The year closed out on a wide range of winners, from yakuza thrillers and fake marriages to fishing stories.
How did we choose our recs?
Participating staff members can nominate up to three titles and can also co-sign other nominated shows. Rather than categorizing titles as “feminist-friendly” or “problematic,” they are simply listed in alphabetical order with relevant content warnings; doing otherwise ran the risk of folks seeing these staff recommendations as rubber stamps of unilateral “Feminist Approval,” which is something we try our hardest to avoid here.
The titles below are organized alphabetically. As a reminder, ongoing shows are NOT eligible for these lists. We’d rather wait until the series (or season) has finished up before recommending it to others, that way we can give you a more complete picture. This means we also leave out any unfinished split-cour shows, which we define as shows that air a second season less than a year after the first (often defined by announcing a sequel with an already-secured upcoming air date).
Here’s what the team thought—let us know your picks in the comments!
365 Days to the Wedding
Recommended by: Alex, Chiaki
What’s it about? The travel agency where Rika and Takuya work is opening a branch in the remote, wintry wilderness of Alaska and will need a brave soul to relocate there. When there are no volunteers, the branch manager threatens to choose someone, prioritising employees who are single. Rika proposes a plan: she and Takuya can pretend to be engaged so they don’t get picked. How hard can marriage be for two socially awkward people who have never fit in at work?
Content considerations: heteronormativity and casual ableism baked into the setting (some of which is critiqued, some of which is not); depictions of anxiety/panic attacks
There’s a lot to like about 365 Days: an earnest, sweet romance between two neurodivergent-coded leads; a split perspective that means the male and female protagonists get equal amounts of interiority; and a running theme about the societal expectations and pressures tied into the idea of marriage. By the end, our heroes come to the shocking realization that getting married is something you might want to do if you care very much for another person and want to spend your life with them. For many other characters, though, it’s clear that capital-M Marriage is a milestone associated with success and maturity as part of a very rigid, normative, linear life pathway.
While it doesn’t go as deep as it could—and some plot beats that touch on this theme are zany and over-the-top rather than grounded in reality—overall the show weaves this question of “why get married?” neatly into its rom-com plot. It takes the time to unpack some of the normative expectations it’s tied up in, and the negative effects this can have on people who place their hopes, dreams, and social status on a rather nebulous idea of Getting Married and Having a Family. There are some very silly moments, as I mentioned, but there are also some touching and nuanced ones.
I have a lot of feelings about how these ideas are handled, and I have a lot of love for our leading lady Rika, an awkward overthinker after my own heart. The series takes delicate care to show that she’s not as “unapproachable” as she first appears, and offers her a love interest who meets her where she is and shares her view of the world, despite her being utterly convinced that she’s just not meant for a romantic relationship. The over-the-top humor might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re looking for that rare and coveted example of an anime romance about adult characters—and one that asks complex questions about adult problems—give this one a try.
—Alex
Acro Trip
Recommended by: Caitlin, Dee, Vrai
What’s it about? When junior high student Date Chizuko visits her grandpa in Naniga City, she becomes so enamored by the local magical girl, Berry Blossom, that she decides to move to town and live her best fangirl life. Unfortunately, Berry’s archnemesis Chrome is kind of a joke. Chizuko is determined to see Berry reach her full heroic potential…but does that mean Chizuko will have to join forces with Chrome and become the villain Berry needs?
Content considerations: Slapstick violence; occasionally Chizuko and Chrome’s admiration for Berry Blossom leans into creepy-stalker tropes.
Broadly speaking, Acro Trip exists for two kinds of viewers: people who prefer their magical girl shows with a dollop of affectionate parody, and people who got way too invested in the loser-villains of their favorite childhood cartoons. And friends, as the resident Team Rocket stan and Cute High Earth Defense Club Love defender, I sit squarely in the center of that venn diagram.
The only thing this series loves more than magical girls is the bumbling baddies who battle them, and all that love is stuffed into a wayward pretty-boy named Chrome. Imagine the Team Rocket trio as a single person, and you have an idea of Chrome’s personality: criminally incompetent, chronically lonely, bursting with style, and played with bombastic glee by Nobunaga Shimazaki. He becomes a disaster big brother to Chizuko, getting her into scrapes but also keeping her safe, and their sibling-like dynamic forms the comical backbone and warm heart of the series.
Chrome was the MVP for me, but Chizuko is also a delightful mess. Her overzealous crush on Berry feels embarrassingly true to middle-school life, and while I doubt there are wedding bells in their future, I appreciate Acro Trip for treating her feelings with humorous sympathy. It’s also surprisingly satisfying to watch Chizuko gain confidence and agency as she shifts from a passive observer to an active participant, gradually accepting a more direct role in her own story (even if that role is a villainous one).
Overall, the core cast’s shenanigans are consistently strong, some of the best comedy of the year. Unfortunately, Acro Trip struggles to turn its moving parts into a complete narrative. There are supporting characters, plot twists, and backstory reveals, but the finale doesn’t resolve much, and we’re ultimately left with a contented status quo. Non-endings aside, it’s still funny enough and charming enough to warrant a watch, especially if you need a good chuckle (and really, who doesn’t these days?).
—Dee
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc
Recommended by: Alex, Caitlin, Cy, Dee
What’s it about? The market for magical girl services is booming, and Magilumiere is one tiny little startup in a sea of 500. It might be a company full of oddballs, but it’s the perfect place for recent graduate Sakuragi Kana, who wants nothing more than to be of help.
Content Considerations: one-off joke about Shigemoto’s outfit that’s about cosplay at work but briefly evokes “scary man in dress” stereotypes.
One thing I’ve always wondered is, what happens when a magical girl becomes a magical adult? Does she put away childish things, hand up her wand or magical trinket, and move ahead into adulthood, forcibly forgetting her past as a heroine? Thankfully, Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. has an answer, and it’s as curious as it is grounded in reality, breathing fresh life into a specific aspect of a genre I, and so many, love.
When I first sat down to watch, I anticipated liking this series, but what I walked away with was a love for the notion of being passionate and finding a job that accommodates and supports you. Much of the show is less about magical girls and more about the technical side of things: programming spells and maintaining brooms and making signature transformations that are part advertisement, part business card. It’s a look into what an expo for workers in the field would be like and what the day to day is like. More importantly, it’s steadily become a show about climate change and the effects of magic, something we don’t have, on our very real environment and world.
I suppose that this, combined with the genuine heart lead Kana has, is what pulled me in and made this an easy recommendation from the fall season. Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. isn’t necessarily rewriting what it means to be a magical girl in a 2020s series, but it is pushing the envelope on having a modern conversation with magic and the mundane and how that all plays into a job being a job but also, being part of how we support the world. It’s a message that can easily be out of mind, out of sight, yet I found that even in the climax, Magilumiere stayed true to exploring a world where magic may play a key part in how we are custodians to the world around us.
I eagerly await the next season of this show, and hope that it continues to push back against a toxic work culture that is endemic to both Japan and the larger, industrialized world. Perhaps this will be the one time that the characters do look at the screen and read society as it is. However it’s done, I have a magical amount of faith that Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. will execute it well and look good doing it!
–Cy
Natsume’s Book of Friends — Season 7
Recommended by: Dee
What’s it about? Natsume’s ability to see supernatural beings has long left him an outcast. But when he moves in with kindly relatives and discovers his grandmother’s Book of Friends containing the names of countless yokai, he begins to find a home among humans and yokai alike.
Content considerations: The entire series contains restrained depictions of emotional abuse, bullying, child neglect, and violence; occasionally spooky yokai.
As long as I’m on the AniFem staff—and as long as Studio Shuka keeps dropping new seasons—Natsume will have a spot on our recommendations lists. This fantastical slice-of-life remains a masterclass in both episodic and slow-burn storytelling, teasing out short- and long-term narratives with bittersweet compassion and grace.
Early seasons primarily focused on Natsume’s personal growth and healing, but as he’s gradually come to accept his abilities and form lasting bonds with others, later seasons have shifted the focus to the people around him. It’s a testament to the thoughtful character writing that there are still histories and personalities to uncover, even after 86 episodes. And, after seeing what Natsume went through to get here, it’s also immensely gratifying to watch him expand his world and deepen his relationships.
The existence of a long-running, lovingly adapted shoujo feels like a minor miracle in the modern anime landscape. This is a series best savored, so if you’re intimidated by the episode count, don’t feel the need to binge. Just soak in the supernatural atmosphere for a couple episodes a week. It won’t be the quickest watch, but it will be a rewarding one.
—Dee
Negative Positive Angler
Recommended by: Caitlin, Tony
Content considerations: depictions of suicide (played for laughs), mental illness, terminal illness, grief, physical violence
A huge number of people were turned off by the poorly conceived suicide attempt in the first five minutes of this show, and while I understand the sentiment, it’s still a damn shame; Negative Positive Angler was one of my main sources of comfort in an astonishingly cold holiday season. Hanging out with the goofballs of Everymart as they calculated, fumbled, misunderstood, and cared their way through countless fishing expeditions felt like coming home to your sweetest, dorkiest friend group. I love how Hana’s face turns into more and more of a blob every time she’s annoyed or scheming; I love how Ice’s face does the opposite. I love Ice’s finger guns. I love Kozue’s complete lack of understanding of personal space and much how it confuses our dumbfuck protagonist (she is, for the record, canonically attracted to women. You go, show!) I love looking at Arua’s massive tits delicious food! I love the casual representation of immigrants and queer people in a genre that often features girls that can be best described as interchangeable.
But what ultimately grounds the show is the complex relationship between Takaaki and Sasaki, which borders on the slightly homoerotic before settling firmly into a brotherly friendship. Takaaki’s almost unbelievable kindness grounds the show and the protagonist, and his creation of a safe environment and comforting presence allows Sasaki to grow as a person. While Sasaki is definitely a bit of a pill at the start of the series, watching him learn to let in the people around him, to see character’s positive intentions and view their traumas as as important as his, is quite meaningful. The avoidance and attempts to run away from it rather than actually seek treatment rang true to my own experiences, as well as the critique of non-ill people who impose their will and center themselves as saviors in the life story of those who are ill, which leant these depictions nuance and care. My only critique is that for a show about somebody literally dying of illness, the show did not seem particularly interested in depicting the actual physical pain of illness—this is a bit frustrating, given that shows as diverse as Sailor Moon and Mushishi have depicted that kind of pain considerately without turning their respective shows into trauma porn. Overall, though, I got an enormous amount out of Negative Positive Angler, and would gladly recommend it.
—Tony
Nina the Starry Bride
Recommended by: Alex, Cy, Peter
What’s it about? Nina never imagined that she’d be at the center of royal drama given her life as an orphan. Yet when Prince Azure notices that her eyes bear a striking resemblance to the late Princess, he gives a royal degree that changes her life forever…
Content Warnings: slavery, threats of torture, threats of sexual assault, discussions and brief depictions of war and genocide, bloody violence, suicide, child abuse
Nina is the story of one young woman doing her best to survive and thrive in a spiral of court intrigue, murderous schemes, the most awful boys you’ve ever met, and endlessly-escalating stakes. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the viewing experience since, by the show’s nature, it’s often very stressful; but gosh is it compelling. A big part of that is Nina herself, who manages to bloom into a canny and resilient heroine that I only want good things for. Like, please. Let her rest. Let her be safe for more than five minutes. I’m withering away out here—especially with the cliffhanger ending, which may unfortunately be an invitation to read the manga rather than wait patiently for a Season 2.
Anyway. While Nina’s characterization may not be everyone’s cup of tea, personally I couldn’t help but admire her rebellious quest to stay as positive as possible in the face of every horrible thing she’s confronted with. In a setting full of cut-throat politics in which Nina is denied agency at basically every systemic level, she always clings to and asserts whatever shred of autonomy she can find, and she refuses to lose her compassion and good will. Many other characters read this as naivete—and perhaps it is at the beginning of the series—but it becomes a clever and determined ploy on her part. Crucially, it seems pretty clear that the narrative is on Nina’s side and this isn’t a mean-spirited story about “breaking her down.” In fact, for all that it’s a story about resilience in the face of terrifying cruelty, the series manages to have quite a few moments of levity and even comedy along the way.
As well as making for juicy interpersonal drama, the cruel court setting opens the door for some intriguing character studies, showing how growing up in a ruthless system like this dehumanizes people—turning them into figureheads expected to have no identity outside of their obligations to The Nation, or forcing them to be extremely callous and individualistic. It’s worth noting that this show operates nicely in shades of morality and very much invites you to watch all this mess play out rather than categorizing people neatly as heroes or villains. It definitely won’t be for everyone—and I suspect I’d get a more elegant iteration of some of the story beats by reading the manga instead—but if you’re hungry for shoujosei fantasy outside the isekai formula, I’d urge you to give this a try.
—Alex
Whisper Me a Love Song
Recommended By: Vrai
What’s it about? On her first day of high school, Kino Himari is enraptured by the upperclassmen band SSGirls and its lead vocalist, Asanagi Yori. When their paths cross, she can’t help blurting out that she fell in love at first sight. While Himari meant it as a fangirl, poor Yori is left flustered by her own “love at first sight.”
Whisper Me A Love Song has finally struggled its way across the finish line almost a year after its initial premiere. While yuri anime is often plagued with production woes, Whisper might just take the cake. There have been a lot of rumors about the internal state of working conditions at Cloud Hearts, including speculation that the studio might have closed altogether. I fear it’s been largely forgotten by all but the most hardcore fanatics—a problem likely to worsen since its physical release was also canceled in Japan. And I didn’t want to let it go out like that. While it might be decidedly rough around the edges, this is a very sweet entry into the world of high school rom-coms.
Well, half of it is. Whisper is effectively two stories; with the tone of each half defined by the relationship it focuses on. Himari and Yori are a very gentle couple, and Himari’s struggles defining how she experiences platonic versus romantic love (and how social mores in girl/girl relationships make that challenging) will probably be familiar to Bloom Into You fans. It’s familiar but by no means bad, and it gives the first half of the show a laid-back slice-of-life vibe. But the second half, just as the visuals really begin to struggle, is where the show unveils its messy B-couple and dives fully into band melodrama.
Yori’s best friend Aki and prickly former SSGirls member Shiho bring the level of MyGo angst I didn’t realize I was craving. Their storyline isn’t just fraught with missed connections but digs a lot more into the secondary cast, and Shiho’s struggles with ugly competitiveness and grief make for the best mini-arc of the anime. It doesn’t hurt that while the majority of the show’s music is pleasant but unremarkable, Shiho’s frustrated “Meritocracy” has a compelling bite to it. You can tell that this is where the manga’s writing comes into its own; even demoted to support player, Himari gets her own compelling storyline. And because it’s a music title, it leaves an extra sting to say “just read the (ongoing) source material.”
Anime shouldn’t be made this way, and I don’t blame the production staff involved for doing whatever they needed to make it through. But I am a little sad that queer anime so often gets the short end of the stick. I’m glad I went back to Whisper, and I hope others will too.
—Vrai
Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii
Recommended by: Caitlin, Chiaki, Peter
Content Warning: Blood, Torture, Sexual Harassment, Bullying; depictions of explicit sex
What’s it about? Yoshino’s engagement is to a prince…of sorts; actually, she’s betrothed to the head of the Miyama Yakuza Clan as part of a truce to bring some sort of peace between them and Yoshino’s own Kansai-centered group. Yet her fiance, Kirishima, is far from a dream come true and hides a dark side beneath his pleasant facade.
It’s often frustrating that so much anime and manga just gets grouped under the “seinen” label, because works that feel like they’re written with audiences outside their established demographics feel so mismatched when you simply call them “seinen.” Just the same, the series by naming and at first glance might suffer from pre-established genre expectations of stories around a young woman and a hard-boiled yakuza, because prior to getting into Yakuza Fiancé, I was out here asking whether this was the anime adaptation to Yakuza Lover.
Instead, what we actually get is a twisted drama centered on crime, politics and an impossibly adversarial will-they-won’t-they romance that very much seems written with a female audience in mind. This magical combination achieves fantastic results.
We all safely expected Kirishima to be at least a little unhinged and wild, but we quickly learn he’s that and then some. A self-admitted masochist with a penchant for violence, Kirishima is like a gun personified as a supadali. But as much as the action and political conniving in the story swirls around him, Yoshino also takes center stage as an active part in the story’s machinations.
Yoshino isn’t as wild. If anything, she’s downright sensible given the circumstances she finds herself in, and her Kansai dialect makes her the perfect tsukkomi. But rather than mistaking a sensible and down-to-earth perspective for being a damsel waiting for her lone-wolf boyfriend to come home safely, Yoshino’s charm shines especially when she takes matters into her own hands.
While our heroine isn’t as adept at fighting, nor is she as readily capable of using her yakuza contacts to gather intel, Yoshino’s cunning and forthright attitude manages to make even Kirishima heel. That forcefulness also helps define her as capable, and when the story calls on her to do a hail-Mary, it’s totally believable that the battles she wins herself were totally in-character for her.
Just the same, Kirishima, for all his machismo and terrifyingly cool and calculated scheming, is humbled on occasion. Ultimately he and Yoshino are both high schoolers, and the show painfully makes sure to highlight that fact by reminding its audience, “don’t forget, the story is way bigger than these two.”
That complexity earns this show its place as one of the most enticing and consumable shows this past season. However, for me personally, I can’t help but also give a shoutout to Tsubaki, Yoshino’s cousin from Kyoto. She is absolutely a fellow Kyoto-ite after my own heart, such that I can only ever wish to be as awful as her.
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