Spring 2022 Anime, AKA the Spy x Family Thread

[Mattias]

So, the new season is about a week away, what's everyone looking forward to?

Reoccuring:

Love Live 3 S2: Sequel to probably the weakest season, but more Love Live.
Sheild Hero S2: I got really bored of S1 by the end, but I'll see if 2 can hook me.
Komi-San S2: More Komi.
Date A Live 4: Sunk cost fallacy, at this point.
Machikado Mazoku: Suprised to see this getting a S2, but it's a welcome one.
Mahoutsuki Reimeiki: Apparently a sequel of sorts to Grimoire of Zero.
Kaguya S3: Having this and Komi in the same season feels like over saturation of memes
Kyoukai Senki S2: I liked the 2d mechs in the first season, but the story felt flat. I do want to see what Kira Yamato BS they pull off to have the MC survive a point blank nuke again.

Very Interested:

Paripi Koumei: Three Kingdoms Idol management. Sounds just the right kind of ridiculous.
Spy x Family: Why else would I call the thread this?


Mildly Interested:

Ikkitousen: Heard a lot about this one back in the day, though this is just a preview, it dosn't start properly until mid-May.
Aharen-San Wa Hakarenai: This looks like an absurdist comedy.
Yuusha, Yamemasu: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha with less Rom more Com could be fun.
Golf Girls Story: It's probably going to hinge on it's cast
Ao Ashi: See above.
Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de: Sentai Romeo and Juliet
Dance Dance Danseur: Welcome to the Ballroom surprised me, so why not?
Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san: This looks like a reverse Tsundere, a Deretsun.


Lots of returning stuff this season but not a lot of new stuff that wows. More like "hey, this could be neat".

[Rafflesiac]

Spy x Family and Kaguya off the top of my head, probably a couple of others I'm blanking on RN.

Shield Hero's a no, season 1 had like 2, 2.5 good fights out of 26 episodes and the rest wasn't engaging enough to get hyped for more. Also the Spirit Turtle stuff was already enough of a slog in the manga for me to drop that, so I've got no motivation for it.

[Toranth]

Glad to see HonZuki coming back, and another season of Machikado will be a nice light treat. Mob Isekai was a good, fun read for the first arc, OK for the second, and not that good for the third/fourth. That means the anime will probably be OK, but grain of salt.
I'll try Mahotsukai Reimeiki, too - I enjoyed the first season, so a spinoff/sequel is worth a try.

The rest, though... Spy x Family, maybe. I read some of the manga, but didn't care enough to keep going. Maybe it'll be better in more compressed chunks.
Lots of not good material coming through.

[Mattias]

Shield Hero's a no, season 1 had like 2, 2.5 good fights out of 26 episodes and the rest wasn't engaging enough to get hyped for more. Also the Spirit Turtle stuff was already enough of a slog in the manga for me to drop that, so I've got no motivation for it.

The other world heroes really boosted the end of the 1st season for me, because they were actually competent and likeable unlike most of the cast.

[Rafflesiac]

Oh right, Mobsekai. May as well try that, it has cute girls.

The other world heroes really boosted the end of the 1st season for me, because they were actually competent and likeable unlike most of the cast.

They did a lot of work in a little time. IIRC they didn't exist in the WN except for Glass.

[Laserman]

Watch:
Spy X Famiy
Tiger & Bunny 2

[bassgs435]

Here goes my supah long list
Whenever they return from Toei hack:
Digimon Ghost Game
Dragon Quest Dai
Delicious Party Precure
Now for stuff that isn't affected by this:
Aharen-san
Birdie Wing
BRS Dawn Fall
Build Divide
DaL IV
Estab-Life
Skeleton Knight
Healer Girl
Honzuki
Kaguya
Shikimori-san
Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de
Kono Healer, Medokusai
Kunoichi Tsubaki
Kyoukai Senki
Machikado Mazoku
Magia Record
Mahoutsukai Reimeiki
Otomege Sekai wa Mob
RikeKoi
RPG Fudousan
Sachiku-san
Shijou Saikou Daimou
Shin Ikkitousen
Shokei Shoujo
Spy x Family
Summer Time Render
Shield Hero
Tomodachi Game
Yuusha Yamemasu
Paripi Koumei
Onipan

Movies (whenever they come in BD, or in the rare case they get into an streaming site):
Isekai Quartet
Takagi-san
Odd Taxi (this is why I mentioned streaming sites. Apparently, it'll go in CR at some point)

ONAs, specials and other stuff (mostly the Netflix category, this one)
Bubble
Tiger and Bunny
Ultraman
Vampire in the Garden

[Alternative Ice]

I've read the first three volumes of The Executioner and Her Way of Life so I'm pretty excited to watch that.

[LegalLoliLover]

Shield Hero
Komi-san
Quitting Heroing
Machikado Mazoku
Black Rock Shooter
Kunoichi Tsubaki
Magia Record
Shin Ikkitousen
Kaginado
Moriarty
Princess Principal

[LegalLoliLover]

I also note the uptick in 3 Kingdoms derivatives, along with villainess otome series.

[Mattias]

Everything old is new again.

[ResidentSeagull]

Honestly there isn't anything that really picques my interest this time around.

Maybe I'll check out Spy x Family, but that's about it.

[LegalLoliLover]

Everything old is new again.

Which would explain the 3 Kingdoms stuff, not the villainess stuff.

[AmADo VII]

didn't know Aharen was Mizu Asato's work but glad I watched it.

[Mattias]

Ya Boy Kongming was really fun. I think the bartender bit sealed it for me.

Aharen just didn't connect with me. Maybe it's because Komi was so recently and is coming back this season, but it just felt flat.

I couldn't even get halfway through Estab Life. The Cold War is something you don't really see in anime, but to transpose it to one Tokyo district and moe it up to such an extreme just feels off. If you wanted a comedy why choose the Cold War as a setting, and if you wanted an action show why alter the premise this much? It's also not like there hasn't been a show to do both either, Princess Principal was tons of fun. But they made characters that seemed to fit a world, where this seems to just crank the uWu to 11 and hope it turns out. The oddly stilted 3d was the thing I noticed first, but ended up being the thing that bothered me least.

Isekai Executioner seems like the second coming of Talentless Nana. It probably won't have the same level of mindgames which that one so fun, but the power corrupting theme is all over this one.

I liked the Badminton anime's point that sports scholarships are really precarious, and the MC deciding to just study and get in normally to his ideal school. That said, nothing else really grabbed me in this one.

Same basic feeling about the horse racing anime too. It makes me wonder if this is one of those universes where the niche sport is actually the super popular thing every follows, or if all that fervour was solely because the MC. I did laugh when that one reporter asked "You're one of the top idols, don't you owe it to everyone to abandon this school and become an idol again?" like they exist solely for the public's entertainment.

I think the last thing this Love Live iteration needed was more characters. But to steal the gimmick from Superstar like that to boot? The Reservoir Dogs look is pretty nice though. "Idols who need support from other to perform are pathetic" says the girl who needs her tech friend to hack into the school to change all the lighting and set up her own performance.

[weeblord]

First ep of Executioner wasnt half bad. cautiously optimistic for this adaption.

[Skull]

Shenmue Episode 9 - I was wondering why they were leaving Zhangyu as the last of the four Wude masters when he seemed the least important but I see now that it was because they wanted to tie it into the plot of meeting Ren which was cool. I will say, I always had a soft spot for Zhangyu as his lesson is the only time I can think of in video games where failing a QTE is required to progress the story. We get some more of the backstory of Xiuying and her brother with some unsubtle parallels between Ryo and Ziming both potentially going down the wrong path. It was a little weird seeing Ren introduce himself and his quirks after we've already seen him cameo in some anime-original scenes but that's fine. Now that he's joined the group I believe we've reached the end of Disc 2 and now the pacing starts to pick up as we get a proper introduction to the Yellow Head gang and Yuan. I had to laugh at Xiuying in this episode because her speed-blitzing the YH mooks looked a little ridiculous - IIRC in the game it took place in a bazaar like place with Xiuying moving from one street stall to the next so she was constantly obscured but here in the anime it was a wide open street and it just looked like she was so fast Ryo couldn't see her despite being a mere ten feet in front of him.

Side note: I was a little thrown off by Yuan having a male voice actor as I forgot he's a gay man in the original, whereas I'm more used to the censored Western version of "Yuan" being a woman.

[bassgs435]

Watched the last 4 Magia Record episodes. Pretty great finale. Now that I FINALLY have the whole picutre, I still think this is a great show and one of the best gacha adaptations. The production issues and all the delays of episodes (all 24 episodes were clearly intended as a whole season and narrative. The separation into 3 "seasons" is to cover production issues not allowing for the episodes to come earlier) really hurt it. But anyone starting it now will have a very good show. Not as great as OG Madoka. But still a great spinoff and dark magical girl show

[Rafflesiac]

Isecutioner: Cute girls, cool aesthetics. I'll pick it up.
Mobsekai: So much for the budget. I hope this doesn't collapse, the manga's reasonably amusing.

[Mattias]

Isecutioner

Damn, that's a way better name than anything I thought of.