Chatty AF 226: 2025 Winter Season Wrap-Up (WITH TRANSCRIPT)

DEE: Mild spoiler: Hana does tell Mizuki, “Suki,” in the last episode, so…

TONY: [Gasps]

DEE: …read that however you would like to read that, friends at home.

PETER: Hell yeah.

TONY: Ah!

[Introductory musical theme]

DEE: Hello and welcome to Chatty AF: The Anime Feminist Podcast. I’m Dee, former AniFem managing editor, current freelance reviewer at Anime News Network. You can find me posting cat pics and geekery on Bluesky @deescribe and occasionally remembering I have a Tumblr at Josei Next Door. And I am joined today by fellow AniFem staffers Tony and Peter, if you would like to introduce yourselves.

TONY: Hi, I’m Tony. I’m a contributing editor at Anime Feminist. You can find me on all platforms @poetpedagogue.

PETER: And I’m Peter. I’m an editor here at Anime Feminist, and I am @peterfobian on Bluesky.

DEE: And today is our 2025 winter anime season retrospective. As usual, we’ll talk about shows by starting at the bottom of our Premiere Digest list and working our way up. And then we will also be leaving room at the end to chat about sequels, of which there were loads this season. So, we will be skipping a few of the shows that we talked about at the mid-season, just because either there was nothing else to add or we just kinda stopped watching them.

But Peter, I know you wanted to check in on Okitsura a little bit since we talked about it at the midway point. So, would you like to let us know about that one, how that shook out?

PETER: Yeah, I’d say it really maintained the course and ended in a good place for me. I did want to mention one sort of standout. It doesn’t directly address what Tony asked during the mid-season regarding, like, if they mention any sort of colonialism in regards to Okinawa. However, they did have a small little arc in the final episode about them going out to look at shashins [sic], which are… or sashins [sic], I think, which are kinda like samisens, Okinawan samisens. And the main character, Teru, is kinda looking around at different ones, and they’re expensive so he can’t afford them, and the guy there recommends one that’s kind of made, it looks like, with an aluminum can. And he’s not too impressed, but then the proprietor of the shop talks about how that design became very popular during and after World War II, when they were kind of left with absolutely nothing and they had to make do using cans and other implements to make awkward replacements for different parts so that they could continue making music reflecting their cultural heritage—and how they still make sets today. You can buy a make-it set including an aluminum can if you want to do that. And, you know, it didn’t really address whose fault any of that was or anything like that, but it basically addressed the fact that they had been the victims, in many ways, of a war and had to really strive to maintain their cultural heritage through a lot of hardship.

TONY: Wow. That sounds really… It sounds like it’s going into some interesting places, even if it’s not fully exploring them. It’s not like a central theme, of course, but it’s not afraid to talk a little bit about some of the uglier aspects of Japan’s history in Okinawa, which is interesting.

PETER: Mm-hm. Yeah, it avoided pointing any fingers, but it did kinda say, yeah, Okinawa hasn’t had it too great historically. And Teru ends up buying one of the sets, a make-it-yourself with the aluminum can to make his own sashin [sic].

TONY: I was just looking it up. It’s called a kankara, or kankara sanshin.

PETER: Sanshin.

TONY: Which translates to “sanshin from a can.” [Chuckles]

PETER: Oh, okay.

DEE: [Chuckles] And that’s based on a manga, so does it kind of end at a midway point? Do you know if it’s getting a second season or anything like that?

PETER: Not sure. They sort of ended it with the… The romance hasn’t really… because, you know, he likes—I can’t remember her name—the dark-haired one, and the light-haired one likes him. They sort of make this address regarding the girls visiting… I can’t remember what they’re called but kind of like an Okinawan shaman, when they were still kids, who predicted one of them would have an attachment to someone from far away. And they weren’t sure which one of them they were talking about, but kind of decided that no matter which one of them it was, that person would be connected to both of them, since they’re connected. And that’s kinda where they landed in the final episode after the instrument shop.

DEE: Yeah. Yeah, it looks like it’s ongoing. So, it’ll be interesting to see if they continue to kind of explore some of those cultural issues or not. I don’t think the manga’s out in the US yet.

PETER: I don’t believe so.

DEE: But, you know, something to look out for. You know, I’m glad a lot of our early concerns were mostly unfounded. Again, would love an article from an Okinawan about the series in general and how it handles those kind of things and historical notes and that kind of stuff. But yeah, that is good to hear. So, is that like a soft rec, would you say? Do you think I would enjoy it? Because that is one I kind of skipped over.

PETER: Oh, yeah. I mean, there is some of that Millepensee visual bullshit in it, but I think the characters, the comedy are really great. It’s really informative but that doesn’t take away from the entertainment. I would rec it. I think Chiaki might as well. She’s been very positive about it.

DEE: I know Chiaki liked it a lot. I know, like, mid-season— I haven’t heard her talk about it much since, but I know for a while there she was saying, like, “I think I want to recommend this one.” So, that’s great. That is good to hear and something to put on my watch list for a quieter season, because there was a lot this time around.

PETER: Yeah.

DEE: Okay, so the next one we want to talk about real quick. We said we were going to talk about it at the mid-season— Well, we said we didn’t talk about it at the mid-season because none of us were watching it. Alex did finish Sorairo Utility, so they left us a little note that I will just read verbatim on here.

So, Alex says: “Golf Girls is cute and fun and hits all the right notes for a chill hobby show, though not too chill that it puts you to sleep. Obviously, this never hits the highs of Birdie Wing, but it does achieve the daunting task of making golf entertaining to watch. Mostly this is through the visual humor and because the characters are fun. Minami’s goofy determination to be the ‘protagonist of golf’ is funny and endearing, and she slowly learns to just vibe and enjoy making new friends and slowly get better at a new skill, rather than getting stressed out at not being immediately the best at something.

“I do feel like there’s a gradual increase in fanservice of the bath scene and skort—” Sorry. “…skirt—” Wait. “…skirt shot.” My brain did not want to read that sentence. [Re-reading the prior phrase] “…of the bath-scene-and-skirt-shot variety, especially at the midpoint of the series, but nothing nasty.”

So, overall, Alex enjoyed it. I don’t know if they’re planning on recommending it this season necessarily, but sounds like it was a fun time as far as kind of chill sport shows go. So, if that one was on anybody’s radar, sounds like it ended pretty well. So, yeah, maybe check that one out when you’ve got some time.

Next up on our list is one Peter and I were both watching at the mid-season. I have dropped off, but Peter did finish it to the end. I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time. I dropped this one pretty quick after the mid-season. I wasn’t planning on it, but I started a new job, things got busy, and it started entering into, like, action-fantasy mode again, and I was like, “This is my least favorite mode of this show!” And I just kind of never got back to it. It wasn’t a conscious “I’m going to drop this” decision; it just sort of fell off. Peter, how did it wrap? Is it worth going back to?

PETER: I don’t think so. I mean, it was maybe 75/25 with, like, “demon dead god evil lore dumps, big battles” type thing. There were still a couple of… some of the fun overtime stuff from the beginning of the season, like she… gonna get a legendary receptionist to train them, and she thinks she’s gonna find out how to get over overtime, and it turns out the person is just a workaholic and says you should do a lot of overtime or work weekends or something like that. Yeah. So, still got a couple of jokes in there, but honestly, it was just… it became more and more odious as it went on. I would say, like, I enjoyed Welcome to Japan myself a lot more since it kinda knew its strengths, did away with a lot of the adventuring stuff, and just focused on the central relationship, which was the best part. And I think Guild Receptionist just kinda was like, “Oh, you expect us to end this with a boss fight, right?” And I did not. I didn’t want that.

DEE: Yeah, I didn’t want that. I wanted fantasy Office. Fantasy The Office was really what I was going for there. So, okay. Well, honestly, worth knowing that I made the right call and I can just kinda take it off my watch list. So, yeah! I love this, guys. [Snaps fingers thrice] We’re clipping through these, which is great because we’ve got a lot of sequels and things to talk about as we go.

Okay, so this brings us up to our top Feminist Potential category, of which I would say a decent number of these shows kind of fulfilled their potential there. We actually are going to start with Zenshu this time, mostly just to quickly say that we are planning on doing a separate Zenshu episode. There’s a lot we want to chat about. Overall, I think pretty much everybody who watched it was pretty high on it. You know, just in this particular retrospective, I will say that I loved it. It was my anime of the season. It might end up being my anime of the year. I know there’s a lot of year left, but I adored this show. So, yeah, very excited about that. Were both of you pretty positive about Zenshu as well?

TONY: I loved it, yeah. I mean, Mitsue Yamazaki has always been one of my favorite directors, ever since I saw Sleepy Princess and the… uh… Nozaki-kun.

DEE: [crosstalk] Nozaki-kun? Yeah. That was one—

TONY: Yeah. She also directed many of my favorite episodes of Penguindrum and was one of the major creative voices on that show, if I remember correctly.

DEE: Yeah, she was involved with Penguindrum and Yurikuma pretty closely. So…

TONY: And I think it really shows in how well she stewards her first original anime, which—

DEE: Technically her second original. She worked on Tada-kun Never Falls in Love, which was okay. My understanding is the writer of that one really took point as far as the story, so it looked really good but I found the story just kind of a bland romcom. But yeah, this really felt like they let her have full freedom, and, yeah, it was an absolute delight, so… So, yeah, but we’ll have a separate episode on that, so we don’t need to dig into the details. The main takeaway here is we liked it! Recommended.

PETER: Yeah, definitely.

TONY: [crosstalk] It’s fantastic.

PETER: I agree. It’s pretty much the anime of the year for me unless something can dethrone it in the next three seasons, so… It was really good.

DEE: Yeah, it is Zenshu’s award to lose at this point, I would say.

PETER: Looking forward to that podcast, too. I think, the ending especially, there’s a whole lot to talk about, so I’m interested to hear everybody’s thoughts.

DEE: There is. I think we can, yeah, easily get an hour out of that one, no problem. Although I will say the next show on this list is a close second for me as far as anime of the season goes: Medalist.

TONY: [crosstalk] Oh, same. Absolutely same. Absolutely.

DEE: Yeah. Yeah. We talked about that one at the mid-season. Tony and I were both really high on it. So, good news: there is a Season 2 announcement. I don’t think there’s been a date announced for that one, so it’s not like a split-cour situation. But we do know they’re getting a Season 2. The manga is ongoing and very well received, so I’m looking forward to continuing to see the story. But this first season ends at a good end-of-season spot. So, what— Tony, I know you said you had a lot you wanted to say about this one. Yeah, what are your thoughts here?

TONY: Okay, so, full disclosure: I have not had time to watch the very last episode. But I will say everything up until then that I’ve seen has just continued to be fantastic. I think one thing that I— It’s continued to really be about the power of unconditional positive regard as a teacher. Right? And I felt like it’s starting to foreground Tsukasa more without abandoning Inori, if that makes sense, which has been nice. Getting to see Tsukasa work through the way that his own traumas and struggles with self-worth are impacting his coaching and realizing— And one of the things… I talked a lot about how I think the series is a really great illustration of some of the ideas of my friend Alex Shevrin Venet, who wrote about boundaries in trauma-informed teaching. 

But one thing that I’ve really appreciated about this last part is him recognizing that he has a whole community that he can lean on in helping coach these kids, right? Like, he can bring in people who are better at certain things than maybe he is at teaching them. He can lean on his friend who’s really good at ballet to help him figure things out. And the way that he treats Rioh and the way that he handles that whole situation, I thought, was really professional. And also— I mean, obviously, though, I had to very much remind myself [there are] very different cultural circumstances in the bath scene. I was like, “It’s normal in Japan for an older man to be in a bath with a younger man. That’s not considered this inherently sexual thing in the way it is in the US,” right?

DEE: No, not at all.

TONY: And so, I had to remind myself of that. But I think, also, that, just generally, him showing all of this kind of unconditional care towards Rioh when Rioh does everything that he possibly can to push him away while also not making it feel like boundary-pushing, if that makes sense, right… It feels very like he is doing his job as a teacher.

DEE: Yeah, absolutely.

TONY: It’s interesting to see two boys—or, well, one being a man, one being a boy—kind of talking about their feelings about a very feminine-coded sport. Yeah, I don’t know. A lot of my thoughts are really unformed about the show other than just thinking that it is incredible, and it continues to be gorgeously animated, and I continue to love Inori’s kind of story and getting to watch them kind of think about “How do we push somebody without pushing them to the point of self-harm?” Right?

DEE: Yeah. Yeah, I like that the— I think the midway point, right about the time that we left off last time, was when they realized that Inori was pushing herself a little too hard and was on the verge of some injuries. And so, she didn’t compete in anything for a while. They just kinda worked on strength training and made sure that she didn’t end up hurting herself worse. So, it was nice to see that arc. And, yeah, I mean, I agree with you on basically everything. I really like the way Tsukasa kind of tries to meet the kids where they are. Like, he still pushes them to kind of challenge themselves. Like, you know, Rioh is really ready to give up, and Tsukasa does kind of gently push him to be like, “No, no, no. You can do this. Here, I can kinda show you how it works, and I can work you through this.” But at the same time, he’s also aware that pushing them too hard would also be like— You know, it’s a very healthy kind of challenge. So, yeah, I think Tsukasa’s a terrific coach. I like that the show has managed to give him his own— He’s not just, like, a perfect teacher with no problems. He’s managed to have his own storylines and conflicts without it negatively impacting the kids. Like, he’s not making it their problem, right?

TONY: [crosstalk] Mm, yes. Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. He’s never using them as his therapist, right? Which is so the temptation when they’re working through trauma. And especially with teachers and how teachers are often represented in anime, it’s often like the teacher confides the trauma and that’s how they build the relationship with the student. That’s not how it actually works in the real world, right?

DEE: No. No. And Tsukasa did kind of open up to Inori about, like, “Yeah, here’s my history with skating, because, you know, you asked me about it.” But he doesn’t give her every single nitty-gritty detail about it, and he still kind of maintains those boundaries while still creating a bridge with his student so that she can kind of get to know him better as well. Yeah, I think the way it does it is really well because it paints the coaches as human, but without a sense of unprofessionalism that I think you can sometimes lean into when you’re telling these sorts of stories.

TONY: I also think it’s interesting how the show deals with class, because, I mean, the whole thing about Rioh versus Tsukasa, a lot of it is very classed, right? Rioh looks down on Tsukasa, largely because Tsukasa grew up working class, right? And a lot of Rioh’s storyline is about feeling like, “I grew up so privileged. I grew up with all these opportunities but then all this expectation because of all these opportunities, and I could not live up to those expectations.” Which, as somebody who used to— I’m currently not working in the independent school system right now, but when I was working in the independent school system, I saw that sense of self-hatred so often among my students, as kind of like, “Well, I have all these opportunities and I’m squandering them. I must be a terrible person,” and that leads them oftentimes to give up. And as somebody who, myself, didn’t exactly grow up stinking rich, you know, able to attend whatever-the-hell school I wanted to, you know, I often would feel this kind of like, “How do I care for them when I’m…?” It’s honestly a little frustrating sometimes to see that, right? But I think Tsukasa handles it so well, just kind of showing Rioh, like, “Hey, you shouldn’t look down on me because of this,” right, but proving it while also not demeaning himself or making it seem like he’s having to kind of engage with that stereotype, if that makes sense.

DEE: Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, and certainly I don’t think— I don’t think Rioh realizes that it is a class thing for him. Like, he doesn’t know Tsukasa’s story. He just knows that he was never a professional skater, so clearly he’s a [obscured by crosstalk] coach.

TONY: Right! Right, right, right.

DEE: But you’re right that the story, I think, as a whole, is definitely engaging with that. And Rioh definitely does have that idea of, like, “I have all the opportunities that nobody else has and I’m not the best, so clearly the problem is me.” And Tsukasa helping him work through that… Yeah, no, I agree. I think all the arcs are really well done. I think it’s not the kind of story that’s bludgeoning you with messages, but there is a lot of thematic work built into the characters and the arcs that has thus far been… I’ve enjoyed all of it. I think it’s really well done. You know, there’s good nuance to it, and it ultimately has this very positive spin. So, yeah, it’s great. We probably shouldn’t spend too much time on it. I think we should probably move on, especially since we’re getting a Season 2 and we’ll be able to talk about it more later.

TONY: I’m so happy.

DEE: I know, it’s great. I kinda thought they would, because it felt like the kind of show where they knew they were going to get more. But yeah, very good—

TONY: Yeah, they were not cramming things in. Very good pacing. Very good pacing.

DEE: Yeah. And the last episode, again, it ends on a good spot. So, I’m excited for the next season whenever we get it.

Okay, moving on, Honey Lemon Soda. Peter, did you finish this one?

PETER: Yes.

DEE: It went back to being Kimi ni Todoke, and then the last two episodes were Kare Kano again. And it is— As we kind of talked about at the mid-season, the adaptation… I felt like it started to kind of stretch its wings a little bit. Like, it felt like it relaxed and was like, “Let’s have some fun with this.” And tonally, I’m still not sure how I felt about it, but it was fun to see a shoujo adaptation kinda go for it, because I feel like we don’t get a lot of that with shoujo. Recently. Recently, I should say. I feel like at best you get a nicely animated, a good-looking show like a My Happy Marriage but you don’t necessarily get something that feels sort of experimental sometimes. And fans of Honey Lemon Soda… I’d be curious to see if fans of the manga were annoyed by that or not, but I was kind of excited to see it even if I didn’t necessarily think it hit the beats every single time. Your thoughts?

PETER: Yeah, Episode 11 is probably my favorite episode. And I was… [Chuckles] I remember literally going, “Wait a minute,” and then I looked and I was like, “Yep, it’s Ohata again directing.” That was definitely my favorite episode, although, strangely, I sort of had the impression… Maybe it was my mistake. I was like, “They’re kinda dating, right? Or at least they’ve confessed to each other.” And then Episode 11 was like, “They don’t know. They haven’t even said they like each other yet.” So, I guess I just had a misconception around the whole series by that point. It seemed like it was pretty set in stone by that point, especially after they had that story arc where Serina had basically said, “He’s yours,” which I really liked, as well. So, yeah, it did kind of feel disjointed near the end. Maybe that was just my mistake; if I’d watched it more in sequence, I wouldn’t have that. But I really enjoyed everything they did. I thought the race sequence was fantastic. And, yeah, just the energetic directing and all the weird stuff that they were doing was really, really, really fun.

I think the series was a lot smarter than I gave it credit for, too, near the end, because I… And it also dealt with a lot of my concerns about it, because, you know, in the mid-season, I was sort of complaining that Miura kind of felt like Ishimori’s life coach or something, and he kinda kept pushing her. And even in one of their later conversations, when they run into each other, she asks for something and he’s like, “See, good. You’re making progress because you asked for that. That means you’ve grown as a character.” And I was like, “God, that’s so in your face. ‘Miura just told me that she had character development.’” 

But at the same time, I think when you learn more about Miura and Serina, I think the series does something really smart, especially with Miura kind of forcing Ishimori to take all the actions in regards to the relationship. Whereas him kind of making her develop is very in your face, I think the show is kind of trying to tell you that his experience with Serina had kind of really traumatized him a little bit, and he was specifically taking all these actions to protect himself against what happened with Serina again. He didn’t want Ishimori to become dependent on him, so he was really trying to kind of help her develop and kind of keep some distance to make sure that she knew what she was getting into and that she wanted it before jumping into the relationship, as opposed to Serina, where he kind of jumped in, protected her, and they got into a relationship super quickly, and then she developed that kind of toxic codependence she ended up having to separate herself from him to deal with. So, I think his whole side of the relationship is kind of really understated and smart, looking at it in retrospect.

DEE: Yeah. And, you know, it’s definitely done sort of awkwardly because they are teenagers, but, yeah, you do kind of understand where he’s coming from. And it gives Ishimori the space to have that moment where she’s like, “I want you to lean on me as well. I want to protect you, too.” And I love it. I love it when a romance series does that, so that hit really well for me when she helped him out at that very good sports festival episode.

Yeah, I think in a lot of ways it is very reminiscent of… You know, I don’t know if it’s doing anything dramatically different from a lot of what I would describe as the real good shoujo romcoms, but I like the way it’s hitting those beats with her growing her friend group and getting closer to Kai. We probably should talk a little bit about the… I will say this: this arc felt very short, but I’m also sort of glad they didn’t belabor it, with her dad, who is toxically overprotective of her and wants to make all her decisions for her and basically doesn’t let her have a social life, but then at the same time has no idea that she’s being bullied for the entirety of her middle school. And, I guess, do you have any particular thoughts about that episode? I like that they addressed it, but it felt like it needed a longer story arc. Like, I guess by the end of her episode her dad’s just, like, fine?

PETER: Yeah. Yeah, I do think the way it was wrapped up felt so perfect and almost like… When everybody shows up during his walk, I had to double-take because her mom was there, even, so I was like, “Oh, wait, she’s not in on it.” Her mom, everybody from her school, and her bullies were all there and just ambushed her dad to give him a talking-to.

DEE: [crosstalk] Yeah, happened to all be outside at the same time. Yeah. [Chuckles]

PETER: I was like, “Wow, this is so after-school special.” But I didn’t mind it so much because the arc after it was so great. But, yeah, in the moment, it felt very fairy book, although, honestly, those moments, it doesn’t take much for them to hit with me. Any time where— You know, because he’s so invested in her happiness, even though he’s completely fucking it up, she basically felt the need to lie to him all the time so that he believed that she was happy, because she didn’t want to disappoint him, of course. And her… I don’t know. It’s always— I think I mentioned this before. Like, the anime moments where somebody has to admit to their parents that they’re getting bullied because they feel so much shame about it, even though no parent would want their kid to do that, he didn’t want her to do that… It’s weird, because I guess I kinda like the conclusion, but, yeah… I’m not sure how to say it. You really have to kind of think about how the dad was handling everything as a parent and what he came around to. I’m glad he even felt the need to apologize to everybody for just making so many assumptions about them based on their appearance. [Chuckles]

DEE: As he should have, yeah.

PETER: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, he did the right thing in the end but, yeah, I’m not quite— They wrapped it up so quick, I’m not quite sure what to make of him as a character since he hurt her so badly, unintentionally, and for motives that are not quite clear, because in the beginning, it just kind of seems like “Oh, she’s my perfect little daughter. I want her to always smile for me and be really close and not have any friends,” right?

DEE: And I think that basically was the motivation, is him not necessarily seeing her as her own person or realizing that she is growing up and at certain points in a kid’s life, you have to give them more space to make their own choices. So, yeah, it was— I liked what the arc was going for. It just felt very quick. But it was dealing with some thorny topics, so I figured it was something worth checking in on.

But yeah, overall I liked it. I know it’s a very popular series, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we get more. But it ended in a pretty good spot, as well. It’d be interesting to see if a second season really went all in on the adaptation stylization or not. So, yeah, I’d be kinda curious to see where that one went if they kept going with it.

PETER: Yeah. I’m hungry for more anime directed like that, so I would not mind. I really… Watching those two episodes especially made me… I need to rewatch Kare Kano, because I love that style.

DEE: Yeah, even when it doesn’t work, I appreciate trying to do something different. So, yeah, I would love to see more series take some stylistic risks with adaptations, for sure.

Okay, so, moving on, am I the only person who finished From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated? Dad-sekai?

TONY: Yeah, I did not finish it. I’m sorry.

DEE: Okay. Hey, no worries. Yeah, I’ll be quick on this one. Overall, I enjoyed it. You know, we talked at the mid-season [about how] it was having these… there was a lot of narrative awkwardness in terms of some infodumps and trying to figure out how to tell the story outside of the game along with the story inside the game. Pretty much as soon… by the next episode after we recorded that, all of that kind of went away and it went back to being sort of a fantasy school comedy show. So, I enjoyed the back half. It’s not, like, an amazing series and it does pretty much end with— It’s not like a revolutionary series, and it does pretty much sort of just end with a “And our adventures continue. Read the manga! ‘Kay, thanks.” So, not much of an ending to it but, I mean, I had a fun time every week. It did a crossdressing— It dabbled with some stuff that it could have really faceplanted on, and while I wouldn’t say it did an amazing job with it, it did not fully faceplant. There’s a very small dieting segment that is oblivious in a well-meaning way that feels very much like a dad going, “I don’t really get it, but I guess I’ll support you. And also, just make sure that you’re eating enough. Don’t starve yourself.” And I was like, “You know? Fine. You tried.”

PETER: That’s way better than what we usually get.

DEE: Yeah.

TONY: Oh, yeah.

DEE: And then they do a… The student council does a play at the end, and all the characters… it’s genderswapped, so the girls play boy characters and the boys play girl characters. And it’s generally played… It’s played the way it’s typically played, where it’s like everybody’s very excited to see everybody dressed in a different gender’s clothes. And of course, our protagonist is the lovely girl prince, so, very Oscar François. So, yeah, I mean, generally speaking, I don’t think there’s anything I really need to warn folks about, but if you thought it was going to be like a trans allegory early on, I would not say that it ever particularly went there. It was a well-meaning comedy about… a good-hearted comedy about a dad helping the kids in this game live their best lives. And so, that was kind of sweet. And then the running joke about how they just love him all the more every time he does something. So, yeah, I enjoyed it. If there was a Season 2, I would watch it. It’s one I would keep up with. So, yeah. I mean, you know, worth watching if you enjoy isekai with a little bit of a twist to ‘em, I would say.

And then, am I also the only person who finished Flower and Asura?

PETER: I have not managed to finish it, no. Sowwy.

DEE: [Sighs] Okay. It’s fine. Flower and Asura was really good. I don’t think there’s a ton I need to say about it. Like, it kind of continued to be good the way it was good at the midway point. I think the character writing was really strong. It did a nice job of having it be an ensemble cast, where you would have episodes about the other characters and their interaction with the Broadcasting Club and their particular goals. The one about the club member who’s really more interested in the production side of things and him kind of being like… he seems really laid-back but it turns out he’s kind of a mega-perfectionist about getting the film just right. I really enjoyed that episode, and his approach to sound design and music design is something that I don’t necessarily think about that much when I’m watching things, so it was cool to have that as a perspective in the series as well. And then overall, I liked the running arcs with the main characters, Hana and Mizuki. Hana does… I mean, mild spoiler: Hana does tell Mizuki, “Suki,” in the last episode, so…

TONY: [Gasps]

DEE: …read that however you would like to read that, friends at home.

PETER: Hell yeah.

TONY: Ah! Fuck yeah!

DEE: Which was very sweet. And I mean, I love their relationship throughout, whether or not the manga decides to go full yuri with it or not, which it very well may not. But I did enjoy the closeness of their relationship. And, I guess, mild content warning: we learn more about Mizuki’s family in the final arc, and her grandma alternates between being neglectful and extremely controlling, and Mizuki has a kind of rough backstory for such a laid-back and happy character. So, yeah, I mean, just go into that knowing that. It’s very restrained, but it is there. And, you know, of course, the rest of the club comes together to support her and they grow closer as a result. So, overall, yeah, I really liked it. I’ll probably put this one on our season recommendations list—as possibly the only person on staff who finished it! But, you know, as far as a kind of grounded coming-of-age school club story, I think it did a lot of things really, really well. So, yeah, good ups on that one, for sure. You know, kind of got overshadowed this season because we had some stuff that was so good, like Zenshu, but, yeah, I think [it] kind of is an understated gem. Flower and Asura is up there, for sure.

Okay! So that brings us to sequels, which is very exciting. Okay, so there’s a lot of sequels to talk about. I will, just right off the bat, let folks know: Ave Mujica, we’re not really going to talk about on this pod because we’re planning to do… that’s another one we want to pull out and do a MyGO!!!!!/Ave Mujica combo. There’s a lot to talk about in those two, and we’ve got some folks on staff who I think have some strong personal connections to those series as well, so I’m very much looking forward to hearing those conversations. So, yeah, we’ll talk about that one here.

And then I guess we can just move on to the next one, which I can discuss very quickly. Technically didn’t air in the winter, but we got it in the winter in the US so I’m counting it. Thunderbolt Fantasy Season 4…

TONY: Puppets!

DEE: … slaps so hard! Puppets, puppets, puppets! Season 3 was a lot of— I liked it by the end because some of the reveals at the end of that season were very satisfying. I kinda had a tough time with Season 3 as far as, like, “Where is all this going? There’s a lot of these new characters. There’s a bunch of reveals.” Season 4 is so fun. I binged it in like four days. Start to finish, just goes completely off the rails but in the best way possible.

TONY: Oh, my God! So ready for this.

DEE: Incredible puppet fights, buckwild plot twists… The characters are barreling towards a finale. There’s a movie that has already come out—but we don’t have it in the US yet—that’s gonna finish up the whole story. I’m so hyped to see how we wrap this up. It was great. Yeah, I absolutely adored it. I had a little thread on Bluesky where I was kind of live-reacting to all the puppet nonsense. And, yeah, Thunderbolt Fantasy continues to be, like… I don’t know if “guilty pleasure” is the right phrase, but I just absolutely adore the puppet show with a sort of childlike glee that is always a pleasure to come back to. So, I’m sad it’s ending but I am looking forward to seeing how it wraps with the movie. Great, great, great stuff.

TONY: I’m just so happy that Gen Urobuchi is having a good time. You know?

DEE: He is living his best life, making his puppets go “Whoosh, whoosh,” and I love that for him.

TONY: [Chuckles] I just imagine him on his bedroom floor somewhere with two little puppets, making them do things and being like, “How would this turn out? How would it be if we saw this? How would it be if these two kissed?”

PETER: [crosstalk] Where his writing career has led him, yeah.

DEE: Yeah. One note I do want to make about Season 4 is I do feel like one of my biggest gripes with Thunderbolt Fantasy is the writing of the female characters. It’s never been awful but it’s never been, like, great. I really enjoyed what they did with Season 4, both in terms of some of the female villains and then some of the…

TONY: Ooh!

DEE: There have always been very good villainesses.

TONY: That tracks with Urobuchi, yes.

DEE: Yeah. Yeah, he— Yeah. But I feel like the season did a better job of— There’s a buff lady sort-of antihero who I just adored. And then—

TONY: Yes!

DEE: And then I do feel like they do a decent job with some of the heroines, as well. They have a little bit more to do this season than they’ve had to do in the past, and some of it kicks super ass. It’s mostly a show about the boys being the boys, but I do think the female character writing has gradually improved, and I would love to see a spinoff about some of them because, yeah, they kick a lot of ass.

Okay, that’s Thunderbolt Fantasy Season 4. I get to take a little break now, and y’all get to talk about 100 Girlfriends Season 2, which actually is probably the guilty pleasure of the season for a few members of the staff.

TONY: Oh, this absolutely is.

PETER: [crosstalk] Truly.

DEE: So, yeah, go for it.

TONY: Truly. You want to start, Peter?

PETER: Uh… I can try. Yeah.

TONY: [Laughs]

PETER: I love this show, but it is really problematic, especially around… Hahari is maybe the worst character.

TONY: Oh, my fucking God, fucking Hahari.

DEE: Is that the teacher?

PETER: No, she’s on the… what is it, the board for the high school. She’s Hakari’s mom. And originally, she’s introduced as, like, a villain trying to keep her daughter from dating Rentaro until she and Rentaro lock eyes and she became girlfriend number 6 or something.

DEE: Hate that.

TONY: And then her whole thing is loving to peep on the other girls.

DEE: Hate that, too!

TONY: And at one point— And it’s really funny, because it’ll happen at the absolute worst times, right? One of the things I’ve really loved about this season is the expanded same-gender romances, yuri romances that are very romantic and very sexual between the girls, right, specifically between Hakari and…

PETER: Karane?

TONY: Karane. And I just love their relationship so much. I just love how they support each other, how they talk about their insecurities with each other. I think that the episode where Karane was trying to de-tsundere herself and Hakari had to kinda think about her own feelings about it and be like, “Well, I definitely do enjoy getting actual affection from my girlfriend that is not tainted by her own inability to communicate. But also, this feels like I’m missing so much of what I fell in love with this girl with.” And so, they have this really wonderful scene that— I don’t know why, in these sorts of shows, in these sorts of harem shows, it’s always in, like, a bathhouse where the girls start doing canoodling and doing the sexual stuff. It’s the same way in Monogatari. And it’s so sweet and it’s so wonderful and it’s so great and I’m loving it, and then it pans out and you see that Hahari is fucking spying on them!

DEE: Oh, my God.

TONY: She’s not looking at them as they’re in the bathhouse, but she’s listening to them basically fuck. And you’re just like, “Why? This was going so good! We could have had it all!”

PETER: Yeah, she’s kind of a downer on the show. But… Yeah, there’s a lot of problems. Don’t get me wrong. But it’s very funny, the show. Especially this season, it’s been doing a lot of referential comedy. Like, one episode’s called “The World Hair Only Grows.” They do some—

TONY: [crosstalk] Ugh! That’s the worst episode.

PETER: Yeah. …Evangelion-type references. They have a baseball episode. I actually love the baseball episode. I usually hate baseball episodes.

TONY: [crosstalk] Oh, it’s fantastic.

PETER: Yeah. And that one went hard, too, because, God, the things the enemy team did to Shizuka, sensing weakness on her, were genuinely upsetting. But then all the girlfriends rally and defend their fellow girlfriend by absolutely trashing the other team. I thought that was really great. But one of the things I was wondering when I first went into this series was, like… Literally, the goal is to get to 100 girlfriends. You approach it, you hear, “Oh, that’s a funny concept. Wait, it’s a joke. The manga’s never gonna make it that far.” And I don’t know if it will, but it does seem like the mangaka is genuinely trying to actually commit to the bit, 100%.

TONY: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

PETER: And you figure, like, if the cast gets that big, he’s just gonna forget about characters. It’s like: girlfriend gets introduced, falls into the background with the rest of the girls as he continually gets in. And that’s not what’s happening. It’s like an entire little community is growing around this polycule. My personal favorite is Shizuka and Nano have become like best friends. Nano defends Shizuka a lot because she’s very small. And Rentaro, when he meets girlfriend number 12 or something, he meets her in a mall, and when they’re talking, they just run into Nano and Shizuka, who were also at the mall, completely independent of Rentaro hanging out, going to a bookstore or something. So, the girls find common interests and like to spend time together. And it’s kind of just fascinating seeing the cast growing and growing together in different ways. There are spreadsheets involved, for sure, about all this.

And yeah, I think it left off— Actually, I haven’t seen the last episode because it came out today. But the Karane episode was the most recent. And I do think it’s trying to… It tried to show that that kind of behavior can be toxic toward her, because I think the first thing she does after taking the potion is… Some other girls were… like, three of the girls knitting, and they were knitting together, and the first thing she does is go, like, “Hey, can I knit with you guys? I was really afraid of asking before, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.” And you’re like, “Oh, damn. [Chuckles] That kinda hurts to hear.” But then it comes around, as well, on saying, like, “Well, obviously, there are things we can work on, but this is also part of your personality.” And Rentaro specifically, being the perfect boy he is, said, like, “That’s the person I fell in love with. And I don’t even want you shit-talking her.” Kind of a trite line, but… Yeah, also, before— I love Rentaro, as well. So many—

TONY: He’s wonderful.

PETER: Yeah. Huge wife guy. Any time one of the girls, like, I don’t know, gets lightheaded and falls over for one reason or another, he literally dives from off screen to land under them so they don’t hurt themselves and stuff. Nothing but respect for him. I think he’s a great male lead, given [Chuckles] the kind of horrifying concept behind this series. Yeah, it’s really fun.

TONY: And the really interesting thing about him is that in so many harem shows, you know, you have your horny girls, right, who are beleaguering these kind of prudish boys, who are like, “Ah! I can’t believe I have boobs in my face! What a terrible thing.” But what I like about this is it really threads a needle where it represents a lot of these girls—at least, some of the girls—as a wide spectrum of things. Some of them are very horny, right? Like, Hakari is astonishingly horny, and honestly her horniness makes up some of the best moments of the show. I love it. I love her for it. That’s why we love her. But it’s not her whole personality, by any stretch of the imagination. And the thing about him is that the girls have noticed that he is very hesitant to engage… Like, he accepts and loves those parts of them, while also being very cognizant himself that he does not want to… He has his own boundaries, right? Like, in one episode where one of them… a girl was like, “Ah, yeah, I want to get my boobs fondled.” He’s like, “Okay. Well, I’m gonna wear these gloves so that I don’t actually feel them, because I am not wanting to fondle your boobs.” [Chuckles] You know? And it’s very funny and it’s a very silly character beat, and the girls are like, “Oh, my gosh! Him and his anti-horny shenanigans.” But I also think it speaks to this interesting balance the show is taking between him being a sexual being and definitely being attracted to these girls but also negotiating what they want and what he wants in a, I think, overall pretty healthy and thoughtful way.

PETER: Yeah. I think he really doesn’t want to— If this were— I mean, it couldn’t be one of the chaste series. That’s not the concept, so it’s not annoying in that way. But I think he does respect them all and is really seeking out equality. Like, he doesn’t want to play favorites or anything, so he’s really cognizant of that, but there is a lot of kissing and he does enjoy kissing all of them. So, it’s not one of those things where it’s just like, I don’t know, they’re—

DEE: He’s in hell?

PETER: Yeah, or they’re tiptoeing around that kind of thing, or it just doesn’t let these high schoolers be horny about the relationships they’re in, or very chaste about their affections or anything like that.

TONY: It is very fascinating to me that the most sexually explicit moment in the whole show, where two characters go, by far, the farthest sexually, is between two of the girls. That fascinates me. And I’ll also say, to your point earlier about the show and adding all these girls is that the thing that can happen is the flanderization of them, right? Like, they could become more and more caricaturish and less and less feel like real human beings. But as you also pointed out, it is not doing that. The girls are becoming richer and deeper and more complex. Even the girls who we first met are becoming more complex as the show goes on, right, especially Karane in that most recent arc, and it’s really, really satisfying to watch. And, you know, unfortunately, I don’t think we’re gonna recommend it for AniFem, because, oh, content warning: “The World Hair Only Grows,” um… Hoo, boy! Tentacle porn shit. Every girl on Earth apparently is… Oh, God.

PETER: Been victimized now? [Chuckles]

TONY: Yeah, now has to deal with a—

PETER: That’s not canonical. It couldn’t be. Where did all the hair go? It didn’t happen. It was a dream.

TONY: [Laughs]

DEE: That’s how Peter sleeps at night.

PETER: [Amused] Yeah, that’s how I get through it.

DEE: It’s how Peter gets past that episode. It must have been a dream.

TONY: But yeah. So, that’s part of why we talked about it so much on this pod, because it’s probably not going to get a rec, but maybe I’ll write an article about why I love it so much. But yeah, just a fantastic show with a lot of problems. Same universe to me as Monogatari, only less problematic probably than Monogatari, I would say.

DEE: Big “My Fave Is Problematic” energy for Tony, for sure.

Next up is My Happy Marriage Season 2. I believe I’m the only person watching this one… Yes. So, bit of a snag. We needed to record this one now for scheduling reasons, but the final two episodes of My Happy Marriage have been delayed. I think it’s production stuff? It is a very nice-looking show, so they may have decided to take a couple of weeks to make sure that the final two episodes also continue to look nice.

So, I can’t talk about the finale. I can say that one thing I really liked about this season is— So, while I liked the first season and I was fine with Miyo’s sort of goal wanting to be that… she was more interested in domestic work. That’s fine. My concern with the series was that it would kind of fall into a sort of romanticization of that kind of traditional gender roles, of, you know, the woman stays home and keeps the house while the man goes to his job in the city or what-have-you. And it didn’t quite do that in Season 1, but it was just there was a lack of balance of other female characters to really understand what the show was going for. One thing I really liked about this season is they did add a female soldier who has to deal with workplace sexism but she genuinely wants to be a soldier. That is what she wants to do, and she and Miyo become really good friends. And so, I like that it didn’t pit them against each other. It showed them as both being acceptable ways for women to live their life in this world, and they both kind of have to… they both have their own unique struggles within this society that is still pretty male dominated, because, you know, it’s historical fiction, so it does sort of take place in, like, Meiji-era Japan but with fantasy elements. They do a little bit more with Kiyoka’s sister, as well, being a support network for Miyo and being more of a modern girl who likes to wear Western-style clothing and go out about the town and things like that. So, I did like some of the gender balance there.

It’s also doing a really nice job with Miyo. She has kind of stepped— And like I talked about earlier, that arc I love in romance stories where the female character is like, “I want to protect and help you the way you’ve protected and helped me. This should be an even balance.” And so, she really steps into a more active role as the series progresses, she kind of starts to come into her own supernatural powers. And she’s still, at heart, more of a caretaker-type person, but she is learning how to navigate some of those political waters and assist Kiyoka, her fiancé, with some of his government and military missions and investigations and things like that. So, I really enjoy the way the story has progressed them and their relationship and Miyo, as a person, becoming more proactive in her life and trying different things and kind of figuring out who she wants to be as a person now that she’s out from under her very abusive family.

So, yeah, overall, I’m curious to see how this arc ends. They’ve been doing some stuff with her birth family, not the people who raised her but the family lineage that she is from. And so, curious to how that ends again. Again, she helped rescue her fiancé in this most recent arc, which was cool. Really took the lead on it, too, which was great. So, there’s more of a balance to the show, which I really enjoy. And, yeah, it’s been better than I think I ever thought it would be from those first couple of episodes. And it continues to look really nice. It’s a really, really well-done adaptation. So, props to My Happy Marriage, for sure. And, you know, hopefully it doesn’t fall off a cliff in the next two episodes and this goes out and I go, “Oh, no!” So, we’ll see.

PETER: [crosstalk] Like DanMachi?

DEE: It can happen. I don’t think it’s gonna Wonder Egg itself. It’s based on light novels, so probably somebody would’ve warned me, right? Anyway, okay, so that’s My Happy Marriage.

Next on our list is The Apothecary Diaries, which is ongoing, so we don’t necessarily have to spend a ton of time talking about it right here. You’re keeping up with that one, too, right, Peter?

PETER: Yeah, love it.

DEE: Okay, great. Yeah, I read the manga. So, the manga basically, of the volumes I have… Effectively, this most recent episode with the infamous frog scene was basically where I ended. So, everything from here on will be new to me, but this whole season, I knew what was coming. I think it’s continued to be a really good adaptation. What are your thoughts?

PETER: Yeah, I love it. I think it’s really good. Love the new opening, too. It’s originally based on a novel series, right, that then got manga-fied, that then got anime-ified, right?

DEE: Yes, correct. I haven’t read the light novels. I’ve just read the manga.

PETER: Yeah, I just feel weird reading the mangas for this. But I—

DEE: It’s a really good manga.

PETER: Okay, okay. Wow, I might check it out. Yeah, I think it’s doing the thing that the first season did so far where there’s a lot of small mysteries, which kind of got… I felt that there was a bit of a lull in the first season during the middle, but then, of course, all of the mysteries came together to say, oh, all these things were little components of a larger scheme that’s been building up. So, I’m kind of waiting for that to reveal itself this time, now that I’ve had that past experience. So, I guess even then it was kind of obvious that’s what it was doing. 

But I’m definitely looking forward to what’s going to happen with a lot of the stuff, the set dress it’s been building up so far. I think this season has been a little more even consistent than the first season in regards to just kind of funny personality moments, too. I had also heard about the frog scene. I don’t know whether I’m maybe just kind of throwing some shade or something right now, but I am more than ever not feeling Maomao and Jinshi as a couple. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a very romantic moment to a lot of people, but the fact that she was— She called out the fact that this was very scary to her because he is her master and she’s his servant and then, despite that, is still considering kicking him. Kinda is just like, wow, she is trying to get out of this however she can. Don’t find that romantic whatsoever.

DEE: No, I agree with you. I’m not sure… I think if we’re supposed to read them as a romantic pair, it is supposed to be like an extremely slow burn where a lot of work needs to be done, especially on Jinshi’s part, before we get to a point where they are together. That’s my hope at this point, anyway. It could also just be maybe the writer’s not great at writing romance. I don’t know. But I think there are a lot of other elements in it that show that it is very aware of power differences and especially misogyny within the court, you know, and the class differences and…

PETER: Oh, absolutely. I think the show has carried a lot of water to show that this is not good, based on all of that, yeah.

DEE: Yeah. Like, it doesn’t revel in violence against women, but it is a running undercurrent in the show, is the relatively little agency and power and women trying to grasp whatever agency and power they can grasp in this world. And content warnings this season for— I mean, I guess we knew in Season 1 the previous emperor was a pedophile, and we deal with some of the emotional ramifications of that for some of the survivors who are still living at the palace. 

And I think the show… it’s a very nuanced take on it. Again, it’s not like it’s reveling in violence, but it’s also not shying away from it. And so, I do think the writer is aware of the… because, again, Maomao just straight-up says it on multiple occasions, like “He is so far above me as far as power and class goes. I really have to be careful here.” Even if Jinshi himself doesn’t seem to see it that way, that is still the reality of the situation. So, yeah, I am curious to see where it goes. I agree with you. To me, I don’t— I find their relationship very interesting, but I am not getting the dokidokis about them as a romantic couple at this point. So, yeah, curious to see where that goes. And again, at this point, it’s all new material for me, so, kind of excited to see where it continues to progress. And, you know, that could be one that we maybe do a full episode on at some point. I know we have at least— We have a good article about it on the site, too, so folks can check that out if they want a little more information on that one, as far as how it handles some of those power dynamics among the women in the inner court.

PETER: Yeah. And I do think that scene especially reveals Jinshi’s ignorance of how his privilege affects their relationship, right? So, I do think, yeah— It’s more the impression people have of the story than the story itself, which I think handled the scene very well and has been navigating all of that and showing how this environment has shaped all those women and all the dangers and the fucked-up ways they… like the twins who are trapped in the freaking house. All that. So, yeah, I think the series is doing a great job. No criticism about that.

DEE: Yeah. Yeah. Just hoping it continues that way because it is a delicate tightrope to walk, and so far I think it’s done a pretty good job with it. So, fingers crossed that continues. Again, I know people who read the light novels continue to like them a lot. So, yeah, hopefully we’ll continue to enjoy that one and be back to talk about it later, since it’s continuing into the spring.

PETER: Yep.

DEE: Okay! Last show on our list, Toilet-Bound Hanako Season 2. Tony, you said you didn’t get to watch the most recent episode, but you read the manga so you know how the story arc wraps.

TONY: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

DEE: Yeah, so how are you…? I know the first episode, I think we were both feeling the loss of the Season 1 director. For me personally, I really felt like— I should have the director’s name up in front of me. I don’t. Sorry, everyone. I really felt like the new director, as the season progressed, you could kind of feel the new team gaining confidence and finding their stride, and I thought the last few episodes especially, there were some really striking stylistic touches, and I was like, “Oh, okay, y’all are, like, in it now. You found your own voice.” It’s different from Season 1, because, I mean, you don’t want to necessarily just mimic the previous director’s entire deal. So, you know, it definitely is different, but, yeah, by the end of it, I felt like they had really found their style and it, again, feels like a very, very strong adaptation at this point. So, I was really glad to see that we’re getting a Season 3. I guess it’s a split cour, so it’ll be over the summer. Very excited to see more of it, because I feel like that confidence will carry into the next season and we’ll probably get a really good batch of episodes coming up, too.

TONY: Oh, yeah. I would 100% agree with all that. I think that the second half of the season really saved it for me. Like, it wasn’t a bad first half. I think, for me, the reveal that happens in episode… I believe it’s [episode] 3 of the manga, or whichever episode where Nene’s fate is revealed, hit me like a ton of bricks when I first read it in the manga. Right? I will always remember how I felt when I read that and just how devastating that was to me, just because it reveals a completely— I was just not expecting it, you know?

DEE: Yeah. Well, it changes the arc and frame of the show. Now, we kind of have an endgame almost, and that is where the arcs and the characters are kind of heading towards at this point, and the motivations for everybody.

TONY: And when it shows up in the series, I honestly didn’t feel like… I felt like the use of music and direction didn’t sell that moment as hard as they should have, emotionally, which I was pretty disappointed by. To me, my favorite episode of the entire adaptation is definitely “Mitsuba,” Episode 8 of the first season, because of the strength of the direction, the use of horror, and just how grotesque and disturbing it is. And the thing is, Masaomi Ando is fantastic at grotesque and disturbing, I mean, as you see, also in Shy, right?

DEE: Yeah, I mean, Ando’s one of the best directors in the biz, I think.

TONY: I would agree with that. I think that this adaptation, where it got really strong, though, is towards the end when it started to get towards the inner lives of the characters and as Nene is trying to deal with and process this information. I felt that it hit much harder in the anime, the ending of… as she’s watching Mei walk up the stairs and choose to face her reality and kind of seeing in Mei somebody who is able to confront and be honest with herself about what’s happening and has the strength to, right? I felt like it hit really hard in the anime. I was so impressed. I thought the use of just individual shots where you see Mei’s feet stepping on the stairs, right, even things like that I thought were just so well handled. And of course, you know, Nene is trying to take back her agency from these men who have really repeatedly kind of denied it to her, whether it’s Hanako just fucking literally locking her up in a tower… Like fucking Rumpelstiltskin. [Chuckles]

DEE: Yeah. And even sweet Kou, who I adore, I mean, he does decide to keep this information from her, sort of thinking it’s better if she not know and we’ll just find a way to save her. Which, again, they are children. I mean, Hanako-kun is old but he’s a ghost; he doesn’t really age. They are basically children. They are making decisions that I think are very understandable for middle schoolers who are freaking out about their friend, especially middle school boys, who probably have been taught a lot about needing to be the knight in shining armor. So, I like that the show lets them kind of mess up but also doesn’t do that thing where Nene’s just like, “Oh, well, you just care about me so much. I forgive you,” you know, that Twilight-esque “It’s okay that you’re controlling my life.” Like, Nene’s like, “No! Stop it!”

[Chuckling]

DEE: In the last episode, she kinda wales on Hanako a bit and she’s like, “We are going to work on this, together. We’re going to figure this out, together.” And so, I appreciate that the show allows the characters to have those moments and doesn’t fully condemn them but also doesn’t say, “Yeah, no, it’s fine.” It’s like, “No, no, no, Nene needs to be a part of this, a part of her own story as well.” So, I appreciate that a lot.

TONY: Yeah, no, it’s wonderful. And I think that the fact that she processes all of this with somebody else who’s gone through it, right, and she processes it with somebody who’s a friend, rather than a romantic companion, I think is interesting. I will also say that MitsuKou remains strong. I personally love the kind of bratty-bottom/dom-top energy that they constantly have.

DEE: Mitsuba and Kou have a wonderful relationship. Yeah, no, I fully agree. I prefer their romance to Hanako and Nene by a wide country mile, probably because it is hard for me to… because Hanako has been a spirit for a very long time. So, I think that that just changes the dynamic of their relationship in a way where, like, I get why Nene feels the way she does but I’m not necessarily like “I hope these crazy kids figure it out,” whereas Mitsuba and Kou, I’m like, “Hold hands! Hold hands all the time!” [Chuckles]

TONY: Yeah, and it’s very interesting because I feel like the show is getting right to the edge of just having them literally declare their romantic love for each other.

DEE: I mean, it very intentionally parallels their relationship with Hanako and Nene. They are on parallel tracks, for sure. There’s a lot of echoes and mirrors between the two pairings there. And as a manga reader, I will say, I do think the series— It’s one of my favorite ongoing series. I think it continues to build on itself really, really well, and so I’m really excited that we’re getting more of it in anime form as well so more people can experience it, because it’s great.

TONY: Yeah, and I’m really excited for what’s to come, you know. I mean, not to spoil much that’s gonna happen, but characters who previously had felt kind of undeveloped are gonna get a lot of development, particularly the Aois, which I’m glad about because one of them is my least favorite character in the show but he becomes somebody who I actually start to give a shit about, which I’m like, “Thank God!”

DEE: Yeah. The gradual character writing in Hanako-kun is— I really like the way they take time to build out the characters, and there’s genuine thought to their relationships and mentalities that explains some of the things that you see earlier in the show as you go, like, it retroactively gives you more detail, which is good storytelling. So, yeah, I appreciate that.

TONY: Yeah. And, of course, you know, everything that was good in the first season in terms of cute characters being cute remains the same. The Mokke remain adorable.

DEE: Love the Mokke. [Chuckles]

TONY: They’re the perfect mascot characters, because they will shank you.

DEE: I was gonna say, they’re also lowkey terrifying. It’s great. Yeah, so, very excited that we’ll be talking about this one again in the future, which is excellent, and hopefully we’ll continue to get seasons of this one, because I know the manga is very, very popular. And, yeah, hopefully we’ll get a full adaptation. It kind of feels like it’s heading towards an ending, like we’re getting close-ish to an ending in the manga, so…

TONY: [crosstalk] Definitely. I would agree.

DEE: Yeah. So, yeah, hopefully we’ll keep on adapting, keep on getting great new stories out of this. So, yeah, recommendation for that one as well.

TONY: And I hope that the series composer still remains the same because I always love series that are adapted by Yasuhiro Nakanishi. Like, he also did— Just to shout him out, he also did My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999, which I know you loved.

DEE: That was good! Yeah.

TONY: He did Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, all three seasons. Yeah, I think he’s a fantastic writer for anime, and so I’m really happy that he’s the one handling the adaptation and continues to be. So, yeah, we’re in good hands, I think. I know I was nervous about it, but I really do think we’re in good hands.

DEE: Yeah. Again, I feel like there was just that sense of needing to find their stride early on and their own identity, and I do agree with you that they got there, so that’s excellent.

Okay! We have talked all the talks. I think we’re probably ready to wrap things up, yeah? Any other final thoughts? I thought it was, overall, a really good season. There was a lot of returning friends and some new friends, and I had a good time. So, it’s great.

PETER: Yep.

TONY: I would agree.

DEE: And hopefully lots of shows for folks at home to check out, if you haven’t gotten around to it yet. So, yeah, we hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Chatty AF. If you like what you heard, tell your friends about us. And if you really liked what you heard, why not head over to patreon.com/animefeminist and become a patron? If you enjoy our podcasts, consider our $5 tier, which gets you bonus podcasts and transcripts, as well as access to our private Discord server, where you can geek out with fellow feminist-minded animanga fans. We also have a store, animefeminist.com/store, where you can find cute and cool merch for the progressive geek on the go. And if you’re interested in more from the team and our contributors, please check us out at animefeminist.com.

For the full list of our socials that you can follow us on, just search for “Linktree Anime Feminist,” and it’ll pop right up. We’re mostly on Bluesky, but we’re kind of all over the place.

And that is the show! Let us know what you think about this season in the comments, and we will catch you next time.

[Ending musical theme]

TONY: Alright! [obscured by crosstalk]

DEE: [crosstalk] Hooray!

PETER: Whoo!