Seasonal Anime Wrap-Up: Spring 2025

---

Ach ja, who in his right mind would watch fifteen (15) seasonal anime? Well, no one, of course. Unfortunately, I am absolutely not in my right mind, so when I went over the chart for the season and actually counted up all the anime I considered interesting, my first course of action was not to filter these down to a more reasonable number, but to fully commit. Hubris may be my end, but I will not go down without a fight ^^.

Okay, maybe I was not actually prepared for the hands, but even with the ones I dropped or didn’t actually properly start watching, with one winter left-over and a couple of shorts, the final amount of anime I watched is still the largest I have ever done in one season… and some haven’t even ended yet. Turns out the real challenge isn’t even the time investment, but to stay motivated to watch everything after the initial buzz went off. A lesson I should have already known, but will most likely still ignore for the next seasons to come.

To make a long story short, compared to the five new anime I watched last season, this one has a lot more, so let’s keep the introduction short, because the rest of this post might become rather long.

And since I don’t know where else to put this… I am really frustrated that I couldn’t figure out how to color coordinate the individual anime on the thumbnail this time, so it looks a bit whatever… please forgive me, I will try better next season.

The ones that didn’t make it

Normally, it is rather easy to bait me with a nice sci-fi premise, but the adaptation of Your Forma kinda dropped the ball on this one for me. The first volume apparently touches upon themes of how the internet changes the way humanity interacts with information and how radicalization takes on different forms now, which sounds not only interesting, but also exactly like the kind of thing I want from my sci-fi as a backdrop. Too bad the adaptation completely skips the first volume, along with any kind of character work for our Robo-Cop pair, resulting in the first couple episodes being borderline incomprehensible for me. Like, Echika held anti-clanker views before?.. maybe? It is alluded to at times… would have been cool seeing her change her mind, I guess. Considering how the vision of the future is also mostly reduced to some drones flying around and everyone being equipped with an ad-ridden HUD, makes it a really unspectacular series to follow weekly.

Similarly, Sword of the Demon Hunter mostly fell victim to me not caring enough to continue watching on a weekly basis. It is far from being actively bad and I am even able to unironically praise the last episode I saw, but outside some standout scenes and its general vibe, it feels rather lackluster and mediocre across the board. Jinta’s stoicism overshadows what little else he has going for him, the side characters aren’t that memorable to begin with and with no real overarching narrative in sight, I am left with episodic stories I feel mostly indifferent towards. Add a production whose visual presentation seems like one of constant compromise (not to say some episodes being released unfinished), it would have been one thing to push through twelve episodes, but with what seems like a planned double cour, I simply couldn’t care enough to continue.

Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty

Starting off very strong, Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty combines one of my favorite thematic narrative through lines, which is the expression of yourself and finding companions and kinship in like-minded people in a surrounding that tries its best to beat you down and mold you into societies little lap dogs, with something that, despite how many times I engage with media dealing with this subjects in all kinds of forms and manners, I still can’t fully wrap my head around, which is the extreme, almost vital and essential need, that is music and the kind of expression that comes with it.

From its Class-S presentation and its immediate subversion of everything prim and proper in Lilisa and Otoha’s little secret 1-on-1 collaborations, the only thing that keeps this anime from truly achieving great heights is that the melodrama tends to be its weakest aspect, running around in circles at time and not committing enough to its broader social criticism of how society enforces a very specific idea of womanhood on these girls. But when it does, it is phenomenal and it would also be dishonest to ignore the personal journeys the main cast goes through, as if it were completely different topics. After all, putting your feelings into a tangible form, in this case rock music, isn’t just the point, it is rebellion.

The performances are capital A amazing. Not just from a technical perspective, featuring some really cool 3D motion-capturing sequences and crazy camera work, as well as BAND-MAID’s fantastic instrumental performances, but also as a vehicle to explore the characters, their relationship to music and each other. From breaking out of your shell, reassuring your passion or simply discovering a new side of yourself, this anime has it all and seeing it combined with the literal art of the music making process connects these points wonderfully in a way that makes me keep coming back to those stories. I am also just a giant fan of everyone hurling insults and all kinds of verbal abuse at each other, in part because I am still unsure if to classify this as an encore or after-care. As far as self-expression goes, these girls go all out and get off with each other in all their sweaty glory, without a care in the world or what other people might think about them for doing so. And that is a thing of beauty.

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?

The answer to this series title’s question is complicated (Not really) and so are my feelings towards the anime. This… this was a rollercoaster in literally every sense of the word. From me making fun of my friend for expecting anything, really, to experiencing every high and low and right down to me eventually genuinely and unironically enjoying it, Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? made me feel the entire spectrum of human emotions… well, maybe not the entire spectrum, but in terms of a superficially generic looking RomCom, this has it all and some more.

Is it well written? Nah, at best it is a constantly blazing dumpster fire fueled by highly refined acetylene, which, for some reason, sets off some breathtaking fireworks every once in a while. It is constantly plagued by its own adherence to its genre tropes, won’t commit to all of its ideas and feels the need to walk back on itself to remain in a vague status quo fitting of the series' title. Hell, for half the season, Enomoto is barely a character and Himari’s brother overshadows everything by simply being the funniest guy around. God bless the true best girl.

But beyond all its short-comings, there is an honest attempt at writing a competent romance about the many shades of awkwardness, which comes with being in love with a friend and not knowing where to take the relationship, while also being unsure what to do about your dreams and future in light of that. Himari might be an emotionally manipulative sociopath and Yu a confused romantic who seldom can take the step it actually takes, but who wasn’t themselves? It sure makes for the best moments of the anime, I daresay, and even Enomoto’s “I am actually very much fine with this situation, because I see a way I can still come out on top of it all” came into its own towards the end. Add a surprisingly well-rounded supporting cast in the form of the older siblings and this one guy I still am not entirely sure of what his deal or even final plan is and I’ve got myself probably the most fun I ever had with this kind of a RomCom anime.

So yeah, in short, I eventually liked the romance and the comedy definitely hits its marks already early on. Alas, honoring my family’s tradition of eating our words by the spoonful, I might have to issue an apology. To whom I don’t know, but here it is nonetheless: I am sorry for judging a book by its cover and being correct in a way I didn’t anticipate. It will hopefully happen again.

Kowloon Generic Romance

I guess there always has to be at least one anime per season that keeps me a bit lost for words or even perplexed at what I really think and Kowloon Generic Romance certainly looks like a winner in this regard. On its surface, there is a lot for me to like. I actually prefer the slower and less indirect approach to the romance, making it simply another aspect of the characters life, instead of something every moment of the series has to revolve around. The cast is likeable and what the mystery is concerned with, it does its job by being something that has always to be kept notice of. In this sense, the series overall is rather dense with not a single unnecessary scene, though I would have very much appreciated spending more time with the characters in their normal environment.

Where it gets more complicated is in how I see this series as a whole. I think it does a good job at talking about its specific kind of nostalgia and how it leans into regrets of the past and the hardships that come with change, both in one’s life and as a person, but come it’s second half, it at times feels like the series is mostly occupied with clearing up the mysteries surrounding the titular Kowloon, something I eventually didn’t care all that much in itself. At the best of times, this can go pretty hand in hand, as seen with Xiaohei, but considering how Miyuki’s side of the story felt mostly neglected and eventually simply ended on an unsatisfying note, I am left wondering what else Kowloon Generic Romance still had to say in its finale.

Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary Season 2

After the finale of the first season, Shoshimin had to change. This isn’t just in regards to its structure, foregoing the small episodic mysteries for two bigger arcs, but primarily how it handles its two main characters. After all, how do you build upon a pre-established relationship if characters don’t interact with each other? Well, constructing an entire scheme around how they, no matter how much they try, can’t replace another and how “they make each other worse” might be a net positive for humanity, certainly was the way to go.

The arsonist case finally revealed that Osanai is the actual devil and that poor Urino was simply not prepared for what he was getting into by associating with her. If you ever want to see a boy get murdered, just absolutely slaughtered alive, by a person he thought he was a step ahead of, episode 6 might tickle an itch. Episode 7 was simply the cherry on top of it all. And while I personally don’t care all that much for the second arc, seeing how these two forces of nature came together and where their relationship has eventually led them to, was a pleasure to witness from beginning to end. I stand by my take that the core of the series isn’t the actual mysteries themselves, but the way Kobato and Osanai interact with them and Shoshimin’s second season has proven yet again how engaging it is to see the two of them work everything out, while navigating their otherwise perfectly mundane and ordinary lives with a side of sweets.

Lazarus

Lazarus is an utter clusterfuck of moderately fun action set pieces loosely connected by one of the most intellectually insulting scripts I have had the displeasure of sitting through in the last couple of years. Fundamentally broken by the disinterest in its own characters and lack of care for any kind of message someone might have had in this production somewhere along the way, what should have been a fun globe-trotting action-thriller essentially reduced itself constantly into shallow vignettes and collages of undercooked ideas and generic premises. Sure, the vibes are on point and we get our due fill of Watanabe Swagger along the way, but there is honestly nothing of substance to be said about Lazarus beyond its most surface level aspects.

Nothing matters in this anime. Neither the endless goose chase the characters are on for the majority of its run, the lessons team Lazarus is supposedly learning along the way, nor the final resolution it twists body and head to try to attempt to bring everything together again in its last moments. Goodbye Hapna, Welcome Pain! 0 Days Left For Us. Indeed, nothing matters, for everything was doomed from the start. Ignore all the good in the world, as long as you can find peace in it.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

I like My Hero Academia. I may never have been up-to-date with the anime adaptation, like, ever, even currently sitting three seasons behind, but whenever I watched it, it was nice, despite generally not being quite my cuppest of teas. Part of this sentiment transferred itself to Vigilantes, for which I expected to, again, generally enjoy it, but more so as simply another entry into the MHA universe, and less so truly on its own. Alas, color me surprised that basically all its references to its parent series are by far the weakest aspects of its own and it continues to differentiate itself enough that it could have been its own thing.

I mean, had I gone into Vigilantes with less of a bias, this really shouldn’t have come as that big a surprise. I tend to enjoy small-scale and localized action a lot more than the big world-threatening conflicts, as well as the more grounded and down-to-earth approach to heroism, or rather vigilantism, in this case. As such, it might be better to primarily view it as a slice of life set in the same universe. Koichi is a fun guy, whose real superpower is not dying of embarrassment sliding down the street on all fours while wearing an All Might hoodie, Pop Step just likes to hang out and enjoys her time as an up-and-coming idol and Knuckleduster attempts his best to be a father.

The one thing that drags the series down, however, is that a majority of its plots simply aren’t that fun in their own right. It takes Pop Step almost half the season to come into her own, the overarching story is essentially just another variant of a drug that makes people go berserk, with its villains being barely characters with agendas of their own and I don’t think giving characters like Stain an origin story does anything to recontextualize his appearance in the main series. A shame, really, because the series otherwise nails its character beats, with Queen Bee’s conclusion being an easy highlight and the existence of Makoto and even Captain Celebrity (S-class loser, btw) proving that the series, by no means, has to rely solely on action to make a point.

Apocalypse Hotel

Imagine having a literal metric ton of Yachiyo reaction images at your disposal and still not being able to decide on a thumbnail… seriously, between her walking down the desolate Ginza district on her off day, being involved in an intergalactic romance with a space kangaroo and committing a felony by hiding a body with Ponko, how could I possibly decide? I am also not beating the “I just like dancing” allegations with this one.

Actually, it isn’t just the thumbnail. What could I possibly say about Apocalypse Hotel that isn’t directly lost by not experiencing it first hand? Sure, I could talk endlessly about how much I adore Yachiyo as both a deep exploration of inevitable change and the quirks that make humans… well, human, as well as the vessel of chaos that she is, but this will only, at best, show how much of an utter weirdo I am. The visuals? Enough to carry an entire episode without words. And the comedy? One of the best in the game, I’m afraid. I could be here all day spouting superlatives in this series' favor, but honestly, it is not enough. It is like forgetting the shampoo hat. Sure, you get your hair washed either way, but that is not really what it is about, if you get me. It takes time to realize, it takes time to change. Transience is the motto, but Apocalypse Hotel refuses to ever not change it up in a never ending barrage of its own idiosyncrasies. Yachiyo and Ponko also have one hell of a dynamic. In this sense… uhh.. bro trust me, it is very good and the one anime this season I will be absolutely annoying about recommending to everyone.

Once Upon a Witch’s Death

Simply calling Once Upon a Witch’s Death a bit lackluster doesn’t quite reflect my honest opinions on the anime. Sure, I don’t really care all that much for the actual plot sprinkled throughout, but that was never what caught my eye in the first episodes. What I initially assumed would be a quiet meditation on death and the many different circumstances it arrives in, eventually turned out to be quite the opposite with a strangely life-affirming reflection on, well, life. Genuinely, the best moments turned out to be some of the quieter conversations and character revelations along the way and they, at times, really connected with me, if only I literally thought of some of the exact same stuff for my own story… it even stars a witch, so thanks for making me feel like a copycat again.

With that being said, this series is very much unfocused, at least in terms of what I eventually considered enjoyable and not. I found myself mostly not caring for most, if not all, story threads, I never really got warm with the cast and I even considered dropping it entirely at several points in time. Being solely kept afloat by my good will is seldom a good sign for a series and I doubt I would have had it in me to watch another cour. My final ranking may be a bit harsh, as the anime is far from being actively bad, but it is also far from being actively good and engaging.

Please Put Them On, Takamine-san

I mean, on one hand, it is more or less exactly what is written on the can: An a bit more raunchy than average romantic comedy with a wet blanket of a main protagonist and your specific ecchi flavor of girl. On the other hand, it is so criminally sauceless and dry in its execution, that it kinda ruins an otherwise decent premise. Take Shirota for example. If you want your girls to walk all over him, both figuratively and literally, commit to the idea and don’t make him have less of a spine than an invertebrate. The same can be said about the titular Takamine, who loses her assertive attitude almost immediately and goes full dere anytime the guy shows even a modicum of basic human decency. Beyond its visual presentation, the spiciest we arguably ever get is the one NTR joke. In exchange, we get an incredible amount of incredibly mediocre slice of life and romance bits, which tend to miss their target about as far as is possible. Considering how slow-paced the entire series is in general, for the majority of the time, I was more bored than anything else.

Hell, not even the actual ecchi is in any way appealing. I can overlook the production being held together by hopes and dreams, but did even a single real pervert work on this anime? Though, then again, the material doesn’t really give many options outside these scenes, which I assume are these full spread page turns in the manga to show Takamine in all her scantily-clothed glory. Well, at least the music kinda slaps. The ending song is straight fire and the jazz OST tries its best to elicit some kind of feeling. But all in all, unless you are really desperate, there is literally a ton of better stuff out there to get your ecchi fix.

Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX

Gundam, in a way, is stuck in the One Year War. Sure, the original creator may have moved on and most entries are set in a universe where it never even happened to begin with, yet its spectre is seemingly inescapable and continues to haunt characters literally worlds and time apart. Though ironically, for the most part, this isn’t even the reason why I would say that GQuuuuuuX is a familiar story in more ways than one.

Episode 1 changed lives, man. There is something special about the sombre and calm of a colony at peace times, with decommissioned Zakus being reduced to police and worker units being contrasted by the insurmountable inner turmoil, angst and rage only befitting of a teenage girl, that, by all appearances, lacks nothing in her comfortable life. The first couple of episodes are a fateful meeting, longing and letting go, it is about finding acceptance and overcoming the inevitable betrayal… it is two girls turning from friends to enemies about not even being in love with the same boy, but about being in love with the idea of the boy. But alas, it is also Gundam.

I understand that the plea for more episodes can come from the delusions, that another cour or so will just magically spawn from the ether, filling the nothing and fixing it into the fragment of one’s imagination that only exists in your head, but I think you could make a pretty good case that the GQuuuuuuX portion of the story should either be shorter or longer. I disagree that the series has no confidence in its original character and that the relationships established in its early portion have no depth, but it is also true that they would incredibly benefit from lingering just a bit more and actually laying into the status quo of its initial faux story premise of clan battles. I have no doubts there is more to explore, it is just that the series has its focus elsewhere.

Does the “What If multiverse filled with callbacks to the original ‘79 series” feel almost masturbatory at times? Oh absolutely. It seems that the people making the anime are almost as obsessed with the characters as the characters in it themselves. And all power to them. The staff sure is skilled enough at making a competent product and its highs are incredibly high, it is just that the eventual direction GQuuuuuuX’s story went into wasn’t exactly to my liking and I am unsure if it is due to my lack of interest in the original series, or a lack of knowledge and understanding of it. After all, I only watched the three part movie compilations and am historically not the biggest fan of most of the mainline entries. Speaking for someone who hasn’t seen any Gundam, I can only imagine them being completely overwhelmed and confused as to what GQuuuuuuX is even supposed to be at the end of the day. Then again, the character bits and emotional climaxes of Gundam are seldom defined by strictly hard logic, so this series might actually be about as comprehensible as all other UC timeline Gundams… aka not a lot, as long as you are not already on the same emotional wavelength and susceptible to the larger ideas that Gundam tends to have at play… you know, like a Newtype.

So yeah… it is quite fun, even if I can’t really do a lot with it or even say it is particularly for me. Also, insane Challia Bull glow-up. Bro came and went unceremoniously in the original series, only to return as the thematic linchpin in this one.

Teogonia

One half of me doesn’t want to be too harsh on Teogonia. For what it is worth, it doesn’t actively undermine itself by engaging in any kind of meta commentary that could be done about its genre and since it seems to narratively distance itself from the more LitRPG inspired works we get by the tons every season, it is almost refreshing to watch a rather straight-forward fantasy work, with selected elements I quite enjoy. Then again, the other half of me will gladly proclaim that it is simply not that good, though not for a lack of trying.

I will give it to Teogonia, that Kai isn’t simply a nothing protagonist, who gets swept up in the wills of the narrative to make him seem like the coolest greatest strongest guy in the story (Don’t misunderstand, he still is, but for different reasons). He has agency and is an active participant in most of the events happening, it is just that he is, at time, almost erratic in his reasoning and view of the world, which makes him hard to understand, despite me thinking that he is not that deep of a character and the story refuses to stop edging us with the whole “he has memories from another world” thing. For what the rest of the story is concerned, it seems to always go down the more generic and less interesting paths in front of it, falling for basically all the common trappings I could criticize most stories for. Seriously, the amount of times he simply wills power into existence for the sole purpose of killing another guy stronger than him is almost concerning. Add some half-baked social commentary into the mix and we have ourselves an overall rather forgettable entry in the larger fantasy genre.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

There honestly isn’t much for me to say about the second season of Apothecary Diaries that, to some extent, isn’t just a rewording of my opinions on the first season. Yeah, the very good thing is still very good. However, it is not so by simply repeating what makes the first season so special. Its world and characters are in constant change and the mysteries and revelations have never truly been restricted to just the medical cases, with a way bigger focus on why those things keep happening in the, from an outside perspective, peaceful inner court. I truly love how information can be introduced and left on the back burner for episodes on end, even between the seasons, before becoming essential again, just because it is simply a part of the world and we are never fully aware of what is going on completely.

This season also finally shows us the full extent of information we have long been in the known of, mostly in the way the late emperor has left countless women scarred and stripped of autonomy and poisoned the inner court in ways not even Maomao could do anything against. His actions still haunt everyone, forcing the majority of our characters to wear some sort of mask, either as a way to deceit or to protect themselves, making for some of the best dramatic moments in the entire series. Jinshi can’t, or rather more explicitly, doesn’t want to keep up his front and continue to run from his responsibility, Maomao keeps getting forced into situations that slowly break down her façade of stoicism and Shisui’s entire journey ends on one hell of a satisfying resolution, both for her, as well as what she means for the larger story.

With its status quo disrupted yet again, I can’t wait for it to keep going, whatever form it may take in the future.

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! 3 OVA

Does this count?.. Well, I guess I will make it count. I adore KonoSuba and its consistency to make me laugh out loud, but despite featuring most of the same qualities as the main series, I never really cared that much about the after season specials. I mean, I still like them very much, but they mostly showcase just how tightly the original novels are written in comparison and then translated into animation with a lot of care. The very first one goes on just a bit too long and might come off as a bit mean-spirited and, beyond Darkness getting her breasts slapped by a giant robot, I barely even remember the second one and the two new OVAs fall into similar trappings.

The first one is such a classic KonoSuba setup and eventual payoff, but it just drags itself along most of the time to fill up the runtime by any means possible and the ratio of both jokes and simply stuff happening feels off. I don’t mind that you can see the punchline a mile away, but getting there was a bit of a drag, only elevated by some occasionally funny dialogue, great visual comedy and Wiz in a swimsuit.

The second one was a lot better, though then again, could have probably been only half as long. Unlike the first one, this one utilizes one of the best aspects of the series: The fact that this dysfunctional quartet are horrible people with some of the best chemistry you are able to find. The setup of “We have KonoSuba at home” is a lot more clever, the fact our cast gets into trouble yet again due to their own hubris feels second nature at this point and the constant back-and-forth of whether one should maybe actually cheer for the other party works for me, because we know… we have seen the anime and were there when all the things happened that Kazuma and friends would rather try to forget. Transitioning into the ending theme with the voice actors trying their best to hold the scream for so long was the cherry on top. Easily the best special of all of them.

Lycoris Recoil: Friends Are Thieves of Time.

Friends Are Thieves of Time is a short OVA series, barely amounting to one full-length episode, for what I assume are the fans of the more slice of life aspects of the original series. Luckily, I am one of them. And I mean, it is nice, but the very short episodes make everything feel like small comedy bits that lack the proper build-up the best moments of the full series made so good usage of. But beyond that, it is simply nice to see the characters goofing around and acting like the teenagers they are.

What’s left?

On one hand, I would like to claim that there is literally nothing left and I watched everything I had my eyes on. but that would be wrong. Moonrise was dropped in its entirety on Netflix without much fanfare and from the few people that bothered to pick it up, it seems to be the unanimous consensus, that one kinda doesn’t miss out on a lot. On a similar hand, word on the streets has it that Mono, despite featuring an incredible production, doesn’t seem to gather the same excitement, as the author’s other work Yuru Camp and since I never got to continue watching it with a friend of mine beyond the first episode, I too eventually decided to let it keep collecting dust, never to be picked up again. Additionally, there are four anime, which started this season, but will only conclude their run in the next one, so there is that. And coming in last with a surprise, I might have to check out Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray after all, despite me having dropped the main series pretty early on.

But beyond that, yeah, this season was filled to the brim with the good, the bad and everything in-between. Let’s just hope I will never get such a stupid idea to pick up everything that catches my interest even slightly ever again. I mean, it will most definitely happen again, but one can pray. Let’s see what the next one has in store.