The Fall 2022 AniTAY Sequel Guide
And so, the Year of Sequels comes to a close (in a literal sense, anyway, next season is packed too), with a number of reliable annuals like My Hero Academia joined by shows thought long dead. We’re finally getting to the beginning of the end of Bleach after a decade off the air, Kantai Collection is back to reclaim its throne from Azur Lane, and Yowamushi Pedal has finally returned to resolve the cliffhanger it left us on four years ago. Here’s to the holiday season! All glory to Mob Psycho 100!
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War
Presented by: TGRIP
Studio: Pierrot
Genre(s): Supernatural-action shounen
Why You Should Catch Up: Because there are few other anime sequels where the saying “this has been a long time coming” feels like a massive understatement. Bleach’s original manga ran from 2001 to 2016, while the anime started in 2004 and ended in 2012. Bleach was also a venerated member of Shonen Jump’s “big 3”, the flagship trio that headlined the magazine throughout the 2000s. Composed of Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto, Bleach has been the odd one out as the series without a proper anime conclusion, as One Piece is still going and Naruto got its own anime conclusion back in 2017. Topping this relatively long wait off, Bleach’s final narrative arc, “The Thousand-Year Blood War”, is viewed as Bleach going all out right before its end finally came.
It’s been well documented how critical reception to Bleach’s manga waned over the years, as it felt like its best ideas had been mostly spent, and storybeats, character moments, and action sequences kept repeating themselves or just dragged on. While those issues are still present in TYBW, Bleach does make an effort to compensate for them by finally resolving threads it had laid out years ago, giving characters their moments to shine after so much time, and also having some key revelations that answer questions present since the very beginning of the story. It can be called Bleach at its best or its worst depending on how you felt by this point in its run; me personally, I view it as Bleach at its Bleach-iest.
If you’re a hardcore fan, this looks it could be required viewing as not only is the original studio back to animate it (along with the original soundtrack composer), but the previews we’ve gotten make it look like something you would’ve expected out of the movies well over a decade ago. Adding in how series creator Tite Kubo is lending a hand as well to oversee and flesh out a few shortcomings the arc originally had (and as he has hinted, “add in a few surprises”), Thousand-Year Blood War sounds like it could be the ending Bleach has at long last deserved.
What You Need to Watch + Time to Catch Up:
Excluding all the filler seasons and (almost) every filler episode, and going by individual episode numbering since various streaming services disagree on which seasons are which:
-Episodes 1 through 63: 63 episodes
-110 through 128: 19 episodes
-134 through 167: 34 episodes
-190 through 203: 14 episodes
-206 through 212, and 215 through 226: 20 episodes
-266 through 297: 32 episodes
-300 through 302 and 306 through 310: 8 episodes
-342 through 366: 25 episodes
Total of 215 episodes; with an average episode length of 23 minutes, total time is just under 82.5 hours
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll has every season available to stream via sub, while Hulu also has every season available via sub and dub.
Kantai Collection (KanColle)
Presented by: Dexomega
Studio: ENGI
Genre(s): Comedy, Action
Why You Should Catch Up: After a seven year gap, the venerable Kantai Collection franchise returns to the small screen with a second series, and I’m sure fans will applaud the return of the franchise that literally launched a million ships.
To its credit, Kantai Collection has never taken itself 100% seriously, which helped the first series by making it a mix of more comedic slice-of-life elements backed up by more actiony naval warfare. The first series introduced a new destroyer of the fleet named “Fubuki” who led a cast of easily likable fleet girls against a faceless enemy known as the Abyssal. Generally, the episodes would run the gamut of lighthearted comedic elements you’d come to expect from a “new person of the team” story while heading towards the ultimate confrontation with the Abyssal.
For the casual historian, the franchise is known for its dedication to representing almost every naval vessel class, frequently well-known single ships of a class, as a variety of “fleet girls”. The ways they work in historical facts to either dramatize or poke fun at these individual ships can be the source of constant amusement. In the first series, this was well represented by Fubuki, as historically the Fubuki-class destroyer was the first “modern” destroyer constructed by the Imperial Japanese Navy. As the first, the Fubuki itself was both the most advanced destroyer in the Japanese Navy, but also was prone to a number of design issues that would later be improved in later ships of the class. An apt focus character in a series about the new kid on the block.
For new watchers, it’s useful to know that the first Kantai Collection series has little connection to any wider franchise, as while it certainly borrows the concept wholesale, the anime is its own story.
Why You Should Not Catch Up: While the first season had a number of upsides, it nearly constantly grappled with an equal number of downsides. While amusing in concept, the show is strange since it’s based on one of the original big gacha games where you build a fleet of naval vessels… but they’re girls. That’s all the context you get, and really that’s all you need in a gacha game. It doesn’t lend itself very well to television since you just have to roll with it absent any of the game mechanics that make a gacha entertaining.
The primary concern that plagued the first series is how it took a chiefly Japan-centric view of history, which frequently strayed beyond skewed into outright masked revisionism. The big battle of the first series is an incredibly thinly veiled metaphor for the Battle of Midway in the Second World War, which is essentially confirmed by the order of battle in the series. The fleet girls present are essentially a one-to-one match to the Japanese order of battle at Midway down to the “damage” some of the girls have going into the battle. The murky big-bad of the series, the Abyssal, are naturally the stand-ins for the American Pacific Fleet. Despite these clear parallels, the series goes to impressive lengths to make it seem like the fleet girls are outnumbered and outgunned, which would normally be all well and good in a series like this… if not for the fact that’s the opposite of what happened in the battle being emulated. Suffice it to say, the Battle of Midway was in the IJN’s favour from the outset both numerically and in position. If the second series continues this trend, it’s likely to suffer from the same problems as the first.
Currently it’s unclear how, or if, the second series is actually a sequel to the first. The information I’ve seen seems to show that Shigure has taken the place of the lead character, with Fubuki not appearing. Despite this, there’s likely to be returning characters given the relatively limited pool of ships to choose from. Either way, this show may more appropriately be a soft reboot barring any more information.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
TV series: 4 hours
- Kantai Collection Season 1: 12 episodes.
Where to Catch Up:
- Kantai Collection Season 1: Crunchyroll.
Mob Psycho 100 Season 3
Presented by: Arcane
Genre(s): Action, Comedy
Studio: Bones
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Spoiler-free Synopsis: Kageyama “Mob” Shigeo is an unassuming middle school student more or less allowing life to carry him along while hiding a secret from his classmates. Unknown to almost anyone, Mob possesses immense, supernatural psychic abilities which he struggles to keep under control so he can continue to appear normal for Tsubomi, the object of his romantic desires. Needing help to keep his powers under wraps, he finds Reigen Arataka, a con artist who claims to be a powerful psychic, and becomes his apprentice…
Why You Should Catch Up: Let’s be real, you’re already caught up, but I think we all could do with spending more time thinking about Mob Psycho.
A few weeks ago, we were given the announcement that One Punch Man, the once world-conquering anime created by the same individual as Mob Psycho, was greenlit for a third season…and most of the anime world shrugged. The second season was so comparatively lacking that many had lost interest entirely in a show that had blown up the internet only a few years prior. One Punch Man’s second season aired in Spring 2019, and landed with a thud in the broader anime community.
Mob Psycho 100 aired its second season only three months prior and still sits among the highest-rated shows of all time on MyAnimeList.
I think there are a lot of factors going into this. Obviously, One Punch Man completely changed (and, frankly, downgraded) production teams in the four years separating its first and second seasons, while Mob Psycho stuck with the same studio, Bones, putting forth an even more lavish production than . Certainly, we can expect the third season to be one of the best-looking shows of the year as well.
But I think that what really separates Mob Psycho from One Punch Man, and indeed from many other shows with similar premises, is its heart: Mob.
Sticking with the primary comparison, One Punch Man’s Saitama seems similar from the outside, having a very similar design and temperament, but ultimately One Punch Man leans far harder on the comedy. Saitama is an adult with no real threats or problems beyond being underestimated, and he’s functionally invincible.
Mob is a middle-school student balancing middle-school problems with the burden of the powers he possesses. He wants to do the right thing, but his naivete leads him to allying with people like Reigen (a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold type, though he develops a more sincere relationship with Mob later) who take advantage of him and completely miss the broader context of the world he lives in. He ultimately comes to the conclusion that he wants to use his powers to help people, but doesn’t know enough about what’s really going on to do more than help those directly surrounding him.
But the way that other people see and identify with the goodness in him is what really brings Mob’s story to life, as he inspires those around him despite being totally oblivious. He routinely puts himself in actual danger in order to save other people at the drop of a hat, and when he finally does snap, it’s almost always because someone else is in peril and he wants to save them.
It’s a show about a superhero who doesn’t know he’s a superhero, and it mines that concept for every inch of pathos it possibly can. Mob Psycho’s second season was my Best of the Year for 2019. I have high expectations for whatever it does next.
Time to Catch Up + What You Need to Watch
- Mob Psycho 100 Seasons 1 & 2, 26 episodes (~10 hours)
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll
Muv-Luv Alternative
Presented by: Reikaze
Genre(s): Mecha, Sci-Fi, Military
Studio: Yumeta Company, Graphinica, FLAGSHIP LINE
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Spoiler-free Synopsis: Earth has been engulfed in a desperate, three-decade-long, nearly futile war against the BETA, an alien species that invaded the planet and destroyed everything in their path. Amid this chaos, a high school student named Takeru Shirogane suddenly wakes up after envisioning mankind in utter defeat, a world where the disastrous Alternative V project is implemented. Takeru realizes he’s come back in time, that those dream-like experiences are actually recollections of his life in an alternative universe. Takeru uses his experiences to try to change the fate of humanity itself.
Why You Should Catch Up: Let’s be honest: if you have any intention of playing the original visual novel, you shouldn’t watch this anime. Like so many visual novel adaptations, the Muv-Luv Alternative anime is cheap, rushed, and most importantly, incomplete: it skips the first two thirds of the original Muv-Luv trilogy. Given that Muv-Luv Alternative is currently the highest rated visual novel on VNDB, the VN equivalent of MAL, if you’re the kind of person who wants to get the most out of their experience, read the VN instead: you’ll have a great time.
That said, if the idea of spending 100 hours is too daunting, Muv-Luv Alternative is a story worth experiencing, and anime is actually a serviceable entry point into the series. It does a solid job at capturing the essence of what Muv-Luv Alternative has to offer: a compelling military drama full of engaging action, interesting character dynamics, compelling sci-fi and fantastic character development. As an individual work and anime-only experience, it’s completely enjoyable: it’s just nowhere near as good as its source.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need To Watch:
Muv-Luv Alternative (12 episodes), approx. 5 hours
Optional source material:
Muv-Luv (Extra and Unlimited Routes), approx 40–50 Hours, available on Steam, PSN (PS Vita)
Side Story Anime (Best watched after Alternative, but standalone)
Muv-Luv Schwarzesmarken (12 episodes), approx. 5 hours
Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse (25 episodes), approx. 10 hours
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll
My Hero Academia
Presented by: Alistair Hyde
Studio: Bones
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Science Fantasy
Why You Should Catch Up: The work is an optimistic, inspirational yet balanced take on the superhero stories western audiences get from comics with some interesting takes on heroism. The second season’s stain arc makes us question what a hero is by presenting a point of view that collides with the cultural system established by a bureaucracy of heroes paid by the government, arguing that their actions should be motivated by unconditional duty over compensation. The idea works to show how selfish motives affect the performance of the hero after forgetting to put the needs of others before his own. Other seasons show how this system discriminates against individuals, labeling them as outcasts, turning them into villains, and leaving some sectors under-protected. This shows how unfair and far from perfect this meritocracy is by not creating opportunities for everyone to find fulfillment, reflecting real-life social inequality.
Bones has created a faithful adaptation visually, using fluid movements to bring the manga’s art to life The visuals make the fights more interesting by emphasizing how menacing the villains are or how well-earned victories feel when an underdog hero gets to capitalize on his efforts. The fight choreography has gradually improved with each season by how the stakes of each conflict affect the performance of the heroes.
The soundtrack has many covers on Youtube due to how great each piece sets the mood for the scenes in which they are used. Each opening is memorable, catchy, and iconic while original songs like “Hero Too” fulfill their purpose amazingly.
The main character, Deku, is a likable underdog and the embodiment of a powerless person ostracized by society that finds strength in his convictions to keep moving on the path to becoming a hero.
The main cast is lovely and, although it grows exponentially, many of them have substantial character development and their turn in the spotlight with particularly emotional moments that flesh out, and in some cases redeem, their character arcs.. The interactions between them create great bonds between brothers-in-arms and supportive sisterhoods to compensate for the lack of romantic interests.
The limitations in the abilities of the students of Class 1-A force them to think outside of the box to solve the problems they face in every mission, which reflects in their teamwork, rivalries, and how they use their powers. Those abilities have a distinctive touch and variety that set them apart from previously seen concepts in other anime. Every villain is varied and menacing with a diversity of ideologies and excellent designs that provide great takes on social commentary through their role. The secondary characters have entertaining gimmicks to compensate for their superfluous development.
The anime’s original content fills in missing points in the manga, rather than pointless filler, providing well-executed side-stories.
The sixth season will develop a conflict between villains and heroes that will provide a bunch of fights with the highest stakes yet, reshaping the way heroes carry their duty by putting their lives on the line to create change and atone for past mistakes. With the emotional baggage, this conflict will make the fifth season look like a prelude and the U.A. School Festival Arc like a traditional shonen simplistic take in comparison.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
Essential:
TV series: 56.5 hours
- My Hero Academia Season 1: 13 episodes covering volumes 1–3 of the manga.
- My Hero Academia Season 2: 25 episodes covering volumes 3–8 of the manga.
- My Hero Academia Season 3: 25 episodes covering volumes 8–14 of the manga.
- My Hero Academia Season 4: 25 episodes covering volumes 14–21 of the manga.
- My Hero Academia Season 5: 25 episodes covering volumes 21- 26 of the manga.
Optional, but highly recommended:
Movies : 5 hours
- My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (original story).
- My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (original story).
- My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission (original story).
Manga: 256 chapters (26 volumes)
Spinoffs: 3 works
- My Hero Academia: Smash!! (5 volumes)
- My Hero Academia: Vigilantes (15 volumes)
- My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions (3 volumes)
Light Novel: 5 volumes
Where to Catch Up:
- My Hero Academia Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and OVA’s: Crunchyroll and Funimation.
- My Hero Academia: Two Heroes: Blu-ray, DVD, Netflix and HBO Max
- My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising: Blu-ray, DVD, Netflix
- My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission: Blu-ray and DVD.
Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time: Super Extra
Presented by: TheMamaLuigi (for), Requiem (Against)
Studios: Seven, Wolfsbane
Genre(s): Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy
Spoiler-Free Synopsis:
Why You Should Catch Up: Now, let’s get the obvious out of the way here: Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time is not an objectively good anime.
Luckily, objectivity is a falsehood pushed upon us as a facade of impartiality that supposedly gets us closer to the truths of the art we consume. We don’t need to talk in objectives when we discuss anime, and we certainly don’t need to when we’re talking about what is — and I say this without a hint of sarcasm — one of the funniest anime of the past few years.
Peter Grill follows the title character, the strongest man in the world, as he attempts to woo and settle down with Luvelia, the woman of his dreams. Unluckily for him (or luckily, depending on your perspective), Our Boy Peter’s immense strength also makes him extremely attractive to women of all races and species — orc, elf, ogre, human, you name it — and he manages to oops his way into laying so much pipe in these potential mistresses that he amasses a harem on accident.
What makes Peter Grill so entertaining is how completely it commits to its premise and, effectively, its one bit. There is rarely an episode that does not end with or include Peter sleeping with some female cast member, and the circumstances that lead to these moments are frequently ridiculous and hilarious. Magical boner spells, drunken escapades, and scheduled “sessions” are just some of the ways that Peter wets his whistle. It’s the profound stupidity of how each episode flows that makes it impossible to not enjoy
Imagine, if you will, 12 minutes a week where you could settle in with a nice glass of wine and forget about the world’s worries as you are whisked away to a fantasy world so completely unlike our own in both setting and logic. What if I said you don’t have to imagine it? Peter Grill’s first season is right there on Crunchyroll for viewing.
It asks nothing of the viewer, and that total self-awareness loops right back around into some strange form of genuineness. There are no greater themes, artistic ideals, or profound statements in Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time — and there doesn’t need to be. We don’t need to be objective when we consume art, and we certainly don’t need all the art we consume to aspire to higher notions of what art is. The beauty of a show like Peter Grill is in its contentment with staying where it is — leave the fighting to the Evangelions, the talking to the Showa Genroku Rakugou Shinjuus, the romance to the Kaguya-sama: Love is Wars.
Peter Grill will be over here, ready to welcome you. Won’t you join him?
Why You Should Not Catch Up: I’m not going to lie to you, dear readers, by telling you I did not ever laugh at S1 of Peter Grill. I did, in fact, guffaw, chortle, and even chuckle at the ridiculous sex comedy antics of the only anime harem MC in history to be mad at how he’s getting laid too much.
But you may be asking why, then, do I write to dissuade you from partaking in Season 2 of this ode to The Power of Horny? Because, my friends, if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s lame. It’s juvenile, prurient, lowest of the lowbrow humor, the equivalent of a fart joke-sure it may make you giggle for a second, but there’s no real value or substance to it.
Peter Grill works on the same principle as movies like Porkys or American Pie, that boobs and wangs and the horizontal mambo are funny, and they can be. But just like those movies, it stops being funny pretty quickly and the joke gets old. This is the fate of Grill; it’s only got one joke and even as a short, it was getting pretty stale by the end of S1. A whole other season of the same thing? Pass.
If you come for the jokes, they wear pretty thin. If you’re just coming to oogle hot monster babes, you may as well fully commit to it and just watch hentai. That’s a pretty popular category. Um, so I hear.
So I beseech you, friends, to do better than Peter Grill. Perhaps seek out more sophisticated humor or enjoy the underrated laughs provided by underappreciated gems like Anne-Happy or Nanana’s Buried Treasure WHICH STILL DOESN’T HAVE A SEASON 2 WHILE TRASH LIKE PETER GRILL GETS ONE– I mean, find higher pursuits than this “ha ha they boned” show.*
*Note: Requiem does not guarantee he will not watch Season 2 of Peter Grill
Time to Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time — 12 episodes, 12 minutes per episode (approx. 2.4 hours)
Pop Team Epic! Season 2
Presented by: Doctorkev
Genre(s): surreal “humour”, ultra-hipster chin-stroking obnoxiousness, memes, WTF?
Studio: Kamikaze Douga, Space Neko Company
Where to Watch: TikTok(?!)
Spoiler-free Synopsis: based on a surreal underground Japanese webcomic, Pop Team Epic is an eclectic smorgasbord of bizarre sketches featuring the unsettlingly weird adventures of teenage schoolgirl duo Popuko and Pipimi.
Why You Should Not Catch Up: The world is irrevocably divided into two diametrically opposing factions who will never see eye to eye, will never agree on an answer to this one, single question: Is Pop Team Epic funny? I’m firmly in the “Watching Pop Team Epic is as excruciating as testicular electrocution” camp. This is the camp for people whose brains have not been dissolved by a constant diet of the dankest, most caustic internet memes.
I’ve heard that to properly appreciate Pop Team Epic, one must accept its strange form of “anti-humour”. Though the opposite of humour is surely “misery”, and that accurately describes my experience with the show. Its ardent fans must keep their supposedly refined and higher class sense of humour so far up their collective arses it requires the deepest of deep probings with the longest, most enthusiastically wielded colonoscopes to find it.
For one, I don’t enjoy shows that require prolonged anal violation to recognise their value. Sometimes intelligent comedy does demand effort from its audience, but Pop Team Epic is mostly very very stupid. Most “sketches” are barely-animated non-sequiturs lacking punchlines or anything approaching coherent humour. Animated by various teams, the artistic merit of each varies widely — from standard anime, to stop-motion, to hideously deformed and deliberately ugly abominations. At least the visual styles are eclectic. Unfortunately, for some segments it appears the visual styles are the joke, and this gets old quickly.
Humour is often strengthened by repetition, but Pop Team Epic takes the piss — not so much disrespecting the viewer’s time as grinding it into the dirt and defaecating upon it. Each episode is split into two 12-minute segments that are functionally identical, with each voiced by a different duo of voice actors for the main characters. Halfway through each episode, the first half is repeated but with different actors. Ha ha ha. It is so funny. The annoying schoolgirls are now voiced by men. Wow. Much humour. So joke.
Normally I love surreal humour, but Pop Team Epic seems like watching someone else’s private joke — uncomfortable and embarrassing. You couldn’t pay me to watch the second season. Unless it consists entirely of sketches like the one singular successful segment — the legendary tale of Hellshake Yano. Watch that and you’ll have seen the best of what Pop Team Epic has to offer. Don’t bother with the rest.
Time To Catch Up + What You (Really Shouldn’t Bother) To Watch
Pop Team Epic Season 1 and OVAs: 14 episodes: 5.5 hours (halve that if you value your time and watch only the first half of each episode)
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, Funimation, Netflix (why is this on so many services?)
To Your Eternity Season 2
Presented by: Doctorkev
Genre(s): Fantasy
Studio: Drive
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Spoiler-free Synopsis: In a medieval world not quite the same as our own, a mysterious god-like figure charges an innocent immortal shapeshifting being with growing and developing through experience. Although the being (who will come to be known as “Fushi”) starts as a featureless white orb, he adopts the appearance and abilities of creatures and people he encounters, though only after they die. So begins a centuries-long journey from past to future, filled with joy, heartbreak, and pain.
Why You Should Catch Up: Based on the manga from A Silent Voice’s Yoshitoki Oima, To Your Eternity at times feels like an instrument cynically constructed to cause the viewer maximal emotional damage. Initially an empty shell, featureless orb Fushi grows and develops new forms through “stimulation”, a euphemism for gut-wrenching pain or loss. Fushi wanders from place to place in various forms — first as a wolf, then as a boy, an enormous bear, a tiny child… His intelligence and language skills improve the more he interacts with people on his journey, but danger inevitably follows close behind him and threatens the friends he makes.
Fushi’s creator, “The Beholder,” is an ethereal being who rarely directly interacts with the physical realm, yet continually observes Fushi’s progress in “preserving the world”. Fushi learns that he can mimic not only the appearances of living creatures who have died, but can also replicate seemingly limitless copies of inanimate objects from his flesh. The Beholder’s enemies, the monstrous and parasitic “Nokkers”, view Fushi as a threat and pursue him wherever he goes, bringing destruction and carnage.
To Your Eternity introduces a varied selection of supporting characters who drive the plot of each arc, with Fushi himself usually only playing a peripheral role in the narrative, until the inevitable Nokker-induced catastrophe kills his new friends and he must assume their forms. It can admittedly get a little tiresome meeting these new characters because you assume their main narrative role is to die horribly and provide motivation to the protagonist. Thankfully the show later inverts its own established tropes, so it’s not as predictable as I had initially feared.
The first episode is a masterclass in narrative efficiency and quiet devastation. Although the rest of the show can’t quite match its stunning impact, many of the later emotional beats still hit hard. While the second half of the show peters out a little, the first season is merely a prologue to a much larger story and I’m very interested to see where it goes next.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need To Watch:
To Your Eternity Season 1: 20 episodes, approx. 8 hours
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll
Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!
Presented by: Viking (for), Marquan (against)
Genre(s): Slice of Live, Comedy, Romance
Studio: ENGI
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Spoiler-free Synopsis: Soon after Hana Uzaki began her first year at university, she noticed Shinichi Sakurai, a senpai from high school, hanging out alone on campus. Again and again, Uzaki saw Sakurai on campus, and he was always alone, but she always went on with her daily routine. When her second year began, and she still saw Sakurai sitting alone, Uzaki knew she must intervene to save her senpai from his miserable, lonely existence.
Why You Should Catch Up: Well, let’s just start with the obvious, which may hook you or it may give you pause. This show is very boob-forward. The “sugoi dekai” text on Uzaki-chan’s t-shirt essentially translates to “super huge”, and the boob jokes take center stage early on. If that’s enough to convince you, then great! If not, I urge you to read on, because underneath the boob jokes is a huge heart.
Admittedly, the show takes two or three episodes to get past the crude jokes and into the story, which focuses on the growing relationship between Uzaki and Sakurai. The strength of the show is in how that relationship gradually develops. In the beginning, Sakurai is mostly just annoyed by Uzaki’s insistence on hanging out. Before long, he starts looking forward to their time together. Meanwhile, Uzaki is high energy and enthusiastic from the beginning, and her attachment to Sakurai only grows as the show progresses. They find shared interests and aspects of life in which they can help each other. It’s wonderful to watch two people come together, strengthening each other.
The relationship’s origin gets some exploration, as well, as there are flashbacks to the pair’s time in high school. Sakurai’s brief, but meaningful, interactions with Uzaki have had a major impact on her development as a person. This gives a lot of insight into Uzaki’s desire to befriend Sakurai, and gives us a better foundation for their relationship.
At its core, Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out is a comedy, and comedy is always subjective. Even beyond the first few episodes, you’ll still see the typical boob jokes, cringe comedy, and ludicrous misunderstandings. The great thing about the show is that these typical tropes don’t impede the relationship between Uzaki and Sakurai. Instead, they actually enhance it. The cringe comedy shows the humanity and understanding of the characters instead of the typical tsundere reaction we’re used to. The misunderstandings aren’t typically between the main characters, but involve side characters instead. The relationship between Uzaki and Sakurai always takes center stage, moves forward, and is satisfying and wholesome.
Why You Should Not Catch Up: There’s something about being able to relate to the main character of an anime, and for the past few years, you’d be hard pressed to find one that you relate to on a fundamental level. I mean, none of us have powers, or were reincarnated in another world, or are surrounded by a harem. This isn’t the case for Uzaki-chan Wants To Hang Out!’s main character, Shinichi.
I’m an introvert and have been my entire life. I’m perfectly content spending my days alone doing the things I like; thankfully my wife is the same and we share a bunch of interests. The last thing I’d want to do is be dragged around by a loud, obnoxious underclassman who constantly ribs me for living my life the way I do. Not everyone wants to be out and about every day or surrounded by people you don’t know.
And that’s my biggest gripe with Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Why does this underclassman think she knows what’s best for her senpai? Is it her years of experience and/or wisdom? Is it the countless peers she’s coaxed into doing more outgoing activities, or is it just an outright irritating and narcissistic personality trait that makes her think that her way of existing is somehow superior to Shinichi’s? Though, to be fair, thanks to her meddling, we do get to see some growth in senpai. He comes out of his shell a bit more, and he broadens his horizons as Uzaki makes him do things he wouldn’t have even thought of doing alone.
Still, Uzaki comes on way too strong, and it’s off-putting most of the time. I’m a fan of teasing anime, evidenced by my love of the Takagi-san and Nagatoro anime. She unapologetically does a bunch of things without thinking about how he would feel, while at other times, she’s surprisingly considerate. Honestly, the way she acts on any given day is a toss up, and I can’t fully support a master of chaos like that. I could just be dumping on the show, as it isn’t that bad, all things considered. It just has way too much competition that does everything it tries to do, in a much better way. You don’t have to watch this. Unless you enjoy a smug, know-it-all who forces their way of life onto others. To each their own.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need To Watch
Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! S1: 12 episodes, approx. 4.5 hours
Where to Catch Up:Crunchyroll (subbed and dubbed)
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 3
Presented by: Doctorkev
Genre(s): Fantasy, Comedy, School
Studio: Bandai Namco Pictures
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Spoiler-free Synopsis: Neglected and exploited 14-year-old boy Iruma Suzuki is whisked away from his miserable life of indentured servitude (he was sold by his parents, which makes for a very dark start to a light-hearted comedy show) by high class demon Sullivan, adopted as his grandson, and enrolled in demon school! Iruma must survive lessons at Babylis School for Demons — an institution filled with monstrosities who will eat him if they discover he’s human!
Why You Should Catch Up: Iruma-kun is essentially Harry Potter but more light-hearted, and with demons instead of wizards. Iruma is the relatively normal outsider who is suddenly thrust into a chaotic fantasy culture and not just survives, but thrives. It turns out that demons aren’t really all that terrifying after all — they experience the same school-based anxieties as humans, they’ve all got weird family issues, and most of them just want to make friends and have fun.
Iruma has a lot more fun at Babylis than he ever did in human society, though his previous life as a doormat means he’s conditioned to be unable to ever refuse any requests, so that gets him into trouble. Just as well his heightened sense of danger, as seen in any child who’s experienced a life of abuse (this is a comedy, honest), allows him an almost superhuman ability to dodge physical attacks. Along with the gift of his adoptive father’s ring that grants him borrowed magic power, Iruma fits into a colourful, anarchic life at Babylis just fine.
With friends like the irrepressible little gremlin girl Clara Valac, the impossibly simp-tastic Alice Asmodeus (a guy, despite his name), and the towering icon of perfect demonic femininity that is Eternal Best Girl Ameri Azazel, Iruma’s time at his new school is never boring. I love this very silly but adorable show. It’s mostly low-stakes, but every now and then there’s some fairly clever plotting and character work that elevates it above other anime school comedies. Bigger plotlines rumbling in the background add a subtle flavour of welcome intrigue. I’m looking forward to spending more time with Ameri — sorry, Iruma — in season 3.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need To Watch:
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 1: 23 episodes, 9.5 hours approx.
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 2: 21 episodes, 8.5 hours approx.
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll
Yowamushi Pedal: Limit Break
Presented by: Arcane
Genres: Sports, Comedy, Drama
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Spoiler-Free Synopsis: Onoda Sakamichi is a shy high school first-year who minds his own business and focuses on his passions — mostly anime. Looking to make some new friends, he attempts to join his school’s anime club, only to find that it’s been shut down due to lack of membership. While trying to find new members, he engages in his weekly ritual of making the ninety kilometer journey to Akihabara on his bicycle, which he’s been doing since he was young…and this time, he encounters Shunsuke Imaizumi, another first-year. Imaizumi, a road racing prodigy, is absolutely stunned to discover Onoda’s raw talent honed over so many long-distance journeys, and challenges him to a race up the school’s entrance hill. If Onoda wins, Imaizumi will quit road racing and join the anime club. But if he loses, he’ll have to join the road racing team…
Why You Should Catch Up: I have something to admit. After devouring the first two seasons of Yowamushi Pedal back in 2016, I eagerly tuned into the third season, New Generation, as it was airing in 2017. It was a bit of a repeat of the previous story arcs, and I guess I ended up getting bored, because I finished that season and didn’t end up watching any of the fourth one.
Earlier this year, hearing that a fifth season to finish the second-year story arc was finally coming, I sat back down and started the third season over…and twenty four minutes later, I was hooked again and wondering how I could ever have found this disappointing.
While there are certainly more well-known properties out there that also prominently feature Hot Guys Doing Sports Things, Yowamushi Pedal’s strong cast and intense drama places it right up with the likes of Haikyuu! when it comes to delivering powerful and emotional moments. While it’s somewhat famous for being the series that devotes entire seasons (or more) to single races, the pacing and division of the story more than makes up for it, exploring each individual part of a greater event from the perspective of the people most invested in it. We as the audience get to see and hear every thought going through these characters’ heads as the drama ratchets ever higher upward.
It leads to a viewing experience with as many ups and downs as the sport it’s based on, each smaller part of a larger event featuring its own dramatic buildup and exhilarating finish.
One of the most interesting things about Yowapeda, though, is that it actually moves its timeline forward. At the end of the second season, the original set of seniors graduate, our protagonist and his friends move up to their second year, and the story actually keeps going. We join this season nearing the end of the second Inter-High multi-day bike race, and I’m in it at this point just to watch these precious kids go all the way, becoming their team’s leadership and hopefully snatching victory from the jaws of defeat once again.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
- Yowamushi Pedal: 38 episodes (~15 hours)
- Yowamushi Pedal Grande Road: 24 episodes (~9 hours)
- Yowamushi Pedal New Generation: 25 episodes (~10 hours)
- Yowamushi Pedal Glory Line: 25 episodes (~10 hours)
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Tired of endless sequels but interested in last season’s brand-new anime? Check out our guide for new summer 2022 anime here:
