First Look at the New Titles for the Winter of 2025

 The first week of the Winter season has run it's course and it's time for the first impressions of the handful of new shows I wanted to check out.

 

I'm Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class

     Akane and Saito are classmates and eternal rivals.  But when her grandmother and his grandfather coerce them into to getting married they suddenly find themselves forced to live together while still in their final year of high school.

    This introductory episode was honestly better than I expected.  The characters aren't terrible and they act like real people instead of concepts of a persona.  The gist is that their grandparents hated each other at the same age and refused to get married as their parents wanted.  Now in their twilight years they regret the decision and decide to force their grand kids to make up the time for them.  Akane hates Saito because she see's him as a rival and he appears to just reciprocate the venom. 

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Okitsura: Fell in Love With an Okinawa Girl, But I Just Wish I Know What She's Saying 

     Takeo has transferred to Okinawa from Tokyo and is absolutely out of his element.  There is a girl he likes in school, Hina, who he likes but he struggles to interact with her because of her constant use of Okinawan, which differs from standard Japanese.  Her friend Kana acts as interpret, but she begins to harbor feelings for the enthusiastic transfer student.

    Aspects of this anime feel...offensive?  Aside from it's shtick of Hina particularly being so far removed from the Japan Takeo is used to...which got tiring after 5 minutes, there is the whole idea that everyone he encounters with it...an island yokel?  I don't know.  I know enough about Okinawa to understand a bit of whats going on, but that level of knowledge just makes this feel like a insult.  If you're not aware, Okinawa was forced to be a part of Japan less than two hundred years ago and prior to that was its own nation with its own traditions and language known as Ryukyu.  I'm not sure if I can enjoy this series for a variety of reasons...the biggest being how annoying the shtick of it actually is.

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll.

I Have a Crush at Work

    Tateishi and Mitsuya work at a large corporation and share a secret, they have just started dating.  They do everything they can to keep it hidden from everyone at work, not wanting to attract unwanted attention and gossip.  But their efforts may be harder than they can manage.

    We get pretty much the reverse of last seasons 365 Days To The Wedding.  Two professional adults in a relationship and trying as hard as possible to hide it from everyone at work.  The primary couple is super cute but I worry that the continued shtick of them having to come up with elaborate ways to date and not be found out may become tedious. 

This series is not being distributed anywhere in North America.

Zenshu

    Genius anime director Hirose dies from food poisoning while struggling with the screen play for her highly anticipated movie debut.  She wakes up to find herself transported to the world of a favorite fantasy anime from her childhood.  In a critical moment from the franchises movie, she discovers she has the ability to bring to live something she animates on the fly, altering the history of this fictitious world.

    This one is my pick for the new season of The Otaku Network Podcast.  Not sure how I feel about it, it moves all over the place honestly.  Its isekai, comedy, fantasy, magic girl?  It might be trying to find its feet and figure out what type of story it wants to tell.  Oh...there's also some Death Note aspects to it as well in the whole sequence of her feverishly drawing the creature to save the day.

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms

    Kawai Mona has spent her entire life being worshiped by everyone around her.  She comes to expect nothing but adoration and praise by everyone.  That is until a buy named Kuroiwa transferred into her class and acts cold towards her.  It drives her to extremes as she tries every trick she can think of to make him one of her fans.  But nothing seems to work and the amount of attention she's paying him starts to back fire and she thinks she may be developing feelings for him.  Unfortunately for her, hes a bit of a religious fanatic trying to maintain his chastity.

    This wasn't exactly what I expected.    Kawai is a deplorable character and Kuroiwa is just weird.  I was expecting something cute and quaint.  This is a crazed ride full of properly done fan service.  I'm not sure what to think, given its quite a bit different than I expected but its not a bad thing?  I'll really have to give it a few more episodes but the first episode had enough to keep my interest, just not sure how long it will keep it.

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll.

My Happy Marriage season 2

    Miyo can't find happiness it seems as the story picks up with she and her husband to be coerced to visit the town his parents live in.  Kiyoka is charged with investigating super natural disturbances by the emperor.  Kiyoka has been putting off having Miyo meet his parents because of his mothers abusive personality.

    I forgot how beautiful this anime can be some times.  It was good to get back into the story, even if I may need a bit of a refresher of the details.  The first season was great until the story focused too much on super natural stuff...so we will see where this season leads us.

This series is being simulcast on Netflix.

Flower and Aura

    Hana has been in love with the idea of reciting poems and stories since she was young.  The only one her age on the small island she lives on, she tries not to bother anyone.  That changes when an upper class man from her new high school does anything she can to get the reserved girl to join the broadcast club.

    I'm still holding out for the possibility of there being a minor Yuri subplot to this show.  The first episode wasn't bad.  We will see how much it means into the nuance of the broadcast clubs operations.  The dramatic scene of her reciting the poem that moves her on the beach when she thought she was alone was a bit over the top to be honest 

The series is being simulcast on HiDive.

Tasokare Hotel

    A girl wakes up to find herself in a strange place, dressed in strange clothes.  She enters a hotel in the middle of the wasteland and is greeted by a man with a flame for a head.  He tells her the hotel is a place for people who do not know if they are alive or dead to remember themselves and transition correctly.  After recovering her name, , decides to stick around for a while and help out with the hotels purpose, while she remembers if she is alive or dead.

     Based on a mobile game, this is a more relaxed version of Death Parade.  I suspect it will be the mystery of the week as the main character and a few other staff members remember more about their own situation.  No reason to stop watching it but I don't expect much.  They need to make more Death Parade, that show was fantastic.

This series is being simulcast on Amazon Prime.

Honey Lemon Soda

    Ishimori is a social wallflower who has closed herself up due to over protective parents and persistent bullying in school.  She hopes to change that in High School but struggles to make any changes until the popular guy in her class takes notice of her and encourages her to ask for his help.

    Honestly I didn't have much hope for this one based on the previews and it pretty much proved that.  This is...boring and overly simplified.  The entire time I was watching the first episode all I wanted to do was shut it off and watch Skip & Loafer instead.  I'll probably stick with it...purely to give it a shot given how popular it is, but it didn't sell me at all.  Side note, they are leaning waaaaay to much into the color yellow.  It makes me think everyone is just piss.

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll. 

Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You

    A young manga artist reflects on her high school life as she faces the end of her current series and realizes that it was more special than she realized while it was happening.  As she and her 4 closest friends, all guys, navigate through their second year of high school they begin to confront the deeper feelings that exist.  Can she reciprocate this attention and risk destroying the friendships shes had her entire life?

    I will give this first episode way more credit than the preview established.  The characters aren't are terrible as their design would suggest.  The really interesting point though is that a underlying plot point of the show is that these characters are living in the world post Covid and reference it and how it disrupted things.  This is the first series I have encountered that has backing in this real world incident into its story.  But...its too soon to tell if this will be worth my time.

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll. 

From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!

    Not wanting to waste any time, out Bureaucrat father is taken out my Truck-kun immediately and finds himself reincarnated as the spiky antagonist of an otome game.  He knows the basics of the game from his otaku daughter and uses this minimal knowledge to help himself ease into his new reality.  But will he really be able to keep up her personality traits in the face of the player characters charm?

    I suspect this one won't stick around long for me.  The idea is a fun novelty at first but as the episode rolled on I become very disinterested in it as it dove into the weeds of the games mechanics and style.  Points for a different take on the isekai plot line though.

This series is being simulcast on HiDive.

Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!

 Salary-man Kazuhiro has explored a magical fantasy world in his dreams since childhood, usually waking up after dying.  One day he and an elven friend are caught in a dragons breath attack and he wakes up to find his friend laying in his bed.  While he may have had suspicions, the appearance of Marie in the real world confirms that those weren't just dreams.  Assuming she will return to her world when she goes to sleep next, he takes the opportunity and takes her around, showing her the wonders of modern day Tokyo.

    This is actually a cute reverse-isekai that feels like it will rely heavily on their growing affection for each other and cooking.  I suspect that the original source material may have been a bit...ecchi?  I actually did enjoy the first episode and this should be a cute and light hearted series.

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll. 

Apothecary Diaries season 2

    We return to the palace for more intrigue and mystery with everyone's favorite lost daughter.  Maomao finds herself saddled with caring for a kitten that the young princess is keeping as a pet.

    More story and plot points were revealed in this first episode than some shows have their entire run.  The infant princess and all of the dangers around her.  The efforts to improve the education of the women in waiting.  A possible attack on a lady in waiting.  The introduction of a kitten and it increasing Jinshi's affection for Maomao.  And a lead into the next episode with visitors on their way.  I forget how densely packed this show can be and it's welcomed back!

This series is being simulcast on Netflix.

Ubel Blatt

    Thousands of years after a band of legendary heroes bring justice to the land, things are not as virtuous as people desire.  A mysterious and power elf man finds himself at odds with the powers that be as he plans to track down the heroes of legend ans destroy them.

    Honestly, never would have watched this if it wasn't one of the shows picked for the current season of the Otaku Network Podcast.  I've seen people comparing it to Berserk in regards to being something good to watch if you enjoy dark fantasy stories.

This series is being simulcast on Amazon Prime.

Sakamoto Days

    Legendary hit-man Sakamoto Taro retires as soon as he falls in love with a women working at a convenience store.  He puts his murder for hire past behind him and settles into blissful domestication.  The underworld has other ideas though and after a number of years of tranquility it starts to seek him out.

    The joint pick or the Winter season of the podcast, this is being billed as a comedy and so far the first episode was amusingly ridiculous.  Its a matter of how long it can maintain its enjoyment though. 

This series is being simulcast on Netflix. 

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You season 2

    Rentaro has gathered up 6 of his 100 girlfriends so far, the series kicks off with all of them still very much on board with the increasingly complex poly relationship as he continues his search for more of the 100 true loves.  Next up, the dismissive 9th grader.

    The insane story of a boy unfortunate to have 100 soul mates who he must seduce into his harem, lest they die from the loss of his love, comes roaring back in its incredibly amusing irreverent style.  I don't remember it breaking the fourth wall this much in the first series and oh lawd, this shit just picks up and keeps running with the crazy.  This is such an amusing and dumb story, I love it and all of its comedic trash!

This series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Tower of God season 2

 Tower of God season 2 is the 26 episode continuation of the dark fantasy manhwa of the same name by S.I.U.  The anime aired during the Summer and Fall of 2024.

    The story picks up 6 years after Rachel betrayed Bam on the 2nd floor.  We find him on the 20th floor, facing a new challenge to continue climbing the tower.  The past years have been hard on him and he has been forced to travel without his friends.  After being 'rescued' from death on the 2nd floor he found himself in the grips of a powerful underworld organization known as FUG.  Their sole goal is to destroy those that rule the tower, Jahad and the 10 families.  Much of there effort is down in the shadows but they recruit powerful regulars to propel up the tower as 'slayer candidates', with the intention of having them try to kill Jahad.  Bam finds himself being made their newest slayer candidate.  To hide who he is he has taken on the name of Jyu Viole Grace.  On the 20th floor he reluctantly becomes teamed up with a group of desperate regulars because they remind him of his old friends.

    Khun, not realizing that Rachel betrayed Bam, has been carrying her up the Tower with the help of everyone else.  Along the way some of the core members have split off to tackle other tasks that they have encountered and newer members have been recruited into the fold.  He suspects that Rachel is hiding something and is biding his time before making his move against her.  What he's unaware of is that FUG is keeping an eye on them, using them as a bargaining chip to keep Bam in line.  Rachel herself has her own plans in motion as well, knowing she can't continue to keep Khun under her control for ever.   Ultimate everyone is drawn to a competition being held by the Workshop, the group responsible for technology and weapon development in the Tower.  FUG has its hands in the event as well and have been directing Bam towards it for a very important purpose for their greater goals.

    After the original anime season ended I immediately started up a Webtoons account and read everything that was available for Tower of God in about a week.  I was well aware of the drastic shift in story that took place between the first part and this part and suspected that it would conclude with the resolution of the Workshop battle.  Because it is such a drastic shift in narrative from the first anime a lot of viewers were disappointed in the story.  This portion does a significant amount of world building and pushes the challenges on the floors to the background.  At times it even glosses over those challenges and the groups that are shown find themselves in higher levels after weeks of time have transpired.  It makes sense that someone who really enjoyed the games aspect of the original series becoming disappointment in a more character driven story in this portion.  Getting frustrated with the change and abandoning the story is a waste though as the story gets progressively more interesting as it goes.

    When reading the comic originally I also suffered a bit of disappointment at this point when the story changed.  I enjoyed the comradery between Bam, Khun and Rak and missed that aspect in what was going on.  But I appreciated the world building that started to kick in as the thing that drew me most into this story was the Tower its self and the mysteries around it.  This part of the story isn't the strongest but does a lot of ground work for whats to come, between the second half which they elude to at the end of this series, the Hell Train.  The story gets even better after the Hell Train arc, which we hopefully will see animated, but that's a long ways of!  Tower of God over all is a fantastic story and I hope we keep getting anime adaptations of it.  I really need to get back into the manhwa as I'm way to far behind.  Its a type of story I normally don't have any interest in, but this one spoke to me in a way I couldn't ignore.

The anime was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Oshi no Ko part 2

 Oshi no Ko (推しの子) the second season was the 12 episode continuation of the first season, based on the manga of the same name by Akasaka Aka and Yokoyaki Mengo.  The anime originally aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Aqua joins that cast of a 2.5 D stage play due to the primary casting company, Lala Lai, being tied to the mystery of his mothers murder.  He uncovered that Ai had been associated with them at one point in her career and suspects that the person who got her pregnant might still be a part of the company.  The stage play is adapting a popular shonen manga called Tokyo Blade and tells a super natural tale of two factions vying for control of Japan through the use of legendary swords.  Aqua's fake girlfriend, Kurokawa Akane and his frenemy/B-Komachi member Arima Kana.  Before the actors can dig into rehearsal the manga's author changes her mind about approving the script and fights to rewrite it herself.

    Once the scripting drama sorts its self out its time for knuckle down and rehearse as much as possible, in order to be ready for the first performance in a month.  The actors continue to clash with each other due to their larger than life personalities.  During rehearsal of a pivotal scene Aqua suffers a catastrophic panic attack, vividly remembering the moment his mother was murdered.  Aqua retreats to The Directors apartment, Akane tagging along, and begins to open up to her about his goals.  Telling her that there is someone high up in show business that he intends to murder, without getting into any specific details.  Akane tells him that she is willing to be a part of whatever he needs to do, regardless of the legality of it.  Opening night proves to be a battle ground as the actors attempt to outshine each other, with Akane trying to force Kana to return to her earlier acting prowess.  Aqua digs into his past trauma and uses it a motivation to enhance his acting and survives the performance.  Once the play ends its run, B-Komachi plans to take a trip to rural Japan to film a video to help promote their YouTube channel.  The location, the area where Ai gave birth to the twins and Aqua's past self was murdered.  Aqua decides to join the trip as well.  The results of a genetics test help him learn who his father was, but the answers he seeks don't exactly fit into the path he has crafted for himself.  With his plans in disarray he questions whether he should continue the fake relationship with Akane.

    This season put the core narration of the story on the back burner and focused on the industry of stage adaptations.  In a weird twist, this arc in the story is getting its own stage production...weird.  A lot of attention was given to the large casts personality quirks, the production teams drama and the whole blow up with the original authors freak out over the script at the 11th hour.  When it digs into the plot of Aqua continuing his investigation into his mothers murder it was only given passing interest.  The result of learning who is father was shakes everything about what makes Aqua himself and now the narration will need to shift focus to how he will choose to live a life he was planning on throwing away.  I understand that his drive to solve the mystery of his birth and his mothers betrayal is core to the series, but ignoring everything dealing with Ruby until the end of he season felt like a disservice to the story over all.  They could have easily peppered in plot lines that didn't revolve around the Tokyo Blade production in between all of the repetitive back and forth monologuing of the self centered actors.

    This season was less enjoyable than the first but I have hopes the next season will be able to return the story to a more enjoyable trajectory.  Someone on social media had made an amusing observation, one I can't verify given my choice in viewing.  The statement was, Oshi no Ko did a story Demon slayer tried to tell, better, as a side note to the real plot.  Ouch.  Back on point.  This season seemed like Akasaka fell down a rabbit hole and really got interested in talking about 2.5 D plays instead of focusing on the actual story of Oshi no Ko.  It was interesting to an extent, but the process of converting a manga into a stage play isn't the most mysterious of processes in general.  What made it even more of a chore, I switch it over to the English dub for the back half of the story and really regretted that choice.  The English dub seemed...less than quality.  I don't think it's a mystery that we will get another season of this anime and I deeply hope it rights its self back onto the track it should be on instead of getting distracted with something that caught the authors eye.  This season just felt like 8 episodes of meandering and distraction and 4 episodes of well delivered story progress.

The anime aired on HiDive and is available in both subtitled and English dub.

Yakuza Fiancé

 Yakuza Fiancé (来世は他人がいい) is a 12 episode romantic drama based on the manga of the same name by .  It originally aired during the Fall of 2024.

    Somei Yoshino is the grand daughter of the the leader of an Osaka based yakuza clan.  She is forced to finish out her high school career in Tokyo living in the house of another clan, in hopes that she and that heads grandson will get married.  Yoshino hates the situation and plans to only be in Tokyo for a year, to safe face and calm tensions.  At first the grandson, Miyama Kirishima, is cordial and friendly.  But quickly he begins to show his true colors, vicious, unrelenting and blood thirsty.  He tells her that she's better off selling her body.  With her situation spiraling out of control she sees no other choice and sells her kidney, throwing the money in his face to prove she's not a push over.  His perception of her suddenly changes, making him fall in love with her, desiring her to be a companion in his sadistic chaos.

    While she has earned his respect, she understands she isn't safe in this lions den of gangsters.  Its time to take the rough upbringing she had under her grandfather and prove to Kirishima that she's just as ruthless and cunning as he is.  They begin to play a game of cat and mouse, testing each others boundaries and abilities.  Kirishima claims he isn't actually yakuza but he has his hands in their dealings and sports the tattoo work to say otherwise.  He follows Yoshino around like a puppy...a twisted evil one, but a puppy non-the-less.  They end up becoming embroiled in a far reaching plot to destabilize the underworlds order, one that Yoshio appears to be in the middle of.  What is the reality behind Yoshino being sent off to the Miyama Clan in what appears to be prison sentence, similar to when feudal lords in the middle ages would hold children of their rivals as hostages for years.

    I didn't want to like this series.  The artwork and character designs are horrific.  Kirishima is a twisted and pathetically abusive mail lead.  It really felt like an exercise in self abuse as a story...like Fruits Basket.  But something about the turn that took place at the end of the first episode sparked an interest into watching the next.  Then it happened again, and again, until I was actually enjoying the story.  I didn't like nor had any interest in the romance aspect.  I was drawn in with the underworld drama that was unfolding.  Kiishima is a terrible character and I have no desire for Yoshino to end up with him in the end.  It is fun seeing the idea that Yoshino probably is the only woman that can be an equal to the psychopath, but she only does so reluctantly, knowing she needs to play his game to survive.

    The artwork is terrible though, these characters are supposed to be high school students...nothing about them says teenager.  The animation is also...less than ideal or fluid.  There are numerous times where a characters orientation is weird while they are in motion.  Kirishima has zero redeeming qualities but Yoshino is enjoyable.  Calling this a romance, while technically correct, is a little misleading.  Its really more of a yakuza drama with hints of the two leads finding common ground through their forced situation.  I'm not sure if the series will continue beyond episode 2, but the story its self is really starting to get going.  There's a whole undercurrent plot centered around Yoshino's grandfather and she as well.  Something about her past that has lead her to being targeted by unknown agents for unknown reasons.  That's the thing I really want to know...and it doesn't seem like that's going to be resolved at all.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.

Year in Review - 2024

    This has been quite a busy year, largely due to the formation of The Otaku Network Podcast.  I haven't been able to watch as much anime as I wanted to watch this year, but its been a pretty solid year regardless.  It's been a banner year for slice of life romance, especially with the Summer season bursting with quality titles.  Here's a look at what I thought were the best series being released this year with my top 10 favorite series at the end of the list, otherwise everything else is alphabetical order.

 

365 Days to the Wedding

    In a year full of slice of life romances, this was the rare adult centered story.  It dealt with two socially awkward people in their 20's pretending to be engaged in order to avoid a dramatic work transfer.  The series was easy going on quint and lacked only a small amount of realism.

A Condition Called Love

A high school romance about a girl who is unsure about her own worth and a boy that becomes obsessively attached to her.  At times the male lead is problematic with how single minded he is about pleasing the main character, going quite fa to change himself to meet his vision of her ideal partner.  In the end the red flags receded but it was still a bit...concerning.

A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics

    A reverse-isekai comedy about a princess escaping death into the real world and taking up residence with a down to earth private detective.  Partially a commentary on modern Japan and partially a tourism pitch for Gifu, this shared some vibes with Hinamatsuri.

A Sign of Affection

    Another romance featuring adults but its school setting and realistically coming of age narrative doesn't make it feel different from a high school romance.  The story deals with a college student who is deaf and has lived a rather sheltered life, falling for a hansom worldly man.  She learns about herself as she learns about the way he sees the world.

A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School

    A scatterbrained comedy series about an inept and easily bullied human teacher who ends up being tricked into working at a school for yokai.  This is a solid inclusion to anyone who loves gag series and is going to continue to be enjoyed into the second cour of its run in 2025.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

    A high school romance with a quirk of a premise that quickly falls to the side as the two main characters spend more time together.  It quickly gets side tracked into being a story about political drama vis-a-vie the student council and it begins to loose its charm and enjoyment.

The Apothecary Diaries

    A historically inspired tale about a merchants daughter who ends up being forced to work at the grounds where the Emperors top 4 concubines reside.  Her attempts to hide her intelligence fail when she continues to work at solving puzzles that crop up among all the social intrigue...also a eunuch appears to have romantic feelings for her.

ATRI: My Dear Memories

    Based on a visual novel game that deals Japan after an apocalyptic amount of coastal flooding and a boy with a chip on his shoulder looking to find a solution for their dying village.  Also...a series of potential romantic partners.  I dropped this about half way through as it felt rigid and more like a play through of the game.

Bananya season 3

    At long last the return of the short form and cute story of cats who are also banana's  This series serves as more a world exploring facsimile ala David Attenborough but with Banayna exploring different banana-cat habitats and customs.

Bartender: Glass of God

    A continuation of the long running manga franchise about a bartender who is more wise than his age.  This time the focus is on a group of hoteliers struggling to convince this incredible talented man to work for their hotel, so that he may imprint a lasting and positive impression on its visitors.

Blue Box

    A sports based high school romance where the main character ends up living with his older crush so she doesn't have to leave the country with her parents and can continue working towards school sport excellence.  He struggles with how he perceives him and whether he has the guts to open up his heart to her fearing she is wholly focused on her athletic life.  She...really has no personality and is only a vessel for pleasant companionship.  Suzuka is clunky and a bit ecchi but tells a bit more compelling of a story than this dreamy weirdness.

Bucchigiri

    What do you get when a city is seemingly run by teenage gangs?  A new comer who inadvertently taps into mystical powers of genies who gets caught up in the rivalry and fights to lose jhis virginity.  This is a crazy and highly stylized homage to 'yankee' stories of yore.  Fun and weird and under a lot of peoples radar unfortunately.

Cherry Magic

    Once you hit 30 and are still a virgin, you become telepathic.  Our main character, a newly telepathic office worker, suddenly learns another man he looks up to in the company has barely controlled emotions for him and struggles to understand if he's even able to reciprocate.  Cute, sexy and fuin all around.

Days with my Step Sister

    Having to suddenly change the way you have lived most of your life can be difficult and the two nely minted step siblings, who are the same age, try to approach their new living situation with professionalism and courtesy.  But they are both teenagers and are full of emotions and inner dialogue that begin to make things complicated.  Way more dramatic than romantic.  It lacks all the presumes tropes and perversion that we have seen before in this situation.  It ended up being a really mature and drawn out tale of self recognition and regret.  Though it was quite sleep inducing at times.

Dead Dead Demons DeDeDeDe Destruction

    The first anime adaptation of a manga by Asano Inio, this is a strange post apacolyptic sci-fi tale about trying to move on with your daily life following a strange and confusing alien invasion.  Sadly...I have not watched all of it and the artwork does not feel like it comes close to matching Asano's amazing detail and style.  But its great to see him finally get something adapted!

Delicious in Dungeon

    Fantasy anime got noticeably different in 2024, Delicious in Dungeon took your standard D&D style dungeon crawling story and pivoted to an initial merging with a foodie story.  As it progressed a more grounded narrative emerges.  The series deftly combined humor and absurdity with danger and mystery...not unlike Made in Abyss.

Dungeon People

    Another example of subverting fantasy norms.  This time we take a girl who is highly skilled defeating her towns eponymous dungeon to find her adventuring father.  Instead she is approached by the organization that manages the dungeon and is hired as support staff.  She goes from being adventurer to becoming part of the machinations of the adventuring experience.  This was a really cute and fun flip on the dungeon crawling story that feels like we only got half of the story.  I'm not holding out hope for a 2nd season but this first one was well worth the time.

The Fable

    When a legendary hitman has taken too many jobs his handlers decide to force him on vacation for a year, to let the heat die down.  He has to pretend to be a normal human and also refrain from killing anyone in the time.  The trouble is, the only people that can provide him with the discretion he needs are the yakuza and too many in their orbit are curious about this weird stranger and his beautiful 'sister'.  Take Crying Freeman and make it funny and sometimes touching.

Frieren part 2

    The second half of this new take on a fantasy setting begins to tarnish the quality and narration of the first half by wasting a lot of time in a boring chuunin exam arc.  Hopefully when it returns eventually it will get back to telling its tender tale of lose, regret and the search for redemption.

Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again

    A fantastical and heart warming tale of two live long partners suddenly getting restored to the vigor of their youth.  They take the time to try and make up for the things they regret not being able to do in their long and eventful lives.  Sweat, innocent and heart warming all around!

Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable

    A boy from Tokyo fears he will be more of an outcast in rural Hokkaido than he was in the capital.  That idea goes out the window and a confident gyaru in his class takes a liking to him and tries to spend as much time with him as she can.  This could have been way more perverted and pathetic than it was, but the characters are rather honest and realistic in their mannerisms and interaction.  It was enjoyable in the end.

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night

    A group of teenagers join up in a reckless plan to become a viral entertainment group but they are ultimately using their participation and skills to run away from their real struggles.  This was an interesting and grounded story about growth and acceptance that unfortunately shared none of the qualities of cuteness and love that Princes Jellyfish had, but still not a bad story if vastly different ones.

Kaina and the Great Snow Sea

    Yet another tale by Tsutomu Nihei set in a world as its nearing the end of human habitation.  This time a boy is forced into a journey to help a desperate girl save her fathers lands from destruction by a powerful force...but with the world dying there's little point in the continuing squabbles.  I have always enjoyed Nihei's tales of pointless human conflict as they face annihilation.  He always seems to include some element of thermal death into the problems with the world around the desperate characters.

Magilumiere

    In a world were magical girls are assisted by technology and part of corporately structured organizations, a failed college grad finds an unlikely home with an upstart and eccentric company who begin to gain everyone's attention through their successful and unconventional methods.  Its fun on some levels but there is such a deeper over all narrative that is barely gotten into for this first season.  Hopefully that will become more prominent in the next season but probably won't be earth shatteringly original in context.

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio

    An industry story about two high school girls who struggle to become successful voice actors and are thrust into a partnership that tests their own limitations and willpower.  The show wasn't bad overall but it did have unneeded moments of sexuality between the two main characters that distracted from the plot and wasted time.

Mr. Villains Day Off

    What does a general in the force that tries to invade earth and fights the sentai rangers do on his day off?  Take in the sites of one of the biggest cities on earth and relax as much as possible.  This is a silly comedy taking a peek behind the scenes of the lives of characters we normally only see in action scenarios as the mortal enemy of humanity finds he loves panda's more than anything and refuses to disrupt his carefully planned routines.

My Deer Friend Nokotan

    A high school girl who is a reformed delinquent is forced to deal with a new student who also happens to be part deer.  The deer girl is little more than an agent of chaos as the mythology she generates randomly envelopes everything around her.  We had high hopes for this being a spiritual successor to Nichijou but in the end it ran out of steam half way through and could never capture the spirit we hoped for.  There will be no hundred years of deer after all.

Oshi no Ko season 2

    The tale of industry intrigue and intrigue gets really really meta when the story shifts to focusing on the production of a 2/5 play based on a popular shonen manga.  Aqua is still searching for his identity for his father which has led him to being a part of the stage production.  To make things weirder...this arc is getting its own 2.5 stage play in real life.  Super meta...

Ramen Akaneko

    A pretty believable work place story about a world where cats can choose to be a part of human societry and a group of them who run a small ramen shop.  This was unexpectedly high quality all around, aside from the disjointed artwork.  This is a really strong contender for an introduction to anime for people who are not familiar with the medium.  And as a surprise, were getting a second season in 2025!!

Re:Monster

    An isekai where the MC finds himself living a new life as a lowly goblin but retains an ability fo gain the powers of what he eats from his previous life.  Also...way too much sexual assault and harem action for anyone's tastes.  This was a pointless tale of sex and level grinding that really didn't tell much of a story.

Rinkai

    Niche sports anime never really find a place outside of Japan and this tale focusing on a group of young women entering the world of competitive track racing is no exception.  Honestly, I only watched it because I love track racing myself.

Sasaki and Peeps

    A truly unique isekai that refuses to stick with one genre.  The story of a depressed middle aged office worker who ends up adopting a bird that is the reincarnation of a powerful wizard who team up to create a successful inter world trading company.  Then he gets wrapped up in a secretive governmental department full of espers when they think his magic skills are psychic abelites and he has to fight against super mutant terrorist.  This story never holds still and is a hell of a ride from start to finish.

Senpai is an Otokonoko

    What started out as a one trick pony high school romance became a really emotional tale of 3 adolescents trying to find their place in the world around them and build up their own self love.  Beautiful story with modern sensibilities that wraps up in 2025 with a theatrical movie.

Shoshimin

    The adaptation of a well loved mystery novel series that has amazing artwork and direction but lacks a lot of energy as its emotionless teenage detectives painstakingly go over their analysis methods to solve mostly mundane cases.  I will however be watching the second season when it comes out in 2025.

Spice and Wolf remake

    The highly praised tale of a traveling merchant falling in love with the human incarnation of an ageless wolf spirit.  This is set in a pseudo medieval European backdrop and is way more about the minutia of mercantilism than it is about romance.  I never ot around to watching the original anime and was actually rather bored with this remake of it...confused as to what people see in it and its predecessor.

Suicide Squad Isekai

    Reimagine the tale of the Suicide Squad to make it so that their mission is to infiltrate an isekai and report back about the team sent in before them.  I don't like isekai and I don't like super heroes, but Suicide Squad, at least the movies, were entertaining and this short weird series was pretty good too.

Tadaima, Okaeri

    The story of two men who love each other and try to raise their child in the most loving of environments as they can but their positions in the world lead to nothing but tension and drama as they try to ignore their places in society and forge their own path.  This was my introduction to the world of the omegaverse and I can say...i'm not a fan of the over all theme of that story setting.  This anime however was incredibly boring and pointless...almost vanilla in its approach to whatever the hell it was trying to do.

Tower of God season 2

    Years after the first season, Bam is a new man, reforged by the influence of a shadow terrorist organization, who seek to use his unique abilities to enact their revenge on the Tower its self.  He and they have hidden his continued existence from everyone and his friends from before do not know he is alive.  Bam can't seek them out as they are used as hostages to keep him in line so he plows forward, defeating every challenge laid before him as their grander schemes begin to unfold and the order of power becomes threatened.  From reading the manhwa, I knew how different this story arc was from what came before and was happy to see it be animated.  But those that have only seen the anime were thrown off by the drastic change in story telling and looked at it unfavorably.  I hope we get more adaptations of the story as the really good stuff has yet to come in the story of Bam and his accension of the Tower.

Train to the End of the World

    A quirkly post apacloptic tale featuring a quartet of cute high school girls.  This was more an exercise in exploring a variety of sci-fi themes as the over all story had little weight or merit.  It was really all about the journey and not the end.  But...it was still enjoyable and very visually entertaining.

TsumaSho

    A man struggles to move on from his wife's death a decade earlier until she arrives in the body of an elementary school girl.  She sees that her family was unable to grow beyond their grief and does everything she can to give them hope in their life.  She just hopes they can keep going if and when she returns back tot he land of the dead.  This was surprisingly a really soldi mellow drama about regret.  It could have been a terrible and problematic story about...emotions clouding judgement, but it was incredibly wholesome.

Uzumaki

    The long awaited short series adaptation of the horror masters most well known manga.  A crazed story about madness and humanities powerless will when faced with older and stronger things.  Unfortunately the production went to shit and lost all credibility.  It also served as a reminder that horror is almost impossible to pull off in both anime and manga.

VTuber Legend

    When an upstart Vtuber forgets to shut off their feed one night and goes on a drunken binge of watching other online content creators while talking to the screen in an unhinged manner their popularity suddenly skyrockets.  Then the story looses interest and repeatedly dives into the weeds about what being a content creator is like in a fictionalized setting.  The show really could not stand on its own two legs after it blew its load in the first two episodes and wandered around aimlessly from episode to episode with no real goal in mind.

Whisper me a Love Song

    A girl becomes infatuated with the performance of an upper classman that turns into misunderstanding and eventually love but then she becomes wrapped up in the older girls peer drama and we devolve into a battel of the bands.  The series had a hard time trying to stay focused on the production side and the final wo episodes didn't play until the end of the year!

Yakuza Fiance

    The grand daughter of one clan is given to the grandson of another clan as a potential partner.  The boy is uninterested and abusive at first but when she doesn't roll over and proves she is a strong individual he suddenly becomes very interested.  She is only hereere out of duty for the time being and suspects he will kill her if he looses interest.  Honestly, this is a rather terrible series with bad artwork, over the top personalities and a very self abusive story line.  

And now, here are the 10 best anime that came out this year that I watched.

 

#10 - Laid Back Camp season 3

    The return of one of the best iyashikei out there.  This season actually had a few multi episode story lines that made for better viewer investment.  Season 4 is in the works...so we will eventually get more of this lovely cozy series.

#9 How I Attended an All Guys Mixer

    Three guys in college get invited to a mixer only to find three drag kings waiting for them.  What transpires from there is a sweet and humorous pairing between the three guys and the strong willed women who work as kings in a bar.  This was a great series to finish the year off with and get me in a great mood for the new year!

#8 - The Fire Hunter

    In a world where humans can no longer be near fire for fear of instant combustion super natural forces are plotting their demise.  A young girl is forced into leaving the safety of her village to repay a debt to a man who died protecting her.  She ends up getting involved in a larger plot by unexpected allies that threaten to unseat the people in control of humanity.  This is a very interesting and stylistically fantastic tale that reminded me a little bit of From the New World.  I don't think it was on  a lot of peoples attention but told a far more compelling story that those top shows this season.

#7 - Astro Note

    A man looking for a new job winds up being convinced to be the morning chef for a share house.  The young woman who manages it is a large reason as he tries to know her better with hopes of dating.  She on the other hand is a rogue intergalactic princess who is covertly looking for the key to claiming the throne of her people.  This original series is pretty much a 12 episode remake of Maison Ikkoku splashing in some of the aesthetics of Urasei Yatsuro and it was a fun ride the entire time.  An eccentric cast of characters with their own unique points of view and fantastic artwork.  Well worth the time for any fan of romantic comedies based around adults.

#6 - Ranma 1/2 remake

    Following up Usasei Yatsuro, Takahashi Rumiko's martial arts gender bending romantic comedy Ranma sees its own remake.  Ranma is the heir to his fathers school of kenpo and lives his life dedicated to it.  He is forced to become engaged to one of his fathers friend, who also runs a school dfor the same branch of kenpo, so that the school will remain strong for the next generation.  Ranma however is cursed to turn into a girl when splashed with cold water and is forced to pick the youngest daughter, Akane, as his would be bride.  Akane hates boys and refuses to accept her fathers foolish request, will continuing to train in kenpo and ignore the weirdo's suddenly surrounding her.  This iconic and important series for the 2nd generation of American otaku is served very well by this remake that more closely follows the original manga.  It makes me fall in love with this story all over again!

#5 - Love is Indivisible by Twins

    A boy who grew up with twin sister neighbors struggles with his and their own growing emotions as they enter high school.  All of them are incredibly smart and comfortable with the other but play a complicated game of cat and mouse with the boys heart as they try to figure out which of the two girls will be the victor in the battle for love.  This was  a very realistic portrayal of a complex adolscent relationship web in which the characters realistically engaged the others instead of falling into repetitive tropes.  The artwork and character designs were less then ideal but the sheer strength of the characters and their portrayal outshined that downside to make this a really engaging romance.

#4 - Dan Da Dan

    The anime of the year for many people, Science Saru rubbed their majesty all over this shifted tale of young love and the fight against aliens and vengeful spirits.  The series subverts all expectation with each episode and brings a high quality production unmatched by many.  Fluid movements, well immersed voice acting both work to propel a less than original story concept.  After reading some of the manga, the anime does a far better job of delivering what would be a rote shonen story...but its just so goddamn entertaining!

#3 - Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

    Set in 15th century Poland we follow a series of narrative characters as they work to understand the true nature of the cosmos and reject the churches strongly protected geocentric model of the universe.  But these pioneering scientist and philosophers efforts must be kept in the shadows lest they attract the attention of the inquisition and forfeit their life to save their eternal soul.  This is absolutely the best anime of the year.  Incredible story telling with a realistic and mature set of characters and circumstances.  It is pure historical drama at some of its finest.  Absolutely fantastic series with amazing artwork to accompany the story.

#2 - Pseudo Harem

    When a first year high school student becomes enamored with a quirky upper classman in her acting club she can't help but spend as much time with him as possible.  The two grow closer as they endlessly flirt with each other, until the moment when they accept their strong emotions for the other.  This is literally a perfect romance anime.  There is no wasted time or space in the story.  No unnecessary drama, no distractions, just purely nothing but flirting and love.  There are barely any other characters!!!  It does have one flaw and that's the final story line where they are trying to decide their future.  They struggle over choice A and choice B without realizing that one will not eliminate the other.  Otherwise...absolutely flawless and amazingly loveable story.

# 1 -Makeine; Too Many Loosing Heroines

    Pseudo Harem may be A perfect romance anime, but Too Many Loosing Heroines told they most entertaining and beautifully animated story of the entire year.  The story of a social recluse who would rather read light novels getting wrapped up with one girl after another as they fail in the game of adolescent love would be strong enough to carry this enjoyable story alone.  But what really propelled this to the top of my list is the amazing life in the animation and direction.  This anime breathes at every turn.  It was amazing.  Everything fit perfectly in place and a really fun story was told, one that we really don't see, as in the end, no one ends up in a relationship.  Instead we get a weird group of unlikely friends who's future is shaped by a few months of uncomfortable growth in their high school lives.  I really need to get the light novels even though it will be lacking the amazing animation, but these characters and their trials are so loveable I want to dive in again and hopefully further.  Absolutely my favorite anime of the year.  

Special mention: Look Back

    The movie Look Back effected me in a bit of a profound way.  The story was fascinating and well executed with the right level of the story left to suggestion and assumption.  It pushed me to finally watch Chainsaw Man to see if there was some substance underneath the shonen flashiness...sadly there didn't seem to be any.  It also pushed me to finally buy a copy of another one-story, Goodbye Eri.  That story falls in-between the fantastic and deeper than expected story of Look Back and the routine of Chainsaw Man.  I am unsure if I like Fujimoto as an author, I don't much care for him as an artist but I am definitely going to keep an eye out for future endeavors.  Look Back was fantastic and highly recommended viewing...I need to buy the manga now.