Hard to believe… It’s 2022 already. And time to preview a new anime season! So, without further ceremony, hit the jump and let’s dive right in.
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As is my usual habit here at the Lounge, these aren’t necessarily in any particular order. It’s pretty easy to sort by broad bands, but mostly pointless to sort in details.
The shows that I am anticipating are in bold, shows my wife and I are anticipating together are in bold italics.
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Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Part 2
Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2
First up… the Titan elephant in the room. The show that used to be a huge cultural touchstone in the anime community, but which hardly anyone talks about anymore.
Why? I have no idea. Maybe it’s overstayed it’s welcome. Maybe it was the odd trajectory of the third season’s narrative arc. (Though the discussion of that season was already muted compared to earlier.) It’s still good mind you, it’s just not attracting the buzz.
I’m mostly curious here to reach the ending scene. From what I hear, the final panel of the manga generated some huge controversy.
Streaming on: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu
SLOW LOOP
When Hiyori—a young girl whose deceased father taught her the joys of fishing—headed out to sea for some alone time, she never thought that she would encounter another girl there.
After a while, this girl—named Koharu—and her end up fishing and cooking together, and they get to know each other a bit in the meantime. During their brief time together Koharu finds out that the reason Hiyori went out to sea that day was because she’s hesitant towards meeting her new step family that same evening. But what a coincidence! Koharu is also meeting her new family tonight! “No. It can’t be a coincidence…” Follow these two ‘sisters’ and their new life together!
Source LiveChart.me
Found family, CGDCT, cooking… when I read the description out to my wife, I asked her if there could possibly be a more Derek show. “Only if one turns out to be an idol” she replied. Which I think is fair and accurate.
Unfortunately, this one hasn’t been announced for any streaming services. I’m crossing my fingers and toes!
For the trivia minded, we’ve now reached the year of SAO…
Leadale no Daichi nite
In the Land of Leadale
After being put on life support after a tragic accident, Keina Kagami’s only freedom comes from the VRMMO RPG Leadale.
One day her life support system shuts off and Keina passes away.
When she wakes up, she finds herself in Leadale two hundred years in the future.
Source: Crunchyroll
So it’s interesting that right off the bat we get an isekai based on being trapped in a virtual world… Kind of Mother’s Rosario meets Overlord?
But not really. Sword Art Online and Overlord are both action-adventure tales, Leadale looks to be more CGDCT/maybe iyashikei. I think my taste for CGDCT is going to override my recent distaste of isekai. But, to be fair, that distaste has less to do with the genre than than the recent overload of low effort copypasta and increasingly bizarre conceits.
Streaming on: Crunchyroll, VRV
Akebi-chan no Sailor-fuku
Akebi’s Sailor Uniform
It’s Komichi Akebi’s first year of junior high and she has her heart set on one thing: Robai Private Academy’s sailor uniform.
As the next chapter of her life gets closer, she dreams of all the exciting new experiences she’ll get to have—school lunches, classes, club activities, and of course, making lots of friends! With her favorite outfit on, Komichi feels ready for anything.
Source: Funimation
Slice of life with a side helping of CGDCT? Of course I’m so there. As with Slow Loop (above) this is a very Derek show.
Streaming on: Crunchyroll, Funimation
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Ya gotta work with me here folks… The more I look, the more this looks like a slender season. Which is not actually a bad thing, it just makes writing an Anticipation post difficult when there’s so little to work with.
So, that being said, I think I’m just going to call it here rather than just continue in the same vein. As usual, I’ll check out a ton of shows and maybe find a few keepers… A lot depends on what commenters recommend, the initial reviews on ANN, and blog and Twitter buzz as well.
So, that’s enough from me – check out the Winter 2022 season chart and drop a comment! Let’s hear what you’re anticipating!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
I’m doing Leadale too. I haven’t done anything with AoT since the first season as I decided I would wait to binge it all, which is fine as I’ve almost finished the manga.
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Crossing fingers Leadale is good!
Everything from S3 forward is reviewed here if you want to dig back into my archives.
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I’m looking forward to Baraou no Souretsu (Requiem For The Rose King) which riffs off Shakespeare’s Richard III somehow. It may be execrable or it may be great, but at least it sounds interesting. Richard III, Shakespeare, Anime, this could be a wild ride folks…. (Maybe Cute Kings Doing Cute Things? – Hmm maybe not)
In terms of sporting anime we have extreme baseball (Tribe Nine), Futsaal (Futsal Boys) and badminton (Rymon’s Club). I’m going for extreme baseball for a start and will decide from there…
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I’m going to keep a close eye on the comments on Requiem… I’m reluctant to dip into it before I hear more.
Lots of potential in sports anime, Rymon’s Club is the one I’m going to keep my eyes on. It’s nice to see adults at sports rather than high school clubs.
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In terms of AoT I watched the first few episodes and disliked it so haven’t watched it since. All the hype about its so- called importance is all a bit of a bore really.
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In the forums I visit, in between anime seasons the discussions were kept alive by the release of new manga chapters. Since the manga ended, traffic has dropped off.
Fair warning: Shingeki no Kyojin OP songs are already known for having low-key spoilers but I’m told the new season OP may be downright spoilerific. The most recent trailer was bad enough, if you freeze-frame it.
(Why? I’m guessing it’s because in Japan the manga is much more popular than the anime, hence all the fans are spoiler-proof and just want to see their favorite manga panels animated with sound and voice. There’s pretty much no such thing as an “anime-only” fan of that show over there, compared to here.)
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I don’t actually read all that much manga… All I’m reading at the moment is Grand Blue Dreaming and Joshi Kausei I do pick up a series now and again from the library. Recently finished Flying Witch and Silver Spoon, both of which were excellent.
I’ll keep that in mind.
Looking forward to your commentary as the season progresses!
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I need to read Grand Blue Dreaming. I loved the anime and I’m told the anime is a pale shadow of the manga.
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Probably a very very pale shadow. I put myself through five episodes but could take no more.
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As I’ve long said, not every anime (or manga) is for everyone!
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I dunno, I thought it captured the sense and spirit of the manga decently enough. OTOH, it only covered through the end of the 1st Okinawa arc… 4 and a bit of the 17 volumes. So you could say the anime just gets what could be considered the setup out of the way?
If you enjoyed the anime, you should enjoy the manga. Though the latter is a skosh less… restrained? Do start at Chap 1 though. The anime leaves out some minor bits and background setup that becomes important later on.
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Nothing at all caught my interest so far, but we’ll see where this season takes me. I don’t have any high hopes for any of the shows you mentioned either, but I’m going to try them all out (except for Leadale, which I’ve already seen the first episode of, so the future tense is no longer applicable: it’s cute and has great reaction faces – in recent terms, I’d compare it to “Killing Slimes”).
Yeah, it’s a slim season; it’s going to be carried by Ranking of Kings and Vanitas. I’m still hoping for a standout surprise. Those aren’t rare for me.
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Leadale being favorably compared to Killing Slimes sounds pretty good! Pretty much what I was hoping. (Though I can’t recall if you liked Slimes or not.)
That’s always the fun part of a new season isn’t it?
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I liked “Killing Slimes”, some episodes more than others. Not a favourite, but something I think back to with affection. Leadale seems to have a tiny bit more of a mean streak (though that doesn’t seem hard, and I hesitate saying this, because compared to other anime it has hardly any, and I might create the wrong impression), but otherwise it does put me in mind of Slimes. I wonder if you’ve seen it by now?
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I’ve seen it, and I kinda agree with you. The protagonist is… I dunno. Unsympathetic? Still pondering and working on my first impressions post.
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I just watched the first episode of “Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department”. I’m not sure if anyone else will like it but it had me chuckling from start to finish. (just sayin’).
People are saying this is a slim season but there are at least two series so far where the artwork and production values has been been above average. That pouts it a bit above ‘slim’ for me. :)
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