To say that 2023 felt like the hardest year of my life
feels like an understatement. Between
unimaginable family loses to work stress to everything in between, this year
pretty much kicked my ass on an almost daily basis. Sad to say I feel like some
of that crept into my creative side and while I feel like it may have suffered
for it a little, the Gundam Anime Corner still persevered and remains one of my
favorite outlets for dealing with the stress of life. For all the grief it did give me, 2023 did
grace me with a slew of incredible titles to review and five of them blew me
away as being some of the best I’ve ever reviewed for this blog. So with 2023 on the cusp of ending, today’s
Top 5 Wednesday continues the year end traditions of me looking at the Top 5
Best Titles I’ve Reviewed in 2023. Side
Note: This is coming out a week before usual because next week’s Top 5 will be
dedicated to closing out our year long look at Sailor Moon, which also wraps up
on Christmas Day next week. Did any
season make the list? Read on to find
out.
2023 saw a plethora of titles led by solid and strong
female protagonists from Usagi Tsukino in Sailor Moon to Katarina Claes in My
Next Life as a Villainess.
Reviewed back
to back, both Suzume and Belle were so incredible I had to give them a shared
slot on this list.
Suzume continues
Makoto Shinkai’s winning streak with gorgeously animated and thrilling
adventures, with the world ending stakes bigger than ever before and the right
girl ready to stand in the way of an apocalypse.
Belle has all the action and heart of Summer
Wars but with the additional strength of a beautiful soundtrack with two voice
actresses bearing their soul with each new song.
Belle and Suzume moved me to tears and at one
point each were up for consideration as the big Year 9 Anniversary Review.
And considering the Free Finale turned out to
be a letdown…maybe I should have just double featured these two instead
#4-Star Wars: Visions 2
While the first Volume gave every major Anime Studio a
chance to live out their Lightsaber dueling fantasies, Star Wars Visions 2
kicked everything up significantly by not only expanding the list of stories
that could be told but also giving animation studios from across the globe a
chance to get in on the action.
While
Lightsaber fights were still a must, Visions 2 gave us beautiful dancing Rebel
spies, a Force driven horror story, and a freaking Speeder Race animated by the
studio behind Wallace and Gromit.
Cultural representation and capable female leads drove every tale woven
in Visions 2 and as a life long fan of this franchise, I can say for certain
that some of my favorite Star Wars stories ever have come from this latest
Animated anthology. If you love the first Volume, you’ll love Star Wars Visions
2 even more.
#3-Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
While Cyberpunk 2077 will never be able to fully escape
the shadow of its disastrous launch, the same cannot be said for the Anime
spinoff no one asked for but didn’t know they needed.
Giving the reigns to Studio Trigger not only
unleashed Cyberpunks full balls to the wall crazy energy, it also gave us their
darkest and most hard hitting animated project to date. While the series starts
off with a gang of Edgerunners having a blast, the story quickly delves into the
risks of becoming too overreliant on tech and the harsh realities of the city
that’s doing its best to eat you alive.
Add in a stellar cast of memorable characters including Best Couple
David and Lucy and fan favorite Rebecca and you’ve got Trigger at its very best
since Kill La Kill.
Trust me, I’m not
itching to try Cyberpunk 2077 anytime soon. But this Anime took me totally by
surprise and you don’t have to know a thing about the game to enjoy this hard
hitting masterpiece that’s one of the best Video Game Adaptations along with
Castlevania.
#2-Godzilla Minus One
Godzilla Minus One had a couple of big hurdles to
overcome.
Not only is the film
celebrating the franchises 70
th anniversary, it’s also following up
my all time favorite Godzilla film, Shin Godzilla.
And while I still like Shin better, Godzilla
Minus One is an absolute triumph that should sit nicely in any Godzilla fans
Top 5.
The setting is perfect.
The stakes feel greater than they ever have.
The Human Cast are some of the best ever
written for a Godzilla film.
And
Godzilla himself?
Holy crap he’s never
been more scary than he’s been ravaging Japan two years after the end of World
War II.
This isn’t just one of the best
Godzilla movies ever made, it’s one of the best Movies of 2023 Period and one
of two special films I gave a perfect 10 this year.
#1-Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl
This might be a first for the Gundam Anime Corner.
This is the second entry in the Bunny Girl
Sempai series to score a Best Title of the Year ranking and the #1 slot at
that, but holy crap it earned it.
While
ending the series without resolving it’s biggest lingering mystery may have
been a bit of a detractor, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl proved it
was worth holding off on it for a feature film.
How can you not be holding your breath wondering if Mai and Sakuta’s
romance will survive this latest Puberty Syndrome Case?
How can you not grow to care about Shoko’s
mysterious and tragic case?
How can you
not feel the ultimate gut busting gasp of that big movie twist?
The TV Series had my attention but the movie
had my heart and soul in its grasp.
There’s a reason I gave this movie a perfect 10/10 (and coincidentally
also considered it for a Year 9 Anniversary candidate). My advice: binge watch
Rascal Does not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai and then watch this movie
immediately afterwards.
It may not be
the capstone on the franchise but it’s one of the wildest and most emotional
rollercoasters you’ll ever experience in all of Anime.
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