Winter 2025 Anime: Things other than /strange Fake are also happening

[Mattias]

>he doesn't know about reincarnated into another world where my trash skill <<appraisal glasses>> makes the strongest slave harem

You ever just watch a 1st episode and start to wonder how much slavery/rape/slave rape the ideas that couldn't get an adaptation had?

[GDB]

You ever just watch a 1st episode and start to wonder how much slavery/rape/slave rape the ideas that couldn't get an adaptation had?

After Redo of Healer got an anime, I assume it's less about the content of a series and more just about whether the publisher is willing to spend money to advertise it for any reason.

[Formless Creature]

Ishuzoku Reviewers should've gotten a season 2. Now that was a good ecchi. Too bad it'll never get one because it caused broadcasters to pee in their pants.

[TomPen94]

Normie investors should be robbed and murdered on the spot, they are actual poison to everything anyone ever cares about. Consider redistributing the stolen money to weebs that have the same preferences as me, we'll fund the right projects.

[bassgs435]

The ones making the decisions should be those who bought MahoAko BDs. Now that's a sign of good taste and wisdom on what to adapt. If they had the money, the could then reinforce the team with some talented animators to fix the adaptation's only issue: action scenes being kinda weak

[Alternative Ice]

Man this season and the next are pretty dead.

Wake me when air dates for Gachiakuta, Witch Hat Atelier, Holy Grail of Eris or the next season of Bookworm are announced.

[Laserman]

Nothing really jumps out at me this season. There's stuff I'm still watching from last season and the one before anyway, so it's no big deal.

[Mattias]

Binge Watch Part I: The Phantom Isekai

Eat All The Skill Fruit: I swear I've seen this premise in a bunch of One Piece fanfictions. "I have a shitty devil fruit but I can eat as many of them as I wnat!" The mechanics make no sense though. If the fruits give out the skills like a gacha why didn't the church immediately have everyone else there eat from the same fruits as the love interest since she only took a single bite? You'd get a whole class of sword masters. But that can't be how it works because MC's token child bride has a different skill from him even though she ate the same meal with fruit. But if the fruit instead only unlocks what you have already inside you then eating a second shouldn't give you a wildly different power set either. It doesn't help that the rest of the show is incredibly bland. At least if they kept the MC with weird fruit powers the fights would have involved more than "I cut it in one big slash with no opposition". What a shitty start.

Greatest Alchemist Ever: The show got a laugh out of me for just going ahead and calling its isekai world "Mildgard". The goddess being pissed that her subjects are summoning people willy nilly is a nice touch too. Time to stat screen 3:40. I'm normally all for these kind of "ignore the plot and do my own thing" isekai, but god is this plodding. There's no real joy anywhere in this. The fact the actual heroes big skill is just bitch radar is kind of funny. I always wonder about these shows where they kill their first monster and eat it at the village, because it's often by poison, so are you just killing the whole village accidentally? Strike 2.

Doctor Detective: Scene opens on a dying child? Upbeat Jazz piano OST. Wow, grippers are OUT. Medical mysteries don't often have the fun of normal ones where you can guess the answer beforehand, but I'm still down for Anime House MD. Its funny to see the head doctor be like "we don't care what killed people after their dead, focus on the living". No dude, thats what autopsies are, they happen in every hospital. IS THAT JUST FUCKING COLUMBO?!

The Die is Cast: Oh it's Bang Dream. Skip. Girl, either play your guitar or do you idol poses. You can't do both.

Momentary Lily: Well, this isn't how GoHands shows normally start. It still has the GoHands problem of the characters and the setting not meshing at all, but nowhere near as bad as it was for HandShakers. The more they simplify the models the better it blends in. Is this show an apocalyptic action show, or a survivalist cooking one? Especially when the new audience POV character trivializes the battle portion instantly. Pass.

Elf-Girl's Cat: The Uncensored in the title desription tells me a lot. Oh another Isekai! 0:56 until first stat screen! Aww, it's not generic fantasy town though, I missed the Bingo. Putting giant walls against a cliff face feels a bit silly though. Either build all the way out to the edge or have no wall at all. The tavern wenches all being giant muscle men in thigh highs and speedo's is nice too, cheesecake for everyone. OH NO. NOT INUKAI's DOG:Fantasy Version?! You know what really gets the ladies to like you? Premeditated murder of their pets. Fantasy Venice is neat but noting else really grabs me here, even the smut was lackluster.

Tasogare Hotel: It's like a lower stakes version of Death Parade. The thing that seems to be holding it back from being a decent mystery is the fact the scene changes on its own, so new information just appears out of nowhere instead of being available from the start. Still compared to what I've seen so far, I'll keep it for now.

Married to a Girl I Hate: "hey you might despise this person, but it'll cut your bills in half so get married" Wow, way to go anime. Maybe it's becasue I watched Lovely Complex recently but god everything here just felt so forced. The inital premise is alright, but the way the chaaracters act it feels like they both would rather tell their grandparents to fuck off then go along with it. Main Guy feels like he has no real connection to the company he's set to inherit and no real respect for his grandfather either, and Main Girl has no given motivation but seems to not want any contact with him whatsoever.


So 2/8 so far. Looks like it'll be another week until everything is out, but a bunch of S2's are coming this week.


Edit: I Somehow missed Headhunted to Another World. Good first impression, that OP is a great summery of the premise rather than a bunch of generic shots. No powers or skills for the summoned MC, starting off good. The izakaya mind palace was nice too. Yeah I think this is my kind of Isekai slop. At least for now. Can't wait for the episode 11 reveal that the giant demon king is actually some 500 year old loli in a giant armour suit.

So I guess 3/9.

[Mattias]

Binge Watch Part II: Attack of the Genre Clones

Sorairo Utility: Pretty meta for a Yostar anime to start with someone getting their gacha EoS'd and having to go do something outside for once. Way to teach the MC random senpai, you didn't even set her up on a tee. Girl didn't hit a ball once and is like "I'm now obsessed with golf". A pretty basic sports anime, but I like golf so I'll keep it for now.

Otaku Neet Kunoichi: How can one be both a NEET and a demon slaying ninja? I'm sure I'd get more put of this if I cared about the girl at all. Or if the show wasn't about a teen and a salaryman.

Medalist: Hey 11 year old child, your sister tried to have fun and hurt herself so I'm taking you everywhere you want to go and crushing your dreams. Wait do people need 2 years to learn those basic ass skating things? I did those before I was 5.

Okinawan Girl: The elast they could have done on this show was translate all the non Japanese like the Russian in Alaya-san. Okay about halfway through the episode they started to do it consistantly. Best friend with a crush on MC was cute but the rest of the show felt like one of those shows sponsored by a cities tourism bureau.

Escape Princess Lessons: Wow, they love their letterboxing. OOOOOOF those horses. You'd think saving costs by having each scene only be 60% of normal size would mean you could shell out for more than Xbox Live assets packs. And suddenly its normal aspect ratio after the halfway. The second half was way more enjoyable than the first. I wish it had only been a couple minutes and not the whole first half. Still I'm interetsed enough to see where it goes.

Zenshu: Oh wow, they made the Shirobabko anime into an isekai. I was not expecting this. maybe a romcom or something from the summary. Hot damn that transformation scene. It seems to be a less edgy version No Longer Allowed in Anotehr World. With better production values. Which could get rid of some of the fun too. Either way, anime director gets caught in Berserk is a neat premise.

Can You Keep a Secret: Ok this is just adorable. It's like an actually good version of that married to my enemy anime from yesterday. And the characters are already in a relationship from teh very start so there's no will they/won't they tension. I'm getting big Wotokoi vibes foro this one. I'm keeping this.

Promise of Wizard: Ohhhh it's a otome game, isn't it? Why is everyone riding their brooms sidesaddle? Holy shit that guys name is Shylock? As in the horrible jewish charicutre from Merchant of Venice? Then again there's also Cain and Faust so maybe the theme is literary villains? Still you could have gone with Iago. Or Caliban. Or half of England for King Lear.

Medaka Kuroiwa: This show exists only for horny shots dosn't it?

Poor noble Matsering Magic: Oh another isekai. Wait, the MC is 12 and his father only just had another child? Sure it seems like all teh older ones were super close together but thats a huge gap. It feels like a blander version of 7th Prince. Mc is less obsessed and crazy. tecaher is random guy and not an eldritch demon. Oh course the medival fantasy town has raman stands. Pass

So 4/10 tonight. Which brings me to 7/19 for the season. Although both Escape Princess and Soriro Utlity are only going episode by epsidoe for now.

[mami-kouga]

Princess lesson apparently devolves into the story trying to gaslight the freedom away from the MC while trying to play the whole thing off as a romcom so I don't think it's gonna maintain your interest in the long term.

Promise of wizard is a joseimuke rather than otome game, some fanservice, no actual romance. Though the target audience overlaps so I guess there's not much difference really. Yes the boys are named after either myth or literature characters except one dude

[Mattias]

Princess lesson apparently devolves into the story trying to gaslight the freedom away from the MC while trying to play the whole thing off as a romcom so I don't think it's gonna maintain your interest in the long term.

I was wondering why the prince she ditched was all over the next episode preview. I assumed it was a "I know I publicly humiliated her, but how could anyone not like me?" thing.

[mami-kouga]

I was wondering why the prince she ditched was all over the next episode preview. I assumed it was a "I know I publicly humiliated her, but how could anyone not like me?" thing.

It would be less of a headache if that was the plot

[Mattias]

Ok now I'm curious about how much of a trainwreck it's going to be.

[Rafflesiac]

Elf in Japan: Cute stuff, I'm satisfied. Medb fans stay winning.

[Spartacus]

XDDDDDDDDDD

well frankly, this show energy is so exhausting, I probably will not continue

[Mattias]

Binge Watch Episode III: Revenge of the Fantasy

Flower and Asura: Damn thats a fire character design. But then again I was always weak for Sailor Uranus. I still don't know how an island with a population that small can support a full school. Unless every family is a young one with school aged kids. Still that beach scene earned the show at least another episode from me. Oh wait the ferry is to the school on the mainland/a bigger island not the other way around. That makes way more sense.

Bureaucrat to Villainess: MC using 80's anime as his reference point is a nice touch. The old man hovering over the MC like her Stand is a good bit too. What the fuck is this ED?! Wow they really went ham there. Okay that gets it at least one more episode.

Falling in Love with You: Are...are they talking about covid? You know what sucks more than not being able to go to nationals for the swim meet? Getting Fucking Covid. Wait a minute. The Opening says it's 1st July 2020. Why are the radios talking about a new disease sweeping the country? We had that shit dead to rights by fucking March. Christ why is no-one wearing a mask? Why are they even attending school physically? Why are they fucking feeding each other?! Would it be so hard to just say the school was too broke to support a team? Instead you have to lift a real life excuse and then ignore all the ramifications of pulling it out. Hard Pass.

Honey Lemon Soda: 5 minutes in and all I can think of is how much I want a second season of Skip and Loafer. Wow it's like they took that show and sucked all the fun and personality right out of it.

Magic Maker: Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This feels like a show LVL would have loved.

Welcome to Japan Ms Elf: My guy dreamed his waifu into life. Not really enough here for me to keep up with it though.

Farmagia: Right I'd heard the Fairy Tail guy did designs for a new show. This must be it, becuase that's just the main cast with slightly different clothes. Yet they didn't focus on Erza. 0/10

Ubel Blatt: Wow, at least they don't pussyfoot around how edgy they are. Too bad they also don't give you a reason to care.

Guild Receptionist: Wow, thats some really good CG in the OP. I like this premise, OP stories only work when thye don't treat themselves seriously. I'll see where this goes.

3/9 for the night, so 10/27 overall.

[mami-kouga]

You know that skip to loafer season 2 has been announced already yeah?

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That said while I do think there's some overlap between honey lemon soda, skip to loafer and Kimi no todoke, all three kind of handle the awkward girl charmed by "refreshing" boy angle differently with honey lemon skewing towards a younger demographic and putting heavier focus on Uka struggling with her insecurities. I also bounced off the manga admittedly unlike the other two but manga readers insist that it gets better after volume one so I'll probably give it another go

- - - Updated - - -

Also yes falling in love with you is a COVID reverse harem

- - - Updated - - -

Ubel Blatt: Wow, at least they don't pussyfoot around how edgy they are. Too bad they also don't give you a reason to care.

This is kind of hilarious because the anime apparently toned down some of the shenanigans in the story. It straight up removes the first 3 chapters and the unnecessary almost sex scene in the content it did adapt.

[Mattias]

Actually I hadn't heard Skip and Loafer got a confirmed S2. That's great news.

I'm all for shows that start to really take off after a little while, but the problem with a lot of those is that they rarely have a good enough base to keep you around for through those early parts. I think where S&L succeeded where this failed was that while both characters are nervous about new school and a personality that isolates them, the former is still attempting to be upbeat and funny, while the latter is just dour.

[GDB]

Falling in Love with You: Are...are they talking about covid? You know what sucks more than not being able to go to nationals for the swim meet? Getting Fucking Covid. Wait a minute. The Opening says it's 1st July 2020. Why are the radios talking about a new disease sweeping the country? We had that shit dead to rights by fucking March. Christ why is no-one wearing a mask? Why are they even attending school physically? Why are they fucking feeding each other?! Would it be so hard to just say the school was too broke to support a team? Instead you have to lift a real life excuse and then ignore all the ramifications of pulling it out. Hard Pass.

I taught English in Japan during covid. The schools were back in physical session (though masks "required") by June. At least, in the area I was in (Hamamatsu). And kids would be kids and basically not give a damn about any of the restrictions/protocols except the masks, and even that was 70/30 at best.

[Mattias]

Holy Shit. Didn't Japan get fucking rocked by it too? Like every story I read at the time was about some JP tourism employee getting it for the third time. On the other hand it's not a good paper in the first place so it wouldn't surprise me for them to shift blame to people halfway around the world.