WHEN FLOWERS BLOOM, SO DOES ANIME

I cannot get enough of Spring 2022 anime season. As you  may or may not know, I haven’t been feeling too great these past couple of months; so I have been anime-indulging for some much needed serotonin boost, and  Spring 2022 Animes are such mood lifters. *heart eyes* If you are  into Slice of Life , Comedy and Romance, this blog is for you. We are eating good this season! 

This season has a lot  to offer – We got rivals falling in love, scientists proving their love, Dancers embracing their love for dance, sweet shop owners giving us that amai feeling, deadpan comedic friend duo making us laugh, some original concepts, and some cliches but all in all it sure is a good vibe.

So, here’s a list of some of these chill shows I’m watching this season, and am so far caught up with. Some I liked, some I loved, some not so much. Here goes: 

**No spoilers**

12. Kakkou no Iinazuke (A Couple of Cuckoos)
Shounen, Harem, Comedy, Romance

Now, I am not a big fan of harem anime. This one seems like your typical run of the mill harem romance anime where the MC’s Erika & Nagi are forced to be in a situationship by their parents and they have no control over it. Erika & Nagi find out they were switched at birth. The parents wanting to be close to both the kids decide that it would be in everyone’s best interest that the two get engaged. However Nagi is in love with his school topper, Hiro. And Erika is just not interested in getting engaged to someone she doesn’t even know.

 I was reluctant to watch this at first, but I had already decided to watch most of the rom-coms of this season..In my opinion, if you skip this one, you are probably not missing out on much. But hey, if you’re into harem rom coms with the ‘will they won’t they’ and some cute moments you might actually like this show. The show does have some cute moments.

11. Dance Dance Danseur
Seinen, Performing Arts

An anime about Dance, I gotta watch it! Being a performing artist myself, I absolutely love watching anime about art. It feels inspiring and makes me happy. Dance Dance Dancer is about a young boy who gets hooked on Ballet at a very young age but constantly worries about what his peers might say about his secret passion. Afraid of being labeled as less masculine or less cool he decides to stop ballet.. 

However, ballet doesn’t want to let him go. He rekindles his love for Ballet by letting go of these thoughts and completely immersing himself in the journey of being one of the best ballet dancers. There’s Dance, there’s young love, there’s friendship and rivalry. This anime reminds me of Ballroom e Youkoso (Welcome to the Ballroom) since it has a similar art style and theme. So if you liked Ballroom e Youkoso definitely give Dance Dance Danseur a try.

10. Deaimon – (Deaimon Recipe for Happiness)
Seinen, Slice of Life

This Slice of life is as wholesome as it gets. When Nagomu hears his father is hospitalized, he heads back to his hometown Kyoto to take over their sweet shop, Ryokushou, and help his father. On arrival he finds out his parents have already decided on a successor – a little girl named Itsuka, whose father left her at the shop and went missing. While Nagomu is more than happy to be a father figure for little Itsuka, she doesn’t seem so interested. Their cute banter along with taking care of the shop is definitely a sweet relaxing watch.

9. Reiki ga koi ni ochita no de shoumei Shitemite. Heart (Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It r=1-sinθ)
Comedy, Romance

The second season of the series follows two stubborn scientists’ (Ayame Himuro and Shinya Yukimura) journey to obtain the data necessary to scientifically prove their love for each other. This time, to obtain more data they head to the biology science department for sample collections. Here they end up meeting a powerful couple, totally in love, making our scientists compete to prove their love even more. Cute, nerdy, math-y, science-y and a little bit naughty; this show is a fun watch for our romance genre lovers. If you liked the 1st season, the second season won’t disappoint you.

8.Kawaii dake ja nai Shikimori-San (Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie)
Comedy, Romance

Ok I kinda liked this anime. Might be an unpopular opinion but eh. I loved how cool the girlfriend is ‘cause more often than not we have the unbeatable guy who’s good at anything and everything. But that’s not just it with Shikimori. Yes, she is cool, for sure, but she also has the cute side when she wants to impress her boyfriend, Izumi and wants his attention. And Izumi is this clumsy, little guy who just can’t help but attract bad luck. In spite of this, the couple has a strong and loving bond and it is adorable. There is no unnecessary drama since the show already has a couple who are dating. It’s about their adorable relationship and for those who like the peace of a simple steady relationship, y’all might enjoy this show as a fun pastime.

7. Koi wa sekai Seifuku no ato de (Love after world domination)
Shounen, comedy, romance

All cards on the table, I found this anime hilarious. Fudou Aikawa, aka “Red Gelato” the leader of a hero group “Gelato 5” protecting Japan, and Desumi Magahara, aka “Princess reaper” one of the combat leaders of “Gekko” an evil organization that wants world domination Fall in love and are secretly dating. Their hilarious attempts to initiate combat in order to get some alone time, and sneaking around to avoid being caught by their peers cracks me up. Power rangers spoof meets Romeo and Juliet meets your cute high school romance. It’s got it all. 

6. Aharen-san wa hakarenai (Aharen is Indecipherable)
Iyashekei, Slice-of-life, deadpan, comedy

So I didn’t know what Iyashekei meant at first. MAL says it refers to anime and manga that “heal” the audience by instilling a calming feeling or evoking emotional catharsis. I read that and thought, well good enough, I could use some healing. And man were they right. This show is a deadpan comedy with a hilarious duo of friends trying to get to know each other. They take efforts to reach out to understand one another. We got a guy, ‘Raido” with a wild imagination, jumping to conclusions in a hilarious manner, and a chick who has no judgment of personal space or any space for that matter, ‘Reina’. Put them in a high school scenario and it is a riot! 

5. Kaguya-Sama wa kokurase tai: ultra Romantic (Kaguya-sama: Love is War – Ultra Romantic)
Seinen, comedy, romantic subtext, school, psychological

This is the third season of love is war. The war is still on. But this time we have love triangles, sleepovers, rap battles and much more. If you have seen the first 2 seasons you pretty much know what to expect. For me personally, the second season wasn’t as good as the first one, but I am digging this season. 

4.Summertime Render
Shounen, supernatural, mystery **Minor spoiler**

I know this does not exactly fall in the SOL/Comedy category but it is one of the shows I am watching after the first episode got me curious. The more I watched it, the more I realized that this show, while good, is just another variation of Re:Zero, starting life in another world. Only it’s not isekai and there’s no magic happening and the MC takes some questionable actions. But if you liked Re:zero, you could check this one out. So far it’s got an interesting plot, and I kinda wanna see where this goes.

3. Komi-san wa, comyushou desu. 2nd season (Komi can’t communicate. Season 2)
Shounen, romantic subtext, school, comedy

The 2nd season of this adorable series. If you have watched the 1st season, the second season is just as fun. And for those who haven’t watched the first season I’d say do give it a go. It’s a feel good, warm show of Komi, who continues her journey on being able to make 100 friends along with Tadano’s help. The friends list does increase along with the cute and quirkiness of them all.

2.  Paripi Koumei (Ya Boy Kongming!)

Music, reincarnation, comedy

Like I said before, I love Anime on Performing Arts. And this one is one of the top 3 on this list for a reason. We have a struggling young singer who teams up with a war strategist of third century China who gets isekie’d to a modern day party Tokyo. Mesmerized by our lead, Eiko’s singing, he decides to be her tactician/manager to fulfill her dream of being a world renowned singer. Using war strategies to solve the obstacles that may come Eiko’s way, Koumei gracefully and cleverly helps her overcome these hurdles. Man, am I envious of Eiko! Such an awesome mentor. I love it. I love a good mentor/mentee story so this is a cherry on top of the fun ice cream it is. But what I love as well is that Eiko is a hard worker and makes sure she doesn’t leave everything up to Koumei. She works hard to get her songs out there and write more songs. Do I wish she dressed up for her performances? Yes, very much so. But maybe she’s going for that casual IDGAF look. All in all, I genuinely am enjoying this show. Also, the OP is a freakin’ bop, catchy AF. It plays on a loop in my playlist whenever I need a little pick me up.

1. Spy x Family
Shounen, Action, comedy

Of course, this is at the top of my list. I watched the 1st two episodes and I couldn’t get enough. I had initially decided to wait till all the episodes were out to binge watch this show; But boy did I fail in this mission. Last night I caved and watched all the episodes that were out so far because I couldn’t take it. All the memes, reels and tiktoks, spoilers. I had to dodge them like Loid dodging bullets. It was absolutely worth it though. First we got our handsome spy Loid Forger….Daddy indeed :P. Then we got Yor Briar our badass Assassin, Mommy…excuse me mommy…sorry mommy!! And our absolutely ADORABLE Anya!! Uggghhh! I just wanna hug her and feed her peanuts and crunchy bacon all day!! Can’t wait for more episodes!

This is how I’ve been spending the past couple of months keeping up with this season’s anime. Which one is your favorite? Is there a good one I missed this season that I should try? Let me know. 🙂

Waku Waku,
Neeno