#tl;dr benriya saitou-san and revenger tied for anime of the season

[crehador]

brother crab's 2023 seasonals in review: winter

there were some bonkers good series this year, and i apparently watched or am watching... 75 of them! what the hell lmao let's see what stood out to me in winter

revenger and benriya saitou-san, isekai ni iku were the two gems for me, and ironically i didn't follow either as it aired. both were very bingeable and if it had had just... a slightly less unsatisfactory ending... revenger would've been an easy anime of the season pick for me

but alas, with the ending revenger does have, i'd say it's a tie with saitou-san, which really gets a boost from its surprisingly uhhh poignant dog ate penis arc

in terms of sequels (which i tend to weigh separately from anime originals or new adaptations) everything was pretty good, we had bsd s4, tsurune s2, gokushufudou s2, and the vampire dies in no time s2

tsurune s2 gets the win for best sequel of the season for me, if only because it provided some of my new favorite seiya moments

quickfire thoughts on some others:

ooyukiumi no kaina wound up being a little bit of a disappointment after some beautiful and fascinating worldbuilding in the first episode

high card was decent enough for me to add the upcoming season to planning but the team dynamics haven't really grabbed me yet

koori zokusei danshi to cool na douryou joshi was some mild cute fun but the pacing felt really wonky at times, and it was swiftly outclassed by watakon later in the year

tomo-chan wa onnanoko! was not terribly memorable, but i did appreciate that it was a full/complete adaptation

shuumatsu no vlkyrie ii also originally released this season, but i didn't binge the whole thing until later this year. it's a banger they got gyaru buddha here what more can i say

the idol series of the season, technoroid and uniteup, were both fine. fun! but besides like one anela song neither series had me looping any music

speaking of music

op of the season goes to tristamp and ed of the season goes to nier, absolutely no contest (which is very refreshing because it's usually so difficult for me to pick lol)

uhh... what else would be good to include... otp of the season? might not always have one but raizou &/ usui (revenger) briefly had me by the balls for sure lmao