Let’s take a look at what ANN readers consider to be the best (and worst) of the season, based on polls you can find in our Daily Stream Reviews and Your Score page with the latest simulcasts.
Please note that these ratings are based on how people rated individual episodes of the current season, not on the overall quality or popularity of the series. Only titles that are legally broadcast in North America and are popular enough are ranked that the bottom of the list could represent “watchable” rather than “bad.” See the notes for more details.
For the last week we are comparing all the final episodes.
With the week of March 26-31, the 2022 winter season is over. But many of the series already ended the week before, so we’re adding an extra “final” week where all the latest episodes rank against each other. With this we can see which series ended on a strong note and which ones finished weaker. That means the “final ep”. The column is a repeat of the last episode on March 19-25 or March 26-31. And the “previous week change” is the position difference between the “final ep”. column and the penultimate episode.
The rating does not include some episodes from the season finale broadcast in April:
Tokyo 24th Ward #12. For the sake of completeness, we will update this ranking as episodes are reviewed and rated in the coming days.
Episode ratings for the final episodes
Along with the actual ranking of this week’s episodes, this graph chronicles the change in position from week to week. While some series are stable, others swing wildly up the rankings based on the strength of each episode. When a series doesn’t have an episode for a given week, the previous week’s episode is used as a placeholder. The first episode of each series is considered part of the first week, even if it actually aired during the second week.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.
Cumulative Series Ranking for Winter 2022
Each week’s ranking takes into account the scores given to episodes from previous weeks. With the last episode duplicated in the “final ep”. column, means the votes for the last episode of each series are counted twice, which intentionally gives a boost to series that ended strongly. This somewhat makes up for the fact that the first episode of each series gets more votes, favoring series that started off strong.
So that’s it, the final standings, winners and losers for the 2022 winter season.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.
grades
Disclaimer: Ratings are an average of opinions only, posted for entertainment and informational purposes. ANN makes no claims regarding statistical significance or invulnerability to spam.
Ratings are calculated using the Schulze method, with the variation that unrated titles are considered as abstentions rather than lower than qualified titles. This about means that if, of all the people who rated both A and B, 60% preferred A, it will rank higher than B.
The ratings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad). While titles are ranked from ‘best’ to ‘worst’, sometimes the difference between #1 and #10 can be very small. So if your favorite is near the bottom of the list, don’t take it personally. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad show, it just means ANN readers, on averageThey preferred the ones above.
If a series doesn’t have an episode for a given week, we use the previous week’s episode rating data to calculate the weekly rating. This is not officially counted as a ranking position (it has no impact on the cumulative ranking), but it makes it easier to compare weeks if each has the same number of ranked series.
It should be noted that long-running series (and sequels) have an advantage in that only people who like the series keep watching it, and are likely to give each episode a high rating. But if such a series goes through a low-quality filler arc, the season will get low ratings that are not indicative of the true overall quality of the series.