dozen years since its highly-regarded film counterpart, all we could’ve asked of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was for it to make a case for its own legacy. If nothing else, it undeniably took appreciated risks and didn’t skimp out appreciating the innate strengths of its latest medium, either.

#6 – SKIP & LOAFER


Studio: P.A. Works  |  Director: Kotomi Deai  |  Writer: Kotomi Deai
Episodes: 12  |  Based on: manga by Misaki Takamatsu
Alternate name: N/A  |  Legal streaming site: Crunchyroll
Licensing status: Licensed by Crunchyroll  |  Dub status: Not dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Mitsumi Iwakura has her life all planned out: she’ll leave her humble village in the sticks, study her ass off, make a name for herself in politics, and then come back home to mitigate the economic repercussions of rural Japanese depopulation. But on her first day in Tokyo, before she can even get to her new high school, she gets lost and worries herself sick. A chance encounter in the subway with the kind-hearted, emotionally-stunted stud Sousuke Shima—himself running late—marks the start of a totally happy friendship where nothing ever ever goes wrong hehehehehehe

WHY I LIKED IT
THINGS GO WRONG (sickos.jpg) but only, like, a normal amount? As far as series set in high school go, Skip & Loafer is a reserved, mature romantic drama. Contrary to the rambunctious slapstick of The 100 Girlfriends or the twee innocence of The Dangers In My Heart, this series treats its cast like the almost-adults they are; career goals, nagging personal burdens, and peer pressure weigh on its teenage protagonists, be they goody-two-shoes like Mitsumi, polite but guarded kids like Sousuke, or preppier, vainer classmates they soon come to befriend.

There’s a casual mundanity to it all that I cherish a lot; just as not every day of high school is a barrel of laughs or a shipwreck of struggle, Skip & Loafer doesn’t dwell on hardship or stay sunny to a fault. The drama isn’t egregiously petty, there’s more give and take with relationships than many high school anime choose to depict, and its tonal elegance makes it an incredibly nostalgic watch, one that goes down smooth as a weekly treat but could be just as enticing when binged. I love me some heavy-handed bullshit, but I also love stories that feel true to life, and Skip & Loafer‘s wading, welcoming ennui permeated every nook and cranny of my memory. Anyway, this list is starting to seem a bit too lovey-dovey, what else can I throw at you guys?   oh.  uhhhhh, yeah, so,

#5 – HEAVENLY DELUSION


Studio: Production I.G.  |  Director: Hirotaka Mori  |  Writer: Makoto Fukami
Episodes: 13  |  Based on: manga by Masakazu Ishiguro
Alternate name: Tengoku Daimakyo  |  Legal streaming sites: Disney+, Hulu
Licensing status: Licensed by Disney Platform Distribution  |  Dub status: Dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Bouncing back and forth between two timelines shrouded in mystique, Heavenly Delusion tells a pair of stories anachronistically. One revolves around a laboratory where an organization treats superpowered children as sheltered, unsuspecting guinea pigs, while the other follows two teenagers, Kiruko and Maru, as they traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape, hunted down by low-life bandits and enigmatic creatures alike.

WHY I LIKED IT
That can wait. First, let me so some damage control and discuss the elephants in the room. I’d be remiss to not warn unsuspecting viewers that the final two episodes of Heavenly Delusion include scenes depicting rape. The act isn’t glamorized—it’s a significantly traumatic experience for one of the main characters—but it’s also unnecessarily graphic, and the iceberg doesn’t come out of nowhere: post-apocalyptic sex work, pregnancy of a minor, and This Whole Thing Smacks of Gender levels of well-intentioned (if kinda off-mark? I’m not the one to ask) discourse about trans characters battered the series with accusations of tastelessness, or worse, vicariously reveling in the cruelty it unleashed on its protagonists. The show’s flippant demeanor in less unpleasant scenes muddies its tonal center. So yeah, Heavenly Delusion has endured a ton of reasonable criticism. What gives? How can I still recommend it?

I’d need several paragraphs to defend each grievance in full, but the long and short of it is this: I came out of this series with hope—hopeful, at least, that its parallel casts would continue to experience some form of happiness despite the cruel environments they were born into and the fates they suffer just trying to eke out an existence on their own terms. Through all the ethical dilemmas and wretched dystopian snares, most of these characters still find reasons to smile, and their optimism sustained me through the morale-breaking final act.

And—not to be hyperbolic, but this is where Heavenly Delusion differs substantially from every lowest common denominator fantasy on the market—it’s one of the medium’s few freewheeling showcases of creativity in 2023. Its directors encouraged personal touches and each episode is filled to the brim with galaxy-brained action cuts, hilarious facial expressions, snappy, squabbling dialogue, and sequences with so much attention to detail they could’ve been plucked out of a deadline-averse blockbuster film instead of a seasonal TV production. The two initially disconnected stories reveal throughlines as the weeks pass, too, redefining earlier exchanges with additional weight and coming closer to clarity by season’s end, even if several inferred answers remain unconfirmed. Come to see those zany gears in motion and you’ll likely stay long enough for the mysteries it teases to really suck you in, too. People wouldn’t give a shit about Heavenly Delusion‘s last-minute decisions if it hadn’t yanked along some of the highest highs in all of anime this year beforehand, and this is no Wonder Egg Priority scenario where the final events invalidate the thematic weight of all that came before. If you can tolerate the R-rated content (and to be clear, there’s nothing wrong if you would rather not), some of the nuttiest craftsmanship of 2023 awaits within.

#4 – UNDEAD MURDER FARCE


Studio: Lapin Track  |  Director: Shinichi Omata  |  Writer: Noboru Takagi
Episodes: 13  |  Based on: novels by Yugo Aosaki
Alternate name: Undead Girl Murder Farce  |  Legal streaming sites: Crunchyroll
Licensing status: Licensed by Crunchyroll  |  Dub status: Not dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
In an alternate late 19th-century world where the supernatural are a dying breed, man-made half-oni Tsugaru Shinuchi accepts a job from Aya Rindo, an immortal head who’s missing the rest of her body. They soon come to understand their physical predicaments are the work of the same meddling manipulator, and the two creatures, along with Aya’s combative human maid, Shizuku Hasei, head to Europe to track the perpetrator down. Along the way they run into a number of people stumped by supernatural crimes and offer their sleuthing services to gain intel.

WHY I LIKED IT
Right off the bat, Undead Murder Farce’s banter is snappy, clever, and genuinely riveting. The series may be ostensibly built around Holmesian, arc-centric mysteries, but they wouldn’t bind together without a trio of protagonists as affably bizarre as Tsugaru, Aya, and Shizuku. Their unnerved chemistry bubbles out of the screen with every scene, imbuing the folklore and historical baggage of the show’s subjects with light-footed campiness. This tension between frivolous small talk and dramatic scheming pays huge dividends; even as Undead Murder Farce takes its genre mechanics very seriously, its tone is grounded somewhere halfway between stoicism and slapstick, able to inch towards either end of the spectrum without fully inhabiting either extreme.

That’s a delicate balancing act, but director Shinichi Omata (under his pen name Mamoru Hatakeyama) lassos the unruly elements to cohere with his overall vision remarkably well. The source material hasn’t been translated yet as far as I know, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Yugo Aosaki’s novels (and I mean novel novels, the non-light kind) simply lay out the gist, letting Omata and co. run with the base idea: every arc is paced with impeccable patience, there’s nary a a wasted moment between major events, and the series saves its most ambitious, complicated, and heady mystery for last, managing to bow out on a high note even as the protagonists’ wild goose chase remains unresolved. There’s potential for a continuation, but even if it doesn’t receive one, Undead Murder Farce is a gleeful celebration of the occult’s subjective legacies, a series operating on several layers of savviness at once and deftly elevated by the involvement of reliable, fun-loving creators.

#3 – OSHI NO KO


Studio: Doga Kobo  |  Director: Daisuke Hiramaki  |  Writer: Jin Tanaka
Episodes: 11 (with a long premiere)  |  Based on: manga by Aka Akasaka
Alternate name: N/A  |  Legal streaming sites: HIDIVE
Licensing status: Licensed by Sentai Filmworks  |  Dub status: Dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
jesus christ where do I even begin A teenage popstar named Ai Hoshino ends up pregnant, and despite her agents’ attempts to keep the ravenous paparazzi at bay, a stalker kills her gynecologist—who in turn gets reincarnated as one of her twin babies—and a few years later, Ai dies by the creep’s hand, too. That doc-turned-child, Aqua, along with the other twin (another former patient of his), Ruby, live out the rest of their lives well-connected with the showbiz world, though their relation to Ai remains a safely guarded secret. Ruby aspires to follow in her mother’s footsteps while Aqua vows to deduce the identity of the man who impregnated Ai in the first place. Modern-day pop culture cynics, eat your hearts out.

WHY I LIKED IT
I know, I know, you’re thinking “that sounds insane. Why would anyone watch that?” And fair play, the series’ feature-length film of a prologue “episode” is a topsy-turvy nightmare of terrible tropes, tasteless gags, and sick smut. Storm it, though, and what follows on the other side is bafflingly engaging, if a little outrageous by association. Aka Akasaka took the longest and least visitor-friendly detour possible to get to a cast that could vocalize disdain about the entertainment industry from the inside, but Oshi no Ko does reach that destination relatively quickly, and once it’s there, it doesn’t backpedal.

Sure, the profoundly ridiculous setup occasionally wraps back around to being charming, but Oshi no Ko really spreads its wings when it eventually introduces co-leads other than the Hoshinos. Side characters Kana & Akane undergo compelling personal arcs and shimmy more into frame as emotional heavyweights in their own right. The comedy greatly improves once it swaps out the doctor’s otaku brain with a drier wit, and that’s before mentioning the strides made by in-universe influencers Pieyon and Mem-cho. And the further the series gets from its risqué origins, the more that actually buying into Aqua’s calculated investigation aligns with the show’s personality-driven quips and barbs. If Oshi no Ko starts as a mockery of mass media for its own sake, by this first season’s finale it embodies a much wider range of career paths, perspectives, and priorities. Sifting through the rabble with a cast this lively yields great soap opera-style fun. A sequel is already greenlit, and thank the fans for that—Oshi no Ko demands a devoted suspension of disbelief, but only for a while, getting wiser and more immersive as it goes.

#2 – BANG DREAM! IT’S MYGO!!!!!


Studio: Sanzigen  |  Director: Koudai Kakimoto  |  Writer: Yuniko Ayana
Episodes: 13  |  Based on: multimedia franchise by Bushiroad
Alternate name: N/A  |  Legal streaming sites: Crunchyroll
Licensing status: Licensed by Crunchyroll  |  Dub status: Not dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Anon Chihaya is the “fake it till you make it” type of gal: music seems to be all the rage at her new high school, so she tries recruiting others to be in “her” band, oblivious to the fact that her top prospects already have a thorny history making music together and aren’t keen on reuniting, let alone allowing Anon to be the star of the show.

WHY I LIKED IT
This is my first experience with anything BanG Dream, and I went in under the assumption it was just another monolithic face of the idol media Mount Rushmore that I’ve never been the keenest fan of. Though pockets of those feel-good, occasionally deep stories sometimes strike my fancy (usually on behalf of their humor), neither their music nor their drama has resonated all that much with me. I like my music anime scrappy and brazen—last year’s Bocchi The Rock is a prime example—and that’s not what you tend to get from sappy, children-appeasing idol anime. Suffice to say, if MyGO is any indication of what I can regularly expect from Bandori, perhaps I wrote the franchise off prematurely. This is an idol anime by corporate bloodline only; MyGO’s ethos is more Mean Girls alternative than industry plant BGM.

I say that both in regards to its music (which favors a palatably rough-edged brand of pop punk and J-rock) and to its drama, which is more flippant and facetious than just about any rock band anime in recent memory. These girls don’t really get along and they don’t have any reservations towards toughing out their trifles for the sake of a greater friendship; their devotion to each other is tenuous, they drive each other crazy, and they just happen to find themselves going along with (or arbitrarily competing against) the flow of things, failing to verbalize their true feelings, either by ploy or social anxiety. Watching MyGO is akin to witnessing a train derailment for sport over the course of 13 episodes, and instead of ending in a positive place, the series instead wrested the spotlight towards side characters who’re starting a band even less put together than these girls’, all but confirming they’ll go head to head in the near future. I’m teeming with anticipation for it, and MyGO’s unassuming revelry is the chief reason why. As for supplemental praise: the series’ performance scenes are animated with real musician’s know-how, the brainy shot direction compensates for the character models’ flat-faced expressions, and the dialogue runs a mile per angsty, sharp-tongued minute. MyGO floored me. I expected nothing. Now all I want is more.

#1 – OVERTAKE!


Studio: TROYCA  |  Director: Ei Aoki  |  Writer: Ayumi Sekine
Episodes: 12  |  Based on: original story by Kadokawa Corporation and TROYCA
Alternate name: N/A  |  Legal streaming sites: Crunchyroll
Licensing status: Licensed by Crunchyroll  |  Dub status: Not dubbed

WHAT IT’S ABOUT
In the world of Japan Formula 4, as with practically all motorsports, cash is king, but that doesn’t prevent long shot car junkies from competing for the thrill of speed and a chance at glory. Haruka Asahina has the talent and the heritage to get seat time—his late father also raced, and the Komaki family, friends of theirs, are now fielding him in a mostly unsponsored vehicle that he overachieves in. Opportunity might come knocking in the form of Kouya Madoka, a kindly freelance photographer with a mixed bag of connections and traumas, and Belsorriso, the top team in the league whose pair of drivers aren’t seeing eye to eye at the moment. How far can Haruka go?

WHY I LIKED IT
From the moment Overtake! was first announced, I kept my excitement in check. I may be a motorsports fanatic, but that fandom meant it wouldn’t take much for this supposedly grounded sports drama to push my buttons: any incorrect technical detail, any inaccurate throwaway line, any vibe check issue at all would complicate matters for me far more than the average viewer. The anime industry as it operates today isn’t one to place too much blind faith in, either: as this list up to now should demonstrate, every new title is exponentially more likely to go down as a dud than a dream come true.

But here we are: Overtake! came, saw, and conquered anyway, not through huge name recognition or pomp and circumstance but by delivering precisely the underdog triumph it could. Take it from me, the vocal racing nut of the anime community; virtually everything presented in this series is true to life, from the economics to the engineering to the mental struggle to the replicated scenery (hi, Fuji! hi, Suzuka!) and strategies. The one area the animators wimped out on was realistic crash damage, but considering how rarely cars ate shit in this show, I can overlook what’s most likely just a model-rigging time-saving measure; the ramifications of any accidents weren’t disproportionate to their touted severity.

Put aside all of that and the question the rest of you should be asking is whether or not Overtake! will mean anything to someone who hasn’t made its chosen pastime their own hobby. I’d certainly hope so, and I think so, but fall was packed and a lot of people skipped this one on the expectation that if it stayed strong, someone like me would recommend it. Now’s the time. Yes, Overtake! is “about” Formula 4 racers, but its biggest battles take place off the asphalt, and primarily through the eyes of Kouya, who doesn’t ever pilot a car. His recovery from self-ingrained uselessness to passionate capability mirrors that of Haruka, the Komakis, the infighting Belsorriso rivals, and more, all of whom are subject to the utmost compassion and unflinching humanity on the scriptwriters’ behalf. Though this could be weighed as a mark against it, there’s no reason Overtake! had to be an anime—a live-action drama written, shot, and cast in largely the same manner would be just as resounding a success—but then we wouldn’t have those fuckin’ gnarly zoom-ins and sweeping pans of the on-track action, now would we?

Doing good by its token topic with a vibrant, charming cast overcoming no shortage of heart-wrenching hurdles, Overtake! is the year’s easiest-to-recommend anime drama by a significant margin and further proof that as much as this medium has its fun with some patently absurd adaptations, a staid, mature, realistic original production has become the exception to a very wishy-washy rule. In this case, it was refreshing, resplendent, and far too easy to take for granted, so I won’t. Overtake! truly earned it: it’s my 2023 Anime of the Year. Thoughts, fellas?


That’s the spirit! 2023 isn’t going to go down as a stellar year for anime (not in my book, at least), but there were still plenty of series worth checking out, some of which I’m sure slipped by me, especially late in the year. What were your faves of 2023? Did I drop the ball on any must-watches? (well, besides Vinland Saga S2. I know). Give ’em a shout in the comments below or over on Twitter! Until next time, I’ve been Yata from For Great Justice. Hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday season.

One comment

  1. 100 Girlfriends in the top 10 makes up for my sadness at the dropping on Undead Unluck.

    Wish I was as into Overtake by seasons end as everyone else seems to be, I still enjoyed my time with it but was hoping for more by the end.

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