For me it's Vinland Season 2 and Frieren for storytelling. Jujutsu kaisen 2 and The Eminence in Shadow Season 2 for raw fun.
Gundam Witch From Mercury is definitely up there but I have a big bit planned for when 100 Girlfriends who Really Really Really Really Really Love You♡ hits number 8. That show has unironically been really funny, much like Konosuba was a parody of the genre that ended up being the best piece in the genre.
I forgot the order spare me
Wait wait is Konosuba good or is this a bit because I've only ever heard that it's completely vapid and devoid of value. Someone tell me the truth
Maybe its more telling of who I was when I watched it but I found it funny when it came out. A solid comedy about the genre that was (at the time) slowly taking over anime. I don't know if it has aged well I'm not gonna lie. I do know 100 GF is currently airing and is actually worth the watch. There is another full cour and I think an episode just dropped today.
Konosuba is very funny but also problematic in a "it's definitely problem-weeby" way.
If you're desensitised to that, it's extremely funny and you'll enjoy it. If you're not desensitised to that then you won't. Lots of panties jokes, lots lewd jokes, extremely criticisable sexualisation of megumin.
As far as comedies go it can make some people laugh out loud, or if you're not desensitised to the above you'll hate it. Ep 1+2 will tell you all you need to know really.
Ah yeah I just can't handle excessive amounts of "omg teenager boobs lol" jokes in anime anymore. So thank you for the warning
Konosuba is just a comedy/parody, there's nothing deep about it but it can be fun. If you have a low threshold for "anime bullshit" you probably want to skip it because it's very horny in a way that's off-putting to some people, but otherwise check out a few episodes.
Oh yeah I can't handle the horny fan service with children trope. Thank you
I've only watched 3 new things this year lol
Good: G-Witch, Spy X Family
Mid: Gundam Build Metaverse
Bad: Nothing I bothered to watch
I watched Eminence in Shadow Season 1 and 2 which was dumb fun. Gundam Witch from Mercury Season 2 was also good. Spy x Family Season 2 was just more wholesome stuff. I dont watch thaaat much Anime per year maybe less than 10 each year. I do want to watch Season 2 of Jujutsu kaisen and Frieren at some point.
Here's my Top 10 list for anime in 2023:
-
The Eminence in Shadow Season 2 (Absolute peak Isekai with superb comedy and action, it masterfully blends absurd chuuni antics with meaningful and intricate plot points, though it requires you to know the anime tropes that it is parodying for maximum enjoyment.)
-
Trigun Stampede (A masterpiece in storytelling that builds upon and surpasses the original Trigun, I at first thought it would be a 3D CGI flop and it vastly exceeded my expectations. This anime also does not require any insider knowledge of anime tropes to be enjoyed.)
-
The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You (Another comedic parody type anime that requires knowledge of anime tropes, but it is just the ultimate harem rom com anime.)
-
I'm in Love with the Villainess (Amazing gay rom com that actually straight up says that the main character is a lesbian. There is also some revolutionary undertones and class conflict present between the nobility and commoners but it's not yet fully explored. Has some weird and disappointing parts but the high notes more than make up for it.)
-
Heavenly Delusion (An epic adventure with weaving plot lines and mysteries behind every corner. While I enjoy dark anime this one also has some very weird horny anime stuff as well, the rest of it however is amazing.)
-
Helck (Haven't watched the last few episodes actually but thus far it has had a great story which has unexpectedly only gotten better and better over time. Some of the gags fall flat for me but on the plus side there is no weird horniness at all.)
-
Insomniacs After School (The utter peak of chill and atmospheric anime, it is an amazing slice of life which can be slow at times but the overall story is still very nice and wholesome.)
-
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Season 2 (The ending was not the best and also the no marriage retcon by Bandai is horrible but besides that it still is a very good mecha anime about two gay girls.)
-
KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World (Beyond wacky and absurd, this is another incredible Isekai which is a lot deeper than it might appear at first. While there are a lot of good and bad anime tropes parodied here it is still full of many exciting and unique plot developments.)
-
The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (Another gay Isekai anime where the main character says to the camera that they are a lesbian, this one has more episodes which fall flat and ironically is not as revolutionary as I'm in Love with the Villainess, but the overall story is still very good with plenty of interesting twists and turns.)
Oh I completely forgot about Kamikatsu. The whole anime is a giant shitpost. Peak
-
Great Tier:
- Oshi No Ko
- Uncle From Another World
Good Tier:
- Kaguya Movie
Okay Tier:
- Spy X Family S2
- Vinland Saga S2
Frustrating Tier:
- G-Witch Second Cour
- JJK S2
- Edit: Link Click S2
Trash Tier:
- Slime Isekai Movie
Frieren is on the list but I'm waiting for it to finish airing. Best things I watched this year not from 2023 were Redline and Little Witch Academia (the tv series).
Oshi No Ko
Okay I want to know why this is in the great.
G-witch
Why is this in frustrating? Laying my cards out: I didn't like how it ended but still thought overall it was good (I binged it in line with the first cour without breaks). But it was a good story I thought?
If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend watching at least the first episode of Oshi No Ko completely blind, because any reasons I give for liking it will be spoilers.
If you have watched it:
I'll admit that the insanity of the first episode is definitely carrying it, as the rest of the series isn't up to the same quality, but I still really enjoyed my time with it. It has a cynical take on the japanese entertainment industry, and while ideally it would be even more critical, I'll take what I can get compared to eg Zombieland Saga. While Aqua's actual main plot isn't particularly interesting on its own, the side activities of gaslighting basically everyone to move towards his goals and being forced into being an actor was a fun watch.
It's been a while, but G-Witch is in frustrating because the setting is far too politically vague to really grasp what the ramifications of most of the actions in the second half will be, and like you say the ending is a deeply unsatisfying return to the status quo.
the setting is far too politically vague to really grasp what the ramifications of most of the actions in the second half will be
I feel like this is just Gundam in general. It always hints at interesting politics but always just ends in a vague and aesthetic way
I think it's a problem with anime as a medium/industry in general. My friend group has adopted the term "anime politics" as a shorthand and it really does fit in a lot of scenarios (it also applies to eg marvel movies but we don't watch as many of those). Similar vagueness plagues relatively "political" shows such as Code Geass and Psycho Pass, off the top of my head, and even Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which is probably the best I've seen in this area, leaves something to be desired. I think it must be something to do with the typical structure of anime (a single character or small group likely won't elicit widespread change).
Modern Gundam has that problem, OG U.C. Tomino Gundam has really clear leftist politics
I hear this take a lot, but I just don't see it. Maybe you, as a critical otaku, can fill me in.
The politics of UC seem like general lib anti-war stuff. It ranges from "war is bad" to "power, in general, is bad". You see the federation putting down a reactionary nationalist movement. The federation isn't portrayed as pure, but it is portrayed as the correct position in the war. Amuro, fighting on behalf of the federation, is unequivocally the good guy. However, the show has such a weak ideological stance that Char is far and away the most popular character. It seems weird to me that an explicitly leftist show would lead to the glorification of a character like Char. And while the message might be anti-war, I don't think there's any confusion around that fact that the show totally glorifies war.
Zeta Gundam takes the "war is hell" thing further and puts the federation in the antagonist role and also brings back everyone's beloved Char as a protagonist. While zeta definitely takes a firmer political stance than the OG, I still don't see anything that could be described as "leftist" in the text. It seems like general libertarian "absolute power corrupts absolutely" sentiment.
Maybe all of this, in the context of 70's Japan, could be considered progressive for the time. But leftist? I'm not convinced.
Most charitably, I might say that the federation's turn to explicit imperialism could be a critique of it's structure which requires the accumulation of resources and submission of colonies. However, in the context of the show, it could also be explained as having bad people in charge.
Before I spend too much time on this, what exactly do you consider explicit leftist messaging in media?
There's sure to be a lot of ways to do it, but to meet the criteria of explicit, for me, I think there would have to be a few things.
-
An explicit critique of a system of oppression that is focused on its mechanics rather than the people in charge of it.
-
A collective effort to replace it with something better (not installing a "better person" to rule and calling it a day).
To me, explicit means that it could not fairly be interpreted through the lens of liberal ideology.
For instance, Iron Blooded Orphans does a good job of achieving number one. I don't know if it makes it to point two because I didn't finish it.
Edit: for example, I think that Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is an explicitly leftist piece of media that is directed at young people, and it never says the word capitalism
Ok, for the most part your definitions aren't unreasonable, but
To me, explicit means that it could not fairly be interpreted through the lens of liberal ideology.
is gonna be an impossibly high bar to climb, because capital is nothing if not famous for subsuming critiques of it into itself. And we're also going to run into a particular snag with regards to Mobile Suit Gundam because of, um, the history of Left-wing movements in Japan.
The reason you'll see people say that Gundam (and shows from around that same era like Nausicaa and Space Battleship Yamoto) have left wing politics embedded in them is because their creators were involved in Left-wing student movements when they were young, and those politics leak through into their work. Here's an excellent primer I found on Zenkyoto (the Japanese New Left) and it's influence on Japanese pop culture, I strongly recommend you give it a read before continuing because I'm not sure my takes here will make sense without that historical context.
With regards to MS Gundam itself, I think it's important to keep in mind that it was a piece of media written by survivors of WW2 explicitly designed as an anti-fascist work first and foremost, and...... then also to sell plastic toys to children. So you'll get really thoughtful episodes about how fascism gets ordinary people on board with it by building a false class consciousness based on imagined hierarchy's, or how cycles of violence perpetuate those fascist lines of thinking, or how in the end only the working class on both sides is actually hurt by the war, in storytelling and messaging that isn't liberal both-sides equivocating but just a straight up condemnation of fascism as a concept, using analysis that's more Marxist than anything. But also, Pew Pew Laser fights with Giant Robots.
Granted, the show doesn't explicitly advocate for communism, but the idea of Newtypes, a new generation of youth capable of empathy so great they can read minds and communicate directly to each other as equals, being the only people capable of ending the war and bringing about a better world betrays at least some of the the creator's socialist leanings at the time, at least in my opinion.
(Also, just as an amusing sidenote, Char's popularity probably has less to do with him being the charismatic anti-hero and more to do with how much thirsty cis-women really wanted him to bang Amuro in gay fanfic that's almost entirely disconnected from any official narrative.)
With Zeta: the main character is a student who runs off and joins a paramilitary organisation in order to conduct a guerilla war against a fascistic occupying imperial power, and Char comes back as the second coming of Che Guevara. Zeta is absolutely a commentary on Japan's role post-WW2 in America's Empire, and shouldn't need much elaboration, since it practically starts off as a romanticized leftist student's escapist fantasy (and who could blame them, as a student in the 70's who wouldn't want to run off and join a guerilla war with Che). The Federation Operation Paperclips it's own Zaku's and is basically running it's own Project MKULTRA, for crying out loud.
But here's the snag.
See, the Japanese New Left was crushed by the same forces of neoliberal capital that crushed left-wing movements across the world- it was crushed by Reaganism and Thatcherism and the LDP. The reason the student activists turned to art and film, started writing their own Sci-fi tv shows and movies, was to channel their frustration at failing to build a better world in their own time, and spread their ideas to a new generation in the hopes that they would pick up where they left off.
In Zeta, the left doesn't win because the left didn't win in real life. All that was achieved was to kick the can down the road, at great personal cost. "We stopped the Imperialist Fascist Military Industrial Complex, temporarily. Yaaaaaaay."
So, how do we evaluate works like these? Can a piece of media be truly "leftist" if it portrays the defeat of the left, since that just furthers Capitalist Realism? However, at the same time, if it's reflecting a historical reality in it's fictional setting, can we safely dismiss it if we're historical materialists? Again, I don't necessarily think that your definitions are unreasonable, but I think we should allow for the historical context and some levels of nuance to speak for themselves here.
Thanks. The historical context is helpful. I'm actually less concerned with the official designation of "leftist" and more interested in readings of media that you provided here. At the very least, I think it's certainly "left wing" as you describe it.
Also, I'm glad you brought up newtypes. I was going to bring that up in my original post, but I forgot. It seems like that's real fascist aesthetic, especially seeing as how it's formulated by Zeon to justify racial superiority. It's interesting, though, that a newtype's superpower is empathy, which is decidedly not fascist. Regardless of the political messaging, I think the stories would be better without newtypes anyway.
Hey, no worries, it was fun to write all that. I just asked about your definitions to get a baseline and so I don't waste my time arguing with an ultra who wouldn't be satisfied by any answer I'd provide (this is from experience haha).
I think the stories would be better without newtypes anyway.
In some ways, I think this is kinda the original sin of Gundam. Tomino certainly meant it in one way, as a sort-of sci-fi extrapolation of the kind of person needed to bring about the Revolution, but the way he did it left open the door to an interpretation that presupposes a technological/evolutionary solution to all war and conflict, where humanity can only move on/establish peace/do the Revolution once humans have created the technology/evolved enough to do so, and subsequent authors kinda took that theme and abandoned the socialism from it so you end up with a kinda muddled techno liberalism, in something like Gundam Seed. I sorta get why Tomino did it the way he did, as a sci-fi allegory for the political awakening of the youth into a new way of thinking (especially in light of the failure of the New Left), but I think in sorta glomming onto that sci-fi framework of espers and human evolution he abandoned the idea that socialism was something that had to be worked on towards by ordinary people.
You know, with that description, I'm reminded of the idea of the New Soviet Man.
From wikipedia:
a New Man and New Woman would develop with qualities reflecting surrounding circumstances of post-scarcity and unprecedented scientific development.[3] For example, Leon Trotsky wrote in 1924 in Literature and Revolution about the "Communist man", "man of the future":[4]
Man will make it his purpose to master his own feelings, to raise his instincts to the heights of consciousness, to make them transparent, to extend the wires of his will into hidden recesses, and thereby to raise himself to a new plane, to create a higher social biologic type, or, if you please, a superman.
Of course, Tomino's take is kind of in reverse. He has this idea that the awakened people will lead us to revolution rather than revolution leading to awakened people.
Right, exactly! And this is a rather common theme of sci-fi of the preceding era, so of course it'll get this particular spin from survivors of a scattered leftist movement. And then as you follow Tomino's work you kinda get to see in realtime his disillusionment with both this particular conception (as the youth failed to take up the mantle of social change and instead turned their struggles inwards e.g. Evangelion) and socialism in general, until you get to Turn A Gundam which is a work about the question of whether or not humanity can ever move past the need for violence.
-
Oh fuck really? I thought that it was mostly Bandai influence on it. (I guess that should be a tell
) G-Witch was my first gundam, I figured that it would at least usually turn out okay
GOATED:
- Gridman Universe
Good:
- One Piece Live Action
- Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
- Frieren*
- G-Witch S2 (Ending really docked it some points tho)
Ok:
- Apothecary Diaries
- Pluto
- JJK S2*
- Oshi no Ko
- Spy x Family S2
Stuff that seems good but I didn't finish for whatever reason so I don't have strong opinions on (actually I know the reason):
- Heavenly Delusion
- Hell's Paradise
- Skip and Loafer
Stuff I want to see but didn't have time for because I'm a dumbass who thought that binge watching all of One Piece was a good idea (this is also the reason I didn't finish those other shows):
- Zom100
*Frieren: For a show about neurodivergence, it sure seems a bit fucked up that the bad guys are portrayed as so neurodivergent that the only safe way to interact with them is through violence and death, and any attempts at diplomacy or negotiations is just camouflage for something sinister. They try to take the edge off by making them magical fascists who perpetuate genocide, but really they could have just made them ontologically evil instead (they're demons after all) and left it at that. My one quibble with the show, thankfully most of it is just comfy vibes
*JJK S2: Can't talk about this one without talking about the overworked elephant in the room. It's all edgy Shonen nonsense, but it's clear that the artists working on the show are trying their hardest, and in spite of the limitations placed on them (or because of it) the show just somehow manages to channel the apocalyptic vibes of living in late stage capitalism really, really well. (At least when the animators manage to finish the episode.) It's not trying to do anything with it in the way a story like Chainsaw man is, but as the kids say, the vibes are immaculate.
the bad guys are portrayed as so neurodivergent that the only safe way to interact with them is through violence and death, and any attempts at diplomacy or negotiations is just camouflage for something sinister. They try to take the edge off by making them magical fascists who perpetuate genocide, but really they could have just made them ontologically evil instead
My takeaway was that the show did make them ontologically evil. They're not fascists with an ideological goal of committing genocide, they are asocial predators whose natural behaviour is to kill people, and they are capable of vocalising in the pursuit of that.
they are asocial predators whose natural behaviour is to kill people, and they are capable of vocalising in the pursuit of that.
Idk man it's still kinda icky, especially when in the real world racists will use language like that to justify their racism. I think I'd have preferred if they just left out all the EvoPsych stuff altogether and let the bad guys just straight up be evil spirits or something, without explaining anything.
Good:
One Piece Live Action
say no to financialized corpo anime
But it's legit better than the source material tho.
Yeah I said it.
It was legit the best live action adaptation of an anime I've seen. It managed to translate all the wackiness without making the show overly dumb. And it's just a fun and hopeful show. The main character is an optimist but not in a naive way, really refreshing.
Frieren is probably my favourite of the year.
I wanna give a shout out to To Your Eternity season 2 as well, since it hasn't been mentioned in the thread so far on account of being from wayyyyyy at the start of the year. To Your Eternity is fantastic.
I loved a lot of others, it was a good year for anime. But they're all mentioned already in the thread.
digimon tamers
i'm from the past, fuck you
(watch it though, it's genuinely good)
Gwitch(interpreted 💍), spyxfamily, vinland2, Helk, Insomniacs After School (really dug this), golden kamuy, campfire cooking in another world (quite cute), oshi no ko(those darn theme songs).
Top tier:
Scott Pilgrim
Oshi no Ko
100 Girlfriends
Fun tier:
I'm in love with the villainess
Spy x Family
Gwitch season 2
Jjk season 2
Haven't finished but ok tier
Heavenly delusion
Interested for @Tomboys_are_Cute@hexbear.net to start the 100 gf conversation, it really is somehow the final form of love comedy/harem even if it's also a parody. Absolutely cracked show which makes it great.
I think the reason why its so good is mostly held in two of its features: Rentaro is impossibly great and the author and artist have avoided any feeling of competition. These two factors allow the characters to feasibly get along and allows the wild group antics which make the show. The cast is full of trope-y characters (and its only gonna get wilder from here I've been reading the manga since it started), but that's fine when they all interact and play off each other. I'm personally really excited for this next cour, not just for #8 but because with Kusuri and Hahari both in the mix this is where the manga started to really hit its stride.
Can't believe I forgot the order they came in after checks notes 3 years?!
Time is moving too fast
Not sure yet:
16 bit Sensation - Wakaki Tamiki never disappoints and he certainly wrote a very interesting story full of twists... but with one episode left I don't know if his writing team will stick the landing.
Good:
Apothecary Diaries - Maomao is a fun protagonist and it's a chill show set in medieval China.
Helck - The Anime screwed up the pacing imo, but the plot is outstanding. Simple, but very well executed.
Insomniacs after School - Excellent romance story in both Manga and Anime form.
Decent:
Dangers in my Heart - Edgelord gets a gf. Pretty neat generic Romcom.
Lupin III vs Cat's Eye - As an enjoyer of Rupan Sansei, I've seen my share of movies of him, Zenigata, Goemon and Jigen. This one is a crossover with a 80s phantom thief anime Cat's Eye, also a fun one. So what is the movie? Alright. Fun, but won't leave an impression unlike say 1998's Tokyo Crisis. Actually, it might - because of the ugly 3D CGI animation.
Tomo-Chan Wa Onnanoko - Fun MC. I dropped this show after missing too many episodes due to my frequentish trips to Poland, but it's a fun enough show.
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead - Very strong start, but becomes generic zombie show slop if you've ever seen the kind, even if less dramatically serious than usual. Fun enough, but the quality is meh.
Underwhelming:
Frieren - I found it overhyped. It's decent, but really slow to get going. Maybe once I get caught up, it'll be better.
**Gundam: Witch from Mercury S2 - ** Unfortunately, I feel like it simply didn't get enough episodes for the worldbuilding.
So bad it's good:
Kamikatsu: Working for God in Another World - Hilarious trainwreck in every way imaginable. A weeb brained shitpost (?)
My One Hit Kill Sister - Uncomfortable Isekai, that however is less of a painwatch like the libertarian propaganda that is Oreimo and more just regular trashy. A decent enough show for bad anime connoisseurs.
If you like Kamikatsu then you'll probably enjoy Gintama and The Eminence in Shadow. Same shitpost vibes
Yeah, Gintama is one of those infinite shounens, so... maybe one day.
I have been recommended the latter by several people now, guess I'll check it out.
Apothecary Diaries
I've loved this so far, my only criticism is that I think it's going to eventually become a "the independent girl who rejects the man matures and eventually becomes a subservient woman" outcome. Which is essentially Japan's "Rebellious headstrong young girl grows out of it, gives up on having a future and grows into her womanhood eventually wanting to settle down and start a family".
I'm hopeful that it won't do that, but I'm not confident that they're not slowly building her up to have a crush on him and real romantic feelings. I would much prefer her to just remain rebellious or even be outright gay, but I think that's unlikely.
Imagine if right wing conservatives in the west had a kink for feminists growing out of it and slowly turning into trad women.
Anyway, besides this issue I'm concerned about I do genuinely really like it. It's executed very well. The setting is interesting especially with the hefty humanisation of the concubines and sex workers.
I dunno, just based on the past few episodes I think it's gonna be more "male lead opens up and shows more emotional vulnerability, MC gradually lowers her emotional defenses, and they begin a relationship based on mutual respect without either of them having to give up their careers/aspects of their personality" which is still cishetero as fuck but better than most portrayals of romance.
That's only marginally better. I'd rather it just continue being episodic sherlock holmes solves a daily mystery in old china. It still ultimately changes course to a traditional values thing.
I get the feeling that this show was written by a cis woman for cis women, with a large part of the vicarious escapist fantasy of being the only feminist in ancient china is landing the hot eunuch boyfriend
Mmmmmm maybe. Plausible. Still ends up being "the feminist who behaves combatively with men ends up falling to the hot guy's wily charms and giving in to the natural feminine heat aching in her womb"(yes i'm aware how uncomfortable that is to read) though even if written by a woman. It makes it marginally better but is still something worth criticising as a trope, at least imo.
Frieren has been a such a pleasant surprise. I read the manga with dodgy fan translations online years ago when it was first coming out, but it got memory holed. Every now and then I'd think of it but could never remember the name. I was over joyed when I realized that the new show a friend got me to watch was that lost series lodged in the back of my mind.
This is also the first time I'm watching something where I've read the manga. I've never bothered in the past, neither before nor after a show. I'm not particularly weebish, I just got linked it by someone I was in a D&D game with and was bored enough at the time I happened to give it a go.
Spy x Family remains such a wholesome comfort pick. Comedy in anime tends to get completely lost in translation for me but this is the extremely rare one that hits.
Frieren
Insomniacs after School
The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World
