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Jul 4, 2025
I thought I loved apothecary diaries before, but man season 2 showed me I hadn’t even scratched the surface of what makes this series so special. In short, this season is an improvement in basically every way on what was already one of the best ongoing LN/anime series around. The way Hyuga-sensei paid off so many of the plot points that she’s been building up to since the first season made this an awesome weekly viewing experience. Every little detail, seemingly meaningless interaction or character, they all come together in the climax of this season making for one of the best payoffs I’ve seen in
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a long time. The worldbuilding in this series is truly second to none and while some episodes might seem a little slow, they’re all building up towards a very satisfying and emotional payoff at the end. If you liked season 1 of apothecary diaries, you haven’t seen anything yet. This is where the story really gets going and almost feels like a prologue ending. This is Maomao at her best, the political intrigue becomes a much bigger focus, PLUS our romance really starts to take shape here. I thoroughly enjoyed all 24 episodes here and I cannot wait for season 3 and to continue reading in the books!
So for me there’s 3 big things that make this season better than season 1. First off, Maomao’s character development. Now we all know our girl is a bit slow when it comes to other peoples’ emotions and that makes sense because of her upbringing and the emotional issues she has. In this season, we got to see her really grow as a person and truly open up to others. This is a huge theme as it made the last arc so much more impactful than it would’ve been with season 1 Maomao. The second thing being the political intrigue and manoeuvring. Now for some people this might be a little boring, but I absolutely love seeing people pull strings from the shadows and make moves like it’s a chess game to gain power, get revenge, change the culture of the kingdom, etc. I really liked how much of a slow-burn it was as well. It’s like every episode there’s something happening in the background that you might not think is important, then it’ll be referenced 3-4 episodes later and it all just snowballs into this massive conspiracy that forms the overarching narrative of the season. That same conspiracy causes Maomao to grow as a person and brings she and Jinshi closer. That brings me to my third point, Jinmao! You can’t really talk about Apothecary Diaries without its main ship and for good reason, Jinshi and Maomao are one of the best written ships in the medium. It is the perfect slow burn relationship and Hyuuga-sensei makes a point to make sure both of them understand themselves as individuals and one another before progressing it. It makes the relationship feel so much more authentic and earned than what you typically get in this medium and I think that’s reflected in the sheer amount of fans this ship has. It’s beloved for a reason and this season really shows you why. From the iconic “frog” scene to the finale episode, it’s just a nonstop roller coaster with them and as a romance enthusiast and massive fan of the ship, I loved every second of it.
I felt like the story overall in this season was way stronger than the first. While we started out with some seemingly unrelated minor cases for Maomao to solve, it quickly became apparent that everything was part of a wider conspiracy that slowly came together over the course of the first cour and really got going in the second half. I for one love all the lore about the royal family, learning about the previous emperor and his transgressions, trading dynamics with other countries and the other political players within the kingdom itself. It generally felt like the world got way bigger AND dangerous in this season. We also saw way more of the world. I’m really a fan of authors slowly expanding the world, almost drip feeding you, and making you want more information as soon as possible. It’s just a testament to how interesting the story and characters are that you crave more of it and every week I was dying for the next episode because of that here.
Without going into too much detail because of spoilers, another thing that really took this season to the next level for me was the relationship between Shisui and Maomao. Genuinely one of the best written friendships you’ll see and it’s actually probably the biggest catalyst for Maomao’s development in the story so far. Every interaction with them was gold and I love how they come to see each other as sisters, helping one another deal with trauma. It’s really the foundation of the second cour and plays a pivotal role in the emotional climax of the season. If you enjoy seeing well written female friendships with a nice sprinkling of yuri vibes, you’ll enjoy this one. You can’t escape Shisui fan-art online for a reason, she’s amazing and one of the best supporting characters of the year.
Production values were top notch as usual, but the seiyuu performances in the second season were probably even better than the first. Partly due to the story just being better, but I think Yuuki Aoi and Seto Asami and Otsuka Takeo were immense. Really drove home the powerful emotional moments.
Apothecary Diaries season 2 was an absolute joy and made 6 months go by in the blink of an eye. Started a little slow, but truthfully I even enjoyed those slower moments because I love Maomao and this story so much. Once it got going, though, it was a nonstop roller coaster with tons of twists, lore drops, reveals, character development. This has all the makings of an all time great story and the craziest part is this was basically just the prologue ending. The final episode title of “the beginning” is so apt because only after the finale are we finally really going to get going here. I cannot wait to see what comes next.
Apothecary Diaries season 2 gets a very easy 10 frogs out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 29, 2025
Unpopular opinion, I like Lazarus. A lot. That’s not to say this show is perfect or even a masterpiece, but it was a very enjoyable watch for me and a lot of the criticism levied against this show tends to fundamentally misunderstand what it’s trying to accomplish. Yes, there’s flashy fights done by the legendary Chad Stahelski, but that’s not the main point of this show. It’s supposed to be a slower introspective piece on the sins of humanity, how we(generally) prioritise profit over the greater good and whether or not humanity is truly worth saving. Now, If you actually go into this series expecting
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that sort of philosophical questioning, you’ll enjoy it. If you go in expecting cowboy bebop, space dandy or any of Watanabe’s other legendary series, you’ll be disappointed. This falls short of those, but then again most shows do. That’s why they’re considered masterpieces. Lazarus sets out to answer a singular question “is humanity worth saving” and by the end, we reach a conclusion. Again, that’s not to say this show is perfect. There’s some very valid critiques of it, especially surrounding the episode count, a few holes in the logic, the dub voice acting, etc., but people acting like this show killed their mother or something or like it’s the next Ex-Arm are ridiculous.
Lazarus was awesome to me because I’m a huge fan of that early 2000s late night toonami style of anime. Your Bebops, The Big O, etc. Those sort of subdued, mature and thought provoking series that let you know you were up way too late if you were awake when they came on. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Lazarus has that sort of energy since it’s literally produced by Adult Swim and comes from Watanabe. The aesthetic really just does something for me here to pull me in, but the cast, music and story are what hooked me. I absolutely loved the entire Lazarus team. Even though I would’ve really loved to have seen every single character get their own little 1-2 episode development arc(most do) the little time we got with them and their backstories was enough to make me care about them. There’s this nice found family dynamic going on and I’m a sucker for social rejects coming together to form a team and do something greater than themselves, thanks Jamss Gunn. They all have their own strengths and compliment each other’s weaknesses very well. It’s nowhere near Bebop levels of character writing, but it’s solid for a one cour show. Every scene with the full team on screen together was awesome too. The banter and way they tease each other as the season goes on and they get more comfortable.. awesome. I really fell in love with this group.
The story is the other big draw for me here. You need to set your expectations going into it though so as to not disappointed. Again, this isn’t a straightforward story. Yes, the goal initially is to find skinner and get a cure for the HAPNA situation, but it’s quickly made apparent that there’s much more to skinner’s actions than previously thought and that everything he’s done is with the intention of making the characters retrace the steps he took, seeing all the bad stuff humanity has done, ignoring climate change advice, putting profits over people, caring more about covering up illegal experiments than saving lives, etc., and have them meet him knowing everything he knows before they ask for a cure. That’s why the story doesn’t go from point A to B and often sidetracks, it’s supposed to. This is show is about people at its core. The good, the bad and the ugly. That requires.. spending episodes with people, getting characters’ backstories, going into homeless camps, slums, visiting islands affected by climate change, etc. You can’t make a judgement on humanity or the world if you haven’t seen all it has to offer. To me, this was obvious after like 3 episodes so I really don’t understand how people misunderstood the show, but a lot of criticism about it would instantly be eliminated if people realized what the show’s narratively and philosophically trying to do. It does it consistently and well in my opinion. That doesn’t mean you need to like it, you can absolutely just not like skinner as a villain and find his actions reprehensible or maybe you just don’t care for the cast, couldn’t connect with any of them and didn’t find them compelling. That’s totally fine and I’m not here to force an opinion on you, I just want people to understand where this show’s coming from. There’s plenty of objectively well written shows that I don’t like as well. It happens.
The third most important thing for me here are the production values. This show looks amazing. I love the subdued colors, the realistic character designs, the incredible soundtrack, which shouldn’t come as a surprise because Watanabe’s works always have great ones, the choreography from Stahelski and the voice acting(JP). I’m a huge fan of the more natural sounding dialogue style they went for in this. From what I’ve heard, the dub sounds very awkward so I would definitely recommend sticking with the Japanese here if possible. MAPPA brought their A-game to all the big fight scenes as well. Phantom Killer’s introduction is going to live so rent free in my head for a while.
This was just such a fun series to watch. It just had a way of really gripping me every week in an almost mesmerising fashion. Christine and the rest of the cast stole my heart, the story was solid and really the only thing I’d change is making it 16 episodes or so just to get more of the team hanging out. Happy with what I got, though.
Lazarus gets 8 out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 28, 2025
In a season stacked with amazing CGDCT slice of life series, Hibimeshi is actually at the top of my list and is probably my fave PA works original, maybe ever. I really loved this cast and how cozy a watch this was. The cute art style, the girls’ friendship, the FOOD, this was a very pleasant viewing experience that just helped me wind down every Saturday. PLUS, it’s an adult cast! We don’t get a ton of em, so you know when they come around I have to praise them. For the most part, the girls actually act like adults too which is a big
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plus. This is a must watch for any Iyashikei fan.
Hibimeshi and Mono airing back to back on Saturdays was such a crazy experience. Literally two of my fave slice of life casts ever and you get a double helping of them on a weekly basis. Both are amazing shows, but I liked Hibimeshi a bit more because of the college setting and how much I fell in love with this cast. That’s not to knock Mono’s girls at all, I loved them too, but the main cast is slightly bigger here and felt more varied. I also just thought they were so silly and there’s this ‘loveable idiots’ sort of energy going on in every episode. Always fun watching a gang of cute girl failures come together, start a club and just enjoy each other’s company. Mako in particular is so relatable as she’s sort of socially isolated herself since she was a kid and now she finally has people she can be herself around and cook for! It’s a simple premise, but one that resonates with me because and I think I can speak for everyone here, the older we get the harder it is to make friends. Your old friends from high school drift apart from you and you often realize you were only together because you saw each other every day. When you get to college, it’s your opportunity to make genuine friends, people you’re around because you have similar interests, passions or mindsets instead of just similar class schedules. I’m just a sucker for seeing characters come out of their shells and find their niche, their special place to belong.
I’m also a sucker for good food and man I love how it looks in here. Seeing the girls prepare so many delicious dishes was a treat and encouraged me to go out and try a few of them. Enjoyed the meal prep process a lot and the looks on the girls’ faces when they were eating a great meal made with love! They say food tastes better when you’re surrounded by people you love and this show is that personified. It’s such a warm and comfortable feeling you get when watching this show and it’s all thanks to this cast. I mean literally this group of girls could make anything seem fun. There’s an episode where they basically just drive to a grocery store to shop for dinner, and the episode still manages to go by in a flash because of the comedy of one of the characters just getting their license and not being comfortable on freeways, as well as the general comedic aspects of the story. There’s never a dull moment here and I appreciate it! The best slice of life casts can make something out of nothing and they do that well here.
The show looks gorgeous. PA works have been on a roll since Aquatope, just pumping out great looking anime originals with great casts and this is no exception. The art is beautiful, the character designs are excellent and the voice acting is good as well. No complaints with the production here.
If you’re a foodie or just want another healing anime to add to the list, I can’t recommend this one enough. It was one of the highlights of my week and hopefully it’ll have the same impact on you!
Hibimeshi gets 9 out of 10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 28, 2025
So, has enough time passed for me to be able to say I like Mono more than Yuru Camp? I know that’s sacrilegious to say with Yuru camp’s prestige among CGDCT series, but I really had such an awesome time with Mono and connected with its characters in a way I never did with Yuru camp. Part of that’s because this follows a photography/videography club which I can relate to way more as a photographer than camping trips, but I also just think the cast is simply better here. An, Sakurako, Sacchan, Haruno sensei and Kako just have an amazing dynamic. Every interaction is
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comedic gold and they truly feel like a group of best friends trying to see the best that Japan has to offer. This was such a cozy watch and I’ll miss my girls.
Obviously everyone’s opinion will vary on whether or not this is better than Yuru camp, probably depending on how much you enjoy camping, but it really doesn’t matter. The show’s amazing and they both have their strengths. This season we actually got two travel oriented shows in this and Zatsutabi, while this one didn’t lean into the preparation, planning and execution aspects of travel like ZatsuTabi, it did take us to some really cool places around Japan where the girls got to experience a lot of the local culture, food and of course take some awesome photos. I really could just watch 100 episodes of the girls going to a different place every week and just trying new foods or making a video of them skating down a mountain. It’s such seemingly mundane situations, but they feel so fun because of this cast.
The supporting characters outside of the main trio were a riot too. Haruno sensei is basically a big sister figure to the girls, and her friends like the totally not Kuroneko ™️ influenced Kurokuma and the free spirited Kako, stole the show whenever they were on screen. I actually wouldn’t have minded a few more episodes focusing on just the side characters. Especially Kurokuma, whose recurring ghost gimmick was funny as hell. You have your obligatory Afro-sensei yuri teasing between Kako and Haruno which I enjoyed, they have a really sweet relationship and encouraged each other a lot. They’re both mentors to the girls as well and motivate them to pursue their dreams which I enjoyed.
My only complaint with this one is that for a series that’s supposed to be following a photography/videography club, there’s little focus on camera stuff! The first episode sets it up, the girls get an action camera and then it just sort of becomes an after thought. The girls will go to a place and explore and then at the end, if we’re lucky, they’ll remember to record it, but until the final episode of the season I feel like videography/photography wasn’t as big a part of the story as I’d have liked. Even with that though, I loved this show because of how good my girls were. They truly brightened my day every Saturday.
I have to give a special shoutout to studio soigné for the job they did here because this show had NO business having the levels of sakuga it had at times. I mean why the hell are some of the best animated scenes of the season, coming from MONO of all things! People often think of battle shonen when we talk sakuga, but don’t sleep on the wholesome slice of life stuff, there’s some great direction here that takes the show to the next level. The character designs look great and the voice acting is top notch with Koga Aoi’s An performance being my highlight.
We truly ate good this season with all the slice of life CGDCT series and Mono was a huge part of that. I’ll never be able to thank Afro sensei enough for this series, I think it connected with me on the level that most people connected with Yuru camp. I always felt kinda compelled to force myself to like that series as much as everyone else because of how loved it is. Not saying it’s bad or not good, but it didn’t hook me like Mono has. This was a special watch for me and I’ll definitely miss it.
Mono gets 9 cups of shaved ice, out of 10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 28, 2025
“Generic” may be in the title, but Kowloon Generic Romance is anything but. This show had some of the best mystery plot-lines of the year and a pretty unique romance set-up. It’s one of those shows you enjoy speculating about before and after every episode and the weekly cliffhangers left me wanting more every week. There’s so many twists and turns in this story and I really appreciated how every episode advanced the plot. There’s no wasted time here, the pacing is very well done and surgical. This was a really fun sci-fi mystery with a nice touch of romance and some great
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characters. Definitely worth a watch for people who want a show that makes you think and keeps you on your toes, and those who just want to watch two of the cutest girls this season in Yaomay and Reiko!
Kowloon GR is the latest addition to my “summer time render-like” shows. What I mean by that is, shows that slowly pull you in over the course of a premiere, end with a mysterious cliffhanger and constantly leave you wanting more every week. They drip feed you answers slowly, just enough to keep you hooked on the show, all the while causing you to have more questions. It’s a feeling that I don’t quite know how to describe, but if you’ve seen Summer time render, Higurashi, etc., you’ll know that sort of viewing experience I’m describing and are probably excited to see something like it again. It’s such a good vibe when you truly get hooked on a story, and this show does it as well as any. I’m a huge fan of sci-fi stories that drop bombshells on you over the course of a season and cause your entire perception of a story to change. The mystery of how this new Kowloon came to be, the truth about Reiko’s identity and all the characters’ backstories in the show was meticulously crafted. Having only seen the live action version of After the rain, I didn’t know the author had this sort of story in his bag, but that’s why we go into things with an open mind!
Now other than the mystery and lore drops, the other thing I really loved here was the characters! This whole cast is so good, Reiko is arguably the prettiest MC of the season, but she’s also got a really interesting character arc where we see her come into her own and embrace her self as an individual. Her relationship with Kudo is this nice mix of sexy co-worker romance mixed with some of your more traditional sweet anime romance vibes. All their scenes together are so good, but I must say I actually preferred the yuri route here with she and Yaomay. I felt like the two main girls had such a good thing going on together and in my opinion, Yaomay was clearly into Reiko as more than just a friend.. plus all the drama that goes down with Reiko and Kudo in this one kind of soured me on their relationship a bit. The other supporting characters are great too and everyone plays a very important role in the story. Big fan of authors who don’t waste time with superfluous story arcs and introducing characters who end up doing nothing in the story. Every little detail and character in here comes back to be relevant by the end of the cour. I’ve fallen in love with the word “surgical” to describe these sorts of stories and it’s such a good adjective because this type of storytelling doesn’t BS or waste time, every episode and character interaction serves a purpose and builds to the ultimate goal. It’s a very well written series. Also have to give a shoutout to Mayazuki-sensei having openly gay characters in this in such a loud and proud manner. Y’all should’ve seen the look on my face when one of these episodes started with two guys having sex and intimate moments. It’s done very tastefully too, never feels like the author’s making a spectacle of it. Always good to see well done representation in my seasonal anime.
The show looks absolutely incredible too. I love Mayazuki-sensei’s art and the studio did a wonderful job of preserving it! Animation is decent, but the OST, character designs, pacing and direction were all great here. Some people have problems with cliffhangers, especially if they’re watching weekly, but I love that sort of thing. I don’t want all the answers at once every episode, give me something to speculate and think about throughout the week!
If you like interesting and thought provoking sci-fi stories, adult casts who act like adults, and a nice mix of story and romance, look no further. Kowloon Generic Romance was one of my favourite shows of the season and an absolute joy to watch every week. I’ll certainly miss it.
Kowloon Generic Romance gets 9 out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 26, 2025
Ninkoro was one of the weirdest watches of the season for me because on one hand, I liked everyone in this show(besides Konoha), but on the other hand it’s an extremely disturbing story masked by cute cute girls and yuri undertones. It’s a very odd mix of cute girls doing cute things with the backdrop of them killing other cute girls, some NTR and emotional abuse. Episodes will make you laugh, but also make you feel horrible for laughing given what some characters are going through. It’s a unique viewing experience that I had a love hate relationship with. Despite that, I’d say it’s an
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easy recommended watch if you like CGDCT or shaft’s production style.
What’s going to make or break this show for you is Konoha and Satoko’s relationship. For me, it started out really cute with some good Yuri vibes and then it slowly started to devolve into an emotionally and mentally abusive one sided relationship where Konoha took average of Satoko’s kindness every week. I hate seeing people get taken advantage of because of how nice they are and that happens a lot towards the middle of this show. Satoko’s clean up ability being crucial for Konoha’s success makes her indispensable, but for a long time Konoha only viewed her as a tool and it angered me so much. There’s even a point where it basically becomes an NTR relationship as Satoko gets replaced by a new character and Konoha doesn’t even notice the real Satoko is gone because this new character does all the same functions as Satoko. This does start to change as the season winds down with Konoha finally viewing Satoko as a human being instead of a cheat code, but man is it hard to watch at times. Some people will probably be able to laugh this off and just go on with the episodes, but for me this part was just brutal.
If you cut that out the story though, it’s pretty good. I’d say it’s a much better version of NEET Otaku from earlier in the year. There’s some real morally grey situations in the story which I appreciate. It can be dull seeing characters who are just always on the right side of the tracks, BUT some of the cases in here were really hard to watch due to just how messed up they were. Innocent people getting hits placed on them, misunderstandings leading to deaths, people being turned into leaves.. this is truly one of the most aptly named “dark comedies” it’s certainly got some hilarious moments, but man there’s always some dark situation in every episode that the show kinda plays off as a joke. Sometimes you can move on from it, other times it sticks with you all day. On a happier note, I’m a huge fan of how unapologetically gay this show is. I knew it had Yuri vibes from the start, but seeing openly gay characters in this was so cool. That relationship is a big part of the story as well and it just fits in very naturally. Hasn’t quite got that far for our main couple, but it’s very clearly going that way and hopefully the manga continues to develop them as individuals and a couple. I did start to empathise with Konoha more towards the end of the show so I could see one day coming around to liking her.
Production wise, Shaft have their fingerprints all over this show. It looks amazing, it’s well directed, great OST and the famous Shaft head tilt is here. It’s a very well put together and pretty looking series.
Final thoughts on this one? Mixed bag. Loved Satoko and the side characters, hated the other lead and some of the edgier stuff, but I overall enjoyed watching the show and would say to give it a watch if you want something different or have a dark sense of humor. Some of the things I didn’t care for you might not have an issue with.
Ninkoro gets 7 kunai out of 10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 26, 2025
I love when you know from the first episode what your anime of the season is. The first 20 minutes of Rock is a lady’s modesty were all I needed to see to know there was nothing that would touch this show this season and 3 months later, I can confidently say that’s still the case. I have been the biggest fan of this series for the last 12 weeks, pushing the agenda everywhere I can. It’s one of the 3-4 hyper fixations that I get every year and just can’t shut-up about. This was incredible. I’m such a big fan of series where characters
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come out of their shells and embrace who they really are as people, and Rock Lady does it in such a cool way, using rock music as a tool of expression for emotionally(and sexually)repressed girls at a school for rich kids. I had so much fun seeing the girls come together, form a band and open up to one another. Living your life hiding who you really are from the world just to fit in has to be so suffocating. While we aren’t all rockstars, I think a lot of people will be able to relate to the themes in the story of self-acceptance and doing the things YOU want to in life. Life’s too short to waste it trying to please other people at the expense of yourself. I hyped this show up as “my weekly dose of rock lesbians” every week and don’t get me wrong, it is unapologetically gay af which is awesome, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s an inspiring story that should make you want to pursue the things you’re passionate about, even if others laugh at you or think you’re naive. You combine that great story setup with some of the greatest 3DCGI musical performances of all time, an amazing cast of seiyuus and of course our dose of Yuri, and you got an amazing show.
“What does it mean to be a proper lady?” That’s the foundational question of this series. Society has a predetermined notion of what “proper” looks like, but is it worth forcing yourself into a box just to be what others want you to be? What good is living a life if it’s not your own? To hell with what anyone else thinks! Lilisa’s gradual descent into just not giving af what other people think of her love of rock and roll is one of the more satisfying character arcs I’ve seen recently. At school she’s known as this perfect girl who can do everything, everyone looks up to her as a role model, etc., but after school she’s rocking her soul out with Otoha trying to get better on the guitar. Having to hide what she’s really passionate about from her mother, classmates and sister is difficult, but it’s that challenge that makes the after school performances with Otoha, and later the full band, that much more special. After wearing a mask all day and pretending to be someone she’s not, Lilisa can truly let go and be herself when she’s got a guitar in her hands. Again, most of us are not trying to be rockstars, but there’s probably something you enjoyed doing that you felt you had to grow out of, or were even forced to stop whether it’s because of peer pressure, a parent or just life circumstances. This series is all about encouraging people to be themselves and embrace that passion. If you wanna try out being an artist, or making music or chasing some dream that others have deemed “unrealistic”, go for it. NOW.
Following up on the Otoha x Lilisa point, their relationship is the other foundation of the series and man it was great. There’s this really interesting sexually charged dynamic in almost every scene with the two of them, but it’s not just for fanservice. It’s used to further the point of two young women who’ve been forced to present themselves in a certain way, finally having an opportunity to be free and just lose themselves in their passion. Their profanity laced shouting matches were hilarious, Lilisa’s BDSM kink fantasies and of course, their actual musical performances which the studio did in a way that conveyed this feeling of being lost in spiritual and physical ecstasy, were amazing. It truly is such an intimate and liberating feeling when you find people with whom you can be yourself with no reservations.
So we’ve had a few rock/music shows in the last few years with similar premises and concepts to Rock Lady, what makes this different is the focus on instrumental musical performances as opposed to traditional voiced band performances. There’s no vocals, just pure rock and it works very well as a means of conveying the girls’ feelings. This show has an emphasis on letting you FEEL the music. It’s a different sort of experience than hearing lyrics. It goes very well with the girls’ punk rock alter egos as well since rock is inherently a counter cultural style of music that young people have always turned to as a way of rebelling against predefined social roles. The music in this show hits you like a wave and while you might not have a fangasm like Otoha, it will move you.
Speaking of fangasms, while the show does have sexual themes and some fan-service, I like that it’s not just there for the sake of it. For example there’s a scene where a character is revealed to flatten their chest using a girdle and then suddenly her breasts spill out of the girdle. It’s done for a bit of comedy, but it also shows how this character’s been living a lie her entire life, she’s literally suffering everyday pretending to be someone she isn’t. Same with the BDSM stuff, yea it’s cool and kinky, but importantly it shows Lilisa’s desire to have control over things in her life instead of being a passive observer all the time. Rock performances are the only time she can be a “dom” and exert her will over another person through her performances. I’m cool with fanservice when it actually serves a purpose and isn’t just there for goon-bait, this series handles it well.
Emotional and sexual liberation aside, the other big thing here is the cast! I love each and every member of this cast so very much. The way everyone comes together to form a band, bringing their own strengths and weaknesses to this ragtag group of individuals who seemingly have no business being together was awesome. All the girls have great personalities, but Tamaki was my personal weakness from a design and character standpoint. I’m weak to crass speaking alt girls and I love the chaos she brought to every episode. Could be recency bias talking, but this was probably my fave rock band cast. The yuri teasing, the fights, the way they all push each other to be better, it moved me.
This was a marvel from a technical perspective. I’m constantly amazed at how far 3DCGI performances have come and this had the best I’ve seen yet. It’s so easy to lose yourself in these musical performances, just like the characters, because of how well done they are. The camera angles, the fluidity of motion, the way the music almost seems to hit you physically.. it’s great. I didn’t even miss having a vocalist in this because I’m a huge Shoegaze/Alt J-rock fan so I’m used to hearing entire songs with no lyrics. The art in general also looks gorgeous with bright and colourful backgrounds and character designs!
Another show I could yap about nonstop for hours, and tbf I did, every week on Twitter and in the MAL/Reddit discussion threads, but simply put this is a must watch to me. In fact, it’s one of like 3-4 shows this season that if you don’t watch anything else, you NEED to watch. These girls rocked my world and I’m gonna miss them so much.
Rock Lady gets 10 notes out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 25, 2025
Your Forma is the most stereotypical light novel adaptation of all time in that it completely removes everything that made this series award winning and beloved, replacing it with a highlight reel of some of the best parts of the books while removing all of the context and foundation that made those parts so good. I mean, they don’t even start this show adapting the first book for crying out loud. How do you adapt a story and don’t start with the beginning? Going straight into a secondary arc without establishing why I should care about the characters, their struggles or the world is a
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recipe for disaster and I’m sure that’s what turned 90 percent of people off from this. Funniest thing is, I haven’t even read the books yet. Even as an anime only, I can tell this was a horribly butchered adaptation. The scores and weekly discussion threads only confirm that this was very poorly done. It did start getting good in the last 4 episodes or so, but with so many other things to do, I can’t fault people for not continuing with this. For what it’s worth, though, I actually didn’t find this completely horrible. I do like the setting, many of the themes and I’m sure once I read the books, I’ll be more invested in Harold and Echika’s relationship which is the foundation of the series. I struggle to recommend this show as it is, though, unless you just have some time to kill or you’re a massive fan of the LNs and want some of the big moments animated. This was disappointing.
One of my best buddies has been begging me to get on this series for so long as we basically have the same taste. I ended up picking up the first book over a year ago, but haven’t got around to reading it yet. When the anime got announced I thought it would be a nice opportunity to see what all the hype was about and get the usual LN promotion that seasonal anime adaptations are, but this was just not good promo for this series at all. I’ve done YT videos on why LN adaptations are usually bad, but this was beyond that. It felt like such a neutered story, I don’t know who this was made to appeal to because fans can’t be happy with this, nor would newcomers really be motivated to go out and read it. If I didn’t know several people who praised the books already, I probably wouldn’t spend anytime going to read this either. At its core, the story is interesting. Futuristic setting with thought provoking philosophical questions such as what makes humans, well, humans, the value of robotic “life” and it tackles some interesting criminal investigations. The problem is, it’s hard to really care about anything going on in this story until the last 4 episodes with the “nightmare” serial murder case. Everything happens so fast and the character development feels non-existent other than for Harold, paper thin story depth.. it’s just.. not very good. I did like Echika and Harold’s relationship just because of their cute moments and I’m a romance guy, but it feels shallow at times and like it needed more time in the oven. That can’t really happen in a series where the two leads’ relationship is foundational. And again, I know Light Novel adaptations are usually just promo for the books, but this was exceptionally lacking.
If you do choose to tough it out, the last arc of this season was actually really good. It was brutal, emotional, had more character development than the previous 8 episodes combined and better paced. One of the best murderer mysteries this year for sure and honestly bumped the score up for me. It really makes you wonder why they didn’t bring that sort of energy to the start of this show and just give the adaptation some love. I’m not going to blame the studio, that’s a production committee issue, but for the life of me, I don’t know what they were thinking. You can tell this series is really interesting, it just feels so watered down and barebones.
Production wise, it’s decent. I like the subdued color grading, the character designs and the OST is amazing. The way they show the brain dives where cyber inspectors can literally go through the memories of suspects or witnesses to help solve cases is amazing too. If you recall ID:invaded, it’s sort of similar, although not as invasive(pun intended), but it was a cool concept and one of the highlights of the show. The animation is decent to good, but the voice acting was actually great. It’s hard to go wrong with Hanakana and Ono Kensho. Both were great as Echika and Harold respectively and part of the reason I loved their relationship so much.
This wasn’t great, but I did personally enjoy some aspects of the series. I’ve also never dropped anything and rate purely on enjoyment, so I’m a bit different than the average person. I think for most people this is going to be a skip and just read the books sort of thing. Personally, I don’t regret watching it, I regret it not being up to the caliber of the books. Again, even having not read them yet, seeing the praise they’ve got and more importantly WHAT they were praised for, allows me to say this doesn’t accurately recreate that magic, until the end. The last few episodes did really hook me. Had enough interesting things in this to just make it worth the 13 week commitment, but a lot of squandered potential.
Your Forma gets 6(would be 6.5 if MAL allowed decimals) out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 24, 2025
What does it mean to truly be alive? It’s a simple, yet incredibly difficult question that humanity has pondered since we started walking upright. What makes us different from all the other species on this planet? Is it our ability to reason, to feel empathy or to reflect? It’s the core question at the center of Apocalypse hotel, one that we see our lead Yachiyo take strides to answer every episode and by the end reaches a beautiful conclusion. Very few anime have resonated me with the way this show has and it had no business doing it. There was zero hype for this show
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and I only decided to pick it up on a whim because the art looked so good and Yahciyo was cute. Yet, I came away from this utterly moved and changed as a person. There’s so many things we don’t appreciate on a daily basis that this show made me stop and recognize. Its greatest testament is it made me be more present in the moment it’s a sobering and melancholic experience that you just have to watch to fully appreciate. It sucks you in and makes you feel like you’re going through centuries at the hotel with the cast. It’s thoughtfully written and masterfully directed while being philosophically engaging and aesthetically pleasing. This is the hidden masterpiece of the season and probably has the best character development of the year. It’s a must watch and I’m so glad I took the plunge with this one.
Watching this show reminded me how small humanity truly is. We like to think of ourselves as so important, but the reality is, when we’re gone the world will keep spinning. Only what we leave behind will matter. In this universe, that’s Yachiyo and the Gingarou hotel where most of our story takes place. Yachiyo’s journey from the robotic hotel manager who can’t deviate from her programming or daily routine, to an emotionally competent and socially well adjusted “human” is one of the best character development arcs I’ve ever seen. It’s gradual, but perfectly paced. Every single episode, we see Yachiyo evolving, becoming better than she was in the last episode. This takes place over many hundreds of years in the show’s timeline, but it feels like a seamless transition. I can easily say Yachiyo is one of my favourite protagonists of the year.
Yachiyo’s development doesn’t just happen randomly. It’s driven in large part by the amazing supporting cast, particularly the Tanukians. When they showed up after the first couple of episodes, things really started getting going. The various hotel guests showing up also challenged Yachiyo’s preconceived notions of what it meant to run a hotel and how you can interact with guests. Had a lot of fun seeing the various alien species coming to the hotel and starting problems that Yachiyo would have to clean up and learn from. But undoubtedly, my favourite relationship in this show was between Ponko and Yachiyo. It starts as a big sister-little sister dynamic with Yachiyo mentoring Ponko, but as time goes on, Ponko becomes the mentor to Yachiyo, teaching her what it means to be “human”and truly alive. It’s such a well written relationship that I’m going to miss very much. The way they bantered together and Ponko teaching Yachiyo about love.. just thinking about it gets me emotional. Bravo to the author.
The other massively important thing to talk about with Apo hotel is the direction. It’s one of the most well directed anime originals you’ll ever see. The direction is what takes this from being a great show to being a masterpiece. I’ll focus on the second to last episode as an example. I’ve never seen an episode where there is no dialogue and you don’t miss it at all because of how the silence, OST and character’s facial expressions say everything you need. In fact, dialogue would’ve taken away from how poignant a character journey that episode was for Yachiyo with her exploring post-apocalyptic Ginza and finally truly embracing and appreciating her surroundings. While that’s the best episode for me, there’s several other ones that made me cry thanks to the direction and OST. The music in this series is remarkable and it for some reason, has some of the best animation this season. I mean it legit made no sense how well done some of the fight scenes in this show are! Very well done production.
I could go on and on about this show, but man honestly just watch it. It’s one of the best recent anime originals with fantastic writing, a great cast and surprisingly good emotional depth. I’m going to miss this one a lot.
Apo Hotel gets a very easy 10, out of 10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 24, 2025
Gquuuuuux is the best thing to happen to the Gundam franchise in a very long time and is a love letter to OG fans of the franchise. Sadly, it’s almost impossible to say why without massive spoilers for the story, so I’ll be talking in generalities here. Critics be damned, this was the best weekly viewing experience I’ve had since 86 was airing. There’s some issues with pacing and I wish we got more episodes to flesh out the characters and world, but honestly all of my criticisms of Gquuuuuux went out the window during the last few episodes. They were that damn good.
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In fact, Gquuuuuux contains the single hypest episode of anime I’ve ever seen in my life. I know, I know, that’s high praise and that’s genuinely how I feel. If you remember the feeling you had going into Avengers Endgame or Spider-man No Way Home without being spoiled, that was me and thousands of other Gundam fans watching this show. It’s the fulfilment of a decades long journey for a lot of us and being a collab with Khara meant it brought a unique artistic flair to the Gundam franchise we’ve never had before mixed with some Evangelion. This was peak, simple as and feels like the start of a new, bold and exciting era of Gundam.
Really quick disclaimer, you absolutely need to have watched the original Gundam Quadrilogy of 0079, Zeta, ZZ and CCA to fully appreciate this show. Coming into it and really up until a few weeks ago, people were saying you’re fine with just 0079. I always thought that was poor advice because it was pretty apparent from the start here we’d be referencing some concepts from Zeta and ZZ, so make sure you watch those before starting this. It’ll make this show hit so much harder and the alternate takes on things will be a lot more interesting. That bit of housekeeping out the way, Gquuuuuux is such a bold departure from what we’ve seen up to this point in the universal century Gundam franchise. From the character designs, to the mech designs to the plot itself, it feels so different, yet it brings back a lot of old tropes from the 1980s era of the franchise. I mean we even got old school Gundam misogyny and the Tomino mandated grooming in this one. It’s like a cool mix of modern and past, which really is fitting considering how this is an AU with space-time shenanigans going on.
Now normally I’d use this paragraph to talk about how much I love the cast, the badass female protagonists, the yuri vibes, etc., but Gquuuuuux has a critical flaw that prevents me from doing that. It’s too damn short! Machu and Nyaan are cute and I still love them, but God they needed more time to be fleshed out in this. If anything, they feel like plot devices to get us from point A to point B rather than actual leading characters. I mean hell, I feel like Twitter fan artists gave us more Nyaanchu development than the anime did. Why sunrise only did 12 episodes for this can only be speculated. Supposedly, budget concerns and animator shortages, which sadly aren’t uncommon these days with animators being criminally underpaid.. but it really hurt this show. One more cour where we would’ve got to see the two pilots and their groomer’s relationship develop and their relationships with their crews developing would’ve been amazing. As it is now, I really feel like the first 6 episodes of this show should’ve been condensed, removing the clan battle focus and instead fleshing out Nyaan and Machu as people, developing their relationship so that the events of the second half hit way harder. To me it felt like Nyaan and Machu’s transition to their respective factions in the final third of the show progressed too quickly after the big twist around the halfway point of the show, and that’s clearly because it needed more episodes. The love triangle that develops also felt like it went way too fast. Don’t get me wrong, I still love this show because of the nostalgia bait, idc, I’m a media consumer, I love fanservice and having my childhood brought back to me, BUT this series left a lot of potential unrealized because it’s too damn short. Hell even the actual Gquuuuuux mobile suit itself feels like it was more of an uber transporting Machu around than an actual main character in its own series. This was the first one cour only UC series and it showed. For the love of God, stop trying to appeal to casual audiences and bring back 50 episode Gundam series again!
Gquuuuuux, just like its name, is really weird because while it seems like that paragraph above should disqualify it from getting a high score.. it somehow doesn’t? The best moments of the series are just that damn good to offset the pacing issues. The callbacks to the earlier Gundam series and just how wacky this series gets with the timeline just made it an incredible watch despite its flaws. Also, Machu and Nyaan still make you fall in love with them even though you wish you had more of them in the series.
This series also has some of the coolest fights and direction in the franchise thanks to Studio Khara’s Tsurumaki Kazuya helming it. While we do obviously get a ton of evangelion references and concepts, there’s also a lot of FLCL in this. It apes concepts from a variety of different series and they just all come together so well. I’m a huge fan of the eva rebuilds, so I loved the 3DCGI animation style they went with for the fights too. I know a lot of people only like 2D for their mech fights, but if it’s done with love and care, there’s just so much more you can do with a good 3DCGI sequence than a hand drawn 2D mech fight and we got a nice taste of that same magic they brought to the Eva rebuilds here. The character designs are the other big thing for me in this. It’s by the Pokemon Sun and moon artist and it looks incredibly beautiful. The two tone hair and eye colours add such a different look to the Gundam franchise. It’s a beautiful looking show with amazing art and animation.
Gquuuuuux combined a lot of my favourite things into one package so it’s no shock I love it. I knew I would as soon as we saw the art and heard the staff involved, but this became not just one of my favourite Gundam entries ever, but one of my favourite anime ever, even with all its flaws. Just like I think Endgame is a masterpiece because of all the fanservice, so too is Gquuuuuux for me.
Gquuuuuux gets 10 psycommu out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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