I have published Anime Year-End Review articles for 2021, 2022, and 2023. In those articles, I ranked my six (or five in the case of 2021) favorite anime series of the year and then doled out category awards for Writing, Aesthetics, Female Character, Male Character, Episode, and Opening/Ending Sequence. In 2022, I published an additional list of minor category awards, prompted by a year-end review post by blogger Guardian Enzo. In my 2023 review article, I stated that I would do the same. I then proceeded to forget about my plan. Forgotten no longer, I now present my Additional Best of 2023 in Anime Awards in the same format as my 2022 list. While it is admittedly odd to publish this article that I had procrastinated on within only a few short weeks of publishing my 2024 anime review, I plan to reference back to the 2023 awards in the 2024 article, so it must be done.
Better late than never and all.
(Or so I tell myself.)
Note before reading that this article is intended to complement my main anime 2023 anime year-end review article, so I strongly recommend skimming (if not reading) that first. This article presupposes familiarity with the full year-end review.
A Note on 2024
Speaking of 2024, we will note need an “Additional Best of 2024 in Anime Awards” list because my 2024 anime review will come in two parts, with one being an overall anime ranking and the second being category awards – a format which will allow me to expand on both sections in what I hope will be interesting ways.
Eligible Shows For 2023
But this article is not about 2024. It is limited only to those anime seasons which concluded in 2023 – as I explained in my main 2023 review article. For example, I will consider the first seasons of Oshi no Ko and The Dangers in My Heart here since they aired in their entirety in 2023, but not their respective second seasons, which aired in 2024. I will not consider Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End or The Apothecary Diaries because, despite having started in October 2023, both seasons ran into 2024 and will thus be considered 2024 shows instead of 2023 shows.
The Extra Category Awards For 2023
Best Song
Winner: Mix (Haru no Oto – Ending Song 1)
In 2022, I restricted my consideration of songs to opening and ending songs. I will go the same route this year and tab Haru no Oto, which was used for the first ending sequence for Mix. Mix’s first-ending was my runner-up pick for best opening/ending sequence of the year (perhaps unsurprising since I wrote about it while it aired), losing out to My Clueless First Friend’s ending on account of the latter’s near perfect animation choices. I will separately give Oshi no Ko the nod for having the best in-episode song – Full Moon in episode 9 performed by Megumi Hanas my female character of the year, Kana Arima. Kana’s in-episode music video is also my choice for the best scene in anime of 2023.
Best Soundtrack
Winner: BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!!
My fourth ranked show of 2023, BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!!, is a band show. It had a soundtrack and live performances that lived up to the billing and it earns my mod for best anime soundtrack of 2024 over Oshi no Ko.
Best original screenplay
Winner: Overtake!
This category refers to original anime, that is anime not based on extant source material such as a novel or manga. My 2023 anime of the year, Overtake!, is an entirely original production with an original screenplay. It was also my choice for best writing of 2023. Overtake! is the easy choice here.
Best adapted screenplay
Winner: Insomniacs After School
Oshi no Ko was my anime of the year runner-up behind Overtake, and it is a manga adaptation. However, while it was number two on my anime of the year ranking, it came in third on my best writing ranking – where it swapped places from the overall list with my second runner-up for anime of the year, Insomniacs After School. I stand by my judgment from the writing award category – Oshi no Ko’s first season has just enough issues, notably its handling of its final episode, for me to give the best adapted screenplay nod to Insomniacs After School.
Best art direction
Winner: BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!!
While a fully CG anime like BanG Dream! is an unlikely candidate to secure my best-aesthetics award, the medium presents some interesting tools to play with in crafting interesting cinematography. BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!! excelled in this area, most notably in its excellent choice to show us episode three through a third-person perspective. My first runner-up is Skip and Loafer – a very pretty and well-framed manga adaptation. Oshi no Ko, which is certainly the best show overall in terms of visuals, takes the bronze in this category.
Best animation
Winner: Oshi no Ko
I interpret the animation category as pertaining to dynamism in the direction and how well the characters move – thus distinguishing it from both art direction, above, and my aesthetics category. But these differences do not lead to a different result than my aesthetics category – the high budget and usually-dynamic Oshi no Ko takes the nod over Tsurune: The Linking Shot and the second season of Vinland Saga.
Best character design
Winner: Undead Murder Farce
I had to think about this award a bit since none of the best aesthetics shows moved me with regard to character design specifically. After reflection, I decided that Undead Murder Farce, with its fun takes on everything from ogres to Sherlock Holmes, had the most memorable character designs of 2023.
Best supporting actress
Winner: Oshi no Ko (Manaka Iwami, voicing Akane Kurokawa)
I wrote about Ms. Manaka Iwami for her starring role in The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten and specifically for her in-character performance for the show’s ending song. While Ms. Iwami will not win any of my minor awards for her excellent work in that show, she will for her supporting role as the up-and-coming actress and very struggling dating show contestant, Akane Kurokawa in Oshi no Ko.
I will add a fun note here. In my article on Ms. Iwami’s ending song performance in The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, I compared her rendition of the ending song to the rendition of the same song in the first season of Teasing Master Takagi-san by voice actress Rie Takahashi. Ms. Takahashi plays a slightly bigger role in the first season of Oshi no Ko as Ai Hoshino. I will note – as anyone who watches Oshi no Ko will know – that there is an interesting thread connecting the characters of Akane and Ai and their voices.
Best supporting actor
Winner: Overtake! (Taku Yashiro, voicing Toshiki Tokumaru)
Tomumaru is one of the two main rivals to the the co-protagonist racecare driver of Overtake! Mr. Yashiro did a terrific job delivering a surly-but-sometimes-endearing take on the cantankerous and insecure Tokumaru.
Best actress
Winner: Oshi no Ko (Megumi Han, voicing Kana Arima)
This category presented what may have been my most difficult choice of the article. Ms. Mayumi Sako gave a mature and at times appropriately anguished performance as the enslaved Anheid in Vinland Saga. Youmiya Hina delivered a very different performance as the painfully shy and awkward middle school student, Tomori Takamatsu, who also happened to be the lead singer of a ragtag band while dabbling in poetry jams. I dare say both of these would be year-winning performances more often than not, but I must give the nod to Megumi Han for her performance as my selection for best female character of 2024, Kana Arima in Oshi no Ko. Not only is Ms. Han consistently top-notch in playing a cynical, jaded, but ultimately kind struggling former child actress, and she gives voice to the finest anime scene of the year in an in-show music video I referenced in the best song section.
Best actor
Winner: Undead Murder Farce (Tauki Yashiro, voicing Tsugaru Shin’uchi)
While I had to think about the best actress category – the best actor category had a clear winner. It was a good year for Mr. Taku Yashiro. Before he delivered my best supporting actor performance as Tokumaru in Overtake!, he delivered the best overall voice acting performance of the year as the always-funny half-man/half-ogre Tsugaru Shin’uchi in Undead Murder Farce.
Best director
Winner: Ei Aoki – Overtake!
When my anime of the year selection is an entirely original production, its director is more often than not going to be in the driver’s seat (pun intended in this case) for my anime of the year nod. 2023 finds itself in the often instead of not category – Director of the Year goes to Ei Aoki for his work on Overtake!
Best romance
Winner: The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten
After my 2022 ranking was headed by two romantic comedies, only one of my top-six shows in 2024, third-place Insomniacs After School, was centered on a budding romance. But while it is a romance, the show I think of when I think of romance in 2023 is the last show outside my top-six shows of the year, The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten.
Best comedy
Winner: Undead Murder Farce
Just as 2022 was a stronger year than 2023 for romance, it was also better for comedies. No show in my top-six would be first described as a comedy, but fourth-place finisher Undead Murder Farce was for me the most comedic show, in its sometimes dark humorous moments, of the year.
Best drama
Winner: Vinland Saga
I decided to interpret best drama as the show with the actual best drama as opposed to the best show that is neither primarily a romance or comedy. With that definition, the clear choice is my sixth-place finisher for anime of the year, the second season of Vinland Saga, which was the most edge-of-your-seat show of the year – and perhaps the most bleak.
Conclusion
This wraps up my very late extra awards category for 2023. Some of the parity in choices reflects the fact that 2023 lacked a single great anime – I do not consider either of the shows in contention for anime of the year in the end, Overtake! and the first season of Oshi no Ko, to really be anime of the year caliber productions. On the flip-side, the second season of Vinland Saga was a strong sixth place show, so we had a weaker winner than 2021 or 2022 but a stronger tail-end of the top six than either of those years.
I have not fully settled on all of the categories I will include in my new-format 2024 review, but readers should expect to see a good number of the categories listed above (or slight variations thereof) included in that upcoming post.
