The Anime You Should Have Been Watching… In Winter 2012

Anime [ an-uh-mey ]: noun: Gaudy-coloured confections, voluminous in number, shining brightly for a brief moment before fading ephemerally, readily replaced then forgotten. That may as well be the official dictionary definition for seasonal anime. Now, more than ever before, the torrent of newly-produced anime has become an inexorable flood. In 2021 alone, 412 new anime properties (TV shows, movies and OVAs) inundated a fandom already drowning in excess animated entertainment. (Source: Anichart.net)

With such titanic effort required to even tread water, keeping up with the deluge inevitably means anime fans are tethered to the now, the shiny, the new. What does this mean in the longer term for anime as a medium? If viewers have only time to watch the very latest shows, and online discourse focuses only on the contemporary, is all anime destined to be forgotten once its time in the spotlight has faded?

Sometimes it's good to turn from the raging current to gaze back from whence we came. Even ten years ago seems like centuries in anime time. Let's cast our eyes into the distant past, from Winter 2022 to Winter 2012, to the anime you should have been watching then… Should you still watch them now?

The Endless Shonen Gulag: Filler Report

There's far fewer filler-packed, long-running-throughout-the-year shonen anime in 2022 than ten years previously. Gintama finally ended — no, really this time — in 2021. My Hero Academia generally eschews filler episodes, and most Shonen Jump properties keep more sensible production schedules that don't stretch anime adaptations out to ridiculous lengths any more. Shorter and more focused is the order of the day. Except we don't talk about The Promised Neverland. That only got one season, you hear me? One.

Winter 2012 continued the perennial One Piece and Detective Conan, plus we still had Bleach, Naruto Shippūden, Hunter x Hunter, Fairy Tail, and Gintama. Of those latter five, all that now survives is Naruto via its spinoff Boruto (though Bleach is due to return for a final season soon, following a lengthy delay).Still, One Piece continues undaunted past its thousandth episode, and I don't think anyone believes Detective Conan will ever end. Strangely, I've met very few anime fans who admit to watching any of these three longest-running properties. Perhaps the average seasonal anime fan and the One Piece watcher belong to completely different demographics.

At least Winter 2012 was good for domestic Japanese shonen enthusiasts, with (the original) Bleach's 16th and final season, Naruto Shippūden's 12th, Gintama and Fairy Tail's 5th, Detective Conan's 21st, and One Piece's Fishman Island Arc, all almost entirely filler-free throughout January to March. It would take several years for many of these episodes to (officially) reach the West.

Back in 2012, anime streaming was still in its relative infancy. OG grandaddy anime streaming service Crunchyroll has yet to even licence One Piece or Detective Conan, since it only became legitimate in January 2009 with its acquisition of Naruto Shippūden's streaming licence. Funimation also began anime streaming in 2009 via its (US-only) website, and it would not launch the familiar Funimation NOW service until 2016. Outside the US, anime streaming accessibility was inconsistent, with many shows unavailable to watch legally until their (eventual) physical media release.

Shows ongoing from 2011

Although it seems almost strange now in these times of one-and-done single-cour shows, multi-cour shows were more common in 2012. Winter 2022 has 14 non-children's shows continuing from Fall 2021 (not including split-cour shows); Winter 2012 had 28. (Source: MyAnimeList) It's a testament to how the pattern of anime production, and the very shape of greenlit shows, have changed in the past decade. Let's look at some of Winter 2012's more noteworthy ongoing shows:

Mirai Nikki (The Future Diary) remains unassailable as the king of death game anime. More recent pretenders like 2020's bland Darwin's Game and 2021/2022's criminally derivative (of Mirai Nikki) Platinum End completely fail to match the sheer bonkers delight in crazy plot twists and deranged characters of this 26-episode slice of concentrated insanity. There's a reason why the inimitable Yuno Gasai became an internet-famous Yandere Girl archetype. Type “crazy pink-haired anime girl” into Google image search and it's all Yuno, all the way down… (Streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation in the US, but currently region-locked so unavailable in the UK, except on blu-ray.)

Did anyone watch Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing-? A belated sequel to 2003's fun aviation fantasy Last Exile, this show is barely mentioned anymore. I don't think it ever streamed in the UK (until its recent appearance on Funimation NOW), so it completely passed me by. The original Last Exile, animated by the inconsistent Studio Gonzo, was one of my favourite TV anime of the early 2000s.

With unique character, costume, and mechanical designs by artist Range Murata (ID-0, BEM, and Cop Craft), Last Exile looked like almost no other anime. A dieselpunk fantasy set in looming battleship-filled skies, it followed the adventures of central duo Claus and Lavie, young couriers who flew risky missions to deliver items in their rickety little airship, as they became embroiled in political intrigue and civil war. Gonzo used (at the time) record-breaking numbers of CG shots to realize the grimy, rusting world of Prester. Even then, Last Exile's prominent CG better complemented its more traditional hand-drawn animation compared to the many juddering, poorly-composited computerised anime monstrosities that would follow.

Last Exile's fascinating, fully-realized world screamed out for a sequel, so I really must get around to watching Fam. It's a shame that I hear it's connected only tangentially to the original. (Streaming on Funimation.)

Josei-flavored poetry card-game drama Chihayafuru ran its first 25-episode season from 2011–2012. By some blessed miracle, a second season arrived in 2013, and through some kind of unprecedented divine intervention, received a third in 2020. Chihayafuru remains highly regarded among fans of club/sports anime, especially those who appreciate deep character work and emotional resonance mixed with their competitive card games. Definitely still relevant today, Chihayafuru was a standout of the Winter 2012 season. (Streaming on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE.)

Bakuman., the less prominent little brother of Death Note—and the current season's previously mentioned (and accursed) Platinum End—from writer/artist duo Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, completed its first season's 25-episode adaptation of the manga in Winter 2012. A more down-to-earth story than the authors' other work, there was a distinct lack of apple-munching shinigami, machiavellian murderers, or bare-assed angels. Instead, Bakuman. aimed to do for the manga industry what 2014's Shirobako would later do for the anime industry.

A slice-of-life story about a writer and a manga artist, it was loosely autobiographical in that its authors set out to illustrate the challenges inherent in publishing successful manga. At three seasons and 75-episodes long, it's a significant undertaking to watch now, and it's not a show renowned for positive female representation. However, as an educational anime about the manga industry it's unique, and for that alone may be worth catching — if you can even access it. (In the US, only one season streams on Hulu, while Tubi TV has all three. There are currently no streaming options in the UK, only season 1 was ever released on DVD and is out of print.)

Before Persona 5's Joker, Akechi, Ann, and Makoto were even twinkles in Atlus' eye, the PS2's last great JRPG (from 2008) spawned Persona 4 The Animation, which, even at 25 episodes, was a somewhat truncated adaptation. It turned out that condensing a 100-hour-plus narrative-heavy visual novel/RPG into a two-cour anime was difficult to achieve successfully. As the later PERSONA 5 the Animation (2018) would attest, sometimes you really are better off playing the game. (That's just as well, because it appears that this show is no longer available to stream either in the US or UK. Good luck finding those out-of-print blu-rays…)

New shows

We can't discuss the new shows of Winter 2012 without including the first season of deranged, hyperactive action SF/magical girl show Senki Zesshō Symphogear. Now this was a show with enough dedicated (some might say fanatical, terrifying, unhinged) followers to ensure its longevity until the end of its fifth season in 2019. Shame the tie-in smartphone gacha game survived less than a year…

I tried to watch Symphogear. I really did. A candy-coloured detonation of frenzied fights featuring female teenage idol singers in power suits, the series that dialed the intensity so far past eleven that the amp exploded. If that sounds like a good time to you, and you enjoy having not just your eyes but your ears bleeding too, give Symphogear a go. (All five seasons available to stream on Crunchyroll.)

Significantly lower on the intensity scale, yet still featuring a perky pink-haired female teenage space captain, Bodacious Space Pirates was an entertaining 26-episode slice-of life/adventure show featuring many unexpected hard SF concepts, based on the Miniskirt Pirates light novel series. It later spawned a 2014 movie sequel The Abyss of Hyperspace.

16-year-old Marika Kato inherits her father's space pirate ship and balances life as a captain with schoolwork and a part-time job as a waitress. Set hundreds of years in the future, humanity has spread to the Tau Ceti star system. Pirate ships are no longer criminal enterprises but are awarded “letters of Marque” by the government allowing them freedom to operate within the law. It's a very lightweight show without much of a serious ongoing plot. Perhaps it's been more or less forgotten now, but it's definitely worth giving a try. Despite the suggestiveness of the original light novel title, there's a total absence of fanservice outside of the presence of the miniskirts themselves. (The series and movie both stream on HIDIVE.)

Renowned for their beautiful productions, Studio P.A. Works' Another might be a shock to anime viewers more used to their gentler works like The aquatope on white sand or IRODUKU: The World in Colors. There aren't many truly successful attempts at anime horror with a similar vibe to Another (the original Higurashi: When They Cry springs to mind as a truly unsettling example).

Another was an initially slow-paced, dark, dread-filled story that gradually revealed its secrets and killed much of its cast in increasingly ridiculous, gory ways. Based on a duology of novels by Yukito Ayatsuji, Another was lauded as a faithful adaptation. Anime has a strange fascination with edgy, eyepatch-wearing teenage girls, but Another's Mei Misaki is one of the most iconic. Why does she wear an eyepatch, you ask? Oh, that would be telling… (Available to stream on Crunchyroll in the US, but unavailable in the UK except on out-of-print blu-ray.)

Sequels

A few popular shows got sequels in Winter 2012, though back then, anime sequels seemed much rarer than they are now. Most infamous of these, perhaps, was Nisemonogatari, an 11-episode follow-up to 2009's Bakemonogatari. Bestselling author NisiOisin's dense, self-indulgent Monogatari Novels were expertly adapted by Studio Shaft, with director Akiyuki Shinbou transcending his budget limitations with weird angles, psychedelic backgrounds, and intermittent outbreaks of bravura violence.

The Monogatari series follows teenage pervert Koyomi Araragi as he navigates his final year at High School, whilst inadvertently becoming part-vampire and encountering all manner of strange aberrations/spirits. Almost every other character is female, but despite its surface appearance as yet another harem show, Araragi is extremely faithful to his (terrifying) girlfriend Senjogahara.

Nisemonogatari in particular is ostensibly a satire on the prominence of fanservice in anime, however it's so stuffed full of deeply uncomfortable scenes of almost-incest and sexualization of minors that it's almost impossible for me to watch without retching. One segment that's kind of hilarious (but also morbidly horrifying) has gained internet notoriety as “The Toothbrush Scene.” Do yourself a favor and don't google it. (Available to stream on both Crunchyroll and Funimation.)

Conclusion

Although in some ways anime fans have never had it so good as they do in 2022—such as having almost every TV anime immediately available to stream within moments of its initial Japanese broadcast—it's easy to become caught up in the excitement of the new to the detriment of the older. It's impossible for me to cover everything from Winter 2012, but I hope that I've either piqued your interest for a show you've never seen, or at least triggered fond memories of something you've forgotten. If we don't demonstrate demand for some of these older properties, my concern is that we'll see them disappear for good, as we've already seen with Persona 4 The Animation and Bakuman. in the US, plus Another and Mirai Nikki in the UK. It's a brave new world of expired streaming licenses and out-of-print blu-rays.

Kevin Cormack is a Scottish medical doctor, husband, father, and lifelong anime obsessive. He writes as Doctorkev here and appears regularly on The Official AniTAY Podcast. His accent is real