Aniwire

I’ve been watching the animated series Adventure Time lately. It’s about Finn, a human boy, and Jake, a talking, shapeshifting dog. They go on adventures together in the land of Ooo, a strange place of magic, candy and shenanigans. Finn loves Princess Bubblegum, the mostly-benevolent ruler of the Candy Kingdom, but she’s too old for him. He’s also friends with Marceline the Vampire Queen, who is only sometimes-benevolent but also an amazing bass player. Most of Adventure Time is pretty goofy.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a child learning Chinese will become obsessed with Journey to the West. In case you’ve been trapped under a mountain for 500 years and haven’t heard of it, it’s a classic Chinese novel about Sun Wukong, a monkey who seeks the Buddhist scriptures in India with Sanzang the monk, Zhu Bajie the pig, Sha Wujing the river monster, and a horse (who is really a dragon).

The phone rings, and the girl opens her eyes. Her body lies in a four poster bed. To her left is a wall decorated by curtains without windows. To her right is a small table and a rotary phone. She lifts the handle and listens. There is no sound. “A wake up call?” she asks herself. The girl looks in the mirror to see that she is wearing a black and white ruffled dress; a maid outfit. She slowly turns in place, then examines the horn of a nearby gramophone. Perhaps she is searching for a bomb.

Octopus Pie starts like any webcomic of the early 2000s. Eve Ning is a grumpy young woman who works at an organic grocery store. Hanna is a zany pot smoker who bakes bread while high. They room together in Brooklyn at the height of hipster culture, and cross paths with a growing cast of characters: Hanna’s boyfriend Marek, Eve’s coworker Julie, and Will, the local pot dealer. It’s a classic odd couple dynamic.

2025 was a big year for anime. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle became the highest grossing Japanese film of all time. The anime adaptation of My Hero Academia finally wrapped up, nine years after its premiere. A short animation of Chainsaw Man heroine Reze dancing blew up on X. Outside of adaptations, there were even some great original anime, like Apocalypse Hotel and Maebashi Witches.

2007 was one of the best years for anime ever. You had Hiroyuki Imaishi and his team at Gainax reinventing giant robots with Gurren Lagann. Mononoke pushing the boundaries of anime aesthetics. Mitsuo Iso delivering his gorgeous cyberpunk children’s series Dennou Coil. The scrambled 1930s cool of Baccano. Not to mention cult classics like Lucky Star and Gakuen Utopia Manabe Straight!, the excruciatingly violent Shigurui, and the debut of Naruto Shippuden. Then there’s Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.

Once again, it’s time for my regular round-up of favorite opening and ending credits of 2025! While memorable ending credits sequences were thin on the ground this year, the opening credits were some of the best and most creative of the past decade or so. I’m glad that animators have the opportunity to keep experimenting with these even as anime production becomes increasingly risk-averse.

Where does art come from? Does it require a spark of inspiration? Or is it a matter of hard work and iteration? Some even say these days that generative AI can make art. I believe that art requires perspective. It doesn’t have to be good or bad, but it should communicate something about whoever made it. Psychic Vision: Jaganrei is a faux documentary film about the creation of a pop song, “Love Craft.” It precedes in stages. Emi Kato is chosen as idol and performer.

Our Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX coverage finishes with the twelfth episode! There will be spoilers after this point. After twelve episodes of dancing between alternate history war chronicle and a tribute to the dregs of Gundam, the GQuuuuuuX finale throws everything and the kitchen sink at the audience to satisfy as many people as possible. If you like Char, this episode reaffirms his importance to the canon even as it pokes fun at his loser tendencies.

Our Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX coverage continues with the eleventh episode! There will be spoilers after this point. There’s a famous scene in The Matrix where Morpheus presents Neo with two pills. “After this, there is no turning back,” he says. “You take the blue pill, the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.