The spring 2022 anime season is right around corner, with popular series like Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Tiger and Bunny returning alongside promising new premieres like Spy x Family, Aoashi, Thermae Romae Novae, and more.
To say this season of anime broadcasts will be interesting would be an understatement. With Funimation having been absorbed into the Crunchyroll brand, any spring anime premieres that were previously slated to stream exclusively on Funimation will now instead premiere exclusively on Crunchyroll. That’s not all — Disney Plus is slated to several new anime including Summer Time Rendering, Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall, and Tatami Time Machine Blues this season, though neither Crunchyroll nor Disney have announced their full slate of their upcoming anime premieres as of this writing.
Even so, there are no less than 75 anime confirmed to air this spring. Of that critical mass of new releases, we’ve cherry-picked 10 of the most interesting titles slated to premiere this season that we think readers should look out for. We’ll update this list later in the month once we have a clearer picture of everything the season has to offer, but in the meantime, here are 12 new anime premiering in spring 2022 that you should be excited for.
Spy x Family
Based on Tatsuya’s Endo’s popular Shonen Jump manga series, Spy x Family (pronounced “Spy Family;” think Hunter x Hunter) follows an extremely proficient and enigmatic secret agent who goes undercover in order to infiltrate the government of an enemy state. As part of his mission, he must get married within a week and adopt a small child as part of his cover story, as well as go by the alias of “Loid Forger.” Things take an turn à la Mr. & Mrs. Smith when it’s revealed that not only is his wife secretly an assassin, but their newly adopted daughter Anya is a powerful psychic who will do anything to keep her newfound family intact.
Tatsuya Endo’s original manga quickly became one of Shonen Jump’s most popular new series less than a year after it debuted, with our very own Julia Lee calling it one of the best comics of 2020. If that weren’t enough, combine that with the fact that the series is a co-production between CloverWorks Studio (Promised Neverland, Horiymiya) and WIT Studio (Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga) and is directed by none other than Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Rurouni Kenshin, Dororo) and you’ve got a recipe for one of the season’s biggest hits.
Spy x Family premieres April 9 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -Ultra Romantic-
Based on Aka Akasaka’s popular manga series, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has been one of the most well-received romance comedy anime since the series first premiered in 2019, with the passive-aggressive love feud between high school geniuses Shirogane and Kaguya playing host to a multitude of ridiculous over-the-top gags and fourth wall-breaking hilarity. However, as our very own Austen Goslin wrote back in 2019, Kaguya-sama is a series whose strength is rooted in the fact that it’s a story about how people change and grow. All signs point to the upcoming third season, titled Ultra Romantic, shaping up to be another impressive series as funny as it is heartfelt.
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -Ultra Romantic- premieres April 8 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
Thermae Romae Novae
Based on Mari Yamazaki’s irreverent time-travel comedy manga, Thermae Romae Novae follows a Roman architect named Lucius Modestus who is magically whisked away to a bathhouse in modern-day Japan. At a loss for ideas for his own bathhouse designs, Lucius sets about recreating the futuristic innovations of Japanese bathhouses as his own inventions to hilarious (and surprisingly successful) effect.
Thermae Romae Novae premieres March 28 and will stream on Netflix.
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Season 2
Look, I’m not going to lie to you — I was not a fan of the first season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. The series’ overall shift away from procedural stand-alone stories, the middling main plot centered on the hilarious rag doll-like post-humans, and the quality of the CG animation left me cold when the anime premiered back in 2020. That said, this trailer looks pretty good; so much so in fact that I’m willing to give the first season another watch if only to be better prepared for this one. Here’s hoping the second season of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 can find its footing and improve upon the first’s missteps.
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Season 2 premieres this May and will stream on Netflix.
Tiger & Bunny 2
Set in a futuristic world where superheroes double as entertainers, Tiger and Bunny follows Kotetsu “Wild Tiger” Kaburagi and Barnaby “Bunny” Brooks Jr., an odd couple of heroes for hire who battle nefarious criminals and flagging ratings in the pursuit of justice and profit. The original anime, directed by Keiichi Sato (Karas, The Big O), was a cult favorite back when it premiered over a decade ago, predating such critically-acclaimed superhero anime as One-Punch Man and My Hero Academia by only a few years.
Tiger and Bunny 2 picks up several years after the events of the series and 2014’s Tiger & Bunny: The Rising, with Wild Tiger and Bunny continue to work as superheroes alongside a new generation of upstart vigilantes. The first 13 episodes of the series will premiere this April, with the latter half of the 25-episode season slated to release sometime later this year.
Tiger & Bunny 2 premieres April 8 and will stream on Netflix.
Tomodachi Game
What do you get when you take high school drama, Squid Game, Vincenzo Natali’s Cube, and mash them together with a leering round-headed antagonist that looks like Assassination Classroom’s Korosensei crossed with Bob the Builder? Why, Tomodachi Game of course! Based on the Mikoto Yamaguchi and Yuki Sato’s manga series, the series follows high school student Katagiri Yuichi and his four closest friends who are pitted in a deadly game when the money they helped raise together for a school trip is stolen. As their trust is put to the test, the truth of who stole the money, and why, threatens to tear their close friendship apart.
Tomodachi Game premieres on April 5 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
The Dawn of the Witch
Based on Kakeru Kobashiri’s light novel series, The Dawn of the Witch is set in a high fantasy world in the wake of a brutal 500 year long war between witches and the church. The series follows Saybil, an amnesiac mage studying at the Kingdom of Wenias’ College of Magic, who is sent by the school’s headmaster Albus on a mission to the southern region of the continent where persecution against witches continues. The trailer is scant on further details, but the action looks exciting and the premise alone sounds interesting enough to give a shot.
The Dawn of the Witch premieres April 7 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
Skeleton Knight in Another World
Skeleton Knight in Another World is a fairly boilerplate isekai fantasy premise: a gamer falls asleep playing his favorite video game and wakes up to find himself in the world of the game itself. You might be wondering what exactly distinguishes this series from My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! or Mushoku Tensei or like, any other dozens or hundreds of other isekai anime? Well … in this one, the protagonist is stuck in the body of skeleton! The trailer definitely makes the series feel like comedy, albeit with some questionable moments of implied sexual violence and other assorted weirdness.
Skeleton Knight in Another World premieres April 7 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
Love After World Domination
Love After World Domination is a star-crossed romance comedy centered on the lives of Fudo Aikawa and Desumi Magahara; two seemingly normal Japanese teenagers who are in fact soldiers on opposing sides of a super heroic battle for the fate of the planet. Aikawa is “Red Gelato,” the leader of a Super Sentai-like fighting force known as Gelato 5, while Magahara is the “Reaper Princess,” the commander of an evil secret organization known as Gekko. Despite their apparent differences, the two can’t help but be smitten with one another. Attempting to carry out their illicit love affair beyond the prying eyes and suspicions of their cohorts, Fudo and Desumi get into all kinds of shenanigans as they stop at nothing to make this seemingly impossible romance work.
Love After World Domination premieres April 8 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
Dance Dance Danseur
Dance Dance Danseur tells the story of Junpei Murao, a young man who discovers a love for ballet as a child who forgoes his own aspirations following the death of his father, choosing instead to become more “masculine” and pursue Jeet Kune Do. When a new transfer student named Miyako discovers Junpei’s hidden affinity for ballet, she invites him to her mother’s studio and offers to teach and perform alongside him.
Dance Dance Danseur premieres April 8 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
Aoashi
Looking for your next sports anime obsession after Haikyuu!! and SK8 the Infinity? Aoashi might be just the show you’re looking for! Based on Yūgo Kobayashi’s 2015 manga, the series follows Ashito Aoi, a third-year middle school student who loves soccer but otherwise hides his immense talent for the sport. Following a mishap, Ashito meets Tatsuya Fukuya, a veteran youth team coach who takes him under his wing and encourages him to try out for the youth soccer team in Tokyo. Ashito seems determined to rise through the ranks and become a pro one day, but like any good sports drama, he’s sure to encounter more than his share of obstacles on his way to the top.
Aoashi premieres April 9 and will stream on Crunchyroll.
A Couple of Cuckoos
A Couple of Cuckoos follows the story of Nagi Umino, a 16-year-old high school student who learns that he was accidentally switched at birth. While on his way to meet his birth parents, he crosses paths with a brash young girl named Erika, who is determined to make him her “boyfriend” in order to stave off an impending engagement. Unfortunately for both of them, both Nagi’s adoptive parents and his birth parents have decided to resolve the issues by having him marry the daughter his birth parents raised … who happens to be Erika! It’s a cute enough premise for a romantic comedy, one that could eventually offer even more surprising and clever twists as the show goes on.
A Couple of Cuckoos premieres April 23 and will stream on Crunchyroll.