Spring, the season of new beginnings – and new anime!
Here is a list of the most anticipated upcoming seasons of ongoing anime, as well as new adaptations you definitely need to keep an eye on.
Note: This list contains only anime television series and feature films. Original net animations and original video animations are not included.
15The Demon Girl Next Door – Season 2
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Machikado Mazoku – 2 Chome is all set for release. We will see the primary characters Yuko Yoshida, Momo Chiyoda, Lilith, Mikan and the others returning to reprise their roles.
We don’t know much about the second season, but if it’s anything like the first, we’re in for some major entertainment. Season 1 ended with Yuko, the protagonist, asking Momo to stop being the magical maiden of the Light Clan, and be her vassal instead.
In the new season, we’ll get to finally witness Yuko battle Momo in a duel. This has been Yuko’s mission ever since she woke up as a demon lord of the Dark Clan. Following her ancestor, Lilith or Shamicen’s voice, Yuko must defeat Momo and fulfill her destiny.
15Tie: A Couple of Cuckoos
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A Couple of Cuckoos is adapted from the manga series titled Kakkou no Iinazuke, by Miki Yoshikawa, which was published in 2019. It is one of the most anticipated new series in 2022 – in Japan, the first volume of the manga actually sold out due to high demand.
The premise can be categorized as a romantic comedy, a girl-meets-boy story – with a twist. Internet influencer Erica Amano proposes to high school introvert Nagi Umino to escape a marriage arranged by her parents.
But the intended couple soon discovers that they were accidentally switched at birth, and their parents believe their matrimony is the perfect solution to the baby swap.
14Tomodachi Game
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Tomodachi Gemu is a basically about a group of 5 friends who are pushed to play a psychological game that tests their trust, loyalty, and bond.
We all love stories about deadly twisted games but Tomodachi Game seems like it will be more about debt repayment than murder.
The plot is fairly straightforward where Yuichi Katagiri and his mates are put to the test of whether they will choose wealth over friendship. The manga sold over 2 million copies and I’m hoping the anime does justice to it.
13Aoashi
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This one is one of the rare sports anime, and a must-watch for everyone who loved Haikyuu!! and SK8 the Infinity.
Yugo Kobayashi wrote and illustrated the manga, which came out in 2015. One of the reasons I’m hyped for the anime is that it won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2019 for the best manga in the general category.
Aoashi actually shared the victory with Kaguya Sama: Love is War, which is on my list as well.
It tells the story of Ashito Aoi, who is a soccer prodigy but hides his talents. He eventually participates in Tokyo’s youth soccer try-outs and dreams of being the ultimate soccer pro.
12Summer Time Rendering
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Summer Time Rendering is a supernatural murder mystery about Shinpei Ajiro who returns to his hometown to investigate the death of a girl he grew up with, Ushio.
The circumstances of her death are suspicious which leads Shinpei to think that she was murdered. But something more sinister is brewing on the remote island, something that will jeopardize the safety of not just Japan, but the entire world.
I’m hoping the animation for this series is top-notch. The manga has some really cool horror sequences that have the potential to be breathtaking in the anime.
11Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It – Season 2
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Shinya Yukimura and Ayame Himoro fall in love with each other. The two decide to use data science to observe, track, and analyze their love as a scientific process.
Can love be quantified and treated with hypotheses, graphs, and experiments? Can intangible feelings be made tangible?
Season 1 sees Yukimura and Himoro journey through the ups and downs of their romantic and scientific partnership.
In season 2, I want to see what else these two lovebirds discover as they empirically explore love and intimacy.
10Kingdom – Season 4
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Kingdom is a Seinen manga, which means it is targeted towards young adult males. The first 3 seasons were adapted from the manga Kingudamu written and illustrated by Yasuhisa Hara. The manga is one of the best selling series of all time and has over 87 million copies.
Kingdom is based on the Warring States in Chinese history and the plot circles around Li Xin, who was orphaned by war, in the Kingdom of Qin.
Xin trains in the military as a commander and aids the 31st King of Qin, Ying Zheng, to unify the kingdoms to end the war. Xin’s own goal is to become the greatest general in the world.
9Ascendance Of A Bookworm – Season 3
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You cannot miss this Isekai if you’re a literature fan. Urano Motosu is killed in an earthquake just before she is made a librarian. Her dying wish is to be reborn in a world where she can read forever. Relatable much?
In a true Isekai fashion, our favorite bookworm is reincarnated into the body of a 5-year-old girl called Myne with a rare disease called “Devouring”.
In this world, books are only meant for the rich and elite. Urano must use all the bookish knowledge she has gained in her previous life to fulfil her goal of becoming a librarian.
8Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie
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This romantic comedy is about Izumi, a guy cursed with terrible luck, and Shikimori, his perfect girlfriend.
But as the title suggests, Shikimori is not just cute and gorgeous. When Izumi gets into any kind of trouble, Shikimori transforms into a badass.
The anime promises to be female-centric and female-driven, with a protagonist that shows her duality as a sweet, sensitive partner and a serious, confident hero.
7Komi Can’t Communicate – Season 2
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In line of female-led series, Komi Can’t Communicate also stars a compelling female protagonist that has already gained the love of a sea of fans with just a single season.
Komi suffers from a communication problem – crippling social anxiety that doesn’t let her make any friends. She is known as the “ice queen,” and her introversion and stoic appearance makes her come across as a cool mystery woman.
Tadano Hitohito is the only one to see through her stone façade. He helps her in her goal of befriending 100 people before their high school graduation.
6Aharen Is Indecipherable
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The reason this one sounds kind of similar to Komi Can’t Communicate, is because it is. Aharen Reina is a small, soft-spoken high school girl with no sense of personal boundaries and space.
Like Komi, she’s horrible at socializing. Aharen doesn’t really comprehend what normal social behavior is.
The only one who can understand her, is the tall and kind Matsuboshi Raido. Raido is a daydreamer with an overactive imagination.
The two form an unlikely friendship and learn to form interpersonal bonds that they otherwise would never have formed.
5Date A Live – Season 4
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Date a Live has formed quite a fan following since the light novel first released in 2011.
This sci-fi harem comedy starts with a spatial quake – a kind of magnetic earthquake – that kills 150 million people in Eurasia.
Itsuka Shido, an ordinary high-schooler, finds out from his sister Kotori, that the cause of the spatial quakes are spirits from other dimensions. Shido is recruited by the Anti-Spirit Team to seal the spirits and save them from obliterating mankind.
Here’s the rom-com part of it: the only way Itsuka can contain the spirits’ powers, is to make each spirit fall in love with him and trick them to kiss him.
4Spy × Family
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The Spy x Family manga series by Tatsuya Endo has become increasingly popular since its serialization in 2019.
Twilight, a spy from Westalis, is given a mission called Operation Strix that needs him to create a fake family. The person he marries turns out to be an assassin, and the girl he adopts is a mind reading psychic.
Like the Disney movie The Incredibles, the entire family takes on double identities that conceal who they truly are. In the bargain, the 3 end up growing closer together, much like a real family.
3Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
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I can never get enough of Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is the 21st feature film in the franchise and has been created with computer-animated or 3D martial arts.
It is a sequel to the film Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and will heavily be led by series creator, Akira Toriyama.
The film will feature the comeback of the Red Ribbon Army, the evil organization that, fans will remember, had been destroyed by Goku.
Toriyama has already teased that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is going to get a surprise character, as well as fighting sequences in unexplored territory. I, for one, can’t wait for this one.
2The Rising of the Shield Hero – Season 2
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Probably one of the most famous dark fantasy Isekai series out there, The Rising of the Shield Hero is thankfully getting a second season, and the release is just around the corner.
Iwatani Naofumi is summoned into a parallel dimension with 3 others to become Cardinal Heroes that will battle multitudes of monsters.
He is given a shield while the other receive offensive weapons, and as a result, Iwatani becomes the target of jokes.
The end of the first season sees something that hasn’t been done in other Isekai. Iwatani’s lone companion falsely accuses him of rape. Season 2 is going to be a banger.
1Kaguya-Sama: Love is War – Season 3
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Ultra Romantic, the third season of Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, is the most anticipated anime set to release in 2022 Spring. It’s a psychological love story between Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya who are a perfect match on paper but are also rivals.
Both main characters have huge egos that don’t let them confess their love to each other. They strategize complicated and elaborate schemes to push one another to confess so they don’t have to.
The series is hilarious, entertaining, and quite touching in moments. The title of the new series hints at a possible confession; maybe we get to see the proud couple finally together? April can’t come soon enough!
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