Top 50 Anime – 40 through 31

40. Gurran Lagann

This is definitely one of them that falls into the odd category. Gurran Lagann is about mechs and trust, and rebuilding a whole ne world and spirals. A lot of spirals. Why spirals, it doesn’t make complete sense, but it’s from an age where anime like this needed to “mean” something deep without actually being that. But it’s a blast in what it does and the action is cool and fun for it being an older anime. It’s also nice because it’s not too long in what it does.

39. Saiki K

Another one that is very light and fun. This one is all about the slice of life vignettes of a psychic high schooler, and telekinetic, and basically the most overpowered character. But it’s not about him using his powers, really, it’s about how he wants to be normal and how, well, life can’t ever be normal for him. It’s good for a lot of laughs and some of the characters that he meets up with an interacts with are as crazy as he is. Not as powerful, but mainly just crazy and it’s a fun time for that.

Saiki K is one of those anime that is fun to throw on and just enjoy a few little slices of it and then come back for more in a day or two. You won’t lose the plot really, because it is slice of life and while there are a few stories that might show up again, none of them show up that often.

38. Edens Zero

Yup, keeping with the theme of light and goofy, this is a sci-fi anime from the creator of Fairy Tail. And this one I think is more fun for me. Edens Zero basically has some of the same characters in it, but the setting works better. And there’s less filler and less of a commitment to it. So I like that it feels a bit more focused.

It’s all about a boy, man, who is raised by robots. When they eventually stop working he needs to find out about the real world and go searching for a powerful being. It’s definitely got fan service, so does Fairy Tail, and it feels similar in the searching for someone plot line. But like I said, I like it better because it just seems more focused, in a crazy sort of way.

37. Rising of the Shield Hero

A year ago this one wouldn’t have been on my list. I hadn’t made it past the first episode. The first episode tries to be super serious and you don’t really like the main character or any of the other characters. But for me, once I pushed beyond that, it’s a fun isekai. It doesn’t for me stand out as one of my favorites, but there is a lot to enjoy about it.

The main character bounces back from being an edge lord well in it. And the other characters, as you start to meet characters from the world, they are all more interesting. It has a lot of tropes that you’d expect, but not in a bad way. It’s overall a solid and fun watch.

36. Food Wars

Let’s get it out of the way, this is a completely goofy and bonkers anime with the most fan service of any anime on my list. That said, it’s all done around how amazingly amazing or horrifingly horrifying the food tastes in it. And I like it because of the food theme.

The main character is only so likeable in it. But also he’s supposed to be. This is a school where everyone wants to be the best and they battle in food wars. Also he was raised by his father only who is not a remotely good role model for him. I haven’t watched the last season or so because it loses some of the actual food focus for it, but overall, it’s a completely absurd blast.

35. I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World

Not an isekai. I know the title makes this one sound like an isekai, but it’s only dabbling in that. The main character is a nobody. He’s out of shape, he’s not go much going for him. And he’s not really got any family around.

When he thinks he’s about down at the end of it when his Grandfather passes away, he discovers a portal to another world in his Grandfather’s house. There he becomes a new powerful character and person, and that translates into the real world as well. They bounce back and forth between real and fantasy world, and I enjoy it for that. I like an underdog becoming a hero, though, does his look fully need to change, probably not.

34. Toradora

I know my wife has this one rated much higher. It’s a high school anime where two unlikely characters fall in love and it’s really fun, quite funny, and quite heartfelt of a story. I really enjoy the dynamics of the main characters and the surrounding ones as well. Does it feel like something reasonable in real life, probably not, but it’s a well crafted romance. I think the biggest thing is that the main characters are really enjoyable for as absurd as they are. Which, thinking about it, kind of hits on a lot of anime in this genre that I love.

33. After School Dice Club

In all fairness to this anime, I doubt that After School Dice Club would be as high for most people. Why, because it’s about board games, and the story is just fine. The main characters are likable but they don’t always stand out. What I love about this one so much is it’s attention to detail for board games. It isn’t creating some random dumb game, it’s using real games, explaining them, and crafting stories around them. It’s amazing that way as a fan of board games.

32. The Devil is a Part-Timer

This is technically an isekai, fantasy, slice of life, romance, and probably a handful more different genres. It’s about the devil, from this weird realm, coming through to Earth. He loses out of his magic and needs to recharge to return to the war that is raging on in his realm. But how does he live in the real world, he gets a part-time job at McRonalds. Yes, it’s legally different, but you can guess what fast food restaurant this one parodies.

I like the action in it, I like the humor in it, and while not all the episodes are amazing, the show as a whole is a lot of fun. And for being a lot of slice of life, it handles weird random arcs that last several episodes really well. It’s a classic one for me at this point that I need to catch up on the latest season.

31. Don’t Toy with Me Miss Nagatoro

Another one that I really need to watch more of. I love the manga for this one as well. The main character is just a quiet artist in high school. Unfortunately for him Miss Nagatoro, one of his school mates who is younger than him has decided that she likes him and that he is her senpai. Except how she shows it is just messing with him as much as possible. It’s completely absurd, she is at times pushing it too far, but as she realizes that she likes him, the anime and mange shift in a fun way. This one is completely a romantic comedy and one that I enjoy as that background filler type of anime.

Final Thoughts

Which one of these do you like best or do you want to see? Let me know and let me know if there’s anything not on the list yet, that you think I need to watch. This section definitely is a whole lot lighter. But like I said, a lot of that comes from how much I’d want to watch it again. And there are a lot of them that would just be fun to watch again. I do promise there are a few heavier or more serious ones on the list. But it’s not that many.

So maybe that’s a question, what are some more serious anime that I should checkout. I’ve watched the 1997 Berserk, very serious, and that one didn’t make the list. But what else would be a good serious anime to watch?

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Top 5 Anime of 2023

It’s worth noting before I get into some honorable mentions that these are anime I watched in 2023. It doesn’t mean that the anime had to air in 2023. It might be something I stumbled across for the first time.

Honorable Mention

A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special – This is one that I just started watching and it’s actively coming out or at least actively getting dubbed. It’s about a character who when the world ends gets sent back in time with his knowledge to try and save the world. It’s a fun trope that I enjoy in manga and anime recently.

Jujutsu Kaisen – Jujutsu Kaisen is probably one of the more talked about animes where sorcerers are fighting demons. The main character, well, he’s a bit of a special one with the cursed energy that he has and how much he cares. This is mainly an anime with an okay story and some cool fights.

My Love Story with Yamada-Kun and Lv999 – You’ll find a few romance anime on this list, and I like this one a lot. It’s a cute story of a girl who joins an RPG only to get dumped by her boyfriend who got her into the game. Swearing off gamer boys, she finds that she accidentally might be falling for one again.

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too – Ah, the classic long title. This is the story of the zero to hero over night. As the main character is a nobody in the real world, and then when inheriting a portal to another world from his grandfather, he levels up there and well, levels up in the real world too.

5. Mashle

To start the list we have Mashle. This is one that I already talked about on the manga list. In fact, you’ll find a few that overlap. A lot of that is that I’d stumble across something and then hear that it’s coming out as an anime later. Mashle though, I think maybe makes a better anime than a manga. And I really enjoy the manga.

The story is pretty simple, it’s a non-magic user in a magic users world. In fact the world leans so heavily on magic that it shuns and throws out of society anyone that can’t use magic. So how is Mashle able to survive in a school for magic users? Well, that’s where the action and comedy come in as this story parodies other anime and manga out there.

This is one for people who want a pretty simple plot but a lot of dumb fun action and a dumb fun character, Mash Burnedead. In fact, all of the characters could qualify as dumb and fun. It’s just a good time.

4. Rent-A-Girlfriend

Now onto another one of the romance anime that I watched this past year. Rent-A-Girlfriend is an anime and story that I’d heard about but never really drew me in as a concept. A guy is down on his luck having been dumped by his girlfriend, so as a way to gain confidence he goes on a Rent-A-Girlfriend app and has a date with a rental girlfriend.

And I think that Rent-A-Girlfriend gets much better as the seasons go on. The first season is a bit rough. You don’t feel that sad for the guy and the relationship between the rental girlfriend and him is odd. But eventually, through some decent writing and plot, the story really develops into something meaningful. The main character never fully wins you over, at least he didn’t for me, but the rest of the characters and heart of the story work well.

3. Shangri-La Frontier

Another one from the manga list, Shangri-La Frontier is just one that I really enjoy. The main character loves his trash games. Video games that are so bad that they are almost unplayable. His goal is to beat them all and he has beat most of them. When he goes in to commiserate with a video game store owner about the last bad game, she recommends a break to a great game, and a new game Shangri-La Frontier.

I like this show as just a fun romp of a game. The most interesting part is probably the world and the complexity of the world being created. The main character is very good at the game, he should be since he’s really good at bad games. But that doesn’t take away from the wild but deep world and make it less enjoyable. Instead, you get to appreciate him appreciating something that is actually good. And sometimes dipping into appreciating something that is bad as he plays other games.

2. Spy x Family

Now we have one of the bigger anime for 2022, I believe. I just didn’t get around to watching it until 2023. In fact both my #2 and #1 are 2022 titles that I watched this year. Spy x Family is the story of a spy who has to pretend like he has a family in order to infiltrate a school and get close to one of the enemy countries leaders.

That’s the plot, but it’s really about how a spy, an assassin (they don’t know each others jobs) and a psychic daughter that he adopts all can live together and they grow together. Is it just a job or are they starting to have feelings for each other? Well, the daughter definitely loves them both, but what’s going on. It’s a story with a lot of cute little stories in it and sometimes some action and adventure as plots are uncovered and stopped. But all of that has a family backdrop to it.

1. My Dress-Up Darling

And my favorite anime of last year is My Dress-Up Darling. This one I really didn’t think I was going to like. I think my wife and I started watching it in 2022 and the 2nd episode is just tough to watch. It’s all of those cringy awkward things that I feel like you get in some comedies. It reminds me of Meet the Parents or 40-Year-Old Virgin awkward and kind of dumb writing.

But the show quickly moves on past that into a show still with some of that awkwardness, but not to the point where it’s the point of an episode. And it becomes more charming as you meet the characters more in depth and they grow. My Dress-Up Darling is really a great romance and story of characters growing together and bonding over cosplay. It’s also a dive into the world of cosplay and the people who go head over heals for it.

I know that it is a raunchy anime. There is a lot of fan service. And while I find that it doesn’t push itself too far, it definitely pushes itself a ways. That is going to be enough for some to skip it. But while it has all of that, it is, without doubt, the anime with the most heart that I’ve seen in a long while. It is just adorable and heart warming with how the characters interact.

Final Thoughts

This was a fun year of watching anime for me. There are some that I want to get back to and finish because I liked them, but it wasn’t the right time to watch.

Shy, a superhero anime, definitely interested me in what it was doing. As it felt like a different take, kind of, on superheroes, but it also hits some tropes.

Beast Tamer also almost made the list. A story of a character who seems underpowered or like his skills aren’t that great. But when the adventuring party doesn’t have him, well, maybe he’s worth more than they thought.

Didn’t I say to make my abilities average in the next life is another one that I kind of want to dabble in a bit more. An isekai, the main character wants to just be average and live a normal life in their next life. While, when they get dropped into the world, they are given the average of an ant (or something like that) and the most powerful ancient dragon. So they are on the high end of magic users and people in the world.

Plus a lot of fun ones are coming out in 2024. I’ll be doing a list looking forward soon. Which anime did you watch in 2023 that you really liked?

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