Seasonal Anime Wrap-Up: Fall 2025

Ach ja, when I, at the end of last season, wrote about planing to pick up fewer anime, this is not what I had in mind. While I only started watching seasonal anime properly since the start of 2024, I have been following seasonal anime for over ten years now and I can not remember a single season since then that has been… so underwhelming on all fronts. It isn’t even the fact that the majority of the titles are either sequels, indistinguishable Narou slop and out-of-times RomComs, though this in itself was a sad sight to behold when scrolling down the seasonal chart, but rather the general lack of excitement for something new throughout. Sure, my brother might be feasting on comfort food, but I am starving. No adaptation of a highly anticipated manga, the one interesting original anime turned out to be a dud and even the more niche titles weren’t particularly me-coded. Sure, this made picking up way less anime an almost trivial task, but only because there is nothing to pick up to begin with. I know this is 100% a me problem, but from my point of view, this is the only problem that matters, so let me complain :D.

The ones that didn’t make it

There are always a few anime I tend to drop, but this season kinda took the cake and all. Considering the ratio on these is so high, I think proper headings and thumbnails are in order.

My Awkward Senpai

I don’t think there is something wrong with My Awkward Senpai specifically, but more so with me hating straight people it simply being not my kind of thing. If you specifically want a romance series not set in either school or university and also with the female lead being the story’s focus character, I could see the appeal, but those things alone won’t do it for me. Sure, it is kinda cute and even sweet at times, but outside Kannawa being pleasant to watch navigating her self-induced disaster of a work-life-balance, there isn’t much for me that would differentiate My Awkward Senpai from the plethora of low stakes romantic comedies with similar dynamics I also ignore every season.

Final Verdict: Dropped after 2 episodes.

My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!

If there is one thing I will have to hand it to My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, it is the fact that it is not ashamed to be what it is and wears the mantle of a shitty light novel RomCom with stride and its chin held high. This is the kind of audacity it takes to create art, even if it is art I, under any other circumstances, wouldn’t have touched with a five meter long pole. It is almost amazing how it creates an amalgamation of everything I don’t like in stories: The plot is solely driven by the nonsensical tension of the wet blanket protagonist and a couple of girls that just so happen to be in his vicinity, the girls themselves being a bundle of tropes I find actively repulsive and any kind of framing device being ditched the moment one could sexualize a minor for the leeching eyes of the audience instead… except the one time it was based. I salute you, Ghost Mikawa, for being two for two for two very different reasons. Keep’em coming, king.

Final Verdict: Dropped after 3 episodes.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me

Aw man, this one actually looked promising. It is a bit of a shame This Monster Wants to Eat Me aired right of the heels of last season’s phenomenal The Summer Hikaru Died, which arguably does the whole “I am now surrounded by beings that may or may not want to kill or be friends with me” a whole lot better. It also does everything else better, but that is besides the point. This series feels really unfocused, despite its relatively small scope. It does a good enough job of introducing the viewer to Hinako, the way she disassociates with daily life and why she has these suicidal ideations, but fails to be coherent when it comes to the other characters. Five episodes in, there isn’t really any indication that there is more to Shiori than what the premise of the anime tells us and Miko really suffers from a lack of proper screen presence, before the story pretends that her existence is a turning point for Hinako. Considering that the anime is also paced really weird, I doubt there is much point in continuing watching the anime for me. Maybe I will give the manga a chance, when it will be available in my region, but for now I will try to save face by not watching every girls love anime, as if I have no standards.

Final Verdict: Dropped after 5 episodes.

With You, Our Love Will Make It Through

What initially looked to me like the one romance anime this season with some spice to it, turned out to be rather… well, bland and boring, mostly. It featuring furries genuinely means nothing to me and considering how weird I consider most other romance setups I have come into contact with, this girl wanting to have that dawg in her barely makes the list. But it does have some spice in the way it tackles something I rarely see most series portray, which is physical intimacy. Not that the first episode beats the “Oh no, I hope this buff guy, who has troubles controlling himself, but is actually really sweet, trust me, does not ravage me like no tomorrow, while we are locked in the gym store room together” allegations. Honestly, most of its setup gets kinda ignored after its introduction, which might actually be for the better, as the racism allegory(?), or rather the idea of “otherness”, was handled about as tactfully as you would imagine. The romance does progress at a pretty steady pace, but the actual meat and bones of it doesn’t have much depth and mostly consists of exhaustive displays of longing and how much they yearn for each other’s company. With the exception of the eternal third wheel of the relationship, the rest of the cast gets close to nothing and with it, there isn’t anything that keeps me engaged in the series.

Final Verdict: Dropped after 8 episodes.

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle

At the start of the year, I wrote about my thoughts on the first volume of the original light novel and, in a sense, most of what I wrote about still applies to the anime adaptation. This is by far not just limited to my complaints, but also about what I think this series tries to do and wants to talk about. Fundamentally, I seem to vibe pretty well with what the characters go through and how the series portrays their struggles, but also can’t seem to stand some of the specifics and the anime did not make me improve my perception of that. Chitose is as grating as ever and the relative exclusion of his inner thoughts makes it at times hard to comprehend what anyone is even talking about. I also don’t quite agree with how the anime presents itself at times and while it does look good and can have some really cool shots, we don’t have to pretend that the endless barrage of talking is done in a visually interesting way or that I would not be better off with the novels instead.

However, if the only thing I could say about Chiramune is that the anime is merely a functional adaptation, I doubt I would have dropped it, instead of simply pushing through and complaining all the time, like I did with Alya. Starting with the second arc, I could feel my patience and interest in the series being tested by a plotline I genuinely did not have faith in and the realization that the more you get to see from the female cast, the less appealing it got for me. Yuzuki has some phenomenal development, but she also turns into a character I just didn’t care about at the end, Asuka loses all her mysticism and Yuuko mostly continues to just be kinda there. None of it is necessarily bad, I just came to the conclusion that this series is simply not for me and that there is no point in me trying to make it work.

Final Verdict: Dropped after 9 episodes.

Sanda

Now we finally come to the anime I actually finished. Sanda makes me feel very conflicted. On one hand, it is exactly my kind of weird and using unhinged stories and characters as a vehicle for growing up and how adults try to rid children of their own autonomy is right up my alley. On the other hand, I have a feeling way too much emphasis is placed on the internal logic and lore, while simultaneously not committing to any idea to its fullest, that it is constantly losing me halfway, before running to the next one, and I could feel losing interest towards the end. It still is easily one of the most interesting anime to talk about this season and while there is value in discussing its ideas, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed, anytime a compelling character moment or world-building detail gets interrupted by a fight or its own adherence to the Santa mythos that forms the throughline for this anime.

I love Fuyumura and everything that is wrong with her, so why are her personal struggles always brought up in one moment and then immediately shoved into the background? Why is any progress she does make with Ono always at the mercy of whether the narrative whisks her away elsewhere or not? These two clearly want to communicate, so why can’t they just do that without half the season inventing reasons for why they shouldn’t? Similarly, Sanda, in theory, has a great character arc of not only what it means for him to grow up, but also the specific way and into what kind of adult he wants to grow up, but it also comes with the caveat of having to sit through scenes, where I have to wonder, whether one only came up with an interesting idea or is actually invested in seeing where it could lead to. The presentation of the anime does its best in supporting any idea the story brings up, but for me, not everything the series dishes out is to my liking, so it feels more like I am appreciating Sanda as a whole for its narrative ambition, ideas and production, rather than what it actually achieves for me.

Final Verdict: 7/10 – Yagiuda is somehow the most relatable character.

Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray Part 2

There isn’t much I could add that I haven’t already written about the first part… except that I never did, so let me make it abundantly clear, that the spin-off for this silly horse girl idol gacha game is, in fact, that serious. Like a “One of the best sport narratives I have seen” degree of seriousness. Cinderella Gray has this energy to it that sucks you right into the mindset of its characters, why the need to compete and race is so deeply implanted in them and why the rivalries they formed matter so much. You might start a race indifferent, but you will never leave it without a sense of purpose or meaning, once these girls cross the finish line. And in the midst of it all stands Oguri Cap, who really comes into herself as the linchpin of this series… she also continues to be the goofiest goober imaginable. I love her. Remember, it is “Cap” as in “Peak”.

The second part of this story also hammers home the different perspectives each Uma brings to the table. Every single one has a story to tell and seeing how they inform each other is such a joy to behold, all while the sheer intensity of it all makes the drama go along with the shounen greatness. Obey Your Master’s obsession with winning that one specific match tickled my brain just the right way, Super Creek and Dicta Striker have some of my favorite little moments and the final spurt between Oguri and Tamamo makes for one of the best declarations of motivation I have seen, period. Cap it all off with the last episode’s introduction of Inari One going full circle on the idea that these races are an endless circle of inspiring another to take on the challenge of chasing these far away dreams, now that another monster is at the very top, and the only thing left missing is simply adapting the rest of the story.

Final Verdict: 8/10 – 👍 Umazing!

Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26

Honestly, I hope Tatsuki Fujimoto stays an enigma, with only the most wild snippets of their life being known… and only half of those being actually true. Their stories are weird in a way only possible if you are pouring all your heart out and simply don’t give a damn about upholding an image of self-importance and these short stories are further proof of that. Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 is an anthology and like most anthologies, it is hard to talk conclusively on the whole, as the only thing connecting these stories is a single theme, or in this case, a single person writing about a theme in several different ways.

There is an earnestness in each story that even just writing about makes me feel slightly embarrassed. Like, how do you even go about the love you feel for seemingly complete strangers and other beings? How do you capture the state of mind one finds themselves, when trying to confess your feelings overwrites any kind of priority, even if the fate of the world would be at stake? How can be the idea of believing in this miniscule percent of success, simply because it is not zero, not sound delusional? And yet, here it is given form and making me slightly emotional. Not every single one hits its mark for me, with Shikaku and Mermaid Rhapsody falling a bit too much into normal romance territory for my taste, but the one-two-three punch of Woke-Up-as-a-Girl Syndrome, Nayuta of the Prophecy and Sisters shows how much emotional depth can be drawn from the most unconventional ideas. This anthology is about love in all its different forms and it is easy to see where the ideas in Fujimoto’s later works initially come from.

Final Verdict: 8/10 – Fujimoto can’t keep getting away with it… also, Goodbye, Eri adaptation when?

What’s left?

“What’s left?” indeed. On the sequel front, there is technically a new season of Spy x Family and My Hero Academia actually fully adapted the manga to its end, so I could finally get my back into gear and catch up with that. On the other hand, everything I have seen of the third season of One Punch Man makes my decision to keep it at season one even more final. The WataNare continuation technically released this season in Japanese theaters, but poor me will have to wait until the start of the new year to have it available in my region. For the anime that actually debuted this season, the people swear on May I Ask for One Final Thing?, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to even give the first episode a proper shot. Similarly, Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider and Who Made Me a Princess are the other two anime that seem to have survived the filter, that is public opinion on seasonal anime, but both don’t quite seem to be worthwhile, now that the season is over. So, what is left? Nothing. Alas, let’s take a look into the future and hope that next year starts off better than this one ended.