Summer 2025 Preview
DAN DA DAN returns for a second season! Call of the Night is back! Kaiju No.8, My Dress-Up Darling…is this Summer Season made up of nothing but much-heralded anime sequels? Well, fortunately, no. If you’re looking for something new, Netflix have The Summer Hikaru Died as well as another of those ‘let’s upload it all at once!’ series with Leviathan, while having done a big publicity push for The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity, then telling viewers in the West that they actually won’t be able to see it until the Autumn Season (unlike Asia) for…obscure reasons, thereby proving yet again that they really don’t understand their anime fans. So while we wait and fume, are there other new series worth watching? The writers at Anime UK News are here to share their first impressions and recommendations!
Ian Wolf
Hotly Anticipated
One series that I have been looking forward to is City: the Animation. Streaming on Amazon Prime, the series is based on the manga by Keiichi Arawi, the creator of Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, once again we come to sample some surreal sketch comedy, with the central premise being that the series follows the residents of a particular city, which is just called City (think of a less creepy Royston Vasey from The League Of Gentlemen).
Among the characters in the series are Midori, a student who works as a waitress in a restaurant where in the first episode, she and the resident chef have to try and fish out some noodles that fell into a customer’s bag without him noticing. Meanwhile, the chef’s son has to deal with the fact his horoscope says his lucky item is a miniskirt, and is told he has to wear it in public to make the luck happen. Midori lives with Ayumu, who’s a year below her at university and dreams of becoming a photographer, and they are in the same block as another student Wako, who is somewhat away with the fairies. Elsewhere in City you will find the local football team who will go to any depths possible to protect their star player – although he’s more than capable of injuring himself off the pitch; the editor of the City magazine which also employees a constantly struggling manga artist who’s running low on idea for his gag manga Mr. Bummer; and then there is the old man who just likes to watch everyone in town using hidden cameras.
Aside from the fact that this is the return of Arawi’s work being animated, City should also be noted for the fact that it is being produced by Kyoto Animation. Indeed, it is the first KyoAni work since the studio’s arson attack not to be a sequel of a previous work. The series has been using a wonderful mix of bright colours and energetic animation to the show, as well as the use claymation in its ending titles.
Returning Champion
The second Amazon Prime exclusive this season is a returning series that people have been waiting to see for a long time. Indeed, it has been 15 years since the original anime debuted. However, it seems that nothing much has changed for the two most badly behaved angels in anime. Yes, after a decade-and-a-half, the Anarchy sisters are back.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt originally debuted back in 2010, made by Gainax and directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Promare). At the time, the series was noted for its more western art style and its use of adult humour – as evidenced by its title characters: sex-hungry Panty and gluttonous goth Lolita Stocking, a pair of angels kicked out of heaven for their bad behaviour and now living under the guardianship of black priest Garterbelt.
The new series begins with another character, voice-of-reason Brief, narrating what happened during the original anime, and commenting that it feels like 15 years have passed by during that time, when in fact in the show it is only a few minutes and the action takes place immediately after the first series ended.
While the original Panty & Stocking was made by Gainax, in the end the series came to be something of the company’s swan song. Nothing produced later by the studio quite reached the same heights. In the end, the series fell under the ownership of Imaishi’s new studio Trigger, and Gainax fell into decline, with it finally declaring bankruptcy last year. The studio move is not the only change, as this new series also features an almost entirely different English dub cast. The animation style and use of adult humour however, remains very much in place.
Unexpected Diamond
In terms of unexpected series, I doubt there can be any series as unexpected in terms of the direction it has taken this season than Turkey! Time to Strike. When it was originally promoted, it was with posters of the main characters bowling. It appeared to be a typical “cute girls doing cute things” show, focused around a high school tenpin bowling club. Turns out, Turkey! isn’t that. The studio Bakken Record and producers Pony Canyon had played one hell of a blinder.
The opening episode played out fairly conventionally. One member of the club, Rina Godai, is sick of always losing, so club president Mai Otonashi tries to get her to stay in the club otherwise it will fall below the minimum number of members a school club is allowed. They decide to have a match together in order to settle the matter. However, the match is played while a lightning storm takes place outside. During the storm, lightning strikes a nearby construction site, where an artefact has been partly buried. The strike releases a magic spell, which affects Mai’s bowling ball, dragging her down the lane. The rest of the club, including Rina, grab onto Mai to stop her, but are instead dragged with her. Eventually, Mai wakes up in a field – right next to a battle. Turns out Turkey! is actually a time travel story, and the bowling club have gone back to the Warring States period. The girls soon find themselves being saved by, and then later saving, a young soldier named Suguri Tokura. Worried about what it would mean if they told them the truth, the club claim to be travelling performers, and Suguri thanks them by putting them up in his mansion.
This entire change in tone from sports anime to time travel tale has resulted in a mixed response. Some were delighted in the surprise and the unexpected turn of events. Others however were annoyed, as they just hoped to see a regular anime about bowling. Some on social media went as far as to say they were annoyed that Turkey! is just another isekai – which it isn’t. Isekai stories take place in totally different worlds, whereas our characters have gone back in time in our world. Personally, I think it is an interesting mixture. When it comes to the girls saving Suguri, it is their use of bowling which comes to the rescue, and it will be nice to see how this use of a sport will help the gang stuck in the past.
This mixture of genres may well result in the creation of an unexpected cult hit. While it is too early to say what direction the show will take, especially as the direction has already changed so dramatically, there is every chance this anime could become increasingly popular. Some people have already spotted connections with other works. For example, the surnames of the members of the bowling club – Otonashi, Godai, Ichinose, Mitaka and Nikaido – are also all surnames of characters in Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku. While I doubt the series can live up to a series like that, it will still be interesting to see how it unfolds.
City: the Animation and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt are both available to stream on Amazon Prime. Turkey! Time to Strike is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
HWR
Similarly to the Spring season, this Summer sees notable returns and unique newcomers – one of which caught me off-guard owing to its director. Notable standouts so far for me include City The Animation, as discussed above, the return of Dr. STONE: Science Future in its second cour, and newcomer Gachiakuta, which I need to give some time to grow on me but does show promise.
Hotly Anticipated
TOUGEN ANKI is a series I have become familiar with, courtesy of reviewing the first few volumes for the site – seeing it adapted into anime felt like good timing too. Right off the bat, the premise of TOUGEN ANKI seen in the trailers and initialised in the first two episodes will feel perhaps tried and tested for the shonen demographic – especially with lead character Shiki (Kazuki Ura) and his backstory as a rebellious teen with supernatural abilities and an adoptive parental figure who breaks down societal boundaries to care for him, only to die in the process, all whilst being shunned from normal society.
Without giving too much away, the manga does strengthen slightly from the initial faltering familiarity, and the animation thus far has been solid, conveying the visual strengths of its adapted manga rather well. Perhaps though, based on these initial episodes some may opt to skip over TOUGEN ANKI for the many other anime airing this season but I’ll be seeing this through, especially as a two-cour run for a manga that been finding its footing over the three volumes available physically so far.
I would also like to shout out Nyaight of the Living Dead, not so much (oddly enough) for its eccentric premise, but for its executive director Takashi Miike. Miike is one of my personal favourite directors, with a plethora of solid to great live-action films under his belt, but also some worthwhile anime live-action adaptations to boot (As the Gods Will and Blade of the Immortal to name a few standouts), so when I heard he was attached to this project (working alongside director Tomohiro Kamitani) I was instantly interested in checking it out.
The premise is perhaps as you’d expect based on the pun-laden title: a zombie apocalypse but with adorable cats instead of shuffling stiffs – it’s been a wacky enough ride so far and feels in line with Miike’s other works, which are never afraid to be out there in tone and execution. On the flipside though, I am perhaps concerned that the humour and plot will wear itself a bit thin over the course of the season – I can’t help but wonder if this idea could work better as a film or OVA miniseries, especially seeing some of the animation issues, but nevertheless the cast of survivors are likeable enough so far (curious to see who survives and who serves as fodder later on) and a Freddie Mercury lookalike popped up in Episode 2 (I’m sure the Live Aid 40th Anniversary timing is pure coincidence). This is one I will watch in the hope it remains worthy of its hot anticipation, rather than a disappointing summary at the end of the season.
Unexpected Diamond
I almost put this anime in this category solely for a long-winded pun, but Ruri Rocks genuinely took me by surprise, as I wasn’t expecting too much from the outset based on the premise of a slice-of-life anime focused on mineralogy, and yet over the course of just a few episodes I am now very keen to tune in each week for this.
The set-up so far has been straightforward but well-executed as jewellery enthusiast Ruri Tanigawa (Miyari Nemoto) is paired up with graduate student Nagi Arato (Asami Seto) who is out searching for minerals. As the older senpai, Nagi takes the eager Ruri under her wing and teaches her the basics of minerology, with us as the viewer learning along the way. The initial episodes cover the topic in a fun, edutainment-style, with the first establishing the premise, and the second expanding into the world of panning for gold.
Above all Ruri Rocks, animated by Studio Bind, has featured some stunning visuals so far, which only adds to the appeal of checking this out every week – the bond between Nagi and Ruri is also gradually growing, and it looks like we’ll be introduced to more characters soon enough as well, so I’m hoping this turns out to be a seasonal highlight.
TOUGEN ANKI, Nyaight of the Living Cat and Ruri Rocks are streaming on Crunchyroll.
Demelza
Hotly Anticipated
Secrets of the Silent Witch is a series I’ve been particularly excited about since I read the first volume of the light novel back in 2022. So, of course, I was delighted when an anime adaptation was announced last summer and further thrilled to learn it would be directed by Takaomi Kanasaki (Konosuba) and Yasuo Iwamoto (Princess Connect! Season 2) at Studio Gokumi.
Our story follows Monica Everett, who is a powerful mage belonging to the Seven Sages, who are regarded as the strongest in the world. She goes by the title ‘The Silent Witch’, thanks to her ability to cast spells without speaking incantations. But while she holds so much power, she has social anxiety and finds it incredibly difficult to interact with other people. The whole reason she learnt to cast spells without incantations is so no one would overhear her! Now she lives up in the mountains with her familiar spirit, Nero, and keeps to herself.
However, her peaceful life comes to an end when she’s visited by another of the sages: Louis Miller. He’s come to entrust Monica with a mission that sees her transfer into Serendia Academy, where she’ll be acting as an undercover bodyguard for the second prince, Felix Arc Ridill. Assassins are targeting him, but he refuses any kind of protection, as well as having broken the magical tool Louis gifted him for his safety. Since Monica has always hidden her identity due to her anxiety, this makes her the perfect mage to plant in the school, but will she be able to get close to and protect Felix from those who wish to harm him?
So far, the Secrets of the Silent Witch is everything I hoped it would be. The comedy lands well thanks to the team’s work on similar titles (this is not a comedy as its main genre, but there are a lot of hilarious faces from Monica as she’s put in unexpected situations), and the action scenes have so far been superb. Despite being such a quiet character, Monica and the rest of the cast are a colourful collection of personalities, and the team have done well to bring them to life so wonderfully. This is a fantasy series with a lot of drama, but it’s not afraid to spend some time on slower, slice-of-life moments that grow the character relationships and let their personalities shine.
Monica will find herself wrapped up in all kinds of things as she spends time at the academy, and I’m looking forward to seeing how much of her story the anime will adapt. After three episodes, we’re still well within Volume 1, so maybe we aren’t looking at the traditional four volumes per 11-13 episodes as we often see from these adaptations. Whatever the case, I’m pleased with how this is progressing so far and highly recommend it to those of you looking for a new fantasy series.
Returning Champion
This is another busy season for returning series, but perhaps the one I’ve been anticipating the most is My Dress-Up Darling, which is back for a second season, three years after the first. And as we reunite with Gojo and Kitagawa, we find them busy preparing a Halloween cosplay outfit. Yes, not much really changes for the two as they go through the hardships of cosplay and fandom together. But perhaps they’re slowly growing closer as Kitagawa finds it increasingly difficult to hide the fact that she’s in love with her costume-making champion.
Once again handled by CloverWorks, this season of My Dress-Up Darling is as visually impressive as ever as the staff depict the hyperactive Kitagawa and more stoic Gojo. As friends and crafters, they’ve come a long way since Season 1, but I appreciate the immediate sense of familiarity we got from being thrown straight back in. Although it has been such a long time since Season 1, it doesn’t feel like any time has passed at all since we last enjoyed watching over these two.
The original manga has already reached its conclusion in Japan (we’re still a couple of volumes behind here in English), and while it doesn’t seem likely this season will adapt to the end, I think what we do see this season will be satisfying. Right now, it’s setting up for Gojo to receive a lot more of a focus than he did previously, which I think is going to be plenty rewarding given how strong the writing of this series is and continues to be.
Unexpected Diamond
Gachiakuta is a series that has been impossible to avoid if you’re into shonen manga. Running in Weekly Shonen Magazine since 2022 and with 15 volumes under its belt (7 here in English), this dark fantasy has quickly grown popular with readers. And now it’s being treated to an anime adaptation by beloved studio BONES, but does it impress?
The story follows protagonist Rudo, who lives in the slums on the borders of a wealthy society. Those who live here are treated like trash, while those on the wealthy side of the city (separated by a huge wall) are wasteful and dump anything and everything they deem ‘trash’ into The Pit, which is a massive dumping ground below the floating island upon which the city sits. This, unfortunately, also includes people (usually criminals).
Unfortunately for Rudo, he ends up being framed for a murder he did not commit and is dumped in The Pit. He survives the fall, but down here is an unruly territory filled with trash that has formed into living monsters and criminals who are always looking to take advantage of anyone who may have survived the fall (or selling off their clothes and goods if they don’t!). Having sworn revenge on those in the city, Rudo is determined to find his way back, and he’ll do anything it takes to make that happen. Luckily for him, he seems to have awakened to a special ability that gives him plenty of fighting power to survive out here in these unruled lands.
We’ve only seen two episodes of this one so far, with it now being off for a week due to other broadcasting taking over the timeslot. The first episode, honestly, is a bit of a slog as we have to sit through everyone being nasty to Rudo for reasons that both do and don’t make sense. When he’s framed for murder, everyone turns against him, including his loved ones, in a way that seems far too abrupt and in service of moving the plot along. Still, this work is clearly popular for a reason, and I don’t believe BONES would ever pick a bad project to adapt, so I continued into the second episode. And those efforts were rewarded as after Rudo is thrown into The Pit, there are more interesting things to focus on, such as the others that live down there and the monsters running rampant.
Putting the story aside, the production so far is strong. The animation is fairly dark, with muted colours as you’d expect from the setting, but coming from BONES, it remains visually interesting, and the action scenes are smooth and compelling to watch. There’s also music from Taku Iwasaki, who has worked on Bungo Stray Dogs and Soul Eater with BONES previously. The music direction is definitely one of the elements that stood out to me early on, so I’m looking forward to hearing more of it over time.
I’ve talked a lot about Gachiakuta, and ultimately, after two episodes, I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it. However, while I may be uncertain about it, that doesn’t mean I think it’s bad, and I’m intrigued to see where the story will take us. This is scheduled to run for two cour, so we’ll certainly see a lot of it over the Summer and into Autumn!
Secrets of the Silent Witch, My Dress-Up Darling and Gachiakuta are all available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Sarah
Hotly Anticipated
As an early fan of the manga The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren, I’ve been fascinated to see how much buzz the anime version has created from the get-go. The set-up? In winter, high-schooler Yoshiki’s best friend Hikaru went missing on the mountain above Kubitachi Village for a week. And then he was found, miraculously still alive. It’s now high summer and the two boys are hanging out together after school when Yoshiki turns to Hikaru and says, “You ain’t the real Hikaru, are ya?” What follows is truly disturbing as something inhuman emerges from one side of Hikaru’s face and reaches out toward him. Whatever came down from the mountain has taken Hikaru’s body and memories and is enjoying itself in its new identity, eating ice cream, reading manga, and generally experiencing a human’s five senses for the first time. But Yoshiki knows – because he secretly went up the mountain back in winter and found a body – that ‘his’ Hikaru is dead. Who – or what – is this other ‘Hikaru’? And why have strange and disturbing things begun to happen in the village?
This atmospheric, subtle mingling of body horror and rural folk legend, with a dash of homoeroticism, takes the ‘growing up in a remote Japanese village’ trope and makes it fresh and disturbingly new again by inviting us to observe events through the eyes of Yoshiki. The manga is heavy with the sound effects of an oppressively hot summer: the incessant chirring of the cicadas, occasionally cut through by other weird and unsettling noises that have no rational explanation. The anime has been enhancing this aural aspect of the manga very effectively. It’s not a typical horror series, although Mokumokuren’s art enhances every shadow and the use of a blank, black screen between scenes, accompanied by silence, increases the ominous atmosphere.
Putting aside the ongoing online discussion as to whether the anime has outdone the manga or not (my view is that both are valid in their own right) there’s no doubt that – thus far!! – the anime is doing a brilliant job at bringing the manga to vivid and chilling life. The Japanese voice actors for Yoshiki (Chiaki Kobayashi) and Hikaru (Shuichiro Umeda) have captured the dynamic between the two boys very convincingly. The storyboarding has brought in characters and story themes from much later on in the manga, so we see what’s going on with the village ‘elders’ from the first episode, as well as the enigmatic Tanaka and his hamster. Above all, the imaginative use of animation and imagery (that photo-insert in Episode 2 of the raw chicken tenders!!) makes this for me one of the best anime this year. Sound effects, music, vivid colour palettes, timing – especially timing, not so much for jump-scares although they feature – and even the use of the black screen between ‘moments’, all contribute to a compelling experience. The OP and ED, revealed in Episode 2, are ‘just right’ too, especially Vaundy’s OP song ‘saikai’ (‘Reunion’) which uses subtle and unsettling shifts of key and unresolved cadences to destabilize the viewer and create a musical version of Yoshiki’s troubled state of mind (and maybe that of ‘Hikaru’ as well). And that recurring imagery of the cicada emerging from its chrysalis only to be eaten by a milling swarm of ants is horribly right and suitably disturbing when animated.
Another discussion I’ve seen raging on is whether this is a Boys’ Love or not. Frankly I don’t see why it has to be one thing or the other. The story does many things and one of them is to use the unspoken and complicated feelings Yoshiki has for Hikaru/’Hikaru’ and take them to the next stage. The already notorious Episode 2 scene in which ‘Hikaru’ and Yoshiki are alone in the school PE storeroom (yes, that PE storeroom where so many first sexual encounters take place in manga) and ‘Hikaru’ opens up – literally – to him is at once a metaphor for the two boys exploring their sexuality together and a close encounter of an extremely alien kind.
But this story is at heart about two individuals who have been together since they were very young and who depend on each other at a deep level. It’s fascinating and heart-breaking to watch the entity that has taken Hikaru’s place (because the dying Hikaru asked it to) discovering all the complicated emotions and sensations that add up to what it means to be human. And to experience Yoshiki’s confusion as he struggles to make sense of what has happened to the person he’s been closest to. How can he grieve for his Hikaru when ‘Hikaru’ is at his side?
The manga will be finishing soon but, in some ways, these early chapters are the most captivating because very little has yet been explained – and I wonder if the later revelations about the village history and the role of Hikaru’s family, the Indous, will take something of the glamour and mystery away. Nevertheless I’ll be more than happy to keep watching and being ‘spirited away’ each week to a remote place in Japan where the borders between the everyday world and whatever lurks beyond are blurred, allowing things to leak through from the ‘other side’.
Also, thank heavens that Netflix was persuaded to screen this weekly, not downloading all the episodes at once as with Leviathan. It really makes such a difference – and I’m willing to bet that it draws in many more viewers this way as word spreads and people are eager to find out what happens in the next weekly instalment. The old model still works like a dream!
So where is my Returning Champion? I’m still enjoying Anne Shirley which is now embarking on adapting the third Anne of Green Gables novels, Anne of the Island in which red-haired orphan Anne at last attends Redmond College. Although speeding through the original material, this attractive new anime version has managed to keep us involved with Anne as she leaves her beloved Green Gables and is still teasing us about her ‘friendship’ with Gilbert Blythe. And my Unexpected Diamond? Let’s Go Karaoke! hasn’t started yet! But I can’t wait to see how well Yama Wayama’s wonderfully ‘different’ story of a well brought-up middle school choir boy who finds himself teaching a young yakuza the finer points of performing a song fares as an anime. Good advance signs are the way the mangaka’s signature graphic style has been translated to animation – and even more hopes are raised for the second of the two six-part Yama Wayama series from studio Doga Kobo: Captivated by You. In a season overloaded with isekai and cookie-cutter fantasy series, I’m hoping these will deliver a much-needed breath of fresh air. (Please no more guilds, dragons, elves, sword-hefting female warriors etc. for a while.)
The Summer Hikaru Died is streaming on Netflix and Anne Shirley is streaming on Crunchyroll.
Onosume
Returning Champions
Going into this summer season there wasn’t really anything new that I’d really kept an eye out for before (well, perhaps just Watari-kun’s ****** Is about to Collapse after owning an unread digital copy of the manga for a while, and yeah… I’m not impressed with it) so it was up to this season’s sequels to keep me entertained!
First up, we return to DAN DA DAN, where we insert ourselves back into its slightly awkward adaptation of the Evil Eye arc, with the story starting in the previous season and getting cut off. Now we’ve got everything in full though, it’s definitely time to start digging in if you’ve been delaying for this reason.
Despite it being an awkward start to the season in terms of story, it actually works well as an opener as we jump straight into the action and it’s just as gripping as the opening of the first season was! We’ve got a mad cult of a family feeding sacrifices to a giant Mongolian Death Worm, while in the dark pit of doom the ghost of one of those sacrifices waits for a gullible host body so that he can enact his revenge against humanity.
What I found interesting about these three episodes was that they’ve got a bit of everything and they’re a good showcase of what the series can do. I could certainly live without the sexual assault at the start, but it’s got some psychological horror and mind games as the family try to manipulate their victims into the pit of doom, before it turns into more survival horror and indeed action as Momo, Okarun and Jiji battle it out against both the worm and Evil Eye.
I think the worm itself could have been used better as it is just a monster, but things really kick off when Evil Eye comes into play. Its backstory is proper horrific as you see this kid literally put to the slaughter then having to face this afterlife of despair and cursing people. Yet suddenly, things turn into JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and we have some crazy action that really reminded me of Stand battles. It’s brilliant to watch Okarun and Evil Eye go at it, but I liked that it’s up to Momo to truly save the day.
Does it have the same impact as the opening arc with Turbo Granny? Maybe not initially, as it’s more of a mysterious slow burn up to things kicking off here, and a lot of the previous episodes rely on you bonding with Jiji which I certainly didn’t. Yet the JoJo-ness of the Evil Eye fight and the rather explosive ending scream that yes, DAN DA DAN is back with a vengeance!
My other pick here is the second season of My Dress-Up Darling. Having been charmed by the first season’s mix of cosplay and rom-com hijinks, I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, and I’m glad to say that it’s a really fun comeback.
So far it feels like it’s placing more emphasis on the rom-com elements and deepening Gojo and Marin’s relationship, with their closeness now being called out by their friends who desperately want to know if they are a couple or not! Of course, there’s nothing but that shy denial right now, but I love how the show depicts their chemistry and trust, even though Gojo gets squirmish and horny about it. Teenagers huh?
It’s still genuinely funny, and the show knows when to be sexy and when to be serious, and I really like that early on here we are getting some character development for Gojo where his knowledge of clothes and make-up isn’t something to be ashamed about, but to be proud of. I think it could have angled the argument even better as fashion is for everyone, but I’ll take what it offers here as at least a positive.
Marin is still as cute as always and her outfits are fantastic. We haven’t seen much of the creative process side of things in these early episodes, but I’m sure we’ll get back to that soon enough.
Overall though I still think this is a fantastic show that blends teenage rom-com hijinks with the love of the craft of cosplay really well. Definitely one to watch if you enjoyed the first season.
Unexpected Diamond
Out of the new shows on offer this season, I was taken completely by surprise by Takopi’s Orginal Sin, as while the synopsis might seem light and fluffy, its actual direction is shocking and brutally dark.
The titular Takopi is an octopus-looking alien from the planet Happy whose residents fly all over the universe with a bucket of Happy Gadgets trying to bestow happiness on those they meet. Takopi lands on Earth and meets Shizuka, a sad young girl who looks impoverished and beat-up, so of course Takopi tries to cheer her up with their Happy Gadgets, slowly befriending her and eventually snapping a photo of her smile using a Happy Camera.
Yet not everything is at seems, as inexplicably to Takopi, Shizuka ends up taking her own life. Distraught that their friend has gone, Takopi uses the Happy Camera to continuously go back in time to prevent Shizuka’s demise.
This is only part of the main plot, but this series really goes in hard and never lets up, presenting itself as some kind of dark psychological thriller where one girl bullying another escalates into showing the darkest sides of humanity. The writing here is excellent as this isn’t just simple bullying between kids, but a complete web of cause and effect from multiple different angles. We as viewers can see the full picture as we have this understanding of how people can hurt each other, but Takopi doesn’t and views everything through a sugar-coated lens. This creates massive tension as you see this creature do stuff which then causes things to escalate, and you know what’s going to happen before it does, but because of that it makes it all the more harrowing to watch as you see this little alien creature slowly understand and get pulled down to our level where things do not end well.
I wouldn’t say this is a show to enjoy, or to kick back and relax with. It’s a story for those who like to be challenged and to uncover why people act like they do and understand how far people go when pushed to the brink. If this sort of thing interests you and you think your stomach is strong enough, then I’d definitely recommend you give it a go, as it’s both an episode turner and a real pause for thought.
DAN DA DAN Season 2 is streaming on Netflix and Crunchyroll; My Dress-Up Darling and Takopi’s Original Sin are streaming on Crunchyroll.
Cold Cobra
Two returning Jump! adaptations for me this summer which, given a lot of Summer Seasons have had nothing I’m interested in at all, that’s quite good!
Sakamoto Days returns for its second season, or really “Part 2 of Season 1” as it’s being billed. That does make a bit of sense as there isn’t really any kind of catch-up going on as the overall Episode 12 starts. The series focuses on Sakamoto, a large overweight man working in a small shop with a loving family who also happens to be a retired world-renowned assassin. Once his whereabouts became known, people starting coming after him but young clairvoyant assassin Shin and equally young mafia member Lu both dropped their line of work to work alongside him in the shop. As the first eleven episodes progressed, more and more crazy hitmen starting coming after him but each failed, so the shadowy “Slur” who wants him dead has freed four serial killers with the sole reason of taking Sakamoto out.
That’s the set-up as we start this set of episodes, with the four killers in question, known by their odd names of “Dump”, “Saw”, “Apart” and “Minimalist”… well, the latter is fair enough, his killing is very, well, minimalist I assume. Anyway, while Sakamoto is looking to capture one of them to find out where Slur is, the local members of The Order, the elite group of assassins that have appeared previously, are looking to straight-up kill all the killers for hunting on their turf and attacking their men. So a three-way group battle is on the horizon, and it starts straight away as Saw appears before Shin and Lu in a local shop and reveals that his thing is giving his victims the “best, most dramatic death possible” by first killing all they love for proper drama so he’s starting with them. The fight doesn’t go well for our protagonist’s friends until Shin manages to get a last minute “power up” to his clairvoyance ability and turn the tables.
So early days for the season obviously, but it sets up a fun status quo going forward. With Sakamoto Days there is always the worry of the highly kinetic action panels from the manga not being adapted well in animation, but I didn’t really have any issues in the first season, even if it’s around now that the action really ramps up. I guess we’ll wait and see!
Next up is Kaiju No. 8’s second season. This show/series focuses on Kafka Hibino, an adult who always wanted to become part of JAKDF (Japan Anti-Kaiju Defence Force) with his childhood friend Mina Ashiro, but constantly failed (unlike her) until he gained the ability of the very Kaiju he dreamed of taking down. He spent Season 1 living his dream as part of the third division only to have his identity of the titular “Kaiju No. 8” revealed when he transformed to save his comrades. This led to his undergoing a trial by combat with the JAKDF leader Isao Shinomiya where he technically lost control of his transformation for a while before he regained it enough that Isao stopped the fight and spared him.
Season 2 kicks off with some of the admittedly pretty forgettable smaller cast getting assigned to new divisions after the Division 3 HQ was destroyed in the big climactic battle at the end of the previous season, and this includes Isao’s daughter and Kafka’s friend Kikoru, who is assigned to the most powerful unit in Japan: Division 1. She is eager to gain more strength working under the strongest but is disappointed to find the D1 leader Gen Narumi is a lazy shut-in gamer who acts like a child being scolded by his own direct subordinate. This changes however when a Godzilla-like Kaiju appears and Gen shows his overwhelming power by destroying it in one go. The episode ends with the revelation that Kafka is going to be assigned to Division 1 as a new asset to be used, but Gen is initially uninterested in working alongside a Kaiju even if it is a man and instead would prefer Kafka get killed and turned into a weapon he could use instead. Isao isn’t giving him an option though, so Gen just goes along with it…
So the set-up is a move from Division 3 to Division 1, but much like Division 3. the new cast and few returning ones are rather one-note, apart from Kafka himself who still stands out as a legitimately interesting new kind of shonen protagonist. The action is still kinetic and fun, so it does its job and I am looking forward to seeing more, but it’s still not giving me major originality vibes from its cast or writing.
Sakamoto Days is streaming on Netflix, while Kaiju No. 8 is streaming on Crunchyroll.
