Been away from anime for awhile? We understand. You go out and have your life, anime will always be waiting for you when you come back. They always come back. If you are finally coming back and stopped watching sometime in or before 2023, here are all the best anime series that you missed and definitely should go back and watch.
If you are looking to watch the best anime of 2023, then you definitely need to check out there anime recommendations.
Best Anime of 2023
Buddy Daddies
Kazuki and Rei are roommates that also work as professional mercenaries while they each flee from their grim memories through the dangerous work.
However, while carrying out an assassination on Christmas Eve, their paths cross with four-year-old Miri who traveled to Tokyo by herself, told by her mother who abandoned her to go find her father. Unfortunately for everyone involved, her father was their mark whom they successfully took out.
Now saddled with a small child, this pair of grown men struggle to adjust to being new parents while also balancing it with their dangerous job.
Found family or even just anime about raising a cute young child are easy anime to like, and Buddy Daddies anime is an easy anime to like with unexpectedly gripping drama to it as it goes on.
One of the most refreshing aspects of Buddy Daddies is that it fully commits itself to explaining why to literal strangers (and criminals, at that) are now raising a child that is unrelated to them. It also doesn’t shy away from showing how obnoxious it is to raise a young child without forgetting to add in plenty of the wholesome and rewarding moments so it doesn’t completely put the audience off potential parenthood.
Frieren – Beyond Journey’s End
After the Demon King’s defeat, the victorious hero’s party returns home. After disbanding, the elven mage Frieren continues journeying to indulge her hobby of collecting spells. However, being a long-living elf, fifty years pass in the blink of an eye for her. Now, she finds her old companions and friends slowly passing away from age one by one.
Before his death, Heiter the cleric manages to foist his young ward, Fern, onto Frieren as her apprentice mage. Together, they travel to collect spells, but after visiting many locations that Frieren had once visited with the hero’s party, she begins to ponder the missed opportunity to form deeper bonds with her now-dead comrades and cherish the new opportunities she has with her current ones.
There are heaps of fantasy anime about going to defeat a demon lord, most of which involve them never actually getting to the demon lord, but never has there been an anime about what comes after – and that is what Frieren is about.
Frieren puts a long-lived elf in the main character role, which is a unique perspective since time has a different meaning when you have hundreds of years at your disposal. It starts by watching her squander her time as her old friends age and die in what is a blink of the eye for her in terms of time. Throughout the series, you watch her get new companions while reflecting on her regrets from the past and learning to value present moments and shorter lifetimes.
And yet, Frieren isn’t just a meditation on living in the present. It has moments of beautiful action and explores a wide range of interesting characters while showing off a world familiar to the main character, but constantly changed by time. It is a series where you look forward to every episode as none feel like a disappointing waste of time.
Hell’s Paradise
Betrayed by his ninja clan and sentenced to death for the many lives he took while working for them, Gabimaru the Hollow accepts his fate. However, every attempt at execution has failed, leading them to call in Sagiri, a member of the Yamada Asaemon Clan of imperial executioners.
While Sagiri can carry out the task, she instead offers Gabimaru a chance to receive a full pardon for his crimes. He, along with other criminals sentenced to death, will be sent to the dangerous island of Shinsekyo to obtain the elixir of life for the shogun. However, with all previous expedition teams never being heard from again, this mysterious island is a death sentence in and of itself.
In terms of plot – and plot progression, in particular – Hell’s Paradise is basic and below average. However, what makes it an anime worth watching is visual splendor – Particularly for those that like creatively bizarre visuals and gore.
Hell’s Paradise may not be particularly cerebral in plot, but it is an artistic feast for the eyes made interesting by its dedication to interesting, frequent, and well-choreographed action.
Tomo-chan is a Girl
As childhood friends and neighbors, Tomo and Jun are best friends and hang out constantly. There is just one problem.
Tomo is a girl, and Jun often forgets that.
She wants Jun to see her as a girl so she can move their friendship into something more. When she is a tomboy and Jun is as dense as can be, can Tomo escape the bro zone in order to get a start on her youthful romance?
Like childhood friends, tomboys are never “the main girl” when it comes to romance. Tomo has the unfortunate double ding of being a tomboy AND a childhood friend, but Tomo-chan is a Girl is all about overcoming the hurdles to romance and successfully trying to romance a guy that is trying to fight his own feelings.
While Tomo-chan is a Girl is just another romantic comedy, it is a romantic comedy with a unique spin on a standard story of young love.
The Dangers in My Heart
Kyoutaro Ichikawa looks like a normal boy, but he has a danger in his heart – a dream of murder. He has aimed his violent tendencies at the class idol, Anna Yamada.
While reading in his haven, the library, he accidentally runs into Yamada, who comes there to secretly consume snacks. Through frequent observation, Ichikawa learns that this beautiful and popular girl is actually a huge ditz and frequently finds himself supporting her from the periphery in her ventures.
Over time, Ichikawa learns that he doesn’t actually want to kill Yamada, but rather, his desires were actually something much different.
While it has a cringe-worthy amount of edge for about half the first episode that may have turned plenty away, The Dangers in My Heart quickly turns into one of the cuter romantic comedies with a female lead that is increasingly hard to dislike.
The most charming aspect of The Dangers in My Heart is that it really highlights that people are often different from how you perceive them, and it allows you the audience to get to know that as the main character does.
The Apothecary Diaries
Learning to be an apothecary from her father, Maomao honed her skills in the brothels of her town. However, one day she is kidnapped and forced to work as a servant in the rear section of the Imperial Palace that houses the emperor’s consorts.
While trying to stay under the radar until her contract was up, Maomao catches the attention of the emperor’s favorite consort when her skills as an apothecary end up saving the life of the consorts’ baby daughter.
This act leads to her being taken on as the consort’s lady-in-waiting and food taster due to Maomao’s prolific knowledge of both medicine and poisons.
When it comes to shoujo anime, they tend to set up independent heroines with aspirations and a passion for their profession – then pair them up and becomes romance anime where their career is an afterthought at best. The Apothecary Diaries provides the necessary bait for the shippers, but resists becoming yet another shoujo casualty to romance.
What you get instead is a lovable heroine with a passion for poisons and a knowledge of medicine (and poisons) that allows her to solve various mysteries and intrigues in an Chinese-inspired Imperial Palace setting.
Skip and Loafer
In order to pursue a career in politics to make a positive change for Japan, Mitsumi leaves her rural town to go to high school in Tokyo. While she has a clear life plan for herself, she is still a country girl in a big city and ends up late and lost on her first day.
Luckily, Mitsumi is noticed by a fellow new student, Sousuke Shima, and he guides her to school. This laid-back guy is charmed by her motivated personality and strikes up a friendship with her, supporting her as she tries to make meaningful friendships with her classmates.
Similar to The Apothecary Diaries, Skip and Loafer is another shoujo anime that tries very hard to not just be another love-addled romance anime.
While Skip and Loafer has plenty of feelings floating around, it dedicates itself to drama without being eye-rolling and ham-fisted about it. Instead, Skip and Loafer does the seemingly impossible – creating young people with young people problems in a believable way.
Youth is the realm of the insecure, judgmental, and innocent. Skip and Loafer explores characters that have feelings that are grounded in real life insecurities. It has complex characters with flaws and even “the antagonists” type of characters have completely justified reasons for acting the way they do.
It is hard to craft drama in anime when everyone is so tired of the old shoujo tropes for it, but Skip and Loafer pulls it off in a way that you can’t get enough.
Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skill
Alongside three other heroes, Mukouda Tsuyoshi was transported to a fantasy world to save a kingdom.
However, it becomes very apparent that he was summoned as a mistake when the only skill he has is to be able to open an interface to purchase food items from modern Japan.
Kicked out into the world, Tsuyoshi sets out into the world and his ability to make delicious dishes soon pays off. He attracted the attention of legendary wolf Fenrir who enjoyed the meal so much that he forms a pact with him to be his familiar.
Now employed as a merchant and adventurer, he travels and cooks to earn a living.
Some people may be fatigued from isekai, but who could ever be sick of food? Campfire Cooking Another World capitalizes on the popularity of the isekai setting, then just makes a food anime.
The food benefits from MAPPA animation and the audience benefits from the series highlighting real recipes, making them look delicious and approachably easy to make.
Campfire Cooking in Another World is really what isekai should be. Not some power fantasy, but instead a rather light-hearted adventure where the main character living his best life.
Farming Life in Another World
After dying of an illness, Machio Hiraku is given the opportunity to reincarnate into another world.
The god grants him a healthy body and his wish to live peacefully. Machio also asks if he can have a talent for agriculture in hopes that he can live a more fulfilling life.
The god grants him all this as well as the ability to summon a farming tool that can turn into any agricultural tool he needs, including one that makes any seeds he can think of.
Machio is sent in the middle of a forest full of dangerous creatures. Without any civilization in sight, he makes his own small farm that slowly accumulates residents that wander the woods.
Farming Life in Another World starts off innocently enough about what it says on the wrapper – farming in another world. However, eventually one man’s farm turns into a whole village, and that village is, well, mostly women.
While Farming Life in Another World contains itself and cuts the lewder parts of its source material out of the anime, you can feel it lurking hornily off-screen. What’s left is actually a pretty wholesome and relaxing isekai experience that evolves from simply growing crops to managing the needs of a village.
Oshi no Ko
In the country hospital where he works, doctor and idol enjoyer Gorou Amemiya meets the famous and beloved idol Ai Hoshino. He is surprised to discover that this sixteen-year-old idol is pregnant, but promises the safe delivery of her twin babies.
Unfortunately, Gorou is mysteriously murdered and when he opens his eyes again, he is in the body of Aquamarine Hoshino, Ai’s newborn son. With his new twin sister Ruby, the pair happily cheer Ai on until tragedy strikes yet again and the pair become embroiled in the dark side of show business.
While Oshi no Ko was one of those seasonal anime series that took over the season with sheer hype, given time and space to reflect on it, non-idol anime fans realize that Oshi no Ko absolutely dazzled with its first episode and presented a fairly average story for the rest of it.
Oshi no Ko provides what is essentially a less sugar-coated look at the idol/entertainment industry in Japan. While that in and of itself is an interesting new take, the series is still just about a group of girls trying to be idols – just with the added intrigue of the main character trying to hunt someone down.
My Happy Marriage
Despite being the firstborn daughter of a noble family known for its supernatural abilities, Miyo is treated little different than a servant by her father, stepmother, and stepsister after not manifesting any supernatural abilities.
After years of abuse and neglect, Miyo is told that she will be married off into the Kudo household. Kiyoka Kudo has built a reputation as a cruel man, having chased off several fiancees already. Knowing that she can’t return home and will be left homeless if the marriage fails, Miyo is ready to bow and scrape. However, she finds Kiyoka Kudo to be a quiet, but kind man. Unfortunately, not everyone takes her marriage into the Kudo family so well.
While My Happy Marriage presents what is essentially a Japanese historical version of the Cinderella story, it is the type of romance anime that is not for everyone.
The characters are old stereotypes in keeping with its Cinderella theme. The main character is meek and ham-fistedly abused by her family and her arranged marriage partner is handsome, but distant – which provides the most interesting dynamic. The meek and abused main character needs to be rehabilitated with kindness, and a love interest with a distant personality presents a difficult route for that to take.
Still, the addition of its supernatural elements means that the series isn’t drowning in romance drama for too long and gives the series some much needed balance.
100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You
Throughout his middle school career, Rentaro Aijo has confessed to – and been reject by – 100 girls. After his 100th confession, he visits a shrine and prays to god that he will have better luck in high school.
Suddenly the God of Love appears and declares to him that in high school he will meet 100 soulmates that he is destined to date!
However, the catch is that once he meets these soulmates, the two must date or else the girl will die. Will Rentaro be able to make it through high school with 100 girlfriends!?
Harem anime often only appeals to a specific audience and everyone outside of that audience doesn’t care much for it. However, 100 Girlfriends presents not just the potential for an ultra-harem, but parodies the entire harem genre while giving harem fans exactly what they want.
Lewd, outrageous, and often very meta, 100 Girlfriends is both peak harem and peak harem parody at the same time. It is, however, certainly not for those who hate ecchi comedy because it has a whole lot of it. While it is often leaning on ecchi comedy, it does have little references that parody other media as well that really does elevate it into something that is just incredibly fun to watch.
Handyman Saitou in Another World
Handyman Saitou has always been a kind of unremarkable man. He worked a thankless handyman job where the company prioritized profits and clients often dismissed his work as too simple to be worth paying for.
One day, Saitou is transported to a fantasy land where he takes up with a group of adventurers who, despite having some slight dysfunction of their their own, make his skills feel valuable!
At a glance, Handyman Saitou in Another World seems like just another isekai with the quirk this time being the main character having all the indescribable skills of a professional handyman.
And yes, that is how you would describe the plot. However, you don’t watch handyman Saitou in Another World for the plot, you watch it for the characters. There’s just a dash of progressing romance and there is a dash of surprisingly dark stories, but what elevates this isekai above the rest of the samey mass is the comedy.
Handyman Saitou in Another World presents a comically flawed adventuring group not unlike Konosuba. This is the set up for the comedy, but it also doesn’t lose itself to comedy alone either. It doesn’t feature any grand overarching plot, but instead tells adventuring stories, and every adventure is different. Sometimes it is action-packed and sad, sometimes it is about a demon dog that ran off with an undead’s genitals.
Zom 100 – Bucket List of The Dead
While initially excited to begin his adult life, Akira Tendou ends up employed at an exploitative company that breaks his spirit and saps his energy. Unable to quit and contemplating suicide, he dreads each new day of going to work.
That is, until one day when he leaves for the office only to discover that a zombie apocalypse is in full swing.
Realizing that the world as we know it is now over, Akira is overjoyed! He creates a bucket list of all the things he wanted to do but never had the time or energy for as a working adult. Now, he enjoys the apocalypse to the fullest before he becomes a zombie like everyone else.
Zom 100 had a stellar start by appealing to all the adult anime fans that hate the meat grinder of capitalism and crave the sweet escape of societal collapse. However, it quickly became mired in production issues that – while still putting out a great looking product – killed the hype with an unreliable release schedule and lengthy delays.
However, given the benefit of time, those who get to watch Zom 100 in one lump sum can see it for what it is – a fun zombie apocalypse anime that combines gore, horror, shenanigans, and acknowledges traumatic work environments and their effect on us.
Heavenly Delusion
After a disaster fifteen years ago caused society to collapse, the survivors struggle to eek out an existence. Alongside trying to scrounge together food, clean water, and electricity, these survivors are also plagued by the appearance of man-eating monsters.
Two young survivors, Maru and Kiruko, wander the wasteland and make money off Maru’s ability to kill these man-eaters with a touch. Together, they are searching for a place called Heaven that they both hope will hold the answers to the tragic burdens that they hold in their heart.
Some may come to Heavenly Delusion for its post-apocalypse setting and its characters journeying through it, but the appeal of Heavenly Delusion is not its apocalyptic setting, but rather, its mysteries.
The series takes place in a proper post-apocalyptic society where people are eeking out day-to-day lives and no one is really talking about what happened to end the world anymore. That in itself creates an initial mystery and is augmented by cuts to a more futuristic closed off academy full of mysterious children kept separate from the ruined outside world.
Ultimately, the charm of the series is that is poses a lot of questions for the audience to ask, then you begin the slow journey of receiving your answers as its explores the main characters’ journey.
Undead Murder Farce
In an alternate 19th century, supernatural creatures exist among humans, but have been hunted and persecuted to the point where they have become quite rare.
Tsugaru Shinuchi is an experimental half-oni that has been used by a freak show to destroy the supernatural for the entertainment of the crowd. One night, he is approached by a woman carrying a bird cage containing a severed head. The head introduces herself as Aya Rindo, and asks Tsugaru to help her find and retrieve her immortal body that was stolen from her by a mysterious foreign man.
Leaving Japan for Europe, the trio decide to become detectives who come to be known as, “The Cage User,” investigating supernatural mysteries hoping they might hold clues to the mysterious body thief.
The more ponderous mystery set up of Heavenly Delusion may not be for every mystery fan, but few mystery fans can say no to detective mysteries – particularly when they are beautifully animated and creatively supernatural.
Undead Murder Farce may be just one more supernatural detective mystery anime for the growing pile, but it is one that definitely manifests a style. It benefits from slick animation in its sparse scenes of action and creative-looking characters. However, it also has the one thing that any good mystery anime needs – clever mysteries that aren’t immediately explained to you.
Insomniacs After School
Every night, Ganta Nakami is overtaken by insomnia that leaves him grumpy during the day. However, he happens across the easygoing Isaki Magari from his class sleeping in the Astronomy Club’s abandoned, supposedly haunted observatory. It turns out that she, too, suffers from insomnia and uses this room to sneak away for naps.
While the pair at first agree to share sneaking naps in the observatory, they are soon caught. In order to preserve their beloved nap spot, they persuade the school to let them revive the Astronomy Club where they soon share a growing love for the stars as well as each other.
It is difficult to do romantic drama without returning to the old romance tropes that people don’t really want to see for awhile. Without the love rivals and the misunderstandings that could be solved if they communicated like normal people, what else is there?
Insomniacs After School makes a solid go at romantic drama by framing it around two people brought together by a shared malady caused by different reasons – insomnia.
Never has watching two characters be able to sleep looked so sweet. While their relationship is progressing and the story is exploring their growth as characters, you are also treated to a visual feast of night sky shots that fit the whimsical if not melancholy nature of the story.
Undead Unluck
All Fuko wanted was a passionate romance like in her shoujo manga. However, she has the unpleasant ability of Unluck that causes anyone she touches to suffer an accident – its severity based on her affection for them. After accidentally causing her parents to die in a plane crash, Fuko has been paralyzed by fear that she might accidentally touch someone all through her school years spent as a shut-in.
With her favorite manga now ended, Fuko was about to end her own life when a man claim to be unable to die swoops in and saves her. Delighted that her ability might finally be able to kill him for good, this man that she nicknamed Andy declares that he will make her fall in love with him so she will give him the most fatal stroke of unluck possible.
Teaming up and entering the organization that hunts people like them with dangerous abilities, the pair tackle a number of unique enemies.
Modern shounen anime is focused on beautiful animation and emotional stories to further augment its big action, but if you focus too much on emotion then sometimes you start to neuter the fun of shounen action anime.
Undead Unluck is shounen anime that still remembers that big, ridiculous action is just fun to watch. Certainly, it has its emotional moments, but the focus of this anime is first and foremost on how big the action goes. You watch every episode to see it outdo how ridiculous the last episode was – and when that runs out, you are just invested in seeing what the main duo gets into next.
The Sacrificial Bride and The King of Beasts
After hundreds of years of war between the kingdom of beasts and the neighboring human kingdom, a peace treaty was signed. The conditions of this treaty say that humans must offer a sacrifice to be devoured by the King of Beasts every year on a particular night.
Sariphi is the latest sacrifice to be sent, adopted by her parents to specifically protect their true-born daughter. Despondent after learning that truth and feeling like she has no home to return back to anyway, Sariphi is fine with dying and unafraid of the King of Beasts.
Intrigued by her lack of fear, the King of Beasts begins to grow closer to her, and when the day of sacrifice comes, he defies his advisors and decides to takes this interesting girl as his wife.
Quickly, easily, and rightly labeled as furry bait, The Sacrificial Bride and The King of Beasts has more to offer people than just its anthropomorphic animal characters.
In truth, The Sacrificial Bride and The King of Beasts is framed as a romance, but it isn’t. Not really, anyway. The main characters romantically love each other, but the only strife in their relationship comes from people outside of it opposed to a king marrying a human. The couple gets along and communicates perfectly. This leaves the series open to be about the main characters dealing with the intense discrimination within the beast nation, and making small steps towards a future where everyone can co-exist.
My Lv999 Love for Yamada-kun
After her boyfriend cheats on her, Akane Kinoshita flees to her favorite MMO and vents her frustrations on some in-game mobs. While doing that, she happens across Akito Yamada who bluntly asks her to leave while he farms those mobs for a specific item.
While she initially finds him pretty rude, she meets Yamada again by chance in an offline meetup event for the game. It turns out she, like so many others, misinterpreted his poor social skills for antagonism.
From then on, Akane finds herself meeting Yamada more and more both in-game and offline as her feelings for him grow.
It was a good year for romantic comedies. We ate well this year, love junkies. My Lv999 Love For Yamada-kun is yet another good romantic comedy, and this time with a gaming theme.
While some may have came for the gaming, it isn’t much of a focus. Instead, the real benefit that My Lv999 Love For Yamada-kun has is that it follows adult characters. No faffing about in the confines of the classroom. Instead you get young adults being unsure about their feelings, but knowing already that the key to that is proper communication.
My Clueless First Friend
Akane Nishimura is a quiet girl with an intimidating gaze. As such, her classmates gave her the ominous nickname of “The Grim Reaper” and started avoiding her due to fear that they would be cursed.
However, these rumors don’t deter the new transfer student, Taiyou Takada. He finds out about her nickname and her powers and immediately tries to befriend her with no hesitation, excited to be cursed and to be friends with The Grim Reaper. His cheerful disposition and ability to make everything seem positive is just what Akane needed in her first ever friend.
As the characters in My Clueless First Friend are elementary school students, it is too youthful to be a rom-com. However, while it sets up a relationship for a future rom-com, the lovable thing about this series is how it shuts down bullying.
Watch as Akane makes her first friend – a dense boy whose uses his density to spin every bullying attempt into something positive that is actually complimenting her. That’s the plot of My Clueless First Friend, and it does lean on that same joke often and repetitively, but it never stops being cute.
Shangri-La Frontier
For high schooler Rakurou Hizutome, he enjoys playing games like any teen. However, his pleasure in gaming comes from playing trash games.
The broken, the janky, the terribly designed, the ridiculously difficult – he has conquered all of the trash games that no one plays!
After his most recent conquest, the games clerk recommends that he try something that isn’t trash – a new VRMMO game called Shangri-La Frontier. While he decides to give this VRMMO a try, his min-maxing trash game play style allows him to discover some little known secrets of this incredibly popular game that even the major tryhards haven’t found out.
There is no shortage of VRMMO anime out there, and very little of those are actually focused on action within a VRMMO. Shangri-La Frontier shows that an action-focused VRMMO anime where the action is well-choreographed and animated can indeed be the star of the show.
If you enjoy visceral and flashy battles where the main character relies on skill rather than brokenly OP skills, Shangri-La Frontier is for you.
Dark Gathering
Keitarou Gentouga is a college student who hates ghosts. Unfortunately, spirits have always been unnaturally attracted to him, so much so that he was previously a shut-in after causing his childhood friend, Eiko Houzuki, and himself to get cursed by a spirit.
However, Eiko helped him get back out into the world, and as part of his rehabilitation, he started tutoring Eiko’s young cousin, Yayoi.
It isn’t long before Keitarou finds that Yayoi actively seeks out dangerous spirits, using him and various other tools to capture them for a mysterious purpose that all stems back to the spirit that took Yayoi’s mother after her death.
Horror is hard to do well in anime or any other visual medium – which is exactly why we don’t get a lot of horror anime. I guess creators can only endure so many low ratings and sales before they stop trying and go make an easy cash cow isekai anime instead. However, Dark Gathering not only tries, but succeeds in being an – at least occasionally – horrifying anime steeped in Japanese supernatural folklore.
It was refreshing to find an main character who was perfectly okay with being a coward, especially given the visceral and creepy nature of almost every case a literal child pulls him into.
Migi and Dali
Falling for him at first sight, the Sonoyamas are happy to bring home their new adoptive son, Hitori.
While they find their son to be the perfect child, he harbors a secret. Hitori is actually a set of identical twins named Migi and Dali that are pretending to be one boy.
Migi and Dali worked hard to charm the Sonoyamas into bringing them home to Origon Village, the village where they were born and the village where their mother died. Together, the boys keep up the charade in order to discover who murdered their mother in this village many years ago.
You know how I talked about horror being hard to do and even harder to do right above with Dark Gathering? There is one thing harder to do in anime and that’s suspense and comedy. It’s almost impossible to do in a way that is both funny and still sinister, but Migi and Dali pulls it off.
At first, the series seemed like it would be about two twins weirdly pretending to be one boy after masterfully manipulating a couple into adopting one of them. However, the reason behind this is because someone in the town that couple lives in killed their mother. So while one pretends to be a perfect son/friend/student, the other is often investigating those around them from the crawl space.
While Migi and Dali often leans on “weird” comedy, it does succeed in being both comical and suspenseful – which really is an achievement.
What anime did you enjoy from 2023? Let fans know in the comments section below.
