AOTS (Anime of the Season) A:UK Edition

While it feels like summer, we're only just now wrapping up the spring season with the last few episodes of shows in the coming weeks.

There was so much good stuff this season, but I'm putting my pick in early as Apocalypse Hotel, as it has been nothing short of incredible so far and I thoroughly believe it'll stick the landing. Welcome back hotelier Space Dandy.

Other great stuff this season for me includes;
gquuuux - Gainax gundam sure has been a fever dream.
Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray - I think I finally understand the horse thing.
Anne Shirley - Shirley not! Just a really pleasant experience.
NinKoro - I really vibe with some of the humour here, like if hidamari / katanagatari had a baby and gave it a knife.
The Apothecary Diaries - Continues to be consistently engaging.
 
Last edited:
I think this has been quite a weak season for me, especially when the anime that has 'saved the season' for me took a good 6 episodes to really get going. Of course finales have yet played out so these could change!

Aharen-san wa Hakarenai Season 2 - 4
This has been my biggest disappointment. A lot of focus on side characters and very little development between our main pair means most of this season has felt entirely unnecessary, I am bitterly disappointed with this.

Food for the Soul - 5
There is a nub of a good idea here, I actually think if the Food Research Club spent more time showing food research, what they've learned and teaching the viewer this could be a really fun educational anime (funucational?), instead it's an unfocused tourism anime that misfires a little.

Kowloon Genetic Mystery - 8
The surprise of the season that consistently lives up to the mystery part of its title. More than most anime the characters here feel fuller and rounder, everyone has ideas, and/or an agenda and/or fragile hopes and dreams and those interweave like all of the best dramas. It's moody depiction of the slumlike Kowloon contrasts with the (frequently) very bright voice performances.

Mono - 7
It's not as good as Yuro Camp, it seems to forget its a club activities anime half the time, heck it even forgets the principle cast half the time and yet if you want to chill out there is a good time to be had here. Surely this anime also has the cat of the season?

SHOSHIMIN: How to become Ordinary Season 2 - 9
Glacially slow start compared to the the first season where we rattled from mysteries, some being one-ers, others multi episode arcs. You could almost believe it was made by a completely different studio how different SHOSHIMIN feels in its first 5 episodes if it's cinematic presentation and strong background art had also vanished. Once we get going though this quickly reaches the heights of season 1 and feels like this has room to eclipse it going into the ending. Notice how I'm saying nothing of what SHOSHOMIN is? Good, know nothing going in!

Witch Watch - 8
Another 8 and I said it was a weak season? What am I thinking. WW succeeds in being a romantic comedy anime that really leans in on the comedy, translating well to international audiences. In a just world WW would have blown up to be the next Spy X Family, the non shonen anime that can break out into the mainstream a little and yet that doesn't seem to have happened. I haven't checked out the dub for this one but this could be a fantastic series to introduce children to anime with. It's silly, its goofy, it will make you laugh, and its got by far the best OP of the season. It's cat of the season contender also isn't really a cat so it loses out there though.

ZatsuTabi -That's Journey- - 6
And so my journey ends here with another travel tourism anime. This has become my mid week relax anime and its unique premise for our lead figuring out where they are going is a fun spin on the genre. There has also been teased throughout the season an underlying plot that our heroine is struggling with her work and sadly it seems we won't get any real resolution for that which would have made for a better overall anime.
 
I've enjoyed a number of shows this season. I was, of course, super excited to have Wind Breaker back for Season 2 and more Black Butler, but the new shows have been just as good.

Apocalypse Hotel is definitely up there for me, as is The Gorilla God's Go to Girl, which is just a really fun romance / fantasy series. But my actual pick of the season is The Dinner Table Detective, which I rambled about more than enough in the group article the team did at the start of the season. 😆

We're spoiled for choice with mystery dramas this season with Shoshimin back too (which I have also really enjoyed!), but there's just no real way to top Yuki Kaji, Mamoru Miyano and Kana Kanazawa in the same show in a genre that I so love. Every episode has been intriguing, hilarious and a great deal of fun to watch. I can see why this is such a popular novel series in Japan. I will definitely be picking those up as soon as possible.
 
Maebashi Witches has been an easy AOTS for me, heck it might even beat Ave Mujica in the running for my AOTY so far. Loved Erika Yoshida's adaptation of Bocchi the Rock and this series showed she can write fantastic anime originals as well. Drama, comedy, magical girls, music and social commentary is quite the mashup but it felt well balanced in the end. I knew I was right to invest my AOTS stocks into this one early when I saw people complaining about the characters. Their development through the series has been a joy to watch from their dysfunctional beginnings to their gradual friendship. Erika Yoshida also addresses many relevant topics through their arcs like body image, gender identity, social media and poverty with great sensitivity not often seen in many anime series. That leads to my one complaint being that this series deserved a higher episode count so she could explore these themes further. Music performances were good too with nice 3DCG animation and a banger soundtrack I'll be sure to add to my next CDJapan order. Really hoping this one gets a second season. The Maebashi Witches are far evermore

Also watched this season were:
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: A fun UC AU from Kazuya Tsurumaki of FLCL and Rebuild of Evangelion fame
Apothecary Diaries Season 2: Doesn't quite reach the highs of the first season but I'm always down for more Maomao shenanigans
Mono: It's got great comedy as expected but you can tell Afro seems more interested in Yamanashi than photography
Food for the Soul: A nice surprise that beats Mono in the chill hobbyist series with a female cast genre
Uma Musume - Cinderella Grey: Yeah this is definitely up there with season 2 as one of the best Uma Musume entries
Rock is a Lady's Modesty: Another great addition to the girls band era featuring foul mouthed rich girls

Heard nothing but good things about Apocalypse Hotel so I'll definitely have to watch that at some point
 
With summer almost over, it's time for another one of these. Ended up watching a lot more series than I expected to this season.

Takopi's Original Sin - Was the standout here, went in with 0 expectations which probably helped propel it to the top of my list. But everything from the artstyle to the music to the gutpunches felt like a lot of effort had gone into them.

Other notable mentions include:

Secrets of the Silent Witch - I wasn't expecting anything from Bocchi the witch either but ended up getting kind of invested.

CITY THE ANIMATION - I thought this'd be my AOTS going in, but my nostalgia for Nichijou is too strong. It's still really fun and looks incredible though.

Dandadan 2nd Season - Not much to say, if you enjoyed the madness that is Dandadan, its more Dandadan.

The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity - Just a nice romance that sidesteps a lot of the more annoying tropes.

Ruri Rocks - She really does. Totally worth a watch if you want to learn about rocks instead of camping.

See You Tomorrow at the Food Court - Toyed with the idea of making this my pick as I liked the inane comedy/misfit friends vibe a lot. At only 6 episodes doesn't outstay its welcome.
 
Last edited:
This was my most monstrous anime season yet, I picked up the most current/new series yet (16, though 2 are half seasons), a trip to the cinema and a short on top. In addition, I found time to chew through 2 films in my backlog, pickup and demolish Kill La Kill, eat up 3 leftover series from last season and pile on more movies and series available to me thanks to getting Prime for CITY and NP&SWG.

Continuing

Witch Watch – 8 – Crunchyroll: The cast grows slightly and for the better as we get more opportunities for magical chaos and more laughs. I’m still surprised this one hasn’t blown up into the next Spy x Family.

Summer 2025

Takopi's Original Sin – 9 – Crunchyroll: I was sure this would be my AOTS and standout episode 4 is one of the best single episodes of anime of all time.

See You Tomorrow at the Food Court – 4 – Crunchyroll: I was hoping this would be more fun, in the end maybe don’t come to the food court tomorrow.

Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon S2 – 5 [provisional, dub behind] – Crunchyroll: This fails to capture the magic from S1.
Boxo learns to speak! And it’s so annoying I wish he hadn’t.

Onmyo Kaiten Re:Birth Verse – 6 – Crunchyroll: To be honest I thought this would be a one episode watch and bail, instead the concept kept me coming back despite the sub-par animation. Once the plot really got moving, I was excited to see how this one played out.

DAN DA DAN S2 – 9 – Crunchyroll: Peak has returned. The action, the drama, the comedy all continues exactly where we left off and at the same excellent quality. Shout out to Miiko and Muuko and their machinations to make sure the romance sub plot also keeps advancing.

With You and the Rain – 7 – Crunchyroll: With so many intense action and drama anime going on this season it was great to have one anime I could watch just to chill. This is not a must watch for anyone and yet there is plenty to recommend here.

Ruri Rocks – 9 – Crunchyroll: The surprise of the season and one that was not on my watch list ahead of starting, I soon caught up with once I gave it a chance. Diamond in the rough? No, this is a gem throughout. This is right up there with A Place Further Than The Universe in CGDCT anime. I also eagerly paused for the break cards, informative and delightful!

Nyaight of the Living Cat – 3 – Crunchyroll: I knew this was trash before ep1 concluded and yet I watched it anyway.

My Dress Up-Darling Season 2 – 9 [provisional, dub behind] – Crunchyroll: Like The Dangers in My Heart, ‘dress-up returns and leans into the strengths of its first season while excising its weaknesses. More heart and way less distracting fan service.

Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl – 6 – Crunchyroll: A brilliant premise and a luscious and fun art style, I wish we had spent more time with Lily struggling to learn the language and the opportunities that presents and yet on the whole is an entirely serviceable slapstick comedy.

CITY THE ANIMATION – 10 [AOTS] – Prime Video: KyoAni remind us why they are the very best, yet again. If the trailer did not have you sold (or you really, really hated Nichijou) then you have missed a masterpiece if you slept on CITY. Episode 5, words can aptly describe. I had to rewatch is 4 times. Wow. Then came the race sequence. Again, words cannot aptly describe.

There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… – 5 – YouTube: Is this a fun romance show? Its progressing a little fast…oh its 100% yuri. Its trashy. Its unapologetic. It’s well animated and yet it never strays into adult territory.

Turkey! Time to Strike – 7 – Crunchyroll: The fun in this entire anime is spoiled (if you haven’t been already) in giving this one a go. It aims to be a top tier CGDCT anime but falls short of a strike.

New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT – 8 – Prime Video: It took the collapse of GAINAX, but P&S have a new (rightful) home at Studio Trigger who have not forgotten about how to best to anime these bad bitch angels.

Solo Camping for Two – 5 [provisional] – Crunchyroll: A disappointment to be honest, the trailer had me hoping this would be Yuro Camp but with beer pairings at supper time. Hopefully this picks up as it continues into the Autumn season.

COLORFUL STAGE! The Movie: A Miku Who Can't Sing – 7 – Cinema: As neither a fan of Hatsune Miku or the Colorful Stage! gacha game I went into this with an open mind and with a friend who very much enjoys both. Without some series research (or in my case someone to race me through the various groups) this would be a chaotic mess to understand but once you can glean the various groups, relations, and the basics of the SEKAI concept this a fun film. It does its best to balance giving each character similar screen time and impetus which is impressive for 25 performers plus all the various vocaloids, not including the titular Miku either. It also tries to not repeat info as each group works as its own unit but despite how urgently paced some scenes are there is a tighter, better, cut of this film possible.

bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood – 7 – YouTube: Anituber gigguk wrote and coordinated this brilliant 18 minute short (that will probably leave you wanting more), go give it a go!


Also watched.... (where I found the time to watch these I will never know)

Pokemon: The First Movie – 5 – YouTube: Bad animation even for its time and yet essential for fans of Pokémon of the time.
Still got teary when all the ‘mons cry revive Ash back to life.

Lazarus – 7 – Channel 4 (app, UK): As others remarked last season this does not reach the majesty of Cowboy Bebop but its cast is fun and I think this crew deserves a second chance with a new mission

Lycoris Recoil -Friends are thieves of time – 7 – Crunchyroll: These shorts highlight what I loved most about series, the more fun opening slice-of-life scenarios in the first half of the series. These shorts also re-affirm we need more adventures with Chisato and Takina!

Pon No Michi – 5 – YouTube: I hoped to come away from this one with some basic understanding of Mahjong. Instead, I had a fun time with this very casual slice of life anime. Still have no idea what the tiles mean!

Momotaro, Scared Soldiers – 5 – Blu Ray
Kumto To Tuilp – 6 – Blu Ray

Trigger warning: The film is government propaganda about how Japan had ‘liberated Asia’.
This film (and short) are over 80 years old and obviously do not hold up to a modern lens but there is still something interesting to learn from their viewing. Principally for me just how western the actual animation feels at this time; anime was yet to establish its own true identity.

Pokemon the Movie 2000 – 6 – YouTube: Much better on the animation front, a better plot but the villain never makes much sense and is the real weakness here.

Tawawa on Monday – 6 – Crunchyroll: A gif on my X feed made me curious about the heavy topic on show in this series of shorts that is surprisingly sincere for something so clearly fan-servicey.

Halo Legends – 4 – Prime Video: I remember really enjoying this ‘before I watched anime’ (whatever that means, before Your Name changed my life?). Some of the stories are great but the animation itself is bad most of the time (the CG ending final chapter especially) and its mostly a boring mess.

Tawawa on Monday 2 – 6 – Crunchyroll: Usually when a show makes its expanded cast the focus of a follow up series my eyes roll into the back of my head but here it worked really, really well. Sadly, the manga never made it to a third volume.

The Dinner Table Detective – 5 – Prime Video: A rapid-fire intro is the order of the day as we get right into mystery, we’ll worry about learning who these characters are later…which never comes because all of the characters here are two dimensional at best.

Pokémon 3: The Movie – 7 – YouTube: Finally, a Pokémon movie that is objectively good. It doesn’t seem to exist to promote the franchise, instead it’s got an actual story to tell where the Pokémon take a back seat to the people.

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX – 8 – Prime Video: Having only seen Cucuruz Doan's Island at SLA2022 and Witch From Mercury I was unsure how easy an alt history take on the extensive ‘main’ universe would be for an ‘outsider’ and yet this was a really fun time

Belladonna of Sadness - 6 - Bu Ray: Less a film you watch and more something you experience. It's hard to recommend but there are some brilliant sequences stitched together with some not brilliant bits.

Kill la Kill – 9 - Blu Ray: I buckled and bought all parts and as various anime finished, I had time to plough through this. I watched up to ep12 on release on Netflix (again ‘before I watched anime’) and never finished it so it was fun to see this again. After loving Gurren Lagann late last year for the first time it felt necessary to come back to Matoi & co and I was so glad I did.
 
There really were a lot of great shows this season. I think my favourite ended up being My Dress-Up Darling, but The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity is a close runner-up.

Takopi's Original Sin, The Summer Hikaru Died and Ruri Rocks deserve shoutouts too. And The Water Magician, for being a series where I dropped the light novels 'cause the MC is kind of annoying, but the anime was visually fantastic, so I got drawn back in.
 
Back
Top