There are sequels that can be expected every year, for returning series or long-running shonen, just as there can be one or two hits each season that take the community by surprise. However, the Fall 2022 schedule proves once again that some seasons are forces to be reckoned with.
Many of the shows featured were announced ages ago, but to see the culmination of upcoming releases one after the other is truly something to behold. Bones is bringing backMob Psychofor the third season,My Herois back, andthe true ending ofBleachis at hand, but there’s so much more beyond that to be hyped for.
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Mob Psycho 100 Season 3
Yuzuru Tachikawa returns to direct the third season of what has been considered one of the best animated series of the last decade. The returning staff at Studio Bones is a relief when sometimes sequels can shift studios like withAttack on Titan.
Mob PsychoSeason 2 raised the stakes considerably for Mob and company, and it begs questioning if season 3 can raise the bar. Aside from the bombastic action, it’sMob’s inspiring and relatable questfor self-betterment and gaining self-confidence that keeps people watching. Here’s hoping for the best for everyone’s favorite psychic.
My Hero Academia Season 6
WhenMy Heroleft off, it was “My Villain Academia,” a daring arc that focused on the villains and Shigaraki’s rise to new levels of power. Now, all the heroes and the students from UA Academy are united for a combined assault on the villains.
Manga readers ofMy Herohave certainly hyped up this new arc, though many have been skeptical of the anime’s ability to properly adapt such a packed arc. This next chapter promises to be one of the most intense yet; a war between super-humans that might take more than a few casualties.
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Two major sequels in one season might be asking a lot of Studio Bones, between this andMob Psycho, but given their reputation, it’s hard to stay too skeptical. Rest assured, the battles will be glorious and animator Yutaka Nakamura will probably be unleashed to produce some killer animation like all the best battles in the series.
Spy x Family Part 2
Spy x Family’s manga was so beloved that the pressure to get the anime right must have been truly intense. And yet,it ended up being a huge successand has been universally praised. This joint venture between Wit Studio and CloverWorks will return for the second cour of season 1 in the fall.
The PV released June 25 has a much darker tone than previous trailers for the first cour, focusing on a dastardly bombing plot that sees the Yor family stepping in. The 13-episode continuation is coming in October.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War
For its popularity and dedicated fanbase,Bleachseems to be one of those anime that is divisive among critics and fans alike. Namely, becauseBleachnever got its true ending adapted to animation, until now.
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Announced last year, the “Thousand-Year Blood War” arc is coming in October with an as-of-yet unknown number of episodes and will giveBleachfans the true ending they’ve waited for. Studio Pierrot is producing the conclusion with Tomohisa Taguchi (Akudama Drive) as director and Shirou Sagisu (Evangelion, SSSS. Gridman) returning to compose the music.
Uzumaki
For some unfortunate reason, theworks of Junji Ito are really hard to adapt. With such iconic artwork that is unsettling on its own, capturing that detail and terror in animation - or any medium - is really challenging. Shows like theJuinji Ito Collectionwere criticized for unsuccessfully bringing the stories to life.
When Adult Swim announcedUzumaki, it was extremely exciting because the trailer was so creepy. The artwork was all in black and white, the style actually seemed to match the source material, and Colin Stetson’s score was terrifying.
But it’s been a while andso little has been sharedof this planned 4-episode series for Adult Swim that it could very likely collapse under the hype or worse, slip under the radar even if it’s good. It was supposed to be released in 2020 but was delayed because of the pandemic, but hopefully, this project from Production I.G. USA will do Ito’s work justice.
Urusei Yatsura
David Production is remakingRumiko Takahashi’s Sci-Fi comedy serieswith a new TV anime directed by Yasuhiro Kimura, Hideya Takahashi, and Takahiro Kamei. This is another special one, asUrusei Yatsurais the kind of name that even people who don’t know what it’s about could hear the name and think “oh yeah, that one.”
RELATED:New Urusei Yatsura Anime Cast, Staff, October Premiere Revealed
Be an anime fan long enough and that name will register pretty quickly as a work of some great import and for good reason. This new adaptation captures the old designs so wonderfully and presents itself with such vibrancy that it could easily find a new fandom within younger generations of anime fans.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury
A newGundamis always appreciated, but this one has some larger importance as being thefirst one in the franchise with a female lead. It’s sorta surprising that such a thing hasn’t happened sooner, with the number of alternate timelines and wild departures from the usual “UC Timeline.”
The description alone is the mostGundam-sounding thing ever:
A.S. (Ad Stella) 122―
An era when a multitude of corporations have entered space and built a huge economic system. A lone girl from the remote planet Mercury transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the Beneritt Group which dominates the mobile suit industry.
Her name is Suletta Mercury. With a scarlet light burning in her pure heart, this girl walks step by step through a new world.
(Source:Official Site)
Gundam’s brand of political drama and its way of tackling the horrors of war has resonated with viewersregardless of the timeline or the creative team. This new series is directed by Hiroshi Kobayashi, who recently helmed Netflix’sSpriggan. Given the times, it will be interesting to see how the story approaches corporations' economizing of life through a science fiction lens.
More so, it’ll be exciting to see the first-ever female lead in such an acclaimed franchise take to the pilot seat of her own Gundam. Let’s hope it’s not just a one-off and the franchise’s international appeal will lead toeven morekinds of protagonists in future entries.
Suzume no Tojimari
Makoto Shinkai seems unstoppable after the success ofYour Nameand the subsequent success ofWeathering with You, but can he strike gold a third time?Suzume no Tojimariis coming out on November 11 and tells the story of a girl who has to avert catastrophe by mysterious doors around Japan.
Shinkai has stated that the story of the film isinspired heavily by the events of 2020, a year wrought with no shortage of painful memories from which to draw. It remains to be seen what the message of the film will be, but if it can touch upon the emotionally devastating events of that year, it may just be his most emotional film yet.
