2025 Spring Winter Review

[heavenly_pearl]

The Apothecary Diaries - Whoa, there was some dark stuff in the first half of this season, but the second half goes even darker...and it's so, so good! I think the part where Loulan gives Kyou-o the drink and he drinks it even though he knows it is poisoned is one of the most horrifying yet heart-breaking scenes I've ever seen, because she's poisoning the children as a mercy. She knows that when the Shi clan is defeated, everyone (no matter how young and innocent) will be brutally executed, so poisoning the kids allows them a more peaceful death, yet...she's still killing little kids. (Thankfully, it turns out it wasn't poison after all, but the same resurrection medicine that allowed Suirei to fake her death. I had a feeling that would be the case, but they certainly took their sweet time in revealing that fact!) Also, yay, Maomao finally knows who Jinshi really is, although neither of them know who he really REALLY is. Could have lived without him attempting to force a kiss on her twice in the last episode, though. Ugh. At least both times they were interrupted. Anyway, thrilled that another season has already been confirmed!

 

Anne Shirley - Oh, my childhood! I loved the Anne of Green Gables series growing up. It's because of Anne that I came to believe that Anne-with-an-e was the prettier, more elegant spelling (even though my mother and sister use the plainer Ann as their middle name), and I'm pretty sure I can pinpoint my love of red hair to Anne Shirley as well. Needless to say, I'm loving this anime so far! Granted, it's probably been at least thirty years since I last read the books, so I can't really speak to how faithful an adaptation this anime is, but they've kept all the most iconic scenes that I remember: Anne breaking the slate over Gilbert's head (obviously!), Diana accidentally getting drunk, Anne trying to dye her hair, etc. The animation is just beautiful as well, looking like something out of a storybook! All in all, with the world seemingly going mad, this show has been my happy place every week (even with a few sad moments), and I'm so, so glad this is continuing for another cour. 

 

Black Butler - I don't really get the point of the five-minute recaps that began a couple of the later episodes -- surely if there wasn't enough canon material for an episode, they could have added a filler scene or two instead of a totally unnecessary recap -- but other than that, the Emerald Witch arc was another fantastic cour, revealing a big twist that I had been spoiled about beforehand but which still managed to come off as a surprise. (By which I mean I knew about Ciel's twin brother; I just didn't know when or how it would be revealed.) I also really liked Sieglinde and Wolfram, and I'm curious if we'll continue to see them in future arcs. I assume so, since Ciel took them back to England with him? We'll see. I believe the manga is getting close to the end, so hopefully we'll get another cour fairly soon.

 

Kowloon Generic Romance - I really loved the retro look of this anime, which was the perfect way to accentuate the running themes of nostalgia and wanting to live in the past. I also liked the way it explored the idea of "identity". I just wish the mystery was a little more...hmm, concrete, I suppose? We learn "what" happened and mostly "why", but the logical "how" is pretty much completely ignored in favor of a more symbolic, psychological approach -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not really what I was expecting. I don't think it helped that the manga is still ongoing but about to end, so they had to rush the ending of the anime to fit into the one cour they were given (presumably with notes from the mangaka about what was planned). It probably would have made more sense to wait until the manga actually ended to make the anime, or else plan for a movie or another season to properly wrap things up, but I get why there would be no guarantee of that, so they felt they had to do it all at once. That all being said, I still really liked this show! I just think it needed more episodes to go from great to amazing.

 

Witch Watch - Cute and funny, and gets bonus points for an unexpected figure skating backstory (although loses some points for the use of a magical disability cure). The characters are a lot of fun as well. I really appreciated the fact that even though Nico's spells often cause trouble, it's not because she's a bad or stupid witch. To the contrary, her spells often work TOO well! It's more of a "be careful what you ask for" type of thing. Also, as opposed to a certain other show further down this list, the relationship between Nico and Morihito is more along the lines of what I'm looking for in a good friends-to-lovers type story, even if romance isn't a heavy part of the show. Happy this is continuing for another cour!

 

You and Idol Precure - Just in time for Pride Month, Pretty Cure brought us what may be the franchise's first official queer couple in Meroron and Purirun. Like, I don't know really see how you could interpret their relationship any other way? Some may try to downplay it by pointing out that Meroron calls Purirun "Sissy", and they are technically siblings since all the fairies are born out of the same tree (similar to Ail and An from Sailor Moon), but, still, Meroron constantly says she loves Purirun and acts like a jealous girlfriend whenever she thinks Purirun is paying more attention to Uta than to her. Heck, even Meroron's Precure form is called Cure Kiss! It seems pretty clear to me that Meroron is romantically in love with Purirun, although I suppose it's debatable if Purirun feels the same (or is possibly in love with Uta instead -- which, still, gay). That all being said, I always do get annoyed when the fairy characters start getting more attention than the main Precures, so as ground-breaking as their relationship may possibly be, I'm not exactly loving the current focus on Meroron and Purirun. (Doesn't help that I find them both kind of annoying, tbh.) Hoping the show will get back to focusing on Uta, Nana, and Kokoro soon!

 

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes - I love the original My Hero Academia, so it's fun to see some of the older heroes we know fight in this prequel spinoff. It took me a while to warm up to new characters that make up the main cast, though. It wasn't until Makoto joined the group (so to speak...she's not a vigilante, but she knows their secret and helps out behind the scenes) around midway through the cour that this series started gelling for me. I love Makoto! Too bad Koichi, the main character, isn't all that interesting, especially compared to Deku from the main series. He really is just a generic nice guy -- in fact, his first name as a vigilante hero was literally Nice Guy until he changed it to The Crawler instead -- with a rather boring Quirk of being to slide around fast. Even when it came to defeating the main villain of this arc, he and Pop Step really didn't do anything at all, which was a strange plot choice, if you ask me. Yeah, Knuckleduster had the more personal connection to the villain, but you'd expect the main character to at least be a part of the first major "boss" fight!

 

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? - *sigh* Is it too much to ask for a really good friends-to-lovers romance anime? Every time I'm excited when I see one on the seasonal list then end up disappointed when I actually watch it. What sucks is that this show did some things well. The main characters do have good chemistry, and Yu's dream of opening a shop to sell flower accessories is something rather novel for a male teenage character. But, oh my god, Himari could get on my last nerve! She's so emotionally manipulative, constantly flirting and being salacious toward Yu only to turn around, laugh at him, and say "Just kidding!" when she's obviously not. Honestly, I didn't really like any of the characters in the show aside from Yu.

 

Lazarus - It's interesting, because when this show started airing on Toonami, I was coincidentally in the middle of rewatching my favorite Shinichiro Watanabe anime, Carole & Tuesday, and I gotta say...Lazarus does not come out well in comparison. What's worse is that there was a lot of buzz about Watanabe wanting to be his masterpiece, so it's so strange that it feels so...I don't know how to describe it. Not really disjointed... Random maybe? The premise of a ragtag group being tasked with finding the location of a brilliant doctor so he can make an antidote for a drug he created that's due to kill everyone who used it (including himself) in 30 days should be exciting and high states, yet none of the characters act with any sort of urgency. The way they run the investigation feels like they have all the time in the world. Then when we finally find out the whole backstory...eh. It's definitely no Cowboy Bebop, that's for sure! At least the fight scenes looked great?

 

Go! Go! Loser Ranger! - *sigh again* Gah, this series! Like the first cour, this part started off pretty strong with an interesting time loop mission that focused on a small group of characters made up of Fighter D's new teammates. I thought that was going to be the formula going forward, going on missions that let us get to know the characters better, but again, it did the same thing as the first cour, going into an extended battle arc with the full cast of characters -- and. there. are. just. way. too. many. of. them. It also feels like plot points are missing, if that makes sense? Like, it's skipping stuff that I assume was in the manga? There's just something weird about the pacing that made everything even more confusing.

 

Next season looks to be a season of watching sequels for me. In addition to continuing with Anne Shirley, Witch Watch, and You and Idol Precure, I'll be watching the second seasons of My Dress-Up Darling (yay!) and DAN DA DAN (didn't watch the simulcast of the first season, but I've since caught up and I'm looking forward to more), the third cour of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun (glad we didn't have to wait too long this time!), and the fourth season of Rent-A-Girlfriend, which will hopefully continue building on the good will earned during last season's surprisingly touching cour (but I have my doubts...). I'd also like to check out Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus since I watched and liked the first season of Rascal, but I haven't seen any of the three sequel films yet, so I'm guessing I'd be lost. (Oh, it looks like Crunchyroll does at least have the first movie. I'll have to put that on the watch list.) I'm not sure about brand new shows. The only one that really caught my eye was The Summer Hikaru Died, but that's on Netflix, so it'll have to wait until I decide to subscribe again. Guess I'll have to see what looks good in the ANN preview guide.