Any anime fans?

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Suppose that it is about time that I give a run down of the Winter 2022 anime that caught my eye some way or another.

The first I will mention is Police in a Pod, which perhaps from hearing the name it should be easy to understand that it is a slice of life of police officers. Reviewers from ANN were kind of cool on it, with some mentions that certain places around the world having problematic police could make it a bit of a hard watch, but I personally have found the first two episodes pretty good. The real surprise I think is that the episodes have kind of stepped into gender politics, seeing as the main characters are a couple of female police officers, with the source material was apparently made by a female ex-police officer. The second episode has some pretty shocking shifts that it might not be for the feint who might not handle the topic of girls and women being the subjects of abuse.



My next one is right afterwards in the list of new shows, In the Land of Leadale, which if you are familiar with much modern isekai won't sound anything really new, that a girl wakes up in a world that is just like the VRMMORPG she played, with all her over powered stuff. I can be a sucker to this sort of thing, and this one tickles my tastes by feeling like Bofuri or Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, just an easy fun little watch, without a lot of the baggage you see in shows where they try to be sexy or something. Instead you have now an actual elf girl getting drunk for the first time, and acting as a mum towards not children.



One that I think is getting a good deal of attention is My Dress-Up Darling, which fits into the genre of defying gender norms, and coming out of your shell. The general story is around a guy who is really interested in a type of traditional Japanese doll, but a bad experience of being told boys shouldn't be into that sort of thing kind of scarred him, and he has tried to keep it a secret. Bring in a gyaru girl, who surprise is very open about her nerdy hobbies that might not be seen as typical for someone like her, and he agrees to help her with his skills, and he will probably learn to be more open about what he likes. It has been pretty good so far.



The next one I have some conflicted opinions on, Miss Kuroitsu From the Monster Development Department. The concept is along the idea of following an "evil organisation", like it is almost any other Japanese company, specifically the department that makes the monsters that the super sentai heroes fight. It has flavours along the lines of Heaven's Design Team, and may Cells at Work, but not quite as edutainment rather than creativity based. The part I have some conflicting thoughts about, I might just say it has a bold choice along the lines of gender, so much so that I would call a character involved as trans, and I have not been very sure how respectful it will be rather than jokes. At least by the second episode it wasn't too bad, generally being inclusive.



And another one I had conflicted thoughts over parts, is the one that I think wins the season's aware for the overly long ridiculous title, Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout. A show with a plot that can be summed up as two friends were transported to a fantasy world, but one of them was turned into a beautiful girl, and now they are trying to fight against the idea that they are falling for each other, because what that might mean. My conflicted thoughts are along the lines that this entire plot could be very gender-sex essentialist and heteronormative, pretty much that sex equals gender with essentialist ideas of what being a gender means, and that only a heterosexual relationship is expected or normal. It might have some saving grace though, as the hints could be there that there might have been feelings before the shift, that the current big emotional shift is an explicit petty curse, and it hasn't been too bad in its first episode. There could always be something along the lines of questioning the idea just assuming your own gender and sexuality, which I could actually empathise with.



There is actually a number of pretty queer shows this season.Requiem of the Rose King has an explicitly intersex main character, and a kind of adaption of Shakespeare plays, it is maybe a bit artsy in a melodramatic way. Sasaki and Miyano is a cute BL romantic comedy, following a boy who is into BL (for no particular reason) and his senpai who wants to learn more about him. The second episode of Akebi's Sailor Uniform has me pretty convinced it has some strong yuri undertones, following almost entirely female cast with very intimate shots, that does feel like more than Hibike Euphonium's intimate moments that were hard not to read as romantic. And it is probably just me with Slow Loop, as they are probably just starting out step-sisters who are just making sisterly bonds, but really seems like a nice and easy slice of life hobby/fishing anime.

Plenty of big sequel seasons too. Demon Slayer's second season has finally been getting to some new stuff, rather than a retelling of the movie, although it kind of started a few weeks back. Attack on Titan is in its second part of its "final season", so seeing it end will be something. I think that Princess Connect! Re:Dive had a very strong start to its second season, the series generally being a more wholesome version of Konosuba, they are still idiots but the main male character is more, I would say 'soft' one in the group of lovable idiots, with some fantastic running jokes. Takagi-san is also into its 3rd season, Realist Hero is in its second, along with Arifureta, making up returns of a teasing anime, an isekai mostly not around combat, and one with the edgy harem lead who was a good guy before the new world changed him.

As usual there are plenty of other shows that I am not mentioning either, like Tokyo 24th Ward, which could be one to look out for, but I am also not really sure what to think of it after two episodes.

I seem to remember big talk about Perfect Blue back in 2010 around the time the movie Black Swan came out, because apparently they shared some surprising similarities, that some thought Black Swan had taken some heavy influences from it.

I myself try to avoid too many more psychological stuff, because I think that I get too easily affected by them. Having not seen it, there is only so much I can comment, but I do know reminds me of this really strange anime from about a year ago, Gekidol. This show was super weird, where on the face at the start it looks like what it says on the tin as a troupe that combines theatre with idol stuff, but with this strange feeling that something is not right, and then it starts throwing these weird curveballs and psychology things. That it kind of becomes difficult to tell what subtextual metaphor and what is literal in your face plot, which I am probably not explaining well, but it was just something I don't think got a huge amount of attention.

It additionally had an episode called Alice in Deadly School, which in the context of Gekidol was meant to be an in-universe play about a school based zombie apocalypse. And in effect plays out kind of like a play, with a limited cast of same aged girls playing all the roles in limited settings, using story techniques that are usually used in a stage play, which works really weirdly when done as an anime.

Used to love Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Naruto. Fab shows and had many happy times watching them with my brother and sister

Alright, alright, alright, time for my reactions to some Spring 2022 anime.

First is Spy X Family, which to my attention has been the most anticipated of the season. The general idea is of a spy needing to have a family to complete a mission, and he tries to keep the truth of being a spy from the child he adopted, but she knows because she is special too. It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.


My next recommendation might sound like an odd one, because if I told it was about golf most people would tune out, but Birdie Wing -Golf Girls' Story- is a very big surprise. I think the best way to describe its first episode is that it is filled to the gills with anime BS, and that is meant in the best possible way. It does things super extra, and plays golf like it is actually about a young women who is a hired assassin, while also knowing when to veer into uncool that it actually becomes cool again. I at least recommend watching that first episode, if you can have fun with how silly anime can be.


Aharen-san wa Hakarenai is another show featuring a female protagonist who has trouble making friends and is very quiet, but I think has also had a very funny couple of episodes so far. It has probably been partially equally funny by making the male character that tries to be her friend, almost as prone to being the butt of a joke, where Aharen is caught up in a silly situation. What I found funniest is its use of physical comedy, by putting the titular heroine in situations that are just the right amount of ridiculousness to be very funny, but not overdone.


If we need some isekai, I will first introduce Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs. General premise is that guy awakens inside of a dating sim he played, which happens to be one aimed at women, was actually pretty terribly written that in universe is pretty unfair to guys, and it looks like more is going on. He has a not the nicest personality, but in a way that feels more human than the caricatures around him, and by episode 3 I think is working on some awareness of some bad parts of the isekai fantasy.


But if you want something really aware of the flaws of the isekai fantasy, I will introduce The Executioner and Her Way of Life. And this will be one that I recommend not to look up anything, go into this totally blind, as long as you can may be deal with things like blood, but I think the introduction is best experienced first hand. Maybe that it is about a fantasy world where isekai (reincarnating in another world) really isn't that rare.


My top romance of the season would probably be Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie, which to me is probably a part that it flips the gender roles around a little bit. The guy is a little clumsy sweetie, and the girl is his cool protector, I am just super into this dynamic, that I am almost a little saddened that it hasn't played into it harder. Apparently people are saying that the source material quickly gets even better, so I am game.


But if my picks so far have been a bit too male audience pointed, my next pick is Heroines Run the Show. I think that we need more heroines with awesome eyebrows, like Hiyori here. She is a cool character, who is trying to juggle her dream of track, with supporting herself to not overburden her family, and so gets a job that turns out to be assisting her idol classmates, that she recognise as really not as perfect or dreamy as they pretend to be. It has been very fun.


I will finish there, but let it be understood that there are quite a number that would still be worthy of mentioning, only I am having a bit of a tough time moving some of these up enough for me to just give a couple more. So I will just give a quick shout out to good sequels this season. We have the third season of Kaguya-sama Love is War, which really grew on me previously, and noteworthy source of a number of memes. We have the second season of The Rising of the Shield Hero, which had earned itself a position among the isekai series that get a lot of attention. Komi Can't Communicate is having its second season, which should be releaseing itself on Netflix a couple weeks behind the Japanese broadcast, so don't miss it. And Demon Girl Next Door is also having its second season, which I do think the first episode was a bit weak like it forced two different episode length plots into one episode, which made it very rushed, but I am looking forward to more of this funny inverse magical girl series.

Oh yeah, I love anime. My favorites

1. Inuyasha and it's new sequel YashaHime
2. Fruit's Baskets
3. Oran Academy

What are all your opinions about the long-in-development live-action Akira film?

Cannot wait for the second season of Komi. I honestly think Komi is one of my favourite anime series to date so far. Aggretsuko is also a recent favourite!

I have been a bit slow in talking about the Summer 2022 season, where honestly I have spent a lot of time just trying to keep up.

Straight off the bat, I am also having a bit of difficulty picking up my usual recommendations, with at least to me it is mostly sequel seasons that come to mind, and believe me there are quite a few. Overlord season 4, Dropkick on My Devil Dash (I think it is technically a third season), Made in Abyss Season 2 (don't forget the movie in-between), Shadows House Season 2, The Devil is a Part Timer season 2, and Love Live Superstar season 2. Some of these are a pretty long time coming. There is also Rent-a-Girlfriend Season 2, Classroom of the Elite Season 2,

There is an anime adaption of RWBY RWBY: Queendom, which might even be worth seen by those already pretty familiar with the franchise. They released their first three episodes in an hour long special, which treaded over some familiar ground, while adding some new.


I have so far enjoyed Phantom of the Idol, which as an idol show might be a barrier for entry to some, but sets itself apart being a pretty good comedy. Generally that the main character is a very unenthused idol, who only became one for money for hopefully little work, but while failing comes across a ghost idol who wants to live some of her past idol work, and he uses her possessing him to not have to actually work that much. To other people he looks crazy via his shift in character


There are quite a few others, but for whatever reason I am feeling a little cynical in getting really excited. I think a part is that I was feeling a bit burned by being let down by some recently.

But new season of Love Live looks great, considering I really could not get into its sort of spinoff, Nijigasaki, even into its second season. Superstar just knows how to make it work.