Spring 2025 Preview
New anime TV series for Spring have been springing up on all the usual streaming channels since April began – but what’s this? We can’t watch Yaiba yet in the UK – Lazarus (Shinichiro Watanabe) is only showing on All4 in a US dub – and Your Forma only seems to be available on YouTube at the time of writing. It would be nice to not be treated like poor relations in the UK… Nevertheless, there are still plenty of treats with Anne Shirley on Crunchyroll revisiting a beloved anime of the children’s classic, new Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX on Amazon Prime, Moonrise on Netflix (which is not Gundam but…) Kowloon Generic Romance on Crunchyroll (no spoilers here!) as well as new seasons of Fire Force and Black Butler (Crunchyroll) and Go! Go! Loser Ranger! (Disney+). Our reviewers have been watching shows old and new and are here to share their first impressions – let us know which titles have impressed you too!
Ian Wolf
Hotly Anticipated
One series that I personally am interested in, as I’ve been reviewing the manga that has been coming out from Yen Press, is mono.
Written by the creator of Laid-Back Camp, the series concerns two school clubs that end up merging when they don’t have enough members: the photography club featuring Satsuki and An, and Sakurako from the cinema club, who end up forming the cinephoto club together. The gang make friends with a local manga artist, Haruno, who decides to use these girls as the basis for her new manga, and later they are joined by Haruno’s friend Kako, who makes a living making vlogs from her motorbike.
The series certainly falls into the “cute girls doing cute things” category, but there is more to it than that. For one thing, the love of camerawork that the characters have results in the series having some spectacular wide-shots of local scenery, and thus the animation is certainly a draw in my opinion. Hopefully both the anime and the manga can sustain this across the rest of the series.
Returning Champion
Arguably the most high-profile returning series is the most famous manga set in Britain. However, the latest series of Black Butler actually takes us across the Channel.
The Emerald Witch Arc sees Ciel Phantomhive being called upon by Queen Victoria to undertake a case in Germany, as she is worried for the safety of her grandson William (the future Kaiser Wilhelm II). The case concerns a certain mysterious illness that has infected a forest which some people claim is the home to werewolves. Ciel, his demonic butler Sebastian, and his entire staff make their way to Germany to investigate what is going on, eventually arriving at a forest. Inside they find a village inhabited just by women led by a young girl named Sieglinde Sullivan, a witch whose bound feet means she can never leave. Sullivan invites Ciel and his gang to stay, but doing so leads to both Ciel and Sebastian falling victim to the illness themselves.
So far the series has contained all the usual twists and turns you would expect to see from Black Butler. There are some differences compared to the previous Public School Arc however. For one, the other members of the Phantomhive staff appear in this arc from the beginning and are helping Sebastian and Ciel from the get- go. What will be intriguing is how the story unfolds and how it connects to the rest of the Black Butler universe in general.
Unexpected Diamond
One series jumped out straight away when I came across it. Maybe it was just the positive reaction given to the opening episode by critics, maybe it was just the peculiar title, but I do admit that this was part of the appeal when I first came across Apocalypse Hotel.
Set in the 22nd century, the series revolves around the surviving robot staff working at the Gingarou Hotel in Ginza, who have been waiting patiently for guests to visit. The problem is that Earth has been uninhabited for about a century, after a virus made the air unbreathable to primate-life, which included the humans who made the robots in the first place. What survived of humanity went into space, and thus civilization collapsed.
This has not stopped the hotel robots carrying on their work. The lead of the robots is Yachiyo, the most humanoid of all the staff, and who has been making sure all the other staff carry on with their tasks over the past hundred years, while also making sure they still function. This means among other things constantly having to splash water over the Doorman Robot who constantly overheats due to a lack of coolant. While Yachiyo eventually begins to wonder if any humans will ever visit them, they eventually do get a guest – but it is an alien.
Apocalypse Hotel could arguably fit into the category of a “cosy catastrophe”. While we see the human suffering at the start of the story, most of it just shows the robots getting on with their day-to-day life. So far the series has had its share of dramatic moments, as well as more comic ones, whether it be the panic Yachiyo goes through when she discovers that a shampoo hat has gone missing in one room, or Yachiyo experiencing a full existential crisis when a visiting robot suggests humans are never going to come back to Earth. Later on the hotel is visited by a family of tanuki-like aliens. As the series progresses, we get to see more of the cuteness that survives contrasting with the grim fate of humanity.
mono, Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc and Apocalypse Hotel are all streaming on Crunchyroll.
Onosume
Hotly Anticipated
After being dissatisfied with the more recent seasons of Love Live!, I was excited to see something a little different from Sunrise as they revealed Maebashi Witches, a series that combines their idol expertise with magical girls.
I’m not sure which internal studio within Sunrise is doing this one, but it certainly has a lot of the Love Live! DNA with your usual CGI musical routines and cute characters, but when it comes to the actual story, this has more notes of Magical Doremi than anything else.
We’re introduced to Yuina Akagi, a bright and peppy first year high school student who has a love for photography, where she snaps pics on her old-style disposable camera before pinning them up on the pinboard on her wall.
She’s just chilling in her room as you do, when a mysterious talking orange frog pops up out of nowhere, offering Yuina the chance to be a witch (where have we heard this before, hmmm?). Surprisingly not fazed by this, Yuina accepts and gets taken by the frog (who she later names Kuroppe) into the magic shop. Here, she and four other girls, Azu, Kyouka, Choco, and Mai, must serve customers and grant wishes in order to earn magic points. When they reach 99,999 points, then they can become a fully fledged witch and use magic outside the shop.
As we see in the first three episodes, there are some interesting dilemmas to tackle as the focus is placed on helping others and giving them the courage to move past their troubles. We see a girl being pulled between her two parents’ views who have very different expectations of her, as well as a woman who is a plus-size model, but has been pushed into some very demeaning roles because of her weight.
While I started getting worried about how it was handling the latter, I actually think it’s dealing with these issues well enough. While Sunrise’s shows have in the past not handled fatphobia very well, the show does call itself out for a harsh second episode in stating that kind of behaviour is wrong – so stick with it because we need to see it first, even if it’s a blunt delivery.
But you can tell the type of show it’s trying to be here, with the girls helping people out week-on-week, with a bit of a darker storyline slithering along in the background. I’m expecting Kuroppe to be a Kyubey-type character, and we also discover that not all of the girls are as nice as they seem. So in that regard, I’m eager to find out how the show develops.
What I’m not fond is the hyperactive vibe the show has, particularly with how fast paced it is and how all the characters are annoying, chirpy motormouths, as I was honestly starting to get a bit of a headache after watching the first three episodes all in one go. It just feels a bit much at times, and there’s often no real substance to them arguing over very mundane things. There’s also a lot of taking things at face value and a lack of the girls questioning what is going on. Surely, you’d freak out if you suddenly saw a talking orange frog, right? Either way, I think the character writing is a bit simplistic and not deep enough if it’s trying to pull elements from the Madoka-likes.
We’ll see how things go as there is plenty here to keep you interested, but I just hope they turn things down a notch.
Returning Champion
Making a comeback this season is I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, a show that I really enjoyed the first season of for its cute and chill isekai antics.
If you’re not familiar with the series, it follows former office worker Azusa Aizawa who died from overwork and was resurrected as an immortal witch. After spending 300 years killing slimes, she maxes out her level, then suddenly becomes the foster mother of two slime spirits. The series follows her and her growing family of magical creatures as she enjoys living the slow life in this fantasy world.
So far, it’s a bit of a quiet start for the series, as it just follows on from where it left off as we see all the familiar faces return in an opening episode that is simply there to remind you of who is who and what the series is about. This is fair enough as we soon get into some new adventures, and it does what it needs to do as a cutesy slice-of-life show. There are some nice moments as the gang learn to make manju, while our little slime spirits get a day out at the World Spirit Convention. There are some new character editions and chances for others to make more of an impact as well, like Yufufu, the water droplet spirit that becomes Azusa’s adoptive mother, while Goddess Mega-Mega (who resurrected Azusa in the first place) shows up having being demoted by the other gods. Hopefully both of these will be making more regular appearances.
Honestly though, I’ve got nothing to complain about so far – it’s a cute and relaxing show that’s perfect for those sleepy Sunday afternoons. If you like other iyashikei shows like Laid Back Camp, Non Non Biyori, or Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, then you’ll feel right at home.
Unexpected Diamond
Ever since Bocchi the Rock burst onto the anime scene, we have had a strong trend of rock music-focused shows with plenty of drama and depth. Continuing the trend for this season we have Rock is a Lady’s Modesty.
This show rips up the lyric sheets and tears down the establishment as we get a show that takes rock music’s themes of youth and rebellion and applies them to a prim and proper upper class Japanese high school.
After her mother re-marries into a wealthy Japanese household, Lilisa Suzunomiya gives up everything that might seem a bit uncouth in order to protect her mother’s new place in the family. As she settles into her new school, she leaves her father’s rock music behind and sets her sights on becoming the Noble Maiden, the school’s most elite student and perfect image of a “Yamato nadeshiko”, or perfect Japanese woman. Things of course never go quite to plan, for when she bumps into the school’s most popular student Otoha Kurogane, she is forcibly reunited with the rock music she abandoned as she picks up Otoha’s guitar pick. Thrust together in an after-school jam session, the pair revel in their shared rebellion against the meaning of lady and decide to form an instrumental rock band.
This show is a joy to watch, and I have absolutely loved what we’ve got so far. There are some important thoughts and social commentary in here on exploring the issues of the upper and lower classes, and while this would be boring on its own, it leaps off the screen, thanks to its excellent execution and sense of style. It cuts from drama to exhilarating musical segments as it frames this class tussle against two characters who go absolutely nuts as soon as they have some sort of rock instrument in hand. It’s certainly not often you see two high school girls mouthing off and swearing at each other to this degree, and I was honestly getting vibes of Kakegurui in how it’s out of control but in a very deliberate manner.
It’s quality and depth aren’t surprising though, as it has a very strong pedigree. Not only has the manga, written by Hiroshi Fukuda, been promoted by Bocchi the Rock’s author, Hamaji Aki, but the anime is also helmed by Shinya Watada, who has a wealth of credits directing series and episodes for music shows including Aikatsu Stars! The Movie, Hula Fulla Dance, The iDOLM@STER: Million Live, and Love Live! Superstar!!. Animated by Aikatsu! masterminds at Bandai Namco Pictures, you can clearly see the studio’s DNA in the art style and how they have interpreted the character designs. The biggest win however is in the music, which is performed and motion captured by members of BAND-MAID. Using an actual rock band captures an authentic sound and feel for the intense jams in these early episodes brilliantly, and paired with the excellent composition of the scenes really puts out that sense of dynamism and soul.
Accurately capturing rock’s sense of rebellion and style, Rock is a Lady’s Modesty is a show that makes a fantastic impact early doors and I really hope it can carry on in this fashion for the rest of its run. Keep an eye on this one – it could be anime of the season!
Maebashi Witches and I’ve Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Season 2 are streaming on Crunchyroll, while Rock is a Lady’s Modesty is available on HIDIVE.
Demelza
I have to confess, between a variety of lacklustre adaptations and the difficulties of streaming several series (either going unlicensed or split across too many platforms), this season has been frustrating so far. Still, despite all of that, there’s plenty to be excited about. So let’s get into my picks for the season!
Hotly Anticipated
This is an unusual one for me, as I normally pick Hotly Anticipated due to enjoying the source material already, but this time it’s entirely due to following it since it was announced. During the Fuji TV Ani 2025 live stream back in December, I was delighted when Kana Hanazawa, Yuki Kaji and Mamoru Miyano were brought on stage and confirmed as playing the leads of The Dinner Table Detective. Based on a popular novel series by Tokuya Higashigawa, the story follows heroine Reiko Hosho, who is working as a novice detective alongside the charismatic Inspector Kazamatsuri. What Kazamatsuri doesn’t know is that Reiko is actually from a wealthy family, but she’s trying to keep it a secret to prevent being given preferential treatment by those around her.
From the three episodes we’ve seen so far, Reiko has investigated several different murders, but not without hitting plenty of dead ends. With Kyoichiro Kazamatsuri constantly breathing down her neck to solve the case (not least because he’s also stuck!), it’s left to Reiko’s capable new butler, Kageyama, to lend a helping hand. Although he can’t be actively involved in investigations due to Reiko keeping her identity a secret, he’s very intelligent and can figure out a killer just from hearing some key details of a case. In the end, Reiko gets all the credit for solving the case, but it’s undeniably Kageyama who is really seeing these killers put behind bars…
I knew that, between this being a mystery series and starring three titans of the seiyu world, this was going to be an anime I would love. And three episodes later, that has been proven true as this has quickly become the show I look forward to the most every week. Animated by the studio Madhouse, every episode has looked great so far and captures the serious but often comical atmosphere.
Reiko is played by Hanazawa, while Miyano has been put into the role of Kazamatsuri, which is an excellent decision. Their characters are chaotic, which is matched by their voice actors, who put their all into delivering their lines. Honestly, regardless of what’s happening in the story, it’s often just fun to watch Reiko and Kazamatsuri bicker because they’re such dorky characters being brought to life wonderfully. It’s often a shame that Kageyama is stuck in the background, unable to be involved with the two, as Kaji is also doing a stellar job in his role as well. Kaji even commented in an interview recently that he was somewhat jealous when watching Miyano and Hanazawa having so much fun recording their scenes together, which he imagines isn’t too dissimilar to how Kageyama must feel watching over Reiko and Kazamatsuri.
Just like Oblivion Battery last year, this one already feels special to me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s my favourite when we look back at the end of the year. Yes, your mileage may vary, as I appreciate this appeals to me in particular due to the genre and talent involved. However, in a market so overrun by fantasy series, this is a welcome change of pace that’s simply good fun. The Dinner Table Detective isn’t trying to be anything it’s not, and if anything, it over-delivers on what it’s supposed to be, and I am perfectly happy with that.
Returning Champion
I feel particularly spoiled this season when it comes to returning champions. Black Butler and Shoshimin have returned to our screens, and Lycoris Recoil is receiving a variety of mini shorts, which, yes, aren’t exactly a sequel, but I’m certainly delighted to see the cast return. And perhaps most importantly for me, Wind Breaker is back for Season 2.
When the first season of Wind Breaker aired in the Spring last year, I was delighted by the work CloverWorks had put into adapting it. And now it’s back, it feels like it never left. We reunite with Haruka and his first-year classmates as they arrive to face off with the gang KEEL, who are holding Anzai’s childhood friend, Nagato, hostage. Although they’re outnumbered, the group refuse to leave Nagato behind and charge in undaunted.
However, Haruka isn’t used to fighting alongside a group of friends, and his intense focus on the opponent in front of him puts his friends at risk. Thankfully, Nirei had the good sense to call for backup, and it’s not long before some second-year students led by Kaji arrive to help save the day and even the odds. Although Kaji has some harsh words for Haruka, who put his friends in harm’s way. Our plucky protagonist still has a lot to learn about being able to depend on others, and as harsh as Kaji’s words might have been, he does take them to heart.
The KEEL arc marks the first time we witness an all-out brawl between teams (since the Shishitoren arc last season was all 1-on-1 fights), so it makes for a visually impressive storyline to resume the anime with. But actually, what I’m most looking forward to this season is Tsubakino’s arc, which is fast approaching! Being one of my favourite characters, I can’t wait to see how his story is brought to life! Either way, if you enjoyed Season 1 of this, then you’ll certainly enjoy Season 2.
Unexpected Diamond
When it comes to new shows that I wasn’t familiar with in any way prior to this season, there are a few I’m enjoying, but none as much as The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl (not an isekai, it has to be said!). The story follows Sophia Reeler, the third daughter of a count who has dreamed of nothing but a peaceful life. Unfortunately, in this world, everyone is blessed by an animal god, which gives them abilities related to said animal and can drastically change the course of their future. Sophia is blessed by the extremely rare Gorilla God, which gives her strength equivalent to, well, a gorilla…
Because of this unfortunate turn of events, Sophia is immediately invited to take the knight’s exam, which, despite her best efforts, she ends up passing. Worse still, she’s attracted the attention of Sir Louis, who all the girls at Sophia’s school are madly in love with and now have it in for her as she appears close to him! Although our heroine does her best not to stand out, it seems fate has other ideas for her.
Adapted into anime by studio Kachigarasu and Diomedea, this is an entertaining romance series that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The idea of everyone being blessed by an animal god might not be the most original concept, but I like how it’s been used so far and how each character feels well suited to the animal that’s blessed them. Of course, this is based on a shojo manga so the romance is a big selling point. Even though Sophia has quickly become the enemy of the other girls at school, she’s clearly attracted to Louis, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that relationship moves forward over time. And despite there being several other male characters that she’s on friendly terms with, it doesn’t seem like there’s any kind of love triangle brewing, which is refreshing!
While this isn’t an anime that does much to stand out from the crowd, it’s still plenty enjoyable if you’re into the fantasy/romance genres. Maybe it won’t be memorable in the long run, but as a weekly watch, I’m certainly more than satisfied with what it’s offering.
The Dinner Table Detective is available on Amazon Prime Video, while Wind Breaker and The Gorilla God’s Go-To Girl are both on Crunchyroll.
Sarah
Hotly Anticipated
If you follow our manga reviews, you’ll know that I’ve been singing the praises of Jun Mayuzuki’s Kowloon Generic Romance since its first volume came out. So can I recommend watching the TV anime adaptation? Absolutely, yes. The team at Arvo Animation have done really well in staying faithful to the mangaka’s distinctive drawings and have captured much of the original’s mystery and nostalgic appeal (nostalgia is an emotion that plays a vital role for the main characters). The story follows Reiko Kujirai (32) a Japanese estate agent working in the Old Walled City of Kowloon, her co-worker, Hajime Kudou, whose carefree attitude seems to hide an inner darkness and Dr. Miyuki Hebinuma, the dazzling young heir to Hebinuma Pharmaceuticals, the firm responsible for creating Generic Terra, the mysterious object floating high above Kowloon. Reiko comes to realize that she has no memories of a life before Kowloon – and then discovers (through a photo) that she is the spitting image of another Reiko Kujirai who turns out to have been Kudou’s fiancée; she’s even living in her apartment and working her job. When Dr. Hebinuma takes an unhealthy interest in her, she determines to find out who she really is.
The Old Walled City of Kowloon (demolished in 1993) plays a very significant role in its own right in the story and the mangaka’s graphical evocation of the bustling, narrow streets and balconied buildings crammed in too close together is brought to vivid life in the anime.
At three episodes in (out of twelve) the anime is moving very swiftly through the original material although I don’t feel it’s too rushed. However, I still wonder – even though the mangaka has said the manga will end soon – how the anime will manage to conclude successfully, given that Volume 11 (not the final volume) has just come out in Japan and we’re only up to #9 in English. And we’ve yet to experience in the anime some of the most destabilizing images of the manga that call into question everything we’ve seen and been told so far.
So what does the anime bring to the narrative (apart from action, 100% colour and spoken dialogue) that the manga doesn’t? Manga can only utilize still shots and even though this enhances our view of a scene through one character’s eyes, anime does this more effectively. One small example: in a flashback in Episode 3, Kudou (new to Kowloon) is suffering from the oppressive heat so Kujirai-B takes him to her apartment to cool off. We see (through his eyes) her smoking on the balcony and taking down her washing while a breeze stirs the net curtains, partially obscuring her from sight. Later, ‘our’ Kujirai is accompanied back to the same apartment by Kudou (carrying a fish tank for her goldfish) and we see him experience an intense moment of déjà-vu.
One interesting choice in the Japanese casting is to have two actresses voicing Reiko Kujirai: Haruka Shiraishi and Yuriko Yamaguchi as Kujirai-B, a more mature actress, and the difference is quite significant. I’m not sure if this entirely works for me although I understand why they chose to do this and maybe as the series progresses I’ll come to appreciate it as a choice. The rest of the cast are convincing in their roles and each episode has been compulsively watchable. There have been hints that the live-action film (due out in August when the anime has finished airing?) should be watched as well as the anime to deliver the most comprehensive interpretation of the original material. I still advise reading the manga for the best experience. It deals with deep issues of identity, loss, longing – and nostalgia but delivers them with wit, compassion and ingenuity.
Returning Champion
SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary (Crunchyroll) continues directly on from Series 1 and is based on the mystery novels by Honobu Yonezawa (Hyouka). High school friends (but not quite going out together) Jougorou Kobato and Yuki Osanai have gone their separate ways after Kobato discovered that Osanai (who’s obsessed with cakes and desserts) was not the innocent victim of an abduction by a gang of female high-schoolers but instead a manipulative and devious individual. Now Kobato is going out with outgoing Tokiko Nakamura (the complete opposite of Osanai) and Osanai with Takahiko Urino who’s one of the students working on the school newspaper and is painfully eager keen to sniff out a good story. Kobato foresees problems and warns his friend Kengo, who’s the president of the newspaper club, suspecting that Osanai is more than capable of instigating incidents that Urino then investigates, not realizing she’s behind them. And by the end of Episode 2/12, Kengo and Urino are already in trouble with the teacher overseeing the club for running Urino’s story about outbreaks of arson in the community.
Still waters run deep – and never deeper than in the case of sly Osanai whose innocent outward appearance belies her scheming nature. When she refers to herself as an ‘ordinary person’ when speaking with Kurino, the label seems especially inappropriate. Maybe her abnormal passion for desserts (which frames the episodes in the first season) is a clue to what makes her tick? Does Kobato miss her – or does she miss him, having been the one to walk out on him? This quiet slice-of-life series will get under your skin and compel you to keep watching to find out what’s really going on. Or maybe it won’t – it’s possible that SHOSHIMIN will deter those viewers who want a more lively, action-based story. Although, unlike the first season where we had to wait through several cake-focused episodes for all the subtle little hints to accrue, things are already moving much faster here. Even if it’s not for everyone, it’s very well made and good to look at with attractive character designs, natural backgrounds, convincing VAs and dazzlingly eye-catching visuals for the OP and ED. It certainly repays patience and careful watching – if you’ve stayed with it so far, you won’t be disappointed!
Unexpected Diamond
I have my fellow editor Rui’s early positive review to thank for making me return to this series as admit I’d dismissed it out of hand! I’m still not 100% convinced because any series that messes with classical music has to work very hard to persuade me…but I was pleasantly surprised by Episode 2 (not so much the first episode) of Classic★Stars (Crunchyroll) and by the music by Elements Garden which, let’s face it, has to do much of the heavy lifting in a series about…music.
The series starts by introducing a young boxer whose eye injury means that his boxing career is probably over – but who is sent to the prestigious Gloria Academy which nurtures talents in music, sports and the arts. Believing – mistakenly – that he’s going to able to pursue boxing, he meets an eccentric teacher, Mihanagi (Daisuke Namikawa) who tells him he has ‘the Gift’ (an implant from famous dead composers). He is now Beethoven and will be spending all his time with the students implanted with the Gifts of Mozart, Chopin and Liszt, making music. ‘Beethoven’ immediately falls out with Mozart (they are room-mates, of course) and tries to escape. Nevertheless, the first episode (and all the others so far) culminates in a new contemporary song based on material by the featured composer: Beethoven in Episode 1, Mozart in Episode 2, Chopin in Episode 3 etc.
This could have meant curtains for the series for me as I’m not a fan of messing about with existing music (especially classical) and just attaching some random drum and bass track. Elements Garden, luckily, are much better than that and manage to preserve something of the integrity of the music they’re quoting/riffing off of and yet create something new and interesting. The Mozart song (composed for a haughty figure skating star to perform to, so shades of Yuri on Ice) is the best so far but the others aren’t bad – we’ve yet to hear Liszt’s ‘La Campanella’ which is almost certainly going to feature in Episode 4. We’ve also yet to meet the boys’ rivals, although they appear in the OP: the members of the band Dis=Cord and all have ‘Lost’ added to their composer name e.g ‘Lost Schumann’, ‘Lost Vivaldi’ and yes, intriguingly, ‘Lost Beethoven’.
How does it compare with other series riffing off of classical composers? I confess that I hated takt.Op Destiny (2021) for its lazy use of the very classical music it claimed to be at the heart of the conflict. However, I still feel a lot of affection for ClassicaLoid (2016) which was totally bonkers from start to finish but managed to be quite faithful in representing aspects of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Liszt (who was portrayed as woman). ClassicaLoid also came much closer to the original composers in looks and personality traits. I keep wanting to call the Classic Stars version of Chopin ‘Schubert’ because short in stature with a blonde crop and glasses doesn’t in any way align with dark and long-haired Romantic icon Chopin (and we know Schubert was short in stature and wore glasses because contemporary portraits).
So. A diamond in the rough? We shall see. We shall see…
Kowloon Generic Romance, SHOSHIMIN Season 2 and Classic★Stars are streaming on Crunchyroll.
HWR
This season has so far felt quieter but there have been some interesting new additions to the weekly watch roster as mentioned by others so far and it’s always nice to see new seasons for the likes of Aharen-San, Black Butler, Fire Force and even 300 Slimes has been entertaining so far.
Hotly Anticipated
The novel Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery has seen its fair share of adaptations over the years from plays to films to radio productions and even comics. One such adaptation that stands out as relevant is the anime series Anne of Green Gables, released in 1979 as part of Nippon Animation’s World Masterpiece Theater franchise and directed by the late legendary Isao Takahata with contributions from Hayao Miyazaki early on. This anime fosters a legacy as a classic from its time period which led me to watch it and enjoy what it had to offer, and now in 2025, we have a new adaptation of AOGG, in the form of Anne Shirley.
I was certainly curious to see how this adaptation would turn out and since it’s multi-cour, the story is at least not being rushed through…yet. Anne (Honoka Inoue) is still depicted as a fiery young girl, thrust away from a life of being in and out of orphanages to live with elderly unmarried siblings Marilla (Aya Nakamura) and Matthew Cuthbert (Yasunori Matsumoto) at their farm, the titular Green Gables. Here she struggles to fit in not only with forming a relationship with the strict Marilla, but also as a student at the local school, where she is teased for her red hair by classmate Gilbert Blythe (Naoya Miyase). This provokes her to smash a slate over his head (an iconic scene from the novel). However, she also makes a new friend in Diana Barry (Yume Miyamoto).
What remains consistent so far with the story is that Anne is a likeable enough lead but does tend to tear up a tad too much early on, though the nuance of her fears surrounding abandonment and being sent back to the orphanage are an understandable catalyst for this. The animation from The Answer Studio has been solid enough, as have the character designs for the key characters which though understandably different from the older adaptation fit well enough. It remains to be seen if this adaptation will deviate from the novel at all, but since the 1979 adaptation was faithful, I hope it does so and does it well since it’s a rarity to see this sort of anime nowadays.
Returning Champion
The Uma Musume franchise is one that on paper shouldn’t work as well as it does for me but over the course of several seasons, I have grown rather invested in what is debatably a silly premise but one done with style and enough likeable characters to give it conviction, and any anime season with a new entry feels just that bit more elevated in my standings as a result.
Thus, when I heard that we were getting a spin-off prequel focusing on supporting character Oguri Cap (Tomoyo Takayanagi) in Uma Musume: Cinderella Grey, I was keen to check out what it had offer (and give Prime Video a dust-off to view it). So far, the story hasn’t broken much in terms of new ground, but certainly works enough from a character perspective, with Oguri being the underdog lead who finds herself outcasted by her peers (she is ousted from the dorms by a bullying trio of admittedly limited character) but also finds a firm friend in Berno Light (Momoko Seto) and coach in the eccentric Kitahara Jou (Katsuyuki Konishi).
Oguri also makes for a good lead as, despite being outwardly stoical, she has a goofier and more eccentric side that is characterised well in her voracious appetite and almost cluelessness about teamwork (she mainly just wants to race and train like a trooper). Berno is a likeable enough best friend character. The bully trio of Rudy Lemono (You Taichi), Norn Ace (Ayano Shibuya), and Mini the Lady (Shiori Izawa) have felt more like a plot device so far in their arc of bullying Oguri and attempting to sabotage her first big race, only for Rudy to fail and realise how outmatched she is and allow Oguri into the dorm, as opposed to sleeping in a storage room. I hope that they get something more to do in future episodes. I am keen to see how Oguri’s story proceeds from here, and if the story remains as solid as the rest of the franchise, it should be a good time indeed.
Though I don’t have any expanded thoughts yet on what Unexpected Diamonds have come from the season so far, I will give shout-outs firstly to Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin, which sported a gripping extended first episode and has mostly held my enthusiasm in the episodes that have followed thus far, and also to To Be Hero X which has been engaging enough and has some rather good 3D animation to boot.
Anne Shirley is streaming on Crunchyroll, whilst Uma Musume: Cinderella Grey is streaming on Prime Video.
Cold Cobra
This Spring season I’ve got three shows I’ve been “Hotly Anticipating“, each based on an existing franchise, two of which are already anime properties so they sort of skirt the line into returning champions as well, when you think about it… Anyway, first up is:
I’m always excited by new Gundam shows and after The Witch From Mercury exceeded my expectations I was really looking forward to the next project, so the oddly… okay, REALLY oddly named “GQuuuuuuX” (apparently pronounced “g-qwux”) caught my attention from the off. As each bit of information came out though I was more and more interested; it was co-written by Hideaki “Evangelion” Anno, directed by his frequent understudy-turned-collaborator Kazuya Tsurumaki, animated by his studio, Studio Khara, and set in an alternate history timeline of the original Gundam series, so it’s a proper combination of two of the greatest mecha/mobile suit shows of all time. Dream team aside, when the first trailer hit it was obvious the production quality was high and the character and mobile suit designs were far away from your traditional Gundam fare, with the main protagonists looking more like something from a Studio Trigger production than Sunrise, and the Mobile Suits and Gundams have a distinct look that, yes, is a little closer to Evangelion but still very much mechanical rather than the weird mix that Anno’s most famous work had. It’s all come together to create something that feels very unique but still has enough Universal Century era Gundam in it to keep it on-brand.
The alternate timeline in question is perhaps the most obvious one you can do: What if Zeon won the war? In the original series the Earth Federation, mostly thanks to Amuro Ray and his new prototype Gundam alongside the famous “White Base” battleship, win in the end and that led to Earth treating not just Zeon-allied but the Space Colonies as a whole really poorly in the aftermath (leading to the sequel series, Zeta Gundam), here Zeon Ace Char Aznable found the Gundam before Amuro did and piloted it himself as well as overseeing Zeon taking the White Base, taking away the Federation’s ace-in-the-hole ship and mobile suit and using them to propel Zeon to new heights. Interestingly Char and the Gundam (which of course he has painted red) disappeared in a flash of light while protecting the Zeon-controlled lunar city of Granada from the Solomon asteroid being thrown at it, all mirroring the actual Char and Amuro’s final fate at the end of their run of original shows/movie. Also what’s fun is that Zeon is actually treating Earth far nicer than Earth would end up treating the “Spacenoids” in the original timeline, showing that although there were definitely Nazi allusions to Zeon in the original show, not all of them were bad and some did just want to be free from Earth control.
All of that flashback and scene-setting made up the entirety Episode 2, funnily enough. Episode 1 instead established the main cast of the show, which is set 5 years after Zeon won the war. Regular student Amate Yuzuriha ends up bumping into war refugee Nyaan and they accidentally swap bags, with Amate finding out she was carrying some Mobile Suit equipment. She follows Nyaan and confronts her, and after a quick scuffle, convinces her to let her tag along to the drop-off point. There her suspicions are confirmed as the bit of tech allows someone to “unbreak” mobile suits that are monitored by Zeon and then use them in mobile suit fights called “Clan Battles”. Their chat is cut short though as the other half of the episode focuses on a special task force from Zeon that’s searching for the Red Gundam, headed by Challia Bull, a prospective Newtype (pilot with psi powers, basically) who died in a single episode in the original series but here is allowed to continue living in this new timeline. When they spot the Red Gundam, Challia sends out the latest prototype Gundam, the GQuuuuuuX, to capture it, but after a series of clashes and crashes the GQuuuuuuX pilot Xavier ends up ejecting from it and watching in horror and confusion as Amate jumps into the cockpit and naturally wields the Gundam better than he could. Classic Gundam protagonist stuff, which is nice to see under this new coat of paint!
So that’s the set-up to start with, a Gundam Clan that ends up with the prototype GQuuuuuuX on their side, as well as more without spoiling too much. How these Clan Battles will spill out into a wider story is unknown but I’m looking forward to finding out. The animation, soundtrack and voice acting (in both Japanese and English, as this is a rare simu-dub, if that’s your thing) are all of high quality, and with such a different creative team in charge of this alternate original Gundam timeline I’m really looking forward to what they come up with.
The second show on my list is a prequel series to the ever-popular My Hero Academia in “Vigilantes”. The show is based on a manga, but not created by the original author (because just creating one manga series is stressful enough!) but instead Hideyuki Furuhashi, and it was released on the Shonen Jump+ app instead of the core magazine itself. It ran for 126 chapters and ended in 2022 so really it’s odd it hasn’t seen an adaptation until now, given the popularity of the core series. At this point, I assumed it was being saved until after the main show ended, instead they’ve started it just before the finale!
Anyway, the show is set five years before the start of the original story and features a protagonist not unlike Midoriya from that series, but with a few differences. In case you’re unaware, the world of MHA has a good majority of people being born with “Quirks”, or superpowers. While Midoriya was one of the few born Quirkless but still wanted to be a hero, our main character here, Koichi Haimawari, has a Quirk but it’s functionally useless in terms of fighting crime as it allows him to slide across the floor at about the speed of a bicycle so long as three of his four limbs are touching the ground. That being said, during his rare free time between college and his part-time job at a little corner shop, he often dresses in a hoodie modelled after the world’s #1 hero All Might and does some low-key helpful tasks, earning him the nickname “Nice Guy”.
Things change one day when he meets a viral street performer called Pop Star, who uses her basic leaping Quirk as part of her performances, and the two of them end up being corned by some thugs. They’re saved by a masked man with a pair of knuckledusters called… Knuckleduster, who beats them handily. He claims to be impressed with Koichi and makes him his protégé and although Koichi initially doesn’t want any part of him, when he finds out he’s operating without a Heroes’ license. Although when the older vigilante essentially forces himself into Koichi’s life, the two begin to form a bond and soon a vigilante group along with Pop Star.
Knuckleduster is on the trail of a new drug that’s hit the street called “Trigger” that is causing people to get a big boost in their Quirks at the expense of their sanity or possibly their lives (or at least makes them far more of a risk to other innocent lives anyway). Their hunt causes them to come across Eraser Head, one of the lead adult Heroes from the main show, who tries to use his Quirk to stop Knuckleduster only to find out he’s Quirkless, just a large muscular man with a set of knuckledusters. He lets him go with a warning about trying to play hero, but later in Episode 2, his group helps take down someone whose gigantism Quirk goes out of control, which puts them on Eraser Head’s map, so to speak. Koichi is also now trying to get his new hero name of “The Crawler” over as well, to no avail, which is good for a laugh. Koichi is certainly a relatable and enjoyable lead protagonist with the other two members of the group being a good laugh as well. It’s a fun central cast.
The show is well animated, being created fittingly by a subsidiary of the animation studio that makes the main show, Bones Film rather than Studio Bones themselves, and the voice work and soundtrack are good as well. If you’re a fan of the original show or are just looking for a superhero show a bit more lower-tier and “street level” with a fun cast of characters then Vigilantes is going to be right up your alley.
Rounding out the newly debuting series I’ll be watching this season is Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers, the latest in a long line of fighting game anime adaptations. That being said, Dual Rulers is actually a sequel to the latest game in the franchise rather than an attempt at an adaptation. It isn’t putting any effort into hiding this fact as the first two episodes at the very least are full of stills with narration that try to sum up characters and past plot threads but sometimes just give up and say “but that’s a story for another time” so they can get back to the new story they’re telling. It certainly feels like the next story in a series rather than a jumping-on point, and honestly the last two Guilty Gear games have given up trying to create a playable story mode and just used the in-game assets (which are 3D models that look 2D, something the game’s creators Arc System Works excels at) to create an anime on the game disc that you can watch at your leisure in between playing the actual game modes. That’s why this series doesn’t actually feel like the first Guilty Gear anime at all, if you’ve been following the games.
With all that out of the way, what’s Dual Rulers about? Well, without also going into the lore of the series too much, it focuses on Sin Kiske, the son of one of the main protagonists in Ky Kiske and his wife Dizzy, which is important because Dizzy is a Gear, a type of magical creation not unlike androids (but with magic and flesh rather than machine parts) that once rebelled and nearly drove humanity into extinction. Due to this, the new post-apocalyptic world is a bit down on Gears as a whole, so hearing Ky, who is something akin to a King or I guess, given the title, a ruler of his people marrying a Gear hasn’t gone down well with the world’s governments or his own people. Due to this, Sin, who yes was named after the fact he was created from a forbidden union (which always seemed rather harsh) was actually sent away to be protected by Ky’s friend-turned-ally Sol Badguy, who despite his cheesy surname is actually a good guy and the poster boy protagonist of the whole series. The anime picks up with the wedding ceremony between Ky and Dizzy and sees it get interrupted by a would-be assassin called Unika whose attempt at assassinating them fails but does put the duo in some sort of crystal barrier… thingy.
This puts Sin, and by extension Sol, on the trail of Unika which ends up including a big rally in the US where its President attempts to follow in Ky’s footsteps and officially shut down a massive anti-Gear weapon as proof that they are no longer to be feared. However, Unika tries to use it instead, only she’s stopped by Sin, who is fascinated with her attitude towards Gears and wants to know why she acts the way she does.
Other characters from the games have made appearances in the opening episodes, including Johnny, an over-the-top cool ladies man character who is voiced by Norio “Cell and mostly other evil villains” Wakamoto, and hearing him still just sounds so wrong in an admittedly funny way, and fan favourite Bridget, a nun who attacks people with yo-yos (okay there’s a lot more to unpack there, but I can’t be here all day… Now I know how the anime writers felt!)
The soundtrack and voice acting are good, but the animation ranges from fluid high speed action to barely moving close-ups, quick cuts and other tried-and-true methods of cost-cutting. It’s really odd; one moment it’s extremely high quality and the next if feels like a bonus OVA that had zero budget. Still, it looks good when it needs to, and that’s fine. I never expected Guilty Gear to get a AAA anime studio, and Sanzigen have at least captured the look of the newer games’ 2D/3D hybrid style well. As a fan of the game series, I’ll be watching regardless as it’s the canon continuation of the story, but I have to believe anyone who isn’t familiar with the games will be lost, or frustrated. It tries to present itself as a simple story about a race being hated on and the need to put a stop to it, an easy message to understand, but there is far too much baggage to focus on that alone.
Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX is streaming on Prime Video, whilst My Hero Academia: Vigilantes and Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers are streaming on Crunchyroll.
