The fall season is always the biggest season for anime fans. Typically, it’s when most animes release in the year, and this year is no exception. The big anime season has given us many action packed shows, from lighthearted and comedic, to dark and grusome, or maybe a unique combination of both. 2022 has given new major releases for anime fans to enjoy.

Chainsaw Man

After Nearly 2 years of wait, manga fans of Shonen Jump’s Chainsaw Man have finally been rewarded for their patience. The first episode of Chainsaw Man released on October 11, and has already reached second place in the popularity polls, only beaten by Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. The third episode of the show was so popular that it crashed the servers of the major streaming service, “Crunchyroll”, one of the few anime to have done that. Without a doubt, Chainsaw Man has proven itself as one of the most anticipated anime of the season, if not year.

The series, adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga, and directed by Ryu Nakayama, follows devil killer Denji, and his companion, Pochita. When Denji’s dad commits suicide and leaves Denji with his crippling debt, he’s forced to somehow pay the yakuza back.

Fortunately, he saves a small dog-like devil with a chainsaw, called Pochita, by feeding him some of his blood and keeping him. With his new companion, he decides to take up the profession of devil hunting to make ends meet.

Trying to pay back the Yakuza, Denji hasn’t had an easy life devil hunting, having to go as far as to sell his right-eye a kidney. After years of devil hunting and barely scraping by, Denji dreams about living a simple, normal life and getting a girlfriend. However, that dream is almost cut short when he and Pochita are nearly killed by the Zombie Devil after striking a deal with the Yakuza.

After nearly dying, Pochita eats some of Denji’s blood, reviving and fusing with him. Denji wakes up from the dead, now with the new ability to transform into a chainsaw form, with chainsaws on his arms and head. He kills the Yakuza and Zombie Devil, and is afterwards taken by Makima, a high ranking member of the Devil Hunter Organization, and is forced to join the Public Safety Devil Hunters with his newfound and unique ability.

This is where the plot truly begins, with Denji now free from the Yakuza, he can begin to live a simple and seemingly normal life. However, as he’s forced to work with the Devil Hunting Organization, a government run organization that works to kill devils causing harm, he meets many of

the other employees.

He first meets the aforementioned Makima, his boss who he begins to gain a romantic interest in. At first, she seems kind yet calculated, knowing how to make her employees work.

He’s paired with Aki on his first day as a Public Safety Devil hunter, a serious and old friend of Makima’s. However, their relationship has a rocky start, with Aki and Denji getting in a fight in their first mission together. Aki doesn’t believe Denji is a right fit for the Devil Hunter Organization, as he holds the idea that for someone to be successful in this profession, they must have a large ambition or goal, something Denji lacks.

We also meet Power, a fiend, or human possessed by a devil, hired by Makima for the Devil Hunter Organization. She has a crazy personality, always looking for blood to consume, but also bringing a high energy to the cast.

The show is a chaotic combination of gory and fast-paced action as well as comedy. At one point, Denji could be fighting a bat demon holding a cat hostage, and the next be arguing to his new roomate about flushing the toilet. The series offers a lot in terms of tone.

Despite Chainsaw Man having a lot of highs, it’s not without some lows. A major critique of the show from its fans is the use of CGI. The CGI is only featured in episode 1 so far, and although it’s not near Attack On Titan’s Colossal Titan levels of bad CGI, it’s still noticeable enough to feel off. Still however, this is our only substantial critique, with the rest of the animation looking fantastic.

Chainsaw Man brings a fantastic new view in the world of anime, giving us a more simple minded and not very noble protagonist, while still making him feel human enough for us to root for him. However, a show as wild and chaotic as this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and instead some want a more traditional anime with more familiar themes and characters, like My Hero Academia.

My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia recently released its sixth season earlier this October. My Hero Academia has become one of the most popular anime of this generation, garnering a large fanbase.

In the world of My Hero Academia, 80 % of the population possess some kind of supernatural ability, known as quirks. Becoming a superhero and defeating villains is now a possible career one can study and work to achieve.

The show follows Izuku Midoriya, nicknamed Deku, a teen boy who despite wanting to be a superhero more than anything, is unfortunately born quirkless. But he is finally given the chance to achieve his dream when his superhero idol, the #1 hero All Might, decides to pass his quirk on to him after he tries to save one of his classmates during a supervillain attack.

Although Deku receiving a quirk from the greatest superhero might sound great at first, he also must train and learn to use this quirk, as it’s so strong it breaks his bones by just using it.

The show then follows Deku going to U.A. High school, a pristine high school dedicated to training teenagers into becoming the next generation of superheroes. Deku must train alongside his classmates, and work to become the greatest superhero of all time.

The show sticks to more traditional shonen anime tropes and themes of heroism and teamwork, with many calling it the Naruto of this generation. But just because it uses popular tropes doesn’t mean it’s unoriginal, as the show tends to subvert many of these tropes instead of playing them straight.

For instance, when Deku’s high temper and stubborn rival, Bakugo, is taken hostage by the League of Villains attempting to convince him to join their league, he refuses. Many other action shounen anime use the trope of the protagonist’s rival joining the villains temporarily, and would’ve made it part of their arc. But instead, My Hero Academia subverts this by making Bakugou decline the offer, showing that despite his bully-like attitude, there’s many more layers to him and he still desires to be a hero like our other protagonists.

Season six picks up right where season five ended, finally being the payoff for many of the setups of the previous season. For a quick recap, after the League of Villains face off against the Meta Liberation Army and win, Shigaraki successfully takes the role of leader of the Meta Liberation Army, and renames the group to the Paranormal Liberation Front. Afterwards, Shigaraki undergoes months long experiments to increase the strength of his new quirks and enhance his body’s physical abilities, surpassing almost all other superheroes.

In the beginning of season six, all the strongest pro heroes, including our main characters of class 1A, plan a surprise attack against the Paranormal Liberation Front before they get too much power, in what is known as the Paranormal Liberation War Arc.

However, despite the surprise attack, our heros villains were met with a large resistance, especially after Shigaraki new undergone transformation giving him new natural abilities and enchancing his quirks. And it’s not helped by almost all the pre-established villains which come back to fight.

Without spoiling much, the Paranormal Liberation War Arc is known by many manga fans to be where the series takes its turn to a much darker tone and highteined stakes. Many fans, both anime and manga, were excited to see this arc animated and come to life.

Although the series has suffered from many issues its past few seasons, such as flashbacks that overstay their welcome and lack of well-done character development, this arc provides the show some of it’s best moments in a long time. A fresh breath of air, in a much anticipated arc for fans.

Fans of My Hero Academia will enjoy a darker and more intense storyline, Spy X Family provides a much more lighthearted take on action shows and a smaller, more focused cast.

Spy X Family

The anime adaptation of the manga Spy x Family, written by Tatsuya Endo, is a goofy, lighthearted, and comedic show that can get serious at moments when necessary. It usually has a more lively tone with funny scenes and character interactions.

The first part of Spy x Family revolves around the spy Loid Forger, aka Twilight, who wants to stop the cold war between the nations of Westalis and Ostania and bring world peace.There’s also the unintelligent, psychic little girl named Anya, and the cold-hearted assassin Yor, aka The Thorn Princess.

When Yor proposes faking a marriage with Loid to complete their separate missions, Loid agrees and proposes to her with a grenade pin. Loid enrolls Anya at a school called Eden Academy, to fulfill his mission at getting closer to Donovald Desmond, the chairman of the National Unity Party of Ostania and his current target.

At Eden academy, Anya meets a young boy named Damian Desmond, son of Donovan Desmond. When Loid finds out Anya punched Damian in the face, he devices a plan to sneak into the school, makes a plan for Anya to apologize to Damian and befriend him, and get closer to his target.

It is hinted that while Damian is cold to Anya, only acting friendly a couple of times, he might not hate her as much as he leads on, and might even feel the opposite. Anya also befriends a girl named Becky, and the two shortly become best friends, with Becky not getting along with Damian.

We are also introduced to Yor’s brother, Yuri, who catches wind of Yor’s marriage and rushed to find out what kind of man she married. Yuri meets Loid, and they immediately despise each other.

Yuri dislikes Loid because he sees him as unworthy of his sister, as he loves her too much and is overprotective of her. The two work for opposing factions, with Yuri working for the State Security Service, also known as The Secret Police. The SSS’s mission is to capture spies and traitors, which naturally makes Loid and Yuri enemies

Season two picks up with Anya wanting a dog to impress Damian, so she can get invited to his home and meet his parents. Anya has the childish idea of stopping the war by making Loid and Denovan meet, bringing about world peace.

Loid and Yor agree to get Anya a dog, who we come to find out was experimented on, and as a result has the ability of seeing a couple of seconds into the future. Later in the show, he tries to save Anya from some criminals, but unfortunately get cornered into an alleyway.

Yor finds Anya and quickly beats ups the criminals. After that, they choose to adopt the dog, and Anya names him Bond, after her favorite fictional hero, Bondman.

We later meet Fiona, who is madly in love with Loid. So much so that she is willing to compromise her mission, go to the spies house, and suggest that Loid replaces Yor with her as the new fake wife.

Spy X Family shows a creative take on the family dynamic with more goofy and sillier moments, while still letting the more serious and emotional moments play out. Fans of the show would likely enjoy Mob Psycho 100 as well.

Mob Psycho 100

Mob Psycho 100’s anime adaptation was first announced on Dec. 2, 2012. Four years later on July 12, 2016, Mob Psycho 100 released its first season. The anime was produced by Bones, the same animation studio that works on My Hero Academia. Mob Psycho is an anime about a middle school esper named Mob, who posseses abilities such as being able to create a barrier to protect himself, telekenisis and more. The show’s first season was met with much critical appraise, but how does the show hold up after its third season?

In the first season, Mob is a very anti-social and nervous middle school student, always very dependent on his master, Arataka Reigen. Reigen is a self-appointed strong esper, but actually has no powers as he claims.

In the second season, we find out how rare it is to be an esper, and get introduced to new espers. However, many of these psychics are weaker than Mob, with most of them having useless powers. Such as two kids who have the power to read minds, but are only able to talk to each other, an ability that looks weak in comparison to Mob’s.

In the latest season, season 3, we haven’t been introduced to new characters, but instead have seen more development from some characters barely shown in seasons one and two. In the new season, Mob is much more self-dependent, showing how he has developed gotten older.

Mob eventually grows to be more social and less nervous, and eventually works up the courage to tell Reigen no when asked to do something while busy, unlike in the first season where he would do anything Reigen asked.

Mob also learns how to better control the percentage of his esper power he uses. In the first season, if Mob had a strong emotion, such as sadness or anger, his percentage would increase. If this percentage ever got to 100%, Mob would lose control of himself and his powers.

Mob Psycho provides lots of good humor and well done character development. Just like many of the aformentioned shows, it has a well balance of both. It knows when and how to pull them off.

Conclusion

Fall 2022 has provided anime fans with a heavy catalog of quality shows. From Chainsaw Man’s long-awaited debut that was well worth the wait, My Hero Academia and Mob Psycho 100’s continuation to a sebversive superhero story, and Spy X Family’s action-filled take on family drama, we highly reccomend catching up on these shows over the winter break for any action anime fans.