Winter 2025 anime and looking ahead

[petrea_mitchell]

I managed to watch all of four shows the past anime season.

Aquarion: Myth of Emotions was the clear winner for me. Somehow it did manage to do justice to its combo of reincarnation plot, a quirky interpretation of quantum mechanics, and mecha fighting action, all while putting on an absolute masterclass in misdirection. It could still have used two cours rather than one, but it nailed the landing and I'll be remembering it when it's time to come up with the best shows of the year.

Tasokare Hotel was pretty good, although not at all the sort of story it first looked like. The laid-back exploration of people's pasts turned into a dark plot about trying to outmaneuver a serial killer. The last episode featured one of my least favorite twist tropes ever but then immediately recovered. I won't strongly recommend it, but I don't regret the time I spent watching it.

Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun season 2 was very disappointing. Too many predictable developments, and a final arc that felt like it went on forever.

And The Apothecary Diaries, which I can't complain too much about because it was already showing all the signs of Cozy Mystery Disease by the end of season 1, so I knew what I was in for. The visuals continue to be lovely, but the mysteries keep getting solved faster and faster to make room for more character-focused storylines like the one where one character tries to drop a big revelation about his identity, one which has been clear since late season 1, to another character, and after trying for two whole episodes still hasn't managed to spit it out somehow.

I will probably still watch the rest of season 2 out of sheer inertia.

Looking ahead, I have a longer list than usual of shows I want to check out: Sword of the Demon Hunter, Miru, Your Forma, Lazarus, The Mononoke Lecture Logs of Chuzenji-sensei, Zatsu Tabi, and Apocalypse Hotel.

Comments

[stepnix]

woooo good to hear Aquarion did well

[thomasyan]

I've put Aquarion on my to-watch list.

I liked the first season of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun. Too bad about the second. If I run out of things to watch, I might give it a try.

I'm still enjoying The Apothecary Diaries and have started reading the light novels.

Are you into romance at all?

I watched the Oshi No Ko anime and enjoyed it. I learned there is also a live action adaptation that is further along in plot. I'm curious about it, but probably will hold off actually watching it.

[petrea_mitchell]

I like romances where the characters actually like each other and the author doesn't have to resort to forced intimacy to mash them together. I really don't like this romance because not only did the author resort to forced intimacy, it didn't even work, and I find Jinshi to be deeply uninteresting as a character to begin with.