Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus - anime

 Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus (青春ブタ野郎はサンタクロースの夢を見ない) is a 13 episode continuation of the Rascal Does Not Dream light novel series by .  The series covers light novels volume 9 through 13 and aired during the Summer of 2025.

    Azusagawa Sakuta has begun his perfect college life with his older girlfriend Sakurajima Mai, one of Japans most beloved actors.  As they enter into adulthood they struggle to escape the complicated world of adolescence.   Right away strange things begin to occur around him, evidence of people he meets suffering from adolescent syndrome, a supernatural manifestation of internal stresses around growing up.  Unlike the issues he dealt with in high school, the new problems he works to solve seem to be centering around a strange woman dressed in a mini skirt Santa outfit calling herself Kirishima Touko.  In the past year, Kirishima has been uploading haunting songs on the internet that have been gaining traction.  Sakuta is the only one who can see the mini skirt Santa, a form of adolescent syndrome he suspects is similar to what Mai went through when they first met.  She tells him that she is handing out presents to everyone around him, various forms of adolescence syndrome, that deeply concern the compassionate Sakuta.

    As Sakuta works through the new cases of stress and uncertainty around the new people he comes into contact with, elements from his past return to warn him of a threat to the most important thing in his life, Mai.   A version of him from a more idyllic reality, warns him that unless he is able to stop Kirishima, Mai is in danger.  As he helps resolve each related adolescent syndrome he digs deeper into the psyche of the mysterious woman who threatens his love and happiness.  Could the unidentifiable songstress have a strong enough jealousy over Mai that she is able to super charge the stresses of those she comes into contact with?  An internet phenomenon around prophetic dreams begins to reveal to extent of the threat to Mai and other around him as he tries to get Kirishima to open up to him about her motivations.

    The 'long awaited' continuation of the Rascal Doesn't Dream franchise does not disappoint.  With the exception of one thing...the bungled release in North America.  The original 12 episode series was followed by three theatrical releases, all of which cover the first eight light novels.  The story is progressive and interconnected and the second and third movies were not available legally for English speaking audiences until a few episodes into the broadcast of the second series.  This means that most audiences, who missed the opportunity over a two day period over a year earlier to see those movies in the theater, were missing vital contextual information.  Events specifically in the third movie directly relate to a lot of the central plot of the Santa Claus series, particularly the existence and Sakuta's interaction with the other version of his world.  Fortunately, those movies were eventually made available for streaming, so people who had not seen them before nor read the light novels, could catch up with what was going on.

     The mistake and issues for English speaking audiences aside, this series does exactly what we should expect.   With out a change to the aesthetics or delivery it flawlessly continues the story of Sakuta and his efforts to help those around him overcome their misgiving and hesitations.  The story does a good job of translating what appears in the light novels, as it has done in the previous adaptations.  The only real complaint is...were not done.  There are still two light novels that needs to be animated and Santa Claus ends in a bit of a cliff hanger.  As we have seen in the past, it will probably be a while for those to more than likely be turned into at least one movie...and then become available for English speaking audiences.  The only resolution is for everyone to at least jump into the light novel series for those last two parts of the story.  Though...its a great idea for fans of the anime to read all of the light novels as there are aspects of the story that are interesting that they had to omit from the anime, for understandable reasons.  For more details on that, check out the series of review on the Rascal Doesn't Dream light novels.  Either way, I am very pleased with the results so far and eagerly await the finale of this story being animated!

The series is available on Crunchyroll. 

City the Animation

 City the Animation is the 13 episode adaptation of the manga City by Arawi Keichi.  The series originally aired during the Summer of 2025.

     City is less a continuous story and more a collection of antics by a wide cast of characters, much like Arawi's previous work Nichijou.  The arguably primary characters are known as the Mont Blanc Trio and consist of college students/roommates Nagumo Midori and Niikura Ayumu.  They are joined by coed Izumi Wako who lives in a different apartment in the same complex.  Nagumo is naturally talented and unmotivated, coasting through life.  Niikura is hungry for success and is secretly dedicated to the older Nagumo.  Wako is carefree and coasts through her life without any challenges, having modest success in the things she finds interesting and with very little able to dampen her mood.  The room mates struggle through the entire series with being poor college students but only attempt quick ways to change their situation, refusing to look at things in the long term.  Wako...well, we're not really sure what she ever has planned in her life.

    The rest of the cast are a misfit collection of other characters, residents of City, who directly or indirectly interact with the Mont Blanc Trio from time to time.  The Makabe family is helmed by  father Tsurubishi who runs a moderatly sucessful restaurant but is easily distracted by childlike fancy.  The oldest child, high school student Tatewaku spends his time playing soccor poorly and trying to gain the love of Wako's younger sister Riko.  The other child is daughter Matsuri who spends all of her time outside of familly and school with her best friend Amakazari Eri (Ecchan).  Together the middle school aged girls have an incredibly imaginative sense of play and wonder through out the City.  A much larger family is the Adatara clan, who's father runs the liquor store next to the Makabe restaurant.  The mother struggles to reign in all 5 of their kids, of various ages and Grandfather Adatara has a strange fued with Mr. Makabe.  There is a small group of people who run the City Magazine and a struggling manga author with in its pages, who also lives in the same apartment complex as the Mont Blanc Trio.  There is the aloof and ultra wealth Tanabe, who spends her time and her staff rewarding people for being good citizens...all be it in less than ideal ways.  The list goes on.

 As with Nichijou the series is a collection of vignettes about the wide cast off weird characters as they go about their semi-normal lives in the City.  Over the course you learn their personalities and history, building on a greeted understanding and connected-ness as it progresses.  While not as insane in its comedy as Nichijou was, City the Animation is a fine example of innocent comedy for comedy's sake.  It isn't bogged down by the need to tell a cohesive story.  That's not the point, its really just a look into the odd ball lives of the cast purely for amusement.  No lessons, no tension, just stupidity at its highest form.

    Kyoto Animation delivered a phenomenal product in their adaptation of the manga.  There are a lot of fast cuts and comedic turns as we have seen in Nichijou but what heightens this series is the fantastic creativity in panel layout and directing.  On top of that the story of friendship between Ecchan and Matsuri was pure joy and heart breakingly sad at the same time.  Delivery, character templating, casual physical comedy and absurdity at a very high form.  It's not for everyone.  Some people just want to see masculinity and power and thats OK.  Manga and anime are mediums of expression for a diverse audience.  City absolutely delivered what I needed and wanted and it hands down the best anime of 2025.  Now its time to begin reading the manga, a thing I put off since the anime was announced.

The series is available on Amazon Prime.