2022 has been a great year for anime fans, especially with lengthy list of successful anime series like Chainsaw Man, Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, and Attack on Titan The Final Season Part II. Now that the year draws to a close, the whole anime community can’t help but ask: Which TV anime reigned supreme among these smash hits? For Japanese fans, it seems the answer is clearer than ever.
In a survey conducted by Japanese anime website AnimeAnime.jp, readers were asked what their favorite TV anime for 2022 is. Action fiction Lycoris Recoil secured the top spot after garnering an approval rating of 12.3% from all the participants, thereby becoming the top TV anime for 2022.
The results were revealed on Thursday, Dec 29 on the AnimeAnime.jp website. According to the site, a total of 8,271 individuals participated in the survey. Out of the said numbers, 55.2% are male, while 42.5% are female. In terms of age division, 44.2% are 19 years old, 11.7% are 20 to 24, and 7.4% are within the range of 25 to 29 years old.
Lycoris Recoil is an original TV anime produced by A-1 Pictures which premiered in July this year. The series aired until September with a total of 12 episodes.
Crunchyroll, the platform streaming the series, describes the anime as follows:
For these peaceful days――there’s a secret behind it all.
A secret organization that prevents crimes: “DA – Direct Attack”. And their group of all-girl agents: “Lycoris”. This peaceful everyday life is all thanks to these young girls. The elite Chisato Nishikigi is the strongest Lycoris agent of all time. Alongside is Takina Inoue, the talented but mysterious Lycoris. They work together at one of its branches–Café LycoReco.
Here, the orders this café takes range from coffee and sweets to childcare, shopping, teaching Japanese to foreign students, etc. It’s mostly tasks unbefitting of Lycoris.
The free-spirited and optimistic pacifist, Chisato. And the cool-headed and efficient Takina. The chaotic everyday lives of this mismatched duo begin!
The series was well-received by many and was deemed to be among the most popular anime of Summer 2022. The chemistry between the two leads, Chisato and Takina, created a massive following, with many rooting for the two agents to end up together. The ending of the show, however, sparked a lot of debates as some fans got disappointed with the anime’s choice for not furthering the yuri plot.
Despite this, Lycoris Recoil received an overwhelming support in the anime community. The show was such a success that a manga and a light novel series were both created following the release of the anime.
Other Winners
Following Lycoris Recoil in the survey is the TV anime adaptation of Aki Hamaji’s four-panel manga Bocchi the Rock!, which amassed an approval rating of 6.2%. Crunchyroll describes its story as follows:
Hitori Gotoh, “Bocchi-chan,” is a girl who’s so introverted and shy around people that she’d always start her conversations with “Ah…” During her middle school years, she started playing the guitar, wanting to join a band because she thought it could be an opportunity for even someone shy like her to also shine. But because she had no friends, she ended up practicing guitar for six hours every day all by herself. After becoming a skilled guitar player, she uploaded videos of herself playing the guitar to the internet under the name “Guitar Hero” and fantasized about performing at her school’s cultural festival concert. But not only could she not find any bandmates, before she knew it, she was in high school and still wasn’t able to make a single friend! She was really close to becoming a shut-in, but one day, Nijika Ijichi, the drummer in Kessoku Band, reached out to her. And because of that, her everyday life started to change little by little…
Coming in third place is Dropkick on My Devil! X, the third season of the Dropkick on My Devil! anime. It garnered an approval rating of 5.9% from the survey participants. Crunchyroll also describes the series as such:
Jashin-chan looks back on the day Hanazono Yurine summoned her. So long as Yurine lives, Jashin-chan can’t return to Hell. So Jashin-chan writes Yurine’s name in her “Death NOT” and swears that she’s finally going to land that dropkick on Yurine. Meanwhile, a former subordinate of Pekola and Poporon, Pino, shows up. Pekola is overjoyed believing God has finally sent someone to bring her home; however, in Pino’s hand is a weapon…
The full list of the anime series who made it into AnimeAnime.jp’s top 10 of the best TV anime of 2022 are as follows:
- Lycoris Recoil
- BOCCHI THE ROCK!
- Dropkick on My Devil! X
- Chainsaw Man
- SPY x FAMILY
- BLUELOCK
- My Hero Academia Season 6
- Mob Psycho 100 III
- My Dress-Up Darling
- Summer Time Rendering
Do you agree with the results of the survey? Share with us your top TV anime for 2022!
Read More: Lycoris Recoil Scriptwriter Gets Harassed for Not Going the Yuri Route
