Seasonal Anime Wrap-Up: Summer 2025

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Ach ja, considering how much I complained last season about the sheer number of anime I watched, it should go without saying how this season would top this number immediately… except not really. Four anime are left-overs from last season, two of the new ones are only half-length and another two are even less, so I can’t accept the title of self-imposed mass seasonal anime watcher just yet.

Maybe I should be more critical about what I choose to watch, but this season, more than the ones before, showed how there is value in maybe not just blindly giving a show the benefit of the doubt, but at least a chance to either impress or disappoint and me the challenge to criticize the things I like and praise the ones I didn’t. And as always, there are a lot of shades in between.

This season, more than anything, surprised me with its consistency. I didn’t watch anything outright bad and the general level of quality is quite up there, maybe even the best since I started watching seasonal anime, but it is also lacking some really heavy hitters, potential favorites and contenders for my own arbitrary S-Tier classification. Truly, woe is me, complaining about the three Michelin star all-you-can-eat buffet in front of me, because nothing reaches quite the heights of this one croque I had on a warm fall evening a few years ago. Welp, enough talking about food and more talking about anime.

The ones that didn’t make it

Gachiakuta is by no means a series that lacks appeal. From its underlying theme of treasuring objects and the natural integration into the power system or even just the imminent scope of its setting, it features a world and characters, which, on the surface, should make it really easy to engage yourself into whatever else it has to offer. Yet, despite it all, I just could not get myself to care for basically anything. I have my gripes with the first episode, how it mostly feels like one giant display of misanthropy disguised as character motivation and how the second episode largely follows through on this. The third episode was arguably even worse by simply being plain boring and the fourth one fails to make me want to cheer for Rudo. I don’t quite jibe with the comedy, don’t think certain character archetypes distinguish themselves enough in their introduction to immediately seem interesting beyond their base characteristics and even when everyone eventually stops screaming all the time and mellows out a bit, the series doesn’t fill the void with anything I personally would want to see more of. Where is the mystery, the questions the series refuses to give us a full answer to yet? I know shounen series tend to take a while to truly show their true colors, but they also tend to give one at least some crumbs of what could be. Gachiakuta gives me nothing to work with and nothing to put my trust and confidence into its ability to turn itself around and impress at a later date.

Similarly, Secrets of the Silent Witch is not actively bad, just finds itself in the unfortunate situation of at times rubbing me just slightly the wrong way, while also keeping me famished with every second thing it attempts. Monica is a charming protagonist and I like the way her introversion, social anxiety and other similar idiosyncrasies are portrayed, but like with so many things in this series, I feel like she too is played just a tad too close to the chest for me to fully read meaning into anything. It is obvious that something is always going on in the background, both in terms of literal plot points and characters, as well as with its larger ideas, but when it feels like you are getting dragged along on purely good faith, it ought to better make sure I am enjoying the journey along it… which I simply didn’t. Comedy is obviously great, about the only thing I would have expected with Takaomi Kanasaki in the director’s chair and I also don’t mind the more shojou-ey(?) vibes and slight subversions of the more classic magic academy set-ups I have come to expect, but beyond that? The first arc kinda went nowhere for me, failing completely on the mystery and not fully convincing me of whatever is going on with Cyril, most characters in general appear to simply exist in the periphery for now and all the magical elements are also not doing it for me. With such a pedigree of potentially interesting ideas, it is a shame it all fell flat for me. What also surprises me, is that the general consensus seems to be that this is one of the best non-sequel anime this season, which truly makes me wonder if I simply fail to grasp this series' appeal, as I very seldom deviate from the mainstream in such matters.

The Summer Hikaru Died

Someday, I will have to do a proper write-up about my seeming disinterest for the horror genre, or rather what I want out of my horror-adjacent media. For now, I am just glad I get to enjoy something that tickles a similar itch for me the same way that Higurashi did for me the last time 10 years ago.

The Summer Hikaru Died absolutely nails its atmosphere. From the mountains and woods caging you in, the judging glances of your neighbors and the scorching summer heat, for Yoshiki, every second he spends in this village is suffocating. After all, he doesn’t belong there and this isn’t even putting all the supernatural horrors into account. If there is one thing this anime nails on all fronts, it is making you understand why he is so depressed and confused and unsure and all-around without direction in his life. His friend died, but there is something else occupying his body, it is foreign yet warm and between the very real threat it poses and the comfort it provides, it is hard to judge him for not wanting to make a choice. I adore the first half, because it is not just an excellent coming-of-age story with a supernatural twist and not so subtle queer-coding, but also an interesting take on the monster in human clothing and I genuinely wouldn’t mind, if this season would have spent its entire run just being that… Yoshiki slowly coming to terms with what this new Hikaru is, while Hikaru finds his place in the world.

Not that I mind the more narrative-driven second half and the anime is at its best, when it can properly combine these two elements. Episodes like the hair monster pulling Yoshiki down memory lane or the two of them skipping their class' choir performance to play hooky are my heart and soul. It is just that the more external circumstances of the relationship between Hikaru and Yoshiko result in a kind of drama that I don’t think always reaches its highest peaks and some of the more concrete elements like the village’s history and specific details surrounding Hikaru’s real nature fall a bit flat for me. Not that it is ever bad. No, far from it and even at its “worst”, The Summer Hikaru Died is consistently one of the best experiences with an anime I had the last few months. I might have got a bit impatient at times with the pace it reveals its larger mysteries or whatever Tanaka’s deal is, but with a really emotionally satisfying conclusion of its first season and a second one already announced, it would be a hard call to not name it my favorite anime of this season.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity

It is funny how The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is just an all-around good romance series, addresses most of the things I want to be addressed and dodges all the aspects I typically dislike in romance anime, yet the actual romance is like the least interesting aspect for me. On God, you can’t imagine how close I was to write about everything else, put Subaru in the header image and end it with “And I guess Miss Waguri is also there”.

At its heart, this story is about opening up to others, embracing all the little “selfish” feelings swirling in your head and realizing that this is just what being together with other people tends to be. Rintaro is a bit of a broken person before he becomes closer to Kaoruko and it is through the connection with her that he learns that this yearning for closeness and warmth isn’t wrong, even if he still feels the need to apologize every step of the way. He is also just utterly adorable. Seeing this tall and intimidating guy blushing and getting all giddy at the sheer prospect of receiving kindness and friendship never got old. In a similar situation, Subaru coming to terms with the reality that her idea of protecting Kaoruko is just the thinly disguised fear of losing her friend easily made for the best drama this anime had to offer. In fact, while the anime doesn’t play up its drama, it still gets to the satisfying conclusions either way through a combination of deep character introspection and clever shifts in perspective. Both of Rintaro’s parents get fantastic stuff indirectly enriching him as a character, as much as I dislike the actual happenings that transpired, Usami, Natsusawa and Yorita are the dumb bros you need in your life to cover your back and once we saw the inciting incident from Kaoruko point of view, everything just clicks so well together.

It is not always my kind of romance, the Romeo and Juliet setup is just kinda there and ignored most of the time and I also don’t think it would be fair to criticize this series for being very tame and safe in the grand scheme of things, but in the same way, I too think it would be a disservice to focus and reduce it to just the romance. As mentioned, I think everything else it has going for it is way more interesting and expands the story with some much needed conflict. Considering how the last few years have been primarily dominated by romances featuring some kind of twist, quirk or specific flavor of love interest, a teenage romance being played perfectly straight might just be what the people wanted.

Ruri Rocks

Damn, the pretty stone anime turned out to be a gem. It is hard to describe how genuinely inspiring I find this anime. Certain media are able to fully utilize their format to shine light on more niche topics and in this sense, Ruri Rocks is a delightful entry for what is commonly referred to as edutainment. Did I ever particularly care about mineralogy? Not any more than I do about literally every other topic. Do I now know some more cool rock facts™? You bet I do. But if this were all this series had to offer, I doubt it would have left the impact on me that it did. This anime loves science. You can not only see this in the extends it communicates knowledge, but also how this knowledge intersects with all kinds of elements we come across in our daily lives, be it the insane game of connection at play how seemingly minor events millions of years ago have an impact on today, or the way people of all times asked themselves similar questions we do now, how different approaches lead to different answers and how that again intersects with history and so on and so forth. If there is one thing that you should take away from this anime, it is that rocks can do so much more than just look nice or be sold for money.

But even beyond all this, I didn’t expect Ruri Rocks to possess such rock solid character writing. Seto’s introductory episode is masterful in a lot of ways, showcasing both how hobbies are not only a way to form connections, but also how it may only take one fateful encounter with a person that truly understands you and the gentlest push to change your entire trajectory for the future. On the other hand, seeing Ruri grow from a bratty child needing the constant supervision of people like Nagi and Imari into someone capable to use and apply all the things she learned over the course of the series to engage in her hobby to the fullest and do some genuine science in the process is magical. Yeah, Ruri rocks indeed. It is just a shame that recommending this series comes with a slight caveat. While I have to give all the credit to the perverts at Studio Bind for bringing this series to life in all its natural beauty, the character designs especially are very unashamed and while I personally have no problems appreciating the view, I get why it might raise some eyebrows or distract from the actual material. But if you can see beyond this, you will be rewarded with an anime that is so earnest in its subject matter like only a few truly can.

There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless…

What a journey this anime has been. For context, I have read the first part (The first four volumes) of the original light novel series and my relationship with it is… two-fold. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think TNFWIBYL!U… (Or just WataNare) is that good or particularly enjoyable outside some specific elements. However, it is interesting in a lot of small ways, which is not just the reason why I kept reading, but also why I was weirdly defensive for the beginning of a story I don’t care that much about. Slander an anime all you want, but the second you become intellectually dishonest, I will become an obnoxious defender of mediocrity. As a society, we should be better than dismissing WataNare as just a harem series with the main character being gender-swapped… not that it would be hard to see why one would initially think so, because, for how much this series talks about the intricacies of romantic and platonic friendships from the perspective of a social shut-in under the assumption that she can neither love nor be loved, it is also full of RomCom bullshit and tropes most are not a big fan of.

What the adaptation is concerned about, the first episode actually starts pretty well, introducing us as best as possible to Renako and the main motif of the story and manages to be a pretty fun experience all around, only to stagnate for a rather long time. It tends to linger a bit too long on its weaker elements and without Renako’s inner voice, some scenes even come off slightly different or not as intended. Seriously, I can’t possibly overstate how much of a train wreck Renako’s thought process is at all times and how well it informs why some of the more questionable things happen. While the anime made me appreciate Satsuki a lot more, I still think Mai is a particularly hard character to like, especially with how flippant her portrayal tends to be and it is not until Ajisai’s arc where not only the writing somehow makes a sudden jump in quality, but also all the events before it truly show their purpose. Also also, Ajisai is simply the best. I am normally not one for shipping characters, but Ajisai and Renako are just so good for another. Please look at this screencap I wanted to initially use for the header.

I will also singlehandedly give her credit for breaking the curse of girls love anime not getting a continuation. I am so glad it gets a proper adaptation which finishes the first part of the story and doesn’t just end on the bombshell dropped on the last episode, especially after how disappointing the adaptations for WataOshi and Sasakoi turned out. Alas, it is time to find out what humanity’s oldest weapon is. This anime is still a far cry from other titles like Bloom Into You, but when compared to stuff like Citrus, I think I should be grateful that WataNare is a decent entry for the girls love genre, all things considered.

CITY The Animation

What an absolute delight this was. To get the obvious out of the way, CITY is easily one of the best produced TV series I have ever seen. Endlessly creative, imaginative and ambitious in its visuals, it never settles for just good enough and makes it its personal mission to keep surprising the audience at every corner possible, be it the chaos of a race, a musical number to say goodbye or the utter insanity that was the entirety of episode 5. There are only a few anime I could name that have such a firm grasp on their identity the way CITY presents itself and how this presentation seamlessly bleeds into and elevates every aspect of its titular city, characters and the stories between them obviously included.

There is a certain magic in coming to learn the citizens of the city and how each and every one is connected to another. While Nagumo, Wada and Niikura receive the most focus, the story isn’t really all that interested in only following them, instead opting to always jump between its entire cast, that at the end of it all, I think literally every single character was the main actor of a segment at least once. And together, it paints a fascinating picture of daily life that is never boring… It also helps that those segments tend to be hilarious. Personally, I don’t think CITY has missed even once, which might also be in part due to what it tends to be about. In short, the characters are all living their energetic life to the fullest and CITY celebrates these moments of joy, may they come in the fantastical and bizarre or the most mundane times life has to offer. The season even ends with what I can only describe as an ode to “Don’t be sad it is over, but be happy it happened”, because there will come another summer. You might need to be in the right mood to fully appreciate it, but this is easily the anime this season that made me the most consistently happy and joyful.

Leviathan

Leviathan is a perfectly fine series. By that, I mean I don’t have many immediate complaints or problems with the anime. It is, by all means, good. But it also consistently feels like there is missing something to truly make it stick for me. The world is interesting and fun, but the story is so streamlined that we are not allowed to fully engage with it. The characters and their drama are solid, but it is also lacking in depth to make you truly connect with either them or the themes explored. The animation looks great and it is a pretty cold take to call Studio Orange some of the best when it comes to 3D in anime, but compared to their other series, there isn’t a lot that makes you gawk in awe at the presentation of it all.

It is the “potential man” meme, but as an anime. Always could, but never quite is. By that I mean it is constantly going along competently, but also always just as expected, never really grabbing me… or pushing me away for that matter. The worst I can say is that the final conflict severely lacks a proper protagonist-antagonist dynamic. But beyond that? Yeah, it’s good, especially if you are interested in an alternative history military story with a low sci-fi/fantasy twist. Alek and especially Sharp are not your average anime protagonists and if your sensibilities tend to be a lot more western-oriented or you are just plainly burned out from subpar isekai power fantasies, this might just be the series for you.

Kaiju No. 8 Season 2

This season of Kaiju No. 8 was… rough and I have to simply accept taking the L on this one. For the first season, I ended my little review with how much I was looking forward to what I thought would be the best stretch of the manga… turns out my memory was very selective on what I actually remember and when it happens. For the most part, Kaiju’s second season is more or less more of the same. Our heroes get stronger, the kaijus bigger and the shounen antics more shounen. We even get a random comedy omake starring Hoshina at the end of every episode. In short, if you like all of season one, you will most likely like season two just as much.

However, the shounen antics aren’t necessarily what I like about this series and when you combine it with the fact that the pacing grinds to an utter halt for like half its runtime, it became hard to stay enthusiastic about the series outside specific moments. While the characters are more often than not the series' focus, I don’t think they are that interesting on their own most of the time and considering how complacent the series gets what character motivation is concerned, seeing how most of them get reduced to not even a variant of simply becoming stronger, but just simply wanting to become stronger, it became a slog to get through the next arc, which doesn’t even really start in this season proper. Hoshina and Kaiju No. 10 are fun, Narumi being the biggest loser is fun and finally seeing all the new big boy kaijus make their appearance gets me hyped for the stuff I do remember from reading the manga, but with how consistently this series undermines its own rising stakes, my expectations are honestly lower than ever. Whenever a continuation is announced, I will most likely keep watching, but I have a feeling that this stretch of episodes particularly lost a lot of potential fans, and what I am concerned, good will.

Dandadan Season 2

For the second second season this season, I have a few more good things to write about. While I have come to appreciate that the baseline for Dandadan is pretty good on a technical level, both narratively and from a production point of view, this stretch of episodes in particular shows once again what I like and dislike in your typical shounen fare. Picking up where the first season so unceremoniously left off, we are treated to what might as well have been its own movie with the Cursed House arc and the Mongolian Death Worm properly introducing us to the biggest empath and secret genius Jiji and his relation to Evil Eye. This was just an overall fun arc with the layers of layers of the underground houses serving as a cool setting, the ending bringing back old characters in a truly epic fashion and capping it all off with on of the best moments with what the Momo and Okarun front is concerned, Evangelion reference and all. Even with a genuinely good and proper romance anime right next to it, these two dorks are still my favorite pairing this season.

On the other hand, the rest of the season is a lot more uneven and might be a prime example of what the big difference between “nothing happening” slice of life bits and… “actually just simply nothing happening” is. The fallout of the first arc has its moments with the car ride and the maid café doing wonders for the relationship between Momo and Okarun, the hayashi HAYASii performance going above and beyond what would have been necessary and the moments following being an incredibly wholesome display of gratitude and friendship. It is just that Evil Eye doesn’t really bring much to the conversation and him going rogue every few minutes got repetitive and even annoying pretty fast for me. On the other hand, I would actually call the fight between Okarun, Aira and the musicians not just weak, but straight-up pointless and while I think the series might be cooking with Kinta, the last episodes were paced like shit, with each scene and segment simply going on just that tiny bit too long, hampering my overall enjoyment of the series towards its finale. It might again end on a promising cliffhanger, but I really hope the next season catches itself similar to how the beginning of this one’s so elegantly excelled at.

New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

The Bitches are back and probably better than ever. The first season of Panty & Stocking was this crass and crude love letter-ish parody of cartoons from a time that went right by me and all things American pop culture. In a sense, the first season is very much a product of its time, for better and worse, and while I quite enjoyed it, I never felt the way it has clearly left an impact on the anime community at large. Outside of specific episodes and the masterstroke of an ending, that puts most cliffhangers to shame by the sheer brazenness of it all, I mostly appreciated it for both the artistry and the fact that you simply don’t get something like this all too often in either anime, cartoon or elsewhere, really.

With that being said, the new season either changes or adds a lot of stuff that makes the experience of watching it a lot more fun for me, like a way clearer grasp on what is simply offensive for the sake of it and actually funny. Maybe I also just finally get to enjoy the references that are thrown around every few seconds. But most importantly, opening itself up for a larger core cast of characters works wonders for what this series goes for. The Demon Sisters make a fantastic comeback, the Gunsmith Bitch and Super Guy “Jin” are great additions and once the Poly Brothers were introduced in all their Gen Z glory, you just knew that this series has never been more back and confident in its all over the place happenings, be it the random side-adventures of Brief and Garterbelt or Panty singing a musical number containing more curse words than anything else.

Panty & Stocking has always been a visual playground for all kinds of stories and ideas that don’t quite fit normal narrative conventions and Hiroyuki Imaishi and his merry band of insane people still bring all the sauce in the form of balls to the wall action scenes, fantastic music or this weird mixture of comedy, sex and wholesomeness. Remember, The “F” in “Fuck” stands for “Family”, be they angel, demon or human 🙏🙏🙏. It might still not be quite my cup of tea, but it is hard to not respect such a bold, creative and uncompromising vision. The only thing left for me is to finally figure out what kind of clothing article a “scanty” exactly is.

To Be Hero X

I don’t think I have ever been more glad in being wrong about where a story might go. Not that I was ever dissatisfied at any point, be it the very first arc or even up to the ending of its first half, it is just that the full picture eventually became something way more exciting than just what I initially assumed would be a story about the conflicting nature of heroism and identity with a side of corporate intrigue, because it has so much more going for it on top of all that. One thing I eventually came to realize is just how well To Be Hero X’s world is realized, spanning several decades and involving so many moving and interconnected parts, that it was always a joy to connect the puzzle pieces together, or rather where the dominoes of fate fall, be they sudden revelations or always hidden in plain sight and it all being in purpose of a cast I quite enjoy made it all really immersive and easy to engage in. Seriously, how there is not a single hero in the in-universe Top 10 I dislike or even simply not like is beyond me. Each is rich in themes, has a banger origin story or is just plain fun. When people talk about “superhero fatigue”, it often seems to me that stories involving superheros, especially what Marvel or DC is concerned with, have become complacent with a certain status quo and a lack of narrative challenge. To Be Hero X dares to be something every step of its way.

With that being said, I don’t think its ambition always translates perfectly into the final product. The way it tends to jump around in time and perspective doesn’t always make for the most coherent experience, especially when you consider that some lore, character work and other information is spread outside the actual series in form of concept movies and character PVs, which made reading community discussions quite an experience, as I always wondered how people know some of the stuff they talk about. It is not like any of this information is vital to understand the story, but with how careful this series handles its world, it just feels weird to not have everything included… like, why would you omit X being the coolest guy and only show Ahu’s perspective? Sure, the final episode actually pulls an even more insane sequence, but with how little screen time X actually has in the show, it is a bit of a shame to not see him in all his aura-maxing glory… though I do appreciate his efficient writing and how his seeming lack of presence in the story does wonders for others.

Speaking of its production, the anime looks and sounds amazing and I adore the bold creative choices all throughout its run. This is by far not limited by its use and frequent switch of 2D and 3D animation in the beginning and end portion of the story, but rather the decision to utilize a distinct style of animation on a moments to moments basis to most effectively tell the story it wants to tell. The action looks consistently amazing, each episode has a standout sequence and I genuinely can’t think of any power that profits more from being animated than X’s.

I don’t know if this anime will survive the test of time or will eventually be forgotten in a year, but at the very least, it does what it sets out to do and is able to amaze. So yeah, the Chinese cartoon is alright.

Anne Shirley

Somehow, I spend my entire life until now dodging any kind of confrontation with this series. Never came across the books, movies, theater plays or anything that would have even informed me what this series is about. The closest I ever got is the fact I was aware that an anime adaptation, directed by Isao Takahata of all people, exists as part of the World Masterpiece Theater. Other than that, I went in completely blind, but with an open mind and after having finished Anne Shirley, which adapts the first three novels in the series, I can kinda see not just why this series is so beloved, but also how it survived the test of time. While a good chunk of the story is clearly defined by the time it is set in, it is also weirdly timeless, at least in the way the titular character experiences the pleasures, hardships and changes in every stage of her life.

Anne is a fantastic protagonist. Endlessly expressive and imaginative, she is just a joy to behold in all her childish wonder and… tactlessness? Not sure how to describe Anne breaking her slate on Gilbert’s head, but this moment lives rent-free in my head. But once she gets older, the nuances of her character really start to show themselves. From the way she has this really idealized and even romanticized idea of love and life, her own ambitions as a student and storyteller, and especially the different kinds of relationships she forges, there is always enough depth to her that makes every plot beat feel purposeful, especially once the story starts putting stones in front of her at every step of her way. Few series handle growing up and shattering your worldview so effortlessly.

Now, I obviously can’t talk about Anne Shirley as an adaptation outside of what other people have reported, so while I can’t judge how the material has been translated into another medium or how the cut content affects the rest of the story, I do think it is rather noticeable how compressed this anime seems at times, with the middle section especially being treated more as the link between the first and third book, rather than its own proper story. I would never call it rushed, but it does make me wonder how it would have been, if each book had its own dedicated cour. But outside some minor complaints and not knowing how it fairs compared to other adaptations, Anne Shirley might just be the anime this season which I would have the easiest time recommending to basically anyone willing to give it a chance.

Witch Watch

If there is one thing I just couldn’t get over the entire run of Witch Watch, it is the fact that I don’t consider it that funny. Having more misses than hits for its respective segments is already a bad sign, but even at the times I liked Witch Watch, it never made me laugh or chuckle or even just blow air through my nose. Even its most clever bits pale in comparison to basically everything CITY pulls off at its weakest. Fundamentally, as a comedy, Witch Watch fails me and if this were the only thing it has going for it, I would actually just leave it at that and don’t spend any more time on this series as needed by writing more than a paragraph. Alas, it is not.

At its core, Witch Watch is a lot more slice-of-lif-ey than just explicitly gag focused. What little story there is, it does progress and characters change and develop, there are several romances going on and at times, the series even tries to pull at your heart strings or do action. Witch Watch is a lot more varied than what one would initially assume, which means this series is able to disappoint on so many more fronts than just one. And I mean disappoint in a very literal sense. Witch Watch is never actively bad, or at least always at a base level of competency, but even with decent set-ups, I never felt particularly invested or keen on the characters or events themselves. The best the series ever does for me is the teacher-student pair sharing their love of the in-universe amalgamation of shounen tropes turned anime called Uron Mirage and creating their own fan works, but the main cast? Nemu is fun when she is actually there, Morihito and Nico are fine, I guess, Kanshi and Kengo eventually got off the thin ice, but Miharu can just go kill himself for all I care.

I also think Witch Watch doesn’t really benefit from the format of an animated television series, often having a very uneven quantity and quality of segments in a single episode, which I would assume rolls way better off the tongue as isolated weekly chapters. In the end, Witch Watch is simply not an anime made for me and something which I should have dropped near the very beginning, instead of continuing my, not reluctant, but rather unenthusiastic journey of half a year into this series.

Yaiba: Samurai Legend

Watching Yaiba is fun. Particularly the kind of fun I would assume ten-year old me would have had if I grew up to be the kid that caught Dragon Ball, Naruto, etc. airing on TV, instead of doing normie stuff like playing outside and doing school work (Especially since I still turned out a loser anyway :D). The story is as straight-forward as you can get, doubly so as it comfortably becomes a monster of the week affair for the majority of its run, conflicts get solved by hitting the enemy hard enough and everything kinda turns out alright in the end. So yeah, for what it is, it is indeed fun. However, I am not the potential ten-year old watching anime after school, never have been, never will, and after the initial high of the first episodes faded away, I noticed how I slowly started to lose interest, less so because I found the new episodes every week themselves boring, but more so on a macro level. Watching Yaiba is fun, but just Yaiba on its own? As well animated it is and how much I adore the mix of old and new design sensibilities, I doubt I will feel the need to continue watching Yaiba once its second season comes around.

Takopi’s Original Sin

Takopi’s Original Sin is both a lesson and an exercise in resisting apathy, or more specifically, succumbing to the defeatism that caring and trying to show kindness is meaningless. The series is cruel, not just in its subject matter and the intensity with which it portrays it, but also the way it can’t give the viewer a satisfying resolution that made all the pain worth it, because despite the quite literal tear-filled finale and individual moments of found catharsis, it ends on the same ugly reality the titular Takopi had to acknowledge themselves when confronted by an exasperated girl demanding to know what she should have done instead. Takopi doesn’t know, but that is not a reason to not try.

It was not the magical rope that eventually brought Shizuka and Marina together and the other magical gadgets most certainly didn’t fix their horrible living situations. However, even if it didn’t change the world or necessarily mended hearts, Takopi’s sheer attempt to understand was eventually enough to make two people stop internalizing their own misfortune and to discontinue their hate-filled crusade against people who are unable to do anything against it. Hurt people hurt people and unfortunately life doesn’t reward you for breaking the circle, but only shows you how ugly it can get. In this regard, one can argue how far removed or not it is from reality, but there is value in Takopi’s naïvety, in so far that it would truly be sad if nothing could be done to do good.

In this sense, the years between 2016 and 2022 didn’t magically make everything better either. In fact, writing this in 2025, it is hard to argue that the world hasn’t become a worse place all around ever since. Simply caring and trying to improve by the little actions one can take is no guarantee that things will get better, but between hope and despair, I at least try to choose to believe that it is worth it and that not everything is doomed.

For what Takopi’s Original Sin is concerned, after already having read the manga a couple years ago, the anime adaptation gave me, in a sense, a weird new appreciation for what this story attempts to do, despite both my final thoughts, confusion and uncertainty included, staying mostly the same. I still think not every character beat and plot point clicks together quite as smoothly as it wants to and it stays hard to make the case in front of other people that it isn’t just exploitative misery porn abusing the hardships of children to force you to not just empathize with, but also try to understand characters you, depending on the person you are, simply don’t want to. But in the end, I am at least glad there exists art that, no matter how messy it is, wants to make it make sense.

See You Tomorrow at the Food Court

Well, this was pleasant. As one might have guessed from the label on the can, this anime is just two girls hanging out at the food court and talking about whatever, really, the only way friends are able to do… being dumb about the most random things. Wado and Yamamoto are charming (Well, Yamamoto is… Wada is a little gremlin creature that hits a bit too close to home at times) and it is really easy to buy into their friendship and general shenanigans. Comedy is solid, presentation is very simple, yet gets the job done and while I think the format would have benefitted from shorter episodes, it was always a pleasure to watch a new episode each week. It very much has a “seasonal anime” feel to it, the way I doubt I would have ever gone back for it and binged the entire show in a sitting, so it is hard to properly recommend it, but y’know, that’s fine. I have nothing more to say.

Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood

Gigguk is an interesting character. On one hand, he seems like the type of guy that would be popular, regardless of the actual focus of his channel, as I think his personality and sense of humor are his main appeal for the majority of his audience, and I would say what I have seen of the Trash Taste podcast would be proof of that. On the other hand, he clearly and undoubtedly shows a love for the game that doesn’t have to hide behind the more “typical” analysis and essay channels, especially once he himself doesn’t hide behind a layer of irony and shows his true passion for the medium. I want to stress the last part, because every time a YouTuber or similar announces a project of such capacity, more often than not, it feels more like an outsider’s first attempt at something normally beyond their capabilities, a passion project if you will, rather than a professional product. Still an incredible achievement in its own right that deserves all the respect in the world, but something that will fundamentally be judged with lower expectations, closer to something a friend would make, instead of a proper “real” thing. With that being said, it is an honest to god miracle that I can claim with my heart of hearts that Bâan not only doesn’t suck, but is genuinely good for what it is.

Bâan uses its isekai set-up the way I wish more series would do. The other world isn’t simply a place to escape to, but rather just what it is… another world. One where you can find a new home in, but also one you can return from and the way this sentiment is shared between its two main characters is kinda beautiful. “Boundary of Adulthood” sure fits the theme. It is also just tightly written, neither overstuffs or overwhelms you with exposition and despite sparse details, creates a memorable world on both sides of the portal. I am not sure I would be particularly interested in seeing the story expanded, but for a 20 minute short film, it ticks all the boxes for being a worthwhile experience.

Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood is available on Gigguk’s YouTube Channel.

Chuhai Lips: Canned Flavor of Married Women

So, this is basically about a guy who stumbles into having sex with drunk married woman… one time by being tricked by a tanuki, another time he speedruns the plot of Re:Zero and more often than not the women just feel ignored by their husband or are simply incredibly dtf. It has about as much depth as the tiny amount of chuhai left in the can, plays out like a couple of stock hentai tropes and truly makes you wonder what kind of sicko this is targeted at… and even worse, who would actually watch it.

Legally, it’s questionable, morally, it’s disgusting, personally… well, I am not beating any allegations with this one.

What’s left?

Since I have been more extensive than ever in the pursuit of wasting all my time (and somehow still having some left), this time, more than ever, there is not really anything left I feel like I have missed out on. There is the second season of My Dress-Up Darling, which I will watch whenever I can get two of my friends (whatever combination) to watch it with me and Netflix also stealthily dropped the new part of Pokémon Concierge, which I have yet to get to, in part because I literally just found out it actually released, as I am writing this very paragraph… Thanks, Netflix newsletter, for omitting the one thing I actively want to see :D. What movies are concerned, I will eventually watch both the Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man movies, most likely whenever they are made available on Crunchyroll and I am still pretty confident I will be able to catch 100 Meters in a cinema near me someday.

What non-sequel anime are concerned, I am pretty confident I had my fill, as I already picked up everything I was even slightly interested in. I also don’t trust the Clevatess praise. It does feel weird though, that almost everything I didn’t watch is rated pretty poorly on MAL, with most entries being rated around 6.5 and below. Sure, I wouldn’t have it any other way for Generic Isekai or Fantasy Slop #462, but it is a bit disheartening to see all the original anime this season falling flat in that regard too. Or maybe it was just a slow season. But beyond that, outside some misses and indifferent opinions towards others, all things considered, this was a pretty solid season of anime for me. “Never getting punished” and all that (Please ignore the previous season). I know I said this the last time as well, but as already mentioned, I will probably cut down on the amount of anime I will see in the next one, or at least want to be more open to let go of the anime I don’t care that much about, instead of watching something just because it is currently there. But we will have to wait another three months to see whether I will uphold my own word, or succumb to the gluttony that is watching seasonal anime.