Wrapping up 2025 with a 2025 Fall review, 2025 AOTY, and 2026 Winter preview:

Fall 2025 Review:

Very busy with holiday stuff, but bits of anime filled in my spare time really nicely this year, so I actually watched quite a lot! Not a ton in the current season I was excited about, but I caught up on a lot of previous season content.

Watched current season:

• None!

Watched past seasons:

• Clevatess - Wow, this went hard! I loved this dark fantasy that took itself and its characters seriously! Power scaling felt appropriate, with strengths and weaknesses for many of the characters, and believable stakes. It did have some content I think could have been avoided easily and not mar the tone, but it at least tried not to dwell on it. Enjoyed this way more than I thought I would: 8/10
• More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers- I’m a sucker for light rom-coms like these. It’s not great, it’s predictable, but man they’re cute as hell and I still enjoy them a lot: 7/10.
• Witch Watch - Little mixed on this one. Very creative world and magic system, fun characters, really cool animation sequences. But I found the humor missed a bit more often for me, and I found the mini-sode nature of much of the content less engaging. I ended up pretty positive on it overall, but for a while I almost dropped it: 7/10.
• Dan Da Dan (S2) - Loved S1 and I loved S2 just a bit less. I really like the believable choices of the characters and how everybody is trying their best, in often bad situations. The wiiiild unexpected events and ridiculous animation sequences are just perfect. Also, a little bit of progress in relationship?? Yessss. 9/10.
• Campfire Cooking In Another World (S1) - I’ve heard for a while I should try this one, and yea, it really is so, so much better than you’d expect from the premise. I’m not an isekai-hater, but I certainly go in to this type of premise expecting a certain 6/10-at-best ceiling. This blasted through it and got me engaged with the characters, world, cooking, and semi-slow-life-charms unbelievably. Still, I found it at times a little unengaging and need a bit more of an overall plot to keep engaged longer term. Hoping S2 expands on this some. 8/10.
• Our Dating Story: The Experienced You And The Inexperienced Me - Wow. I was expecting a pretty titilating and low-thought experience from this… and it brought out feelings and insecurities I haven’t thought about in literally decades. I’ve been on both sides of this type of relationship in the past, so it felt familiar and uncomfortable and rough all at the same time. There are themes and thoughts this anime tackles that I’ve never seen another anime even try, and does so with a surprising amount of insight and grace. It’s far from perfect, with just adequate animation, and some relatively simple side/background characters. But it’s got moments that are easily moment-of-the-year territory for me, because they got me thinking and bringing up stuff that I was wrestling with for literally weeks after. Shockingly good for the premise, with “fan service” that feels actually appropriate for the content: 9/10.
• The Water Magician - What if they tried to make a non-problematic Mushoku Tensei? That’s how I felt for the first half of this show, and it did a great job. It felt like it was so interested in a slow story, building a believeable power fantasy, with none-or-very-little fan service, that had solid animation and no cop-out “anime reaction faces” throughout. I was absolutely loving it, then unfortunately it slowed a bit as it tried to pan out to the broader world. It felt a bit too rushed to get on board all the new characters introduced to rush to an ending for the season. I still liked it, but it dropped a bit, and worries me about the potential future for it. Still a good show: 7/10.
• Secrets of the Silent Witch - I’m a little exhausted by overly anxious girls that feel unbelievably impossibly shy. Bocchi The Rock was enjoyable but hard to relate to, and the beginning of this one was rough. After a few episodes, it at least mellowed enough that I could follow along, and in the end, I did actually enjoy it a good amount. There’s a fun world here and the animation and art was quite engaging. I’d be very interested in a S2: 7/10.
• Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (S1, rewatch) - I loved this season previously a few years ago, but tried to watch the first of the Rascal movies and realized I couldn’t remember at all who everybody was. So I re-watched S1 to catch up and remembered why I love this one so much. Fantastic characters, believable magical-realism drama, gorgeous art, great dialogue. One of my favorites, and now I can move on to the new movies and S2 to prep for I think the ending later in 2026: 10/10.
• Spy X Family Code White - I’ve cooled a bit on Spy X Family in S2, so wasn’t super hyped for the the movie and S3. I did end up watching it and enjoyed it more than most of S2. I’m still not sure why I’m a bit iffy on SXF. I think the secrets they keep holding from each other is getting a bit excessively unbelievable, and that tension is getting irritating. Still, this was a fun movie, with great action, a lot of silly moments, and some sequences that were unbelievabley wild: 8/10.

Ongoing:

• Dragonball - A couple episodes here and there. Still enjoying slowly. I think I’m about 1/3 through the series?
• 7th Prince… S2 - Only watched a few episodes. Haven’t felt like going back in a while, might drop.

Dropped:

• Ranma 1/2 (S2) - Lots of nostalgia for OG Ranma 1/2, but I thought S1 was just fine. I guess I was looking for something a bit more creative and updated, and this remake doesn’t seem to be it. I tried the first episode of S2 and realized I just wasn’t excited about it. Perhaps I’ll return some day.

Eventually watch from this season:

• Spy X Family (S3) - Ready to try it, now that I caught up with Code White, which was pretty good.
• Campfire Cooking S2 - Finally watched the first season and it’s great! I’ll mix this in when I need something positive (which seems to be all the time lately…).
• MHA Final Season - Apparently it really did finish! I’m a few seasons behind, but might try to get back on and slowly work through it.
• One Punch Man S3 - I’m probably going to finally bounce from the series, but I’d like to give it a shot.

Sasu’s 2025 AOTY: Lots of excellent titles this year, and a bunch more I haven’t gotten to watching! For now, this is my top 5 of 2025:

1. Zenshu
2. Dan Da Dan S2
3. My Dress-Up Darling S2
4. The Apothecary Diaries S2
5. Solo Leveling S2

Plan to watch/try for Winter 2026 season (in decreasing order of excitement):

• Frieren (S2) - Loved S1, must watch.
• Oshi No Ko (S3) - Loved S1, thought S2 was quite good, definitely looking forward to more.
• Medalist (S2) -  Haven’t watched S1 yet because Hulu-jail, but I’d like to catch up and try this since it’s gotten so much buzz.
• Jujutsu Kaisen (S3) - I’m quite behind and not sure I’ll catch up anymore.
• Hell’s Paradise (S2) - I ended up appreciating S1 by the end, but it isn’t my favorite. It’s a low priority.