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Voting closes at 23:59 on Monday, January 15 EST. Vote here for your five (5) best anime of 2023. You can optionally vote for your honorable mentions and rank your top five. The weighted top ten will be determined by points, with 5 points going to first place votes and 1 point going to fifth place votes. Unranked votes will all be given a flat 3 points. Only anime series that concluded in 2023 will be considered as valid votes. Sortable spreadsheet of qualifying anime: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HT3n2mfQ5JwLGjBVg_Y197QAoUvpAg9V6N2s6kDGdA0/edit?usp=sharing And here's a shortcut to the resultes: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4050844&pagenumber=2#post537237248 Previous AOTY threads: 2021 | 2022 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 Julias fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Jan 18, 2024 |
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Jan 1, 2024 05:43
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Just to reiterate, only anime series that concluded in 2023 will be considered as valid votes. This means series that got delayed to 2023 like Isekai Ojisan and continuing series that ended in 2023 like the first cour of Gundam The Witch From Mercury are eligible. On the other hand, series like Kawagoe Boys Sing, which didn't air it's final episode yet, and continuing series like Frieren and Apothecary Diaries, will not be eligable entries for this year.
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Jan 1, 2024 05:46
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I haven't finished Under Ninja or Zom 100 yet, but I'm 99 percent sure they're not cracking the top 5 so here's the list. 1. BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! - I was skeptical going in, but this was one of the best dramas of the year. Deftly written and directed its entire run. 2. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - It was always interesting watching O'Malley grapple with his creation, particularly when it was this stylish, even if I didn't fully agree with the conclusions he ended up with. 3. 16bit Sensation: Another Layer- I only know about bishoujo games via cultural osmosis, but the passion for the source material and the creative process of working with a small team as well as the bonkers time travel plot made this a personal highlight. 4. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury- Witch from Mercury ended up focusing on the bits I was the least interested in - I was way more interested in the Earthian/Spacian conflict than the transhumanist Gundam focus - and it was weirdly paced at times, but even with those caveats I loved this world and these characters. 5. Revenger - Revenger has a clarity of purpose - here's a bunch of cool assassins, they're going to fight the opium trade in Nagasaki - and an incredibly tightly written plot to get there. It's just a cool crime drama the entire run, and I always enjoy when genre fiction is executed well like this. HMs: Frieren, Apothecary Diaries (they'd be easy top 5 picks if they were legal), Yamada-kun, Skip and Loafer, Tomo-chan Southern Cassowary fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Jan 1, 2024 |
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Jan 1, 2024 06:15
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I only watched 6 qualifying anime so uhhh here are most of them along with my numeric score: 1st: BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! - The best anime I have watched since 2009, the sleeper hit of the summer 2023 season, and the totally unexpected smash hit of the year for me. I'm an existing fan to the BanG Dream! series, and expected something on par with the first season of the series with the focus on one group, but instead ended up blown away by every character, every plot development, every twist and turn, and so much of the music and animation done. THIS is Sanzigen's best work yet, showing especially in episode 3 (done entirely in first-person view). The standard plot of "high school girls become friends and make a music group" that these idol/idol-adjacent series tend to follow is thrown out the window a few miles and the characters are made to go work for that happy ending, and even then the ending isn't "everything is fixed and everyone is friends and happy", instead these flawed lost girls just found other similarly flawed lost girls to depend on and learn that it's part of being human and that it's fine to show your true self and mess up as long as you keep moving forward. Watch MyGO, and come join us for the sequel series Ave Mujica whenever that airs. (9/10) 2nd: Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout The Animation - As the name says, it's an adaptation of the video game by the same name. Atelier games are hard to put into anime I think, as much of the good gameplay revolves around the item synthesis and not so much the story. This showed strongly here, as the 12 episodes only cover barely the first half of the game, not even getting to the "ever darkness" part of the title. What plot is covered does touch on something important in the Ryza series and Atelier as a whole, and that was the interaction between characters, including NPCs. Some of the episodes are spent on what are sidequests in the game, and it does help tie together Ryza's development from being known as a lazy kid to a blossoming alchemist. It's only up this high in ranking because what it did do, it did well. But really, just go play the game. (7/10) 3rd: D4DJ All Mix - Sequel series to the really good D4DJ First Mix anime from Fall 2020, this ran into the issue of "we have to focus on all the characters in the series!". While First Mix was constrained to three of the six (initial) groups, All Mix (as the name implies) has all six involved...to varying extents. Every expectation I had of the plot kept getting missed - where I thought it would be about Lyrical Lily solving the issue of the town project with help from the others, there ended up being pure focus episodes on the other groups. Except for Peaky P-key, who didn't get a focus episode to themselves for some reason. And Photon Maiden had two arcs or something? And Merm4id and RONDO basically disappeared until the end after their episodes were over?? Overall very uneven representation of the units and an excuse plot to bring them together. The music for the season was done well, and episode 6 is extremely amusing and leverages Kagami Karin's bilingual ability well. The CG animation also leveled up from the previous season, and it was at the time Sanzigen's best showing of their craft. (6.5/10) 4th: I'm in Love with the Villainess - Probably the most conflicted placement/score I gave to anything this year. What started out as looking like a comedy yuri with some really good insightful moments on homosexuality and how its treated turned into a mess of trying to do too much with various issues in society and too much in itself with its plot decisions. I love Rae and Claire and their interactions, I love how Rae is trying to force this world she got sent to's path to change so her love isn't harmed. However, both the Lene and Manaria arcs whiffed massively for me - Lene's due to the anime-only comparison between her forbidden relationship and Rae's, and 1/4 of the episode count being focused on Manara's arc and her rather forceful way of progressing Rae and Claire's relationship. The series was intriguing enough for me to go seek out the source material, and both mentioned sections are handled a bit better...and then other things get thrown against the wall. So I'm still looking for that one really good yuri story adaptation still. (6/10) (EDIT: removed my 5th anime because honestly it doesn't deserve a point. Putting it over in the Worst/Most Disappointing thread instead!) Honorable Mention: Nijiyon Animation - I watched it and it aired this year and it was cute and fine enough for fans of the group. (6/10) KariOhki fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Jan 4, 2024 |
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Jan 1, 2024 06:42
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1. Vinland Saga Season 2: I watched Vinland Saga S1 the other year and rewatched it this year on a binge going right into the second season. Despite the change to Mappa and a generally less inventive visual direction than season 1 this show just crushed it for me with excellent writing, fantastic music and wonderful development of Thorfinn's character from a broken child into a new man who comes to embrace what his father taught him. 2. Pluto: I've never watched Astro Boy before and I only know about it through osmosis. What I got here was a compelling detective story that used its setting to create some creative mysteries that are totally believable thanks to the terrific leading man, Gesicht. It reminded me a lot of Ghost in the Shell in that way, where the detective work uses the quirks of the world to create interesting scenarios. It only ranks second for me because I felt the last episode could have done a bit more with Atom and Brau's talk and the rather abrupt and anticlimactic end to one of the main antagonists. 3. Trigun Stampede: I love Trigun. I'll always love the original show as my preferred version of the story, but credit where it's due with Stampede. As a reimagining it did some pretty neat stuff and I quite liked the main cast dynamics, and it's probably the best looking all-CGI anime TV show I've ever watched. Despite some wonky environment art at times the actual character animation looks incredible and the OP is in contention for my favourite of the year. I rank it lower because I felt that it veered too far into drama towards the end and kinda missed the balancing act that makes the original show so special to me. Once episode 3 hits Vash is pretty much on the trauma train for the rest of the season. I could have used some more levity at times. Also, complete waste of my man Legato Bluesummers making him a glorified taxi driver for one episode. 4. SpyXFamily Season 2: I've only started watching Season 2 but I've been laughing my rear end off and I'm happy to be getting more of Yor this time around so I had to put it on here somewhere. Maybe not fair to the next show on my list but I'm liking it more on an episode by episode basis than my Number 5. 5. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: Came out of nowhere, flipped the script and did something new rather than just recreate the film recreating the comic. I love that they got the movie cast back. I ended up liking this a lot more than I thought I would, so kudos to the team for making it happen. It was a nice thing to add. Honorable Mentions: Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch From Mercury: If it was still the Spring 2023 season I would have said this was AOTY in a heartbeat. This is one that I desperately want to love and declare as my personal favourite Gundam show of all time. But I can't bring myself to love it so my thoughts rest more on admiring what it mostly accomplishes and wishing it could have been so much more than the 7/10 show I ultimately feel it is. Hopefully Banrise returns to the Ad Stella timeline at some point to really flesh out this world and not have to set the studio on fire in order to finish it. The Boy and the Heron: The only new anime film I watched this year. Possibly the most lavishly animated film I've ever watched. The first third of the film was my favourite part, taking its time building up this palpable atmosphere that I felt was kind of missing from the rest of the movie once Mahito enters the tower. I don't think it'll crack my top 5 Ghibli movies because as a story it's a bit too esoteric and layered in metaphor to tell a satisfying story on its own without the wider context of Miyazaki's filmography. I'm happy the movie got made because it's candy for the eyes, but I dunno how much more of that I can really take away from my experience watching it. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Jan 1, 2024 |
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Jan 1, 2024 06:44
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Too bad that Frieren isn't available for voting this time. But considering it's getting more live viewers than The Simpsons, I think it'll probably do okay for itself without the extra prestige from here. Similarly, I haven't gotten around to finishing Scott Pilgrim or Pluto, so they're not able to be properly judged, but they seem good so far. Honorable mention: The Boy and the Heron. It's not that it's worse than the top five. I just want more time to digest it before I commit to anything. It's a good film, but it's also being compared to Miyazaki's past work, which puts it in a trickier spot. Not being as good as Princess Mononoke isn't much of an insult, but it is something to be considered like everything else. 5) Tomo-chan is a girl! What can I say? It was a fun start to the year's anime, a romcom about two doofus martial artists and their awkward attempts to navigate the line between friendship and love. Nice pacing, some fun gags, and Rie Takahashi nailed the lead role. It also had pretty good end credits music, so points for that. 4) Synduality Noir Another one I'm not expecting on many lists, but I had fun all the same. It's a classic 7/10 type of mecha anime, with fun characters bouncing off each other, lowbrow gags, and self-contained episodes building up the cast and the setting. CG mech fights aren't the best, but they weren't bad either, and it added up to a show I'll be glad to see again. 3) Vinland Saga Season 2 Farmland Saga was great in the manga, and the anime improved on it, for the most part. Running through things weekly rather than volume by volume meant the pacing dragged sometimes, but overall it was excellent. 2) Oshi No Ko I didn't put the finale for Kaguya here, but Aka's other manga will do nicely. It's a murder mystery, a drama about the entertainment industry, a comedy, a reincarnation story, and so much more, and it does most of it very well. Excited to see more when it comes. 1) Gridman Universe What can I say? This has been a good year for tokusatsu inspired CG. It's more Gridman, which is good, with Dynazenon added in, which is also good. Everybody's arcs get followup, ranging from an actual conclusion for Yuta and Rikka to Yume and Yomogi showing more of what we already got from the audio dramas and Rex finally seeing the princess. It's half giant monster fights, and half audio-drama style regular life shenanigans, and it all worked for me. Just a shame I couldn't see it in theaters, because it was clearly made for them. I'm sure I'd change things a bit if I'd finished more shows and movies, but overall, not a bad year. Here's hoping for better in 2024.
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Jan 1, 2024 07:16
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I forgot Tomo Chan was this year. That was a fun, light show and from what I've heard about the comic it might actually be better animated because it cuts out a ton of chaff.
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Jan 1, 2024 07:23
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1) Revenger - easily the best gen urobuchi anime since madoka, this finds a nice balance between the noir exploitationy style of his earlier stuff and something more fun and freewheeling. under the hood this is mostly grappling with the influence of western imperial powers on japan via christianity and the threat of opium, but at the same time it also has an interesting autocritique angle about being an artist who's famous for works about suffering. idk i thought this was a surprisingly rich and layered show, that also has fun stuff like a guy who hulks out to fire a giant harpoon bow. 2) Under Ninja - under ninja 3) Vinland Saga Season 2 - really moving redemption story. a lot more impactful than the first season. 4) Sugar Apple Fairy Tale - shoujo fantasy series about magical candy sculptures and systems of oppression, carried by strong art direction and an endearingly naive protagonist. really enjoyed the Atelier-esque vibe of this, as a fan of that franchise. 5) Synduality Noir - funny love triangle mecha show in the vein of a macross or aquarion, nothing super novel here i just really like the cast and execution. cheating a bit with this pick since it's the first half of a split cour story but i trust it to maintain its strengths. Honorable mentions: G-Witch, Undead Girl Murder Farce, Overtake definitely a weaker year at the top end than the last couple years but fine overall. a lot of the stuff i was most anticipating ended up in 2024 instead, so looking forward to a big one.
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Jan 1, 2024 16:32
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I've only watched one anime this year ( ) and that's Pluto so it gets my only vote. Unfortunate that Pokemon Concierge came out so late since I would have watched it if I wasn't so busy with the holidays.Edit: I didn't expect Pokemon Concierge to be so short so I can add it now 
Can Of Worms fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Jan 3, 2024 |
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Jan 1, 2024 16:54
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I mean you still have 2 weeks to catch up on things 
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Jan 1, 2024 17:03
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Going through my list of watched anime and here's my top picks for the year: 5. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Normally, I hate harem anime. The tropes are the same every time in favor of some nondescript, self-insert, usually brunet male. Until this one, that is. I didn't have an episode where I didn't cackle maniacally at the dumb poo poo that happened. The art and animation are lovely. It takes everything I've learned from old harems like Love Hina and Ranma 1/2 and just dives into their nonsense and flips the script. 4. Yamada-kun to LV999 no Koi wo Suru The story of a normal girl getting into MMOs and falling in love with a too-cool-for-school gamer was sweet, charming, and perfect for making your heart feel all warm and gooey. Even characters I normally shouldn't like, like the jealous lolita secondary love interest I ended up liking. It lets everyone grow and get a chance to shine. I hope this gets a second season because it really does deserve it and the story continues in the manga (and as of yet, hasn't been completed). 3. My Happy Marriage Oh holy crap, did this one put me through the emotional wringer. I didn't know whether to yell at the screen at Miyo's (the main character) lovely family or hold my hand to my chest at the warm softness of Kiyoka learning to trust, then fall in love with his wife. The animation studio did the dang thing, because this, THIS was gorgeous to look at. I'm eagerly awaiting the second season because we need more chances to root for poor Miyo! 2. Skip and Loafer Between the refreshing takes on different types of personalities growing up in high school, the healthy look at a trans woman, and the likeability of all the cast (except you Ririka, you suck), I found myself eagerly anticipating this show every week. Again, I sound like the broken record, but the art and animation were top-notch and the story was solid. 1. Oshi no Ko I've been part of the manga discussion group for a while, so when I heard this was getting adapted, I was apprehensive because the source material was so good, I was worried they wouldn't pull it off or give it to a lovely team. Lo and behold, from the first long, LONG episode to the last, I was hooked once again. The OP/EDs are tight, the look into the entertainment industry is both disturbing and enigmatic, and I can't wait to see what comes next. Kana is queen! Honorable mentions go to: Tengoku Daimakyo (which would have been higher had those last two episodes not happened. What the Christ, I might be a newbie at material like this, but I did not need such a hosed up rape scene in my media. Tearmoon Empire. The main character is such an unrepentant little poo poo and I love her. Her desperate attempts to avoid the guillotine and save herself (gently caress everything else) were always hilarious, especially when everything she did was misconstrued as saintly and good when her little goblin attitude was exactly the opposite on the inside. Spy x Family S2. The boat arc was strong and let Yor shine. Plus, less Yuri, which is always a good thing. Anya is precious, as always, the reaction shots made me do spit-takes constantly, and Bond is still noble and cute, as all good dogs are. My only critique: Loid, kiss your wife!
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Jan 1, 2024 17:07
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1. gwitch 2. mygo 3. pluto 4. mou ippon 5. skip & loafer hms: overtake/migi & dali/scott pilgrim
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Jan 1, 2024 17:59
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1. bang dream it's mygo 2. birdie wing season 2 3. i'm in love with the villainess 4. eminence in shadow 5. oshi no ko honorable mentions: racal does not dream movies which i didn't notice coming out in/spectre season 2, hopefully we get more because i like the upcoming arcs a lot gwitch
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Jan 1, 2024 19:18
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Is JJK rolling right into another cour? It isn’t on the list
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Jan 1, 2024 19:22
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AlternateNu posted:Is JJK rolling right into another cour? It isn’t on the list Nah, that was a mistake on my part. Fixed.
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Jan 1, 2024 19:25
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Julias posted:Nah, that was a mistake on my part. Fixed. You also forgot Dark Gathering. e: May as well make a list while Im here 5. 100 GFs 4. Pluto 3. Scott Pilgrim 2. Mashle 1. Dark Gathering Honorable mentions: Kengan Ashura S2, Otaku Elf, Hell's Paradise Furnaceface fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Jan 1, 2024 |
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Jan 1, 2024 19:39
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Furnaceface posted:You also forgot Dark Gathering.  fixed
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Jan 1, 2024 20:53
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I did watch 3 shows or so per season but it was mostly nonsense, but I got a few I liked: 5. 16 bit Sensation: I liked the premise and wish it was more about the process of shojou games like the manga and less Aoi going apeshit in the sound booth. Also the ending was kinda silly. 4. Tomochan is a Girl: A cute show with a fun cast, especially Sally Amaki doing double duty as both English Carol and Japanese Carol. 3.Attack on Titan Final Season THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 2: I loved the work they did to fix the end of this show. I began watching this back when it first started airing with a group of friends in Tuscaloosa over a decade ago and seeing it come to a close, by myself, with all of us spread over the country was bitter sweet. 2. Oshi No Ko: Seeing this come to life from the manga was spectacular. Not to mention that OP is the bop of the year. I loved the opening episode and how emotionally raw they were able to make it. I can't wait to see how season two turns out. 1. Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: Best Gundam since IBO, and a great cast of characters. Loved every minute of it.
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Jan 1, 2024 22:17
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Not that it's going to make my list, but Faraway Paladin season 2 is missing from the list in the OP
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Jan 1, 2024 22:59
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And seeing AoT, I now realize I really should have remembered it when trying to make my list. Ah well. No sense revising and revising. Still. It's a contender for the top spot. That was a drat good finale.
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Jan 1, 2024 23:52
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1. PLUTO 2. 100 Girlfriends 3. BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! 4. Oshi no Ko 5. Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch From Mercury I don't have time/energy to type something up other than it was a drat shame G-Witch fell as far as it did for me given how it started but thems the breaks (also I still liked it a lot) and MyGO was the biggest overall surprise given what I might have expected going in.
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Jan 2, 2024 00:02
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Brutal Garcon posted:Not that it's going to make my list, but Faraway Paladin season 2 is missing from the list in the OP  fixed
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Jan 2, 2024 00:41
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1. Revenger 2. Vinland Saga 3. Baki Hanma Son of Ogre 4. Pokemon Horizons/ To Be a Pokemon Master 5. The Boy and the Heron
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Jan 2, 2024 01:13
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So are you checking stuff that's voted that's not on the list because it was missed (Shadowverse Flame Seven Shadows Arc) or should we point out the missing stuff we're voting for (Shadowverse Flame Seven Shadows Arc)
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Jan 2, 2024 12:11
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Feel free to point out any shows missing from the list (I definitely should have more thoroughly checked it), but it shouldn't actually matter if it's missing with how I'll be manually tallying and checking the votes. Anyways I'll fix it when I go back home this afternoon.
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Jan 2, 2024 14:49
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2023 has been a year with a lot of yuri shows which I appreciate, but sadly few of them truly resonated with me in practice. Thinking about my votes I considered shouting out Skip & Loafer, which is a lovely and colourful show but has the distinct issue of ending before the source material gets really good. But it's moot anyway, because in my view there's only one show deserving the title of AotY, and that's BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! A fantastic piece of animation that hit me in a way few things have. I've written at length in the summer seasonal thread about why I love it so much and the only part of my assessment that has changed since is that it's not just a top 5 anime for me, but would be my favourite anime period if it wasn't for Madoka Magica Rebellion. It's really something special. Edit: Oh right, Volicia of Pluto was this year too! I suppose it doesn't qualify for votes given it was a one-person student project uploaded to youtube, but I still want to shout it out because it left a strong impression on me and is genuinely cooler than most of the professionally produced stuff I've seen this year. A mecha yuri filtering a high school setting through the desolate aesthetics of Armored Core before veering off in an absolutely wild direction, the kind of thing that can only be someone's passion project. Sadly the official upload is no longer available, but it should still be possible to track down. Terry van Feleday fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Jan 2, 2024 |
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Jan 2, 2024 15:39
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1. BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! 2. Blue Lock 3. Insomniacs After School 4. Golden Kamuy Season 4 5. Oshi No Ko Last couple spots were tough, Tomo-Chan is a Girl, The Dangers in My Heart, SpyFam s2, and 100 Girlfriends are all close. And Heavenly Delusion.
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Jan 2, 2024 15:57
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1. Stardust Telepath 2. SHY i didn't finish anything else. well bye
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Jan 2, 2024 17:06
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1. Attack on Titan: The Final Season: The Final Chapters: Part 2 (and part 1 if i can just call them one show) AoT's writing is impeccable, on both the character development/drama and the plot fronts. there is both such an immense amount of pathos for the characters involved, as well as the show somehow delivering on a plot so convoluted you can't explain it without using the phrase "future memories" and still managed to make all the twists and turns satisfying, interesting, and comprehensible. the ending i thought was really well done, which i'm really happy about because i looked at the original manga ending afterwards, and if that was what i got my first time through i'd have been furious. 2. Trigun Stampede a great remix of the themes and concepts from the original anime (and manga too, apparently). i wish that the wolfwood/vash relationship got established a bit more before jumping right into drama between them, but otherwise i really like this second take on the story. knives in particular is a much more interesting villain here, when he was notably the weakest part of the original show. visually exhilarating, honestly aside from the wolfwood thing i loved every part of this. 3. Jujutsu Kaisen s2 jjk s1 i thought was some really good fight scenes with writing serving as connective tissue between the fights that was inoffensive enough to not drag the fights down. s2 has writing that is actually compelling and interesting, as well as being composed of more cool fight scene content by volume. basically it's peak punchman shounen and i love it 4. Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury: Season 2 i think people are too hard on this show, and even then most seem to have found it pretty enjoyable. i'm unhappy with not getting enough substance or payoff for some plotlines that i found compelling, but i think it delivered well on both being an engrossing episode to episode experience and substantiating its themes and concepts in an interesting way. great visuals, great characters, great music, writing that mostly left me wishing there was more of it. A- 5. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead the first episode of this was incredible. if you just watch the first episode and then drop it right there, treating it like a short film, i think it's a great experience. the rest of the show was: pretty decent i guess! the true anime was the manga we read along the way oops somehow i forgot about trigun stampede honorable mention: Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon took about 4 episodes before the concept got old enough that i didn't find it funny anymore, which is about twice as long as i was expecting ninjewtsu fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jan 5, 2024 |
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Jan 2, 2024 17:26
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If you dont have 5 yet please watch Dark Gathering. I promise its good.
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Jan 2, 2024 18:24
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this looks kind of wild, i dig it i've made a note
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Jan 2, 2024 19:25
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I probably should have given a blurb as to why its my AOTY. It starts slow, like e: There is a lot of gore and death and it touches on some pretty tough subjects like suicide, but it doesnt ever feel like it goes too far. So yeah, its not for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably my biggest out of nowhere anime since Akudama Drive. Furnaceface fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Jan 2, 2024 |
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Jan 2, 2024 19:38
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1. Gundam Witch from Mercury - I put it first last year when it didn't count, I'll put it first now it does. 2. Atack on Titan - Actually managed to pull off tying up all the plot threads and have a decent ending after all these years. 3. Yuri is My Job - Gay drama 4. I'm In Love With the Villianess - Drama gay 5. Magical Revolution - Guess what? Gay.
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Jan 2, 2024 22:13
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Honorable mentions:
Lotta shows I liked this year, even if there were also a lot of stinkers.
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Jan 3, 2024 00:23
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Rough year. Almost everything I looked forward to in 2023 ended up disappointing (Bungo S4, Opus.COLORs, Link Click S2, Overtake!, Paradox Live, not Shadowverse the goat). I watched like 40 qualifying anime this year, and it was a struggle picking five things I felt were worth voting for. 1. IDOLiSH7 Third Beat! Part 2: Ruining my life since 2020. Season 3 feels like a transitional period, establishing the new antagonists and sowing a few other plot beats, but nothing much in the way of big victories, and it ends on a deliciously knife twisty cliffhanger. The second part of this season's got the big bombastic stuff like the attempted murder or the encoded kidnapping message song reveal, but the heart is the same as it always was, in the character writing. My favorite scenes in particular are the ones where Takuya Eguchi gets emotionally disturbed enough that he "forgets" to put on the ridiculous fake foreigner accent. I had good fun seeing other people swear up and down they'll never forgive the antagonists for what they've done (like say, the attempted murder), but come on, you know how this goes. They're unambiguously bad people, motivated by petty revenge, but they're going to get rehabilitated eventually. Redemption arcs are maybe my single favorite trope in fiction, but the setup is a little too obvious here for me to buy in, so I'm excited to see if it'll convince the most staunched haters. Writing that can swing your heart from one extreme to the other requires a deft hand, but I have full confidence in this series delivering, remaining perfect and whole. 2. Shadowverse Flame: Seven Shadows Arc: Top notch visuals and lots of fun melodrama. The bulk of this season is spent on developing the main antagonist of the last season, who starts off extremely coping that he might have lost to our protagonist, it didn't count for real. Then, smug as ever, he goes to challenge the protagonist of the first season and immediately gets humbled, and from then on has to pick up the pieces and learn how to be a real person. If you like TCG anime in any way, you're missing out by sleeping on this. 3. Aikatsu! 10th Story: Mirai e no Starway (2023): Here's the crazy thing: I don't like Aikatsu. Idolwatch finished its four-year journey in watching the original 178-episode series this year, and I maybe enjoyed like ten of them total. Even ignoring the recycled plots (we have a character with a nerdy interest that clashes with her image and she's worried people will hate her if they find out, then they find out and love her; this happens three separate times!), there's so little conflict that it makes no accomplishment feel meaningful. The character progression is also confused, because years go by and the characters purportedly become better at what they do, but do they really? Aside from a brief stint with Akari, we see them go from "successful idol" to "successful idol", always winning every role they shoot for. The tenth anniversary movie feels like a proper send-off to the series that's grown up with its audience. The flash forward to eight years later is really neat, showing the cast as adults and having a good time getting drunk together for the holidays. The graduation concert is also really bittersweet too, with the air of finality about having to move on but treasuring the good times we had while it lasted. That stuff really gets to me. 4. Blue Giant: Absolutely gorgeous jazz playing sequences that really convey the profound effect music can have on people. With how they attempted to adapt the full manga though, the pacing does feel a bit overstuffed at times. 5. Attack on Titan: A good ending that stays consistent with the series' themes and addresses most of the loose plot threads, and therefore is the best action-oriented shounen in years. Respect to ending on how war is inevitable because of human nature and having the ending montage show exactly that. Honorable mention to THE FIRST SLAM DUNK which would be my real number one pick but doesn't qualify because it aired in Japanese theaters in December 2022 despite only getting an international release in 2023. I had to watch all 101 episodes of Slam Dunk in a month to finish in time for the movie, and while the TV series averages around okay, it was absolutely worth for the phenomenal movie. I really like how the movie re-contextualizes the final game in the series as a character drama for one of the leads, weaving in flashbacks of him trying to deal with his brother's death, culminating in the audience learning the motivation for the game right at its climax. It's good storytelling, and the background from the main series, while maybe not strictly necessary, really elevates the material and makes it all the more compelling. The final moments of the game are a master class in sound design. It's an almost tactile experience; you can feel every moment of those nail-biting last seconds to see if they made the buzzer beater or not. This is what sports anime should aspire to be. Cannot believe I got scooped by Cant in voting for Aikatsu by the way. This vote is in no way influenced by him. Strange Quark fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Jan 3, 2024 |
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Jan 3, 2024 00:55
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Honorable Mentions 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You – By far the silliest anime I watched this year. Still a horny harem anime, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't snort milk through my nose when watching this. Gene of AI – The anime that I most enjoyed in the Summer season. More reflective than dramatic, but I thought its takes were comparatively reasonable in the ever-crowding realm of AI fiction. Skip and Loafer – Absurdly charming, with well-realized characters. The reason it didn't make my top five is because it leans more into the slice-of-life side of things, which I am biased against. Ragna Crimson – First episode was bad. Don't get me wrong, the later ones are still firmly in the realm of anime trash, but drat if it isn't an entertaining kind of trash that isn't afraid to heap up the bodycount. I enjoy the metafiction aspect of "ok so you went through some traumatic events, it set you on the typical heroes' journey, you became absolute badass, and you won in the end. Ok. Cool. Now, can you win without losing absolutely everything and stranding yourself in a ruined world?" The magic crystal 8-ball says: Outlook Not Good. Undead Unluck – Still airing, so it stays off the top 5, but the setting allows for some absolutely crazy shenanigans that the author has peppered in foreshadowing for. I watch it the day it comes out. Frieren – Like Undead Unluck, not eligible because of the only-if-finished rule. That rule exists for good reason. Even so, the absolute craft that went into making this is absurd. Even mundane actions are given top-tier visual treatment. Pair it with an amazing OST and a story that balances wistfulness and levity and you've got a winner. Expect to see this in the 2024 AOTY thread. And now, we move on to our AOTY entries! #5: Ippon Again Another poster levied criticism against this anime about how all of its teams ultimately felt cut from the same cloth, with similar motivations and character roles within each. To me, that is its strength: its girls aren't here to free their grandpa from the shadow realm, or to bask in the wailing tears of their opponents, or to win prize money to save their orphanage, or to influence the fate of Japan. They're here because they want to be. They want to compete, they want to have fun, they want to struggle, they want to win. And they recognize that, for as much of a source of anxiety and frustration that their opponents prove to be, they are the same as them in the end. A good-natured sportsmanship flows throughout the time we spend with these girls, and while I'm sure that any continuation will feel the need to up the stakes, the competitive camaraderie will remain. Also worthy of note is the character design; in an era of fighting anime where most female combatants could double as waifish models before they unleash their bankai and crush a guy four times their size, these girls are refreshingly stocky. They actually look like they could take, and would counter-deliver, a goddamned punch. Another season, please. https://i.imgur.com/gSeXJEx.mp4 #4: Heavenly Delusion Often, I have a lot of difficulty ranking the anime I watched and liked. A simple rule of thumb I've come up with is: if a continuation were announced tomorrow, how eager would I be to watch it? Heavenly Delusion's intentionally-discomforting sexual assault scene cost it a few spots on this list, but when it comes down to it I absolutely do want to find out what happens next. I will happily go on another road trip through Post-Apocalyptostan (formerly Japan) with this crew, as much as I'm dreading the fates of the Science Lab kids. Hopefully at least Mimihime survives, but I wouldn't place money on it. Really, my chief complaint against anime as a whole is that it struggles with the horror genre in ways that live-action movies don't. I consider it basically the last frontier for anime to breach. Heavenly Delusion's chilling scenes get closer than ever to that thin line separating success from failure, and I want to see more of it. https://i.imgur.com/wH3LfD3.mp4 #3: Pluto The detective-noir format worked well here, and the English dub actors for Gesicht and Brau both did a great job. Usually super-robot-type-anime have me rolling my eyes, but Pluto is the exception, where a civilization dipping its toes in realms of technology approaching sorcery in their sophistication is as much a cause for hope as it is for dread. I find it immensely cool that the robot least equipped for combat was also the one who could've solved the plot first had not the others messed things up. The only things holding it back from my higher-tier placings is some of the dialogue (which came across as a bit too basic) and the absurd demise of one minor villain. And as much as I'm loathe to admit it, Netflix' involvement here was undoubtedly a good thing. Getting eight hours of animation was just the right pacing for what it was going for, where a more typical TV anime cour would've only had about five and a half hours' worth. https://i.imgur.com/vTf7t9C.mp4 #2: Oshi no Ko I'd known of the acclaim the manga had received beforehand, but only knew the vaguest details of the story hooks: that there would be Japanese pop idols involved, that someone somewhere gets reincarnated, and that the main idol “doesn't love you (the reader)”. So imagine my surprise when I was treated to a supernatural murder mystery drama viewed through a critical lens of the pop entertainment industry. And that? That's only episode one! Normally I avoid idol shows like the plague, but this is the only one to break through that mental barrier and have me slavering for another episode, no, another season! It's incredible that an anime that leans so heavily into the supernatural managed to have one of the most real plots I've seen this year. I also have to give a shout-out to studio Doga Kobo for creating the anime with the sharpest character design and greatest overall visual splendor in the same year that Frieren was airing. Really, the only criticism I can levy against this title is that it is clearly part one of a much larger story. I am much looking forward to the continuation. https://i.imgur.com/9kVx4TU.mp4 #1: Vinland Saga S2 Back when the first season of Vinland Saga came out in 2019, it ultimately made my top 5 of the year, but only barely. It had come billed to me as a masterpiece and ended up merely enjoyable, a classic victim of hype. I expected the same of season two. What I found instead was a follow-up that not only went off in a bold new direction, but thematically complemented its first season perfectly. I get it now. It lived up to the hype manga readers had been clamoring over for years and was my absolute favorite anime of 2023. You don't even have to agree with its stances or philosophies to see the beauty therein. The fact that we received forty-eight episodes of this historical greatness in an age when most manga adaptations are lucky to get twelve is the icing on the cake. https://i.imgur.com/l5VC5n0.mp4
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Jan 3, 2024 08:07
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Julias posted:I mean you still have 2 weeks to catch up on things Dunno if I'll watch anything else, not sure what I'd even want to catch up on...
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Jan 3, 2024 19:15
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5. Birdie Wing S2. Golf ball go far 4.Spy Family S2. Yor on the boat was great. 3. Golden Kamuy S4. It was more Golden Kamuy. 2. Revenger. Weird people fighting each other. I laughed pretty hard whenever the one guy suffocated someone with a gold sheet then revealed the gigantic virgin mary back tattoo while doing a little prayer. Ridiculous in all the best ways. 1. Jujutsu Kaisen S2. I like watching weird people fighting each other.
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Jan 3, 2024 19:33
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I only feel strongly about the top two, but the other three deserve some love too. Quoting my own end-of-season thoughts: 5. Horimiya: piece cave emperor posted:Hot take, I think splitting the Piece content into its own season was a good call. Not because it's bad - I actually think I enjoyed this more than the main series - but because the two series are both better for it. You have the main series as a more focused romcom, and Piece as a more comedy-focused slice-of-life series with an ensemble cast. I feel like trying to cram the two series into a single two-cour anime would've resulted in something far more uneven and tonally inconsistent. Not all bits in Piece work equally well - strangely, the episodes that focus on the main couple felt the weakest - but it's great comfort food overall. 4. Buddy Daddies cave emperor posted:Possibly show of the season, pending the final episode. Some people wrote it off as an off-brand Spy x Family, but I actually like this quite a bit more; it doesn't suffer from the glacial serialized shonen pacing of SxF, it's more consistently funny, and it has an actual beginning, middle, and end. It's not perfect - the middle especially sags somewhat - but I've become genuinely invested in the plot over the past couple of episodes, and I'm looking forward to the final episode with an equal mix of anticipation and dread. 3. Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru cave emperor posted:Same director as Chihayafuru and My Love Story, and very similar in tone and style. Lots of extremely good faces. I originally gave it a pass because of the MMO angle, but they ended up spending very little time in the game; it's mostly just there as a connective tissue for the various guild members. I was also afraid that Yamada's emotionless facade would drain the energy from the show, but this mostly worked out okay, and (some sudden character shifts in the finale aside) they managed to give him a surprisingly sincere character arc. 2. Heavenly Delusion cave emperor posted:Great adaptation of a great manga, really hoping it did well enough to warrant a second season. The story in both the manga and the anime feels fully realized in a way that very few other stories in these media do; despite this being a long-running monthly manga, it at no point has that making-stuff-up-as-we-go-along feel of many other serialized works, and it shows a lot of constraint in how slowly and methodically it reveals more and more hints without ever resorting to exposition dumps. Not all of it quite works - the sexual assault in the last two episodes left kind of a bad taste, and the finale was somewhat disappointing - but still a great show, and absolutely an AotY contender for me. 1. BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! cave emperor posted:This was great, easy pick for anime of the season. A lot of Sanzigen's output - season 2 of D4DJ in particular - suffers from a) being too saccharine and conflict-averse, and b) juggling too many gacha characters at once. MyGO addresses both issues, focusing on a small group of realistically flawed characters, and taking no shortcuts as they work through their many interpersonal conflicts. The result is at times hard to watch, but it never feels cheap or predictable. Not sure if I'm as excited for the new season - the cringy aesthetics of the new band are a bit much - but I'm willing to give it shot based on the quality of MyGO. Next five in no particular order: Mou Ippon!, Under Ninja, Jigokuraku, Skip to Loafer, Zom 100
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Jan 3, 2024 21:04
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#5: Stardust Telepath - Great adaptation of a manga I'm a big fan of, very vibrant and sweet and nailed all the emotional bits. Would love there to be more. It only ends up fifth because there were some really exceptional adaptations this year and this one was merely faithful and effective. #4: Pluto - This is a strong manga and they went crazy with adapting it, the release format really helped it stand out and it was tense in all the best ways. My only complaint is tied into the source material which is that some of the plot aspects that enter into the picture later on are a bit less compelling, but for at least 3/4s of it it's incredibly gripping. #3: Oshi no Ko - Another basically perfect adaptation of a manga I love, and I don't have anything negative to say here. The triple length premiere was a good move and the dialogue was snappy like it needed to be. #2: Bang Dream - It's MyGo!!!!! - Now this one alone caught me completely off guard. I had no familiarity with Bang Dream, but I saw the buzz it was getting here and gave it a shot. Though the CGI made it hard to get into, once I got through the first episode I was pretty much all in for the rest, and it was a very strong emotional story with great music too. Got the album and everything. Looking forward to Ave Mujica. #1: Vinland Saga Season 2 - And finishing up with another adaptation. Hard to name something I vibe with more than I do Vinland Saga, Thorfinn is one of the greatest characters of all time and this section of story is what gets him there. His journey here and the final confrontation with Canute is done to perfection. Really strong year as there are some great HMs too, like Yamada lvl999, Skip and Loafer, and Ancient Magus Bride S2.
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Jan 4, 2024 03:18
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