The Spring 2022 season is probably going to suck, but here are some upcoming shows that wont.
A decade ago, you could reliably expect multiple shows per season with at least a solid chance of nudity. These days, almost half of the anime seasons have basically nothing. Unfortunately, it’s looking like the Spring 2022 season is going to be another one of those duds. So for that reason, I won’t be covering it with a season preview. Instead, I’ll talk about some of the exciting shows that are coming up over the next year:
Upcoming TV anime for which nudity is guaranteed:
Edit: I forgot to mention that Ayakashi Triangle is getting an anime. It’s from the same artist as To Love-Ru and is very likely to be top drawer.
Shin Ikkitousen
Though it was announced initially as a TV anime, Shin Ikkitousen is really just another 3 part OVA series just like Western Wolves was a few years back. The first episode aired back on March 27th and the final episode airs on May 31st. The first episode had some impressive art and animation at times though the only fanservice was “combat nudity” and even then was relatively modest.
Despite the naming, the Shin Ikkitousen manga storyline actually began in the Western Wolves OVA, and this OVA series will likely complete the Shin Ikkitsousen manga, which is currently the end of the series (as far as I’m aware).
It’s actually quite impressive that the entire Ikkitousen storyline got animated from beginning to end after starting with a single cour season 18 years ago. Is this the end? Probably, though it’s theoretically possible that we get a spinoff movie or a remake… or the author could make another manga sequel. But at least for now, this appears to be the canonical end of the series.
Western Wolves had excellent fanservice, hopefully Shin Ikkitousen can live up to that standard as well.
Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo
A year and a half after its initial announcement, Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo has finally been announced for the Summer 2022 season. There still isn’t a PV and we have very little key visual work to go off of.
What we did get was an image of the main girl Roxanne (a wolfkin) that was off-putting for some. While the art style is pleasing, it looks like it might possibly be 3D animated (think Dragon’s Dogma) instead of 2D, which if true would likely be a kiss of death in the eyes of many. They also drew Roxanne with ridiculously wide hips (no complaints there) and most peculiarly they even gave her a “baby bump.” Which is pretty weird since she’s not supposed to be pregnant as far as I know.
Despite the presence of the word “harem” in the title, the MC exclusively has sex with Roxanne for most of the story so far, with Sherry joining in only recently in the manga version. Unless the anime speeds through the light novel story significantly, these might be the only two girls to get action in the anime version.
The series is being animated by Passione (High School DxD Hero, Interspecies Reviewers), which means the series is in good hands for the most part. Hopefully they stick to 2D as they had done in the past.
Mato Seihei no Slave
Late last year it was announced Mato Seihei no Slave would be getting an anime. This is kind of a big deal as the source material is an S-tier ecchi manga series along the same lines as World’s End Harem, which is also published in the same magazine. But most notably, the series is written by Takahiro, best known for creating Akame ga Kill, a popular series that mostly squandered awesome ecchi potential. Mato Seihei no Slave is basically Takahiro’s way of making it up to us, by giving us a series that is service first, action second, giving readers tons of high quality nudity.
The production will be handled by Seven Arcs, who have been out of the ecchi business for a long time but did previously animate Sekirei. No release date has been given and no meaningful PV has been released, with the only key visual image being the one shown above (though it does look nice).
Futoku no Guild
Announced a couple weeks back, Futoku no Guild is yet another S-tier ecchi manga to get an adaptation. It’s a monster hunter style story that is mostly a lighthearted comedy. The girls are generally soft bodied / plus sized and tend to lack hourglass figures. The fanservice almost entirely fetishizes breasts. If you like fat tits, this is your manga.
Naturally, can you guess who is handling the character designs? That’s right, it’s none other than our old friend, Hiraku Kaneko. While he isn’t directing, he always leaves an imprint on any anime he works on.
The good news doesn’t stop there, as the production is being handled by TNK, arguably the most consistent ecchi anime studio of all time, or at least of the ones that are still around. The series director will be the same as TNK’s last hit ecchi series, Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi.
Peter Grill to Kenja no Jikan Season Two
Despite the scathing reviews you might read over at myanimelist, Peter Grill’s first season was a success (and a deserving one at that). The popularity of the series even surprised the series creators. Late last year it was announced that a 2nd season has been greenlit, which is a very rare thing these days. It’s expected that the second season will air in late 2022.
Upcoming TV anime for which nudity is likely:
Urusei Yatsura (remake)
A remake of the late 70s / early 80s Rumiko Takahashi classic Urusei Yatsura was announced with the goal of starting in 2022. The series was a pretty big deal at the time and revolutionized both the romantic comedy and ecchi genres forever.
While the original series has tame service compared to recent shows like World’s End Harem, it did feature plenty of fanservice and had nudity in many episodes. You never know for sure, but if the remake intends to be true to the original, then they will probably keep the topless scenes in there.
While it won’t be as relevant today, a faithful remake is great news.The series is planned to have four cours, meaning that it will be a true remake of the entire original series.
BASTARD!! (remake/sequel)
The BASTARD!! manga began in the 1988 and is currently on hiatus (it also had a six episode OVA in the early 90s). The central character is an absurdly powerful and mostly evil sorcerer who’s primary goal is to conquer the world so that he can “have all the women.” The manga has released in fits and starts over many decades. In the relatively recent volumes, both the art quality and the amount of sexual content dramatically increase.
The new series is being produced by Netflix and will span 24 episodes. Netflix has not shied away from adult themes or nudity in their productions- their adaptations tend to stay true to the spirit of the originals. While it remains to be seen if the anime will be willing to be as extreme as the manga, their handling of Devilman Crybaby’s adult content leaves me with some optimism.
Upcoming TV anime for which nudity is possible:
Grisaia: Phantom Trigger
The Grisaia visual novel series has already spawned multiple anime which featured nudity. The recent “Phantom Trigger” film apparently bucked this trend, but that’s understandable given that movies have a lot less time for some random sexy fun than a TV series would.
Recently it was announced that Grisaia: Phantom Trigger would also be getting a TV anime. If it’s a full TV series and not just a few OVA, that bodes well for erotic content given the way that the previous TV series were made. It’s worth noting that the manga adaptation of this story features nudity.
Kinsou no Vermeil
This upcoming Summer 2022 anime is adapted from a relatively new manga. The story of Kinsou no Vermeil is about a young boy at a magic school named Alto who summons a powerful devil that takes the form of a voluptuous woman named Vermeil. Given that Alto is a young boy and Vermeil is an older woman with huge breasts, this invariably results in a shota dynamic, where Vermeil is constantly getting naked and trying to seduce Alto.
The manga features a ton of uncovered breasts, ostensibly to be erotic just like in many of the series mentioned above. However for whatever reason the manga never draws nipples, there are just blank boobs. Even the tankobon has blank boobs. There’s also teaser materials where Vermail’s chest is being censored with the uncensored versions only being available with hard copy purchases, yet even those are revealed to just be blank boobs when you see the uncensored versions.
In other words, this series plays off just like an S-tier ecchi manga would, but they just don’t draw the nipples in for some reason.
So will the anime have them despite their absence in the source material? It’s not unprecedented. The Peter Grill manga also had a lot of sexual content while strictly keeping things nipple free- lots of blank boobs. Yet the anime version was a nipple-fest. The Redo of Healer novel and manga never drew a single nipple in any of the illustrations, and we know how the anime turned out, it was basically hentai.
Ultimately, it comes down to production. Peter Grill’s producer is unknown, and the animation studio that produced the show came from a small time company without much track record. Redo of Healer was produced by an amalgamation of funders rather than a single corporation with heavy oversight, and the animation was done by famed ecchi loving studio TNK.
Kinsou no Vermeil is produced by Hakuhodo DY, which features a long list of notable normie shows on their resume, among them Overlord and Goblin Slayer, to name a few. Out of the many shows they’ve produced, only one had significant nudity (Strike the Blood). That’s not great. However, the studio handling animation (Staple Entertainment) has done just one other show, and that show was an R-18 short / hentai. And the series composition (writing) is done by Tatsuya Takahashi, who also adapted World’s End Harem.
The first PV for the series heavily features fanservice, and in fact the very first image shown is of Vermeil’s lightly censored nude breasts. Most likely, the anime will be like the manga and end up blueballing us into oblivion with trolling faux-nudity just like the most recent Isekai Maou anime did. But if the series actually does add nipples, it could be one of the best ecchi shows of the year.
Speculation:
High School DxD Season Five
It’s been four years now since High School DxD Hero aired, and there is still no announcement for a fifth season. While season four appeared to be a decline in quality and popularity from the previous seasons, it was still a popular series and the story of season four ends with a post credits style scene that heavily teases a fifth season. There is also plenty of material in the novels to comfortably adapt not only season five but six as well.
Back in late 2020, series creator Ichiei Ishibumi said the following on the subject: “…COVID-19 caused Season 5 of High School DxD to be delayed. If it weren’t for the epidemic, we would have seen the next season a hundred times by now.”
It was speculated that season five might be announced on March 13th at the Fantasia Bunko Festival, as this is where all previous seasons had been announced. Unfortunately, the event passed without an announcement.
Passione animated season four and is likely to animate the next season as well. However, they tend to only make one ecchi anime per year at most, and this year that distinction goes to Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo. It’s worth noting that Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo itself is releasing a year and a half after its initial announcement. This is consistent with Ishibumi’s claim that pandemic difficulties have led to massive delays.
My guess? I do think a season five will happen, and it might even be the next big ecchi anime that Passione makes, but it might not be announced until 2023.
