I’ve decided to also start posting my initial impressions of things I’m watching every season. Here’s the one for Summer 2025 anime!
1) Lord of Mysteries: I tried to get into this webnovel a few years ago because it’s pretty famous, but it didn’t click for me. It was too slow, and while I thought the world was interesting I couldn’t stick with it. The show has removed some of the things that bothered me, but its still *dense*. I’m hopeful that it’s good.
2) Clevatess: This one gets points for being non-isekai fantasy, but the world requires a *lot of disbelief suspension, and I’m not sure I’ll stick with it. As of episode two, it’s on the verge of being dropped. It’s way too dark for my tastes.
3) Detectives These Days Are Crazy: I really enjoyed the humor and style of this show, am hoping that it doesn’t burn out its gimmick too early.
4) Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show: Honestly I think this show is better than its rating would suggest (below 3* on Crunchyroll at the time of writing). There’s some (probably justified) controversy regarding the sub’s usage of AI that I think is playing a role here, but the show itself is fine.
5) Dan Da Dan Season 2: I loved the first season of this (as did many people) and was pleased to see that the first episode of s2 felt like a perfect continuation. I’m very excited for this one!
6) The Water Magician: Another isekai show, but this one is at least well-presented. A little bit of an eye-roll inducer with all the advantages that MC gets, but it’s fine.
7) Onmyoji Kaiten Re: Birth Verse: I didn’t originally plan to watch this one, but gave the first episode a shot and was pleasantly surprised. The MC isn’t particularly interesting, but it’s got a great Toku feel and the magitech nature of the setting makes me think it’ll be okay. We’ll see.
8) Toilet-Bound Hanako Kun Season 3?: I’m not sure if this is *actually* season 3 or some weird Season 2 part 2 sort of thing, but it’s what’s currently airing. I enjoy Hanako quite a bit; the art is stylized and gorgeous, and the whimsicabre vibes are really enjoyable.
9) Gachiakuta: I’m less sold on this one. The world premise seems…forced to me, and while I’ve seen people online saying that the author is the “Successor” to Atsushi Ohkubo (Author of Soul Eater and Fire Force) I think the similarity in art style/vibe is something of a detriment to my eyes. It feels perhaps a bit too much like Fire Force for my taste, and I think that’s sad. I’m not entirely sure that I’ll stick with it.
10) Tougen Anki: A middling first episode with a fairly generic premise (MC discovers he has Oni blood; oddly an increasingly common condition for shows of late, and then has to work with others who also have it to fight against “hunters” who want to kill him). Kind of gave me Chainsaw Man vibes (it’s gory and kind of disjointed), which for me isn’t a huge endorsement. I’m willing to give it another episode or two, but will probably drop it if it doesn’t improve significantly.
11) Hotel Inhumans: Seems like an episodic series focused on a pair of super competent “concierges” who run a hotel for assassins. Seems fairly lightweight, plotwise, but should be fun.
12) Dekin No Mogura: Kind of a peculiar art style, but not a bad one. I like the vibe a good bit, even if there’s nothing much happening plotwise. We’ll see how it develops.
13) Turkey! Time to Strike: I picked this one up because it was summarized as being a bowling show, and for the majority of the first episode it felt like fairly generic sports fare. Some middle school girls have a bowling club, and they want to work together to win. Suffice to say, the end of the episode goes in a VERY different direction, and I honestly have no idea where it’s going next. I mourn the possibility for a bowling show, but am super intrigued about the prospect of what it is instead. Fingers crossed!
More to come as the season progresses!