2025 Winter Premiere Digest

The new year starts strong with multiple promising shoujo and the return of a beloved (by us) female director.

Which shows do you review? 

We don’t review shows that are direct sequels, shorts, or (generally) for very young children. Anything not licensed and/or immediately available is off the table as well; series that are dropped in batches (the binge/Netflix model) won’t receive are a premiere review but are eligible for recommendations at end of season. Shows with late release dates will be reviewed separately from the digest.

While shows may change category as they continue to air, for ease of reference this is the order that will be used when discussing shows on our mid-season and wrap-up podcasts. Please note that any shows released in batches/by cour rather than weekly will not be discussed on the mid-season podcast.

How do you write the reviews?

Lizzie, Alex, Vrai, Cy and Tony split the majority of shows, with Dee stepping in to pinch-hit. The titles were divided by each reviewer’s preferred workload and choice. Caitlin is at ANN this season, so you can check out her reviews over there.

Once we have more funding, we’d like to change our current model to provide a wider range of perspectives on more episodes. We’re a long way from that goal, but it’s been a personal wish of ours since launch and we hope to make it happen someday.

What do your reviews focus on? 

This varies by writer to some extent (some of us are more focused on visuals, others on narrative, and so forth), but as a feminist site it’s of course essential that we raise any issues of intersectional feminist interest.

When you read an AniFem review, you’re likely to learn about female character designs, queer representation, analogies to real-world marginalization, and so on. If you think we missed something, please comment under the review and let us know!

Why do you categorize them?

The purpose of these reviews is to give you, our readers, information to help you decide if you want to try a show. There’s greater access to anime than ever before, and we want to help you find series you can truly love, without wasting your time on a show that contains an automatic deal-breaker, be that fan service, queerphobia, the sexualization of children, and so on.

Individuals can find value in any series, and we will never lead a boycott of a particular show, but we want to make it easier for you to get the most out of your limited time. In our digest, feminist-relevant themes and ideas take precedence, with overall narrative quality coming second and personal preference a distant(ish) third.

Premieres that seem to contain progressive themes are at the highest end and those featuring regressive ideas (or out-and-out hatefulness) are at the lowest. We expect some disagreement and welcome debate, so if you have any objections to our lists then by all means let us know in the comments!

I found a show I’m interested in! Where can I watch it?

This will vary depending on where you live, but you can browse Yatta-Tachi’s Winter 2025 Premiere Chart for the legal streaming sites carrying each series. Check to see if a show is available in your region!

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Winter 2025 Premiere Digest

The following titles are organized by categories, then alphabetically. Note that, because of the way premiere dates are staggered, we’ve had the chance to watch multiple episodes of some series. To give you a fuller picture of how much information we were working with when creating these rankings, we’ve marked how many episodes of each show we’ve seen.

Feminist potential

Premieres that so far seem to be addressing progressive ideas or themes and executing them competently. Please check individual reviews for more detailed content warnings.

• Flower and Asura (Episodes 1-2): Beautifully directed hobby anime about recitation that seems to be interested in mental health and potentially replicating the Class S tropes of the author’s other major work, Sound! Euphonium.

• From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad’s Been Reincarnated! (Episode 1): Hilarious and sweet TSF Villainess isekai that mostly sidesteps questions of gender but in doing so easily offers a trans affirming reading

• Honey Lemon Soda (Episode 1): Traditional high school shoujo romance with a sweet side and a compelling psychological portrait of its heroine.

• Medalist (Episode 1): A young female athlete struggles to make into the world of figure skating; dealing both with structural barriers and trauma

• ZENSHU (Episodes 1-2): A universe-hopping fantasy about and by women in the anime industry, proudly embracing its prickly heroine.

It’s… complicated

Similar to the above category, but in addition to all those possible feminist themes, the show may be biting off more than it can chew or in danger of fumbling its chosen themes.

• AQUARION Myth of Emotions (Episode 1): There seems to be some gender stuff built into this reincarnation mecha show, but so far the female cast is fairly sidelined.

• I May Be a Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss to Clock Out on Time (Episode 1): A dynamic female lead and some themes about how “pink collar” admin jobs go unappreciated, undermined somewhat by the character design and fan service.

Neutral zone

Very little to warn folks about, but also not a ton of progressive ideas to chew on so far either.

• Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You (Episode 1): An explicitly COVID-era romantic high school melodrama that elides its pandemic setting in the weirdest places.

• Bogus Skill «Fruitmaster» ~About that time I became able to eat unlimited numbers of Skill Fruits (that kill you)~ (Episode 1): Thoroughly unremarkable but also not hateful power fantasy series.

• The Daily Life of a Middle-Aged Online Shopper in Another World (Episode 1): Chill slow-life reincarnation isekai. 

• Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! (Episode 1): A fantasy where the megalomaniacal supervillain is offering you fantastic benefits. 

• Sorairo Utility (Episodes 1-2): An awkward gamer girl stumbles into golf in hopes of finding something that will make her feel like a protagonist. 

• Tasokare Hotel (Episodes 1-2): Astonishingly boring supernatural “mystery” show that feels like a hidden object game come to life because it is one.

Yellow flags

Premieres that weren’t actively hateful at the premise level, but still raised some noteworthy caveats or concerns.

• Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective (Episode 1-2): Medical procedural show that’s prone to infantilizing its titular genius doctor. 

• Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest (Episode 1): Quite brutal in its first episode (including a suicide attempt) but then sets up to be a girl-acquiring power fantasy with mild fan service. 

• I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class (Episode 1): Enemies-to-lovers romance that’s really pushing the lack of agency the pair have, including being forced to share a bed.

• I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! (Episode 1): Not rancid, but it’s hard to ignore how the underappreciated protagonist’s reward involves a group of fawning, inexperienced young women.

• Possibly the Greatest Alchemist of All Time (Episode 1): Currently just an isekai harem show, though the source material might have major issues down the line.

• Promise of Wizard (Episode 1): Sluggish fantasy full of handsome guys and buckets of exposition; one character’s name has connotations as an antisemitic slur.

• Sakamoto Days (Episode 1): Comedy about a retired assassin that leans heavily on fat jokes. 

• The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World (Episode 1): Goofy sentai/isekai mash-up that has an occasional fan service problem.

• Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! (Episode 1): World-hopping romance about an elf coming to modern Japan; both leads are adults, but for some reason it still dresses her in a schoolgirl outfit.

Red Flags

The issues listed are intrinsic to the premise; or, even if the issue is isolated it potentially poisons the whole show.

• Farmagia (Episode 1): Mixes a grim story about fantasy genocide with wacky fan service and sexual harassment played as comedy. 

• I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons (Episodes 1-2): It’s trying its best to mitigate the love interest’s potential creepiness but he still won’t take no for an answer, and the plot trajectory seems set on forcing the heroine back into a role that made her miserable.

• Magic Maker: How to Make Magic in Another World (Episode 1): Reincarnation power fantasy isekai that’s leaning really heavily on the incest from the jump.

• Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms (Episode 1): Future rom-com where the heroine’s attempts to woo the titular character lean heavily into sexual harassment. 

• Momentary Lily (Episode 1-2): Tonal whiplash, shallow characterization, and fan service sour this sci-fi premise; Episode 2 sours it further by climaxing with a weirdly voyeuristic action scene.

• OKITSURA: Fell in Love with an Okinawan Girl, but I Just Wish I Know What She’s Saying (Episode 1): Wants to spark tourism interest in Okinawa, but leans heavily on jokes otherizing the native population and skirts any mention of Japan’s colonization of the island.

• Übel Blatt (Episode 1): Edgy grimdark fantasy that aggressively sexualizes and frequently dehumanizes its female cast.

Pit of Shame

These shows need to go to their room and think about what they’ve done.

• Beheneko: The Elf-Girl’s Cat is Secretly an S-Ranked Monster! (Episode 1): Reincarnation fantasy that involves a lot of said elf girl being horny for her pet cat. 

• I’m Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? (Episode 1): A horny rom-com that takes a turn when it introduces a character literally labeled “psycho lesbian.”

Anime was a Mistake

We had to make a whole category for pedophilia and slavery apologia, and this is it.

• Baban Baban Ban Vampire (Episode 1): Comedy about a vampire grooming a boy from childhood into the perfect future victim.

•  I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic (Episodes 1-2): Isekai that expounds at length about the benefits of the party’s women enslaving themselves to the protagonist.