BOCCHI THE ROCK! defies expectations and wins Anime of the Season for Fall 2022

By
Deiru
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Everyone thought the Fall 2022 Anime Season would be top-billed in the end by a shonen anime considering the competitive lineup, but BOCCHI THE ROCK! threw all those expectations into the gutter with its Anime of the Season title in Anime Trending’s Fall 2022 Anime Awards!

This is another amazing underdog story written in the history of Anime Trending as BOCCHI THE ROCK!, which only ranked 13th in the site’s Pre-Fall 2022 Anime Polls, managed to beat early shonen favorites such as Chainsaw Man and BLEACH. Both shows had a pre-Fall 2022 ranking of second and fifth respectively, but only finished fifth and sixth at the end of the season. The two shonen anime even lost their stature as the highest ranking shonen anime of the season as the third and final season of Mob Psycho 100 finished higher than the two anime, placing as runner-up behind BOCCHI THE ROCK! for Anime of the Season.

Aside from winning Anime of the Season, BOCCHI THE ROCK! won five other awards, including Favorite Female Character, which was closely won by its titular character, Hitori “Bocchi” Gotou, over Suletta Mercury (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury). The two characters duked it out in the weekly female rankings released throughout the season where they were tied in the number of weeks they won, with both scoring four weeks each. In the end, Gotou prevailed as she edged off Mercury by 185 votes in the final tally.

Suletta Mercury might have lost the best girl race, but she at least won the award for Favorite Couple-Ship with her “bride,” Miorine Rembran, which marks the first time that yuri pairings have won the said award back-to-back in the history of Anime Trending. Last season, the yuri pairing of Chisato Nishikigi and Takina Inoue (Lycoris Recoil) won the same award. Overall, Rembran and Mercury are the third yuri pairing to have won the seasonal best couple-ship title in the history of Anime Trending, and the fourth same-sex pairing to do so as well.

Meanwhile, Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama (Mob Psycho 100), who was never a contender for the seasonal best boy title in the previous two seasons Mob Psycho 100 was part of the Anime Trending polls, finally claimed the title this season. Just like Mercury, he beat his closest opponent, Chainsaw Man’s Denji by a slim margin of 155 votes. Kageyama finished in ninth and eighth place in the previous two seasons of Mob Psycho 100, making his win this season quite astonishing.   

Kageyama’s “rival,” Teruki Hanazawa, won the Favorite Supporting Male Character title. Surprisingly, the next two highest-ranking supporting male characters after him are also from Mob Psycho 100, marking the first time that an anime occupied the top three spots in a favorite character category. Chainsaw Man’s Himeno won the Favorite Supporting Female Character title.

BOCCHI THE ROCK! almost replicated that stint of Mob Psycho 100 in the Favorite Ending Theme Songs category as all of their ending theme songs ended up occupying three of the top 4 spots, with “Distortion” winning the top award. The series’ other theme songs ended up in second and fourth place. The series fell short of winning the award for Favorite Opening Theme Song however, as YOASOBI’s “Shukufuku,” the opening theme song for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury took first place. Shukufuku is YOASOBI’s third anime theme song. The first two, “Kaibutsu” and “Yasashii Suisei,” were the opening and ending theme songs respectively for the second season of BEASTARS. “Yasashii Suisei” placed second for the Ending Theme Song of the Year 2022 award in the 8th Anime Trending Awards.

This season is definitely one for the Anime Trending history books highlighted fittingly by this season’s top three-voted anime: BOCCHI THE ROCK!, Mob Psycho 100 III, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.

Shonen anime have not won an Anime of the Season title in Anime Trending for the past 15 seasons, but it seemed like that title drought would finally end this season. Chainsaw Man, BLEACH, or SPY x FAMILY were expected to lead the way for the shonen title drought to end, but lo and behold, BOCCHI THE ROCK!, a slice-of-life musical anime that barely had any promotional material before the season began, came down and crashed the show—extending the AOTS Title Drought for the shonen anime.

The three most hyped shows did not even become the highest-ranking shonen of this season as Mob Psycho 100 took that away from them by finishing as runner-up. Mob Psycho 100, which did not fare well in the Anime of the Season polls in its previous two seasons suddenly rose as a serious contender overnight in its third and final season and went ahead of these three highly anticipated shonen anime. Just like the show’s concept, it went from zero to hero. Mob Psycho 100 won three awards in total. 

For Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, it looks like having a female protagonist has finally worked wonders for the franchise as a Gundam anime had its best seasonal finish yet in the history of Anime Trending rankings. Starting off with a Pre-Fall 2022 Ranking of #18, it went on an astronomical rise in fame and finished in third place, once again beating Chainsaw Man, BLEACH, and SPY x FAMILY. It won three awards in total.

Aside from the award-winning anime, the other Fall 2022 anime that scored at least one award are the following: BLUELOCK for Favorite Sports Anime, The Eminence in Shadow for Favorite Fantasy Anime, and More than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers for Favorite Romance.

The full list of awards and results is available on our Fall 2022 Anime Awards Winners Portal. 

Check out how our community reacted to the winners on Facebook and Twitter.

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