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We have once again made it to the end of the year which means it’s time for my yearly tradition of listing off my top ten anime of the year. It’s pretty much a habit at this point. I got what I could in, watching a lot during my breaks at work on more than one streaming service. To be honest, even I can’t believe how much I was able to watch. Definitely helped that I spent more time watching while eating than I used to. We got plenty of good stuff too. Some more recent stuff having new seasons and old shows coming back after years without anything now. However, like usual, I will just be discussing shows that began airing this year. 10. Frieren: Beyond Journey's EndWith a lot of fantasy shows, they usually just focus on the main adventure, but what if that adventure is already over? This show follows Frieren, the elf mage many years after the defeat of the demon king. Being an elf and having a longer lifespan than her companions, particularly the human ones, it goes without saying that she ends up outliving them. During their lives, she had a hard time understanding how time worked differently for them. What was a short time for her was a long time for them. Frieren ends up having to travel with the apprentices of two of her former companions and they have to put up with her easy-going personality. While she’s good in combat, there are things she’s not so good at outside of it. 9. Reborn To Master The Blade: From Hero-King To Extraordinary SquireKing Inglis spent his life devoted to serving his country and his people. However, he wished to be free from all that, so he could spend more time training. He requested to be reincarnated so that he would be able to achieve this. What he didn’t know was that he would end up being reincarnated as a girl. Despite that, he still got what he wanted. In her new life, she had the same first name, but often goes by Chris. She is addicted to combat and loves getting into fights with the strongest opponents she can find and this ends up making her one of the funniest protagonists. Throughout the show, she gets into all kinds of trouble and even finds out that contributions she had made in her past life fell into obscurity and now she has to deal with a group of people that live up in the sky that believe they’re better than people on the ground. For the most part, her reincarnation has only been a small part of the story, but her personality and seeing how everyone else reacted to her recklessness is what made this show so interesting. 8. ZOM 100: Bucket List Of The DeadRepeating the same thing over and over every day can really suck the energy out of a person. Akira Tendou managed to work at the company he had always dreamed of being a part of, only to find out it was hell on earth. Strict deadlines, forced overtime, constantly getting yelled at for various things, and more. Thankfully, this would all come to an end one day because the zombie apocalypse starts! It doesn’t take long for him to accept the situation he’s in and he actually enjoys going through this because he’s finally free from work! Some of the other survivors are a bit put off by his carefree attitude but end up dealing with him anyways. While he does enjoy himself, it's not 100% fun and games for him because there are moments where he's reminded how dangerous this whole thing is and how easy it can be for people to die in these kinds of situations. 7. The Dangers In My HeartKyoutarou has a fascination with murder and dreams about acting out his dark and twisted fantasies, but things would change after an encounter with his popular classmate, Anna Yamada in their school’s library. For a while, he couldn't stand his classmates but started to grow interested in Yamada over time. After spending more time with her, he gets less interested in his murderous thoughts and is more curious about her. He eventually realizes that he actually has a crush on her and ends up wanting to be with her. Not too much else I can say about the plot. 6. Buddy DaddiesI’ve seen a handful of shows where the main character finds a kid and raises them and this one was really interesting. Two assassins: name 1 and name 2 take their jobs seriously, but one day, they end up encountering a little girl on one of their missions, and end up taking her in. It's tough having to balance their secret assassin life and raising a kid at the same time. Unfortunately for them, having a kid creates more problems for them and it's not from her misbehaving. It gets them into trouble with other people in their field. While all this is going on, the two assassins have to worry about their pasts. 5. 16bit Sensation: Another LayerBeing a big fan of visual novels for a while, I knew this was one I had to watch. The story follows Konoha Akisato, who is a huge fan of bishoujo games, or, visual novel dating sims where a boy dates girls. One day, she finds a strange shop selling a bunch of older visual novels and then she ends up travelling back in time. When she goes to where her workplace is supposed to be, there's another studio there where she offers to do some part time work. Konoha ends up working on some projects with them, occasionally going back to the present without warning. Unfortunately, actions she makes in the past have an effect on her present, which leads to a bunch of chaos later. 4. The Girl I Like Forgot Her GlassesThis looked cute, so I had to check it out. Kaede Komura has feelings for his classmate, Ai Mie, however, there’s one problem. She keeps forgetting her glasses! Since she has trouble seeing, she decides to rely on Komura. Nearly every day, Komura has to help her. Their other classmates are quick to realize what's going on between them and are very supportive. However, both of them are too shy to admit how they feel about each other, but that's not going to stop them from spending as much time with each other as possible at school. Most episodes play out the same: they both show up to school, Mie forgets her glasses and needs assistance and this gets her into all kinds of situations. In the end, I can say this was definitely really cute. 3. Skip And LoaferMitsumi is a girl from the country that ends up moving in with her aunt so she can attend a school in the city. However, she finds she wasn’t really prepared for city life. On her first day, she runs into Shima, a laid-back and popular classmate that ends up becoming her first friend there. Afterwards, the two of them get along pretty well. Unfortunately, there’s all kinds of drama that pops up later because of Shima’s past, which is something he’s been trying to get away from. For the most part, I thought the whole show was really cute. Despite the two of them having completely different personalities, they played off each other really well. 2. Kubo Won't Let Me Be InvisibleJunta Shiraishi isn’t very popular. To make things worse, he lacks presence, so his classmates don’t really notice when he’s around. However, things are different for Nagisa Kubo, who sits right next to him. His other classmates claim that they'll have good luck if they manage to spot him, but even when he's right next to them or right in front of them, they usually don't notice he's there. Kubo decides to "help" him by having him do different things to help make him stand out. Unfortunately, there's usually little to no effect. As Shiraishi and Kubo spend more time together, they way the feel about each other starts to change. There isn't really a strong connected plot or anything. The episodes just have Kubo and Shiraishi do all kinds of different things together and like some of the other shows I mentioned, I thought this one was cute too. 1. Oshi no KoWith a plot sounding as insane as this, I knew I had to watch it. Gynecologist Gorou Amamiya is a huge fan of the idol Ai Hoshino (last name not known to public) from the pop idol group B Komachi. One day, she announced she would take a break for health concerns. Amamiya finds out the real reason when she shows up at his hospital one day. She was actually pregnant with twins. On the day that he’s supposed to deliver her children, he gets murdered by Ai’s stalker and reincarnates as her son. To make things even more complicated, her children have to be kept secret. There isn't a whole lot I can say about this show without spoiling anything since so much happens in the first episode, which is about 90 minutes long. The next several episodes are about the aftermath of those events and things get pretty interesting afterwards.
And these are my top anime for 2023. There were a lot of good things this year with both new shows and returning seasons. For example, Dr. Stone New World was really good. Shows like Masamune-kun's Revenge and The Devil Is A Part-Timer continued. There's also news of another season of Natsume's Book Of Friends which just got the first three seasons dubbed recently. I'm sure they'll be plenty more "isekai trash" that everyone hates in the future and knowing me, I'll still check those out. Looking forward to what shows 2024 will bring us. Looking back, I think it's insane how much I was able to watch. I had up to 20 shows I was watching (as they were airing) at one point. It's crazy because I still have a full-time job. Most of my anime-watching has been while I'm eating breakfast at home or during my breaks at work. It's also been a pretty good year for gaming too. I got a Steam Deck, played and finished two of this year's Trails releases: Trails To Azure and Trails Into Reverie (the disappointing one), checked out Master Detective Archives, worked on some Fire Emblem, and played so much Atelier. Next year, we're getting more Trails, a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, a remake of Persona 3, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy. Also, Professor Layton is supposed to have a new game in 2025! I'll have plenty to play before then and I really can't wait for what we're getting in 2024!
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