Most Anticipated Anime of Winter 2025

New year, new anime season! Anime News Network’s critics scanned the nearly fifty new shows coming in January for the most promising picks, and the answer is clear: you can’t have too many girlfriends.

Lucas DeRuyter

Most Anticipated: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

A part of me wants to argue that The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You is an important step in the growth of anime and manga as a medium. While it’s engaging with well-worn tropes in the harem genre, it’s doing so through a feminist and queer-focused lens. Rather than being a same-face, comically inept, and horny protagonist like most of the male leads in harem series, Rentarō genuinely loves and respects women and wants to be the best boyfriend he can be for his growing polycule of girlfriends. And, while all his girlfriends intentionally have a singularly distinct characteristic that distinguishes them, they never feel one note. Instead, the cast of 100 GFs feels like a growing web of believable relationships between eccentric people with pockets of shared interests. 

While I’m down to debate anyone on the progressive and inclusive merits of 100 GFs any day of the week, they aren’t the driving reason behind my excitement for the anime’s return. I’m beyond pumped for 100 GFs to come back because it is EXACTLY what I’m looking for in a semi-trashy, extremely horny rom-com anime. I love that Rentarō has the same level of enthusiasm and love for his partners that I have for my own. I love how this series has genuinely funny situations, recurring gags, and references instead of relying on awkward misunderstandings for humor like worse rom-coms. I love how some of the girlfriends are becoming girlfriends to each other as the series goes on! And I ESPECIALLY love how quick characters in this anime are to accept polyamory and other flavors of queerness! 

As a poly and bisexual person, I should want more grounded and realistic representation in the media I watch, but I am living for this fun and effortlessly charming depiction of a bunch of characters who have some overlap with my own identity. I’d still love more robust explorations of poly and queer people in media, but right now, I’m enamored with this anime that manages to capture the fun I find dating, my lifestyle, and life more broadly. 

What cements 100 GFs as one of my favorite series, and the second season as my most anticipated release next season, is the writing and how well it handles all of these characters and the labyrinth that is human sexuality. Rikito Nakamura, the writer behind the original manga, has such an inclusive attitude to all things sexual and kinky, and it’s so refreshing to watch a show like this. Off the top of my head, the first season has scenes that touch on voyeurism with a male subject, crossdressing, diaper play, watersports, and loss of agency. While some of these kinks are played for laughs, they never feel like they’re punching down, and the series always feels knowledgeable and familiar with the different sexual elements it touches on. 

I binged through the entire 100 GFs manga after finishing the first season of the anime and, as the manga only gets better as it goes on, I couldn’t be more excited to watch season two of this anime that feels like it was made just for me. 

Runner Up: I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet

At the risk of coming off as too horned up in my Most Anticipated entry, I’m looking forward to the release of I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet too! Sure, it’s mostly making the cut because the trailers for Sakamoto Days have not inspired confidence, but this anime is sure to kick off some discourse that I would love! Elf Girl’s Pet looks like it’s going to throw everything positive I said about how 100 GFs handles sexual content out the window, and be a male gaze-riddled sleaze-fest for the ages! 

If Elf Girl’s Pet does end up being as B-movie horny as I suspect it’s going to be, I know like five people who I’m excited to watch this with for a “Bad Movie Night.” Plus, it’s been a while since we had a particularly egregious series kick off some mainstream discourse about anime, feminism, and sexuality, and I’m eager to engage in those conversations on the new, far better-moderated social media platform Bluesky.

Or maybe I’m being pessimistic, and Elf Girl’s Pet ends up being surprisingly good and more than a little interesting. A past seasonal ecchi entry Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two Hit Multi-Target Attacks? was both so horny that I couldn’t ever watch it in even semi-public spaces, but also featured some rarely explored ideas in anime around maternity and mother-child relationships. 

Maybe I’m grasping at straws, and I’m fully prepared to put Elf Girl’s Pet, on my “Winter Worst Of” list next quarter, but I’ll check this one out regardless and I hope it’s a good time. 

Rebecca Silverman

Most Anticipated: Witchy Precure! Mirai Days

There are actually four sequels I’m very excited for, but to be perfectly honest, I suspect that the other three – My Happy Marriage, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, and of course The Apothecary Diaries will have plenty of mention. But maybe I’m selling Witchy Precure! short. After all, of the franchise entries legally available in English, it’s the one with the clearest potential romance between Cures, and its theme of found family with Riko, Mirai, Haa-chan, and Mofurun forming a unit is both beautiful and relatable, especially since neither Riko nor Mirai come from unhappy families themselves – it’s more that throughout the series, they begin to have both a blood-related family and one they make for themselves. Their separation in the original series, however short it was for us, had to have been devastating for them, and while I love all of the Cures, they’re the ones I most want to see together again onscreen.

There’s also a more natural continuation point for this series; Power of Hope: Precure Full Bloom of necessity had to make sure that its characters, especially Nozomi, were fully grown up, but Witchy Precure! Mirai Days has more wiggle room. For one, there’s no potentially uncomfortable romance plot (unless they inexplicably try to pair one girl up with the headmaster), and for another, including fairies and magic means that any real-world-relevant plot could be a little more subtle. As people grow up, they often lose sight of the magic in the every day, and that’s a very valid jumping-off point for Mirai Days with its older heroines. It was one thing for a few friends to be obsessed with seeing witches in the original series; now Mirai is in college, and that sort of thing isn’t going to go over as well. She, of course, knows very well that witches and magic are real, which could put her at odds with her peers and make for an interesting plot point. If the first series was about stabilizing the magic world, could this one be about bringing magic back to our world? It would be very on-brand for the franchise and the characters, and honestly? I could use a little magic to let me know that everything will be okay.

That’s why I’m also looking forward to Honey Lemon Soda. I love the manga, about a bullied girl slowly learning to feel safe and come out of her shell, and it mostly handles the pain of being a survivor with honesty, alongside, of course, a hefty dose of wish-fulfillment. Uka’s more akin to Miyo than Maomao, quietly finding her strength and safety in what is often a comforting story. It hits many of the same notes as My Happy Marriage, just for a younger audience and with a lighter touch.

And speaking of touches, this upcoming season of The Apothecary Diaries may bring us one of my favorite scenes from the novels. A frog in the hand is worth two in the bush, you know.

Richard Eisenbeis

Most Anticipated: Fate/strange Fake

For almost a decade now, it’s always felt like a question of “when” rather than “if” Fate/strange Fake would be turned into an anime. In a very real way, it is a sequel to the biggest Fate anime that has come before. It has major and direct ties to Fate/stay night, Fate/Zero, Fate/Apocrypha, and Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace note—even though this story isn’t necessarily set in the same exact timeline as any of those.

In the fictional American city of Snowfield, this story of a “fake” Holy Grail War follows many different groups and individuals (several of whom are returning characters), each with different goals. This includes the various Servants, the Masters, and the many other forces looking to profit from the bloody ritual. It is a story with a massive cast but, luckily, Ryohgo Narita (Durarara!!, Dead Mount Death Play, Baccano!), the original author of Fate/strange Fake, is well-known for telling these exact kind of stories.

Moreover, the anime adaptation is in fantastic hands. The directors, Takahito Sakazume and Shun Enokido, are huge fans of all the various TYPE-MOON works (as they told me directly) and their work on the 2023 TV special, Fate/strange Fake – Whispers of Dawn, which acts as the opening chapter of the story, is ample proof of that. Or, to put it another way, if you like Fate or Ryohgo Narita‘s stories, this anime will be an absolute must-watch.

Runner Up: From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!

Surprising to no one who reads these articles each season, the lover of every villainess story known to man is excited for another villainess anime. This time, it’s a comedy built on an excellent core joke: What if a balding, middle-aged government bureaucrat and father suddenly woke up in the body of a villainess in an otome game world? Unlike similar reincarnated-as-a-villainess stories, Kenzaburou is anything but genre-savvy. He’s never played a dating sim, much less a fantasy world otome game. All he knows about the world are the bits and pieces he remembers his daughter attempting to explain to him.

What we get from all this is a stereotypical, drill-curl sporting, “Oh hohohoho!”-spouting villainess treating the heroine and her love interests the same way a well-meaning-but-out-of-touch father would. Better still, we are treated to both his inner thoughts and outer actions. The contrast is frankly hilarious. As a reader of the manga, I can’t wait to see this one in action, especially with Kazuhiko Inou and Mao Ichimichi teaming up to play our titular villainess.

Kevin Cormack

Most Anticipated: My Happy Marriage Season 2

From its title, you’d never guess that My Happy Marriage features pitched psychic battles and political intrigue alongside compelling family drama. I’m glad I picked up the first season of this show on a whim so that I could be dragged through its narrative whirlwind. Beginning like a Taisho-era version of Cinderella, protagonist Miyo Saimori is a quiet girl forced into servitude by her horrid stepmother, constantly belittled and abused. These early episodes are painful and almost skirt the line into tragedy porn until Miyo leaves her family home to be married to a seemingly awful man.

My Happy Marriage is content to let the viewer come to the worst conclusions about its characters before skilfully upending said viewer’s assumptions. That Miyu eventually finds happiness with her seemingly brutish husband is deeply compelling (I suppose the clue is in the completely non-ironic title), and how they gradually grow closer is incredibly sweet.

Miyu remains emotionally damaged by her childhood ordeals and takes a long time even to begin to value herself or recognize her desires. Her husband-to-be, Kiyoka Kudo, is often gruff, rude, and dismissive of others. They’re both fascinating multi-layered characters with complex family backgrounds. They also harbor mysterious psychic powers. My Happy Marriage‘s fantasy-tinged world isn’t quite like ours, and it only becomes more intriguing with time. I’m very much looking forward to Miyu and Kiyoka’s relationship deepening, while they navigate the tightrope of a treacherous political situation.

Runner up: The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Generally, I avoid medical-themed TV shows because they make me scream at the screen in frustration: “That would never happen!” or “They’re doing it wrong!” Thankfully, being set in a China-like country of a millennium ago means that this apothecary-focused medical/detective/court intrigue drama is removed enough from modern medicine. If anything, the show’s well-researched herbology has triggered my hours-long Wikipedia death spiral.

Diminutive protagonist Maomao is a wonderful creation – wily and intelligent, yet socially and physically vulnerable. Her world is complicated by strict social hierarchies, expectations, and traditions, and watching her navigate these makes for fascinating and even sometimes emotionally devastating viewing. I’m so glad we didn’t have to wait too long for this second season.

James Beckett

Most Anticipated: ZENSHU.

Normally, if you’d told me that an anime’s premise was “Overworked animator dies at the office and gets reincarnated into their fantasy anime world,” I would have started tying my laces and preparing to run for the hills the moment you got to the word “reincarnated.” Let it never be said that I am incapable of overcoming my one-hundred percent justified prejudice against isekai anime, though, because everything I have seen about ZENSHU. has me absolutely pumped to see it, despite all of the buzzwords in its premise that still make me reflexively shudder when I hear them.

Like I always say, at the end of the day, it comes down to the quality of execution. Even the most tired and cliché of foundations can be turned into gold when you’ve got an ace team of artists and writers on the job. MAPPA may have plenty of issues as a business – and don’t think for a second that I am failing to appreciate the irony of this studio creating an original anime about an animator who literally kills herself trying to get a quality product finished – but you can’t deny the sheer amount of talent they have corralled into their studios over the years. When it comes to the artists and other talent that have managed to stick around through the studio’s infamously grueling conditions, it is clear that they are all putting a ton of work into making ZENSHU. into a must-watch television event, at least so far as the trailers can be believed.

On top of all that sheer spectacle, ZENSHU. seems to be having a lot of fun injecting the specific elements of the art of animation into its story and world, with a lot of signs pointing to this series being just as much a celebration of the labor of the art form itself as it is a fun fantasy adventure story. I’m very excited to see how our heroine’s talents are used to impact her setting and give some fresh new perspective to an otherwise stale setup. I also won’t mind if she ends up cutting her hair, since her whole “Sadako in a hoodie” shtick seems like it could get old really quick, but hey, we’ve already got an insanely promising isekai anime set to be delivered fresh out of the oven and ready to devour. Even if I could machete my way through that thick jungle of bangs, I’m not about to look this gift horse in the mouth.

Runner Up: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

The first season of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun was an absolute delight, and since I’m married to one of the manga’s super-fans, I have it on good authority that this long-awaited second season a whole bunch more excellently spooky and darkly romantic material to draw on. I know that some fans were dissatisfied with the first season of this adaptation, and from what I can tell, a big sticking point was how the show stuck to more limited animation a lot of the time in an effort to preserve the fidelity of the artwork. On one hand, I can totally understand where that frustration is coming from, but on the other hand…I mean, have you ever seen any of AidaIro’s artwork? Take a look at any random panel from the manga, and I can almost guarantee that it will sear itself onto your retinas on account of how gosh-darned gorgeous it is. I can accept some slightly stiff or static animation if it means getting to appreciate all of those lush backgrounds and excellently designed characters in vivid color. Besides, those fancy-looking characters are all delightful, and those beautiful backgrounds are home to some truly excellent ghost stories. If you’re in the mood for a dark fairy-tale romance that leverages the power of some classic urban myths and haunting folklore, then you should be just as excited as I am for the next season of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun.

Jairus Taylor

Most Anticipated: Sakamoto Days

While I wouldn’t say Sakamoto Days is among my favorites of the current Shonen Jump roster, it’s been a consistently fun read for the last four years. The series has usually been described as “Anime John Wick,” and that’s a pretty accurate comparison as it follows the escapades of a former assassin named Taro Sakamoto who’s retired from his former life to peacefully live out his days running a convenience store with his wife and daughter. Unfortunately for him, he can’t outrun his past, and all kinds of assassins come crawling out of the woodwork to claim the bounty that’s been placed on his head. Like the John Wick films, a lot of the appeal is in watching Sakamoto pull off increasingly superhuman feats to deal with all the crazy assassins who keep barging into his life, and while it starts off pretty comedic, it eventually evolves into a pretty high-energy action series, and dishes out some blockbuster level theatrics on a week-to-week basis.

Given all that, it’s a little strange that the folks at Shueisha opted to hand the anime adaptation over to TMS, as while they aren’t unreliable, they aren’t exactly the first ones to come to mind when thinking of something with a high emphasis on action. Still, that’s not enough for me to dismiss this adaptation off-hand, and given how long they’ve been working on the Lupin the 3rd franchise, if there’s one thing they probably know how to animate, it’s gunfights, so I’m sure that at worst, it’ll be perfectly serviceable. Hopefully, we’ll end up getting an adaptation that lives up to the current hype surrounding the manga. Still, even if it doesn’t, there’s enough energy behind this series that even a subpar version of it could still probably make for a pretty fun time.

Runner up: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

While I’d been sufficiently hyped up for the first season of 100 GFs, I wasn’t quite prepared for exactly how unhinged it was. While its premise of a boy “cursed” with the prospect of 100 soulmates sounds like it could have been pretty straightforward wish fulfillment, we instead got one of the most insane anime comedies in recent memory, and its wacky antics almost never failed to get a laugh out of me. While a lot of the appeal there goes to the titular girlfriends and their varying degrees of quirky and bizarre personalities, the real star of the show is Rentarō himself, as the absurd lengths he goes through to be the perfect boyfriend is the show’s most consistent source of comedy. Most harem protagonists could dream of being as charming as he is. Although it’s hard to say if the second season will live up to the madness of the first, the previews so far look pretty promising. The new girls seem like they’ll make a delightful addition to the cast (personally putting my stocks in the baseball girl and gyaru girl), so I’m eager to see what they bring to the table. 100 GFs may not be setting the world on fire, but it’s way more entertaining than it has any right to be, and if the second season is even half as funny as the first, then it’ll be the comedy to beat for the winter season.

Christopher Farris

Most Anticipated: Ave Mujica – The Die is Cast –

Alright, picture this: It’s April 2018, I’m strewn out on the couch in my sunroom after a usual raucous Friday evening out drinking with my buddies, and I finally land in the headspace to check out that silly-looking musical tap-tap mobile game based on that anime that tanked the previous year which I’ve seen making the rounds on my social media. I’m soundly introduced to a candy-coated shotgun blast of various band girls, like one with a funny drawl who loves bread or one who wears a giant pink bear mascot suit, and my life is irreversibly changed-slash-ruined over the next seven years. BanG Dream! is a fun franchise; it reverses its fortunes and makes more anime seasons and movies, which I watch while keeping up with the game and overall basking in the joy of this generally uplifting series.

Then BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!! came out in 2023 and upended everything. Franchise writer Yuniko Ayana boldly cashed all the checks she’d saved up to this point to turn the spin-off into a raw reorientation of BanG Dream!‘s theses in a way that altered the brain chemistry of me, the fandom, and a whole horde of newcomers whose curiosity got piqued. And so somehow we all find ourselves here, with the world of that cute marketable musical mobile game standing on the precipice of It’s MyGo!!!!!‘s potentially even more unhinged follow-up, the amazingly absurdly titled Ave Mujica – The Die is Cast –. It’s being specifically marketed as a “psychological thriller” with a whole host of heady taglines preceding it. The previews and prescreened opening theme already look precisely like what I was hoping to see from Sakiko’s promenade of unhealthy coping mechanisms, and there’s nothing I want to see unfold more this season than the ways her ambitions will further warp the era of the girls band. I could never have guessed that this is where things would end up for the franchise when I lay on that couch in 2018, but already glimpsing teasers and a whole pile of feral fanart, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Runner-Up: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

To counterbalance the incoming intensity of Ave Mujica, I’m going to need something silly. Fortunately, such a selection is on deck, with a second season of the series that reenergized the harem genre through the obvious escalation of just adding more. 100 girlfriends? In this economy? It turns out you can afford all that and more when you’re a guy with as much earnest love as Rentaro, and I’m more than ready to watch him pull off poly dating up into the triple digits. I’m not up on the 100 Girlfriends manga, so I don’t exactly know what I should be looking forward to the next entry of its anime adaptation, but if it matches the sheer energy of the first season, I know the production will be capable of getting a handle on this hectic hecto-harem. Also, the ending of that first season promised the appearance of at least one sports girlfriend, a key archetype sorely missing through those opening adventures. With that oversight corrected, nothing should stop the show from reaching its full power.

MrAJCosplay

Most Anticipated: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

It’s been a while since I’ve looked forward to a perverse romance series this hard. But I mean it when I say 100 Girlfriends feels like a breath of fresh air. The self-aware and utterly ridiculous premise made me curious but the way that the show played out grabbed my attention more and more with every girl that was introduced to this unconventional polycule. One of the things I like about 100 Girlfriends is that it wears its heart on its sleeve unapologetically. It leans into the ridiculousness and doesn’t try to skew for realism while also allowing it to get away with the situation’s absurdity. All the characters get some definitive time to shine. They may be slightly archetypical, but their shared dynamics are bursting with life. We get well-animated slapstick, voice acting that is full of fun, and outcomes that are equal parts charming as they are weirdly hilarious.

The show and manga seem committed to introducing one hundred girlfriends, and I have a lot of respect for the writer in trying to come up with one hundred distinct character types to play around with. I worry that there will come a point where the series might get over-bloated with characters, but I want to stick with this ride for as long as I can and see how far the series can push the envelope. It could be a train wreck, and there’s always a possibility that it might lose the charm that it started with, but the series has earned enough goodwill to at least earn my excitement about what’s going to happen next.

Runner Up: Sakamoto Days

It’s all about family in Sakamoto Days, and I recently started picking up the manga on the Shonen Jump app. I have seen Sakamoto’s beautiful face plastered all over social media, and I’m glad I finally checked out what the series is about. Sakamoto is a series that feels like a throwback to many older Shonen Jump gag series, from the sketchier artwork to the straight-up absurdity of the situations the characters find themselves in. When I heard an adaptation was coming out, I became very curious to see how that wackiness would translate, and from what I’ve seen, there is a lot of potential here.

While I worry that the clean look of the anime might take away from some of the stylistic charm found in the original manga, the pacing and kinetic energy that we see in some of the anime previews lead me to think that a lot of the humor will still hit. The setup as an episodic assassin series turns into a rather wholesome show about people finding their place in a world where everything is literally and figuratively trying to kill you. It’s about people finally finding a little moment of peace in their lives, and it shows how they’re willing to put up with the craziness that drops at their doorstep to maintain it. I can see this one being fairly popular during the season, and I’m in for the good, wholesome times that are most likely in store for us.

Kennedy

Most Anticipated: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

In the interest of also highlighting something new, I’m going to limit my choices for most anticipated to only one sequel season (sorry, season two of Apothecary Diaries, which I’m also looking very forward to watching). So, with that being said, I absolutely loved the first season of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun, and I’m thrilled that we’re finally getting a second season. Sure, we had After-School Hanako-kun, but fun and well-animated as it was, a fully-fledged second season it most certainly was not.

The first season, of course, aired during Winter 2020. Audiences watched event cancellations and lockdown announcements roll in at the same time as Nene learned more about her school’s supernatural side and about Hanako-kun himself. And while this fateful timing meant that its production wouldn’t end up as deeply affected as others would prove to be during that same year, I think we’re still seeing the reverberations of the pandemic’s impact in the four-year wait between seasons one and two. To be clear, though, I don’t mind the extra wait if it means a better-finished product. Hanako-kun is such a fun series that absolutely oozes style—I’d hate to see that get lost in a rush to just release more of the series. But really, if anything, the longer wait makes me feel more optimistic that the second season will be at least every ounce as great as the first.

Runner up: From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated!

Was anyone else at Anime Frontier? Because I sure was. And between visits to the Tokyo Ghoul cafe, I watched not all, but certainly most of the Winter 2025 premieres that were at the con. And while I also really enjoyed Tasokare Hotel and Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You (you can read my reviews here and here if you’d like), to say nothing of how excited I also am for The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World (whose premiere wasn’t at the con, but was nonetheless very nearly was my choice for a runner-up instead), I think the one I’m the most excited to watch more of is From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated! You can read my review on that first episode here if you’re interested.

To be more clear: I think of all the premieres I watched, the strongest one was Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You. But Bureaucrat to Villainess is the one that I’m the most excited to watch more of, if that makes sense. If it doesn’t, suffice it to say, I think it has much long-term potential as long as its comedic writing stays fresh. Right now, that’s my only big worry with this anime—I’ve seen many an anime with premises at least equally as funny as this one’s fall into the pitfall of repetition, and I really hope that doesn’t happen here, too. In any case, hopes aside, I just think a fun, lighthearted comedy anime that doesn’t take itself too seriously sounds nice right now.

Lauren Orsini

Most Anticipated: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun Season 2

How could I not get excited to hear more of Megumi Ogata chewing the scenery as everyone’s favorite gremlin? Five years after I first did weekly streaming reviews for it, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is returning to the same studio (Lerche) with a built-in audience that’s been elevating its source manga to the top of the New York Times booklist for literal years. With its potent combination of cute, gothic lolita-reminiscent character designs and dark fairy tale vibes, returning to this spooky-cute story will be fun.

This season appears to focus on a specific arc of Hanako-kun’s story: The Clock Keepers. Much like Hanako-kun of the Toilet is one of the Seven Wonders of the School, there also just happen to be three otherworldly individuals in charge of time. (I wonder if the teachers are aware of all these spiritual schoolyard happenings.) Time will be on my mind when I’m watching it as well: it’ll be interesting to see how this anime adjusts its pacing following the first season, which consisted of a series of short, self-contained Monster of the Week plots. How will the narrative of Hanako-kun adjust to a longer saga? Additionally, the first season concluded with a lot of balls in the air, so I’ll be watching Season 2 with an eye for answers. There’s the love triangle between Hanako, Nene, and Kou, of course, which will probably drag out until the entire story ends. But more mysterious and pressing are the hints the story kept dropping about Hanako’s past. Is this the season we get to know him a little better? I can only hope.

Runner-up: I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic

Amidst our latest helping of isekai slop, I recognized this title from the Spring 2024 Light Novel Guide… where I gave it one out of five stars. The story stars Liam, a reincarnated 12-year-old who is living out a power fantasy so transparent that it feels like it was written by a 12-year-old, too. Liam’s uncommon magical abilities mostly translate through his knack for enslaving adult women—but it’s cool, y’all, they love it. Even worse, Liam’s magic has the power to “level up” his concubines, enlarging their breasts and slimming their waists down because this apparently makes them more aerodynamic for battle or something. I’ll forgive you if you’re ready to tap out from the source material alone, but I have reason to believe the anime will be better.

First of all, it seems to have narrowed down the character count. In the light novel, Liam was one of five sons, and I had a tough time telling them all apart. I think it was also wise to age down his female companions to be similar to Liam’s age and give them more tasteful outfits than they wear in the light novel. I can only hope their “transformation” was written out, too. Studio DEEN has a mixed track record, but editing is one thing it does well. Purists may complain about this show being unfaithful to the source material, but what about when the source material is overly complex and not very good? There’s potential to make this power fantasy a fun piece of escapism, and time will tell if it gets there or not.

Caitlin Moore

Most Anticipated: Fate/strange Fake

After a conveniently timed, totally-not-intentionally-planned Baccano! rewatch, I am so incredibly down for Fate by way of Ryohgo Narita. While I’m far from the biggest Fate fan – indeed, I have some pretty major criticisms of every version I’ve ever engaged with – I must admit that Narita’s quirky sensibilities seem like a perfect fit. The man loves big casts where every character has their own thing going on, and they all crash into each other and interact in different, often violent ways. Sure sounds like a Grail War, doesn’t it? Plus, Narita has an uncanny talent for making even the most despicable characters likable in their way; I’m looking at you, Ladd Russo.

This one might actually be cheating a bit, because we already have a sample of Fate/strange Fake available. The hour-long special and first episode have already introduced a wide range of characters. Flat Escardos, the thorn in Waver Velvet’s side, is already lined up to be my newest special little guy, though Saber is also in the running. We’ve got Megumi Ogata as Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s legendary genderless bestie/lover, depending on how you interpret the epic poem. The visual direction is impeccable, with some incredibly striking frames. To be honest, if I described everything that had me vibrating with excitement in what’s out so far, I’d basically be doing a frame-by-frame description, so let’s leave it here.

Runner Up: ZENSHU

I don’t actually know anything about this one, but Mitsue Yamazaki‘s directing is enough to catch my attention. Allons-y!

Steve Jones

Most Anticipated: Ave Mujica – The Die is Cast –

I am frothing at the mouth for more morsels of Sakiko and her terrible, horrible, no good, very bad band drama. She was already an electric presence in the background of MyGO, seemingly orbiting around the story until it became clear that she actually resided at its swirling, churning center. And now, Ave Mujica promises to follow up MyGO‘s shenanigans with even more deranged high school girl band melodrama. If Yuniko Ayana removed her training weights to write MyGO, then she flexed the rest of her limiters off to write Ave Mujica. There’s going to be emotional terrorism on the level that only theatre kids can perpetrate. They’re going to singlehandedly revive visual kei. One of these girls will taste human flesh before the season concludes. If you didn’t watch MyGO, you probably think I’m exaggerating. How could I be saying all of this about BanG Dream!? The one with the mobile game? But all of you Ave Mujica faithful out there know that I speak the truth. If Ayana has her way, then light yuri cannibalism will be merely the aperitif for the scrumptiously sanguine meal ahead.

Runner-up: ZENSHU.

On the one hand, asking MAPPA to produce a show about anime production kinda seems like asking William Randolph Hearst to write about journalism. On the other hand, an anime studio isn’t a single person, and the names attached to this show intrigue me. Most prominently, Mitsue Yamazaki is here to direct, and I’ve been a consistent fan of hers since her work on Penguindrum. Moreover, she’s credited as a co-creator alongside screenwriter Kimiko Ueno, and not every day you get a collaboration between two prominent female voices in anime. There’s potential here. Shirobako set a high bar for anime about anime, but it’s also a decade old at this point. There are plenty of novel production nightmares that one can mine for dramatic and educational purposes, and MAPPA is arguably the studio best suited to do so.

Jeremy Tauber

Most Anticipated: Momentary Lily

I was at Momentary Lily‘s premiere at Anime Expo, and even a bleary-eyed me running on less than four hours of sleep couldn’t help but get pumped with adrenaline by this premiere. No, really, having the privilege to witness Momentary Lily‘s legendary first episode woke me up faster than coffee ever will. Who the hell needs five cups of joe from Starbucks when you have GoHands making cute girls do post-apocalypse things? Seriously.

And holy good Haruhi up above, is the hype ever so real. Everything we know and love about GoHands is back with a fiery vengeance. The weird camera angles that contort every environment. Scenes are edited so frantically and fast-paced that they look like Walter Murch on crack. A nonsensical plot that feels like it was made up on the spot. It has an obnoxious and off-kilter sound design that won’t stop blaring through the speakers. The usual questions arise: Who decided this was a good idea? Who is still giving them money? Why has nobody stopped them after the Tokyo Babylon incident? My answer? I don’t know, and I don’t care! There never will be another studio so different and daring as GoHands, and they did everything to make the first episode of Momentary Lily a thrill ride from beginning to end.

Here’s the best part. For whatever reason, there is so much food on display here in this first episode that it’s practically a centerpiece. Not only did GoHands constantly hammer in how proud they were of their new original series, but they also kept emphasizing how great the show’s food was. Around the sixth or seventh time, director Katsumasa Yokomine brought up food that I had to cover my mouth tight to prevent me from bursting out laughing. I’m not being mean here; this is all sincerity. My tinfoil hat theory is that GoHands understands who they are at this point and has fully embraced their cult status. Why wouldn’t they by now? If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Not to mention how GoHands flaunted their bizarre show, and its food was as awkward as straight-faced, yet all done with the grace and bravado of a gifted comedian leaning hard into the joke. And for that, I cannot help but tip my hat and applaud. You heard it here, folks: Momentary Lily is exactly what we expect from the studio, and it’s for the better.

Runner-Up: FLOWER AND ASURA

Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in! It has not even been a year since Sound! Euphonium‘s third season made waves, and we’re already getting another Ayano Takeda story adapted for the silver screen. It truly is a wonder that the year starts fresh like this. Considering how I’m still basking in Eupho‘s afterglow, a lot of the joy and amazement I got from it is more than carrying over with FLOWER AND ASURA.

The anime makes it clear that it is a Takeda work through and through. We’ve got school clubs! We’ve got some Yamada-style leg shots! A character who resembles Taki-sensei if you squint your eyes a bit! And we’ve even got a female duo whose feelings towards each other may or may not be the source of many, many online debates. This will be a very obvious thing to point out, but of course, with a different studio (Studio Bind) at the helm, FLOWER AND ASURA doesn’t have the same style as Kyoto Animation‘s Sound! Euphonium. The former bears an animation and art style slightly more simplistic than the latter and, therefore, does not glisten with the same cinematic sheen. And I’d rather it be that way. This is a different story, after all, so a different direction is necessary here. I more than welcome any unique differences between Flower & Asura and Sound! Euphonium, and I’m very excited to see the final product.

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.