I never would have thought that something as world-altering as a pandemic would halt my day-to-day life, kicking me back to a way of life I hadn’t experienced since my college days. Back then, I felt like I had all the free time in the world to explore hobbies, and it’s back then in 2011 when I first started this blog. It’s fitting then, in our forced quarantine where I returned once more to writing about anime, even though it was nothing like the academic style of the start.
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What is old can be new again, a lesson I’ve learned repeatedly over the years and is once again proven this recent fall season with Akiba Maid War, a single-cours show that combines familiar styles into one hell of a unique premise that will be talked about for years to come. From the initial idea to the execution, to the variety of cast members both regular and passing, to the catchy opening song and the follow up ending, I was surprised over and over again. No other fall anime competed for my attentions as much as this one; no other anime hyped me up only to cast me down as violently.
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While there have been a number of fantastic shows over this past year, summer’s anime-original show, Lycoris Recoil, still outshines almost all of them with the force of its unparalleled main character. Together with the cafe setting, there was no other show I waited for more as each week passed.
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It is with shock looking over the 2022 season that I realized SPY x FAMILY only began airing this year, with its two seasons spanning across multiple seasons and ending out this fall just as great as when it started in the spring. Back when it first aired, I remember the hype surrounding the anime adaptation, the love manga fans had for this unconventional family and the hope that the transition would treat the material with respect and care. As an anime-only fan, I didn’t have any particular expectations other than my usual for quality writing and characterization. SPY x FAMILY over delivers on the character writing, giving us a large cast of characters who each exhibit their own quirks, both public and private.
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2022 was a pretty huge year for anime communities, starting with Sony-owned Crunchyroll and Funimation merge in March and the follow-up purchase of Right Stuf in August. While reactions to the Funimation rebranding seemed mixed, there was an almost universal outcry at the loss of Right Stuf.
An ongoing crisis is Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Concerns abound across many communities, including my immediate AniTwitter circle, and I’ve seen plenty of friends migrate to other platforms or quit social media entirely.
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I can’t think of summer show Call of the Night without hearing Creepy Nuts playing in my brain, accompanying the warm summer night and purple lighting. Achingly atmospheric, this anime worked its way deep into my psyche and almost convinced me of the romanticism of city streets after dark. Main character, vampire Nazua Nanakusa, perfectly conveyed that sense of play and taboo. All together, this 13-episode series presented a complete work of art with the most effortless air of cool possible.
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June 6th of this year marked Kaiseki Anime Podcast’s 100th episode, one that featured 3 older films Draggle had yet to watch prior to the recording: Grave of the Fireflies, Perfect Blue, and Voices of a Distant Star. We started this project four years ago in March of 2018, and we’re still going strong today. It’s kind of crazy to me that we’re still churning out the episodes bi-monthly like clockwork. Given my waning interests and lazy nature, I was afraid we’d peter out long ago, or turn into one of those shows who upload inconsistently and skip entire months of content. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case and we both have the fortune of chatting by voice with a friend a couple of times a month.
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There have been a ton of shows over the past year with excellent romantic pairings and comedy, but almost of all of them are happy side dishes to what is a completely different entree. Very few feature love as the main focus of the show, and even fewer of them balance with humor as well as Romantic Killer.
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Yet another show from the start of the year in the winter season to make my 12 Days is Slow Loop, a show about a group of friends learning how to fish. This is a prime example of how cute girls doing cute things can make anything interesting–the category is the ultimate form of relaxation that I will continue to love no matter how many iterations we see in the future. Slow Loop‘s all-in approach to sharing its hobby with the audience, as well as the overall focus on family, drew me in despite my initial reservations.
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Almost a year ago now, the anime fandom was blessed with My Dress-Up Darling, which people seemed to either love or hate. You can count me firmly in the love camp–there’s very little about the show with which I found issue. Is the content rating perhaps more explicit than at first glance? Most assuredly. Does the main character get side-lined in favor of the heroine? Yes, to a degree. But it’s also a fact that nothing else comes close to rivaling the passion displayed here.
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Anime B&B 