Fall 2025 looked like a pretty “normal” anime season going on. Not great, not awful, neither huge (by current norms) or small. Just a 2020-something anime season with a pretty typical spread of themes, genres, and expectations levels. And so far, that’s exactly how things are playing out.

The studios hanging out at the top of the leaderboard are ones which have spent a lot of time there over the years at LiA – Bones, Madhouse, Pierrot. Yes, Pierrot, who never bowl you over with sakuga but always seem to get adaptations just right. Madhouse is the outlier of the group this time, not Pierrot – because Wandance’s biggest demerit is the CGI dancing scenes (though those are engineered by their partner Cyclone Graphics).

The sleepers have been a mixed bag – I really like Kashiwada-Oota, and Shabake and Kimi to Koete have some potential. The others haven’t clicked with me. You always go into a season hoping for at least one show – designated sleeper or even previewed or not – to surprise big on the upside. We haven’t really had that this season – Toujima Tanzaburou wa Kamen Rider ni Naritai is probably the closest thing, but I have reservations about where that show is headed. So on the whole fall is a pretty average anime season so far, with no obvious reason to expect that to change.

One other note: this is maybe the toughest season yet as far as the Patron Pick ballot goes. The pool of shows I’m watching is relatively small to begin with, and there’s really almost nothing I’m truly on the fence about. It’s almost all stuff I’m strongly leaning towards keeping or towards dropping.

 

Onward, then, to Fall 2025:

The Elite

None

 

Outstanding

Boku no Hero Academia: Final Season
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A
Comments: The race for the top spot has been close – maybe surprisingly close – but I’ll just barely give Boku no Hero Academia the nod at this point. Hell, the first four episodes have been so good even HeroAca fans aren’t bitching about them (just wait, it’s coming). Ending a long-running blockbuster like this is never easy, but this run of episodes is delivering serious fanservice. And Bones always delivers serious sakuga.

Kingdom 6
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: A
Comments: The top two spots are held down by two of the longest-running series in LiA history, and both are delivering some of their best material. This season has started as strongly as any for Kingdom, striking a perfect balance between the two pillars (war and politics) of its story. You can absolutely sense we’re headed towards something really epic with this arc, and epic is something Kingdom does very, very well.

 

Very Good

Wandance  
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: B+
Comments: Wandance is pretty much your classic bitter with the sweet proposition. So far the writing has been stellar, and the parts of the production handled by Madhouse have been perfectly solid if not spectacular. But the CGI dance sequences by Cyclone Graphics are, in a word, subpar (and that’s as polite as I can be). And as this is a series about dancing, you know, that’s pretty important. It wasn’t a big deal in Episode 2, which didn’t have a lot of dance and when it did, it was often very “informal” passages traditionally animated. But it seems likely this will only become a bigger issue going forward as dancing is ever-more front and center.

Kao ni Denai Kashiwada-san to Kao ni Deru Oota-kun 
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B
Comments: Honestly, it’s a pretty big dropoff after the first three and I’m being pretty charitable including Kao ni Denai Kashiwada-san to Kao ni Deru Oota-kun in this tier. But I do like it a lot – it has a real sweet-tart charm to it in a way middle school romcoms often do (and HS romcoms usually don’t). It does rely too much on tropes but isn’t afraid to subvert them, which gives me hope.

Fumetsu no Anata e Season 3
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B
Comments: It’s something of an upset to see Fumetsu up here, I suppose. But its third season has gotten off to a surprisingly good start. The premiere was one of the series’ best episodes, and while the follow-ups haven’t been at that level the series is doing some interesting social commentary through the Mizuha character. As I said in my Episode 3 write-up To Your Eternity is usually interesting even when it’s generally bad, and right now it’s certainly not bad.

 

Worthwhile

Sanda
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: The shows in this category are tough to split – I have to put them in order but in effect they’re all running basically even. Sanda is a fascinating mess, the one in the group with the highest highs and lowest lows. While it’s based on an Itagaki Paru manga, Sanda actually reminds me more of Taizan-5 than Beastars. The biggest problem I have here is that apart from the protagonist I don’t like any of the cast. But Episode 4 was the best so far –  I still see potential here and the production on the whole is some of the most stylish of the season.

Toujima Tanzaburou wa Kamen Rider ni Naritai  
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: That grade may be a bit harsh, but the twist in the third episode has me very nervous. It’s very reminiscent of Samurai Flamenco (a show it Toujima was already being compared to) and that developed turned a show I was highly invested in into a drop in a few episodes. Still, this series has been one of the biggest overperformers of the season and maybe it can pull off what Samurenco couldn’t. I’m not especially interested in the tokusatsu genre so some of the references and nostalgia are lost on me but that hasn’t been a problem so far.

Shabake  
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: I was fairly cool on Shabake until the third episode. But novel adaptations usually take a while to get the measure of, and the premise – Edo Jidai, youkai, mystery – strongly appeals to me. Everything leveled up in that third episode and the whole affair felt much more substantial, a trend which continued with Episode 4. Still a maybe, but the movement is in a positive direction.

Ranma ½ ( 2025)
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: Business as usual for Ranma ½, pretty much. Cologne and Mousse aren’t my favorite characters, and one I like even less is looming on the horizon. But generally speaking the series is delivering what it has from the beginning in this spirited reboot, which is a consistent stream of laughs every week. It admirably fills the Witch Watch slot on the schedule, which admirable filled the Ranma ½ ( 2024) slot on the schedule.

 

Still Watching

Spy X Family Season 3
Episodes Watched: 4
Grade: B-
Comments: I thought hard about nudging SxF into the category above this one. The first four episodes – well, three of them – have been quite decent. Loid’s backstory arc is better than average material for the series. But I just have too much skepticism that it’s going to continue, based on the patterns the series has displayed over two seasons. If I’m wrong, SpyFam will rank a little higher at the end of its third season.

One Punch Man 3
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C+
Comments: Talk about a tough one to score. The season premiere was pretty close to an “F”, the second ep was a solid B+, the third a mediocre “C”. I tend to be a bit forgiving of the former, as the first episode after a five-year layoff was always going to be a huge ask. And I’m not as obsessed with the mediocre production values as the Madhouse fanboys hounding the director and staff off social media. This is still ONE – even if its gone through a couple of filtrations – so the potential is always there for One Punch Man to level up. Maybe Episode 2 wasn’t a mirage…

Digimon Beat Break
Episodes Watched: 3
Grade: C+
Comments: I was kinda pumped for this one – Miyu Irino as the lead and Megumi Han as well is a nice bonus. The first few episodes have been more okay to pretty good than anything really memorable though – I liked Digimon Ghost Game better, for example.

Ao no Orchestra Season 2
Episodes Watched: 2
Grade: C
Comments: After a long wait Ao no Orchestra finally returns this season. I’m having a hard time motivating myself to keep current with it but I usually seem to get to it sooner or later. There are sparks of something good here but to be blunt this show is kind of the definition of mediocre (and in the animation’s case, worse).

Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru
Episodes Watched: 2
Grade: C
Comments: I kind of liked the premiere of Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru – certainly liked the chemistry between the leads. But the second ep was flat-out creepy and disturbing in the way shoujo romcoms so often are. Which is, of course, the reason I tend not to like them. I’m giving it one more shot but my expectations at this point are minimal.

 

Dropped:

Kikaijikake no Marie, Taiyou yori mo Mabushii Hoshi, Yano-kun no Futsuu no Hibi, Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka, Towa no Yuugure, Ninja to Gokudou, Ganglion

 

Here, then, is this season’s blogging prospectus:

Monday:
Definitely Blogging: None

Tuesday:
On the Respirator: Kimi to Koete Koi ni Naru

Wednesday:
Definitely Blogging: Wandance

Thursday:
Definitely Blogging: None

Friday:
Definitely Blogging: Boku no Hero Academia: Final Season
Probably Blogging: Sanda, Shabake

Saturday:
Definitely Blogging: Kingdom 6, Fumetsu no Anata e Season 3, Ranma ½ ( 2025)
Probably Blogging: Kao ni Denai Kashiwada-san to Kao ni Deru Oota-kun, Spy X Family Season 3
On the Bubble: Toujima Tanzaburou wa Kamen Rider ni Naritai

Sunday:
Definitely Watching: Gachiakuta
On the Bubble: One Punch Man 3

Manga: Otoyomegatari, Hunter X Hunter (Hiatus)

Watching For Now: Digimon Beatbreak, Ao no Orchestra Season 2

Patron Pick Ballot: Toujima Tanzaburou wa Kamen Rider ni Naritai, Shabake, Sanda, One Punch Man 3

 

One more thing before I wrap. A special thanks to everyone who supports LiA financially – you’re the reason the site is still going.  The “LiA Bespoke” commissions program is officially open and has proved to be a great addition to LiA, so please check it out.

Please check out (and subscribe to) the LiA YouTube channel for manga recommendations, from the vault anime, Japan journeys the My Taste is Better Than Yours podcast, and more!