At this point in time, the Summer seasonal shows have either wrapped up or are airing their finale this week. So, I wanted to hear your thoughts on shows you watched this season. Shows you liked, disliked, were surprised by, disappointed by? Let those opinions rip!
Please feel free to use this thread as a normal weekly discussion thread as well! Anything that would normally be in the weekly discussion thread any other week is welcome here.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
27 Comments
Endmaker@ani.social · 7 pts · 319d
This Season
Completed
Top Tier (>= 9 / 10)
The Summer Hikaru Died - This is easily my anime-of-the-season. This is the kind of suspense anime that I'm looking for, where bits and pieces of clues are presented to us so that we can play detective, but enough information is withheld to create the mystery. 10 / 10
There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless… - I enjoy entertaining cheap drama like this. The middle was kind of weak, but the start and end left a strong impression. I believe this is the second harem (read: polyamorous) anime that I would consider top-tier in entertainment value, the other one being 100 Girlfriends. I also like how relatable Renako's thought process can be. 9 / 10
Great (8 / 10)
Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus - The first half was honestly pretty weak; I was on the verge of dropping it. But when the second half starts, that's when it drew me back in. I am glad I did not abandon it. It is definitely a drop from previous seasons and is not as strong a suspense anime as The Summer Hikaru Died.
Grand Blue Dreaming season 2 - This is good ol' turn-your-brain-off dumb fun. Just like in season 1, despite acting "dumb" most of the time, the characters are not braindead. There is in fact character development and progress in relationships.
bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood - I enjoyed it quite a bit. I like the concept of cultural exchange with residents of a different world. I think the story / world has the potential be expanded upon and be turned into a full season of anime. I can't help but think the setting is unrealistic though. If humans discover another world and is able to establish a reliable connection to it, I bet it won't used for cultural exchange, but for an invasion to seize their resources - like in Avatar (the blue alien one).
Milky☆Subway: The Galactic Limited Express - It's a fun watch. The way the characters speak made them feel so real. Just like bâan, I think it has the potential to be turned into a proper season of anime with full 24-minutes episodes.
Good Enough (7 / 10)
My Dress-Up Darling season 2 - It was pretty good until the very last part of the last episode. There was essentially no progress made in this season. However, I still enjoyed how educational the show was when it comes to cosplaying. Also, I suspect a significant number of the animators cosplay, or can at least relate to this show. I can see that this anime was produced with the utmost love.
Dropped
A few hot takes in here. (i.e. popular series dropped) Don't read it if you don't want to see your favourite anime get dissed.
::: spoiler dropped anime
Uglymug, Epicfighter - It has a fun premise, but it looks like the plot would just be the main cast adventuring around, like in many other fantasy adventures. Nothing significant happened enough to get me hooked, so I got bored. 7 / 10
Dan Da Dan season 2 - It was alright. Just a bunch of fights against supernatural beings, but nothing else going on. I got bored so I dropped it. 7 / 10
The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity - A few episodes in, it looks like it is going to follow the same formula as 90% of romance series - which I have already gotten bored of. 6 / 10
Bad Girl - Got bored in the first episode; nothing much to say. 5 / 10
City The Animation - I don't find it funny, and with the comedy not hitting, the slice-of-life has got nothing going for it. 4 / 10
Turkey! Time to Strike - I dislike the mental gymnastics used to justify the existence / usage of bowling in that anime's context. 3 / 10
Lord of Mysteries - This is one of the most chuunibyou bullshit I have seen in a while. I gave it a few episodes since I have heard high praises of it, but the plot is just too dumb for me. I think edgy teenage boys would enjoy it though. 2 / 10
:::
Past Seasons
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
I heard that UBW is one of the better entries in the Fate series so I chose it as my gateway into the series.
I enjoyed the first 6 episodes sufficiently. The show was slowly revealing information about the death game, building up the world in the process.
I can see myself rooting for the protagonist, Emiya Shiro, who seemed like a good-hearted, albeit naive young man.
Episode 7 was when the cracks started to appear, when Shiro started saying stupid shit. Perhaps there's a deeper thought process in his head, but the anime was certainly not showing it. I was chalking up the dumb things he said earlier to naivety, but it was getting hard to ignore.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the start of episode 8,
::: spoiler Fate UBW spoiler
when Rin came looking for Shiro. Shiro started behaving like one of those dense, wimpy protagonist. Like, of course Rin is there to look for you!!
This is clearly some form of wish-fulfillment, where one gets their ego stoked when a hot partner comes looking for them and in the process give them the attention they crave.
:::
It was getting too stupid that I dropped it right then and there.
Mushishi
I am about two-thirds of the way through season 1 of Mushishi at the moment.
It is certainly an intriguing world, enough to keep me hooked.
I do have some criticisms of it though:
1 - The pace is kind of slow. Granted, this is an episodic, slice-of-life anime, but I'd rather it be faster or show some form of progress
2 - I feel like some of the problems could have been avoided had Ginko have some common sense or communicated more clearly. Like, he never seemed to tell his patients / clients clearly about the mushi or the situation they are in, leading the bad outcomes later on.
3 - The people in Mushishi's world are too good-natured and peaceful, which is unrealistic. Like, there is no evidence of thuggery / robbery / rape, let alone warfare. People are so trusting that they can just go following random strangers.
People don't even seem wary of scammers. I'd expect at least some people make use of mushi to cheat others of their money.
Again, this isn't really a valid criticism since this is set in fantasy world. If I want a more realistic setting, I should watch more anime like Vinland Saga.
4 - Ginko kept saying that the mushi are just living their lives, so they are neutral: neither malevolent nor benevolent. Guess what: so are the rest of the organisms around. That doesn't mean humans can't / shouldn't take preventive action against some of them.
For example, we have vaccines to help us combat certain germs, or carry out eradication of certain species of mosquitoes that carry deadly diseases.
I'm pretty sure the same concept can be applied to some mushi. Ginko's line of thinking here feels too naive to me.
Otherwise, I have been enjoying it a lot. I wish there are some pure happy-ending episodes though. Pretty much all episodes that I have watched so far have bittersweet endings.
ReluctantZen@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 319d
Yeah, you can definitely tell Shiro's an early 2000s VN protagonist. Unfortunate to see it be a dealbreaker for you in the end, but fair. I think ufotable did what they could if you compare it to the Deen adaptation. If the world interested you, maybe Fate/Zero is a good one for you. That was my gateway into Fate.
wjs018@piefed.social · 2 pts · 318d
About Mushishi - I will preface this by saying that I love the heck out of the show. I actually agree with your point #2. I think Gingko feels like the average person wouldn't understand mushi or would just be frightened of something they couldn't see, even if they understood it better. However, I agree with you that he could have at least tried more.
Related to that, I think your fourth point is related to something that I found interesting in that the preventative measures in the setting of Mushishi often took the form of superstition or local myth. Things like don't cross this mountain after dark or don't store food in this building that are just common knowledge among the locals, but they don't really understand why. Well, it turns out that the actual why is often because otherwise you will interact with mushi in a bad way. It reminds me of how religions basically created supernatural origins and explanations for physical phenomena that were not understood at the time.
I think your points 1 and 3 are intentional elements of the setting. I think the author just wanted to slowly wander around through this world and take it in. To a large degree, that is all that Gingko is doing through the story. There are some episodes where he is traveling to a place for a stated purpose, but more often than not, he just happens to be passing through for no particular reason that we know of.
Endmaker@ani.social · 2 pts · 318d
Exactly my thoughts, though I forgot to mention it in my original comment. Thanks for pointing it out / reminding me.
wjs018@ani.social · 6 pts · 319d
I am behind on some series, but here is what I am up to date on:
wietach@ani.social · 5 pts · 319d
Summer season:
Where do I find my own Yamamoto?nyan@lemmy.cafe · 5 pts · 318d
Silly awards time!
Most pointless character introduction: Lord of Mysteries. Added a named character, after some build-up, at the end of an episode (was it 9 or 10?) and then never mentioned him again. I guess that was when they decided to drop anything that they didn't absolutely need to reach the stopping point they'd intended. Well, it wasn't like they were going to adapt all 1400+ chapters of the webnovel anyway.
Most over-the-top cat care advice: Nyaight of the Living Cat. No, your cat will not develop a complex if you laugh at them after a pratfall. Really.
Best Dragon Award: Water Magician . . . but the only competition was Clevatess, which didn't include much dragon screen-time.
Scatology award: Gachiakuta. If you've seen that "fight" scene, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I would have been happier if they'd left that out, to be honest. Runner up would be Dr. Stone, but it had a much better reason for it.
Cognitive dissonance award: Clevatess. This may just be a me thing, but I seem to expect fantasy grimdark to use more realistic character designs than this does. Took me a little while to adapt.
Most unexpectedly entertaining: Probably Onmyo Kaiten Re-birth Verse. It wasn't spectacularly good, but I went into it expecting utter clichéd shounen schlock, and it actually managed to surprise me by flipping everything on its head for a second time near the end. Plot held together, setting was a bit silly but overall consistent, characters were unoriginal but, again, consistent. So it went from an expected D to a C.
Most disappointing returning series: the vending machine. It wasn't horrible, but while the first season was better than it should have been given the premise, the second was not.
Worst translation device: Nyaight of the Living Cat again. I honestly don't know how the human characters were able to make any sense out of that mishmash of action movie quotes a lot of the time. Poor Jones would have been better off pointing to letters on a ouija board.
Most in need of another season ASAP: Kaijuu 8-gou. C'mon, guys, you can't just leave us hanging in the early phases of the boss fight!
Most not in need of another season: Tate no Yuusha. Which, of course, means we're going to have one.
wjs018@ani.social · 2 pts · 318d
I completely forgot about this series as I was writing up my post. Completely agreed. The second season was lacking the originality and the charm of the first.
Already confirmed! 🤣
Unboxious@ani.social · 5 pts · 318d
Still watching:
Completed:
Dropped:
Overall I had a good time. Looks like next season will be a bit more relaxed, so I look forward to catching up on some older stuff instead.
wjs018@piefed.social · 1 pts · 318d
This is exactly what I wanted out of City and it delivered completely. I often will turn on an episode or two of Nichijou when I feel like shutting off the world a bit. I foresee myself doing the same with City in the future now as well. This was also my AOTS.
Rottcodd@ani.social · 4 pts · 318d
The last episode of The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity aired Thusday, and it was every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped it'd be. I'd already read it in the manga, so it wasn't a surprise, but it was still worth seeing. And the series as a whole is now at or near the top of my list for awkward, sincere romances.
Aside from that I watched two surprisingly great older series last week.
The first was Akebi-chan no Sailor Fuku. It's not so much that I didn't expect it to be good as that I expected it to be disappointing compared to the manga, which is easily among my top five all-time favorites. And after seeing the character designs when the season was announced, I was sure that would be the case, since they didn't even manage to look right. The facial proportions are all wrong, and it throws everything off. And I expected the rest of the series to be equally inferior.
But I kept seeing positive mentions of the anime, so finally decided to give it a chance. And it was really very good, even though the character designs never stopped being distractingly wrong. The rest though - the rest of what I appreciate about the manga - they nailed. The backgrounds are lush and beautiful, the tightly focused action sequences - things like Komichi tying her hair back - are just as graceful as Hiro's originals, and the character interactions and growth and especially the emotional content are all spot-on - just as rich and satisfying as in the manga. It was still inferior to the manga all in all (it really couldn't help but be), but it was damned good anyway.
Then, on something of a whim, I watched both seasons of Zombieland Saga. Then I watched them both again.
I still can't quite get over just how awesome that series is. It came out during a period when I wasn't paying much attention to anime, so I vaguely knew it existed, but that was it And I really didn't expect a lot of it because I don't hear a lot about it. But it just swept me away.
The characters are uniformly terrific. Every one of them gets their moment in the spotlight and every one of them shines when they do. The humor is great, and so well-placed. Even in the middle of the darkest drama, they'll just suddenly drop in a perfectly timed laugh out loud moment. The overall plot is brilliant - hell, just the fact that it exists is brilliant, because that's something in itself that's only slowly revealed. Kotaro says he's forming an idol group to save Saga, and it seems at first that he means to "save" it from being a generally disregarded cultural backwater, but no - he means it literally. And as the plot keeps expanding through the series you find out that he's right - that Saga really is under threat (and not for the first time) and really does need to be saved.
And then there are the performances, which are easily among the most awesome of any music anime ever. Every one of them has a creative hook that makes it stand out, and the later ones in particular are just astonishing (and in fact I'd say that the show opening for Iron Frill - season 2 episode 4 - is the single greatest anime music performance I've seen - everything from Tae on the drums to Junko's amazing voice to Junko destroying the guitar and pointing across the arena at Ai with the splintered neck (and Kotaro's laugh out loud reaction) to the epic rendition of Mezame Returner, hearkening all the way back to their first guerilla parking lot show.
And their fans. Starting with the two metalhead guys ("Those guys are seriously awesome"), they just expand, as if the world is just divided into people who haven't seen Franchouchou yet, and fans. So by the time of their stadium show, every notable character from every episode is there. And if I was in their world, I would be too.
I can't wait for the movie.
wjs018@piefed.social · 5 pts · 318d
Same!
I was also surprised at how much I liked the show. I had somehow managed to avoid spoiling the cold open to episode 1 for myself and found myself cracking up during the first OP. I am never not impressed by Kotaro and the voice acting performance by Mamoru Miyano. His lectures at the chalkboard totally give off the feeling that the director basically just told him to let it rip and the rest of the show just tries to keep up.
Rottcodd@ani.social · 2 pts · 318d
That opening was what initially sold me on the series. I just followed a link from somewhere - probably a MAL stack - and read the synopsis and thought it looked promising, so I tracked it down and clicked play on episode 1 to find out what it was all about, and was immediately hooked.
Kotaro was one of the many big surprises for me. Those loudly emotional characters generally grate on my nerves (in fact, I dropped How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend in large part because the MMC's constant shouting irritated me so much), so I was worried at first, but somehow it just works for him. And having Saki punch him early on helped, as did the fact that so much of what he yells is foolishness, and they all know it.
And somehow, in the middle of all the yelling and all the foolishness, he tells each one of them exactly what they need to hear when they need to hear it.
On that note too, one of my favorite parts of unexpected humor is when Sakura stops him on the stairs of the mall/shelter to sincerely thank him for all he's done for them, and she's talking about how important he's been - "And you never gave up! Well... except for that one time, but other than that..."
mo_lave@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 318d
Glad you liked it! It was the other way around for me. My interest in The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity began because (1) people were hyping up on how good the manga is and (2) the Akebi staff is working on it.
My first reaction on seeing the poster is "the female MC [Kaoruko] looks like a grown-up Akebi Kao". There are some stylistic similarities. I could also say that KaoruHana has the Akebi art style without the Akebi mangaka's weird facial proportions.
KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 318d
9/10
8/10
7/10
6/10
5/10
Dropped
w_tree@ani.social · 3 pts · 318d
Not anime but two Chinese animation really stood out for me this season.
Unboxious@ani.social · 2 pts · 318d
I know the name might make you think otherwise, but The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity is actually shounen!
Also, "enjoyable" sure is a way to describe Takopi. It was great, but I feel like my heart was in my stomach the whole way through. Maybe I'd enjoy it more on rewatch.
w_tree@ani.social · 1 pts · 318d
Thanks for the correction about Fragrant Flower.
As for Takopi, I don't know, maybe anime has domestic violence overused and that made me think Takopi as 'another one'.
ReluctantZen@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 318d
This season I watched:
NineSwords@ani.social · 3 pts · 317d
I have just a few points regarding last season:
mo_lave@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 318d
::: spoiler Live molave reaction to Summer 2025
:::
Summer 2025 is the strongest since Winter 2018 (with #2 best Violet Evergarden, #4 best A Place Further Than The Universe, and Yuru Camp), and the strongest since I started serially watching anime (Winter 2022). It’s got:
Takopi’s Original Sin - my new best anime. I never thought anything could upstage Violet. Cried hard in five out of six episodes.
My Dress Up Darling S2, The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus - Cloverworks trifecta, all highly-regarded and some of the studio’s best output yet!
Baan - It's... really good, given it's an indie production that Gigguk bankrolled
Dan Da Dan S2
The Summer Hikaru Died
Call of the Night S2
Grand Blue S2
Silent Witch
Again, can I glaze some more on KaoruHana and MDUD?
While I had to ground my expectations on KaoruHana, they knock it out of the park with episode after episode. My gut tells me Cloverworks was cooking something the moment I saw its poster, simply because it's got the same artistic quality as Akebi's Sailor Uniform. I can't glaze that one enough either as it's one of the best-looking works in all anime. Unfortunately, the studio had to cut corners in KaoruHana, but they didn't where it mattered. And in those scenes, they matched and exceeded anything the staff put out in Akebi, multiple times, in each episode. I'm as happy as Kaoruko there. Yay also for the romance iyashikei story it tells.
Bocchified MDUD is not in my bingo. It has OP of the season no doubt, and I think it's the perfect way to adapt the series.
Other nonseasonal highlights I watched during Summer 2025:
Lost in Starlight - Insterstellar-esque mature romance story with nigh-flawless execution with the Shinkai art style I'm biased in favor of. 10/10
Redline and Promare - acid trips of watches there. Would recommend. Both 9/10
The Dangers in My Heart - the chemistry between the MCs is off the charts. Part of the reason why the story of KaoruHana felt more mundane to me, lol. 10/10. Best romance strictly because of the romance. I have higher-ranked romances but it's because of other things. BokuYaba, for instance, is just below Your Lie in April because the latter's drama is so good and it impacted me in a personal way.
wjs018@ani.social · 2 pts · 318d
I really should give Dangers in My Heart another shot. I have tried reading the manga and watching the show before, but always just can't really make it through the beginning. However, I only ever see great things said about it.
SnowGator@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 316d
Summer 2025 wrap up: Super busy IRL, so didn’t watch as much as I’d like. Still some great anime for me. Fall 2025 looks a little light for me, so maybe I’ll catch up some. Tons of Summer 2025 I didn’t have time for!
Watched current season:
Watched past seasons:
Ongoing:
Tried, not sure if continuing:
Eventually watch from this season:
Plan to watch/try for Fall 2025 season:
Endmaker@ani.social · 2 pts · 316d
I find that season 1 (+ OVA) of Umamusume has the most cheery, CGDCT tone. The rest of the seasons lean a lot harder into the drama.
leave_it_blank@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 318d
I only have limited time, so I only picked three shows, Dr Stone and Call of the Night were great (as expected), but Dan da Dan S2 was boring as hell. I really liked the first one, but man, did they focus on all the wrong things...
esc27@piefed.social · 2 pts · 310d
While there are several I may go back and binge now the season is over, for some reason I only really ended up watching four seasonal shows to completion. (Kind of fell out of the anime habit for a bit, least I've watched in years. To the extent I'm even late commenting here...)
My Dress-Up Darling - Picked up right where the last season left off and continued strong. I know some people are disappointed the relationship did not move quickly, but there is still some character development needed for both to get there. Hopefully this leads into a satisfying third season.
Secrets of the Silent Witch - My favorite new show of the season. The first volume was adapted pretty much perfectly. There was a clear attention to detail and care for the story and characters. Sadly, the second part felt very rushed as if they were fast forwarding through scenes with characters barely introduced then sidelined with no room to breath or really be recognized. But it slowed back down on the moments that mattered, and it ended very strong.
Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra - The show was enjoyable enough to finish, but there is just something dull about it... The dark elves as characters, palette, maybe the lower production values... not sure. But it just seemed "muted" at times like it was almost but not quite what it should be.
Call of the Night - probably my anime of the season. The whole show is just a "vibe" carried by the music, setting, and characters. Like Dress-Up, this picked right up where it left off. We got character development, more background story, a great new character, and well executed plot that seamlessly wove all this together.
wjs018@ani.social · 2 pts · 319d
Just a quick meta update that I added and enabled all the shows mentioned in last week's thread in the bot. So, discussion threads should be made as they premiere.
Please have a bit of patience as there are always some inaccuracies in the AniList api that the bot uses at the beginning of each season. So, expect some threads to get made early or missed. Just pm me and I will get right on it.
Happy viewing everybody!