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2024 was a pretty good year for anime. There was a cool mix of returning favorites like Sound! Euphonium, Spice and Wolf, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s end as well as some of off the wall oddball shows that weren’t afraid to be different. Brave Bang Bravern, Train to the End of the World, and Too Many Losing Heroines kept things fun and zany all year. Then there was Dandadan’s own form of insanity to round out the year.

Next year is looking pretty interesting, as well. My list of things to watch in 2025  includes some new entries in classic mecha franchises, continuations of great fantasy series, and a couple of new works that show promise. In no particular order, here’s the anime I looking forward to.

New Macross

There’s a new entry coming in the Macross franchise. And it’s interesting for two reasons even though almost nothing is yet known about it.

First, it was a big surprise to hear who this new show was coming from. As a 40+ year old franchise, multiple studios have worked on Macross over the years. A couple of the related shows were even made without authorization or input from the original creators! The most recent entires have been made by studio Satelight. But they’re going to be busy reviving their Aquarion franchise. That has seen production of the next Macross anime go to studio Sunrise! I put the exclamation mark there because although Sunrise has done everything from music idol Love Live to the jazz-filled sci-fi classic Cowboy Bebop, they are best known for making dozens of shows in the Gundam mecha franchise which is perhaps the closest thing to a competitor to Macross.

We don’t know who is directing this new Macross show. Or who is, very importantly, doing the music. We know almost nothing, so far. But having it developed by something of a rival studio is certainly interesting. And not necessarily a bad thing. I think Sunrise can be plenty capable of making a good Macross show. It’s going to come down to the leadership, tone, animation, and music. I mention music a second time because for various reasons from societal to technological, music has real power in the Macross universe. Music has literally stopped interstellar wars and pacified eldritch aliens, so which composer and singer(s) this new show features is perhaps more important than it would be for other sci-fi properties.

Second, when will this new Macross show will be set? Macross is fairly unique in that aside from a spattering of video games and maybe the odd side story or two, the mainline shows have all existed in a single continuity set from around a start in fictional 1999 to a little past a futuristic 2067. From a story perspective, each Macross show focuses on a new set of characters, but sometimes past events are referenced and past characters have even crossed over as importantly but minor characters in new shows. This means viewers don’t have to contend with a complicated mishmash of alternate universes and it simplifies questions as to where to start watching since there’s an actual beginning. Each new show is at least tangentially related to the ones that came before which I think of as a strength.

So, will this new entry move the timeline forward yet again? Will it be a sequel of a previous show? Or a side story set during the same time frame as an existing show? Or might it break tradition and be the first true alternate universe show? If I had my way, it would be a show set 10+ years forward of Macross Delta’s 2067 and again feature an entirely new set of characters. I’d also accept a continuation of my favorite entry, Macross Frontier. There’s one big plot thread left hanging there that would be great to finally wrap up. I don’t really want an alternate timeline. Leave that to Gundam and its myriad of disconnected yet annoyingly similar stories. (I’m look at you all you Char-masked villains!)

But no matter what happens, Macross is awesome and unique and I can’t wait to hear more about this new entry.

The Apothecary Diaries season 2

The first season of The Apothecary Diaries set in ancient China saw teenage apothecary and amateur herbalist Maomao be kidnapped and brought to work at the royal court. Through a mixture of accumulated knowledge, practical common sense, an occasional temper, and a bit of a devious streak, Maomao began fixing problems and solving mysteries among royal staff and concubines alike.

A bit of a goofball who even enjoys lightly poisoning herself to figure out the best way to counteract new poisons, Maomao found herself dragged into issues ranging from malnutrition to aphrodisiacs to novel forms of court politics and murder! Slowly, problem by problem, she grew her respect and reputation, much to her own annoyance. Just as often as not she’d rather these nobles leave her alone and solve their own problems, but her honest and inquisitive nature wouldn’t let her ignore the plights of others for long and she’d soon reluctantly get wrapped up in the intrigues herself.

The show was a lot of fun even as Maomao herself was kinda a weirdo. The upcoming second season promises to dig into more court intrigue and even more into Maomao’s secretive past that she is just beginning to uncover!

Ghost in the Shell by Science Saru

Ghost in the Shell is always a bigger franchise than I give it credit for. It’s got two early movies. The three-ish seasons of the excellent Stand Alone Complex anime. The Ghost in the Shell: Arise mini series which I love and others love to hate. And the much maligned live action movie which was pretty terrible because it failed to understand the philosophy of Ghost in the Shell. (And not because of its casting choices, fight me!)

This new entry by the always a bit odd production studio Science Saru has very few details out right now, but the initial teaser seemed to very clearly focus on the original manga leading some to speculate this will be a faithful retelling of those stories.

Even though I kinda don’t like roughly half of the entires of this franchise, it’s always interesting to see a new adaptation on the horizon. The core world and cyberpunk aspects of Ghost in the Shell are very solid. It all comes down to what is done with it this time. I’m especially interested to see what they do with the art given all the manga panels they were showing in the teaser and the retro bit of art Science Saru put out.

Witch Hat Atelier

To be honest, I don’t know a ton about this upcoming fantasy series. It seems to be about magic, who has access to it and who controls it, and what good or bad is done with it.

The trailer made it feel like something of a magical coming of age story as our young heroine maybe attempted to perform magic before being chased by those who didn’t want her to do so and then being saved by someone who could teach her secrets locked away or forgotten by the modern magical world. Something like that…

What I do know is people seem really excited about this show. I’ve seen more than a few say it is one of a big three of modern fantasy classics along with, I think, Jobless Reincarnation and Frieren: Beyond Joureny’s End. The former two are outstanding in their own ways (with Jobless Reincarnation adding a big dose of problematic just for kicks)… so I have high hopes for this one as well.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

Gundam is not my favorite mecha franchise, that would be Macross from up above. I’ve tried getting into Gundam over and over and it has never really stuck. Something about a combination of its age, weird plots, overuse of heavily repeated themes and callback similarities between series, and the pile of one off universes disconnected from all the others has me slightly negative on the franchise as a whole.

That said, I enjoyed 2022’s The Witch from Mercury even if it was a bit rushed in places. This new series, GQuuuuuuX, so far seems intriguing with a second go at a main female protagonist and a weirdly named main mech (which may or may not actually be a Gundam) that is initially involved in combat for sport rather than for war. War seems to be coming, though. It’s as much a core part of Gundam as music is for Macross.

Really the whole package here has me intrigued. It could totally be another entry I can’t stand with too many reused tropes from past Gundam anime, but there’s enough here for me to give it a real chance. I look forward to learning more and I hope it turns out of be some cool robot sci-fi I can really get behind.

Madoka Magica Walpurgisnacht Rising

Madoka Magica is a landmark anime. It takes traditional magical girl shows which typically feature one or more girls with magical abilities fighting against evil using the powers of hope and friendship. Madoka turned the whole concept on its head in the most devious way and then did something even neater. It takes its subversive messages of despair overwhelming hope and brings them back around to the beginning. Where it seemed to be an unrelenting critical deconstruction railing against traditional magical girl shows it actually executed another perfect flip to become the best and truest of them all.

Then they did the 3rd movie, Rebellion. (The first two were just recaps of the anime). Some, like me, loved it. It could be argued that it steadfastly and honestly follows the thought processes and inclinations of some of the core characters to their logical and impressively destructive conclusions. Others, also like me, think it messed with perfection. That it undid an extremely well earned and meaningful ending.

Yes, I am of both opinions! But while Rebellion is divisive, it cannot be denied that it was an amazing production. Its pacing and animation and music were all top notch. This new movie looks to up things yet again. From what we’ve seen in trailers, it looks and sounds fantastic. There’s mysteries and intrigue and “why the heck is that person there?!” and “oh no, what does that mean?!!” for big fans like me to puzzle over.

Will this new movie be accepted? Will it upend things yet again? Will it become a core part of the show’s story? Will it be something that some love and some hate? Will it be a complete failure rejected and forgotten? Nobody knows! The chance to see a favorite work soar high or come crashing down is one of the big reasons for me to anticipate this one.

Lycoris Recoil Shorts & Season 2

In modern day Japan, the government rounds up orphan girls and trains them as deadly peacekeeping assassins who preemptively eliminate crime and terrorism before they can be carried out. These “Lycoris” do their deadly work disguised as everyday schoolgirls. The original show followed two such Lycoris, the joyfully hyperactive and endlessly helpful Chisato Nishikigi who has reflexes so good you literally cannot shoot her, and Takina Inoue, a highly skilled, no-nonsense Lycoris who was demoted to be Chisato’s partner because of her inflexible nature.

The show thrived on Chisato’s antics, her kindness, her incredible close combat gun-fu, her imperative to live each day to its fullest, and her unshakable philosophy of ultra-aggressive pacifism that saw her outright refuse to kill even the baddest bad guy, but at the same time gave her full leeway to shoot them with painful non-lethal bullets so often that they’d have no choice but to rethink their actions. Add in Takina as the straight-laced buddy cop Chiasto got to play off of and a wonky, Joker-like villain to stir up trouble and you got a surprisingly excellent show that came out of nowhere!

This year, we should be getting some new shorts that follow the continued activities of Chisato and Takina. Maybe they’ll still be defying their covert organization by providing problem solving services in Hawaii. Maybe they’ll be back at their little LycoReco cafe in Japan where they’d pick up odd jobs helping manga artists gain inspiration or helping police detectives solve cases. Whatever they do, it’s bound to be fun. There’s also talk of a full second season that I think is more or less confirmed but maybe not officially announced. That’ll be great too!

Symphogear Next

Symphogear is kinda a crazy concept. Take your typical magical girl anime, but instead of having these high school girls gain superpowers through magical means, have those powers come through the power of songs in combination with a mixture of ancient human and alien technology. These heroines literally sing out loud during battles to power their fights against evil biological weapons spawned from another dimension not to mention the bad guys who would wield such abominations against humanity for their own gain.

The show has over 100 character songs, terrific action scenes, and a good helping of heart. Those things are what make Symphogear the outstanding anime it is. It’s one of those shows where everything from the character designs to the villains to the fights are all just a bit over the top in the best ways.

And now, after the solid, story-ending conclusion of its 5th season, it is getting… something new. And nobody knows what just yet. There’s some theories of a prequel show. Others of a sequel film. Like several of the other shows, I don’t know what’s coming, but I’m excited to see what it is!

Medalist

Sports anime can occasionally be awesome. I don’t know much about this one other than it is about a young skater dreaming of someday competing in the olympics and her coach who helps her train for ice dancing competitions. Or something. The trailers have seemed interesting enough. I’m hoping this will be a surprise standout.

The anime has a relatively young studio working on it, but has screenwriter Jukki Hanada famous for some great anime on board. He’s worked on the stories for some of my favorites including A Place Further than the Universe, Sound! Euphonium, Steins;Gate, and Girls Band Cry. This could be a good one if the art and animation can keep up with what will hopefully be a good story.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2

The first season of this anime was outstanding. The show starts with the nearly ageless elven mage Frieren returning home as a member of the Hero’s Party of adventurers who defeated the demon king and made the world much safer for mankind. And then it explores what happens next. Frieren’s friends grow old and die while she stays the same. The world advances. New threats emerge. New friends, some related to those of her past, join her on a new adventure that retraces the footsteps and memories of the one she went on previously.

The show mixes action, kindness, nostalgia, magic, great animation and music, amazing characters, and a bit of humor all to perfect effect. Part of its appeal is its brilliance in its simplicity. And now we know it is getting a second season. And while it’s not my absolute favorite anime of all time, it’s right near the top and deserves all the praise that has been heaped on it.

Easily the most surprising and standout anime in the Winter 2024 season, Bang Brave Bang Bravern has me laughing out loud every week with its wacky, save the world mecha hijinks.

Bang Braven, I guess that’s what I’ll call it, is different in tone from a serious Gundam or Macross, and while self-aware, it’s also not an SSSS.Gridman style show, either. Even though it’s dealing with largely real-world military forces (well, until it doesn’t) the show I think it feels closest to is actually Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. I doubt this will have a tournament arc like Gurren Lagann did, but they share a similar sort of energy, excitement, and humor.

Sometime around the modern day, American and Japanese forces are having a joint military exercise around Hawaii. Everything from aircraft carriers to ground forces to American Titanostrider mechs and Japanese equivalents are simulating a joint attack on a fortified beachhead.

And then, aliens attack.

Even our best soldiers and most powerful machines are all but useless against the shielded alien mechs that descend from space and soon blanket the entire world similar to Independence Day. The situation looks all but lost for our heroes in Hawaii, but then, at the last moment, a red, blue, and white talking mech saves the day and takes in one of the Japanese mecha pilots as its pilot.

This new mech is named Bravern. Bravern is loud. Bravern is bombastic. Bravern encourages his new pilot, Isami Ao, yell out the names of super attacks along with him. With Bravern’s help, the surviving joint forces are able to push back the aliens around Hawaii. And then things get even crazier.

Unlike most other mecha shows, where the gundams, or similar mechs, are just stationary machines without their pilots, Bravern himself remains very much a character after the battle ends. Though Bravern’s head is multiple the size of an entire human, he participates in strategy meetings. He leads the joint forces in exercise routines that include runs and pushups for the humans and their machines. He leads training courses on, complete with an overhead projector, showing the joint forces how to overwhelm the enemy’s shields. Bravern is such a fun character he pretty drives the show much like Kamina did for Gurren Lagann.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have other good characters. Pilot Isami Ao has so far been a reluctant pilot of the brash Bravern. There is some bond between them that hasn’t been fully explored yet. There’s also Lewis Smith, one of the American pilots who wishes he could operate Bravern, but Bravern will not let him for some reason. Again, something about that bond between Bravern and Isami. Maybe some sort of past battles they shared in space that Isami has since forgotten about? Minor characters include the joint forces commander. And the airborne command and control operators who direct our heroes into battle.

Whatever secrets the show is holding on to for now, it is just hilarious and a joy to watch. And not just for the humor that makes it good. This week’s episode had a touching moment where a bunch of the soldiers and technicians Isami helped save in the opening battle got to thank him and buy him drinks. Lewis Smith is having to deal with not being the superhero pilot after being rejected by Bravern. We also got a glimpse of the allied forces’ first counterattack location, and it was kinda gut wrenching to see these soldiers and technicians in shock over the battering their homelands have taken.

The show is not going to instantly appeal to everyone. It is fairly silly and tongue in cheek despite some of its more serious, straightforward military trappings. But for anyone willing to have a bit of knowing fun thrown into their serious military mecha show, there’s nothing in recent memory that can top this.

Also, the ending credits of each episode. Neither words nor a single image can do them justice. Just… wow.

2022 was a great year for anime. I don’t think I’ve experience a year this good since the phenomenal 2018 which gave us shows like:

• A Place Further Than The Universe
• Violet Evergarden
• Revue Starlight
• Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
• SSSS.Gridman
• Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

What 2022 gave us was both some wildly popular mainstream shows, and a fair number of excellent shows that came in out of nowhere or were just plain happy to exist off the beaten path. One thing that made me extra happy this year were the number of shows centered around music and personal creativity.

Here’s the shows I enjoyed most in 2022:

Police in a Pod – This police slice of life anime that sprung from the mind of a former real life Japanese patrol officer somehow manages to be both amusing and all too real. It follows the lives and happenings surrounding two patrol officers working out of a small neighborhood police station and features a wide variety of on the job and off the job situations the two must tackle.

The show mixes the joys of rescuing victims of abuse and catching criminals who think they are too clever to be caught with the real challenges and hardships officers go through in an effort to live their lives and keep their sanity while working in a system that doesn’t always have their best interests in mind. Everything from simple patrols, to search and rescues, to responding to troubling calls like domestic violence and suicides is represented here. The dialogue is witty without being annoying or “Marvel snappy”. And the institutional knowledge on display is fabulous, even if the animation budget was a size or so too small.

Akebi’s Sailor Uniform – As discussed at length in my review, this show is a modern classic. It’s an animator’s anime that takes joy in depicting the motions and emotions inherent in young teenager Komichi Akebi’s life as she goes to school, plays sports, and makes lots and lots of friends.

While it may never be as outwardly flashy as the effects-heavy combat animations in popular action anime, the artwork and artistry this show has to offer is, in many ways, second to none. The way the show combines that with a full class of interesting characters and a great soundtrack makes me think it will long be remembered.

My Dress-up Darling – Cosplay, dressing up as your favorite characters from tv or games or movies, is a popular pass time. But also one that is expensive and takes a good deal of skill to pull off successfully. Energetic, outgoing hipster Marin Kitagawa knows this all too well when her efforts to design a costume in an effort to become her favorite game character fails miserably. But then she meets the reserved Wakana Gojo at her high school one evening. His talents at designing outfits for tiny hina dolls for his family business sees him get roped in to be her cosplay costume designer.

What follows is a remarkably wholesome budding romance between these two lead characters, even though Marin’s greatest wish is to dress up as some surprisingly provocative figures from her favorite games and tv series. Respect, recognition of effort, and acknowledging one another’s boundaries and dreams play just as large a role in this romance anime as the crazy, and often revealing, costumes Marin commissions from Wakana.

The Executioner and Her Way of Life – There’s a genre of anime called “Isekai”, a word which means “different world”, which revolve around the core premise of a normal guy or girl from our modern world being transported to some kind of alternate fantasy world where they often gain impossible abilities and become the hero destined to save the day. There’s a lot of these. So many that copy cats and uninspired efforts sometimes give bad name to the good examples of the genre.

This show is one of those good ones mostly for the way it flips the concept on its head. In this particular fantasy world, people from our modern day Japan get summoned across dimensions and gain great magical powers, but those powers are just as often unbelievably dangerous as they are helpful. So, there exists a whole sect devoted to finding these would be heroes/villains/natural disasters and ending them before they can become a threat to themselves or others.

Our main character, priestess Menou, is tasked with killing newly transported innocent schoolgirl Akari Tokitō whose new innate powers of time manipulation are so dangerous they threaten everyone and everything. There’s just one problem: Akari is so powerful that she cannot be killed. Even a successful surprise assassination from Menou early in the series just sees Akari’s time powers turn back the clock on her own body so her fatal injuries are undone.

In order to save the world, these two characters come to form an unlikely friendship based on the mutual desire to find a way to kill Akari before her powers spiral out of control and break time itself. The show features fun characters and a good plot twist or two that make it all worth watching.

Healer Girl – In our modern day, the science of musical healing is beginning to join more traditional medical techniques for treating patients. We follow three up and coming musical healers as they apprentice at a local clinic and seek to earn their professional licenses.

This show is fun, colorful, and surprisingly musical. The three main character, of course, sing to do things like heal minor injuries or support surgeons during surgery, but singing is so innately a part of their lives that they do it all the time. This leads to fun segments of the girls singing out their life-long motivations or singing out technical musical terms for an upcoming exam while they clean their clinic. While it doesn’t have the biggest budget and there’s no particular conflict to keep you glued to your tv, this show provided me with enough wholesome musical fun to keep me watching week to week.

Ya Boy Kongming – Speaking of music, this show with its concept of ancient Chinese military strategist Zhuge Liang Kongming reawakening in modern day Japan in order to devise clever marketing strategies for an unknown club singer named Eiko Tsukimi just seemed far too odd for people to give it a chance. And then everyone saw it’s glorious opening with it’s crazy, upbeat music and outstandingly artsy animation and we were all hooked.

Spectacular, fortune-changing opening aside, this show kept its audience around by being a surprisingly well put together story of an unknown talent climbing the music charts to starhood while making friends and changing lives for the better along the way. If you liked Carole & Tuesday, you’ll like this too. It’s got music. It’s got heart. It’s got better art than I initially expected. It’s got one of the best anime openings of all time. What more do you really need?!

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story – Imagine the perfect golf anime. Stunningly detailed lakes and sand traps and fairways and brilliant blue skies. Extremely well animated swings. Intense on course rivalries. That perfect clinking sound of sinking a long, difficult putt. Now… mix in a hefty does of the extremely over the top gambling anime Kakegurui and add a dash of… I don’t know, something insane like Kill la Kill or Gurren Lagann… then stir vigorously. That’ll just about get you to Birdie Wing.

This is a crazy story of a female golfer named Eve who yells out the names of powerful secret swing techniques taught to her by a departed golf master. She plays illicit rounds of golf against wealthy, overconfident would-be rivals who bet against her often in opposition to the wishes of the cutthroat international golf mafia. She does this so she can humiliate everyone involved and pocket large sums of money so she can continue to protect her bar where she and her friends take care of a needy group of orphans. All of which goes well until Eve finally meets a true rival in the endlessly calm and collected Aoi Amawashi who herself is the offspring of two golfing legends. Aoi has become enslaved in corporate sponsorships thanks to her overbearing CEO of a mother and she too is in the sights of the golf mafia. Eve and Aoi become infatuated with each other’s skill and personality the first time they meet and soon join forces to take down the golf mafia and the invasive corporate powers ruining their lives.

Uh… yeah, this show is out of its mind. Which probably makes it the best possible golf anime that can be made!

Summer Time Rendering – High school aged Shinpei Ajiro is returning home to his small Japanese island town in order to attend the funeral of his similarly aged adoptive sister Ushio Kofune who recently died in a drowning accident.

Except, maybe it was no accident. And maybe the supernatural was involved. By the end of the first episode Shinpei ends up getting murdered only to awaken a few days earlier back on the ferry he rode in on… and the expansive, intersting story goes from there. The animation is excellent. The characters are great. The story is well plotted. And I’m not gonna talk about any more of it… Just go watch it, already!

Lycoris Recoil – Modern day Japan is a nice safe place because it is a country of nice, caring people. Well, that, and because the government runs a miniature army of “Lycoris”, highly trained assassins disguised as schoolgirls, who are constantly on undercover patrols killing any and all bad guys before they can threaten anyone.

The show follows top Lycoris Chisato Nishikigi and her recently demoted partner Takina Inoue as they work out of a small cafe and help everyday people solve larger than life problems. Chisato is what made this anime great. She is upbeat, excitable, and very nearly hyperactive. Her refreshing outlook on life sees her try to fully enjoy her each and every moment but also sees her unwilling to kill because she does not wish to take similar precious moments away from anyone… even bad guys. It’s a philosophy she spends the entire show imparting on her new, grumpy, by the book protégé, Takina.

Highly enjoyable characterizations and some excellent animation made this a must watch series, even if the entire concept was a bit odd.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – Marketed as the first of the long running Gundam series to feature a female lead character, Witch From Mercury is not your typical Gundam show in more ways than one. It starts with a hard hitting prologue and then switches gears to something of a space high school setting where our lead character, Suletta Mercury, seems like the outer space version of a country bumpkin dropped into an odd mix of petty school cliques, intense Earthian vs Spacian economic rivalries, and high stakes corporate politics. Oh, and Suletta and her mother at first seem to know nothing of the tragic prologue they were both very much a part of!

This show features awesome giant robot fights, a suspiciously idealistic main character, and a plot that seems to know what it’s doing but at the same time plays its cards very close to its chest. It’s up to the viewer to pick out the little discrepancies strewn about the episodes that makes this outwardly happy show into something much more intense and horrifying that it first appears.

Admittedly, this show is only at its halfway point, and it could totally take a bad, unsatisfying turn in its second half this Spring. But, for now at least, it’s a hands down smashing example of a show that trusts its audience to dig into its story and find the hints that it is constantly dropping. I love that kind of thing!

Do It Yourself – Set in a slightly more high tech Japan filled with helpful AI pet robots and quadcopter drones that fill the skies each day as they deliver orders to people’s houses, this show is actually a celebration of putting love and attention in to making things by hand.

The show opens with klutzy, high schooler Serufu Yua finding herself at odds with her childhood friend and neighbor Miku Suride. The two are being spit up as they are about to start their first day at different high schools. Serufu is going to a traditional school, while Miku is going to be attending a high tech academy. In an effort to fix their ailing friendship, Serufu ends up joining her school’s Do It Yourself club and starts in on rebuilding a wooden bench that used to sit between their houses.

Along with the injury prone Serufu and her slightly stuck up friend comes a delightful cast of characters all who join the DIY club for different reasons. By the end, they are all participating in making some excellently envisioned arts and crafts to promote their club.

In addition to fun characters and a nice, low-key story, this anime has also gotten a lot of praise for it’s somewhat stylized approach to art and animation. It’s nowhere near flashy as some shows, but apparently a lot of work went into creating and maintaining its complex shot composition and semi-watercolor look.

Bocchi the Rock! – At first glance, this show has been done before. Four girls joke and laugh and bond as they throw around tons of witty dialogue whilst forming a band? This show is just K-On! Except, it isn’t. Not at all. Instead, what this fascinating anime provides is a feast of crazy animation and film making techniques that explore the inner thoughts and worries of lead character Hitori “Bocchi” Goto as she is dragged outside her incredibly lonely comfort zone when she is invited to join an after school band.

Without Bocchi as its lead character, this woud be a show very similar to K-On!. Just one with its characters much more focused on actually forming a band instead of listlessly goofing off and drinking tea. But with Bocchi as its lead, the show is instead this weird, wild, detailed and all too relatable portrayal of how someone with lifelong crippling social anxiety acts and thinks. Bocchi is prone to getting lost in her overwhelming worries and delusional flights of fancy whenever she has to interact with others. The animators put a ton of time and energy into finding ever more inventive ways to portray her inner turmoil with a shockingly wide array of art styles ranging from courtroom sketches and film noir scenes to claymation, puppets, and even brief, jarring moments of live action.

Beyond its inventively artistic portrayals of Bocchi’s often panicked mental state, Bocchi the Rock also boasts a decent knowledge of how bands and clubs operate. And it has a great core cast of primary and secondary characters. And it tuggs at you with great moments of friendship and bonding. And it features a surprising number of fully animated on-stage full length song performances. And it is consistently very strong on the art and animation side of things even outside of Bocchi’s freakout moments.

Yeah, this is a complete, unique package. It’s kinda no surprise it quickly became one of the most talked about animes of the year.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners – There’s an old, ongoing joke that anime studio Trigger’s over the top style, luscious animation, and dedication to each of their projects is just what anime needs… that they saved anime… and it’s not really a joke, because it is also true!

This show was seen as a weird, too long delayed afterthought cash in to the Cyberpunk 2077 video game. The game had suffered an extremely troubled production and had come out with so many bugs, crashes, slowdowns, and flaws that Sony took the drastic step of removing the title from its online store for several months while the worst of the problems were being fixed. The game was almost condemned to failed project status by gamers, so having an anime set in the same world come out more than a year later seemed very odd. But, yeah, Trigger did it again.

As something of a sidestory in the 2077 universe, Edgerunners follows a crazy crew of Cyberpunk mercernaries as they cheat and steal and hack and fight their way to success in a retro futuristic world that offers zero comfort or solace. You either go big or you die trying. Somehow, Trigger took this wild world and filled it with a new stories and new characters that are arguably more compelling that those within the game itself. Add in a stellar soundtrack and shockingly good animation and this show is an absolute winner. The show was so well received, in fact, that it pushed the game back onto the top of the internet’s most played charts for a few weeks more than a year after it had been abandoned by gamers.

So, once again, Trigger saved anime. Oh, and they saved gaming this time, as well!

All The Rest – You might notice this list is missing some of the biggest big name hitters. There’s Spy X Family, Chainsaw Man, and Kaguya-sama: Love Is War‘s 3rd season that I simply haven’t gotten to yet. Attack on Titan is in like part four of its final season and I don’t want to watch it until it is finished. And those are just the ones I can think of…

Yep. 2022 was a great year for anime!