AzuraCub’s 2023 anime watchlist – Part 1

 

With the new year in full swing, it’s hard to believe January is over. For those of us who worked during the festive seasons, it’s safe to say we are exhausted, drained, and in need of some urgent “us” time. And what better way to do so other than watching anime!

Luckily for us weebs, we are able to easily relax when we are on leave, whether it’s through sleeping all day, playing games all night, reading a book, or simply binge-watching.
Our holidays are simple, cheap, and never boring. I believe our biggest worries are running out of games to play or what shows to watch.
It might sound very unlikely but it has happened to me, especially when I am overworked, burned out, and have no motivation left in me. To the point where I get anxious about not knowing what to play, what anime to watch, or what to read.

Thankfully long before I booked my leave, I started with an anime must-watch list or a re-watch list. A list of anime shows I wanted to watch and review for the blog.
The anime list I am still compiling will cover everything I find interesting, recommended shows by friends, and shows I have not watched before.

So let’s jump right into the below list of 4 shows I wanted to share with you all. These will be shows I already watched as a child/teen and have recently re-watched, and mostly because I cannot stop recommending them enough.

 

Solty Rei

 

Our story starts off with Roy Revants, a gun for hire busy chasing a criminal. After finally catching up with his target, it is clear that Roy is cornered, the two exchange words, and bullets start flying. In the fight, it is revealed that the criminal has an extended android arm which was illegally obtained. Roy’s target was about to launch the extended arm at Roy when something fell from the sky, crushing and ripping off the criminal’s mechanical arm.

It is later revealed that the fallen object was a green-haired girl and as he is unable to leave the girl there, he decides to take her to his residence. When she wakes up, Roy tried to ask her a few questions however it is clear that she cannot recall anything.
With Roy being the cold-hearted lone wolf, he quickly tells the girl to leave and not return.

Grateful for being saved she starts following Roy around town after being dismissed several times. Later the two are met by the same felon Roy was chasing, this time accompanied by his brother. The two criminals stole a high-class mobile suit and swore their revenge on Revant.
Telling the girl to run, Roy, hurt and bleeding, decides to try and lead them away from the City. The estranged green-haired girl shortly follows and decides to protect Roy despite his request to leave. She quickly displays incredible strength and it is revealed that she is some kind of android/machine herself.

With her power, she sends the mobile suit and the two felons flying into the Aurora Shell. A force field so powerful, anything that comes close to it, is destroyed, making flying at that altitude impossible.
Roy is later guilted by his own boss/friend and tricked into adopting the girl as his daughter who he names Solty. The two make a very unlikely pair as we see them dealing with their own personal issues, Roy with the loss of his wife and daughter and Solty trying to remember who she was and for what purpose she was created.

The anime first aired in 2005 so it’s a somewhat older anime show, but a must-watch. I was rather sad when the anime did not get another season as the ending in my opinion felt a bit rushed.
The opening song is still one of the best I have heard since watching anime and it’s still a golden classic that gets my heart racing and brings back childhood nostalgia.

Give the song a listen and let me know! 

 

 Witchblade

 

This is an anime show I previously wrote about but my love for it remains strong, it’s simply an amazing show filled with a lot of action and the animation is out of this world.
The anime aired in 2006 and while rewatching it again recently, I still think is an anime that should have gotten more episodes.

Our story starts off with Masane and her daughter Rihoko on the run from child services, due to the fact that Masane was declared an unfit mother. Instead of giving up her daughter to the authorities, mother, and child agree that it is best to remain together and run. 
Child Services eventually catches up with the pair and they got separated. Masane is then interrogated and later convinced that it is in Rihoko’s best interest if she leaves with child services. 
For a second she agrees and her daughter is loaded screaming into a vehicle, Masane comes to her senses and single-handedly overpowers two police officers. Showing her determination to be with her daughter, she steals a police vehicle and chases after the officer who took her child.

With her clouded judgment and chasing to get to her daughter, she crashes and is left unconscious. She later wakes up in a prison holding cell, tears streaming down her face and the reality sets in that she will never see Rihoko again.
Rihoko on the other hand escapes her so-called “captors” to look for her mother, after hearing that her mother is locked up at the police station. With her mother’s location revealed, she decided that she will go to her herself.

Back at the prison cell, we get the first glips of Masane’s hand, and at first, it seemed to be a simple birthmark or a burn she must have gotten during the blast, as she herself does not recall how she got it.
Her thoughts are interrupted by a loud bang from a prison mate in another cell. With each growing thump of the man trying to break the door down, Masane’s hand starts glowing and she feels tremendous pain.
With her screams, one of the officers calls for help, during this time, the door of the angry cellmate bursts open, revealing a transformed mobile suit. The criminal dashes forward pinning the officer to the wall and easily killing him.

Our villain then turns his full attention to Masane, craving her smell and promising a quick death. Somehow her body takes over and she herself transforms, turning into a very underdressed redhead, covered in armor and a blade.
As if another person has taken over, a transformed Masane is seen taunting her prey and killing him.

Now breaking out of the prison, Masane gets discovered by an unknown photographer who manages to take photos of her transformed state. Thanks to third-party interference, the photographer is chased away however they manage to tranq a transformed Masane.

This anime is filled with action, lots of fighting, and some very revealing ecchi scenes, so you have been warned.  
With that being said, I still someday want to own my very own Witchblade figurine, I mean have a look.

 

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed

 

My first interaction with the show was on Animax, a show I glanced over and avoided at first because I was not very into transformer kind of anime.
However, during the weekend the entire week’s episodes would air back to back and somehow I found myself sitting in front of the TV watching the show. Robots fighting was not really my thing until I really got into the show. Reading up on the show and all the shows before it, I see that everyone enjoys Mobile Suits more.

We are thrown into the deep end of a galactic war between superhumans and ordinary “humans”. Our ordinary humans are the Earth Alliance forces and our superhumans are called ZAFT coordinators.
The story starts off with Kira Yamato, thrown into the deep end when ZAFT coordinators raid an earth alliance base.
Caught in the crossfire after trying to save a worker, Kira is reunited with his childhood friend Athrun, now an enemy of Earth.
With the shock of seeing his childhood friend, Kira is thrown into the Mobile suit by the worker he was trying to save. Athrun escapes into another mobile suit and runs off, making their invasion mission a success as they manage to obtain some of the Mobile suits they wanted.

While trapped in the mobile suit with his savior, Kira is forced into battle when another coordinator decides to attack.
As the “worker lady” struggles to get the suit moving, Kira sees that innocent bystanders and his friends will be caught in the battle.
He asks the pilot to move and let him take over, she quickly does so as she is wounded and is amazed at Kira’s quick handy work.
Fighting off and defeating the other coordinator, outsmarting him, and winning the battle.
Notably, Kira does not kill the pilot but rather destroys the suit and the pilot escapes.

With the battle at hand currently won and Kira reunited with friends, the “worker” reveals that she is an officer of the Earth Alliance and that she is taking them all with her.
The group of individuals standing in front of her are notably teens still too young for war, which is unsettling for her, however, if they wanted to survive, she needed Kira. She apologizes as she realizes that her request was selfish and unfair.

This story takes on so many genres that it cannot be put into a short article, however, I highly recommend the anime if you enjoy good combat. The anime also does a really good job with character development, and one of the must-watch characters of the show, in my opinion, would be Flay. She adds a lot of depth to the characters around her, especially Kira. To some, she can be easily seen as the spoiled little brat who later turns into a side character villain.
Although she is disliked by many fans of the show, she plays a very important role, and this anime does a wonderful job of showcasing in-depth character development.

If you are looking for anime that focuses on story, then this show is 100% made for you.

 

Angelic Layer

 

The anime that got me daydreaming about the endless possibilities she shows concept could have offered, and the anime that got me dreaming of being a robotics engineer.
Sadly that was very short-lived as I was know wear smart enough for something like engineering.

The story follows Misaki Susuhara, a middle school girl who moves to Tokyo, to attend Junior high school. On her way to her aunt’s house she sees two women competing in a battle, a strange man in a lab coat explains to her that these are dolls competing against one another and are able to move thanks to the players controlling them.
Each player has their own style of fighting, showcasing different techniques, players are also able to customize their own dolls to their liking.
The two dolls fighting are noticeably different in size and Misaki starts feeling sad because it looked like the smaller doll was about to lose. Taking a lot of damage from the bigger doll and the smaller doll mostly remained on defense.
The tables are easily turned as the smaller angel jumps up in the air and spawns angel wings,  leading to her victory.
Misaki is fascinated by the idea and is easily convinced by the strange lab coat man to buy herself a doll.

After finally arriving at her aunt’s house who was very worried about not being able to reach the girl, Misaki explains that she spent all her money while shopping and could no longer afford the train ride, resulting in her having to walk.
Her aunt shows lots of joy upon hearing that the girl went shopping when she reached the city, however, is quickly disappointed when she sees what Misaki bought.

That night Misaki jumps right into the build and customization of her doll, accidentally cutting her hair too short but is able to fix it.
She decides that she too wants a small, lightweight, and speedy doll, like the one she saw before on the big screen.
The next day she takes her doll with her to school and she meets another player who noticed that Misaki’s doll was still not clothed. She wraps some material around the doll and it forms a dress. The other girl explains to her that this is a temp fix and that she would have to get Hikaru clothes.

Jumping ahead a bit, Misaki joins her first fight, struggling to get her doll to move but determined, she keeps trying, eventually resulting in her knocking out her opponent and winning her first battle.

With the help of the strange lab coat man, Misaki is all set and ready for a brand new adventure with her angel, Hikaru.
An adventure that leads them both into meeting a lot of different fighters from across the world and even a discovery that changes Misaki’s life. 

 

Looking at the list of anime, I really enjoyed all of them as they are shows I watched when I was a tiny little weeb. These shows are part of what started my love for anime.

And going forward I would like to compile a must bigger anime list for next year’s holiday season ^^), just so that I have more watching material.
I really want to write at least one article about a new anime every 2 months if not sooner, as it gives me the perfect excuse to sit in front of the TV and watch anime.

Based on my previous articles about anime shows and this one, what shows should I try to watch next? 

Lots of Love