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Anime: Your personal year in review for 2025
(Stealing @kfwyre's format since I haven't seen anything similar posted here)
This is your place to share any and all thoughts on your anime watching for 2025.
What you talk about does NOT have to be limited to this year’s releases.
Feel free to share:
- Favorites
- Disappointments
- Surprises
- Memorable moments
- Self-reflections
- Anything else!
Let us know how your 2025 went.
Some of this will be from 2024 due to how I take my notes and us getting to things usually later in the year:
Dan da Dan-
Went in EXTREMELY skeptical because I was aware of some of the content I was less excited about. This managed to cross into Gurren Lagaan territory where it became screw it it's usually not too bad and I can ignore it because it's still amazing. Often shows that lean too heavily on certain tropes have garbage writing or pacing, this does not.
The Legend of the Legendary Heroes-
I'd seen it forever ago, showing the wife. A sweet spot for me in that it feels kinda like if Fire Emblem got an anime with a Dune/Game of Thrones intrigue backing. It's NOT as good as that might sound, and its also not finished (even as a light novel I believe). Still love it though.
Kaiju No 8
Eh? I get why people initially like it. Seemed ok to start, but also clearly trending to the "standard shounen storyling" with the only mildly interesting thing being the protagonists age (whiiiiich may or may not wind up gross depending on certain narrative choices that i'm sure are already handled and I never got to)
Your Lie in April
Good but too long? You could cut certain parts of that story completely, and other parts are kinda hard to accept given the previous uhh....plot. Also his teacher is raising a ditto.
Heavenly Delusion-
Enjoyed the ride, curious to see more. Could be great, could go off a cliff. All hinges on the writing delivering.
JJK-
Its gorgeous and I feel like it mostly sticks to the more interesting parts of shounen and does it well. What if the bad guy was actually bad, what if we focused on giving our large cast cool fights, etc.
Frieren-
Good show is good. Watch it.
Cowboy BeBop-
Another "Show the wife". I still love it. I love noir, scifi, and westerns. Hard not to. She....was not a fan. Liked very few characters (jet and the dog) and HATED Faye.
Read or Die OVA-
Another "show the wife". She loved it, i'm meh. I watched it in college and most of showing it to her was "hey the powers are really cool" and they are. The rest is whatever though.
Delicious in Dungeon-
Good show is good. Watch it.
I'm so curious about this! I don't think I've ever come across a negative opinion from the female perspective. Was she into the film references or the music at all? Did she have enough investment to see the depth to the characters by the end, or was she too put off to last?
Would never care about references to begin with, and doubly so when she's not a huge fan of the film references or the music (don't even think she liked the intro music.......where did I put my Voight-Kampff test??)
She made it to the end, but didn't enjoy it. I did eventually talk about with her about the various characters arcs, but she just did not care at all by the end and had mostly checked out. Lots of it just went past her because she didn't care.
She did like the fun story that the very first, and for a long time ONLY, episode of cowboy bebop i ever saw was the space lobster one. I just assumed it was supremely dark comedy/horror/weird/fucked up show where they would kill all the characters every episode.
She didn't outright despise it, but I don't think she'd ever watch it again. She's very big into having characters that are likeable (i've changed her view on that somewhat), and "band of misfit rogues" was not her speed. She despised how uppity, backstabbing, and entitled Faye was, and I think by the time we got to her arc she just didn't care at all.
If I remember later when she's up i'll ask her about it again (it was beginning of the year) and see what she has to say and summarize here.
Interesting....did she also not like Firefly? Guardians of the Galaxy? Erh, Sailormoon?
I wonder if I would also dislike Faye if I started watching Bebop today...
Unrelated: Lazarus wasn't bad by any means but somehow didn't make its way into this year's top anime. Also band of misfits.
Yeah I knew when I typed that it was a bit more nuanced because yes she likes most of those shows. I think it’s more that spike and co are more noir rogues than “secretly, and not very,a heart of gold”.
Per the Wife:
Yeah, only Jet, Ed, and Ein were not assholes. Everyone else sucked (Editors note: This means Spike and Faye).
At no point did I like Spike.
She admits she might like it more on rewatch with an "okay i swear they grow" caveat (editors note: Not going to attempt this, much more to watch).
I like band of rogue things, but these guys (editors note: Spike and Faye) were just assholes.
Editor: Do you remember spikes ex?
Wife: various questions trying to establish who the fuck i'm talking about. (ed note: she does not, she fucking HATED her too.).
Editor: Me talking over various plot points with wife like Spike's eye
Wife: I don't remember that at all.
After more discussion she believes that she might possibly like Faye on rewatch but almost certainly not Spike.
Wow, this is the first I've heard someone go past lovable rogues to call any one of them outright assholes. Maybe a bounty hunter did her wrong in a past life, lol. If she cares at all about this random person's opinion on the internet, I do recall having a notably different read on the show and its characters on my second watch (even though I liked it from the jump)... I picked up on quite a bit of depth to the characters that I missed when I was just enjoying the vibe on the first go around. That was after a period of about 10 years though, so no telling if it was a maturity thing or an attention thing.
I think some of it is part of the different tolerances people have for various character types in media.
Like, if you literally had to live and work with Faye or Spike in real life, they're assholes (at least from the start of the show). From a media perspective they're "fine" because they're clearly protagonists and we learn more about them and whatever, but from a "stranger dealing with them" Spike is basically a lazy layabout who is as likely to screw everything up as fix it, and Faye is straight up out for herself, lazy, and manipulative (justifiably to some extent given her backstory, but yeah).
As a kid and adult I have various reasons for not caring, and to me it doesn't matter if they are good people, but to her they're pretty grating from out of the gate and that set her off. She tends to hate mobster stuff too like Goodfellas (trying to get her to watch Casino one of these days) for similar, even more accurate, reasons since they're flat out not good people. Also can't get her into Archer despite her growing to love Venture Brothers because, again, they're all assholes.
Obviously those later examples are much more extreme, but I think cowboy bebop crossed into that line for her very very quickly, and didn't do well enough to pull her out of it like Venture Bros did.
Exactly how I feel about that show. My friends disagree though! Ah, the curse of having good taste ;)
Always thought the show was better.
Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0. It's a movie.
I'm an old timer (in my 40s, watched the original on TV when it came out). I found it too fast, diluting the drama.
They summarize a lot of stuff I consider essential. To be honest, I would rather they remove even more stuff if that meant giving the remaining material room to breathe. In my opinion, that would be better than the music video I watched.
Hopefully, the other movies are more successful at doing their own thing at a more reasonable pace.
As hard as it is to say I think you should save your judgment until you've finished the movies. Or at the very least the second one.
I can't imagine that this will change my mind about the editing, which crams way too many shots and information in not enough time. I fully expect and hope that it will arrive in a good place narratively, though.
I feel like they do sort of expect super fans to have recently rewatched the entire series and movies before watching 1.0 so... Yeah, it's a lot. Being a lifelong fan but an old timer as well, I don't know that I would necessarily describe anything Eva related as "reasonable".
I feel that they were in a tough spot and tried to accomplish contradictory goals. On one hand, fans will complain if any of the iconic shots are not there. On the other hand, new audiences (and also fans like myself) may find it too fast or confusing.
On an elementary level, many shots, pretty as they are, are not allowed to be on screen for enough time to be appreciated. I would rather have fewer shots if the remaining could stay with us just a second longer.
Agreed. the movies are long, I'd be here for it all if they instead went for a an entire season or five...but that's not their style. They've done the single frame subliminal images / blink and you missed it / sudden rapid cuts since episode 1 of the tv series though, so, unfortunately you and I will have to be content with pausing frequently at home. It's part of the fun though, to pull out our whiteboard and red yarn for EVA theory craft and discovery
Back before the year began I planned out a shortlist of anime to watch in 2025, in this case romance shows I haven't seen yet that had their 10th/20th/30th anniversary in 2025. This isn't something I've done before as I generally prefer to go with my whims and watch what I feel like while sticking to a general theme for the year (e.g. older anime or anime films), but I thought it would be fun to try a different approach.
Results were mixed for a few different reasons that can be broken down by decade:
2015 — I was already watching airing anime regularly in 2015 so most of the ones left for the shortlist were entries I passed over before, usually due to a lack of interest. A lot of those were battle school ecchi harem entries, very much not to my general taste but I've decided that for now at least I'm a completionist when it comes to romance anime. The main exception was Working!! (which started earlier but the third season was that year) and I loved the workplace comedy shenanigans there.
2005 — This was a mixed bag with a number of other ecchi series and mediocre visual novel adaptions, but also a couple of interesting action/adventure shows (Basilisk and Elemental Gelade) and a few dramas that were fun as a rollercoaster ride even if I didn't find them well-written (Suzuka and Peach Girl).
1995 — The standout year with some classics like Tenchi Muyou and Magic Knight Rayearth, but also two series from the same creators as some of my favorites: H2 (manga by Mitsuru Adachi who also wrote Cross Game) and Gokinjo Monogatari (manga by Ai Yazawa who also wrote Nana) which were both great. Maybe the most surprising series from the whole shortlist for me was Kaitou Saint Tail, which is a magical girl heist series with a first love at the core.
Since 2020 I've started the year with the earliest Precure season I hadn't yet watched, but I halted this year's backlog entry Dokidoki Precure (along with You and Idol Precure, the newly airing entry that I also try to keep up with) due to the focus on the romance shortlist. I did watch a number of other magical girl entries as part of it though, including Wedding Peach which felt a lot like a Precure prototype even if they were under different creators. In theory I could finish it in the next couple of days as I'm over halfway through but not sure how much I'll want to binge the rest.
The other highlights for non-airing anime:
The third season of Sound! Euphonium which cemented it as one of my favorite anime overall and was an excellent capstone to Kumiko's journey.
Watching Belladonna of Sadness in a theater for my 1400th completion on MyAnimeList. It was an experience.
Watching Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise earlier tonight for my 1500th completion. Still thinking about that one even if I don't believe it'll end up as a favorite.
As for anime that came out this year, it felt like a step down from 2024 for me with romances in particular, but there were a couple of things I did quite like. Early in the year we got I Have a Crush at Work, which was annoyingly never licensed in the US but I still want to recommend because it's one of the few anime I've seen that has an office romance with a couple that doesn't act like a pair of kids around their first crush when it comes to interacting with each other. And with the final episode coming out in a few hours, my favorite anime of the year (assuming it doesn't crash and burn) is With You, Our Love Will Make It Through. I wasn't expecting the furry-adjacent series to come out on top, but it's a great shoujo romance that gets a bit steamy.
Despite seeing frequent complaints from others that this season was a weak one, this fall had the most anime I've ever watched airing at 26 entries, well past my previous high of 16 a decade ago.
Due to that and pushing myself some to get through most of the shortlist, this year's had the most anime I've ever seen going by hours watched (about 830 though I don't know how much I trust that number) and number of entries completed (about 190). Probably not something I'll want to aim for again, but I had fun without burning out like I did a few years ago. I already have a plan for next year that's a lot smaller in scope.
sees Durinthal's MAL
Are... are you trying to watch all the anime?
Royal Space Force is absolutely one of my favorites. Give me that sweet, sweet late-80s hand-drawn animation, baby.
Not all, but I'm currently at about 40% of all romance-tagged TV shows on MAL.
I regularly see posts on /r/anime along the lines of "I feel like I've seen every romance anime" where the number they've completed is usually less than a hundred. For a joke I'd like to eventually make a similar post along those lines and have it be true.
Omg. First I was like "...My MAL looks that long..." Then I quickly realized that's just their list from this year. And then when I looked at their full list, I just kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling...Wow. That's more than impressive!
If you don't mind me asking, about how much time do you spend each day watching anime? Also, how quickly do you end up dropping animes or decide that you don't feel like continuing?
I'm definitely going to be coming back to take a look at your lists later this week since I'm rounding out work and need to go dive in to the post move craziness my life has become.
Watching anime's been my main hobby for more than a decade and I don't have a lot of obligations outside of a job so it's easy for me to sit down after work and watch a dozen episodes if I feel like it (though I usually don't). The mean time per day since I got back into watching regularly is under two hours, though this past year has been higher at about 2.3 hours/day.
The size of my list is a bit deceptive since a good number of entries are single episodes, like side stories of shows that get released and counted separately. I also like to dig up older obscure standalone OVAs that are only a few episodes long at most.
For airing shows I'll drop something without hesitation for the most part for any number of reasons, including things that I like well enough but have too much else going on or I just don't want to watch it weekly and will get back to it later. For things coming out of my backlog I've usually decided that I'm going to finish it once I start it. I'm also usually more selective about what I watch from there unless it's due to other people, like part of a group watch or a swap with someone else that picked it for me.
The exception to the above is for anything with the romance tag, which I'm going to watch no matter what for the foreseeable future. I'm well aware that it's not a good use of my time since there are a lot of them not to my taste, but it's a fun project in its own right to pass judgment on things that have been forgotten over time for good reason and occasionally dig up a true hidden gem.
I also won't hide that my preferences don't align with what's popular, for example I have no interest in watching the current big action shows like Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, and Jujutsu Kaisen.
I also noticed that I currently have exactly ten entries that released this year that I've rated over 7/10 so that makes an easy cutoff for a top 10 list:
With You, Our Love Will Make It Through — Great execution of a shoujo school romance on the steamy side and has an interesting theme handled somewhat maturely beyond that.
I Have a Crush at Work — An adult office romance that doesn't have the couple acting like middle schoolers around their first crush.
This Monster Wants to Eat Me — Fantastic atmosphere in how it conveys depression and I love the trio's dynamic.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 — A step down from the first season for me but I still loved everything about it.
cocoon: Aru Natsu no Shoujo-tachi Yori — A beautiful and painful story following some girls during World War II.
Milky☆Subway: The Galactic Limited Express — Great banter, nice quick story, good 3D animation.
Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 2 — I unexpectedly liked this one a lot more than the first season, good shenanigans and a great finale.
Senpai is an Otokonoko Movie: Sunshine After the Rain — Not the perfect ending that I wanted but it was a good conclusion to their story.
Catch Me at the Ballpark! — Slice of baseball with a fun cast around the stadium.
A Star Brighter Than the Sun — The flip side of shoujo with insecurities around one's innocent first love and a great childhood friend story.
I mostly stuck to seasonals this year, of which there were many good entries. I'll post my thoughts on them later.
One gripe I'd like to air is the direction fandom seems to have taken in recent years where people seem to silo themselves off into a single genre or two. While I'm not able to claim the same sort of street cred as westerners who began watching back in the 80s and 90s, I started back in the early-to-mid 00s where anime was starting to climb in popularity, but was still niche enough that you didn't really have the luxury of being able to stick to a single genre because if you did, you'd have practically nothing to watch. As such, even going into 2026 I'm equally likely to pick up shows across a wide spectrum — Wotakoi, Horimiya, Sono Bisque Doll, Nozaki-kun, Steins;Gate, Clannad, Psycho-Pass, Sanda, Gurren Lagann, Iron-Blooded Orphans, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Frieren, Dungeon Meshi, Lain, Welcome to the NHK, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, CITY, Violet Evergarden, and Uramichi Onii-san among several other scarcely related entries are examples. I've of the mind that great anime transcends genre and has something to offer and that shows and movies that excel only on a single axis or are exceptionally well-rounded despite not standing out can be enjoyable, even if they don't belong to a category that'd immediately spring to mind as a favorite.
The practical impact is that it's a lot more difficult to get a feel for anime and manga from online sentiment than it used to be. Online opinion these days is much more weighted towards the holder's preferred genres, and in some cases disproportionately negatively weighted based on content/subject matter — shows and movies will often not get even middling marks unless they cater to the holder's every little whim which in my opinion makes for impossibly high standards that only the tiniest handful of material has a shot at meeting. The 8 and 9/10s of yesteryear are often now, to quote the kids, "mid".
Maybe I'm just turning into the old man yelling at clouds, though.
I'm sure this won't be well received here but IMO it's best to ignore anime fandom more or less entirely if you want to maintain any sort of reasonable perspective. Much like with video games, any pros are totally outweighed by the cons.
Probably true, but unfortunate since it's not as if I have many real life connections to talk about anime/manga with, even with both being as popular as they've become.
Horimiya and Nozaki-kun are some of my favorite highschool romances :) I am desperate for more Nozaki
But yeah, pulling out my old man card, I'm still sore from newer anime fans voting Solo Leveling as crunchy roll best anime 2024. It's good, and probably better than many others yes, but best of the year when Frieren was also aired just makes me sad that folks clearly missed out, or question what is the meaning of "good". Excitement is one aspect of good, not its entirety. Then agai, Bleach commanded a similar excitement back in its day. Shounen is a young man's game.
I'm just as down for the hype moments that a good shounen delivers as anybody else, but other things are fun to watch too for different reasons. It's similar to how most people can appreciate a good dessert as much as they can a good main course, and it's hard to imagine getting stuck eating nothing but cookies when there's so many other types of food on offer.
It'll be interesting to see how newer fans' tastes change (or don't) over the coming years.
Despite my tantrums, I'm honestly so thrilled to see new people getting into anime. Crunchy roll absolutely did the right thing giving their new fans exactly what they came for, and all that money coming in for Solo or Uma Musume or everything else only boosts the entire industry up. I'm seeing so much anime goods in regular mainstream stores now, we're not weird weeb niche anymore thanks to new fans, it's amazing.
A little self-reflection based on my shifting anime preferences this year:
As far as I can remember, romance has been my go-to genre for most media (including anime) throughout my adult life. While that was probably still the case this year, I also found myself specifically enjoying/seeking out anime about parenthood, which I didn’t really notice until it became a continuing pattern. So thanks brain/body/hormones/whatever for the message, I guess.
I don’t expect this could be a continuing thing in terms of anime though, since I don’t think there’s a whole lot of parenting-focused stuff to begin with. Anime featuring children are already a minefield, so maybe that’s for the best. I do wonder if I’ll continue seeking this stuff out in other forms of media next year, or if it was just a one-time thing.
Interesting. I've never really thought about parenthood as a genre per se, but there are actually a fair number of anime / manga series which approach it from different angles.
Off the top of my head:
Would be interested to hear if you saw any others that resonated with you.
Somebody else knows this show exists??
It's been a while since I saw this one, but Kakushigoto was kind of charming and sad at times. Note that it's a comedy first so it'll have a lot of gags, but it's still a sweet story.
Good shout. I'd totally forgotten about this one!
Kumeta's current series Shibuya Near Family is also excellent.
About parenthood huh. Anime is pretty notorious for pretending kids just don't have parents, or they are bad parents, so not that many I can think of aside from the "found family" trope. I don't want to name anime that just has decent parenting and families rather than ones about parenting
Wolf Children (movie) - Five Stars recommend
Mama is a Fourth Grader (1992) - time travel, don't worry.
Aishiteiruze, Baby (2002)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aishiteruze_Baby) - fostering
I tried to think of examples myself but Wolf Children totally slipped my mind. Great recommendation.
I thought I would have made more of a dent in my PTW list this year but I ended up watching more regular TV than I expected.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes prequels - Most of my anime watching time was occupied by Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Gaiden and Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Gaiden (1999). I started in 2024, so it took me about 20 months all told to finish them both. I did watch in storyline order, which meant a little hopping from one to the other and back. It's pretty much what you'd expect from LoGH: decent characterization for the main characters while most side characters aren't more than plot devices, and good pacing that allows the fairly shallow story to breathe. A bigger LoGH fan than myself might have picked up on whatever callbacks (or in this case, callforwards?) that were included, but I probably watched the original series too long ago for them to register. What did strike me was Reinhard came off not merely as ambitious or even ruthless, but slightly more of a sociopath than I thought he did in the main series, with the way he references the death of incompetents or other who may seem inconvenient, in a manner that is unusual even for military or other warrior archetypes. If it's the immaturity of youth, I suppose it fits. I'd give them both about 6-6.5 out of 10, with 1999 having the better slightly collection of stories.
Lazarus - I generally wait to see what AniDB scores turn out like rather than catching shows as they air, but I did watch this with the rest of the world because I know anything Watanabe makes will at least be worth a look. I agree with the popular consensus that it was pretty underwhelming... I could see the ideas that went into it, but I think the death of his main writing collaborator, Keiko Nobumoto, during production really hampered the final result. I couldn't help but see the similarities to Bebop despite Watanabe bristling at the comparisons, and it felt like someone trying to convince me they've got a copycat recipe of one of my favorite dishes from my favorite restaurant but they didn't come close to nailing it.
Goddamn does he have an ear for music though. Kamasi Washington's work on the soundtrack is AMAZING, and the Bonobo and Floating Points contributions are really good selections too. I'm usually shocked when I see people recalling specific scenes from their favorite shows when they hear a track, but I hear Sageness and can instantly visualize the episode when it played - such a great highlight!
Minor spoiler
I'm sure that match of this track to the scene, and its impact, is intentional too. After the first few episodes I read a promo interview Watanabe did and he specifically mentioned something about showing climate change in the world, and that stuck out to me because up to that point there were glances here and there at the state of the climate but no focus on it. When I got to *that* episode, it clicked, and it helped me interpret some things that hadn't seemed to make sense.As a fellow music lover I really wish there were more directors that incorporated music with such priority, that use it as inspiration and have the kind of collaborative process or audiovisual feedback loop Watanabe utilizes when writing, storyboarding, etc., rather than simply pasting a soundtrack on top. It makes the product greater than the sum of its parts.
All in all, 6/10 for me.
Initial D First Stage - Speaking of music, I also watched this in 2025. Despite its flaws (annoying sidekick character, fairly hackneyed romance subplot, the CGI hasn't aged especially well, and the art is occasionally questionable), it's easy to see why Initial D is so loved - it's just fun. Pumping eurobeat and endless downshifting equals adrenaline. I can see how it would have made a great gateway anime if you were into cars, music, or were just a bored young teen. I don't know if I'll ever continue the franchise... I don't mind seeing what happens with the characters but I'm not willing to sit through any more full seasons to find out, and from what I've seen the movies just focus on the races. Oh well. Another 6.5ish out of 10.
Mugen no Juunin (2008) - I ended up watching this version of Blade of the Immortal just to see how different it was from the 2019 adaptation, Mugen no Juunin: Immortal, which is one of the only two animes I've ever rated a 10. Without having read the source material, I don't know if it's as bad as manga readers declare, but the voice of this adaptation seems muddled. It's kinda bland for the first two-thirds, and by the time it starts to examine its core question - whose right is it to take a life - it's about finished. It makes sense that the manga was still going when this aired; this mainly made me appreciate the brilliance of Hiroshi Hamasaki's later interpretation. 6/10.
Lupin the IIIrd movies - I watched The Woman Called Fujiko Mine last year but didn't realize they'd followed up this adaptation of Lupin until mid-July, partially because of the slightly different spelling (Lupin the Third vs. Lupin the IIIrd, which I believe is supposed to denote adaptation continuity). I like this grittier, more mature adaptation that they share... I'm someone that actually liked the first few episodes of the first series before Miyazaki took over. It's still a little jarring to see headshots, blood splatter, etc. but there's not too much to say apart from the difference in tone, you can't really miss with Lupin. Jigen's Gravestone, Goemon's Blood Spray, and Fujiko Mine's Lie each get 7/10.
Phoenix: Karma Chapter - I liked the anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Hi no Tori/Phoenix, if only for the maturity in the perspective. This movie is another tale in that universe... supposedly one of karma, but everyone sucks here, IMO. I suppose it's about a 5/10 overall but it's actually not a bad social drama.
Chiisana Koi no Monogatari: Chichi to Sally Hatsukoi no Shiki - Lastly, a bit of a hidden gem. This one-episode, shoujo-romance TV special is a wholesome, tongue-in-cheek look at the silliness and melodrama of puppy love. Featuring a vertically-challenged main character and her popular, beanpole crush, one thing I really appreciate is that it doesn't devolve into tropes. I wish anime held on to this sense of emotional maturity past the 80s. 7/10 for me.
Not sure if I'll have as much free time to devote to watching stuff in 2026 but I do want to aim for better quality next year. Maybe a third of the ~200 titles on my PTW are things I expect to be good and definitely want to watch at some point, so at least I have options.
That last one looks right up my alley, I'll have to check it out.
Pretty good year overall!
I'll limit this to 2025 because holy cow, that's still an absolute ton of shows given how much is coming out these days.
Favourites of 2025
Shōshimin: I love this even more than Hyouka. The oddball platonic dynamic between the two protagonists and their verbal and mental sparring is so satisfying to watch, and the commitment to telling a full story with an arc over the course of their school life together pays off wonderfully.
CITY: Weekly dose of joy.
Mono: Weekend animation: Just such a cheerful, fun and undemanding show backed by a likeable cast, great performances (Kiriyama is a standout) and nice fluid animation.
Disappointments of 2025
Mobile Suit Gundam Gquuuuuux: Look, I like UC Gundam as much as the next guy, but if the intention was to focus so heavily on Char's story, they should have just made him the protagonist like in Origin. All three of the actual protagonists come off as undercooked and the ending just devolved into a slurry of fanservice. Credit to Tsurumaki for the great animation but Anno does not deliver on the writing.
One Punch Man S3: Shounen Jump has paid so much care and attention to nurturing their other series (even Jump Plus stablemates like Spy Family and Chainsaw Man) that I'm so curious as to how they fumbled this. One Punch Man may not be their flagship title, but it's well known and beloved both within Japan and overseas and very easy material to adapt - this should have been a slam dunk! I would love to see the Shirobako-style insider story as to what went wrong here one day.
Lazarus: I don't want to say this is a bad show, because it is fun to watch week to week and it has some great action. However, everyone went in with sky high expectations because this was meant to be Watanabe Shinichirou's return to the genre that made him a legend, and it just doesn't come together as a package in the same way as his earlier work. Would have worked better if they'd either cut some stuff like the assassin guy or extended it to a full 26 episode run.
3-nen Z-gumi Ginpachi-sensei: I just wanted more Gintama, but instead I got someone writing a totally different show using Gintama's characters. Awful.
Surprises of 2025
Chainsaw Man: Reze arc: I was rather cynically expecting this to just be the next season packaged as a more profitable movie, but on top of delivering everything that you could want from Chainsaw Man (flashy action, off-beat writing and imaginative visuals), it's just a great movie in its own right and absolutely not the sort of story that should be told in episodes. The tender performance for Reze in particular is just outstanding and really invites you to go back and imagine what's going through her head in the earlier scenes once you've seen the entire story play out.
Ruri no Houseki: It's an anime about
rocksminerals, but it's actually pretty good? Despite the abundance of unnecessary fan service, it's genuinely educational and beautifully drawn and animated to boot.Apocalypse Hotel: It shouldn't work on paper but somehow it does. The sheer unpredictability and variety in the episodes, the weird sense of humour and the strangely heartwarming themes all come together in one tasty soup. As someone who rarely takes holidays, the forced holiday episode is one that will remain in my memory for a long time.
Link Click: Great Nolan-esque time travel thriller that really shows off what Chinese studios are becoming capable of.
I'm glad I'm not the one who was disappointed by Gquuuuuux. The declaration of love by the... uh, antagonist, I guess.... really came out of nowhere and it actually made me scream at the TV. It may have also had the worst pacing of any show I've ever seen. It was like it was greenlit for 48 episodes, then halfway in they were told they'd only have 24, and then a few weeks later they changed their mind and went for 12. It was a very pretty show with some fantastic ideas behind it, but man, did they end up fumbling the execution.
I super want to watch Ruri no Houseki but dont want to deal with fans service. -..- just want to see rocks man, ugh
If it helps, it mainly takes the form of superbly drawn thunder thighs on a mature woman while she's mining rocks rather than sexualizing teens and putting them in weird situations.
Shoushimin season 1 was my favourite of that anime season, but for some strange reason I haven't been able to feel like I really want to start season 2. Seeing you talk about it makes me want to push through the reluctance and just go for it since it's such a uniquely calming show.
Your other watches like CITY and Apocalypse Hotel means I should pay more attention to your posts. It seems like there's some overlap in interest.
I'm with you on Ginpachi-sensei, but I also wonder if I'd feel the same way about the early Gintama episodes in isolation because it felt like it was using those versions of the characters for the most part. The few exceptions were I believe the more anime-original bits like the baton pass at the start, unfortunately that was also my favorite scene from the entire show.
As for GQuuuuuuX, from what I've read Anno's involvement was limited to the alternate One Year War prologue (and only has writing credit for those episodes at a glance) so I'm not sure how much can be pinned on him; the shift in the setting and Challia's prominence for sure, but not sure how much that affected the trio of kids. Still a mess even if I enjoyed the UC fanservice.
I don't think I've ever watched as much anime in a year, as I did in 2025. By a longshot. I've watched at least 13 series/seasons this year. Doesn't even include my basically annual at this point rewatches of various Ghost in the Shell series and such. Either way, finally making good use of that Crunchyroll subscription that I've had for years!
Favorite anime I watched this year: Chainsaw Man and Frieren. I like Frieren because it's relatively chill, and sometimes that's just needed. Especially for me at the beginning of the year. Plus the memes from Frieren are just top notch. I'm ready for the next season.
Then on the other hand, Chainsaw Man, which is probably the opposite of chill. Interestingly, the same friend recommended both and I was a little hesitant on Chainsaw Man since I wasn't really in the mood for a shonen, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was and how attached I got to the characters. It certainly helps that the show isn't afraid of killing characters off, either. It makes that attachment feel deeper.
Surprise anime of the year: Death Parade. There was something cozy about this anime, which sounds weird given the subject matter. Y'know, death and the afterlife. It was melancholic, but hopeful as well. And even though I wish the show was a little longer, I can appreciate telling a good story in a single season and then just being done.
The "I'm watching this because cute boys" anime of the year: Link Click. I was gonna say Lord of Mysteries, but I'm actually invested in the story and lore and everything. Not saying Link Click doesn't have a decent story and isn't interesting...But let's be real here. I'm watching it because hints of BL.
I should say, however, that between Link Click and Lord of Mysteries, I'm very impressed with what Chinese studios are doing. I think these are the first Chinese animes I've watched. I'm excited to see different stories, lore, tropes, etc from the more "traditional" Japanese anime ones.
And lastly, my "Hmmmmm, IDK..." anime of the year: Gnosia. This show is ongoing, and I think I'm only an episode behind right now. But Idk...I thought it was going to be like Danganronpa. It's not. I mean it sorta is? But not really. I feel like the more that's introduced and revealed, the more I'm like "...Really? That's the direction this show is going in? That's the reason this is happening? OK..." I'll probably watch it to the end, but my personal excitement for it is dropping quickly.
For 2026, I want to do some rewatches of some of my favorite series. Last Exile. Psycho Pass. Code Geass. For that last one, I there's some additional series that've come out over the years that I haven't seen. So I'll add those to the list, as well.
Gnosia seems really cool. I watched a few episodes but I don’t want to continue because I want to play the game and not have things being spoiled by the anime. The anime has some notable differences from the game but at the same time that’s exactly how the game works so it would still spoil things!
I’m glad that I decided to wait because the reveal of some things are so much better than I can imagine it being in drama form. Particularly how the bug is revealed, but I won’t say more because spoilers.
Is anyone else just amazed that anime is so dang good these days? What a fantastic year.
City: The Animation - highest possible honours to this whole show, and special medal to the Party episode in particular. Far and away my favourite New anime this year, and an overall three way tie with...
Frieren and Dan Da Dan
GQuuuuuX : in the end not crazy about the character designs nor the Gundam units. Nor the story. Sorry
Lazarus : not bad at all, solid B+, but was expecting S ranks, sorry.
Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity : not bad but I'm too old for cutesy highschool romance slow burn, sorry
One Punch Man - please do go back and watch Mob Psycho instead.
Kowloon Generic Romance - no spoilers
Night of the Living Cat - more hilarious than expected. Very unique premise
Gachiakuta - unique art style. Hopefully they end it soon instead of dragging it out into a Big Three Shounen type.
May I Ask For One Final Thing - romance action comedy done right
Sequels: Spy x Family, My Dress Up Darling, Apothecary Diaries - they're very good, just a crazy stacked year, can't justify putting them up next to the top favorites side by side.
Zenshu - an original in story, character, and world design. Achievement in love letter to Animation.
Tojima Wants To Be Kamen Rider - I don't even like Tokusatsu and I can't wait for more of this insane series. The author really truly loves Kamen Rider, and that intense passion is dang right infectious. Give it 3 episodes before you decide.
Apocalypse Hotel - I have high hopes
Finally, someone else who saw Zenshū!! I needed a positive message like the one this show delivered. It's definitely one of my favs this year. Plus Natsuko's sass has made her one of my heroes, lol! I also watched Kowloon City Romance right around the same time, which seemed like the right way to go since the theme was nostalgia and a joy of anime tropes. But agreed, this is definitely one to go in blind on.
But I back you 110% that City: The Animation takes the crown for this year. What a fantastic show and I'm ever so hopeful for a season two! Thank you for having recommended it to me! I've been telling people left and right to watch it. Some people look it up and go, "ugh, from the creator of Nichijō?" while others go, "oooh, from the creator of Nichijō?!"
No joke, on the recommendation of a friend, I started May I Ask For One Final Thing? and it's a riot!
I didn't mind Fragrant Flower and thought it was pretty cute (and refreshingly free of fan service), but I can totally relate to the fact that it's still a show about kids, which makes it a bit harder to get into. I want a side story about Rintaro's parents running the bakery, though!
Of course, I'm also still catching up on all the big ones like Spy x Family, Frieren, and Apothecary Diaries. Plus 百妖譜 season 5 wrapped up not too long ago as well. I dunno how I'll have time for everything else coming in 2026, lol. 2025 was packed!!
Anyway, you have some great picks for this year!
EDIT: Also, as a kidding side note, I like the way this reads:
I may have been too harsh on Fragrant Flower :) it is still one of the ones I watched to the end of season this year and would still recommend, I'm just too old for it anymore and it blends in too much with all the other ones I've seen over the eons. I do like that characters have fairly unique personalities, and Rintaro's healthy parents are always a welcome surprise. 7/10 well earned.
Generic romance 👎
Generic romance 👍
Kowloon Generic Romance was a frustrating watch for me because it felt like it was on the edge of being great but the execution didn't quite work. Still recommended in general since that was more of a personal issue.
I'm glad that City is getting love, I haven't seen it yet (want to watch it after Nichijou) but the feat that Kyoto Animation pulled off is worth praise.
Kowloon’s femme gay romance antagonist almost made me stop watching, so I get you. It felt like a story element that was lifted out of an edgy otome manga from the early 90s. But it was so good in spite of it; the characters are great, the art is fantastically well realized, and it has one of the most original and compelling stories I’ve ever seen. 8.5/10 will recommend.
Yeah, I winced too. That's such a fair criticism! Not everything from back then is nostalgic, especially the homophobia.
On a less related note, one particular design element I really liked was the way the episode continues through the credits. It's like getting bonus runtime every episode, haha.
I don't want to be a downer but to me, none of this year's anime seasons measures up to God's Perfect Anime Season, Autumn 2023. I'll keep waiting!
We seem to have reached this weird intermediate state in which we aren't quite back to the multi-hundred episode runs of the shounen series of old, but most if not all of the main/traditional studios now seem to be primarily focused on intermitent sequel runs. Now, the thing is, yes, I am enjoying sequels of shows I like, as long as they're well made, and I'll keep doing so. I expect I'll watch at least four sequels from this season (and there are at least twice as many, it's a sequelfest winter). And I'd love to see in the future more Shangri-La Frontier and such.
But what I really like the most are fresh new stories with fresh ideas and fresh characters. New stuff. And this is becoming really, really rare coming from Japan. No, I don't want another villainess show. You already made like ten this year. I liked "May I Ask..." because of the twist on the formula, in much the way a parched man would have been thankful for a few drops of water, but that's still not much.
What happened to the Odd Taxis, the Dorohedoros, the Shadows' Houses?
I haven't seen it myself but apparently Apocolypse Hotel is a good original series this year. I forgot to mention it in my own roundup but Milky Subway was a surprise hit too, available on Youtube with a good dub as well and it's less than an hour in total for better or worse.
Turkey! and Maebashi Witches were fun if flawed, though those are a different kind of thing from the others you mentioned.
I can confirm that I loved it! It's my cup of tea. I'd love a full length Milky Subway too.
I'll look into the others, thanks.
I only had three anime that I watched, and I posted about them throughout the year in the what are you watching/reading threads.
I enjoyed the animes I was able to watch and I have a feeling I'll be watching anime from the 80's-00's for the next couple of decades at the pace I watch. There's great anime being made now, but with my limited time for watching I prefer older anime and letting time filter out the best of a genre for me instead of watching what is airing.
Looking forward, I think 2026 will be dominated by Armored Trooper Votoms and after finishing that I think it's finally time for me to watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes which will easily take up the rest of 2026 and probably in to 2027 if I also watch the Gaiden.
Haikyuu!! It's a volleyball sports anime. So much fun, really gripped me, even when I was laughing at the shounen tropes. I thought it was satirizing them but nope it's just shounen. Didn't think I'd be into a sports anime, but my partner started watching it and I got pulled in. They started it since it often popped up as the best sports anime, so now we don't know which way to go if we want another.
We also started Little Witch Academia, a cute witch girl anime from Studio Trigger. We haven't gotten far in, but I'm charmed. I'm braced for a classic Studio Trigger mid series shake up, don't y'all harm a hair on their heads.
Bleach Thousand Year Blood War looks great, but we were disappointed in the pacing for the most recent... Set of releases? Not as bad as some of the Hueco Mundo bits. We had more fun with the start of the arc.
I rewatched Death Note and Cowboy Bebop. My memory did not fail me, I still quite enjoyed them. Second arc of Death Note was still worse/frustrating to watch, probably because production was rushed. I liked Mello much more but that's more a statement on how I've changed. Not sure I have much to add about Cowboy Bebop, it's damned good.
Some other sports anime that are usually pretty well regarded, but not necessarily in the same shounen style as Haikyuu!! (which I haven't seen yet):
Yuri!!! on Ice — A star ice skater tries to get back into the game after falling into a slump.
Ping Pong the Animation — The struggles to reach the peaks of a sport, with a unique visual presentation.
Run with the Wind — Bonding through striving for the top university relay marathon in Japan.
Chihayafuru — Based on classical Japanese poetry, karuta might seem like more of a mental game but the physical sport of it is essential as well.
Of the sports anime I've seen, Haikyuu is probably second to Ping Pong the Animation.
Great coming-of-age story with a super unique art style and a fantastic soundtrack. Only 11 episodes long but I'm surprised by how much they pack into that runtime while still pacing it out so that important moments can breathe.
Medalist - It's cute, it's wholesome, it's very inspiring, and it's getting another season this winter. Also kind of a surprise, had never heard of it nor read the manga before, but this is some gourmet stuff.
Call of the Night Season 2 - Better than I expected, it starts off kinda slow but redeems itself in the last few episodes when everything finally comes together. Would still say the absolute banger of an opening is doing half the work though, Creepy Nuts are legends.
To Be Hero X - I don't really follow donghua but this one was highly recommended to me. The story itself is alright but the animation's really good. Like, mixing multiple styles even within the same episode, good looking 3D CG characters and movement, and it's all clean as hell. A fun and easy watch.
City the Animation - I love Kyoani. I love Keiichi Arawi's humor and art style. I love Nichijou. This show is so much fun. They really go all out with the creativity in it too, you can FEEL the love.
Dan Da Dan Season 2 - It's great how wacky this show can get while somehow still telling a cute and unforced high school romance. You can tell the director and animators were going all out on this one too. It's wild it aired at the same time as City, man that was a reaaally good season.
Lazarus - Worth mentioning just because of Shinichiro Watanabe. Is it anything close to Cowboy Bebop in terms of storytelling, character development, or vibes? No. Is it still a good show? Yes, just not super memorable.
I liked the character whose superpower is high budget CGI. Quite the flex.
I was going to write about this in one of the August threads after I watched Apocalypse Hotel, but I couldn't really think of a review for it. Apocalypse Hotel is a show about a hotel in Tokyo maintained and operated by robots after humanity flees Earth due to an airborne pathogen. What a strange and delightful show. I don't have a lot of notes. 10/10, no flaws, on the rewatch pile. After Apocalypse Hotel, I started my yearly Raildex rewatch, and haven't had anything to say. I don't hate Index quite as much as I did last year, but I still adore Railgun seasons 2 and 3 as much as ever.
What I do want to write about is what a good year it's been. I consider most of the shows I've watched in the last year to be among my favorites. The only "duds" were Eat-Man and Elfen Lied. But like, Key the Metal Idol, Bubblegum Crisis, Ergo Proxy, Read or Die, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Xam'd, Kyousougiga, Orb, Eureka Seven, Edgerunners, Sonny Boy, Kurau, Black Lagoon, Penguindrum, Apocalypse Hotel, all amazing shows. The biggest standout is Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. Usually it's hard for me to think of something to write about, but with Orb, it's hard for me to stop writing. It fills me with many thoughts and feelings, more so than any other show.
A list of every show I watched in the last year, and my comment reviewing it (where applicable)
Samurai Champloo
Key the Metal Idol
Bubblegum Crisis
Eat-Man
Ergo Proxy
Read Or Die
Elfen Lied
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Madlax
Blue Submarine No. 6
Moribito
Xam'd
Nausicaa
Kyousougiga
Orb
Eureka Seven
Cyberpunk Edgerunners
Sonny Boy
Kiki's Delivery Service
Kurau: Phantom Memory
Mirai Nikki
Sora No Manimani
Black Lagoon
Mawaru Penguindrum
Apocalypse Hotel
It may look like I give most shows absurdly high ratings, but that's only because I mostly watch absurdly good shows.
... Or maybe my ratings aren't actually useful, maybe I'm too forgiving. You can pretty safely ignore my ratings if you want, and focus only on the thoughts I put on the page.
It looks like our interests overlap a fair bit. Out of those 25 titles, I've seen 7, have 9 on my 'maybe watch someday' list with varying levels of priority, previously considered watching two of 3 more that I was recommended, and am considering one of the remaining 6 that are totally new to me. I appreciate the effort to link to your previous comments, I'm gonna go through them and return if I have anything worth mentioning.