Talking about all the Anime I watched this year [2022] - Part 3

Hey so remember how I said I wanted to put out the final part in a few days of the last one... yeah, about that. Well that sure didn't go how I wanted that to go huh? What with exams, life and my absolute lack of creative energy. I guess I am finishing this now, 4 months into 2023. Well here we go-

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  Tsukimonogatari - Monogatari continues to be the perfect amalgamation of beautiful direction work and tightly written dialogue in the shorter OVA that fills the gap between second season and end season. Ononoki is one of my personal favorite characters so seeing her being an absolute menace to society was a good fucking time. I wish the story had a bit more substance to it but overall I can't really complain about a faithful adaptation.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Arakawa Under The Bridge, Space Petrol Luluco, Inferno Cop - Bunching up all of these together because they are all insane in just the right ways. Arakawa with it's absolutely bonkers cast of characters, Luluco with it's franchise spanning homage to other trigger properties while being a cute little love story and inferno cop which is a certified kino masterpiece. A work of art even. No I am not going to put all 3 pictures here, formatting is a bitch.
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Kiznaiver - Talking about this show makes me sad because it's a perfect case of squandered potential. It's opening four episodes are so miserable to sit through that I considered quitting entirely. It does recover from that with a strong singular arc from it's characters and it gets much better from there with some excellent set pieces, strong direction work and writing from the team. Kiznaiver is at it's best when it's being a character drama fueled by the urgency of it's plot- trying to explore it's themes of grief, loss and what it means to shoulder each other's pain. It's just a shame that it's tied to such a contrived and forced first act. What else- excellent visuals, bad pacing and a OP track that's still stuck in my head. Yep, that's the trigger I know. 
  
  
  
• Kizumonogatari - The kizu trilogy is a work of art. A cinematic masterpiece in it's direction, atmosphere, animation work and production values. Whilst the first half of Kizu 1 remains my favorite part of the trilogy, I can't deny the amount of craftsmanship that has gone into the whole thing. As far as story goes, I am not the biggest fan. Don't get me wrong I like it but it explores storylines and character arcs that have already been explored in past seasons and while this is a prequel it falls into the weird camp of prequels that really shouldn't be watched before the main series entries. 
  
  
  
  
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  Blame! - Blame is one of the most striking looking cyberpunk worlds I have had the pleasure to witness. It's gritty sterile industrial complexes teetering on the edge of unfathomable depths. The abyssal darkness around the few people who manage to survive in it's cruel world. The movie doesn't manage to do justice to this incredible world but it tries it's hardest. The story it tells is very simple but the humanity steeped into it carries more than enough weight to make the movie a worthwhile watch.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Steins;Gate - What can I even say about this show that hasn't been said before? Steins gate is a perfect show. It creates an incredible mystery with a memorable cast of character, slowly increases the stakes and then unravels them in an utterly spectacular way. It's gripping from start to finish and carries a sense of confidence in it's pacing that is quite rare in time travel stories. Oh did I mention it's also one of the best time travel stories? El Psy Kongroo!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• March comes in Like a lion S1, S2 - Ah, my favorite show of all time. Sangatsu no Lion is a masterpiece in storytelling harnessing what the medium of anime is truly capable of. It's visual storytelling tied with it's beautiful writing make for a world and characters that are truly and utterly human. Whatever I write here can't possibly be enough to describe how I feel about this show so I will try in another long form article someday instead. For now I guess I will just say- GO AND WATCH IT WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE READING THIS SHITTY BLOG. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• RELIFE - Fun show. Decently written cast of characters that does the premise justice. It's fun to think about what you would do differently if you could relive your past again and how much you would change as a person because of it. Seeing the main duo grow and change each other is very cute. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  SSSS.Gridman - I used to think I wasn't really a mecha person and I still don't think I completely am but there's so much in the media I have enjoyed that I am wondering whether I just like mecha shows that aren't quite about the mecha but where it's just a part of the larger whole. Gridman at it's core is an excellent character study of it's antagonist and the people around her. Akira Amemiya quickly became one of my favorite directors due to his work in this show. Carrying on the lineage of long establishing shots, ambient drawn out angles and interesting shot framing to give weight to it's excellent character drama. He is an excellent successor to Anno's work in the Eva series. Fantastic production values, a great OST and a tightly written plot made it one of my favorite things by Trigger. 
  
  
• Noragami - It's... fine. I will be honest I don't remember half of what happened because it was so very decent at everything. Nothing was truly memorable and none of it was really badly done either. It's a perfectly serviceable show. I am not even going to attach a photo for this.
  
  
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  Sayonara, Zetsubo Sensei - What an insane fucking show. Full of grotesque and unsettling imagery but carrying a rather juvenile sense of humor throughout it's runtime. It's quite the uncomfortable watch sometimes because of how crass it can be. An unsuspecting harem of a suicidal teacher isn't really the kinda show I usually go for so it was certainly quite the experience. Shaft's surreal presentation definitely enhances the unhinged nature of it's characters and the things they do.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Arknights: Prelude to Dawn - Interesting dystopian world that contrasts the rich jazzy tone of it's little pockets of civilization with an almost cinematic gritty tone. Interesting to watch more of it as future seasons roll in. No, I am not playing the game shut up.
  
  
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  Owarimonogatari S1,2 - A perfect ending in every shape or form. There's little left to be said for me about the brilliance of monogatari but one of it's characters arc- 'Sodachi Lost' still managed to surprised me with how it handled sensitive topics such as domestic abuse and mental health with such incredible deft. Sodachi's long monologue at the end of her arc is one of the best VA performances I have had the pleasure to listen to and it made me tear up in a way the franchise has seldom managed to. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Land of the Lustrous - A fantastic work of character drama, the meaning of self, existence and finding one's place in the world. Houseki no Kuni excels at visual storytelling, foreshadowing and it's usage of metaphors right from the get go. The journey of seeing our weak, pathetic protagonist grow as a character through hardships that no one person should have to bear is very well executed. Her frustrations with herself and the way she slowly changes into someone else entirely echoes sentiments we have always felt and seldom acted upon. It's a character study in a way that only the medium of anime is capable of and it's beautiful. Just like the gems that inhabit it's world. Sharp as a diamond. Fragile like a splinter of phosphophylite. 
  
  
  
  
  
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  Bocchi the Rock - Bocchi is not "literally me fr" but she is an exaggerated look at the myriad mental health issues that plague us everyday. Her anxiety and inability to socialize is easy to relate to in that regard. That is exactly why seeing her grow as a person so wholesome to see. Fantastic direction work, some of the most hilarious animation gags and an album that has become my most listened to album... ever, easily made Bocchi one of my favorite things of the year. Also, Ryo is my spirit animal. She's literally me fr fr. 
  
  
• More than a married couple, but not lovers - Interesting art style, occasionally touching writing and a cast of characters on the cusp of being interesting. I wish the ecchi didn't rear it's head in so often. Pretty mid otherwise.
  
  
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  Pretty Boy Detective Club - The excellent spiritual sequel to Ouran High School Host Club! The main character even has the same VA! Another shaft and Nisioisin collaboration that created one of the prettiest looking shows I have watched this show. The whole cast is extremely fun to watch and Nisio's dialogue never manages to get boring for me. Perhaps I am used to his nonsense but I just really didn't mind how long winded some of it is intentionally written to be because it serves one of the core tenets of the show- be young, be pretty and be a boy at heart! 
  
  
  
  
  
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  Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury - "Listen I promise I am not a mecha person!" I say as some of my favorite shows turn out to be all mecha. This is clearly not foreshadowing for what my 2023 arc is going to be. So witch from mercury- came for the high school yuri, stayed for some of the most beautifully animated mecha fights I have had the pleasure of watching. I can't stress enough how good it sounds too. It's production value is so incredibly tight. Very excited for how the story will wrap up in 2nd season.
   
• Chainsaw Man - We are finally here. The final entry of the shows I finished in 2022 and what a show to end it on. I had read through most of Fujimoto's works before in preparation of CSM, but I still wasn't prepared for how good it ended up being. What the first season adapts is merely a taste of what's to come but the people at MAPPA understand the show on a very intimate levels. They GIVE a shit about the source material. Slowing down the pacing, giving the characters much needed room to breathe and adding new scenes that expand them in meaningful ways- I love this adaptation so so much. The production values are through the fucking roof and it's OST is absolutely bonkers. They made 13 different EDs for this damn show, they were FLEXING. Absolutely incredible ride from start to finish and I can NOT wait for what's to come.
  
  
  
  
  

And that finally brings to an end all the shows I have watched in 2022. It was wonderful finding all these pieces of media, a new world of characters and stories I wouldn't be able to experience elsewhere. I found some of my favorite pieces of media this year and also found one of my new favorite writers of all time. It's been a productive year and I am already dreading thinking about the blogs I am going to have make about every season of 2023... I will see you then.