While I finished my yearly review of anime still in January, the same could not be said of this season’s Winter 2022 anime season overview, which has been long overdue. As of this writing some shows are already at like episode 5 or 6, fuck that’s like half the season already. Ah well better late than never. There has been alot of news and shit happening recently, with all these bullshit anti-vaccine trucker rally, meta/facebook imploding with stocks decreasing by 25% in one day, the Beijing Olympics which I honestly don’t care a whole lot about since it’s too soon. I haven’t watched a single minute of the games as of this writing, I only tuned in for the opening ceremony, which while better than Tokyo, is still pretty mediocre and cringe, especially with the ongoing political  crises in many countries such as China/Taiwan/HK itself and Russia/Ukraine, in which the former may be invaded and a war might start. Sad and tensions are high in the world so yea, anime can help with that maybe. Let’s see what we got to this already kinda bad start to the year.

Sasaki to Miyano – Literal gay boy show where the main boy loves boy love manga and is all wussy and such and has a chance encounter with some cool looking orange haired boy that saves him from bullies. Turns out that he is in his class and they kinda get along, all bro and such right, no homo, then the blue haired main boy recommends the orange boy a detective manga, a gay detective manga and he checks it out. Few days later turns out that orange boy liked the story and is awakening gay, to the great pleasure of the blue haired wussy boy, what a surprise. Some shit happens and more dumb/funny hijinks occur with some other cast of funny gay boys. Obviously targeted towards women, yea, sure, nope.

Baraou no Souretsu – Some low budget fantasy drama where the main character looks like a edgy emo boy with half of his face covered by hair. Some shit happens and the boy’s dad wants to fight to become king or some shit in some royal/noble dispute. Some shit happens and while the king won, the parliament or something sides with his opposite despite his defeat and does not want to crown his dad king. The boy is angry and convinces his dad to fight for it, he won after all, so if they won’t give it to him the first time, do it all over again. Fight again. Boy’s kingdom and castle got raided by an opposing force and he boy and family is jailed. Some pig or something breaks him out and the boy wanders into the forest to meet some other dude, just chilling and they talk and cry whatever because I dunno, feelings. The emo boy goes back to his jail later and some shit happens. Turns out his dad won the war after all. Turns out that the guy in the forest was the opposing king and he doesn’t really want to be king, just his family, but the emo boy doesn’t know that. Oh btw, the emo boy is kinda like trans I guess, maybe a hermaphrodite or some other kind of thing since they all refer to him/it as ‘the demon child’. I’m not even sure if the boy was supposed to be a boy or girl or turns out the other way around. Either way, shit, poor quality animation and production all around and definitely aimed towards women, it’s basically romeo and julliet, except julliet is a edgy trans women/man, not sure anymore. Next

Kimetsu no Yaiba – Yuukaku-hen – After riding the literal midnight train for something like 7-10 episodes or whatnot, covering literally the exact same material as the Yaiba movie, we finally get to some new material, the entertainment district arc, filled with old school geisha hoes and other city living party spy hijinks. As expected the quality of Yaiba is top tier and everything is going as planned. Will continue to watch for sure because it’s good shit and I know that it will end eventually.

Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja – Re-incarnation show about some boy who is op in fantasy world as the demon lord/sage/wizard and dies while saving the world or something but then re-incarnates as himself but younger. “Strongest sage with the weakest crest” is the loose translation of this show and has some bullshit about magic system about being born with some crest on your hand, like FGO command seals defining your fate, as the boy has the weakest crest which is probably just a lie but is probably the strongest. Some shit happens, going to magic school, he strong but the weakest crest, shouldn’t be possible etc, chantless spells etc. It’s generally all shit that I’ve seen before except even more bland and generic than usual, with a forgetable everything really. No girls, guy is boring, no personality etc, poor animation/character design. Pass.

Sabiiro no Armor – Reimei – My time is valuable, I opened this and saw some samurai warriors/sengoku basara bullshit but in full 3d of poor cell shaded quality. I skipped this shit, the usual are there, yukimura, mitsuhide, takada but fighting some other random shit enemy not called nobunaga oda. Main gimmick is that they have gunblades/mecha sword things. Pass, laughble, only for women of japanese history, like Miku. Pass shit.

Akebi-chan no Sailor-fuku – A strange show about a girl who for some reason wants to go to a school just because they wear sailor uniforms. The first 50% of the show is about hyping the sailor school uniform and her mother saying how she loved going to the same school and how her uniform back in the day was so cute. Then the weird shit happens, the mother, main girl and little sister go to fabricland and buy materials to make her school uniform, uh ok wut? I thought you just buy that shit from the school itself, if your making your own school uniform, doesn’t that kinda defeat the entire purpose of having a uniform to begin with? Either way, her mom makes a uniform for her daughter and is super hype. On the first day of school, she quickly realizes that she is out of place, the entire school has changed to the blazer/tie kind of uniform and she is super embarrassed about it (both mother and daughter are 100% retarded for not realizing this earlier, their own dumb fault). So this is a problem and they go to the headmaster/principal of the school, the old headmaster said yea, we used to have sailor uniforms but changed it to blazers several years ago, but despite that it’s up to her if she wanted to keep wearing the sailor uniform that her mom made since it appears she was so excited about it, and since it was a former uniform, they will make an exception for her. So of course the main girl decides to wear her own custom sailor uniform and more shit happens where she meets her first friend in class that smells her own toe nail clipping. Ok Weird. Outside of the kinda off pacing of the show, the character designs are just straight up kinda weird, kind of oldschool and very very wide, unique in a strange way. I think this may be an interesting show, the quality is there but the character designs and premise seem kinda lackluster as this is not really a slice of life chill but rather a coming of age kinda drama that’s not really on my pace. Not bad, but pass.

Futsal Boys!!!!! – As the name inherently implies, it is a show about soccer bois. It is gay, very gay. Cue all the same tropes as standard gay sports anime, blue hair boy, red hair boy, struggle, failed dreams, redemption etc. Skim this shit for like a minute or so, yep, it’s gay. Pass.

Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru – This is probably one of the top shows for this season, it features a sad boi that knows nothing about anything and only cares about traditional doll making and a popular blonde gal like girl that likes anime, games and cosplay. Through a chance encounter at the empty sewing club after school, in which the sad boi goes to secretly because he wants to get some materials or some shit, the blonde girl enters the room shortly after curiously. It’s then at this awkward meeting where they fess up to their own hobbies and likes, the boy being in a family of traditional doll makers and as such a doll fancier and maker, and the girl being a huge nerd like erogames and anime culture/cosplay. Some shit happens and she starts to undresses, of course to the pure bois intense reaction, she puts on some cloth and asks the sad boi his opinion, and well he couldn’t contain himself and completely destroys her attempt at cosplay; baggy ill-fitting cloth, non-existent seams and other shit that only a sewing fool that makes dolls clothes would know about. More talk about the girls love of cosplay and she asks the boy for help to make her cosplay costume, and he agrees because of course he does, she’s a attractive popular girl. Thus begins the weird relationship between popular gal girl and sad doll boy. This show all round is very very well produced and the animation and pacing is top notch. The main blonde girl is very attractive and not bitchy at all, very positive and kind/understanding, she is like almost too good to truly exist in real life. The animation and character deigns are very good and as such the girl looks great and with ample animation and crisp lines, the boy himself, while wussy and sad, is aided by the fact that he’s at least significantly taller than the girl, which helps considerably in tempering his wussy characteristics. Will watch this show for sure, it’s good shit.

Kaijin Kaihatsu-bu no Kuroitsu-san – The basic premise of this show is that in a world of power rangers and masked heroes in japan, someone in the evil organization that threatens humanity gotta make the monsters that the heroes defeat, with their primary target being Divine Swordsman Blader the kamen rider like hero that always foils their plan and defeats their monsters. The main character is a purple haired girl that at first glance appears to be a regular office worker at some nameless mega corporation but in reality that’s just a front, it’s really the evil organization that wants to take over the world, and our main girl works in the lab to help design, build and test new monsters to attack the heroes, which is cool. The problem is however, is that despite being an evil organization composed mainly of monsters and otherworldly beings, it’s still very much so a typical Japanese business bureaucracy, filled with red tape, procedures and hierarchy, usually resulting in less than stellar budgets and timelines necessary to make a good monster, resulting in lackluster half baked weak ass creations that can only be considered as jokes. With that said, all of this shit is a great formula for some funny ass comedy and characters, ranging from little demon girl chairman that just wants to have fun and make monsters cute, to super serious and scary second in command cheief of staff that just works too much and is actually a good boss, to middle management demon characters that are super strict but hide the fact that they are huge idol fans. Outside of the comedic tropes of the main girl and her boss trying and come up with a great monster idea only for it to be ruined in some way or another, the show features considerably tie in to real life masked local heroes in japan, which is really cool and they often appear as cameos or have a segment at the end just for them. As a gag comedy show with power ranger like appeal, the character designs are quite attractive, the main girl cute, monster girls cute and the others including even the hero Blader is pretty funny too since outside of heroing, he’s just a regular chef at a restaurant. Good shit, good pacing, premise, characters, animation, designs, will watch for sure, jokes show.

Girls’ Frontline – Based off the popular chinese mobile game of the same name (Dolls Frontline, in Japan cause issues), it’s somewhat of an understatement to say, ‘about time’ for this franchise to get a real anime as it technically predates even Azur Lane in terms of release by at least a year or so. Aside from the lack of an anime sooner, the show/game is basically about anthropomorphized gun girls, so for example you got your AK47, M16 rifles as girls and all other kinds of arms and such ranging from pistols, shotguns, machine guns and the like as cute anime girls. This is cool to be honest as their is some overlap in the target audience between this and with those who like girl boats and such but yea, it’s not for everyone as each of the girls are not really unique, but rather, literally ‘dolls’ android fighting units, so there is not just one M16 girl, there is like an entire squad or squads of girls that look exactly the same, which is kinda strange. Aside from the premise, the story makes no sense as I can only assume it ties in directly to the story from the game, lest to say you have to play the game to truly appreciate what is going on, which is a shame since they kind of wasted an opportunity to attract new fans to the franchise. Decent animation and nice character designs but ultimately this isn’t for me since I have no idea what’s going on. Nice opening introduction tho. Pass.

Saiyuuki Reload – Zeroin – This may be a sequel of some sort since I swear I’ve watched shit with the name Saiyuuki in it’s title before. Either way, it’s shit, not for me, skim this shit, journey to the west not basically and probably for women, not gay, but it can be. Pass.

Shuumatsu no Harem – The premise of this show is interesting, it’s essentially a nice covid/pandemic anime what if future world show. What if…there was a virus in the future that killed off half of the world’s population, basically only men and in the next few years the world is struggling to survive because well…the human race cannot reproduce, there are no men left. How lucky would it be to be the poor fool to have some kind of immunity to the virus after waking up from cryo sleep only to realize that the world is ruined and that you are only a handful of men left in the world with this immunity to the virus. Yes, with that said, every women in the world wants to have sex with you, because of course they do, need to make those babies yo to populate earth. So yea, this is what this show is, which looking at it from the outside, is pretty jokes. The show however, does not take it as a joke and is serious since the main boy, made a promise to his girlfriend before he went to cryo sleep that once they find a cure to the disease he has in the future, he will get married to his girlfriend. So now, we have a wussy boy looking for his girlfriend in the future that he can’t find since he may be dead and every women and girl in the world wants to have sex with him which is 100% sanctioned by the government. Ok. sure. Throw in some censored boobs and naked random women trying to rape the boy here and you got this show. Oh boy, this is…not my kind of show, I can see it’s appeal but because it takes itself so seriously, and the main boy is so wussy, it’s intolerable for me. Character designs are ok but none of the girls look that great to me, which is surprising because isn’t that the purpose of this show to begin with? Create hot/cute girl waifus? Not bad idea, seen the idea before but not for me. Pass

Slow Loop – A slow show. About fishing. Oh boy, here we go again with the fishing. Like most fishing shows, this one here is a slice of life chill story about a girl who recently got a new sister since her mother remarried and her new father already had a daughter. It is important/interesting to note here that the show makes it very clear that both the main girl’s mom and her new dad both had their former spouses die, not because of divorce or some other shit, gotta keep it chill you know, none of this family drama and ex-husband/ex-wife business in my chill anime. The main girl is a blue haired girl, she is the type you can expect, chill, her new sister is orange/brown haired, optimistic and hype, as you can expect. This right off the bat is a formula tried and true but when you add fishing to the mix, it kinda ties it together, with the blue haired girl being the pro fishing one. In many ways the formula is very similar to even Yuru camp, especially so since the blue haired girl is more or less a carbon copy of Rin from Yuru camp, which is not a bad thing at all. Despite the tips and fun times about fishing, the show goes into more of the relationships/drama of becoming a new family more than I would have expected from this kind of show which is a bit surprising but I welcome it, it provides a bit more depth to the characters is suppose. Not bad, chill, roundish nice character designs, will try to watch more for sure.

Cue! – Idol anime/voice actor anime and all of it’s trademark characteristics such as cute girls, lots of girls, lots of archetypes and personalities, dreams, hopes, startup idol/voice actor agency, idol master clone whatever you call it, you know how this is going to be. They practice some scene in some Shakespeare during the initial welcoming/audition to the new talent agency where the main girl meets her number two and the such since they play the roles so different than from what the others in the group do. Not bad, but i’ve seen this one before and it’s not enough for me to spend time or attention on this one, pass.

Leadale no Daichi nite – Isekai show about a girl that is terminally ill and dies and is reborn/mind becomes alive again in the VR game that she played while she was bedridden. Ok, so this is literally basically Overlord again except as a main girl and the main girl in her new world is a blonde OP elf character which also just so happens to be the demon lord of the world because she was so good at the game. While there is nothing out of the ordinary for this kind of isekai show, what is different from lets say Overlord is that it’s a bit more chill and humor/comedy focused with jokes and such and the tone overall more cheerful and bright as opposed to overlord which takes itself way to seriously. Make no mistake, it’s not a new fantasy world, it’s the VR game she has her mind in now but the game itself was pretty realistic so it’s not bad I guess from her perspective. The main girl is not bad so it might be interesting, this is a show that is dependent on time and overall cultural pop culture influence, if people say it’s good I might give it a try, but if not, and it’s just ok/mediocre, pass. We’ll see.

Hakozume – Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu – Show about female cops in japan. Well this is a different kind of show but not really, basically we have one girl that is just a cop just because it’s a stable civil service job and was poor when she was young and doesn’t really care that much paired with a transfer police women from tokyo to their small town ghetto police box that got transfer because she was too much justice and seigi, going outside her bounds and giving her superiors a hard time and such, try hard to believes in the police work. The new transfer cop is apparently supposed to be very pretty as the dad of the lack cop women says in a drunken stupor of her new partner, that ‘she has face of a porn star’.  The show goes on about it’s business such as booking drunks, issuing tickets and other minor crimes and in many ways is a bit slice of life but with a small dosing of ‘society’ i suppose in varying degrees dealing with people on a daily basis. Outside of a not so subtle attempt to try and recruit women to join the local police force and at least try to humanizes cops in general, it’s not a bad show. Decent designs and good pacing, we’ll see. Might watch more.

Orient – Sword bois totally for women gay show. Some shit about red boy wanting to grow up to be a swordmaster to fight demon oni and his blonde friend humoring him. Some shit about being a good miner/slave and corruption. Red boy grows up and wants to be a hero swordmaster and uses his pickaxe, which really looks like a scythe to be honest, blonde friend is like no way bro, give up the way of the sword, lol. Some shit happens, oni are real and red boy doesn’t want to be a miner anymore, wants to do his dream, swordmaster and fights oni demons, blonde boy has sword skills and is all ike, u r rite, ok lets fight demon oni. The end. Nope.

Atasha Kawajiri Kodama Da yo – Trash mini show about some girl with multiple pink green hair looks kinda like a midget that is a bit neet and draws and does shit at home and nothing. The opening seeuqnce is literally longer than the actual show. Nop.

Koroshi Ai – Violet Evergarden modern times meets a korean/hazama slant eyed assian and gets stalked by him because he likes her, oh btw, Violet Evergarden is also an assassin but she’s shit at it compared to him I suppose. The tone and pacing of this show is really weird, it kinda does it’s own thing and doesn’t do a very good job of what the show is about, other than the korean guy basically stalking the girl he likes. If this is really what this show is about then damn, who is this for? Maybe women who like stalker creepy Korean looking dudes? The animation itself is decent but the show just feels awkward, I don’t really know if this is supposed to be some kind of romance, slice of life, drama or even black comedy, it’s weird and the show doesn’t do a good job indication what it’s supposed to be either. Not for me, only for korean slant eyed fanciers and blonde saber looking women. Pass.

Tokyo 24-ku – Blue boy had his school burned down or some shit and he regrets saving people and how he wanted to be a hero. After the initial scene I couldn’t tolerate this anymore and skimmed. I have no idea what this show is really about but whatever, it’s probably hidden gay for women. Too colorful and hidden gay, I like my gay shows more gay and out in the open instead of hidden beneath the thin veil that this isn’t targeted towards women and for everybody. Nope.

Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja – Something of a cross between isekai and overlord style of fantasy isekai in which there is indeed a game but the game becomes real. The main character that plays the game plays a character that is literally an old man wizard and it’s name is something like gandolf dumbodore or some shit. At this point in time it’s a game. Some shit happens that I have no idea and the old man dissapears. Some time later a cute young girl awakes up in the forrest and derps around. Apparently this is the player of the old man wizard but has somehow isekaied into the game world for real, sure, ok, this again huh, overlord. When this happens there is a good 5 or so minutes of speechless animation only to music of the now young girl waking up in the forest and making it’s way back to town and the episode ends with the girl apparently saying something like ‘oh, i’m cute’. Yea, kinda huh show. Like, they didn’t need to be so avent garde full of crack in the last 5-10 minutes of the show with the no dialogue but still, being a cute girl now is the only benefit that this show has, which while she is indeed cute looking, it’s not enough. Cute girl alone is not enough to power an isekai show, expecially since the main dude really was a dude but trans in game-fantasy world which seems to becoming a common trope in isekai genre these days. Decent but too common already done before, pass.

Sabikui Bisco – Giant enemy crabs, desert, fist of the north start mad max setting, post-apocalyptic, giant growing mushroom archery terrorism/journey mystery. The basic premise is something like the above that I described but has alot of unknown, mysterious elements to this show, the first episode and it’s somewhat non-linear storytelling is weird and doesn’t give a good picture what this show is really about. After two episodes in, i’m still not really sure what this show is about other than to find the cure to this disease called ‘rust’ than effects everyone in the mad max world. The main guy is some red haired boy that fires mushrooms with his bow and arrow and the mushroom kinda explodes and grows with varying effects and such. Everyone in the world doesn’t like this cause it’s perceived as terrorism, but I suppose there is a reason for this red boi’s goal? The other main guy is some blue haired boy that is trying to find a cure to the rust disease using experiments with mushrooms which is illegal. His sister is sick with the rust disease and it just so happens she is part of some city special cop force or something that rides a motorcycle, visually feels like the blue girl from kill la kill, Satuski; also personality too. I don’t know about this show. It could be good but it could just be a waste of time. Not bad, but not especially amazing at first glance, it feels like an original show but it’s actually based on a highly acclaimed manga so there’s that. Decent designs and interesting premise but we’ll see. Maybe watch more.

Gensou Sangokushi – Tengen Reishinki – Chinese looking designs and Chinese sounding names. Skim literally 10 seconds, fight some monster, magic demon shit, battle. Close video. No.

Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to – This is a kinda jokes isekai show with a twist that is more interesting than most fantasy isekai shows. The main characters of the show are two office bros in their early-mid thirties and they have been friends since elementary school. One of them is kinda generic plain faceless hair boy and the other is a handsome tall glasses man that gets all the attention from the women, which is annoying to his bro as they are trying to date and do mixers and every time he steals the show. Glasses bro is like sure man, he doesn’t care as long as he can chill with his bro, lest to say, it’s heavily implied that the glasses bro is pretty gay for his generic faceless friend, which is also the reason why glasses man chooses to stay single; he gayyyyyy lol. But outside of that, this is where the isekai part comes in, after both getting drunk or some shit, his faceless friend goes on some rant saying I wish I was a cute blonde young girl, at least then I would get all the attention of all the men or some shit. Some fairy god appears and says cool, i’ll grant you your wish and isekais both of the bros. As glasses man wakes up to his new fantasy world, he quickly realizes that his best (gay) bro has trans(formed) into a cute girl exactly as he described. Lest to say, this is quite a shock to them both, as their natural attraction is evident, especially now that the glasses man doesn’t have to suppress his gay urges, his subject of affection, his bro, is now a cute girl, he’s all of a sudden straight, and he’s secretly happy about that. lol. Funny hijink times ensues and both of them vow to not fall in love with each other and go back to their world and have them go back to normal, going back to becoming a man, to be gay again, at least for glasses man. Aside from the joke ass gender-swap trans-formation of the main guy into a girl, the show itself has good pacing and funny characters, the glasses man is funny gay and handsome, while honestly, his bro is much better as a cute girl. Ace voice acting and good animation, will try to watch more of this.

Tensai Ouji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu – Fantasy show about a fool king/ruler prince that wants his kingdom to fail hard because he doesn’t want to rule anymore and actually wants his kingdom to be conquered because he’s fed up with ruling such a shit country that has no natural resources, bad landscape and no industry or anything special. I largely skimmed this one but you kinda get the idea of the show, he wants the kingdom to fail but every time he tries to self sabotage, his plans or recommendations end up being great successes and ends up hyping up his country and army, which result in him gaining more approval, power or money, to the utter dismay privately in his mind. For example, he says some absurd military advice and brutal strategy but it ends up working and such, he wins in battle and war. Suggests some shit like invade another country and all of his general approve of the move saying it’s bold and shit, hoping that it will make him look crazy and irresponsible when if fact it solidified their trust and loyalty to him to his internal dismay. While the show seems to be ok, I am tired of fantasy bullshit, the spin could be comical but it’s simply not enough pull to warrant more attention. Pass.

Tribe Nine – Skimmed this shit, looks like character designs from the same person that did Dangenropa, yea sure. ok. Pass.

Tales of Luminaria – The Fateful Crossroad – 3dCG show of what I can only assume of the tales franchise of video games. Which while visually looks better and better but I can still tell. Looks gay, pass, no interest, quick skim, swords and shit. Red man. Pass

Ryman’s Club – Gay badminton show for women, featuring all the same sports tropes as you would expect, blue man, red/blonde man, former pro, past trauma, confronting personal darkness, lots of implied gay for women, yea. It is probably one of the better sports gay shows but yea, not for me. Pass.

Shenmue the Animation – Lol. Sega. 20 years too late. Dreamcast days are over, Shenmume 3 bombed massive failure, why they are doing this I have no idea. Too Chinese. I watched this but I really didn’t care what was going on on the screen, some kung fu shit, li dan kill his dad, revenge whatever. If this is an attempt to revive the franchise from it’s death, it isn’t working. It’s too far gone and past. Some things should die, Shenmune should be put to rest too.

And there we have it, not too much this season to be honest of interest and that’s ok. All we need are a few good shows and that’s what matters. There is going to be a war after all if/when Russia invades the Ukraine so that will be more interesting to watch than anime honestly, that plus the potential economic ruin as a result of it. Good times.

Try to watch more of: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Yuukaku-hen, Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru, Kaijin Kaihatsu-bu no Kuroitsu-san, Slow Loop, Sabikui Bisco, Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to, kozume – Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu,  Leadale no Daichi nite