Summer Anime Season Wrap-up and Discussion Thread [2026, Week 13]

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨wjs018@ani.social⁩ to ⁨anime@ani.social⁩

At this point in time, the Winter seasonal shows have mostly either wrapped up or are airing their finale this week. So, I wanted to hear your thoughts on shows you watched this season. Shows you liked, disliked, were surprised by, disappointed by? Let those opinions rip!

Please feel free to use this thread as a normal weekly discussion thread as well! Anything that would normally be in the weekly discussion thread any other week is welcome here.

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).

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mo_lave@reddthat.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Frieren S2: Still doesn’t miss even with the director change

Ganso BanG Dream Chan: If you play Girls’ Band Party or otherwise are familiar with most of the characters and the bands, it gets really funny. Perfect for 1.5 minutes of relaxation. ED slaps as well

Golden Kamuy Final Season: I thought at first it would be a bore. Turns out, I massively slept on this series. Episode 6 has quite the goated title drop, unmatched in anime.

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Crank@ani.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Journal with Witch - my AOTS and probably AOTY. I know it’s very early to say that, but this was such an exceptional experience that I seriously doubt I’m gonna see anything better this year. A fantastic story with outstanding, realistic characters and great dialogues, that approaches you with a maturity you rarely see in anime. If you haven’t seen this, do yourself a favor and try it. It’s melancholic but heartwarming, can bring you to tears but also make you laugh. This show is like life itself.

Oshi no Ko S3 - what can I say. This season has everything I love OnK for – the drama, the grounded insight into the entertainment industry, and, most importantly, some great interactions between my favorite characters. At some points it gets a little cringe, but we all know Aqua. The direction is so good that I don’t care.

Frieren S2 - writing in this season of Frieren didn’t feel as good as in S1. I think they handled flashbacks much more tactfully back then. In this season, various events feel more disjointed, and it gives me the impression that they’re playing it safe at some points, instead of slowly building a bigger narrative brick by brick, intertwining the past and present. The direction is doing a lot of heavy lifting to keep it in decent shape. Despite that, it’s still a very good show. I liked that it had more lightweight comedic moments that actually made me laugh. The fight sequences were really well done too. I hope we won’t have to wait too long for the continuation.

JJK S3 - this is probably the best JJK has ever been when it comes to direction and animation quality. I like how they incorporated some references to iconic scenes from popular movies like Kill Bill and The Matrix. JJK never disappoints when it comes to fight choreography, and this time it was awesome in that regard as well. Can’t wait for the second cour.

You and I Are Polar Opposites - an awesome romcom with multiple pairings, where every character could be the MC of their own show. Every episode made me smile. I wasn’t expecting much, but it became one of my favorite shows of the season.

Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider - It had some ups and downs but more of the former, and it probably won’t be as funny on a rewatch, but overall it’s a great show that made me laugh a lot over the past 6 months.

Golden Kamuy S5 - it’s rare to see a full adaptation, and even less common when the adaptation is good, but in this case it actually is. This season doesn’t reach the heights of S3; it’s more serious and gory, but it’s still a lot of fun. Hinna hinna.

Fate/strange Fake - after already seeing several Fate shows, I knew what to expect, and it’s exactly what I got. As usual, there’s hardly any plot, but I like to turn my brain off and watch how the battle royale unfolds. When it comes to quality of the visuals, it’s probably my favorite version of Fate.

Hell’s Paradise S2 - this was an improvement in every regard compared to the first season. The characters feel more fleshed out, we get a glimpse into the world of the antagonists, and there are more character interactions that don’t only boil down to fighting. I’ve never been a big fan of this show but this season was really solid.

Sentenced to be a Hero - I don’t quite get how this got such a fabulous adaptation. The story doesn’t feel like it deserves this amount of care, because the production quality is top tier while the plot feels like your typical cookie-cutter fantasy show you get every season.

Shiboyugi - I’m not sure what to think about this. I really liked the first few episodes because they gave me the impression that the story would have something more behind it. But later it felt like there was more and more style over substance as the series went on. Overall, I think I will remember this series mostly for the direction because only that kept me interested. After seeing this show and Gimai Seikatsu before, I think Souta Ueno proved himself a very talented director, and I cannot wait to see him in charge of a more ambitious project.

Tamon’s B-Side - it had a fun start, but it was reusing the same kind of joke over and over so I got bored quickly and dropped it after 4 episodes.

There was a Cute Girl in the Hero’s Party - that’s just stupid isekai slop, I’ve got nothing more to say.

The Holy Grail of Eris - the premise seemed interesting, but the direction sucked, so I dropped it after 2 episodes

Roll Over and Die - another typical isekai, only this time with a female MC and some yuri, I think. Dropped after 2 episodes

The Darwin Incident - the idea for the show was really interesting. The story takes place in the USA, but it feels like the author is trying to tell something serious while having learned about America through movies and memes, so everything he portrays comes off as surface-level at best and plain ridiculous at worst. Dropped after 8 episodes.

Dead Account - the most shouneny battle shounen that ever shounened. The first episodes used pretty much every battle shounen trope they could, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. Also, the MC was insufferable. Dropped after 2 episodes.

Champignon Witch - at first it felt like an interesting, somewhat dark fairy tale, but it quickly got repetitive, the characters were one-dimensional, and generally it gave me an impression that the story stood still. I’ve given up after 8 episodes. It has cool opening song, tho

To Your Eternity S3 - I literally cannot understand how this was written by the same person who came up with S1. This is such a jumbled mess that I don’t even know what to say. Instead of playing to its strengths, it introduces a bunch of useless and annoying characters, inappropriate jokes that ruin the mood, and on top of that sometimes it feels like Fushi is mentally regressing despite his age. It’s a terrible drop in quality and I’m only still watching because I had a slight hope it would bounce back at the end, but no. It’s awful all the way through. I won’t be watching S4.

Gnosia - It was fun in the beginning, later had its ups and downs, some plot holes here and there. I think many characters didn’t have enough time to be fleshed out. Overall, not terrible for a game adaptation, but also not great.

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! - cosmic yuri, teehee. Pretty good movie, ngl. The visuals were spectacular

Love Through a Prism - a nice anime original; a coming-of-age story mixed with some romance. Nothing special, but not bad. Has gorgeous backgrounds.

Beastars Final Season Part 2 - I haven’t finished it yet but it seems like the problems I’ve seen in previous seasons still prevail. Paru has some great ideas but once she lays out the canvas, she starts to toss around and makes some really questionable choices.

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- Unboxious@ani.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  probably AOTY. I know it’s very early to say that
  
  Careful! Witch Hat Atelier and Daemons of the Shadow Realm are coming right up! Those are very different shows though, and Journal With Witch is very good, so I think it’ll come down to personal preference.
  
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  - Crank@ani.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I didn’t like FMA:B very much, mainly because I didn’t find the character writing compelling, so I’m not particularly excited about Daemons of the Shadow Realm. As for WHA, it’s being made by the studio that made Zom 100, so there’s a lot of uncertainty about whether they can actually pull it off. I’m more curious about Agents of the Four Seasons (by the author of Violet Evergarden) and Jaadugar (Naoko Yamada’s comeback to making TV series). If there’s anything that can topple Journal with Witch, then great. I just doubt it, because shows of this quality are quite rare.
    
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Unboxious@ani.social ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This season has been insane. Things I’m watching, in rough order of preference:

Golden Kamuy Final Season - Absolutely blowing my socks off. I think Lt. Tsurumi might be my favorite villain in all of anime. He’s absolutely crazy, and so are most of his subordinates and for that matter most of the characters in this show. I wish it had a higher animation budget, but the fights are so well choreographed they’re enjoyable anyways. Sorry JJBA, there’s a new homoerotic show about buff guys killing each other in town.

Journal with Witch - I still haven’t watched the latest two episodes because life has been happening, but this was the biggest surprise for me this season. Very well-written and emotional.

You and I Are Polar Opposites - Very cute and fluffy. A masterful adaptation.

Medalist - A great story with a pretty good adaptation. I wish I could say it’s perfect but something about the adaptation doesn’t feel quite right. Still a great show though, which I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to others.

Frieren - You know it’s a crazy season when this show is this far down the list. It’s good, but it kinda feels like it said what it wanted to say in the first half of season 1 and the mangaka has just kinda been flying by the seat of their pants since then. The weak worldbuilding makes me yearn instead for Witch Hat Atelier, which will be airing next season.

Jujutsu Kaisen - Some of the coolest fights you’ll see in an anime, but it doesn’t have much beyond that.

Oshi No Ko - It’s fine, but I just don’t think the author is good at writing serious drama and that’s starting to show now that we’ve reached the serious drama part of the story. TBH I’m quite behind on this one, and unfortunately having read the manga isn’t making me feel more like catching up.
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Rottcodd@ani.social ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
This seems to be a sort of consensus already on this thread - I’m following more anime this season than I think I ever have before.

For me, the best of the season has been Journal With Witch, no contest. That’s not so much a reflection of the competition though as it is just that it’s that good. I was also very impressed by You and I Are Polar Opposites. I didn’t expect a whole lot from it since I’d already read (and loved) the manga and figured it would pale in comparison, as so many adaptations do. But it not only managed to keep everything good about the manga - it added notably good animation, music and voice acting. That’s the way it should be, but cynically not what I expect.

Most of the rest of the series that I’ve followed have been good enough that I’ve continued to follow them, but not really outstanding, and unfortunately that’s included Frieren, which is still good, but nothing close to as good as the first season was. But that’s also included some series for which good enough to follow is an accomplishment in and of itself - things like Scum of the Brave, Roll Over and Die and Shiboyugi, all of which have been, if not masterful, at least better than I would’ve expected.

All in all, it’s been a solid season. The only things I dropped were Trigun Stargaze and Gnosia (and in hindsight, I could’ve dropped Champignon Witch without missing out on anything) - everything else has at least been worth watching. Mostly though, this will go down in my personal history as the season of Asa and Makio and Journal With Witch - quite possibly my new all-time favorite series.

And my watch record for last week, spoilered for space:
Started the week off quickly and impressively. On last week’s thread, Crank mentioned Kensuke Ushio, and since I don’t pay very close attention to soundtracks (other than noticing when they’re especially good), I didn’t recognize the name. But after googling, I found that he had done a surprising number of soundtracks that I remembered being impressed by. And there were of course also things I hadn’t seen and things I hadn’t even heard of, so I checked out some of those, and especially the ones I hadn’t heard of, just because I love discovering hidden gems. And among the things I found that looked at least promising was a movie - Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop (Cider no You ni Kotoba ga Wakiagaru). So I tracked it down and watched it that evening, and it was wonderful. The characters are charming, the story is sweet and very satisfying, the soundtrack is terrific and the artstyle is amazing. I just loved everything about it (and especially the artstyle). So then I watched it again. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, I followed a recommendation from that to Josee to Tora to Sakana tachi (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish), which was probably even better all in all, though somewhat differently. The artstyle and soundtrack were both straightforward and unexceptional, but the story was very, very good. Instead of just falling into a love relationship that could be summed up in a montage, as was the case with Words Bubble Up, the protagonists in this one - Tsuneo and Josee - had to work at it and overcome a lot of difficulties. But that just made it all the more rewarding (even if the climactic moment was a bit ridiculously contrived). Next up I rewatched the current three episodes of Release That Witch, just because it’s caught me off guard by seeming better than I expected, and I always see better the second time through. And my opinion stands - it’s really quite good and it’s only barely scratched the surface so far. If it lives up to the world it’s in the process of building (and I see no reason why it wouldn’t), it should be well worth watching. Then for whatever reason (I suspect just as a notably broad and extreme change of pace), I decided to indulge in some trash, and after poking around a bit, ended up with World’s End Harem, which was awful, and not in a good way. The characters were awful (and especially Reito, who’s quite possibly the single worst anime protagonist I’ve ever seen), the story was awful, the music was awful - even the ecchi was awful. It didn’t even manage to be decent trash. So then, still in the mood for trash but unwilling to gamble again, I switched to one that I watched the first season of a year or two ago and was pleasantly surprised by the fact that underneath the trash was a surprisingly good battle royale - Queen’s Blade. And the second season was much like the first - sultry girls in bikini armor (or less) and a pretty much permanent male gaze camera angle, and behind that a solid and engaging battle royale plot fleshed out with loads of political intrigue, bitter rivalry, raw emotion, ambition, redemption, hope, tragedy, grief, well-staged fights, and even some decent comic relief. That’s the way trash should be. Current: Release That Witch - as already noted, it was surprisingly good, which inspired a rewatch of the three episodes up to now, which remained surprisingly good. Shiboyugi - the final episode, and it was… okay. It left a lot of unanswered questions (including some that I thought would obviously be answered in this episode) and even introduced some new questions. But I still enjoyed both this episode and the series all in all (enough that I’m currently reading the LNs). MF Ghost - At least they’re finally back in the cars again. And so far there’s been no confirmation that this is the last episode of the season, so maybe we’ll even get to see the end of this race without having to wait until 2028. Roll Over and Die - just as I expected, the sort of weak and stupid Flum from last episode was a plot device to put her friends in danger so that she then would be spurred to go do some righteous asskicking to rescue them. And some righteous asskicking she did. And there’s more to come, and I’m so there for it. Champignon Witch - Shame about this series. It started out promising - Luna was an interesting character and her situation was intriguing, but as soon as Lize was introduced, it went sharply downhill and never recovered. His story is vague and uninteresting and as a character he’s mostly just tedious. Granted that that’s not just a poor characterization - he’s tedious in-universe (and in fact, Gustave commented on exactly that in this episode). But that doesn’t make it any more interesing, or even tolerable. And after spending the latter 2/3 of the series just endlessly repeating the same tedious loops with Lize, the series ended on… repeating the same tedious loop yet again. All in all, it was just disappointingly mediocre. Frieren - Finally, an episode that actually felt like one of the earlier Frieren episodes - the ones that made me fall in love with the series in the first place. Comfort food for the soul. Scum of the Brave - this was just a genuinely good episode, all the way through. And even better yet, it wasn’t just good in and of itself, but as a part of the broader story. I fell into this series in the first place not so much because of what it was as because of what it seemed it could work out to be - it just seemed to have a lot of potential. But then it stubbornly failed to live up to that potential. Until now. It finally feels now like it’s coming together and becoming what it seemed it could be, and just in time for the second cour of the season. You and I Are Polar Opposites - at this point, it’s pretty much just a given that each episode is going to be terrific, and this one was no exception. I especially enjoyed Nisshi and Yamada, but all three couples had their moments. Journal With Witch - this was such a gratifying episode. It still had those terrific bits of brilliant insight, but the context was different, since the characters have grown so much over the past year. And notably characters plural. Not only has Asa changed, but so has Makio (and there was a great moment when you could see Makio suddenly realizing, and being pleased by, how much she’s changed). I’m just so happy for them all.

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Endmaker@ani.social ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I haven’t been watching anime for that long, so this is in fact the most stacked season of anime that I’ve watched while they are airing.

Here are the ones that I have enjoyed the most:

Medalist

Beastars - last season

Isekai Office Worker

Journal with Witch

Jujutsu Kaison - season 3

Oshi no Ko - season 3

’Tis Time for “Torture”, Princess - season 2

Frieren - season 2

The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!!

Gnosia (continued from previous season)

You and I are Polar Opposites

Hell’s Paradise - season 2

Watanare - season 1.5?

Tamon’s B Side

Love Through A Prism

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes - season 2

That’s 16 anime!

Looking through my watch history, the second best season for me is Fall 2023 with 7 most-enjoyed anime:

100 Girlfriends

Frieren

Attack on Titan - final^final^ movie?

The Apothecary Diaries

Jujutsu Kaisen - season 2 (continued from previous season)

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid

Pluto

This season’s list is easily double that of Fall 2023!

Here are some quick thoughts on each of them:

WIP
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- Endmaker@ani.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Getting lazy:
  
  Oshi no Ko - More suspense, more drama, more good music. It is building up towards a big climax, and I can’t wait to see it.
  
  'Tis Time for “Torture”, Princess - It’s more of the same as season 1, but somehow I found this season funnier and more enjoyable. Maybe its pacing improved? Whatever the case, it is still a very cute and wholesome slice-of-life.
  
  Frieren - With the shorter episode count and just the episodic stories, this season is clearly just an intermission, the calm before the storm, setting up for the next big arc. Even so, it still delivered with the direction, the soundtracks and just the rest of the production in general. I particularly enjoyed the light bits of humour.
  
  The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind!! - This is my most anticipated anime of the season and I am glad to say that it has met my expectations. It’s production value may not be on par with the greats, but it captured the essence of the source material and that’s what truly matter for an adaptation IMO. They know how to exemplify Dou’s cuteness and kindness, providing the perfect healing each week.
  
  Gnosia - Plenty of loose threads just like Beastars IMO, but I still enjoyed the journey. Very fun, and the closest to a whodunnit in anime. (Perhaps I watched too little anime.)
  
  You and I are Polar Opposites - It is always refreshing to see a non-braindead couple, even if it is a standard romcom. Standard romances / romcoms tend to fall off and become boring to me, because it’s always the same story. What this anime did though - just like the rest of the greats in this season - is to develop the rest of the cast. Now there’s way more interactions, keeping things fresh.
  
  Hell’s Paradise - After all the build-up in season 1, we are starting to get to the meat in season 2. There are still more reveals to come, so it should be staying interesting.
  
  WIP
  
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NineSwords@ani.social ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I finished Kunon can see and * Noble Reincarnation* this weekend. They were both mid at best but a good time killer to watch while doing something else.

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