Winter 2025 Seasonals Preview – Anime I’m looking forward to

Another season, another overabundance of television series hastily trying to match the industry’s unsustainable pace. Nevertheless, I’m going to try to keep up with 2025 anime and its trends, its up-and-coming staff members, and its success stories. For better and worse, there is no better window in contemporary anime but to participate in the seasonals machine. For my own sake, I will not commit myself to the misery of following more than a handful of shows per season, if even that, but I do like sampling pilots!

The first episode should typically be among the show’s strongest, for it usually—though not always—is storyboarded and directed by the series director, as well as supervised by its strongest animators. This first impression aims to hook the audience by showing the most appealing parts of its work, both production-wise as well as thematically. Here, I’ll go over the shows whose productions, key staff members, and/or concepts seemed interesting enough to justify watching their first episode, ranked by my level of anticipation based on aforementioned qualities as well as their respective trailers.

TIER 1 – Guaranteed keeping up

Momentary Lily (GoHands) – chief dir. Shingo Suzuki
At this point you know the deal: mind-bending camera work, unhinged color scripts and filters, and their newly patented ‘spaghetti hair’. It seems like the masses are split between either hating or begrudgingly respecting studio GoHands. I personally adore them and their unrelenting ambition to present things in ways that I’ve never really seen done before in film or animation alike. Even the things that we assume are true can be blown wide open by this trifecta of GoHands directors (Suzuki, Susumu Kudou, Katsumasa Yokomine) who each have brazenly unique ways of exploring the relationship between space, characters, characters in space, and the viewer. Thought it may seem like a cop-out to call their vision misunderstood, I was surprised that The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses didn’t really catch on. After all, what better studio to adapt a work about a girl intentionally forgetting her glasses so she can lean closer into the main character than the one who has been interrogating 3D spaces in TV anime for as long as they’ve existed?

I agree that the designs can be outlandish and occasionally garish—though also cohesive and admirable in their own way—and that their ambition often outmatches the reality of their productions. But I’ve never come away from any single GoHands property, even if it’s just a trailer or an opening, that I felt like I hadn’t seen anything new. Momentary Lily is the ultimate mystery box: every single trailer has shown a radically different side of the series, either as a battle girl action show; a cooking show; or a more general slice-of-life with an ecchi side. Conceptually utterly unpredictable to match its audiovisual sensory assault, yet reinterpreting familiar tropes through a lens nobody even dares to begin visualize, for better and worse. It could be a homerun, a bunt, or even a strike-out; the only certainty is that Momentary Lily will be worth our time.

Tier 2 – Might keep up

Flower and Asura (Bind) – dir. Ayumu Uwano
Girls doing dramatic literature reading and narration, getting lost in each other’s voices, set on a small-time island. Boasts the strongest staff on paper we’ll see this season, with designs from up-and-coming starlet Kou Aine, color design by acclaimed Naomi Nakano, and photography direction by Kouhei Tanada. The trailer is not exceptionally animated but shows confidence in its own strong design elements and first-time director Ayumu Uwano‘s directing skills. Though I’m expecting it to have occasional moments of weakness (and not deliver on yuri undertones present in the trailer), I’ll be betting on this show to be amongst the season’s strongest. If anything, I will identify with the handsome short-haired blonde girl and you can’t stop me.

Bang Dream! Ave Mujica (SANZIGEN) – dir. Koudai Kakimoto
The acclaimed It’s MyGO team is back, this time with the franchise’s resident high school emo vampires reciting the most dramatic script. Koudai Kakimoto jumpscared me this year with the truly abysmal Na-Nare Hana-Nare and its indefensible compositing choices and weak script, but I hope this material and team proves a return to form. The trailer is absolutely riveting and surely the season’s best, and if this maintains its theatrical melancholy, I’m expecting it to be another big hit.

Sorairo Utility (Yostar Pictures) – dir. Kengo Saito
The TV serialization of a 15-minute long golf OVA from 2021, most notable for featuring Akira Amemiya‘s storyboards through ex-TRIGGER man Kengo Saito‘s connection. Saito’s delicate pen and pleasant character designs will likely be enough to make for a fundamentally sound production, but I’m more worried about whether it’ll actually be exciting. I’ll watch Sorairo Utility for production values alone, but if the OVA and trailer are anything to go by, it’s all just very lowkey golf activities. It would honestly surprise me if this were truly interesting all the way through.

Tier 3 – Likely plan-to-watch candidates

Okitsura (Millepensee) – dir. Shin Itagaki, Shingo Tanabe
A young guy from the big city falls in love with an Okinawan girl, though he needs a translator to understand her dialect! Despite a recent barren track record, I really enjoy Shin Itagaki‘s highly involved directorial style, with his snappy, expressive character acting and otaku-like tendencies being really effective at highlighting the most appealing parts of the material at hand. I feel like this is right up Itagaki’s wheelhouse, but unfortunately Millepensee is the most broke studio of all time, and you can see in the trailer alone numerous economical animation shortcuts — as expected from the genius mind behind Teekyuu. It’s a fun concept with some soulful compositing, but ultimately this comes down to how much Itagaki animates himself, which even for a powerhouse like him likely doesn’t sustain an entire production.

Nihon e Youkoso Elf-san (Zero-G) – dir. Tooru Kitahata
Reverse isekai-ish show starring kind elf lady. I suspect I just have a sort of affinity for these mundane, low-stakes urban fantasies about characters from other worlds enjoying the pleasures of daily contemporary life. Anticipating absolute vacuity, though one that makes it pretty comfortable after a day at work, and the art design and compositing are honestly solid for this type of production.

Uketsukejou Saikyou (CloverWorks) – dir. Tsuyoshi Nagasawa
Fantasy game-like guild receptionist clears dungeons to blow off the stress from work in her spare time. As a lowkey CloverWorks fan, I was a lot more excited about this announcement initially, but subsequent trailers have deflated that somewhat. Though at least a functional production with some cute character designs, it’s also clearly from the weakest production line, as well as having been delayed before (it was meant to air in 2024). I don’t like the strange spatiality in the layouts; find the compositing quality inconsistent, and the drawings of non-main characters are stiff… but hopefully there’ll be some funny, endearing moments and perhaps a sakuga moment or two.

TIER 4 – Likely drop after 1 episode

Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms (SynergySP) – dir. Yoshiaki Okamura
Beloved class idol Mona Kawai tries to catch the eye of the titular, stoic main character, which eventually turns into a love triangle as a rival joins the fray! From the trailer alone this didn’t look super dead like other romcoms of its ilk—having a halfway decent compositing director is kind of overpowered for a seasonal—and some of the side character’s designs suggest cool, tomboyish ideas with pleasant drawings. I could honestly see myself being into this, even if the art direction is scraps, SynergySP almost certainly dies after episode 1, and the inbetweening being so cheap… so nothing out of the ordinary for seasonals?

Sakamoto Days (TMS Entertainment) – dir. Masaki Watanabe
From the trailers alone you would never expect this to be amongst the most anticipated adaptations of the year! TMS Entertainment’s segue into becoming a bigger contemporary player by securing Shounen Jump adaptations like this and last season’s Blue Box is interesting, but I feel very whelmed by the trailer and its very ugly textures, filters and unsatisfying character designs. But I am most worried about a manga with a reputation for being near-pure action spectacle being incapable of presenting any impressive action cuts even in just its trailers.

Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Oji-san (Ajiado) – dir. Tetsuya Takeuchi
Middle-aged civil clerk gets reincarnated as a villainess… completely randomly directed by god-tier animator Tetsuya Takeuchi. Takeuchi will be most familiar for his extensive contributing to classic action giants such as Naruto and Kara no Kyoukai, and supplementing slice-of-life shows such as Kamichu! with remarkably weighty, movie-level character acting. Anyway this is a very strange pull and I understand nothing about the production, but there’s some nice drawings in the trailer so if the script is entertaining this could be a decently watchable production, even if only for Takeuchi’s supervision and contributions.

Übel Blatt (Satelight) – dir. Takashi Naoya
Trashy, edgy mid-00s ‘dark fantasy’ adaptation, starring a ‘black sword’-wielding main character defending several scantily-clad damsels in distress… I do not understand why this is being adapted at this point in time, but I can’t lie that I’m a little curious to see how modern compositing sensibilities will reinterpret material from a decidedly different era. The trailer is awful though and inspires little confidence that this will be anything more than rancid.

Zenshuu. (MAPPA) – dir. Mitsue Yamazaki
Initial announcements suggested Zenshuu. would be a romcom about a successful, young anime director, who is hired to direct a romance series despite never having been in love before… the trailer shows an isekai instead? All signs raise speculation of a messy (pre-)production and a pitch subject to rewrites. Though we’ll never know what happened behind the screens, I find it infinitely frustrating that MAPPA has locked such a talented and pleasant director as Mitsue Yamazaki in their production hellscape.

Douse, Koishite Shimaunda. (TYPHOON GRAPHICS) – dir. Junichi Yamamoto
Male harem shoujo with potential LGBTQ+ themes? The trailer doesn’t suggest that this has the animation supervision required to be satisfactory all the way through, but you should probably check out the trailer for its mesmerizingly strange 3DFX compositing choices.

Baban Baban Ban Vampire (Gaina) – dir. Itsurou Kawasaki
Unhinged groomer vampire anime produced at the corpse of studio Gaina. Yes, Gaina, not Gainax. I’ll try one episode (and very unlikely that it’ll be anything more) for the sheer audacity; the vampire in question does a Michael Jackson dance choreography in the trailer.

Tier 5 – Likely drop before the episode is done

Honey Lemon Soda (J.C. Staff) – dir. Hiroshi Nishikiori
Seems like a wish fulfillment shoujo about a girl who got bullied in middle school and gets protected by cool, tall blond guy in high school. Hiroshi Nishikiori is ostensibly a functional director, but this production’s ceiling seems to be limited by a lack of J.C. Staff power and how much mileage you get out of this concept to begin with.

BeheNeko (Zero-G) – dir. Tetsuo Hirakawa
A knight gets reincarnated as a powerful monster—a ‘behemoth’—but is mistaken for a kitty by an enormously chested elf who takes him on her own adventures. Indeed, this is the other studio Zero-G elf show this season, and this one looks absolutely dead in the water, but the elf’s chest is really gigantic.

Sentai Red Isekai (Satelight) – dir. Keiichirou Kawaguchi
Sentai and isekai are two genres I feel nothing about, but maybe Keiichirou Kawaguchi manages to Kawaguchi all over the production and elevate it into a somewhat entertaining or watchable product? As a notably fast, efficient worker he’s historically seemed quite good at raising the floor of productions to that point, but I’m starting to wonder whether this devious industry has caught up and made anime unsalvageable even for him.

I’m getting married to a girl I hate in my class (Gokumi, AXsiZ) – dir. Hiroyuki Ooshima
One of those boring, tsundere-focused romcoms that immediately devolves into a nonsense female harem, regurgitating exhausted character tropes with very middling animation direction on already unassuming designs… I can’t believe they put ‘hate’ in the title and don’t even make her verbually abusive or anything like that! Like, at least make it somewhat fetishy instead of just tropey if you really want to be interesting, otherwise it’s so gormless!

Medalist (ENGI) – dir. Yasutaka Yamamoto
Figure skating drama about a young girl who’s being coached by a former talent who retired due to injury. Unfortunately, the drawings are trash, as is the compositing, and the director is a jobber. Besides the CG skating scenes, legendary scriptwriter Jukki Hanada would be this production’s only saving grace, but as much as I respect his scriptwriting talents, he too is a mere mortal bound to the source material of any given show.

Bogus Skill Fruit Master (Asahi Production) – dir. Ryuuichi Kimura
Guy eats fruit; guy gets stronger. Looks awful. To be aware of the trends in anime is to be aware of some barely functional studios, but also of its veterans filling in the gaps. After starting out at Gainax and directing Aikatsu! series for over a decade, does Ryuuichi Kimura really deserve this? Does anyone? At least this is the funniest title of the year.

I’m living with a NEET Otaku Kunoichi (Quad) – dir. Hisashi Saitou
NEET kunoichi girl in spandex pants starts living in with some salaryman and occasionally brings her kunoichi coworkers along. Looks terrible and irredeemable. I don’t think there’s really a reason or even excuse to be sampling this.

Closing thoughts

I have not kept up with many shows from the ’20s to be catching sequels: I’m about a quarter of the way through The Apothecary Diaries‘ first season, which I think is a solid show. Though season 2’s production has taken a slight hit and is unlikely to feature Toho star director China at any point, Aoi Yuuki‘s Maomao should be enough to carry any production to acclaim. 100 Girlfriends Who Really Love You S2 will be more of the silly, jank, overabundant, and ultimately loveable same, except with even more characters this time around. I’m hoping that My Happy Marriage S2 provides once more a fantastic ED like season 1 did.

Though this does not seem like the most promising season, I’m looking forward to 2025 as a whole. There’s so many projects on my radar to get excited about: Gachiakuta, Fate/strange Fake, The Summer Hikaru Died, Virgin Punk, Ganbare! Nakamura-kun, mono, Ruri no Houseki, Uma Musume: Cinderella Grey, the Yaiba remake, Zatsu Tabi, Apocalypse Hotel, Grotesque… and who knows how many more announcements, indie productions, music videos, and such are yet to come! Though I’m sure my enthusiasm will be smited down as soon as I get halfway through actually watching this list, I just cannot stop loving anime.