It’s been a banner year for anime as its popularity has grown exponentially and American animation looks towards the trailblazing Japanese form to reshape how it tells stories. But while series like Invincible and Vox Machina have been taking inspiration from the adult-forward storytelling of anime, the medium is pushing forward with brilliant storytelling that easily stands alongside what the most successful American animation can offer.2023 has given us fantastic returning anime series like Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer, and Vinland Saga alongside new smash hits like Oshi No Ko, Pluto, and Science Saru’s groundbreaking Scott Pilgrim adaptation, and one of the threads through all of it has been the power of the unexpected and unusual.While anime has always been a place for subversive and original stories, all our runners up and winner this year offered up something truly unique, especially our number one which, despite being a returning series, completely upended viewers’ expectations. That all makes perfect sense for a year in which nothing was what it seemed and the underdogs often rose to the top.So we’re embracing the weird, celebrating the unexpected, and breaking down the best anime of 2023 from reincarnation to bands all the way through slow-burn slice of life viking stories.
