Spring 2025 Season Recommendations

The most exciting shows of the spring 2025 anime season recommended by BAC members

With the Spring 2025 season fast approaching some of you seasonal anime watchers may be confused about what shows to check out since the season seems to lack recognizable big-name IPs. If you're willing to give some new shows a shot we have a variety of interesting anime recommendations from members of the club!

Anne of Green Gables is getting an anime reboot called Anne Shirley?! This is the best news ever! If you’re a fan of Anne’s story or just love heartwarming, character-driven tales, this is absolutely something you need to watch. Let me tell you why this new adaptation is going to be amazing and why it’s going to bring in so many new fans.

First of all, Anne Shirley is one of the most iconic literary characters of all time. She’s imaginative, fiery, and unapologetically herself. Her journey from a lonely orphan to a beloved member of Avonlea is timeless, and an anime adaptation has the potential to bring her story to life in a way we’ve never seen before. Anime has this incredible ability to capture emotion, beauty, and imagination in a way that feels larger than life. Imagine Anne’s vibrant daydreams, the lush landscapes of Prince Edward Island, and her emotional highs and lows all animated with that stunning anime artistry. It’s going to be breathtaking!

Plus, anime has a way of making stories feel fresh and exciting, even if you already know them by heart. This reboot could dive deeper into Anne’s inner world, giving us more insight into her thoughts and feelings. And let’s not forget the humor! Anne’s quirky personality and her hilarious mishaps are going to translate so well into anime’s expressive style. I can already picture her dramatic reactions and Gilbert’s teasing smirk animated in a way that’s going to make us laugh and cry all over again.

But here’s the thing this isn’t just for fans of the original books or the 1980s anime (Akage no Anne). This reboot is going to bring in so many new audiences. Anime fans who might not have heard of Anne of Green Gables before are going to fall in love with this story. It’s got everything they already love: strong character development, emotional depth, and a touch of romance. And for people who’ve never watched anime before? This could be the perfect gateway. It’s a classic story with universal themes belonging, friendship, and growing up—that everyone can relate to.

And let’s talk about the music and voice acting! Anime soundtracks are always so emotional and memorable. Imagine Anne’s iconic moments paired with a beautiful score that tugs at your heartstrings. And if they get talented voice actors to bring Anne, Gilbert, Marilla, and Matthew to life? It’s going to be pure magic.

This reboot has the potential to introduce Anne Shirley to a whole new generation. It’s going to remind us why we fell in love with her in the first place. Her resilience, her imagination, and her ability to find joy in the little things. Whether you’re a longtime fan or someone discovering Anne for the first time, this anime is going to be a must-watch. I can’t wait to see how they bring Avonlea to life and make us all feel like kindred spirits with Anne all over again. April can’t come soon enough!

Recommendation by NabZ

I love how this manga questions the meaning of the human self, and explores the way the answers of those around you matter just as much as your own. There is a central conceit that reaches into the heart of humanity and deconstructs it, as all good sci-fi mysteries do. The character try to act normal and focus on their mundane lives, which ironically forces them to confront the big dilemmas that constantly eat away at them. It is a unique blend of ideas that deals with the subject matter in a manner like no other manga.

Recommendation by Nostalgic Turncoat

Yoshinori Kanada was one of the most influential animators in the world of anime. His characteristic style of animation was dominant in the 80s, but in the modern day the snappy, abrupt Kanada style animation is mostly associated with studio Trigger. However there are still a few Kanada style animators outside Trigger, notably two of the main staff for the new anime adaptation of the 1988 manga, Yaiba.

Yaiba was Detective Conan mangaka Gosho Aoyama’s third manga which he authored before Conan. The story follows a feral child samurai who was raised in a forest and has now ended up in the city. Tasked with preserving the charm of the old-school character designs is Yoshimichi Kameda. While some may know him as the animator of the Roy Mustang vs Lust fight from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, he has made significant contributions on a variety of shows including One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100 and Ranking of Kings. The main animator for Yaiba is Takeshi Maenami, whose smear-heavy, Kanada influenced animation was seen in major scenes of the One Piece anime’s wano arc and more recently in the Umamusume ONA and movie. Wit studio’s post-process team also improves the aesthetic with certain scenes having a painterly feel to the colours.

Yaiba looks to be a marriage of old and modern, both in terms of content and animation style. It will be exciting to see how the anime shapes up.

Recommendation by Ajit

Rock is a Lady's Modesty is a coming-of-age anime music drama about a young girl who, after being thrown into a wealthy lifestyle, rediscovers her love of rock music and joins a band with a professional drummer, all while breaking conventional norms.

Why should you watch it :

1. It is set in all girls school with a gripping narrative of rich girl trope blended with rock music genre.

2. Using music as the primary focus, themes of rebellion, modesty, passion are explored with a blend of strong characters and music.

3. BAND-MAID for opening theme Little Gee Monster for ending theme song. Band-Maid is also doing motion capture for the performances to give an authentic visual appeal and expression for music.

4. The character designs are quite expressive.

For fans of Bocchi the Rock, Girls Band Cry and Bang Dream..

Studio : BN Pictures

Recommendation by Tarun

Atto, the creator of Non Non Biyori, has been pretty quiet since it ended; I guess we now know why. Not only does this series reunite key NNB staff (director Kawatsura, original creator Atto, composer Mizutani), it also transposes them to PA Works, a studio with more progressive industry practices with consistently visually pretty output (and coincidentally, in this NNB context, located in a more rural area). I am a moe enthusiast through and through, and NNB is one of my all time favourite anime. While I have tired a little of some of the sameness in recent 'girls with hobbies' outings (not everything can be NNB or Yuru Camp), this promises to be different thanks to its university setting as well as some interesting staff members, particularly with series composition being handled by Yoshihiro Hiki (Akiba Maid Wars) and art direction by Junichi Higashi (Cowboy Bebop, Zeta Gundam, City Hunter, 12 Kingdoms). I have high hopes for this one.

Recommendation by Sakaido

It’s interesting to me to know that both of my top recommendations for the upcoming season come from Cygames Pictures. While I wouldn’t call myself a shill of the studio, I’ve realized that I’ve watched almost all of their works—except for the one or two of their idol series and OVAs (apologies HKS but I won’t give in). That said, one of the most exciting adaptations I’m looking forward to next year is a title that sends me into a schizo mode, much like your average Solo Leveling fan after a weekly cliffhanger but on a higher level..it’s Uma Musume:Cinderella Gray

Before diving in, I want to make one thing clear: if you're looking to get into this franchise, the best approach is to start with its very first adaptation—Pretty Derby (2018)—and work your way through the series. If your primary interest lies in the Sakoooooog spectacle, things begin to heat up around Pretty Derby Season 3 and reach an absolute ..cinema , peak or whatever you want to call it at, Pretty Derby: Road to the Top onwards. Now, regarding Cinderella Gray, the source material is pure, unfiltered adrenaline, like horse steroids on trinitrotoluene. It’s raw, explosive, and relentlessly exhilarating. Having been utterly shaken by SHIN JIDAI NO TOBIRA, a film that easily ranks at #1 favourite movie of the year 2024 and one of my favourite visual auditory masterpieces in this medium, the announcement of Cinderella Gray feels like the arrival of yet another catalyst poised to send my adrenaline to it’s limits. I could dive deep into the individual staff members, but what truly matters is that this IP has been graced by some of the most powerful creative talents, many of whom are passionate fans themselves. The sheer production value of the previous film and the series before it, stacked with an almost incomprehensible level of talent, is a testament to how this franchise and its production committee have the influence to bring in industry heavyweights, resulting in breathtaking, jaw-dropping animation cuts.

One key detail worth noting is that the legendary Kenji Kawai will be composing the music for the anime. His compositions possess the power to elevate and transform, capable of moving mountains with their sheer emotional depth. In a series as intense and unfiltered as Cinderella Gray, his score is set to amplify the experience to an entirely new level, turning an already hard boiled, emotionally charged spectacle into a full-blown sensory overload.

Recommendation by RA

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