Summer & Fall 2022 Mecha Series: Breaking the ice!

Spring 2022 is drawing to a close. And so far, mecha this year has been…uneventful compared to the mecha mayhem we got last year. To be fair, expecting every year to be like 2021 is a tall order, considering so many stars must have aligned for such a year. In comparison, 2022 has been going slightly under the radar with the series and movies we got. Most of the series this year have been by Netflix and Sunrise, however only one or two of them have the quality that we are looking for, and sadly, Netflix stumbled one after another with ULTRAMAN season 2 and Pacific Rim: The Black part 2. Kyoukai Senki by Sunrise and Shinkalion Z by Takara Tomy have been the saving grace for 2022. But Shinka Z has ended with significantly less episode count than its predecessor, and Kyoukai Senki is also close to its conclusion, so what lies ahead for us mecha fans in the next 2 seasons?

First up, let’s look at Summer 2022. In regards to tv series, we don’t have much, just one Netflix series named “Spriggan” – which is an adaptation of the manga of the same name by Hiroshi Takashige. The story is about a young boy – Yuu Ominae – who worked for an organization responsible for protecting ancient relic with supernatural power from falling into the wrong hands – ARCAM. Yuu dons advance power armor that grant him superhuman abilities to combat the mystical forces. The series will have six episode and will premiere on Netflix on 18th June. Aside from that, we are expecting a prologue episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch of Mercury to serve as a brief introduction before the tv series.

Not exactly mecha, but we are getting the anime adaptation of the Kamen Rider W manga: Fuuto PI at the start of August. The anime is a sequel to the manga version. This is also the first “serious” Kamen Rider anime project, since previous ones were just special extras and for fun. Fuuto PI follow two Shoutarou and Philip – who transform into Kamen Rider W to collect Gaia Memories devices and fight against the Dopants – criminal-turned-monster with superpowers. This is a breakthrough for Kamen Rider as a franchise, which may lead to more Kamen Rider anime in the future.

We will also get a rerun of Muv-Luv Alternative first season, with new version of the Opening and Ending. The original series was aired in October 2021. The rerun is quite unexpected, but is assumed to keep viewers refreshed before the 2nd season air in October. And that’s about it for Summer 2022. But the heavy hitter will come in the next season.

Fall 2022 is actually looking quite stacked – with three tv series airing. The first is Gundam’s newest series: Witch from Mercury – which is the first Gundam tv series to feature a female protagonist and the first “real conflict” series after Gundam IBO since 2017. The main designs for the series have been revealed, but we still don’t have any information regarding the characters as well as the series’ staff.

Next up is season 2 of Level-5’s latest masterpiece: Megaton Musashi. First teased in 2015, it took until October 2021 for the anime series and game to be released. Despite the delays, Musashi wowed us with its compelling characters and plot, along with OLM’s gorgeous animation. The teaser for the next season is anything but intense action. Definitely looking forward to the one series that give love back to the classic Super Robot aesthetics.

Finally, we have the second season of Muv-Luv Alternative the animation. The first season also aired at the same time as Megaton Musashi 1st season. The series is an adaptation of the Visual Novel with the same name – which is the third part in the main Muv-Luv trilogy. The first season cover the story from the start of the VN up until the 12/5 incident. And from the released teaser, we will get to the Sadogashima battle. The first season was criticized for having sub-par 2d animation and rushed story, but the mecha CGI was top-notch. Hopefully things will look up in the next season.

The above titles are pretty much all the new animation we’re getting for the second half of 2022. However, international fans can enjoy some already-released movies since their Blu-Ray will be coming out soon as well. Most notably the Eureka: Hi-Evolution movie – the 3rd part of the Hi-Evolution trilogy – will come out on BD on June 24th, as well as the 2nd Macross Delta Movie – Zettai Live – coming out on the 28th of September. They both serve as the conclusion to their own respective series’ cinematic saga.

So far, those are the confirmed series for 2022. There may be more coming to spice things up but at the moment, those are the series that we get to enjoy until the end of the year. While not as numerous as the previous year, we look forward to the quality of these series. I, for one, prefer limited entries but high quality instead of flooding the market with many sub-par series that do not live up to the expectation. So far, Netflix hasn’t been able to deliver on several of their series, but Sunrise and Takara has been keeping 2022 afloat. So our fingers are crossed for the rest of the year!

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