Submitted 3 days ago by wjs018@ani.social to anime@ani.social
The Fall season and the entire year of 2025 is drawing to a close. Most shows have drawn to a close or are about to. So, let’s talk about it! Did anything surprise you? disappoint you? exceed your expectations? Of course, more general topics are still welcome just like any week.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Before writing about anime, in case you weren’t aware, this is actually the first week of 2026, even though it is currently still 2025 as I write this. Week numbers can be weird sometimes!
I managed to finish up the Fall shows I was watching this past week. Some thoughts:
Some good stuff this past year. Some highlights (in rough order of enjoyment):
Honorable mentions:
There were a few things that exceeded my expectations:
Honestly there was a lot to love this year. I’ll be delighted if next year is just as good.
Cygames
Between Apocalypse Hotel, Summer Hikaru Died, and Cinderella Gray, Cygames had a banner year. Last year they had one of my favorites as well in Bravern.
I also loved Bravern. It’s actually crazy how consistently excellent their shows have been.
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.
I only watched three new shows this year but loved all of them. Got a lot more to catch up on (especially Spy x Family S3 and Apothecary Diaries S2).
If you could only watch three shows from this year, you did a hell of a job picking some of the best. I can’t believe you binged Takopi, that sounds like absolute hell. Well done!
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 don’t think I got more pure enjoyment out of anything else this year.
Apocalypse Hotel was a 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 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.
Time for this season’s silly awards!
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My Christmas rewatch for this year was Suisei no Gargantia (Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet). It still holds up pretty well for the most part—the Gundam + Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind + Waterworld setting comes together (even though from that description, it really shouldn’t), and the character arcs, including the mecha’s, work. The thing that doesn’t hold up is the visuals. There is way too much 3D water that does not blend with the rest of the artwork at all, proving that sometimes trying to be more realistic causes problems rather than solving them.
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.
I find that this season to be a huge improvement over the past seasons / cour. A lot less fillers, but IMO the fillers could have been left out of the mainline series; perhaps include them in OVAs instead.
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.
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.
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 the 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)
WIP
I always forget to use these🧵
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for those now to my style of posting: if you don’t want spoilers, select the first link. If the donghua interest you, binge watch first. Then select the second link that excerpts the episode context that I spoiler free reacted to.
e.g. [1st🔗](synopsis of sorts), [2nd🔗](The reference)
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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 rewatch 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)
Gonna get my week’s watches out of the way first, and do my end-of-year impressions separately:
So first off last week, I bounced off of Nisekoi. I went into it knowing that it was an essentially automatically cheesy fake romance between two people who initially hate each other, and that it was a Shaft, which meant lots of oddly unpopulated geometric abstract liminal spaces and insipid conversations pretending to be profound, and even that the already cheesy set-up went the extra cheese mile by making the fake romance a mechanism to prevent a rival gang family war. And even prepared as I was, it overwhelmed my suspension of disbelief. Mostly it was the ensemble scenes of groups of scarfaced gangsters all simultaneously cheering on this make-believe high school romance, as if it was the single most important thing in the universe, but in the end it was that one guy with scary shiny glasses who decided that the actual most important thing in the universe was proving that the romance was a fake. It’s anime, so I have a very low bar for suspension of disbelief, and this one couldn’t even manage to meet that. Now that said, I can’t imagine that they’ll go 20 episodes with gangsters constantly popping up like Broadway choruses to squee with delight over the fake romance of two high-schoolers while scary shiny glasses stands off to the side and fumes, so I might give it another shot sometime, since the three main characters were actually relatively appealing. We’ll see…
So then, wanting something a bit meatier, I watched a movie I happened to stumble across the other day - Ame wo Tsugeru Hyouryuu Danchi aka Drifting Home. It’s a sort of contrived drama (certainly not coincidentally) in the spirit of Drifting Classroom, but aside from a few broad strokes and basic concepts, it’s very much its own thing. The thing that’s drifting in this case is the scheduled-to-be-demolished apartment building in which the two main characters, currently estranged from each other, grew up happily together, and it’s literally drifting - floating - out to sea, trapping those two and a handful of their mutual friends. And to reach back a bit, that’s certainly an even less believable scenario than Nisekoi, but they handled it well enough that my suspension of disbelief was never even challenged. It was quite good all in all - it’s a difficult but ultimately rewarding watch. The only real issue I had with it was a personal one - the male lead was the Japanese character archetype I hate the most - the angry coward. He was one of those prideful assholes who’s desperately insecure and self-doubting and unhappy, and tries to make up for it by scowling and being angry essentially full time, and they’re just like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. But it was fairly obvious he was on a redemption arc, so I stuck with it, and eventually he pulled his head out of his ass. And it was all worth it in the long run.
Next was an OVA - Kowarekake no Orgel - which was impressive. It’s about a depressed and very down-on-his-luck musician when ends up adopting a sweetly naive but barely functional and unrepairable robot he finds abandoned on a scrap heap. It could’ve easily tipped over into being devastatingly sad, since it’s made clear from early on that she really is unrepairable, so the ending is pretty much preordained, but it still managed to mix in enough hope and joy that it worked out to charmingly bittersweet and even a bit optimistic in the end. I liked it.
Then I knocked around for a bit, then ended up binging the just ended Tomodachi no Imouto ga Ore ni dake Uzai, which I sort of unintentionally dropped mid-season just because it didn’t hold my attention. I wanted to see how it all worked out, and it was… strange. It was pretty poor all in all, but not because there was anything specific wrong with it. It was more as if someone took dozens of separate ingredients for a decent anime and mixed them all together and ended up with… dozens of separate ingredients for a decent anime arbitrarily mixed together. Taken by themselves, the characters were at least okay, the set-up was potentially interesting and the way the story unfolded was potentially satisfying. But nothing fit with anything else. It almost felt like it was done by a committee - as if one team built a framework and designated a bunch of slots in the framework for different characters and different story events while a different team designed a bunch of characters and events to spec, then a third team just wedged the characters and events they were given into the corresponding slots and called it good. And for all I know, that might be pretty much exactly how it did happen. In any event, it was pretty bad, though in an oddly interesting way.
After that, I wasn’t in the mood to gamble, so I just rewatched Joshiraku, and liked it even more the second time around. The characters are terrific (and, as they constantly remind us, cute) and the dialogue is bizarre and intriguing and stupidly funny, so it works as a sort of surreal SOL CGDCT iyashikei comedy - sort of a cross between Nichijou, K-On and Food Court de Mata Ashita - and I love it.
Next up was a movie I happened on a while back - On-Gaku: Our Sound, which was fascinating. At no point in that entire movie could I predict what was going to happen next, and I finally just gave up and let it wash over me. It seems like it should’ve ended up feeling arbitrary, since it all unfolded so unpredictably, but somehow it all made sense. Sort of. I think. In any event, I enjoyed it. And odd though it was, I loved the art style.
Then I was in the mood for something raw and brutal and dramatic, so watched a couple of episodes of Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi aka Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne. It’s an early 2000s gritty cyberpunk. I intended to just watch the whole series, but it’s one of those series - more than anything else, it reminded me of the Kara no Kyoukai movie series, which is to say each of the six 45 minute episodes is an independent story from some point along the shared timeline of the main characters, and while there is an overarching plot of sorts, it’s being revealed in bits and pieces along the way rather than playing out straightforwardly. It’s quite good, but the individual episodes are a bit exhausting and the way it’s playing out means that I don’t necessarily have to watch it straight through, and after two episodes, I was ready for a break.
So I switched to one I sort of gently bounced off of a few weeks ago - Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru aka OreShura, which turned out to be a really strange harem. It started off with a childhood friend, then added a fake girlfriend, then a meek chuuni, then finally a particularly cute tsundere. It was mostly pretty standard, but with a couple of oddities. First, the protagonist is probably the most incredibly dense harem protag I’ve ever seen. That was actually okay though. I think the thing that made it okay was that it wasn’t just a gimmick that showed up as necessary to keep the harem intact - he really was just that dense, pretty much full time. The other oddity though was that the fake girlfriend was an entirely foul and loathsome bitch, and that’s not just my opinion - that was the stated reality in-universe. Even the protag thought she was awful. And as it went on, her continued presence in the harem just made less and less sense, particularly after the protag finally figured out what was going on with the other three and the other three figured out that she was a fake. But still, there she was, poisoning everything and everyone around her.
I think the author was trying to make a point about redemption or hidden value or tolerance or something like that, but since the basic arc was that she was utterly loathsome, but the protag was kind to her anyway, and… she continued to be utterly loathsome, there was never any pay-off, so whatever the point was supposed to be, it got lost. More than anything else, it struck me as a failed effort.
And at the moment, I have no idea what’s next. I watched one more episode of Mnemosyne, but I’m more in the mood for something else…
Copied from my notes I watched these shows in order this year:
In short: finished up zetsubou sensei, finished up ichigomashimaro, new game, nhk ni youkoso, aria, yurumeitsu, slow start, oomuroke dear friends, tanaka kun chibi version, tamako market/love story, bottle faries, city, ika musume, the new gintama.
I watched two current shows this year which is a lot for me. I really liked CITY of course. The highlight of the year has to be the whole series ARIA. It’s a top 5 anime for me. It does the really special thing where I end up crying without being sad. Suteki!
In terms of this season I watched the Gintama spinoff. It was definitely worth watching. However, I was watching Ika Musume in between and I did notice that I was more excited on days where I watched Ika-chan. I guess I’m a truly lost cause when it comes to moe.
Just as a follow-up to last week’s thread. I have completed going through it and enabling all the shows mentioned with our bot, @rikka@ani.social. So, barring AniList API weirdness that can happen at the beginning of a new season, those threads should be popping up when things premiere.
wietach@ani.social 6 hours ago
2025 Wrap-Up
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
Voice Acting Performance
OP
ED
Best Episode
Best Character
Best Boy
Best Girl