Wooper: Rare is the anime season that gets me interested in upwards of ten shows, but Fall 2022 seems to have managed it, even while packing itself full of shounen series. These aren’t your average battle manga adaptations, though – we’ve got the return of a former “Big 3” WSJ property, the third season of a fabulously-animated Bones show, and the TV premiere of what’s probably the hottest manga in the world at present. These shows are so big that I don’t even need to list their names (though you can find our thoughts on them down below), but there’s plenty more anime to enjoy starting this October, including continuations of megahits like Spy x Family, blog favorites like Golden Kamuy, and oddballs like Pop Team Epic. Fans of pop cultural institutions like Gundam and Urusei Yatsura can look forward to new series as well, for the first time in 6 and 40 years, respectively. I’m just scratching the surface here, but I can’t list every noteworthy new show in the intro when we’ve got the whole season preview to go! Let us know which of this fall’s many offerings you’re most excited for by voting in the poll below, and read on to see how we’re feeling about the last quarter of 2022.

Middling Expectations

Urusei Yatsura (2022)

Studio: David Production
Director: Takahiro Kamei, Yasuhiro Kimura, Hideya Takahashi
Series composition: Yuuko Kakihara
Source: Manga

The Premise: A flirtatious high schooler tries to score with every woman he sees, except for the alien princess who lives with him.

Wooper: Urusei Yatsura is a massive deal in Japan, being the first and most enduring series by legendary mangaka Rumiko Takahashi, with an anime adaptation by national treasure Mamoru Oshii. It’s also the progenitor of a zillion romcom tropes, not least of which is the Magical Girlfriend, embodied here by the tiger bikini-clad Lum. Though most western anime viewers will probably recognize her iconic design, this 46 episode reboot will be their proper introduction to Lum and the rest of series’ expansive cast. Should we count ourselves fortunate that Urusei Yatsura is being remade at all, let alone by this particular team? That remains to be seen, but personally, I’m not feeling terribly optimistic – this is the arm of David Pro that worked on 2.43 Seiin Volley-bu, one of our least favorite anime of last year, plus the pose-heavy JoJo Part 5, the rigidity of which is completely opposed to Urusei Yatsura’s ideal look and feel. The 1980s show is characterized by total freedom of movement, with male lead Ataru’s contortions and Lum’s flight patterns being unbound by the demands of a typical anime production. That sort of flexibility is critical to selling the series’ crazy developments: spaceships crash landing on Earth every third episode, hot babes of various mythological races appearing in Ataru’s neighborhood, alien technology interfering with the characters’ lives on a weekly basis. Some viewers will find these ideas dated no matter how they’re presented, but there are surely just as many who will accept them if they’re given a proper visual foundation. We’ll have to wait until October 13th for our first look at how sturdy that foundation will be.

My Hero Academia Season 6

Studio: Bones
Director: Masahiro Mukai with Kenji Nagasaki as Chief Director
Series composition: Yousuke Kuroda
Source: Manga

The Premise: Season 6 of My Hero Academia. You know the premise by now. Superheroes and villains meet for a climactic penultimate battle.

Lenlo: Let’s be honest here, you know what MHA is, so let’s cut straight to brass tacks. Content wise, this season is just one big battle arc. On the plus side, cool battles! On the down side, I no longer have confidence in bones and Kenji Nagasaki to give those battles the attention and production they deserve. Oh sure, we will get the occasional Nakamura cut or something, and those will be great. But outside of those I’m just going to find myself looking back at Horikoshi’s art and wishing it could have gotten better. Combine that with a general decline of the narrative content as he starts to lean more and more into basic shounen trappings, no idea why maybe weekly serialization is getting to him, and I just don’t have much energy to be excited for this season. I’ll watch it for sure. But I don’t yet know if I’ll enjoy it.

 

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

Studio: Sunrise
Director: Hiroshi Kobayashi
Series composition: Ichirou Ookouchi
Source: Original

The Premise: A teenage girl from Mercury, whose father was killed by the actions of a mobile suit corporation, enrolls in a prestigious school run by the same company.

Wooper: It’s been five and a half years since Iron Blooded Orphans, the previous Gundam TV series, ended. IBO was pretty well-received on the whole, but longtime Gundam fans balked at some of the developments in its second season, so depending on who you ask, The Witch from Mercury may be part of a larger redemption arc for Japan’s biggest mecha franchise. I’d say it’s off to a promising start – like IBO, it’s set in its own continuity, which was showcased in a full-length [prologue episode] that went live several weeks ago. Plenty of Gundam staples made their way into the script, including commentary on the ethics of war and biotechnology, discrimination between those born on Earth and those born in space, and a shadowy council pulling the strings of mobile suit development. Given their presence in the prologue, I expect head writer Ookouchi to carry these ideas through the entire show (which is rumored to run for 50 episodes). Ookouchi is a veteran scriptwriter, having gotten his start on a few episodes of Turn A Gundam nearly 25 years ago, but his pen tends to get heavy when it comes to dramatic turns, so while I expect Mercury’s setup to be very good, I doubt the show will shine from beginning to end. Visually, it seems like there’s a tradeoff being made: beautiful mech designs and animation for simple human ones (again, this is based on the prologue episode). I’m more than okay with that exchange, so I’ll be watching starting this October, but assuming the 50 episode rumor is true, I don’t know that I’ll make it too deep into 2023.

Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai!! S2

Studio: ENGI
Director: Kazuya Miura
Series composition: Takashi Aoshima
Source: Manga

The Premise: Well endowed underclassman endeavors to make her senpai’s life fun.

Amun: Second outings of bit based shows tend to fall off. Uzaki-chan’s first season was pleasant enough, with the screeching getting only slightly annoying by the end. Looking ahead to the material for the second season promises more of the same set piece situations, with a bit of service as well. I think what makes this show palatable is the chemistry between the leads, but you’d be forgiven for not catching it over the shrill “seeeeenpai”s. I’m hoping director Kazuya Miura has settled a bit more into the material, as this will be the first sequel he directs. I think the visual quality was barely enough to support the gags, and I expect that to continue. ENGI is doing two shows this season, but their body of work so far…leaves a bit to be desired (I am still cross about how The Detective is Already Dead was handled). Truthfully, Uzaki-chan is probably their best franchise, so I hope it gets the priority. My guess? I bet I get halfway through this and lose interest – this is a stacked season, to say the least.

Do It Yourself!!

Studio: Pine Jam
Director: Kazuhiro Yoneda
Series composition: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Source: Original

The Premise: The members of an all-female DIY club spend their time building things from scratch after school.

Wooper: There have been all-girls club shows about hiking, camping, fishing, pottery, airsoft, astronomy, riding motorcycles, playing in a band, and probably a dozen other themes that I’m forgetting. That leaves room for approximately 14 trillion further entries in the genre, one of which is Do It Yourself, notably one of the fall’s few original series. Its lack of source material isn’t the only sense in which it’s original, either; DIY woodworking is quite an unlikely subject for anime to tackle, given that it requires such precise animation to properly illustrate. Will Do It Yourself manage that level of fidelity? Definitely not (this is TV anime, after all), but the measuring, sawing, hammering, etc. in [its second PV] looks appealing regardless. I’m also pretty jazzed about the backgrounds, which seem way more polished than I’d have expected from a show like this, both in terms of color design and layout – the use of curved wide angle shots ought to provide a nice contrast with the angular furniture built by the characters. Speaking of whom, the flat character art is the thing I’m least sure of, but it’s intriguing all the same; Do It Yourself looks to have the clearest visual identity of any extracurricular club show in recent years. The only question now is whether the cast will be less flat in practice than they are on paper.

BLUELOCK

Studio: 8-bit
Director: Tetsuaki Watanabe
Series composition: Taku Kishimoto
Source: Manga

The Premise: While it may be morally questionable to genetically engineer the perfect Japanese soccer team, apparently it’s perfectly legal to create a Hunger-Games elimination style training program designed to produce the exact same thing.

Lenlo: BLUELOCK is in a really weird place as a show. Narratively, this is about as standard a Shounen sports fantasy as you can get. The entire premise is one massive tournament/selection arc and all of the characters have some kind of “Super power” or “talent” that sets them apart from the rest. Don’t go into this expecting some kind of actual Soccer series or character drama, it could exist for almost any sport. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that BLUELOCK thrived more off of its art than the story or characters. Yuusuke Nomura is an incredibly talented artist, meaning studio 8-bit has their work cut out for them. Looking at their and the Directors previous works though… I’m really not sure they have it in them to bring out the sheer insanity BLUELOCK revels in. If they can do it I expect to have a decent time with the show. But I’m almost certain it’s not going to be a contender for best of the season.

Bocchi the Rock!

Studio: CloverWorks
Director: Keiichirou Saitou
Series composition: Erika Yoshida
Source: Manga

The Premise: A chronically shy high school guitarist joins a band at the urging of her new drummer friend.

Wooper: I read the first eight chapters of the Bocchi the Rock manga to set my expectations for its upcoming anime. Unfortunately, I can’t claim to have fallen in love with the series – its anxious, gloomy, self-deprecating protagonist is a dead ringer for the central character of Hitori Bocchi no OO Seikatsu, which debuted years earlier. The musical performance aspect does help to set it apart, but not by much, since conversational gags tend to drive the story rather than band dynamics. Even if you put aside its resemblance to any individual anime, the trend of lonely people learning how to make friends has been covered extensively at this point, from Kimi ni Todoke to Komi-san. So why preview this show at all? Mostly because its staff has people buzzing – Shouta Umehara as animation producer means it will benefit from a lot of the young talent that worked on Wonder Egg Priority and Bisque Doll, and first-time series director Keiichirou Saitou demonstrated immense potential last year with his work on Sonny Boy. The PV reveals that they’ve kept the manga’s designs almost completely intact, while making the environments far more detailed – I’d almost describe the effect as “living manga,” as opposed to the usual “moving manga.” This team certainly has the capacity to bring Bocchi’s humor and musicality to life, so I’ll be keeping an eye on the anime, but I do think there’s a ceiling on what they can achieve, given the limits of the source material.

 

Shows We’re Anticipating

Pui Pui Molcar: Driving School

Studio: Shin-Ei Animation
Director: Hana Ono
Supervisor: Tomoki Misato
Source: Original

The Premise: Stop-motion animated guinea pigs navigate city life on four wheels.

Wooper: I’d have been content if the original Pui Pui Molcar had been a one-time injection of fun in an otherwise grim 2021, but I’m even happier that we’re getting more this fall. The series’ meticulous animation and squeaky sound design make each of its bite-sized episodes a delight to watch, and the bar ought to stay high with Hana Ono in the driver’s seat this season. She storyboarded several episodes from the show’s original run, including its apocalyptic zombie parody, which is good news for fans of the first season’s tendency to spoof pop-cultural trends. I don’t expect the series to lose its kind heart, either, since its creator Tomoki Misato (who now heads Wit Studio’s stop-motion division) is staying on as a supervisor. And in case you’ve spent a whole year neglecting to watch this gem and are now wondering how kindhearted a bunch of three-minute shorts can possibly be, do yourself a favor and watch its [first episode], which blends humor and compassion in a way that few other series can.

Spy x Family 2

Studio: Wit Studio, Cloverworks
Director: Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Series composition: Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Source: Manga

The Premise: A mismatched group of exceptional individuals must pretend to be a family to further their own personal goals…and save the world.

Amun: Alright, so to me, Spy x Family part 1 didn’t quite live up to expectations. I felt the comedy didn’t quite land when Anya had to carry the episodes; I felt the adults did a much more….believable (?) job of navigating their life circumstances. Not that I have any complaints about the visual quality (given two studios are making it)- it’s just the plot felt a little lost towards the end of the season. Now, I know this upcoming season will introduce the final (?) member of the Forgers…but I’m not sure how excited I am about another overpowered flat character. We’ll see. I expect a couple of arcs for the second half of the season, so I’m hoping the story comes online (as I’ve heard it does in the manga). This is still the pet project of Kazuhiro Furuhashi, and I’d say he’s earned quite the benefit of the doubt. In general, I’m still quite hopeful, but I wish this franchise-starter had come out of the gate stronger.

BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War

Studio: Pierrot
Director: Tomohisa Taguchi
Series composition: Tomohisa Taguchi
Source: Manga

The Premise: After a long absence the Quincy have returned to wage war once more on Soul Society. Can Ichigo and his friends stop them? Or will the spirit Nazi’s kill them all.

Lenlo: BLEACH? My god, what year is this? Are we back in 2011? With Shirou Sagisu back on music? The same guy who did the Heuco Mundo flamenco and all the other iconic BLEACH music? And we even get a whole new director, the who did Akudama Drive? Well hot damn, maybe there is something to be excited for here after all. Studio Pierrot is pretty hit or miss, but hopefully they will take proper care with one of their old flagships. There’s only one problem: The arc it’s adapting. When I read this arc back when BLEACH was still publishing, it felt very flat to me. Like Kubo had lost a lot of his passion for the story. My hope is that Tomohisa and his team can inject some energy into what, to me, felt like a very unnecessary arc after the finale BLEACH already had. If they can do that then, judging by the trailer, this should be a nice nostalgic romp for a lot of older anime fans. If they can’t… well they might just recreate the disappointment I had in the manga.

Pop Team Epic 2

Studio: Kamikaze Douga, Space Neko Company
Director: Jun Aoki
Series composition: Jun Aoki
Source: Manga

The Premise: Two girls with ever-changing voices embark on a format-shattering subculture odyssey.

Wooper: After several years spent working on short projects like Ore Tsushima and On Air Dekinai, Jun Aoki has returned to direct a second season of his absurdist opus. Given how little regard the original Pop Team Epic had for the anime format, what with its artificially doubled runtime and its habit of switching voice actors midway through each episode, I’m very interested to see whether season 2 will follow the same chaotic playbook, or whether Aoki will do something entirely new. I’m expecting the former, since the show’s structure is already loose enough to let its staff run wild, and fans are doubtless expecting follow-ups to scenes like the flipbook-based Hellshake Yano and the puppeteered Earth, Wind & Fire homage “Let’s Pop Together” (I’m hoping for a Beegees homage this time around, myself). Still, it would be unwise to try and predict just what shape the series will take this October, since unpredictability is its trademark – when it comes to Pop Team Epic, the only sure thing is that we can’t be sure of anything at all.

Bibliophile Princess

Studio: MADHOUSE
Director: Tarou Iwasaki
Series composition: Mitsutaka Hirota
Source: Light Novel

The Premise: The book-loving Eliana spots her betrothed prince Christopher consorting with another woman. Can she make him fall in love with her before their engagement is annulled? Or is there something deeper at play?

Lenlo: Maybe it’s just because of my His and Her Circumstances watch, but I’ve recently been in the market for a decent romance series and Bibliophile might be on track to give it to me. Visually it looks pretty standard, I’m not expecting some top tier production here despite it coming from MADHOUSE. No, what actually piqued my interest was the director, Tarou Iwasaki. This guy was also responsible for Sweetness and Lightning, which while not a terribly complex show, definitely hit those sort of wholesome family vibes. I’m hoping he can bring some of that energy, and skill depicting relationships, to this and give us something more on the wholesome side of the romance spectrum.

 

Highest Expectations

Mob Psycho 100 S3

Studio: Bones
Director: Takahiro Hasui with Yuzuru Tachikawa as Chief Director
Series composition: Hiroshi Seko
Source: Webcomic/Manga

The Premise: The third, and possibly final, season of Mob Psycho 100.

Lenlo: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOB. I’m so unbelievably happy Mob Psycho is back. Unlike ONE’s other work, One Punch Man, Mob has taken its time with its production. BONE’s hasn’t thrown it around to new directors to pump it out and capitalize on its popularity, they have waited for Tachikawa to have time in his schedule. And it’s clear that Tachikawa himself also deeply cares for the series, going on record saying he wanted to direct that big Reigen scene from the last season since the very start of the project. Combine that care, from both the studio and the director, with what I already know is a banger of a finale and you have what is easily my most anticipated show of not only the season, but the year. Screw Chainsawman. This is where my focus is. Now it’s really just a question of if this will adapt all of the remaining content, or if we will require an OVA or movie to clean it up. I’m sincerely hoping it does.

Chainsaw Man

Studio: Mappa
Director: Ryuu Nakayama
Series composition: Hiroshi Seko
Source: Manga

The Premise: A boy makes a contract with a Chainsaw dog to hunt Devils.

Aidan: If you have not heard of Chainsaw Man before this post I would have to question whether you actually exist. It is no secret that this is the most anticipated anime of this season and maybe the most hyped anime of the decade. Quite honestly in my time blogging I can safely say no anime has ever received the level of anticipation such as this without a prior season, and even in that case few could even match this level. With a star studded staff, highly regarded source material and anime trailers showing a degree of animation quality that could be considered the new gold standard, there is a very high chance of this being the biggest hit of the year. Of course nothing in life is guaranteed but with so many factors in its favor I sincerely doubt Chainsaw Man could go unnoticed. As a huge fan myself I have very high hopes and really couldn’t let this pass by without my input so out of retirement I come yet again. I plan on writing up a post soon as a kind of “temper your expectations” reminder but I can safely say that if you are not watching Chainsaw Man in this season then you probably should be.

Golden Kamuy 4

Studio: Brain’s Base
Director: Shizutaka Sugahara
Series composition: Noboru Takagi
Source: Manga

The Premise: Asirpa and Sugimoto continue on their quest to find her fathers buried gold, weaving their way through the various thieves, murderers and insurrectionists searching for the same thing.

Lenlo: Golden Kamuy is my 2nd big hope for the season. Every season, Brain’s Base has managed to raise the bar. Not just in narrative stakes, making me care more and more for these characters and their story, but also in the ridiculous and humorous situations they find themselves in. The way they manage to blend comedy and drama is unlike anything else currently being produced and I sincerely hope they are able to pull it off again. If they can capitalize on what happened with OGata last season, as well as Asirpa and Sugimoto’s reunion, this should be an incredible time. Plus figure skating! Giant, muscled men figure skating! This is going to be fun.

Mairimashita Iruma-kun S3

Studio: Bandai Namco Pictures
Director: Makoto Moriwaki
Series composition: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Source: Manga

The Premise: Human child is adopted by a Demon school’s headmaster, who dotes on his new grandson.

Amun: As the third iteration of our loveable human Iruma-kun’s adventures in Demon school, I was curious what the source material looked like for the next season. An hour later, I can safely say: the season looks good. Focusing primarily on rank improvement and personal growth, Marimashita is moving into its second phase and seemingly the meat of the story: how the human Iruma grows to become the best demon. This isn’t without downsides though – our favorite student council President doesn’t look to factor heavily into this season. A real shame, since the date episode of Iruma-kun is probably the best. Bandai hasn’t given the past seasons excessive animation resources (or at least that’s how it appears from the outside), but I’m expecting the quality to remain roughly the same. The director and series composer are back, but the surprising change comes with the character designer Yumiko Hara. I don’t know much about her, but she apparently did design for Muv-Luv’s sequel about ten years ago (she’s also apparently married to the original producer of Iruma-kun season 1). Since this season will probably feature some character design transitions, I’m not too sad about changing, but I’m a little nervous – this current season’s Devil is a Part Timer 2 should show how much effect a different character designer has. With a mostly consistent cast and solid source material, I feel pretty confident that this season of Marimashita will be a success.

 

Anime Movie Previews

Suzume no Tojimari

Studio: CoMix Wave Films
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Script: Makoto Shinkai
Source: Original
Release date: 11 Nov 2022

The Premise: Seventeen-year-old Suzume discovers a mysterious door in the mountains, and soon other doors begin appearing across Japan. As the doors open, they release disasters and destruction, and it’s up to Suzume to close them again.

Helghast: Ever since Kimi no Na wa broke into the mainstream in 2016, the expectations of Makoto Shuukai delivering another megahit have gone to another level. While Weathering with You certainly looked pretty and went off in a unique direction in regards to character choices and consequences, it didn’t quite hit the highs of his previous hits. However, going off of the PVs, Suzume no Tojimari is looking to be another exciting adventure centered around time, space and love with a heavier emphasis on the fantastical elements this time around. When it does come to a theater to me here in North America, you can bet your ass that I’ll be buying a ticket to go see it.

[Suzume no Tojimari will be distributed worldwide in early 2023 on Crunchyroll and in western cinemas.]