Winter 2025

A man arrives in the emergency room with his leg bitten off at the knee, and his blood a deep blue. The eccentric doctor Takao, unable to curb her excitement, involves herself to diagnose the mystery behind the crime. A mystery like this is super interesting, so I have faith the following mysteries will also be of high quality. Medical anime are rare, especially one that looks this good. It had a nice balance between medical content while introducing an engaging plot through the detective aspects. Voice acting was also solid. Watching the trailer I was shocked to see AIMER sings the opening, and its a bop. Its something different but seems like it could be fun, and well done. 7/10. 

Two students get strong armed by their grandparents into immediately getting married. The catch of course being that they hate each other. The title claims it to be hate, but their relationship is more akin to two tsuderes that like to argue. Animation is just decent, but the voice acting makes up for it. The forced marriage trope has been done before, but it always results in some enjoyable interactions that you don't get from your typical highschool romcom anime. A lot of yelling in the comedy but I have a feeling it will be phased out as the story progresses. Does exactly what it says on the tin. 6/10.

Solo Leveling is back again, and looking better then ever. Sawano is still going all out working his magic on the soundtrack, and A-1 seems to have stepped up their game on the animation. Having read the manwha I can confirm the upcoming arcs are some of the best ones, so this season is looking to be a treat if you like power fantasy. 8/10.

Inukai-sans dog, but its a fantasy reincarnation story with a cat. Full disclaimer this is an ecchi anime. It has all the standard isekai video game menus, and monologues you would expect. Animation quality was decent at times, but others had some really rough cuts and movement. That said its an uncensored ecchi so none of that stuff really matters to the people who'd want to watch. Elf girl and her cat. 4/10. 

A boy moves to Okinawa and has a crush on this energetic girl he's friends with. She mainly speaks in either the indigenous language or with a heavy accent so he can barely understand what she's saying. Luckily her friend who happens to have a crush on him, is always nearby to translate. The plot sounds romance focused, but in reality its just there for some funny and cute moments. The real star of the show is highlighting the unique culture, language, and traditions of Okinawa. Animation is very basic, a lot of the time using slow zooms, but it works really well and gives the anime a fun style. The captions can be quite fun to see. A great sunny anime for the dark winter months. 6/10. 

A young girl is dragged to the castle for etiquette lessons. She is set to become the princess. Much later she mistakenly thinks the prince called off their engagement, so she happily runs off. The plot moves at a snails pace. The art is very flat and unappealing, even the colours look off. The cherry on top was the poor CGI horses. 2/10.

Ironic that MAPPA's new anime original is about an animator dying. A prodigy director dies trying to figure out the storyboards for her newest romance movie. She wakes up in the fantasy world of a depressing terribly rated anime she liked. Revealing her identity she uses her drawing powers to prevent a tragedy. Overall production quality for the first episode was above average, but MAPPA has lost a lot of good faith. Despite sounding like isekai, the story presents itself with enough unique elements to still be distinct and fresh. 7/10. 

There was actually an OVA between this sequel and the first season that a lot of people missed. The second season continues the cute dynamics, and sad moments of the first. Animation and art quality is good as ever. English dub is being broadcast simultaneously, I actually quite like it. 6/10.

A reverse harem isekai. A girl is visited by a wizard, and brought to another world to be the great sage. In this world there's a conflict between regular people and the wizards. The wizards obey the great sage so the kingdom tries to intercept and steal her away. The animation is really clean, and character designs are on point. It's an isekai but the divide between classes makes the world a lot more interesting. If you don't like female protagonists and reverse harem steer clear, otherwise it looks like a solid anime. 6/10.

The quintessential low fantasy over powered isekai. Guy is suddenly in the body of a 12 year old noble boy and is part of the 1% of the population that can use magic. Carelessly goes on his own adventures solving every problem with ease. Nothing really stands out, we've seen this a hundred times before. That said the trope is popular for a reason, so watch it if you like it. 5/10.

A pretty girl was treated as the queen bee her whole life, with people fawning over her at ever turn. Until she meets a boy whos seemingly immune to her charms. Having never experienced something like this before she begins to fall for him, meanwhile he was just a monk in training. Cute premise but the girl comes off more annoying then cute a lot of the time. The art and romantic situations were also both bellow average. At the end of the day its a romcom, so despite everything its still fine. 5/10.

Isekai with an exhausted worker, nothing new. Summoned to another world to be one of the four demon generals because he had a nice resume. There's a cute demon girl but that's about all there is. Plot is low moving and at least half of it is a single frame with a shake animation overtop. Still watchable if you really enjoy the themes, but generally not advised. 3/10.

The ever rare office romance. The two of them work in different departments, but started dating. Due to a mix of wanting to avoid complications and work, and generally just thinking it would be embarrassing, they keep their relationship a secret. Despite them both being near 30, there's a lot of excitement. The animation is simple and clean, and because its an office romance there's some unique situations you don't find in highschool romance plots. Very cute. 7/10.

A guy and his childhood friend wish to become adventurers. A person can only eat one fruit in their life, and it gives them a random skill. She becomes a sword saint.... and hes a fruit master. Despite now being a farmer he still wishes to catch up to her, and one day his clueless companion makes skill fruit stew for dinner. There's nothing deep here, and the animation is bellow average. It probably has the most ridiculous name of any anime I've seen, and yet its still decent enough and has a small twist at the end. Its not isekai. 5/10.

Who would expect an anime about talking to go so incredibly hard on it's visual style? A girl who holds herself back for others sakes, fell in love with reciting stories after seeing it on TV when she was young. Now she's starting highschool, and she gets scouted by a sophomore for the broadcasting club. A slice of life drama by studio bind, I'm really impressed. All of the individual shots in sequences are composed really well. Backgrounds are beautiful, and the OST is subtle but wonderful. Its definitely a niche interest, and has a bit of yuri bait, but it totally enthralled me. 8/10.

Bullied her whole life, a dull girl was hoping for her highschool life to be a happier one. She wanted to change herself for the better, and it all started after meeting a boy with a bottle of lemon soda. Adapted by J.C. Staff from a shoujo romance manga- the art style is preserved. The 2015 manga was consistently a top 10 monthly best seller, and I've heard from many its almost considered a classic. It has plenty of clichés but you should know pretty quick if its something you'll enjoy watching. Personally I've really enjoyed how the story sets itself up. I think the ending animation might go viral. 8/10.

Season two and we're still just introducing characters. Ishura has some of the coolest characters, with insane abilities and nicknames to match. The first season had some rough cgi in places, and seems like that might also pop up in season two. I could not really recommend anyone go watch the first season, but if you did, I'd definitely check this out. 6/10. 

A kingdom used a forbidden summoning spell. Before the goddess could stop it, the spell accidentally summoned a 40 year old salary man alongside its intended targets. Feeling bad for not being able to return him home, the goddess reincarnates him in a fantasy world with her blessing. The animation was actually quite solid, and the plot was like an amalgamation of a bunch of other isekai. Honestly it was a bit funny, so if you like isekai slop this could be a good option. 6/10.

A rare mystery anime. Confused people who've lost their memory, unsure if they're dead or alive arrive at the hotel. Here they're shown to their room, where items related to their life can appear. Once they regain their memory and remember their fate they get to leave. In my research I remember seeing this was based off a mobile game. The setting allows for a lot of different stories. The animation looks nice too. Uncertain how it will continue to play out, but exceeded my expectations. 6/10.

An old public servant man gets reincarnated as the villainess in an otome game his daughter used to play. It has everything you expect from the otome genre, with the twist that he gives some fatherly compliments to the heroine, and appreciates having the good eye sight of a young person. Its nice that he retains his personality and life experience while trying to play the part of the villainess. Animation is fine but nothing special. Anime is fine but nothing special. 5/10.

A reverse harem anime with some unique twists. It begins with the MC in the future reminiscing, and realizing she had an exciting adolescence.  The next interesting thing is her adolescence was in 2020.... and their school is closed due to an illness. Since covid hit the anime world too, all the romance tropes you might expect won't be able to use the same settings. The animation is nice, but the writing feels a bit bland. A confession in episode one, its looking like it will have a lot of drama. 5/10. 

I don't know what's up with recent isekais fascination with appraisal skills, but we got another one. As an appraiser his only job is to tag along with adventuring parties and appraise monster corpses to harvest the good drops. It's not a very useful job, so when they run into danger he gets left as bait. Falling into the depths of the labyrinth he wakes up alive, having been saved by someone. The art is nice, world building done, and story arc set in motion. Not enough was shone to jump the gun, but seems like it has potential. 6/10.

The intro few minutes speed run the whole isekai and back story process. The real meat is just an older guy buying things on amazon in a fantasy world and reselling them for a quick profit. Art is lower quality, tropes are lower quality, writting quite poor. With all that said it could still be fun. If you want an extra helping of isekai slop its here and waiting for you. 4/10.

Pretty fun anime, she's so relatable. Guild receptionist is having to do overtime since the adventurers are taking too long to clear the dungeon boss. Sick of doing overtime when she's supposed to be able to clock out on time at her normal job she decides to just go and kill the boss for them. Through all this she has to keep her identity a secret, since as a public servant she can't have a second job, and doesn't want to lose her job security and benefits. This lady is my spirit animal I swear. Animation is nice a lot of the time, although the massive dungeon boss was noticeable CGI. A refreshing fun and relatable show. 6/10.

When he sleeps he dreams of adventures in a fantasy world. One day he wakes up to find the elf girl he would hang out with was in his bed. I was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. The art style isn't anything impressive, but the story itself is a nice blend of fantasy and reality. The characters are all likeable, and I'm excited to see how miss elf could return to her world, as well as the experiences she'll have in japan. The tourism board is doing work this season. 7/10.

A dark fantasy revenge story. Köinzell is the dark swordsman protagonist, that seemingly gets stronger by moonlight. Action and some blood occurred. Apparently the manga is quite good, but a lot of what people told me they liked about it I did not find in the anime. For example the manga art is apparently beautiful, while the anime was a bit rough at times. As it is its still dark fantasy, and revenge stories do well. The protagonist reminds me of Dark Link. 5/10.

Maomao^2. It's peak. 9/10.

Gay bath house vampire is waiting until the boy he likes is of age before making a move. That is until the boy reveals hes fallen in love with a girl. The zesty vampire will do anything he can to get between them. If it was not clear this is boys love. Yaoi if you will. In my research I believe this is one of the first BL manga published in a shonen magazine to get an anime adaptation. It's technically a rom-com. Animation is actually nice, and its quite funny. If you like BL it might be your lucky day. 6/10.

Sakamoto Days- a super popular manga that had a lot of hype leading up to its anime release. Sakamoto was a legendary hitman feared by all, who one day married a cute cashier he met and retired. Now happily fat and running a convenience store, the underworld is out to silence him for walking away. I was very worried about this anime as the trailers looked like garbage, and its being handled by Netflix. Its confirmed to air for two cours. The art is very stylized, and likely polarizing. The animation itself while not being the most fluid plays into the art style to present well choreographed and pleasing action sequences. I don't have a lot of confidence in how a lot of aspects of this anime will hold up quality wise over a 20+ episode run, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. 8/10.

Somehow airing for 24 episodes. B rank support leaves his A rank party due to unfair compensation. Now a free agent he joins the D rank party of adventurers he used to teach. It has an interesting twist in that a lot of his support comes from items he makes as an alchemist. All the lines in the artwork were very clean, but the animation itself felt a bit off? Even the monster was 2d and not a CGI mess but the fight choreography was non existent. Very much an inoffensive dungeon adventuring anime that feels more slice of life then action. 5/10.

Season two is back with even more girlfriends. As per usual the romance comes season to the comedy. Jokes and scenarios just as funny as before. I always apreciate the 4th wall breaks and outside references. 8/10.

Momentary Lilly is an action anime by studio GoHands. For those unfamiliar GoHands are infamous for the a lot of animation quirks like the way they do hair, shiny effects, and 'dynamic' camera angles. The opening animation does a good job of showing what to expect from this series as its non stop running action. The moving camera can be very distracting, and the characters are all archetypes (like a gamer, big sister, etc.) If you like flash it's suitable entertainment, but the story and character writing will probably be under baked. 5/10.