Anime and Manga Goals in 2023

In keeping with my other posts, I wanted to make a small list of anime and manga goals for 2023. I’m still generally trying not to be too specific about what I want to watch and read because I don’t want to force myself to do anything I may not be in the mood for throughout the year, but hopefully these goals will help spark some inspiration if I am ever stuck without anything to do. Instead of doing two separate lists here, I decided to pick three goals for reading manga and three for watching anime, which seems like plenty. Since I have some pretty big goals for other areas, like gaming and watching movies, it will be nice to have a slightly more relaxed agenda around some form of media that I enjoy.

Manga goals

Catch Up on More Shonen Jump and Jump+ Series

I have a subscription to Shonen Jump‘s online publication, which allows me to read most manga, both old and new, that has been part of the magazine over the years. Right now, I am fully caught up on Chainsaw Man and SpyXFamily, but I would love to get caught up on a few more. It’s really fun to read the new chapters from week to week and have a steady dose of content, so I would like to catch up on some other big series like Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia next year. Additionally, it would be nice to read some completed series like Assassination Classroom through the service.

Read One of the Big Three Manga

This is a huge goal that may very well take me more than one year, but I would eventually like to read all three of the “big three” manga, which consists of Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece. All three of these series are huge and frequently referenced in pop culture, so I would like to learn more about why they are all beloved. For 2023, however, I’m just going to commit to getting as far as I can in one of these three, and leave the other two to a future year.

Read At Least Three Series Not in Shonen Jump

Finally for manga-related goals, I have a tendency to read a disproportionate amount of Shonen Jump compared to other titles due to having a cheap and easily accessible subscription to a service that allows me to read that particular magazine’s titles. Therefore, I want to use this goal to purposefully force myself to pick up a few other titles outside of this service. Maybe I’ll finally pick up Monster after falling in love with the anime, or I’ll read Blood on the Tracks because I enjoyed The Flowers of Evil. I’m not sure what my reading will look like here, but I’m excited to try some more manga outside of the Shonen Jump catalog.

Anime

Watch an Anime with Over Fifty Episodes

When there are so many anime to choose from, it becomes incredibly easy to constantly choose the shortest shows possible to knock as many items off the seemingly endless to-watch list as possible. Since I know this is true about myself, one of my goals is to watch at least one anime that has over fifty episodes. This can be either fifty episodes across multiple seasons or fifty episodes in a continuous run, but either way, it will force me to finally watch a lengthy show that I have been putting off (like perhaps Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood).

Watch at Least One Show Per Season

Since I really want my primary goal of 2023 for anime-watching to be simply clearing out as much of my backlog as possible, I want to make sure that I am also keeping up with the current shows, as well. Therefore, every season, I want to watch at least one currently-airing show. In fact, I may even try a few of them for the purposes of writing about them and discussing which ones kept my interest the best throughout the early episodes.

Follow the MyAnimeList 2023 Challenge

I am constantly stuck in a cycle of having so many good shows to watch, but feeling like I can’t pick any of them because I may make the “wrong choice”. One way that I have decided to counter this in 2023 is by following the 2023 challenge on MyAnimeList. The limitations on each prompt will force me to narrow my choices and just pick something to watch. I’m excited to explore some new shows this way and hopefully finish the challenge!

That’s it for my manga and anime goals. Are there any particular series you are interested in picking up? Let me know in the comments below!