The BEST Anime of Spring 2025 - Ones To Watch

i'm just gonna come out and say it There are too many good anime this season The newcomers are stacked into the stratosphere Got to be careful not to Elon Musk there There's so much great new stuff on offer It would be a struggle to string together a top 15 list let alone a top 10 But I am committed to making sure you can make the most of your anime watch in time Especially after getting so many of you on Gundam with my last video I feel responsible for you guys now So after watching at least

one episode of literally everything that is exactly the honorable mentions might be almost as long as a main entry and if you add the whole segment up it might possibly be almost as long as the other half of the video but that main video segment does contain a list of no more or less than 10 Jeff certified absolute bangers We're talking nothing but the kind of shows that could have topped the list in any slightly slower season It wasn't easy nor was actually watching the anime in the first place Also I'm recording this with a

sinus infection So if you want to thank me for all my hard work please hit that like button and leave a comment saying which show you're most excited for These are the ones to watch for spring 2025 Brought to you by Rosetta Stone the handy dandy immersive language app that lets you learn Japanese and 24 other languages where and whenever you want on your phone tablet or PC with bite-sized lesson plans designed to draw direct connections in your brain between the words you're learning and the ideas and concepts they represent the same way that we

learn as babies Thanks to Rosetta Stone's true accent technology helping me fix my pronunciation I no longer completely embarrass myself talking to Tokyo's taxi drivers and convenience store workers And I even ordered food for everyone the last time some of my friends came to town Also I watched one of the anime in this video in a theater without subtitles and understood at least 30% of it If you click my link in the doobly-doo or scan this QR code right now you can get over 60% off lifetime access to not just Rosetta Stone Japanese but all

25 of their language programs One payment to help you fit in wherever in the world life takes you next What are you waiting for whether you're looking to level up your anime watching game or you're an American superhero hoping to redeem his scandalous past by working in Tokyo Rosetta Stone can help make it happen And that last point may or may not have anything to do with today's first recommendation My Hero Academia is an anime that needs no introduction but its new spin-off Hioaka Vigilantes probably could do with one especially for folks who don't like

the original all that much and might otherwise miss out on this more personal character-driven hero story That story follows Kochi Haimawari yet another All Might fanboy who couldn't make it into UA who takes up his hero's mantle in a different more literal way using officially licensed All Might hoodies to disguise himself as the unlicensed underground hero the Crawler and stop baddies with his power to slide on stuff pretty fast There's a reason he couldn't make it into UA He's aided by PopStep a cute indie idol with the power to jump real good and their vigilante

mentor Knuckle Duster a man with the power to own a pair of knuckle dusters and hit guys with them pretty hard Basically he's crazy hobo Batman and it rules And on that note Kochi also takes pretty obvious inspiration from Peter Parker So this whole thing's kind of like an unlicensed teamup book set in the Hiroaka universe which also rules Especially since this manga's creators have such a strong grasp on Spidey that they were eventually given a chance to write an official story about Doc O reincarnating as a Japanese middle school girl which also also rules

I fell off Hiroaka about halfway through for reasons I'll probably discuss when I make a video about finally finishing it eventually But even at the absolute height of my fanboy era I liked Vigilantes more so much I kept reading it even after I put the main series on hold which is a wild thing to be able to say about any shownen spin-off not made by the original writer It's a bit rougher around the edges than the mainline series And even though it's allowed to do some interesting things with some of Horicoshi's supporting heroes you can

feel it straining against its canonical narrative restraints But within those margins it manages to tell a fascinating characterful story of heroes pushed to the margins of quirk-powered society doing what they can to protect people and places beyond the reach of the profit-driven pros And in a way its more intimate lowstake story allows it to be in some ways less constrained by shownen battle formula than the original was While the lower power quirks of its cast encourage more creative smallcale action scenes that are a ton of fun to watch I've been hyped to see vigilantes animated

for years So to have Bones finally giving it such a lavish production under the keeneyed direction of Jojo's Bizarre Adventures Kenichi Suzuki no less is an absolute delight Even more delightful though was the surprise revelation that despite its impressive quality Vigilantes almost certainly won't be the best superhero anime of the year To be Hero was a goofy rude and crude half-length comedy anime co-produced in China and Japan way back in 2016 about this hot single dad with a bad personality who gets mysteriously turned into a fat ugly dude with crazy superpowers and has to fight

aliens and stuff while convincing his daughter he's actually her dad It was weird and dumb and horny and gross And while it did have some impressively animated action scenes in a sloppy sort of way nobody really thought much of it or its 2018 sequel 2B heroine after they ended Thus it came as quite the shock to the 10 people who still vaguely remembered them when the new 2B Hero X moved over to Linkclick studio Bream and came out last week looking like this And also this because apparently director Howling Lee wasn't satisfied with simply aping

the style of frigin arcane He had to go and turn it into one of the most insanely gorgeous mixed media extravaganzas I have ever laid eyes on with a Hiroyuki Salono soundtrack as the cherry on top And the story he tells with those insane production values is just as insane Episode 1 follows Ling a frazzled young advertising agent who finds himself standing on the edge of a roof after he's fired over botching a spot for one of the world's biggest pro- heroes But before he can as the delightfully translated subtitles put it voland die that

very same hero nice flies down out of the sky next to him hits him with a signature pose and jumps off the roof to his death leaving the hapless ador who kind of looks like him to take up his mantle and assume his identity at the behest of his incredibly desperate manager Luckily superpowers in this world are imbued by public trust So as long as he plays the part well enough Ling can actually take Nice's place But while that does mean he'll get to date his favorite heroine/ idol it also means he's got to take

on deadly super villains who draw their powers from public fear in these insanely cool fight scenes I don't want to spoil too much but suffice to say this first episode has it all Stunning action great comedy and an ending that left my jaw on the floor The only thing stopping 2B Hero X from being the most exciting new anime of the season is all the other great new anime this spring Anime like the muchhyped reimagining of 1979's most popular show featuring the talents of Yoshiuki Tomino and of Green Gables ML Montgomery's classic Canadian coming of

age tale has a long history in Japan as Akag no anne one of the first English novels published in the wake of World War II over here the tale of an orphan girl with a boundless imagination and fiery heart to match her hair growing up amid the idyllic cherry blossomladen scenery and rigidly conservative society of late 19th century Prince Edward Island spoke to something deep within young women in post-war Japan an and the book was so popular it became a permanent fixture of Japanese curriculum in the early '7s At the tail end of that decade

Studio Ghibli co-founder Isa Takahada brought the book to television as the first unsponsored entry in Fuji TV's legendary World Masterpiece Theater series which would be the last thing that he and Miyazaki worked on together before collaborating on Nasica and starting you know Studio Ghibli As you might expect from that pedigree it was pretty much the single most beautifully animated and illustrated thing on TV at the time and it led a whole new generation of kids to fall in love with Ann's story like never before Decades later it still held up as an all-time classic and

debatably the peak of Takahada's television directing career So and surely the new adaptation from the answer studio has some mighty big boots to fill But as you can see it is filling them splendidly A breathtaking art style like a watercolor come to life packing explosive emotion into every frame of animation Add some warm refreshing music from Michiro Oshima and you've got a feast for the senses Every bit as delicious as our last entry At half the runtime of the 79 version there's obviously less room here to immerse ourselves in the world and minds of the

characters but the more fluid animation opens up new avenues for visual storytelling and directing flourishes that make up for that deficit and then some By the end of episode 1 I was tearing up at the sheer beauty of the everyday world through Anne's eyes which is exactly what any take on this story should aim to deliver It's certainly no replacement for the original animation nor should it be But it stands apart as its own distinctly impressive interpretation that if it can keep this quality up will easily be one of the best anime of this year

But it's not the only gorgeous reboot of an old school show we're getting this season Ya Samurai Legend readapts Detective Conan creator Gosh Aoyama's classic shownen battle manga of the same name for the modern day with off-the-wall animation spearheaded by Yoshi Kameda the mad genius who made Mob Psycho 100 look like that The actual story of Ya is pretty simple Our titular hero is a samurai in training raised in the jungle by his deadbeat kendo master dad and trained to fight gorillas and tigers until one day they accidentally fall in a crate full of bananas

and get shipped back to Tokyo There Ya's dad immediately dumps him at the house of his old kendo rival who happens to have a daughter Ya's age [Music] [Applause] remind anyone of Ronma And the kid goes around Tokyo challenging kendo masters to fights until one of them turns into a demon king Ah hate it when that happens So yeah it's pretty much just dumb fun action for kids but the animation is so much fun that that comes off as a compliment If you're looking for a deep resonant story with thoughtful themes and rich characters look

at almost any other anime on this list But if you want to see some stupid cool sword fights you are in the right place And you should stay right there because from Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman will give you plenty more cling clangy goodness to enjoy Although its sword fights are a lot more technical and impressively wellressearched So maybe I should be saying smart cool Eh probably not considering this is yet another fantasy anime about an overpowered dude with low self-esteem who suddenly earns the respect he's always deserved and also a whole haram's worth

of scantily clad warrior women along with it Though he is far too oblivious to pick up on any of them flirting with him And at least it's not an especially stupid one of those things Barrel Gardinant isn't some support class schmuck who does all the work for a party too dumb to appreciate him or some loser with a trash skill he hasn't realized is secretly goated Actually he's just a regular old sword fighter albeit a pretty good one leading a humble life as a dojo master way out in the sticks where his parents constantly pester

him to go into the city and get them some grandchildren already A wish they think might finally be granted when his former pupil Knight Commander Elucia Citrus asks him to come to the city and work as a special instructor for the kingdom's army As it turns out she's not the only one of his students to make a name for themselves in the wider world An orphan he took in 20 years ago has become the topranked muscle mommy in the adventurers guild for instance And Barl himself has as a result gained some indirect infamy as the

backwater master of some of the kingdom's most legendary heroes But now that he's actually in the capital he's going to become a lot more famous because while he doesn't realize it yet none of his pupils anywhere in the world have ever met a stronger swordsman Aesthetically speaking this anime clearly takes a lot of cues from Mushoku Tensei And that's one of the most gorgeous fantasy anime ever made So good Thank you More of that whole vibe please Narratively though it couldn't be more different cultivating a wholesome affable vibe among a cast of almost entirely likable

and noncriminal characters including a few men who have like healthy friendships and respect for each other which is such a breath of fresh air from just about anything with the remotest whiff of underrated adventurer nonsense about it Except Mushoku Tensei Mushoku Tensei also does have that Mushoku Tensei is a good show more people should watch it but this is a lot easier to recommend And Barl himself is an especially refreshing lead as a middle-aged man who actually acts his age and just wants to help the next generation reach their full potential This is a real

solid show that put a huge smile on my face But speaking of really good anime that are really difficult to recommend in the West Springs also brought with it a new umamus Cinderella Gray adapting a spin-off manga of the same name that many fans consider to be one of the best stories in the whole darn franchise a franchise which produced the highests selling anime Blu-ray of all time if you're not familiar And if you don't know the general concept it's about a world where all of the horses are girls like human women who have inherited

the souls and names of famous raceh horses along with their speed strength stamina and other horselike qualities which they use to do horse stuff as in all the horse stuff that we use horses for in the real world especially horse races And if they win the races they get to go up on the podium and sing an idol song The franchise came about when someone at mobile developer Syame was pondering the popularity of Conlay and other such gotcha things about famous military weapons anthropomorphized as high school girls Thought for a second about how many salary

men he sees at the horse track all the time And then his eyes turned into cartoon yen signs And then Syame being Syame decided to worldbuild the out of that idea by making the phones extra long to reach their ears for example And they have their own lanes on roads Also Horse Girl Statue of Liberty It's delightful but maybe also a touch impenetrable to newcomers at this point especially if those newcomers aren't already into idol type stuff And that's where Cinderella Gay comes in Telling a much more serious sports drama story starring a whole new

cast of characters overflowing with big dumb shownen energy even though it's technically a san within the Uma Musu world Our heroine is Ogory Cap a poor young horse girl from the wrong side of the horse track who grew up sickly with weak knees she could barely stand on let alone run But with her mom's help she slowly strengthened those joints And once she could carry herself on her own two feet she became obsessed with racing Now that she's finally enrolled at Kasamatsu Training Center Academy she has but one goal to take on the world's fastest

horse girls in the highstakes world of the Twinkle Series But if she's going to get there not only does she have to beat the odds at a school that hasn't produced a national level champion in years she'll have to overcome fierce rivalries vicious bullies that she's frankly a little bit too autistic to even notice that they are bullying her and all that other good sports drama stuff that makes your heart pound and then you go "Whoa I believe in that underdog." And then they do it and you're like "Yeah I going love it." And you

might think that you're not into that stuff because you didn't like HighQ or whatever but you're wrong You like Beyblade you like Yu-Gi-Oh you're gonna like this It is pure unhinged fun Just feast your eyes on this animation man They spared no expense One of the things I respect most about Syame is how they never let the fact that they're making glorified gotcha commercials stop them from producing the most insanely cool stuff But what I love most about Sigh Games is how they then turn around and use all their cartoon casino money to finance ambitious

out there original anime like Apocalypse Hotel An absurdest sci-fi slice of life tragic comedy about semi-scentient service robots dutifully carrying out their daily work at a luxury hotel Countless years after their last potential guest left Earth for the stars fleeing a deadly contagion that's rendered the whole planet inhospitable to human life tirelessly working to keep this last echo of civilization in pristine condition even as the rest of Tokyo around them is slowly swallowed up by time As the days wear on their numbers dwindle more and more robots falling into disrepair with no hope of ever

replacing their broken parts Every week without fail the staff fails to meet their reservation quotas and online engagement goals Yet if their morale ever falters they don't let it show in the impeccable quality of their work Doorman Robot is going to open that door perfectly every time every day even if it kills him Darn it Which it increasingly seems like it will Yachio their manager and the last remaining full-fledged android in the hotel fully intends to keep it fully operational for the day when they do see guests again which is going to be today for

sure She's got a really good feeling about it So there's nothing sisophian at all about turning down every eternally unoccupied bed every day dusting off all the fittings taking stock of every amenity and oh hey this room's missing a shower cap huh guess nothing means anything after all There's something existentially profound in this show's concept It's a story that really makes you think But beyond that and above it it's an anime that really makes you smile with a warm inviting atmosphere lovable characters with great designs lavishly painted stunning backgrounds and an absolutely incredible sense of

humor It could have easily gotten all wallgazy about the fate and nature of humanity but instead it has some fun with these goofy little robots and the fundamentally absurd nature of their whole horrifying situation If you like your anime artsy but not pretentious Apocalypse Hotel might be one of your favorite things this year And if you find existential crises in ostentatious buildings appealing then you might also enjoy Rock is a Lady's Modesty a classically styled Yuri anime set in the traditional elite all girls academy with an obligatory old abandoned schoolhouse outback where a few girls

with very special connections go to get hot and sweaty and really loud As the daughter of a deadbeat rocker boy Lilisa Susanomia was born to shred But she hung up the axe after her mom remarried to an obscenely wealthy real estate magnet determined to become the sort of refined delicate young lady who truly belongs in high society so that no one within high society will ever question her mom's place there ever again Aiming to become the one and only noble maiden the highest honor bestowed by Sakura Gokuro Academy she molds herself into an ace student

with impeccable taste and manners The envy of every girl in her class's eye except that is for the primant proper princess Otoa Kurogane daughter of a top Japanese politician and the undisputed idol of their entire grade A young woman with an effortlessly elegant affect that belies a shocking secret Otoha rocks hard Every evening in the music room of that old schoolhouse she beats her drums like a dummy mommy punishing a bad bad girl Lilis's metaphor not mine And when Susan Mia stumbles in on her she instantly clocks the twintailed sundere shredding skills just from looking

at her callous supple fingers Then after the inevitable jam session the other shoe drops This ain't just Yuri it's toxic Yuri Yum Lilisa tries to stay away to keep up her fancy facade but rock is in her soul And despite the abuse and her better judgment she just can't say no to what Ooha does with her hands hard to blame her when they mocapped members of Bandade for the musical performances in this show which should tell you a thing or two about just how much went into producing this thing Bandai Namco Pictures really pulled out

all the stops And hey if you like Sunrise Animation and Lesbians this is a really good season for you after which from Mercury set the internet ablaze last year Mobile Suit Gundam Gquax is the second Gundam series ever to feature a female protagonist Amate Yuzuriha an ordinary high school girl on an ordinary space colony who has a chance encounter with a black market courier posing as an Uber Eats runner and is subsequently sucked into the illegal underground world of clan battles brawls between decommissioned military surplus mobile suits that have become all the rage on the

interplanetary internet of this grim dark post big space war world Animated at Hideiyaki Anano's studio Cara under the direction of his longtime collaborator Kazuya Sudumaki The series promises an inventive subversive gorgeous and exciting new take on anime's most enduring and influential sci-fi dynasty which I probably don't have to tell you to check out if you're a Gundam fan already or if you watched my video last week But if you're not or you haven't seen what many are calling my best video ever yet or you just haven't gotten around to Gquax yet this is definitely an

anime that Gundam fans will want to go into blind So I'm going to give you a little spoiler warning here before telling you exactly what makes it so cool to give you time to skip the section and go watch it for yourself preferably after watching the entire original Gundam anime like I said in my last video But if you're not worried about spoilers the cool thing about Gquax is that it's Gundam's first big budget whatif story set in an alternate version of the Universal Century timeline where the Principality of Zeon won the One-Year War So

now instead of the fetis space colonists are stuck living under the fascist boots of tyrants like Admiral Maku which if you've seen OG Gundam is an incredibly scary combination of words about as scary as seeing a Zeon branded white base patrolling outside a supposedly neutral colony For Universal Century lore nerds this show is an absolute treasure trove of details that'll make you do the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood reference So much so that even watching it in a Japanese theater without subtitles I was completely hooked But the brilliant thing about Gquax is you don't

need any of that to enjoy the show Its new characters have their own intriguing story to tell separate from but connected to the events of the past It does a phenomenal job of establishing the necessary context of its setting in a way that even total newbies can understand And as for that setting few pieces of Gundam media have created quite such an immersive portrayal of day-to-day life on a side in peace time In particular the imagery of the colony shifting into its night cycle is something that's going to stick with me for a really long

time [Music] My only quibble about the whole show is that Iuto Yamashta's mech designs are perhaps a little too avified for Gundam Personally I like them but I know a lot of people who don't and it is probably going to result in some very controversial model kits But if that's the only thing to complain about you know you're in for some good ass Gundam Speaking of classic sunrise animated sci-fi though the top wreck in my top 10 for the season The latest collaboration between Studio Mappa and the director who first put them on the map

Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanab [Music] Lazarus is a brand new original anime series commissioned by Adult Swim under the directive that Watanab could make whatever the hell he wanted so long as it wasn't too goofy which is a bit disappointing as an enjoyer of Dandy Guys in Space But I can't complain too much when it means we're getting one of anime's greatest directors teaming up with John Wix Chad Stelski to make a parkourfueled action thriller about an opioid induced apocalypse Well the prescription painkiller crisis is clearly the main inspiration for the show's plot in which

the creator of a miraculous super drug called Hapna reveals he designed it to kill everyone who used it after 3 years in their bloodstream But the lacadasical way mankind reacts to the proclamation of our impending doom mostly carrying on like everything is normal seemingly convinced that someone somewhere is going to fix it before it really becomes a problem in just one month Equally echoes the early days of the pandemic It's a well-observed commentary on human nature like all of Watanab's work wrapped up in a rip roaring action-packed and infectiously musical package of that anime good

What's with the gunup uh is that prisoner outfit some type of fashion trend or what what kind of would be that stupid as we follow an elite squad of prison escape artist hacker drone pilot kid sexy motorcycle chick etc on their journey to track that drug's elusive creator down and beat the cure out of him before time runs out Explosive fights and free flowing chases bleed into each other organically Every movement timed masterfully to the jazz fusion score to create the sense of sinthetic momentum that defines Bbop Shamploo and all of Watanab's best work Each

scene action or otherwise working subtly to establish the charming cast of characters and the world around them It's already a top contender for slickest anime action of the year And we haven't even really seen what Stelski is going to bring to the table in terms of fight choreography yet Some folks are understandably reticent to trust a cool new Adult Swim thing after how Ninja Kamoi and Uzumaki went down And the at this point mandatory dub definitely isn't helping those first impressions Uh although if the choice to make everyone sound kind of sleepy because they're all

on painkillers was intentional that still probably wasn't a very good idea It's just it's just not a great dub But I personally have never once been disappointed by the choice to let Shinishiro Watanabe cook And I fully expect this to be another alltimer when all is said and done because dude doesn't really know how to make any other kind of anime With that said all is nowhere near said and done for spring's anime lineup which is so loaded with the good stuff that I have no choice but to throw a bunch of honorary ones to

watch on top of the bargain bin shows that would have been good enough to make the top cut basically any other season but fell just short of the insane lineup that we just got done running through Calloon Generic Romance was one of my most anticipated shows of the season A san of real estate agents working in a far-flung future where Koon Wald City somehow still exists Reiko Kujira and Hajime Kudo flirt and fight relentlessly on company time their personalities clashing in ways that make each day electric Though Kudo is cy about his love life outside

the office and when Reiko looks into that she stumbles into a surreal sci-fi mystery beyond her wildest imagination Unfortunately the pacing of the adaptation is rather on the brisk side for my tastes About one manga volume per episode leaving less time than I'd like to really luxuriate in the nostalgic cowoon vibes the show aims to curate But the first episode makes smart choices with what to cut so it doesn't feel too rushed And the characters and plot remain charming and intriguing even with everything that's been trimmed Plus the whole thing is animated beautifully with an

especially impressive attention to detail in the backgrounds Also Reiko's like top 10 hottest anime women I've ever seen So that's a huge point in its favor Even with all the adaptational compromises this still feels like an 8 out of 10 version of a nine or possibly 10 out of 10 story and its position just outside of my top 10 is no knock against it only a testament to how packed the field around it really gave off And if I had a nickel for every anime this season about a teenage witch with one year to live

insert Dofen Schmmer's clip because that's also the premise of Once Upon a Witch's death The story of a bubbly and friendly apprentice witch with a sort of Snow Whitey relationship to woodland creatures who learns on her 17th birthday that she's been cursed to do the private Ryan Matt Damon meme as soon as she turns 18 Her only hope of survival is using all of her magic knowhow to bring miracles into the lives of everyone she meets collecting a thousand tears of pure joy along the way within the next year which can be used to craft

a magic cure That works out to a little less than three lives changed per day though So she's certainly got her work cut out for her on an adventure that's sure to take you through some incredibly sad short stories which if you saw my second to last video you know the sort of thing I am a huge fan of As a whole the show kind of gives we have Studio Ghibli at home with an extra emphasis on Kiki's delivery service And that's also the sort of thing I'm generally a huge fan of if it's done

well And this anime does do it pretty darn well with expressive character animation and beautiful environments that really speak to the power of nature and all that good jibli stuff If you're looking to have another good cry this season between episodes of an this might be the anime for you And if you need a good laugh to heal after all that then you should queue up a ninja and assassin under one roof Easily the ziest comedy of the season which follows as its title suggests a clumsy up ninja named Satoko who finds herself marked for

death after accidentally running away from her clan And Konoha the straightup psychotic schoolgirl assassin who takes her in off the street Not at all out of the kindness of her heart which does not seem to exist but rather because she's too lazy to clean up her own crime scenes And Satoko's leaf transformation njutsu is super useful for that Also that njutsu is insanely well animated as is damn near everything else in this show to the point that you're just like "Holy how does this silly little gag manga adaptation have this much sauce?" And then you

look at the credits and you see Studio Shaft and the director of Moka Magika and you're like "Oh also that explains how horny it is It's still early days but this one might honestly have the potential to be Nichi Joe tier but you know like horny violent shaft Nichi Joe which might be better So why the hell isn't this in the main list?" Because there are too godamn many amazing anime this season That's why And even though I was super impressed with how willing this show is to take the coolest cutest character design you've ever

seen and just instantly murder her for the sake of one quick joke twice in one episode If you put a gun to my head and demanded that I choose just one toxic Yuri comedy I'm keeping the one that name drops Lincoln Park every time And I'm not sorry about it Just like Konoha isn't sorry when she takes a job to kill her best friend's dad in episode 1 And that happens so so fast Holy girls really up Look the anime competition this spring is so fierce I had to put Sword of the Demon Hunter in

these honorable mentions Even though it's one of them Oshino Co style prestige anime with a swagged out hour-long mini movie premiere which was really good an impeccable blend of slick action Shakespearean tragedy immersive visual worldbuilding and even a touch of genuinely effective horror that left me eager to see the next chapter of its story which is about this cursed halfdemon samurai on a centurylong epic historical fantasy quest that write the wrongs of his past and avert the prophecied end of humanity at the hands of a mighty demon queen he helped create Brilliant stuff Utterly pulse

pounding and profoundly thoughtprovoking This show has me enthralled If you with Demon Slayer or Inuasha or Dodoro or anything in that ballpark you should absolutely watch Sword of the Demon Hunter But there are two other anime on the list with better or at least subjectively more appealing to me sword fights And the first episode had a weird time skip moment that was a little confusing Just a little confusing But that's the arbitrary criteria I had to use to cut it and maintain my arbitrary self-imposed limit I mean let's be real This is already a top

15 list in all but name is what I'd say if I didn't have five more honorary ones to watch to get through That's right It's a top 20 What are you going to do about it leave a comment Please leave a comment Summer Pockets is the latest visual novel from Key to get itself an anime adaptation joining the likes of Clanad Air and Conan in the grand pantheon of stuff that's guaranteed to make you cry like an anime fan on prom night cuz your date wanted to watch Violet Everg Gardenarden and chill stud Unlike those

and that though it's not being animated at Kyoto Animation but rather studio feel as in the things that this anime is going to hit you right in by the time it's over So it's probably not going to hit the same highs as Clanad but it should still be consistently good based on Field's track record particularly working under this director The first episodes already delivered some nice eye candy and delectable Summer Island vibes while setting up a slice of life story about a troubled young man trying to escape his unpleasant past in the city by going

to his dead grandma's house to manage her estate sale and meeting a bunch of quirky waifuss who he'll get mixed up in the lives of and learn a bunch of painful lessons from Though uh not all of those waifuss yet which is a big point in the show's favor Too often these visual novel anime rush to establish all of their routes in episode 1 and end up fumbling all of them by juggling too much at once As a result this adaptation has a good handle on its pacing and dialogue that should make for a really

good time right up until it is of course a really bad time If you're only looking to solve the good time part of that equation then Food for the Soul will scratch your slice of life itch in a far less painful manner The newest PA Works original anime made in collaboration with Non Non Biori creator Otto is about a club full of cute college fresh women exploring their culinary passions in the form of dectibly rendered anime food porn and goofing off in the club room That uh may actually be most of what they do especially

if the uh really ganky one gets her way Not that the target audience is going to complain either way I mean they might complain a little bit if they don't get more of that food porn cuz look you like moa anime this right here is some darn tasty Moa anime from a studio with a darn impressive track record making exactly this sort of thing With its socially anxious protagonists surrounded by lovable relatable idiots it seems to be taking cues from Bochi the Rock And Bochi rocks so I doubt anyone's going to complain about that either

It's a cute funny little thing with charming animation that does everything you could possibly want from a cute girls doing cute things But if the characters or subject matter aren't quite your thing the nice thing is that this season is given us a lot of moa options For instance Mono is about a high school photography club whose members are left to drift after the graduation of their beloved club president And when I say beloved I mean that their new president Satsky basically only took pictures of her senpai taking pictures like thousands upon thousands of them

So she's kind of just spent the entire semester so far lying under the club room desks in the fetal position And the other member An only joined the club so that she could take pictures of Satski So and nobody's really getting much done at the moment Hoping to find some new motivation the girls decide to go get themselves some fancy new action cameras that replace the smartphones they've been using One ultra portable GoPro type deal and one fancy 360° device And in the process of acquiring those cameras from an online auction site they end up

befriending a local mangaka who wants them to serve as models for her new cute girls doing cute things Yong Koma about teenage idiots with action cameras which is maybe a little too meta but also as good an excuse as any I guess to just get them out of the house and uh in a terrifying car ride to various pretty places and things that they're going to take pictures of Of all the Moa anime this season Mono definitely impressed me the most with its sense of humor and the expressive quality of its animation So if you

appreciate laid-back vibes and scenery porn Allah laidback camp this one's really going to do it for you And so is Zatsutabi That's Journey which might actually come a little closer to the whole Yuru Camp vibe specifically It follows Chica a young rookie manga artist currently working as an assistant who's been struggling to break through into running her own series ever since she unexpectedly won a oneshot contest for a big magazine Fed up with feeling stuck in life after her editor rejects three drafts in one day she decides to set out on an impromptu journey to

wherever her social media feed takes her and the rough experience of that unplanned adventure proves to be unexpectedly healing Basically the whole thing's a big animated travel brochure for neat places outside of Tokyo but with a well-developed cast of characters a wellressearched eye for detail and a strong sense of atmosphere it really makes that concept work The first episode grabbed me as soon as Chico was out of the city Having recently taken my own first proper vacation out of Tokyo I was blown away by how well it captured the feeling of the world around you

opening up as the Shinkansen tears away from the endless sea of buildings and into the countryside The vibes in this one are absolutely immaculate especially for any artists out there looking for a spark of inspiration But speaking of artists there is an underappreciated art to making great etchy And I'm not just talking about drawing the nips real good though that is very important too And rest assured the anime I'm about to recommend has that covered or uh uncovered The best Etchy goes beyond simply saying "Hey look a naked anime girl." to take advantage of the

complete lack of narrative restraint that comes when you open with saying "Hey look a naked anime girl." Takamina son is one such anime girl and please put them on Takamina son is one such anime The them in question is panties because of course it is And the reason we're asking her to put them on is she's not wearing any because of course she isn't But the reason she's not wearing any is that she has a stand power called eternal virgin road that lets her rewrite time itself by stripping which she's used to get perfect scores

on every single test and reigns supreme as the school's greatest athlete plus the student council president unbeknounced to any of her classmates until a certain loser virgin named Shiro accidentally sees her tits in the gym equipment room which allows him to remember prior timelines because of course it does But all of that fits perfectly well into Takamina's grand kaku She can only fit so much lingerie into her own bag you see So she recruits Shiro very much against his will to be her closet carrying around an extra stash of Lacy Unmentionables and putting them on

her whenever asked so that she can with time even harder than she already was You can expect to see this one right at the tippy top of hottest trash this month because I love it Yes that was still part of the honorary ones to watch And I saved my favorite for last cuz I'm not a coward But before we get to the merely good stuff in the bargain bin I want to make one last special nod to Moonrise the 18 episode on OA from Wit Studio and the director of Attack on Titan that just dropped

in its entirety on Netflix telling the tale of a far-flung future in which Earth has achieved world peace by colonizing the moon and dumping all our criminals there like some kind of space Australia But then the moon does a revolution a moon rise if you will Though the ecological effects around the base of the former space elevator leading up to the moon are much closer to a colony drop it's pretty much just Gundam without the Gundams which feels pretty appropriate for a big new project from Wit's Attack on Titan team And while I can't vouch

for the quality of the whole series because I've been busy watching all this other anime for this video the first couple episodes seem pretty darn good And if you're finished watching Gundam like I told you to last week and ready to binge another space opera it's probably worth checking out Now finally it's time to dive into the bargain bin where we're still going to find some stuff that might have made the honorable mentions in any less stacked season Stuff like the Gorilla God's go-to gal a rare I can't believe it's not isekai horum power fantasy

for her Set in a world where everyone gets their magic RPG skills from almighty animal totems Our heroine is a meek young girl who doesn't really want to stand out which is too bad for her cuz it turns out that she's the once every half a century chosen one of the unbeatable gorilla god leading her to be recruited by the royal knights and thus swiftly surrounded by hot men who just won't stop paying attention to her Gh what a drag That's some good girl trash right there But don't be jealous fellas cuz while I absolutely

can believe that it isai I'm the evil lord of an intergalactic empire is at least a decently original one It follows a formerly good-hearted hardworking man who finds himself reincarnated as the heir to a massively indebted noble house in a science fantasy universe full of mechs and and sets out to not just erase the debt left by his deadbeat parents but conquer the whole dang universe with the help of his hyperintelligent robot maid/sexbot as posthumous revenge for his last life in which he was that can't be Right No Says right here cucked to death So

yeah it's a horny edgy revenge fantasy thing but one so over the top that I can't help having fun with it Hottest trash this season is going to be spicy And can a boy girl friendship survive is going to make a great trash piser for that eventual menu It is about as groundbreaking a romcom as that incredibly vapid title suggests Just your standard love triangle thing with a childhood friend who realizes slightly too late that she doesn't just want to be friends But the animation looks nice The characters are plenty charming and both girls are

cute and worth rooting for in their own ways Speaking of fine dining though Dinner Table Detective is the story of a wealthy aerys posing as a rookie cop for as yet unexplained reasons and hiding her large s from her colleagues so they don't treat her different Even though the inspector that she works directly under is the boy heir to a luxury auto manufacturer infamous for their overdesigned underperformant wannabe Porsche pieces of crap Also she's got this hot butler who kind of bullies her while helping her solve fancy crimes in fancy places It's given Phoenix right

It's given Legally Blonde I just said the same sentence twice The comedyy's a bit weak and they haven't shown nearly enough for me to know if it's actually good at mysteries yet but this one could be a real fun time Mumu the extraterrestrial has the kind of premise that seems like it should be real fun too After wiping out all of their intellectuals and engineers in a very short-sighted effort to end all war on their planet a race of hyper advanced alien cats comes to Earth looking to rebuild their technology base by learning the secrets

of our appliances like a sort of reverse Dimon where instead of granting his socially anxious human host fantastical tech miracles that allow for goofy stories to happen the alien guest just breaks her microwave With OM firing on all cylinders this is a very pretty show and surprisingly educational but the humor is mostly just chuckleworthy and it's not really reaching the concepts full potential at least not yet On that note Mayabashi Witches is a strong contender for the prettiest anime of the entire season Unsurprising given that it's an original idol series from Love Live Studio Sunrise

And I do generally like its premise of young wannabe witches helping people out with their magic in order to earn the right to use those powers outside the Mamaru Ho Soda at Homeverse But the series sense of humor is almost too self-aware for its own good to the point that it's too busy commenting on its own tropes to actually tell its story sometimes And the girls are kind of teetering on the edge of just plain annoying which is surprising considering it shares a screenwriter with Bochi the Rock If those issues are ironed out this magical

girl idol thing could be a sleeper hit of the season But even as it stands there's still plenty here for Sakuga enjoyers to drool over On the flip side fantasy fans who don't mind a total lack of great animation so long as there's some good world building to chew on underneath it might enjoy Teogonia a more subtle sort of isizekai in which the hero only partially remembers his past life after a near-death experience causing him to learn how to use magic spontaneously Set in a harsh Asianflavored fantasy world where the god-gifted strong get stronger by

drinking the very souls of their enemies while the weak are left to die forgotten The anime is honestly pretty messy but it did push me to pick up the manga on Book Walker And that right there is some good dark fantasy food And that was the bargain bin which means we're almost done Thank Haruhi Here's the complete list of recommendations one more time plus where you can watch them so you don't got to go scrolling all the way back through the video Please let me know in the comments down below which of these you're most

excited about and why Also consider liking and hitting subscribe if you're not subscribed I'm Jeff Fu professional anime recommener guy Can I please go lie down now i'm so tired