The best anime of 2023 so far

 

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA - SWORDSMITH VILLAGE ARC

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba returns for an all-new season, picking up from the momentum of Entertainment District Arc’s intense finale to deliver a story that, while beautifully animated and an entertaining watch moment-to-moment, nonetheless feels overlong and minor in the grand scheme of the series’ ongoing plot.

The third season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, titled Swordsmith Village Arc, follows series protagonist Tanjiro Kamado and his sister Nezuko as they journey to a secret village in order to repair his sword following his battle against the Upper Rank demons Gyutaro and Daki. Upon arriving, Tanjiro finds himself once again ensnared in a battle with two more Upper Rank demons, fighting alongside the Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito, the Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji, and his taciturn ally Genya Shinazugawa in order to protect the village’s inhabitants.

HELL’S PARADISE

Set in Edo-period Japan, Hell’s Paradise centers on the story of Gabimaru the Hollow, an infamous ninja assassin with the ability to withstand immense amounts of pain and physical damage. After being betrayed by his clan and sentenced to be executed, Gabimaru is given an offer to be pardoned for all his crimes and return home to his loving wife in exchange for finding a magical elixir of eternal life located somewhere on a dangerous exotic island known as Shinsenkyo. Alongside a group of other death row criminals, Gabimaru and his assigned executioner Sagiri must brave the dangers of this hostile island and its inhabitants to return home safely.

While a bit slow to start, Hell’s Paradise proves itself to be a thoroughly entertaining dark fantasy anime with outlandish characters wielding strange and unique powers, all with occasional moments of fantastical body horror sprinkled about. The premise is fairly basic, and it takes a while for the story to ramp up into full gear, but the action sequences and backstories of the main characters are more than enough to stick it out and see where the series leads. —TE

    

SKIP AND LOAFER

The best part of Skip and Loafer is that the romantic lead is just an incredibly nice guy. Yeah, he’s cool and popular and handsome — but he’s also just a good dude!

The show follows Mitsumi Iwakura, an ambitious girl who moves from her small town to attend a prestigious high school in Tokyo. Though she’s a hardworking overachiever, she’s a little unprepared for the hustle and bustle of city life — and attending a school where the class size is more than six people. Confused by public transit on her first day, she runs into Sōsuke Shima, a very go-with-the-flow sort of dude, who is also running late. He’s remarkably more calm about it, and takes her under his wing.

The two spark up an unlikely friendship: Shima quickly becomes the hearthrob that all the girls have crushes on, while Mitsumi’s spunky go-getter attitude and unfamiliarity with social norms often lands her in awkward situations. But Shima is just big-hearted and patient, and he clearly likes to spend time with Mitsumi. It’s not a one-sided relationship, however. Mitsumi’s passion and dedication rekindle something in Shima, whose mysterious past is only beginning to be revealed in the show.

TENGOKU DAIMAKYO (HEAVENLY DELUSION)

While watching Production I.G’s Tengoku Daimakyo, the new sci-fi mystery anime based on Masakazu Ishiguro’s manga series (which is known as Heavenly Delusion in English), I couldn’t help but think of Katsuhiro Otomo and his 1988 magnum opus Akira. Both center on a generation of children who, brought up in the wake of an apocalyptic disaster, must fend for themselves in a world that has all but given up on the future while finding their own purpose in life. Tengoku Daimakyo does enough to distinguish itself from Otomo’s work by focusing on a relationship between two characters that touches deeply on the themes of friendship, gender, and adolescence.

Set 15 years after the fall of civilization, Tengoku Daimakyo alternates between two stories: that of Maru and Kiruko, two children who journey through the ruins of Tokyo in search of a mysterious place referred to only as “Heaven,” and that of a group of schoolchildren with strange powers living in a high-tech underground research facility, one of whom bears a striking resemblance to Maru. While searching for Heaven, Maru and Kiruko are attacked by vicious otherworldly creatures that only Maru seems to possess the ability to destroy. How are these two stories connected? What is the origin of Maru’s strange power, and how are these strange creatures related to the end of the world? Half of the fun of watching Tengoku Daimakyo is figuring that out! The other half is immediately rewatching the series to catch all of the clues hiding in plain sight you missed watching it the first time

SUMMER TIME RENDERING

If you’re looking for a binge-worthy mystery that will leave your head spinning, Summer Time Rendering is a top-tier choice to go with. To be even more specific with the genre, it’s actually a supernatural mystery thriller with a dash of romance and slice-of-life. So there’s probably a little something for everyone!

The story starts with protagonist Shinpei returning to his hometown for a close childhood friend’s funeral. He initially hears that his childhood friend, Ushio, died by drowning, but Shinpei eventually starts to suspect that Ushio’s death was not as simple as it seems.