Forum - View topicThe Best and Worst Anime of Summer 2022
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Blazi
 Posts: 502 |
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A lot of great animes this season. I enjoyed a lot of them and it was quite hard to place each one.
Best: Summertime Rendering Unfortunately stuck in D+ jail it didn't get much coverage, but it is spectacular. spoiler[Shide] is an incredible villain, though their motive could have been better. Shinpei and the other characters were well fleshed out and each had a moment to shine, definitely my favorite being Hizuru. The music was great and animation very well done, definitely my top choice this season. Runners-up: Lycoris Recoil, Made in Abyss s2, Call of the Night, and Isekai Uncle I couldn't really place any of these, they were all fantastic in their own ways. Lycoris Recoil was some good fun but was also exhilarating at some points, having great characters such as Chisato and my personal favorite Majima, a very well-done antagonist who apparently spoiler[is immortal at this point after taking an rpg to the face and falling out of at least a 5 story tower,] though the scenes of spoiler[Majima and Chisato just sitting and talking about their different views, then getting right back up for the showdown for a lifetime was greatly executed, and man, the bomb being actually fireworks, what a troll.] Overall I enjoyed it a lot. Made in Abyss s2, although controversial, is quite amazing. It's hard to put into words, as you really need to expierence it yourself to feel the terrifying but beautiful world it narrates. Honestly it didn't shock me as much as the movie at some points, but man did it go heavy places. Of course Kevin Penkins soundtrack is always fantastic, and the animation, especially the sights in the opening were an awe of wonder. Call of the Night was definitely a vibe of its own. Watching the anime late at night should be the only way to expierence this anime. Liden did an incredible job with the visuals, showing the night in a way most people haven't seen it. It brings the vampire genre in a whole new perspective, making them seem human just like us. spoiler[The transition between Kous dream of becoming a vampire before facing reality after showing the risk of becoming one was done very well, with the visual becoming basic and non-vibrant as it always is as Kou questions why he even wants to become an vampire. The fade-in the sepia any time the Detective comes in is also a nice touch.] And of course, the opening and ending are killer, thank you Creepy Nuts! Overall it is quite the ride of a lifetime of its own, truly a wonder in the night. Isekai Uncle is truly a love-letter to Sega, with its beautiful opening referencing countless games to Uncle using his knowledge (and failing) to combat the danger in the other world, it opens a whole new world to people like myself who have limited knowledge of Sega. It also gives a fresh look on the isekai genre, something that most people get sick of after the constant rinse and repeat of copied concepts, even in the first scene it makes a mockery (spoiler[Sorry Truck-kun]) and then precedes to give us the story of an Uncle who came back from the other world but retains his magical powers, retelling the ridiculous journeys with Tsundere Elf, Mood Swing Mabel, and Clumsy Heroine. It's also quite funny but painful to see spoiler[Uncle swept away into the world before knowing the different anime character traits and cliches and having no idea how to confront it.] Unfortunately with its production problems its been delayed heavily, but even with that it made quite a good impression that it left it hanging on the top 10s for weeks. Can't wait for it return in November. It was truly a great season, and boy oh boy is the next season packed. Though the one I'm most looking forward to is Arknights: Prelude to Dawn, as a big arknights fan boy I'm excited to see what Yostar Pictures has cooked up. It's time for the spell of bad gacha adaptations to be broken! |
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Aerdra
Posts: 343 |
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One interesting note this time around is that there were two different shows that were picked as worst by one reviewer and as best/runner-up by others. It's hard to please everyone; happy to see contrasting opinions from the reviewers. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2547 |
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Since one of the reviewers put Harem Labyrinth as "worst" I'd like to add that for me there was one lower and that is My Isekai Life. Terminally boring and formula driven as an AI story creator would make that the annoying saccharine of slime (cut and past character) being cute couldn't elevate. At least the former had sex...
Several cuts above that, I'd like to give some love to Black Summoner and Vermeil in Gold in that order. Yurei Deco earned some love by Ep10, but then GlichyWitchy came along at Ep11 and zeroed all that out. Not the worst, but not worth your time. |
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b-dragon
Posts: 473 |
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I really wasn't impressed by very much this season- out of what I watched:
Parallel Pharmacy impressed early on by caring about details and motivations, making the MC feel like more than just another OP isekai case, and its cast feel a little more complex. All of that did wonders for it....and isn't as present in later episodes. Its still not regressed to "Bland Isekai" levels. But its lost a lot of its charm for me. Also- too little of the Queen. Engage Kiss is, at its best/worst, disgustingly amusing. Emphasis on disgusting. But rather than embrace its true trashfire nature, and lean into how its characters are kind of awful to one another despite actually caring about each other, it keeps wanting to backpedal into playing its story safe. If its not some axiom then it should be, but once your story introduces elements like a neurotoxin-laced dick, "safe" should be well outside your playbook. It could have leaned into tragic. It could have leaned into comic. Instead, it opted for generic. I don't hate it...but the missed potential hurts. Utawarerumono (I'm certain I misspelled that,) is probably the best show I can't really recommend. I've really enjoyed most of it, as it has a great dramatic tension that underlies almost every scene...but to really enjoy what it has to offer may necessitate seeing the 2 prior series....which I don't think were as good. |
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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Best:
Lycoris Recoil Going in to the season I certainly didn't expect this to be up here. Probably the show I had most fun with, both in terms of just enjoying the character dynamics and in over thinking it's background plot elements. We all said at the beginning it was never going to examine the moral implications of the DA, and sure enough, it didn't really. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. And sure, we don't get any grand anime confession, but there's no room for any doubt about how important those two girls are to each other, whatever you want to call it. The stuff it did, it did very well. Some great performances, well written characters, dynamic action and solid direction. DanMachi We're not quite to the end yet, but another strong showing from the Hestia familia. One of my most anticipated going in to the season, and I'm not disappointed. Call of the Night Is such a mood. The use of colour, framing and rhythm is really great. Without that, it'd probably be a pretty meh show.. but there's some real artistry on show in the creation of mood here. Honorable Mentions: Devil is a Part-timer Slightly shonky visuals (and I'm definitely in the "preferred S1 artstyle" club), but decently funny with some good moments. Isekai Ojisan We only got half a season in the end, so it's hard to say. What we did get had some solid jokes and an interesting premise. Parallel World Pharmacy Everything was just a little to easy for Farma for this to make the leap up to great, especially how little skepticism he faced that had any real impact. (The pharmacist guild was comically irrelevant in it's resistance). Though I appreciated the earnestness with which it approached its medicine. RWBY I was aware of the original but not in any depth, so I got to watch this on it's own terms. And I think it mostly did a decent job there. Not spectacular certainly, and the pacing was a little weird, but it was a fun watch. Stepmom's Daughter Not what I expected, but in a good way. Ended up being a pretty alright exploration of the characters and the ways in which teenage relationships are both stupid and important. Guilty Pleasures: Engage Kiss. Look, it's not a good anime, and it made a lot of weird narrative choices that lead it around in a big circle. But it did manage to be the sort of trashfire that's fun to watch even if at times it's out of a kinda morbid curiosity. Vermeil in Gold. Yeah, also not winning any awards or probably even getting remembered this time next year... and maybe Vermeil's initial... assertiveness shall we say? is a little bit much. But it wouldn't be a guilty pleasure if I was comfortable discussing it at work, would it? Kinda meh? Yuri Deco. Had a lot of interesting ideas, and as a principle I'm in favour of supporting new ideas and risk taking. But it just didn't quite work somehow. It wasn't bad.. it was just... meh? Dropped: Prima Doll Bunch of girls looking to find purpose beyond guns and violence run a cafe, but get involved in various armed adventures anyway? This could have been LycoReco... and it really wasn't. Some of the character designs were neat, but that was really all it had going for it. It was just really dull. Couple of Cuckoos I watched the first cour but somewhere into the 2nd I just got bored of it I guess. Dodged: Harem Labyrinth. It was never going to be good, but it sounds downright painful. Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer. Just looks so ugly. Backlogged: Made in Abyss, Classroom of the Elite, Shadows House. I'm not up to date on preceding seasons, but the reviews made them sound interesting. I'm not totally sure Made in Abyss is necessarily my thing, but it at least seems worth looking into at some point. Summertime Rendering Because it's still in jail. Bonus: The Arifureta OVA dropped on Crunchyroll. It's pretty silly, and production values aren't fantastic even by Arifureta standards. But you know, more nonsense with everyone's favorite chuuni edgelord isekai protagonist is always fun. And Myu is practically the MC, which is also great. |
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DamianSalazar
Posts: 730 |
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I've not finished any of the shows I'm watching, mostly because I'm a dub watcher, but if I had power rankings for the shows I watched this season, it would go like this:
1. Lycoris Recoil - Engaging protagonist duo, interesting world, interesting characters 2. Call of the Night - Impressive visual design all around. I want more. 3. Aoashi - It's good, but I suggest you read the manga, since I find the animation severely lacking from a studio good at sports anime like Production I.G 4. The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious - It's sweet, wholesome, and I like the protagonist duo, but I think the comedy needs work 5. Shadows House - I loved the first season, but I just don't know why this second season didn't gel well with me. Maybe I should have binged it, like how I watched the first season. 6. Engage Kiss - This show feels like an Andre Drummond or Greg Monroe statline. It's got all these nice features (animation, character design, action direction, some interesting characters (Ayano and Kisara)), yet it amounts to nothing. Underdeveloped main character, uninteresting secondary characters, spoiler[I finally saw the nun last Sunday, but I still felt there was more to be desired.] |
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Dark Mac
Posts: 317 |
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Made in Abyss S2 is my favorite this year and one of the best of all time to me. Absolutely loved it, and cried more than I have in quite some time.
Isekai Uncle was my second fav. Hope the second half lives up to it when it comes out in a couple months! |
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