MOST HYPED ANIME OF 2022

SPRIGGAN

Spriggan follows Yu Ominae, a covert soldier known as a “Spriggan” working with the mysterious ARCAM Corporation to protect ancient alien artifacts from falling into the wrong hands. Based on Hiroshi Takashige and Ryōji Minagawa’s sci-fi action manga, the 2022 anime from director Hiroshi Kobayashi (Kiznaiver) and writer Hiroshi Seko (Attack on Titan, Mob Psycho 100) appears to cover much of the same ground as the 1998 anime film, albeit with a greater focus on the other Spriggan agents supporting Yu as he attempts to prevent the insidious MJ-12 from gaining control over Noah’s Ark.
BASTARD!! -HEAVY METAL, DARK FANTASY-

Director Takaharu Ozaki and Studio Liden Films’ adaptation of Kazushi Hagiwara’s 1988 manga Bastard!! is set in a dystopian world of swords and sorcery. After being imprisoned in the body of a young boy for 15 years, the powerful wizard Dark Schneider (yes, that is his real name — remember, this was written in the ’80s) is reawakened by a young girl named Yoko in order to wage war on his former allies and stop them from unleashing the dark god Anthrasax on the Kingdom of Metallicana. Dark Schneider, however, in true chaotic demi-god rock star fashion, couldn’t care less about saving the world; he just wants to test his strength, murder heroes, and sleep with as many women as humanly possible.
RWBY: ICE QUEENDOM

Rooster Teeth’s long-running anime-inspired web series RWBY is finally getting a proper anime spinoff courtesy of Shaft, the Japanese studio behind Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Nisekoi, and the Monogatari series. Set in Remnant, a fantasy world beset by monsters bent on death and destruction, the series follows four girls: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, who are training to become monster hunters. Though each of them is powerful on their own, they’ll have to work together to overcome the forces of darkness and become Remnant’s next generation of heroes.
YUREI DECO

Loosely inspired by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Yurei Deco is set in a futuristic world where augmented reality technology and digital avatars co-exist side by side with the physical world. The series follow Berry, a young girl who befriends Hack, a tech wiz and leader of a group known as the Ghost Detectives Club. When Berry discovers the legend of Zero, a mysterious figure said to lurk somewhere beneath the surface of their advanced society, she and Hack embark on a journey in search of them and the truth behind their world.
MADE IN ABYSS: THE GOLDEN CITY OF THE SCORCHING SUN

Set in a world dominated by a vast, labyrinthine cave system known as the “Abyss,” where explorers and adventurers descend in search of precious relics and long-lost knowledge, Made in Abyss follows the story of a young orphan girl named Riko who meets and befriends a robot boy named Reg before embarking on a quest in search of her lost mother. The second season, The Golden City of the Scorching Sun, picks up after the events of the first with Riko and co. arriving at the sixth layer of the Abyss, a place where no human is said to have returned from.
TOKYO MEW MEW NEW

Ichigo Momoniya is a normal middle school girl with normal middle school girl problems. That is, until she gets hit with a mysterious beam, mixing Iriomote wildcat genes in with hers and turning her into an alien-fighting magical girl. Bad guy aliens are looking for a new planet to inhabit, and with her team of anime-themed magical girls, she has to take them down, all while hiding her secret identity from her crush and working at the cafe that serves as a base for the team. Tokyo Mew Mew New is a remake of the classic 2002 magical girl show that served as many people’s introduction to anime. Whether you watched the dub, Mew Mew Power, on Saturday mornings, or the original Tokyo Mew Mew chopped up on YouTube in three-part segments back in the day, this series was everything to everyone. The characters, music, costume design, and (somewhat cliché but fun) storyline made up my childhood, and I cannot wait to dive into the remake.
THE DEVIL IS A PART-TIMER! SEASON 2

The 2013 fantasy comedy anime The Devil is a Part-Timer! follows the mundane misadventures of the Demon Lord Satan who, after being defeated in his home dimension of Ente Isla, escapes through a portal that transports him to modern-day Japan. With no knowledge of this world and without his powers, Satan adopts the human identity of Sadao Maou and becomes a part-time employee at a fast food restaurant called “MgRonald’s” in order to survive. The long-awaited second season will see the return of Sadao, his lieutenant Ashiya, and his frenemy Emi Yusa as they bicker and stumble from one misadventure to the next. They’ll be joined by a new character, Alas Ramus, a mysterious little girl born from an apple. Not returning, however, are Studio White Fox and director Naoto Hosoda, who produced the first season of the series, as Daisuke Tsukushi and Studio 3Hz have assumed responsibilities for producing this new season.