Basil’s Anime of 2023 (that he remembers watching, in no particular order)

Hi world! I like Japanese cartoons. Here are some that I liked in 2023.

Overtake! – I blame Ed for pointing it out to me, I wonder if he ever watched it. It’s technically about F4 racing, but it’s actually about dudes having feelings and dealing with trauma. But also racing. Good stuff. It’s an original work direct by Ei Aoki, who also did Re:Creators.

Skip and Loafer – This anime is super ultra mega super cute and great and well animated, and you should watch it. Is it about high school kids in high school doing high school things? It absolutely is. But it is also very good at it. It’s P.A. Works at it’s P.A. Works-iest.

Pluto – Based off of the manga by Naoki Urasawa, which is in turn based off of an Astro Boy story by Osamu Tezuka. Animated by Studio M2, a new anime studio formed by Masao Maruyama who left MAPPA after it got too corporate (who left Madhouse to form MAPPA after Madhouse got too corporate.) This is pretty much Prestige TV™ but in anime form. The manga rules, the anime rules.

Tsurune: The Linking Shot – The second season of Tsurune, which is a sports show about archery. While the first season honestly did a great job telling a pretty concise story all on its own, this season does a bang-up job recontextualizing what happened previously. It added new situations, new solutions, and tied it all up with really good bow attached to an arrow that was fired into a target at hit’s its mark into your heart.

Mix Season Two – Another sequel show, this time a sequel season to a show that’s a sequal to an anime from the 80s. See, Mix is a sequel to Touch, a seminal baseball anime from the 1980s by Mitsuru Adachi. Which is one of my most favorite anime of all time. And Mitsuru Adachi still knows how to get to me. Every time. I don’t think I laughed more watching an anime this year. Or uh, crying. Anyway…

Trigun Stampede – A new Trigun? In 2023? You betcha! Animated by studio Orange, it’s a (mostly) all CG-affair that works mostly because it was Orange that made it. No one else seems to have 3D anime figured out quite like they do. It’s a new take on Trigun that is perhaps a touch more serious that Madhouse’s version, but in the end is probably better off for it. It’s also getting another season in 2024, and I am very much looking forward to it.

Bonus mentions go out to Spy X Family Season Two, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. Because they are also all good, but I need to finish them.