A Very GLORIO 2022: Gee’s Last Minute Year in Review

2022 is an interesting year for anime. What it lacks in an obvious high profile mega-hit, it makes up for with a lot of surprise hits. I laughed a lot with anime this year, and that’s worth something. Join me as I reminisce about the anime I watched this year, both the good and the bad. I’m not going to lie people, I threw this together at the last minute. I hope it’s coherent?

First Look: Kamen Rider Black Sun

In this reimagining of 1987’s Kamen Rider Black, Japan is a state in socio-political turmoil, where discrimination of an underclass of mutated humans known as “kaijin” is commonplace. Aoi Izumi is a bright-eyed young activist waging war against this oppression, but this makes her a target for all sorts of unscrupulous actors. Only a grizzled kaijin by the name of Kotaro Minami seems to be able to protect her, but he has a traumatic past to reckon with of his own…

First Look: Urusei Yatsura (2022)

Horny teen extraordinaire Ataru Moroboshi is randomly selected to be the representative of the human race in a contest of honor against invading aliens, and wins, saving the planet Earth! However, he accidentally proposes to Lum – the invaders’ princess – in the process. Now Ataru’s stuck between an unwanted suitor from space and his grumpy girlfriend from home, and both ladies are ready and willing to “correct” him should his eyes stray in the wrong direction.

First Look: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War

Just as the Bleach anime returns after a decade long gap to cover the final arc of the manga, the Quincy faction returns after a thousand years to take their ultimate revenge against Soul Society. Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends might be the world’s only hope, etc. etc.

First Look: Chainsaw Man

Devils, the physical embodiments of mankind’s fears, terrorize humanity. Devil Hunters are tasked with combatting them. Denji, a young man who’s known nothing but the rock bottom of society, becomes Chainsaw Man, a human with a devil’s heart and the unwitting protector of the human race.

First Look: More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers

Nerdy loser Jiro must participate in the “marriage practical” at school: a test where a male and female student must live together as a married couple and score points for how well they get along. Jiro hopes to be paired with his pure, innocent childhood friend, but gets matched with a brash gyaru who regularly teases him.

First Look: Blue Lock

The Japanese national soccer team has yet to win a world cup. In a bid to create future champions, they take modern, drastic measures: putting 300 high school strikers into a building to decide who joins the under twenties team.

First Look: Akiba Maid War

Nagomi has always dreamed of being a maid, and now she finally has a chance to work at maid cafe in Akibahara. Together with her fellow new employee, an older woman named Ranko, they discover they’re not very good at being maids… but maybe they have a talent for something else.

First Look: Bibliophile Princess

Eliana Bernstein has always preferred books to beautiful dresses or expensive jewelry, to the point where people refer to her as the “Bibliophile Princess”. However, as a noblewoman of marrying age, it is her duty to find a husband. Luckily, Crown Prince Christopher Selkirk Asherald proposes an arrangement: if Eliana will be his fiancée in name only, she can avoid any further matchmaking efforts and, more importantly, be granted access to the royal archives, where she can read every day to her heart’s content. However, as the years pass, Eliana comes to discover that she is not as emotionally detached from Christopher as she assumed…