Outstanding anime: We offer recommendations from home and abroad

Leave some time for your 2024 schedule: 2023 and 2024 have created masses of outstanding anime productions. We have "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End," which has the highest rating on various anime rating sites; "Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part. 3," which brings the highest wave of discussion for Japanese anime; the most popular Chinese anime, "Fog Hill of Five Elements"; and the most-anticipated anime movie, "BOCCHI THE ROCK!." Do not hesitate to look through these recommendations of the best anime in 2023 and 2024 to find some you enjoy.

"Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" (Japanese)

Madhouse Studio makes another animation expected to become legendary in the Japanese industry.

In 2023, on September 29, Madhouse brought "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" to Japanese TV screens. After airing, Frieren instantly became the most popular animation on Anime Rating Sites such as MyAmineList.

Based on the comic story written by Kanehito Yamada, Japanese director Saito Keiichiro perfectly retells the story of elf girl Frieren taking on the journey of trying to understand humans after her party member Himmel, who beat the Demogorgon with her, dies. An elf's lifespan is much longer than humans, and the perspective on time is different between Frieren and others.

The death of Himmel and memories of him make Frieren start to become curious about the human species and cross the barriers of time to restart her journey with new partners. This amine uses a joyful tone to discuss many thoughtful questions such as what is the meaning of life, and how to live well.

This educational anime has been viewed as the best anime to represent 2023, even though it has been updated. If you want something that inspires you to slow down to think carefully about what you want to do and re-evaluate your life, do not miss this.

"Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part. 3" (Japanese)

Almost every anime fan knows the title of Attack on Titan, which is another legendary story that started in 2013. In 2023, on November 5, Japanese amine studio MAPPA used 1.5 hours to put an end to the story.

It is a world that contains mysterious titanic power and the people on Paradis Island are afraid of this power. However, with continued exploration, they gradually find the truth of Paradis Island and the source of the titan. The final story continues with the plan of stopping Eren Jaeger from using titanic power to destroy the world. The anime was so hot-blooded that the title of Attack on Titan occupied all video sites. Even though the rating for this final piece is not higher than Frieren, it still set off an incredible discussion on popularity in November. Many fans said that Attack on Titan represented a time of companionship between Japanese anime and themselves, and it was a historic time to see the story end.

If you are a Japanese anime fan and did not watch during that time, now is the time to do so.

"Fog Hill of Five Elements" (Chinese)

"Fog Hill of Five Elements" perfectly breaks the stereotypes of Chinese animation such as always using 3D characters. Under the supervision of director Lin Hun, all the scenes in "Fog Hill of Five Elements" were hand-painted and combine wash painting and traditional Chinese painting elements.

The incredible fighting scenes vividly represent the grand style of wash painting and act as a model of how to insert Chinese elements into animation. The story of a group of people who could use the power of the traditional Chinese five elements against evil creatures is attractive and interlocked.

It is definitely the top Chinese animation and highly recommended.

"Delicious in Dungeon" (Japanese)

How could somebody make a meal in a dungeon? Where is the food supply?

"Delicious in Dungeon" provides a unique perspective of life in a dungeon. From the pen of Ryoko Kui, four adventurers try to save their partner who has been swallowed by a dragon, and start their journey in the dungeon.

They use their wisdom to make all kinds of monsters into delicious meals and explore the secrets of the dungeons. The joyful pace and innovative idea about treating the dungeon as an ecosystem and trying to protect it are the main intriguing points of this amine.

If you are ready to start a different journey and have enough preparation to see how those monsters become delicious meals, you should not miss this.

"PLUTO" (Japanese)

The title of Astroboy has been recognized as one of the masterpieces in Japanese comic areas painted by Osamu Tezuka. As a fervent fan of Osamu Tezuka, Naoki Urasawa, another outstanding cartoonist, has made an extended story of Astroboy in 2010.

The upcoming "PLUTO" was so popular that Hollywood had already made a movie version of that during that time. Netflix uses only eight episodes, vividly telling the story of the coexisting structure of humans and robots and the conflict between the seven most advanced robots and "PLUTO."

The discussion about the development of robots and AI is intense. If you are interested in this kind of topic, the artwork of "PLUTO" will provide some new factors for you to think about.

"Bu Liang Ren, Season 6" (Chinese)

The majority of Chinese animations are based on stories of online novels or historical events, Bu Liang Ren is one of those. It is a story at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the final generation of Tang Dynasty emperor Li Xingyun was born at the secret organization called Bu Liang Ren.

The head of Bu Liang Ren wants Li to restore the dynasty's power, but Li only wants to engage in a normal life. The conflict between them and other authorities produces an intriguing story for the audience.

However, in 2014, the ability of the producer of Bu Liang Ren, Beijing Digital Technology Company, to make 3D characters was only immature. In 2023, with the advance of 3D character skills and the ability to produce better picture quality, the title of Bu Liang Ren Season 6 started to rise to the top of Chinese animation based on its attractive story background.

"Capsules Season 2" (Chinese)

The largest pop-up video site in China, Bilibili has promoted the Capsules project which encourages Chinese animation workshops to produce creative and original animes based on different topics.

In 2023, on December 5, the second season for this project was released and 13 ambitious animation workshops brought their proud pieces to the project.

Even though those 13 episodes contained totally different stories and only lasted an average of 10 to 15 minutes, all of them shared traditional Chinese culture such as kungfu or water painting, and used interesting ways to reveal unique Chinese lifestyles and social phenomena.

For example, using the kungfu stage to expose the scene of a cat being neutered. Many fans who are passionate about promoting Chinese animations said the Capsules project steadily improved the skill of Chinese animations.

"BOCCHI THE ROCK!" (Japanese, upcoming)

If we consider that "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" is the best anime in 2023, made by Saitō Keiichirō and Madhouse, BOCCHI THE ROCK! is the best anime from 2022, produced by Saitō Keiichirō and Cloverworks.

Before this anime, the majority of Japanese animations used positive, active, and warmhearted features for their main characters. However, BOCCHI THE ROCK! choose to reveal the life of a high school girl, Gotoh Hiori, who has severe social phobia. The story starts with the meeting between Gotoh Hiori and three other girls who are interested in playing instruments and intend to start a band. Funny stories are involved in daily life with the collision of social phobias and other relatively positive characters.

More than that, this anime is trying to advocate that society show more understanding of people who are not good at social interactions and to encourage people who have social phobia that they could still have a fascinating life.

In 2024, the upcoming movie of BOCCHI THE ROCK! will no doubt become one of the highly anticipated amines in the cluster of animation fans.

"INCARNATION Season 2" (Chinese, upcoming)

INCARNATION is a Doomsday-themed story. A change of environment forces humans to live on the giant fly machine called "Lighthouse" and the resources are all based on an elite team who routinely search on the ground.

Mark is the head of the search team and takes the responsibility to fight with immortal monsters. However, his team finds there are some secrets hidden by the master of the "Lighthouse" and their adventure is struggling between the monster on the ground and human authorities on the sky.

YHKT Entertainment and Bilibili collaboratively created the second season of INCARNATION and the preview video which was posted in July 2023 had millions of visitations on sites such as Bilibili and Tiktok. The formal series will be uploaded in 2024, so do not miss this most-anticipated Chinese animation.