What I'll Be Watching During The Winter 2025 Anime Season

Well, the time has come once again. As Christmas draws ever nearer, seasonal anime have begun to wrap themselves up (pun completely intended), and the decision on what to watch in the next season has to be made. Luckily, I've got quite the line-up decided on already, including not one, but two anime that are continuing from the fall 2024 season! I want to list all of the anime I plan to watch during the winter 2025 anime season, and I'll start with the ones I'm continuing.

Continuing Anime #1: Blue Box

Gotta say, I'm really liking this one so far! It has really pretty animation, and it balances both the sports and the romance parts of its story very well! Not only that, but the two love interests actually have really good chemistry! I could go on about how much I love this anime, but I think I'll leave my feelings in a review, should I decide I want to write one. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the second half of Blue Box!

Continuing Anime #2: Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister

(Wait, how did the Nakano quintuplets from "The Quintessential Quintuplets" get here?!)

This one, I haven't been quite as fond of. Don't get me wrong; it's not a bad anime. It's one of those harem anime where it's not immediately obvious which one is going to win, which does make things a little more interesting (although I'm willing to bet that Yuna is going to win, despite her kind of being worst girl). That being said.... yeah, it doesn't really stand out that much amongst the other harem anime that have been released over the years. Heck, there was another harem anime that came out last year that also primarily takes place in a temple! (Almost hilariously, it's called "Temple".) Nevertheless, I'm interested in seeing if the series ends up doing something to make it stand out more from the herd in its second half.

Alright, now with the continuing anime I'm watching out of the way, let's get to the new stuff!

1. Ameku Takao no Suiri Karte

Not gonna lie, the only reason why I initially decided to watch this is because Noizi Itou illustrated the novel series that this anime is based on. In case you don't know, Noizi Itou also illustrated the light novel versions of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Shakugan no Shana", two series that I really, really like (with the former even being my all-time favorite anime); needless to say, I'll happily watch anything that looks like her artstyle, regardless of what it's about! (I still have yet to watch Nanatsuiro Drops, though....) I recently found out what it's actually about, though, and I've gotta say, a doctor detective kind of sounds like a cool concept. Hopefully, that concept will be brought to its full potential!

2. Blue Exorcist: The Blue Night Saga

....Okay, whether or not I should consider this a continuing anime or a new one is a little confusing to me.

I mean, don't get me wrong; it's absolutely a continuing anime in the sense that it's a new season of an anime that has had other seasons air previously to this one. What confuses me is whether this should be considered the second cour of the fourth season or an entire fifth season of its own. MyAnimeList has this arc and the Beyond the Snow arc as their own entries, but AniList seemed to have them combined until recently. At the same time, though, there are people on the MAL forums saying that those two arcs should be combined into one entry, since the Blue Night Saga is airing in the season right after the Beyond the Snow Saga....? I don't get it.

Ah, well. I can think about the semantics later and look forward to this arc now....as well as think about how much Yukio needs therapy, like I have been thinking throughout the entire season. Like, seriously, get Yukio to a good counselor immediately!

3. BanG Dream! Ave Mujica

I have a confession to make: It's MyGO is probably my least favorite entry in the BanG Dream franchise. I'm sorry, but despite how good the animation has gotten in that season, I wasn't a huge fan of any of the characters (except Tomori and maybe Raana). I especially didn't like Sakiko; she acted like a total b*tch who refused to explain to the other members of CRYCHIC exactly why she wanted to disband the band for seemingly no reason. At the end of the last episode, though, we do get a glimpse into exactly what's going on with her, and given that this series is supposed to focus on her new band, Ave Mujica, maybe we'll get in depth with her character and see how likable and sympathetic of a character she really is.

....Before anyone decides to throw rotten tomatoes at me, I didn't say It's MyGO is bad; I just said that it's not my favorite entry in the BanG Dream franchise.

...................Who threw this rotten tomato at me?!

4. Grisaia: Phantom Trigger The Animation

I actually finally watched the Grisaia Phantom Triggers OVAs back in October just to make sure I was ready for the TV series. I don't know why, but I actually enjoyed the Stargazer OVA more than the first two OVAs. Weird. Anyway....yeah. I don't really have much to say except that I'm looking forward to this one.

....That reminds me, I really need to play more of the Grisaia no Kajitsu visual novel at some point.

5. Flower and Asura

Finally, something completely new on this list!

Of all of the anime I decided to watch for winter 2025, this one was the last one I settled on watching. It's based on a manga written by Ayano Takeda, the original author for "Hibike! Euphonium" (which I reviewed the first two seasons of), and it looks absolutely gorgeous, which is to be expected from the studio that gave us "Mushoku Tensei". However, it was only when it was announced that Flower and Asura was going to be streaming on HIDIVE that I finally thought, "Eh, what the heck? I'll watch it." I mean, I've been using Crunchyroll and....other websites....a lot for my anime-watching lately; I've gotta use my HIDIVE subscription for something! No matter the reason why I'm watching it, though, I do genuinely have high hopes for this one. Don't let me down, Flower and Asura!

6. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You Season 2

Ah, yeah, now THIS is what I'm talking about!

"The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You" is an anime that I really, really, really, really, really loved watching when it was airing; it was absolutely hilarious, was beautifully-animated, and had a lot of lovable characters! It was probably my favorite anime to come out in 2023, actually. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to season two and all of the wacky shenanigans Rentarou and his ever-growing harem will get into! I just hope it's as funny as the first!

7. Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms

When this anime was announced, rather than me being particularly excited for it, I just thought, "Okay, sure, why not?" I haven't read the manga that it's based on, but I had heard about it; while the concept is nothing too crazy, you can't go wrong with a simple, cute rom-com, right? Plus, unless you count the second season of Kanojo mo Kanojo, it's been a while since I've seen anything from SynergySP, which is the animation studio behind my second favorite anime, Mermaid Melody. Yeah, that's all I have to say about it.

8. Medalist

Here's an anime with a lot of expectations placed upon it being made by a studio that might not be able to meet those expectations!

In case you don't know, Medalist has had a lot of hype around it since it started being serialized in 2020; it has even won some awards between then and now, including this year's Kodansha Manga Award in the general category! Even though I haven't read it myself, it's easy to see why; the art looks really good, and the concept is really interesting, which I assume is done really well in the manga proper. Needless to say, Medalist getting an anime adaptation was inevitable. Unfortunately, the studio behind this anime adaptation, ENGI, hasn't exactly had the best track record when it comes to making good anime. Hopefully, they don't muck it up this time. Either way, I'll be looking forward to this!

9. Solo Leveling Season 2

I didn't watch the first season of Solo Leveling back when it was airing earlier this year (although I did consider picking it up at the time), but I did eventually watch it back in October partially so that I could watch season 2 as that came out. Yeah, I can see why people were excited about this one; it has spectacular animation, and while the whole "overpowered protagonist" thing is nothing original (just look at all of the isekais), I do think the whole leveling up system is kind of cool. Hopefully, the second season turns out to be as good!

10. Sakamoto Days

Let's be honest; was anyone surprised that Sakamoto Days got an anime adaptation? It's a Weekly Shounen Jump manga that has gotten pretty popular since it was first released. Also, the whole concept of a former assassin retiring and getting married is kind of cool. The manga it's based on had a pilot called "Sakamoto", and I read that. Even though I haven't read the manga proper, I think that's enough justification for me to say that I need to watch this. So....yeah. Looking forward to this!

11. Sorairo Utility

Man, it sure seems like there are a lot of golf anime coming out in the past few years. Do you think it might be the 2021 short anime film "Sorairo Utility" that kicked it all off? Either way, that short anime film is getting a full series that starts airing in January. I watched the short film back in 2022 for an anime-watching challenge on AniList, and while I didn't think it was anything too special, I do think that a full television series could make me care about the characters and the golf matches they're having more. Hopefully, I'm right about that!

12. My Happy Marriage Season 2

Finally, a shoujo anime I'm watching next season! It's also the last one on the list of Winter 2025 anime I'll be watching. Boo!

Anyway, anyone with working eyes can see that My Happy Marriage is a gorgeously-animated series, but that's not the only thing about it that's gorgeous. The relationship between Miyo and Kiyoka is absolutely beautiful; it's clear just how much Kiyoka cares about Miyo. I'm also interested in how much Miyo can grow as a character away from her abusive family. So yeah, needless to say, I'm looking forward to season 2 of My Happy Marriage!

There may be other anime that I decide I want to watch when the new year rolls around, but these twelve - well, fourteen, really - are the ones that I know for sure I will. I will say, though, that I am not going to watch Momentary Lily; I don't need 2025 to be starting for me with GoHands back to their GoHandsing shenanigans!