some anime i watched in 2023 and what i rated it

as the title says ^^^

going to go over some of the anime that i watched that really spoke to me! this isnt everything i watched last year, but its just ones i wanted to talk about :3 this may be a bit long of a post sorry.

all of this will be spoiler-free btw ♡

starting off strong with: Trigun (1998)

I rated this a 8.5/10 (i prefer the manga)

this is a space cowboy anime from the 90's and the vibes are just perfect. essentially, it's about a man named "vash the stampede" who is wanted for a price of 60 billion $$. however, it turns out that despite him being a wanted criminal, hes actually a pacifist who will do anything in his power to protect all of humanity. and throughout the story there is a really interesting mystery thats uncovered. it's based off of the manga by nightow, however this anime has a different ending and a lot of filler.

with lots of action, mystery, sci-fi, comedy, a homoerotic relationship between two characters that are morally opposites and act as narrative foils to eachother, and religious symbolism, this anime has basically everything you could ask for!

i recommend watching this show however, know that this version of trigun is very slow paced and has a lot of filler. watch in the english dub for an extremely hilarious experience (the dub is so bad and its my favourite thing ever i quote the dub so much).

next on this list! Blood Blockade Battlefront (2015)

i also rated this one a 8.5/10.

the manga for this was made by the same creator as trigun and it really shows! this anime feels like a fever dream and like some sort of weird trigun fanfiction on drugs, and i say that in the best possible way. its so goofy and weird and i love it.

the plot? oh god i actually have no idea how to describe it. i think its just best to watch it and see for yourself. its an action comedy about this guy named leo who lives in a city that is seperated from the rest of the world and is full of monsters and superhumans. its the type of story thats super confusing but most of the confusing parts arent actually super relevant to the plot, so as the show goes on you learn to figure out what nonsense is plot relevant and whats just random comedy bits.

the animation in this is just so gorgeous. everything is so colourful and dynamic and full of energy, just like the plot.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)

aaaahh i watched this in october close to halloween and the vibe was perfect. i rated it an 8/10.

the plot makes absolutely no sense to me (specifically the ending) but we dont need to talk about that. THE ART ???? its so unbelievably pretty! and its cel animation! i love love love cel animation and this is just perfect since it uses cel animation but also the effects and stuff that was made possible in the late 90's. it has this stunning gothic aesthetic but set in the distant future with sci-fi technology.

it's essentially about this half-vampire named "D" who hunts vampires. and you may notice that the main character is very similar to alucard from castlevania, and thats because castlevania (the 1986 video game) was inspired by vampire hunter d (the novel that started in 1983). the story is about D and a bunch of other vampire hunters getting paid to save a human girl who has been taken by a vampire man. this movie has vampires, gothic vibes, action, adventure, romance, lots of blood, romance, magic, and much more. man i love vampires.

bloodlust is technically a sequel to the movie vampire hunter d (1985) however, the 2000's movie can be watched without knowledge from the 80's one, since both have their own self-contained plot. the 80's one is cool too but i recommend doing some research before watching it because its very very gorey and is quite graphic and mysogynistic.

ok last one for this post Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 (2023)

(theres a lot more i watched last year i just dont wanna ramble for too long lol)

*sigh* i feel so many things rn. technically i just finished watching it recently but i started watching it in 2023 so ill talk about it here.

my rating: 10/10

wow. man. gosh. idk how to describe this.

because this is a season 2 i cant really give a synopsis because i dont wanna spoil season 1 for anyone who hasnt seen it. just watch it. its so good. season 1 was amazing too i think i rated that a 9/10, but i was just blown away by season 2.

but also i do wanna say that as much as i want to compliment the art, its really important for MAPPA studios to understand that this level of animation quality is too heavy of a workload for a tv anime. the animators at mappa are suffering a horrible work environment bc of this. mappa either needs to lower their production quality, or lessen the workload by giving more time per project to work on stuff. currently, a mappa employee gets barely any time to work on each frame, unpaid overtime is expected, there are extremely strict rules surrounding sick leave/paid leave/holidays/etc, and the work environment there just kills any and all passion these artists had for animation before applying to work there. i hope that things will change at mappa and itll actually be somewhere that people are happy to work at in the future.

ANYWAYS thats the end. uhhhh thanks for reading me just rambling about anime i like. ok bye (๑>◡<๑)