Favourites of 2022

[5hadow17]

About time for another annual roundup. Selections based on these, but ratings there are my global ones:

5hadow17's Anime List - MyAnimeList.net

myanimelist.net

Trying to spread selections over different categories, for avoiding a few dominating and wider coverage beyond the mainstream ones. Restricting some categories to anime originals instead of adaptations where it makes more sense

Overall 2022 was a strong year. Marked with the duality of the impact of Netflix, bringing some of my favourites while also screwing the Jojo release schedule leaving only a few having watched Stone Ocean. Also the year of unexpected sequels, some great, others not so much

Animation:
Bleach TYBW | Yoshihiro Kanno
Ignore the CG, and Chainsaw Man also deserves a mention, though enough's been said about it already

Art style:
Cyberbunk Edgerunners | Trigger
Yofukashi no Uta also gets a mention for the wallpaper worthy backgrounds every ep

Music:
Cyberbunk Edgerunners | Trigger
Made in Abyss also worth a mention

Direction:
Yofukashi no Uta | Tomoyuki Itamura
Bringing back the Monogatari style but with chilled vibes, and also directed the other vampire show with Vanitas no Carte.
Chainsaw Man and Bleach TYBW also deserve mentions

Script:
Akiba Maid War | PA Works
Though I didn't really like the ending, together with Paripi Koumei, the 2 PA Works originals turned some of the weirdest concepts into surprisingly coherent stories

Character Design:
Engage Kiss | A-1
Usually this always goes to Trigger, but together with LycoReco, A-1 had some good designs in their originals.
G-Witch also deserves a mention, though favourite gundam designs remain from CE/SEED

OP:
Seishun Complex | Bocchi the Rock!
Enough's already been said about Kick Back from Chainsaw Man
Never thought I would hear Franz Ferdinand in an anime OP. This edit of This Fire with Bocchi is a good halfway between them:

ED:
Akuma no Ko | AoT Final Season P2
Quite a strong year for ED's, Yofukashi no Uta and Comedy from Spy x Family also worth mentions, along with Chainsaw Man's unique ED's for each ep

Seiyu:
Nazuna Nanakusa | Sora Amamiya
Wouldn't have recognised her here blindly. Also voiced Chizuru and Himuro as well as doing the vocals for Love Evidence, the OP from RikeKoi S2.
Also worth mentioning the all round strong casts from Spy x Family (almost had a complete Oregairu reunion there) and the Urusei Yatsura remake

Girl:
Yor Forger | Spy x Family
If Yukino was summoned as an assassin class Fate servant.
Lucy, Marin, Kurumi and Bocchi got quite a bit of coverage, so maybe worth a mention for Kamiya since most people dropped Shikimori before Kamiya got her ep to shine

Guy:
Kazuya Kinoshita | KanoKari
It's rentin time
...it's Leon from Mobseka

Fight:
Golem vs Everyone | PriConne S2
Ironic that in a bumper year of battle shounen shows, my most memorable fight came from a gacha game adaptation, but maybe it's because it was just so left field

https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/4dc6b194a65f6a2d3cee7d3a04c53e8a.mp4

Fanservice:
KiseKoi | CloverWorks
Shin Ikkitousen, probably the most unexpected sequel, continued with what the franchise did well, though it really should've had more Kan'u

Episode:
Love is War: Ultra Romantic | Finale
Guess One Piece ep 1015 could also be mentioned

Movie (Overall):
5-toubun no Hanayome | Bibury
Not much to choose from, so bit of a default. I had the ending spoiled long ago thanks to manga readers, but still an entertaining ride to the shipwrecks
Might be replaced when the Love is War movie eventually gets a BD release

TV Series (Overall):
Cyberbunk Edgerunners | Trigger

 

[5hadow17]

Didn't need to wait for the Love is War movie BD release, just got released as 4 eps for streaming. Liked it, expectedly, but going to keep 5-toubun on the list since I did want to cover a wider spread

Also watched most of the other movies by now, except Fruits Basket, but holding out on that one since it's partly recap and hasn't been too long since I watched the remade series

I did give a mention to G-Witch, and that was before the last ep of the 1st cour aired where it took a turn and became a proper Gundam series. 2nd cour starts airing this week, will be interesting if it keeps with that direction

 

[5hadow17]

Unfortunately G-WItch kinda just went straight back into the school setting, but not bad so far. A fan theory about Aerial turned out to actually be true. A lot of people confused, probably because they didn't watch the prologue ep. Should be watched before the starting the series if you want to understand what tf is actually going on