2025 Wrap-Up

• My AOTY: Zenshu
• Best continuing series: Shoshimin Season 2
• Best movie: 100 Meters
• Best adaptation: The Summer Hikaru Died
• Best original: Apocalypse Hotel
• Best animation: City The Animation
• Best romance: Yano-kun’s Ordinary Days
• Most underrated: Maebashi Witches

Honorable mentions: Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, Medalist, Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc and Blue Exorcist: The Blue Night Saga (both had one of their best arcs)

Score

• The Summer Hikaru Died (Tarou Umebayashi)
• Orb: On the Movements of the Earth (Kensuke Ushio)
• Blue Exorcist: The Blue Night Saga (Kohta Yamamoto)

Voice Acting Performance

• Sawashiro Miyuki as Anko Uguisu
• Umeda Shuuichirou as Hikaru
• Shinichiro Miki as Environment Checker Robot

OP

• “Kaseijin” by Yorushika
• “Saikai” by Vaundy

ED

• “Tada, Kimi no Mama de” by Sou
• “WALTZ” by Ryugujo

Best Episode

• Zenshu #4 (having an oshi saves lives)
• Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary Season 2 #6 (Osanai destroys Urino)
• Apocalypse Hotel #11 (Yachiyo takes a stroll)

Best Character

• Yuki Osanai from Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary Season 2
• Hikaru from The Summer Hikaru Died
• Yachiyo from Apocalypse Hotel
• Natsuko Hirose from Zenshu

Best Boy

• Tsukasa Akeuraji from Medalist
• Togashi from 100 Meters
• Luke Braveheart from Zenshu

Best Girl

• Memmeln from Zenshu
• Mio from Betrothed to My Sister’s Ex
• Kiyoko Yoshida from Yano-kun’s Ordinary Days

Wrapping up 2025 with a 2025 Fall review, 2025 AOTY, and 2026 Winter preview:

Fall 2025 Review:

Very busy with holiday stuff, but bits of anime filled in my spare time really nicely this year, so I actually watched quite a lot! Not a ton in the current season I was excited about, but I caught up on a lot of previous season content.

Watched current season:

• None!

Watched past seasons:

• Clevatess - Wow, this went hard! I loved this dark fantasy that took itself and its characters seriously! Power scaling felt appropriate, with strengths and weaknesses for many of the characters, and believable stakes. It did have some content I think could have been avoided easily and not mar the tone, but it at least tried not to dwell on it. Enjoyed this way more than I thought I would: 8/10
• More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers- I’m a sucker for light rom-coms like these. It’s not great, it’s predictable, but man they’re cute as hell and I still enjoy them a lot: 7/10.
• Witch Watch - Little mixed on this one. Very creative world and magic system, fun characters, really cool animation sequences. But I found the humor missed a bit more often for me, and I found the mini-sode nature of much of the content less engaging. I ended up pretty positive on it overall, but for a while I almost dropped it: 7/10.
• Dan Da Dan (S2) - Loved S1 and I loved S2 just a bit less. I really like the believable choices of the characters and how everybody is trying their best, in often bad situations. The wiiiild unexpected events and ridiculous animation sequences are just perfect. Also, a little bit of progress in relationship?? Yessss. 9/10.
• Campfire Cooking In Another World (S1) - I’ve heard for a while I should try this one, and yea, it really is so, so much better than you’d expect from the premise. I’m not an isekai-hater, but I certainly go in to this type of premise expecting a certain 6/10-at-best ceiling. This blasted through it and got me engaged with the characters, world, cooking, and semi-slow-life-charms unbelievably. Still, I found it at times a little unengaging and need a bit more of an overall plot to keep engaged longer term. Hoping S2 expands on this some. 8/10.
• Our Dating Story: The Experienced You And The Inexperienced Me - Wow. I was expecting a pretty titilating and low-thought experience from this… and it brought out feelings and insecurities I haven’t thought about in literally decades. I’ve been on both sides of this type of relationship in the past, so it felt familiar and uncomfortable and rough all at the same time. There are themes and thoughts this anime tackles that I’ve never seen another anime even try, and does so with a surprising amount of insight and grace. It’s far from perfect, with just adequate animation, and some relatively simple side/background characters. But it’s got moments that are easily moment-of-the-year territory for me, because they got me thinking and bringing up stuff that I was wrestling with for literally weeks after. Shockingly good for the premise, with “fan service” that feels actually appropriate for the content: 9/10.
• The Water Magician - What if they tried to make a non-problematic Mushoku Tensei? That’s how I felt for the first half of this show, and it did a great job. It felt like it was so interested in a slow story, building a believeable power fantasy, with none-or-very-little fan service, that had solid animation and no cop-out “anime reaction faces” throughout. I was absolutely loving it, then unfortunately it slowed a bit as it tried to pan out to the broader world. It felt a bit too rushed to get on board all the new characters introduced to rush to an ending for the season. I still liked it, but it dropped a bit, and worries me about the potential future for it. Still a good show: 7/10.
• Secrets of the Silent Witch - I’m a little exhausted by overly anxious girls that feel unbelievably impossibly shy. Bocchi The Rock was enjoyable but hard to relate to, and the beginning of this one was rough. After a few episodes, it at least mellowed enough that I could follow along, and in the end, I did actually enjoy it a good amount. There’s a fun world here and the animation and art was quite engaging. I’d be very interested in a S2: 7/10.
• Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (S1, rewatch) - I loved this season previously a few years ago, but tried to watch the first of the Rascal movies and realized I couldn’t remember at all who everybody was. So I re-watched S1 to catch up and remembered why I love this one so much. Fantastic characters, believable magical-realism drama, gorgeous art, great dialogue. One of my favorites, and now I can move on to the new movies and S2 to prep for I think the ending later in 2026: 10/10.
• Spy X Family Code White - I’ve cooled a bit on Spy X Family in S2, so wasn’t super hyped for the the movie and S3. I did end up watching it and enjoyed it more than most of S2. I’m still not sure why I’m a bit iffy on SXF. I think the secrets they keep holding from each other is getting a bit excessively unbelievable, and that tension is getting irritating. Still, this was a fun movie, with great action, a lot of silly moments, and some sequences that were unbelievabley wild: 8/10.

Ongoing:

• Dragonball - A couple episodes here and there. Still enjoying slowly. I think I’m about 1/3 through the series?
• 7th Prince… S2 - Only watched a few episodes. Haven’t felt like going back in a while, might drop.

Dropped:

• Ranma 1/2 (S2) - Lots of nostalgia for OG Ranma 1/2, but I thought S1 was just fine. I guess I was looking for something a bit more creative and updated, and this remake doesn’t seem to be it. I tried the first episode of S2 and realized I just wasn’t excited about it. Perhaps I’ll return some day.

Eventually watch from this season:

• Spy X Family (S3) - Ready to try it, now that I caught up with Code White, which was pretty good.
• Campfire Cooking S2 - Finally watched the first season and it’s great! I’ll mix this in when I need something positive (which seems to be all the time lately…).
• MHA Final Season - Apparently it really did finish! I’m a few seasons behind, but might try to get back on and slowly work through it.
• One Punch Man S3 - I’m probably going to finally bounce from the series, but I’d like to give it a shot.

Sasu’s 2025 AOTY: Lots of excellent titles this year, and a bunch more I haven’t gotten to watching! For now, this is my top 5 of 2025:

1. Zenshu
2. Dan Da Dan S2
3. My Dress-Up Darling S2
4. The Apothecary Diaries S2
5. Solo Leveling S2

Plan to watch/try for Winter 2026 season (in decreasing order of excitement):

• Frieren (S2) - Loved S1, must watch.
• Oshi No Ko (S3) - Loved S1, thought S2 was quite good, definitely looking forward to more.
• Medalist (S2) -  Haven’t watched S1 yet because Hulu-jail, but I’d like to catch up and try this since it’s gotten so much buzz.
• Jujutsu Kaisen (S3) - I’m quite behind and not sure I’ll catch up anymore.
• Hell’s Paradise (S2) - I ended up appreciating S1 by the end, but it isn’t my favorite. It’s a low priority.

I was about to make my own of these, but I left it rattling around in my head for too long.

Fall 2025 only, final impressions. All spoilers! No specific order.

To Your Eternity S3

I enjoyed the story for what it was. I think Fushi’s flailing around and Mizuha’s attempted redemption (while she was trying to manipulate him) was to set us up for yet another tragedy. While it was a disappointing arc, my guess is that the end is to have a resolution between Hayase’s line, nokkers, and Fushi’s understanding of love. This is most likely going to be an echo of Mimori’s plot. I don’t recall love emotion being felt in the past, and this ties into the Man in Black bailing out on the world.

It is interesting to me that the Man in Black lied to Fushi, and I wonder how many lies he told Fushi this season about bailing out and not being able to do anything.

Watari-Kun’s ******** is about to Collapse

I was genuinely happy to see Watari end up with Satsuki.

I was glad that he was able to take a step back from Ishihara. He had put Ishihara up on a pedestal so much that he could never see her as an equal. She, by contrast, had a poor self image. While the show never addressed it, I felt that she was unconsciously picking him because of his similar low self worth. Props to mom for her sixth sense. I think that he would not have been able to tear himself away if they consummated their relationship.

The best character here was Satsuki. She started broken, and had no understanding of her own motivations. Her character growth was off the charts.

Let’s Play

I couldn’t help but see Marshall as DanTDM, which is funny because I only know of him because of my children watching hours of his playthrough videos. His fan’s reactions are not unreasonable.

I really wanted to know more about how Ruminate works. Is there a story path for each item you purchase? Are there multiple win conditions and multiple ways to proceed? It sounds novel, but reminds me of the old-school point-and-click games.

Her boss’s advances bothered me. He needed to transfer her to someone else and put some distance there. While I appreciate his efforts at building her up, there is an obvious power conflict here.

This Monster Wants to Eat Me

I went into this hearing that it had weird yuri vibes. I GUESS, but that wasn’t really the point. I struggled with the first few episodes because of the animation. Episodes 4+ did pick up significantly. This wasn’t supposed to be a feel-good anime, and the moral of the story seemed to be that you can’t only hold out for the best outcome when compromises are available. I’m glad that the answer to her clinical depression was not to stare at the flowers and feel better (Rurouni Kenshin). That girl needs therapy.

The Banished Court Magician Aims to become the Strongest

I watched this with low expectations, and I don’t think I would have been disappointed either way. Friendship is magic, magic is magic, magic is everywhere. I think they opened more plot lines than closed. My one disappointment is how the swordmaster’s whole motivation appeared to be that he was sad.

Gachiakuta

This did not disappoint. So many great beats to this show, and unexpected moments. I appreciated the new takes on the shounen misfit group with powers trope. It appears that a power creep is on the way. Also, Regto was totally in on something about the watchmen series. I’m not sure if Rudo took his name, if Regto took him in because of his name, or if he was actually a raider in hiding. Further examination is necessary.

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s

I watched this expecting another Eminence in Shadow or Sword Art. Lucky for them they knew that my weakness is white-haired elven princesses with generational powers named Amilia. Or Emilia. Whatever. The coincidence was too close. There’s no way they didn’t know.

For being the quiet kid that nothing happens to, he sure got the best picks in this new world. I’m not even sure what the rest of his class is doing here other than to show HOW AWESOME he really is. I feel like this is like Loner Life in Another world, where they will just move around from continent to continent while he progresses the plot.

Okay, I really did enjoy it, even if the MC didn’t really seem to have to do much more than a couple training sessions before he bulked up.

Finally, who else cringed at the cliffside wedding?

Touring After the Apocalypse

I kept waiting for this to go somewhere about who the main characters really were, how did THEY end up here. Why is she still a young woman? Are all these memories fake? Was the disaster natural, war, or what? Ok, I figured the whole thing was a spot for promoting tourism (and Honda??) at some point, but I wanted a little more exposition. Peeking at comments about the source material, it seems that you will be constantly strung along.

Campfire Cooking (S1+S2)

I wasn’t going to watch this, but if there is a season two, it can’t be all that bad right? It wasn’t! I enjoyed the byplay of the characters, especially how the MC really didn’t care about the plight of the kingdom and could have probably been the deciding point in the whole thing with his monster buffs. He’s just going to hie off into the distance, escaping both the kingdom and the plot.

You know what you can’t escape? The gods. Too bad, you are now their play toy. I figured he probably should have just made an offering with each meal, but having the gods complain to him was fun.

Pass the Monster Meat Milady

To have an adult conversation about your feelings, and then commit was pretty wholesome. In fact, the whole thing was wholesome! They absolutely telegraphed the magical nuke from 5 episodes away.

Mechanical Marie

I felt that the ending was cheating, but that wasn’t the point. It was a light romcom where the female lead could do no wrong. I typically waited to watch this until I had watched everything else

A Wild Last Boss Appeared

I snoozed on this and then watched the whole thing in a few nights. It had been on my list, but I kept getting distracted by other shiny things.

A Gatherer’s Adventure in Isekai

I could have skipped this and been okay. I felt more like this was a bundle of tropes meant to sell airtime than anything new. It wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t recommend it over anything else.

Let this Grieving Soul Retire (Both Cour)

I decided that this main character must have a have a hidden max charisma stat or something. It reminds me of the Sir Bearington story about the bear who bluffed his way into being a human, except less capable. It was funny, but cringe humor is lost on me.

My Hero Acadamia

I loved My Hero, and have been watching it as it came out for years. I appreciated how the story wound down here. I heard a lot of complaints about the ending, but I felt that this was appropriate.

Gnosia

This is a refreshing take on how a game with multiple play-throughs might actually happen. They steadily increased the number of players as well as the rules. NOTHING has been taken for granted, and I appreciate it. The music was fantastic, and the characters each have their own story.

1 Punch Man, S2 + S3

I know a lot of people were upset about the use of AI on season 3, but I didn’t even see it when I was looking for it. I actually started season 3, and then realized I hadn’t watched season 2. I do have to say that Saitama’s strength gets old, but the story is more about the supporting characters.

Side-thought: Saitama and Krai from Let this Grieving Soul Retire are polar opposites, and the stories are polar opposites, but somehow the same.

Dusk Beyond the End of the Earth

As someone else mentioned, this started out as the two of them against this dystopian world, and then morphed into a weird love triangle, and then basically said that the world needs to be this way, sorry!

I think I had a little whiplash watching Akira suddenly change his tune, and I very much understand Yugure’s frustration. I feel that the ending was messy, trying to tie everything up neatly. That being said, I enjoyed the ride, even if I had no idea where we were really going.

Ranma 1/2 Season 2

As someone who watched Ranma 25 years ago, I’m happy to rewatch it. People who never watched it in the past don’t seem to enjoy it like I am, and I think the nostalgia is a huge factor. This means that I can’t give an objective opinion. I do have to say that the cleaned-up animation was pretty good. I feel like they censored much of the nudity, as the original just loved to show the women naked.

I’m stoked to see season 3, as that is when the story starts moving away from being so episodic to having a more clear path.

Sanda

I loved the stark art style and the world building. I’m here for all the weirdness this brings. Bonus points for not having everything work out. I hope to see a season 2.

Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha!

This was revenge porn, but only in the sense that revenge happens. If you went into this looking for real porn, there are other recommendations. I’m not sure if the lack of porn made this better or worse, and the edginess of the main character caused me to roll my eyes so often. Also, the supporting character’s cheerfulness and worship of the MC just bothered me.

I feel like that the racism against humanity was meant to justify that the MC can do whatever he wants. The only way this would make me happy would be if it became a self-fulfilling prophecy where his revenge meant the beginning of a truly evil empire. I think this will disappoint me, and he will be a better person once he killed everyone in his way. Guess I’ll have to find out.

Death March to the Parallel World

I forgot I watched this, and was confused as to how it ended up in my history. It took 5 minutes to remember anything. Truly forgettable.

Wow I’m late, but I wanted to comment just to have a reason to look back through the past year.

Random Superlatives:

• Best Overall - Apocalypse Hotel - I liked parts of other shows more, but this one was the best overall. It had a bit of everything, somehow held it together, and kept consistent to a satisfying end.
• Most likely to rewatch - A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof - A couple rough spots but a lot of fun overall. Maybe my second favorite new series.
• Best Guilty Pleasure - Solo Leveling Season 2 - Very satisfying as power fantasy
• Most disappointing - Vending Machine - I actually really enjoyed the first season but the second was just bad. The writing, pacing, etc.
• Worst drop off - I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons - I loved the first episode. The show should have stopped there as the show immediately undermined what I liked and turned into a problematic mess.
• Most surprising - Magic Maker - I liked the different take on magic. Having the main character have to invent it almost as a science. Not sure how it would hold up in a second season. Considered dropping it at one point, but glad I watched it through if just for being a bit different than similar shows.
• Best adaptation - Silent Witch - There were some rough pacing issues in a few episodes, but the first arc was perfect, and the art, presentation, etc. were incredible. Really hope they adapt the rest.

Fall 2025

I kept hearing that this is one of the worst anime seasons, but at this stage in my life, this is perfect: a few quality shows to follow, with plenty of breathing room to catch-up on past GOATs.

Spy x Family - season 3

I find that this season to be a huge improvement over the past seasons / cour. A lot less fillers than before, but even then the fillers could have been left out of the mainline series altogether IMO; perhaps include them in OVAs instead.

Umamusume: Cinderella Gray - part 2

I still enjoy it like part 1, but IMO the drama can be upped even more. Also, I am starting to notice powerpoint slides; not a good sign. Doesn’t matter as I am in it for the story though, and Oguri’s is cap - as in peak.

I still like Pretty Derby season 2 the most from the Umamusume franchise, but I heard that Cinderella Gray’s story becomes even better later in the manga. Definitely looking forward to future seasons.

Gnosia

The worldbuilding and set-up has been going on for quite a while, and we are now seeing hints of a climax. If they pull off the ending well, I can see it contending with the other popular shows next season in terms of personal enjoyment.

Wandance

Barring the animation and computer graphics, I heard that this anime (read: its story) is good. I ended up binging it last week and it turned out to be my dark horse of the season. (Gnosia doesn’t count because I’ve been enjoying it from the start.)

I love Wanda and Kabo’s relationship. I love the maturity of the characters and the way the story developed. I wasn’t bothered by the 3D models being used in dance sequences, plus I find CG with animation infinitely better than slideshows. If you enjoy anime mainly for the plot, consider giving Wandance a chance.

Also, thanks to Wandance, there is finally a song from this season that made it into my playlist: Stare In Wonder (Wandance OP)

2025 Overall

In a nutshell, 2025 is the year of sports anime for me, with the likes of:

• Medalist
• Umamusume: Cinderella Gray
• Wandance

being among my top picks. (Also caught up on Haikyuu!!, Sound! Euphonium and the rest of Umamusume.)

Even my favourite episode from 100 Girlfriends is a sports episode.

Also, Cygames has been killing it lately. Everyone has heard of Umamusume, but The Summer Hikaru Died and Apocalypse Hotel have been fantastic as well.

Quick shoutout to a few more anime that haven’t been mentioned:

• Ave Mujica - The most melodramatic anime I enjoyed. It gets quite edgy, but that’s what makes it stands out from the rest.
• The Apothecary Diaries - season 2 - It is now less suspense and more ancient Chinese courtroom drama, which is something you don’t often see it anime. This made it even more unique in my mind.
• There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… - The spiciest anime of 2025 for me. Say what you will of this anime; I’m in it for the yuri.

If I must pick one anime to represent this year, it has to be Umamusume: Cinderella Gray. It’s thanks to Cinderella Gray that I now find myself deep inside the Umamusume rabbithole.

Summer 2025 was a season for the ages. I doubt we’ll see something like this for a long time. The most recent prior to that was Winter 2018.

Takopi’s Original Sin: They maximized the heck out of the medium and delivered six episodes of a complex and emotional story. I may not watch it again, but this is my new #1 overall anime.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity: At the end of it all, this one delivered what I thought it could from the moment I saw the announcement poster (although the final episode carried it hard). This is where I also realized I like Kuroki Miyuki’s directional style. Cloverworks is one of the best studios out there, and within Cloverworks, Miuyki and her staff form the best team.

Other 10s in that season: Dandadan S2 (utterly consistent) and My Dress Up Darling S2 (a great step-up from S1)

The year as a whole? 15 animes watched, eight (!!) are rated a 10, five 9s, and two 8. An apples-to-apples comparison to 2024 gives me three 10/10s out of 16. It’s crazy that Summer 2025 alone has more masterpieces.

The numbers corroborated my hunch about Winter 2018. I had four 10/10s in that season and 2/3rds of all 2018, movies not counted.

Year end impressions:

Objectively good IMO:

Milky Subway was refreshingly original - especially in the natural way it presented dialogue - and consistently laugh out loud funny. Even at only four minutes per episode, I think I got more pure enjoyment out of it than about anything else this year.

Apocalypse Hotel was probably my overall favorite of the year. Over the course of its run, it hit on lots of different genres, but mostly because Yachiyo (later on with the admirable assistance of Ponko) is so conscientious and so determined, it’s ultimately more iyashikei than anything else.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity was charming from start to finish, and not just the best and most rewarding rom-com of the year, but arguably one of the best ever.

May I Ask For One Final Thing? was a rollicking adventure, and Scarlet is a much-needed breath of fresh air.

Silent Witch was a wonderful combination of fluff, intrigue and action, as Monica showed that being sweet and shy doesn’t mean you can’t also be a terrifying badass when necessary.

Personal favorites:

I’ve watched Honey Lemon Soda all the way through four times now, and have enjoyed it every time. I recognize its flaws, but I love it anyway.

Maebashi Witches was a pleasant surprise - on the surface it’s just fluff about magical girl/idols who grant wishes, but it ends up being an intriguing exploration of hope, desire, fulfillment and disappointment, and especially of the possible gap between what you might think you want and what will actually make you happy.

Taken by itself, I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time was only so-so, but that was mostly because it spent too much time telling too little story. I suspect that if it can get another season or two or three, it’s going to turn out to be excellent.

Disappointments:

Food Court de Mata Ashita is one of my all-time favorite manga, but the adaptation didn’t even begin to do it justice. It still boggles my mind that the manga did a better job at comedic timing than the anime did - how is it even possible, when you have direct control over the timing of line delivery, to get it so wrong?

After standing out in season 1 by nicely fleshing out its relatively tropish characters and making them interesting and distinctive, Sono Bisque Doll season 2 unfortunately reduced them to dull, one dimensional caricatures of themselves.