Spring 2025 Anime Mini-Review Corner (March 31-April 5)

After spending the last few years keeping my seasonal watchlist to less than 10 anime, Spring 2025 has gotten the better of me. I had only (tentatively) planned to review the Week 2 premieres of Apocalypse Hotel, A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof, and Mono, but it didn’t take long for me to realize there were a fair few Week 1 premieres I wanted to mutter about too, thus resulting in this collection of mini-first impression articles.

This piece contains reviews for the first episodes of Rock is A Lady’s Modesty, Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?, Fire Force Season 3, Your Forma, Sword of the Demon Hunter, and Kowloon Generic Romance.　

Kowloon Generic Romance

Episodes watched: 1

Storyboards by: Yoshiaki Iwasaki 

Episode direction by: Taishi Kawaguchi

The confounding architecture of Kowloon Walled City makes it an inherently fascinating setting for a story. Throw in a dash of sci-fi — there’s a polyhedron in the sky that’s supposedly beneficial for mankind, though I wouldn’t trust something that looks like Evangelion’s Ramiel — a spark of co-worker romance, and a possible case of mysterious amnesia/warped reality perception, and you’ve got one of the most interesting premises of this anime season. Add the fact that the show’s background art director is Yuji Kaneko (who has worked on shows like Tengoku-Daimakyo), and there’s no way I’m not watching this.

It’s a bit of a shame that the storyboards and direction in Kowloon Generic Romance’s first episode are nowhere near as alluring as everything I’ve mentioned in the first paragraph. It does the job and doesn’t affect my interest in the show’s mystery, but it doesn’t do much to pull me into its world either. I’d tempered expectations after watching the trailers, so this turn of events wasn’t entirely a surprise, but it’s still a little disappointing.

Rock is A Lady’s Modesty

Episodes watched: 1

Storyboards by: Shinya Watada

Episode direction by: Ori Yasukawa

Some moments from Rock is A Lady’s Modesty’s premiere wouldn’t be out of place in a straightforward yuri anime. The elegant, idyllic shots of the main characters’ school in the beginning feel like they’re setting the stage for a dreamy romance between fellow ojou-samas, and the fateful first encounter of principal characters Lilisa Suzunomiya and Otoha Kurogane is really something special. Time doesn’t simply stop when they lock eyes in their first encounter — it warps until it feels as if an entire day has gone by, with the sky outside magically cycling through dusk, night, and dawn until it returns to midday. 

However, Oshin Girls’ Academy isn’t a comfortable environment for blooming love or slice-of-life situations — it’s a large prison. For Lilisa, forced to reinvent herself after her mother’s remarriage to a real estate mogul, conformity to the academy’s rigid standards feels like imprisonment, akin to being a bird in a cage. Shots framed through window panels that evoke cage bars and scenes of a literal bird in a cage serve as a keen reminder of that, and are another example of the episode’s satisfying directorial sense.

The current Lilisa fools her adoring schoolmates with talk of classical music and aims for the prestigious title of Noble Maiden, but she used to play the guitar in the past. She wields it again when she discovers Otoha, an initially meek and slightly airheaded lady, drumming in a seemingly deserted school building where Lilisa is goaded into a jam session. 

Otoha’s aura is so overwhelming that it leaves Lilisa intimidated, figuratively bound and threatened by thorny rose vines. The power of Otoha’s drumming even knocks over the glass vase in the room, leaving its formerly elegant rose petals splayed and frayed. I’m not in love with the CG, but visual elements like these, and flourishes like Lilisa and Otoha’s duet-turned-duel being momentarily framed in slow-motion by a falling bead of water, are definitely my jam.

I’m not exactly in the mood for this particular tale of young rebellion right now, but Rock is A Lady’s Modesty has such a well-executed first episode that I’d be glad to remain in the audience if its following episodes are half as good. I’m also eager to see how Lilisa and Kuroha’s next meeting unfolds. Otoha’s harsh criticism of Lilisa’s guitar playing at the end of the premiere was particularly vicious — I actually felt pissed off on Lilisa’s behalf. The question now is: how will Lilisa respond to Otoha the next time they cross paths?

Fire Force Season 3

Episodes watched: 1

Storyboards by: Tatsuma Minamikawa

Episode direction by: Tatsuma Minamikawa

Gosh, it’s been five years since Fire Force Season 2 aired? After all this time, Shinra and Company Eight are finally back, quickly finding themselves caught in a new mess. The White-Clad have made a big move, subverting some of Company Eight’s allies and capturing Captain Obi via the Tokyo Imperial Armed Forces. How are our heroes going to deal with this pickle?

Fire Force Season 3’s premiere is part-set up for this new arc and part-reminder of what happened in the last season (framed as a report from Obi). The recap is appreciated given that I’ve forgotten everything from Season 2, and I’m quite excited to see how Company Eight overcomes its adversaries this time (it’d be nice if Tamaki got rid of her still-sigh-inducing Lucky Lecher Lure while they’re at it). 

Still, the episode feels more like a dampened candle flame than a blazing return. Company Eight’s training session provides decent enjoyment, but the turning of Leonard Burns and Company One is given too underwhelming a presentation. The idea of Haumea using her electric powers to effectively read the minds of the Company One members and manipulate them accordingly is cool on paper, but it’s hard to feel impressed or even vaguely interested when the presentation’s shtick relies on simply making key words appear on screen without interesting flair. If the premiere is going to be this lethargic, I’m not sure what I ought to expect from later episodes.

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?  

Episodes watched: 1

Storyboards by: Yohei Suzuki

Episode direction by: Shuji Miyazaki

Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? sounds like the title of an r/NoStupidQuestions post, but is less entertaining than one. Honestly, reading the replies to a “can a guy and girl just be friends?” post on Reddit would be a thousand times more fun than suffering through this life-draining first episode. 

Originally, I was mildly intrigued by how this story would choose to handle the question it asks in its title. That curiosity was rewarded with an immensely loud and annoying manic pixie dream girl heroine who seems to live for the express purpose of supporting the male protagonist. She’s also the kind of anime creature who affectionately clings to said protagonist like a walking fantasy, mocks her friends with a ludicrous fake laugh, and grabs her female friend’s breasts when being scolded. There’s absurd but fun exaggeration, and then there’s whatever this mockery of believability is.

On top of this, the conversations that are meant to demonstrate the main pair’s intimate friendship feel more like a strained mimicry of a human relationship. Therefore, instead of an earnest examination of its central question, Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?’s premiere delivers an experience that feels more unbelievable than all the wish-fulfilment romance light novel synopses I’ve read combined. 

The majority of the episode is so loud and bizarre. At one point, we meet a thinly sketched fan-holding womanizer who used to date the main heroine, and suddenly they’re screaming their grievances with each other out of the corridor windows. Then, towards the end, there’s a sudden pivot to a serious discussion about love that threw me for a loop. I’m sorry, Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive?-san, but you haven’t earned the right to suddenly insert a serious scene with dejected piano music and rain and introduce a love triangle. 

The one thing I liked was the male protagonist’s dream of making flower accessories for a living and his ongoing efforts to achieve it, since it feels a bit unique. That’s it; everything else was sheer torture. If I continue watching this, it won’t be the survival of a boy-girl friendship that’s in question, but my life.

Your Forma

Episodes watched: 1

Storyboards by: Takaharu Ozaki

Episode direction by: Takaharu Ozaki

I’m somewhat in the mood for sci-fi right now, and the idea of an investigator who dives into memories immediately captured my attention. Alas, Your Forma’s premise suffers from a sputtering introduction to its world and characters, thanks to the anime dispensing with a proper setup to dive straight into the source material’s post-Volume 1 content. A co-protagonist gets accused of a crime, and another important character gets put into a coma, but none of that lands because we’ve barely gotten to know them.

What kept me going were the moments of inspired direction in the episode, like the stylish casting of shadows, a fish eye shot with backgrounds revolving around the shot’s central character, and eye reflections. The depiction of the brain diving is decently eye-grabbing too. Even so, all that flair isn’t enough to ignore the fact that the Your Forma anime’s first mystery — involving violence seemingly committed by the android co-protagonist’s particular model type — doesn’t make a strong first impression, and the anime’s awkward introduction to its characters and setting leaves me with even less interest in the proceedings. Hopefully, the show will eventually find its footing. 

Sword of the Demon Hunter

Episodes watched: 1

Storyboards by: Kazuya Aiura

Episode direction by: Nekomataya

This one-hour premiere depicts the tragic beginnings of the titular demon hunter, whose steadfast commitment to duty results in him losing a loved one and being pitted against another, before he winds up in the present. I had very low expectations of Sword of the Demon Hunter, so the fact that the first episode came with some decent direction was a pleasant surprise.

There’s some effort put into the framing and a visible attempt at evoking atmosphere through color and lighting. Outside of one particular dusk shot of a lonely, shadow-clad torii gate and a demonic purple dusk, the visuals stand out more for their efforts than the end result, but I expected so little that I was still rather pleased by the whole thing. Plus, it was nice to be treated to shots that reflected a soon-to-be victim’s face in the blade of a sword or masked faces with various objects for dramatic effect.

The one area of the episode that I can’t mount any defence for is the action. Regardless of intent, seeing a wrathful demon streaking across a room as a basic flash of light with no tricks to make up for it is simply underwhelming, and the general action animation doesn’t impress either. If things deteriorate any further, the protagonist’s backstory won’t be the only tragedy here.