Doctorkev’s Spring 2023 Anime Postmortem Part 2 — Best of the Season
Yesterday I wrote about the Spring 2023 anime shows I graded from “meh” to “ok” to “good”. This time it’s the turn of the shows I found “exceptional”, and this season has been particularly strong. Let’s get to it! In no particular order…
Tengoku Daimakyou (Heavenly Delusion): Disney+/Hulu, 13 episodes
If only Disney/Hulu hadn’t licensed, then screwed around, with this incredible series, then no doubt it would have been one of the most talked-about shows of the season. But no — first they failed to use the manga’s already recognised English-translated title, listing it instead under its Japanese name that casual viewers were guaranteed to skip over. In the US, Hulu forgot to list the first episode on time, and its customer service reps didn’t even know the service held the streaming licence. Then of course there was zero publicity. Why even bother showing fantastic anime like this — let alone dub it — if it’s only going to be sent out to wither on the vine? Disney!! Grrr.
Anyway, I love this. Dark and mysterious with deeply unsettling vibes leavened by goofy humour and relatable characters, Heavenly Delusion is a dead cert for a place in my top 5 anime of the year. Intricately plotted, with two disparate storylines that at first seem completely unrelated, they gradually dovetail to connect in disturbing ways. Heavenly Delusion refuses to spoonfeed its viewers, and the fates of certain characters are obvious only to those paying attention to details and contextual clues.
The final couple of episodes deal with some profoundly uncomfortable subjects including rape and sexual assault, among other things, so if those are potential triggers for you, perhaps the show is best skipped. However if you’re willing to tolerate storytelling that plumbs the depths of human depravity in order to juxtapose it against positive values like self-sacrifice, love and loyalty, Heavenly Delusion is a very rewarding watch. Production IG have really pulled out all of the stops to make a masterful adaptation with stunningly high production values. As it’s based on a still-ongoing manga, the conclusion isn’t very definitive. There are rumours that it’s already been renewed for a second season, but we’ll likely be waiting a while as there’s currently only enough manga chapters to fill maybe another six episodes at most. This is not the kind of show that is suitable for an anime-only ending.
Skip and Loafer: Crunchyroll, 12 episodes
I’m so sad now that this great feelgood slice-of-life show has finished. We need a second season! I’m sure not all of the source manga has been adapted. With deep, relatable characterisation across the whole cast and an absolutely delightful female lead, Skip and Loafer was one of the highlights of my week. Each of these characters have multiple motivations, strengths, flaws, self-doubts and convincing interiority. I desperately want to see more — I want naive, adorable country girl Mitsumi to succeed in her dreams, while remaining true to her ideals. I want main male character Sosuke to learn to move on with his life and accept himself. It’s rare that I feel quite so invested in anime characters as I have been with those in Skip and Loafer. I swear Mitsumi is now my spirit animal.
Oshi no Ko: HIDIVE, 11 episodes
Probably the most majorly-hyped show of the season, this no-holds-barred adaptation of Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari’s sensational manga did not disappoint. An almost unprecedented feature-length first episode laid much of the groundwork for a further ten normal-length episodes of what could be argued feels like a different show altogether. As someone who is up to date with the manga, let me reassure you that the themes and details from the opener receive callbacks, references and further plot relevance again and again and again. Akasaka has constructed a meticulous story that relies on slightly bonkers plot logic, run through with both deep cynicism and real emotional depth.
My favourite character by far is red-headed grown-up child actor Kana Arima. I was called out on this by the final episode where a random audience member comments “she’s the type that otakus like, huh?” Oh well, guess I’m predictable. My wife agrees, she groaned and glowered at me when I told her I liked Kana the best when I rewatched the dub version with her. The dub, by the way, has been pretty decent so far. I don’t understand why the dub doesn’t use Yaosobi’s excellent English version of the opening theme though— it doesn’t sound forced, the words and their meanings fit the cadence and tone of the song so well.
Oshi no Ko ends in a weird place — after the resolution of one story arc and after the beginning of the next. I guess that’s effective to hook viewers into watching the already-confirmed second season (yay!), but don’t expect any thematic or narrative satisfaction. This is but the first chapter in a much longer, much weirder story. I hope that fan enthusiasm keeps sustained, following the hype of the first episode.
The Dangers in My Heart: HIDIVE, 12 episodes
This show snuck out of nowhere to become one of my very favourites of the season. It wasn’t even on my radar until fellow AniTAY writer and podcast host Requiem asked me to watch it. After an admittedly rough couple of first episodes, something clicks, and it becomes one of the most wholesome and compelling school romances I’ve ever seen. If you’d told me a couple of months ago that The Dangers in My Heart would rival Skip and Loafer in my affections, I’d have said you were crazy.
Main female character Anna Yamada is like a force of sugar-addicted nature, and her mix of innocence, confidence and inclusiveness is the perfect foil to introverted protagonist Kyotaro Ichikawa’s pathological self-deprecation and negativity. Kyotaro’s self-deception is so profound it takes him several episodes to even comprehend that he’s crushing on Anna, and several more to even entertain the possibility that she shares his feelings.
With every episode they inch yet closer, small victories won by both over their individual challenges that the viewer can’t help but cheer for. I am beyond delighted that a second season is coming next year, this show is like catnip to me. I hope they continue with the absurdly high production values (seriously, this show looks shiny) and great music of the first season.
Vinland Saga Season 2: Crunchyroll, 24 episodes
This second season of Vikings’n’Violence turned out to be very different from the first — in that it mostly sidelined the actual sea-faring, warmongering vikings, reduced the frequency of the violence, and instead focused on the effects of such a brutal society on the small people living in it. Those looking for a dopamine-fix of beheadings and lopped-off-limbs won’t find it here. Vinland Saga both interrogates and admonishes the mindset that looks to wanton violence for entertainment or material gain. Chief example of this development is previous murderkind Thorfinn’s turn from crazed berserker to pensive pacifist. After years of frenzied butchery, Thorfinn finally takes to heart the lessons instilled by his father way back in the very first episodes of the first season.
There’s a reason that some dub this season “Farmland Saga”, because much of it details the day-to-day struggles and injustices of indentured agricultural slaves in an unequal society. It doesn’t shy away from the horrors and abuse that arise when one human declares themselves the owner of another. Nowhere is this more upsetting than in the treatment of female slave Arnheid by her master, supposedly “reasonable” farmer, and slave owner Ketil. This one scene made me sick to my stomach — but Vinland Saga never glorifies nor justifies the actions of its characters. They are products of their twisted society, yet their crimes are their own. Even our protagonist Thorfinn committed countless atrocities before humbling himself to find a better way to live.
Vinland Saga is a difficult watch at times, but it’s always compelling, often heartbreaking. The source manga is currently winding its way towards the conclusion of its fourth and final story arc, and this second season adapts the second in its entirety. I would find it difficult to believe that plans are not in place for an eventual adaptation of the third arc at some point in the next few years. Hopefully by then I will have fully digested the meat of this second arc and will be able to stomach a third helping of Viking Emotional Damage.
Ranking of Kings Treasure Chest of Courage: Crunchyroll, 10 episodes
The original first cour of Ranking of Kings was my number one TV anime of 2021. While its second cour in 2022 dropped off a little in terms of storytelling quality, it was still good enough to reach my top six. With only a small number of manga chapters left to adapt, I resigned myself to waiting perhaps years for a follow-up season. Then, out of nowhere, this ten-episode season appeared, filled with short little vignettes dotted around the continuity of the preceding 23 episodes.
There’s a baseline of quality to everything Wit Studio does — I can’t think of a single bad anime they’ve produced, and thankfully Treasure Chest of Courage doesn’t break that winning streak. Any more King Bojji is a win in my book. It seems each of these vignettes is based on “extra” chapters from the manga, and they fill in lots of details — some extraneous, some important — of the larger story. I’d say around half of the episodes are an essential watch, including a couple set after the conclusion of the first season that tie up some dangling plot threads, while tantalising us with even more.
It’s a great way to re-acquaint yourself with beloved characters, spend a little more time with them, and learn more of their backstories. I expect we’ll be in for a long wait for a “proper” sequel season, but there’s recently been an announcement of an upcoming Ranking of Kings movie. Whether that’s an anime-original story, or the next canonical adventures of our favourite prince, who can tell? But I’ll be there to watch him every heartbreaking, inspiring, astonishing step of the way.
The Ancient Magus Bride Season 2 (Part 1): Crunchyroll, 12 episodes
It’s really hard to appraise these first twelve episodes (the second half of the season resumes in October) as it’s mostly all setup. Fascinating setup, but not a huge amount has actually happened yet. Already this feels like a very different show to the first season, as it focuses much less on sketetal mage Elias and teenager Chise’s relationship. Instead, with the move to a very Harry Potter-esque magic college, we now meet a wide range of characters, some whom appeared briefly in the first season, others appear now for the first time. Intrigue and secrets abound, the world remains as brutal, sinister and dangerous as ever, and everyone has their secrets. It’s compelling and beautiful, and I’m looking forwards to the narrative pieces falling into place when the show returns in Autumn.
Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story: Crunchyroll, 25 episodes — ENDING SPOILERS
Is this truly the last we’ll hear the iconic cries of “VENUS LINE!!!” at the beginning of each insane 24-minute orgy of sapphic golf melodrama? Say it isn’t so! The first cour of this incredible anime was my number two of 2022, after Summer Time Rendering, and I’m happy to say I enjoyed the second part equally as much. And I still don’t even like golf. I’m seriously toying with the idea of showing this to my rather straight-laced, golf-obsessed father, if only to see the look of blank incomprehension on his face. This is real golf, dad. Not that pathetic, boring counterfeit you play for hours, week in, week out. Yeah, I’m sure he’ll love it.
Anyway, this is golf with the anime influence dialed so far up past eleven that our main characters make exploding rainbows appear with their super-powered golf swings, the golf mafia returns with their hilarious literal underground mechanical roguelike golf course, and golf-induced fatal illness becomes a real thing. One could argue that the long-hyped climactic Eve/Aoi golf battle ends on a technicality, but I’m not sure there was even going to be a “real” winner. Ever the incorrigible tease, the main girls’ blatantly romantic subtext remains just that — with no concrete validation or admission from the production team.
I can’t see there being another season, with the final episode featuring a several-year-timeskip epilogue that frustratingly resolves a bunch of important plot points off screen, I can’t really see where a further extended story could go. Perhaps a movie to cap everything off? Would that be too much to ask?
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Season 2: Crunchyroll, 24 episodes (plus a prologue episode 0) — ENDING SPOILERS
From the same studio that brought us Birdie Wing, here’s another anime prominently featuring an apparent lesbian couple — yet this one ends with more overt resolution and validation of their relationship than their golf girl colleagues managed. Saying that, it’s odd that for a show where the same-sex-couple were a prominent part of the week-to-week discourse on social media, there were few overall scenes of Suletta and Miorine interacting with one another. I get it, it’s a Gundam show where perhaps the focus was deliberately pivoted more towards political machinations and big robot fights, but it seems weird for such a central aspect of the story to feel so sidelined.
In the first cour, Miorine was mostly mean to Suletta, while Suletta was mostly confused. Then in the second cour, for the vast majority, Suletta and Miorine are separated, while Miorine makes enormous decisions that badly affect Suletta to heartbreaking effect. We hardly ever see them acting friendly or intimately with one another, it’s often hard to believe they’re even friends. What, exactly, do they even like about one another? The show makes it so hard to tell. Miorine and Suletta have most certainly been the poster couple for LGBTQ representation in the anime industry recently, but I can’t help but wonder if there’s been a significant amount of projection here from fans — they see what they want to see, but in reality there isn’t a whole lot of substance to this show’s central relationship. Yes, there’s a very sweet and cute resolution to their relationship (and much like Birdie Wing, a time-skip epilogue), but I can’t help but feel that huge numbers of contextual scenes were excised at some point to keep the industrial intrigue plot purring over.
There’s my other concern too — despite watching the show closely, I still don’t understand anything about why most of the ancillary characters did what they did, nor the reason for their apparent heel-turns and random decisions. What was Guel’s brother up to? Why did Shaddiq just sort of… give up? Who was really in charge of anything? Did Miorine really have the power to make the enormous decision she made in the final episode? I felt taken along for the ride as far as the plot went — strapped in, staring at the pretty colours flashing by, while comprehending little of the meaning behind them.
At least the mecha fights are spectacular, even if the climactic conflict is resolved far too quickly and easily, by magical rainbow particle bullshit. I still don’t understand what the problem with Gundams in this universe is, what “Permet Scores” actually are, and what the “Data Storm” actually is. If anything, it reminds me of the technobabble in the worst Star Trek Voyager episodes where some external threat is neutralised by transmogrifying the deflector array to emit charged squerble particles, or some other lazy writing crap. Perhaps someone else can explain to me why the stuff that happened in this show happened?
If it sounds like I’m being overly negative here, please understand this is the first time I’ve ever watched a Gundam show to its conclusion. I watched the majority of Gundam Wing when it showed on Cartoon Network over 20 years ago, but gave up because I found the plot incomprehensible. Is this just a Gundam thing? Anyway, despite plot complaints, I had a lot of fun with Witch from Mercury, and it has reignited my interest in building Gunpla. I suspect that’s the job done, as far as the producers are concerned. I’ve already built two (HG Aerial and HG Pharact) with two more waiting on my desk for a rainy day. I think I might go back and watch Iron Blooded Orphans on Netflix now, plus I picked up the blu-rays of the original Mobile Suit Gundam show from the late 70s. I think I may be doomed.
Thanks for reading to the end of my thoughts about these great shows from Spring 2023. I’ll be back halfway through the Summer 2023 season with thoughts on the new shows and sequels that are just about to start!
