Forum - View topicThe Best and Worst Anime of Summer 2022
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2474 |
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I didn't watch a whole lot this season, but my favorite has been (even through all its... difficulties) Hoshi no Samidare / Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer since the start. I don't think anyone can deny the production is kind of a mess, which I expected since the announcement came I think 6 months before the air date, but the core of the good writing I loved in the original is still there. It's still ongoing and the production can still get even more disastrous, but I'm hoping the week they'll recap will give them a bit of breathing room
And since I'm mentioning unfinished anime, Isekai Ojisan / Uncle From Another World was really fun most episodes it managed to air too. I think it's bound to fall into a rut however with a lot of jokes already repeating, but maybe I'll be proven wrong whenever it resumes. Something that has actually finished that I really enjoyed was Aoashi. I'm from Brazil which means I'm legally obligated to like football but I've never watched an anime about it, it seems like a pretty difficult sport to make an anime out of given there's a whole 20 players moving about the field plus two GKs, and to develop a whole team seems like it'd be really hard to do. Tactically speaking I feel like for about half of its run Aoashi was a bit disappointingly shallow but it really turned that up in the last half to great delivery, and even while that aspect wasn't pulling its weight, the emotional core that Ashito, his family and Hana brought around more than made up for it As for worst, I'd have to mention my drops, Yurei Deco which seems like it might actually have an interesting story behind the obnoxious characters, but I'd rather get interesting stories from characters I like instead. DanMachi 4 was a bit surprising to me in that I didn't dislike these volumes adapted all that much, but the anime left me really, really cold. I've kind of stopped caring about the franchise for a while now, and I feel like the anime just accentuates all the aspects I don't like about it |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2621 |
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My random thoughts on this rather fun season:
Made in Abyss is not for me, I have tried getting into the series several times but I keep bouncing off it. I can appreciate parts of it while finding other parts just plain disgusting and rather disturbing. Yurei Deco feels like an anime that had a solid idea in the first few episodes to then completely forget about said idea later on. The last episode left me utterly confused as to what the point of it all was and if I have wasted my time watching it. RWBY: Hyousetsu Teikoku showed that dragging an arc out for too long makes it really hard to stay engaged. The dreamworld started of rather magical and interesting to become something you want the series to escape from a few episodes later. After that it still goes on for 4 or so episodes. Shadows House 2nd Season is my favorite anime of the season and manages to keep the creepy yet cute setting interesting. It gives a lot of information while still making sure to keep lots of things vague enough to want more. Yofukashi no Uta is very good in using colors to make for some very charming fun during the night. The story and characters are interesting and charming too, but I keep watching for more moody nights. Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru has no hook to keep you engaged, Hataraku Maou-sama!! manages to stay interesting despite the drop in animation and Fuuto Tantei is very stylish. Last edited by smurky turkey on Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Kalhiki
Posts: 67 |
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Favorite of the season for me was probably Call of the Night. One of those shows I just checked out on a whim and ended up enjoying it far more than expected. Like, I was already hyped for Made in Abyss and enjoyed it, but idk. When a show I wasn't entirely interested in turns out to be great, I tend to be more excited for it than any other.
As for worst, Rent a Girlfriend hands down. I recall enjoying the first season, but S2 I started realizing it's issue of spinning its wheels and not making any progress. Sadly, I can't seem to drop it after the finale set up a new story arc that (I hope) will allow the series to progress some. I also want to take the time to talk about how disappointed I was that I couldn't get into Lycoris Recoil. I won't say it's a bad show by any means, just... For some reason it didn't do it for me. A shame since a lot of people enjoyed it, and I kinda feel left out because of it lol. Just couldn't get into the story and I found Chisato to be kind of annoying. |
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gumbaloom
Posts: 307 |
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I’ll write up more detailed points later but did anyone watch Luminous Witches or Prima Doll?
Both left me disappointed at the end - Prima Doll - like where did that finale come from? - luminous witches - you could see where it was going from ep 10 no mystery… Luminous Witches annoyed me because it was trying to be Strike Witches does Love Live and failed. Limited song and dance scenes and what there were where no match for the quality of Love Live Superstar. The switch to 3D was also very obvious too. For Strike Witches fans looks like lots of fan service but to me it was lets do a tour of the members home countries and then have a engineered minor crises before the final show which felt very unearned Like the music but they should have stuck with the pantsu, girls and guns formula. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5499 Location: Iscandar |
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Made in Abyss season 2, Call of the Night and Lycoris Recoil are the best shows I have watched this season, but I am not quite ready to rank them.
I watched Luminous Witches and liked it. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2112 |
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Not a single mention of Summer Time Rendering?
Then again I see Parttime Demon isn't also mentioned |
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JustMonika
Posts: 1143 |
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Favorites were Rent-a-Girlfriend, Call of the Night, Shine Post, Lycoris Recoil, When Will Ayumu Make His Move, My Stepmom's Daughter is My Ex, A Couple of Cuckoos and Vermeil in Gold.
I don't have any that I watched that were bad and I plan on watching Engage Kiss, Danmachi 4, Prima Doll and Love Live! Superstar once they're all dubbed. |
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tintor2
Posts: 2112 |
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Oh yeah. I should put the ones I enjoyed.
Biggest surprise to me was Fuuto Pi due to the amazing production values and how appealing they made Shotaro. Still, the one I enjoyed probably the most is Summer Time Rendering. I also watched Call of the Night but didn't come to enjoy that much. The one I quit is The Devil is a PartTimer for reasons I can't understand well. The one that kinda disappointed me the most is Bastard! part 2 due to the length of the fight against Abigail and lack of explanation about who the heck is actually Lucien. There is also Saint Seiya which felt like an improvement at least visually despite the recycled animation for every attack. |
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AQuin1904
Posts: 270 |
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Lycoris Recoil is definitely my favorite anime I finished this season, although I still have to catch up on a couple other good shows. It wasn't "deep" in a sociopolitical sense, but the character dynamics were excellent throughout, sold by some great performances, and the action had some stellar highs.
I really enjoyed The Girl from the Other Side, but I also found the subtitles quite distracting. I must assume that someone mandated 先生 be translated as "teacher," because I can't think of any other good explanation for clumsily rewriting a line where the character explicitly says that she means "doctor." |
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al505
Posts: 25 |
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I have to break my selections into three categories based upon my humble opinions only.
First would be BEST NEW ANIME. 1) Call of the Night 2) Parallel World Pharmacy 3) Vermeil in Gold Honorable Mention 4) Black Summoner Next would be BEST RETURNING ANIME. 1) DanMachi IV 2) Made in Abyss II 3) Overlord IV Honorable Mention 4) Shadows House II Finally, the EXECRABLE ANIME 1) Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World 2) Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer Everything else was just … meh! Last edited by al505 on Mon Sep 26, 2022 3:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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therjabundo
Posts: 44 |
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I've watched quite a lot this season, most of them licensed by Sentai Filmworks.
Vermeil in Gold is my personal favorite this season. Despite being a raunchy series, this was a serious yet beautiful love story between master and familiar while at the same time having enjoyable action scenes, plot development and cool magic. I enjoyed Call of the Night, Lycoris Recoil and Made in Abyss: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun too. Engage Kiss and Prima Doll were the disappointments for me. The latter left me confused after the finale, like I felt there were still unanswered questions. Engage Kiss meanwhile failed to energize me, I wasn't really enthusiastic about how the plot went. Finally, RWBY: Ice Queendom annoyed the shit out of me. For a single arc to prolong too much and take up almost the entire season was really frustrating. |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 384 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Considering how slight the first half of this year felt, I'm glad to see it ramping up this season (with the next quite possibly be the most stacked in my 13 years of seasonal watching) with there being several great titles.
The highlight for me was easily Made in Abyss S2. The movie, while aesthetically breathtaking, started to rely too heavily on the author's unfortunate quirks, so it was great to see that stuff quickly abandoned as the story moved into material that wouldn't allow for it. It's still utterly horrifying at times, but that focus is geared towards sincere emotional content & thematic musings, which is personally where the show shines for me. I also personally love the shift away from Riku, Reg & Nananchi to a secondary group of characters, who view the descent into the abyss with more diverse & generally complicated outlooks. Call of the Night is probably next on the list, serving in many regards as an entry-level alternative to the Monogatari franchise, for folks that are curious but don't want to deal with the visual, dialogue & fanservice excesses that come with that show. It nails the dreamlike quality of a city at night, and the wonder of being able to explore new worlds at your own pacing, only to slowly shift and reveal the unglamourous sides and dangers that slowly come into view as you acclimatize yourself to a new setting. Lycoris Recoil, Shadows House, LL Superstar & Shine Post were also great shows this season, although I seem to be in the minority regarding the latter. Most Disappointing: A part of me wants to put Stone Ocean pt. 2 here, due to its underwhelming production & shockingly nonexistent marketing & promotion, but ultimately the source material drags it above David Production & Netflix's meagre efforts. Instead, I'm going with Yurei Deco, which ended up being another one of those visually unique titles with dialogue that made it feel like it was written for young kids, while covering concepts they mostly wouldn't be able to process (eg. Tsuritama). Ultimately, I began to view it as an ambitious, but ultimately ill-considered take on current issues, in a similar manner to Gatchaman Crowds, but by time the finale aired, calling it considered at all felt too generous to the half-hearted, barely formed thoughts the show decided to shrug at us.
At the risk of making people angry, I have been watching Summer Time Rendering, but my reaction to it seems to be wildly different to the passionate & rather defensive fanbase I've encountered. I initially treated it as a bit of a hatewatch, being wildly entertained by it mishmash of tones and 90's anime archetypes and setting. That said, as the show has moved along, I have started to legitimately enjoy as a sort of b-movie horror inspired visual novel adventure (despite it being not being based on one, considering the structure feeling near identical at times). It's fun and propulsive, but I definitely don't view it as emotionally effective or sincere, which is a take that's sparked ire from a few folks. Maybe I'm just too old for its particular tropes to work on me. That said, if you want to watch something like Steins Gate with a bit more schlock, definitely give it a try. Last edited by fathomlessblue on Mon Sep 26, 2022 12:15 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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q_3
Posts: 165 |
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I got the most enjoyment out of Dropkick on My Devil!!! X and Teppen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because my two favorite genres are shows with excessive exclamation marks in their titles and anime productions that are actually fronts for money laundering or tax evasion.
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Spike Terra
 Subscriber Posts: 361 Location: Maryland |
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Blame Disney for the first. Blame a 9 year gap and sloppy visuals for the second. I say that but I still love Hataraku Maousama and I'm glad it got a second season. @gumbaloom I watched both Prima Doll and Luminous Witches (I'm three episodes behind on LW). As for Prima Doll, I enjoyed it for the most part. I liked the whole idea of soldiers finding a new purpose after a war and the automata aspect really helped the theme hit home. As for the last arc spoiler[I thought that Haikagura's meltdown was prompted over her fear of being brought back as a weapon for the current rebel crisis, mixed with her current PTSD. I think it wa a little sloppy for an ending but I was always certain that it would have a sad finale.]. My Best was Isekai Ojisan, looking forward to finishing it in the fall. My Best that actually finished was Lycoris Recoil Runner up would Call of the Night Honorable Mentions: Shadows House 2, My maid is mysterious, Paralell World Pharmacy, RWBY and Danmachi season 4 Worst: Harem Labyrinth in Another World or as I call it (HLAW). I might go into detail later on but I gotta catch up with the shows I'm behind on. |
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TheSleepyMonkey
Posts: 952 |
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Not sure what's the point you're trying to make by putting "meagre" efforts as if trying to imply DP didn't give a fudge about this. It's true that this adaptation is weaker from a visual level, specially in comparison to other parts, but the rest of it as an adaptation is still the same quality as everything else. |
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