Zenshuu

Short Synopsis: An anime director dies eating bad clam and is teleported to the world of their favorite movie, finally having the chance to change the outcome.

Lenlo: As much as it tries to appear as something more, playing up the 90’s fantasy anime style and tropes as well as a “darker” story, Zenshuu really is just another Isekai show, complete with an OP MC. Initially I thought her OP power would just be perfect knowledge, this being a movie she’s seen a ridiculous amount of times before. Instead, she’s basically able to re-write reality however she wants, creating monsters and weapons for whatever is needed. Now yes, it looks fantastic. Zenshuu had some absolutely stunning setpieces, the lead’s “transformation” being so over the top I almost thought she was about to become a magical girl. It almost feels like a fluff piece if I’m being honest, like they wanted to create some kind of mix between Shirobako and an isekai, to celebrate what it means to animate. Sadly though it leans way more into the Isekai part, complete with all the narrative trappings that involves. Maybe it will improve as the show goes on, I’m willing to stick around a bit to find out, but I don’t have high hopes.
Potential: 35%

Amun: Oops, I definitely did not understand what this show was about before watching the premiere. I thought this was going to be about a mangaka who learned about romance and had some imaginative anime experiences. I did not expect said mangaka to be thrown into an isekai with a super powered pen! Zenshuu is very disjointed visually – some parts look AMAZING (magical girl transformation, parts of the big fight scene), then others look extremely dated – basically all the “other-world-of-the-anime” characters. It’s a bit unpleasant, because you know the show can look better than it does. I’m kind of interested (the drawing superpower reminds me of Undead Unluck, which was pretty decent). For one of the higher touted non-sequels though, my expectations have been severely tempered.
Potential: 45%

Dr. Stone: Science Future

Short Synopsis: Season 4 of Dr. STONE.

Lenlo: I’ll admit, I’m basing a lot of this score on what I know to be coming rather than the episode itself. With multiple cours coming it’s all but guaranteed this is taking us to the end of the series, and there’s loads of great stuff in there. Dr. Xeno is, without question, the best villain in the series, and everything that happens in America between him and Senku is great. The issue is that the arc takes a bit to really get started, as seen with this sort of transitory episode as Dr. STONE reminds us of where we are, what we’re doing, and reintroduces the whole cast. An issue with long-running series I suppose, because there’s really no way around it. Still, production looks about the same as previous seasons, all of the character dynamics are still there, and I have a lot of faith in this team to see this final fantastic arc through.
Potential: 60%

Promise of Wizard

Short Synopsis: A young woman is summoned to another world as their Great Sage, destined to lead all of the hot young ikemen into battle.

Lenlo: Look, this is just a reverse harem show, there’s nothing else here. Girl gets dragged into another world on some bogus mishap, a bunch of hot guys come to save her while pledging themselves as her knights, there are some homoerotic undertones to all of the guys’ interactions with each other, that’s basically it. The show doesn’t look good, the designs are mediocre and differentiated almost entirely on hair color, and most of the episode takes place in like… one location. It’s just not very good.
Potential: 0%

Medalist

Short Synopsis: A young girl learns to figure skate against her mother’s wishes while her coach lives his dreams through teaching her.

Lenlo: Been a while since our last figure skating anime, only one I can remember was Yuri on Ice. Where that was all about the highest levels of competition though, big flash moves and Olympic level events, Medalist takes a more traditional, ground up approach. We get to see a girl learn the sport from the start, growing and learning the whole way. Meanwhile her teacher gets to live his dreams vicariously through her. And it’s that relationship that sets Medalist apart from other sports series for me. We’re not just following kids, highschoolers, and their naive “I will win at any cost” attitude like we so often do. Her coach is just as important as she is, in fact he’s the point-of-view character for basically the entire episode. His desire to see her succeed, to prove everyone wrong about it being too late to learn, to live that dream he gave up on in his youth, is just as important as her own story. And you know what? I bought it. I’m not sure if the production will keep up, if their dynamic will work for an entire series or what kind of development and growth they will go through, but I want to see what Inori and Tsukasa can do.
Potential: 60%

Mario: Let me start first by saying I believe Medalist has all the right ingredients to be a sleeper hit of this season, or at least to gather some passionate followers. This premiere does its job competently – introducing two lead characters who are different in personality and age but are passionate about figure skating, and laying a solid foundation for the girl Inori to be trained by Tsukasa. I’m not entirely sold on the whole ordeal, though. First, I found the mix between melodrama and comedy doesn’t really mesh well together. There are a few scenes, especially involving Tsukasa, that aim to lighten the mood right in the middle of a conflict, which gave me tonal whiplash. Also it tends to amp up its drama – Inori is on the verge of tears most of the time and I think the show will mine that. But most of all, as someone who has a high performance sports background, what sticks out to me – in a bad way – is Tsukasa’s lack of qualification. He is unprepared to take on the coach’s role and has no concrete plan whatsoever to coach his new pupil. The way he screams to make her mother accept his proposal, for example, is a big no-no in real life. On the positive spectrum, I quite enjoy the animation plus the choreography (not flashy, but does its job), and the chemistry between the two leads is solid. Yep, so despite some minor issues, I still think we ended up with a winner here.
Potential: 50%

Hana wa Saku, Shura no Gotoku

Short Synopsis: After much convincing, a shy first year high schooler agrees to join the broadcasting club.

Wooper: Hana wa Saku is one of the only winter shows for which I had any real expectations, mostly on the basis of the source manga’s authorship (it’s by the author of the Hibike Euphonium novels). Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to those hopes – this episode was about as simple as premieres get when it comes to high school club anime. In the words of sophomore student Mizuki, “Where there’s a flower, you water it. Where there’s a promising first year student, you recruit her.” And that’s just what Mizuki does, asking protagonist Hana (whose name means “Flower,” get it?) over and over to join the broadcasting club, sensing that she has a knack for their style of poetry recitations. The way the entire episode hinges on the question of whether Hana will accept her invitation is too simple by half. After expressing a dislike of her own lack of self-confidence during a sleepover with Mizuki, her doubts about her own abilities are washed away after the older girl demands that she join the club once more, but this time with picturesque sun rays peeking through the clouds. Even the inflexible ferry schedule that would have prevented Hana from joining gets adjusted for the sake of her membership. The direction dramatizes some of the recitations with visual metaphors like train tracks and grasping vines, which is nice, but it’s not enough to elevate the rest of this episode.
Potential: 20%

From Bureaucrat to Villainess

Short Synopsis: A 52 year old salaryman is reincarnated as the villainess of an otome game.

Wooper: The most notable moment of Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Ojisan, at least for me, was one that made me feel totally out of step with modern anime. In a flashback to the main character’s life prior to his reincarnation, he spoke with his otaku daughter about ringlets being the preeminent hairstyle for shoujo antagonists. To prove his point, he mentioned Glass Mask, Aim for the Ace, and Candy Candy, to which his daughter replied, “Sorry, Dad. Those references are way too old for me to get.” I’ve never related more strongly to a half-century-old salaryman than I did to this one in that moment – thankfully, he spends most of this premiere failing upwards in one of his daughter’s otome games, rather than getting roasted for his old-ass taste in anime. The good social instincts he developed after three decades of office work allow him to effortlessly rehabilitate the image of the ringlet-haired villainess whose body he now inhabits, and he gets to enjoy the benefits of youth once more. There’s even a charming scene during an academic lecture where he celebrates his improved vision and page-turning abilities. I’m not an expert on this subgenre, but this is one of the better otome-themed premieres I’ve seen in nearly eight years of doing first impressions. It won’t make my winter watchlist (at this rate, almost nothing will), but it’s not bad at all.
Potential: 30%

I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class

Short Synopsis: Two highschoolers’ least favorite people (each other) are forced to marry by their newly reunited (not related) grandparents.

Lenlo: This is literally just a worse Nisekoi. The basic plot is the same, boy/girl who can’t stand each other are forced into a marriage by their elders and now have to interact regularly, but it lacks a lot of the charm that Nisekoi had. The designs aren’t as memorable, the visuals not as nice, the comedy is more in your face, etc etc. I suppose if you enjoyed Nisekoi you might get something out of this, but I’d be more likely to recommend you just rewatch that than waste your time on this. Sadly I’m too sick to pontificate more, so you’ll have to go off this and Amun’s writeup.
Potential: 1%

Amun: I sometimes feel like I’m the only author here who sees the good in some of these bargain bin shows. Yes, Lenlo is 100% correct that this is worse than Nisekoi…but is it so much worse that it’s worth throwing out entirely? Maybe not. Now of course there are some decent sized plot holes and character issues (main girl, grandpa, especially). Our leads are wooden as boards, the situation is more contrived than a bad excuse, and why are the grandparents always sitting in a convertible by the beach? BUT. I have a bit of a soft spot for shows like this (hearkens back to the seasons of Nisekoi and SNAFU clones), so I’m hoping it develops a bit more. I mean, it’ll probably all crash and burn, but at least I’m looking at the bright side, right?
Potential: 30%

Okitsura

Short Synopsis: A boy who transfers to Okinawa Prefecture develops a crush on a girl who speaks in Uchinaaguchi (traditional Okiwanan language).

Mario: As a slice-of-life resident, I can say that I had a good time with this episode and am looking forward to more. The selling point here is, of course, Okinawa’s dialect and their own unique culture, which I believe would work much better for the native Japanese audience to listen to than us who have to read the subtitles. That’s not to say we can’t enjoy and relate to much of the town’s oddballness. The leads, however, are not exactly vibrant as the top-tier slice-of-life shows such as Skip & Loafer or K-On, and I found many jokes laid their message on a bit thick (the whole town’s response to his name-calling, for instance), but as one who is curious about other cultures, especially the minority, this show scratches that itch and then some.
Potential: 40%

Kono Kaisha ni Suki na Hito ga Imasu

Short Synopsis: Two employees at the world’s most generic office must keep their relationship hidden from their coworkers.

Wooper: I used to keep my eyes peeled for adult romances each season, but the subgenre has really fallen off in recent years, especially if Kono Kaisha is anything to go by. The visuals here are so dull that I’m not sure how best to describe them – perhaps the mandate given to the art director was, “Make sure not a single background contains a single element that an ordinary salaryman wouldn’t immediately recognize from his own life.” The show’s central couple perform non-specific tasks at a non-specific company with non-specific office decor, and after they finally clock out, they enjoy a secret relationship ripped straight from the plot of at least a dozen J-dramas. The girl gets flustered about something, the guy thinks to himself that she’s cute, the conversation circles back around to how important it is not to reveal that they’re together. Introduce an attractive cast member to temporarily induce jealousy in one of the lead characters, then reaffirm the main couple’s commitment to each other. Rinse and repeat for twelve episodes, and pray that your less-than-mediocre romcom convinced at least a couple single folks to get out there and start secretly dating a coworker of their own.
Potential: 0%

Salaryman Isekai

Short Synopsis: Underappreciated overseas manager is head hunted by a Demon Lord with a surprisingly keen eye for subordinates.

Amun: First show of the new season for me (we’re not watching that weird ecchi cat thing) – and honestly, as far as first shows of the year go, Salaryman was quite decent. I thought we’d have a cringey episode of misunderstanding the “overseas” title as master of water – instead, we have a very reasonable Demon Lord boss who has done his research and very much wants this salaryman in particular. It’s clear this is a case of the outsider acting as the bridge between factions – just with a supernatural setting and some cute girls. And you know what – it plays for me! The animation and character designs aren’t anything to write home about, but this is where the modern isekai shines: juxtaposing a modern society straight-man with fantasy settings and hot girls. Definitely worth a few more episodes out of me.
Potential: 65%

Mario: Well, you read the positive review above from an isekai enthusiast, but what about us generic anime watchers? Personally I feel this premiere is quite tame. It’s not funny, nor does it offer anything groundbreaking within this subgenre. The idea that the Demon Lord is a much kinder boss than you might have at a real life company, and that he knows about workers’ rights and benefits, is a neat concept, but the way our main character proves his worth in this “otherworldly entrance exam” is a bit too simplified for its own good. The main message of this trial is to understand different cultures’ behaviors (in this case, a Minotaur), but we don’t really get the process of him working it out; rather, we see the results and his method instead. If you think about it, there was no instance whatsoever where he and the Minotaur interacted with each other. Moreover, what’s the deal with the strange udon stand where he comes to sit down in the middle of the episode? Isn’t he supposed to be in hell?
Potential: 10%

Momentary Lily

Short Synopsis: Six stringy-haired girls exchange quips and battle machine-alien hybrids in an abandoned city.

Lenlo: Oh GoHands, what are we going to do with you. At this point I’m less interested in their anime, every single one is a visual mess of after effects and nonsensical camera angles, than I am in how this studio keeps getting funding to make more stuff. Seriously, who looks at this studio’s previous works and thinks “The next one will be a banger”. As Wooper says below, there really isn’t much narrative or anything going on. It’s more about watching a bunch of “cute”, and I use quotes there because GoHands couldn’t create a cute design to save their lives, fight giant monsters with a lot of “cute” mannerisms and turns of phrase. Is it good? No. It’s GoHands. Is it well animated, fun to look at, or in any way appealing? No, it’s GoHands. Should you watch this? I’m sure you know the answer to that by now.
Potential: GoHands

Wooper: Whenever a new GoHands anime comes out, I keep my fingers crossed that it’s an original rather than an adaptation, because no mangaka deserves to have their work squeezed through the anus that is this studio’s animation pipeline. Thankfully, Momentary Lily is based on nothing but the wildest fantasies of hair fetishists and first-time Adobe After Effects users. The half dozen female characters in this show are the only human beings that appear for the entire premiere, and all six of them have laboriously drawn hairdos, with hundreds of independently-minded strands, some of which seem poised to decapitate their wearers. The girls have two modes: sitting around their photorealistic ghost town and acting out their designated tropes, and fighting glowing blue monsters while elaborate effects animation sparks and swirls around the screen. Both modes are drenched in sunbeams, lens flares, and rainbow arcs, and feature wide angle shots galore. I found the visual presentation so distracting that I couldn’t pick up on the plot, though the fact that these six characters have only themselves to talk to makes it pretty clear that Momentary Lily will be light on story and heavy on kawaii mannerisms. Ultimately, written impressions of GoHands anime aren’t much use – you just have to subject yourself to their visual style and see whether it’s for you.
Potential: 🌈%

Sorairo Utility

Short Synopsis: A gacha game addict in pursuit of a new hobby is introduced to the world of golf.

Wooper: What’s with all the golf anime recently? Even if you write off 2022’s Birdie Wing, Ooi Tonbo and Rising Impact aired just last year. What’s more, all three of those shows got second seasons, meaning there’s a definite push to have the sport represented in animation. I’m not sure Sorairo Utility will make it 4-for-4 on sequels, though, since its first episode was rather underwhelming. The opening scene did get a chuckle out of me, essentially telling the protagonist to get off her gacha-rolling ass and get a real hobby, and her repeated failures to find a high school club that she liked were amusing enough. But when it came time for the show to sell itself as a golf anime, I’m sorry to say that it bogeyed. Most instances of the protagonist’s cluelessness made her seem dopey rather than eager, the background art was either too plain (the two-tiered driving range) or too bright (the outdoor course), and we’re already whiffing on depicting the golf swings of background characters. The last of those issues means we’re probably in for more severe animation hiccups down the line, so investing in this show might not be the best line of play if you value on-model drawings. I did like the character designs, though.
Potential: 10%

Lenlo: I agree with most everything Wooper said above. The opening few scenes as the protagonist is cut-off from her gacha addiction cold turkey and forced into an actual hobby were pretty good, both in her interactions with her fellow classmates and her own reactions to it all. Sadly though, all of the actual golfing, what the show is being built around, weren’t very good. I never bought into the MC actually enjoying golf, or her reasons for picking it over any other sport. Simply put, as a sports anime I feel like it’s failing at everything that is important for a sports anime.
Potential: 5%

Bogus Skill “Fruitmaster”

Short Synopsis: A supernaturally skilled gardener discovers he can eat more than one Devil Fruit without perishing.

Wooper: 2025 kicks off with a benignly terrible fantasy premiere that cribs from One Piece, of all things. In the world of Fruitmaster, everyone is granted a free JRPG skill upon reaching the indeterminate age of an average anime protagonist. You acquire the skill by eating what is essentially a Devil Fruit, so you can’t eat a second one or else you die – unless you’re the main character, in which case you can have as many as you want. Since he has this ability, the role of “Appraisal Skill User” (for there must always be an appraisal skill user) is foisted onto his companion, who mutters that she must “make herself useful to him” by scouting everyone else’s solitary powers. Thus the stage is set for our hero to become the most powerful adventurer in the universe, prove his strength to his childhood friend, and participate in all manner of barely-animated battle scenes. Fruitmaster is dull on nearly every level, but its most baffling failure lies in the design of the protagonist’s sword; the second skill he acquires is titled “Sword God,” but it might as well have been “MS Paint God” based on the unadorned look of the thing. I hope the next fruit he eats will grant him the blacksmith skill, for the audience’s sake.
Potential: 0%

Lenlo: Why are we even bothering with this whole “Fruitmaster” thing? It didn’t take 5 minutes for the show to toss its entire premise out the window and gift the MC an OP skill like “Sword God”. Why? Just give him the ability from the start if you’re not even going to try and turn his “bad” ability into a great one. Fruitmaster feels lazy on basically every level, with even the designs and animation feeling phoned in while the studio pockets anything left over. Suffice to say, this is one of the easiest skips I’ve seen in a long time.
Potential: 0%

Ameku M.D: Doctor Detective

Short Synopsis: A doctor/detective and her henchman investigate a strange murder involving blue blood and dinosaurs.

Lenlo: Have you ever seen House? No? Well neither have I, but this is what I would imagine an anime version of it would look like. An eccentric loli doctor capable of diagnosing patients in an instant while simultaneously lambasting the patients for getting themselves in this state to begin with. As such, your enjoyment of this show is really going to come down to how much you like watching Sherlock Holmes-style hyper-intelligent characters solve convoluted problems from the most basic of observations. There’s some relationship drama as the doctors are split between their work and private lives, which has the potential to be interesting, as well as this “Blue blood” murder case thing. For the most part though, you’re looking at a pretty normal medical drama show that wouldn’t be out of place on regular live action television. Sadly for Ameku though, I’m not really into that. Maybe you’ll have better luck than me.
Potential: 20%

Mario: There are a few aspects of the first episode that I really enjoyed. First, I appreciate that the show doesn’t shy away from the medical technobabble, even though the focus shifts toward case-solving as the episode progresses. It helps ground the story in a sense of realism. The case itself is intriguing—strange, yet I get the feeling it leans more toward the logical than the supernatural, which remains interesting to see how it unfolds. However, this comes with a trade-off: the main characters, particularly the “genius” girl, display a strong curiosity but a limited emotional range. For instance, after a patient is declared deceased, her first reaction is to grin and remark, “How curious.” I suspect that, like many shows of this nature, the appeal will lie less in character development and more in the ongoing mystery—though whether that will be enough to sustain interest in the long run remains to be seen.
Potential: 20%

Possibly the Greatest Alchemist
of All Time

Short Synopsis: A former salaryman is granted an amazing alchemical skill by a goddess after being accidentally summoned to another world.

Lenlo: Maybe I’m being too generous with this score, but literally anything would look good after Fruitmaster. It’s not that Alchemist is terrible, while it doesn’t do anything particularly noteworthy I would call it competent in most things. The focus on crafting and day to day living in a fantasy world is done better in shows like Log Horizon, while the fantasy community is handled better in Reincarnated as a Slime, sure. I also wish it would go into more detail on the fantasy aspect of the crafting and such, as the combat is pretty weak. Still, Alchemist does all of those well enough that they don’t drag it down. The MC isn’t annoying, being a mild-mannered salaryman, and while it doesn’t look great, the designs aren’t terrible and it moves well enough. All in all, Alchemist feels like a standard run of the mill Isekai that is inoffensive and does everything just well enough that you might be able to get some fun from it. Saying that though, maybe that is enough to stand out in the modern isekai landscape.
Potential: 10%