Winter 2024 Anime Season / Autumn 2023 Wrap-Up
January 4, 2024 1:19 PM - Subscribe
What did you enjoy this Fall and what are you looking for in this upcoming season?
Here are the lists of what's airing Winter 2024:
More links from review sites below the fold.
- Anime Feminist: 2024 Winter Premiere Reviews (will update as selected premieres release)
- Anime Trending: LIST: The Most Anticipated Anime of Winter 2024
- Anime News Network: Winter 2024 Anime Preview Guide
- Anime Corner: Winter 2024 Most Anticipated Anime Rankings
- Polygon: The must-watch anime to look out for in winter 2024
- Screen Rant: 10 Most Anticipated Anime Of Winter 2024
I'll be honest, nothing from Winter 2024 has really caught my eye so far, so I'll probably wait until there's a bit of community consensus as to what's worth checking out for the season. Luckily there's still the back half of Apothecary Diaries and Frieren, in addition to me catching up on a couple shows that I wanted to do a binge catch up on like Jujutsu Kaisen S2 and the Horimiya side stories.
My Fall 2023 watches were Frieren, Apothecary Diaries, Pluto, Spy x Family S2, and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Frieren shares top spot with Oshi no Ko as being my favorite anime of 2023, and on top of that just being one of the best things in the fantasy genre generally that I've seen in a while. Excels in its slow character development scenes and then surprises you with a few banger action scenes sprinkled in with everything else. Soundtrack is also excellent.
Apothecary Diaries was overall a fun time too, an interesting spin on the mystery of the day detective genre. There are a couple of sexual harassment as a gag scenes that I didn't love, but otherwise a fine show.
Spy x Family S2 was enjoyable. I'm not sure if it'll ever reach some of the heights that it did in the first cour, but it fills the niche of being a fun weekly sitcom in anime form.
Pluto I didn't enjoy overall, despite it receiving a lot of praise. It definitely had moments, but everything about the actual narrative of the show was revealed in the last quarter of the show and as a result I was never got invested in the plot. I also wasn't a fan of the world-building, the way that robots lived / died in the show felt simplistic and not representative of how technology works.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off I thought was just fine. The references and the way that the SP movie reveled in them felt new and shiny 13 years ago when it was released, but feel a bit old and tired now that nerd culture has been so dominant for the last decade. The movie referenced things that were a bit more universal like Zelda and Final Fantasy, so it was able to make the result feel off-the-cuff and natural. This show reached deep for things like Jet Grind Radio and Bubblegum Crisis and just felt more...try-hard and desperate?
posted by C^3 at 3:07 AM on January 5
My Fall 2023 watches were Frieren, Apothecary Diaries, Pluto, Spy x Family S2, and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Frieren shares top spot with Oshi no Ko as being my favorite anime of 2023, and on top of that just being one of the best things in the fantasy genre generally that I've seen in a while. Excels in its slow character development scenes and then surprises you with a few banger action scenes sprinkled in with everything else. Soundtrack is also excellent.
Apothecary Diaries was overall a fun time too, an interesting spin on the mystery of the day detective genre. There are a couple of sexual harassment as a gag scenes that I didn't love, but otherwise a fine show.
Spy x Family S2 was enjoyable. I'm not sure if it'll ever reach some of the heights that it did in the first cour, but it fills the niche of being a fun weekly sitcom in anime form.
Pluto I didn't enjoy overall, despite it receiving a lot of praise. It definitely had moments, but everything about the actual narrative of the show was revealed in the last quarter of the show and as a result I was never got invested in the plot. I also wasn't a fan of the world-building, the way that robots lived / died in the show felt simplistic and not representative of how technology works.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off I thought was just fine. The references and the way that the SP movie reveled in them felt new and shiny 13 years ago when it was released, but feel a bit old and tired now that nerd culture has been so dominant for the last decade. The movie referenced things that were a bit more universal like Zelda and Final Fantasy, so it was able to make the result feel off-the-cuff and natural. This show reached deep for things like Jet Grind Radio and Bubblegum Crisis and just felt more...try-hard and desperate?
posted by C^3 at 3:07 AM on January 5
Dungeon Meshi is the one to watch this season. It looks like a gimmick cooking show but... it ends up going harder than it has any right to and has some of the most amazing character development and world building.
Otome isekai is also continuing to grow this season. Villainess Level 99 and Doctor Elise are both pretty good and apparently 7th Time Loop is also pretty good. Still receiving terrible production values, though.
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic is also really fun.
posted by charred husk at 10:20 AM on January 10
Otome isekai is also continuing to grow this season. Villainess Level 99 and Doctor Elise are both pretty good and apparently 7th Time Loop is also pretty good. Still receiving terrible production values, though.
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic is also really fun.
posted by charred husk at 10:20 AM on January 10
I suddenly became more interested in Dungeon Meshi after I found out that the mangaka behind the original work did a series of character portraits for Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Edition in addition to fanart of the cast of Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
Fans also speculate that she purposefully ended the Dungeon Meshi manga right before the release of Baldur's Gate 3. She sounds like my people, is what I'm saying, so I think I'll check this one out.
posted by C^3 at 10:31 PM on January 10
Fans also speculate that she purposefully ended the Dungeon Meshi manga right before the release of Baldur's Gate 3. She sounds like my people, is what I'm saying, so I think I'll check this one out.
posted by C^3 at 10:31 PM on January 10
I just started watching Frieren and I'm 10 episodes in. It's pretty special. ★★★★★
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:01 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 4:01 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
The Apothecary Diaries (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) delighted me. I do hope we get more seasons and this was not just a teaser for the manga.
I never did get around to Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren) but it is on my list based on good reviews.
Spy X Family remained good fun for the first half of the second season.
posted by Karmakaze at 1:26 PM on January 4