2022 Anime Retrospective

Yet another year of anime has ended. I can say without hyperbole that 2022 has been one of the most interesting years in anime I have encountered in a while. Would I say it is the best? I don’t know where it would rank, but it would definitely be up there from the past 20 years. For once, there were more good or great shows than bad ones, and I can’t remember the last time that happened as of writing this. Even though there were still bad shows, there weren’t any disaster-level shows that stood out. At worst, they were just painfully boring or forgettable. And honestly, I would prefer it to be the latter than the former.

Now, let’s go through every show I’ve completed alphabetically and then I will reveal what I think to be the best anime of the year.

2022 Anime Retrospective (Part 2)

Ushio to Tora Review

Taking old anime and rebooting them for current anime viewers has not been done before. Many reasons are that the visual quality of the old anime shows, for the most part, have not aged well, especially trying to view a stream of one that is of low quality and bad subtitles. One big example is Space Battleship Yamato 2199 in 2013, regarded by many as a suitable remake of the classic space opera from 1974. Here we have Ushio to Tora, a reboot of a 1992 10 episode OVA based on a 6 year long manga in 1990. I was not aware of their existence, but suffice to say, this reboot has succeeded in peaking my interest in the series.

Noragami Aragoto Review

A bond between friends of any amount can be strong when you have shared all of your interests, strengths, and weaknesses to help understand one another. Similar to how friendship is portrayed in the story, a convincing company involving people that try to fight off whatever conflicts they must face can be an emotional roller coaster of an experience. Sometimes this can be accomplished by simply adding enough time for us to take in that they have grown together as friends before the inevitable climax. At first, I loved this friendship that Noragami presented in its first season. Now I’ve gravitated towards them in the sequel.

Himouto! Umaru-chan Review

Do you want to watch something that will smile on your face regardless of what mood you are in? Specifically, an anime that has one particular character that has the charisma and charm to make an entire series into a glorious package of fun and cuteness all by herself? Oh boy, do I have an anime for you if you do.