Happy New Year! We’ve finally made it to the end of 2022. The world is still coming to terms with the COVID crisis, controversy with FIFA (Salt Bae’s licking of the World Cup Trophy), and just the general chaos that comes every day. However, if you are an anime fan then this year was filled with groundbreaking anime, from “Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3” to “Bleach’s” long-awaited return. “Chainsaw Man” fans were vindicated with the success of their anime adaptation. “Fire Force” fans saw the exciting end of their manga and just so many any other exciting developments in the anime world.
Conversely, the anime space did see its own share of controversy. Anime fans were busy with binging but with ready access to fewer anime services after the recent merging of streaming giants Crunchyroll and Funimation. Disney Plus decided to join the foray of anime streaming services by grabbing up the localization of anime such as “Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War”, “Summertime Rendering”, “Tatami Time Machine Blues” ¸ and more. Crunchyroll ran into unionization issues with the voice actor for Mob in “Mob Psycho 100” and that’s just the tip of the titan sized iceberg. So, let’s go ahead and review this year in anime, from its highest highs to its lowest lows.
Highest Highs
If this year for anime was anything it was amazing for anime fans of all tastes. Each season gave fans something to look forward to and cheer on. In winter, the return of “Attack on Titan: The Finale Season Part 2” surprised fans with a plot turn for Eren Yeager's protagonist journey. Fans were told of a forthcoming Part 3 set to release next year, along with intense promo art featuring Eren in his Attack Titan form. The anime was also one of many huge series to be animated by studio MAPPA within the year.
Spring sprang a similar tune with “Spy X Family's” premiere, catching many hearts as undercover spy Twilight creates a fake family with an assassin wife and adorable telepath daughter. Continuing the case of cute children, “Kotaro Lives Alone” also left fans in a tizzy, following the tragic story of 5-year-old Kotaro, who lives alone in an apartment building. The series touched on childhood trauma and proved why it truly takes a village to raise a child.
The power of friendship was also evident in new series like “Komi Can't Communicate”, “Tomodachi Game”, and “Summertime Rendering”, but redefined with unique storytelling. “Tomodachi Game” tested the strength of friendships in a psychological thriller filled with betrayal, high stakes, and twists and turns at every corner. “Komi Can't Communicate” allowed us to experience a story about Komi a high school girl with a dream to make 100 friends and overcome her communication disorder, which is mistaken for a stoic nature by her adoring peers and friends. It left fans with the message that with determination, motivation, and friendship anyone can strive to make friends regardless of having a communication disorder.
Summer kept the ball running with surprise returns of fan favorite anime that we’ve been hopelessly waiting for new seasons of. “Classroom of the Elite” returned after five years since season one. Season two brought the fire, continuing the story of our scheming genius Ayanokoji and his school built upon Darwinian principles. Popular isekai series “Overlord” returned with season 4, after years ago at a 2019 panel, creators Kugane Maruyama and illustrator So-Bin, along with anime scriptwriter Yukie Sugawara, revealed the new anime season was coming soon. The season met fan expectations and left them wanting even more. Continuing the cycle of revivals, the buzz around “The Devil is a Part Timer's” obvious animation changes still brought an enjoyable watch befitting of its original first season.
As for new original seasonal anime, “Call of the Night” and “Lycoris Recoil” sparked a unique flare to the summer lineup. “Call of the Night” reminded fans of their love for vampires and why Ken Kaneki deserved better. Manga fans lauded the adaptation and were pushing for it to be the anime of the season. Phenomenal anime studio, A1 Pictures, hit it out the park with their original anime, “Lycoris Recoil”. One of the two original anime they dropped in the Summer, it Introduced us two a covert operation of killer gunslinging girls whose goal is to keep Japan safe from terrorism. Paired with fun action scenes, crisp animation, and hilarious character interactions between main characters, Chisato and Takina, it certainly made this summer season one for the books.
The highly anticipated fall season was packed with hot new series like “Chainsaw Man”, following Denji as a transformed devil/human hybrid after forming a contract with his pet chainsaw devil, Pochita. Of course, the return of heavy hitters “My Hero Academia Season 6”, “Bleach Thousand Year Blood War”, and “Mob Psycho 100 Season 3” were also welcomed without a hitch by die-hard fans. “My Hero Academia” heated things up with a brand-new arc that put Deku and the pro heroes to work against Shiguraki and his League of Villains. “Bleach's” return was the most sought-after by fans who've waited nearly a decade since the season finale in 2013. An official announcement was made back in 2019 on the return of Bleach along with the new title, "Thousand Year Blood War". It was also announced that creator Tite Kubo would be working closely with Studio Perriot on production, along with adding brand-new scenes and fights to the anime's new arc.
“Blue Lock” put a new spin on the sports anime genre with a “Hunger Games-esque” soccer training camp with extremely talented and charismatic characters. “Bocchi The Rock!” lets fans relax in a platter cleanser series following the unorthodox mind of Hitori Bocchi Gotou and her dreams of becoming a rock star with her new bandmates. An anime reminiscent of the musical girl series K-On! and the nostalgic feel of “FLCL” and “Robot Chicken”. This is not to mention the reboot of 90's anime “Urusei Yatsura”, created by Rumiko Takahashi, known for familiar works like “Inuyasha” and “Ranma ½”.
Lowest Lows
With the merging of Crunchyroll and Funimation, concerns of the lack of competition in the anime streaming world began to arise. Along with Sony, Crunchyroll now owned most of the catalogue for anime that is streamed in the US and abroad. Disney must have heard our pleas and wrongfully assumed that we wanted them to become our champion. In 2021, Disney released a slate of anime to be released worldwide in the following year. Only problem is they didn’t follow through. Anime such as “Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall” and “Summertime Rendering” would premiere on Disney + (Asia) but so far is unavailable to everyone else. Much like Netflix Jail, it seems Mickey Mouse was holding the keys to us seeing these and potentially future anime in the West.
They held these keys tightly to their chest as rumors swirled leading up to the release of “Bleach Thousand Year Blood War” that Disney had acquired localization. To this day there are no mentions of the “Bleach” adaptation on Disney Plus’s social media and only one post on Hulu’s two days before the release of the first episode. Hopefully, this doesn’t become a trend since Disney expanded their deal with Kodansha in November 2022 to begin producing and localizing original anime in the coming years. The first victim of this deal will be “Tokyo Revengers Christmas Showdown Arc” which launches exclusively on Disney Plus in January 2023.
Netflix Jail made sure that Disney wasn’t the only one holding series hostage with their release schedule for “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6”. After premiering on the streaming platform back in 2021, fans were unfortunately left to wait a year until the series' conclusion. Thus, dying down the hype of the anticipated anime starring the series' first-ever women lead protagonist, Jolyne Cujoh, daughter of Jotaro Kujo. This change in release segments by Netflix goes against the anime's usual weekly release in previous parts and made fans unhappy with the binge cour season of Part 6. This isn’t a new problem for Netflix as the animators for the “Cuphead Show” spoke out about the streaming service purposefully splitting seasons up to keep production costs low. You might have seen this concern along with others in the #NewDeal4Animation that was trending early 2022. Animators claimed that the Season 2 that was renewed for the Cuphead Show are just batched episodes that were already made and animated in the first order for the show.
https://twitter.com/kylemsnape/status/1499182881423433732?s=20&t=5DqXoD05tjxkNOiwlEtnMg
https://twitter.com/nicklauerart/status/1499179809611542533?s=20&t=6p3t0IFnNGwAPUnw-qopqA
Crunchyroll was under fire before the awaited Fall 2022 season after refusing to recast some the original voice actors for Mob Psycho 100 Season 3 including Mob's original English voice actor Kyle McCarley. Without speaking to the voice actors, Crunchyroll decided to move back to all in-person recording at their Dallas studio. During the COVID-19 pandemic, most voice actors were allowed to do their dub recording at home. McCarley wanted to return to the role but after the new guidelines were released, he tried to reconcile with Crunchyroll but ultimately decided to refuse the role since they wouldn’t agree to his union SAG-AFTRA contract. The contract funds a health plan and retirement plan for participating members.
The first episode of “Mob Psycho 100 Season 3” premiered with no cast list for their dub actors which drew even more ire for Crunchyroll’s treatment of their voice actors. Crunchyroll in recent news has been criticized for their poor treatment and bad working conditions for the voice actors that worked for them. Mob’s new voice actor was later revealed to be Ernesto Jason Liebrecht who is mostly known for his roles as Zeke Yeager (“Attack on Titan”), Dabi (“My Hero Academia”), and Yato (“Noragami”).
What to Expect in Anime in 2023
No matter the season, 2022 pegged an amazing year for anime, this doesn’t even include anime series films like “Jujutsu Kaisen 0”, “Dragon Ball Super: Superhero”, “One Piece Film: Red” and original films like “Bubble”, “Inu-oh”, “Drifting Home”, and many others. “The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1” premiered on Netflix toward the end of the year with an original story by creator Nakaba Suzuki. Following the son of Meliodas and Elizabeth, Tristan learns to control both his Goddess and devil powers. The movie is set to return with Part 2 in August 2023, and a brand-new sequel series titled, “The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of Apocalypse”, is currently in development. There are also a host of underrated gems that dropped throughout the year that I could talk about endlessly.
Each big anime convention gave us new anime to look forward to in 2023. Announcements for continuing series next year, included “Jujutsu Kaisen season 2”, “Vinland Saga season 2”, Bungou Stray Dogs season 4”, “Tokyo Revengers Season 2”, “Demon Slayer Season 3”, just to name a few and new original anime like “Kaiju No. 8” and “Mashle”. Many fans extoled that Fall 2022 was the “best season of anime ever” it seems that we may have some contenders for the title in 2023. It doesn’t matter when you decide to watch anime next year there will be something new and exciting to watch that will no doubt catch your attention.
2022 was a year the true anime streamer wars were declared. Netflix threw their hat in the ring with dropping multiple bingeworthy anime to their growing repertoire of anime projects like “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners”, “Tekken: Bloodline”, “Spriggan”, “Kotaro Lives Alone”, “Lookism”, and “Romantic Killer”. Many fans expect to see “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” to make its appearance at the 2022 Anime Awards and wouldn’t be surprised if “Lookism” was there too. We’ve also learned of most of their slate for 2023 which includes the return of “Kengan Ashura”. Disney Plus joined the battle with controversy and fans are still cautiously tip toeing around the streaming giant. The only anime they dropped on streaming that was promised early in the year was “Tatami Time Machine Blues”.
This hesitance from the community hasn’t stopped Disney Plus from growing their engagement with anime seeing as they still have more anime next year, they plan on dropping that we don’t know about yet. Seeing as they have a virtual monopoly on the anime localization game, Crunchyroll, still has a hold on most anime we will see next year. This doesn’t even include HiDive, who grabbed some lucrative anime in 2022, and HBO Max, who we have no idea how they’re going to handle their animation sector in 2023. Seems like this year will be a year for seeing which streamer can gain ground in this growing battle for anime streaming dominance.
However, we choose to look on the positive and believe that 2023 bodes well for itself, with a grand spanking lineup surely to give 2022 a run for its money. At least anime fans will have a lot to watch as the year goes on. Hopefully, these are the lowest lows we will ever meet but every year is ripe with its own surprises so, who really knows? Only time can tell, but one thing's true, anime fans will eat well, and that may be all that matters.
