Spring 2022 Season - Ringtail Roundup
Spring sure went fast, huh? A couple weeks of mid-sixties temperatures and tornado scares, and now we're in the throes of sticky summer heat. Personally, I'm more of a winter guy, so I can't wait 'til it's over—although with global warming making every December exponentially hotter, I'm not holding my breath that the concept of snow will exist in my neck of the woods for much longer.
Living in a ceaseless hellscape aside, spring 2022 also brought us some good anime! In that respect, it finally feels like the year’s in full swing—the winter season was a little dire, with just the dregs of Ranking of Kings and Attack on Titan keeping me going, but now there’s a whole plethora of quality shows to choose from. This spring was particularly loaded with comedies of different stripes, along with some healthy side courses of action, drama, and romance. All we could’ve used was a nice theme-heavy show to round things out and make this a truly great season, but I was happy enough to have so many crowd pleasers to sift through. And what better way to wrap up a good season than to organize everything into an arbitrary list?
I’ve included my thoughts below on everything I watched from spring 2022, roughly in order of how much I enjoyed each show, and with some very important seasonally-themed ratings. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of every show that aired last season, and I can’t promise I made it past the first episode for all of these (to make me watch every single seasonal anime, you’d have to pay me a lot more than my current article-writing fee, which is $0), but hopefully it’ll point you towards something you find interesting. Let’s get to it!
Healer Girl
My top pick for the season—and perhaps the best thing to air so far this year—is Healer Girl, an original production that’s as close as I’ve seen to a full-blown anime musical. As a modern-day fantasy about young girls training to become sing-healers, it’s the perfect platform for ambitious (and shockingly frequent) musical numbers wherein its protagonists heal patients, study for tests, or just walk around and sing-talk to each other, enhanced with interpretive visuals and impressive choreography. The show was conceived as cross-promotion for an actual musical group of the same name, yet far from being a soulless advertisement, Healer Girl is wildly successful as a slice of life. Much of that is thanks to the lively animation and art design, with ridiculously good storyboards by director Irie Yasuhiro and episodes that are frequently solo-key-animated—an incredible feat on its own, and doubly so when you consider the state of the modern anime industry. Far from being just a technical marvel, it’s also a joy to watch, with uncommonly snappy comedic timing, high-concept jokes (like one episode where the girls get stuck in their singing voices), expressively cartoony characters, and a dramatic core that lands most of the big moments when it wants to get serious. Healer Girl may look slight at first glance, but it’s stuffed to the brim with so much talent and ambition that it became my must-watch of the season.
Spy x Family
Rating: Lightning Bugs in the Evening
You probably don’t need me to tell you that anime’s newest megahit is worth watching—chances are you’re already caught up and waiting for the next cour to drop, and for good reason! Spy x Family is stylish and charming from its first moment, but still, it surprises me just how big this one’s become so quickly, and how it’s crossed over into popularity beyond normal seasonal-anime watchers. I think part of it is the broad range of appeal; whether you’re here for Loid’s retro spy action, Anya’s funny faces, or Yor stepping on people, the show’s got you covered, and it maintains a breezy tone while transitioning gracefully between its charm points. It’s also got an excellent production, with colorful, 1960s-inspired art design, and the directorial chops to not oversell its comedic beats. The lack of fanservice doesn’t hurt, either.
But really, I think there’s one central reason this show, like the manga before it, has gotten so popular: Anya. Whether she’s mimicking her parents, misinterpreting social cues, rolling on the floor like a little goblin, or making that one shocked expression, she steals literally every scene she’s in. There’s a veracity to her kid logic that rings true to anyone who’s been around five-year-olds, and I think audiences are responding to it. It’s great that Spy x Family offers the whole package, but let’s not kid ourselves; this is the Anya show first and foremost, and the anime landscape is better for it.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War – Ultra Romantic
Rating: The First Day When it Hits 70 Degrees Outside
Kaguya-sama’s third season finds the show staying firmly in its rom-com lane and chugging merrily along despite a directorial transition and some production crunch. For many three-year-old shows, that might be worrying, but Kaguya-sama is so dang charming that it’s hard to fault it. Sure, the first half of this season still finds our lead couple stuck holding each other at arms’ length, and the story has to pivot its focus onto all sorts of side characters to prolong their central confession conflict. But most of those side characters are charming and funny in their own right, and the show’s visual experiments—like a delirious rap battle framed as a retro music video, or an extended Chika moment animated as a 90s shoujo melodrama—turn almost every narrative detour into a comedic goldmine. Plus, in the excellent back half, we finally get actual romantic developments that make the wait feel worth it. Even in perpetual wheel-spinning mode, Kaguya-sama is a proven hit.
Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story
Rating: That Weird Way Robins Hop Around on the Ground Sometimes
Following in the proud tradition of Hanebado! and SK8 the Infinity, Birdie Wing is the latest show to turn a perfectly normal sport into a larger-than-life anime spectacle. Yet even with that campy lineage, there’s something different about Birdie Wing. To put it bluntly: this show’s fucking nuts, y’all. Rightly recognizing that normal golf is heinously boring, it instead guides us into the dangerous world of underground betting golf, where mob bosses wage war by golf proxy and call golf assassins on their golf enemies. In the middle of this lunacy is Eve, a lower-class, amnesiac golf prodigy whose special skill (which she calls her “Rainbow Bullets”) just involves hitting the ball really hard, and her star-crossed connection with straight-laced champion Aoi, who can at least do a slice.
That’s barely scratching the surface; trust me when I say this show gets truly unhinged. The best part of it all? The show takes every piece of its story deathly seriously, from its sapphic pseudo-romance to its mafiosos shooting rockets at politicians to its bisexual vampire succubus golfer. I frankly didn’t think it would keep it up this long, but week after week, it’s come back to one-up itself with a new campy twist or insane piece of worldbuilding, even after eventually settling into a more typical school setting. Without the legitimately good writing and visuals of a show like SK8, it’s still the sort of train that feels like it could derail at any time, but for now, Birdie Wing is the insane lesbian sports show of the year. I’m so happy it exists.
The Executioner and Her Way of Life
Rating: A Cute Squirrel That Might Have Mange
Isekai—wish-fulfillment fantasy stories wherein the protagonists are transported from our reality to another world—have long been my least favorite anime trend, with many acting as thin veils for their authors' ugly, misogynistic, self-referential worldviews. Yet The Executioner and Her Way of Life proves that it’s not the genre that matters as much as, well, the execution. The show starts out typically enough, with a smarmy young man summoned from real-world Japan to a fantasy kingdom and immediately meeting a kindhearted young woman whom he’s clearly interested in. But as quickly as the first episode sets that up, it changes gears and recontextualizes its plot in a mid-episode twist that had me grinning ear to ear.
I’m trying to talk around the pivot because it really is that good—frankly, if you’re even halfway interested, I’d recommend you just go watch that first episode, since it’s a great experience in and of itself. But if you need the extra sell, I’ll mention that the show proper has a decent visual design, a neat industrial magic system, a resourceful main character, and even strong hints at a queer romance. Its central premise and worldbuilding are also studier than the isekai par, acting as genre commentary while outlining socio-political systems that are intriguing in and of themselves. The main rub is that while it’s very ambitious, it’s also very inconsistent—this is the type of show that will deliver tantalizing hooks and efficient plot beats one moment, only to grind the story to a halt so it can have forced conversations about magic minutia or indulge in annoying light novel tropes. The Executioner and Her Way of Life doesn’t completely shed the generic conventions that hold back so many of its peers, but it at least takes them in a direction more interesting than we normally see. I’ll take messy ambition over cookie-cutter complacency any day.
Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie
Rating: Birds Nesting in My Gutter
I checked out Shikimori based mostly on the strength of its promo art and previews—just look at those sharp character designs, and those colors! Yet despite my being on board for a pretty, if generic, rom-com, the first couple episodes set me on edge. A large part of it was their molasses-slow pacing, where standard manga rom-com punchlines would be preceded by literal seconds of dead air. But the much bigger issue was the way it handles its romance. Basically, protagonist Yuu is a profoundly unlucky guy (we’re talking having to dodge runaway cars and bird attacks on his way to school every day) who is inexplicably dating Shikimori, the cutest girl in school and a profound ass-kicker at everything she does. It’s the sort of premise that could have big Wife Guy energy (in a good way), but the two of them have zero chemistry despite already having dated for months when the show starts. Worse, neither has much interiority, especially Yuu, whose only personality trait is being seconds from death at every moment. That means the bulk of their relationship in early episodes involves Shikimori protecting Yuu from imminent danger, pulling him away from speeding traffic or kicking falling street signs away from him, and then both of them blushing a lot.
It's all a little innocuous at first, but not only does that one joke wear out its welcome fast, it’s also presented as the age-old fantasy of the misunderstood niceguy scoring the hottest girl in school just by being “nice.” It’s as if they made a show out of those oedipal Pepe memes where the girlfriend stands up to the bullies who knocked over his lunch tray. At worst, it’s pure incel logic: a show that unintentionally says guys deserve a girl who will take care of you, shield you from the world, and perfectly fix everything wrong with your life, and all you have to be is bland and polite, because that’s what girls should want.
Fortunately, having stuck with it past the first couple episodes, those issues mostly disappear over time. A lot of that is due to the show expanding its focus onto Shikimori and Yuu’s friend group, who frankly have funnier material than the main couple and come across as supportive, interesting kids. Shikimori and Yuu have also gotten a couple legitimately cute moments, and while they still don’t have a ton of chemistry, there’s a thread starting to emerge about them trying to navigate a relationship where one partner isn’t able to participate in life the way everyone else does; I wouldn’t go so far to call it a disability allegory, but the parallels are interesting. And then there's the character Kamiya, who, since being inducted into the main cast halfway through, has become the show's best-developed and most sympathetic character. Beyond that, the comedic timing has thankfully improved, and studio Doga Kobo has pumped out some remarkably good animation despite Covid-related production troubles. I still think there’s a lot of missed potential in the show’s approach and characterization, but as long as those improvements stick, Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie could prove to be exactly what I wanted at the start: a reliably fun, if not groundbreaking, romance.
Ya Boy Kongming!
Rating: An Admittedly Nice-Looking Bush That Takes up Too Much Sidewalk Space and Forces You to Walk on the Road for a Couple Seconds
This one sure snuck up on people, huh? Between its catchy OP and surprisingly solid first couple episodes, it’s been fun to watch the anime community get hyped up about a story where a military general from Romance of the Three Kingdoms becomes an agent for an EDM musician. I think it’s gotten popular for good reason—there’s some solid fish-out-of-water comedy as the titular Kongming adapts to present-day life, but the show doesn't linger there, instead keeping things fresh as he starts using military tactics to, say, lure an audience to a show and then trick them into staying. Beyond that, its characters have charming relationships, and leading lady Eiko has a relatable story about wanting to make it big in a music industry that recognizes actual talent less than social media clout. Having only watched the first few episodes so far, I feel the show is veering close to just repeating a few specific jokes, and I don’t know quite enough about the Three Kingdoms era to get much out of the references. More annoyingly, I worry that Kongming is being flattened into a larger-than-life historical figure, meaning the show could end up with a main character who lacks interiority or room for personal growth. But even if it doesn’t keep my interest in the long term, Kongming! is a solid recommendation for anyone who’s looking for an easygoing comedy with a weird premise.
Love After World Domination
Rating: Flowers Starting to Wilt on the Vine
For show about a romance between a hero and villain, it’s a shame that the lovebirds are the least interesting part. Love After World Domination is essentially a tokusatsu (think Power Rangers) parody about the lead ranger of the good guys going on dates with one of the villains’ most powerful commanders. Cute, right? There’s plenty of surface-level charm here—surprisingly good fight scenes, some interesting worldbuilding bits (the Gelato rangers are employed with paid benefits), and a bunch of cute blushing and awkward navigation of a new relationship. But rather than support its premise with fundamentally good character writing, its main characters are just kind of…well, cartoons. Fudou is a good guy and a musclehead, Desumi is cute and demure despite her villainous alter ego, and that’s about it.
The third episode gives a good indication of why I bounced off the show: after weeks of sneaking off for alone time during battles, Fudou finally schedules a real date with Desumi, but he’s spent so much of his life training that he has no idea what they should do. After receiving bad advice from a coworker, he makes Desumi tag along for a surprise workout day, leading to her doing bench presses and jogging in a skirt and heels. There’s a moment towards the end where Desumi walks off and Fudou finally realizes she may have had a rotten time, a realization that seems like it could force some actual drama and eventual mutual understanding—i.e. actual romantic development, i.e. the goal of most good romances. But moments later, she comes back with drinks and says she had a perfect day because she got to know his interests. It’s a deflationary move that sucks any promise of three-dimensionality out of their relationship in favor of nonstop good vibes. There’s just so many other angles this show could be taking—Why is a sweet young woman working for villains trying to conquer the world? How would a hero and villain actually reconcile their ideologies for a relationship?—but so far, it’s opted for the blandest route of all. If you’re in the market for a conflict-free set of warm fuzzies and can stomach some fanservice, this show’s got you set. For me, I like the show this could be better than the show it is.
Also, you’re telling me all of these chumps are supposed to be in high school? Weird.
Summertime Rendering
Rating: An Unseasonably Humid Day
Having only seen the first episode, I can’t speak to how well Summertime Rendering holds up on the whole. But based on that premier, it seems like this will be a good execution of a story I won’t particularly like. Following a young man who travels back to his remote island hometown after the supposedly accidental death of his adoptive sister, the premier crams in as many mystery-thriller hooks as it can fit into twenty-two minutes: murder investigations, small-town politics, suspicious cops, government conspiracies, folktale doppelgangers, and, as we find out at the end, a time loop that resets whenever our protagonist dies. But aside from a washed-out visual style that ably captures both the steamy summer heat and the shadowy intrigue hiding just out of sight, there’s not a whole lot that grabbed me about this premier, with its heavy focus on exposition and mystery setup leaving no room for strong character writing, clear thematic intent, or an exploration of our protagonist’s grief. Plus, there’s a juvenile, fanservicey sense of humor that completely messes with the tone—the time loop seems to reset with our protagonist face-planting into a woman’s breasts, which is the anime equivalent of a “What’s the deal with airplane food?” joke. All in all, it seems like fans of Steins;Gate and Re:Zero will have plenty of plot to dig into here, but as someone who’s not a fan of mystery for mystery’s sake, I suspect Summertime Rendering just isn’t my thing.
Heroines Run the Show
Rating: Getting a Runny Nose After Going Outside for Five Minutes
Heroines Run the Show is the exact type of shoujo that should be fun, but something about it feels off. Our main character Hiyori is a nice, upbeat country girl who I'd normally find charming (just look at those eyebrows!), but despite all of the affectations being in place, I realized partway through that she was actually getting on my nerves. A lot of that is due to her being set up as a cipher from the Fruits Basket school of Saintly Good Girls, the type who would drop her life's dream in an instant to help her family back home and whose only real flaw is clumsiness. She's not a real character as much as she is a blank slate to project onto; turns out genki energy without anything else under the hood gets a little grating.
All that could be forgivable on its own, but Hiyori’s flat writing is just a symptom of how rote the whole first episode is. The main plot, where Hiyori gets roped into being the manager for a couple of bad-boy idols, is filled with contrivances and happenstance just to get the narrative's pieces in place. Those two idols clearly have actual drama going on beneath the surface, but they veer closer to stereotypical shoujo hotboys than actual humans. Plus, they’re just assholes—I realize I’m not the target audience for this character archetype, but I don’t have any desire to get to know a couple of teen jerks who verbally abuse a new girl. I can’t say that Heroines Run the Show is truly bad, but its writing chops just aren’t there.
A Couple of Cuckoos
Rating: Mosquitos
I may not like the recent wave of crummy isekai shows, but A Couple of Cuckoos is a reminder that there’s long been another genre of mostly terrible anime targeted at young men: harem comedies. Cuckoos follows a pair of kids who were mixed up at birth and raised by the wrong parents; years later, the studious boy and Instagram-star girl, through the most contrived of contrivances, wind up in an arranged marriage. It’s a thin plot, and that’s before we get to the sister who wants to jump her literal brother’s bones, or the demure rival classmate who’s surely going to be a fan favorite ship. The simplest way to describe what’s wrong with Cuckoos is that no one behaves like a human being—not our vaguely douchey self-insert protagonist, not the vain tsundere archetype Erika, and certainly not either of their parents, who somehow think this incestuous arranged marriage is a fantastic idea. The production is solid, and it approaches some pathos for its leads once or twice, but the comedy is annoying and the characters are tropey to a fault. Like many entries in this genre, this is a boring, barely disguised wish-fulfillment fantasy for horny boys and siscon fetishists. Let it die.
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