At last a new year has come and 2022 is far, far behind us . . . by like a whole day! But I’m sure there are many otakus out there that aren’t ready for this bright shiny new year (I feel the same way!). Don’t worry, it’s not too late to enjoy the best that 2022 anime has to offer! And to help you with your mad dash to get to see the really good anime of last year before it drifts away into anime history, here it is! Not just all the anime that I watched last year so you can see the pool of anime nominees, not just the anime series that were the runners up and all around really good anime, but the number one, undisputed (by me) BEST Anime of 2022!!!! Please, save your applauds for the end of the post.
The Nominees – Anime I watched in 2022 (not in any order)
- Tokyo 24th Ward
- Myriad Colors Phantom World
- Hanasakeru Seishonen
- Detective Conan
- Visual Prison
- Durarara
- Rumble Graranndoll
- Space Dandy
- Taisho Otome Fairy Tale
- Gigantor!
- Akebi’s Sailor Uniform
- My Dress-Up Darling
- Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department
- Sabikui Bisco
- Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knock Out!
- Love of Kill
- Princess Knight
- The Case Study of Vanitas 2
- My Love Story
- My Next Life as a Villainess OVA
- The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki chan
- Sasaki and Miyano
- Slow Loop
- Natsume Yujincho OVA
- Heaven Official’s Blessing (re-watch Dubbed)
- Vampire Princess Miyu 4 part OVA
- School Rumble
- Pretear
- Magic Knight Rayearth
- Good Luck Girl
- Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
- Fairy Gone
- Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire
- Divine Gate
- Dimension W
- Coyote Ragtime Show
- Case File n221: Kabukicho
- Ben-To
- Baka and Test
- Blood-C
- AFTERLOST
- The Stranger by the Shore
- SpyXFamily
- Ranking of the Kings
- Skeleton Knight in Another World
- Love After World Domination
- Miss Sachiku and the little baby Ghost
- Aharen san wa Hakarenai
- Trapped in a Dating Sim
- Fuse: Memoirs of the Hunter Girl
- Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective
- Color Cloud Palace: The Story of Saiunkoku
- Healer Girl
- Kokkoku
- 100 Sleeping Princes in the Kingdom of Dreams
- I’m Quitting Heroing
- Hitorijime My Hero
- The Boy and the Beast
- Phantom of the Idol
- Monochrome Factor
- Tokyo Mew Mew New
- Vatican Miracle Examiner
- Ya Boy Kong Ming
- Onipan!
- The Demon Girl Next Door
- Dame Pri
- Yumeiro Patissiere
- The Devil is a Part-Timer season 2
- Rising of the Shield Hero season 2
- Crois`ee in a foreign Labyrinth
- Bibliophile Princess
- Shadow House season 2
- Drop Out Idol Fruit Tart
- Wolf’s Rain
- Salary Man’s Club
- Mahjong Soul Pon
- Junji Ito Collection
- Theater of Darkness: Yamishibai
- Raven of the Inner Palace
- Welcome to Demon School Iruma Kun season 3
- SpyXFamily part 2
- Fuuto PI
- Sk8 The Infinity
- I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
- Classroom of the Elite season 2
- Tokyo Ravens
- Daily Life of an Immortal King
- Dragon Ball
- Sprites of Flora
- Ace Attorney
The Runners Up!
It was soooo difficult to pick the runners up! There really was just too many good anime that came out in 2022. And every time I look through the list of anime I watched over the last year I keep finding even more series that I want to put in the “Runners Up” category. But they can’t all be runners up, so I have to be very strict with myself, and only pick anime that were significantly note worthy and that I would really want to watch again if I had the time. So my runners up list wouldn’t be 80 titles long, I put a limit of 3 anime and I had to do a lot of cutting to make the list that short! So in no particular order, here is the anime of 2022 that you really should try to watch!
Sabikui Bisco
Sabikui Bisco aka Rust Eater Bisco was definitely a unique shonen action anime about a plague called the Rust that travels on the wind to deteriorate buildings, vehicles, and even people! There’s only one thing that can stop this destruction, the mushrooms and the mushroom keepers. The flora and fauna of this anime are truly different and mesmerizing. From giant fish that fly through the sky to fungus the size of houses, this anime features a world all it’s own. The characters and their background stories are also unique and fun, though I do wish this anime had more character development.
Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knock Out!
This was probably my favorite comedy of 2022. This is an isekai anime about two friends that get transported to a fantasy world, one was transformed into a super powered version of himself and the other, while spewing a drunken rant, was transformed into his ideal girlfriend. Not only that, but he/she has the uncontrollable power to make anyone fall in love with their incomparable cuteness. The whole anime is the two friends hilarious journey through this fantasy land trying to find a way home while dealing with all the complications of one of them being just too cute!
Kokkoku
I don’t watch much sci-fi anime. That doesn’t mean that I don’t love sci-fi (because I totally do!) I just prefer watching sci-fi in live action form rather than animated form. But Kokkoku is one of the few sci-fi anime that really is best just the way it is. Kokkoku is an anime about a family that has a stone that allows them to stop time. It’s also about an evil cult that wants to steal the stone so it’s crazed leader can live forever! This series has so much going for it, Kokkoku was a very strong contender for the best anime of the year. It has family relationships being explored and strengthened, it has a hero that starts out as a total under dog until she finds the inner strength to do what’s right rather than what’s easy, it has a truly dastardly evil cult of bad guys, it looks at the real problems and results of stopping time, and it has one of the most epic grandpa’s of anime!
2022 Best Anime of the Year!
Spy X Family!!!
It should come as no surprise that I absolutely adored SpyXFamily this year and it is definitely my favorite series of 2022. It had so much to like! It had the nostalgic unbelievable action of James Bond movies that I grew up with. It had the sweet slice of life family building that I love so much from anime like Flying Witch and Natsume Yujincho. It had a very cute kid, like I adore seeing in anime such as Sweetness and Lightening and Shonen Maid. And the kid just happens to have a snarky psychic side to her, like my other favorite psychic in the anime The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Basically it’s like someone stealthily read all my comments and posts online and then squeeeeeshed all the elements together and covered it with a thick layer of Wholesomeness Spackle, to make an anime just for me . . . and a few million of my closest friends.
Have a Happy 2023!
Well, that’s it for 2022, and I’m hoping that 2023 will have even better anime to come!
Anime Hanabi 