So let's start from the beginning, what happened in anime?
2023 Year in Anime Reviewed:
How did 2023's great franchises stack up against each other and what were they?
1. Uma Musume Road to the Top ovas + S3
2. Sousou no Frieren (first cour)
3. Kimetsu no Yaiba S3
4. Sailor Moon Cosmos
5. Danmachi S4 (second cour)
6. Bleach 1,000 Year Blood War (continued)
7. Oshi no Ko S1
8. Spy x Family S2
9. MIX S2
10. Edens Zero S2
11. Tearmoon Empire
12. Isekai Nonbiri Nouka
13. Goblin Slayer S2
14. The Eminence in Shadow (second cour) + S2
15. Idolm@ster Million Live + U149
16. 100 Kanojo
17. Vinland Saga S2
18. Atelier Ryza
19. Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear S2
20. BanG Dream It's MyGo!!!!!
21. Kanojo mo Kanojo S2
22. Shingeki no Kyojin Kanketsu-hen S4
23. SAO Progressive movie 2 (finally subtitled)
24. Bastard!! S2
25. Hibike! Euphonium Ensemble Contest
26. KonoSuba explosion
27. Princess Principal Crown Handler 3 + Custom Cars ova
28. Boku no Hero Academia S6 (second cour)
29. Kami-tachi ni Hirowareta Otoko S2
30. One Piece (wano arc continued)
31. Hataraku Maou-sama! S3
32. Nijigasaki Next Sky
33. Rurouni Kenshin Remake S1 (eps 3, 15-19's new material compared to the old series)
2023 might be the last golden year of anime. A respectable 33 new series, 5 of them brand new, harkens back to the olden days of 2014 or so. It's an anomaly, with the years prior and past nowhere near these dual totals. It's a year to be savored but also mourned. Uma Musume's third season was so good that every episode either made me cry or almost made me cry. There will never be its like. Great old classics like Bleach and Kimetsu no Yaiba won't be around for much longer. And Sailor Moon Cosmos, a story as old as anime, ended with an eternal kiss on the last day of the year.
On top of this year's great anime, I also watched many good anime worth following till the end:
Otonari no Tenshi-sama
Ningen Fushin
Tsunlise
Tensei Oujo
Ayakashi Triangle
Kubo-san wa Mob wo Urusanai
Nier Automata
Jigokuraku
World Dai Star
Dead Mount Death Play
Yuusha ga Shinda
Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi o Suru
Watashi no Shiawase Kekkon
Jidouhanbaiki
Zom 100
Helck
Lastame
Synduality Noir
Genjitsu no Yohane
Suzume no Tojimari
Keiken Zero
Shy
Seiken Gakuen no Makentsukai
Hoshikuzu Telepath
Hirogaru Sky Precure
Otona Precure
16bit Sensation
Not mentioned here are good anime that premiered in years prior but released sequels this year, like Tate no Yuusha. If they were rated good before of course I kept watching them this year as well, which also added to anime's quality.
And I rewatched all the great anime that came out this year outside of the fall season, as well as some other classics like Da Capo and Fatal Fury on the side. With this much anime you could say it was the year of anime.
Also for the first time all 200 anime were long-form, 12 episodes or longer, and actually released with physical watchable copies available for all. It was the first legitimate 200 strong hall of fame ever. It was also the first time anime pierced 10,000 episodes legitimately, with all filler taken out of the filler bloated series like Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto and One Piece. Even with all that trimming we still pierced 10,000, a happy piercing to be sure.
But wait, there's more! This was also the year of visual novels. With the long-awaited releases of Majikoi A-5 and Aiyoku no Eustia, the most important visual novel translations America still didn't have are now had. They both lived up to their stellar reputations and were amazing works of art. Then on top of that Cyanotype Daydream came out of nowhere and captured my heart as well, a kamige translated this year that isn't an ancient classic like the others but proof that Japan is still capable of great new art. I've been complaining about Majikoi A-5 and Aiyoku for years, I kept asking for them and asking for them, and now I have them. It's a huge relief and reward. I also read the tail end of Hoshizora no Memoria ~ Eternal Heart ~, another VN I'd been awaiting forever. This could also be called the year of the visual novel.
But wait, there's more! This year could also be titled the year of books -- both my own and other people's. My own book saw radical enhancement, with 5 editing sessions (and many minor edits between sessions, that have extended all the way into December) and 3 new chapters worth of content. All of the new material not only lives up to the old standard but is better than what came before, and we were already talking about the best book ever written. The inspiration and perspiration that took my book to new heights completely justifies the entire year, even if nothing else happened in 2023. I also added many new permaposts to my blog, talking about various things like the Demon-Possessed, Dissenters Aren't Faring Well in America, Death to Gays, Feminism Fails Everywhere, Girls Have Become Undateable, and so on. It's very impressive for a new idea to emerge on a blog that's 14 years old, so each of these permaposts bespeaks a great deal of thought and care. Ordinarily speaking you would only get low-effort repetitions of things a blogger has said many times before, like blacks aren't behaving well at Paul Kersey's site, or liberty is in danger at Paul Craig Roberts' site, or Democrats should face facts at Sailer's, or some Christian mush at Anglin's. But here I managed to add many original insights to the catalogue never before described. I can't promise that will ever happen again -- like new chapters to '100 Waifus' ordinarily speaking that's beyond an ordinary human's power.
While I was writing my own material, I also enjoyed other people's. I read new Index, Spice & Wolf, Ryuuou no Oshigoto, No Game No Life, Choyoyu, Little Sister Party, Imouto Sae Ireba Ii, SAO, SAOAGGO, Bakemonogatari, Grimgar, Outbreak Company, 12 Kingdoms, the latest Xanth novel and Shadows in Flight, the ending to Ender's Shadow. Since that still wasn't enough I also reread all of Xanth, Sword of Truth, and most of A Requiem for Homo Sapiens.
But wait, there's more! Like usual I read many manga this year, many of which sadly came to an end, like Kiniro Mosaic, I'm Not a Lolicon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Kanojo mo Kanojo and Choyoyu. On the other hand, new great manga began, like To Aru Anbu no Item and Dead Rock. Overall there were probably 100 manga I enjoyed this year, some more and some less. There was also a notable improvement of my manga hall of fame, where I gave proper credit to series without adequate anime adaptions over series with, giving some new names the chance to shine like Release that Witch, Shikkakumon and Isekai Kenkokuki.
But wait, there's more! As far as music goes, I probably added 80 new songs to my hall of fame, listening to all of them at least 100 times but for the best 1/5 of them over 200 times. Octopath Traveler II is the main culprit behind all this great new music, one of the best soundtracks ever. But perhaps the best contribution to music this year wasn't the new tunes, but the proper sorting of the old ones. I recalibrated every song in my hall of fame, changing their ratings by the hundreds, and ended up in a far better place than where I started. Now my music isn't rated in a slapdash languorous manner but actually exactly where it ought to be. It took all year to get that part right too.
But wait, there's more! This year was actually the year of video games. It all started with Tales of Arise, an excellent addition to the Tales series with great memorable characters and great graphics. I'd owned it forever, waiting to get a PS5 so I could actually play it, and like Aiyoku the waiting paid off. After that came Tactics Ogre Reborn, which was good for most of the game and only ridiculous at the very end, the second stage of the last boss. Then came Fire Emblem Engage, a game so good I played it nonstop for months, beat over and over again, and made me cry every time Alear died in Veyle's arms. The art style was beautiful, the gameplay was perfect, the plot was perfect, the music was great (though not perfect), the setting was simple but pure and true, exactly what it should have been, and there were tons of great memorable characters to join my fictional hall of fame, including the irrepressible Framme and Lapis who weren't major characters at all but were too charming to ignore. If Fire Emblem Three Houses didn't exist I never would have imagined a game as good as Engage could exist.
After that came Octopath Traveler II, which was better than the first one in all things but music, and still one of the best soundtracks ever. Then came Star Ocean the Divine Force, a playable game with pretty girls if nothing else, Final Fantasy XVI which similarly had at least a handsome man named Clive if nothing else, Yuffie's story in FF7 Intermission, Zack's story in FF7 Crisis Core, and 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim which combines sci-fi, romance, mystery and tactical combat simulations in one crazy beautiful swirl. When all of that wasn't enough and the year kept going, I bought a new computer and played the latest expansions of World of Warcraft, Shadowlands and Dragonflight. No one is saying these late WoW expansions are high art or anything, but as time sinks they serve their purpose and I've been relatively happy achieving new milestones one after the next. I expect to play a lot more WoW next year when War Within comes out, which I've already prepurchased.
If you just look at pure time spent, 2023 was the year of video games by far. But this was the year of many colors, and time isn't as good a metric as intensity of emotions, which could go to a number of different fields.
Lastly this was a year of television, featuring HBO Max titles 'The Last of Us,' 'Peacemaker,' 'House of the Dragons,' Disney titles 'Andor, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Willow,' and Russian production 'Ekaterina,' the story of Catherine the Great. There was also a fun football season, March Madness, a great Super Bowl match between the Chiefs and Eagles, and a fun Women's World Cup. This year in sports was a little worse than average, since it didn't feature any Olympics (next year will rectify that), but there was still plenty to like. As far as movies go, the anime movie Suzume was splendid, so good it was worth watching twice and then listening to the soundtrack's theme song 200 times. The Super Mario Bros. movie was also decent. There was also Wakanda Forever, Across the Spiderverse and Thor: Love and Thunder. Ant-Man 3 was positively horrible. I don't think a single American movie was great, but then again I still haven't seen Oppenheimer so who knows. Maybe that will stream somewhere in 2024.
But wait, there's more! 2023 was also a year of war, with world war on the edge of everyone's lips. We teetered on the brink but didn't quite fall. Will the Ukraine war expand? Will the Gaza war? Who knows, but if it does the future for humanity is looking grim. On the bright side everyone now admits Russia is winning this war, including the head general of Ukraine Zaluzhny, who admitted it in an interview with The Economist. Sadly people still haven't figured out that Russia should win this war because they are in the right, but people have halfway woken up from their delusions just by admitting they will win. When will they win? I thought it would be over this year, but I was still too optimistic. So maybe next year, or maybe ten years from now. Regardless of when it happens, Russia will win. The manufacturing base and manpower advantages of Russia are too overwhelming, it's just math at this point.
The year of everything included all levels of significance, from the deletion of unnecessary commas in '100 Waifus' to world war, and I've been living through it all vigorously and intensely. Uma Musume alone made me cry way too often, but jeez -- Aiyoku no Eustia, Cyanotype Daydream, Sousou no Frieren, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Oshi no Ko, Fire Emblem Engage, 100 Kanojo (Shizuka's confession by phone), Tearmoon Empire (Anne's hug of Mia in episode 1), DanMachi S4 (Liliruca's leap of faith that Bell would save them if they just held out a little longer) . . . the masterpieces of this year hit me hard over and over and over and over and over and over . . . and tears aren't the only emotion, plenty of stories made me laugh or gush over with romantic affection or admiration or awestruck captivation. Isekai Nonbiri Nouka's heartfelt argument in favor of love, marriage and children over loneliness is something that will always stay with me. You couldn't craft it any better. Kanojo mo Kanojo's refusal to let anyone be unhappy, resulting in a 4-timing protagonist, is as good an argument for polygamy as you'll ever see. Everything just seemed bigger and mattered more this year, like humanity had reached a new stage of enlightenment. This isn't exactly fair, because a lot of series were only translated this year, and didn't actually come out this year, but feelings don't care about fairness they just record what happened as they happened. The year of everything encompassed all feelings.
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