2023 flew by—hardships and all. It was only by its end, observing the releases of the year, when I realized how many absolutely incredible anime series had come along.
These series compassionately explored trauma, reinvestigated the stereotypical endings of the “girl meets boy” genre, delicately wondered what the meaning of life is once you stop defining yourself by your work, and heralded a new era of hope by referencing Tex Avery. The fact that series like Oshi no Ko, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Trigun Stampede—with huge fan followings—were relegated in my mind to “honorable mentions” only goes to show how strong the year was as a whole.
10. The Apothecary Diaries
There are numerous ways in which The Apothecary Diaries stands out. Primary among them is Maomao, the titular apothecary and an incredible protagonist. She’s clever and particular, but struggles with the conundrum of following her conscience and keeping her head down—making her quite easy to empathize with. The series also takes place in an unusual setting for anime: 15th century China. Add to this gorgeous animation and a slew of engaging mysteries, and you have one hell of a series.
9. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc
Despite being one of the most hyped anime series of the past several years, 2023 is the year that Demon Slayer really and truly clicked for me. A huge part of that shift lies on the shoulders of Mitsuri Kanroji, the Love Hashira, who was an absolute joy to behold and whose backstory about what the pressures of what a woman “should” be like tugged at my heartstrings.
But furthermore, the removed nature of the Swordsmith Village arc allowed Tanjiro and Nezuko space to fully grow, with a conclusion that made me way more emotional than I would’ve anticipated.
8. Attack on Titan Final Season: The Final Chapters
One of the most important—and most controversial—anime series of the last decade has come to a close. The first of the two movie-length episodes of Attack on Titan: The Final Chapters delivered one of the most epic, moving character deaths of the year. The second learned from the missteps of the manga, delivering an impactful ending worthy of these characters that so many of us have spent a very tumultuous decade with.
7. My Hero Academia
The second cour of My Hero Academia’s sixth season, which aired during the first quarter of the year, is the best the long-running, beloved shounen has ever been. The series began finally digging into the tougher, darker themes that have been running underneath it for years, with incredible results. There were three major tear-jerker episodes in a row, culminating with a profound, compassionate, and resonant speech that, to get personal for a second, fundamentally changed how I think about my goals in writing for the media. It is arguably the best anime moment of the year.
6. Buddy Daddies
Buddy Daddies was one of the biggest surprises of the winter season, but perhaps even more surprising is its staying power, even as 2023 has offered several incredible series. Hell, I saw a ferris wheel last week and still got a little misty-eyed. Buddy Daddies is beautifully emotionally vulnerable, exploring the idea of intergenerational trauma—and what it takes to heal from it—with heartbreaking sincerity.
Buddy Daddies got tagged as “gay Spy x Family,” but unlike Loid Forger, both of the assassins/fathers are obviously flawed people who are simply trying their best—which is precisely why the series is so warm and heartfelt.
5. One Piece
2023 was truly the year of One Piece—and I’m not even talking about the live-action adaptation. After more than four years, the anime has officially wrapped up the Wano arc. In the process, it continued to deliver some of the most stunning and unique fight sequences of the year, with climaxes so triumphant that even I, a manga reader who knew what would happen, teared up a few times.
Long story short, 2023 was the year One Piece finally got to animate Gear 5, which delivered a climax 25 years in the making in the most genre-bending, delightful, and goofy way possible.
4. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
As 2023 trudged on, I noticed something becoming alarmingly, widely present among my peers and within myself: burnout. And so if I could pick one series to describe 2023, it might (unfortunately) be Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, whose absolutely brilliant first episode is one of the most accurate, affecting depictions of workplace toxicity and burnout I’ve ever seen.
There’s a reason the show nails the tone so thoroughly: The studio Akira works for, ZLM, is clearly a jab at OLM, the studio that makes Pokémon. (Zom 100′s studio, refreshingly, also practices what it preaches, opting for delayed episode releases over grinding its animators into he ground.)
Coming from an existentially dark place so many people understand, Zom 100 turns the zombie apocalypse into something funny and joyful—but resonant all the time.
3. Pluto
If Buddy Daddies will make you cry at the sight of a ferris wheel, after one episode, Pluto risks reducing you to a puddle at the mere sight of a piano.
Pluto—which is a darker retelling of an arc from Osamu Tezuki’s foundational classic Astro Boy (a.k.a. Tetsuwan Atom)—found itself premiering in a timely fashion, in the midst of a lot of real-world anxiety about the ways in which AI will reduce the job market. It grapples with the hardship of AI taking over, say, creative work, while also effortlessly wooing the audience to have their hearts break over a robot in a maid outfit within less than 30 minutes of its runtime. Pluto is profound and beautifully animated—and one hell of a good mystery show, too.
2. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
For a series that deeply embeds itself within the well-worn grooves of high fantasy, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has an incredibly unusual and fascinating premise. Its first episode drops you off at the very end of a Baldur’s Gate 3-level epic D&D campaign. The series then becomes about what it means that the elf mage, Frieren, inevitably outlives the rest of the party. While there’s certainly action, Frieren thrives when it’s at its most meditative. It’s a stunningly gorgeous, deliberate, and even-keeled look at what it means to really live—and, therefore, to die.
1. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the always-brilliant Science Saru took the most epic reunion of the last decade and delivered something suspiciously close to perfect. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off learns from and ingeniously addresses the issues that arose from the original Scott Pilgrim series and film, creating something in conversation with itself in the most hilarious, thoughtful ways possible.
It delivers a message that very few pieces of media dare to explore, and even fewer land: There’s no such thing as a fairytale “happily ever after,” because life is more complicated than that—but the absence of that fairytale ending doesn’t mean despair or failure, either. People are messy, and it’s okay if our joys, our loves, our ups and downs are a little messy, too.
(featured image: Science Saru)
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Kirsten Carey
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