The Summer 2022 Anime Roundup
The Summer 2022 anime season is almost over, which means it’s time for yet another roundup. We’ve got a lot of shows this time around, mostly because I’ve been trying not to drop too many shows this season. I noticed that I’d been doing it a lot the last two roundups, and while I still ended up dropping a few shows here and there, I’d like to think I did a better job of consistently watching this time around.
Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World: 4/10
Easily one of the most boring anime I’ve watched in recent times, as well as the most sexually gratuitous. Forget about the moral quandary of the main character owning a sex slave, and realize the true crime of this series is being nothing but grinding in featureless dungeons with some of the most hackneyed RPG mechanics nearly every video game isekai features. Even if you watch this series just for the smut, you have to realize that you’re watching fifteen minutes of boring dungeon crawling for (at most) five minutes of softcore porn.
Bonus points for the audacity to feature a whole bunch of female characters in the opening (and even in some key visuals!) despite only the main heroine Roxanne being the only girl to appear for most of the series. No, the ending montage where they all finally appear (and I really did watch this series to completion just to see if they would show up) doesn’t justify it.
My Isekai Life: 4/10
Just as boring as the last series, though it at least lacks the problematic elements like engaging in slavery. In fact, it happens to lack a lot of trite isekai and anime tropes, because it doesn’t happen to feature anything at all. The main character Yuji lacks any semblance of personality or motivation, and has no goal aside from wandering aimlessly as an adventurer. There are no other recurring characters aside from the monsters Yuji travels with, and they are similarly bland. It’s not even possible to enjoy each episodic adventure as Yuji is so ridiculously powerful that he always has an answer to every situation regardless of the problem. Isekai excess at its most boring and inconsequential.
Black Summoner: 5/10
I swear my general dislike of isekai isn’t the reason why the bottom three of this list so far have all been isekai series.
This series is actually pretty similar to My Isekai Life, being about a reincarnated adventurer whose specialty is in obtaining monsters as allies. Black Summoner is only slightly better because there are actually side characters that actually have interesting interactions with each other, and there’s a sense of real progression happening. Nevertheless, this is still a cookie-cutter isekai featuring an overpowered main character with a ridiculous over-reliance on RPG mechanics over, you know, actual world-building.
This series also commits the crime of also having the main character not only own a slave, but then go on a quest to hunt down bandits that are kidnapping people to sell them as slaves. It’s so stupidly unaware that it doesn’t really matter what kind of technicality exists to justify this, if it even exists at all.
Extreme Hearts: 5/10, Dropped
Super sports are not a recent idea; almost everyone has always considered how interesting it would be if you could give basketball players jetpacks or something like that. Extreme Hearts toys with that idea while also including an idol aspect, because doesn’t everyone love idols?
However, Extreme Hearts fumbles the ball on both fronts. Idol-wise, none of these characters ever have any character development after their introduction; you get their motivation for joining the team, and then nothing else. They just become another part of the team, and even the main character (or who I assume to be the main character) isn’t exempt from this. Sports-wise, the most done to make these games “hyper sports” is to give the players special equipment, which doesn’t actually do anything to make the games different from usual. “Hyper” soccer is just soccer with harder kicks. “Hyper” baseball is just baseball with jet bats. The idea has potential, but nobody cared to actually do anything interesting with the idea.
The Maid I Hired Recently Is Mysterious: 5/10
A story about an orphan boy and the mysteriously beautiful maid that suddenly appeared at his house one day. Cute and wholesome, as well as a little suggestive, but thoroughly overstays its welcome, as it’s largely the same joke repeated over and over. A series that probably should have had five-minute episodes instead of attempting to stretch things out to a full twenty. I wouldn’t mind reading a short chapter every week, but a full anime episode is far too much.
My Stepmother’s Daughter Is My Ex: 5/10, Dropped
I have no idea what’s going on in this anime. The story is of course, about a stepbrother and stepsister who used to date. The two have some bet to decide who should be considered the older sibling, but it’s pretty obvious the two still have feelings for each other. The series is less about resolving that and more about random slice-of-life stories with a healthy dose of incest-bait. Trashy enough for those that enjoy that kind of thing, but not really enjoyable for anyone else.
Yurei Deco: 5/10, Dropped
Another aesthetics-only project with little else of substance. The series has a very 80s-revival feel to it, from the synthpop opening to the gaudy, colorful take on cyberpunk seen in the world of Yurei Deco. However, the story is obtuse to the point that I frequently lose interest in it, and the characters are not all that compelling either. I do think the series tries to have some commentary about modern social media, but it unfortunately gets lost in all the chaos. It’s got an interesting style, but that really isn’t enough to keep my attention.
Shine On! Bakumatsu Bad Boys: 5/10
Nearly everything surrounding this series is good except for the series itself. The opening and ending themes are great, and the designs (while a little bit excessive) are designed by the great Hiroyuki Takei of Shaman King fame. However, the story is a generic Shinsengumi samurai battle manga with intensely cliched characters that leave such a poor impression that I still haven’t really memorized all of their names. The series isn’t outright terrible, but if you’ve watched any shonen anime from the last thirty years you’ve probably already seen this show.
Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer: 5/10, Dropped
A tragedy. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer was a manga from the 2000s that managed to garner quite a bit of a cult following, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this series get an anime adaptation. However, it’s extremely obvious that no budget or care was put into this adaptation at all, which makes this series look worse than an amateur fan project. The story itself is still good, but the poor pacing and lack of budget makes it not worth it overall. Read the manga instead.
Vermeil in Gold: 5/10
More unrepentant fanservice, with a main female lead that is so sensual that it’s almost parodic. There’s a story about a student going a to magic school or something like that, but I honestly doubt anyone watching this series cares all that much about that. It’s really about Vermeil, and how often the creators can put her into ill-fitting clothes that bare as much of her body as humanly possible. Every other character in this series is such a painful stereotype that it’s impossible to really get invested in the story, and it hurts the series more for it.
Phantom of the Idol: 6/10
An idol anime about a male idol who is unrepentantly lazy and unmotivated. He gets possessed by the ghost of a popular female idol who wants to take the stage again, and hijinks ensue. There’s definitely the potential for shenanigans here, but the show eschews it for the usual spiel of idol propaganda, as well as extended scenes of fangirls ranting about their favorite idols. It might be more appealing to fans of idol culture, but it wasn’t all that compelling to me.
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Shine Post: 6/10
Another idol anime, but one with a fair amount of character drama in comparison to some of the others I’ve seen so far. The show generally revolves around a smaller cast, allowing each character to get the focus they need to deliver the right emotional weight. It’s not all that compelling in the long run, but compared to the other idol anime this season, it’s at least interesting.
Engage Kiss: 6/10
A rather generic cute-girl-fights-monsters anime series with a little bit of drama to keep things from getting too stale. The characters are not too distinctive, but some of the conflict between characters is actually really interesting, and the overall plot has some intrigue to it. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either.
When Will Ayumu Make His Move?: 6/10
Another wholesome, laidback romantic comedy from Soichiro Yamamoto of Teasing Master Takagi-san fame. Unlike that series, this series’ main concept is a little meager in comparison, but the interactions between the main and supporting characters is pretty fun anyhow. Highly recommended for fans of lighthearted series, but probably a skip for almost anyone else.
The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting: 6/10
Yet another incredibly wholesome series about a yakuza man learning about kindness by taking care of a little girl. It’s fine, but it’s also incredibly by-the-numbers, and as predictable as a made-for-TV comedy movie. I don’t have anything else to say about this series.
Lycoris Recoil: 7/10
A series that wants to be a flashy, action-packed show and a cutesy slice-of-life series at the same time. In the 90s, this show might have been a classic girls-with-guns anime fondly remembered by oldheads, but the generic cutesy modern anime artstyle makes it hard to take the series’ more dramatic moments as seriously as it wants me to. It’s not bad by any means (the action animation is great and the dramatic parts are real dramatic), but it’s a little indistinct.
Parallel World Pharmacy: 7/10
An isekai with some actual care put into its storytelling and world-building. Parallel World Pharmacy isn’t incredible by anime standards, but it has a sympathetic main character and the conflicts featured in the series are more nuanced than the usual isekai. The main character is still way too overpowered and overcompetent for me to ever feel that there are any stakes in this series, but it still occasionally manages to come up with some truly stressful scenes.
Is It Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon? S4: 7/10
The classic dungeon-crawling fantasy returns to show how to make an actually tense fantasy adventure. If you’re already a fan of the series, all you really need to know is that this season is just more of the high-tension fantasy action you’ve loved from before.
Bastard!!: 7/10
Dark fantasy cheese, the kind that hasn’t been seen since the 1980s. This new Netflix original series really captures the spirit of the original manga, from the heavy metal soundtrack to the Dungeons & Dragons aesthetic. Dark Schneider’s voice acting is incredibly notable due to his heavy metal shriek that really brings the series’ motif home.
Fuuto PI: 7/10
Kamen Rider if it didn’t have to be made for kids. While I think it’s a little ridiculous that people will be watching this before watching the original Kamen Rider W, I hope that the series will do enough to bring more interest to the franchise, even if it is a little more gratuitous than I want it to be. Otherwise, this is mostly just fanservice for Kamen Rider fans, but at least it’s pretty fun when it’s finally time to throw down.
Classroom of the Elite S2: 7/10
After a long hiatus, this psychological game of students trying to make their way to the top of their elite school returns. I was never a big fan of this series, but I did enjoy this season well enough. Fans will definitely get more out of this series than I did.
Devil Is a Part-Timer! S2: 7/10
2022 seems to be the year of revivals, with Devil Is a Part-Timer! returning after a nine-year hiatus. New characters and new problems define the new season, which is a little more slow-moving in comparison to the last. Still, it’s great to see these old characters back at it, even as new threats arrive on the horizon.
Uncle from Another World: 7/10
After 17 years in a coma, Takafumi goes to pick up his recently awakened uncle only to discover that he has returned from being in another world. As the uncle readjusts to modern society, he regales his nephew with tales of his time in the other world. Uncle from Another World is an outright parody of isekai tropes, but it’s also an overt love letter to classic video games from the late nineties as well. A lot of fun, even if it’s having some issues on the production side currently.
Call of the Night: 8/10
Vampire anime has never been so laid-back. I’ve tweeted about this before, but the most compelling aspect of this series is its aesthetic; the majority of this series takes place at night, and the city is often lit up in ambient colors that sell the feeling of nocturnal life. The characters are interesting, and have some unique perspectives on life, romance, and what it means to be normal or have friends. This series established itself quickly as one of the most interesting series of the season, and it’s definitely a standout for the year overall.
Originally published at http://talesfromsquareone.wordpress.com on September 23, 2022.
